to the construction of an aqueduct.
The received and most probable date of our blessed Lord's crucifixion is A.D. 29 [CHRONO LOGY], when—dating his birth B.C. 4—he would be thirty-three years of age.* The succession of high-priests up to this date from Eleazar, who was appointed by Archelaus, was as follows :—Jesus son of Sie, Jozar a second time, Ananus (called Annas in N. T.), Ishmael son of Phabi, Eleazar son of Ananus, Simon son of Kamith, Caiaphas, called also Joseph. Ananus was appointed by Quirinus, and his successors by the contemporary procurators of Judma. It was Herod Antipas, tetrarch of Galilee, the brother of Archelaus, who was at Jerusalem at the time of the crucifixion.
Pontius Pilate was removed from his office on account of his tyrannical conduct A.D. 36, and thereupon Vitellius, the governor of Syria, visited Jerusalem and conferred some benefits upon the people.
The Emperor Tiberius was succeeded by Cali gula, A.D. 37 ; with him Herod Agrippa, grandson of Herod the Great, had formed an intimacy at Rome, where, like many others of his family, he resided in his youth. On the accession of Caligula he received from him several of the Syrian tetrar chies, and was able by his influence to save Jeru salem from the dishonour of having a statue of the emperor set up in the Temple. On the accession of Claudius, who had been his schoolfellow, Judxa and Samaria were added to his dominions (A.D. 41), and one of his first acts in coming to take possession of his kingdom was to visit the Temple, where he offered sacrifice, and dedicated a gold chain which had been given to him by Caligula4 Herod Agrippa, like his grandfather Herod the Great, added greatly to the outward magnificence of Jerusalem. His chief work was to increase the size of the city by encircling with a massive wall an important suburb called Bezetha, which had sprung up on its northern side. The work was in terrupted for a time by orders from Rome, but was afterwards completed, and some of the great stones of which it was built are still to be seen in their original position. But an evil fame attends him for his treatment of the Christians. He began by killing James, and proceeded to take Peter, hoping perhaps in this way to exterminate the whole sect, when he was stopped by Divine interposition.
His own death, under fearful circumstances, soon followed (A.D. 44), Acts xii. During this and the following years Jerusalem was visited with a severe famine, which was alleviated by the contributions of the Christians of Antioch, and of Helena, widow of Monobazus, king of Adiabenc, who had become a convert to Judaism.
Herod Agrippa, at his death, left a son aged seventeen, who was then receiving his education at the court of Claudius ; but as he was too young to take the government of so troubled a kingdom, Cuspius Fadus was made procurator of Juda, while the superintendence of the Temple and the right of appointing the high-priest was conferred on Herod, king of Chalcis, the brother of the late king of Judxa. Cuspius Fadus was succeeded about A.D. 46 by Tiberius Alexander, the Ala Larch, or chief magistrate of the Jews at Alexan dria, and he in A.D. 48 by Ventidius Cumanus.
A strong feeling of jealousy had long been grow ing up between the Jews and Romans. The former would not tolerate the overbearing interference which the latter would exercise in the details of their religion. It was with great difficulty that they retained in their hands the custody of the high priest's robes, and this year the Roman policy of placing a cohort in the portico (or cloisters) of the Temple to prevent disturbance at the Passover leu to a frightful tumult and destruction of life, the people trampling don one another in their endeavour to escape through the narrow streets from the great body of troops which Cumanus thought it right to bring up and place in the Antonia after the first outbreak.
Herod, king of Chalcis, died in the same year, and a year or two later the younger Agrippa suc ceeded him in that kingdom, as well as in the government of the Temple. He afterwards resigned Chalcis for the tetrarchies which had been held by Lysanias and Philip, but was still honoured with the title of king (Acts xxv. 13). In A.D. 52 Cumanus was removed from the procuratorship of Judxa, being unable or unwilling to check the growing disturbances, and Felix was appointed in his place.