and afterwards, by degrees, built Jerufalem and the temple to God, notwithstanding the fpiteful oppofitions of the Samaritans, who occafioned the hindering of the building for fome time: So that it was twenty years before the temple was completely finifhed". The work of rebuilding the temple was fo far owned by God, as that he fent his prophets Haggai and Zachariah on purpose to encourage and forward the building 2. The fecond temple, being finished about twenty years after their return, was dedicated to the honour and fervice of God in a very folemn manner, (as Solomon had before dedicated the firft temple) with offerings and facrifices, and fettling the worfhip of God: Who was pleased to increase the joy of the people for their new temple, by fending the prophet Haggai to declare The glory of this house fhall be greater than of the former, not as being a more itately building, (for the ancient men, who had feen the former, wept for the finallness of this; but in regard that Chrift the Meffiah fhould one day honour it with his prefence: For this was that temple (though much repaired) which Chrift in his time reforted to. Thus much was alfo fore told by the prophet Malachi, The Lord whom ye feck fhall fuddenly come into his temple, even the meffenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in; by which Lord the ancient Jews underftand king Meffiah d. But it is obfervable, that although it pleafed God the temple fhould be rebuilt, yet all immediate revelation For this read the books of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Daniel v b Ezra iii. 12. ? Ezra v. I. a Haggai ii. 9. d Dr. Pocock on Malachi iii. 1. e revelation of the Divine Spirit ceafed under this fecond temple. The Jews do generally acknowledge, that five things were wanting after the return from the Babylonian captivity, viz. First, The ark, with the propitiatory or mercyfeat. Secondly, The fire from heaven, which confumed the facrifices, in teftimony of God's acceptance, and was wont to be kept burning &, and was renewed when Solomon had finished the firft temple h. Thirdly, The fhechinah, or divine glory, by which God had ufed to manifeft his prefence. Fourthly, The Urim and Thummim on the breaft-plate of the high priest, whereby God gave anfwers to the people *. And Lastly, The fpirit of prophecy, which ceafed by the death of Malachi. As the want of these benefits was a fign of God's displeasure, and a foretoken of his rejecting them on their future difobedience; fo it was a proper means of awakening them to a more lively expectancy of a more perfect ftate under the Meffiah. The ancient Jews indeed mention one kind of divine revelation to remain to them under the fecond temple, viz. the bath-kol, or a voice from heaven, fometimes vouchfafed to fome particular perfons'. This a learned doctor efteems either to be one of the fabulous accounts of the rabbies, or elfe a delufion of the devil m. However, it is certain their ancient and graveft authors mention it, and it is as certain that fuch præfentior vis illinc abfceffiffet. f Lightf. Hor. in Jo. ii. 21. i Exod. 2 Chron. vii. 1. k Exod. xxviii. 30. xl. 34. anno. 107. m 1 Hot in Lightf. Hor. in Matt. iii. 17. compare dean Prideaux's connect. book ii. p. 5, So the Talmudifts, the Chaldee Paraphr and the Rabbins, vid. Hottinger, ibid. particularly, Maimon, Mor. Nev. par. II. chap. Ixii, fuch a voice came from heaven to Christ, and St. Paul. Further, it is to be obferved, that although the people who returned, were fuch as had been taken captive, or their children, viz. thofe of the kingdom of Judah, confifting chiefly of two tribes, Judah and Benjamin; yet, forafmuch as fome of the ten tribes had formerly joined themselves to Judah notwithstanding the divifion ", and therefore were captives among the rest; they also, or their children, were among those who returned; fo that there ftill remained fome reliques, a remnant, of the other ten tribes. a The whole congregation together, which returned, (that is, by adding those who could not find out their genealogy, or regifter of their birth, or thofe of other tribes befides Judah and Benjamin, to the particu lar numbers fet down in the chapter,) was forty and two thousand three hundred and threefcore, befides fervants. The language fpoken by the Jews in their own country, before the captivity, was the ancient Hebrew; but. in their long abode among the Chaldeans and Syrians, during their feventy years captivity, the purity of the Hebrew was loft among the vulgar, and they mixed their own language with the Chaldeans or Syriac ', which they brought home with them after their captivity, and which was generally called the Syriac language, the fame that continued to be vulgarly fpoken by the Jews in the time of Chrift and his apoftles; whence it Mat. ii. 17. John xii. Acts ix. P See what is faid before concerning the divifion of the two kingdoms. 9 Luke ii. 36. A&s xxvi. 7. s Ezra ii 64. Ezra ii. 62. Lightfoot's Hor. in John v. 2. Dr. Walton's Polyglot. in Bib. num. iii. fect. 22, 23, 24. Prolegom it was, that when the law was read to the people, Ezra and the Levites gave the fenfe, and caufed them to understand the reading ". And this cuftom of explaining the reading of the law out of the Hebrew by the Chaldee, which they underitood, continued in their fynagogues, and at length gave occafion to the Targum, or Chaldee paraphrafes. After their return from the Babylonian captivity, the people were governed by fome chiefs or heads amongst them, as Ezra, Zerubbabel, (who is fuppofed to be the fame with Shefhbazzar, that being his Babylonifh name, entitled prince of Judah, and governor of Judah), and Nehemiah, and after the fettlement, by the high prieft, (who had the temporal as well as ecclefiaftical authority,) affifted by the Sanhedrim, or council spoken of before. Jofephus fays, that they erected an aristocracy, and that the fovereign power was lodged in the high pricfts, (till the time of the Maccabees, or Afmonean family,) and fo much appears from Alexander's fending to the high priest, as their governor, and from the high priest's returning an anfwer as fuch. But ftill they were tributary, and in subjection to the Persian monarchs as their chief fovereigns, and to their deputy governors of Syria and Phoenicia, of which province the Jews country was reckoned a part; and fo for the moft part, when they were afterwards fubjected to Alexander the great, and after him to the Egyptians I. ▾ Ezra i. 8. u Nehem. viii. 7, 8. W Haggai. i. y Id. ib. chap. viii. and Dion. Caffius, in his account of Pompey and Hyrcanus the high prieft, (lib. xxxvii p. 40.) obferves, that the Jews allow the kingly authority to the high priesthood, tians and Syrians, the high priest, with the coun cil or Sanhedrim, bore the chief fway at home, but under the controlment of the foreign kings, who had made them tributary, and had the fovereignty over them, till the change of the government under the Maccabees, of which afterwards. The affairs of the church, and the canon of fcripture were fettled by Ezra, with the affiftance of the rest of the great council, among whom was the latter prophets, Haggai, Zachariah, and Malachi, being all endued with the divine prophetic fpirit. Thefe fet forth a correct edition of the Canon of the Old Teftament, which was owned and confirmed by Chrift and his apoftles. Since their return, they loft, in great measure, the name of Ifraelites, and were called Jews from Judah, their principal tribe, which made up the chief of the captives in Babylon, and confequently of those who returned from thence a. The great fin, amongst others, for which the Jews were, by God's providence and permiffion, made captives in Babylon, was idolatry; but we never read they were guilty of this fin after their return, except thofe, who through fear facrificed unto idols, under the profecution raised by Antiochus Epiphanes ; the remembrance of their captivity being kept up from one generation to another: And befides that, after their return, they had fynagogues, or places of religious affemblies, in most of their larger towns; wherein, befides the prayers and praifes, the law, and the fevere threat z Polyglot. Prologem. Numb. iv. fect 2, 3. Du Pin of the Canon, book 1. chap. 1. fect. 2. And fee what is faid before concerning the Book of the Law found by Hilkiah. Antiq. book xi. chap. 5. towards the end, å. 43° a Jofeph. 1 Maccab. |