hollowed in the floor and roofed with an arch.1 As these caves were dug out of the sides of sloping rocks, they were entered on the same level, and the door was shut by a stone very difficult to handle. The body was laid in the cave,2 and the stone was rolled to the door, the intention being to return in order to make the burial more complete; but, as the next day was a solemn Sabbath, the task was deferred till the day following.3

The women withdrew, after having carefully noticed how the body was laid. They employed the evening hours which remained to them in making further preparations for the embalming. On the Saturday

all rested.1

On the Sunday morning the women, Mary of Magdala before the others, came very early to the tomb.5 The stone was displaced from the opening, and the body was no longer in the place where it had been put. And now the strangest rumours went abroad in the Christian community. The cry, "He is risen!" spread among the disciples like a flash of light. Love caused it to find ready credence everywhere.

What had taken place? In treating the history of

1 The cave supposed in the time of Constantine to be the tomb of Christ had this form, as may be inferred from the description of Arculphus (in Mabilion, Acta SS. Ord. S. Bened. III. ii. 504), and from the vague traditions preserved at Jerusalem among the Greek clergy on the condition of the rock now hidden by the chapel of the Holy Sepulchre. But the proofs of identification relied on, under Constantine, were feeble or void (see especially Sozomen, H. E. ii. 1). Even admitting the site of Golgotha to be nearly accurate, the Holy Sepulchre would have no serious claim to be authentic. In any case, the aspect of the locality is com pletely changed.

2 Cor. xv. 4.

4 Luke xxiii. 54-56.

8 Luke xxiii. 56.

5 Matt. xxviii. 1; Mark xvi 1; Luke xxiv. 1; John xx. 1.

the Apostles we shall have to examine this point, and to investigate the origin of the legends touching the resurrection. For the historian, the life of Jesus finishes with his last sigh; but such was the impression he had left in the hearts of his disciples and of a few devoted women, that for some weeks longer he was for them a living comforter. Who had taken away his body? Under what conditions did enthusiasm, always credulous, create the group of narratives by which faith in the resurrection was established? In the absence of opposing testimony we shall never know. Let us say, however, that the vivid imagination of Mary Magdalen played in this circumstance an essential part. Divine power of love! Sacred moments, in which the illusion of an impassioned woman gave to the world a deity risen from the grave!

66

1 See Matt. xxviii. 15; John xx. 2. 2 She had been possessed by viii 2.

seven demons": Mark xvi. 9; Luke

8 This is evident chiefly in the sixteenth chapter of Mark, verses 9-11, and so on to the end, making a conclusion quite independent of the original ending of this Gospel at verse 8. (See MS. B of the Vatican, and the Sinaitic codex.) In the Fourth Gospel (xx. 1, 2, 11, 12, 18) Mary of Magdala is also the first and solitary witness of the resurrection.

CHAPTER XXVIL

FATE OF HIS ENEMIES.

ACCORDING to our reckoning, the death of Jesus took place in the year 33 A. D. It cannot, at all events, have been either earlier than 29, -the preaching of John and Jesus having begun in the year preceding,2 or later than 35, as in the year following, probably before the Passover, Pilate and Caiaphas both lost their offices. The death of Jesus, however, had no connection whatever with these two removals. In his retirement, Pilate probably never thought for a moment of the forgotten episode which was to transmit his sombre fame to the most distant posterity. As to Caiaphas, he was succeeded by Jonathan, his brother-in-law, son of the same Hanan who had played the principal part in the trial of Jesus. The Sadducean family of Hanan retained the pontificate a long time, and, more powerful than ever, continued to wage against the disciples and the family of Jesus the implacable war which they had

1 The year 33 corresponds well with one of the data of the problem; namely, that the 14th of Nisan was Friday. If we reject this date, we must, to find another which fills this condition, go back to 29 or forward to 36 (see ante, p. 354, note 7).

2 Luke iii. 1.

Josephus, Antiq. XVIII. iv. 2, 3.

4 The assertion to the contrary, made by Tertullian and Eusebius, rests on an apocryphal or a worthless legend (see Philo. Cod. apocr. N. T. p. 813 et seq.). The suicide of Pilate (Euseb. Hist. ii. 7; Chron. ad Ann. 1 Caii) seems also to be legendary (Tischendorf, Evang. apocr. p. 432 et seq.).

entered upon against himself. Christianity, which owed to him the definitive act of its foundation, owed to him also its first martyrs. Hanan was looked upon as one of the most fortunate men of his time.1 The man

really guilty of the death of Jesus ended his life at the summit of honours and consideration, never doubting for an instant that he had rendered a great service to the nation. His sons continued to rule about the Temple, with difficulty held in check by the procurators, whose consent they would often not even ask in gratifying their haughty and violent instincts.2

Antipas and Herodias also quickly disappeared from the political stage. When Herod Agrippa was raised to the dignity of king by Caligula, the jealous Herodias swore that she too would be queen. Pressed incessantly by this ambitious woman, who treated him as a coward because he suffered a superior in his family, Antipas overcame his natural indolence, and went to Rome to solicit the title which his nephew had just obtained (39 A. D.). But the affair turned out extremely ill. Damaged in the emperor's esteem by Herod Agrippa, Antipas was deposed, and dragged out the rest of his life in exile here or there, at Lyons and in Spain. Herodias followed him in his downfall. A hundred years, at least, were to elapse before the name of their obscure subject (who had become a divinity) should appear in these remote countries, to recall upon their tombs the murder of John the Baptist.

As to the wretched Judas of Kerioth, terrible legends were current about his death. It was asserted that he

1 Josephus, Antiq. XX. ix. 1.

2 Josephus, ibid.; Tosiphta Menachoth, ii.

Josephus, Antiq. XVIII. vii. 1, 2; Wars, II. ix. 6.

4

had bought a field near Jerusalem with the price of his perfidy. There was, indeed, to the south of Mount Zion a place named Hakeldama (the field of blood),1 which was supposed to be the property acquired by the traitor. According to one tradition, he killed himself;3 according to another, he had a fall in his field, causing a rupture, of which he died. According to others, he died of a kind of dropsy, accompanied by repulsive circumstances which were regarded as a chastisement by Heaven." The desire to make out Judas to be a parallel to Ahithophel, and of showing in him the accomplishment of the menaces which the Psalmist pronounces against the treacherous friend," may have given rise to these legends. Perhaps, in the retirement of his field of Hakeldama, Judas led a quiet and obscure life; while his former friends prepared the conquest of the world, and spread abroad the report of his infamy. Perhaps, also, the terrible hatred which weighed on his head drove him to violent acts, in which men saw the finger of Heaven.

The time of the great Christian revenge was, however, far distant. The new sect had no hand in the ca

Eusebius

1 Jerome, De situ, etc., under the word "Acheldama." (ibid.) says on the north; but the itineraries support Jerome. The tradition which gives this name to the burial-ground in the valley of Hinnom goes back as far as to the time of Constantine.

2 Acts i. 18, 19. Matthew (or his interpolator) has given the less satisfactory form of the tradition, connecting with it the circumstance of the strangers' burial-place close by, and finding in it an imaginary verification of Zech. xi. 12, 13.

3 Matt. xxvii. 5.

4 Acts i. 18, 19. Papias, in Ecumenius, Ennarr. in Act. Apost. ii. and in F. Münter, Fragm. Patr. græc. (Hafn, 1788), fasc. i. 17 et seq.; Theophylact, In Matt. xxvii. 5.

5 Papias (in Münter) and Theophylact, as above.

6

2 Sam. xvii. 23.

7 Psalms lxix. and cix.