ESTHER i.

ARTAXERXES, or Abafuerus, being thoroughly fettled in his throne, made a great feaft for all his nobles, and divorced Vahti his queen.

ESTHER ii. Ver. 1-16.

A collection of virgins made for the king, of which Efther was one.

EZRA vii, viii, ix, x.

In the beginning of this year Ezra received from Artaxerxes, or Abafuerus, a very ample commiffion for his return to Jerufalem, with any of his countrymen that were difpofed to go along with him; giving them full authority in things both civil and religious, to regulate both according to the law. This decree was probably granted at the folicitation of Efther. See Dr. PRIDEAUX's Con. ad An. 458. The decree, the families and numbers of the Jews that went with Ezra to Jerufalem, fall within the compafs of this and the next year, and are contained in the four laft chapters of this Book.

NOTE From Ezra's entering upon this work, the beginning of Daniel's 70 weeks is to be computed. Dr. PRIDEAUX's Con. ad An. 458, p. 377. Note alfo That Ezra continued in the government about 13 years; till Nehemiah fucceeded him in the 20th year of Artaxerxes, or Abafuerus.

ESTHER ii. Ver. 16-21.

ESTHER, after having been only concubine about two years, is now made queen.

ESTHER ii. Ver. 21. to the end.

BIGTHAN and Tareh, two eunuchs in the palace, entered into a confpiracy against the life of Artaxerxes, or Abafuerus, which was difcovered to the king by Mordecai, queen Efther's uncle.

ESTHER iii, iv, v, &c. to the end of the Book.

HAMAN, an Amalekite, defcended from king Agag, in Saul's time, made prime minifter to Artaxerxes, laid a plot to extirpate the whole race of the Jews. But it turned upon himself, as related in the book of Ether.

NEHEMIAH

NEHEMIAH i, ii, iii, &c. to the end of the Book.

NEHEMIAH, with a commiffion from Artaxerxes, or Ahasuerus, probably by favour of queen Efther, (Neh. ii. 6.) fucceedeth Ezra in the government of Judea, rebuilds the walls, repeoples Jerufalem, reforms diforders, &c. Thus he was employed for 12 years; namely, from the 20th to the 32d year of Artaxerxes. Neh. v. 14. xiii. 6. Within which time Ezra is fuppofed to have published his edition of the Hebrew Scriptures. See Dr. PRIDEAUX's Con. p. 475, &c.

Nehemiah returns from Jerufalem to the Perfian court. Neb. xiii. 6.

MALACHI i, ii, iii, iv.

ABOUT this time flourished Malachi, the Prophet. See Dr. PRIDEAUX's Con. ad An. 428. p. 570.

NEHEMIAH xiii. Ver. 6, 7, &c.

AFTER certain days, i. e. after about five years, Nehemiah comes again to Jerufalem with a new commiffion, and makes further reformation with which act of reformation, the holy Scriptures of the Old Teftament are clofed up.

Simon the juft, high priest of the Jews, completes the Canon of the Old Teftament, by adding the two Books of Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Ether, and Malachi. That these could not be put into the Canon by "Ezra, is plain: for four of thofe books are, upon juft grounds, fuppofed to have been written by Ezra himself, (that is, the two books of "Chronicles, and the Books of Ezra and Esther,) and the Book of Ne "hemiah was written after his [Ezra's] time; and fo most likely was "the Book of Malachi alfo. And therefore a later time must be affigned "for their infertion into the facred Canon; and none is more likely "than that of Simon the just, who is faid to have been the last of the "men of the great fynagogue. What the Jews call the great fynagogue, "were a number of elders, amounting to 120, fucceeding each other in "a continued feries from the return of the Jews from the Babylonish "captivity, to the time of Simon the juft, and laboured in reftoring the "Jewish church and ftate in that country. In order to which, the "holy Scriptures being the rule they were to go by, their chief care and ftudy was to make a true collection of thofe Scriptures, and publish "them accurately to the people. Ezra, and the men of the great fynagogue in his time, fettled the Canon of all but the forefaid books; "and those were probably fettled, and added to the Canon, in the times "of Simon the juft, who died about 31 years after Alexander the Great. "For in 1 Chron. iii. 19, &c. the genealogy of the fons of Zerubbabel is "carried down for fo many defcents after him as may well be thought to reach the times of Alexander. And in Neh, xii, 22. we ↳

he

days of Jaddua fpoken of, as then paft; but Jaddua outlived Alexan"der two years. These paffages, therefore, were probably inferted by "Simon the just, who perfected, and finally fettled the Canon of the "holy Scriptures. After this followed the mifhnical times, that is, the "times of traditions. Hitherto the Scriptures were the only rule of "faith and manners which God's people ftudied; but thenceforth tra"ditions began to be regarded, till at length they overbore the word "of God itself, as we find in our Saviour's time. The collection of "these traditions they call the mifhnah, that is, the fecond law; and "those who delivered and taught them were filed the mißhnical Doc"tors." See Dr. PRIDEAUX's Con, Anno 292. Ptolemy Soter, 13.*

CHA P. XXXVII,

The State of the JEWS, and of other NATIONS, at the Time when our Lord came into the World,

A

FTER the Babylonih captivity the Jews no more lapfed into idolatry, but remained fteady in the acknowledgment and worthip of the one living and true God. Even then they fell into new ways of perverting religion, and the wife and holy intentions of the Divine law. I. By laying all the ftrefs on the external and lefs momentous parts of it, while they neglected the weighty and fubftantial, true holinefs of heart and life. Mankind are too cafily drawn into this error: while they retain a fenfe of religion, they are too apt to liften to any methods by which it may be reduced to a confiftency with the gratifications of their paffions, pride, and avarice. Thus, by placing religion in mere profeffion, or in the zealous obfervance of rites and ceremonies, inftead of real piety, truth, purity, and goodness, they learn to be religious without virtue. II. By fpeculating and commenting upon the Divine commands and inftitutions, till their force is quite enervated, and they are refined into a fenfe that will commodiously allow a flight regard inflead of fincere obedience. III. By confirming and establishing the two former methods of corrupting religion, by tradition and the authority of learned Rabbies; pretending that there was a fyftem of religious rules delivered by word of mouth from Mofes, explanatory of the written law, known only to thofe Rabbies; to whofe judgment, therefore, and decifion, all the people were to fubmit.

This, in time, the space of 219 years, became the general state of religion among the Jews, after they had difcarded idolatry; and this fpirit prevailed among them for fome ages (290 years) before the coming of the Meffiah. But, however, it did not interfere with the main system of Providence, or the introducing the knowledge of God among the Na

tions,

Turn to the Appendix, for the Chronological Dates belonging to this and chapters xxxiv. xxxv.

tions, as they still continued fteadfast in the worship of the true God, without danger of deviating from it. Befides, they were now, much more than formerly, exercifed in reading, thinking, and reafoning, and were more capable of themfelves of judging what was right. Luke xii. 57. And feveral of them did fo judge. Some of them were truly religious and virtuous; and all of them had ftrong expectation of the Meffab about the time of his appearance; and were fufficiently qualified to judge of religious matters, and of the evidences of his miffion. Thus the Jews were prepared by the preceding difpenfation for the reception of the Meffiah, and the juft notions of religion which he was fent to inculcate; infomuch that their guilt must be highly aggravated, if they rejected him and his inftructions. It could not be for want of capacity, but of integrity, and must be affigned to wilful blindness and obduracy. Out of regard to temporal power, grandeur, and enjoyments, they loved darkness rather than light.

In the mean time, the Pagan Nations had made great openings in wisdom and virtue. Thofe arts that began in Greece, had travelled into other lands; learning had got footing among the illiterate, and huma nity and focial affections among the barbarous; and many good and ufeful books, ufeful even to this day among Chriftians, were written in ethics for the right conduct of life. The light of nature was carried high; or rather, the darkness of it was much enlightened. Such was, at length, the state of the Gentiles, God having fill been pleased, from time to time, to raise up among them perfons uncommonly endowed, for their inftruction, and to fit them for the day when he should more explicitly reveal himself and his facred will to them. In a word, what with time, and the tranfmigrating of knowledge from region to region, and the labours of poets and philofophers, men, at about the claffic ara, when our Lord came into the world, in general, had gained tolerable just ideas of virtue and moral truth; and fo, were in a condition to apprehend and embrace the higher and more important truths of God, and his providence, and a future ftate.

For many ages the Jews had been well known in the eaftern empires, among the Affyrians, Chaldeans, Medes, and Perfians; but till the time of Alexander the Great, they had no communication with the Grecians. About the year before Chrift 332, Alexander built Alexandria in Egypt; and, to people his new city, removed thither many of the Jews, allowing them the use of their own laws and religion, and the fame liberties with the Macedonians themfelves. The Macedonians, who fpake the Greek language, and other Greeks, were the principal inhabitants of Alexandrià. From them the Jews learned to fpeak Greek, which was the common language of the city, and which foon became the native language of the Jews that lived there; who, on that account, were called Hellenifts, or Greek-Jews, mentioned As vi. 1-9. xi. 20. Thefe Greek-Jews had fynagogues in Alexandria; and for their benefit, the five books of Mofes, which alone at first were publicly read, were tranflated into Greek, (by whom is uncertain) and read in their fynagogues every fabbath-day. And in the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, about 168 years before Chrift, when the Prophets also began to be read in the fynagogues of Judea, the Prophets alfo were tranflated into Greek for the ufe of the Alexandrian Jews.

L 4

This

This tranflation contributed much to the fpread of the knowledge of true religion among the Nations in the western parts of the world.

For the Jews, their fynagogues and worship, were, after Alexander's death, difperfed almoft every where among the Nations. Ptolemy, one of Alexander's fucceffors, having reduced Jerufalem and all Judea, about 320 years before Christ, carried a hundred thousand Jews into Egypt, and there raised confiderable numbers of them to places of truft and power; and several of them he placed in Cyrene and Libya. Seleucus, another of Alexander's fucceffors, about 300 years before Chrift, built Antioch in Cilicia, and many other cities, in all 35, and fome of them capital cities in the Greater and Leffer Afia; in all which he planted the Jews, giving them equal privileges and immunities with the Greeks and Macedonians; efpecially at Antioch in Syria, where they settled in great numbers, and became almoft as confiderable a part of that city, as they were at Alexandria. Dr. PRIDEAUX's Con. Anno 293. Ptolemy Soter, 12. On that memorable day of Pentecoft, Acts ii. 5, 9, 11, 12. were affembled in Jerufalem, Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven; namely, Parthians, Medes, and Perfians of the province of Elymais, inhabitants of Mefopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, Afia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, Cyrene in Lybia, Rome, Cretes, and Arabs, who were all either natural Jews, or devout men. i. e. profelytes to the Jewish religion. And in every city of the Roman empire where Paul preached, he found a body of his countrymen, the Jews; except in Athens, which was at that time, I fuppofe, a town of no confiderable trade. Which fhews that the Jews, and their fynagogues, at the time of our Lord's appearance, were providentially fcattered over all the Roman empire; and had in every place introduced, more or lefs, among the nations, the knowledge and worship of God; and fo had prepared great numbers for the reception of the Gospel.

About the time that Alexander built Alexandria in Egypt, the use of the Papyrus for writing was firft found out in that country. Dr. PRIDEAUX's Con. Anno 332. Darius 4. p. 706. Vol. II. This invention was fo favourable to literature, that Ptolemy Soter, one of Alexander's fucceffors, was thereby enabled to erect a museum, or library; which by his fon and fucceffor, Philadelphus, who died 247 years before Chrift, was augmented to an hundred thousand volumes; and by fucceeding Ptolemies, to feven hundred thoufand. Part of this library, which was placed in a feparate building from the other part, happened to be burnt when Julius Cæfar laid fiege to Alexandria; but, after that lofs, it was again much augmented, and foon grew up to be larger, and of more eminent note, than the former; and fo it continued for many ages to be of great fame and ufe in those parts, till at length it was burnt and finally deftroyed by the Saracens, in the year of our Lord 642. Dr, PRIDEAUX's Con. Vol. III, p. 21, &c. Anno 284. This plainly proves how much the invention of turning the Papyrus into paper contributed to the incre fe of books, and the advancement of learning, for fome ages before the coming of our Lord; for doubtlefs, by this means, private hands would alfo more eafily be fupplied with books than before.

Add to all this, that the world, after many changes and revolutions, was, by God's all-ruling wildom, thrown into that form of civil affairs