therefore they allowed all such to live with them in their land, and from hence they were called Gerim Toshavim, i. e. sojourning proselytes, and for the same reason they were called also Gere Shaar, i. e. proselytes of the gate, as being permitted to dwell with those of Israel within the same gates. The occasion of this name seems to be taken from these words in the fourth commandment, Vegereka Bishareka, i.e. and the stran gers which are within thy gates; which may as well be rendered, the proselytes which are within thy gates, that is, the proselytes of the gate that dwell with thee; for the Hebrew word Ger, a stranger, signifieth also a proselyte; and both, in this place in the fourth commandment, come to the same thing; for no strangers were permitted to dwell within their gates, unless they renounced idolatry, and were proselyted so far as to the observance of the seven precepts of the sons of Noah. Though they were slaves taken in war, they were not permitted to live with them within any of the gates of Israel on any other terms; but, on their refusal thus far to comply, were either given up to the sword, or else sold to some foreign people. And, as those who were thus far made proselytes were admitted to dwell with them; so also were they admitted into the temple, there to worship God; but were not allowed to enter any further than into the outer court, called the court of the Gentiles: for, in the inner courts, which were within the enclosure called the Chel, none were admitted but only such as were thorough professors of the whole Jewish religion; and therefore, when any of these sojourning proselytes came into the temple, they always worshipped in the outer court. And of this sort of proselytes Naaman the Syrian, and Cornelius the centurion, are held to have been. The other sort of proselytes, called the proselytes of justice, were such as took on them the observance of the whole Jewish law; for, although the Jews did not hold this necessary for such as were not of their nation, yet they refused none, but gladly received all who would thus profess their religion; and they are remarked in our Saviour's time to have been very sedulous to c Matt. xxiii, 15. convert all they could hereto; and, when any were thus proselyted to the Jewish religion, they were initiated to it by baptism, sacrifice, and circumcision, and thenceforth were admitted to all the rites, ceremonies, and privileges, that were used by the natural Jews. And in this manner was it that the Edomites, at the command of Hyrcanus, were made proselytes to the Jewish religion; and, when they had thus taken on them the religion of the Jews, they continued united to them ever after, till at length the name of Edomites was lost in that of Jews, and both people became consolidated into one and the same nation together. e Ptolemy Physcon, while he lay in Cyprus, fearing lest the Alexandrians should make his son, whom he had appointed governour of Cyrene, king in his stead, sent for him from thence to come to him; and, on his arrival, put him to death, for no other reason, but to prevent that which, perchance without any reason, he feared as to this matter. Byf which cruel barbarity the Alexandrians being further exasperated, pulled down and demolished all his statues, wherever erected, in their city; which he interpreting to have been done at the instigation of Cleopatra his divorced queen, for the revenging of it upon her, caused Memphitis, the son he had by her, a very hopeful and beautiful young prince, to be slain before his face, and then, cutting his body into pieces, put them all into a box, with the head, thereby to shew to whom they belonged, and sent it with them therein enclosed to Alexandria, by one of his guards, ordering him to present it to the queen on the day then approaching, which he knew was to be celebrated with feasting and festival joy, as being the anniversary of her birth; and accordingly, in the midst of the festivity, it was presented to her; which soon turned all the rejoicing and mirth of the festival into sorrow and lamentation, and excited in all present that horrour and detestation against the d Intermarriages must be excepted; for, from these some nations were excluded for ever, and others till after some generations; and, particularly, the Edomites were till the third generation. See what hath been said of this, part 1, book 6, under the year 428. e Justin. lib. 38, c. 8. f Justin. ibid. Diodorus Siculus in Excerptis Valesii, p. 374. Valerius Maximus, lib. 9, c. 2. Livii Epit. lib. 59. tyrant as so monstrous and unparalleled cruelty deserved. And this dismal present being exposed to the people, gave them the same sentiments, and provoked them with the greater earnestness to arm, for the keeping so great a monster of cruelty and barbarity from any more returning again to reign over them; and accordingly an army was raised, under the command of Marsyas, whom the queen had made her general, to defend the country against him. Phrahates, having drawn upon him the war of the Scythians, committed an oversight in the managing of it, as great as the injustice whereby he brought it upon him. For, to strengthen himself against these enemies, he entrusted his safety into the hands of those whom he had made more his enemies than the others, that is, the Grecian mercenaries, who followed king Antiochus in his late expedition into those parts against him. For, having taken prisoners (great numbers of them) in the late overthrow of that prince, he, on the breaking out of this new war, listed them all among his other forces, for the better strengthening of his army for it. But, when they had thus gotten arms into their hands, remembering the wrongs, insolences, and other ill usages, with which they had been treated during their captivity, resolved to make use of this opportunity to be revenged for them; and therefore, as soon as the armies joined battle, they went over to the Scythians, and, by this conjunction with them, overthrew the Parthians with a great slaughter, cutting off Phrahates himself in the rout, and most of his army with him. After this the Grecians and Scythians, having plundered the country, contented themselves with this revenge, and both returned again into their own countries. On their departure, Artabanus, the uncle of Phrahates, took the crown of Parthia; but, being within a few days slain in battle by the Thogarians, another nation of the Scythian race, he was succeeded by Mithridates, who, by the greatness of his actions, afterwards acquired the name of Mithridates the Great. g Justin. lib. 42, c. 1. Justin. lib. 42, c. 2. canus 8. Ptolemy Physcon, having gotten together an army,i sent it against the Alexandrians, under the An. 128. command of Hegelochus his general; and John Hyrthereon a battle ensuing between him and Marsyas, the general of the Alexandrians, Hegelochus got the victory, and took Marsyas prisoner, and sent him in chains to Physcon. But, when it was expected that, according to his usual cruelty, he would have put him to some tormenting death, contrary to what every body expected, he pardoned him and let him go. For, having fully experienced what mischiefs followed upon him for his cruelties, he became weary of them, and acted in the contrary extreme; and, as he had put multitudes to death contrary to all reason, so he now pardoned this man without any reason at all for it. Cleopatra, being distressed by this overthrow, and the loss of her Alexandrian army, they being most of them cut in pieces in the rout, sent to Demetrius king of Syria, who had married her eldest daughter by Philometor, for his assistance, promising him the crown of Egypt for his reward; which proposal Demetrius gladly accepting of, marched into Egypt with all his forces, and there laid siege to Pelusium. About this time Hyrcanus sent an embassy to the Romans, to renew the league made with them by Simon his father; which was readily consented to by the senate. And, whereas Antiochus Sidetes had made war upon the Jews, contrary to what the Romans had in their behalf decreed in that league, and taken from them several cities, and had made them to become tributaries for Gazara, Joppa, and some other places which they were permitted still to hold, and forced them to a disadvantageous peace, by besieging Jerusalem; on the ambassadors setting forth all this before the senate, they agreed, that, whatsoever had been done against them of this kind since their said late league with Simon should be all null and void; that Gazara, Joppa, and all other places, that had been either taken from them by the Syrians, or been made tributary to them, con i Diodorus Siculus in Excerptis Valesii, p. 376. trary to the tenour of the said league, should be all again restored to them, and made free of all homage, tribute, or other services; and that reparations should be made them by the Syrians for all damages done them contrary to what the senate had decreed in their league with Simon; and that the Syrian kings should have no right to march their soldiers or armies through the Jewish territories; and that ambassadors should be sent to see this all fully executed. And it was further ordered, that money should be given the Jewish ambassadors for the bearing of their expenses in their journey homeward, and that letters should be written to all the confederate states and princes in their way thither, to give them a safe and honourable passage through their dominions. And all this was accordingly done, which much rejoiced Hyrcanus and all the Jewish nation. An. 127. John Hyr. canus 9. And therefore, the next year after, they sent to them another embassy by Alexander the son of Jason, Numenius the son of Antiochus, and Alexander the son of Dorotheus, to return their thanks for the said decree; and, in acknowledgment of it, they presented them by the said ambassadors with a cup and a shield, both of gold, to the value of fifty thousand gold pieces of their money. Whereon another decree was made in their favour, ratifying and confirming all that was granted them in the decree of the former year. This decree is in Josephus recited at large (Antiq. book 14, c. 16.) But it is there misplaced, as if it had been enacted in the time of Hyrcanus II. whereas the subject matter of it, and the date which it bears, manifestly proves, that it can be none other than that which was now granted to Hyrcanus I. and could not possibly be that which was granted to Hyrcanus II. the grandson of the other, in whose time Josephus placeth it. For, first, as to the subject matter of it, Josephus tells us, in the place where he inserts it, that it was to give license to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, which Pompey had pulled down; but there is not one word of any such matter in that m Joseph. Antiq. lib. 24, c. 16. |