VENGEANCE The word 'vengeance' (^itSk-Tjiris),
with its corresponding substantive 'avenger' {(kSl- Kos, 1 Th 4*, Ro 1,3'), is an essentiallj' NT word and never carries with it the suggestion of arbitrary or vindictive reprisals : it is always a just retribution, and a retribution inflicted by God Himself or His instruments (1 P 2"). If the idea of wrath is associated with the use of the word, as in Ro 3' 13*, such ' wrath ' (6pyit) is the eternal righteousness or justice of God acting in harmony with His revealed will. In both Ro 12'» and He Itf" the words ' Vengeance is mine ; I will repa)''are quoted somewhat loosely from Dt 32'" (iv ni'-tp<t iK&LK-qatm dxraTToSuicrw). The verb (iKSiKiu) occurs in the parable of the Unjust Judge (Lk 18"- '• ') in the sense of afl'ording protection from a wrong-doer and so vindicating the right of the injured person. It is then applicil by our Lord to the Divine vindica- tion of the 'elect,' the phra.se used being ttokip rrfv {KiiKTia^n tQv inXcKTuy, wliich suggests the protection
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of persevering saints as well as the just penalty inflicted on their aggressors.
In the ethics of Christianity the Golden Rule solves the problem of private and personal revenge, lievenge at the bidding of momentary passion or as the gratification of a selfish emotion is re.'iolutely condemned l)y the teacliing of Cliri.st, and forgive- ness takes the place of the old savage law of retalia- tion (see Mt 5*'''"). Of the assertion 'Vengeance is mine,' W. H. Moberly (in Foundations, London, 1912, p. 280) writes : 'This limits, but at the same time consecrates, the notion of retribution. The disinterested infliction of retribution is sometimes a moral necessity ' ; and he further quotes T. H. Green (Principles of Political Obligation, § 183): ' Indignation against wrong done to another has nothing in common with a desire to revenge a wrong done to oneself. It borrows the language of private revenge just as the love of God borrows the language of sensuous affection. '
Punishment, if it is to carry any moral weight, must involve the vindication of law, and conse- quently the new ethic of Christianity which con- trolled the conduct of the Apostolic Church is based on love, which rules out of revenge the element of private and personal malevolence (see some cogent remarks by J. S. Mackenzie, Manual of Ethics*, London, 1900, p. 404 f.). Tlie repeti- tion of the quotation from Dt 32^^, in the form in which it conies to us in two such representative Christian writings as the Epistles to the Romans and the Hebrews, shows clearly that the Cliristian consciousness had grasped the idea of punishment as in effect a Divine prerogative. The private individual has not to as.sume judicial functions which properly belong to a recognized legal tribunal or 'powers' regarded as Divinely ordained (Ro IS'-o).
On the relation of the subject to war, E. Will- more (HJ y.ni. [1915] 340) describes how the doubts of a friend — a Territorial soldier— as to the moral rightness of war (based on 'Vengeance is mine,' etc. ) were I'esolved by reading of the atrocities of Belgium and tlie nature of German atlieisni. ' Vengeance belongs to God,' he wrote ; ' tlien we are God's instruments.' War as a method of giving expression to the law of international righteousness is admittedly repugnant to the Chris- tian conscience ; but until the method is super- seded as the result of a consensus gentium, a Christian nation is not absolved from the duty of vindicating either by offensive or by defensive war- fare the eternal principles of right and justice.
R. Martin Pope.
VESPASIAN. — Titus Flavius Vespasianus was Roman Emperor from 1st July A.D. 69 to 24th June (other authorities, 23rd July) 79, and ruled under the style Iniperator Cfesar Vespasianus Augustus (sometimes Imperator Vespasianus Cfesar Augustus). He sprang from an obscure family, his grandfather having been a citizen of the Sabine country-town Reate, who served as a centurion on the side of Ponipey against Julius Caesar in the Civil War till the 'battle of Pharsalus (48 B.C.), after which he returned home.
Vespasian was brought up by his grandmother TertuUa on her estate at Cosa in Etruria. Flavins Sabinus, the father of Vespasian, was a highly re- spected revenue official in Asia Minor, who after- wards removed to Switzerland, where he died. Vespasian's mother, Vespasia Polla, was of better family than her husband, for her father, a citizen of Nursia in the Sabine country, had been a mili- tary tribune, and her brother was a senator.
Vespasian was born on 17th November A.D. 9, at Falacrine, a place near Reate. His elder brother, Flavius Sabinus, had attained senatorial rank, and Vespasian was ambitious to follow in his footsteps.
As quaestor he was allotted to the province Crete and Cyrene. He held the office of ffidile under Caligula, probably in 38, and the praitorship in 39. In this year, on 30th December, his eldest child, tlie future Emperor Titus (see art. Titus), was born, his mother's name being Flavia Domitilla. In tlie year 41-42 Vespasian was sent to Germany in comni.and of a legion, at that time stationed at Argentoratum (Strasbourg), and fought against the Germans. With this legion, the Legio ii. Augusta, he crossed to Britain in the expedition of 43, and conquered two powerful tribes, twenty towns, and the Isle of Wight. In consequence he obtained oi-namenta triumphalia in the triumph of 44, and further honours later. On 24tli October 51, in November and December of which year Vespasian was consul suff'cctus, his second son Doniitian was born. After this date Vespasian was in temporary retirement. His patron Nar- cissus, the powerful freedman of Claudius, died in 54, and Agrippina, widow of Claudius and mother of Nero, pursued his former friends with hatred. She also perished in 59, when Vespasian was pro- consul of Africa. In favour of his rule in Africa this at least can be said, that he returned from the province in financial embarrassment. In the year 66 he accompanied Nero on his theatrical and musical tour to Greece, but incurred the Emperor's disfavour through his lack of interest in the per- formances.