[1275] Instead of detailed quotations I would here generally refer to works on Roman history, especially to Friedländer's Sittengeschichte Roms, and to Döllinger's exhaustive work, Heidenthum and Judenthum.
[1276] The only thorough resistance to this worship came from hated Judæa, and, we may add, from Britain (Döllinger, p. 611).
[1277] From the time of Cæsar to that of Diocletian, fifty-three such apotheoses took place, including those of fifteen women belonging to the Imperial families.
[1278] One of the most painful, and to the Christian almost incredible, manifestations of religious decay was the unblushing manner in which the priests practised imposture upon the people. Numerous and terrible instances of this could be given. The evidence of this is not only derived from the Fathers, but a work has been preserved in which formal instructions are given, how temples and altars are to be constructed in order to produce false miracles, and by what means impostures of this kind may be successfully practised. (Comp. The Pneumatics of Hero,' translated by B. Woodcroft.) The worst was, that this kind of imposture on the ignorant populace was openly approved by the educated. (Döllinger, p. 647.)
[1279] This seems the full meaning of the word, St. Luke i. 80. Comp. Acts i. 24 (in the A. V. shew').
[1280] The plural indicates that St. John was not always in the same wilderness.' The plural form in regard to the wilderness which are in the land of Israel,' is common in Rabbinic writings (comp. Baba K. vii. 7 and the Gemaras on the passage). On the fulfilment by the Baptist of Is. xl. 3, see the discussion of that passage in Appendix XI.
[1281] St. Luke i. 80.
[1282] Godet has, in a few forcible sentences, traced what may be called not merely the difference, but the contrast between the teaching and aims of the Essenes and those of John.
[1283] Ab.Zar.2 b.
[1284] Probably about Easter, 26 a.d.
[1285] Till quite lately, those who impugn the veracity of the Gospels - Strauss, and even Keim - have pointed to this notice of Lysanias as an instance of the unhistorical character of St. Luke's Gospel. But it is now admitted on all hands that the notice of St. Luke is strictly correct; and that, besides the other Lysanias, one of the same name had reigned over Abilene at the time of Christ. Comp. Wieseler, Beitr. pp. 196-204, and Schürer in Riehm's Handwörterb, p. 931.
[1286] Philo, ed. Frcf., Leg. 1015.
[1287] u. s. 1031, 1041.
[1288] Suet. Tiber. 69.
[1289] Philo, u.s. 1034.
[1290] Jos. Ant. xviii. 3. 1, 2.
[1291] St. Luke xiii. 1.
[1292] Ant. xviii. 4. 1, 2.
[1293] Philo, Leg. 1033.
[1294] The Procurators were Imperial financial officers, with absolute power of government in smaller territories. The office was generally in the hands of the Roman knights, which chiefly consisted of financial men, bankers, chief publicans, &c. The order of knighthood had sunk to a low state, and the exactions of such a rule, especially in Judea, can better be imagined than described. Comp. on the whole subject, Friedländer, Sittengesch. Rom, vol. i. p. 268 &c.
[1295] Pes. 57 a.
[1296] Annas, either Chanan ({hebrew}), or else Chana or Channa, a common name. Professor Delitzsch has rightly shown that the Hebrew equivalent for Caiaphas is not Keypha ({hebrew}) = Peter, but Kayapha ({hebrew}), or perhaps rather - according to the reading Kaphas - {hebrew}, Kaipha, , or Kaiphah. The name occurs in the Mishnah as Kayaph [so, and not Kuph, correctly] (Parah iii. 5). Professor Delitzsch does not venture to explain its meaning. Would it be too bold to suggest a derivation from {hebrew}, and the meaning to be: He who is at the top?'
[1297] Jos. Ant. xx. 8. 8.
[1298] Yoma 35 b.
[1299] Pes. u.s.
[1300] If we may take a statement in the Talmud, where the same word occurs, as a commentary.