About the time of our Lord, agreeable to prophecy, those
BOOK 1 © CHAPTER 6
About the time of our Lord, agreeable to prophecy, those rulers ceased who had formerly governed the nation of the Jews by regular succession, and Herod was the first foreigner who reigned over them.
(1) AT THE TIME tha he prophecy recorded by Moses received ment, namely, "That a prince should not fail of Judah, nor a ruler from his loins, until he should come for whom it is reserved"? (Gen.
49:10). The same, he also showed, would be the expectation of the nations. (2) The prediction was evidently not accomplished as long as they were at liberty to have their own native rulers, which continued from the time of Moses down to the reign of Augustus. Under him, who was also no common writer, said, "They who have written more accurately respecting him, say that he was the son of Antipater, and that the latter was the son of a certain Herod of Ascalon, one of those called the ministers of the temple of Apollo, in that city. (3) This Antipater, when a boy, having been taken prisoner by some
Idumean robbers, lived with them, because his father being a poor man, was unable to pay his ransom. Thus growing up in their practices, he was afterwards befriended by Hyrcanus the high priest of the Jews. His son was that Herod that flourished in the times of our Savior. (4) The government of the Jews, therefore, having devolved on such a man, the expectation of the nations was now at hand, according to prophecy; because with him terminated the regular succession of governors and princes, from the time of Moses. (5) For before their captivity and their transfer to Babylon, they were first governed by Saul and David as their kings; and before the kings, the government was administered by magistrates called judges, who came after Moses and his successor Joshua. (6) After the return from the captivity of Babylon, they continued to retain the aristocratic form of government, together with an oligarchy. The high priests had then the direction of affairs, until Pompeii, the proconsul general of the Romans, took Jerusalem by force of arms, and defiled the sacred places, entering the sanctuary of the temple. Aristobulus, who had been
EUSEBIUS' ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY
both king and high priest by regular succession until then, was sent with his children in chains to Rome, and the priesthood was given to his brother Hyrcanus, while the whole nation of the Jews was made tributary to the Romans from that time."
(7) Hyrcanus, who was the last of the high priests by succession, having been soon after taken prisoner by the Parthians,
Christ being nigh at hand, the expected salvation of the nations received its fulfillment and was followed by the calling of the Gentiles, according to prophetic declarations. From this time also, the princes and rulers of Judah, i. e. of the Jewish nation, ceasing, by a natural consequence the priesthood, which had descended from a series of ancestors in the closest succession of kindred, was immediately thrown into confusion. (9) Of this, you have the evidence of Josephus who shows that whe eaeiey
_APpoiheSEE no longer nominated the chief priests from the ancient lineage but conferred the honor upon certain obscure individuals. A course similar to that of Herod in the appointment of the high priest was pursued by Archelaus, his son; and next by who, after him, (10) The same Josephus shows that Herod was the first who locked up the sacred vesture of the high priest and having secured it under his own private seal, no longer permitted the high priests to have it at their disposal. The same thing was done by Archelaus his successor, as also by the Romans. (11) It may suffice then to have said this much in proof of another prophecy, which has terminated in the appearance of our Savior
Jesus Christ. Most clearly indeed does the Book of Daniel, expressly embracing a number of certain weeks until the government of Christ, concerning which we have treated in another work, predict that after the termination of these, the sacred unction amongst the Jews should be totally abolished. And this is evidently proved to have been fulfilled at the time of our Savior's birth. Let this be sufficient, however, as a necessary preliminary to establish the truth in reference to the times.