4. (203) When Daniel was come in to the king, he excused himself first, that he did not pretend to be wiser than the other Chaldeans and magicians, when, upon their entire inability to discover his dream, he was undertaking to inform him of it; for this was not by his own skill, or on account of his having better cultivated his understanding than the rest; but he said, “God hath pity upon us, when we were in danger of death, and when I prayed for the life of myself, and of those of my own nation, hath made manifest to me both the dream and the interpretation thereof; (204) for I was not less concerned for thy glory than for the sorrow that we were by thee condemned to die, while thou didst so unjustly command men, both good and excellent in themselves, to be put to death, when thou enjoinedst them to do what was entirely above the reach of human wisdom, and requiredst of them what was only the work of God. (205) Wherefore, as thou in thy sleep wast solicitous concerning those that should succeed the government of the whole world, God was desirous to show thee all those that should reign after thee, and to that end exhibited to thee the following dream:—(206) Thou seemedst to see a great image standing before thee, the head of which proved to be of gold, the shoulders and arms of silver, and the belly and thighs of brass, but the legs and feet of iron; (207) after which thou sawest a stone broken off from a mountain, which fell upon the image and threw it down, and brake it to pieces, and did not permit any part of it to remain whole; but the gold, the silver, the brass and the iron, became smaller than meal, which, upon the blast of a violent wind, was by force carried away, and scattered abroad; but the stone did increase to such a degree, that the whole earth beneath it seemed to be filled therewith.
(208) This is the dream which thou sawest, and its interpretation is as follows:—The head of gold denotes thee, and the kings of Babylon that have been before thee; but the two hands and arms signify this, that your government shall be dissolved by two kings; (209) but another king that shall come from the west, armed with brass, shall destroy that government; and another government, that shall be like unto iron, shall put an end to the power of the former, and shall have dominion over all the earth, on account of the nature of iron, which is stronger than that of gold, of silver, and of brass.”
(210) Daniel did also declare the meaning of the stone to the king; but I do not think proper to relate it, since I have only undertaken to describe things past or things present, but not things that are future: yet if anyone be so very desirous of knowing truth, as not to waive such points of curiosity, and cannot curb his inclination for understanding the uncertainties of futurity, and whether they will happen or not, let him be diligent in reading the book of Daniel, which he will find among the sacred writings.
1. (119) The Jews also obtained honors from the kings of Asia when they became their auxiliaries; for Seleucus Nicator made them citizens in those cities which he built in Asia, and in the Lower Syria, and in the metropolis itself, Antioch; and gave them privileges equal to those of the Macedonians and Greeks, who were the inhabitants, insomuch that these privileges continue to this very day; (120) an argument for which you have in this, that whereas the Jews do make use of oil prepared by foreigners, they receive a certain sum of money from the proper officers belonging to their exercises as the value of that oil; which money, when the people of Antioch would have deprived them of, in the last war, Mucianus, who was then president of Syria, preserved it to them.
(121) And when the people of Alexandria and of Antioch did after that, at the time that Vespasian and Titus his son, governed the habitable earth, pray that these privileges of citizens might be taken away, they did not obtain their request.
(122) In which behavior anyone may discern the equity and generosity of the Romans, especially of Vespasian and Titus, who, although they had been at a great deal of pains in the war against the Jews, and were exasperated against them, because they did not deliver up their weapons to them, but continued the war to the very last, (123) yet did not they take away any of their forementioned privileges belonging to them as citizens, but restrained their anger, and overcame the prayers of the Alexandrians and Antiochians, who were a very powerful people, (124) insomuch that they did not yield to them, neither out of their favor to these people, nor out of their old grudge at those whose wicked opposition they had subdued in the war; nor would they alter any of the ancient favors granted to the Jews, but said, that those who had borne arms against them, and fought them, had suffered punishment already, and that it was not just to deprive those that had not offended of the privileges they enjoyed.
22. (247) The decree of those of Pergamus:—“When Cratippus was prytanis, on the first day of the month Desius, the decree of the praetors was this: Since the Romans, following the conduct of their ancestors, undertake dangers for the common safety of all mankind, and are ambitious to settle their confederates and friends in happiness, and in firm peace, (248) and since the nation of the Jews, and their high priest Hyrcanus, sent as ambassadors to them, Strato, the son of Theodatus, and Apollonius, the son of Alexander, and Enaus, the son of Antipater, (249) and Aristobulus, the son of Amyntas, and Sosipater, the son of Philip, worthy and good men, who gave a particular account of their affairs, the senate thereupon made a decree about what they had desired of them, that Antiochus the king, the son of Antiochus, should do no injury to the Jews, the confederates of the Romans; and that the fortresses and the havens, and the country, and whatsoever else he had taken from them, should be restored to them; and that it may be lawful for them to export their goods out of their own havens; (250) and that no king nor people may have leave to export any goods either out of the country of Judea, or out of their havens, without paying customs, but only Ptolemy, the king of Alexandria, because he is our confederate and friend: and that, according to their desire, the garrison that is in Joppa may be ejected.
(251) Now Lucius Pettius, one of our senators, a worthy and good man, gave order that we should take care that these things should be done according to the senate’s decree; and that we should take care also that their ambassadors might return home in safety.
(252) Accordingly we admitted Theodorus into our senate and assembly, and took the epistle out of his hands, as well as the decree of the senate: and as he discoursed with great zeal about the Jews, and described Hyrcanus’s virtue and generosity, (253) and how he was a benefactor to all men in common, and particularly to everybody that comes to him, we laid up the epistle in our public records; and made a decree ourselves, that since we also are in confederacy with the Romans, we would do everything we could for the Jews, according to the senate’s decree.
(254) Theodorus also, who brought the epistle, desired of our praetors, that they would send Hyrcanus a copy of that decree, as also ambassadors to signify to him the affection of our people to him, and to exhort them to preserve and augment their friendship for us, and be ready to bestow other benefits upon us, (255) as justly expecting to receive proper requitals from us; and desiring them to remember that our ancestors, were friendly to the Jews, even in the days of Abraham, who was the father of all the Hebrews, as we have [also] found it set down in our public records.”
5. (326) And now, when all Herod’s designs had succeeded according to his hopes, he had not the least suspicion that any troubles could arise in his kingdom, because he kept his people obedient, as well by the fear they stood in of him, for he was implacable, in the infliction of his punishments, as by the provident care he had shown towards them, after the most magnanimous manner, when they were under their distresses: (327) but still he took care to have external security for his government, as a fortress against his subjects; for the orations he made to the cities were very fine, and full of kindness; and he cultivated a seasonable good understanding with their governors, and bestowed presents on every one of them, inducing them thereby to be more friendly to him, and using his magnificent dispositions so as his kingdom might be the better secured to him, and this till all his affairs were every way more and more augmented.
(328) But then, this magnificent temper of his, and that submissive behavior and liberality which he exercised towards Caesar, and the most powerful men of Rome, obliged him to transgress the customs of his nation, and to set aside many of their laws, by building cities after an extravagant manner, and erecting temples,—(329) not in Judea indeed, for that would not have been borne, it being forbidden for us to pay any honor to images, or representations of animals, after the manner of the Greeks; but still he did this in the country [properly] out of our bounds, and in the cities thereof.
(330) The apology which he made to the Jews for these things was this:—That all was done, not out of his own inclinations, but by the commands and injunctions of others, in order to please Caesar and the Romans; as though he had not the Jewish customs so much in his eye as he had the honor of those Romans, while yet he had himself entirely in view all the while, and indeed was very ambitious to leave great monuments of his government to posterity; whence it was that he was so zealous in building such fine cities, and spent such vast sums of money upon them.
1. (257) There was now a tumult arisen at Alexandria, between the Jewish inhabitants and the Greeks; and three ambassadors were chosen out of each party that were at variance, who came to Caius.
Now, one of these ambassadors from the people of Alexandria was Apion, who uttered many blasphemies against the Jews; and, among other things, that he said he charged them with neglecting the honors that belonged to Caesar; (258) for that while all who were subject to the Roman empire built altars and temples to Caius, and in other regards universally received him as they received the gods, these Jews alone thought it a dishonorable thing for them to erect statues in honor of him, as well as to swear by his name.
(259) Many of these severe things were said by Apion, by which he hoped to provoke Caius to anger at the Jews, as he was likely to be.
But Philo, the principal of the Jewish embassage, a man eminent on all accounts, brother to Alexander the alabarch, and one not unskillful in philosophy, was ready to betake himself to make his defense against those accusations; (260) but Caius prohibited him, and bade him be gone: he was also in such a rage, that it openly appeared he was about to do them some very great mischief; So Philo, being thus affronted, went out, and said to those Jews who were about him, that they should be of good courage, since Caius’s words indeed showed anger at them, but in reality had already set God against himself.
Flavius Josephus and William Whiston, The Works of Josephus: Complete and Unabridged (Peabody: Hendrickson, 1987), 280.
Blog Page about Faith Gateway Books Blog Page about Kobo Books | ||||
|
.webp)
Posts
.jpg?x-oss-process=image/auto-orient,1/quality,q_70/resize,m_mfit,w_350,h_350/format,webp)
No comments:
Post a Comment