The Life of Jesus of Nazareth | Page 4

sources of the Jordan. He also rebuilt
the city of Bethsaida, at the point where the Jordan flows into the Sea
of Galilee, calling it Julias, after the daughter of Augustus. Philip enters
the story of the life of Jesus only as the ruler of these towns and the
intervening region, and as husband of Salome, the daughter of Herodias.
Living far from Jerusalem and the Jewish people, he abandoned even

the show of Judaism which characterized his father, and lived as a frank
heathen in his heathen capital.
3. The other two who inherited Herod's dominion were brothers,
Archelaus and Antipas, sons of Malthace, one of Herod's many wives.
Archelaus had been designated king by Herod, with Judea, Samaria,
and Idumea as his kingdom; but the emperor allowed him only the
territory, with the title ethnarch. Antipas was named a tetrarch by
Herod, and his territory was Galilee and the land east of the Jordan to
the southward of the Sea of Galilee, called Perea. Antipas was the
Herod under whose sway Jesus lived in Galilee, and who executed John
the Baptist. He was a man of passionate temper, with the pride and love
of luxury of his father. Having Jews to govern, he held, as his father
had done, to a show of Judaism, though at heart he was as much of a
pagan as Philip. He, too, loved building, and Tiberias on the Sea of
Galilee was built by him for his capital. His unscrupulous tyranny and
his gross disregard of common righteousness appear in his relations
with John the Baptist and with Herodias, his paramour. Jesus described
him well as "that fox" (Luke xiii. 32), for he was sly, and worked often
by indirection. While his father had energy and ability which command
a sort of admiration, Antipas was not only bad but weak.
4. Both Philip and Antipas reigned until after the death of Jesus, Philip
dying in A.D. 34, and Antipas being deposed several years later,
probably in 39. Archelaus had a much shorter rule, for he was deposed
in A.D. 6, having been accused by the Jews of unbearable barbarity and
tyranny,--a charge in which Antipas and Philip joined. The territory of
Archelaus was then made an imperial province of the second grade,
ruled by a procurator appointed from among the Roman knights. In
provinces under an imperial legate (propraetor) the procurator was an
officer for the administration of the revenues; in provinces of the rank
of Judea he was, however, the representative of the emperor in all the
prerogatives of government, having command of the army, and being
the final resort in legal procedure, as well as supervising the collection
of the customs and taxes. Very little is known of the procurators
appointed after the deposition of Archelaus, until Tiberius sent Pontius
Pilate in A.D. 26. He held office until he was deposed in 36. Josephus

gives several examples of his wanton disregard of Jewish prejudice,
and of his extreme cruelty. His conduct at the trial of Jesus was
remarkably gentle and judicial in comparison with other acts recorded
of his government; yet the fear of trial at Rome, which finally induced
him to give Jesus over to be crucified, was thoroughly characteristic; in
fact, his downfall resulted from a complaint lodged against him by
certain Samaritans whom he had cruelly punished for a Messianic
uprising.
5. There were two sorts of Roman taxes in Judea: direct, which were
collected by salaried officials; and customs, which were farmed out to
the highest bidder. The direct taxes consisted of a land tax and a poll
tax, in the collection of which the procurator made use of the local
Jewish courts; the customs consisted of various duties assessed on
exports, and they were gathered by representatives of men who had
bought the right to collect these dues. The chiefs as well as their
underlings are called publicans in our New Testament, although the
name strictly applies only to the chiefs. These tax-gatherers, small and
great, were everywhere despised and execrated, because, in addition to
their subserviency to a hated government, they had a reputation, usually
deserved, for all sorts of extortion. Because of this evil repute they
were commonly drawn from the unscrupulous among the people, so
that the frequent coupling of publicans and sinners in the gospels
probably rested on fact as much as on prejudice.
6. In Samaria and Judea soldiers were under the command of the
procurator; they took orders from the tetrarch, in Galilee and Perea. The
garrison of Jerusalem consisted of one Roman cohort--from five to six
hundred men--which was reinforced at the time of the principal feasts.
These and the other forces at the disposal of the procurator were
probably recruited from the country itself, largely from among the
Samaritans.