Commentary Upon Acts, Part 3 – Title page 2
PART III. The affaires of the Iewes.
Sect. I. A commotion of them.
IF the Method of Iosephus were Chronicall, and the order of his ranking of Stories to bee presumed for the order of their falling out, at this time or hereabout should bee taken in that Egesip. de excid. Ierus. l. 2. cap. 4.famosum ludibrium as Egesippus calleth it, or villanous abuse of Paulina a noble chast and vertuous wife and Lady of Rome, by Mundus a Knight, under pretext of the god Anubis in the Temple of Isis: for this hath *Ioseph. Antiq. lib. 18. c. 4.hee mentioned the very next thing after the mention of our Saviours death, and with this linke of connexion. About the very same time another grievance troubled the Iewes, and shamefull things happened about the Temple of Isis at Rome, &c. But since the storie concerning the troubles of the Jewes, that hee relateth after, seemeth to have some neare dependence and consequence to this of the Lady, and that Annal. lib. 2 cTacitus hath laid that occurrence of the Jewes expulsion out of Rome thirteene years before this, under the consulship of Iunius Silanus and Norbanus Flaccus, wee will omit to meddle with them, and will take in another story of the Jewes which though Iosephus hath placed a little before Christs death, yet Eusebius hath set it after, and upon his word shall it bee commended to the reader for its time, and upon the others and Philoes for its truth.
Pilate (as *Antiq. lib. 8. cap. 4. & de bello Iud. …. c. ….saith Iosephus) having secretly brought into Ierusalem by night certaine Images of Caesar and set them up, the people when the matter was knowne, repaired to him to Caesarea, begging that they might bee taken downe: which when hee denied as a thing prejudiciall to Caesar; they fell flat upon the ground, and there lay five dayes and five nights and stirred not thence. On the sixth day hee pretending to give them an answer from the judgement seat doth suddenly inviron them with armed men, threatning their death if they cease not their importunitie. But they falling upon the ground againe and laying their necks bare, returne him this answer. That they would gladly imbrace death rather then transgresse the wisedome of their Lawes. Whose resolution when Pilate saw, hee caused the Images to bee fetched away from Ierusalem to Caesarea. To this purpose Iosephus; but Philo far differently thus. *Philo in legat. ad Cajum.Pilate, saith hee, dedicated golden shields in the Palace of Herod in the holy Citie, not so much for the honour of Tiberius, as to vex the people of the Jewes; upon them there was neither picture, nor any thing that was forbidden, but onelyonly the inscription shewed who had dedicated them, and to whom. Yet when the multitude had understanding of the thing, and the matter was divulged, they chose certaine of the highest ranke among them for their advocates, who besought him, that the innovation might bee taken away, and that their Lawes might not. When hee roughly denyed, for hee was naturally inflexible and selfe-wilfully sturdy, they make faire before him as if they would petition to Tiberius. Now that fretted him worst of all, for hee was afraid lest they should doe so indeed, and accuse him for his other crimes, his bribery, wrongs, rapines, injuries, oppressions, murders and horrid cruelties, and yet durst hee not take down againe what hee had dedicated, nor had hee any mind to pleasure the people. Which when they perceived they sent a most humble petition to Tiberius: who understanding what Pilate had done and what hee had threatned, rebuked and checked him for his innovating boldnesse, and commanded him speedily to take the shields away; and so they were removed from Ierusalem to Caesarea. Thus Philo, and thus differently these two countrey men, and that in a matter which so neerely concerned their owne countrey: and which also befell so neare unto their owne times. For Philo was now alive and in his prime, and so was Iosephus lesse then thirty yeares after. Bee it referred to the readers choise which of these relations hee will take, and when hee hath made his choise, another difference falleth under his arbitration concerning the time, betwixt Eusebius which placeth this occurrence after our Saviours passion, and Baronius that hath set it three years before his baptisme. The Cardinall certainly too forward in bringing it in in the first yeare of Pilate, for it appeareth by Philo that hee had done a great multitude of villanies among the Jewes before hee did this: and the Father if any whit too backward in ranking it after our Saviours death, yet excusable for a thing of so pregnant application, as to shew how soone the Jewes that had chosen Caesar before Christ, have now their belly full of their Caesar in his Images.
Sect. II. Of Iames his being Bishop of Ierusalem.
The two last cited Authors though they differ about the time of the story forenamed, yet have they agreed unanimously, and many others with them about this in hand, namely that Iames was made this year the Bishop of that Ierusalem. For thus Eusebius: Ecelesiae Hierosolymorii primus Episcopus ab Apostolis ordinatur Iacobus frater Domini. But Baronius far larger; that he was ordained Bishop by Peter, that his chaire was preserved and reverenced to posteritie, that hee wore a plate of gold upon his head like the high Priest in the Law, from whence hee would derive the Miter: that hee alone might goe into the Sanctum Sanctorum, that hee refrained from wine and flesh, that hee was a Nazarite, that his knees were hardned with continuall praying till they were unsensible, and such like stuffe for which hee citeth his severall Authors, that if common sense were not a better informer then common fame, we should be made to beleeve any thing whatsoever. The question indeed whether Iames were ever Bishop of Ierusalem at all or no, is very well worth taking into some consideration, but that will bee most proper to handle when wee come to those places in the Acts of the Apostles, where a singular mention of Iames hath given occasion of this opinion; But as for his prototype of Miters, the peoples woodden devotion to his chaire, and the rest of that legendary invention, hee is little acquainted with the officiousnesse of superstition, that knoweth not out of what mint that commeth, and hee hath little to doe that should goe about to examine the truth of it, but hee hath the least of all to doe that should beleeve it.
THE CHRISTIAN, IEWISH, AND ROMAN HISTORY OF THE YEARE OF CHRIST XXXIIII. And of the Emperour Tiberius, XIX. Being the yeare of the World 3961. Consuls
Sergius Sulpitius Galba.
L. Cornelius Sulla.
LONDON, Printed by R. C. for Andrew Crooke, 1645.