52. Residence at Corinth (18
months) 333
Aquila and Priscilla 333
Epistles to the Tliessalonians. . 335
Tumult at Corinth 335
53. Impartiality of Gallio 335,
53 or 54. Voyage to Ephesus 335
Visit to Jerusalem 336
Felix procurator 336
54. Accession of Nero 336
CHAPTER XXX.
ST. PAUL'S THIRD MISSIONARY JOURNEY. His Two IMPRISONMENTS AT ROME,
AND IIIB MARTYRDOM. WITH SEQUEL. A.D. 54-70, ETC.
54. Third circuit from Autioch . . 337
Troubles in Galatia 337
Apollos at Ephesus 337
Panl at Ephesus (3 years) 338
Epistles to the Corinthians. . . . 338
57. Tumult at Ephesus 339 j
Journey through Macedonia,
etc 339
57-58. Stay at Corinth (3 months) 339
Pass.to (Iiicideutsofthevoyage) o^,
Pant. \ to Jerusalem J
Arrest in the temple, etc 342
Defense to the people 342
Paul before the Sanhedrim. . . 343
Sent to Caesarea 343
Trial before Felix 343
68-Gfl. Imprisonment at Csesarea. 344
60. Festns succeeds Felix 344
Paul appeals to Csesar 344
Paul before Agrippa II 345
His voyage and shipwreck.. . . 346
61. Arrival at Rome 348
Conferences with the Jews... 348
They reject the Gospel 349
61-63. First imprisonment at
Rome 349
63. Paul acquitted by Nero 349
Epistlesto tlieEphesiam, Phile-
mon, the Colossi/ins, the Phi-
lippians, and the Hebrew*. . 350
62. Martyrdom of James the Just 350
Sequel of Paul's life 350
His Pastoral Epistles 350
66-68? His martyrdom 350
Notice of St. Peter 351
Notice of St. John 351
70. The "Coming of the Lord "in
the destruction of Jerusa-
lem a type of the end of the
world 352
Tables of Weights, Money, aud Measures 353
Index... , 868
LIST OF ILLUSTKATIONS.
Jerusalem : FRON' IBPIEOB.
Coin of Apamea, in Phrygia, representing the Deluge TITI K-PAOF.
A Shekel of the Maccabees Fage vii.
Tomb of Absalom " xviii.
PAOB
Mouut Ararat 19
Temple of Birs-nimrnd 29
The town and valley of KAblus
from the south-western flank
of Mount Ebal 41
Egyptian sarcophagus 66
Egyptian archers 57
Bronze tlgiire of Apis 67
Mount Hor 76
The serpent "Cneph Agathodtc-
mon " 89
The golden candlestick 90
Plan of the courtof the tabernacle 93
Supposed form of the Altar of
Incense 95
Sacred Egyptian boat or ark 111
Jericho 112
Goodly Babylonish garments 121
Sacred symbolic tree of the Assyr-
ians 122
Assyrian fls>h-god 139
Assyrian kintr in his robes 140
Rabbah, the chief city of the Am-
monites 156
Tomb of Darius near Peraepolis. 167
Ssbustiyeh, the aucieut Samaria. 174
Statue of Shalmaneser 1 182
Israelites bringing tribute to
Shalmaneser 183
Jehu doing homage to Shalma-
neser 192
The City of Lachish repelling
the attack of Sennacherib 201
The Kasr, or remains of the an-
cient palace at Babylon 209
Tomb of Cyrus at Murg-Aub 214
View of the Lake of Antioch 222
Remains of arch of the bridge of
the temple 230
Bethlehem 236
Nazareth 244
Map of Galilee 250
Sea of Galilee 253
Bethany 266
Gethsemane 278
Mount of Olives 299
Jerusalem 307
Tarsus 315
Thessalonica 32T
Ruins of theatre at Ephesus 837
Coin with image of Diana. 339
Ancient ship 34T
Tomb of Abealuui.
SCRIPTURE HISTORY.
PART I.
HISTORY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT.
FKOM THE CREATION TO THE COMPLETION OP THE OLD
TESTAMENT CANON.-B.C. 4004 TO 400.
CHAPTER I.
PROM THE CREATION TO THE DELUGE. H.C. 4004-2348.
"!N the beginning God created tlie heavens and the earth."
Thus, at the very commencement of the Bible, we are taught that
the world lias not always been in existence, but that it was made
out of nothing by an Almighty God. The heaven which God cre-
nted is that which we see, or which can be seen ; the earth is the
globe on which we live. Whatever wonders science may reveal in
heaven or earth, the simple truth remains that God created them all
20 SCRIPTURE HISTORY. CHAP. I
The sacred writer next describes the order in which the various
portions of the universe were made. The earth, after its creation,
was for a long time in a formless and empty state " without
form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep." The
steps by which the heavens and the earth, one after the other, rose
out of this chaos, are arranged in periods called days. The follow-
ing are the works assigned to each day when the Spirit of God
moved upon the face of the waters :
On the First Day was created Light (Gen. i. 1-5).
On the Second Day the Firmament or Sky (6-8).
On the Third Day Dry Land, Herbs and Trees, and separation
of the earth from the sea (9-13).
On the Fourth Day Sun, Moon, and Stars (14-19).
On the Fifth Day Fishes and Birds (20-23).
On the Sixth Day Animals and Man (24-31).
On the Seventh Day God rested from His work, and blessed and
sanctified it as a Sabbath or day of rest (ii. 2-3).
After the earth had been prepared and adorned for his dwelling-
place, after sky and earth and ocean had been peopled with living
creatures for his use, man was formed of the dust of the ground,
and God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and Man be-
came a living soul (Gen. ii. 7). He differed from all other crea-
tures in that he was made in the image and after the likeness of
God in other words, in that lie possessed an intellectual and spirit-
ual nature. God gave him dominion over all created tilings, and
to him, and to the animals, the plants were assigned for food. The
name ADAM, bestowed upon the first man by the Almighty, had
reference apparently to the ground (AdamaJi) out of which he was
formed ; and in the meaning of the word there is contained the
idea of redness of color.
The Lord God placed the man whom he had made in a garden,
in the region of Eden. This spot was probably somewhere among
the highlands of the modern Armenia, south of the Caucasus. It
was watered by four rivers Pison, Gihon, Hiddckel, and the Eu-
phrates. The first two arc unknown ; the third was no doubt the
Tigris. The only task given to Adam was to dress and keep tint
garden. Of the fruit of every tree therein he might freely eat, with
the exception of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Of that
God said, " Thou shall not eat of it ; for in the day that thou cat-
est thereof thou shall surely die." Surrounded as he was by liv-
ing creatures, man was yet alone. God brought them all before
him that he might name them, which shows that he was endowcci
at his creation with the power of language ; but for Adam no helf*
B.C. 4004-2348. CREATION AND FALL OF MAN. 21
meet for him was found. Then the Lord God caused a deep sleep
to fall upon him ; and while he slept, he took one of his ribs, of
which he formed a woman, and brought her unto him. And when
Adam awoke and saw her, he said, "This is now bone of my
bones, and flesh of my flesh : she shall be called Woman, because
she was taken out of man " (Gen. ii. 23). This was long after-
wards used by our Lord as a reason for the law of marriage, which is
plainly implied in the fact that one woman was created for one man.
"Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall
cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh " (Matt. xix. 5).
It is important to notice that the two ordinances of the Sabbath
and of Marriage were instituted by God " in the time of man's in-
nocence."
Eden was not merely the blissful abode of our first parents, it was
also the scene of their temptation and of their fall. When Adam
was first placed there, and commanded not to eat of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil, a restraint was laid upon his appetite
and upon his self-will. While he was shown by this prohibition
that he was to live under a law, he was at the same time left free
either to obey or to break it. Adam and Eve had not long been in
Eden before a serpent a creature well known as the type of the
chief of the fallen angels came to the woman, and inquired wheth-
er God had really told them not to eat of every tree of the garden.
And when the woman replied that it was so, he invited her to eat
of the forbidden fruit, assuring her that they would not really die ;
that God had forbidden them to touch the tree of knowledge be-
cause he knew that, as soon as they did so, they would be "as
gods, knowing good and evil." Whereupon the woman, seeing that
" the tree was good for food, and pleasant to the eyes, and a tree
to be desired to make one wise," believed his words, and " took of
the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with
her, and he did eat." Thus they fell into the threefold sin of
sensuality, pleasure, and ambition " the lust of the flesh, the lust
of the eyes, and the pride of life " (1 John ii. 16). The same
threefold apj>eal of the tempter to the infirmities of our nature
may be traced also in the temptation of Christ, the second Adam
who was " in all points likewise tempted, but without sin " (Heb
iv. 15). Immediately the eyes of them both were opened ; they
perceived that they were naked, nnd made themselves aprons of fig-
leaves. Soon afterwards they heard the voice of the Lord God,
and hid themselves from his presence among the trees of the garden.
But the Lord called Adam, and said, Where art thou ? Adam re-
plied, " I heard thy voice, and I was afraid, because I was naked ;
and I hid myself." How couldst thou know, said the Lord, that
thon wast naked unless thou hadst oaten of the tree of which 1
22 SCRIPTURE HISTORY. CHAP. I
commanded thee not to eat? Then the man cast the blame upon
the woman, and the woman upon the serpent, and God proceeded
to award a righteous sentence to each.
i. A curse was pronounced upon the serpent. " Upon thy belly
shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. And
I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy
seed and her seed ; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise
his heel " (Gen. iii. 14, 15).
ii. A curse was pronounced upon the woman. In sorrow and in
multiplied suffering she was to give birth to her children. And as
the cause of his fall, henceforward she was to be subject to her hus-
band. At first she was his equal (Gen. iii. 16).
iii. A curse was pronounced upon the man, and upon the ground
also on his account. He was doomed to a life of toil : the earth
was to bring forth thorns and thistles, and in the sweat of his face
was he to eat bread till he returned to the ground (Gen. iii. 18, 19).
They had also incurred by their disobedience another penalty,
which was to be paid at a later period. "Dust thou art, and unto
dust shalt thou return." They were, however, sent forth at once
from the Garden of Eden, lest they should eat of the tree of life and
live forever. Cherubim, armed with a flaming sword, were sta-
tioned at the entrance to prevent them from returning to taste its
fruit. It is most probable that the " coats of skins," with which
the Lord God clothed our first parents, were the skins of animals
slain in sacrifice. Thus early was man taught by the use of sacri-
fice that " without shedding of blood there is no remission " of sin
(Heb. ix. 22).
The curse upon the serpent, and the promise to the woman tha".
her seed should bruise his head, pointed clearly to a Redeemer, who
should be born of a woman, and who, after suffering from the ma-
lignity of the Serpent after his heel had been bruised should
destroy the works and the power of the Devil. Here we have the
first prophecy of the Messiah. Henceforth the woman lived in the
expectation of the promised seed, which should make her the moth-
er of a truly livinrf race ; and, to signify this hope, Adam gave her
the name of Eve (Chavak, that is, living). Thus already life began
to spring from death (Gen. iii. 20).
After their banishment from Eden, Eve bore her first-born son,
and named him Cain (that is, gotten or acquired), saying, " I have
gotten a man from the Lord." Her second son was named AbeJ
(that is, breath, transitoriness). "Abel was a keeper (or feeder) of
sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground." In course of time it
came to pass that they offered sacrifices unto the Lord : Cain
brought of the fruit of the ground ; Abel brought of the firstlings
of his flock and of the fat thereof. But the two offerings were not
B.C. 4004-2348. ABEL MURDERED BY CAIN. 23
presented in the same spirit, and so "the Lord had respect unto
Abel and his offering, "but Cain's was rejected on account of the
state of mind in which it was brought. At this Cain was very
wroth and unhappy. "Why art thou wroth?" said the Lord to
him. "If thou doest well, shall thou not be accepted? and if
thou doest not well," sin lurketh as a wild beast at the door, seeking
the mastery over you, but thou art to resist and subdue it (Gen. iv.
7). Cain, however, could not pardon his brother Abel for being bet-
ter than himself, and when they were in the field together, he fell
npon him and slew him. Awful is it to remember, that the first
overt act of sin after the fall was a brother's murder ; but he who
knew what was in man has testified that " Whosoever is angry with
his brother without a cause " (Matt. v. 22) has already broken the
spirit of the Sixth Commandment, and that "Whosoever hateth his
brother is a murderer" (1 John iii. 15).
This first crime was quickly punished. "Cain, "said the Lord,
" where is Abel, thy brother?" To this he replied, "I know not;
nm I my brother's keeper?" But God said, "What hast thou
done? thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground." And,
in punishment of his crime, the ground was cursed for him again,
and henceforth was not to yield her strength under his tillage: "a
fugitive and a wanderer was he to be upon the earth." But even
in this renewal of the curse we still see the mercy which turns the
curse into a blessing, as it no doubt caused the family of Cain to
turn their attention to those mechanical arts which they afterwards
practiced (Gen. iv. 1-12).
Cain received his doom in a hardened spirit of impenitence, and
exclaimed, "My punishment is greater than I can bear." His
great fear was that, when driven out from the abodes of men, and
from the face of God, every one who found him should slay him.
That shall not be so, said the Lord. And he set a mark upon
Cain, lest any finding him should kill him, and he pronounced a
sevenfold punishment on any one who should do so.
Cain, having gone out from the presence of the Lord, directed
his steps to the east of Eden, and settled in the lund of Nod, that
is, banishment. -There he built a city, and called it Enoch, after
his first-born son. The names of his descendants to the sixtli gen-
eration were Enoch, Irad, Mehujael, Methusael, and Lamech.
From the few facts recorded about them we learn that Lamech set
the example of polygamy ; his address to his two wives (Gen. iv.
23, 24) is the earliest example of poetry, and it also shows that lie
committed the second murder. Of his three sons, Jabal was the
first wandering herdsman; Jubal, the inventor of musical instru-
ments, both stringed and wind; and Tubal-Cain, the first smith.
Dismissing the family of Cain, the sacred writer now relates the
24 SCRIPTUKE HISTORY. CHAI-. 1
history of the chosen race. God gave to Eve another son instead
ot Abel, whom Cain slew (Gen. iv. 25), who was hence named Seth
(properly, aj>i>ointed). His birth was followed by that of othei
children. Seth, too, had a numerous posterity. The names of
Seth's descendants were Enos, Cainan, Mahaialeel, and Jared, of
none of whom are any particulars recorded. But the next among
the descendants of Seth, " Enoch, the seventh from Adam," stands
.;onspicuous as one who walked with God a phrase which is often
jsed to describe a life of close communion with God. When lie
was three hundred and sixty-five years old his faitli was rewarded
by a special favor. "He was not; for God took him" (Gen. v.
24) Of the meaning of this phrase the writer of the Epistle to the
Hebrews leaves no doubt : " By faith Enoch was translated, that
he should not see death; and was not found, because God had trans-
lated him " (Heb. xi. 5). In his case, as in Elijah's, the miracle
was a testimony to the divine mission of the prophet. Methuselah,
thsson of Enoch, is noted for having reached the greatest age of any
man on record. He lived nine hundred and sixty-nine years : his
son Lamech, the father of Noah, died five years before the Deluge.
The traditions of primeval history may very easily have been
handed down by a few generations of teachers. Adam, no doubt,
handed down to Seth and his posterity the promises of mercy that
had been given to him by God, and thus they were easily trans-
mitted to Noah, from Noah to Abraham, and from Abraham to
Moses. The descendants of Seth were called sons of God, in oppo-
sition to the descendants of Cain, who were called sons of men.
The former were a people of simple habits and religious spirit the
latter were a violent and godless race.
The genealogies of the two races of Cain and Seth, when placed
side by side, are as follows :
ADAM.
_
r~ i
Caiu. Seth.
I !
Enoch (Chanoch). Enos.
Irad. . Cainan.
Mehujael. MahalaleeL
Methnsael. Jared.
Adah=Lamech=:Zniah. - Enoch (Chanoch).
I I (
tabaL Jubal. Tabul-Caiu. Naunuib. Methuselah.
Laniech.
KottU.
B.C. 4004-2348. NOAH THE FLOOD. 25
The name of Noah is significant. It means rest or comfort, and
his father gave it, saying, "This shall comfort us concerning out
work arid toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord
hath cursed" ^Gen. v. 29). These words seem to express a deepe/
weariness than that arising from the primal curse, from which, in-
deed, the age of Noah brought no deliverance. But it did bring
the comfort of rest from the wickedness which had now reached its
greatest height. The race of Seth had become infected with the
vices of the Cainites. This seems to be the only reasonable sense
of the intercourse between " the sons of God " and "the daughters
of men " (Gen. vi. 2). The family of Seth, who preserved their
frith in God, and the family of Cain, who lived only for this world,
hnd hitherto kept distinct ; but now a mingling of the two races took
place, which resulted in the thorough corruption of the former,
who, falling away, plunged into the deepest abyss of wickedness.
We are also told that this union produced a stock conspicuous for
physical strength and courage (Gen. vi. 4).
God, beholding the perverse imaginations of the human race, re-
pented that lie had made man, and said, "I will destroy man and
beast, birds and reptiles, from the face of the earth." Noah, how-
ever, found grace in the eyes of the Lord. He was the tenth from
Adam, and is described as a just man and perfect in his genera-
tions. Like Enoch, he testified against the prevailing wickedness,
for he is called ' a preacher of righteousness " (2 Pet. ii. 5). Hav-
ing looked upon the earth and seen that it was corrupt, God said to
him, " Make tliee an ark of gopher (/. e., cypress) wood for the sav-
ing of thyself and thy house." God then gave him instructions as
to the building of an ark capable of receiving himself and his fami-
ly, with two of every species of living creatures, and according to all
that God commanded him so did he. 1 For one hundred and twen-
ty years, while the ark was preparing, the long-suffering of God
wnitcd, but iu vain, as if hoping for some improvement in the pre-
vailing wickedness (1 Pet. iii. 20). Doubtless Noah continued his
" preaching of righteousness " throughout that period, but his work
preached louder still. Mankind went on, however, !' eating and
drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah
entered into the ark " (Matt. xxiv. 38).
Ai length the flood began. Noah was ix hundred years old
when the Lord said to him, " Come thou and all thy house into
the nrk, for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation.
( )f every clean beast take seven couples, and of beasts that are not
c-lcan take two couples, and of birds take seven couples, to keep up
their mce. For in seven days' time I will cause it to rain upon
' Wee Note on " Noah's Ark " at the end of this chapter.
26 SCRIPTURE HISTORY. CHAP. I.
the earth forty days and forty nights, and I will destroy all tha
creatures that I have made from off the face of the earth." Noah
obeyed, and entered into the ark with his wife, and with his three
sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and their wives, and the Lord shut
him in. Seven days afterwards, "the fountains of the great deep
were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened." For
forty days and forty nights the rain fell upon the earth, and rose tc
such a height that all the high hills and the mountains were fifteen
cubits (about twenty-four feet) under water. "And all flesh died
chat moved upon the earth." Noah and those that were with him
in the ark alone remained alive. The vast expanse of water was
unbroken save by that floating ark for one hundred and fifty day.-,,
or five months (Gen. vii. 1-24).
Meanwhile God had not forgotten Noah and those that were with
him in the ark. He made a wind to pass over the earth, the fount-
ains of the deep and the rain from heaven were restrained, and on
the seventeenth day of the seventh month of the six hundredth ye;:r
of Noah's life, the subsiding waters left the ark aground upon one
of the mountains of Ararat, that is. of Armenia; for Ararat, in bib-
'lical geography, is the name, not of a mountain, but of a district.
More than two months later, on the first day of the tenth month,
the tops of the mountains appeared. Forty days afterwards Noah
sent out a rav.en, which did not return to the ark. Then he sent
forth a dove, which found no resting-place, and came back again.
In another seven days she was sent out again, and returned with an
olive-leaf in her bill, a sign that even the low trees were uncovered,
and a type for after ages of peace and rest. After seven days more,
the dove was sent out again, and proved by not returning that the
waters had finally subsided (Gen. viii. 1-12).
In the waters of this flood, the whole human race, except eight
persons, perished. In the New Testament our Lord declares that
the state of the world at his second coming shall be such as it Avas
in the days of Noah (Matt. xxiv. 37). St. Peter sees in the waters
of the flood, by which the ark was borne up, a type of the waters
of baptism, .whereby the Church is separated from the world (1 Pet.
iii. 21). The ark itself is a type of the Church of Christ, in which
alone there is the promise of salvation.
On the first day of the six hundred and first year of Noah's age,
he removed the covering of the ark, and saw that the surface of the
ground was dry. On the twenty-seventh day of the second month,
after having been in the ark one year and ten days, he went out of
it by the command of God, with every living thing that was with
him. His first act on leaving the ark was to take a couple of every
dean bird and beast, and to offer them as a burnt-offering. This
B.C. 4004-2348. COVENANT WITH NOAH. 27
sacrifice was acceptable to the Lord, and He promised that He would
not any more curse the earth or destroy the creatures that dwelt
upon it as He had done, but that the existing course of nature-
seed-time and harvest, summer and winter should not cease as
long as tho earth remained (Gen. viii. 13-22).
To Noah and his sons God then repeated the blessing pronounced
on Adam and Eve, and said, " Be fruitful and multiply and re-
plenish the earth." To this He added that the inferior creatures
were to be subject to them, and that, in addition to the green herb,
they might have the animals for food ; but the eating their blood
was forbidden, because the blood is the life. He enacted, also, a new
law against murder. The first murderer had been driven out as a
vagabond and a fugitive ; but his life was sacred. Now, howev-
er, the penalty was changed. God said, " Whoso sheddeth man's
blood by man shall his blood be shed." This law amounts to
giving the civil magistrate " the power of the sword " (Rom. xiii.
4). Hence we may consider that, in addition to the laws of the
Sabbath and of marriage, which were revealed to Adam, three new
j>rcce/>ts were given to Noah namely, the abstinence from blood,
the prohibition of murder, and the recognition of the civil authority
(Gen. ix. 1-7).
In addition to these promises and precepts, God made with Noah
H COVENANT, which may be called the covenant of God's forbearance,
under which man is to live to the end of time. As a token of the
permanence of this covenant, he gave the beautiful sign of the ralit
bow in the cloud, and repeated His promise that the world should