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we are told, were natives of the isle of Crete. At the time when Saturn was driven from his throne by the violence of Jupiter they abandoned their habitations, and gained a settlement at the extremity of Libya. In support of this tradition the etymology of their name is adduced as a proof. Mount Ida, well known to fame, stands in the isle of Crete: the inhabitants are called Idæans; and the word, by a barbarous corruption, was changed afterwards to that of Judæans. According to others, they were a colony from Egypt, when that country, during the reign of Isis, overflowing with inhabitants, poured forth its redundant numbers under the conduct of Hierosolymus and Juda. A third hypothesis makes them originally Ethiopians, compelled by the tyranny of Cepheus, the reigning monarch, to abandon their country. Some authors contend that they were a tribe of Assyrians,' who for some time occupied a portion of Egypt, and afterwards transplanting themselves into Syria, acquired in their own right a number of cities, together with the territories of the Hebrews. There is still another tradition, which ascribes to the Jews a more illustrious origin, deriving them from the ancient Solymans,2 so highly celebrated

single founder, and to transmit to posterity the regular genealogy of their several families.

1 We have in this passage something that borders on the truth. Abraham went forth from the Ur of the Chaldees; Genesis xi. 31. He went into Egypt to sojourn there; Genesis xii. 10. The history of his posterity in Egypt, and the journey into Syria and the land of Canaan, clearly prove the descent of the Jews from Abraham, and throw a light on what our author says of their Assyrian origin. Tacitus, however, not having investigated the fact, gives the various opinions that were floating in the world, and leaves the truth to rest on better authority.

2 Homer was held in such high veneration throughout Greece that his verses often decided the limits of disputed

in the poetry of Homer. By that people the city was built, and from its founder received the name of Hierosolyma.

III. In this clash of opinions one point seems to be universally admitted. A pestilential disease, disfiguring the race of man, and making the body an object of loathsome deformity,' spread all over Egypt. Bocchoris, at that time the reigning monarch, consulted the oracle of Jupiter Hammon, and received for answer that the kingdom must be purified, by exterminating the infected multitude as a race of men detested by the gods. After diligent search the wretched sufferers were collected together, and in a wild and barren desert abandoned to their misery. In that distress, while the vulgar herd was sunk in deep despair, Moses, one of their number, reminded them that, by the wisdom of his counsels, they had been already rescued out of impending danger. Deserted as they were by men and gods, he told them that if they did not repose their confidence in him, as their chief by divine commission, they had no resource left. His offer was accepted. Their march began they knew not whither. Want of water 2 was their chief distress. Worn out with fatigue, they lay stretched on the bare earth, heart

lands, and threw a lustre round every state or people recorded in his poems.

1 Justin mentions this epidemic distemper, and calls it the leprosy. We now know that it was inflicted by God, who said to Pharaoh,' Let my people go, that they may serve me; for if thou refuse to let them go, and wilt hold them still, there shall be a very grievous murrain.' See Exodus ix. 1, 2, 3. 10. That the passage through the Red Sea should be omitted by Tacitus, Brotier observes, cannot be matter of wonder, since it is related even by Josephus in a manner that adds no authenticity to the miracle.

2 And they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water; Exodus xv. 22.

broken, ready to expire, when a troop of wild asses,' returning from pasture, went up the steep ascent of a rock covered with a grove of trees. The verdure of

the herbage round the place suggested the idea of springs near at hand. Moses traced the steps of the animals, and discovered a plentiful vein of water. By this relief the fainting multitude was raised from despair. They pursued their journey for six days without intermission. On the seventh they made halt, and having expelled the natives, took possession of the country, where they built their city, and dedicated their temple.

IV. In order to draw the bond of union closer, and to establish his own authority, Moses gave a new form of worship, and a system of religious ceremonies, the reverse of every thing known3 to any other age or

1 This discovery of springs in a shady grove calls to mind what Moses tells us: And they came to Elim, where were twelve wells of water, and threescore and ten palm trees ;' Exodus xv. 27. Where Tacitus found the romantic incident of the troop of wild asses does not appear. The story is amusing, and probably was adopted in the narrative to prepare the reader for the consecration of that animal, as mentioned in the following section.

2 Brotier observes that a journey into Palestine, through the deserts of Arabia, could not be performed in six days; as it appears in the Memoirs of the French Missionaries in the Levant, tom. vii. p. 5, that father Sicard went over that whole tract of country, and did not reach Mount Sinai till the thirtieth day. Brotier adds, that in what Tacitus relates something like the truth is still to be found, since we are told that Joshua and the children of Israel went round the city of Jericho once, and continued so to do six days, and on the seventh day, which was the sabbath, entered the city; and, having extirpated the inhabitants, became masters of the country, where David built a city, and Solomon dedicated a temple. See Joshua vi. 3. 20, 21.

3 Moses introduced a system of religion very different from the polytheism and superstitious ceremonies of the Romans. Tacitus speaks with marked disapprobation; but the errors of prejudice have been long since refuted.

country. Whatever is held sacred by the Romans with the Jews is profane:1 and what in other nations is unlawful and impure, with them is fully established. The figure of the animal2 that guided them to refreshing springs is consecrated in the sanctuary of their temple. In contempt of Jupiter Hammon they sacrifice a ram. The ox, worshipped in Egypt for the god Apis, is slain as a victim by the Jews. From the flesh of swine they abstain altogether. An animal, subject to the same leprous disease that infected their whole nation, is not deemed proper food. The famine with which they were for a long time afflicted is frequently commemorated by a solemn fast. Their bread, in memory of their having seized a quantity of grain to relieve their wants, is made without leaven. The seventh day is sacred to rest, for on that day their labors ended; and such is their natural propensity to sloth, that in consequence of it every seventh year is

3

1 Whatever was sacred at Rome was beyond all doubt profane at Jerusalem. The Jews worshipped one god, and by consequence the pagan mythology fell into contempt.

2 The veneration here said to have been paid in the Tem ple to the image of an ass is refuted by Tacitus himself, who says, in the following section, that the Jews suffered no consecrated statues or images to be erected either in their cities or temples. He tells us afterwards, that when Pompey conquered Jerusalem, and made his entry into the Temple, he found neither statues nor images, but a void and empty tabernacle.

3 The seventh day was a day of rest, but not for the reason given by Tacitus: it was the sabbath of the Lord; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it.'

4 The seventh year was also a year of rest, not for the sake of sluggish inactivity, but in consequence of an express command: Six years thou shalt sow thy field, six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard; but in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the Lord.' There

devoted to repose and sluggish inactivity. For this septennial custom some account in a different manner: they tell us that it is an institution in honor of Saturn, either because the Idæans, expelled, as has been mentioned, from the isle of Crete, transmitted to their posterity the principles of their religious creed, or because, among the seven planets that govern the universe, Saturn moves in the highest orbit,' and acts with the greatest energy. It may be added, that the period in which the heavenly bodies perform their revolutions is regulated by the number seven.2

V. These rites and ceremonies, from whatever source derived, owe their chief support to their antiquity. They have other institutions, in themselves corrupt, impure, and even abominable, but eagerly embraced, as if their very depravity were a recommendation.

was still another sabbath of more importance: The space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be forty-nine years, and ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, for it is the jubilee, and it shall be holy unto you.' Josephus says that Julius Cæsar, when he imposed an annual tribute on the Jewish nation, made an exception of the seventh year, which was called the sabbath, when the people neither reaped nor sowed.

1 The orbit which Saturn describes is at a greater distance from the sun than any planet in the solar system: but judicial astrology has been long considered as a vain exploded science.

2 Tacitus says that the life of man is governed by the revolations of the seven planets that doctrine was not only taught by the Egyptian and Pythagorean philosophy, but has been adopted by modern astrologers. Hence the calculation proceeded by a series of seven years to the grand climacteric, at the age of sixty-three. The Jews however had very different reasons for their sabbaths of years.

3 The force of national prejudice was never more strongly displayed. Tacitus thought nothing orthodox but the creed of his own country; and in his eyes the depravity of the Jews consisted in preferring the worship of one God to Jupiter, Venus, Mercury, and the rest of the monstrous deities with which superstition had peopled heaven.

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