AN INQUIRY CONCERNING THE ORIGIN OF CHRISTIANITY CHAPTER I. HISTORICAL SKETCH, FROM THE BABYLONISH CAPTIVITY TO THE DEATH OF JESUS. THE Jewish nation, which was of considerable political importance in the days of David and Solomon, was much weakened, during the reigns of Ahaz and his successors, by the encroachments of the Assyrians, and extinguished, for a time, as a political power, by the conquest of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. [B. C. 588.] But the national feeling in a people of 800 years' standing, of peculiar manners, associations, and religious worship, survives the capture of their towns; and, during each successive transportation of their tribes [B. C. 725-588], and their subsequent captivity at Babylon, the Jews consoled themselves with the hope of a speedy restoration to their own land.* Jer. xxxii. 15, For thus saith the Lord of Hosts, Houses, and fields, and vineyards, shall be possessed again in this land. xxxiii. 7, And I will cause the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel to return, and will build them as at first. xlvi. 27, But fear not thou, O my servant Jacob, and be not dismayed, O Israel; for behold I will save thee from afar off, and thy seed from the land of their captivity, and Jacob shall return, and B They compensated themselves for their present insignificance with the expectation of future greatness;* and their very sufferings were made a theme soothing to their vanity, by being considered, not as the effect of superior power on the part of their enemies, but as a paternal and corrective chastisement from their own God. † [B. C. 536.] When Cyrus permitted the small remnant of pure Jews to re-occupy their own land, and to re-build their temple and city, ‡ their most extravagant hopes seemed about to be realized. A new æra opened upon them; § they were in the way to take rank again amongst the nations; and if this could be attained out of a state of general servi be in rest and at ease, and none shall make him afraid. (1. 19; Ezek. xxxvii.; xxxix. 25; xxvii. 25; Micah ii. 12.) Tobit xiv. 5, Afterwards they shall return from all places of their captivity, and build up Jerusalem gloriously, and the house of God shall be built in it for ever, with a glorious building, as the prophets have spoken thereof. * Obadiah 17, But upon Mount Zion shall be deliverance-and there shall be holiness, and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions; 18, And the house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Esau for stubble;-21, And saviours shall come upon Mount Zion to judge the Mount of Esau, and the kingdom shall be the Lord's. Micah iv.; Micah v. 8, And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the Gentiles as a lion among the beasts of the forest. Isaiah xlix. 18-26; lx. 12, For the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish: yea those nations shall be utterly wasted... The sons also of them that afflicted thee shall come bending unto thee; and they shall call thee the city of the Lord, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel... thy people also shall be all righteous; they shall inherit the land for ever... a little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation; I the Lord will hasten it in its time. Isaiah xlii. 24, Who Did not the Lord, he + Ezekiel, passim, xxxix. 23; Micah i. 5, For the transgression of Jacob is all this, and for the sins of the house of Israel. gave Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to the robbers? against whom we have sinned? xlvii. 6, I was wroth with my people, and have given them into thine (Chaldea's) hand. xlviii. 10, Behold I have refined thee (Jacob), I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. Lam. iv. 22; Hosea xiv. 1; Daniel ix. 11. By comparing Ezra i. 3, with 1 Esdras iv. 63, it is seen that the decree of Cyrus was not understood as limited to the temple. § Haggai ii. 9, The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former. Zech. i. 16-21; ii. 10-13. tude, a patriotic Jew might easily believe his nation destined, in the end, to eclipse Egypt and Assyria. * Accordingly, in their writings about the time of the restoration, (and a large proportion of those called the prophets appear to be nearly of that date,) † these topics occur in almost every page. The imagination and literary talents of the Jews had been much developed by their contact with the Chaldees and Persians, and naturally displayed themselves chiefly on such an exciting theme. Besides, the Jewish leaders would encourage their poets and orators to choose such subjects, in order to animate the people under difficulties. It is not surprising, then, to find in the poetic writings of the Old Testament extravagant descriptions of a kingdom of Israel which should cover the earth, and of a great prince who should restore the throne of David.§ The beautiful an * Isaiah xiv. 2, Israel shall take them captive, whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors. † Haggai, B. C. 520; Zechariah, B. C. 519. Many parts of the older prophets appear to be interpolations of the same time. (See Ezek. xxxix. 23-29.) In chap. xiii. reasons will be given for considering Isaiah xl. chap. to the end, as written in the time of Cyrus. 14. Haggai ii. 22; Zech. ii. 21; Micah iv. 5; Isaiah ii. 2; Dan. vii. 13, § Ezek. xxxiv. 23, 24, And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd. And I the Lord will be their God, and my servant David a prince among them. xxxvii. 22-26, And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel, and one king shall be king to them all; and they shall be no more two nations. . . and they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, and their children's children for ever, and my servant David shall be their prince for ever. (Kimchi says upon this text, The King Messiah is called David, because he will be of the seed of David.) Jer. xxiii. 5, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous branch, and a king shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. Isaiah xxxii. 1, 18, Behold a king shall reign in righteousness. . . and ticipations which, under various forms, have arisen in widely remote nations, of the future perfection of the earth,* were, in the minds of the Jews, blended in a peculiar manner with the hopes and fortunes of Israel. On this subject each prophet or poet indulged in his own fancies; but one prevalent notion seems to have been, that this kingdom would be established, and their final triumph over the nations effected, not so much by military means, in which they were obviously deficient, as by some special intervention of their protector, the God of Israel. It was supposed that the presence of the Deity would be then made manifest to them in a more visible manner than had been known hitherto, and that signs and wonders, more impressive and more public than those granted in the days of Moses, would at last proclaim to the whole world the connexion subsisting between God and his chosen people.† Hence this state of things came to be called my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings. Jer. xxiii. 17, For thus saith the Lord, David shall never want a man to sit upon the throne of Israel. The kings of Judah were called the Lord's anointed; therefore the expected restorer of their throne came to be described emphatically as the Anointed or Messiah: and it became a favourite literary amusement with the Jews to find passages of their scriptures applicable to him. To find oracles of the future was more interesting than to investigate critically the history of the past. Hence many passages were applied to the Messiah which originally referred to real personages, to personifications of their nation, or to subjects still more remote. Schoettgen gives a minute account of all the texts interpreted by the ancient Rabbis concerning the Messiah. Horæ Heb. lib. 2. It is not likely that Virgil had read Isaiah; yet the resemblance between the ideas in his Pollio and those of the Hebrew poet has struck all readers. In the Voluspa, a Scandinavian poem quoted in the 4th fable of the Edda, there is an end of the ages and a conflagration of the world, succeeded by a new earth of eternal verdure and happiness. + Haggai ii. 6, 7, For thus saith the Lord of Hosts, Yet once it is a little while, and I will shake the heaven and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; and I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come, and I will fill this house with glory. Zech. ix. 13, 14, When I have bent |