Supposing therefore St. Luke to have informed us, that there was, in the reign of Claudius, a great dearth through

parts; in Cyprus, Egypt, and the territories of king Izates. From the two former countries queen Helene procured provisions, and Izates sent money to Jerusalem; which he could not have done, if his own people had been in

want.

The proofs of the famine in Judea I transcribe, or refer to in the text part. Of the other famines in this reign there are these accounts. Of the famine in Greece, Eusebius makes mention in his Chronicon. p. 204. Xμs kata Tηv Ελλαδα γεγονοτος μεγαλε, ὁ τε σιτε μόδιος ἐξ διδραχμων επράθη. This famine happened, according to him, in the 9th of Claudius, A. D. 49. At Rome there were several famines in this reign, one or more of which are mentioned by Dio, Suetonius, Tacitus, or Orosius. The first happened in the beginning of the reign of this emperor. But it seems, from the provisions made by him for preventing the like for the future, that it was not owing to a general scarcity at that time, but to the want of a good harbour at the mouth of the Tiber, by which means the city was ill supplied. Dio's words are thus: There being a great famine, [λus тe toxunu yevoμeve, or scarcity,] he [Claudius] not only took care for a present supply, but provided also for the time to come. Rome is supplied almost solely with corn imported from abroad; but there being no good harbour at the mouth of the Tiber, nor any secure stations for ships, the empire of the sea was almost useless to the Romans. For, except the corn that was brought in in the summer time, and laid up in granaries, none ' was brought thither in the winter or if any attempted it, it was with the ' utmost hazard.' Dio. lib. lx. p. 671, 672. He then proceeds to describe the great expense which Claudius was at, in making a good port at the mouth of the Tiber, and a convenient passage from thence up to the city; of which Suetonius likewise speaks. Claud. cap. 20. Dio places this famine in the second year of Claudius, A. D. 42. But it must have begun the year before: for there are extant medals struck in cach of these years in honour of the emperor, having on their reverse a corn measure with ears of corn hanging over the side. Vid. Pagi Critic. in Baron. A. D. 42. n. 7. But I very much question, whether there was any famine then arising from the failure of crops. Aquos is often used for a famine or scarcity in a city during a siege or blockade. And Dio proceeding, immediately after the mention of the famine, to observe the difficulty of coming to Rome in the winter, makes me suspect, this scarcity was only a hardship the people were in, during the winter, for want of sufficient stores and a free passage.

There was another famine at Rome in the latter end of this reign, of which Tacitus speaks. It is placed by him in the 11th of Claudius, A. D. 51. Claudio V. Serv. Cornelio Orsito Coss. frugum quoque egestas, et orta ex eâ fames, in prodigium accipiebatur. Nec occulti tantum questus; sed jura reddentem Claudium circumvasere clamoribus turbidis, pulsumque in extremam fori partem vi urgebant, donec militum globo infestos perrupit. Quindecim dierum al menta urbi non amplius superfuisse constitit. Magnâque Deûm benignitate & modestiâ hiemis, rebus extremis subventum. At hercule olim ex Italiæ regionibus longinquas in provincias commeatus portabant. Nec nunc infecunditate laboratur: sed Africam potius & Ægyptum exercemus; navibusque & casibus vita populi Romani permissa est. Ann. 12. cap. 43. Suetonius also has taken notice of a famine in this reign. He does not say what year it happened in; but the agreement of circumstances shows it to be the same that Tacitus speaks of. Arctiore autem annonâ ob assiduas sterilitates detentus quondam medio foro a turbà, conviciisque ac simul fragminibus panis ita instratus, ut ægre nec nisi postico evadere in Palatium valuerit: nihil non excogitavit ad invehendos etiam in tempore hiberno commeatus-et naves

out all the land of Judea, I proceed now to give some foreign evidence of this event.

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Josephus, speaking of Helene, the queen of the Adiabcues, has these words: Her arrival at Jerusalem was a great blessing to the people; for the city labouring at that time under a heavy famine, so that a great many perished for • want, the queen sent abroad several of her officers; some to Alexandria for the purchase of corn, others to Cyprus to buy up dried figs. These having used the utmost expedition, as soon as they returned, she distributed food to those that were necessitous. By this liberality, she 'laid a lasting obligation upon our whole nation. Moreover, her son Izates, having heard of the famine, sent a 'large sum of money to the chief men of Jerusalem.'"

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Josephus does afterwards inform us when this famine happened. For having mentioned Cuspius Fadus, (who was sent procurator into Judea, after the death of Herod, in the fourth of Claudius, in the latter end of the year 44,) and his successor Tiberius Alexander, he says, In their mercaturæ causâ fabricantibus magna commoda constituit. Claud. cap. 18. Orosius speaks of the same thing; Veruntamen sequenti anno tanta fames Romæ fuit, ut medio foro, imperator correptus a populo convitiis et fragminibus panis infestatus, ægre per pseudothyrum in Palatium refugiens furorem excitatæ plebis evaserit. lib. vii. cap. 6.

I have set down these passages at length. I reckon I have hereby saved myself the trouble of making many remarks. The frugum egestas of Tacitus, the assiduæ sterilitates of Suetonius, were in Italy only; and these, possibly, not so much owing to bad seasons as wrong management, as is intimated by Tacitus. This was certainly one reason why famines were so common at Rome. There is no notice taken by these authors of scarcities in other places at the same time. The famine, as described by Tacitus, was only in the winter. And when the granaries at Rome were almost empty, by the goodness of the gods, and the mildness of the winter, [modestiá hicmis,] ships arrived safe with sufficient provisions.

I am not at all solicitous to prove, that there was no general famine throughout the Roman empire in the reign of Claudius. However, I thought it not amiss to let the reader see how the case seems to me to stand at present. And though some person should hereafter show, that there was an universal famine some time in this reign; yet that alone would not alter my opinion concerning the meaning of the words of St. Luke, who, I think, speaks of nothing beside a dearth in Judea.

" Γίνεται δε αυτης ἡ αφιξις πανυ συμφέρεσα τοις Ιεροσολυμιτας λιμε γαρ αυτών την πολιν μετα τον καιρον εκείνον πιεζοντος, και πολλων ὑπ ̓ ενδειας αναλωμάτων φθειρομένων, ἡ Βασιλισσα Ελενη πέμπει τινας των ἑαυτης, τις μεν εις την Αλεξανδρειαν, πολυν σιτον ωνησομενες χρημάτων, τες δε εις Κυπρον ισχάδων φορτον οισοντας· ὡς δε παλιν ηλθον ταχέως κομίζοντες, τους απορεμέναις διενειμε τροφήν, και μεγίςην αυτης μνημην της ευποιΐας ταυτης εις το παν ἡμων εθνος καταλελοιπε· πυθόμενος δε και ὁ παις αυτης Ίζατης τα περι τον λιμον, επεμπψε πολλα χρηματα τοις πρώτοις των Ιεροσολυμίτων. Antiq. lib. xx. cap. 2. sect. 6.

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'time a great dearth happened in Judea: when queen Helene, having purchased corn in Egypt with large sums of money, gave it away amongst the poor, as I have related above.'

So that this famine oppressed the land of Judea several years. It might begin in the fourth of Claudius; but I think it must have been chiefly in the fifth and sixth years of his reign.

I apprehend, I have shown from Josephus, that what St. Luke has here related is punctually true. Josephus may be justly supposed to be well acquainted with what happened at Jerusalem and in Judea, in the reign of Claudius: and the whole story of Izates and his mother Helene, is an affair he is much pleased with.

Eusebius likewise mentions this famine in his Chronicles,P and in his Ecclesiastical History. He places it in the fourth of Claudius, and seems to have supposed it universal' all over the world.

Orosius also speaks of this famine, and says it happened in the fourth of Claudius, and that it oppressed Syria. I place his words in the margin, though he has committed one great mistake in supposing that Helene, the queen of the Adiabenes, was a christian.

Though I should take no particular notice of it here, yet I hope the reader would not omit to observe the agreement of customs in the sacred writers and Josephus. The disciples at Antioch no sooner heard that there was like to be a dearth in the land of Judea, but they, "every man according to his ability," some Jews by birth, others proselytes of righteousness, others, possibly, proselytes of the gate," determined to send relief unto the brethren which dwelt there." Helene, the queen of the Adiabenes, and Izates her son, both proselytes to judaism, did the same thing.

We may proceed somewhat farther to observe upon this occasion, that the Jews of Judea seem to have expected it as due to them, that some particular regard should be

* Επι τέτοις δη και τον μεγαν λιμον κατα την Ιεδαίαν συνέβη γενεσθαι· καθ' όν και ἡ βασίλισσα Ελενη, πολλων χρηματων ωνησαμενη σιτον από της Αιγυπτο, διένειμε τους απορεμένοις, ως προειπον. Ibid. cap. 5. sect. 2. P Page 79, 204. Lib. ii. cap. 12.

* Η εν ταις πράξεσιν Αγαβε προφητεία πεπεραςαι, λιμε μεγαλε κατασχοντος την οικεμένην επι Κλαύδιο. Chronic. Can. p. 204.

* Eodem anno (quarto) fames gravissima per Syriam facta est, quam etiam prophetæ prænuntiaverant. Sed christianorum necessitatibus apud Hierosolymam, convectis ab Egypto frumentis, Helena Adiabenorum regina, conversa ad fidem Christi, largissime ministravit. lib. vii. c. 6.

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showed them by the rest of their countrymen, and by all who came over to the worship of the true God, and were admitted to share in any of the privileges of the Jewish people. Thus St. Paul assures us, Gal. ii. 10, “Only they would that we should remember the poor, the same which I also was forward to do." The very last time that St. Paul was at Jerusalem: "After many years," says he, “I came to bring alms to my nation, and offerings," Acts xxiv. 17. Nor was St. Paul's argument a new thought, though expressed by him with a divine temper: "But now I go unto Jerusalem to minister unto the saints: for it hath pleased them of Macedonia and Achaia, to make a certain contribution for the poor saints which are at Jerusalem. It has pleased them verily, and their debtors they are. For if the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister to them in carnal things," Rom. xv. 25-27.

No wonder therefore, that the bigots among the Jews were startled at the thought of any relaxation of the ancient rigour, with which they had treated proselytes; and that they laboured, as they did, to maintain their jurisdiction. over them. This contention was not at all for the sake of God and the law, but partly for themselves. Doubtless, the outcry of the Jews against St. Paul, though very unjust and groundless, was, every word of it, expressive and popular, especially at Jerusalem: "This is the man, that teacheth all men every where, against the people, and the law, and this place," Acts xxi. 28.

III. I conclude with the banishment of the Jews from Rome. "After these things, Paul departed from Athens, and came to Corinth. And found a certain Jew, named Aquila, born in Poutus, lately come from Italy, with his wife Priscilla, because that Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome," Acts xviii. 1, 2.

Dio says, that Claudius did not banish the Jews from Rome, but only prohibited their" assemblies. But Suetonius, who lived nearer the time, says, 'He expelled the Jews 'from Rome, who were continually raising disturbances, 'Chrestus being their leader.'

Unless we suppose (which is the opinion of some very learned and judicious men) that he went thither again, after he had been sent to Rome. See in Miscellanea Sacra, the Abstract, p. 48.

- Τις τε Ιεδαιες, πλεονάσαντας αυθις, ώσε χαλεπως αν ανευ ταραχής υπο το όχλε σφων της πόλεως ειρχθήναι, εκ εξήλασε μεν, των δε δη πατριῳ νομε βιῳ χρωμένες εκελευσε μη συναθροιζεσθαι. Dio, l.b. lx. p. 669. B.

Judæos, impulsore Chresto, assidue tumultuantes, Romà expulit. Sueton. Claud. cap. 25.

It is disputed by learned men," whether by Chrestus, Suetonius means Jesus Christ. I need not concern myself with that point herc. This passage proves what I bring it for.

Josephus has no where particularly mentioned this event. This edict of Claudius seems not to have been long in force. That may be one reason of this omission in Josephus: another reason might be, that it was no agreeable task to him, to mention any disgraces cast upon his people. If some disputes between the Jews and followers of Jesus Christ were really the cause of this order, that might be another reason; Josephus having been very reserved, if not altogether silent, about the affairs of the christians.

BOOK 11. CHAP. 1.

THREE OBJECTIONS AGAINST LUKE, CHAP. II. VER. 1, 2.

1. The first objection, That there is no mention made by any ancient author of a decree in the reign of Augustus for taxing all the world, stated and answered. II. The second objection, That there could be no taxing made in Judea, during the reign of Herod, by a decree of Augustus, stated and answered. III. The third objection, That Cyrenius was not governor of Syria, till several years after the birth of Jesus, stated, together with a general answer. IV. Divers particular solutions of this objection. V. The last solution confirmed and improved. VI. Divers particular difficulties attending the supposition, that this taxing was made by Cyrenius, considered.

THE history of the New Testament is attended with many difficulties. Jewish and heathen authors concur with the sacred historians in many things. But it is pretended, that there are other particulars in which they are contradicted by authors of very good note.

Among these, the difficulties which may be very properly considered in the first place, are those which relate to the

Vid. Usser. Ann. P. J. 4767. Witsii Meletemata Leyd. de Vit. Paul. sect. vii. n. 2, 3.