"Granny's Chapters" Part 32

The next on the list of the Apostles, are "James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother." Both of these have been already mentioned: the Scripture tells us, that St. James the elder, the brother of St. John, was killed with the sword by Herod Agrippa.

St. John, as we have heard, survived the destruction of Jerusalem; was banished for some years to the island of Patmos; and finally died a natural death at Ephesus.

"Philip and Bartholomew" are the next upon our list; and throughout their lives they seem to have been intimately connected with each other. Philip's name is mentioned two or three times in Scripture. He was no sooner called to be a follower of Jesus, than, as we are told, "he findeth Nathanael (or Bartholomew), and saith unto him, We have found Him of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph." Or, in other words, that they had found out, that Jesus of Nazareth the reputed son of Joseph, was, in truth, The Messiah, of whom Moses and the prophets had written.

After the Lord's Ascension, Philip is supposed to have preached the Gospel in some parts of Asia, and then to have suffered martyrdom in Phrygia. It is said, that coming to a place where the inhabitants were the grossest idolaters, Philip, greatly distressed at their condition, prayed constantly for them; at the same time labouring to convince them of the folly of their present wors.h.i.+p, and telling them of the true G.o.d, and of His Son Jesus Christ. The Lord so blessed Philip's efforts, that many of his hearers turned from idolatry and became Christians. This success, stirred up the opposition and persecution of the heathen magistrates, who accordingly seized the Apostle, put him in prison, caused him to be unmercifully scourged, and afterwards crucified. It is said, moreover, that whilst hanging on the cross, he was stoned to death; and that then, such a violent earthquake took place, as greatly alarmed all the people; and that many, in consequence, repented of their idolatry and wickedness, and turned to G.o.d.

Bartholomew, or Nathanael, could not at first believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the promised Messiah, but after acting according to Philip's advice, of "Come and see," he cordially acknowledged Jesus Christ to be the "Son of G.o.d, the King of Israel." After our Lord's Ascension, this Apostle is said to have laboured amongst the savage tribes of Abyssinia, then called Ethiopia; and we are told, that 100 years afterwards, a missionary who went to preach the Gospel in those parts, found a copy of St. Matthew's Gospel, which was said to have been left there by Bartholomew. Bartholomew was in Phrygia with Philip, when the latter was put to death: and it is said that he was also fastened to a cross, but that the heathens were so alarmed by the earthquake, that they took him down, and set him at liberty. After this, he is said to have preached in various parts of Asia Minor, ending with Armenia, where he was seized by the idolatrous governor, and treated with the greatest cruelty; he was beaten to the ground with staves; crucified head downwards; then taken from the cross, flayed, and finally beheaded.

Thomas, the next on the list of Apostles, is well known to us for his doubts as to the reality of the Resurrection--doubts mercifully removed by the Lord Himself. After the Ascension, Thomas is said to have laboured in Judaea, Parthia, Medea, Persia, and other countries, until he reached India. Here he was at first afraid of venturing amongst the dark-coloured and cruel heathens, who inhabited the country; but being encouraged by a vision, he fearlessly journeyed on into the country, and was most successful in bringing the people out of the darkness of Paganism into the light of the Gospel. The Brahmins or priests, however, were much opposed to him: at a certain town he began to build a place of wors.h.i.+p for the Christians, and Segamo, the prince of the country, persuaded probably by the Brahmins, forbade him to go on with it. Thomas, however, by the help of G.o.d, performed several miracles, which so convinced Segamo of the truth of all his doctrines, that he himself became a Christian, and allowed the building to be continued. The idolatrous priests now saw that their religion was in great danger, and therefore, watching for a convenient opportunity, they came upon Thomas in a quiet spot, to which he had gone to pray, and shot him with their arrows. Having thus disabled the Apostle, the Brahmins stoned him, and finally ran a lance through his body. The dead body of Thomas was carried by his disciples to the church which he had just completed, and there buried. About 1,500 years afterwards, when the Portuguese first made their way to India, they found upon the Malabar coast many Christian families, who called themselves "St. Thomas's Christians"; being descendants of those, who had been converted from Paganism to Christianity, by this Apostle.

Matthew's name stands next on the list of the Apostles; he has already been spoken of, as far as the Scriptures make mention of him; and also as the writer of the first of the four accounts of our Saviour's life and death. We neither know what this Apostle did after our Lord's Ascension, nor how he died; but there is a tradition that he was murdered in Ethiopia, where by his teaching, and the miracles he was enabled to perform, he had been the means of converting mult.i.tudes from Heathenism to Christianity.

"James the son of Alphaeus, and Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddaeus,"

now come under consideration. They were brothers; two of the sons of Mary, sister to the Virgin Mary, and of Cleophas one of the disciples to whom, after His resurrection, the Lord appeared on the way to Emmaus. This James, distinguished as "the Less," has already been spoken of as Bishop of Jerusalem, and his death has also been mentioned (p. 351).

Lebbaeus, also called Judas and Jude, was, as has been said, the writer of an Epistle. No ancient writer gives any account either of his labours after the Lord's Ascension, or of the manner of his death.

Of "Simon the Canaanite," whose name stands next on our list, Scripture tells us nothing, except that he was also called "Simon Zelotes." "Zelotes" means full of zeal and eagerness; and the name was probably given to this Apostle, on account of his great zeal and earnestness in the service of his Master. The term "Canaanite" seems to be derived from a Hebrew word, which also means zeal. After the Ascension, Simon is said to have preached the Gospel amongst some of the barbarous nations in Africa; and then to have gone westward, finally reaching Britain, where he was crucified, probably by the Romans.

The last on the list of Apostles is Judas Iscariot, whose surname, it is thought, is merely derived from the place of his birth. Of him it is unnecessary to speak now. The mention of Judas Iscariot naturally reminds us of him who was afterwards chosen to fill the place, "from which by transgression he fell."

Matthias, chosen after the Ascension to complete the original number of Apostles, was one of those disciples "which had companied with the Apostles, all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among them." Beyond this, Scripture says nothing about him; nor do any ancient writers tell us how long he laboured in the holy office to which he was appointed; but it is said, that he was finally put to death by some amongst whom he was preaching.

No sketch of our Lord's Apostles would be complete without some notice of Paul and Barnabas; who, though not called to be Apostles until after the Ascension, laboured zealously in that sacred ministry. St.

Paul has already been spoken of most fully, and frequent mention has been made of St. Barnabas, up to the time of his separation from St.

Paul, after which the Book of Acts contains no account of him: but in one of his Epistles, St. Paul writes of him in such a manner, as shows that though for the moment "the contention between them was so sharp as to part them asunder," it had not caused any real coolness or estrangement. Another proof of this, is found in the fact, that St.

Mark afterwards became a devoted attendant upon St. Paul, by whom he was highly valued. St. Mark was with the Apostle whilst he was a prisoner in Rome.

Of the labours of St. Barnabas after his separation from St. Paul, we have no certain account anywhere: in the end he is said to have been stoned.

Before closing this chapter, it seems well to take notice of St. Luke and St. Mark, who, though not Apostles, are, as writers of the Gospel, ent.i.tled to the respect and grat.i.tude of all who value the holy Scriptures.

There is, however, little to add to what has been already said of them.

Luke, by birth a Jew, and probably a native of Antioch in Syria, was a physician, who became a convert to the religion of Jesus. He is said to have been one of the seventy disciples, sent out on one occasion, "two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come." This is very probable, although, as he is not once named in any of the Gospels, we cannot be sure.

From St. Luke's own account in the Book of Acts, we find that he went with St. Paul on his first voyage to Macedon. At Philippi, he seems to have left the Apostle; why we know not, but perhaps St. Paul sent him on some mission. It is not unlikely that he remained in that country; but during St. Paul's second journey, he rejoined him, and sailed with him from Philippi. For the next five years, St. Luke continued with St. Paul: this brings us to the release of the Apostle from his confinement in Rome. Here ends any certain account of St. Luke. It is said that he then went into Achaia, and afterwards preached the Gospel in Africa. As no ancient writers mention his having suffered martyrdom, it is probable that he died a natural death.

If the Evangelist St. Mark was, as there is every reason to believe, the same "Mark whose surname was John," he was nephew to Barnabas. We first hear of him in Scripture, as going from Antioch to Jerusalem with Barnabas and Saul; and then accompanying them on a journey, but leaving them unaccountably at Perga; in consequence of which, St. Paul afterwards refused to take him with them on another journey, thus causing the contention already mentioned. "Barnabas, taking Mark, sailed to Cyprus." It is said that St. Mark was with St. Barnabas at the time of the latter's death, and received his dying commands to go without delay to St. Paul, by whom, as has been already said, he was well received. What his ultimate fate was, we know not.

It may not be amiss to mention, before we take leave of the immediate followers of our Lord, that in pictures, the four Evangelists are distinguished by certain signs or symbols. St. Matthew is simply a man with a pen in his hand; St. Mark is accompanied by a Lion; St. Luke by an Ox; and St. John by an Eagle.

PART III.

Chapter I.--THE JEWS TO THE TIME OF THE EMPEROR ADRIAN.

The history of those chosen by the Lord to be His peculiar people, has now been traced for more than two thousand years, from the Call of Abraham, B.C. 1921. For the two centuries immediately following that event, we have the history of Abraham's descendants, Isaac, Jacob or Israel, and the twelve sons of Israel, or Patriarchs, as they are called, from being the fathers of all the tribes of Israel. Israel and his sons and grand-children, to the number of sixty-six persons, went down, B.C. 1706, into Egypt, where Joseph then was, having been sold as a slave about twenty years before.

During the next 300 years, the descendants of Israel multiplied so wonderfully that, in B.C. 1491, 600,000 men, besides women and children, went out of Egypt under the guidance of Moses.

The giving of the Law, Ceremonial and Political, as well as Moral, established the chosen people of G.o.d, as a Church and Nation.

Forty years of wandering in the wilderness brought the Children of Israel to the eastern banks of the Jordan, B.C. 1451. The Bible then relates how, under the command of Joshua, the Jordan was crossed, and the heathen wonderfully driven out of the land, which the Lord had promised to give to Abraham and his descendants, for a possession.

For forty-six years, the Children of Israel were ruled by Joshua and the elders who outlived him. For the next 300 years, they were governed by Judges, raised up by the Almighty at different times, as they were needed. In B.C. 1095 the Children of Israel were bent upon having a king, and Saul was accordingly crowned, and reigned for forty years. During the next eighty years, the kingdom flourished under David and his son Solomon; the latter of whom built the glorious Temple, dedicated to the service of the Lord with much ceremony, B.C.

1004. It had taken eight years to build.

The division of the country into the two kingdoms of Judah and Israel, under Solomon's son Rehoboam, took place B.C. 975. One king succeeded another more or less quickly, until the sins of kings and people led to the destruction of the kingdom of Israel by Shalmaneser, king of a.s.syria, B.C. 721; and to the burning of Jerusalem and of the Temple, B.C. 587, when Nebuchadnezzar carried the inhabitants of the kingdom of Judah into a long captivity in Babylon. Some years before, in B.C.

606, this same Nebuchadnezzar had carried away many of the children of Judah; and from _this_ date the Captivity, which lasted seventy years, is reckoned to have begun. The seventy years expired in B.C. 536; and Cyrus, king of Medea and Persia, having conquered the Babylonian Empire, gave the children of Judah leave to go back into their own land, showing them much kindness upon the occasion. The Jews, as they were now called, returned in great numbers to Judaea; though many of them still, by their own choice, remained in the land where they had been born and bred.

The Jews who did return, had great difficulties to overcome; but at length they built a Second Temple, which was dedicated B.C. 515. Under the governance of Ezra and Nehemiah, the Jews served the Lord in the land of their fathers; but soon they again fell into grievous sin, though they were never more guilty of idolatry: that crime which princ.i.p.ally caused their captivity. So far the Bible has given us the history of the people of G.o.d.

From other histories we learn, that Alexander the Great, who became king of Macedonia B.C. 336, conquered Persia and all the countries in any way dependent upon her: Judaea, of course, amongst the rest. The remarkable vision which made Alexander treat the Jews with kindness has been mentioned (iii. 425). After the death of this monarch, B.C.

323, Judaea became in some sort dependent upon Syria; and we have already seen how severely the Jews suffered during the next 153 years, from the wars and fightings going on continually between Syria and Egypt. The cruelty and oppression of the Syrian princes became intolerable; and, after Antiochus Epiphanes had taken Jerusalem, B.C.

170, the Lord in mercy raised up the family of Maccabaeus, to deliver the Jews from his tyranny.

Under the Maccabaean princes, the Jews fought successfully against the enemies of their religion. Judaea gradually recovered from its desolation and misery, and again became prosperous; whilst the pure wors.h.i.+p of the One True G.o.d was once more the established religion of the nation. But after the death of John Hyrca.n.u.s (iii. 481), B.C. 107, enemies without, and divisions and troubles amongst themselves, again filled Judaea with confusion.

In B.C. 63, Judaea became, like so many other countries, a province of Rome; and we have seen how the Romans appointed governors or kings, and even high priests also. The Government of Rome itself underwent a great change about this time: the Republic, or Commonwealth, which had lasted 479 years, from the Expulsion of Tarquinius Superbus, B.C. 509, now came to an end, and Octavius Augustus Caesar was chosen as the first Emperor, B.C. 27.

Octavius Augustus had ruled the vast dominions of Rome as Emperor for twenty-seven years, when that event took place, destined to affect in the most momentous manner all races and kindreds of men: even the Birth of Jesus Christ, the long-promised Messiah. When our blessed Lord was twenty-nine years old, that is, in A.D. 29, He began to teach publicly amongst the Jews. Octavius Augustus was no longer Emperor of Rome at this time; he had died when Jesus was fourteen years old, and had been succeeded by Tiberius.

Although a small number of the Jews owned and received Jesus Christ as the expected Messiah, He was rejected by the nation in general: and after His crucifixion, the Jews tried in every way to oppose His Apostles, and prevent the spreading of Christianity. We have read their punishment in the destruction of Jerusalem, A.D. 70, and the dreadful sufferings which came upon the unhappy Jews, and forced them to scatter themselves through all lands, hoping to find safety--a hope too often disappointed, and that constantly through their own fault.

The history of the Jews has thus been traced to the close of the first century after the Birth of Christ, that is, to A.D. 100.

It will now be advisable to give a slight sketch of their history, from that date until the present time. Unhappily there are many thousand Jews who profess still to expect the promised Messiah; refusing to believe that Jesus of Nazareth, in Whom all the prophecies of their Scriptures have been so literally and exactly fulfilled, was indeed the Messiah, of Whom Moses and the prophets did write.

May the Lord take away their blindness, and bring them into the one fold, under the one Shepherd, Jesus Christ.

In spite of all that the Jews had suffered from their opposition to the Romans, they could not make up their minds to submit quietly to foreign rulers.

Trajan, who became Emperor quite at the close of the first century, treated them with great severity, and even forbade them to read the Law. In consequence, a rebellion broke out, A.D. 115, at Cyrene, in Africa, where the Jews had been settled for many years: it quickly spread over Libya into Alexandria: in the struggle, the country was plundered and ruined, whilst thousands of people were killed on both sides: but finally, after a great slaughter, the Romans got the better of the rebellious Jews. The next year, the Jews in Mesopotamia took up arms, and filled the country with terror. Trajan sent against them a famous general, who, after killing great numbers of the people, forced the rest to submit to the Roman power: the successful general was then made governor of Judaea, that he might keep the Jews still residing there, in submission. Soon afterwards, there was a still more dreadful insurrection in the isle of Cyprus, where the Jews ma.s.sacred an incredible number of the inhabitants: a Roman general called Adrian, then went into Cyprus, and defeated the Jews after an obstinate battle. Trajan now published an order, that all Jews should leave the isle of Cyprus, and never return to it.

When Trajan died, A.D. 117, Adrian became Emperor; he forbade the Jews to circ.u.mcise their children, and sent strangers to settle in the land of Judaea, and rebuild the city of Jerusalem, which he meant to ornament in the Roman style, and call by some Roman name. These measures so enraged the Jews, that they again broke out into open rebellion: their leader was Coziba, one of the banditti who infested the country; and under his command, all kinds of violence were committed against the subjects of Rome. Coziba pretended that he himself was the person spoken of by Balaam, when he said, "There shall come a star out of Jacob, and a sceptre shall rise out of Israel": and in consequence, he called himself Barchocheba, or "the son of a star."

Even before this time, several impostors had pretended to be either the promised Messiah, or the Elias who was to prepare his way; but Coziba was the first whose pretensions led to any important consequences.

Coziba promised to deliver his countrymen from the power of Adrian, and to make them once more an independent and glorious nation: such a Messiah as this exactly suited the false ideas of the Jews, and they acknowledged Coziba to be the Christ, the Son of G.o.d. The Rabbi Akibha, chosen by the impostor to be his forerunner or messenger, publicly anointed him as the Messiah, the king of the Jews; placed a crown upon his head; coined money in his name; and collected for him a body of 20,000 disciples. By calling upon all the descendants of Abraham to help "the Hope of Israel," promised to their common forefather, an immense army was soon a.s.sembled at Bither, a town near Jerusalem, chosen by Coziba to be the capital of his new kingdom.