* St. Paul, too, puts 'louiKioi on the same secular footing as ""EtWxvi' ; cf. the phrase xcti 'lov^cctoi? xai "K^Xy.^iv xect t^ IxxXrtriet rci btoi (1 Co 10:i2).
is translated in AV as if it were idvtj ; but KV corrects it from ' all people ' to ' all the people.'
1. lovSaioi, eOvos, £0vt]. — In so far as the Jews constituted a body politic, they had lost their independence since Pom])ey's occupation of Jerus. in B.C. 63, and the Roman hold was tightened by the rule of the Imperial protege Herod the Great, B.C. 37-4. He ol)tained fi'om Augustus the title of 'king' in B.C. 30, and large .slices of ter- ritory, first Samaria, Jericho, and towns in the west, and afterwards the regions between the Lebanons and the Lake of Gennesaret, and east- wards. He greatly enhanced the material glories of the Holy Land, especially by wealth expended on the Temple (Mt 23'« 24S Jn 2-»), by which he hoped to secure the loyalty of the niitionalists. But, though he gave lavishly with one hand, he took away cynically with the other. He filled the high priest's office with his own cieatnres ; and by building theatres and pagan temples showed scant respect for the national ideal. ' He founded Kaicdpeta (i.e. temjjles of Caesar) in many toAvns' outside Juda-a (Jos. Ant. XV. ix. 5). His strength lay in his bodyguard of 3000, who were drawn from the Samaritan population, and in the fortified palaces which he built at Jerusalem and Ca^sarea. By intrigue and assassination he exterminated the rival H.asmona-an house, inchuling his favourite wife and her popular sons. The frenzied act of massacre of the babes of Bethlehem, for Mhich Mt 2"' is the only authority, is quite in accord with his temper in the later years of his life.
On the death of this Idnma'an tyrant an even sadder chapter from the standpoint of national independence began. For Herod's kingdom was divided among three sons : Philip having the newly added territories of Trachonitis, Itura'a (Lk 3'), etc.; Antipas succeeding to Galilee and Pera-a ; and Archelaus, after a long suit at Kome, obtain- ing the most important part with an allotted in- come of 600 talents. In A.D. 6, the last-named was finally summoned for his evil courses to Kome, and the unhappy i)eoi)le sank one stage lower in the scale of national indejjcndence, being placed under a procurator. This was an exchange for the worse, even from the tyr.anny of Herod the Great and the iniquities of his son. For although these were only half Juda-ans, and in subtle and sometimes pronounced antagonism to the national- ist party, they did not fail to give it some regard ; ^\hereas Pontius Pilate and his four predecessors mostly gave up even the attempt to understand so impracticable a people. No wonder ' the revolu- tionary current was continually increasing among the Jewish people in the time of Christ' (Scluirer).
These ju'ocurators {rj-ye/j.wv in NT, iniTponos more often in .Josei)hus) were not of senatorial or ])ra'- torian, but only of e(iuestrian rank, ami not abso- lutely independent of the Syrian governor, though their dealings were mostly direct with Kome. Their jjower included [a] iiiilitary and police con- trol. The Jews were themselves free from con- scription for military service. Biit there were l)lenty of (Jentiles in the land to sujjply the small garrisons required. The centurion (Lk 7'- 23^") and his cohort would be re(iuired only in a fcM' of the larger towns. The Temple \\as ilominated by the tower of Antonia. 'I'lie procurator had also {h) judicial authority. His confirmation was required for capital sentences (Jn 18'"), and his executive force carried them into eflect (Mt 27'-"). Ordinary civil and criminal cases, however, afl'ecting Jews were dealt with at the sessions of the Sanhedrin, and when they appeared to have the jieople behind their verdict, Pilate Mas loth to deny them (Mt 2718. 2i)_ \{^y j^^i^o used his powers of release with a view to propitiating the populace (Mt 27'''). But the name of procurator conveys a special reference
230
NATION
NATION
to the duties respectinf>- (c) the Roman trensury. Being an Imperial province, the taxes of Judiea were paid to the account not of the Senate, but of Cai'sar (Mk YI^*). The country was divided into some ten toparchies for fiscal purposes. Tacitus (Annals, ii. 42) speaks of Judtea in A.D. 17 as fessa onerlbus. The taxes (land and poll) were collected by State officers ; but the customs were farmed to puhlicani such as Zacch;eiis (apx^-TeXdivris, Lk 19-) of Jericho.
The rights of the procurator were also enjoyed by the tetrarclis, as well as the right to issue coi)i)er coinage. Herod Antipas built Tiberias, S.W. of the Lake, for his capital. Like his father, he tried to propitiate or rather seduce national sentiment by his outlay on jniblic works ; and he was at any time ready to use it for his own ends (Mk 3" 12^^). Jesus warned His fellow- countrymen against the leaven of Herod (JVIk 8^-') ; and, in response to a crafty attempt to get rid of Him, described the tetrarch as a fox (Lk 13^-). Jolm the Baptist, whose preaching was in his territory, was his victim (Mk 6""-). But though his parti- sans were hand and glove with the Pharisees in their hostility to Jesus (Mk 3« 12'»), and though we learn from Luke that he associated himself with the condemnation of Jesus, he was not ready to take that awful responsibility upon himself (Lfc 237-12) ^\^Q advent of Jesus apparently raised no political excitement in the regions under Pliilip, because the bulk of the pojiulation was non- Jewish. But there was often danger in Galilee (Lk 4^^) ; and infinitely more in the furnace of fanaticism at Jerusalem (Mk 10^^*-, Jn IP).