Philosophy of History

THE JEWS do not appear to have enjoyed a happier lot under their kings than under their judges. Their first king, Saul, was obliged to put himself to death; Ishbosheth and Mephibosheth his sons were assassinated.

David delivered up seven grandsons of Saul to the Gabo-nites only to be perplexed. He ordered Solomon his son to put to death Adonijah his other son, and his general Joab. King Asa put part of the people in Jerusalem to death. Boasa assassinated Nadab, son to Jeroboam, and all his relations. Jehu assassinated Joram and Josias, seventy sons of Ahab, forty-two brothers of the Acosias, and all their friends. Athaliah assassinated all her grandchildren, except Joash, and she is assassinated by the high-priest Jehoiada. Joash is assassinated by his servants. Amaziah is killed; Zacharias is assassinated by Sillum, who is assassinated by Manahem, which Manahem causes all pregnant women in Tapsa to have their bellies ripped up. Phaceia, son to Manahem, is assassinated by Oses, son to Ela. Manasses puts a great number of Jews to death, and the Jews assassinate Ammon, son to Manasses, etc.

In the midst of these massacres ten tribes, who are carried off by Salmanazar, king of the Babylonians, are enslaved and dispersed forever, except some husbandmen, who are kept to cultivate the land.

There still remain two tribes, who are soon enslaved in their turn for seventy years: at the expiration of these seventy years, the two tribes obtain permission from their conquerors and their masters, to return to Jerusalem. These two tribes, with the few Jews that may be remaining in Samaria, with the new foreign inhabitants, are all subjected to the kings of Persia.

When Alexander becomes master of Persia, Judea is comprised in his conquests. After Alexander, the Jews remain in subjection at one time to the Seleucids, his successors in Syria, and at another, to the Ptolemies, his successors in Egypt; constantly in subjection, and supporting themselves by no other means than carrying on the trade of brokers, as they did in Asia. They obtained some favors from Ptolemy Epiphanes, king of Egypt. A Jew named Joseph became farmer-general of the imposts in Lower Syria and Judea, which belonged to this same Ptolemy. This was the most fortunate state of the Jews; for it was at this time that they built the third part of their city, afterwards called the bosom of the Maccabees, because the Maccabees completed it.

From the yoke of king Ptolemy, they passed under that of Antiochus, the god-king of Syria. As they had enriched themselves in the farms, they became audacious, and revolted against their master Antiochus. The courage and great actions of the Maccabees at this period are celebrated by the Jews of Alexandria; but the Maccabees could not prevent the general Antiochus Eupator, son to Antiochus Epiphanes, from erasing the walls of the temple, leaving nothing but the sanctuary subsisting, or the high-priest Onias, who was considered as the author of the revolt, from losing his head.

Never were the Jews more attached to their law than under the kings of Syria; they no longer adored foreign divinities; it was at this time that their religion was irrevocably fixed; and they were, nevertheless, more unhappy than ever, always in expectation of being delivered by the promises of their prophets, by the assistance of their gods, but abandoned by providence, whose decrees are unknown to man.

They had sometimes a breathing of tranquility by the intestine wars of the kings of Syria. But the Jews soon armed themselves one against another. As they had no kings, and as the first dignity was that of the sacrificing priest, violent parties arose, in order to obtain it; there was no method of obtaining the dignity of high-priest but by sword in hand, and the path to the sanctuary was strewed with his rivals’ carcasses.

Hyrcan, of the race of the Maccabees, who was become high-priest, but still in subjection to the Syrians, caused David’s sepulchre to be opened, in which the exaggerator Josephus pretends, that three thousand talents were found. This imaginary treasure should have been sought for, at the time of rebuilding the temple of Nehemiah. This Hyrcan obtained from Antiochus Sidetes the privilege of coining money. But as there never was any Jewish money, it is very probable that the treasure found in David’s tomb was not very considerable.

It is remarkable that this high-priest Hyrcan was a Sadu-cean, and that he neither believed in the immortality of the soul, nor in angels; a fresh subject of altercation, which began to divide the Saduceans and the Pharisees. These conspired against Hyrcan, and would have condemned him to be whipped and imprisoned. He avenged himself of them, and governed despotically.

His son Aristobulus was daring enough to create himself king during the troubles of Syria and Egypt. This was a more cruel tyrant than any who had oppressed the Jewish people. Aristobulus, who indeed prayed very regularly in the temple, and never ate any pork, starved his mother to death, and had his brother Antigonus slain. His successor was named John, or Johannes, who was as wicked as himself.

This Johannes, overwhelmed with crimes, left two sons, who waged war against each other. These two sons were Aristobulus and Hyrcan. The Romans then subdued Asia. Pompey as he passed by taught the Jews reason, took the temple, had the seditious hanged at the gates, and loaded the pretended king Aristobulus with irons.

This Aristobulus had a son, who was insolent enough to take upon himself the name of Alexander. He caused some emotions, he raised some troops, and finished his career by being hanged by order of Pompey.

At length, Mark Antony gave to the Jews for king an Idumean Arab of the country of those Amalekites so much cursed by the Jews. It was this same Herod, of whom St. Matthew relates, that he had all the little children put to death in the neighborhood of Bethlehem, upon being informed that a king of the Jews was born in that village; and that three Magi conducted by a star, came to offer him presents.

Thus were the Jews almost constantly subjugated or slaves. We know how they revolted against the Romans, and Titus had them all sold at market for the price of the animal of which they would not eat.

They met with a still more shocking fate under the emperors Trajan and Hadrian, and they deserved it. An earthquake happened in the time of Trajan, which swallowed up the finest cities of Syria. The Jews thought this was the signal of God’s wrath against the Romans: they assembled, and armed themselves in Africa and in Cyprus: they were animated with such rage, that they devoured the limbs of the Romans, whom they had slain. But soon after, all the guilty were executed. Those who remained were animated with the same rage under Hadrian, when Barcochebas, who called himself their Messiah, headed them. This fanaticism was stifled by torrents of blood.

It is surprising that there should remain any Jews. The famous Benjamin of Tudel, a very learned rabbi, who travelled in Europe and Asia in the twelfth century, computed there were three hundred and eighty thousand Jews and Samaritans: for we must not mention the imaginary kingdom of Thema near Thibet, where this Benjamin, either deceived or deceiving, in this respect, asserts, that there were three hundred thousand Jews of the ancient tribes, assembled under one sovereign. The Jews never had any country to themselves since the time of Vespasian, except some hamlets of Arabia Felix towards the Red Sea. Mahomet was at first obliged to keep terms with them. But he, at length, destroyed the little dominion which they had established in the north of Mecca. It is from the time of Mahomet, that they have ceased to compose a body of people.

In pursuing simply the historical thread of the little Jewish nation, we see that they could have no other end. They boast of having issued from Egypt like a band of robbers, carrying away every thing they had borrowed from the Egyptians; they glory in having never spared either age, sex, or infancy, in the villages and boroughs they could seize upon. They have the effrontery to display an irreconcileable hatred against other nations; they revolt against all their masters; ever superstitious; ever envious of others’ good; ever barbarous; abject in misfortunes, and insolent in prosperity. Such were the Jews in the opinion of the Greeks and Romans, who could read their books: but in the eyes of Christians, enlightened by the faith which they persecuted, they prepared the way for us. They have been the heralds of providence.

The other two nations, who are wandering like the Jews in the East, and who, like them, do not unite with any other people, are the Banians and the Parsis, called Guebres. These Banians, whose talent consists in trade, like the Jews, are the descendants of the first peaceable inhabitants of Judea; they have never mixed their blood with foreign blood, any more than the Brachmanes. The Parsis are those same Persians, who were formerly monarchs of the East, and sovereigns of the Jews. They have been dispersed since the time of Omur, and cultivate in peace part of the land where they reigned, faithful to that ancient religion of the Magi, adoring one only God, and preserving the sacred fire, which they look upon as the work and emblem of the Divinity.

I do not reckon those remains of the Egyptians, who adored the secrets of Isis, and who no longer subsist but in some vagabond troops, that will soon be eternally annihilated.