i|r Sunk an& Art 
 
 3O EAST 34TH Sr. 
 jQnttate. 
 and JJtrturea 
 
 Tel. Murray Hill
 
 THE LIBRARY OF THE VAT ICAN^ ROME . 
 
 THE^AOSQVE or ^. SOPHIA, CONSTANTINOPLE.
 
 THE 
 
 ARCHKO VOLUME; 
 
 OR, THE 
 
 ARCHEOLOGICAL WRITINGS OF THE SANHEDRIM 
 AND TALMUDS OF THE JEWS. 
 
 (INTRA SECUS.) 
 
 THESE ARE THE OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS MADE IN THESE 
 COURTS IN THE DAYS OF JESUS CHRIST. 
 
 TRANSLATED BY 
 
 DRS. McESTOSH AND TWYMAN, 
 
 OF THE ANTIQUAKIAN LODGE, GENOA, ITALY. 
 
 FROM MANUSCRIPTS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 
 
 AND THE 
 
 RECORDS OF THE SENATORIAL DOCKET TAKEN FROM THE 
 VATICAN AT ROME. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 ANTIQUARIAN BOOK COMPANY.
 
 Copyright, 1913, by 
 W. F. EANDALL.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 How these records were discovered .... 9 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 A short sketch of the Talmuds 52 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Constantino's letter in regard to having fifty copies of 
 the Scriptures written and bound .... 60 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Jonathan's interview with the Bethlehem shepherds 
 Letter of Melker, Priest of the Synagogue at Beth- 
 lehem . 64 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Gamaliel's interview with Joseph and Mary and others 
 concerning Jesus .......79 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Report of Caiaphas to the Sanhedrim concerning the 
 execution of Jesus ....... 97 
 
 (vii) 
 
 2234775
 
 CHAPTEK VII. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Report of Caiaphas to the Sanhedrim concerning the 
 resurrection of Jesus ...... 117 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Valleus's notes "Acta Pilati," or Pilate's report to 
 Caesar of the arrest, trial, and crucifixion of Jesus . 128 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Herod Antipater's defence before the Roman Senate 
 in regard to his conduct at Bethlehem . . .148 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Herod Antipas's defence before the Roman Senate in 
 regard to the execution of John the Baptist . 155 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 The Hillel letters regarding God's providence to the 
 Jews, by Hillel the Third 161
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 HOW THESE RECORDS WERE DISCOVERED. 
 
 SOME time in the year 1856, while living in De 
 Witt, Missouri, a gentleman by the name of H. 
 C. Whydaman became snow-bound and stopped at 
 my house several days. He was a native of Ger- 
 many, and one of the most learned men I had 
 ever met. I found him to be freely communica- 
 tive. During his stay, he told me he had spent 
 five years in the city of Rome, and most of the 
 time in the Vatican, where he saw a library con- 
 taining five hundred and sixty thousand volumes. 
 He told me that he had seen and read the records 
 of Tiberius Csesar, and in what was called the Ada 
 Pilati that is, the acts of Pilate he had seen an 
 account of the apprehension, trial, and crucifixion 
 of Jesus of Nazareth ; but said it did not add much 
 to the commonly accepted teachings of Christianity. 
 He told me he thought a transcript could be se- 
 cured. After Mr. Whydaman's departure, I medi- 
 tated upon what he had told me of those records, 
 and thought that if a transcript could be obtained 
 it would be very interesting, even if it did not add 
 much to the present teachings of Christianity So, 
 
 (9)
 
 10 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 after some months I set about tracing up Mr. 
 Whydaman, as the following correspondence shows : 
 
 DEWITT, CAKKOLL Co., Mo., Sept. 22, 1856. 
 
 MR. HENRY C. WHYDAMAN. 
 
 DEAR SIR : After you left my house last spring, 
 I kept thinking of your telling me of reading the 
 acts of Pilate in the Vatican, while at Rome. I 
 want you, if you please, to get me a transcript of 
 those records, if the cost will not be too much. 
 Will you please open a correspondence with some 
 of your old friends at Rome that you can rely upon, 
 and ascertain if it can be obtained ; and if so what 
 will be the probable cost of getting it ? I shall be 
 much obliged, and will pay you for your trouble 
 and expense. 
 
 Yours in tender regards, 
 
 W. D. MAHAN. 
 
 NEW YORK, Nov. 12, 1856. 
 
 MR. W. D. MAHAN. 
 
 DEAR SIR : Your letter as directed to H. C. 
 Whydaman is received. I will inform you he has 
 returned to Germany. Your letter has been for- 
 warded. 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 C. C. VANTBERGER. 
 
 March 2, 1857. 
 
 REV. W. D. MAHAN. 
 
 DEAR SIR : It is with the kindest regards I re- 
 membered your hospitality while with you in Amer-
 
 DISCOVERY OF THE RECORDS. U 
 
 ica. Be assured, anything I can do for you will 
 afford me great pleasure. I have written to Father 
 Freelinhusen, a monk of great learning, at Rome, 
 who is the chief guardian of the Vatican. I have 
 made the request in my own name, as I do not think 
 they would be willing for such a document to go 
 into the hands of the public. When he answers, I 
 will write to you again. 
 
 I am, your most obedient servant, 
 
 H. C. WHYDAMAN. 
 
 WESTPHALIA, GERMANY, Nov. 27, 1857. 
 
 REV. W. D. MAHAN. 
 
 DEAR SIR : Father Freelinhusen has answered 
 my letter in regard to the transcript you want. He 
 informs me that the writing is so fine, and being in 
 the Latin language, as I told you, and the parch- 
 ments so old and dirty, he will be obliged to use a 
 glass to the most of it. He can only give it in the 
 Latin, as he does not understand the English. He 
 says he will do it for thirty-five darics, which will 
 be in American coin sixty-two dollars and forty- 
 four cents. If you will forward the amount, I will 
 have the document forwarded to my brother-in-law, 
 C. C. Vantberger. He will translate it for a trifle. 
 I am yours, in tender regards, 
 
 H. C. WHYDAMAN. 
 
 CHILLICOTHE, Mo., Feb. 8, 1858. 
 
 MR. H. C. WHYDAMAN. 
 
 DEAR SIR : Thanks to you for your kindness, 
 and be assured, if I succeed, I shall ever feel under
 
 12 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 obligations to you for your trouble. Enclosed find 
 a check on the Foreign Exchange Bank of New 
 York for sixty-two dollars and forty-four cents. 
 Please have the work done, and urge Mr. Freelin- 
 husen to have it a true copy of the original. Send 
 it to Mr. Vantberger, and have him to translate it 
 into English, and I will pay the charges. He has 
 my address. 
 
 Yours, as ever, 
 
 W. D. MAHAN. 
 
 WESTPHALIA, GERMANY, June 14, 1858. 
 
 REV. W. D. MAHAN. 
 
 DEAR SIR : I acknowledge your draft of $62.44. 
 Will apply as you request. 
 
 I am, sir, 
 
 H. C. WHYDAMAN. 
 
 MR. H. C. WHYDAMAN. 
 
 DEAR SIR : I hereby forward to you the tran- 
 script as it is on record in the Vatican in Tiberius 
 Caesar's Court by Pilate. I certify this to be a true 
 copy, word for word, as it occurs there. 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 PETER FREELINHUSEN. 
 
 NEW YORK, April 26, 1859. 
 
 MR. W. D. MAHAN. 
 
 DEAR SIR : I am in possession of a document 
 from H. C. Whydaman, with instructions to trans- 
 late it into English. My charge is ten dollars. I 
 will expect an answer. 
 
 C. C. VANTBERGER.
 
 DISCO VERY OF THE RECORDS. 13 
 
 With this correspondence I received the following 
 document, and I must confess that, although it js 
 not inspired, yet the words burned in my heart as 
 the words of Christ in the hearts of his disciples, 
 and I am satisfied from the spirit it breathes that it 
 must be true. I am aware that though the Jews 
 were in subjection to the Romans, yet they still held 
 their ecclesiastical authority, and the Romans not 
 only submitted to their decisions, but executed their 
 decrees on their subjects. Knowing there was not 
 such a piece of history to be found in all the world, 
 and being deeply interested myself, as also hundreds 
 of others to whom I have read it, I have concluded 
 to give it to the public. 
 
 Upon getting hold of this report of Pilate I com- 
 menced to investigate this subject, and after many 
 years of trial and the expenditure of considerable 
 money, I found that there were many of such records 
 still preserved at the Vatican in Rome and at Con- 
 stantinople, that had been carried there by the Em- 
 peror of Rome about the middle of the third century. 
 I therefore procured the necessary assistance, and on 
 September 21, 1883, I set sail for those foreign 
 lands to make the investigation in person. 
 
 Believing that no event of such importance to the 
 world as the death of Jesus of Nazareth could have 
 transpired without some record being made of it by 
 his enemies in their courts, legislations, and histories, 
 I commenced investigating the subject. After many 
 years of study, and after consulting various histories 
 and corresponding with many scholars, I received the
 
 14 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 assistance of two learned men, Drs. Mclntosh and 
 Twyman, and went to the Vatican at Rome, and 
 then to the Jewish Talrnuds at Constantinople. As 
 a result I have compiled this book, which will be 
 found one of the most strange and interesting books 
 ever read. It may appear fragmentary, but the 
 reader must remember that it is the record of men 
 made nearly two thousand years ago. 
 
 It was some time in March, 1856, that my mind 
 was awakened on the subject of this book, almost 
 incidentally, or it may be providentially, for He 
 sometimes chooses the weakest things to confound 
 the mighty. The reader is referred to the corre- 
 spondence of H. C. Whydaman and myself, as found 
 in this book. In God's providence sometimes very 
 great effects are produced from very small causes. 
 Mr. Whydaman told me he had spent five years in 
 the Vatican at Rome, and in looking over the old 
 manuscripts he came across the records of Pilate 
 made to Caesar, and in those records he saw where 
 a man named Jesus was arrested, tried, and exe- 
 cuted ; he read it carefully and re-read it, and went 
 back and read it again. 
 
 This was the beginning of my investigation, and 
 this book is the product of that investigation. I ask 
 the reader to follow me patiently and see how I came 
 to get hold of the matter contained in this book. 
 
 I wondered how it was that such historians as 
 Philo, Tacitus, Quintilian, and Josephus had told 
 us nothing or so little about Jesus of Nazareth. I 
 asked all the wise men and scholars I met, and they
 
 DISCOVERY OF THE RECORDS. 15 
 
 did not know ; I then wrote to many scholars in 
 Europe, and they could not tell me. As I could 
 find nothing very definite from the outside world, I 
 began to have my doubts, but came to the conclu- 
 sion that the question was of too much importance 
 to allow my mind to be fixed without a thorough 
 investigation. I went to our histories Mosheim, 
 Lardner, Stackhouse, and others. They gave me no- 
 satisfaction, and I thought to myself, Is it possible 
 that the character of such men as the early Chris- 
 tians, and the wonderful excitement that they cre- 
 ated in their day, could have been passed over and 
 no records made of them ? When I remembered, too,, 
 that the Roman provinces in that day were prolific 
 with debaters, historians, and writers on all topics 
 that were brought before them, and that the records 
 of the courts in those days were more carefully pre- 
 served than they are now, and that even of the trial 
 of Guiteau, who was not half as conspicuous to the 
 people of these United States as Jesus was to the 
 Jewish nation, there were hundreds of records made, 
 I came to the conclusion that only Almighty God 
 could establish a cause so universally as the Chris- 
 tian religion was established in the hearts of the 
 people of this world, and sceptre them so completely 
 as the sceptre of Jesus governs this world to-day, 
 when they had comparatively little or no testimony 
 from the outside world. 
 
 I consulted our histories in this country, and one 
 said these records were burned in the Alexandrian 
 Library. I knew the Babylonian Talmuds were in
 
 16 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 this library, or at least most of them were, but 1 
 also knew that the Talmuds of Jerusalem were not. 
 I knew that when the Romans conquered the Jews 
 and destroyed their Holy City, temple and all, all 
 the sacred treasures were taken by the Romans and, 
 I supposed, preserved. 
 
 Another historian says Gregory IX. burned all 
 the sacred records. I found that this Roman bishop 
 was a strong believer in Christ, as were all the 
 Catholic Church. They follow not us, and we forbid 
 them. Why should they burn these records ? There 
 is no Church more strongly in favor of Jesus Christ ; 
 he is their corner-stone, their foundation rock, their 
 only hope. They have a different way to approach 
 him. This does not destroy their Saviour; he 
 remains the same, but they have different ways of 
 using him as their Saviour. 
 
 Other historians said the Jews destroyed these 
 records, although it is strange that the Jews should 
 destroy all their sacred records at the time, to get 
 rid of an impostor, as they believed him to be. 
 It is more likely they would have preserved them 
 to vindicate their actions in the future, provided 
 they should be needed. The Jews were honest in 
 all their dealings with Christ ; they thought both 
 he and John the Baptist were destroying their na- 
 tion, and, as their nation and religion were one and 
 the same, the course Jesus was pursuing jeopardized 
 all their hopes, religious and political. This is seen 
 clearly in the defence of Caiaphas, as set forth in 
 this book (see his defence before the Sanhedrim in
 
 DISCOVERY OF THE RECORDS. 17 
 
 regard to his conduct with Jesus). Hence, much of 
 the prejudice among Protestants against the Jews is 
 groundless. There never was a people more honest 
 and devoted to their country and their God than 
 the Jews. Many Protestants in this country, and 
 some preachers among them, think that the more 
 they denounce the Jews and Catholics, the more 
 they serve God. The Jews were wrong in rejecting 
 Jesus Christ as their Saviour, and so are those who 
 reject him now ; but when a man reads this book 
 he will come to the conclusion that the Jews had a 
 better reason for rejecting Christ than men have to- 
 day, and would it be right to abuse all who refuse 
 Christ as bad men ? It is still more intolerable for 
 the members of one denomination to abuse those of 
 another because of not worshipping Christ as they do. 
 A difficulty I met in consulting scholars on this 
 subject was the claim that the Roman monks had 
 forged many manuscripts regarding Jesus Christ, in 
 the middle ages. Now they may have forged some 
 things to sustain their peculiar views and doctrines, 
 something to sustain their Church ; but there is 
 nothing in this book to sustain Catholicism, and if 
 every word of it was forgotten it would add nothing 
 to that Church more than to any other Church. 
 Then I remembered the Vatican library was one of 
 the most extensive in the world ; it has cost millions 
 of dollars. How did those forgers know that I or 
 any other man would come there and pay them a 
 few dollars to get a transcript of those records ? It 
 certainly would be a very poor speculation. 
 2
 
 18 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 Another objection was that the manuscripts had 
 been searched for by scholars and could not be 
 found. So I set myself to work, and after investi- 
 gating all the authors in this country, and writing 
 to many scholars in Europe, and getting books from 
 libraries in the old country, thus sparing no pains 
 or expense, I could not find or even hear of a man 
 who had ever investigated this subject. I found 
 that Dr. Tischendorf made some investigation in 
 these ancient manuscripts, but he was looking for 
 the manuscript of the Scriptures, and might have 
 seen many such things as this book holds and never 
 have noticed them, just from the simple fact that 
 he was not looking for them. He was looking for 
 something else. In the investigation of such sub- 
 jects a man must have but one thing in his mind, 
 and he must be posted beforehand to know how and 
 where to look, for the field is too large to make his 
 business general. I now challenge any scholar to 
 show me the man who has made this his special busi- 
 ness, and made the effort that I have on this par- 
 ticular subject. I am sure there is none. 
 
 The next great difficulty that I encountered was 
 this: Could such manuscripts exist so long? I 
 found by investigating that Ptolemy, King of Alex- 
 andria, presented seventy books to Ezra, which he 
 refused to place in the Holy Canon, and it came 
 very near bringing on a bloody war. Again I 
 found that Serenus Samnaticus, who was the 
 teacher of M. Antonius Africanus, son of Gordianus 
 the Great, when he died, left his library, consisting
 
 DISCOVERY OF THE RECORDS. 19 
 
 of sixty-two thousand volumes, to his student. This 
 was in 236 A.D. I also remembered that the works 
 of Homer were more than five hundred years older 
 than Christ, and that we had the laws of Shammai, 
 Abtalian, and the works of the Hillels all before us ; 
 and if Tischendorf, in the convent of St. Catherine, 
 could find slips and pieces of the Septuagint that 
 were declared at Leipsic to be of the fourth century, 
 I thought there might be a great deal more some- 
 where in the vast libraries in those old countries 
 that have thousands of years the advantage of Amer- 
 ica. The literati could all tell how the manuscripts 
 of the Church might be, and were, preserved ; but 
 the records of its enemies, even the records of courts 
 and crowns they could not see into. 
 
 Now the reader must remember that there never 
 was anything that created so much excitement in 
 the land of Judea as the preaching of John the 
 Baptist and Christ. This will be readily understood 
 if we take into consideration the structure of the 
 Jewish Commonwealth. The great Sanhedrim 
 legislated for the souls and bodies of men ; that is, 
 their religion and their politics were one and the 
 same thing. In the capitulation made with Augus- 
 tus Caesar it was understood and agreed that the Jews 
 were to pay a tax to the Romans, but the Romans 
 were not to interfere with the Jewish religion. This 
 took the executive power out of the hands of the 
 Jews and put it into the hands of the Romans. This 
 is the reason Jesus was sent to Pilate to be executed. 
 The Romans had to carry out and execute the deci-
 
 20 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 sions of the Jewish courts on all Jewish questions. 
 This is the reason Herod Antipas was tried by 
 the Roman Senate : he had executed John the 
 Baptist without a trial. Then we see why the Jews 
 and Romans worked together on all questions of 
 law ; hence the great excitement of both nations. 
 This is the reason why Pilate made his report to 
 Csesar. 
 
 Now I say no event creating so much excitement 
 could take place without more or less record being 
 made of it ; for if the Scripture is true and I be- 
 lieve it is there never was a man on earth who 
 had so many followers in so short a time. Caiaphas 
 says Jesus had been preaching three years, and he 
 then had more followers than^ Abraham. This 
 causes me to say again that if the New Testament 
 records are true, then the historical items contained 
 in this book must be true ; and if these items, or 
 items like them, be not true, then the items of the 
 New Testament are not true ; that is, no man dare 
 to say these are the identical items, but items like 
 these, and why not these? They came from the 
 right place. The parchments and scrolls upon 
 which they are written are such as were used in 
 those days, but to say these are the same is to say 
 what no man dare to say. The time has been too 
 long and the distance to the place where the records 
 are kept is too great for all men to make the exam- 
 ination for themselves, hence I ask all to consider 
 this question fairly. 
 
 Let me invite the attention of the reader to the
 
 DISCOVERY OF THE RECORDS. 21 
 
 known histories in this country. Dr. Rashi, D.D., 
 who wrote in Paris in the twelfth century, says in 
 Vol. III., page 190, that in the formation of the 
 ancient libraries there were men appointed called 
 " baalie suphoths," which means " book -compilers." 
 The business of these men was to take the sheets of 
 parchment of the various authors and pin their dates 
 together, bind them in bundles and have them bound 
 with clasps between cedar boards. This was a trade, 
 and it required the best of scholars to do it. They 
 were called baalie suphoths. We find that the 
 works of Philo were compiled by Pseudonymaus 
 Joseph Ben Gorion, A.D. 150. This Ben Gorion 
 was a Jewish rabbi, a Pharisean doctor. Josephus 
 was compiled by Ekaba, another Jewish doctor, at 
 the close of the second century ; and so with all the 
 historians who lived near the Christian era. Jose- 
 phus was published in book-form by Havercamp, in 
 Amsterdam, in 1729. Now all he had to guide him 
 was what Ben Gorion had said. So it is with Philo, 
 which was put in book -form by Mangey, in London, 
 in 1742 ; all he had was what Ekaba had pleased to 
 compile of his works, and, as there was deadly hatred 
 between Jews and Christians at that time, it is most 
 reasonable to believe that those compilers would 
 leave everything out that would favor the Chris- 
 tians. It was to their own interest at that time to 
 bury the very name of Christ in eternal oblivion ; 
 and this is the reason that all the historians who 
 lived and wrote in those days are made to say so 
 very little about Christ or his followers.
 
 22 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 Now in looking over the histories we find com- 
 paratively nothing said about Jesus Christ. Such 
 a thing could not be if the New Testament is true. 
 No man could make me believe that such events 
 occurred as are recorded in the Scriptures without 
 accounts of them being made in the State records 
 and by the public writers of that day. Although 1 
 have had this thrown in my face so often by in- 
 fidels, I never saw the reason till I commenced this 
 investigation ; and if any man will take the pains 
 to examine this question he will find that all the 
 sophers, or scribes, were Pharisees ; they were the 
 doctors, lawyers, orators, poets, and statesmen of the 
 times. The Hillel and Shammai schools made more 
 scholars than all the world besides in the last days- 
 of the Jewish Commonwealth. Almost every nation 
 under the sun patronized these schools. 
 
 Now, being satisfied that I was on the right track^ 
 the next thing was to find out what had become of 
 the original manuscripts. Had Rothgad, Haver- 
 camp, and Mangey destroyed the manuscripts when 
 they were done with them ? This I knew could not 
 be, from the fact that these parchments were either in 
 the hands of government or individual libraries, and 
 they could not destroy them or take them away ; 
 and I knew if these manuscripts had been kept till 
 1754 they must be in existence yet. Only a few 
 years ago there were one hundred and twenty-eight 
 volumes of manuscripts presented to the British 
 Museum, which were looked upon with interest, 
 and, while I am writing this, there comes to my
 
 DISCOVERY OF THE RECORDS. 23 
 
 hand a dispatch from Vienna to the London Times. 
 I will give it in full, as I think it will be beneficial 
 to the reader. The dispatch is as follows : 
 
 "Ancient Manuscripts. The sifting and arrange- 
 ment of the papyrus collection bought by Archduke 
 Rainer have led to further interesting discoveries. Of 
 the hieroglyphic, hieratic, demotic, and Coptic papyri, 
 about twenty date from the pre-Christian period. 
 Among these is one nearly three thousand years 
 old, in the hieratic letter, containing the representa- 
 tion of a funeral, with a well-preserved sketch of 
 the deceased, some hieroglyphic legends, and a de- 
 motic papyrus on the subject of mathematics. Much 
 more numerous are the Coptic documents, about 
 one thousand in all, mostly letters and legal docu- 
 ments of the period from the sixth to the tenth cen- 
 tury of our era. There are some important papyri 
 containing translations of the Bible in the central 
 Egyptian dialect, of which there have hitherto been 
 found but few specimens ; and a leaf of parchment 
 from an old octavo edition of the book of Ruth, in 
 the Sahidi dialect. 
 
 " Among the Greek papyri is a hitherto unknown 
 speech of Isocrates, one of the finest specimens of 
 Alexandrian caligraphy. Another fragment has 
 been found of the book of the Thucydides manu- 
 script, previously mentioned. Portions, also, have 
 been discovered of the Iliad, and a paraphrase of 
 the Fourth Book. Then a metanvia has been found 
 dating from the beginning of the fourth century.
 
 24 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 being thus one of the oldest Christian manuscripts. 
 The collection contains many well-preserved docu- 
 ments in an almost continuous series of the Roman 
 and Byzantine emperors, beginning with Trajan and 
 ending with Heraclius. 
 
 " There are also documents in the Iranic and Se- 
 mitic languages. The former are written on papy- 
 rus, parchment, and skins, and among them are two 
 fragments which, it is believed, will furnish the key 
 to the Pehlewi language. Among the Arab papyri 
 twenty-five documents have been found with the 
 original leaden seals attached. They begin with a 
 fragment of the fifty-fourth year of the Hegira. 
 Another is an official document of the nineteenth 
 year of the Hegira, appointing a revenue collector. 
 Perhaps the most valuable part of the collection is 
 one hundred and fifty-five Arabian documents, on 
 cotton paper, of the eighth century, which is about 
 the time of the invention of this material by the 
 Arabs, to the year 953. Many thousands of manu- 
 scripts have still to be deciphered." 
 
 In the early centuries there was a good deal of 
 what is known as the " Apologetical Writings." I 
 made it my business to examine these writings, and 
 found them to be a defence of Christianity. The 
 first of this form of writing was presented to the 
 Emperor Adrian by Quadratus, in the year 126 
 A.D. A portion of this we find in Eusebius, page 
 93. There was another by Aristides, at about the 
 same time. These two authors are found only in
 
 DISCOVERY OF THE RECORDS. 25 
 
 fragments, preserved by other historians, and their 
 writings are mainly pleas for clemency for those 
 who professed Christianity and were being perse- 
 cuted. 
 
 Justin Martyr also wrote twice on this subject 
 once to the Roman Senate and once to Antonius. 
 These were published in English by W. Reeves, in 
 1709, at Leipsic. 
 
 Tertullian wrote two volumes, and Vincentius 
 wrote a commentary on them. These are found at 
 Paris. They are very valuable works perhaps the 
 most valuable of the ancient writings from the fact, 
 recorded in them, that the Christians, in giving rea- 
 sons for asking favors, refer to the records made by 
 the Jews and Jewish writers as well as the reports 
 of the Roman officers who were the governors of 
 Judea at that time ; and of course their reference 
 to these records demonstrates that the records were 
 there. 
 
 In Tertullian, Vol. II., page 29, Vincentius says 
 the Christians' argument was based on the doctrine 
 of the Bible, showing that the God of the Christians 
 could save, and referred the pagans to the many in- 
 stances where he had interposed and saved, when 
 none but a God like the Christians' God could save. 
 For, said they, what can a God made of wood or 
 brass do in time of danger? They had no power 
 to put forth and exert themselves to save. Vincen- 
 tius says the pagan would answer that these images 
 were the representations of their gods ; that these 
 gods of wood and iron, had invisible spirits that ex
 
 26 THE A RCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 erted as much power as the God of the Christians. 
 Vincentius says he did not see much difference in 
 their doctrines when they got to understand each 
 other. 
 
 I remember that, while on the ship, we had an 
 Irish priest on board, and in conversation one day 
 while asking him about many things in the Cath- 
 olic Church I inquired why he had a crucifix hang- 
 ing in his room. Said I, " You do not think there 
 is any virtue in that image of brass?" " No," said 
 he, " no more than there was in the serpent of brass 
 that Moses made and placed on a pole. There were 
 no healing virtues in that brass, but the bitten Is- 
 realite believed in the command, which belief or 
 faith controlled his action and produced obedience ; 
 hence he was healed." And so, he said in this case, 
 he no more believed there were any saving qualities 
 in that image than I believe my mother's picture 
 could be to me a mother. 
 
 Let the reader refer to the first centuries and mark 
 what a disputation there was in the ancient church 
 about pictures. May we not flow back into it? 
 And as this subject of picture-worship created so 
 much dissatisfaction in the first centuries it may do 
 so again. 
 
 While investigating this question I found that 
 Arcadius, the eldest son of Theodosius the Great, 
 succeeded his father to the throne in A.D. 395, 
 and divided the Roman Empire into what was 
 known in that day as the Eastern and Western 
 Empires.
 
 DISCOVERY OF THE RECORDS. 27 
 
 Arcadius chose the Eastern and fixed his seat of 
 government at Constantinople, and made his brother 
 Houorius Emperor of the Western, fixing his seat 
 of government at Rome. It was not long until their 
 jealously was kindled, which resulted in hatred and 
 terminated in a war which finally proved their over- 
 throw. In reading the Ante-Nicene Fathers, pub- 
 lished in Edinburgh in twenty -four octavo volumes, 
 in Vol. XII., page 114, it is said that the beginning 
 of this war was on account of Honorius wishing to 
 have his young princes educated at Constantinople 
 free of charge, giving as his reason that the great 
 library there had once belonged to Rome. When 
 his brother Arcadius refused he tried to get the 
 library divided, and Arcadius refused this also. 
 They then went to war, and while the two brothers 
 were thus engaged Alaricus engaged the Western 
 Empire and overthrew it. In hunting through this 
 vast library of books I found what was called the 
 Homilies of Clementine ; Vol. XIII., page 194 ; there 
 were the Apochryphal Gospels, Acts and Revela- 
 tions, with all the writings of the Apostolic Fathers, 
 including the laws of the High Priest, the laws of 
 the Temple service, the Records of the Sanhedrim, 
 giving the Jewish laws and customs for hundreds 
 of years, with all the treaties and records of the 
 courts. 
 
 !Now my idea was that if these records were 
 found in the library of the Vatican at Rome and 
 in the Seraglio and Atmedan libraries at Constan- 
 tinople and Alexandria, so these men could get
 
 28 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 them nearly three hundred years ago, why are they 
 not there now ? 
 
 Dr. Isaac Wise, who is President of the Hebrew 
 School at Cincinnati, and, by the way, one of the 
 best Hebrew scholars in America, in his History of 
 the Commonwealth of Israel, frequently quotes from 
 the Talmuds and Sanhedrim, giving reference to the 
 various circumstances, and often gives the name of 
 the scribe who did the writing ; and so I find these 
 records have always been in the hands of the Jewish 
 rabbis, and you need not tell me these things have 
 been only produced by the later Jewish nation, for 
 we find quotations made at the time and by the men 
 who lived in the days of Christ. Those quotations 
 correspond with other history we have of the same 
 events, and the only difference is that the Jewish 
 rabbis put a different construction on those events 
 from what the Christians do. This is the great 
 difficulty, after all ; like a celebrated lawyer, after 
 reading this book, told his friend it convinced him 
 of the truth of the facts in the Scriptures, but it did 
 not convince him of its spiritual definition. This is 
 the final point of importance, when the soul is lost 
 or saved that is, to take the facts of the Scriptures 
 and yield to them as spiritual truth. Colens the 
 First, who was an Epicurean philosopher, wrote a 
 treatise against Christianity and was answered by 
 Origen. This work is in eight volumes. It was 
 published in Paris, by Vallart, in 1746. In this 
 work the disputants appealed alternately to these 
 writings, to the reports made by the Romans, and
 
 DISCOVERY OF THE RECORDS. 29 
 
 show clearly that the whole of the Jewish doctrines, 
 records and all, were then in possession of the 
 Romans. 
 
 Nero refused to believe in these things, which he 
 might have done if he had taken the pains to look 
 into those sacred treasures of learning that were on 
 file in the Senate chamber ; but Origen says Nero was 
 only moved by ambition, with the love of destruc- 
 tion before his eyes. He never stopped to consider 
 nor consult the opinions or wishes of others. Here, 
 again, I found an unintentional reference to these 
 things. Now the reader must remember that the 
 records were there at that time, for no one disputed 
 the fact ; but in proving the unnecessary hostility 
 of Nero, Origen makes mention of these other facts, 
 showing the records to be in the city of Rome, how 
 they came there, and what they taught ; that is, a part 
 of these records were brought from Jerusalem and 
 were the writings of the Jews and the Romans who 
 had been officers in the Jewish kingdom by Roman 
 authority, and these were Roman officers, which 
 made them a part of and responsible to the Roman 
 government. Can any intelligent man believe that 
 these men would have been allowed to transact the- 
 business of the Romans and no records be made of 
 it in the archives of the government ? Such a thing 
 is most absurd. The reader will bear in mind that 
 government among the Jews, Greeks, and Romans 
 was much more strictly administered than in this 
 country, and all such records as referred to the ac- 
 tions of the courts and the government officers had
 
 30 THE ARCHKO VOL UME. 
 
 to be preserved. I now ask the attention of the 
 reader to the investigation of the preservation of the 
 sacred parchments from which come our Bible. 
 
 First, to the works of Benjamin Kennicott, D.D., 
 entitled Veins Testamentum, published in England 
 in 1780. This is only a little more than one hun- 
 dred years ago. We find that he got from the 
 Codex of Hillel six hundred manuscripts. When 
 did this Hillel live ? The author of the Codex lived 
 about one hundred years after the Christian era. 
 Dr. Kennicott also got sixteen manuscripts from 
 the Samaritan Pentateuch. Then I ask attention 
 to John G. Rosenmueller, of 1736, at Leipsic, to 
 his Librarium, five volumes, also his Scholia Testa- 
 ment, all from manuscript. Then to Brian Walton, 
 D.D., born at Yorkshire in 1600, who published his 
 polyglot Bible from manuscript (Hebrew). Be- 
 cause these are given to us by great men, and they 
 suit our notions, they are never doubted ; and it is 
 too apt to be the case in our ad captandum, we are 
 not likely to investigate as closely as we should. 
 And, again, we are apt to be more inclined to in- 
 vestigate those things that are suited to our tastes 
 and interests ; but while certain things are interest- 
 ing to us we should never forget that there are other 
 things equally interesting to others ; and while we 
 may be interested only in the sacred histories that 
 make for our peace, and although the testimony of 
 our enemies may not be very pleasant to hear, we 
 should remember that the salvation of others may 
 depend on such testimony.
 
 DISCOVERY OF THE RECORDS. 31 
 
 We should not be opposed to any evidence that 
 may give strength to any subject and thereby re- 
 dound to good in a general way, specially if this 
 evidence does not have a tendency to weaken our 
 faith. It is so with this book ; it cannot weaken 
 the faith of the Christian who has believed without 
 foreign testimony, but brings strong corroborative 
 testimony to enable others who are less credulous 
 than we to believe. Hence in the examination of the 
 various versions of the Bible and of the manner in 
 which they were dug up out of the old manuscripts, 
 from the rubbish of the ancient world, difficulties 
 are encountered, and others may not believe as 
 readily as we do. Duranzo, a Greek historian, who 
 wrote thirty-six volumes in Constantinople at the 
 close of the seventh and the beginning of the eighth 
 century, in referring to the prosperity of the city 
 and nation, says, in Vol. XIII., page 54, that Con- 
 stantinople enjoyed educational advantages over all 
 other cities, and that this was due, to some extent, 
 to the fact that the Christians, under the instructions 
 of their Emperor, had gathered and brought there 
 literature from all parts of the world, and it was 
 the great seat of learning of the world. On page 
 128 he refers to a war that was carried on about 
 the great library that had been brought there by 
 the Roman Emperor when he embraced Christianity. 
 Again he says, that when Mohammed locked up 
 the great library he excluded the learned and with 
 them the wealth of the city. In Vol. XIV., page 
 17, in speaking of the battle of Tanze, he says it
 
 32 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 was fought over the sacred books that had been 
 deposited there by the ancient Christians. From 
 these indirect references I discovered there must 
 be great deposits of sacred literature in these old 
 libraries. These histories are in the Paris library 
 for the inspection of anyone. 
 
 Notwithstanding the art of printing has a ten- 
 dency to do away with and supersede the written 
 Scriptures, yet there are many valuable manuscripts 
 in existence, some of which are of great value in 
 the interpretation of the Scriptures. 
 
 First, the Hebrew manuscripts. These are either 
 rolls designed for the use of synagogues, or square 
 manuscripts, designed for private use. The former 
 are all on parchment and written with the greatest 
 care and accuracy. The others are written on vellum 
 or paper. 
 
 Dr. Kennicott says all that are now to be had 
 were written between the tenth and fourteenth cen- 
 turies. Of course these were written from the origi- 
 nals ; how often they have been rewritten in four- 
 teen hundred years we cannot say, but we know 
 there are many opportunities for change. These 
 manuscripts have been collated by Dr. Kennicott 
 and De Rossi, and amount to 1135 ; but it is more 
 than probable that as the Jewish rabbis did this 
 work they may have left out many things that ap- 
 peared to them contrary. 
 
 The next are the Greek. Of these manuscripts 
 immense numbers still exist. Dr. Holmes has col- 
 lected 135. Some of these are preserved from the
 
 DISCOVERY OF THE RECORDS. 33 
 
 fourth century. Of course, these are not the records 
 that were made when the events they record took 
 place. 
 
 Now, reader, our present Bible comes from these 
 manuscripts. The first English Bible was pub- 
 lished by J. Wickliffe in 1360, just ninety years 
 before printing was invented. The first Bible 
 printed in our language was by William Tindall, 
 assisted by Miles Coverdale, in 1526. When Tindall 
 was executed for heresy by the Catholics, his works 
 were continued by Coverdale and John Rogers. 
 This book was suppressed time and again, and 
 reprinted by different parties until it went through 
 twenty-two different editions. The last was that 
 which proceeded from the Hampton Court confer- 
 ence in 1603. There were so many errors in the 
 Bishop's Bible that King James's Bible was put on 
 foot and printed in 1611. 
 
 Now suppose we consider the many Bibles pub- 
 lished by different sects, nations, and individuals, and 
 all coming from these Hebrew, Greek, and Latin 
 manuscripts. The reader must know that the manu- 
 scripts have gone through many hands. This we 
 know from the fact that we find Bible manuscripts 
 still in existence, and from these we find Greek 
 manuscripts, Samaritan manuscripts taken from the 
 Hebrew, the Spanish manuscripts, the German manu- 
 scripts, the Italian manuscripts, and many others. 
 The reader is referred to the Bodleian Library in 
 the British Museum, and to the libraries at Leyden, 
 Paris, and Rome. We also have some in America, 
 3
 
 34 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 at Philadelphia, in the libraries of the Quakers and 
 in the library of the Antiquarian Society. 
 
 The manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible were com- 
 piled in the second century. But they never were 
 translated till A.D. 607, by Bishop Adhelm, under 
 the direction of King Alfred. There were a number 
 of parts of these Hebrew manuscripts translated 
 in the second century in the Arabic language. It 
 was printed for the Propaganda at Rome, in 1671, 
 in three volumes. The Armenian version was made 
 in the fourth century of the Christian era by Miesrob 
 and Isaac, and printed at Amsterdam by Uskin, an 
 Armenian bishop, who was charged by his enemies 
 with following the Vulgate. It was printed at Con- 
 stantinople in 1705 ; at Venice in 1805. The Coptic 
 New Testament was published by Wilkins at Ox- 
 ford, 1716. 
 
 The Vulgate is an ancient manuscript, taken from 
 the Hebrew and translated into the Latin in the 
 second century ; also one of the Greek and one of 
 the Syriac. These are all of the same date. This 
 Vulgate in the Latin was used in Africa. The 
 Church at Rome was under Greek control at this 
 time and rejected the Latin Vulgate, and used what 
 was called at that time the Vedus Latina, or old 
 Latin. This is the history of Tertullian, Vol. I., 
 page 202. 
 
 In the fourth century Jerome tells us there was 
 another translation of the Vulgate, under the in- 
 struction of St. Augustine, and St. Jerome recom- 
 mends this in the highest terms. About the fifth
 
 DISCOVERY OF THE RECORDS. 35 
 
 century there was another translation made, which 
 is called the Codex, in the Latin language. There 
 was one at Alexandria, one in the Vatican, and one 
 at Sinai. Parts of these are preserved in the British 
 Museum. They were presented to King Charles by 
 Cyril Lucar, who was patriarch at Constantinople 
 and had been patriarch at Alexandria, and brought 
 these books with him. The Codex of Sinai is in the 
 Greek, and is the same that Dr. Tischendorf found 
 and was declared by the scholars of Leipsic to have 
 been written in the fourth century. 
 
 In the year 748 of the Roman Empire and 330 of 
 the Christian era Constantino the Great removed 
 his seat of empire from Rome to Byzantium, and 
 took with him all the records of the Christians to 
 that city, as will be shown in a letter from him in 
 this book in regard to having the Holy Scriptures 
 in manuscript, and having fifty volumes bound and 
 kept on deposit. When Mohammed took possession 
 of Constantinople he had too much respect for 
 these sacred scrolls to let them be destroyed, but 
 had them all nicely cased and deposited in the St. 
 Sophia Mosque. History informs us of the dreadful 
 struggle that took place between the Greeks and 
 Romans over the sacred parchments in the days of 
 the Crusades ; and it seems to us that Divine 
 Providence has had something to do with the 
 preservation of these sacred writings. These scrolls 
 look more like rolls of narrow carpet wound round 
 a windlass than anything else. But as I have de-
 
 36 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 scribed them elsewhere I will not attempt a further 
 description here. 
 
 Another question arises in the mind of the reader, 
 and that is : How was it possible for these writings 
 to be preserved so long ? I answer that there are 
 many works much older than these in existence. 
 Homer is 900 years older. Why not these ? Another 
 reason why these writings have not been brought 
 before the world is that no man has searched for 
 these chronicles as I have done. After getting hold 
 of Acta Pilati as I did, accidentally, I made the 
 investigation of these questions my special business 
 for ten years corresponding with many historians 
 and scholars, sending for all the books that could 
 instruct me on these great questions, engaging two 
 expert scholars, Drs. Mclntosh, of Scotland, and 
 Twyman, of England, and going to the city of Rome, 
 paying our way through the Vatican, and then to 
 Constantinople, where we examined those ancient 
 records, sparing neither time nor expense to acquire 
 a knowledge of them. Then it may be asked again : 
 May not I be deceived ? May not these men have 
 imposed upon me ? To this I would say : That is 
 impossible. Then it might be argued : Might not 
 these writings have been manufactured to make 
 money out of ? If so, it was a poor business, for this 
 is the first and only book ever produced from them. 
 It certainly was a bad speculation on their part. 
 But one says: Did not Gregory IX. burn twenty 
 cartloads of these Talmuds? Who says so but a 
 Jewish rabbi ? If he did, they were the Talmuds
 
 DISCOVERY OF THE RECORDS. 37 
 
 of Babylon, and not those of Jerusalem ? There 
 is no body of Christians stronger adherents of Jesus 
 Christ than the Koman Catholics. Why should 
 they want to burn the Talmuds of Jerusalem, which 
 were so full of the doctrines and historical events 
 that are so near and dear to them ? No man can 
 go into the Vatican library without a guard over 
 him, who watches him closely, so that he cannot 
 move a leaf or change a word or letter of anything 
 that is there. If they will not consent to even the 
 slightest change, it is not probable they would burn 
 their works. Men from all over the world are there. 
 Often when we crossed the Tiber, before it was 
 fairly light, there were a thousand strangers between 
 us and St. Peter's gate, waiting to be admitted at 
 the opening of the gate that leads into the Vatican. 
 
 One more evidence to the reader : There are at 
 least five hundred quotations made from the Sanhe- 
 drim and Talmuds of the Jews by men who have 
 denied their existence. Now I call attention to his- 
 tory, and I will give the name and page, so that all 
 can read for themselves. 
 
 First : Rabbi Akiba, a reformed Jewish priest, 
 Vol. I., page 22, quotes from Celsus, an enemy of 
 the Church. He says there was a dreadful earth- 
 quake at the time Jesus was crucified, and that the 
 mist that arose from it covered the earth for three 
 hours. On page 28 he says that Jesus was the son 
 of Mary ; that he was the founder of the sect called 
 Christians. On page 48 he says Jesus was crucified 
 on the eve of the Passover. He gives extracts from
 
 38 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 the apostles, and never denies in a single instance, 
 but admits their genuineness. He quotes the books, 
 and makes extracts from the names they bear. He 
 makes particular mention of his incarnation, of his 
 being born of a virgin, of his being worshipped by 
 the Magi ; of his flight into Egypt ; of the massacre 
 of the infants of Bethlehem. On page 52 he speaks 
 of his baptism by John and the descent of the Holy 
 Spirit in the form of a dove, and of the voice that 
 was heard out of heaven. He speaks of the mira- 
 cles done by Jesus, and never doubts the facts in 
 any instance, but attributes them to the art of 
 necromancy he had learned in Egypt. But did 
 the reader ever hear of a thaumaturgist producing 
 a descent of the Holy Spirit or causing voices to 
 be heard from the heavens? Such absurdities are 
 not spoken of except when they are urged against 
 the Christian religion. 
 
 Aretas, one of the kings of Arabia, who was a 
 philosopher as well as a king, in speaking of the 
 laws of nature (Vol. VII., page 14), says that Jesus 
 of Judea was a philosopher above the laws of na- 
 ture ; that he controlled all the elements of nature 
 with almighty power ; that the winds, thunders, and 
 lightnings obeyed him ; and speaks of these facts as 
 being so common that it would be folly to dispute 
 them. 
 
 Justin says, in Vol. II., page 42, that the several 
 Roman governors in their respective provinces made 
 reports of the important events that occurred in their 
 jurisdiction, and they were spread on the senatorial
 
 DISCOVERY OF THE RECORDS. 39 
 
 dockets at Rome. We find in this same work, page 
 128, that he appealed to Antoninus and the Senate 
 for clemency for the Christians, and after referring 
 to their many virtues, and to Christ as their leader, 
 added : " And that these things are so, I refer you 
 to the records of the Senate made by Pontius Pilate 
 and others in his day." The learned Tertullian, in 
 his Apology for Christianity, about the year 200, 
 after speaking of our Saviour's Crucifixion and 
 Resurrection, and his appearance to the disciples, 
 and ascension into heaven in the sight of the same 
 disciples, who were ordained by him to spread the 
 gospel over the world, thus proceeds : " Of all these 
 things relating to Christ, Pilate himself, in his con 
 science already a Christian, sent an account to Tibe- 
 rius, then Emperor." The same writer in the same 
 apology thus relates the proceedings of Tiberius on 
 receiving this information : " There was an ancient 
 decree that no one should be received for a deity 
 unless he was first approved by the Senate. Tibe- 
 rius, in whose time the Christian name (or religion) 
 had its rise, having received from Palestine, in Syria, 
 an account of such things as confirmed the truth of 
 his (Christ's) divinity, proposed to the Senate that 
 he should be enrolled among the Roman gods, and 
 gave his own prerogative vote in favor of the mo- 
 tion ; but the Senate, without whose consent no deifi- 
 cation could take place, rejected it because the 
 Emperor himself had declined the same honor. 
 Nevertheless, the Emperor persisted in his opinion, 
 and threatened punishment to the accusers of the
 
 40 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 Christians." Search your own commentaries (or pub- 
 lic writings), you will there find that Nero was the 
 first who raged with the imperial sword against this 
 sect, then rising most at Rome (Horn's Introduction, 
 Vol. I., page 82). 
 
 ~Now, I would ask, if there were no such records 
 there, would these men have made such appeals ? 
 And if they were there, could such things be forged 
 and palmed off on the Roman Senate ? It seems 
 to me to ask the question is enough. Now, if any 
 man will trace out these things he will find that I 
 have as much reason for believing the genuineness 
 of the contents of this book, as I have to believe the 
 genuineness of the Scriptures, looking at the question 
 from a human standpoint. First, you must know 
 that the manuscript from which this book was taken 
 has not gone through so many translations nor been 
 put in so many different languages, from the fact that 
 it is not to be found in another language ; and, sec- 
 ondly, there was no necessity for it, and as to this 
 being forged there was no occasion for that, from 
 the fact it favors no religious denomination, it ad- 
 vocates the tenets of no religious sect. Now I am 
 convinced there was such a man as Herod Anti- 
 pater, and I know that he could not kill all the 
 male children in a city without giving reasons for 
 it, and there must have been more or less record 
 made of it. I am convinced there was such a man 
 as Herod Antipas, and I know he dare not behead 
 such a man as John the Baptist is represented to 
 be, without a trial, without having to account to
 
 DISCOVERY OF THE RECORDS. 41 
 
 some court. I know that Pilate was a Roman 
 officer, and his actions were watched closely and 
 all his public acts had to be recorded upon the 
 Roman dockets. 
 
 I do not see why these records should have been 
 destroyed. I am convinced the Jews at that day 
 were looking for a Redeemer, and when the great 
 excitement was reported at Bethlehem it would be 
 not unreasonable that the Jews should make an in- 
 vestigation of the matter ; and, again, I know if the 
 Scriptures are true Mary was subject to the death- 
 penalty unless she could satisfactorily prove her inno- 
 cence. I was convinced the Jews must have looked 
 into this matter, and that it would be found recorded 
 somewhere. I knew that if there were such a man 
 as they represented Jesus to be, he could not be tried 
 in the high priest's court and condemned to death, 
 and executed by the Roman authorities, unless there 
 were some record made of it by both the Jews and 
 Romans. Here we have the whole of these records, 
 and why are they not true ? They comport with 
 the Bible ; they are just the records we should ex- 
 pect from the Scriptures ; they were made or dated 
 at the right time ; they came from the place where 
 these records were made ; they were written in the 
 same language that was used at that time. Now, 
 if all this is so, why are they not true ? 
 
 I offer this book to the public feeling assured it 
 can do no harm to anyone or to any church, but 
 that it will be read by thousands with great inter- 
 est, and will convince the infidel of the truth of the
 
 42 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 Scriptures. As Dr. Miller observed : " This book 
 never was needed until now, and it is like all 
 God's providences, always brought out at the right 
 time." Another minister wrote to say he " was more 
 than delighted ;" it was like calling up the dead ; 
 all the circumstances of Calvary were brought 
 vividly before him, and when he rsad Caiaphas's 
 second report he both wept and rejoiced. Such is 
 the testimony of almost everyone who reads it. 
 
 In an extract from a private letter to the Bruns- 
 wicker Dr. Rubin says : 
 
 " I saw, while in the Vatican at Rome last week, 
 Dr. W. D. Mahan, of Boonville, Mo., Drs. Mcln- 
 tosh and Twyman, of Scotland, with a number of 
 clerks, both readers and scribes, going through these 
 old manuscripts and scrolls that have been lying 
 there for hundreds, yea, thousands of years ; they 
 seem to be men of great age and learning, and well 
 qualified for their business. They were going next 
 week to Constantinople to go through the records 
 of the Sanhedrim and the ancient Talmuds of the 
 Jews. Their object is to bring out a new book as a 
 supplement to Ada Pilati. I am satisfied, from the 
 character of the men and the nature of the book, it 
 will prove to be one of the most interesting books 
 ever presented to the Christian world, from the fact 
 that all the works on archaeology have been written 
 in such a style that but very few could read and 
 understand them."
 
 DISCOVERY OF THE RECORDS. 43 
 
 CONSTANTINOPLE, TURKEY, October 16, 1883. 
 
 To THE PEOPLE OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 DEAR FRIENDS : I take pleasure in addressing 
 you this letter, as I feel assured I am doing a good 
 work for my Father who is in heaven. Then, 
 friends, permit me to say to you that I was intro- 
 duced to my friend, W. D. Mahan, of Boonville, 
 Mo., by my friends of Leipsic, Germany. I en- 
 gaged to meet him in Paris, France, and when he 
 showed me his plans and the subjects that he 
 wanted, and showed me his notes of reference, the 
 names of others, and books that he had been hunt- 
 ing for ten years, I became satisfied that if we could 
 succeed he would bring out one of the best books 
 ever oSered to the Christian world except the Bible. 
 We repaired to the Vatican at Rome, received per- 
 mission to examine the greatest library in the world, 
 and to my astonishment the first thing we called for 
 was brought to hand in a short time. I mean 
 Pilate's reports, which were more than satisfactory. 
 The next were the Senate's records respecting the 
 investigation of Herod Antipater's conduct at Beth- 
 lehem, and Herod Antipas on various charges (one 
 of which was the execution of John the Baptist), 
 the Hillel letters, and the Shammai laws. We then 
 proceeded to Constantinople and went through the 
 records of the Sanhedrim and Talmuds of the Jews 
 that were carried there and preserved by Constan- 
 tine in the year 337. Here we found Melker's 
 letter (who was priest at Bethlehem at the time
 
 44 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 that Jesus of Nazareth was born) in respect to the 
 prophecy concerning the birth of Jesus, which is 
 very deep and profound. Next we came upon the 
 report of Gamaliel, who was sent by the Sanhedrim 
 to interrogate Joseph and Mary concerning the 
 child Jesus, which will prove to be one of the most 
 interesting subjects that was ever read by man. 
 Then the next thing we found was the report of 
 Caiaphas to the Sanhedrim. When read it will 
 awaken the minds of men and give a very different 
 view of this matter to what we have had. 
 
 After we had finished the report, Brother Mahan 
 insisted that we should unwind the scroll further, 
 and in doing so we found his second report, which 
 caused us to weep like children, and we both thanked 
 God that we continued the search. We also found 
 many strange historical items, such as will be of 
 great interest to the world at this time. And as 
 Brother Mahan is going to publish his book in 
 America, I can most heartily recommend it. 
 
 M. MclNTOSH. 
 
 MARKET PLACE, CITY OF HOME, ITALY. 
 DEAR WIFE: It seems long since I left home, 
 but God is here as well as in America, and it is 
 my chief delight to report you and the children to 
 his throne of mercy daily. I was landed at Mar- 
 seilles, France, after twelve days out from New York. 
 We had a splendid trip, all but the first two days. 
 We left New York in a gale, and I" must confess 
 I was very much alarmed ; it seemed to me the
 
 DISCOVERY OF THE RECORDS. 45 
 
 water was much higher all around us than where 
 the ship was. That made it more frightful, for it 
 looked as if the ship sunk or was sinking for the first 
 two days. She was sometimes on her end, then on 
 her side, and then would seem to turn almost over ; 
 but every tilt she made I prayed St. Peter's prayer. 
 I think I did more praying the first two days than I 
 had done in two years. But the second day I be- 
 gan to cast up my accounts, not with my Maker, nor 
 with my creditors, but with my stomach. I was 
 awful sick. 
 
 Captain Stikes said the storm in starting out made 
 it much worse on us than it would have been if the 
 weather had been clear and calm, but the third day 
 the sea began to calm, and so did my stomach. I 
 was able to go out in the evening, but we were still 
 going up hill ; we had no further trouble all the 
 way, but after three or four days it looked as if I 
 would never get enough to eat. Our fare was 
 poor, much more so than on the English line ; 
 so I was told by men that had travelled both 
 lines. I shall return by another route. I met 
 Dr. Mclntosh at St. Elgin waiting for me. He is 
 one of the nicest old men and one of the finest 
 scholars I ever met. I feel ashamed in his presence, 
 though he is so grand and noble he can hide my 
 own defects from me better than I can myself. He 
 was very much surprised when I showed him my 
 notes of reference. He did not see how I could get 
 hold of these things so far away. We found Dr. 
 Twyman and his men at the Vatican, and we are
 
 46 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 working bravely. The very first thing the guard 
 brought was A eta Palati ; the Doctor was delighted 
 when he saw it. We have two guards ; one brings 
 the articles as we call for them ; the other sits and 
 watches to see that the books and parchments are not 
 mutilated. To-day was the day of the Pope's holy 
 auditory. We were taken in by the guard, and I 
 must confess I never had such feelings in all my life. 
 The room is, I suppose, three hundred feet or more 
 square ; there must have been ten or twelve hun- 
 dred in the congregation, all men, mostly priests 
 and officers. The Pope is a venerable old man. I 
 saw nothing different in his dress from any other 
 priest ; nothing gaudy about him. He sang the mass 
 in the pure old Latin language ; his voice was clear 
 and sweet. After he was through quite a number 
 of the priests came and knelt at his feet. He laid 
 his hands gently on each of their heads and pro- 
 nounced a blessing, but they did not kiss his great 
 toe. I never saw as solemn a congregation in 
 my life ; in fact, it would be impossible for a man 
 to be otherwise in that room. The dome of this 
 room surpasses all the sights my eyes ever beheld ; 
 it contains hundreds of windows in the form of 
 eyes with golden lids and lashes, all emitting 
 rays of light of various colors. They seemed so 
 natural I thought I could almost see them wink. 
 They are to represent the all-seeing eye. These 
 eyes are the light of the room. The scene of mag- 
 nificence beggars description. There are too many
 
 DISCOVERY OF THE RECORDS. 47 
 
 things to be described. A man will have a higher 
 appreciation of the Catholic Church, where he sees 
 her enthroned in the hearts of this great church, and I 
 shall ever have a different feeling toward them from 
 what I have had. We have all the text-books we 
 need, Buxtorf, Gesenius, Laportees, and others. We 
 will get through in the Vatican in a few days. We 
 will leave Dr. Twyman and three clerks here, as we 
 find the Hillelite letters and Shemiate and Abta- 
 lian laws here in book-form. They will translate 
 such parts of them, as we want and send them to 
 me ; they will come in a roll. If they come before 
 I get home, take special care of them. Dr. Mcln- 
 tosh and I, with one clerk, will go to Constantinople 
 in a day or two. The Doctor has been there, and 
 he thinks he will find all that I want in the St. So- 
 phia Library. He says the twenty cartloads of 
 Talmuds that history tells us were burned by 
 Gregory IX. were the Talmuds of Babylon, but the 
 Talmuds of Jerusalem are all safe, and so are the 
 records of the Jerusalem Sanhedrim ; that these 
 documents were carried there by Constantine. If 
 so, that is all I want. The Doctor thinks it will 
 be one of the most important books ever brought 
 before the public, except the Bible, as it would give 
 the pros and cons of the outside world at that time. 
 But I have so many things I would like to say and 
 it is now after 1 o'clock A.M. As to home affairs, 
 I am too far off to say anything more, besides I 
 have all confidence in your judgment. I think now 
 that I will be at home by the 10th or loth of De-
 
 48 THE ARCHKO VOL UME. 
 
 cember, and I shall write no more unless something 
 happens. May God bless you ; farewell. 
 
 W. D. MAHAN. 
 
 COLUMBIA, Mo., January 25, 1887. 
 
 This is to certify that I am well acquainted with 
 the Rev. W. D. Mahan, of Boonville, Mo. I have 
 known him well for a number of years, having spent 
 several months at his house at different times. I 
 was at his house in Boonville, Mo., shortly after 
 his return (as he then stated to me) from Rome and 
 Constantinople. I gave him some assistance in re- 
 copying some of his manuscripts for his book. I 
 saw, examined, and to some extent assisted in ar- 
 ranging the various subjects and chapters in his 
 book. 
 
 Judging from the handwriting of said manu- 
 scripts, there must have been two or more persons 
 engaged in writing them, as there was a distinct 
 difference in the handwriting. I was impressed at 
 the time with the belief, from the writing and 
 spelling, that the parties were of foreign birth and 
 education. 
 
 I have no interest in this matter, and make the 
 above statement at the request and in justice to the 
 Rev. W. D. Mahan, as an old and valued friend. 
 
 J. B. DOUGLASS. 
 
 Personally appeared before me, a notary public, 
 within and for the county of Boone, and State of
 
 DISCOVERY OF THE RECORDS. 49 
 
 Missouri, General J. B. Douglass, to me well known, 
 and made affidavit to the foregoing certificate. 
 
 Witness my hand and notarial seal hereto affixed 
 at Columbia, Mo., this 25th day of January A.D. 
 1887. 
 
 FRANK D. EVANS, 
 
 Notary Public. 
 
 State of Missouri, County of Cooper, ss. 
 
 Be it known that on this, the 12th day of Janu- 
 ary, A.D. 1887, personally came before me, the under- 
 signed, clerk of the Circuit Court of Cooper County, 
 in the State of Missouri, John S. McFarland, well 
 known to me to be a reputable citizen of the city of 
 Boonville, Mo., who, being by me first duly sworn, 
 on his oath says : I have been personally acquainted 
 with Rev. W. D. Mahan for sixteen years or more, 
 and have always found him to be honorable and 
 trustworthy, and a very useful minister in the 
 Church to which he belonged. To my knowledge 
 he was for some time previous to 1883 engaged in 
 preparing himself for a trip to Europe, and that in 
 the fall of 1883 he took leave of his family and 
 friends and started for the cities of Rome and Con- 
 stantinople to investigate those old records that he 
 said he had found was there on archaeology. After 
 he had been gone some time his wife received a let- 
 ter from him dated at Rome, Italy. I did not see 
 the postmarks on the letter, but understood it was 
 from Rome. 
 
 After some months Mr. Mahan returned and 
 brought quite a lot of manuscripts with him, some 
 4
 
 50 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 of which he read to me, and which were very inter- 
 esting. These are as near the facts in the case as 1 
 can remember at this time. 
 
 JOHN S. 
 
 Subscribed and sworn to before me, on this the 
 12th day of January, 1887. 
 
 Witness my hand and official seal. 
 
 CHARLES A. HOUK, 
 
 Clerk of Circuit Court of Cooper County. Mo. 
 
 By H. A. HUTCHINSON. 
 
 State of Missouri, County of Cooper, ss. 
 
 Be it known that on this 12th day of January, 
 A.D. 1887, personally came before me, the under- 
 signed, clerk of the Circuit Court of Cooper County, 
 in the State of Missouri, R. W. Whitlow and W. G. 
 Pendleton, composing the firm of Whitlow & Pen- 
 dleton, real estate and loan agents, of the city of 
 Boonville, in said county, who, being by me first 
 duly sworn, on their oaths say : We have known 
 the Rev. W. D. Mahan, of Boonville, Mo., for a 
 period of more than ten years. He came to our 
 office in the fall of 1883 and told us he was going 
 to Rome with a view to collect materials for a book 
 which he intended to write, and that he had not 
 sufficient money to defray the expenses of the trip ; 
 at his request we loaned him two hundred dollars. 
 Shortly afterward Mr. Mahan disappeared from 
 Boonville, and it was a considerable while before 
 we again met him here at Boonville, when he in- 
 formed us he had made the trip to Rome, Italy,
 
 DISCOVERY OF THE RECORDS. 51 
 
 during the time of his disappearance. A letter pur- 
 porting to have been written by the said Mahan to 
 his wife from Rome, Italy, was published in a news- 
 paper at Boonville, Mo. Soon after Mr. Mahan 
 reappeared at Boonville he published and circu- 
 lated his book. Of course we did not follow him to 
 see him at Rome, but the foregoing are the facts 
 within our knowledge. 
 
 R. E. WHITLOW, 
 W. G. PENDLETON, 
 
 Attorneys-at-Law. 
 
 Subscribed and sworn to before me, on this the 
 12th day of January, 1887. 
 
 CHARLES A. HOUK, 
 
 Clerk of Circuit Court, Cooper County, Mo.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 A SHORT SKETCH OP THE TALMUDS. 
 
 THE Hebrew word lamod signifies " to teach," 
 and to " teach by example." The word example 
 is always understood. To teach this is what is 
 meant by tradition. It means that the child learns 
 from its father. From this word we get the word 
 talmud. 
 
 We also have the word shanoh, which means " to 
 learn," and gamor, which means " having learned or 
 having ceased to learn." The Talmuds are written 
 on parchment or papyrus. The scroll is about twenty 
 inches wide, and wound around a roller. From 
 these Talmuds there have been many books written 
 by the Jewish rabbis. 
 
 The most important is the Mishna. Its name in- 
 dicates what it is the Law. It contains the laws 
 of all nations, or a part of the laws of the various 
 nations of the earth, such as the Jewish Sanhedrim 
 thought were compatible with the laws of God. Its 
 principal teachings are what we would call the moral 
 law of God that is to say, anything is right if God 
 says it is right, and this is the only reason why it is 
 right. This work has been the great reference-book 
 for the Jewish rabbis in all ages. It was translated 
 (52)
 
 SKETCH OF THE 1ALMUDS. 53 
 
 and compiled by Ilillel, and is a very useful book 
 for scholars. 
 
 The next in point of value is the Tosephta. This 
 word in the Hebrew means " treatment," and con- 
 tains mainly the ritual of the temple service. It is 
 a very extensive work, and is really a regulator of 
 human life, containing the dealings of husband and 
 wife, parent and child, master and pupil ; in fact, 
 it enters into all the details of life with such thought- 
 fulness and in such a beautiful style that it should 
 be exceedingly interesting to the young. It cer- 
 tainly contains the finest system of morals in the 
 world. 
 
 Then comes the Mechilta, which means " govern- 
 ment " in the Hebrew language. This book tells 
 of the organization of the Sanhedrim and its powers 
 both the greater and the less, the greater to be 
 composed of seventy and the less of twenty-four. 
 These two legislative bodies had jurisdiction of the 
 whole of the Jewish commonwealth. Although they 
 possessed great power, it was not absolute. There 
 was another court that exercised the highest author- 
 ity of the nation. That was the court of elders and 
 priests. This court consisted of twelve men, and its 
 chairman was the high priest. It decided all appeals, 
 and could not be appealed from. This is the court 
 that tried Jesus of Nazareth ; and although it was 
 a court of appeals, it had exclusive jurisdiction of 
 capital crimes. 
 
 I will give the form of a trial of an accused in 
 this court, as it is given in Mechilta. At the time
 
 54 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 that Jesus was tried by this court the Jewish govern- 
 ment had been deprived of its executive power. 
 This was one of the concessions in the capitulation 
 to Augustus Caesar. At this time the Roman Em- 
 peror's consent had to be obtained, though he had 
 to use the Jewish soldiers ; for the Romans had only 
 one hundred soldiers at Jerusalem. They were con- 
 tinually engaged in war, and needed all their soldiers 
 at home. When an accused person was brought be- 
 fore this court of the high priests, they held a pre- 
 liminary trial, in order, if possible, to force a plea. 
 If they could not, the accused was sentenced and 
 then sent to the Roman authority, or governor, for 
 his approval. The accused was then remanded to 
 the high priest, and from him to the Sanhedrim, with 
 the charges written out and 'the names of the wit- 
 nesses by which they had been proved. If they ap- 
 proved the decision of the high priest, the prisoner 
 was sent back to the high priest for his final trial. 
 This court of twelve men was required by the Jew- 
 ish law to fast and pray one whole day before the 
 trial commenced ; they were then required to bring 
 the urim and thummim out of the holy place where 
 they were kept, and to place them before the high 
 priest. The high priest was closely veiled, so that no 
 one could see him, thus representing God doing his 
 work. Then there was what was called the lactees, 
 consisting of two men, one of whom stood at the 
 door of the court with a red flag in his hand, and 
 the other sat on a white horse some distance on the 
 road that led to the place of execution. Each of
 
 SKETCH OF THE TALMUDS. 55 
 
 these men continually cried the name of the criminal, 
 his crime, and who were the witnesses, and called 
 upon any person who knew anything in his favor to 
 come forward and testify. After the testimony was 
 taken the eleven men cast lots or voted, and their 
 decision was shown to the high priest. As he was 
 too holy to act by himself, but only as the mouth- 
 piece of God, he went up to a basin or a ewer, as it 
 is called by them, and washed his hands in token of 
 the innocence of the court, thus testifying that the 
 criminal's own action had brought condemnation on 
 himself. As soon as the soldiers saw this, they took 
 the man to the place of execution, and there stoned 
 him till he was dead. Not one of them was allowed 
 to speak, not even to whisper, while the execution 
 was going on. Nothing was heard but the pelting 
 of stones and the shrieks of the criminal. To my 
 mind this would be a most awful mode of death, and 
 one that would be likely to deter others from commit- 
 ting crime. 
 
 Now, I ask the reader to consider the mode of a 
 Roman execution, and see what a beautiful chain of 
 divine Providence is brought out in the execution of 
 Jesus of Nazareth. There was a law in the criminal 
 code of the Romans, enacted by Meeleesen, a philos- 
 opher by nature, who taught that if a man was ac- 
 cused of a crime and was tried and found not guilty, 
 he should be publicly chastised. His reasons were 
 that the man had acted improperly so much so that 
 he had created suspicion. This would seem to give 
 license to an enemy to work mischief. But the same
 
 56 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 philosopher had a remedy at hand, and that was, that 
 any man who accused another and failed to prove 
 it by two witnesses should suSer the punishment the 
 other would have suffered had he been proved guilty. 
 After the whipping was over the Roman officer 
 washed his hands, thereby declaring that the actions 
 of the man had produced his own chastisement. 
 Thus, after Pilate had Jesus scourged he washed his 
 hands, forever clearing the Roman government of the 
 blood of Christ. The reader must remember that the 
 soldiers who brought Jesus from the court of the high 
 priest were Jewish soldiers. They were acquainted 
 with the Jewish custom of washing the hands to 
 condemn. Hence, when they saw Pilate wash his 
 hands they took it for granted that Jesus was to die. 
 One might say that this would relieve the actors of 
 responsibility in this matter. But if a man seeks to 
 injure me, and I by my sagacity avert the injury he 
 intended and change it into a blessing, would that 
 change the guilty intention of the first party ? 
 
 We also learn from the Mechilta that the Jewish 
 commonwealth was divided into districts, such as 
 Palestine, Galilee, Judea, and so on. Each of these 
 states had its courts and legislatures, presided over 
 by a high priest. This is the reason we have so many 
 high priests spoken of in the New Testament history. 
 These states were subdivided into smaller divisions, 
 each of which was presided over by a magistrate 
 who was an officiating priest. If any one will read 
 the Mechilta, he will see clearly the government of 
 the United States of North America ; and as the
 
 SKETCH OF THE TALMUDS. 57 
 
 laws of the Jewish nation were all dictated by the 
 God of heaven, we should appreciate them the more. 
 
 The Saphra means, in the Hebrew language, " cor- 
 ner-stone or foundation rock," which goes to show 
 that all these laws were founded upon God's word or 
 authority. This is quite an extended workTancTTs 
 full of quotations from the various works of the 
 ancient world. I would love to read this carefully 
 for a year and give extracts to the people. I am 
 sure that this little volume will so stir American 
 scholars that these things will be brought before the 
 reading world. But I would advise whoever does it 
 not to trust to the printed copies of the Jewish 
 rabbis, but go as I did to the original manuscript 
 at Byzantium and get it as it was written by its 
 author. 
 
 One more book I must call attention to, that is, 
 the Siphri. This is more of a chronological and 
 biographical work than anything else, and is by far 
 the most valuable work of them all. It gives the 
 history of the great events of all of them, and men- 
 tions the names of all the actors of those events, giv- 
 ing a detailed account of the birth, lineage, deaths, 
 as well as all the wise sayings of such men as Abra- 
 ham, Joshua, Moses, David, Solomon, and many 
 others. I would like to give many extracts from 
 this work. They would be of deep interest to the 
 American people, as well as of great benefit to the 
 young and rising generation. There is one extract 
 I must give. It will be read with great interest by 
 the Independent Order of Odd Fellows in America :
 
 58 THE ARCHKO VOLUME 
 
 " Jacob had twelve sons ; and when he saw that 
 there were strife and dissatisfaction among them, he 
 went and got him twelve sticks, and when he had 
 bound them together with strong bands, he gave 
 them to his eldest son, and asked him to break them. 
 He tried, but could not. Then he gave them to the 
 next, and so on until each one down to the youngest 
 had tried to break them. And when they had all 
 failed, the father took the bundle of sticks and untied 
 them. He gave one to the eldest and told him to 
 break it. He did so. And then he gave one to the 
 next, and so on, till all the sticks were broken, and 
 each one had done his part. And Jacob said, ' Now, 
 my sons, you must learn two lessons from this : The 
 first lesson is, what neither one of you could do, you 
 all combined can do ; and the second lesson is, when 
 you are all bound together you cannot be broken !' " 
 
 Besides these there are the Pesikta and Midrasham. 
 These are all full of interesting items, sermons and 
 extracts of sermons, and wise sayings of great men of 
 all ages, the decisions of the great Sanhedrim on 
 points of law and doctrine, and many other questions 
 of great importance, and would be of deep interest to 
 the readers of this day. Now, the reader must bear 
 in mind that these several books that have been 
 noticed are all taken from the Talmud of the San- 
 hedrim, which was made at Jerusalem. These books 
 were compiled by Hillel the Second, soon after the 
 destruction of the holy city, and were made so that 
 if the scrolls should be destroyed they might be pre- 
 served in these. After these, other translations were
 
 SKETCH OF THE TALMUDS. 59 
 
 made to relieve the necessity of the Jews in their dis- 
 persed condition, such as the Nagad, Kikhil, Mid- 
 rash, and so on. But, remember, all these works were 
 compiled from the original Talmuds by the Jewish 
 priests, who, of course, would leave out everything 
 that had a tendency to favor the Christian religion. 
 In all such works we need not expect to find any- 
 thing about Jesus of Nazareth. But this by no 
 means proves that such records are not to be found. 
 We must go to the original scrolls, and there we 
 may expect to get the truth, as the following work 
 will show. Therefore let the reader read and judge 
 for himself.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 CONSTANTINE'S LETTER IN REGARD TO HAVING 
 FIFTY COPIES OF THE SCRIPTURES WRITTEN AND 
 
 BOUND. 
 
 IT is known that the Roman Emperor, Constantine, 
 who was converted to the Christian religion, had fifty 
 copies of the Scriptures made and placed in the public 
 library for preservation. Some historian has said that 
 they were so large it took two men to open one of them. 
 While in Constantinople I found one of these volumes 
 nicely cased, marked with the Emperor's name and 
 date upon it. To me it was a great curiosity. I 
 got permission with a little bachsach, as they call 
 money, to look through it. It was written on hieo- 
 tike, which is the finest of parchment, in large, bold, 
 Latin characters, quite easy to read. As far as I 
 read it had many abbreviations of our present Scrip- 
 tures, but the facts, sense, and sentences are as full, 
 and, if anything, more complete than our English 
 version. I judge it to be about two and a half by 
 four feet square, and two feet thick. It is well bound, 
 with a gold plate, twelve by sixteen inches, on the 
 front, with a cross and a man hanging on the cross, 
 With the inscription, " Jesus, the Son of God, cruci- 
 fied for the sins of the world." If the Revision Com- 
 (60)
 
 CONSTANTINE'S SCRIPTURES. 61 
 
 mittee had examined and published this work, they 
 might have said they were giving the world some- 
 thing new ; but so far as we examined we saw noth- 
 ing essentially diSerent from our present Bible. Con- 
 stantine's letter is on the first page, which we tran- 
 scribed. The historian will remember that in the 
 Life of Constantine (written by Eusebius Pamphili, 
 Bishop of Csesarea, who served him only a few years) 
 Eusebius writes as follows : " Ever mindful of the 
 welfare of those churches of God, the Emperor ad- 
 dressed me personally in a letter on the means of 
 providing copies of the inspired oracles." His letter, 
 which related to providing copies of the Scriptures 
 for reading in the churches, was to the following 
 purport : 
 
 "Victor Constantine Maximus Augustus to 
 
 It happens through the favoring of God our 
 Saviour, that great numbers have united themselves 
 to the most holy church in this city, which is called 
 by my name. It seems, therefore, highly requisite, 
 since the city is rapidly advancing in prosperity in 
 all other respects, that the number of churches should 
 also be increased. Do you, therefore, receive with 
 all readiness my determination on this behalf. I 
 have thought it expedient to instruct your Prudence 
 to order fifty copies of the sacred Scriptures, the 
 provisions and use of which you know to be most 
 needful for the instruction of the churches, to be 
 written on prepared parchment, in a legible manner, 
 and in a commodious and portable form, by tran-
 
 62 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 scribers thoroughly practised in their art. The pro- 
 curator of the diocese has also received instructions 
 by letter from our Clemency to be careful to furnish 
 all things necessary for the preparation of such copies, 
 and it will be for you to take special care that they 
 be completed with as little delay as possible. You 
 have authority, also in virtue of this letter, to use 
 two of the public carriages for their conveyance, by 
 which arrangement the copies, when fairly written, 
 will most easily be forwarded for my personal inspec- 
 tion, and one of the deacons of your church may be 
 intrusted with this service, who, on his arrival here, 
 shall experience my liberality. God preserve you, 
 beloved brother." 
 
 Now this was done about three hundred and twenty- 
 seven years after the great questions were started, and 
 only about two hundred and seventy years after the 
 last apostle was dead. Suppose some one should write 
 a book denying that such a man as Washington ever 
 lived ; that there never was a revolution of the 
 United States against the King of England ; what 
 would people say of him? The children of this 
 country would rise up and show him to be false. 
 Then suppose there never was such a man as Jesus 
 Christ ; that he never was born at Bethlehem ; that 
 he never had any disciples ; that they never organ- 
 ized a Christian Church ; and suppose someone 
 should say there was no persecution of the Christian 
 Church for two hundred years ; what would you 
 think of a king doing such a thing as making the
 
 CONSTANTINE'S SCRIPTURES. 63 
 
 above-described books ? Remember, too, that noth- 
 ing was written in those days but the most important 
 affairs of life, because only a few men could write, 
 and the means of writing were limited. Now, the 
 existence of these writings was never denied for 
 twelve to fourteen hundred years afterward. Their 
 intent and spirituality may have been denied, but 
 the facts never were. Now what ought we to think 
 of a man who would deny events that occurred two 
 thousand years ago, that were recorded in the rec- 
 ords of kings and historical writers, when he had 
 not one single record to prove it ? How can he know 
 that such records are false ? He would have no his- 
 tory, no records of those days to prove it ; and if 
 they were false, is it not reasonable to think that they 
 would have been proved so then ?
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 JONATHAN'S INTERVIEW WITH THE BETHLEHEM 
 SHEPHERDS LETTER OF MELKER, PRIEST OF 
 THE SYNAGOGUE AT BETHLEHEM. 
 
 Sanhedrim, 88 B. By R. Jose. Order No. 2. 
 
 JONATHAN, son of Heziel, questions the shepherds 
 and others at Bethlehem in regard to the strange 
 circumstances reported to have occurred there, and 
 reports to this court : 
 
 " Jonathan to the Masters of Israel, Servants of the 
 True God : In obedience to your order, I met with 
 two men, who said they were shepherds, and were 
 watching their flocks near Bethlehem. They told 
 me that while attending to their sheep, the night 
 being cold and chilly, some of them had made fires 
 to warm themselves, and some of them had laid down 
 and were asleep ; that they were awakened by those 
 who were keeping watch with the question, ' What 
 does all this mean ? Behold, how light it is !' that 
 when they were aroused it was light as day. But 
 they knew it was not daylight, for it was only the 
 third watch. All at once the air seemed to be filled 
 with human voices, .Jaying, ' Glory ! Glory ! Glory 
 to the most high God !' and, ' Happy art thou, Beih- 
 (64)
 
 JONATHAN'S INTERVIEW. 65 
 
 lehem, for God hath fulfilled His promise to the fath- 
 ers ; for in thy chambers is born the King that shall 
 rule in righteousness.' Their shoutings would rise 
 up in the heavens, and then would sink down in mel- 
 low strains, and roll along at the foot of the moun- 
 tains, and die away in the most soft and musical 
 manner they had ever heard ; then it would begin 
 again high up in the heavens, in the very vaults of 
 the sky, and descend in sweet and melodious strains, 
 so that they could not refrain from shouting and 
 weeping at the same time. The light would seem to 
 burst forth high up in the heavens, and then descend 
 in softer rays and light up the hills and valleys, 
 making everything more visible than the light of 
 the sun, though it was not so brilliant, but clearer, 
 like the brightest moon. I asked them how they felt 
 if they were not afraid ; they said at first they 
 were ; but after awhile it seemed to calm their spirits, 
 and so fill their hearts with love and tranquillity that 
 they felt more like giving thanks than anything else. 
 They said it was around the whole city, and some 
 of the people were almost scared to death. Some 
 said the world was on fire ; some said the gods were 
 coming down to destroy them ; others said a star 
 had fallen ; until Melker the priest came out shout- 
 ing and clapping his hands, seeming to be frantic 
 with joy. The people all came crowding around 
 him, and he told them that it was the sign that God 
 was coming to fulfil His promise made to their father 
 Abraham. He told us that fourteen hundred years 
 before God had appeared to Abraham, and told him 
 5
 
 66 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 to put all Israel under bonds sacred bonds of obedi- 
 ence ; and if they would be faithful, he would give 
 them a Saviour to redeem them from sin, and that he 
 would give them eternal life, and that they should 
 hunger no more ; that the time of their suffering should 
 cease forever ; and that the sign of his coming would 
 be that light would shine from on high, and the angels 
 would announce his coming, and their voices should 
 be heard in the city, and the people should rejoice : 
 and a virgin that was pure should travail in pain 
 and bring forth her first born, and he should rule all 
 flesh by sanctifying it and making it obedient. After 
 Melker had addressed the people in a loud voice, he 
 and all the old Jews went into the synagogue and 
 remained there praising God and giving thanks. 
 
 " I went to see Melker, who related to me much 
 the same as the shepherds had reported. He told 
 me that he had lived in India, and that his father 
 had been priest at Antioch ; that he had studied the 
 sacred scrolls of God all his life, and that he knew 
 that the time had come, from signs given, for God. 
 to visit and save the Jews from Roman oppression 
 and from their sins ; and as evidence he showed me 
 many quotations on the tripod respecting the matter. 
 
 " He said that next day three strangers from a great 
 distance called on him, and they went in search of 
 this young child ; and they found him and his 
 mother in the mouth of the cave, where there was a 
 shed projecting out for the sheltering of sheep ; that 
 his mother was married to a man named Joseph, and 
 she related to them the history of her child, saying
 
 JONATHAN'S INTERVIEW. 67 
 
 that an angel had visited her, and told her that she 
 should have a son, and she should call him Jesus, 
 for he should redeem his people from their sins ; and 
 he should call her blessed forever more. 
 
 " Whether this is true or not remains to be proved 
 in the future. There have been so many impostors 
 in the world, so many babes born under pretended 
 miracles, and all have proved to be a failure, that 
 this one may be false, this woman only wishing to 
 hide her shame or court the favor of the Jews. 
 
 " I am informed that she will be tried by our law, 
 and, if she can give no better evidence of her virtue 
 than she has given to Melker, she will be stoned 
 according to our law, although, as Melker says, there 
 never has been a case before with such apparent 
 divine manifestations as were seen on this occa- 
 sion. In the past, in various instances, virgins have 
 pretended to be with child by the Holy Ghost, but 
 at the time of their delivery there was no light from 
 the heavens, and no angels talking among the clouds 
 and declaring that this was the King of the Jews. 
 And, as to the truth of these things, the whole of 
 the people of Bethlehem testify to having seen it, and 
 the Roman guard also came out and asked what it 
 xneant, and they showed by their actions that they 
 were very much alarmed. These things, Melker 
 says, are all declared in the Scriptures to be the sign 
 of His coming. Melker is a man of great learning 
 and well versed in the prophecies, and he sends you 
 this letter, referring you to those prophecies :
 
 68 THE ARCHKO VOLUME, 
 
 " ' Melker, Priest of the Synagogue of Bethlehem, 
 to the Higher Sanhedrim of the Jews at Jerusalem : 
 
 " ' HOLY MASTERS OF ISRAEL : I, your servant, 
 would call your attention to the words of the prophet 
 in regard to the forerunner, and the rise as well as 
 the conductor of a great and mighty nation, wherein 
 should dwell the true principles of righteousness and 
 the conductor of the outward formation of a national 
 domain of God upon earth. As evidence of the fact, 
 the vision and affliction that has befallen Zacharias 
 of late is enough to satisfy all men of the coming of 
 some great event ; and this babe of Elizabeth is the 
 beginning of better times. 
 
 " ' What has occurred here in the last few days, 
 as Jonathan will inform you, forever settles the ques- 
 tion that the day of our redemption is drawing nigh. 
 The sections of these divisions are three : First, the 
 general survey ; the original foundation and destiny 
 of man in his single state ; the proto-evangel ; the 
 full development of mankind ; the promises to the 
 fathers of the covenant people ; Judah, the leader 
 tribe ; section second, the Mosaic law and the Mosaic 
 outlook ; the prophecy of Baalam ; section third, 
 the anointed one ; and the prophets of the past exile : 
 Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi ; Malachi's proph- 
 ecy of the forerunner of the Lord. Now, noble 
 masters of Israel, if you will refer to the several 
 sections of the divine word, you will not fail to see 
 that all that has been spoken by the prophets in 
 regard to the works of God upon earth has been
 
 JONATHAN'S INTERVIEW. 69 
 
 fulfilled in the last few days in the two events, the 
 birth of the child of Elizabeth and that of Mary of 
 Bethlehem. 
 
 " ' The unlimited freedom which some men take 
 with these holy writings of God, as to the above 
 prophecy, subjects us to the severest criticism. It 
 is, however, most satisfactory to see and hear that 
 the divine grandeur and authority of the sacred 
 oracles are in no way dependent on the solution of 
 carnal critics, but rest on an inward light shining 
 everywhere out of the bosom of a profound organic 
 unity and an interconnected relation with a consist- 
 ent and united teleology ; overleaping all time, the 
 historical present as well as the past, and all the past 
 brought to light in these two events that have just 
 transpired. Indeed, all past time is blending with 
 the present horizon, and the works of God in ages 
 past are just beginning to develop themselves at this 
 particular time, and the present scenes are bringing 
 us close on to the ways of God upon earth. While 
 we reverence these men of God, we should not 
 misquote their language. Take, for example, the 
 third section of Isaiah, where he prophesies of the 
 captive Israelites, instead of his consolation to the 
 captive. While one of his words refers to the future 
 condition and the reason therefor, the other is sweet 
 in consolation of the Israelites while in this state of 
 captivity, and full of the blessed promises in the 
 future. 
 
 " ' But let the spirit of prophecy bear us on with 
 the prophet into future time, far beyond the king-
 
 70 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 doms of this world into a glorious future, regardless 
 of the Roman, Babylonian, or even the Maccabeean 
 rule or rulers ; but never forgetting that the prophet 
 is one who is divinely inspired, and is called, commis- 
 sioned, and qualified to declare the will as well as 
 the knowledge of God. Yes, he is a seer. His 
 prophecy is of the na :ure of a vision, involving and 
 enveloping all the faculties of the soul, and placing 
 the prophet in the attitude to God of being outside 
 the body and independent of it Yea, far better 
 without the body than with it ; for the further the 
 soul gets from the body the more active it becomes. 
 This fact is demonstrated in our dreams. The vivid 
 powers of the soul are much more active in dreams 
 than at any other time, the perception is clearer, and 
 the sensitive faculties are much more alive when 
 asleep than when awake. We see this verified in 
 the man dying. His eye is usually brighter, his 
 mind is clearer, his soul is freer and less selfish, as he 
 passes on and nears the eternal state. 
 
 " ' So is the prophet. He becomes so personal 
 with God that he uses the personalities with seeming 
 presumption ; while it is the indwelling power of 
 God's spirit inflating the soul and setting the tongue 
 on fire. So was the moving language of the words 
 to which you have been referred. It seems to me 
 those men of God saw distinctly the gathering light ; 
 they saw the travailing of the virgin, they saw the 
 helpless infant in the sheep trough ; they heard the 
 mighty chanting of the heavenly host ; they saw the 
 ambition of human nature in the Roman soldiery
 
 JONATHAN'S INTERVIEW. 71 
 
 aiming to destroy the child's life ; and in that infant 
 they saw human nature in its fallen and helpless 
 condition ; and it appears as if they saw the advance 
 of that infant into perfect manhood. As he be- 
 comes the theme of the world, his advancing nature 
 will triumph over all ; as he does escape the Roman 
 authority this day, so he will finally triumph over 
 all the world, and even death itself shall be destroyed. 
 " ' We, as Jews, place too much confidence in the 
 outward appearance, while the idea we get of the 
 kingdom of heaven is all of a carnal nature, consist- 
 ing of forms and ceremonies. The prophecies re- 
 ferred to, and many other passages that I might men- 
 tion, all go to show that the kingdom of God is to 
 begin within us, in the inner life, and rule there, and 
 from the inner nature all outward actions are to flow 
 in conformity with the revealed and written teach- 
 ings and commands of God. So is the spirit of 
 prophecy. While it uses the natural organs of speech, 
 it at the same time controls all the faculties of life, 
 producing sometimes a real ecstacy, not mechani- 
 cal or loss of consciousness, though cut off for the 
 time from external relations. He is thus circum- 
 scribed to speak, as did Balaam, the words of God 
 with human life. This is to be held by us Jews as 
 of the first and greatest importance, and we are to 
 remember that his prophecy has the same reference 
 to the future that it does to the past, and has respect 
 to the whole empire of man. While it specifies in- 
 dividuals and nations, it often has reference to doc- 
 trines and principles ; and in this light Israel is the
 
 72 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 result of prophecy, as a nation with her religious 
 teachings. So is this virgin's babe born to be a ruler 
 of all nations of the earth. The Torah itself goes 
 back to prophecy, as well as every prophet stands on 
 the Torah, and on this rests all prophecy pronounc- 
 ing condemnation on the disobedient and blessings 
 on the faithful. It was on this principle that the 
 covenant of inheritance was made with Abraham, 
 and, in reality, so made with David. Thus all the 
 promises, political, ethical, judicial, and ritual, rest 
 on the Torah. In short, the whole administration 
 finds its authority in the prophetic vision, as set forth 
 by the commands of God, to regulate human life 
 commencing in the inner life and working outward, 
 until the outward is like the inward ; and thus ad- 
 vancing on from individuals to nations. 
 
 " ' The Messianic prophecy has no other justifica- 
 tion than this. On this rests the church, and on this 
 rests the theocracy. On this rests the glory of the 
 future kingdom of God upon earth. 
 
 " ' The whole chain of prophecy is already fulfilled 
 in this babe ; but the development is only commenc- 
 ing. He will abolish the old cultus forever, but with 
 man it will develop commensurate with time itself. 
 There are many types in the shadow, in the plant, in 
 the animal. Every time the Romans celebrated a 
 triumph on the Tiber it shadowed forth the coming 
 Caesar ; so every suffering of David, or lamentation 
 of Job, or glory of Solomon yea, every wail of 
 human sorrow, every throe of human grief, every 
 dying sigh, every failing bitter tear was a type, a
 
 JONATHAN'S INTERVIEW. 73 
 
 prophecy of the coming King of the Jews and the 
 Saviour of the \world. Israel stands as a common 
 factor at every great epoch of history. The shading 
 of the colors of the prophetic painting does not oblit- 
 erate the prediction of the literal Israel's more glori- 
 ous future in the kingdom of God. Her historic 
 calling to meditate salvation to the nations is not 
 ended with this new-comer on the stage of earthly 
 life. The prophecy is eschatological, refining the 
 inner life as well as shaping the outer life in confor- 
 mity to good laws. Looking also to the end of time 
 and its great importance to us, it has something to 
 teach, and we have something to learn. Along the 
 ages past all the great, good, and happy have first 
 learned their duties, and then performed them : and 
 thus for thousands of years Israel has stood, hope 
 never dying in the Hebrew heart, and has been the 
 only appointed source of preserved knowledge of the 
 true God. And this day she stands as the great fac- 
 tor and centre around which all nations of the earth 
 must come for instruction to guide them, that they 
 may become better and happier. 
 
 " ' These sacred scrolls which we Jews received 
 from God by the hand of Moses are the only hope of 
 the world. If they were lost to mankind, it would 
 be worse than putting out the sun, moon, and all the 
 stars of night, for this would be a loss of sacred light 
 to the souls of men. When we consider the sur- 
 roundings, there never has been a time more propi- 
 tious than the present for the establishing of the 
 true religion, and it seems, by reviewing our history
 
 74 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 for hundreds of years past, that this is the time for 
 the ushering in of the true kingdom of God. The 
 nations of the earth that have been given to idolatry 
 are growing tired of placing confidence in a-nd de- 
 pending on gods that do not help them in the hour of 
 danger, and they are now wanting a God that can 
 and will answer their calls. 
 
 " ' King Herod sent for me the other day, and after 
 I related to him of the God of the Jews and His 
 works, of the many and mighty deeds He had per- 
 formed for our fathers and for us as a nation, he 
 seemed to think, if there was such a God as we pro- 
 fessed, it was far better than to depend on such gods 
 as the Romans had made, of timber, stone, and iron ; 
 and even the gods of gold were powerless. He said 
 that if he could know that this babe that was de- 
 clared by the angels, was such a God as he that saved 
 the Israelites in the Red Sea, and saved Daniel, and 
 those three from the fearful heat of fire, he would 
 have pursued quite a different course toward him. 
 He was under the impression that he had come to 
 drive the Romans from their possessions, and to reign 
 as a monarch instead of Caesar. And I find this to be 
 the general feeling throughout the world, so far as I 
 can hear ; that the people want and are ready to re- 
 ceive a God that can demonstrate in his life that he 
 is such a God that the race of men can depend on in 
 time of trouble ; and if he can show such power to 
 his friends he will be feared by his enemies, and 
 thus become universally obeyed by all nations of the 
 earth. And this, I fear, is going to be a trouble with
 
 JON A THAN'S INTER VIE W. 75 
 
 our nation ; our people are going to look to him as a 
 temporal deliverer, and will aim to circumscribe him 
 to the Jews alone ; and when his actions begin to 
 flow out to all the inhabitants of the world in love 
 and charity, as is most certainly shown forth in the 
 ninth section of the holy prophet, then I fear the 
 Jews will reject him ; and, in fact, we are warned 
 of that already in the third section of Jeremiah's 
 word. To avoid this Israel must be taught that the 
 prophecy of Isaiah does not stop with the Babylo- 
 nian captivity and return to the kingdom of heaven, 
 and that Ezekiel's wheels do not whirl politically or 
 spiritually in heaven, but upon earth, and have refer- 
 ence to earthly revolutions or changes, and show the 
 bringing to pass of the great events of which this of 
 Bethlehem is the grandest of all. 
 
 " ' Neither is the outlook of Daniel to be confined 
 to the shade of the Maccabeean wall of Jewish con- 
 quest. Nor are these great questions to be decided 
 by our unsuccessful attempts to find out what the 
 prophet meant or what he might have understood 
 himself to mean ; but from the unity, totality, and 
 organic connection of the whole body of prophecy, 
 as referring to the kingdom of this world becoming 
 subject to the kingdom of the Saviour of all men. 
 We, as Jews, are the only people that God has in- 
 trusted with the great questions, and, of course, the 
 world will look to and expect us to give interpreta- 
 tion to these questions ; and as we are intrusted with 
 these things, God will hold us responsible if we fail 
 to give the true light on this subject. Up to this
 
 76 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 time I am fearful the Jews as a nation are as much 
 divided, and perhaps as much mistaken, as to the 
 nature of His works, as any other people. I find, 
 by conversing with the Romans, Greeks, and others, 
 that all their knowledge of these things of Jewish 
 expectation of a Redeemer has been obtained from 
 the Jews, either directly or indirectly, and it was 
 through them Herod got the idea of his being a 
 temporal King, and to rule and reign by the might 
 of carnal weapons ; whereas, if we consult the spir- 
 itual import of the prophets, his office is to blend all 
 nations in one common brotherhood, and establish 
 love in the place of law, and that heart should throb 
 high with love to heart, and under this law a univer- 
 sal peace. Wherever one should meet another they 
 should meet as friends ; for what else can the prophet 
 mean, in section nine, where he shows that this King 
 shall destroy all carnal weapons and convert them 
 to a helpful purpose, and thus become the active 
 worker in doing good to all men, and teaching all 
 men to do good to each other ? 
 
 " ' By reading all the scrolls of God we find that 
 the unity and totality of all the prophets go to bear 
 us out in this idea, and all have reference to this 
 Babe of Bethlehem. If we consult them as to the 
 time, taking the revolutions of Ezekiel's wheels, they 
 show plainly that the revolutions of the different 
 governments of the world fix this as the time. Next, 
 consult them in regard to the individuals connected 
 with this great event. These are pointed to as the 
 virgin wife, by Zacharias ; next, the place has been
 
 JONATHAN'S INTERVIEW. 77 
 
 pointed out and named ; then the light and the ap- 
 pearing of the angels have all been set forth, and 
 also the opposition of the Romans has been declared. 
 Now, I ask the High Court of the living God to look 
 well on these things, and tell us how men that lived 
 in different ages of the world, that lived in different 
 portions of the country men that never knew each 
 other men that were not prophesying for a party 
 men that had no personal interest in the subject as 
 men men that jeopardized, and some of them lost 
 their lives on account of having uttered these proph- 
 ecies how could they all point out the place, the 
 time, and the names of the parties so plain and clear, 
 if it was not revealed to them and ordained by God 
 himself ? I understand that the Romans and some 
 of the priests have been saying that Zacharias was 
 a hypocrite, and that Mary was a bad woman Such 
 might be the case, so far as man is able to judge ; 
 but who, I ask, can forge such truth as these proph- 
 ecies, and make them come true ? Or who can cause 
 light to descend from the heavens and the angels 
 come down and make the declaration that this was 
 the Son of God, King of the Jews ? 
 
 " ' Noble Masters of the Sanhedrim, I was not 
 alone. I am not the only witness of these things. 
 The principal people of Bethlehem saw them and 
 heard them as I did. I would say to you, if this is 
 not the Jews' King, then we need not look for any 
 other ; for every line of prophecy has been most com- 
 pletely fulfilled in him ; and if he does not appear 
 and save his own people I shall despair of ever being
 
 78 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 released, and I shall believe that we have misinter- 
 preted the meaning of all the prophets. But I feel 
 so sure that this is he I shall wait in expectation and 
 with much anxiety, and I have no fears of any harm 
 befalling him. All the Romans in the world can- 
 not harm' him ; and although Herod may rage, 
 may destroy all the infants in the world, the same 
 angels that attended his birth will watch over him 
 through life, and the Romans will have to contend 
 with the same God that Pharaoh did, and will meet 
 with similar defeat.' "
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 GAMALIEL'S INTERVIEW WITH JOSEPH AND MARY 
 AND OTHERS CONCERNING JESUS. 
 
 THE hagiographa or holy writings,' found in the 
 St. Sophia Mosque at Constantinople, made by Gama- 
 liel, in the Talmuds of the Jews, 27 B. It seems 
 Gamaliel was sent by the Sanhedrim to interrogate 
 Joseph and Mary in regard to this child Jesus. He 
 
 " I found Joseph and Mary in the city of Mecca, 
 in the^ land of Ammon or Moab. But I did not find 
 Jesus. When I went to the place where I was told 
 he was, he was somewhere else ; and thus I followed 
 him from place to place, until I despaired of finding 
 him at all. Whether he knew that I was in search 
 of him and did it to elude me, I cannot tell, though 
 I think it most likely the former was the reason, for 
 his mother says he is bashful and shuns company. 
 
 " Joseph is a wood-workman. He is very' tall and 
 ugly. His hair looks as though it might have been 
 dark auburn when young. His eyes are gray and 
 vicious. He is anything but prepossessing in his 
 appearance, and he is as gross and glum as he looks, 
 
 (79)
 
 80 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 He is but a poor talker, and it seems that yes and no 
 are the depth of his mind. I am satisfied he is very 
 disagreeable to his family. His children look very 
 much like him, and upon the whole I should call 
 them a third-rate family. I asked him who were his 
 parents. He said his father's name was Jacob, and 
 his grandfather was Matthew. He did not like to 
 talk on the subject. He is very jealous. I told him 
 that we had heard that he had ha,d a vision, and I 
 was sent to ascertain the facts in the case. He said 
 he did not call it a vision ; he called it a dream. He 
 said after he and Mary had agreed to marry, it 
 seemed that something told him that Mary was with 
 child ; that he did not know whether he was asleep 
 or awake, but it made such an impression on his 
 mind that he concluded to have nothing more to do 
 with her ; and while he was working one day under 
 a shed, all at once a man in snowy white stood by 
 his side, and told him not to doubt the virfue of 
 Mary, for she was holy before the Lord ; that the 
 child conceived in her was not by man, but by the 
 Holy Ghost, and that the child would be free from 
 human passions. In order to do this he must that 
 is, his. humanity must be of the extract of almah 
 (that is the Hebrew word for virgin), that he might en- 
 dure all things, and not resist, and fill the demands of 
 prophecy. He said the angel told him that this child 
 should be great and should rule all the kingdoms of 
 this world. He said that this child should set up a 
 new kingdom, wherein should dwell righteousness 
 and peace, and that the kingdoms of this world which
 
 GAMALIEL'S INTERVIEW. 81 
 
 should oppose him God would utterly destroy. I 
 asked him, How could a virgin conceive of herself 
 without the germination of the male ? He said : 
 " This is the work of God. He has brought to life 
 the womb of Elizabeth, so she had conceived and 
 will bear a son in her old age who will go before and 
 tell the people of the coming of this King." After 
 telling me all these things, he disappeared like the 
 melting down of a light. I then went and told Mary 
 what had occurred, and she told me that the same 
 angel, or one like him, had appeared to her and told 
 the same things. So I married Mary, thinking that 
 if what the angel had told us was true, it would be 
 greatly to our advantage ; but I am fearful we are 
 mistaken. Jesus seems to take no interest in us, nor 
 anything else much, I call him lazy and careless. 
 I do not think he will ever amount to much, much 
 less be a king. If he does, he must do a great deal 
 better than he has been doing.' I asked him how 
 long after that interview with the angel before the 
 child was born. He said he did not know, but he 
 thought it was seven or eight months. I asked him 
 where they were at the time. He said in Bethlehem. 
 The Roman commander had given orders for all the 
 Jews to go on a certain day to be enrolled as tax- 
 payers, and he and Mary went to Bethlehem as the 
 nearest place of enrollment ; and while there this 
 babe was born. I asked if anything strange occurred 
 there that night. He said that the people were 
 much excited, but he was so tired that he had gone 
 to sleep, and saw nothing. He said toward day there 
 6
 
 82 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 were several priests came in to see them and the 
 babe, and gave them many presents. And the news 
 got circulated that this child was to be King of the 
 Jews, and it created such an excitement that he took 
 the child and his mother and came to Moab for pro- 
 tection, for fear the Romans would kill the child to 
 keep it from being a rival to the Romans. 
 
 " I discovered that all Joseph's ideas were of a 
 selfish kind. All he thought of was himself. Mary 
 is altogether a different character, and she is too 
 noble to be the wife of such a man. She seems to 
 be about forty or forty-five years of age, abounds 
 with a cheerful and happy spirit and is full of happy 
 fancies. She is fair to see, rather fleshy, has soft 
 and innocent-looking eyes, and seems to be naturally 
 a good woman. I asked her who her parents were, 
 and she said her father's name was Eli, and her 
 mother's name was Anna ; her grandmother's name 
 was Fennel, a widow of the tribe of Asher, of great 
 renown. I asked her if Jesus was the son of Joseph. 
 She said he was not. I asked her to relate the cir- 
 cumstances of the child's history. She said that one 
 day while she was grinding some meal there appeared 
 at the door a stranger in shining raiment, which 
 showed as bright as the light. She was very much 
 alarmed at his presence, and trembled like a leaf ; 
 but all her fears were calmed when he spoke to her ; 
 for he said : ' Mary, thou art loved by the Lord and 
 He has sent me to tell thee that thou shalt have a 
 child ; that this child shall be great and rule all na- 
 tions of the earth.' She continued : ' I immediately
 
 GAMALIEL'S INTERVIEW. 83 
 
 thought of my engagement to Joseph, and supposed 
 that was the way the child was to come ; but he as- 
 tonished me the more when he told me that cousin 
 Elisabeth had conceived and would bear a son, whose 
 name was to be John ; and my son should be called 
 Jesus. This caused me to remember that Zacharias 
 had seen a vision and disputed with the angel, and 
 for that he was struck with dumbness, so that he 
 could no longer hold the priest's office. I asked the 
 messenger if Joseph knew anything of the matter. 
 He said that he told Joseph that I was to have a child 
 by command of the Holy Ghost, and that he was to 
 redeem his people from their sins, and was to reign 
 over the whole world ; that every man should confess 
 to him and he should rule over all the kings of the 
 earth.' 
 
 " I asked her how she knew that he was an angel, 
 and she said he told her so, and then she knew he 
 was an angel from the way he came and went. I 
 asked her to describe how he went away from her, 
 and she said that he seemed to melt away like the 
 extinguishing of a light. I asked her if she knew 
 anything of John the Baptist. She said he lived in 
 the mountains of Judea the last she knew of him.. 
 I asked her if he and Jesus were acquainted, or did 
 they visit. She said she did not think they knew 
 each other. 
 
 " I asked her if at the time this angel, as she 
 called him, visited her, she was almah (that is, vir- 
 gin). She said she was ; that she had never showed 
 to man, nor was known by any man. I asked her
 
 84 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 if she at that time maintained her fourchetie; and 
 after making her and Joseph understand what I 
 meant, they both said she had, and Joseph said this 
 was the way he had of testing her virtue. I asked 
 her if she knew when conception took place. She 
 said she did not. I asked her if she was in any pain 
 in bearing, or in delivering this child She said, 
 ' None of any consequence.' I asked her if he was 
 healthy ; to give me a description of his life. She 
 said he was perfectly healthy ; that she never heard 
 him complain of any pain or dissatisfaction ; his 
 food always agreed with him ; that he would eat 
 anything set before him, and if anyone else com- 
 plained he would often say he thought it good 
 enough, much better than we deserved. She said 
 that Joseph was a little hard to please, but this boy 
 had answered him so often, and his answers were 
 so mild and yet so suitable, that he had almost 
 broken him of finding fault. She said- he settled 
 all the disputes of the family ; that no odds what 
 was the subject or who it was, one word from him 
 closed all mouths, and what gave him such power 
 was his words were always unpretending and spoken 
 as though they were not intended as a rebuke, 
 but merely as a decision. I asked her if she had 
 ever seen him angry or out of humor. She said 
 she had seen him apparently vexed and grieved at 
 the disputes and follies of others, but had never seen 
 him angry. I asked her if he had any worldly 
 aspirations after money or wealth, or a great name, 
 or did he delight in fine dress, like the most of
 
 ^ * ^A I. TEL'S INTER VIEW. 85- 
 
 youth. She said that was o.^ thing that vexed 
 her, he seemed to take no care of his person ; he 
 did not care whether he was dressed or not, or 
 whether the family got along well or ill ; it was all 
 alike to him. She said she talked to him about it, 
 and he would look at her a little grieved and say, 
 ' Woman (for such he always called me), you do not 
 know who I am.' Indeed, she said he takes so little 
 interest in the things of the world and the great 
 questions of the day, they were beginning to despair 
 of his ever amounting to much much less be a 
 king, as the angel said he would be ; if so, he 
 would have to act very differently from what he was 
 acting at that time. I told her that the Jewish doc- 
 tors contended that the amorous disposition is pecu- 
 liar to the male. I asked her if she had ever seen 
 in the private life of Jesus any signs of such disposi- 
 tion. She said she had not. I asked if she saw in him 
 any particular fondness for female society. She said 
 she had not ; if anything, rather the contrary ; that 
 the young bethaul (the word in the Hebrew for young 
 women) were all very fond of him, and were always 
 seeking his society, and yet he seemed to care noth- 
 ing for them ; and if they appeared too fond of him, 
 he treated them almost with scorn. He will often 
 get up and leave them, and wander away and spend 
 his time in meditation and prayer. He is a perfect 
 ascetic in his life. ' When I see how the people 
 like to be with him, and ask him questions, and 
 seem to take such delight with his answers both 
 men and women it almost vexes me. They say
 
 86 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 there is a young woman in Bethany whom he in- 
 tends to marry ; but unless he changes his course 
 very much he will never be qualified to have a 
 family. But I do not believe the report. He never 
 seems to me to care anything about women when he 
 is in my presence.' 
 
 " Thus it seems that Joseph and Mary have both 
 lost all confidence in his becoming anything They 
 seem to think that the Sanhedrim should do some- 
 thing for him to get him out and let him show 
 himself to the people. I tried to console them by 
 telling them that my understanding of the prophecy 
 was that he had to come to the high priesthood first, 
 and there work in the spiritual dominion of the 
 heart ; and when he had brought about a unity of 
 heart and oneness of aim, it would be easy enough 
 to establish his political claim ; and all who would 
 not willingly submit to him, it would be an easy 
 matter with the sword of Joshua or Gideon to bring 
 under his control. Jt seemed to me that his parents' 
 ideas are of a selfish character ; that they care 
 nothing about the Jewish government nor the Roman 
 oppression. All they think of is self-exaltation, and 
 to be personally benefited by their son's greatness. 
 But I told them they were mistaken ; that the build- 
 ing up of the kingdom of heaven was not to be done by 
 might nor by power, but by the Spirit of the Lord, 
 and it would not do for us to use carnal weapons, 
 nor to expect carnal pleasures to be derived there- 
 from ; that it was not my understanding of the 
 prophecy that this king was to use such weapons
 
 GAMALIEL'S INTERVIEW. 87 
 
 either for himself or for the benefit of a party, but 
 for the good of all men ; that his dominion was to 
 be universal, and it was to be of a spiritual charac- 
 ter ; that he was sent to the lost and not to the 
 found. 
 
 " His parents told me of an old man who lived on 
 the road to Bethany who had once been a priest, a 
 man of great learning, and well skilled in the laws 
 and prophets, and that Jesus was often there with 
 him reading the law and prophets together ; that his 
 name was Massalian, and that I might find Jesus 
 there. But he was not there. Massalian said he 
 was often at Bethany with a young family, and he 
 thought there was some love affair between him and 
 one of the girls. I asked him if he had seen any- 
 thing like a courtship between them. He said he 
 had not, but inferred from their intimacy and from 
 the fondness on the woman's part, as well as from 
 the laws of nature, that such would be the case. I 
 asked him to give me an outline of the character of 
 Jesus. He said that he was a young man of the 
 finest thought and feeling he ever saw in his life ; 
 that he was the most apt in his answers and solu- 
 tions of difficult problems of any man of his age he 
 had ever seen ; that his answers seem to give more 
 universal satisfaction so much so that the oldest 
 philosopher would not dispute with him, or in any 
 manner join issue with him, or ask the second time. 
 I asked Massalian who taught him to read and in- 
 terpret the law and the prophets. He said that his 
 mother said that he had always known how to read
 
 .88 THE ARCHKO VOL UME. 
 
 the law ; that his mind seemed to master it from 
 the beginning ; and into the laws of nature and the 
 relation of man to his fellow in his teachings or 
 talks, he gives a deeper insight, inspiring mutual 
 love and strengthening the common trust of society. 
 Another plan he has of setting men right with the 
 laws of nature : he turns nature into a great law book 
 of illustrations, showing that every bush is a flame, 
 every rock a fountain of water, every star a pillar 
 of fire, and every cloud the one that leads to God. 
 He makes all nature preach the doctrine of trust 
 in the divine "Fatherhood. He speaks of the lilies 
 as pledges of God's care, and points to the fowls as 
 evidence of his watchfulness over human affairs. 
 Who can measure the distance between God and 
 the flower of the field ? What connection is there 
 between man and the lily ? By such illustrations 
 he creates a solicitude in man that seems to awe him 
 into reverence, and he becomes attracted toward 
 heavenly thought, and feels that he is in the presence 
 of one that is superior. In this talk he brings one 
 to feel he is very near the presence of God. He 
 says how much more your Father. The plane is 
 one, though the intermediate points are immeasur- 
 ably distant. Thus by beginning with a flower he 
 reasons upward to the absolute, and then descends 
 and teaches lessons of trust in a loving Father. 
 The lessons of trust in God reassure the anxious 
 listener and create an appetite that makes him long 
 for more ; and it often seems, when he has brought 
 his hearers to the highest point of anxiety, he sud-
 
 GAMALIEL'S INTER VIE W. g 9 
 
 ^nly breaks off and leaves his company as though 
 'ed nothing for them. Jesus in his talk brings 
 all tiiL.se illustrations to make man feel his near- 
 ness to his kindred, man, teaching also their relation 
 to and dependence upon God ; and although his 
 method is happy, it does not seem to me that it is 
 the most successful. He teaches that man and the 
 flowers and birds drink from the same fountain 
 and are fed from the same table, yet at the same 
 time he seems to do everything to excite suspicion 
 and prejudice. We that are watching him to see 
 his divine mission commence, he is continually tan- 
 talizing our expectations, as well as mocking our 
 natural reason and desires. When a man separates 
 himself from all other men, both in point of doctrine 
 as well as discipline, he takes a very great risk on 
 his part especially when he confines God to one 
 channel, and that one of his own dictation. A man 
 that assumes these responsible positions must have 
 vast resources from which to draw, or he will sink in 
 the whirlpool which his own impertinence has created. 
 Through Jesus, in his teachings or talks (his words 
 sound so much like the teachings of Hillel or Sham- 
 mai that I must call it teaching, though he has no 
 special scholars), we learn that God is Spirit, and 
 God is Father ; and he says these are the only two 
 things that are essential for man to know. Then he 
 illustrates this to the parents, and asks them what 
 would they do for their children. He was telling 
 some mothers a circumstance of a mother starving 
 herself to feed her child, and then applied it to God
 
 90 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 as our Father ; and they commenced shouting, they 
 were so happy ; and Jesus got up and left the house 
 in seeming disgust. 
 
 " Massalian says he is tempted at times to become 
 impatient with Jesus, as he devotes so much time to 
 details. It seems almost a waste of time for a man 
 who came to save the world to be lingering over a 
 special case of disease. He thinks he could hasten 
 Jesus's physical deportment. Why not speak one word 
 and remove every sick patient from his sick- bed at 
 the same hour ? What a triumph this would be. 
 I asked him if Jesus had healed anyone. He said 
 not as yet ; but if he is to be King of the Jews, 
 he was to heal all nations, and why not do it at 
 once ? If he would, there would be nothing more 
 required to establish his kingship. But I said to 
 him, ' Is it not equally so with God's creative power ? 
 See what time and labor it takes to bring forth a 
 grain of corn. Why not have caused the earth to 
 bring forth every month instead of every year? 
 Christ was talking in defence of his Father. The 
 people must learn to love and obey the Father before 
 they would reverence the Son. Yes, he said the 
 God that Jesus represented was one that the people 
 might love and venerate ; that he was a God of love, 
 and had no bloody designs to execute on even a bad 
 man, provided he ceased his evil ways.' 
 
 " It is to be noted that in all Jesus's talk there 
 are manifest references to the future. Many of 
 his statements were like a sealed letter not to be 
 opened but by time. A grain of mustard was to
 
 GAMALIEL'S INTERVIEW. 91 
 
 result in a large tree. All his ideas refer to the 
 future ; like the parent helping the child with his 
 burden of to-day, by telling of the blessings of to- 
 morrow ; and by making to-day the seed-corn of to- 
 morrow ; keeping the action of to-day under moral 
 control by making the morrow the day of judgment. 
 He stated further that Jesus was a young man Avho 
 was the best judge of human nature he had ever seen ; 
 that he thqught at times he could tell men their 
 thoughts and expose their bad principles ; and while 
 he had all these advantages of life, he seemed not 
 to care for them nor to use them abusively. He 
 seems to like all men one as well as another so 
 much so that his own parents have become disgusted 
 with him, and have almost cast him off. But Jesus 
 has such a peculiar temperament that he seems not 
 to care, and is as well satisfied with one as another. 
 He said that Jesus seemed fond of Mary and Martha, 
 who lived at Bethany, and probably I might find 
 him there. 
 
 " Massalian is a man of very deep thought and 
 most profound judgment. All his life he has made 
 the Scriptures his study. He, too, is a good judge 
 of human nature, and he is satisfied that Jesus is the 
 Christ. He said that Jesus seemed to understand 
 the prophecy by intuition. I asked him where Jesus 
 was taught to read the prophecy. He said that his 
 mother told him that Jesus could read from the be- 
 ginning ; that no one had ever taught him to read. 
 He said that he, in making quotations from the 
 prophets, was sometimes mistaken or his memory
 
 92 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 failed him ; but Jesus could correct him every time 
 without the scroll ; and that sometimes he thought 
 Jesus was certainly mistaken, but never in a single 
 instance was he wrong. I asked him to describe his 
 person to me, so that I might know him if I should 
 meet him. He said : ' If you ever meet him you 
 will know him. While he is nothing but a man, 
 there is something about him that distinguishes him 
 from every other man. He is the picture of his 
 mother, only he has not her smooth, round face. 
 His hair is a little more golden than hers, though it 
 is as much from sunburn as anything else. He is 
 tall, and his shoulders are a little drooped ; his vis- 
 age is thin and of a swarthy complexion, though this 
 is from exposure. His eyes are large and a soft blue, 
 and rather dull and heavy. The lashes are long, and 
 his eyebrows very large. His nose is that of a Jew. 
 In fact, he reminds me of an old-fashioned Jew in 
 every sense of the word. He is not a great talker, 
 unless there is something brought up about heaven 
 and divine things, when his tongue moves glibly 
 and his eyes light up with a peculiar brilliancy ; 
 though there is this peculiarity about Jesus, he 
 never argues a question ; he never disputes. He 
 will commence and state facts, and they are on 
 such a solid basis that nobody will have the bold- 
 ness to dispute with him. Though he has such 
 mastership of judgment, he takes no pride in con- 
 futing his opponents, but always seems to be sorry 
 for them. I have seen him attacked by the scribes 
 and doctors of the law, and they seemed like little
 
 GAMALIEL'S INTERVIEW. 93 
 
 children learning their lessons under a master. His 
 strongest points are in the spiritual power of the 
 law and the intentions of the prophets. The young 
 people tried to get him to take a class of them and 
 teach them ; but he utterly refused.' This Jew is 
 convinced that he is the Messiah of the world. 
 
 " I went from there to Bethany, but Jesus was not 
 there. They said he and Lazarus were away, they 
 could not tell where. I went and saw Mary and 
 Martha, the sisters of Lazarus, and had a long talk 
 with them. They are very pleasant and nice young 
 maids, and Mary is quite handsome. I teased her 
 about Jesus, but they both denied that Jesus was 
 anything like a lover ; he was only a friend ; though 
 this is so common for young maids I did not know 
 whether to believe them or not until I told them my 
 real business. And when I told them that this was 
 the same person that was born of the virgin in Beth- 
 lehem some twenty- six years before, and that his 
 mother had told me all the facts in the case, they 
 seemed deeply interested. They then told me upon 
 their honor that Jesus never talked or even hinted 
 to either one of them on the subject of marriage. 
 Martha blushed, and said she wished he had. If 
 he was to be a king, she would like to be queen. 
 I asked them if they had ever seen him in the 
 company of young virgins. They said they had 
 not. I asked them if they had heard him talk 
 about young girls, or if he sought their society more 
 than that of men ; and they both declared they had 
 not ; and they were very much surprised that he did
 
 94 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 not. I asked them what he talked of when in their 
 company ; and they said he was not much in their 
 company ; that he and their brother would go upon 
 the house-top and stay there half the night, and 
 sometimes all night, talking and arguing points of 
 interest to them both. Mary said she had often gone 
 near, so she could listen to them, for she loved to 
 hear him talk, he was so mild and unpretending, 
 and then was so intelligent that he Avas different 
 from any and all other young men she had ever seen. 
 I asked them what was their brother's opinion of 
 him. They said he thought there never was such a 
 man on earth. He thought him to be one of God's 
 prophets. He said when they are out in the moun- 
 tains, as they are most all the time, Jesus can tell 
 him all about the flowers, trees, and rocks, can tell 
 him everything in the world, and that none of the 
 wild animals are afraid of him. He says often the 
 stag and the wolf will come and stand for Jesus to 
 stroke their mane, and seem almost loath to go away 
 from him. He says that no poisonous serpent will 
 offer to hiss at him. Their brother thinks he is per- 
 fectly safe if Jesus is with him. I asked them if he 
 had ever told their brother anything about himself. 
 They said that if he had spoken to their brother he 
 had not told them. 
 
 " Now, Masters of Israel, after having inves- 
 tigated this matter ; after tracing Jesus from his 
 conception to the present time ; after obtaining all 
 the information that is to be had on this important 
 subject, getting it from those who are more likely
 
 GAMALIEL'S INTER VIE W. 95 
 
 to tell the truth from the fact they are disinterested 
 persons ; and then taking a prophetical as well as a 
 historical view of the subject. I have come to the con- 
 clusion that this is the Christ that we are looking for. 
 And as a reason for my conclusion, I will call your 
 attention to the following facts : First to the proph- 
 ecy of Isaiah, section 7 : ' And he said, Hear now, 
 saith the Lord. Oh, house of David, is it a small 
 thing for you ? Therefore the Lord himself shall 
 give you a sign ; behold, a virgin shall conceive and 
 bear a son, and shall call his name God with men. 
 Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to 
 refuse the evil and choose the good ; for before the 
 child shall know to refuse the evil and choose the 
 good the land that God abhorrest shall be forsaken 
 of her king.' Section 8 : ' Bind the testimony ; seal 
 the law among his disciples ; the Lord will hide his 
 face from the house of Jacob, and he will look for 
 him.' Here is a literal fulfillment of this word of 
 the Most High God, so clear and plain that none 
 may mistake. Jeremiah, 31st section : ' Turn, oh 
 virgin, to thy people, for the hand of the Lord is 
 upon thee ; for the Lord shall create a new thing in 
 the earth ; a woman shall compass a man.' Here 
 again are set foi'th the same things that Isaiah speaks 
 of, and the same things that I have learned from 
 Mary. Micah, section 5 : ' Thou, Bethlehem Ephra- 
 tah, thou art little among the thousands of Judah ; 
 out of thee shall come forth unto me him that shall 
 rule my people. He is from everlasting ; and I will 
 give them up until the time she travaileth to bring
 
 96 GAMALIEL'S INTERVIEW. 
 
 forth my first born, that he may rule all people.' 
 Here we have the city, the virgin, the office, his 
 manner of life, the seeking him by the Sanhedrim. 
 All these things are under our eyes as full and com- 
 plete as I now write them, who have all this testi- 
 mony given in this letter. How can we as a people 
 dispute these things ? In the 49th section of Genesis, 
 making reference to the history, that is now upon us, 
 the writer says : ' A captive shall not depart from 
 Judah, nor a lawmaker from him, until Shiloh come, 
 and gather his people between his feet, and keep 
 them forever.' "
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 REPORT OF CAIAPHAS TO THE SANHEDRIM CON- 
 CERNING THE EXECUTION OF JESUS. 
 
 RECORDS OF THE JERUSALEM SANHEDRIM, BY ELIEZEK HYKAN, B. 24. 
 TAKEN IN CONSTANTINOPLE, OCTOBER 16, 1883. 
 
 " Caiaphas, Priest of the Most High God, to the 
 Masters of Israel, greeting: In obedience to your 
 demands for a reason for my action in the case of 
 Jesus of Nazareth, and in defense of my conduct, I 
 beg leave to submit the following for your consider- 
 ation : I would assure you that it was not on account 
 of personal malice, envy, or hate, that existed in my 
 own nature, nor for the want of a willingness upon 
 my part to conform to the Jewish law in its strictest 
 sense. I had but very little personal knowledge of 
 the Nazarene. The most I knew of this man was 
 from outside sources. Nor was it because he claimed 
 to be King of the Jews, nor because he said he was 
 the Son of God I would that he were nor because 
 he prophesied or ignored the holy temple. No, nor 
 all of these combined. There is a cause, and a more 
 weighty matter, back of all these things that con- 
 trolled my action in the matter. Therefore, I hope 
 you will investigate strictly on legal principles the 
 reasons that I may give 
 
 7 (97)
 
 9 8 THE A R CHKO VOL UME. 
 
 " In order that you may be able to see and weigh 
 the question fully, and remember the responsibility 
 that rests upon me according to the laws of our na- 
 tion, I will ask you to go back with me to the chron- 
 icles of our history as a commonwealth. First, our 
 faith is pledged to one living and true God, this God 
 being indescribable, unchangeable, incomprehensi- 
 ble, and, of course, unnameable. But yet in our 
 daily communications with, and our applications to 
 Him, He has been pleased to give us His name, or 
 His several names, according to His relations to us, 
 and they are found nowhere, only in the ark of His 
 holy temple there where He presents to us His 
 strength and power. He calls himself Eloi, which 
 means almighty in strength ; that He can do what 
 He will without effort ; that He does the greatest 
 thing as easy as He does the least. This mak es Him 
 different from all beings. In His holy ark He re- 
 cords Himself Elaah existence without beginning, 
 and no contingency as to His end. Again, He writes 
 Himself Hhelejon unchangeable ; that is, nothing 
 but His own will can change Him. Again, He re- 
 cords His name Jah knowledge that comprehends 
 without being comprehended. Again He is written 
 Adonai full and free, and freely full. Combining 
 the several names we have Jehovah the Hebrew 
 God. A man never can go wrong while he can pro- 
 nounce this name in its comprehensive sense. This 
 is where the Zealots, the Sadducees, and Essenes had 
 their origin, and it is the want of being able to pro- 
 nounce this name in its comprehensive sense that
 
 EEPOR1 OF CAIAPHAS. 99 
 
 causes so much dissension among us Jews. Jesus 
 could pronounce this name, but he stole it out of 
 the temple, as I am creditably informed. 
 
 " But the object in calling your attention to pro- 
 nouncing this name, with all its bearings, may be 
 seen if we turn to the third Book of Leviticus, sec- 
 tion 10, wherein is the special order made by our 
 God to Moses, that we should offer the bullock, the 
 ram, the flour and oil, and the people should fast 
 seven days, and this should be kaphar, or atone- 
 ment for the sins of all the people. Now, unless 
 Moses was deceived, he has deceived us, or Jesus of 
 Nazareth is a false teacher ; for all he teaches is 
 metanoeite, metanoeite, as though a man's being sorry 
 for a crime would make restitution to the offended 
 party. A man might repent ever so much, but what 
 good would that do toward healing the man he had 
 injured ? None in the least. This mode of making 
 atonement was ordained of God and revealed to 
 Moses ; but if man has nothing to do but to repent, 
 the disease carries its own remedy with it. So a man 
 can sin as often as he may wish to. Look at the 
 first book, section 3 : ' And God said to Abraham, 
 by his own mouth, that each and all that were cir- 
 cumcised by the cutting of the prepuce should be 
 saved.' This should be the seal of the covenant. 
 Now, if this is not true, God must go against His own 
 contract, violate His own promises, as well as deceive 
 the faith and cheat the obedience of His own chil- 
 dren. This is all so, if Jesus's teaching be true, for he 
 sets up table (baptism) as the seal of God. I refer
 
 100 THE ARGHKO VOLUME. 
 
 you to section 10, division first, where God said to 
 Moses that He had changed the laws, converted the 
 elements for the protection of His people, and with 
 His own arm had delivered them out of a strong 
 compact ; and that they might remember, and that 
 the generation to be born might remember and never 
 forget to trust in Him when in danger, He said that 
 once every year we should roast a kid or lamb, and 
 eat it with unleavened bread, and this should be the 
 sign that we would trust in Him in all times of dan- 
 ger. Now Jesus teaches that common bread and 
 wine are to be used instead thereof a thing unheard 
 of. And not only so, something that is altogether 
 repugnant to God, and something that fosters drunk- 
 enness, and is well qualified to excite men's passions. 
 And oh, ye Masters of Israel, but think once. Jesus 
 calls himself the Son of God ; claims to have been 
 born of almah (the Hebrew word for virgin) ; that 
 he and his Father are one they are equal. These 
 things will establish the following conclusions : If 
 he is right, his Father is false. If they were one, 
 then their teachings would be one ; and if his 
 teachings are true, God's must be wrong, or there 
 are not those perfections in Him that we learn 
 in pronouncing His holy name. By tolerating the 
 teachings of Jesus, we say to the Romans that all of 
 our former teachings are false ; that the Hebrew's 
 God is not to be trusted ; that He is weak, wanting 
 in forethought ; that He is vacillating and not to be 
 trusted, much less to be honored and obeyed. Thus 
 the world will lose confidence in our God, and confi-
 
 REPORT OF CAIAPHAS. 101 
 
 dence in us as a religious people. This is impregnat- 
 ing the whole atmosphere with moral pollution. It 
 does not only cut off, but blocks the way of all Jews 
 from heaven ; and not only this, it excludes our hope 
 in the salvation of our forefathers, who have obeyed 
 God in His ordinances, believed in His promises, and 
 shouted in the triumphs of a holy life for fourteen 
 hundred years. He entirely ignores God's holy temple 
 the house God had built by our forefathers under 
 His own supervision, where He promised to dwell with 
 His children, to hear their prayers, and to be pleased 
 with their sacrifices. This tern pi 3 is the bond of the 
 Jews. Here all men can come and be blessed. It 
 is the earthly home of the souls of men the place 
 where men may hide from the storms of sin and per- 
 secution. This temple is where the foolish may learn 
 wisdom, the place where the naked soul can be 
 clothed, and where the hungry may be fed. This 
 the grandest gift of our Father. Jesus completely 
 ignores this temple ; says the priests have made it a 
 den of thieves ; and sets up a sneer, and even scoffs 
 at its sacred ordinances, and with a sort of selfish 
 triumph says it shall be destroyed ; and from hi 
 manner of saying it, I have no doubt he would be 
 glad to see it quickly done. But what would be the- 
 condition of our people if this temple was removed ? 
 What would be the use of the priesthood if the temple 
 was destroyed? Where would we find an answer 
 by IT rim and Thummim? How would the soul of 
 man be purified, if the holy Bathkole, the Euroch of 
 God, shoidd depart ? There in that sacred temple of
 
 102 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 God he has been burning to the consuming of sin 
 and the purifying of the heart since our return from 
 bondage in Babylon. My argument is, if this tem- 
 ple is destroyed, or even forsaken by the Jews, we as a 
 nation are utterly ruined. We might as well put our 
 necks under the feet of idolatry and give up all hope. 
 " One more subject I place before my Masters of 
 Israel. Is it compatible with our religion, or is it 
 consistent with philosophy, or admitted in His holy 
 Word, that there can be more gods than one ? When 
 we pronounce Ele Laah Shaddiai-Hhelyon Adonai 
 (which is Jehovah), there can be but one living God. 
 By reference to section 6, No. four, He says by mouth 
 of Moses, when he was all aglow with the glory of God 
 and remember He speaks either by mouth or quill ; 
 it is He that speaks, and not man He says, ' The 
 Lord your God is one God ; there can be but one. 
 I am and have been with you ; I brought you up ; I 
 delivered you out of a strong compact ; I delivered 
 you out of their hand and kept you dry, while your 
 enemies were drowned in the sea. I will not forsake 
 you. I promised your father I would not. But if 
 you forsake Me, then desolation will come upon you, 
 and have you in swift destruction.' In section 5, 
 three and four of David's Song of Joy : ' I am God 
 alone. If I turn to the right or 'to the left, if I go 
 down into the depths of the sea, or into the centre 
 of the earth, or over the heavens, I should find no 
 companion.' In section 3 He says : ' I am God alone, 
 and alone I am God ; beside Me there is no help for 
 man nor angels.' Then in section 13, this command
 
 REPORT OF CAIAPHAS. 103 
 
 has been given : ' Thou shall pay to the Lord thy 
 God once a year a half-shekel of silver, that thou and 
 thy children, and all the strangers that are within 
 thy gate, may know that there is no God beside Me, 
 on whom they may call in time of danger.' Now, 
 having all these commands and teachings from the 
 very lips of God himself before my eyes, and being 
 held responsible for the soundness of our doctrine 
 and the proper inculcation of the same among the 
 people of the Jews, what was I to do? Could I 
 stand as the priest of the Most High God, and see 
 your blessed religion perverted by an impostor ? 
 Could I stand and see the holy temple of our God 
 deserted and forsaken ? Could I stand and see all 
 the holy ordinances, which had been appointed by 
 our God for securing salvation to Israel, perverted 
 by an impostor ? All the blessed doctrines that were 
 appointed for the government and instruction of the 
 priesthood, thence to be imparted to the youth of our 
 land, set aside, and that by one that could show no 
 authority, only the authority of John the Baptist, 
 who could give no authority only the one who sent 
 him to baptize, and he could not tell who he was, nor 
 whence he came ? Hence you can see the responsible 
 position that I as the high priest of God and of the 
 Jewish Church occupied. According to our laws I 
 was made responsible, and stood between my God and 
 my people, to protect them in -doctrine and govern- 
 ment. I refer you to the capitulation made by the 
 Sanhedrim and Augustus Caesar, in the holy Tosephta 
 of the Talmuds. We submitted to taxation by the
 
 104 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 Romans, and the Romans are to protect our holy 
 religion from foreign foes, in order that the holy 
 temple or any of its sacred ordinances should never 
 be molested, nor the holy city, Jerusalem, be polluted 
 by Roman idolatry. Now the insinuating plan 
 adopted by Jesus was well qualified to deceive the 
 common people. It had already led many to forsake 
 the temple, and hold her ordinances in derision, as 
 well as to neglect the teachings of the priest or to 
 pay the tithes for their supplies. He had already 
 inculcated into the Jewish mind his pernicious ways 
 of being saved to that extent that the Jewish cause 
 was almost lost. There are two reasons for this : 
 First, the people to whom he preached were an ignor- 
 ant set, and knew but very little about doctrine of 
 any kind. They are a restless sort of men, who are 
 always finding fault and wanting something new, and 
 never associate with the more enlightened part of the 
 community in order to learn. Another reason of 
 his having many followers is, his doctrines are con- 
 genial to unsanctified flesh. They are so suited to 
 human nature that they require no sacrifices ; they 
 need not go to the temple to worship God ; they 
 need not fast, and they can when and where they 
 please ; they need pay no tithes to keep up the tem- 
 ple or the priesthood, but every man can be his own 
 priest and worship God as he chooses. All this is so 
 compatible with human nature that, although he has 
 not been preaching over three years, he has more fol- 
 lowers to-day than Abraham has, and they have be- 
 come perfectly hostile toward the Jews that are faith-
 
 REPORT OF CAIAPHAS. 105 
 
 ful to their God ; and, if it had not been for the 
 Roman soldiers, on the day of his execution we would 
 have had one of the bloodiest insurrections ever 
 known to the Jewish commonwealth. I am told 
 that there was never seen such a concourse of people 
 assembled at Jerusalem as at the cross. One of my 
 guards informs me that there were several hundred 
 thousand, and, although there were two others cru- 
 cified at the same time, Jesus was the great centre of 
 attraction. They would call out, ' Who is this Jesus 
 of Nazareth ? What is his crime ?' Some of his 
 friends would cry out, ' Nothing ; he is being executed 
 because he was a friend to the poor.' ' Take him 
 down ! Take him down,' they would cry out, and 
 the soldiers would have to use their spears to keep 
 them back. But when he yielded up the ghost he 
 proved to all that he was hypostatical (that is, a 
 human body), and the lodi curios had come from 
 the iclandic covenant, and his trinitatis unitas was 
 all a sham, for how could this unpronounced name 
 suffer or be captured by men, or die, unless he is the 
 one that is to die for the many ? And if so, I was 
 only accomplishing God's holy purposes, which ex- 
 onerates me from guilt. 
 
 " But it seems to me a necessity that he should be 
 removed. That this may be evident to your minds, 
 I ask you to contrast our present condition with the 
 past. Jesus of Nazareth spent two years in Egypt 
 under the instruction of Rabbi Joshua, and learned 
 the art of thaumaturgy to perfection, as has never 
 been taught in any of the schools of necromancy
 
 106 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 among the heathen. If the healing miracles of Jesus 
 are true, as they must be (for they are so acknowledged 
 by his foes as well as his friends), he must have 
 learned it from Horus and Serapis, as practised by 
 those heathen priests. He came back to Palestine 
 as a physician, and was by nature an enthusiast as 
 well as a Hebrew patriarch, and when John's preach- 
 ing excited idealistic minds, Jesus also went to that 
 teacher, and was inspired by him to inculcate and 
 promulgate his doctrines. Notwithstanding his 
 youth and inexperience, Jesus started out as a pub- 
 lic orator and teacher with the doctrines of John, 
 and in that capacity referred exclusively to his au- 
 thority, as every public teacher in these days has to 
 be ordained by some acknowledged authority. As 
 long as John was at large, Jesus in the capacity of 
 an itinerant teacher and physician roused the people 
 of Galilee to meianoia (repentance of sin), to bring 
 about a restoration of the kingdom of heaven. He 
 met with the same opposition that John did from 
 those who would not admit that they were more sin- 
 ful than their progenitors were, or that asceticism 
 was the proper means for the restoration of the king- 
 dom of heaven. But he met with the same success 
 among the lower classes, such as foreign harlots, 
 Sodomites, publicans, and other Roman agents, but 
 the intelligent portion remained cold and unmoved 
 by his enthusiasm. The cures which he performed 
 appeared miraculous to his followers, but most ridic- 
 ulous to the intelligent Jews and men of sober and 
 reflective minds.
 
 REPORT OF CAIAPHAS. 107 
 
 " Jesus embraced the humanitarian doctrine of 
 the Hillelites, presenting conspicuously the cosmo- 
 politan spirit of Judaism, and he did it almost in 
 the words of Hillel, who had taught it before. Their 
 faith and doctrine being alike, it was not hard for 
 him to create excitement, or to find plenty of follow- 
 ers. In addition to all this, he taught a system of 
 low morals, and so void of all ritualistic ideas that 
 it was easy for him to get any number of followers. 
 He taught the people that there was but one living 
 and true God, but he taught them that he was that 
 God, and that his father was merged into himself, 
 and could not manifest himself only through him, 
 which theory would confute itself if they would only 
 stop to reflect, for as he was hypostatical or corpo- 
 real, his assistance was cut off from all that was not 
 immediately in his presence, which is altogether in- 
 compatible with the faith of the Jews. Right in the 
 face of this doctrine he would teach that there was 
 a special providence, as well as a general providence, 
 as if there could be a general providence without a 
 God that could be present in all places at all times, 
 as we learn in pronouncing His name. He taught 
 that the dead will rise and live again in a future state 
 of happiness or misery according as they have lived 
 here. Therefore he taught future rewards and pun- 
 ishments ; but he being present, how could he reward 
 in the future ? He taught the revelation and the 
 prophets, but contradicted all they teach. He taught 
 the election of Israel by the Almighty, but ignored 
 all the doctrines of Israel. He taught the eternity
 
 108 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 of God's laws, and promises in the super-importance 
 of the humanitarian over the ritual laws and doc- 
 trines, but I do not think he wished to abolish the 
 latter, or even the traditional laws, but merely to 
 supersede them by a higher life. The natural result 
 of all this was that he disregarded the laws of Levit- 
 ical cleanness, which were considered so important 
 by the Shammaites and Essenes, and also by the 
 Hillelites. This is the point where division com- 
 menced, and the breach grew wider and wider until 
 an insurrection must have been the result. He so 
 far cut himself loose from the Jews that he ate with 
 unclean sinners, publicans, and lepers, and permitted 
 harlots to touch him, while his disciples went so far 
 as to eat their meals without washing themselves. 
 Furthermore, he looked upon the whole of the Leviti- 
 cal institutions, temples, sacrifices, and priesthood in- 
 cluded, as no longer necessary and not worth the life 
 of the animal. This was certainly the opinion of 
 the Hillelites. Jesus, it seems, found in this Hillelite 
 school a party furnished to hand, ready to take up 
 with his heresy (and a large party they are, almost 
 sufficient to divide the whole Jewish commonwealth). 
 They taught the repentance of sin, the practice of 
 benevolence and charity, the education of the young, 
 and good-will toward mankind, as possessing much 
 more moral worth than all the Levitical cleanness, 
 or compliance with the whole moral law given to us 
 by our God to govern us. His preaching was of 
 the parabolical style. He would rely on a text of 
 scripture, for he seemed to hold the scriptures in high
 
 REPORT OF CAIAPHAS. 109 
 
 veneration, so his preaching was on the midrash style 
 of the scribes a maxim expressed in the style of 
 Solon or of Sirach's son. His great object was to 
 come as near the Jewish theology as possible so as to 
 destroy the Jews' entirely, and establish his own. 
 Hence he resorted to the allegorical method of the 
 Egyptian Hebrews, uttering many good and wise 
 sayings, which were not new to the learned, but 
 which were taken from the common wisdom of the 
 country, which was known by all who were ac- 
 quainted with the literature of the rabbis. But 
 they were new to his class of hearers, who were not 
 accustomed to listen to the wise. He had no educa- 
 tion, comparatively speaking. He was full of ner- 
 vous excitement, all of which went to inspire his 
 hearers with enthusiasm. He took but little care of 
 his health or person ; cared not for his own relatives. 
 He travelled mostly on foot in the company of his 
 disciples and some suspicious women, and lived on 
 the charity of his friends. He seemed to take no 
 notice of the political affairs of his country ; would 
 as soon be governed by one nation as another. In 
 fact, it seemed if he had any preference it was for 
 the Romans. It seems that he became so infatuated 
 that he really thought he was the head of the king- 
 dom of heaven. This manner of preaching, along 
 with his presumption, aroused his enemies to a pow- 
 erful pitch, and it was all I could do to keep the 
 zealots from mobbing him in the temple. They had 
 no confidence in a doctrine that set the Jewish laws 
 at naught, and mocked the priesthood of God, and
 
 110 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 they with the Sadducees and scribes were not willing 
 to submit to a man who acknowledged no authority 
 higher than himself, and was seemingly endeavor- 
 ing to overturn everything that they held more 
 sacred and dearer than life. Jesus's mode and man- 
 ner were well qualified to deceive the unsuspecting. 
 * Let us have all things in common,' said he, ' and 
 he that would be greatest among you will prove his 
 greatness by rendering the greatest service to all, 
 and if any of the higher powers compel thee to go a 
 mile, let him that is compelled go ten miles.' This 
 caused him to be attacked more in his policy than 
 in his doctrine. The great question with us Jews 
 was, here are the Romans upon us ; how can we get 
 rid of them ? Jesus's idea was to let the Romans 
 alone ; it matters not who rules and governs the 
 nations ; if they abuse you, love them in return, and 
 they cannot be your enemies long ; no man can con- 
 tinue to abuse another who returns injuries with 
 love. Keep from them ; pray in secret for the re- 
 turn of the kingdom of heaven and God's grace, and 
 this will soon make all things right. ' Pay your 
 taxes,' he would say to them ; ' it is only Caesar's 
 money you pay, which is unlawful for you to have 
 unlawful on account of its idolatrous effigies.' Again, 
 he would say to his hearers, ' You cannot conquer 
 the Romans ; better convert them, and they are your 
 t xemies no longer. They already have your temple 
 in their possession ; their yoke is getting heavier every 
 day, and the more you fight against them the more 
 they will abuse you ; therefore, your only chance is
 
 REPORT OF CAIAPHAS. HI 
 
 to love them, and try to make your yoke easy and 
 your burden light by having them your friends.' 
 Indeed, the conduct of Jesus was so strange and 
 incompatible with the interest of the Jews as a 
 nation, that it seemed to me that he was a subject 
 employed by the Romans to keep the Jews submis- 
 sive and obedient to all their tyranny and abuse. 
 
 " This policy was most powerfully attacked by the 
 officiating priest, by the Shammaites and Zealots, 
 and, in fact, the whole Jewish nation was becoming 
 aroused to a war heat. The reprimands of Jesus 
 were so severe against the rich and highly educated 
 that they had turned against him, and brought all 
 the power they had, both of their wealth and talent, 
 so that I saw that a bloody insurrection was brewing 
 fast. The public mind of the Jews was becoming more 
 and more divided and corrupt ; heretical doctrines 
 were being diffused all over the land ; the temple was 
 forsaken and the holy sacraments neglected ; the peo- 
 ple were dividing into sects, and these breaches were 
 like a rent in a garment tearing wider apart con- 
 tinually. As it seemed to me, the whole of the Jew- 
 ish theocracy was about to be blown away as a bubble 
 on a breaker. 
 
 ' ' As the Jews became more and more divided and 
 confused, the tyranny of the Romans increased. All 
 they wanted was an excuse to slaughter the Jews 
 and confiscate their property. At this time both the 
 doctrine and religion of the Jews were spreading 
 rapidly all over Rome, which gave the Romans great 
 alarm. Sejane undertook to have an ordinance
 
 112 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 passed in the Senate, abolishing the Jewish religion 
 from Rome ; and when he found it would cause an 
 insurrection, they banished all the Jews from Rome, 
 and back they came to Judea with all their idolatry 
 and heresy, and many other corrupt principles from 
 the Romans, which fitted them to join any party for 
 profit. Up to this time the Roman governors had 
 shown great kindness to the Jews. There never was 
 a better man than Hyrcan. The Jews enjoyed great 
 peace during his administration. But Tiberias has 
 turned against us ; Pilate has removed the army from 
 Csesarea to Jerusalem. I say, no nation with any 
 self-respect, or one that had any energy left, would 
 or could stand it without a struggle. 
 
 " Now, the preaching of John the Baptist and 
 Jesus of Nazareth had brought all these things upon 
 us. When Herod Antipas captured John, it quieted 
 matters in Galilee, so that they had peace until Jesus 
 started it up afresh. I had issued orders to Jesus 
 to desist from preaching, unless he taught as the 
 Jews taught. He sent me the impertinent word that 
 his doctrine was not of this world, but had reference 
 to the world to come ; when he was all the time 
 doing all he could to destroy the peace and harmony 
 of this world. Now, according to our law in the 
 Saphra, by Jose. B. Talmud, it devolves on me to 
 see that the people have sound doctrine taught them. 
 Hence it is my duty to examine all the midrashim, 
 or sermons, of all the preaching priests, and if any- 
 one teach the people wrongly, or if his conduct is not 
 in correspondence with his profession, to cause him
 
 REPORT OF CATAPHAS. 113 
 
 to desist ; or if any disregard the holy laws of ablu- 
 tion, or in any way defile himself, or if he shall be 
 guilty of misconduct in any way, either in manner 
 of life or doctrine, to adjudge such an one, and pro- 
 nounce sentence for his crime upon him. This I did 
 upon Jesus of Nazareth, to save the Church from 
 heresy, and to save the cause of the Jewish common- 
 wealth from final ruin. But understand that I did 
 not act rashly nor illegally, as I am accused. I only 
 passed sentence under the protest and order of the 
 whole court belonging to the high priest, containing 
 twelve members, or elders, and priests. Thus you 
 will see it was not my voluntary act, but was a legal 
 one and in accordance with law. After I examined 
 Jesus on the various charges, he said in the presence 
 of all the court that each and all of them were true. 
 I then reasoned with him, and asked him, if the court 
 of the high priest would forgive him of these charges 
 would he desist from these things in all time to come. 
 He answered most emphatically and positively he 
 would not. Under these circumstances I was com- 
 pelled, according to our law, to sentence him to die ; 
 for if he continued to promulgate his pernicious here- 
 sies the Jews, as a nation, must perish with their re- 
 ligion. And, as you find in the Toseppta, that the 
 nation has always the right of self-preservation, and 
 as we had conceded the right to the Romans of ex- 
 ecuting our criminal laws, it became my painful duty 
 to send him to Pontius Pilate, with the following 
 charges : 
 
 8
 
 114 THE ARCHKO VOL UME. 
 
 " ' Caiaphas, High Priest of the Most High God, 
 to Pontius Pilate, Governor of the Roman Province : 
 
 " ' Jesus of Nazareth is thus charged by the High 
 Court of the Jews : 
 
 " ' First, with teaching the doctrine that there are 
 more gods than one, which is contrary to the teach- 
 ings of the Jewish law, which he most positively re- 
 fuses to desist from in the presence of this court. 
 
 " ' Second, he teaches that he is a God, which is 
 contrary to the Jewish law, and he is visible and 
 comprehensible ; and, after being asked to desist by 
 this court, he most positively affirms that he is the 
 Son of God. 
 
 " ' Third, he teaches and affirms that the Bath kole 
 (Holy Spirit) cannot come until he goes away, which 
 is contrary to the teachings of the Jews ; because it 
 was He that brooded over the waters, and has been 
 in the habitual light of the world ever since ; from 
 all of which he refuses to desist. 
 
 " ' He teaches baptism as the seal of God, instead 
 of circumcision, which was established by the decrees 
 of God with Abraham as a seal of the Jews ; and 
 when abjured to desist by this court declared he 
 would not. 
 
 " ' He teaches asceticism as the means of salvation, 
 contrary to the Jewish custom ; and affirmed in the 
 presence of this court he would not desist. 
 
 " ' He teachds that the Levitical ablution is of no 
 service, while we hold that the outward washing is 
 the sign of inward purity ; and when abjured to 
 desist he emphatically refused.
 
 REPORT OF CAIAPHAS. 115 
 
 " ' He has abrogated the ordinance given by God 
 to Moses of the pascal supper, wherein we should 
 roast a lamb and eat it with unleavened bread ; but 
 Jesus has introduced a custom altogether diSerent 
 without any authority. He has introduced common 
 bread and wine, which are not only forbidden, but are 
 well qualified to excite men's passions and make them 
 forget God rather than to remember and trust Him, 
 this feast having been introduced that we should 
 remember to trust Him in the hours of trouble. 
 When asked why he did this, all he would say was : 
 " Hitherto I work, and my Father works." 
 
 " ' He has abrogated the priesthood, and set the 
 temple at naught, which is the very life's blood of 
 the Jewish faith. 
 
 " ' Were it not that God our Father has given us 
 these holy ordinances we would not be so tenacious 
 of them. We know they are the pillars upon which 
 the Jewish theocracy is built, and that we cannot 
 live without them. Although Jesus of Nazareth has 
 been abjured time and again to stop teaching these 
 ways of death, he has as often declared he would 
 not ; therefore it devolves on me as the proper and 
 the only officer to pronounce sentence upon him.' 
 
 " These charges were written by my scribe, and 
 sent with the officers to Pilate for his consent. Of 
 course, I did not expect him to execute him as he 
 did. but it seems that the mob was so great that 
 Pilate never received them. I expected Pilate to 
 send Jesus back to me, so that I could send him to
 
 116 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 you for your approval ; and if so, then I would pro- 
 ceed to try him with Urim and Thummim, with the 
 regular lacktees on guard, as our law requires ; but 
 't seems that Pilate thirsted for his blood. Like all 
 guilty tyrants, he was afraid of his own shadow, and 
 wished to destroy everything that threatened his 
 power. 
 
 " With these reasons for my actions, I submit the 
 case which I am sure will be considered favorably by 
 my Masters of Israel."
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 REPORT OF CAIAPHAS TO THE SANHEDRIM CON- 
 CERNING THE RESURRECTION OP JESUS. 
 
 AFTER having made the preceding record of 
 Caiaphas, on unwinding the same scroll we found 
 another report from him. It may be interesting to 
 the reader to know what we mean by a scroll. It is 
 similar to parchment. The Hebrew word numet 
 means a pulp made from the bark of the reed into 
 a paste, and dried in the sun until it is hard ; when 
 pressed and polished it shines beautifully, and its 
 surface is as smooth as our paper. It is of two kinds : 
 one is called papyrus, the other hierotike. The latter 
 is more costly, and is used by priests alone. It is 
 about sixteen inches wide, and is cemented together 
 by a gum that exudes from a tree resembling our elm. 
 It is written upon with some kind of indelible ink 
 or paint, with a common reed quill, which is fash- 
 ioned like our pens. The writing is done by the 
 sopher, which is the Hebrew word for scribe. He is 
 called grammateus by the Greeks. The report of 
 Caiaphas is written in what is known as the square 
 Hebrew. The letters are from a half-inch to an 
 inch in size, so that one can imagine what a roll of 
 
 (117)
 
 1 1 8 THE ARCHKO VOL UME. 
 
 parchment it would take to record a deed It is read 
 only with difficulty by the best Hebrew scholars, and 
 they must have text-books to assist them. But after 
 one has gotten the thread of the subject he can get 
 along with it. This is the reason I got Dr. Mclntosh 
 to go with me. He and Dr. Twyman have been in 
 the business i'or many years. The windlass, as it 
 might be called (for it more resembles our common 
 rope- winders than anything I can think of), is a 
 square piece of timber, about three inches in diame- 
 ter, to which the scroll is fastened at one end, around 
 which it is rolled like a spool. At the proper dis- 
 tance are tied two transverse sticks to hold the parch- 
 ment to its proper place. The windlass with the 
 scroll is placed at one end of a table, and an empty 
 windlass at the other end, so that as you unwind 
 from the one to read, the scroll winds around the 
 other. The letters are very distinct. There are 
 hundreds of these arranged in rows. They are all 
 lettered and numbered with their dates on them. 
 This makes it easy to find anything desired. There 
 is another class of books of fine sheep or goat skin, 
 about eight by twelve inches. The writing on these 
 is very fine and difficult to read. They are bound 
 between cedar boards, with clasps, and contain from 
 eight to forty sheets to the book. These are the kind 
 of books of which Josephus wrote seventy-two. 
 
 But to return to Caiaphas's report. After unwind- 
 ing several feet, as before stated, we came across- 
 another communication from Caiaphas ; I hardly 
 know whether to call it a resignation or a confession.
 
 CAIAPHAS ON THE RESURRECTION. H9 
 
 One thing I do know, it is one of the most solemn 
 things that I have ever read. We thanked God 
 that we had come to Constantinople, and that Mo- 
 hammed had given orders to preserve these sacred 
 scrolls in the mosque of St. Sophia. It is as follows t 
 
 "Sanhedrim, 89. By Siphri II, 7.: 
 
 " To You, Masters of Israel : As I have made a 
 former defence to you, and you have approved the 
 same, I feel in duty bound to communicate to you 
 some facts that have come to my knowledge since 
 that communication. A few days after the execution 
 of Jesus of Nazareth the report of his resurrection 
 from the dead became so common that I found it 
 necessary to investigate it, because the excitement 
 was more intense than before, and my own life as 
 well as that of Pilate was in danger. I sent for 
 Malkus, the captain of the royal city guard, who 
 informed me he knew nothing personally, as he had 
 placed Isham in command of the guard ; but from 
 what he could learn from the soldiers the scene was 
 awe-inspiring, and the report was so generally be- 
 lieved that it was useless to deny it. He thought 
 my only chance was to suppress it among the soldiers, 
 and have John and Peter banished to Crete, or 
 arrested and imprisoned, and if they would not be 
 quiet, to treat them as I had treated Jesus. He said 
 that all the soldiers he had conversed with were con- 
 vinced that Jesus was resurrected by supernatural 
 power and was still living, and that he way no hu- 
 man being, for the light and the angels and the dead 
 that came out of their graves all went to prove that
 
 120 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 something had happened that never occurred on 
 earth before. He said that John and Peter were 
 spreading it all over the country, and that if Jesus 
 would appear at the head of a host, and declare for 
 the king of the Jews, he believed all the Jews would 
 fight for him. I sent for the lieutenant, who gave a 
 lengthy account of the occurrence that morning, all 
 of which I suppose you have learned, and will inves- 
 tigate. From this I am convinced that something 
 transcending the laws of nature took place that 
 morning, that cannot be accounted for upon natural 
 laws, and I find it is useless to try to get any of the 
 soldiers to deny it, for they are so excited that they 
 cannot be reasoned with. I regret that I had the 
 soldiers placed at the tomb, for the very things that 
 they were to prevent they have helped to establish. 
 " After questioning the soldiers and officers to my 
 satisfaction, my mind being so disturbed that I could 
 neither eat nor sleep, I sent for John and Peter. 
 They came and brought Mary and Joanna, who are 
 the women that went to embalm Jesus's body the 
 morning of the resurrection, as it is called. They 
 were very interesting as they related the circum- 
 stances. Mary says that when they went day was 
 just breaking. They met the soldiers returning from 
 the sepulchre, and saw nothing strange until they 
 came to the tomb, and found that it was empty. The 
 stone that covered the sepulchre was rolled to one 
 side, and two men dressed in flowing white were sit- 
 ting, one at each end of the sepulchre. Mary asked 
 them where was her Lord ; they said, ' He is risen
 
 CAIAPHAS ON THE RESURRECTION. 121 
 
 from the dead ; did he not tell you he would rise the 
 third day and show himself to the people, to prove 
 that he was the Lord of life ?' Go tell his disciples, 
 said they. Joanna said she saw but one man ; but 
 this discrepancy must have been due to their excite- 
 ment, because they say they were much alarmed. 
 They both say that as they returned they met the 
 Master, who told them that he was the resurrection 
 and the life ; all that will accept shall be resurrected 
 from the second death. ' We fell at his feet, all 
 bathed in tears, and when we rose up he was gone.' 
 Both these women wept for joy while relating these 
 circumstances, and John shouted aloud, which made 
 me tremble in every limb, for I could not help think- 
 ing that something that was the exclusive work of 
 God had occurred, but what it all meant was a great 
 mystery to me. It might be, I said, that God had 
 sent this message by the mouth of this stranger ; it 
 might be that he was the seed of the woman, and we 
 his people had executed him. 
 
 " I asked John and Peter if they could give me 
 any further evidence in regard to this man ; that I 
 wished to be informed of his private history. Peter 
 said that Jesus passed by where he was, and bade 
 him follow him, and he felt attracted to him, but at 
 first it was more through curiosity than anything in 
 the man ; that he soon became acquainted with Mary, 
 who told him that he was her son, and related to him 
 the strange circumstances of his birth, and that she 
 was convinced that he was to be the king of the Jews. 
 She spoke of many strange things concerning his life,
 
 122 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 which made Peter feel more interested in him than he 
 would have been otherwise. He said that Jesus was a 
 man so pleasant in his character, and so like a child 
 in innocence, that no one could help liking him after 
 he got acquainted with him ; that though he seemed 
 to be stern and cold, he was not so in reality ; that 
 he was exceedingly kind, especially to the poor ; 
 that he would make any sacrifice for the sick and 
 needy, and would spare no effort to impart knowl- 
 edge to anyone that would call on him, and that his 
 knowledge was so profound that he had seen him 
 interrogated by the most learned doctors of the law, 
 and he always gave the most perfect satisfaction, and 
 that the sopher or scribes, and the Hillelites, and 
 Shammaites were afraid to open their mouths in his 
 presence. They had attacked him so often and been 
 repelled that they shunned him as they would a 
 wolf ; but when he had repelled them he did not 
 enioy the triumph as they did over others of whom 
 they had gotten the ascendency. As to his private 
 life, he seemed not to be a man of pleasure, nor of sor- 
 row. He mingled with society to benefit it, and yet 
 took no part at all in what was going on. ' I had 
 heard many tell of what occurred when he was bap- 
 tized, and from what his mother told me I was watch- 
 ing for a display of his divine power, if he had any, 
 for I knew he could never be king of the Jews 
 unless he did have help from on high. Once when 
 we were attending a marriage-feast the wine gave 
 out, and his mother told him of it, and he said 
 to the men to fill up some water-pots that were
 
 CAIAPHAS ON THE RESURRECTION. 123 
 
 sitting near, and they put in nothing but water, for 
 I watched them, but when they poured it out it 
 was wine, for it was tasted by all at the feast, and 
 when the master found it out he called for Jesus to 
 honor him, but he had disappeared. It seemed that 
 he did not want to be popular, and this spirit dis- 
 pleased us, for we knew if he was to be king of the 
 Jews he must become popular with the Jews. His 
 behavior angered his mother, for she was doing all 
 she could to bring him into notice, and to make him 
 popular among the people, and the people could not 
 help liking him when they saw him. Another pecu- 
 liarity was that in his presence everyone felt safe. 
 There seemed to be an almighty power pervading 
 the air wherever he went so that everyone felt secure, 
 and believed that no harm could befall them if Jesus 
 were present. As we were in our fishing-boat I saw 
 Jesus coming out toward us, walking on the water. 
 I knew that if he could make the waves support 
 him, he could me also. I asked him if I might conle 
 to him ; he said to me to come, but when I saw the 
 waves gathering around me I began to sink, and 
 asked him to help me. He lifted me up, a'nd told 
 me to have faith in God. On another occasion we 
 were sailing on the sea, and there was a great storm. 
 It blew at a fearful rate, and all on board thought 
 they would be lost ; we awakened the master, and 
 when he saw the raging of the storm he stretched 
 out his hand and said, " Peace, be still !" and the 
 wind ceased to blow, the thunder stopped, the light- 
 nings withdrew, and the billowing sea seemed as
 
 124 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 quiet as a babe in its mother's arms all done in one 
 moment of time. This I saw with my own eyes, and 
 from that time I was convinced that he was not a 
 common man. Neither did he work by enchantment 
 like the Egyptian thaumaturgists, for in all their 
 tricks they never attack the laws of nature. In vain 
 might they order the thunder to hush, or the winds to 
 abate, or the lightnings to cease their flashing. Again, 
 I saw this man while we were passing from Jericho. 
 There was a blind man, who cried out to him for 
 mercy, and Jesus said to me, " Go, bring him near," 
 and when I brought him near Jesus asked him what 
 he wanted. He said he wanted to see him. Jesus 
 said, " Receive thy sight," when he was not near 
 enough for Jesus to lay his hands upon him or use 
 any art. Thus were all his miracles performed. He 
 did not act as the Egyptian necromancers. They 
 use vessels, such as cups, bags, and jugs, and many 
 other things to deceive. Jesus used nothing but his 
 simple speech in such a way that all could understand 
 him, and it seemed as if the laws of nature were his 
 main instruments of action, and that nature was as 
 obedient to him as a slave is to his master. I recall 
 another occasion when a young man was dead, and 
 Jesus loved his sisters. One of them went with Jesus 
 to the tomb. He commanded it to be uncovered. 
 The sister said, " Master, by this time he is offensive ; 
 he has been dead four days." Jesus said, " Only have 
 faith," and he called the young man by name, and he 
 came forth out of the tomb, and is living to-day,' and 
 Peter proposed that I should see him for myself.
 
 CAIAPHAS ON THE RESURRECTION. 125 
 
 " Thus argue Peter and John. If Jesus had such 
 power over nature and nature's laws, and power over 
 death in others, he would have such power over death 
 that he could lay down his life and take it up again, 
 as he said he would do. As he proposes to bring hun- 
 dreds of witnesses to prove all he says, and much more 
 witnesses whose veracity cannot be doubted and 
 as I had heard many of these things before from differ- 
 ent men, both friends and foes (and although these 
 things are related by his friends that is, the friends 
 of Jesus yet these men talk like men of truth, and 
 their testimony corroborates other evidence that I 
 have from other sources, that convinces me that this 
 is something that should not be rashly dealt with), 
 and seeing the humble trust and confidence of these 
 men and women, besides, as John says, thousands of 
 others equally strong in their belief, it throws me 
 into great agitation. I feel some dreadful forebod- 
 ing a weight upon my heart. I cannot feel as a 
 criminal from the fact that I was acting according 
 to my best judgment with the evidence before me. 
 I feel that I was acting in defence of God and my 
 country, which I love better than my life, and if I 
 was mistaken, I was honest in my mistake. And as 
 we teach that honesty of purpose gives character to 
 the action, on this basis I shall try to clear myself of 
 any charge, yet there is a conscious fear about my 
 heart, so that I have no rest day or night. I feel 
 sure that if I should meet Jesus I would fall dead 
 at his feet ; and it seemed to me if I went out I 
 should be sure to meet him.
 
 126 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 " In this state of conscious dread I remained in- 
 vestigating the Scriptures to know more about the 
 prophecies concerning this man, but found nothing 
 to satisfy my mind. I locked my door and gave the 
 guards orders to let no one in without first giving me 
 notice. While thus engaged, with no one in the 
 room but my wife and Annas, her father, when I 
 lifted up my eyes, behold Jesus of Nazareth stood 
 before me. My breath stopped, my blood ran cold, 
 and I was in the act of falling, when he spoke and 
 said, ' Be not afraid, it is I. You condemned me 
 that you might go free. This is the work of my 
 Father. Your only wrong is, you have a wicked 
 heart ; this you must repent of. This last lamb 
 you have slain is the one that was appointed before 
 the foundation ; this sacrifice is made for all men. 
 Your other lambs were for those who offered them ; 
 this is for all,, this is the last ; it is for you if you 
 will accept it. I died that you and all mankind 
 might be saved.' At this he looked at me with such 
 melting tenderness that it seemed to me I was noth- 
 ing but tears, and my strength was all gone. I fell 
 on my face at his feet as one that was dead. When 
 Annas lifted me up Jesus was gone, and the door 
 still locked. No one could tell when or where he 
 went. 
 
 " So, noble Masters, I do not feel that I can offici- 
 ate as priest any more. If this strange personage is 
 from God, and should prove to be the Saviour we 
 have looked for so long, and I have been the means 
 of crucifying him, I have no further offerings to
 
 CAIAPHAS ON THE RESURRECTION. 127 
 
 make for sin ; but I will wait and see how these 
 things will develop. And if he proves to be the 
 ruler that we are looking for, they will soon develop 
 into something more grand in the future. His glory 
 will increase ; his influence will spread wider and 
 wider, until the whole earth shall be full of his glory, 
 and all the kingdoms of the world shall be his do- 
 minion. Such are the teachings of the prophets on 
 this subject. Therefore you will appoint Jonathan, 
 or some one, to fill the holy place." 
 
 [We found that, soon after, Jonathan became high 
 priest, though history teaches us differently. 
 MAHAN.]
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 VALLEUS'S NOTES. ACTA PILATI, OR PILATE'S RE- 
 PORT TO C.ESAR OF THE AREEST, TRIAL, AND 
 CRUCIFIXION OF JESUS. 
 
 VALLEUS PATERCULUS, a Roman historian, was 
 nineteen years old when Jesus was born. His works 
 have been thought to be extinct. I know of but 
 two historians that make reference to his writings, 
 Priscian and Tacitus, who speak of him as a de- 
 scendant of an equestrian fainily of Campania. 
 From what we gather from these writers, Valleus 
 must have been a close friend of Caesar, who raised 
 him by degrees until he became one of the great men 
 of Rome, and for sixteen years commanded the army. 
 He returned to Rome in the year 31 and finished 
 his work, which was called Historic/, Romania. He 
 held the office of praetor when Augustus died, and 
 while Vinceus was consul. 
 
 Valleus says that in Judea he met a man called 
 Jesus of Nazareth, who was one of the most re- 
 markable characters he had ever seen ; that he was 
 more afraid of Jesus than of a whole army, for he 
 cured all manner of diseases and raised the dead, 
 and when he cursed the orchards or fruit-trees for 
 (128)
 
 PILATE'S REPORT. 129 
 
 their barrenness, they instantly withered to their 
 roots. After referring to the wonderful works of 
 Jesus, he says that, although Jesus had such power, 
 he did not use it to injure any one, but seemed always 
 inclined to help the poor. Valleus says the Jews 
 were divided in their opinion of him, the poorer class 
 claiming him as their king and their deliverer from 
 Roman authority, and that if Jesus should raise an 
 army and give it the power he could sweep the 
 world in a single day ; but the rich Jews hated and 
 cursed him behind his back, and called him an 
 Egyptian necromancer, though they were as afraid 
 of him as of death ( Valleus Paterculus, B. 72, found 
 in the Vatican at Rome). 
 
 PILATE'S REPORT. 
 
 " To TIBERIUS CAESAR, EMPEROR OF ROME. 
 
 "Noble Sovereign, Greeting : The events of the last 
 few days in my province have been of such a char- 
 acter that I will give the details in full as they 
 occurred, as I should not be surprised if, in the 
 course of time, they may change the destiny of our 
 nation, for it seems of late that all the gods have 
 ceased to be propitious. I am almost ready to say, 
 Cursed be the day that I succeeded Vallerius Flaceus 
 in the government of Judea ; for since then my life 
 has been one of continual uneasiness and distress. 
 
 " On my arrival at Jerusalem I took possession 
 of the prsetorium, and ordered a splendid feast to be
 
 130 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 prepared, to which I invited the tetrarch of Galilee, 
 with the high priest and his officers. At the ap- 
 pointed hour no guests appeared. This I considered 
 an insult offered to my dignity, and to the whole 
 government which I represent. A few days after 
 the high priest deigned to pay me a visit. His de- 
 portment was grave and deceitful. He pretended 
 that his religion forbade him and his attendants to 
 sit at the table of the Romans, and eat and oSer liba- 
 tions with them, but this was only a sanctimonious 
 seeming, for his very countenance betrayed his hypoc- 
 risy. Although I thought it expedient to accept 
 his excuse, from that moment I was convinced 
 that the conquered had declared themselves the 
 enemy of the conquerors ; and I would warn the 
 Romans to beware of the high priests of this coun- 
 try. They would betray their own mother to gain 
 office and a luxurious living. It seems to me that, 
 of conquered cities, Jerusalem is the most difficult 
 to govern. So turbulent are the people that I live 
 in momentary dread of an insurrection. I have not 
 soldiers sufficient to suppress it. I had only one 
 centurian and a hundred men at my command. I 
 requested a reinforcement from the prefect of Syria, 
 who informed me that he had scarcely troops suffi- 
 cient to defend his own province. An insatiate thirst 
 for conquest to extend our empire beyond the means 
 of defending it, I fear, will be the cause of the final 
 overthrow of our whole government. I lived secluded 
 from the masses, for I did not know what those priests 
 might influence the rabble to do ; yet I endeavored
 
 PILATE'S REPORT. 131 
 
 to ascertain, as far as I could, the mind and standing 
 of the people. 
 
 "Among the various rumors that came to my ears 
 there was one in particular that attracted my atten- 
 tion. A young man, it was said, had appeared in 
 Galilee preaching with a noble unction a new law in 
 the name of the God that had sent him. At first I 
 was apprehensive that his design was to stir up the 
 people against the Romans, but my fears were soon 
 dispelled. Jesus of Nazareth spoke rather as friend 
 of the Romans than of the Jews. One day in pass- 
 ing by the place of Siloe, where there was a great 
 concourse of people, I observed in the midst of the 
 group a young man who was leaning against a tree, 
 calmly addressing the multitude. I was told it was 
 Jesus. This I could easily have suspected, so great 
 was the difference between him and those listening 
 to him. His golden-colored hair and beard gave to 
 his appearance a celestial aspect. He appeared to 
 be about thirty years of age. Never have I seen a 
 sweeter or more serene countenance. What a con- 
 trast between him and his hearers, with their black 
 beards and tawny complexions ! 
 
 " Unwilling to interrupt him by my presence, I 
 continued my walk, but signified to my secretary to 
 join the group and listen. My secretary's name is 
 Manlius. He is the grandson of the chief of the 
 conspirators who encamped in Etruria waiting for 
 Cataline. Manlius had been for a long time an in- 
 habitant of Judea, and is well acquainted with the 
 Hebrew language. He was devoted to me, and
 
 132 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 worthy of my confidence. On entering the praeto- 
 rium I found Manlius, who related to me the words 
 Jesus had pronounced at Siloe. Never have I read 
 in the works of the philosophers anything that can 
 compare to the maxims of Jesus. One of the rebel- 
 lious Jews, so numerous in Jerusalem, having asked 
 Jesus if it was lawful to give tribute to Csesar, he 
 replied : ' Render unto Csesar the things that belong 
 to Caesar, and unto God the things that are God's.' 
 
 " It was on account of the wisdom of his sayings 
 that I granted so much liberty to the Nazarene ; for 
 it was in my power to have had him arrested, and 
 exiled to Pontus ; but that would have been contrary 
 to the justice which has always characterized the 
 Roman government in all its dealings with men ; 
 this man was neither seditious nor rebellious ; I ex- 
 tended to him my protection, unknown perhaps to 
 himself. He was at liberty to act, to speak, to assem- 
 ble and address the people, and to choose disciples, 
 unrestrained by any praetorian mandate. Should it 
 ever happen (may the gods avert the omen !), should 
 it ever happen, I say, that the religion of our fore- 
 fathers will be supplanted by the religion of Jesus, 
 it will be to this noble toleration that Rome shall 
 owe her premature death, while I, miserable wretch, 
 will have been the instrument of what the Jews 
 call Providence, and we call destiny. 
 
 " This unlimited freedom granted to Jesus pro- 
 voked the Jews not the poor, but the rich and pow- 
 erful. It is true, Jesus was severe on the latter, and 
 this was a political reason, in my opinion, for not
 
 PILATE' 'S REPORT. 133 
 
 restraining the liberty of the Nazarene. ' Scribes 
 and Pharisees,' he would say to them, ' you are a 
 race of vipers ; you resemble painted sepulchres ; 
 you appear well unto men, but you have death within 
 you.' At other times he would sneer at the alms of 
 the rich and proud, telling them that the mite of the 
 poor was more precious in the sight of God. Com- 
 plaints were daily made at the prsetorium against the 
 insolence of Jesus. 
 
 " I was even informed that some misfortune would 
 befall him ; that it would not be the first time that 
 Jerusalem had stoned those who called themselves 
 prophets ; an appeal would be made to Csesar. How- 
 ever, my conduct was approved by the Senate, and 
 I was promised a reinforcement after the termination 
 of the Parthian war. 
 
 " Being too weak to suppress an insurrection, I 
 resolved upon adopting a measure that promised to 
 restore the tranquillity of the city without subjecting 
 the praetorium to humiliating concession. I wrote to 
 Jesus requesting an interview with him at the prseto- 
 rium. He came. You know that in my veins flows 
 the Spanish mixed with Roman blood as incapable 
 of fear as it is of weak emotion. When the Naza- 
 rene made his appearance, I was walking in my 
 basilic, and my f set seemed fastened with an iron 
 hand to the marble pavement, and I trembled in 
 every limb as does a guilty culprit, though the Naza- 
 rene was as calm as innocence itself. When he came 
 up to me he stopped, and by a signal sign he seemed 
 to say to me, ' I am here,' though he spoke not a word.
 
 134 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 For some time I contemplated with admiration and 
 awe this extraordinary type of man a type of man 
 unknown to our numerous painters, who have given 
 form and figure to all the gods and the heroes. There 
 was nothing about him that was repelling in its char- 
 acter, yet I felt too awed and tremulous to approach 
 him. 
 
 " ' Jesus,' said I unto him at last and my tongue 
 faltered ' Jesus of Nazareth, for the last three 
 years I have granted you ample freedom of speech ; 
 nor do I regret it. Your words are those of a sage. 
 I know not whether you have read Socrates or Plato, 
 but this I know, there is in your discourses a majes- 
 tic simplicity that elevates you far above those phi- 
 losophers. The Emperor is informed of it, and I, 
 his humble representative in this country, am glad 
 of having allowed you that liberty of which you are 
 so worthy. However, I must not conceal from you 
 that your discourses have raised up against you 
 powerful and inveterate enemies. Nor is this sur- 
 prising. Socrates had his enemies, and he fell a vic- 
 tim to their hatred. Yours are doubly incensed 
 against you on account of your discourses being so 
 severe upon their conduct ; against me on account 
 of the liberty I have afforded you. They even ac- 
 cuse me of being indirectly leagued with you for the 
 purpose of depriving the Hebrews of the little civil 
 power which Rome has left them. My request I 
 do not say my order is, that you be more circum- 
 spect and moderate in your discourses in the future, 
 and more considerate of them, lest you arouse the
 
 PILATE'S REPORT. 135 
 
 pride of your enemies, and they raise against you the 
 stupid populace, and compel me to employ the instru- 
 ments of law.' 
 
 " The Nazarene calmly replied : ' Prince of the 
 earth, your words proceed not from true wisdom. 
 Say to the torrent to stop in the midst of the moun- 
 tain-gorge : it will uproot the trees of the valley. 
 The torrent will answer you that it obeys the laws 
 of nature and the Creator. God alone knows whither 
 flow the waters of the torrent. Verily I say unto- 
 you, before the rose of Sharon blossoms the blood of 
 the just shall be spilt.' 
 
 " ' Your blood shall not be spilt,' said I, with deep 
 emotion ; ' you are more precious in my estimation 
 on account of your wisdom than all the turbulent 
 and proud Pharisees who abuse the freedom granted 
 them by the Romans. They conspire against Caesar, 
 and convert his bounty into fear, impressing the un- 
 learned that Caesar is a tyrant and seeks their ruin. 
 Insolent wretches ! they are not aware that the wolf 
 of the Tiber sometimes clothes himself with the skin 
 of the sheep to accomplish his wicked designs. I 
 will protect you against them. My prsetorium shall 
 be an asylum, sacred both day and night.' 
 
 " Jesus carelessly shook his head, and said with a 
 grave and divine smile : ' When the day shall have 
 come there will be no asylums for the son of man, 
 neither in the earth nor under the earth. The asy- 
 lum of the just is there,' pointing to the heavens. 
 ' That which is written in the books of the prophets 
 must be accomplished.'
 
 136 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 " ' Young man,' I answered, mildly, ' you will 
 oblige me to convert my request into an order. The 
 safety of the province which has been confided to 
 my care requires it. You must observe more mod- 
 eration in your discourses. Do not infringe my 
 order. You know the consequences. May happiness 
 attend you ; farewell.' 
 
 " ' Prince of the earth,' replied Jesus, ' I come not 
 to bring war into the world, but peace, love, and 
 charity. I was born the same day on which Augus- 
 tus Caesar gave peace to the Roman world. Perse- 
 cutions proceed not from me. I expect it from others, 
 and will meet it in obedience to the will of my Father, 
 who has shown me the way. Restrain, therefore, 
 your worldly prudence. It is not in your power to 
 arrest the victim at the foot of the tabernacle of 
 expiation.' 
 
 " So saying, he disappeared like a bright shadow 
 behind the curtains of the basilic to my great relief, 
 for I felt a heavy burden on me, of which I could 
 not relieve myself while in his presence. 
 
 ' ' To Herod, who then reigned in Galilee, the ene- 
 mies of Jesus addressed themselves, to wreak their 
 vengeance on the Nazarene. Had Herod consulted 
 his own inclinations, he would have ordered Jesus 
 immediately to be put to death ; but, though proud 
 of his royal dignity, yet he hesitated to commit 
 an act that might lessen his influence with the 
 Senate, or, like me, was afraid of Jesus. But 
 it would never do for a Roman officer to be scared 
 by a Jew. Previously to this, Herod called on me
 
 PILATE'S REPORT. 137 
 
 at the prsetorium, and, on rising to take leave, after 
 some trifling conversation, asked me what was my 
 opinion concerning the Nazarene. I replied that 
 Jc>us appeared to me to be one of those great philos- 
 ophers that great nations sometimes produced ; that 
 his doctrines were by no means sacrilegious, and that 
 the intentions of Rome were to leave him to that 
 freedom of speech which was justified by his actions. 
 Herod smiled maliciously, and, saluting me with 
 ironical respect, departed. 
 
 " The great feast of the Jews was approaching, 
 and the intention was to avail themselves of the pop- 
 ular exultation which always manifests itself at the 
 solemnities of a passover. The city was overflow- 
 ing with a tumultuous populace, clamoring for the 
 death of the Xazarene. My emissaries informed 
 me that the treasure of the temple had been em- 
 ployed in bribing the people. The danger was press- 
 ing. A Roman centurion had been insulted. I 
 wrote to the Prefect of Syria for a hundred foot- 
 soldiers and as many cavalry. He declined. I saw 
 myself alone with a handful of veterans in the midst 
 of a rebellious city, too weak to suppress an upris- 
 ing, and having no choice left but to tolerate it. 
 They had seized upon Jesus, and the seditious rab- 
 ble, although they had nothing to fear from the prse- 
 torium, believing, as their leaders had told them, that 
 I winked at their sedition continued vociferating : 
 ' Crucify him ! Crucify him !' 
 
 " Three powerful parties had combined together 
 at that time against Jesus : First, the Herodians and
 
 138 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 the Sadducees, whose seditious conduct seemed to 
 have proceeded from double motives : they hated the 
 Nazarene and were impatient of the Roman yoke. 
 They never forgave me for having entered the holy 
 city with banners that bore the image of the Roman 
 emperor ; and although in this instance I had com- 
 mitted a fatal error, yet the sacrilege did not appear 
 less heinous in their eyes. Another grievance also 
 rankled in their bosoms. I had proposed to employ 
 a part of the treasure of the temple in erecting edi- 
 fices for public use. My proposal was scorned. The 
 Pharisees were the avowed enemies of Jesus. They 
 cared not for the government. They bore with bit- 
 terness the severe reprimands which the Nazarene 
 for three years had been continually giving them 
 wherever he went. Timid and too weak to act by 
 themselves, they had embraced the quarrels of the 
 Herodians and the Sadducees. Besides these three 
 parties, I had to contend against the reckless and 
 profligate populace, always ready to join a sedition, 
 and to profit by the disorder and confusion that 
 resulted therefrom. 
 
 " Jesus was dragged before the High Priest and 
 condemned to death. It was then that the High 
 Priest, Caiaphas, performed a divisory act of submis- 
 sion. He sent his prisoner to me to confirm his con- 
 demnation and secure his execution. I answered 
 him that, as Jesus was a Galilean, the affair came 
 under Herod's jurisdiction, and ordered him to be sent 
 thither. The wily tetrarch professed humility, and, 
 protesting his deference to the lieutenant of CaBsar,
 
 PILATE'S REPORT. 139 
 
 he committed the fate of the man to my hands. 
 Soon my palace assumed the aspect of a besieged 
 citadel. Every moment increased the number of 
 the malcontents. Jerusalem was inundated with 
 crowds from the mountains of Nazareth. All Judea 
 appeared to be pouring into the city. 
 
 I had taken a wife from among the Gauls, who 
 pretended to see into futurity. Weeping and throw- 
 ing herself at my feet she said to me : ' Beware, beware, 
 and touch not that man ; for he is holy. Last night I 
 saw him in a vision. He was walking on the waters ; 
 he was flying on the wings of the wind. He spoke 
 to the tempest and to the fishes of the lake ; all were 
 obedient to him. Behold, the torrent in Mount Ked- 
 rou flows with blood, the statues of Csesar are filled 
 with gemonide ; the columns of the interium have 
 given away, and the sun is veiled in mourning like a 
 vestal in the tomb. Ah ! Pilate, evil awaits thee. If 
 thou wilt not listen to the vows of thy wife, dread 
 the curse of a Roman Senate ; dread the frowns 
 of Csesar.' 
 
 " By this time the marble stairs groaned under 
 the weight of the multitude. The Nazarene was 
 brought back to me. I proceeded to the halls of 
 justice, followed by my guard, and asked the people 
 in a severe tone what they demanded. 
 
 " ' The death of the Nazarene,' was the reply. 
 
 " ' For what crime ?' 
 
 '"He has blasphemed ; he has prophesied the ruin 
 of the temple ; he calls himself the Son of God, the 
 Messiah, the King of the Jews.'
 
 140 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 " ' Roman justice,' said I, ' punishes not such 
 oSences with death.' 
 
 " ' Crucify him ! Crucify him !' cried the relent- 
 less rabble. The vociferations of the infuriated mob 
 shook the palace to its foundations. 
 
 " There was but one who appeared to be calm in 
 the midst of the vast multitude ; it was the Naza- 
 rene. After many fruitless attempts to protect him 
 from the fury of his merciless persecutors, I adopted 
 a measure which at the moment appeared to me 
 to be the only one that could save his life. I pro- 
 posed, as it was their custom to deliver a prisoner 
 on such occasions, to release Jesus and let him go 
 free, that he might be the scapegoat, as they called 
 it ; but they said Jesus must be crucified. I then 
 spoke to them of the inconsistency of their course as 
 being incompatible with their laws, showing that no 
 criminal judge could pass sentence on a criminal 
 unless he had fasted one whole day ; and that the sen- 
 tence must have the consent of the Sanhedrim, and the 
 signature of the president of that court ; that no 
 criminal could be executed on the same day his sen- 
 tence was fixed, and the next day, on the day of his 
 execution, the Sanhedrim was required to review the 
 whole proceeding ; also, according to their law, a 
 man was stationed at the door of the court with a 
 flag, and another a short way off on horseback to cry 
 the name of the criminal and his crime, and the names 
 of his witnesses, and to know if any one could testify 
 in his favor ; and the prisoner on his way to execu- 
 tion had the right to turn back three times, and to
 
 PILATE'S REPORT. 141 
 
 plead any new thing in his favor. I urged all these 
 pleas, hoping they might awe them into subjection ; 
 but they still cried, ' Crucify him ! Crucify him !' 
 
 " I then ordered Jesus to be scourged, hoping this 
 might satisfy them ; but it only increased their fury. 
 I then called for a basin, and washed my hands in 
 the presence of the clamorous multitude, thus testify- 
 ing that in my judgment Jesus of Nazareth had done 
 nothing deserving of death ; but in vain. It was his 
 life these wretches thirsted for. 
 
 " Often in our civil commotions have I witnessed 
 the furious anger of the multitude, but nothing could 
 be compared to what I witnessed on this occasion. 
 It might have been truly said that all the phantoms 
 of the infernal regions had assembled at Jerusalem. 
 The crowd appeared not to walk, but to be borne off 
 and whirled as a vortex, rolling along in living waves 
 from the portals of the prsetoriuni even unto Mount 
 Zion, with howling screams, shrieks, and vocifera- 
 tions such as were never heard in the seditions of 
 the Pannonia, or in the tumults of the forum. 
 
 " By degrees the day darkened like a winter's 
 twilight, such as had been at the death of the great 
 Julius Csesar. It was likewise the Ides of March. 
 I, the continued governor of a rebellious province, 
 was leaning against a column of my basilic, contem- 
 plating athwart the dreary gloom these fiends of Tar- 
 tarus dragging to execution the innocent Nazarene. 
 All around me was deserted. Jerusalem had vom- 
 ited forth her indwellers through the funeral gate 
 that leads to Gemonica. An air of desolation and
 
 142 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 sadness enveloped me. My guards had joined the 
 cavalry, and the centurion, with a display of power, 
 was endeavoring to keep order. I was left alone, and 
 my breaking heart admonished me that what was 
 passing at that moment appertained rather to the 
 history of the gods than that of men. A loud 
 clamor was heard proceeding from Golgotha, which, 
 borne on the winds, seemed to announce an agony 
 such as was never heard by mortal ears. Dark clouds 
 lowered over the pinnacle of the temple, and setting 
 over the city covered it as with a veil. So dreadful 
 were the signs that men saw both in the heavens and 
 on the earth that Dionysius the Areopagite is re- 
 ported to have exclaimed, ' Either the author of 
 nature is suffering or the universe is falling apart.' 
 
 " Whilst these appalling scenes of nature were 
 transpiring, there was a dreadful earthquake in lower 
 Egypt, which filled everbody with fear, and scared 
 the superstitious Jews almost to death. It is said 
 Balthasar, an aged and learned Jew of Antioch, was 
 found dead after the excitement was over. Whether 
 he died from alarm or grief is not known. He was 
 a strong friend of the Nazarene. 
 
 " Near the first hour of the night I threw my 
 mantle around me, and went down into the city 
 toward the gates of Golgotha. The sacrifice was con- 
 summated. The crowd was returning home, still 
 agitated, it is true, but gloomy, taciturn, and des- 
 perate. What they had witnessed had stricken them 
 with terror and remorse. I also saw my little Koman 
 cohort pass by mournfully, the standard-bearer hav-
 
 PILATE'S REPORT. 143 
 
 ing veiled his eagle in token of grief ; and I over- 
 heard some of the Jewish soldiers murmuring strange 
 words which I did not understand. Others were 
 recounting miracles very like those which have 
 30 often smitten the Romans by the will of the 
 ajods. Sometimes groups of men and women would 
 halt, then, looking back toward Mount Calvary, 
 would remain motionless in expectation of witnessing 
 some new prodigy. 
 
 " I returned to the prsetorium, sad and pensive. 
 On ascending the stairs, the steps of which were still 
 stained with the blood of the Nazarene, I perceived 
 an old man in a suppliant posture, and behind him 
 several Romans in tears. He threw himself at my 
 feet and wept most bitterly. It is painful to see an old 
 man weep, and my heart being already overcharged 
 with grief, we, though strangers, wept together. And 
 in truth it seemed that the tears lay very shallow 
 that day with many whom I perceived in the vast 
 concourse of people. I never witnessed such an 
 extreme revulsion of feeling. Those who betrayed 
 and sold him, those who testified against him, those 
 who cried, ' Crucify him, we have his blood,' all 
 slunk o5 like cowardly curs, and washed their teeth 
 with vinegar. As I am told that Jesus taught a 
 resurrection and a separation after death, if such 
 should be the fact I am sure it commenced in this 
 vast crowd. 
 
 " ' Father,' said I to him, after gaining control of 
 my feelings, ' who are you, and what is your request ?' 
 
 " ' I am Joseph of Arimathsea,' replied he, ' and
 
 144 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 am come to beg of you upon my knees the permis- 
 sion to bury Jesus of Nazareth.' 
 
 " ' Your prayer is granted,' said I to him ; and at 
 the same time I ordered Manlius to take some sol- 
 diers with him to superintend the interment, lest it 
 should be profaned. 
 
 "A few days after the sepulchre was found empty. 
 His disciples proclaimed all over the country that 
 Jesus had risen from the dead, as he had foretold. 
 This created more excitement even than the cruci- 
 fixion. As to its truth I cannot say for certain, but I 
 have made some investigation of the matter ; so you 
 <3an examine for yourself, and see if I am in fault, 
 as Herod represents. 
 
 " Joseph buried Jesus in his own tomb. Whether 
 he contemplated his resurrection or calculated to cut 
 him another, I cannot tell. The day after he was 
 buried one of the priests came to the prsetorium and 
 .said they were apprehensive that his disciples in- 
 tended to steal the body of Jesus and hide it, and 
 then make it appear that he had risen from the dead, 
 as he had foretold, and of which they were perfectly 
 convinced. I sent him to the captain of the royal 
 guard (Malcus) to tell him to take the Jewish sol- 
 diers, place as many around the sepulchre as were 
 needed ; then if anything should happen they could 
 blame themselves, and not the Romans. 
 
 " When the great excitement arose about the sep- 
 ulchre being found empty, I felt a deeper solicitude 
 than ever. I sent for Malcus, who told me he had 
 placed his lieutenant, Ben Isham, with one hundred
 
 PILATE'S REPORT. 145 
 
 soldiers, around the sepulchre. He told me that 
 Isham and the soldiers were very much alarmed at 
 what had occurred there that morning. I sent for 
 this man Isham, who related to me, as near as I can 
 recollect, the following circumstances : He said that 
 at about the beginning of the fourth watch they saw 
 a soft and beautiful light over the sepulchre. He at 
 first thought that the women had come to embalm the 
 body of Jesus, as was their custom, but he could not 
 see how they had gotten through the guards. While 
 these thoughts were passing through his mind, be- 
 hold, the whole place was lighted up, and there 
 seemed to be crowds of the dead in their grave- 
 clothes. All seemed to be shouting and filled with 
 ecstasy, while all around and above was the most 
 beautiful music he had ever heard ; and the whole 
 air seemed to be full of voices praising God. At 
 this time there seemed to be a reeling and swimming 
 of the earth, so that he turned so sick and faint that 
 he could not stand on his feet. He said the earth, 
 seemed to swim from under him, and his senses left 
 him, so that he knew not what did occur. I asked 
 him in what condition he was when he came to him- 
 self. He said he was lying on the ground with his 
 face down. I asked him if he could not have been 
 mistaken as to the light. Was it not day that was 
 coming in the East ? He said at first he thought of 
 that, but at a stone's cast it was exceedingly dark ; 
 and then he remembered it was too early for day. I 
 asked him if his dizziness might not have come from 
 being wakened up and getting up too suddenly, as it 
 10
 
 146 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 sometimes had that effect. He said he was not, and 
 had not been asleep all night, as the penalty was 
 death for him to sleep on duty. He said he had let 
 some of the soldiers sleep at a time. Some were 
 asleep then. I asked him how long the scene lasted. 
 He said he did not know, but he thought nearly an 
 hour. He said it was hid by the light of day. I 
 asked him if he went to the sepulchre after he had 
 come to himself. He said no, because he was afraid ; 
 that just as soon as relief came they all went to their 
 quarters. I asked him if he had been questioned by 
 the priests. He said he had. They wanted him to 
 say it was an earthquake, and that they were asleep, 
 and offered him money to say that the disciples came 
 and stole Jesus ; but he saw no disciples ; he did not 
 know that the body was gone until he was told. I 
 asked him what was the private opinion of those 
 priests he had conversed with. He said that some 
 of them thought that Jesus was no man ; that he was 
 uot a human being ; that he was not the son of 
 Mary ; that he was not the same that was said to be 
 born of the virgin in Bethlehem ; that the same per- 
 son had been on the earth before with Abraham and 
 Lot, and at many times and places. 
 
 " It seems to me that, if the Jewish theory be true, 
 these conclusions are correct, for they are in accord 
 with this man's life, as is known and testified by both 
 friends and foes, for the elements were no more in 
 his hands than the clay in the hands of the potter. 
 He could convert water into wine ; he could change 
 death into life, disease into health ; he could calm
 
 PILATE'S REPORT. 147 
 
 the seas, still the storms, call up fish with a silver 
 coin in its mouth. Now, I say, if he could do all 
 these things, which he did, and many more, as the 
 Jews all testify, and it was doing these things that 
 created this enmity against him he was not charged 
 with criminal offenses, nor was he charged with vio- 
 lating any law, nor of wronging any individual in 
 person, and all these facts are known to thousands, 
 as well by his foes as by his friends I am almost 
 ready to say, as did Manulas at the cross, ' Truly 
 this was the Son of God.' 
 
 " Now, noble Sovereign, this is as near the facts 
 in the case as I can arrive at, and I have taken 
 pains to make the statement very full, so that you 
 may judge of my conduct upon the whole, as I hear 
 that Antipater has said many hard things of me in 
 this matter. With the promise of faithfulness and 
 good wishes to my noble Sovereign, 
 
 " I am your most obedient servant, 
 
 " PONTIUS PILATE."
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 HEROD ANTIPATER'S DEFENCE BEFORE THE ROMAN 
 SENATE IN REGARD TO HIS CONDUCT AT 
 BETHLEHEM. 
 
 ON a scroll in the library of the Vatican I find 
 the following record, marked " Herod Antipater's 
 Defence :" 
 
 " Noble Romans: In the case whereof I am 
 accused, these Jews are of all people the most super- 
 stitious, and no more to be trusted than the Hindoos. 
 They have taught themselves to believe in but one 
 God, who dwells in another world, so they can neither 
 see nor hear Him, nor in any way approach Him by 
 their senses. They believe that He is unchangeable 
 and unapproachable ; that He can only manifest 
 Himself through some angel or spirit, or some light, 
 or the thunder, or any strange and uncommon phe- 
 nomenon. Hence, they are so superstitious that they 
 can be made to believe anything. 
 
 ' ' In order that you may know what kind of peo- 
 ple I have to deal with, I will give you some of their 
 maxims : (1) When the sun shines they say their 
 God smiles ; (2) when it is cloudy they say He 
 frowns ; (3) when it thunders they say He is angry, 
 (148)
 
 HEROD ANTIPATERS DEFENCE. 149 
 
 and they hide themselves ; (4) when it rains they say 
 He weeps, and many other similar sayings. Now, 
 my lords, you can see at once how far this people 
 might be led, if they could be made to believe this 
 strange God was at their head, and took up their 
 cause. 
 
 " Now, as a foundation for all this foolishness, 
 they have a book, and a set of men, called priests, 
 who read and expound this book to them, and they 
 will believe anything these priests tell them. To 
 show how far they may be led, these priests tell them 
 that some thousands of years ago one Moses died, 
 and went to where this strange God dwelt. He was 
 gone forty days, and when he came back he brought 
 this book, which was written by this God for their 
 government. Now, to prove the whole thing is a 
 forgery, the book is wholly for the benefit of the 
 priest. The poor have to work and toil contin- 
 ually, and pay half what they make, and sometimes 
 almost starve to support the lazy priests and furnish 
 them and their women with plenty of fine garments, 
 and wine, and the best of food. The priests tell 
 these poor Jews that this God requires them to bring 
 the best calf, the best lamb, and the best flour and 
 oil to the temple, to offer in sacrifice ; and the priests 
 and their party get all this for themselves. I often 
 tell them, when they object to the Roman taxation, 
 that they could keep up a thousand Caesars for much 
 less than it costs to keep up their God and His priests. 
 
 " The leaders are always quarrelling and fighting 
 among themselves, and dividing off in different sects.
 
 150 THE AROHKO VOLUME. 
 
 Miracles are as common as poor physicians. The 
 Essenes are noted for both. They prophesy, work 
 miracles, see visions, and have dreams, and stand in 
 reputation as quack doctors. They pretend to know 
 all about angels, ghosts, and spirits ; they profess the 
 art of managing ethereal citizens of transatmospheric 
 regions. They live together in colonies, some of them 
 are cenobitic and some are celibate communities. 
 They maintain that all of them are priests and 
 high priests ; therefore their daily baptisms as the 
 priests on duty. They wear the Levitical garments. 
 Their tables are their altars, and their meals their 
 only sacrifices. With this sanctimonious misan- 
 thropy, which is their highest virtue, they use the 
 allegorical method of expounding the Scripture. 
 While we think, and reason, and reflect, and use our 
 faculties to obtain our ideas of duty, they shut their 
 eyes and fold their hands, waiting to be endued with 
 power from their God ; and when they get it, it 
 proves to be all to their own advantage and interest, 
 to the ruin of their fellow-citizens. The Sadducees 
 are another party, equally absurd. They get their 
 doctrine from Antigonus Sochseus, who was Presi- 
 dent of the Sanhedrim. They reject all the traditions 
 of the scribes and Pharisees. Then we find the 
 sopher, or scribe. They are the writers and expoun- 
 ders of the law. The Pharisees (derived from Phar- 
 ash, to separate) separate from all men on account 
 of their sanctity. But it is useless to name all these 
 sects, with their peculiar views, each differing from 
 the other. They are all strict monotheists, yet
 
 HEROD ANTIPATEKS DEFENCE. 151 
 
 they differ from each other more than the poly- 
 theists do. 
 
 " I have given this detailed description of the peo- 
 ple and their various sects that the Senate may have 
 an idea of the situation I am in. But if you could 
 be here and see and associate with them as I do to 
 see them with all their sanctity of life, and then be- 
 hold their treachery to. each other ; see how they 
 lie and steal the one from the other ; and then see 
 how low and base are their priests you would be 
 much better qualified to judge of my actions. 
 
 ' ' As to this great excitement at Bethlehem, three 
 strange, fantastic-looking men called on my guards 
 at the gate, and asked them where was the babe born 
 that was to be King of the Jews. My guards told 
 me of it, and I ordered the men to be brought into 
 court. I asked them who they were. One of them 
 said he was from Egypt. I asked what was their 
 business. He said they were in search of the babe 
 that was born to rule the Jews. I told them that I 
 ruled the Jews under Augustus Csesar. But he said 
 this babe would rule when I was gone. I told him 
 not unless he was born under the purple. I asked 
 him how he knew of this babe. He said they had 
 all had a dream the same night about it. I told 
 them that the devil played with our brains when we 
 were asleep. He drew a parchment roll from his 
 bosom, and read in the Hebrew language : ' Thou, 
 Bethlehem, least among the kingdoms of the world, 
 out of thee should come a man that should rule all 
 people.' I asked him who wrote that. He said the
 
 152 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 God of heaven. I asked him where he got that 
 parchment. He said it was the law of the covenant 
 of the Jews. He also said a star had travelled be- 
 fore them all the way to Jerusalem. I told him his 
 God was mistaken ; that Bethlehem was not a king- 
 dom, neither was it the least in the kingdom of Judea. 
 I told them that they were superstitious fanatics, 
 and ordered them out of my presence. 
 
 ' ' But the excitement grew until it became intense. 
 I found nothing could control it. I called the Hillel 
 court, which was the most learned body of talent in 
 Jerusalem. They read out of their laws that Jesus 
 was to be born of a virgin in Bethlehem ; that he 
 was to rule all nations, and all the kingdoms of the 
 world were to be subject to him ; and that his king- 
 dom should never end, but his appointees should 
 continue this rule forever. I found this court just 
 as sanguine as those strangers, and, in fact, it was in 
 everbody's mouth ; I thought I could discover already 
 a sort of deriding and mocking spirit among the 
 lower classes in regard to the Roman authority. 
 Now, it is my opinion that the scene that occurred 
 at Bethlehem was nothing more than a meteor trav- 
 elling through the air, or the rising vapor from the 
 foot of the mountains out of the low, marshy ground, 
 as is often the case. And as to the noise heard by 
 Melker and those shepherd-boys, it was only the echo 
 of the shepherds on the other side of the mountain 
 calling the night-watch, or scaring away the wolves 
 from their flocks. 
 
 " But although this was nothing but a phenome-
 
 HEROD ANTIPATERS DEFENCE. 153 
 
 non of nature, and the whole thing a delusion, it did 
 not better the condition I was in. A man will con- 
 tend for a false faith stronger than he will for a true 
 one, from the fact that the truth defends itself, but 
 a falsehood must be defended by its adherents : first, 
 to prove it to themselves, and, secondly, that they 
 may appear right in the estimation of their iriends. 
 But the fact is, this case is about as follows : The 
 Roman taxation was cutting off the support of the 
 priests, and they were smarting under it. Again, 
 the double taxing that is, the tithes to the priests 
 and the tax to the Romans was bearing heavily on 
 the common people, so that they could not stand it, 
 and the priests saw that one of them would have to 
 go unpaid ; and, as they saw the Romans were the 
 stronger, they wrote these things in the Tosephta, 
 and read it daily in all their synagogues and temples, 
 that the Jewish mind might be prepared for the 
 <;vent, knowing that they would magnify a mote into 
 a mountain, when it came to anything outside of the 
 common laws of nature, and knowing that if they 
 could get the common people to believe in the things 
 there would be no end to their fighting. And from 
 all appearances the excitement was fast driving the 
 people that way. It had already become a by-word 
 with the children of Bethlehem and Jerusalem that 
 the Jews had a new king, that neither Caesar nor 
 Herod would reign any more, that they would have 
 to pay no more taxes fo keep up the Roman govern- 
 ment. Such talk and sayings were common among 
 the poorer classes of society.
 
 154 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 " So I saw an insurrection brewing fast, and noth- 
 ing but a most bloody war as the consequence. Now, 
 under these circumstances, what was I to do ? In 
 my honest judgment it was best to pluck the unde- 
 veloped flower in its bud, lest it should grow and 
 strengthen, and finally burst, and shed its deadly 
 poison over both nations, and impoverish and ruin 
 them forever. My enemies can see I could have no 
 malice toward the infants of Bethlehem. I took no 
 delight in listening to the cries of innocent mothers. 
 May all the gods forbid ! No ; I saw nothing but 
 an insurrection and a bloody war were our doom, 
 and in this the overthrow and downfall, to some 
 extent, of our nation. 
 
 ' ' These are the grounds of my action in this mat- 
 ter. I am satisfied I did the best that could be done 
 under the circumstances. As my motive was purely 
 to do the best I could for my whole country, I hope 
 you will so consider it, and I submit this statement 
 for your consideration, promising faithfulness and 
 submission to your judgment. 
 
 "HEROD ANTIPATER."
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 HEROD ANTIPAS'S DEFENCE BEFORE THE ROMAN 
 SENATE IN REGARD TO THE EXECUTION OF JOHN 
 THE BAPTIST. 
 
 WE found on the records of the Roman Senate 
 Herod Antipas's defence respecting the various accu- 
 sations preferred against him by different persons. 
 In his defence there are some very important items 
 regarding the Christian Church. The reader will 
 notice that these events were recorded with no inten- 
 tion of establishing other facts. 1. The history of 
 John the Baptist. 2. The history of Jesus Christ. 
 3. The killing of the children by his father at Beth- 
 lehem. 
 
 "To TIBERIUS CAESAR AND THE SENATE OF ROME, 
 "My Noble Lords, Greeting: It is true, as my 
 opponent asserts, that I was defeated in battle with 
 Aretas, King of Arabia, but I was forced to fight 
 when unprepared for the conflict. I either had to 
 fight or have the country overrun by this wicked 
 people. It is true I was defeated, but it was owing 
 to the want of time and better preparation. Aretas 
 came upon me without warning. Notwithstanding 
 I was defeated his army was so crippled that he had 
 
 (155)
 
 156 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 to withdraw his forces from the field, and has not 
 been able to rally them since. So our country was 
 saved from the devastation of a foreign foe. 
 
 " I understand that the superstitious Jews say my 
 defeat was for my wickedness in beheading John the 
 Baptist. My understanding of the God of the Jews 
 is, that He does not chastise the innocent for the 
 crimes of the guilty. What did my actions have to 
 do with the poor, suffering soldier ? But if He had 
 to punish all in order to reach me, then where is His 
 almighty power they boast so much of ? I do not 
 know whether their God was angry at me or not. 
 There is one thing I know, the act was done with the 
 holy intention of bringing the greatest amount of 
 good to the greatest number of people ; and if this 
 is so, no court can gainsay it or condemn it. 
 
 " The facts in the case are about as follows : John 
 the Baptist had set up a new mode of religion alto- 
 gether different from the Jewish religion, teaching 
 baptism instead of circumcision, which had been the 
 belief and custom of the Jews in all ages past. 
 According to their theory, God appeared to Abra- 
 ham hundreds of years before, and told him with 
 His own lips how and what to do to be saved ; and 
 the Jews had lived according to this until it had be- 
 come their nature, and all their forefathers had lived 
 in this way. David, Solomon, Isaac, Jacob, and all 
 the holy prophets had gone to heaven in this way of 
 God's own appointment. Now, the question came 
 to them, as they suggested it to me : Has God found 
 that He was wrong ? Has His wisdom failed Him ?
 
 HEROD ANTI PAS'S DEFENCE. 157 
 
 or has the unchangeable changed, and is He waver- 
 ing in His purpose ? Such would be the natural 
 conclusions of a sensible man under the circum- 
 stances. Now, John the Baptist had no authority 
 from God for what he was doing, as Abraham had. 
 All he could say was, ' He that sent me to baptize is 
 true ;' and he cannot tell who he was. Then his 
 going into the wilderness : God had ordered Solomon 
 to build the finest temple that was ever built in the 
 world, and made promises that Avhosoever came to 
 that house with his oSerings his prayers should be 
 heard and answered. This temple had been the place 
 of their meeting for hundreds of years, for the Jews 
 think this temple the next place to heaven. 
 
 " Now see the difference : 
 
 " 1st. John has no authorized authority. 
 
 " 2d. He changes God's place of worship. 
 
 " 3d. He changes the doctrines. 
 
 " 4th. He changes the mode of application. 
 
 " Now, the idea of Gamaliel was that John wanted 
 to be some great man ; hence, he took this mode of 
 eccentric life to establish it. And there is nothing 
 better qualified than the course he took to make an 
 impression upon the ignorant and unlearned to go 
 away out into the wilderness by himself, get a few 
 friends from Jerusalem to go out and hear him, and 
 come back and tell of the great wonders which they 
 had seen in the wilderness. Then John's appearance 
 his long, uncombed hair and beard, his fantastic 
 clothing, and his food, nothing but bugs and beans 
 such a course and such a character are well qualified
 
 158 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 to lead the illiterate astray. These troubles on the 
 Jewish mind were very heavy, and gave such men 
 as Hilderium, Shammai, Hill el, and others great 
 concern. And no wonder, for in their judgment it 
 was vacating the temple of religious worship ; it was 
 blocking the road to heaven, and driving the poor 
 and unsuspecting to ruin, as well as destroying the 
 whole nation. So it was, by their request, as so 
 ordered, that it was better to execute one to save the 
 many from a worse fate. And this is the true reason 
 for the deed, and not to please the whim of a danc- 
 ing-girl, as you have heard. Now, my lords, if this 
 is not satisfactory, I would ask my accuser, Caius, to 
 write to any of the learned Jews, and learn if my 
 statement is not correct. 
 
 "As to Agrippa's accusing me -of having arms for 
 seventy thousand soldiers, it is correct ; but they 
 were left me by my father, Herod the Great. And 
 as they were needed to defend the province, and I 
 did not know it was necessary to report them, I never 
 thought of keeping them secret. But as to my being 
 in league with Sejonius, I appeal to the virtue of 
 my conduct, and demand investigation. 
 
 " As to what Pontius Pilate says in regard to my 
 cowardice and disobedience in the case of Jesus of 
 Nazareth, I will say in my own defence : I was in- 
 formed by all the Jews that this was the same Jesus 
 that my father aimed to destroy in his infancy ; for 
 I have it in my father's private writings and accounts 
 of his life, showing that when the report was circu- 
 lated of three men inquiring where was he that was
 
 HEROD ANTIPAS'S DEFENCE. 159 
 
 born King of the Jews, he called together the Hillel 
 and Shammai schools, and demanded the reading of 
 the sacred scrolls ; that it was decided he was to be 
 born in Bethlehem of Judea, as read and interpreted 
 that night by Hillel. So when my father learned 
 that there was a birth of a male child in Bethlehem 
 under very strange circumstances, and he could not 
 learn who nor where the child was, he sent and had 
 the male children slain that were near his age. 
 Afterward he learned that his mother had taken him 
 and fled into the wilderness. For this attempt to 
 uphold the Roman authority in the land of Judea 
 the world has not ceased to curse him to this day ; 
 and yet the Caesars have done a thousand worse 
 things, and done them a thousand times, and it was 
 all well. Just think how many lives have been lost 
 to save the Roman Empire ; while those infants were 
 only removed in their innocence from the evil to come. 
 The proper way to judge of action is to let the actor 
 judge, or the one with whom the action terminates. 
 If this should be done, and there is a life of happiness 
 beyond this for innocence to dwell in, those infants as 
 well as the Rachels should be thankful to my father 
 for the change. Again, my lords, Pilate is a higher 
 officer than I ; and you know in our law the lower 
 court always has the right to appeal to the higher. 
 As to Pilate's saying that Jesus was a Galilean, 
 he is mistaken. Jesus was born in Bethlehem of 
 Judea, as the records show. And as to his citizen- 
 ship, he had none. He wandered about from place to 
 place, having no home, making his abode principally
 
 16() THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 with the poor. He was a wild fanatic, who had 
 taken up the doctrines of John (but not his baptism), 
 and was quite an enthusiast. He had learned sooth- 
 saying, while in Egypt, to perfection. I tried to get 
 him to perform some miracle while in my court, but 
 he was too sharp to be caught in a trap ; like all 
 necromancers, he was afraid to show oS before the 
 intelligent. From what I could learn he had repri- 
 manded some of the rich Jews for their meanness, 
 and his reproaches were not out of the way, from 
 what I heard they would have been much better 
 men if they had practised what he preached. 
 
 ' ' So this is my defence. I submit it for your con- 
 sideration, praying for clemency. 
 
 "HEROD ANTIPAS."
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE HILLEL LETTERS REGARDING GOD ! S PROVI- 
 DENCE TO THE JEWS, BY HILLEL THE THIRD. 
 
 [THE following letters were translated and sent to 
 me after my return home MAHAN.] 
 
 First Letter. 
 
 " To the noble and persecuted sons of my Father, 
 God, who is too wise to err in His judgment, and too 
 mighty to let His kingdom suffer or His children 
 to be persecuted beyond what is good for them : 
 Beholding our desolate condition, we must know 
 there is a good reason somewhere. From our former 
 history, and the dealings of God with our fore- 
 fathers, it is evident that it is not because He is 
 neglectful of the interests of His children. It must 
 be on our own account. 
 
 " In directing your thoughts to these subjects, it 
 is needful to call your attention to the acts of God 
 in the history of the world. By this we may learn 
 the cause of our present condition. When He was 
 dissatisfied with the wicked world His eyes rested on 
 one good man, Noah. Now, it is useless for us to 
 begin a controversy as to how Noah became good. 
 That is nothing to us. The great question for us is, 
 Are we good ? and if not, why are we wicked ? No 
 11 (161)
 
 162 THE AECHKO VOLUME. 
 
 doubt this is the reason we are forsaken. If we 
 could not help our being wicked, then we are perse- 
 cuted wrongfully. But it was the goodness of Noah 
 that preserved his life, and made him a great and 
 happy man ; while it was wickedness that caused all 
 the rest of the world to be drowned. 
 
 " Then follow along the line to Abraham. God 
 found him faithful, and on this account He made him 
 the father of all that are faithful and good. And so 
 with hundreds of others that I could name in our 
 former history. I would ask all the Jews in their 
 dispersed condition to read the history of our race 
 and see the dealings of God to the good, and His 
 judgments upon the evil. 
 
 " Now, God makes selections of certain individ- 
 uals to relieve others. These chosen ones may not 
 b6 good, but those for whom they are selected must 
 be good, or they can receive no favor from God. 
 
 Look at Moses. He was an infant. He could 
 neither be good nor bad, because he was at that time 
 powerless. But Israel was good, and it was by rea- 
 son of Israel's goodness that Moses was selected. 
 Hence, from this babe in the basket we find the 
 long chain of displays of God's mighty works in 
 saving and defending and comforting the good, 
 simply and alone because they were good ; and this 
 is the only reason why God has ever bestowed special 
 favors on anyone, just because He is good, and I 
 am sure this is all that is necessary to justify Him 
 in His dealings with the sons of men. If He creates 
 men, and gives them all necessary power and oppor-
 
 THE HILLEL LETTERS. 163 
 
 tunities to be good and they refuse, then they are to 
 blame, and not He. This is the reason He condemned 
 the world to a flood. This is the reason the Egyp- 
 tians were drowned. This is the reason the So- 
 domites were burned. This is the reason the Ca- 
 naanites were destroyed. This is the reason we were 
 sold into Babylon. And oh ! for a master spirit to 
 rise up, as did Samuel to Saul, to tell us the reason 
 we are again forsaken and cast away ; why is it that 
 our city and the holy temple are forsaken and deso- 
 late ? Why is it that God fights no more battles for 
 Israel ? Why is it that we have no leader that it 
 would be safe for the people to follow ? Why is it 
 that Israel is turned against herself, that every evil 
 bird is permitted to pluck her, and her best friends 
 are turned to be her enemies ? Why is it that Jose- 
 phus sold Galilee to the Romans ? Why is it that 
 the sanctifying of the Spirit is withdrawn ? Why is 
 it that the Urim and the Thummim in the temple 
 have not changed the color of its stones in thirty 
 years ? Why is it that the light of the threshold 
 in the temple has ceased to burn ? And why is it 
 that the Jews have lost the feeling of brotherhood, 
 and fight each other like beasts of hell until God 
 has given us over, and permitted the Romans to, 
 devour our heritage, to burn our city, to destroy our 
 beloved temple, and drench it with the blood of its 
 devotees ? 
 
 ' ' I know that many of my brethren, more partic- 
 ularly the priests, will bring grave charges against 
 the ministration and, of course, indirectly impeach
 
 164 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 God ; but it may be, my brethren, we mistake God's 
 designs in all this thing. And may we not be equally 
 mistaken in regard to our desert or our demerit in 
 His dealing with us ? We know that the guilty party 
 is apt to think the law is too severe ; but we never 
 think so when others are to suSer, and especially if 
 we are the party against whom the criminal has 
 offended and done wrong. 
 
 " When a Jew becomes mean and wicked and vio- 
 lates the Jewish law and injures us personally, then 
 we propose to stone him until he is dead, if his ac- 
 tions have been such to deserve such a sentence ; 
 and we are equally guilty if we in any way try to 
 screen the criminal from suffering the just penalty of 
 the law. Now let us, as honest Jews, look in our 
 own natures and examine our actions in the light of 
 God's holy revelation, and see if our present condi- 
 tion is not deserving on our part ; and if we find 
 that it is we who have forsaken God, instead of His 
 having forsaken us, then let us do as our fathers did 
 in Egypt ; do as our fathers did in Babylon. They 
 hung their harps ; they clothed themselves in sack- 
 cloth and ashes ; they mourned as do the dove and the 
 pelican. So did they seek rest until the Lord God 
 Jehovah was moved with compassion. They not 
 only ceased to act wickedly, but they showed by 
 their regrets and acknowledgment that they would 
 act differently in the future ; and God had compas- 
 sion on them, and moved the heart of their wicked 
 king to pity them, that they might return and rebuild 
 their temple. These were the ways in which they
 
 THE HILLEL LETTERS. 165 
 
 conducted themselves ; and look at the results that 
 followed. Now these things were for their own good, 
 and they were recorded that we might learn what to 
 do. provided we should be brought into the same 
 condition. 
 
 " Now, I wish my Jewish brethren to understand 
 that I am not a follower of this Nazarene that has 
 created so much strife among the people, neither do 
 I indorse his new doctrines ; yet I think it would be 
 well for us not to be too hasty in forming our conclu- 
 sions on this or any other subject. I heard Peter 
 preach the other day, and as he and John came out 
 of the temple there was a man that had been lying 
 around at the gates and public crossings for years. 
 He was unable to walk, having no soundness in his 
 feet and ankle-bones. As they were passing him he 
 -asked them for help. Peter said he had nothing to 
 give, but, said he, ' In the name of Jesus the Son of 
 God, I say unto thee, rise up and walk ;' and the 
 man sprang to his feet, seemingly perfectly sound, 
 and commenced praising God at the top of his voice, 
 which caused a great commotion among the people, 
 and the police came and took Peter and John to 
 prison as peace-breakers. I thought I never saw 
 such an outrage. It is right to arrest men for doing 
 evil, but to arrest and imprison men for doing good 
 is something I cannot comprehend. This has been 
 the fault of us Jews in all time. No odds what good 
 was done, if it was not done just as the priest thought 
 it ought to be done, it was wrong. When I saw the 
 act of Peter toward the helpless man, I said to my-
 
 166 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 self, ' There is the power of Moses ; there is the 
 power of Jehovah manifest in human flesh ; there is 
 the power needed by us Jews to reinstate the king- 
 dom of heaven ; this is the power that has followed 
 the Jews in times past, and the only distinguishing 
 mark that makes us different from the other nations 
 of the earth. This was the peculiar power of Jesus 
 of Nazareth ; and because he did not work accord- 
 ing to Jewish rule they condemned him to die. It 
 was not because his works were not good works, but 
 because he did not do them according to Jewish 
 custom.' 
 
 " I was forcibly struck with Peter's sermon. He 
 said : ' There was a rich man who had one son. 
 This son had been trying for a long time to build 
 him a house. He was homeless and exposed to many 
 dangers and trouble for the want of a house, until 
 he was almost exhausted and was ready to perish. 
 And his father had compassion on his son and built 
 him a house, with everything needful for the necessi- 
 ties and comforts of his child. And when it was 
 finished he went and brought his son to see it. And 
 his son was delighted, and said it was much better 
 than he could have built himself. And his father 
 said, " Son, I love you. I give you this house. Will 
 you accept it ?" " With all my heart, dear father, 
 with grateful acknowledgments." Now,' Peter said, 
 ' here is the picture of the world which has been 
 working, struggling, and striving for ages to build 
 them a home for the soul of man. They have worked 
 by the laws of men, by building fine temples, by
 
 THE HILLEL LETTERS. 167 
 
 offering sacrifices, by paying tithes to the Lord, by 
 walking hundreds of miles to the temple barefooted 
 and bareheaded, by keeping holy days and festivals, 
 and all to no purpose. The soul has become wearied 
 out of patience, and still no rest, until man has be- 
 come dissatisfied not only with himself, but with his 
 God and his service. And while in this despairing 
 condition God our Father comes in the person of 
 Jesus, whom the Jews crucified and in his death he 
 prepared a house. of rest, and now proposes to his 
 children to accept what he has done for them, and 
 stop working and worrying to try to fit themselves 
 for a higher station and a happier life.' And Peter 
 asked, ' Who will accept ?' 
 
 "Again Peter said : ' This house was beautiful to 
 look at, and was in every way suited to the son, yet 
 he could not enjoy it from the fact that it had no 
 furniture. So the son went to work and toiled and 
 labored trying to make furniture to suit himself. But 
 notwithstanding he could not get a piece that would 
 last. And it soon became useless because it did not 
 suit him. Then the father went to work and made 
 all manner of ware, and presented it to his son. 
 Every piece fitted the place and suited the purpose for 
 which it was made, so that the son was well pleased. 
 And the father said : "All this will I give you, my 
 son, because I love you. Will you accept ?" The 
 son said, " With all my heart, dear father ; this 
 pleases me better than if I had had the power to 
 make it myself." Now,' said Peter, ' this is what 
 God has done for the world. Instead of purifying
 
 108 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 ourselves by washing, by fasting, by prayers, by pen- 
 itence, and by all the works of the law, God has 
 given us a purity that will last forever, that will suit 
 us and will please Him.' 
 
 " Again said Peter: ' This son was all ragged. 
 His clothes were worn threadbare in trying to build 
 and fit him a house, and he was ashamed. So he went 
 to work to try to clothe himself ; and the harder he 
 worked the less success rewarded him. And after 
 he had worked hard, his father went to work and 
 wove him a seamless robe, and presented it to his 
 son, and said, " My son, I love you, and I have pre- 
 pared a white robe ; will you accept it ?" " With 
 many thanks, dear father," said the son. " Oh, how 
 beautiful it is ! How snowy white ! How well it fits 
 me ! Oh ! father, I never can feel grateful enough. 
 I thought thou wast angry and hated me, because I 
 was poor and homeless and miserable and ragged ; 
 but if thou didst love me in my misery, I know thou 
 canst love me now, and will delight to make thy 
 abode with me forevermore. Oh ! father, I don't 
 know how to show my gratitude to thee." The son 
 was delighted with the change, while the father 
 was equally delighted with the son, and they both 
 rejoiced. And the father said to the son : " I delight 
 to dwell with my children when they live in a man- 
 ner that is suited to my taste ; and, of course, this 
 suits me, from the fact it is all my own work. 
 Only be content, and do not soil thy robe, for it 
 is so white and clean, a very little mixing with dirt 
 and filth will so contaminate it, it will not be fit to
 
 THE HILLEL LETTERS. 169- 
 
 be seen. And as long as you keep it unspotted from 
 the world it will distinguish you from the world 
 and make you a welcome visitor into the company 
 of all that are dressed in the same robe ; for this is 
 merely the outward showing of the principles that 
 live within ; which principles are only developed by 
 the outward appearance. And even it will be ad- 
 mired by those who may reject it ; yet inwardly they 
 must respect it. Though they may covet it, and raise 
 the spirit of persecution against you, it is not be- 
 cause they dislike you, but because they are not like 
 you ; and this is the cause of envy everywhere." 
 This,' said Peter, ' is the way God our Father has 
 treated us spiritually. He has prepared us a holy 
 habitation, where our immortal souls can live and 
 be happy through all eternity, and then has given 
 us the Holy Spirit, the same that Jesus promised and 
 the same that fell on the people the other day. This 
 spirit renews and begets within us holy desires to 
 love God and to serve Him by obeying all His com- 
 mands and doing honor to His name. And this 
 same spirit begets within us a holy desire to see all 
 men embrace the oSering of this good and noble 
 Father, that they may be happy now and happy 
 forever, more so after death than before ; for it is the 
 dread of meeting an interminable doom for our 
 sins that makes our lives intolerable. Oh !' said 
 Peter, ' behold the riches offered on terms so easy 
 by our Father. All we need is to accept. Who 
 will accept ?' And there were two or three hundred 
 who cried out, ' We will ;' and then followed a
 
 170 THE ARGHKO VOLUME. 
 
 mighty rising up and rejoicing, all of which made 
 a very strong impression on my mind. 
 
 " I am going to make a most thorough examina- 
 tion into these things to see if they are so if God 
 has provided an easier and a better way to save the 
 souls of men than the Jewish economy. I feel that 
 the subject is worth looking into ; for of long time 
 it has seemed to me (and my father saw and spoke 
 of the same) that the ways of God's service were 
 exacting, and apt to make men become indifferent, 
 and almost to look on God as a haughty tyrant ; 
 Avhile Peter's illustration shows Him in such a lovely 
 light it makes me love Him." 
 
 Second Letter. 
 
 " After having viewed our present condition, it 
 may be well for us to look back and review our for- 
 mer history, and get a knowledge of the state of the 
 world in former times. If we look at the world from 
 the pages of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Haggai, the last 
 of God's prophets upon earth, we will see a period 
 of nearly five hundred years to the present, during 
 which time the world underwent greater changes 
 than ever before.. We will see our nation returning 
 from a seventy years' captivity, recommencing their 
 national existence after having been overrun and 
 absorbed in the first great monarchy that swept over 
 the earth. Our acquaintance with the rest of the 
 world was very limited, extending only to the Chal- 
 deans, the Phoenicians, the Egyptians, and a few
 
 THE HILLEL LETTERS. 171 
 
 unimportant tribes. Our ideas seem to have been 
 likewise limited, extending but little beyond the 
 principles of the Mosaic religion, which had been 
 promulgated about fifteen hundred years before. 
 
 ' ' I am informed that the accusation against Jesus 
 was written over him as he hung upon the cross, in 
 Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. Whence came these dia- 
 lects ? When the prophets closed their writings (which 
 was nearly five hundred years ago), the Greek was 
 scarcely a written language, confined to a small part 
 of Europe, and Rome,from which the Latin language 
 came, was a straggling village on the banks of the 
 Tiber. During this whole period, in which nations 
 and monarchies were born, flourished, and decayed 
 (showing clearly a providential preparation), the 
 intermingling of the various languages indicates 
 preparation for some great event, and to my mind 
 makes the juncture most opportune for the introduc- 
 tion of a universal religion. That is, if I under- 
 stand it aright, God has arranged the position and 
 the existence of the several nations of the earth in 
 such a manner as to promote the recognition, the 
 establishment, and the propagation of true religion, 
 the knowledge and worship of the true God. 
 
 " Whatever knowledge may have been imparted 
 to our ancestors, or however long it may have lasted, 
 certain it is that at the time of Abraham the nations 
 generally had fallen into idolatry. To him God was 
 pleased to make himself known, and to promise that 
 of him He would make a great nation, and in him 
 and his seed all the nations of the earth should be
 
 172 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 blessed. That is, through him and his posterity he 
 would impart the greatest possible good, the knowl- 
 edge of the true God. To accomplish this purpose 
 God selected the spot in which he and his posterity 
 were to be placed ; and no spot on earth could have 
 been better suited for the purpose. The land of 
 Canaan, afterward called Judea, afterward called 
 Palestine, a tract of country situated about midway 
 between the three great divisions of the earth Asia, 
 Africa, and Europe on the great highway of na- 
 tions, in the very path of conquest, commerce, and 
 travel, was equally accessible to all parts of the then 
 known world. 
 
 " But those circumstances which afterward made 
 Judea so favorably located as the radiating point of 
 the true faith did not exist in the time of Abraham. 
 There was neither conquest nor commerce nor 
 travel. The world was overrun by wandering 
 tribes, scarcely having boundaries or fixed habita- 
 tions. Chaldea, the cradle of the human race, and 
 Egypt, the birthplace of human learning and the 
 arts, were the only nations of consequence at that 
 time. It is not probable that any such thing as 
 alphabetic writing existed ; for we read that Abraham 
 took no other evidence of the purchase which he 
 made of a burying-place for his family than living 
 witnesses of the bargain. At that period, therefore, 
 divine communication must have been confined to 
 individuals. The fulness of time had not yet come 
 even for that partial revelation which was made by 
 Moses. There was no mode by which it could be
 
 THE HILLEL LETTERS. 173 
 
 recorded and preserved. The invention of writing 
 was necessary to prepare the world for it. That in- 
 vention took place some time within the five hundred 
 years which elapsed between Abraham and Moses. 
 
 ' ' Into Egypt, the mother of the arts, the posterity 
 of Abraham were sent as if to school, not in divine 
 things (for in the knowledge of them the shepherds 
 of Canaan as far exceeded the refined Egyptians as 
 light exceeds darkness), but in the knowledge of 
 those things by which life is rendered comfortable. 
 When they had become sufficiently numerous to take 
 possession of the destined territory, a leader was 
 raised up for that especial purpose Moses, the child 
 of a slave, his life exposed in infancy in a frail cradle 
 of rushes upon the waters, yet destined to be the 
 mightiest agent in the affairs of men that the 
 Almighty had ever employed on earth. Who can 
 but admire the wisdom of Divine Providence in the 
 education of this great founder of nations, this 
 prophet of divine truth, this enlightener of the 
 world ? Who can apprehend the glorious position 
 which he holds in the world's history ? What a dis- 
 tinction to have framed the constitution of a nation 
 which lasted fifteen hundred years, and stamped a. 
 people with the marks of nationality which time 
 itself has not obliterated ! To have written a book 
 which has been read with interest and ardor by pass- 
 ing ages and growing millions of the human race ! 
 To impart to nations and continents the saving 
 knowledge of the one true God ! What a glory to 
 have laid by one sentence the foundation of true
 
 174 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 religion in so many millions of minds : ' In the be- 
 ginning God created the heavens and the earth.' 
 
 " The more I contemplate the mission of Moses, 
 the higher he rises in moral sublimity in my estima- 
 tion. If I contemplate him during the forty years 
 of his sojourn in the wilderness, he is the only depos- 
 itory of the true religion on earth, with the exception 
 of the tribe he led. The whole world was sunk in 
 the debasement of idolatry. What a noble use did 
 the Almighty make of the recent invention of man's 
 ingenuity, the invention of letters, to engrave upon 
 stone his awful testimony against the great, funda- 
 mental, and all-polluting sin of the world, the wor- 
 ship of idols : ' Thou shalt have no other Gods before 
 me ; thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, 
 or the likeness of anything that is in the heaven 
 above or in the earth beneath ; thou shalt not bow 
 down thyself to them nor serve them.' To realize 
 and carry out this one thing was the purpose in sep- 
 arating the Jews from the rest of the world ; and 
 with all the seals and signs, and God's special judg- 
 ments, it took fourteen hundred years to do it, so 
 prone are we to worship the things that are seen, 
 instead of the unseen. And this is one of the great 
 troubles at the present day. This is one reason of 
 our desolation. We thought too much of our holy 
 city and temple ; but if this was our sin, what might 
 we expect from men in the state of ignorance in the 
 days of Moses ? Oh, brethren, let us ask ourselves, 
 are we not more inclined to worship the created 
 things than we are to worship Him who created
 
 THE HILLEL LETTERS. 175 
 
 them ? Look at this people I am speaking of. Forty 
 days had not elapsed from the utterance from Sinai 
 of this fundamental precept, ' Thou shalt have no 
 other Gods before me,' when the very people to whom 
 this command was given made for themselves a gol- 
 den calf, after the manner of the idolatrous Egyp- 
 tians, and danced before it with great joy. To secure 
 this one grand and fundamental point (that is, the 
 worship of the only living and true God), the whole 
 Mosaic economy was modelled. For this purpose 
 we were forbidden to marry foreigners ; for this pur- 
 pose our sacrifices were all to be offered in one place, 
 and by one family of priests, lest we should wander 
 away and become corrupt by association with idola- 
 ters. For this purpose we were forbidden certain 
 kinds of food, such as were offered in sacrifices to 
 heathen deities. We were not to be present at idol- 
 atrous feasts, nor to become accustomed to those 
 moral abominations with which heathen worship was 
 invariably accompanied. More effectually to secure 
 this point, Divine Providence so arranged it that 
 our national existence and prosperity depended on 
 our fidelity to the great purpose for which we were 
 set apart. Whenever we worshipped the true God 
 and obeyed His laws, temporal prosperity was the 
 natural consequence ; then were union and peace 
 and industry and prosperity. But whenever we for- 
 sook God and worshipped idols, a corresponding de- 
 generacy of morals and manners took place. This 
 was followed by discord, weakness, poverty, and sub- 
 jection to foreign nations.
 
 176 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 " But the event which exerted the most decisive 
 influence upon the national existence of us Jews was 
 the erection of Solomon's temple at Jerusalem. Be- 
 fore that time our sacred rites had been conducted in 
 a very humble manner. Our sacred utensils had no 
 better covering than a tent. Often they were in pri- 
 vate custody ; and once the sacred ark itself, which 
 contained the heaven-derived charter of our national 
 existence, was taken captive and remained for months 
 in the country of the Philistines. That ark for nearly 
 four hundred years was almost the only bond of our 
 national union, the only object around which gath- 
 ered our national reverence ; and, although in our 
 younger years we were apt to regard that ark and 
 its contents with a childish curiosity, in after years 
 we came to look upon it as an object of higher sig- 
 nificance. It is the written testimony of God against 
 idolatry. It contains the fundamental articles of 
 our nation's constitution. It is a charter from God 
 for a nation's establishment and independence. It 
 is a declaration of principles, which was borne before 
 us like a banner, proclaiming to the world for what 
 we were to live, for what we were to fight, for what 
 we were to die. It was our confession of faith, which 
 we upheld before the world as sacred, true, and vital 
 to the best interest of humanity, and the only hope 
 of our final success. Once abandon this and we are 
 lost, disgraced, fallen forever. On the tables in that 
 ark were written : ' Thou shalt have no other Gods 
 before me ;' and, ' Thou shalt not make any graven 
 image, nor the likeness of anything ; thou shalt not
 
 THE HILLEL LETTERS. 177 
 
 bow down to anything to serve them.' There it re- 
 mains from age to age as the memorial of the purpose 
 of our national existence ; and how mightily has it 
 worked in the earth ! 
 
 " There is an incident related by the sacred his- 
 torian which may seem symbolical of the mission of 
 the whole dispensation which that sacred inclosure 
 contained. It is the fifth section of Samuel : ' And 
 the Philistines took the ark and brought it from 
 Ebenezer to Ashdod. When the Philistines took 
 the ark of God, they brought it into the house of 
 Dagon ; and when they of Ashdod arose early on 
 the morrow, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his Jace 
 to the earth before the ark of the Lord, and they 
 took Dagon and set him in his place again ; and 
 when they rose early on the morrow morning, behold, 
 Dagon was fallen to his face to the ground again be- 
 fore the ark of the Lord, and the head of Dagon 
 and the palms of his hands were cut off upon the 
 threshold : only the stump of Dagon was left unto 
 him.' 
 
 ' ' So is all idolatry destined to fall before the word 
 of the Almighty. So has our Dagon fallen and 
 oh ! what a dreadful fall it is to us Israelites. Let 
 me tell you what was achieved in the Temple of 
 Azotus was gradually accomplished throughout the 
 land of Israel. Many times has Dagon been set up 
 in his place again ; many times has idolatry been 
 revived ; the ark of God has been in the hands of 
 the enemy (it is there now at this time), and the true 
 religion about to be extinguished, when the Almighty 
 12
 
 178 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 interposed to vindicate His honor and reestablish 
 His worship, and at last obtained a triumph by the 
 very means which at first threatened to overthrow 
 it forever. 
 
 " I have said that the objects of our national ex- 
 istence were greatly promoted by the building of the 
 temple at Jerusalem. It was a splendid edifice, cal- 
 culated to awaken the curiosity, to attract the atten- 
 tion, and command the respect of the world. It 
 furnished a place of appropriate convenience, beauty, 
 and dignity for the celebration of our daily sacrifices 
 and our national rites. It made more interesting 
 our three yearly festivals when all the males were 
 obliged to present themselves before God. It gave 
 us what we all need at this time a fixture to our 
 religion, a local habitation to our religious applica- 
 tions and associations. It connected the sentiment 
 of religion with another no less strong that of patri- 
 otism and enlisted them both in the maintenance 
 and defence of the national institutions of Moses ; 
 and it also led to the formation of a national litera- 
 ture which gave expression to these two most power- 
 ful sentiments of the human heart, and thus operated 
 to call forth and strengthen them in each succeeding 
 generation. 
 
 ' Still the Mosaic institutions, assisted by the mag- 
 nificence of the temple service, failed to extirpate 
 entirely the propensity to idolatry. Occasionally it 
 sprang up and overspread the country, till at last 
 the Almighty saw fit to suffer that temple to be over- 
 thrown, His people to be carried into captivity, and
 
 THE HILLEL LETTERS. 179 
 
 His worship to be suspended for seventy years ; and 
 His judgments accomplished what His mercies could 
 not do. The very measure of Divine severity which 
 at first sight threatened to sweep the worship of the 
 true God from the face of the earth, and give up the 
 world to the interminable dominion of idolatry, was 
 the means of establishing it on a firmer basis than 
 ever. Although Jerusalem was overthrown and the 
 temple razed to its foundation, the Jews carried the 
 true Jerusalem in their hearts. And so it is to-day. 
 Although our holy city is no more, and although we 
 are dispersed and many of us sold into slavery, yet 
 the holy temple of our God lives and will continue 
 to live in our hearts forever. Wherever we go, 
 whether in the splendid cities of the East, or amid 
 the fascinations of Egypt, or the tents of the wan- 
 dering shepherds, still our affections will be in the 
 holy land, and, like Daniel, we will turn our faces 
 toward the land where our fathers worshipped the 
 God of heaven. 
 
 " Nehemiah, when serving in the courts of princes, 
 lamented when he heard that the walls of Jerusalem 
 were thrown down. There in slavery, our fathers 
 had time to reflect upon the cause of their calami- 
 ties ; there they read in the Book of Moses, which 
 was the companion of their exile, the awful curses 
 He had threatened them if they forsook the worship 
 of the true God, and felt them to be fulfilled in 
 themselves ; there they read the prophecy which 
 had been written by Moses more than a thousand 
 years before in the book, in., section 22 : 'If thou
 
 180 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 wilt not observe to do all the words of this law that 
 are written in this book, that thou mayest fear this 
 glorious and fearful name, the Lord thy God, the 
 Lord will scatter thee among all people, from one 
 end of the earth to the other, and among these na- 
 tions thou shalt find no ease, neither shall the sole of 
 thy foot have rest ; but the Lord will give thee then 
 a trembling heart and failing eyes, and sorrow of 
 mind, and thy life shall hang in doubt before thee : 
 and thou shalt fear night and day, and have no 
 assurance of thy life. In the morning thou shalt 
 say, Would God it were evening, and at even thou 
 shalt say, Would God it were morning! for the 
 fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear, and 
 for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see.' 
 Thus were our fathers smitten to the heart by the 
 fulfilment of such awful threatenings. All propen- 
 sity to idolatry was forever cured. Never after this 
 period could the allurements of pleasure or the 
 threats of pain, neither dens of wild beasts nor the 
 fiery furnace, neither instant death nor lingering 
 torture, ever induce them to offer sacrifice to idol 
 gods. This same Providence which had scattered 
 them in foreign lands, now restored them to their 
 own. Their temple was rebuilt, the daily sacrifice 
 was resumed and was never intermitted, with the 
 exception of about three years under Antiochus 
 Epiphanes. 
 
 " But now let us look at our present state, and 
 see how we, their children, have fallen : The ark 
 once more is taken from us ; Jerusalem is in ruins,
 
 THE HILLEL LETTERS. 181 
 
 trodden by the foot of the Gentiles ; ruin has driven 
 her ploughshare through the crumbling walls, and 
 we are scattered to mix and mingle among all 
 nations." 
 
 Third Letter. 
 
 "As all the nations of the earth lacked the knowl- 
 edge of the true God except us Jews, it devolved 
 on us as a nation to extend this knowledge to all the 
 world, which was brought about by the following 
 plan : First, by the universal diffusion of the Greek 
 language, and, secondly, by the conquest of the world 
 by the Romans. Another cause almost as essential 
 was the scattering of our nation among all nations 
 of the earth, for narrowness and bigotry had almost 
 made us a barren tree as to any general good for the 
 world. So ancient were our habits and fixed our 
 customs that spiritual life was almost extinct ; there- 
 fore it was necessary for us even to learn a new lan- 
 guage, that the knowledge of the true God might be 
 infused into a new medium, and thus be spread from 
 land to land. It was necessary that the true medi- 
 cine of life should be dissolved in an element which 
 flowed on every shore and in every stream that all 
 men might taste thereof and be saved. It was neces- 
 sary, too, that a foreign language should be forced 
 upon us ; for nothing but conquest and constraint, 
 nothing but this, could overcome our bitter preju- 
 dices. It will be the object of this letter to show 
 how this was brought about. 
 
 " The great designs of God were advanced by our
 
 182 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 misfortunes as well as by our prosperity, and in 
 God's purpose of preparing the world for the ad- 
 vent of a higher life and greater attainment in 
 godliness, each event had a ripening tendency. 
 Whether we worshipped in Jerusalem in peace or 
 wept by the rivers of Babylon, everywhere and under 
 all circumstances we taught a knowledge of the true 
 God ; and everywhere our nation has cherished the 
 hope of triumph in the expectation of a coming 
 Messiah. The first great empire to which Judea fell 
 a prey was the Babylonian. Jerusalem was destroyed 
 by Nebuchadnezzar five hundred and fifty-seven 
 years ago ; and the remnant of the people was car- 
 ried to Babylon and the neighboring countries, 
 whither the main body had been removed eighteen 
 years before. The glimpses of those times and coun- 
 tries are very short, but enough is given us to see 
 that the residence of our fathers in those countries 
 was not without effect. 
 
 " It is impossible to put out the light of a Jew's 
 eye, or to extinguish the fire that burns in his heart ; 
 and the life of our fathers made lasting effects both 
 on the people they were with and themselves also. 
 One person especially adorned that dark period of 
 God's exiled Church. The prophet, Daniel, gives 
 us almost the only sight we get of mighty Baby- 
 lon ; his wri tings furnish us with a number of great 
 truths. He passes before us from youthful beauty to 
 extreme age. We see him rising, like Joseph, by 
 early wisdom, piety, and integrity, from slavery, to 
 be the chief minister of State, and it is altogether
 
 THE HILLEL LETTERS. 183 
 
 probable that it was through him that Cyrus was 
 prompted to restore our people to our holy land 
 again. The edict was issued in the first year of his 
 reign, immediately after the capture of Babylon, 
 which Daniel had foretold by interpreting the writ- 
 ing on the wall. 
 
 " But the restoration of our nation, an event 
 so wonderful and strange in the history of the 
 world, though properly attributed to the provi- 
 dence of God, was brought about by means more 
 circuitous than is generally supposed. Fifty or a 
 hundred thousand Jews did not live in Babylonia, 
 Media, and Persia seventy years making such a 
 singularly religious impression for nothing. Our 
 people appear to have been treated with much more 
 respect among these oriental nations than in the 
 western world. The reason of this, probably, was 
 that the Persians, like the Arabians, their neighbors, 
 had not forsaken the patriarchal religion or sunk 
 into such gross and degrading idolatry as those 
 nations which had wandered farthest from the pater- 
 nal hearthstone of the human race 
 
 It is in this period of our nation's sojourn in the East 
 that the famous reformer, Zoroaster, appeared. I look 
 upon him as the second Moses, though without inspira- 
 tion ; but, availing himself of the light of the true reve- 
 lation, he attempted not to introduce a new religion, 
 but to refine, purify, and build up the religion of his 
 country by introducing into it the most important 
 principles of the true faith, and thus, with a mixture 
 of base and noble motives, to benefit his country,
 
 184 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 and reflect glory on himself. The secret of his suc- 
 cess was, he taught the theology of Moses, aud his 
 theology was so simple and sublime, and so consonant 
 at the same time with the best conceptions of man- 
 kind that it clothed this impostor with the veneration 
 of his countrymen, and sanctified even his crimes 
 and follies. It was from Moses that Zoroaster de- 
 rived the idea of one living God, the maker of 
 heaven and earth ; but he corrupted this pure doc- 
 trine by making two subordinate gods, the authors 
 respectively of good and evil. From Moses he re- 
 ceived an utter abhorrence of all images and of the 
 temples in which they were worshipped, but he in- 
 troduced, in connection with the true faith, the doc- 
 trine of evil spirits dividing the government of the 
 universe. So it happened that there was not only 
 an impress of the religion of our fathers upon that of 
 the Persians, but a reaction of the Persian religion 
 upon that of our nation. 
 
 " The Jews, as would appear from the book of 
 Tobit, first learned in their captivity those ideas of 
 the agency of evil spirits in the world, of which we 
 find traces in all their histories. Cyrus was a Per- 
 sian, and in all probability had been instructed in 
 the doctrines of Zoroaster, a combination, as we have 
 seen, of Judaism and the ancient Persian religion ; 
 hence his extraordinary partiality for the Jews is 
 explained, and his zeal in rebuilding the only temple 
 on earth which was dedicated in his name to the God 
 of heaven, and was free from the all-pervading and 
 polluting sin or idol- worship.
 
 THE IJILLEL LETTERS. 185 
 
 " But the influence of Zoroaster did not end here. 
 The successors of Cyrus were educated in his relig- 
 ion. The priests and teachers of his religion were 
 called Magi, and exerted a powerful influence in the 
 State. Darius Hystaspes, son-in-law and successor of 
 Cyrus, warmly espoused the religion of the- Persian 
 philosopher, and when Zoroaster was slain by an 
 eruption of the Scythians, he amply avenged his 
 death, and rebuilt the fine temples which the Scyth- 
 ians had destroyed, especially, and with more splendor 
 than before, the one in which Zoraster ministered. It 
 was this enmity to idolatry, thus derived through 
 Zoroaster from Moses, which was the only redeeming 
 principle that the Persian mouarchs showed in all 
 their extensive conquests. Cambyses, the son of 
 Cyrus, madman and tyrant as he was, derives a sort 
 of dignity from his zeal against idolatry. His indig- 
 nation at seeing the Egyptians worship a living brute 
 does honor at least to his Persian education, though 
 in other respects he was a cruel and detestable tyrant. 
 When Darius and Xerxes marched their mighty 
 armies into Europe, the only idea which these vast 
 expeditions were intended to carry out, that can ex- 
 cite the least sympathy in the mind of a Jew, was 
 the destruction of idolatry, which they everywhere 
 threatened aud attempted to realize. Thus it is that 
 the mind governs at last. The Persian kings, with 
 their vast armies, bearing war and subjugation to 
 remotest lands, were only realizing ideas which had 
 been matured by Zoroaster in his cave, and which he 
 in turn had derived from Moses. " Thus through
 
 18(5 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 our exiled fathers the hand became the executive of 
 the brain to establish the worship of the true God, 
 and in the revolution of the wheels of nature, as seen 
 by Ezekiel, the soldier is the machine of the thinker, 
 and armies are assembled and battles fought to carry 
 out a few ideas with Avhich men of letters have filled 
 the mind of a nation, and scholars and sages, proph- 
 ets and impostors, good men and bad men, kings and 
 generals, armies and revolutions, are all equally used 
 to accomplish the purposes of that eternal Mind, \\ho 
 sitteth supreme over all, which we as the only nation 
 known on earth recognize as Divine Providence. 
 
 " The ambition of Cyrus and his successorSj though 
 in a manner which they di d not anticipate, was the 
 means made use of by our Father of introducing 
 among the enslaved and ignorant multitude of the 
 East the civilization, the arts, and the learning which 
 Greece, with her wonderful genius, had matured. 
 Cyrus, whose sudden irruption into Babylon termi- 
 nated Belshazzar's feast and fulfilled so terribly the 
 writing on the wall, had already extended the Per- 
 sian Empire over the greater part of Asia Minor. 
 Belshazzar, the last king over Babylon, attempted 
 to strengthen himself against the growing power of 
 the Persians, by forming an alliance with Croesus, 
 King of Lydia, so famous for his riches. This mon- 
 arch, made arrogant by his great wealth and the 
 command of an army of nearly half a million, resolved 
 to encounter the Persian power, but lately become 
 formidable. To make assurance doubly sure, he sent 
 to inquire of the Oracle at Delphi in Greece, and
 
 THE HILLEL LETTERS. lg? 
 
 received for answer : ' If Croesus pass the Holys,' 
 the boundary between Lydia and Persia, ' he shall 
 destroy a great empire.' He went, and found that 
 empire was his own. He was defeated by Cyrus, and 
 his whole kingdom came into the hands of the con- 
 queror five hundred and forty years ago., This con- 
 quest brought the Persians in collision with the 
 Greeks, and was the cause of those wars which were 
 waged with such bitterness for generations between 
 the two nations, and finally resulted in the destruc- 
 tion of the Persian monarchy. The Greeks, though 
 natives of Europe, had planted many colonies on the 
 Asiatic coast. These colonies, though infinitely su- 
 perior to the effeminate and luxurious Asiatics in 
 every physical, intellectual, and moral attribute, were 
 altogether unable to resist the overwhelming weight 
 of an empire which reached from Ethiopia to the 
 Caspian Sea, and from the Indus to the Bosphorus. 
 They were obliged to submit, like the rest, and pay 
 an annual tribute to their conquerors, no less to the 
 humiliation and annoyance of the mother-country 
 than themselves. The yoke at length became so 
 oppressive that they resolved to throw it off. To 
 effect this they applied to Athens and Sparta for aid. 
 Receiving assistance from these most considerable 
 states of Greece, they rebelled, marched to Sardis, 
 took it, and accidentally set the city on fire, by which 
 it was totally consumed. The loss of this city, the 
 richest in Asia Minor, exasperated Darius, King of 
 Persia, to the highest degree, and kindled in his 
 breast such a flame of resentment that he resolved
 
 188 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 upon revenge. Lest in his multifarious affairs he 
 should forget the offenders, he appointed officers 
 whose duty it was each day to repeat to him as he 
 dined, ' Sir, remember the Athenians.' Resolved to 
 punish these presumptuous republics which had dared 
 to brave the whole power of the Persian Empire, he 
 collected a fleet and army sufficient, as he supposed, 
 to crush so small a country at one blow. After an 
 ineffectual attempt to reach Greece by the circuitous 
 route of Thrace and Macedonia, a second armament 
 was fitted out, of the flower of that army which had 
 borne conquest on their banners from the Euphrates 
 to the Nile, and transported by sea directly toward 
 the little republic of Athens, able then to send into the 
 field but from ten to fifteen thousand men. The Athe- 
 nians met and vanquished them on the plain of Mar- 
 athon, leaving six thousand dead on the field. Thus 
 ended the first attempt of Persian despotism upon 
 the liberties of Greece. This may be said to be the 
 first demonstration that was ever given to the world 
 of the benefits of free government. A few ages of 
 absolute political liberty had trained up a race of 
 men such as had never been seen before. Intelli- 
 gence combined with physical force, thorough disci- 
 pline, and an enthusiastic love of country, for the 
 first time were brought to contend hand to hand with 
 the pampered sons of Eastern luxury and the spirit- 
 less automata of a despotic government. The result 
 was what it will ever be. The Orientals fell like 
 grass before the swords of the free. But this defeat, 
 so far from discouraging the conqueror of the Indies,
 
 THE HILLEL LETTERS. 189 
 
 only roused him to mightier efforts. He immediately 
 resolved on invading Greece with a larger army than 
 before ; but in the midst of his preparations he fell 
 before a mightier conqueror, and left the inheritance 
 of his kingdom and his revenge to his son, Xerxes, 
 who was destined still further to add to the glory of 
 Greece, though it would seem that this son could 
 have seen, in the providence of God, that man with 
 men combined could not contend with the Almighty. 
 But this youth, succeeding to the mightiest monarchy 
 which the world had ever known, was resolved to 
 signalize his reign by extending still further the 
 boundaries of his hereditary dominions. Asia was 
 not enough to satisfy his boundless ambition. Europe 
 must likewise be subjected to his power. His father's 
 quarrel with the Greeks furnished him with a con- 
 venient apology for such enormous injustice. He 
 spent four years in preparation for this great event, 
 and Xerxes then ruled over the most fruitful portion 
 of the globe, and the simple habits of life which 
 then prevailed enabled the earth to sustain some 
 three or four times the number that can be supported 
 in the more costly and luxurious mode which has 
 since been adopted by all civilized nations. He 
 called upon every nation to furnish its quota of troops 
 or ships or provisions, from Ethiopia to the Caspian, 
 from the JEgean to the Persian Gulf. Four full 
 years were consumed in making preparation, and 
 all for what ? To crush a small nation. 
 
 " We naturally turn our eyes to Greece, the de- 
 voted object of all this expense. There she lies, with
 
 190 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 her beautiful islands laved by the crystal waters of 
 the >ZEgean Sea. There is Athens, with her exquisite 
 arts, her literature, and her science, with her constel- 
 lations of genius just ready to burst upon the world. 
 There was Sparta, less cultivated, but the bulwark 
 of Grecian independence. There was Leonidas, with 
 his three hundred. There, in a little peninsula, lay 
 the intellectual hope of the world, the sole germ of 
 free government forever and ever. Is this brave 
 and gallant people to be crushed at a blow ? finall 
 the Persian banners float on the hills of subjugated 
 Greece ? Is it to be announced at Susa that order 
 reigns in Attica ? Is Asiatic despotism to overwhelm, 
 in one long night of oppression, the very dawn of 
 human greatness ? In that contest literature had 
 her stake. The very existence of those men de- 
 pended on the issue of this vast enterprise, whose 
 works have been the study and delight of all suc- 
 ceeding time that whole galaxy of genius, whose 
 clustering radiance has since encircled the earth. 
 The religion of our fathers had much at stake. 
 Standing now and gazing back upon this epoch of 
 history we are made to tremble, for all these were 
 nations given to idolatry. Everywhere are cere- 
 monies, temples, priests ; but both priest and people, 
 the noble and the base, the learned and the simple, 
 all alike grope in Cimmerian darkness as to the 
 knowledge of the true God. There is but one excep- 
 tion to this in all the earth the temple at Jerusalem. 
 We turn our eyes eastward to Palestine, and there 
 we see the temple of the true God just rising from
 
 THE HILLEL LETTERS. 191 
 
 the ruin of seventy years' desolation. Its builders, 
 a feeble company, have just returned from a long 
 captivity. The very language in which their holy 
 oracles were written has become obsolete. Their 
 speech is Chaldean, and their religious teachers are 
 obliged from Sabbath to Sabbath to interpret from 
 a dead language the records of their faith. This 
 may answer for a small territory, and for a feeble 
 few, as at that time, but the world needs light ; 
 and how shall the wisdom of God and the wisdom 
 of man unite and carry God's wisdom round the 
 world so that all may know the living and true God ? 
 If Xerxes prevail, this can never be. Forbid it,, 
 then, freedom ! Forbid it, then, religion ! Forbid 
 it, intellect ! Arise, O God, and let thine enemies be 
 scattered, and those that rise up against the liberties 
 of Thy people be driven away like the chaff which 
 the wind driveth away. So Xerxes did not prevail ; 
 the soil of Palestine would not bear the tread of a foe 
 to the religion of the true God. The Jewish nature, 
 breathing the invigorated air of freedom, disciplined 
 by science, and animated and enlightened patriotism,, 
 grows up to a strength, a firmness and courage which 
 hosts of slaves can never subdue, and by which the 
 tenfold cord of oppression is rent asunder like the 
 bands that bound the limbs of Samson. This army, 
 though it was raised by Xerxes, is under the com- 
 mand of the God of heaven. It cannot, it must not, 
 it shall not conquer. It is to teach the Greeks that 
 they are masters of the world. It invites them to 
 roll back the tide of conquest on Asia, and carry
 
 192 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 Grecian manners, arts, science, and language into 
 the East. They shall penetrate to our holy laud ; 
 into their language our holy oracles shall be trans- 
 lated ; in their language shall be recorded the 
 words of eternal life, and laden with the priceless 
 treasure that language shall come back to Pales- 
 tine, bearing light and truth and salvation to the 
 nations and generations yet unborn. This diffu- 
 sion of the Greek language took place by means 
 of conquest. Although the action was man's, 
 the ruling was God's ; and that it entered into 
 the divine plan of Providence we may know from 
 the fact that it was a subject of prophecy. In a 
 vision of Daniel, in Section 7, in the first year of 
 Darius Hystaspes, it is written : ' Behold, there shall 
 stand up three kings in Persia, and the fourth shall 
 be far richer than them all ; and by his strength and 
 through his riches he shall stir up all against the 
 realm of Grecia.' 
 
 ' ' Of this great attempt of Xerxes against Greece 
 I have given account in my last letter. After the 
 retreat of Xerxes into Asia, there was no attempt 
 of the Greeks to make reprisals for many years. 
 Unfortunately they were divided among themselves, 
 and exhausted their energies in mutual quarrels. 
 But the ages immediately succeeding the Persian 
 invasion were the most wonderful in intellectual de- 
 velopment that the world has ever seen. More great 
 minds were produced within that century than in 
 any other within the recorded history of our race. 
 Providence seems to have kept back that wonderful
 
 THE HILLEL LETTERS. 193 
 
 nation until her intellectual treasure-house was full, 
 and then to have sent her forth conquering and to 
 conquer not to destroy, but to fertilize the lands 
 she overflowed ; not to extinguish civilization by 
 barbarism, but to carry intellectual light to those 
 who were sitting in the regions of ignorance and 
 darkness. Nothing occurred of great interest be- 
 tween the Persians and the Greeks for nearly eighty 
 years. The Greeks went on to create the most beau- 
 tiful literature and the profoundest philosophy that 
 human genius has ever produced, and their mutual 
 contentions perfected them in the science and prac- 
 tice of war. At that time a circumstance took place 
 which gave them a stronger proof of their great 
 superiority over the Persians than even their victo- 
 ries over Xerxes. Cyrus the Younger was sent by 
 his brother Artaxerxes to Asia Minor as the gover- 
 nor of the western provinces. Here he became ac- 
 quainted vith the martial valor of the Greeks, and 
 thought by their aid to march to Susa and dethrone 
 his brother. For this purpose he collected an army 
 of more than one hundred thousand, thirteen thou- 
 sand of whom were Greeks, and advanced into the 
 plains of the East. He was there met by his brother 
 with an army of nine hundred thousand, defeated, 
 and left dead on the field. The thirteen thousand- 
 Greeks, now reduced to ten thousand, found them- 
 selves two thousand miles from the nearest Grecian 
 city where they would be safe, without one day's pro- 
 visions, in the midst of an enemy's country. Undis- 
 mayed by this most appalling condition, they com- 
 13
 
 194 1HE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 menced their retreat, cut their way through enemies 
 in front, and guarded themselves from foes in the 
 rear. They went over mountains covered with 
 snow, through trackless forests, and over rivers 
 rapid and deep, and reached their homes in safety. 
 This exploit filled the world with their fame, and 
 perhaps more than anything else convinced the 
 Greeks that, few as they were, they held the desti- 
 nies of Asia at their disposal. But confederated 
 republics, however efficient for defence, are generally 
 ill-calculated for conquest. It was not till more than 
 forty years after this, when all Greece had been sub- 
 jected to Philip, King of Macedonia, that the nation 
 turned its eyes to the conquest of the East. Philip 
 had himself elected general-in-chief of all the Greeks 
 for the prosecution of the war with their ancient 
 enemies, the Persians. Just at the moment when 
 the conqueror of Greece was meditating a descent 
 upon the Persian Empire, he fell by the hand of an 
 assassin, leaving his kingdom to his son Alexander, 
 a youth of twenty. This happened three hundred 
 and eighty years ago, and may be considered as one 
 of the great epochs of the world." 
 
 Fourth Letter. 
 
 "Alexander, by his personal endowments as con- 
 queror and statesman, did more in twelve years to 
 affect the future condition of the world than any- 
 uninspired man that has ever lived. He was in no 
 respect better than his modern rivals, and was ani-
 
 THE HILLEL LETTERS. 195 
 
 mated by no better motive than personal ambition. 
 In the hands of God he was used as an instrument 
 of lasting good to mankind. Endowed with an intel- 
 lect of unusual power and comprehension, he re- 
 ceived a thorough education from one of the greatest 
 philosopher's that ever lived. At the age of eighteen 
 he began to mingle affairs of state with study, and 
 became a soldier as well as a scholar. At the age of 
 twenty, when summoned to assume the reins of 
 empire the sovereign, in fact, of the Greeks he 
 stood before the world a perfect representative of his 
 nation. He combined their genius and learning 
 with their valor and conduct ; and entering Asia 
 with the sword in one hand and the poems of Homer 
 in the other, he became the armed leader of Grecian 
 learning, art, and civilization. Wherever he went 
 Greece went with him. His conquests were not so 
 much those of Macedonian arms as of Grecian let- 
 ters. Wherever he went, he took with him the genius 
 of Homer, the sublime soul of Plato, and the prac- 
 tical wisdom of Socrates ; and not only monarchies 
 sprung up in his wake, but schools of philosophy and 
 academies of learning. 
 
 Entering Asia with an army of thirty-five thousand 
 men, in the space of twelve years he made himself 
 master of the whole Persian Empire, and of many na- 
 tions which had never been subjected to the Persian 
 yoke. He carried the Grecian language and man- 
 ners to the Indus, and subjected to his power nearly 
 as large a portion of the human race as there was in 
 existence. His first battle gave him Asia Minor.
 
 196 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 The second all of Syria to the Euphrates ; Egypt, 
 the whole valley of the Nile, surrendered without 
 striking a blow. The third great battle, on the banks 
 of the Euphrates, opened to him the Avhole of the 
 Asiatic plains to the mountains which bounded the 
 habitations of the Scythian tribes. Wherever he 
 went the Greek language and literature took up their 
 abode, and every city on this side the Euphrates in 
 a few ages became the residence of Greek philoso- 
 phers, poets, rhetoricians, grammarians, historians, 
 till the whole circuitous shore of the Mediterranean 
 became almost as Grecian as Greece herself. Our be- 
 loved Palestine, of course, came under his sway, and 
 the influence of his career on the fortunes of us 
 Jews was more decisive, perhaps, than upon any 
 other nation, for it was his conquest alone which in- 
 troduced the Greek language into our holy land. 
 And so much do the most important events turn on 
 the slightest causes, that on the chances of one life, 
 almost daily exposed to destruction by the dangers 
 of war, depended the issue whether the records of 
 the holy oracles should ever be sent to the perishing 
 world through this beautiful language. It has been 
 declared that when the mighty warrior and states- 
 man was approaching Jerusalem, Judua, who was 
 our high priest at that time, came out to meet him 
 in solemn procession, and that Alexander was so 
 struck by his appearance, that he not only spared 
 the city, but granted to us Jews many favors that 
 he did not show to others, giving as a reason therefor 
 that he had seen the same person in a dream before
 
 THE HILLEL LETTERS. 197 
 
 he left Macedonia, who had assured him of the con- 
 quest of the Persian empire. 
 
 ' ' From .Syria he passed on to Egypt, and his con- 
 quest of that country had a greater influence upon 
 the future condition of our nation than the conquest 
 of Judea itself : for on his return from Ethiopia he 
 sailed down the western branch of the Xile, and, 
 with the instinct of genius, fixed upon the site of a 
 city between the lake Mareotis and the sea, which 
 he called after his own name. It sprung up imme- 
 diately to be one of the most magnificent cities of the 
 world, reigning as a sort of queen of the East, as the 
 mart of commerce and the seat of wealth. To people 
 this city we Jews were invited by the most liberal 
 offers. A large colony was formed, where only the 
 Greek language was used. Hence, it became neces- 
 sary to have our Scriptures translated into Greek, or 
 we would have lost our knowledge of them altogether. 
 It is said on good authority that the occasion of 
 translating the Scriptures into the Greek language 
 was the desire of Ptolemy Philadelphus to have 
 a copy to go into the Alexandrian library, which 
 was begun not long after his death. However that 
 might be, such a version we know was made, which 
 is now the standard of the world. It was made 
 about three hundred years ago, and by this transla- 
 tion our theology has gone to the whole world. Thus 
 we see that Divine Providence works the nations of 
 the earth like a machine. 
 
 " Another important factor in God's providence 
 is the rising of the Roman Empire. While all these
 
 1 98 TH: E A RCHKO VOL UME. 
 
 things were transpiring in the East, a nation was 
 rising into notice in the south of Italy destined to 
 exert a more extensive influence upon the world by 
 her arms than Greece did by her learning. About 
 seven hundred and fifty years ago a small band of 
 refugees from the ruins of Troy joined other adven- 
 turers, and established themselves on the banks of 
 the Tiber. Their government at first was monarch- 
 ical. They were poor in resources, temperate and 
 frugal in their habits, but, either from choice or 
 necessity, warlike from the first. Italy was not then 
 a new nor an uncultivated country. It must have 
 contained states and cities of great wealth, for there 
 have been discovered vast receptacles for the dead 
 dating back much earlier than the time of Romulus. 
 These were a nation of soldiers and statesmen, trained 
 from their earliest years to politics and war. Their 
 monarchy lasted about two hundred years. White 
 that lasted there was little indication that these 
 Romans were to become the masters of the world. 
 The establishment of a popular government, how- 
 ever, rapidly developed their national characteristics 
 a love of conquest and military glory. This char- 
 acter once formed, and all honor and promotion 
 coming from the people, none could hope to succeed 
 without bending the whole force of his talents to 
 that object which every citizen had most at heart 
 the honor of the Roman name, and the extension of 
 their dominions over foreign nations. The Senate, 
 composed either of the most distinguished and influ- 
 ential of the citizens, or of those who had made their
 
 THE HILLEL LETTERS. 199 
 
 way through the regular grades of the magistracy to 
 the highest which was known in the State, constituted 
 a body, which, for more than a thousand years, for 
 talent, for weight, for wisdom and experience, was 
 unrivalled in the history of the world. The Roman 
 from youth to age lived in the eye of his country. 
 To gain the favor of the arbiters of his destiny 
 was his perpetual study and his constant endeavor. 
 Thus from the first, every faculty was put upon the 
 utmost stretch, and nothing was omitted through 
 the whole course of his education which could 
 give him eloquence before the people, valor and 
 conduct in the field, and 'wisdom in the Senate. 
 The whole nation was a sort of military school. 
 IV o man could be a candidate for office until he had 
 served his country ten years as a soldier in the camp. 
 The result was that, by thus bending all the powers of 
 human nature in one direction, they excelled all man- 
 kind in that art to which they were exclusively de- 
 voted. They became a nation of soldiers, and, pursu- 
 ing with steady aim and untiring perseverance one 
 exclusive object for eight centuries, they naturally be- 
 came the conquerors of the world. A Roman army 
 was the most terrible object that ever trod the earth, 
 it was a vast human machine contrived for the 
 subjugation of the world, instinct with intelligence, 
 shielded from assault by an almost impenetrable 
 armor, and animated with a courage which was best 
 displayed in the shock of battle. When we hear of a 
 Roman camp, we cease to wonder how that nation 
 carried conquest from the sands of Africa to the bor-
 
 200 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 ders of the world, to the skirts of the Arabian desert. 
 After the age of seventeen, every Roman was liable 
 to be enrolled and sent to the war at any time. When 
 he arrived at the camp he entered on a course of 
 life in which ease and luxury were altogether un- 
 known. He commenced a discipline of hardships 
 that is almost incredible, and of which there was no 
 end ; and with all this training it took the Romans 
 five hundred years to conquer Italy; it took two 
 hundred more and they were masters of the known 
 world. 
 
 " About one hundred years ago the Roman con- 
 quest reached our holy land. Pompey the Great 
 polluted with impious tread the holy of holies, and 
 the Roman legions planted their standard upon the 
 rampart of the temple. About seventy years ago 
 Caesar subjected the liberties of his country, putting 
 an end to the republic which had existed four hun- 
 dred years ; and fifty years ago all the world was 
 given peace. Thus it is that the Grecian letters and 
 Roman arms were founded on the mission of Moses ; 
 also the Roman statesman was made quite as subser- 
 vient to the great plan of Providence as the valor of 
 the Roman commanders ; for they alone of all na- 
 tions that ever existed were able to retain and con- 
 solidate their conquests. Their polity, perfected by 
 the experience of ages, greatly alleviated the burden 
 of their yoke, and it is often said that after conquer- 
 ing like savages they ruled like sages ; and if it is 
 objected : how can God's providence permit so many 
 minds to come under a rule so hostile to liberty and
 
 THE HILLEL LETTERS. 201 
 
 freedom ? To this I reply : the governments destroyed 
 are always worse than the ones set up in their place, 
 though it may not always be seen by man." 
 
 Fifth Letter. 
 
 ' ' Man is essentially a human being. He is made 
 so by the faculties of his mind, as well as the emo- 
 tions of his heart. He is so both by the intellectual 
 and moral nature. One of the first and most spon- 
 taneous exercises of the reason of man is the investi- 
 gation of cause and effect, and one of the first con- 
 victions which are developed in the mind is that 
 there cannot be an effect without a cause. The next 
 is, that the nature of a cause must correspond with 
 the nature of the effect, and can certainly be known 
 by it. It is so in the works of man. When we see 
 an exquisite painting it is impossible for us to doubt 
 its having been the creation of intelligence. When 
 Aristippus was cast on a shore where there appeared 
 to be no inhabitants, he wandered about until he 
 found some mathematical diagrams traced in the 
 sand. ' Courage," said he. ' my friend ; I find the 
 traces of men.' And so I say to the wandering and 
 forsaken Jews of God : Courage ; I see the finger of 
 God pointing. Men see in everything the traces of 
 power and wisdom. Nay, we know that we are the 
 effects of superior power and wisdom. Unbelief has 
 not prevailed much in the world, and it has been 
 quite as rare among the heathen as among those who 
 have had a revelation. So much for abstract relig- 
 ious convictions.
 
 202 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 " Men are led to God by their understanding and 
 by their moral nature. On the first dawn of his 
 faculties man experiences within him certain moral 
 perceptions. This is right, meritorious, honorable ; 
 that is wrong, base, despicable, worthy of punish- 
 ment. This moral nature he finds exists not only in 
 himself, but in others. It is a universal attribute of 
 man. It is not a fortuitous endowment. It is given 
 to man by his Creator as the law of his action. I 
 can come from no other source. But the moral 
 power in man is only the faculty to see them because 
 they exist. Then God sees them and they are real- 
 ities, and He created both them and us. Our con- 
 sciousness of the power to choose between the good 
 and the bad creates within us a sense of responsibility 
 to the being that made us. 
 
 " Connected with this idea of God, which seems 
 to be necessary and universal, is that of a providence, 
 an intelligence which not only made the world but 
 governs it ; which, therefore, knows the past, the 
 present, and the future, and which, of course, observes 
 not only all that is seen by mortal eyes, but likewise 
 all that passes in the human mind. Men have seen 
 that the general course of events is, that vice should 
 be punished and virtue rewarded ; vice, therefore, 
 is regarded by God with displeasure ; and as He now 
 punishes it, so He will continue to do. As a good 
 man now and ever must be the object of His appro- 
 bation, and as God is infinite in power, the good man 
 will be forever rewarded. Such are the natural con- 
 victions of mankind, which result from the opera-
 
 THE HfLLEL LETTERS. 203 
 
 tions of his own mind. Such are the convictions of 
 the heathen world. The great men of the old world, 
 poets and philosophers, have entertained such opin- 
 ions in all time. They all take for granted one 
 superior being and all others inferior beings that are 
 responsible to Him. This is not only the last and 
 highest conclusion of human intellect, but likewise 
 the consenting voice of the most ancient tradition. 
 
 " But then, even in the best minds the subject 
 was surrounded with great doubt and difficulties. 
 God Himself is an object of none of the senses. It 
 is in vain, therefore, for the human mind to form 
 an idea of the mode of His existence. Not being, 
 then, a matter of sense or of demonstration, the 
 wisest of men, though he might arrive at the 
 truth, could not feel sure that it was truth. Want- 
 ing certainty himself, he could not impart certainty 
 to others. He could not propagate his doctrine 
 with confidence. The wisest of men, therefore, 
 wanted that authority which was requisite even for 
 the propagation of the truth. They wanted cer- 
 tainty for themselves and authority for others. Now, 
 certainty and authority are the very things which 
 are necessary to make a religion powerful in the 
 world. While religion, therefore, was in the hands 
 of the philosophers (that is, the thinkers), it effected 
 next to nothing in guiding and restraining mankind, 
 it being merely a matter of opinion that is, of dim 
 probability. One man felt that he had just as good 
 a right to his opinion as another. One philosopher 
 differed from another, and thus weakened the author-
 
 204 THE ARCHKO VOL UME. 
 
 ity of the opinions of both. A religion, therefore, 
 in the true sense of the word that is, one that shall 
 take hold of the faith and control the conduct of 
 mankind must have certainty and authority. 
 Neither of these can be obtained without revelation, 
 inspiration, and miracles. 
 
 " Had Moses himself received no divine aid, either 
 from inspiration or miracles, even if he had uttered 
 the same truths and laid down the same precepts, he 
 would have accomplished nothing in the world. His 
 doctrines would have rested for evidence on his own 
 reason, and his precepts upon his own personal char- 
 acter and influence. Another man of equal wisdom 
 and the same weight of character might have over- 
 thrown what he had built up. Besides, his manner 
 would have been entirely different. No man can in- 
 spire confidence in others who has not confidence in 
 himself. No man in high religious matters can have 
 full confidence in himself without conscious divine 
 inspiration. It was reasonable, therefore, in him, 
 when sent by God into Egypt to bring out his en- 
 slaved brethren, to demand miraculous credentials ; 
 and without them he could neither have brought 
 them out nor established among them the religion 
 he was commissioned to teach. This distinction was 
 perceived by the people, though the reason upon 
 which it was founded was beyond their comprehen- 
 sion. The difference arose from the difference be- 
 tween knowledge and opinion. One is necessarily 
 proposed with diffidence ; the other with confidence, 
 which no one uninspired can counterfeit. Those
 
 THE HILLEL LETTERS. 205 
 
 who knew best about these things among the heathen 
 had no means of guiding the multitude. But then 
 mankind must have a religion. The understanding 
 demands it, and the heart craves it. It is not with 
 the multitude as with the philosophers, a matter of 
 quiet contemplation. They must act as well as think 
 and feel. The sentiments of the heart demand ex- 
 pression, and expression they will have, through the 
 actions of the hands, and through the words of the 
 mouth. Occasions were continually occurring de- 
 manding immediate action. Some public calamity 
 bowed down the hearts of thousands, and seemed to 
 indicate the wrath of superior powers. Those powers 
 must be supplicated and appeased. Who shall con- 
 trive the rite ? Not the wisest, but the man of the 
 greatest boldness and readiness of invention. Once 
 established, proscription took the place of reason, and 
 habit consecrated that which was at first wanting in 
 propriety. 
 
 ' ' Then, again, religion has much to do with imag- 
 ination. Everything relating to God is invisible. 
 There is nothing positively to determine and fix our 
 ideas ; but in pure spirituality our imagination finds 
 no play, nothing to lay hold of. Still it is impossi- 
 ble to keep them quiet, even in our most solemn de- 
 votions, and perhaps it has been found absolutely 
 impossible for the most spiritual man altogether to 
 separate the idea of corporiety from God. 
 
 " How much more impossible, then, must it have 
 been for the uninstructed heathen, with the best in- 
 tentions ? Therefore, there must have been diversi-
 
 206 THE ARCHKO VOL UME. 
 
 ties and great imperfection in heathen opinions and 
 heathen worship. Such we find to have been the 
 fact. Certain of the existence of a God, yet uncer- 
 tain of the mode of His existence, it was natural 
 that the human mind should run into a thousand 
 vagaries and a thousand errors. It was natural that 
 mankind should fancy that they had found God in 
 those parts of the material universe where His attri- 
 butes are most displayed. Hence, the most ancient 
 species of idolatry is said to have been that which 
 deified the heavenly bodies, the sun and moon and 
 the hosts of heaven. The sun is perhaps the brightest 
 emblem of God, except the human soul. To us he 
 is, in fact, the mightiest instrument, as it were, the 
 right hand of the benignity of the Most High. He 
 riseth, and the shadows of night flee away. Joy and 
 beauty go forth to meet him in the morning. At 
 his call universal life riseth, as it were, from a uni- 
 versal death. He draweth aside the curtains of dark- 
 ness and sayeth unto man, Come forth ! He shineth, 
 and the face of nature is glad. He hideth his face, 
 and all things mourn. He withdraweth from the 
 western sky, and darkness resumes her ancient do- 
 minion, and all things seem to wait his return. The 
 soul itself, as it were, deprived of its support, gradu- 
 ally loses its energies, and sinks into a profound re- 
 pose. What wonder, then, that in the native ignor- 
 ance of mankind of the true nature of God, the wise 
 should have worshipped the sun as the fittest em- 
 blem of God, and the ignorant as God Himself. 
 Such was probably the idolatry of the nations from
 
 THE H1LLEL LETTERS. 207 
 
 among whom Abraham was called to the worship of 
 the true God. Such was the worship of the Chal- 
 deans and Egyptians. It is a record of the Talmud 
 that Abraham, when returning from the grotto 
 where he was born to the city of Babylon, gazed on 
 a certain star, ' Behold,' said he, ' the God, the Lord 
 of the universe.' But as he gazed the star sank 
 away and was gone, and Abraham felt that the Lord 
 was unchangeable, and he was deceived. Again, 
 the full moon appeared, and he said, ' This is our 
 God ;' but the moon withdrew and he was deceived. 
 All the rest of the night he spent in profound medi- 
 tation. At sunrise he stood before the gates of Baby- 
 lon, and saw all the people prostrate before the rising 
 sun. ' Wondrous orb,' he exclaimed, ' thou surely 
 art the creator and ruler of nations, but thou, like 
 the rest, hasteneth away, so the Creator is somewhere 
 else.' How much more sublime, as well as rational, 
 the doctrine which he orginated, and the sentiments 
 which were afterward expressed by one of his follow- 
 ers, which make these glorious orbs only the mani- 
 festations of something far more glorious than they ! 
 " One great source of corruption was the priest- 
 hood. It seems natural that men should be chosen 
 to conduct religious service. They became better 
 acquainted with these rites than others, and are more 
 sacred by the power of association which renders 
 their ministration more satisfactory, and, of course, 
 more profitable to those in whose behalf they perform 
 sacred offices. A priesthood seemed to be so neces- 
 sary, but there is nothing more dangerous to a nation
 
 208 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 than to have a priesthood that is governed by the 
 political parties of the nation, as was done by all 
 nations except our own. Here the priest was gov- 
 erned by the laws of Moses, and it was impossible 
 for the priest or anybody else to change them. It 
 is to be attributed to these heathen priests that idol- 
 atry is so common. Go down into Egypt, and you 
 find men worshipping an ox. Cats and crocodiles 
 occupy the places of the inferior gods, and are wor- 
 shipped by the poor. Thus in all nations, except 
 our own, this dreadful state of idolatry prevails. 
 The idolatry of Greece is no better. Athens con- 
 tains many statues erected to imaginary gods. Her 
 superstition is not only bigoted but bloody. It was 
 there that Socrates suffered death merely on suspicion 
 of maintaining opinions subversive of the popular 
 faith." 
 
 Sixth Letter. 
 
 " The end of all religion as a positive institution 
 is to enlighten the understanding and cultivate the 
 devotions. The mind must think and the heart must 
 worship. So it must be through life. The cares of 
 the world are continually effacing religious impres- 
 sions, and truths once clearly seen and vividly felt 
 by lapse of time wax dim and lose the influence of 
 present realities. The soul, moreover, feels the want 
 of support and guidance of religion at all times. 
 Every day the soul experiences the need of commu- 
 nion with God. It is as necessary as our daily food. 
 Therefore, all religion has its sacred rites, by which
 
 THE HILLEL LETTERS. 209 
 
 the heart speaks to God and God communicates 
 to the heart. So all religions have some mode of 
 training the mind and moving the affections, of 
 taking hold of the memory and perpetuating them- 
 selves. This is derived from an innate consciousness. 
 If God should extinguish all the lights of the world 
 and blind every human eye, religion would be just 
 the same. 
 
 " But these outward institutions must all be 
 adapted to the present condition of man. Religion 
 can only use those instruments which are furnished 
 to hand. In the absence of writing it must use cere- 
 monies and forms, which have a conventional mean- 
 ing, and thus come to be symbolic of certain truths. 
 Thus, our patriarchal religion consisted almost en- 
 tirely of prayer and sacrifice. The Mosaic religion, 
 which came after the invention of letters, added to 
 prayer and sacrifice a written code of duty, a formal 
 declaration of truths and principles, which lay at the 
 foundation of the whole institution. 
 
 " The patriarchal element was still strong and 
 predominant in all our Church, yet there was no 
 express mode of religious instruction. This was en- 
 joined on the heads of families : ' And these words 
 which I command thee this day, thou shalt teach them 
 to thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sit- 
 test in thy house.' And as the written laws were 
 scarce and hard to get, it was said : 'And thou shalt 
 bind them for a sign upon thine hand and as front- 
 lets between thine eyes, and thou shalt write them 
 upon the posts of thine house and upon thy gates.' 
 14
 
 210 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 Then the Levites were to stand and say with a loud 
 voice : ' Cursed be the man that maketh any graven 
 image ;' and all the people shall hold up their hands 
 and say, amen ; and thus he went through the whole 
 law. Then at the annual meeting upon the moun- 
 tains at new moon all the people met and held up 
 their hands and cried, amen. Thus it is evident that 
 devotion predominated over instruction ; the culti- 
 vation of the heart was made more prominent than 
 that o$ the understanding. 
 
 " But in the Hebrew commonwealth Church and 
 State were closely amalgamated. The code of Moses 
 prescribed a like religious and civil duty. The 
 Levites, of course, were the judges and magistrates, 
 as well as the religious teachers of the people. But 
 as books were scarce, we find in the third year of 
 the reign of Jehoshaphat that he sent princes and 
 Levites to teach the people, and they took the book 
 of the law and went through all the cities of Judea 
 and taught the people the law of the Lord. 
 
 " This same thing was carried out in all the Jew- 
 ish life. Our tabernacle in the wilderness, and after- 
 ward in the holy land, was intended as a perpetual 
 memorial of God, and a symbol of His presence. It 
 called the people off from idolatry, and reminded 
 them that their worship was to be directed to Jeho- 
 vah alone. Its services, and those afterward of the 
 temple, were perpetually renewed every morning and 
 every evening, that no pious Israelite should ever 
 feel that the duties of adoration and gratitude could 
 be omitted for a single day. The morning and even-
 
 THE HILLEL LETTERS. 211 
 
 ing sacrifice, we have every reason to believe, was 
 to the religiously disposed an essential aid to devo- 
 tion through the many centuries of the continuance 
 of that imposing rite. 
 
 " Then if we transfer these imposing ceremonies 
 to the temple, this godly house was the rallying 
 point of our political power, the consecrated seat of 
 our religion, and the heart of our national affections. 
 It was built by Solomon more than a thousand years 
 ago. It was built on Mount Moriah, in the south- 
 eastern part of Jerusalem. It was built for worship 
 alone. It was intended as a place for national wor- 
 ship. It consisted of four enclosures, one within 
 another on three sides, but having a common wall 
 011 the fourth, Only one of these was covered with a 
 roof, in our meaning of the term, and that was the 
 last or innermost enclosure the holy of holies, con- 
 taining the ark, the cherubim, and the mercy seat. 
 The outer enclosure, into which all nations were per- 
 mitted to enter, was very large. The second was 
 the court of women so-called, not because none but 
 women were permitted to enter there, but because 
 they were permitted to go no further. Within this 
 was the court of Israel, which again surrounded on 
 three sides that of the priests, where was the great 
 altar, upon which the daily sacrifice was offered 
 morning and evening. 
 
 " Oh, these sacred ordinances ! How can the world 
 do without them ? It seems that the world could do 
 as well without the light of the sun, as well without 
 food to eat or water to drink, as to do without these
 
 212 THE A RCHK VOL UME. 
 
 doctrines and teachings of the Jews. But they are 
 all gone. The city, the temple, the doctrine, the 
 priest, the law, and the nation are all gone. Is it 
 so that God has become tired of His own appoint- 
 ments ? or does He see a defect in His own ways, 
 or has He become dissatisfied with His own cove- 
 nant made to our fathers and to their children ? 
 
 " I write you these letters, my beloved country- 
 men, asking you to look at these things, and find out 
 the cause of our abandonment. Is it the cause that 
 sent our fathers into Egypt ? or is it caused by the 
 same thing that sent them into Babylon ? Let us 
 look and find out the cause, so that we may seek a 
 remedy. And let us not forget the morning and 
 evening sacrifice. Let us turn our faces toward that 
 holy temple and pray. Although it is not in exist- 
 ence in fact, yet it lives in each of our hearts, and 
 shall ever live. Though we may be thousands of 
 miles away, and be sold into bondage, and bound in 
 chains, yet we will not, we cannot, forget our land, 
 our religion, and our God. He is the God of Abra- 
 ham, and still is merciful, and will remember His 
 promises and keep His covenant made with our 
 fathers. And so shall I abide." 
 
 Seventh Letter. 
 
 THE EXPECTATION . OF THE JEWS. 
 
 " Not only was the expectation of a remarkable 
 personage universally prevalent among the Jews at 
 the time of the appearance of Christ, but the phra-
 
 THE HILLEL LETTERS. 213 
 
 seology was already in use which designated what he 
 was to be and accomplish. There was at the time of 
 Christ a Messianic phraseology derived from different 
 parts of the Old Testament, which embodied and ex- 
 pressed all their anticipations. Whatever inspiration 
 accompanied the first composition of the prophecies, 
 there was evidently none in their interpretation. This 
 much was certain, that there was to be a Messiah, 
 there was to be a new dispensation. No one knew 
 precisely what he was to be. Imagination, of course, 
 was set to work, and each one for himself formed his 
 own, and made whatever passage of the Old Testa- 
 ment he choose to be descriptive of his person and 
 office. Not only the imagination, but the passions 
 were concerned in the formation of their expecta- 
 tions. The pious thought of him as a religious re- 
 former, and the new state of things to be a condition 
 of higher religious perfection. The rabbis interpreted 
 concerning the days of the Messiah such passages as 
 this from the 31st chapter of Jeremiah, ' Behold, 
 the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a 
 new covenant with the house of Israel and with the 
 house of Judah. Not according to the covenant that 
 I made with their fathers in the day that I took 
 them by the hand to bring them out of the land of 
 Egypt. But this shall be the covenant that I will 
 make with the house of Israel. After those days, 
 saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward 
 parts, and write it on their hearts, and will be their 
 God, and they shall be my people. And they shall 
 teach no more every man his neighbor, and every
 
 214 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they all 
 shall know me, from the least of them even unto the 
 greatest of them, saith the Lord ; for I will forgive 
 their iniquity and remember their sin no more.' 
 This seems to have been the expectation entertained 
 by the Samaritans, if the woman with whom Christ 
 talked at the well of Jacob is to be considered as 
 speaking the sentiments of the nation. 
 
 " The universal expectation seems to have been 
 that he was to be a prophet like unto Moses, but 
 greater. In accordance with this sentiment Peter, 
 in one of his first discourses after the resurrection of 
 Jesus, cites the promise of Moses to the Israelites 
 just before his death, as applicable to Christ. ' A 
 prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you 
 of your brethren like unto me, him shall ye hear in 
 all things whatsoever he shall say unto you. And 
 it shall come to pass that every soul which shall not 
 hear the prophet shall be destroyed from among the 
 people.' These were the sentiments of those who had 
 reen the miracle of feeding the five thousand with a 
 few loaves and fishes, bearing so strong a resemblance 
 to the feeding of the Israelites in the desert. Then 
 those men when they had seen the miracle which 
 Jesus did, said : ' This is of a truth that prophet 
 that should come into the world.' 
 
 " Another and much larger class gave the Messi- 
 anic prophecies a more worldly meaning. The great 
 personage whose coming they shortly expected was 
 to be a king, but greater than any who had sat upon 
 the Jewish throne. It was with this expectation
 
 THE HILLEL LETTERS. 215- 
 
 evidently that his disciples followed him through his 
 whole ministry. And even after his resurrection 
 they seem for awhile to have entertained the same 
 hopes. One of the first questions which they asked 
 him after he rose was : ' Wilt thou at this time re- 
 store the kingdom to Israel ?' And at the last sup- 
 per they disputed ' which of them should be the 
 greatest,' that is, who should be highest in office in 
 the new kingdom that he was about to set up. It 
 was with this idea that he was hailed by the multi- 
 tude into Jerusalem with the shout, ' Hosanna to 
 the son of David.' This was the idea which Nathan- 
 iel meant to express when he said, on receiving the 
 evidence that he was a prophet : ' Rabbi, thou art the 
 Son of God, thou art the king of Israel.' That it 
 was his temporal character to which Nathaniel here 
 referred we have sufficient evidence in the informa- 
 tion which first directed his attention to Jesus. ' We 
 have found him of whom Moses in the law and the 
 prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of 
 Joseph.' The part of the Old Testament from which 
 this title and expectation were taken was principally 
 the second Psalm. The person described in this 
 poem is represented as exalted by God to be a king 
 on Mount Zion in Judea. The surrounding heathen 
 are represented as being enraged. But God has 
 nevertheless determined that he shall reign ; and as 
 a king sets his son upon his throne while he yet lives, 
 so has God, as Supreme King of Israel, exalted this 
 person to share His authority, and pledges His own 
 power to support his throne.
 
 -21(5 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 " One idea of the kingdom of the Messiah, de- 
 rived from this Psalm, was that he was not only 
 to reign over the Jews, but destroy all other nations. 
 ' Why do the heathen rage and the people im- 
 agine a vain thing. The kings of the earth set them- 
 selves, and the rulers take counsel together against 
 the Lord, and against his Anointed, saying, Let us 
 break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords 
 from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh. 
 The Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall 
 He speak to them in his wrath, and vex them in 
 his sore displeasure. Yet I have set my king upon 
 my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree, the 
 Lord hath said unto me. Thou art my son, this 
 day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I will 
 give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and 
 the uttermost parts of the earth for a possession. 
 Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron, thou 
 shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.' 
 This Psalm was interpreted by the Jews almost 
 universally of the Messiah, and the more readily as 
 the title Anointed is translated in the Septuagint 
 Christos so that it there reads, 'Against the Lord 
 and against His Christ.' The Messiah, therefore, was 
 to reign on Mount Zion, one of the mountains on 
 which Jerusalem was built, and reign over the Jews 
 and by God's assistance subdue the heathen by war 
 and conquest, break them with a rod of iron, and 
 dash them in pieces as a potter's vessel. Such was the 
 kingdom which the great majority of the Jews 
 expected their Messiah to set up.
 
 THE HILLEL LETTERS. 217 
 
 " The phrase, ' kingdom of heaven,' is taken from 
 the second chapter of the Book of Daniel. After 
 foretelling that there should arise four great mon- 
 archies, the Babylonian, the Persian, the Grecian, 
 and the Roman, the last of which should be a king- 
 dom of iron, he goes on to say, 'And in the days of 
 these kings shall the God of heaven set up a king- 
 dom which shall never be destroyed, and the king- 
 dom shall not be left to other people, but it shall 
 break in pieces, and consume all these kingdoms,, 
 and it shall stand forever.' In another passage : ' I 
 saw in the night a vision, and behold, one like the Son 
 of Man came with the clouds of heaven, and came 
 to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near 
 before him. And there was given unto him domin- 
 ion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, na- 
 tions, and languages should serve him. His do- 
 minion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom 
 that which shall not be destroyed.' 
 
 " From this last passage was probably derived 
 the opinion once held, that the Messiah should 
 never die. Jesus said on a certain occasion : ' And 
 I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men 
 unto me.' The people answered him, ' We have 
 heard out of the law that Christ abideth forever ; 
 and how sayest thou the Son of Man must be lifted 
 up ? Who is this Son of Man ?' The new dispensa- 
 tion under the figure of a kigdom was the subject of 
 the commencing petition of one of the chief prayers 
 recited in their synagogues, from Sabbath to Sab- 
 bath, and has been so for ages. There was a time
 
 218 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 specified in the Book of Daniel of seventy weeks, 
 which was to intervene between the building of the 
 second temple and the times of the Messiah, which, 
 interpreting according to the prophetic style, a day 
 for a year, would bring the period of his appearance 
 somewhere near the time when John the Baptist 
 began to preach. 
 
 " So prevalent had this expectation become that 
 it had spread beyond the holy land. Tacitus, a his- 
 torian who wrote in Italy, records the fact that among 
 many ' there was a persuasion that in the ancient 
 books of the priesthood it was written that at this 
 precise time the East should become mighty, and that 
 those issuing from Judea should rule the world.' 
 Suetonius, another Latin historian, writes ' that in 
 the East an ancient and constant opinion prevailed 
 that it was fated there should issue at this time from 
 Judea those who should obtain universal dominion.' 
 
 " This confident expectation of the Jews had 
 already caused no little political disturbance. It 
 was this proud anticipation of universal conquest 
 which made them so restive under the government 
 of the Romans. That they who were destined to 
 reign over the world and whose King Messiah was 
 to have the heathen for his inheritance, the utter- 
 most parts of the earth for his possession, who was to 
 break with a rod of iron, and dash them in pieces 
 like a potter's vessel should be in vassalage to a for- 
 eign power, was more than they could bear. Jose- 
 phus relates that about the time of the birth of 
 Christ, when Cyrenius was sent to take a census of
 
 THE HILLEL LETTERS. 219 
 
 Judea, Judas, a native of Gamala in Galilee, rose 
 up and resisted the Roman commissioner, and raised 
 a great rebellion. He is mentioned likewise by 
 Gamaliel in his speech before the Jewish Sanhedrim, 
 when the apostles were brought before them for 
 preaching Jesus as the Messiah, immediately after 
 his ascension. ' After this man, rose up Judas of 
 Galilee, in the days of taxing, and drew away much 
 people after him ; he also perished, and all, as many 
 as obeyed him, were dispersed.' Josephus speaks 
 generally of the troubles of those times, without 
 specifying their causes. And now Judea was full 
 of robberies, and as the several companies of the 
 seditious would light upon anyone to head them he 
 was created a king immediately, in order to do mis- 
 chief to the public. 
 
 ' ' This was exactly the state of the country during 
 the ministry of Jesus, and it explains his caution in 
 proclaiming himself the Messiah, and his withdrawal 
 as soon as a multitude collected about him and man- 
 ifested any tendency to sedition or disturbance. It 
 is recorded of him, that, after the miracle of feeding 
 the five thousand, and the declaration made concern- 
 ing him, ' This of a truth is that prophet which should 
 come into the world,' When Jesus therefore per- 
 ceived that they would come and take him by force, 
 and make him a king, he departed again into a moun- 
 tain himself alone.' In another instance, likewise, 
 when he had healed the man at the pool of Bethesda, 
 'And he that was healed wist not who it was ; for
 
 220 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 Jesus had conveyed himself away, a multitude being 
 in that place.' 
 
 " Such being the expectation of the Jews, as we 
 learn from profane history, a man of singular habits 
 and appearance began to preach in a retired part of 
 Judea, where there were but few large towns : ' Re- 
 pent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.' This 
 man was of the sacerdotal tribe, and had been con- 
 secrated to God from his infancy by the vow of the 
 Nazarite. His habits and dress were those of a her- 
 mit, his food such as he could pick up in the fields 
 and woods. He was literally the voice of one cry- 
 ing in the wilderness, ' Prepare ye the way of the 
 Lord. Make straight in the desert a highway for 
 our God.' He professed to have been moved by 
 divine impulse to proclaim the immediate approach 
 of the Messiah. A man of such singular appear- 
 ance, bearing such an important message, produced 
 a great sensation, and excited the strongest curiosity. 
 Crowds from all parts of Judea flocked together to 
 see and hear him. Some thought that he was the 
 Messiah. His fame soon reached Jerusalem, and 
 the Jewish authorities sent a deputation of priests 
 and Levites to inquire who he was. He told them 
 that he was not the Messiah, but was sent to intro- 
 duce him. ' I came to point him out to Israel.' 
 Here was undoubtedly stated the true reason why he 
 was raised up by Divine Providence to prepare the 
 Jewish mind for the great message from God which 
 they were about to receive, to shape their ideas from 
 the crude mass of traditions which had existed among
 
 THE HILLEL LETTERS. 22 1 
 
 them into some resemblance to the dispensation that 
 the Messiah was about to establish. ' There was a 
 man sent from God whose name was John. The 
 same came for a witness, that all men through him 
 might believe. He was not the Light, but was sent 
 to bear witness of the Light.' 
 
 " The effect of his preaching was precisely what 
 was intended. He produced a strong impression 
 upon the public mind, and, though he wrought no 
 miracle, all men held him to be a prophet. He pre- 
 sented a strong contrast, and probably by design, to 
 the pretenders to divine mission who appeared about 
 that time. It was on this account that the multi- 
 tudes which gathered about him created no uneasi- 
 ness in the public authorities. A man, like John, 
 who clothed himself in the coarsest attire, in a coun- 
 try where the higher classes were studious of orna- 
 ment, and all who had any pretensions to official 
 dignity were distinguished by gorgeous apparel, 
 would naturally escape all suspicion of political 
 ambition. A religious teacher evidently sincere and 
 pious, and withal free from fanaticism and enthusi- 
 asm, after the cessation of prophecy for four hundred 
 years, must have produced a great impression. He 
 must have recalled to the minds of his countrymen 
 the days when Elijah in a like simplicity and grave 
 austerity stood up as a prophet of God, and the 
 champion of religion. Some, indeed, mistook him 
 for Elijah risen from the dead, who, their traditions 
 affirmed, was to come to anoint and inaugurate the 
 Messiah. The almost simultaneous appearance of
 
 222 THE ARCHKO VOLUME 
 
 the Light, and the witness to the Light, without any 
 concert or collusion, was a strong testimony to the 
 divine mission of both. With this argument alone 
 Jesus on one occasion silenced those who questioned 
 his claim to be the Messiah. ' The baptism of John, 
 whence was it ? From heaven or of men ?' They 
 reasoned among themselves, saying : ' If we say of 
 heaven, then he will say, Why then did ye not be- 
 lieve on him ?' and, of course, believe on him to whom 
 he bore witness. ' But if we say of men, the peo- 
 ple will stone us, for all counted John as a prophet.' 
 It does not appear that John had any particular per- 
 son in his mind when he commenced his mission, but 
 was merely informed by God, who sent him to preach, 
 that the Messiah should be pointed out to him by 
 some miraculous appearance. He had known him 
 before as a person of great piety and excellence, for 
 when Jesus came to him to be baptized, John said to 
 him, ' I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest 
 thou to me ?' But as the Messiah he had no knowl- 
 edge of him, for he testifies, " I knew him not,' that 
 is, as the Messiah, ' but He that sent me to baptize 
 with water, the same said unto me : Upon whom 
 thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining 
 on him, the same is he that shall baptize with the 
 Holy Ghost.' . John collected around him a com- 
 pany of disciples whom he instructed in the mys- 
 teries of religion, and many of them seem to have 
 remained with him after he was cast into prison, 
 till he was beheaded by Herod. 
 
 " We have reason to conclude, I think, that his
 
 THE HILLEL LETTERS. 223 
 
 teaching shadowed forth, though imperfectly, the 
 general system of Christianity. Jesus says of him, 
 ' That among them that are born of women, there 
 hath not arisen a greater prophet than John the 
 Baptist,' and they bear a strong resemblance to the 
 opening discourses of Christ. ' And the people said 
 unto him, What shall we do then ? He answered 
 and said unto them, He that hath two coats, let him 
 impart unto him that hath none, and he that hath 
 meat, let him do likewise.' ' Then came the tax- 
 gatherers to be baptized, and said unto him, Master, 
 what shall we do ? And he said unto them, Exact 
 no more than is appointed you. And the soldiers 
 likewise demanded of him, saying, And what shall 
 we do ? And he said unto them, Do violence to no 
 man, neither accuse any falsely, and be content with 
 your wages.' 
 
 " That John preached the essential doctrines of 
 Christianity would appear from what we read, 'And 
 a certain Jew, named Apollos, born in Alexandria, 
 an eloquent man and mighty in the Scriptures, came 
 to Ephesus. This man was instructed in the way of 
 the Lord, and, being fervent in spirit, he spake and 
 taught diligently the things of the Lord, knowing 
 only the baptism of John. And he began to speak 
 boldly in the synagogue, whom when Aquilla and 
 Priscilla had heard they took him unto them, and 
 expounded to him the way of the Lord more per- 
 fectly.' In the nineteenth chapter : 'And it came 
 to pass that Avhile Apollos was at Corinth, Paul, hav- 
 ing passed through the upper coasts, came to Ephe-
 
 224 THE ARGHKO VOLUME. 
 
 sus, and finding certain disciples, he said unto them, 
 Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed ? 
 And they said unto him, We have not so much as 
 heard whether there be any Holy Ghost. And he 
 said unto them, Unto what then were ye baptized ? 
 And they said, Unto John's baptism.' Now, here 
 are two cases in which those who had heard nothing 
 but the doctrines of John are said to have been Chris- 
 tians, to have been taught the things of the Lord, 
 and to have been disciples. 
 
 " It follows then, of course, that John the Baptist 
 taught the essential truths of Christianity. The object 
 of the gospels being to record the teaching of Jesus, 
 that of John is passed over in a very cursory man- 
 ner. But that he taught often and much, as well 
 as prophesied the coming of the Messiah, we have 
 every reason to believe. His disciples, however, 
 mingled some of the old forms with their new doc- 
 trines, for they fasted often, an observance which 
 Jesus declared agreed no better with the new religion 
 than a piece of new cloth with an old garment, or 
 new wine with old bottles. 
 
 " The mind of John the Baptist furnishes a re- 
 markable example, which we often meet with, of par- 
 tial divine illumination, the clearest knowledge on 
 some points, and absolute ignorance on others. By 
 the light of inspiration he shadowed forth in a few 
 words the nature of the kingdom of heaven, whose 
 approach he foretold, and showed it to be something 
 entirely different from the expectation of the Jews, 
 handed down from remote ages; yet of its details
 
 THE HILLEL LETTERS. 225 
 
 his ideas seem to have been vague, and he appears 
 to have had no certain knowledge that Jesus was the 
 Messiah, though he had baptized him and received 
 the heavenly sign of which they had been fore- 
 warned. 
 
 " One truth which he announced bears evident 
 marks of supernatural origin since it contradicted 
 the conceptions and prejudices of the age that the 
 Messiah and his kingdom were not to be national, 
 not belonging of right and exclusion to the posterity 
 of Abraham alone. There is a maxim, as common 
 as the very letters of the alphabet, in the writings of 
 the rabbis, that ' There is a part for all Israel in the 
 world to come.' that is, in the kingdom of Messi.ah, 
 merely by virtue of their descent from Abraham. 
 That it was to be a kingdom selected from Israel and 
 other nations, a new community by no means coex- 
 tensive with the seed of Abraham, they had not the 
 slightest idea. That it was to be a moral and a spir- 
 itual kingdom was as far from their conceptions. 
 ' Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand. Bring 
 forth, therefore, fruits worthy of repentance. And 
 say not, we have Abraham for our father, for God is 
 able of these stones to raise up children to Abraham.' 
 Think not that you are to belong to the kingdom of 
 God merely because you are descended from Abra- 
 ham God is able to raise up children to Abraham 
 from a source now as improbable to you as the stones 
 beneath your feet, from among the Gentiles even, 
 whom you are accustomed to call dogs, and count as 
 the oSscouring of the earth. A discrimination is 
 15
 
 226 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 about to take place, not between the children of 
 Abraham and other nations, but between the good 
 and the bad even among the Jews themselves. ' The* 
 axe lieth at the root of all the trees. Every tree 
 therefore, which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn 
 down and cast into the fire. I indeed baptize you 
 with water, but he that cometh after me is mightier 
 than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear, he shall 
 baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire.' He 
 shall raise those who obey him to a higher degree of 
 spiritual knowledge, perfection, and power, and pun- 
 ish those who disobey him with the severest suffer- 
 ing. ' Whose winnowing fan is in his hand, and 
 he will thoroughly purge his grain, and gather the 
 wheat into his garner, but he will burn up the chaff 
 with unquenchable fire.' This is the same idea ex- 
 pressed in stronger language, the meaning of which 
 is this, The Messiah's kingdom is not, as you Jews 
 expect, to comprehend the good and the bad merely 
 because they are the descendants of Abraham, but 
 is to embrace the good only, who are to be gathered 
 into a separate community, while the bad are to be 
 abandoned to the destruction which their own wicked 
 courses will inevitably bring upon them. 
 
 " He not only preached the kingdom of God as a 
 separate society, distinct from the Jewish nation, but 
 he actually began to set it up. The baptism which 
 he instituted was no idle, unmeaning form, nor did 
 it signify simply a profession of repentance, but it 
 began and founded a new community. Those who 
 received it professed not only repentance as necessary
 
 THE HILLEL LETTERS. 227 
 
 to prepare them for the kingdom of the Messiah, 
 now shortly expected to appear, but a readiness to 
 believe in and obey him whenever he should evi- 
 dently make himself Known. ' The law and the 
 prophets,' says Christ, ' were until John. Since that 
 the kingdom of God is preached, and every man 
 presseth into it.' The baptism of John and that of 
 Jesus were essentially the same, one into a profession 
 of belief in the Messiah yet to come, and the other into 
 a possession of belief in the Messiah already come. 
 
 ' ' Thus John's baptism began to do what his words 
 began to predict, to separate the righteous from the 
 wicked, to prepare the righteous for eternal life, and 
 leave the wicked to the consequences of their sins ; 
 began to establish the kingdom of God, whose initi- 
 atory rite was baptism, just as circumcision was the 
 initiatory rite of God's ancient church. Thus the 
 kingdom of God came not with observation. While 
 men were saying, ' Lo here, and lo there,' the king- 
 dom of God was in the midst of them. 
 
 " But after all this knowledge of the nature of 
 the kingdom, or Christianity, which was possessed 
 by John the Baptist, and after baptizing Jesus with 
 his own hands, and receiving the Divine testimony 
 of which he had been forewarned, so possessed was 
 he with the Jewish prejudices, of the temporal splen- 
 dor and power of the Messiah, and so discouraged 
 by his long imprisonment, that he sent two of his 
 disciples to inquire if he were actually the Messiah. 
 Jesus sent them back to tell all they saw and heard, 
 and to leave him to form his own judgment, adding-
 
 228 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 what throws light on the reasons of John's doubts, 
 ' Blessed is he whoever is not offended in me ; who 
 does not consider the lowliness of my appearance 
 incompatible with the loftiness of my pretentious.' 
 
 " This good and holy man, having lived just long 
 enough to see the rising twilight of the new dispen- 
 sation for which he was sent to prepare the way, fell 
 a victim to the intrigues and revenge of a wicked 
 woman. Herodias, the wife of one of the sons of 
 Herod the Great, accompanying her husband to 
 Rome, there became acquainted with Herod the 
 tetrarch of Perea, and after her return to Judea she 
 abandoned her husband, and with her daughter Sa- 
 lome went to live with him, in open defiance of the 
 laws of God and man. John, the intrepid prophet 
 of righteousness, reproved such flagrant iniquity in 
 high places, and said to the royal transgressor, ' It 
 is not lawful for thee to have her.' For this bold 
 testimony for righteousness he was sent to the castle 
 Machserus, on the confines of Palestine and Arabia. 
 But the sleepless revenge of Herodias followed him 
 even there, and he died, as is well known, a martyr 
 to the truth. Thus perished John the Baptist, the 
 morning star of Christianity, and his dying eyes 
 caught scarcely a glimpse of the glory that was re- 
 vealed. 
 
 " There is no subject which literature approaches 
 with such diffidence as the personal character and 
 history of Christ. There is no theme on which lan- 
 guage is found so inadequate and imperfect. A per- 
 son in human form, with every attribute of humanity,
 
 THE HILLEL LETTERS. 229 
 
 except sin, exhibiting perfect goodness in combina- 
 tion with infallible wisdom, clothed with extensive 
 power over physical nature, and a knowledge of 
 futurity at once extensive and circumstantial ; the 
 declared end and object of a train of miraculous 
 interpositions running back to the very foundation 
 of the world, himself the beginning and cause of a 
 new order of things, embracing the whole world and 
 all succeeding times ; his doctrines destined to sway 
 the minds of the millions of the human race, to form 
 their opinions, to mould their characters, to shape 
 their expectations, to reign in their minds, and judge 
 their actions, to convict and purify their consciences, 
 to cleanse them from sin, and prepare them for his- 
 own society and the presence of God in the spiritual 
 world worthily to speak of such a being is a task 
 before which I confess that my speech falters and 
 my vocabulary seems meagre and inadequate. 
 This difficulty remains whatever view we adopt of 
 his metaphysical rank in the universe. From the 
 fierce controversy as to the nature of Christ, so 
 early raised and which more than any other cause 
 has disturbed its harmony, I am most happy to escape. 
 That belongs to the history of opinions, and volumes 
 on volumes would not contain their endless diversity. 
 What men have thought of the person of Jesus of 
 Nazareth, and what he actually was, and did, and 
 taught, and brought to pass, are two things entirely 
 distinct. The former is a matter of mere speculation, 
 the latter embraces all that is necessary. 
 
 " We read of Jesus, that, immediately after his bap-
 
 230 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 tism and transfiguration by John, directed by Divine 
 impulse, he retired into solitude, where he passed 
 forty days in preparation, doubtless, for the great 
 work in which he was about to engage. From this 
 solitary sojourn he returned filled with the Spirit, 
 with that measure of wisdom and knowledge and 
 power which was necessary for his mission to man- 
 kind. From that forty days' retirement he came 
 back to the world with a scheme of religion entirely 
 new. It differed from everything that had gone 
 before in being spiritual and universal. Its plan 
 was perfect at first. It was not to grow up, and take 
 such a form as circumstances might dictate ; but 
 with a plastic power, like that of the Divine Mind 
 itself, it was to transform and mould all things accord- 
 ing to its unalterable purpose. It is with reference 
 to this fulness of knowledge, by which he was exalted 
 not only above all the prophets which went before 
 him, but all those whom he used as instruments in 
 propagating and establishing his religion, that it is 
 said of him, that ' God giveth not the spirit by meas- 
 ure unto him.' ' The law was given by Moses, but 
 grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.' 
 
 " The divine plan being thus communicated to the 
 mind of Christ, it was necessary that he should have 
 the power of carrying it into effect. Having received 
 this divine commission, it was necessary that it should 
 be authenticated. The plan was divine, but such were 
 the ignorance and blindness of mankind that it is 
 not at all probable that the world would have recog- 
 nized and embraced it as divine, had it not been
 
 THE HILLEL LETTERS. 231 
 
 authenticated by miracles. Mankind, particularly 
 in rude ages, want not only truth but authority 
 not only truth but the certainty that it is truth or, 
 not being embraced with sufficient confidence, it will 
 do them no good. 
 
 " Jesus returned from his forty days' seclusion 
 possessed of supernatural wisdom, which guarded 
 him from all mistake, and enabled him in all circum- 
 stances to say and to do the thing which his present 
 condition required ; he came with miraculous knowl- 
 edge of the manner, for instance, and circumstances 
 of his death, the success of his religion, and the spir- 
 itual power to which he was to be exalted. He 
 came with supernatural control over the order of 
 nature, such as is most striking to the unsophisti- 
 cated understandings of mankind, to persuade them 
 of the connection of its possessor with God. His 
 touch healed the sick, his will changed the elements, 
 his command stilled the tempest, his voice raised the 
 dead. But what was quite as striking to those with 
 whom he associated, he could read men's most secret 
 thoughts, and tell them the transactions of their past 
 lives, and foresee what they were hereafter to do. 
 
 " But the system, though perfect in itself, existed 
 nowhere but in his own mind. How was it to be 
 introduced ? The human mind was not a blank on 
 which might be written the institutions and princi- 
 ples of the new religion. It was already preoccupied. 
 What was already there could not be annihilated 
 or effaced. How could the new be made to super- 
 sede the old? It could not be done at once. It
 
 232 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 could only be done by degrees, by engrafting the new 
 upon the old where it was practicable, and by infus- 
 ing into the current of language and thought new 
 principles which might insensibly color the whole 
 mass, thus superseding rather than destroying what 
 was already in existence. 
 
 " The Jewish religion was already in being, as the 
 stock upon which to engraft his own. He himself 
 was expected, but in another character from what 
 he could assume. The whole phraseology was in 
 use which designated what he was to accomplish. 
 What would the highest wisdom have dictated 
 him to do ? What does the man do who has a 
 house to build, but has an old one already on the 
 spot ? Does he begin by giving it to the flames, or 
 by throwing it all aside ? No ! He selects from it 
 whatever is sound and incorporates it with the new 
 building. 
 
 " This was precisely what Jesus did with regard 
 to the religion of the Jews, and the expectations and 
 phraseology which were then in existence as to 
 the Messiah and the new dispensation. To reject 
 them would have made the task of introducing the 
 new religion much more difficult. The only course 
 which wisdom could direct was to adopt the existing 
 phraseology, and give it such a sense as would corre- 
 spond with his real character and office. The Jews 
 were accustomed to call the Messiah the ' Son of 
 Man,' from the vision of Daniel, in which he saw one 
 like ' the Son of Man,' invested with great power 
 .and dignity. He was likewise called the ' Son of
 
 THE HILLEL LETTERS. 233 
 
 God,' from the second Psalm. These appellations he 
 assumed, and by assuming them claimed all that 
 belonged to the Messiah. The Messiah was expected 
 as a king, and the new dispensation as a kingdom. 
 This was not literally a fact, but was spiritually true 
 in a sense transcending the most exalted conceptions 
 of the most bigoted and ambitious Jew. Nor ought 
 it to militate against this view of things, that it may 
 seem to be inconsistent with perfect candor and deal- 
 ing. No language that he could have used would 
 have given them a clear conception of Christianity, 
 as it actually was to be. Their own phraseology of 
 a kingdom would come as near as any that he could 
 adopt. What it was to be time only could develop. 
 We, who know what it is, acquiesce in the propriety 
 of his use of the Messianic language, as it then ex- 
 isted, giving it at the same time such an interpreta- 
 tion as made it the symbolic expression of the highest 
 spiritual truth. 
 
 " To exemplify the principles which I have laid 
 down, to show the wisdom, the miraculous knowledge 
 of Jesus, the full understanding that he had of the 
 whole system from the beginning, and the manner in 
 which he insinuated the glorious and eternal truths 
 of Christianity through the Messianic phraseology of 
 that time, I shall proceed to analyze some of his first 
 discourses. 
 
 " The ministry of Jesus began in Galilee, but at 
 what time of the year we are not informed. Of his 
 first tour through that country, in which he attended 
 the marriage-feast at Cana, we have only a general
 
 234 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 notice. Of his discourses nothing now remains but 
 their commencing sentence : ' Repent, for the king- 
 dom of God is at hand.' Multitudes soon gathered 
 around him, and his fame spread throughout all 
 Syria. 
 
 " His first recorded discourse is that which he 
 held with Xicodemus at Jerusalem, at the first pass- 
 over which occurred after the commencement of his 
 ministry. This conversation introduces to us one 
 of the most interesting scenes of the New Testa- 
 ment. It presents us a practical proof of that mirac- 
 ulous wisdom with which Christ was endowed, which 
 made him equally at home with the learned, acute, 
 and experienced member of the Jewish Senate at 
 Jerusalem, and the humble, simple peasants and 
 fishermen of Galilee. ' And it came to pass when 
 he was in Jerusalem, at the Passover on the feast- 
 day, many believed on his name when they saw the 
 miracles that he did.' ' Marvel not that I said unto 
 thee, ye must be born again. The wind bloweth 
 whither it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, 
 but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it 
 goeth ; so is everyone that is born of the Spirit.' 
 Spiritual birth, true religion, is not confined, as you 
 Jews suppose, to one tribe or family. It is as free 
 as air, and the kingdom of God, which you expect 
 to be a national thing, will spread over the earth as 
 that does, without any regard to the boundaries of 
 nations and kindreds. Its empire is the soul, every- 
 where free, everyone capable of receiving it, not more 
 in those whose material bodies have descended from
 
 THE HILLEL LETTERS. 235 
 
 Abraham than those who have never heard of his 
 name. If you really desire, then, to enter into the 
 kingdom of God, to be my disciple, come not here 
 by night, go openly and be baptized. Be a Christian, 
 not outwardly alone, but inwardly ; hear my doc- 
 trines, receive my spirit, and trust no more to your 
 descent from Abraham. In the course of the con- 
 versation, he glances at two other facts no less offen- 
 sive to the Jewish prejudices of Xicodemus, the cru- 
 cifixion of the Messiah and the extension of his 
 kingdom to the gentiles. ' As Moses lifted up the 
 serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of 
 Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth on him 
 should not perish, but have everlasting life. For 
 God sent His Son into the world, not to condemn the 
 world,' not to destroy the nations as you Jews sup- 
 pose, ' but that through him the world might be 
 saved.' Such was the transcendent wisdom of the 
 Saviour, from the very commencement of his mis- 
 sion. Before the wisdom of this youthful teacher, 
 learning and age and experience were overborne and 
 subdued, and Nicodemus must have retired convinced 
 no less by his discourses than his miracles that he 
 was a teacher come from God. 
 
 " Soon after this conversation Jesus returned into 
 Galilee, and, passing through Samaria, held that 
 remarkable discourse with the woman of Samaria at 
 the well of Jacob, which I have noticed in a former 
 letter 
 
 " On his arrival at Nazareth, his previous resi- 
 dence, he attempted to preach in the synagogue
 
 236 THE A RC'HKO VOLUME. 
 
 where he had been accustomed to worship. The peo- 
 ple listened to the first part of his discourse with 
 pleasure and admiration, though, according to a 
 strong propensity of human nature, they were dis- 
 posed to sneer at him as the son of a carpenter. At 
 the first hint, however, of the doctrine that the new 
 dispensation was not to be a national religion, but 
 to be extended to gentile as well as Jew, they be- 
 came violently enraged. They might have been led 
 to suspect that he was not altogether sound in the 
 national faith of a Messiah who was to destroy the 
 heathen, from his manner of quoting that striking 
 passage of Isaiah, ' The spirit of the Lord is upon 
 me, because he hath anointed me to preach glad 
 tidings to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the 
 broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives 
 and recovery of sight to the blind ; to set at liberty 
 them that are bound, to preach the acceptable year 
 of the Lord ;' here he stopped. The rest of the 
 sentence is, ' and the day of vengeance of our God/ 
 Had he quoted the rest of the sentence without ex- 
 planation, as applicable to himself, they would have 
 understood him to sanction their expectation that he 
 was to destroy and not to save the other nations of 
 the earth, and cried out, perhaps, Hosanna to the son 
 of David ! But not only did he pass over this most 
 important part of their Messianic traditions, so com- 
 forting to them under their present political oppres- 
 sion, but he went on to intimate that the heathen 
 were not only to be spared, but to be admitted into 
 the kingdom of the Messiah. ' I tell you of a truth,
 
 THE HILLEL LETTERS. 237 
 
 many widows -were in Israel in the days of Elias, 
 but unto none of them was Elias sent save unto 
 Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a 
 widow. And many lepers were in Israel in the days 
 of Eliseus the prophet, and none of them were 
 cleansed saving Naaman the Syrian.' This Avas too 
 much. A Messiah who could tolerate or look favor- 
 ably upon the heathen, was not to be endured. 'And 
 all they in the synagogue, when they heard these 
 things, were filled with wrath, and rose up and thrust 
 him out of the city, and led him to the brow of the 
 hill whereon the city was built, that they might cast 
 him down headlong. But he, passing through the 
 midst of them, went his way, and came down to 
 Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and taught them on 
 the Sabbath day . 
 
 " The fame of his miracles and his doctrines went 
 on to increase, till the synagogues became too small 
 to contain the crowds which nocked to hear him. 
 He began, therefore, to teach them in the open air. 
 Once he preached to them from a ship, while they 
 stood on the shore ; once from a rising ground, that 
 his voice might be better heard by so vast a multi- 
 tude. His discourse on this occasion is denominated, 
 from the place where it was delivered, the Sermon 
 on the Mount. Let us examine its contents, and 
 mark the wonderful wisdom which it displays, couch- 
 ing eternal truths in language precisely adapted 
 to present circumstances ; so that the Jew, when he 
 heard it, was cured of his errors, and the Christian 
 to all times finds himself edified, as if it had been
 
 238 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 addressed to him alone. In that vast multitude 
 which was assembled from all parts of Judea, there 
 were, it is probable, men of all the different senti- 
 ments which were cherished by the Jewish people 
 at that period, uniting in but one common sentiment, 
 that the Messiah should be a temporal deliverer, 
 should cleanse Jerusalem and the holy laud of the 
 Roman standards which were perched on every tower, 
 and redeem the people of God from the degrading 
 tribute they were yearly compelled to pay. They 
 were ready to take up arms in the holy cause of 
 patriotism and religion. They wanted but the signal 
 of his hand to take up their line of march to the city 
 of David, and there they supposed that he would 
 stand highest in the new monarchy whose sword had 
 drank most freely of the blood of the slain. They 
 collected about him with hearts bursting with na- 
 tional pride and ambition. What must have been 
 their astonishment and disappointment when the first 
 sente-nce fell from his lips, ' Blessed are the poor in 
 spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.' The 
 kingdom of God which you have been so long expect- 
 ing is not an empire of war and conquest, nor is it 
 that of the Jews, to be exercised over foreign nations. 
 It belongs to the humble, the quiet, the contented 
 It does not come as a cure for outward misfortunes, 
 for political evils, for the relief of proud hearts rank- 
 ling under oppression, but it speaks comfort to those 
 who are bowed down under the sorrows of life ; 
 ' Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be com- 
 forted.' You expect the Messiah to vindicate the
 
 THE HILLEL LETTERS. 23i) 
 
 weak against the strong, to repel injury, to revenge 
 insult, that he will set up his empire with the sword 
 and defend it by the sword. ' But I say unto you, 
 blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.' 
 The gentle are those who are to flourish in the days 
 of the Messiah. They shall delight themselves in 
 the abundance of peace. You come to me expect- 
 ing a sign from heaven, to be fed with manna from 
 the skies, as your fathers were in the desert. I can 
 promise you nothing of the kind. The blessings of 
 my kingdom belong to those only who hunger and 
 thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. 
 You expect under the Messiah a reign of bitterness 
 and vengeance, that he will rule with a rod of iron, 
 and dash his enemies in pieces like a potter's vessel. 
 But I come to pronounce blessings on the merciful, 
 for I assure them that they shall find mercy from 
 their eternal Judge. You, who observe the laws of 
 Moses, submit to innumerable ceremonial ablutions, 
 and therefore imagine yourselves pure and prepared 
 for the kingdom of God. I assure you that no such 
 purification will be of any avail in that kingdom ; 
 ' Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see 
 God.' The remedies which you propose for mortal 
 ills are essentially defective. You imagine that they 
 can be cured by violence and resentment, that evil 
 may be remedied by evil, instead of being overcome 
 with good. But I say unto you, ' Blessed are the 
 peace-makers, for they shall be called the children 
 of God.' They shall share the blessings of the new 
 dispensation, not those who are vindictive and re-
 
 240 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 seutful; but ' Blessed are those who are persecuted 
 for righteousness' sake.' 
 
 ' ' The new religion which Jesus was sent to teach, 
 was not only to be preached by himself to that gen- 
 eration, but to be perpetuated to all time. His own 
 ministry he knew was to be short, and to have a trag- 
 ical end. It could be perpetuated in no other way 
 than by choosing assistants while he lived, and train- 
 ing them to take up the work where he laid it down, 
 to receive the gospel from his lips, proclaim it to the 
 world, and when their days should be numbered 
 commit it to others, who should be prepared in their 
 turn to instruct a new generation, and thus send it 
 down to all future times. Had there been no organ- 
 ization of this kind, had Jesus chosen no Apostles, 
 Christianity would have perished on the very thresh- 
 old of its existence. Accordingly, not long after the 
 commencement of his mission, after a night of prayer 
 to God, doubtless for Divine guidance and direction, 
 he choose twelve men of his more immediate followers, 
 and ordained them as his assistants and successors in 
 the propagation of the new faith. To them he ex- 
 plained more fully the principles of his religion, 
 which to the multitude, for fear of popular commo- 
 tion, he veiled under the dress of parable and allegory. 
 He sent them during his own ministry as heralds of 
 his approach, to prepare the minds of the people by 
 their own instructions for his more perfect teaching. 
 
 " These twelve Apostles were men from the lower 
 orders of society, of but slender literary and intel- 
 lectual cultivation, without wealth or influential con-
 
 THE HILLEL LETTERS. 241 
 
 nections. They brought no accession of strength or 
 respectability to his cause. It may seem at first 
 utterly unaccountable on any principle of human 
 policy that he should have mad 3 such a selection, 
 and quite as unaccountable that he himself should 
 have chosen to pass through his ministry under an 
 exterior so exceedingly humble ; that he should, in 
 the language of the Apostles, have made himself of 
 no reputation, and to all external appearances taken 
 the form of a slave ; but when we reflect upon it, 
 we find that it was dictated by the highest wisdom. 
 His external humility only puts in strong contrast 
 his moral and spiritual glory. He was really so 
 great that nothing external could add to the gran- 
 deur of his character. The fact that, without avail- 
 ing himself of a single external advantage, he estab- 
 lished a religion which disappointed the hopes of 
 his own nation and offered no bribe to any of the 
 passions to which the ambitious appeal with so much 
 success that he told his followers from the first that 
 they were to reap no worldly advantage from their 
 connection with him that his disciples were utterly 
 destitute of those acquirements by which any cause 
 is usually carried forward all these things throw 
 the philosophical back upon the only success, the 
 reality of his mission from God, the moral power 
 which truth always carries with it, and those mirac- 
 ulous attestations which are strongest evidence to 
 the unsophisticated mind of man of a mission from 
 the Most High. 
 
 " It may at first sight seem strange, when he might 
 16
 
 242 THE ARGHKO VOLUME. 
 
 have gone up to Jerusalem and chosen his disciples 
 from the most learned, gifted, and accomplished of 
 the rabbinical schools which were then flourishing 
 there, that he should have made such a choice. Over 
 them he would have manifested the same immeas- 
 urable superiority, and might have wielded them to 
 accomplish his purposes as easily as those humbler 
 persons whom he actually choose as his companions. 
 Between him and the intellectual and cultivated 
 there would seem to have been a closer sympathy 
 than with those uneducated Galileans who, as far as 
 we at this time are able to see, were mere children 
 in his presence. But this arrangement, like every 
 other, was founded in the highest wisdom. The 
 function which they were appointed to fill did not 
 call either for great talents or for extensive learning. 
 They were to originate nothing, they were to add 
 nothing to what he had taught. Their office was 
 simply that of witnesses of what he had said and 
 done and suffered. 'And ye also shall bear witness,' 
 said he to his disciples, ' because ye have been with 
 me from the beginning.' After his resurrection he 
 said to them : ' Thus it is written, and thus it be- 
 hooved the Messiah to suffer, and to rise from the 
 dead the third day, and that repentance and remis- 
 sion of sins should be preached in his name among 
 all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are 
 witnesses of these things. Ye shall receive power 
 after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and ye 
 shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem and
 
 THE HILLEL LETTERS. 243 
 
 in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost 
 parts of the earth.' 
 
 ' ' This being the office of the disciples, intellectual 
 cultivation was not a necessary requisite. The qual- 
 ities most necessary to a witness are simplicity, in- 
 tegrity, and courage. Through them the world had 
 received the Gospel. The more transparent the me- 
 dium through which we receive it, the less coloring 
 it takes from the minds through which it was trans- 
 mitted. The consequence is that we have the most 
 simple and childlike narrative that the world has 
 ever read. We do not see the historians at all. All 
 we see is Jesus Christ, his doctrine, his character, his 
 life, his miracles. There is no attempt at the intro- 
 duction of the philosophy or opinions of the times, 
 with the exception of the beginning of the Gospel of 
 John ; and it is unnecessary to say that those lines 
 have created more controversy in the Christian 
 Church than all the rest of the letters. What Jesus 
 wanted of his Apostles was principally to be his wit- 
 nesses to the world and to all succeeding ages. On 
 their testimony, in fact, the faith of the successive 
 millions of the Christian Church has depended. The 
 Gospels are nothing more nor less than their testi- 
 mony. Jesus himself left nothing written. All 
 that we know either of him or his doctrines we re- 
 ceive through them. Without their testimony we 
 would not know that such a person had ever existed. 
 Without their testimony we would not know what 
 he taught or how he lived. It was on the strength 
 of what they have seen and heard that they claimed
 
 244 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 to be the religious teachers of the world. The rela- 
 tion which the Apostles understood themselves to 
 sustain to Jesus as witnesses is fully and clearly 
 brought out in Peter's speech to Cornelius and his 
 friends : ' How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with 
 the Holy Ghost and with power, who went about 
 doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of 
 the devil, for God was with him. And we are wit- 
 nesses of all things which he did both in the land of 
 the Jews and Jerusalem, whom they slew and hanged 
 on a tree, him God raised up the third day, and 
 showed him openly, not to all the people, but unto 
 witnesses chosen before of God, even to us who did 
 eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead.' 
 
 " When the Saviour bowed his head upon the 
 cross, and said, ' It is finished,' the Gospel was com- 
 plete. He had discharged his office as a teacher. 
 Nothing could be added to it, and nothing could be 
 taken from it. The system was perfect. The duty 
 of the Apostles was to promulgate it to the world. 
 So you will observe that the promise of Divine 
 assistance, as far as doctrines are concerned, goes no 
 further than strengthening their memories ; ' But 
 the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, which the 
 Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all 
 things, and bring all things to your remembrance 
 whatsoever I have said unto you.' They were occa- 
 sionally instructed what to do, but never, that we 
 read of, to preach any new doctrine which had not 
 been taught by Christ himself. 
 
 " It may seem strange to those who are accustomed
 
 THE HfLLEL LETTERS. 245 
 
 to dispute about words and phrases, that Christ 
 should have left nothing written, nothing which we 
 can identify as the very words which he spoke. The 
 stickler for creeds and formulas may lament that all 
 the disputes of after ages were not anticipated and 
 prevented by a written declaration of the Saviour, 
 which would have been so plain that no dulness 
 could have misapprehended, no ingenuity perverted 
 it. We are fully justified, I believe, in asserting 
 that no such precaution would have been effectual. 
 Human language is essentially ambiguous, every 
 word having a variety of significations, any one of 
 which becomes probable only because it better suits 
 the connection, the purpose, or the sentiments of the 
 writer. Language is always addressed to reasonable 
 beings, and it is necessary for them to exercise their 
 reason in order to understand it. It is so with 
 Christ's plainest instructions. We are always obliged 
 to use our reason in order to decide in what sense 
 his words are to be taken. When he tells us, ' If 
 any man come to me, and hate not his father and 
 mother, and wife and children, and brethren and 
 sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my 
 disciple ;' are we to interpret this literally, and say 
 that no man can be a Christian without hating father 
 and mother, and sisters and brothers ? By no means. 
 And why ? Because it is not reasonable to believe 
 that such was his meaning. We cannot suppose that 
 Christ intended his followers to prove false to the 
 most important relations we sustain in this life. We 
 conclude, therefore, that he did not use the word
 
 246 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 hate in a literal, but a figurative sense of loving 
 them less than himself and his cause. So we inter- 
 pret the precept which commands us to cut off a 
 right hand, or pluck out a right eye. We do not 
 cut off our hands and pluck out our eyes, not be- 
 cause we are not literally commanded to do so, but 
 reason teaches us that he did not mean literally to 
 be so taken. So whatever Christ might have left 
 written, there would have remained the same diffi- 
 culty of interpretation. We should still be obliged 
 to rest on probability, just as we do now. We can- 
 not be infallibly certain that we take a sentence of 
 Scripture in the true sense, without possessing inspi- 
 ration ourselves. We cannot know that we are in- 
 spired, without the power of miracles, or unless some 
 miracle were wrought for our sakes, for otherwise we 
 could not have distinguished those thoughts which 
 were miraculously suggested from those which oc- 
 curred in the ordinary operations of our minds. 
 
 " Then, even had the Saviour left the Gospel 
 written with his own hand, we would still have been 
 compelled to rely on human testimony that the 
 same identical words were preserved. The thing, 
 then, is evidently better as it is. We would have 
 been compelled at last to rely on human testimony 
 as to what Christ did and taught and suffered. What 
 more competent witnesses could we possibly have 
 than those who were with him on terms of the great- 
 est familiarity during his whole ministry ? In what 
 better form could we have this testimony than in the 
 Gospel according to Matthew, written by one of
 
 THE HILLEL LETTERS. 247 
 
 those who were with him from the beginning, and 
 who was present at his crucifixion, who ate and 
 drank with him after he rose from the dead, and who 
 spent his life in propagating his religion ? What 
 more unobjectionable testimony than that of John, 
 who had been one of the disciples of John the Bap- 
 tist, who saw the transfiguration, leaned on his bosom, 
 and shared his most intimate friendship ? As col- 
 lateral proof, what more authentic than the memoirs 
 of Luke and Mark, who were the constant compan- 
 ions of the Apostles, and heard them rehearse over 
 and over the wonderful story of the teachings and 
 miracles of Jesus? 
 
 " Considered in this light, as human testimony, 
 and it is the only light in which they can be re- 
 garded, those who understand the principles of evi- 
 dence most thoroughly tell us that their evidence is 
 the more weighty and satisfactory from their slight 
 variations from each other. Those who frequent 
 courts of justice tell us that it is utterly vain to ex- 
 pect entire consistency of a number of witnesses, 
 let them be ever so honest and ever so competent. 
 Agreement in the main facts is all that is expected, 
 and nothing will sooner cause suspicion of collusion 
 than for two witnesses to make, word for word, the 
 same statement. 'No human being ever told the 
 same story twice in the same words and in the same 
 order. 
 
 " Nothing can be more evident than that the histo- 
 rians were subjected to the same common laws which 
 govern the operations of the human mind. We
 
 248 THE ARCHKO VOLUME. 
 
 have in the letter three different relations of Paul's 
 vi&ion and conversion, twice by himself in public 
 speeches, and one from the letter of Luke, probably 
 from his own lips in private conversation. Yet the 
 three accounts all vary from each other in words and 
 circumstances. The four Evangelists all give us the 
 inscription upon the cross of Jesus, yet no two agree 
 in the precise form of words which was used. Mat- 
 thew says that the accusation was, ' This is Jesus, 
 the king of the Jews.' Mark says that the super- 
 scription was, ' The king of the Jews.' Luke says 
 it was, ' This is the king of the Jews.' John says 
 that the title on his cross was, ' Jesus of Nazareth, 
 the king of the Jews.' Here, then, is a variation in 
 the testimony. It is impossible that more than one 
 of these inscriptions can be verbally accurate. But 
 it creates no distrust, and not one in a hundred of 
 the Christian church has been aware of its existence. 
 It is an immaterial variation, a discrepancy which 
 must always be allowed in human testimony, and 
 nothing could be more unreasonable or absurd than 
 to allow the least shade of doubt to pass over the 
 mind as to the reality of the inscription because of 
 this verbal discrepancy. The first three Evangelists 
 have given us Christ's prayer in his agony at the 
 garden of Gethsemane, but each of them in different 
 words. Yet no man in his sober senses would think 
 of doubting the actual occurrence of that thrilling 
 scene on that account. If anything in all history of 
 the past can be said to bear the native impress of 
 truth, it is this whole transaction."
 
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