PROCURATOR
G24
PRODICUS
against Florus, the procurator of Judaea. More impor- tant cases were laid before the emperor (Acta XXV, 12; romp. Josephus, A iii. xx. 6, 2). The procurator, as thi representative of the emperor, bad the power of Life and death over his subjects (Dio Cass, liii, 11: .Matt, xxvii, 26), which was denied to the proconsul. In the NewTest we see the procurator only in his judicial capacity. Thus Christ is brought before Pontius Pilate as a polit- ical offender (Matt, xxvii. 2. 11), and the accusation is heard by the procurator, who is seated on the judgment- scat (ver. L9). Felix heard St. Paul's accusation and defence from the judgment-seat atCa_'sarea (Acts xxiv). which was in the open air in the great stadium (Jose- phus, War, ii. '.'. 2), and Si. Paul calls him "judge" i A.CtS xxiv. KD. as if this term described his chief func- tions. The procurator (jnyefuiv) is again alluded to in his judicial capacity in 1 Pet. ii. 11. He was attended by a cohort as body-guard (Matt, xxvii. -.'7), and ap- parently went up to Jerusalem at the time of the high festivals, and there resided in the palace of Herod i.Io- sephus, War, ii. 14,3; Philo, />< Leg. ad Caium, i '■'>'. ii. 589, ed. Manic.), in which was the prmtorium, or "judgment-hall," as it is rendered in the A. V. (Matt, xxvii, "27; Mark xv, lb; com p. Acts xxiii,35). Some- times, it appears, Jerusalem was made his winter quar- ters (Josephus. Ant. xviii. ;'.. 1 1. The high-pries! was appointed and removed at the will of the procurator (ibid. "_'. "2). Of the oppression ami extortion practiced by one of these officers, Gessius Florus, which resulted in open rebellion, we have an account in Josephus (Anl. xx, 11, 1 ; War, ii. 1 1. 2). The same laws held both for tie governors of the imperial and senatorial prov- inces, that they could not raise a levy or exact more than an appointed sum of money from their subjects, and thai when their successors came they were to return to Borne within three months | Dio Cass, liii, 15). The pomp and dignity of the procurators may be inferred from the narrative of these trials, and from the titles of "mosl excellent" and "most noble" (KoanorE), applied to them by such different lips as those of Claudius Ly- rias, L'ertullian, and St. Paul; yet they were usually chosen from no higher rank than that of the equites, or even the freedmen of the emperor; and the " mosl noble Felix," in particular, was a mere manumitted slave (Tacit, Hist, v, 9; .1 mu xii. 54 : Sueton. Claud. 28). It is satisfactory to find that even in the minute. t details the glimpses of their position afforded to us by the New Test, an' corroborated by the statements of heathen writers. The violence (Luke xiii. I I, the venality (Acts xxiv, 26), the insolence (John xix. 22), and the gross injustice (Ads xxiv. 27), which we see exemplified in their conduct towards our Lord and his apostles, are amply illu -trated by contemporary historians (Josephus, Ant. xviii. 3, 1 ; War, ii. 9; I iicero, In Vt m m, passim | ; and they weighed so heavily on the mind of the emperor Trajan that, he called the extortions of provincial gov- ernors "the spleen of the empire" (comp. Aurel. Vict Epit. 1- !. Vespasian (more suo | took a more humorous view of the matter, and said thai the procurators were like sponges (Sueton. Veep. L6). The presence of the Pilate (Matt xxvii, 19) and Felix (Acts xxiv,
•_'l i reminds us of the fa s debate on the proposition
ofCsecina to forbid the proconsuls and procurators to be accompanied by their wives (Tacit. Ann. iii. 33, 34). This had been the old and perhaps the wise regulation ol earlier days, since the cruelty, ambition, and luxury of these ladies wen' often more formidable to the proi in- cialsthan those of the governors themselves. Bui the rule bad often been violated, and had of late been de- liberatel) abandoned. We see. too, in the ready hand- ing-over of the prisoner from one authority to another (Ave ireutytv, rt misit, Luke xxiii, 7 ; Acts xxvi, 32), some trace ol thai salutary dread of being denounced alter
their term of office was over, which .alone acted as a check upon the lawlessness of even the most unscru- pulous governors, Evi n the mention made of things at tirst right so trivial as the tribunal i 3/jp.a I, and the tes-
sellated pavement (Xidoorpoirov) on which it was ele- vated, derives an interest and importance from the fact that they were conventional symbols of wealth and dig- nity, and thai Julius Caesar though! it worth while to carry one .about with him from place to place (Sui ton, Jul c. 16). ditto; Smith. See Sibranda, De Statu .hi,!,,,, I',,, ,■;„,; (Franc. ICAtx-. also in Iken. Tkes.Nov.u, 629); Deyling, Obeervat.u, 429 ; Grossmaun, Z>< Procu- raion (Lips. 1823); Langen, in the Tkeol. Quartalschr. (1862) iii: Bible Educator, iii. 180. See Govt rnob.
Prodicians, a body of Antinomian Gnostic here- tics, took their name from their founder. Prodicus, a heretic of the 2d century. who instituted the sect of the Adamites. Prodicus maintained that be and his fol- lowers were the sons of the mOSl high God, a royal race (tiiyivtig), and therefore, in crazy self-conceit, thought themselves bound by no laws. They rejected the Sabbath; dispensed with prayer and till ordinances of external worship, which they i sidered to be neces- sary only for those who were under the power of the Demiurge. They indulged in open profligacy, calling themselves Adamites, because they professed to imitate the condition of bodily life which marked our tirst par- ents before their fall. Their maxim was that they were restored by Christ to a state of innocence equal to that which characterized Adam before his transgres- sion; and that, therefore, whenever they appeared to- gether, they should not be ashamed to appear as Adam did in the time of his innocence. They were in the habit of appealing to the authority ol certain apocry- phal books which were attributed to Zoroaster. Prod- icus is placed by Baronius in A.D. 120, before Valenti- nus. His followers are sometimes identified with the \damites, and sometimes with the Origenists. See Clement Alex. Strom, i. 304; iii. 438; vii, 722; Theod- oret. Fab. Ilii,;t. i. 6; Farrar, Eccles. Diet. s. v.; Nean- der, Church Hist.i,451.