the first of Ester the ninteenth verse If it seeme good to the king let a royall word goe forth from him that is Let a commandement by the kings authoritie be published In the second chapter of this Prophet the twelfth verse The decree went forth the wise men were slaine In the second booke of the Machabies the sixt chapter and eight verse Thorough the counsell of Ptolomie there went out a commandement into the next cities of the heathen against the Iewes to put such to death as were not conformable to the manners of the Gentiles In the second chapter of Luke the first verse there went out a decree from Augustus Caesar that all the world should be taxed To build againe Ierusalem In Hebrew to returne build Ierusalem Of this a little after toward the end of this verse Vnto Messias the Gouernour The worde Messias in Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is as much as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greeke and with vs annoynted So these three in signification are all one Messias Christ Annoynted The Hebrew word in the holy Scripture attributed sometime specially to the persō of Christ Iesus our Lord as in the first of Iohn the 42. ver we haue found the Messias And in the second Psalme the second verse The Rulers tooke counsell together against the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and against his Messias or Christ that is against Christ Iesus our Lorde as the place is expounded in the fourth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles Sometime more generally to any annoynted Priest as in the fourth chapter and fift verse of Leuit. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is the Annoynted Priest shall take off the bullockes blood or to the annoynted Prophets Touch not mine annoynted doe my Prophets no harme Psa 105.15 Or lastlie to the kings and chiefe gouernours of the people Thus Saul in the first of Samuel the 24. chapter and 7. verse and Dauid in the 2. of Samuel the 19. chapter and 22. verse is called the annoynted of the Lord. The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying any Ruler or Gouernour is vsed sometime of kinges as in the first of Samuel the tenth chapter the second verse where Saul is called the Gouernour of the Lords inheritance and in the second of Samuel the seauenth chapter Dauid is called the ruler of Gods people and Ezechias in the second booke of the Kings the 20. chapter and fifth verse In all those places this worde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is vsed Sometime it is giuen to other inferiour rulers or gouernours as in the 2. of Chronicles the 11. chapter and 11. verse Hee repayred the strong holdes and set 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Gouernours therin and in the 19. chapter and last verse of the same booke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Zebadias the Ruler of the house of Iuda shall be for the kings affaires and in the 11. chapter of this Prophet Daniel the 22 verse the Prince and chiefe gouernour of the Jewes is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So there is no let by the force and signification of the word but that it may bee well referred to the chiefe ruler of the Iewes common wealth in Ierusalem after the building thereof Seauen weekes It is great pittie that this message of the holy Angell contayning a most excellent Prophesie from Gods owne mouth should be so peruerted and depraued as it hath beene by those which picke out this sence as though hee said there should be from the out-going of the commaundement to Messias 69. weekes in all A strange interpretation such I dare boldly say it as by the Hebrew text can neuer bee vpheld That interpretation which I haue made leauing a stay or rest at seuen weekes as the halfe sentence being past and continuing the 62. weekes with the other part of the sentence following to the end of the verse and not referred to the former as part of one whole number with them by the Hebrew text is most sure and vndoubted and iustifiable against all the world contayning that which God himselfe in his owne wordes hath vttered neyther more nor lesse but the verie same which Gods Angell deliuered to Daniel by word and Daniel to the Church by writing in the holie tongue and this once againe it is From the going forth of the word to build againe Ierusalem vnto Messias the gouernour shall be seauen weekes and threescore and two weekes it shall be builded againe street and wall and in trouble some times Marke the wordes consider their order and weigh well the rests As I finde in the Hebrew so I haue Englished that is the truth of interpretation be it vnderstood as it may It shall be builded againe Word for word in the original tongue is written It shall returne and be builded which learned Hierome verie learned lie translated thus Iterum aedificabitur It shall bee builded againe This is a familiar phrase in the Hebrew peoples mouth For proofe whereof take a view of these places First of that in Malachie the first chapter and fourth verse We will returne build the desolate places It is as much to say as we wil build them againe also in the 26. chapter 18. verse of Genesis Isaak returned and digged the wels of water which beeing digged in the dayes of Abraham the Philistians after his death had stopped The meaning is therfore that he digged them againe rightly vnderstood by the Greeke interpreters called the 70. thus trāslating it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He digged againe Hierome agreeing thereunto rursus fodit In the sixt chapter of Zacharie the first verse I returned and lifted vp my eyes and saw which Tremellius verie wel translated thus Rursus attollens occulos meos vidi Againe lifting vp my eyes I saw That therefore which some interpreters here haue imagined concerning the returne of the people from the captiuitie of Babilon is to vse the old prouerbe nothing to Bacchus an interpretation farre from Daniels purpose The like reason is of that before written in this verse to returne and build Ierusalem being in sence the same which there I haue translated and Hierome long before me to build againe Ierusalem Moreouer it shall be builded importeth as much as if hee had said it shall continue builded or beeing once builded it shall so remaine by the space of 434. yeares before the desolation thereof come as Saadias and Gershoms sonne expounded the meaning of the word The 26. verse Shall Messias be cut off The signification of the worde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is much more large then to slay as by the most part of interpreters it is here taken and reacheth to any cutting off eyther by death or banishment or any other kinde of abolishing whereby a thing before in vse afterward ceaseth Ioel. 1.8 The new wine is cut off from your mouth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Amos 1.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will cut off the inhabitant of
them a people not accepted of God because they had beene ouercome by the enemie and put to their tribute This was the reckoning which Tullie made of them who by diuine knowledge of God his worde were the onelie wise people in the world Deut 4. whereby it appeareth that in his eyes the prophane learning of men was deemed more excellent then the wisedome of God Amongst his sciences no place was left for diuinitie The knowledge of God his word was too base for that companie Much better was the doome of the ancient Fathers of the primitiue Church by the light of God his spirit who vsed all other artes and learning as helps and handmaids to the vnderstanding of diuine scripture beeing Ladie and Mistris of all to the which all humane wisedome oweth dutie and seruice Augustine a rare instrument for the benefite of GOD his Church came notably furnished with much other reading to the studie of diuinity His skill therein he prooued not onely by writing of the liberall sciences but also alleadging of Poets and other Authors and fitting their sayinges to the phrase of holy scripture to make it more plaine wherof one commeth now to my mind in his bookes of speeches taken out of a secular Author as hee termeth him Et scuta Latentia condunt They hide the priuie or secret lying shieldes meaning such as not before but after the hyding lay secret and hid This hee maketh serue for the vnderstanding of a like speech in the 25. chapter of Genesis in the Greeke bible of Esay and Iacob whose birth a little before was mentioned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the young men grew They were new borne babes farre from that ripenes of yeares to bee called young men and therefore the action of growing in this place goeth before the young mens age to signifie that being little children At the length after much growing vp in age they became young men In his second booke De doctrina Christiana hee declareth at large that humane sciences and the learning of the gentiles and prophane histories are very helpfull and profitable to the vnderstanding of holy scripture The learned father Hierom also in many places bringeth much light great seruice from diuerse and sundry prophane writers to the vnderstanding of God his woorde In his commentaries on Esay the thirteenth chapter declaring the true meaning of the prophets woordes there vttered concerning the desolation of Babylon which other leauing the truth of historie expounded allegorically hath these woordes Audiuimus Medos audiuimus Babylonem inclytam in superbia Chaldaeorum nolumus intelligere quod fuit quaerimus audire quod non fuit Et haec dicimus non quòd tropologicam intelligentiam condemnemus sed quòd spiritualis interpretatio sequi debeat ordinem historiae Quod plaerique ignorantes lymphatico in scripturis vagantur errore We haue heard saith he of the Medes wee haue heard of Babylon the glorious city of the Chaldeans we will not vnderstand that which hath bin but we seeke to heare that which hath not beene Neither say I this to condemne tropologicall vnderstanding but that spirituall interpretation ought to follow order of historie which the most parte being ignorante of by mad wandring doe range about in the scriptures The same father being by some blamed as too much addict to the study of Secular knowledge in an epistle of his to on Magnus a Roman Orator taketh vpon him the defence and commendation thereof by the examples of the best and most excellent christian fathers before him I must needes therefore greatly commend the wisedome of our forefathers in ordering our vniuersities VVhere young schollers are first trained vp in the studies of humanity before they enter into God his schoole that by that meanes comming furnished and ready stored with many helpes from their former learning they may find a more easie waye and speedy course in that most graue race of diuine knowledge which is yet behinde for them to runne And surely so it is and euery one shall finde the experience hereof in himselfe It is not to be spoken how much and how cleare light the diligent study and reading of Latin and Greeke writers yeeld to the knowledge of holy scripture Which by some few examples I will let the reader vnderstand The Eleans in time of pestilence brought vpon them by exceding great abundance of flies call vpon their God Myiagrus which being by sacrifice once appeased all those flies forthwith perish This Pline reporteth in his tenth booke the eight and twentith chapter Whereunto for confirmation may be added that which is recorded by Pausanias in the first booke of his Eliaca that Hercules sacrificing in Olympia was mightily troubled with a huge multitude of flies till such time as he had done sacrifice to Iupiter apomytos by whose power all those flies were soone after dispersed And hereof he sayth that the Eleans vse to sacrifice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to Iupiter Apomytos which driueth away flies Sotinus also in his Polyhistor the second chapter maketh mention of Hercules his chappell in the beefe market at Rome into the which after sacrifice and prayer made to the God Myiagrus hee entred by diuine power without flies All these testimonies serue to vnderstand the reason of the name Baalzebub in scripture giuen to the God of Ecron in the first chapter of the second booke of the Kings signifying the god of flies or the flies Iupiter If it be true that Augustine affirmeth in his questions vppon the booke of iudges that Baal is Iupiter so called as should seeme by those reportes of Plinie Pausanias and Solinus of the power which was attributed vnto him in driuing away flies whereof hee is termed Myiagrus that is a chaser of flies and Apomyius as it were a defender or preseruer from flies Horatius in his last Satyre telleth of one Rufus Nasidienus who had inuited to a great supper Mecaenas a chiefe Lord in the Emperour Augustus Caesars Court with many other noble men of Rome that whenas in the middest of supper the daintiest dishes being now set vpon the borde the hangings aloft by chance suddenly brake and daubed that honorable company with cobwebs and powdred the costly meates and wines with filth and filled all full of choaking dust Posito capite vt si filius immaturus obisset flere Holding downe his head he wept bitterly as it had been for the vntimely death of a deare sonne So then the casting downe of Cain his countenance in the fourth of Genesis argued sorrow And the virgins of Ierusalem at the destruction of their citie hanging downe their heads to the ground in the Lamentations of Ieremy the second chapter thereby declared their conceaued griefe The prophet Dauid at such time as he fled from his sonne Absolon and likewise all the men that were with him euery one couered his head and wept Haman also being made an instrument to honour Mardochaeus whome hee hated to the
death for sorow hasted home with his head couered whereby some haue vnderstood nothing else but dust and ashes laied thereon which is a cerimonie indeed of sorow but not meant in those places The custome in those times was not onely to lay dust on the heade in token of griefe but also to enclose and shut vp as it were the head and face with some cloth or vaile from mens eyes As manie examples out of the Heathen Authors may easily shew Vlysses as Homer declareth hauing heard one Demodicus sing of the glorious worthy acts of the Grecians at Troy couered his head and face with a cloath and wept The souldiers of Aiax in Sophocles hearing of the wofull case of their Captaine for griefe of Vlysses prefermēt before him being bestraught of minde couered their heads with vailes Demaratus a King of Sparta by the subtill practising of his enemies was deposed of his kingdome as not of the Royall blood who after bearing Office in the Citie and opprobriously in way of scorne and derision beeing asked what it was to bee first a King and then an Officer tooke it to the heart and with these wordes vttered that that question should bee the cause either of much ioy or much woe to the Lacedaemonians couered his head and got him home This is recorded by Herodotus in Erato Xenophon in his Symposiō telleth of a certaine iester called Phillip who at a seast where Socrates with other graue cōpany was present assaying once or twice by his ridiculous iestes to mooue them to laughter but all in vaine mufled vp himselfe for sorrow and left his supper Demosthenes the famous Orator of Athens as Plutarch writeth in his life in a certaine Oration of his before the people beeing hissed at hied him home in great heauines with his head couered In his 4. booke It is recorded by Q. Curtius of Darius King of Persia that hearing of his wiues death Capite velato diu fleuit He wept a great while hauing his head couered That the couer was a cloath hiding the face as well as the heade appeareth immediatlye after in these wordes Manantibus adhuc lachrimis vesteque ab ore reiecta the teares yet trickling downe the cloth being cast away from his mouth he lift vp his handes to heauen Sisigambis that Kinges mother was a spectacle of rare miserie Shee lost her Father and foure score brethren all in one day most cruelly killed by Artaxerxes Ochus Her owne childe a mightie King the last Monarch of Persia shee saw twice ouercome by Alexander in the end traiterously slaine by his owne seruants the kingdome of Persia a ouerthrowne her selfe Captiue yet all these crosses she bare in some tollerable manner so long as Alexander liued who honoured her exceedingly as his owne mother But after his death bereaued of all comfort shee tare her haire cast her bodie on the grounde refused succour and wrapping vp her heade with a vaile euer after abstained from meat light till welcome death made an end of her woes Thus Dauid and Hamans couered heades by so manie examples of such as for extreame sorrow or shame of themselues not abiding mens sight muffled their faces are cleared of doubt And herby the vnderstanding of another place in the 53. Chapter of Esay not a little helped where our blessed Sauiour is compared to one hiding his face For this as hath beene prooued beeing an argument of an heart oppressed with griefe is effectuall and notable to declare that which immediatly before was spokē of Christ despised and refused of men a man of sorrows and acquainted with griefe whereunto the next wordes are these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is to interpret it aright and as it were hiding the face from vs. This here I may not pretermit that this ceremonie of the couered head is vsed sometimes in scripture and other where in another sence As in the 7. Chapter of Ester where wee reade of Hamans head couered by other against his will to signifie that now in the kings wrath hee was appointed to death For this likewise was an ancient custome vsed of diuers Nations to muffell vp the heads of men condemned to die or guiltie of some grieuous crime deseruing death Polixena king Priamus his daughter by the sentence of Agamemnon and other Princes of Greece adiudged to die was ledde to the slaughter of Vlisses with a vaile ouer her head As we read in the tragedie of Euripides called Hecuba Philotas the sonne of Parmenio one of the chiefe Princes of Alexander the great foūd guiltie of high treason against the king was brought before him to his answer Capite velato hauing his head couered saith Q. Curtius in his 6. booke Festus Pompeius in the word Nuptias saith that the Law commanded his head to bee couered who had killed his Parente Lastlye Cicero in his Oration for C. Rabirius bringeth the verie sentence of iudgement it selfe or verses as he termeth them vsed of Tarquinius superbus the last and most cruell king of Roome Caput obnubito arbori infaelici suspendito Couer his head hang him vp on a wofull tree Let me by thy patience gentle Reader proceed to one argument more in this kind and so an end That which is told by the Euangelist of Saint Iohn Baptist eating Locusts seemed incredible to some greatly doubting of that kind of meat and therefore supposing the place to haue been corrupted by the writers fault by some slip setting downe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as though his meat had not bin locusts but choake peares Thus in their owne conceit they were wiser than God by ignorance of trueth witnessed in diuers prophane Authors Galen vpon Hipocrates his Aphorismes the 2. book the 18. Chapter is one declaring there the force which locustes being eaten haue to nourish Plinie in the 28 chap. of his 11. book saith that among the Parthians they were counted a pleasant meate Strabo in his 16. booke of Geographie maketh mention of a certaine people which liued of them Bellonius in the 2. booke of his obseruations the 88. chapter testifieth from the report of some Authors that in Africa they were eaten as dainties not for Phisicke but euen for nourishment Thereby proouing it a thing not vncredible that Iohn Baptist should eat locusts But Diodorus Siculus most fullie of all other declareth this in his 4. booke where hee telleth of certain Aethiopians called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is locust eaters who neyther eat fish nor cattel but onely locusts continually which at the spring time of the yeare they get in great abundance and salt them vp to preserue them for meate Thus I haue giuen as it were a taste by this little out of Plinie Pausanias Solinus Horatius Homer Sophocles Herodotus Euripudes Xenophon Plutarch Quintus Curtius Festus Pompeius Cicero Galen Strabo how great seruice Heathen writers doe to the word of God for opening the true meaning thereof A taste
were about 328. yeares and a halfe And thence to the desolation of Ierusalem set on fire 70. and a halfe with two monthes or there about The proofe of these three partes in this order I minde to follow But before I come to the right path as it were of the Persian times It shall be requisite first to take certaine stumbling blockes out of the readers way whereof one is the opinion of the Hebrewe writers who by great reason should haue been skilfull in these matters in regard of their deliuerance from slauish captiuitie and many other benefits graunted vnto them by the Persian Kinges Some of these writers reading in the 11. of Daniell of a fourth king to raigne in Persia and presently after a prophesie of the ouerthrow of that Empire by Alexander the great thought there could not possibly be any more than foure in all The names forsooth of these foure they gather from Esdras making mention in his fourth chapter of Cyrus Assuerus Artaxerxes Darius then after in his seuenth chapter of another Artaxerxes Now lest that Esdras should seeme by fiue names to dissent from Daniell speaking onely of foure kings they make the first Artaxerxes to be all one with Assuerus and because the last king of Persia ouercome by Alexander in the Histories of diuers nations was knowne by the name Darius to make all good they say he had likewise two names one Artaxerxes the other Darius This was Aben Ezras opinion one of the wittiest best learned amongst them R. Moses a Spaniard and Priest came somewhat nearer to the trueth parting these two names Assuerus and Artaxerxes mentioned in the 4. of Ezra betwixt two seuerall Kinges and so by his iudgement they were fiue in number Others as R. Sadiah and Abraham Dauison counting Daniels fourth king not from Cyrus but from Darius the Mede inclusiuely leaue onely three kinges for the Persian Monarchie to runne out vnder them that is first Cyrus and after him Assuerus the third and last Darius the supposed Sonne of Ester by Assuerus But howe can this agree with Esdras in whome fiue names of the Persian Emperours are recorded Well enough say they for Assuerus the first Artaxerxes were one and the same And likewise Darius and the second Artaxerxes by Abraham Dauisons opinion Now concerning the yeares of their raigne Aben Ezra maketh this reckoning of his three former kinges yeares Cyrus to haue continued three yeares Assuerus foureteene Darius twelue the rest of that Monarchie expired in Artaxerxes whose 32. is mentioned in scripture but Dauison giueth to Cyrus three to Assuerus sixteene to Darius 32. In whose second as he sayeth the Temple was builded and himselfe slaine 30. yeares after by Alexander But the most generall and receaued opinion seemeth to bee that which is declared in their Hebrew Chronicles Rabba and Zota that the whole time of the Persian kingdome was 52. yeares counted from the first of Darius the Mede whereof 18. were spent before the building of the Temple and 34. after This is the Rabbinicall stuffe of the chiefe Masters of the Hebrewes being at ods betwixt themselues dissenting from others therefore not without cause doth Pererius in his commentaries vppon Daniell speaking of this chronologie of theirs say that it is false fained full of faultes toyes ignorance absurditie and vnconstancie and altogether ridiculous as it is indeede Temporarius is more sharpe bitter against them The Thalmudists Cabbalists and Rabbines saith he are blinde in the Persian times and the writinges of the Iewes herein plaine proofes of pittifull ignorance in them who can reade the chronologies of the Rabbines their Seder Olam Rabba their Seder Olam Zota their Historicall Cabbala without laughing Therefore the knowledge of times is not to bee fetched from the dotings of these men being more blinde than moules All this which they say is true I confesse The Church of God for other matters is much beholding to the Hebrew Rabbines beeing great helps vnto vs for vnderstanding holy scripture in many places as well of the new testament as the olde but touching the knowledge of the Persian Empire wherein they should haue bin most cunning they were as blinde as beetles no light herein amongst them for knowledge to be seene but darkenes for ignorance enough and too much The reason whereof is that they wanted the key as it were of prophane Histories and secular learning to vnlocke the shut hid meaning of Daniels oracles Without the which by scripture alone it cā neuer be opened Some of them not disdaining to read the Latine and Greeke histories by the direction of these guides went not so far astray Iosephus in his Antiquities prooueth it This may suffice to cleare the right way from the first stumbling blocke Annius Viterbiensis hath been another to the downfall of many setting forth certaine ancient chronicles vnder the names of Berosus Manetho and Philo and together with them one other of the Persian Monarchie fathered vpon Metasthenes an ancient Persian Wherein he reckoneth the kinges of the Persian Monarchie eight in number in this order First Cyrus then ancient Artaxerxes Assuerus After him Darius with the long hande the fourth Darius Nothus the fift great Artaxerxes Darius Meneon the sixt Artaxerxes Ochus the seuenth Arses the eight last an other Darius The whole time of these kings he maketh 190 yeres These books thus commended with such glorious titles of noble and ancient Historiographers were in great request and much followed of many learned men and excellent Diuines for a long time embracing thē as the only true Chronologie of all other and alleadging their authorities as oracles from heauen vndoubted and sure beeing indeede nothing else but masking counterfaites couered with the glorious titles of auncient and famous writers At the length they were found out and detected by the cunning of diuers skilfull men who searched vnto them and sifted them nearely Volaterranus in his fourteenth book giueth no credit vnto them Lewes Viues in his preface to the eighteenth booke of Augustine de ciuitate dei calleth them monsters and dregges friuolous bookes of vncertaine Authors Gerardus Mercator counteth of them no better than Fables and false and forged writinges Ioseph Scaliger inueyeth sharply against them in many places terming them lies dreames forged and fained stuffe And the Author thereof himselfe he calleth vnlearned and shameles Iohannes Vargara Beatus Rhenanus Functius Beroaldus Pererius and Temporarius All these haue vncased these counterfait Authors and taken the visardes from their faces But especiallie aboue all the rest the two last named Pererius Temporarius haue laied thē open to the wide world to appeare that which in very deed they were That is not the true Berosus Mauetho Metasthenes Philo thēselues But all false and forged out of Annius his shop of lies Whome Temporarius therefore calleth a triffeler a iugler a deceauer and the books so set forth by him toyes lyes legerdemaine witcherie bastards
changelinges Pererius reprooueth Annius his childish ignorance follie rashnesse arrogancie and the writinges themselues he termeth false erroneous fained lies deceits with this conclusion in the end Valeat igitur in perpetuū valeat haec Anniana Chronologia quae toties a viris doctis profligata iugulata est iaceat in posterum sempiterna hominum obliuione sepulta nec sit post hac qui eam exhumare ad fidem aliquam atque authoritatem quasi ad vitam reuocare audeat Sat sit adhuc eam cum non erat bene nota imposuisse multis nunc detectis atque in apertum prolatis fucatis eius mendaciis fallaciis si quem circumuenerit ac deceperit nimis profecto stupidū vecordemeum fore necesse est That is Let this Chronologie therfore of Annius farewell yea for euer let it farewell and that which hath often bin cast down and the throte thereof cut let it hereafter lie buried in euerlasting forgetfulnesse neither let any take it out of the graue and call it backe againe into credite authority as it were to life Let this be sufficient that it hath alreadie deceaued many whilest it was not thoroughlie known but now the coloured lyes and deceits thereof being detected and brought to light If hereafter any be deceaued thereby he must needes bee too too blockish and witlesse This is Pererius his censure no otherwise in my iudgement then such forgerie and falsehood hath deserued whereof take this as a manifest argument Iosephus in the tenth booke of his Antiquities the 11. Chapter writeth that Megasthenes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is in the fourth book of his Indian affaires making mention of Nabugodonosor went about to prooue him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to haue passed Hercules in prowesse and greatnes of acts which place Peter Comestor in his Scholastical Historie vpon Daniel vsing to proue Nabugodonoserum fortitudine actuum magnitudine Herculem transcendisse that Nabugodonosor went beyond Hercules in valour and great acts citeth Megasthenes for it in his booke of Iudgements reading Iudiciorum by some corruption in the translation of Iosephus crept in for Indicorum Hereupon Annius transforming first Megasthenes into Metasthenes and then Indica that is Indian affaires into Iudicia which signifieth iudgements made this the title of his forged stuffe Metasthenes his booke of the iudgement of times This I hope is enough if any thing can bee enough to keepe men which haue eyes from taking hurt at this blocke An other much like vnto it hath bin the conceited fancie of Mathew Beroald in the thirde booke of his Chronologie the eight Chapter setting downe the Persian Kinges in this order The first Cyrus the next Assuerus Artaxerxes the third Darius Assirius the fourth Artaxerxes Pius the fift Xerxes And then after him the other sixe in order as they haue beene declared and named by other Of these eleuen Kinges how many yeares particularlie euerie one raigned it is vncertaine saith Beroaldus but generally the whole time of all was 130. yeares beginning with Cyrus in the 3. yeare of the 80. Olympiad the 295 of Rome This is Beroaldus his opinion for the kings and time of that Empire much like that of Annius In maner it is more honest beeing not fathered on other in matter as absurde and ridiculous if not more making more kinges and fewer yeares thrusting in such as neuer were knowne and fayning names which neuer were heard of For where was Assuerus Artaxerxes Darius Assirius and Artaxerxes Pius euer spoken of by any Author of credit diuine or prophane Who euer besides himself once dreamed of an Artaxerxes Pius to be Father to Xerxes Or that Xerxes made warre against Greece before his Fathers death Aeschilus a learned Poet who florished euen in those verie times in his Tragedie called Persa might soone haue taught him a better lesson raysing his father Darius long before dead out of his graue to tell newes Doeth not such stuffe as this deserue the tearmes of monsters dregs dreames lyes toyes as well as that opinion of Annius which euen Beroaldus himselfe reprooueth Is it not worthy of such a farewel as that wherewith Pererius biddeth Annius his Chronologie adew These be the opinions which in the course of Chronologie haue to diuers learned men been occasions of error The vanity whereof shall yet better appeare by that which followeth beeing layde vnto them For as diuers sorts of cloath compared together and held to the light are quickly by the eye discerned the course from the fine So the approoued true historie of ancient time beeing laied to these latter conceits will leaue an easie view for reason and the eye-sight as it were of the minde to iudge which is best First for the kinges of Persia who they were that raigned therein The name of the first to be Cyrus is agreed of all The second was Cambyses heire thereunto as wel by birth as his fathers will The next lawfull king after him was Darius whose father Histaspis as Seuerus Sulpitius in his second booke of the holy Historie writeth was cosen German to Cyrus The fourth king succeeding to the imperiall Crowne of Persia was Xerxes the sonne of the same Darius Then the other sixe in order of whom amongst writers that I know of there is no controuersie at all The first foure kinges here named in that order succeeding one another haue beene so recorded by those names vnto vs of most ancient Poets and noble Historiographers which eyther liued in the dayes of the said kinges or els came very neare vnto them and so haue bin deliuered from hand to hand and from age to age to this day continued by a long successiō of the most skilfull men for learning that euer haue beene whether rightly or no let reason scan First the dominion of the Persians was large and wide and contained manie countries A great part of India all Medea Parthia Babilonia Chaldea Hyrcania Armenia Arabia Mesopotamia Phaenicia all the land of Israell and Iuda all Egypt and much of Lybia all Syria and the lesse Asia wherein also they had their imperiall seate at Sardes a Cittie of Lydia the kinges of Persia oftentimes making their abode therein And continuallie theyr deputies in their absence most of the Kinges blood or alliance Besides Cyprus and manie other Ilands To be short it reached from Persia all a long so neare Greece and Europe that there was no land left to part them but the Sea called Aegeum And that in some place so narrow as a bridge hath beene made ouer it from brinke to brinke not a mile long with continual recourse and traffique betweene them These were the places of this Monarchie of all other for wisedome and prowesse most famous The times therof by the singuler knowledge vertues of excellent mē were no lesse noble The seauen wise men of Greece so renowmed Thales of Miletus Solon the Athenian Chilon the Lacedaemonian Pittacus of Mytilene Bias
of Priene Cleobulus of Lindia or Caria and Periander the Corinthian all much of one standing about the time of Cyrus Besides them Pherecides the Syrian and Pythagoras both for deepe knowledge wondered at Zenophanes Anaximander Heraclitus Anaximines Philosophers Aeschilus Anacreō Pindarus Simonides Poets Theagines Hecataeus Dionisius Herodotus Storie writers Partlie in the dayes of Cambyses and Darius partly in the time of Xerxes Then Socrates Thucidides Euripides Sophocles Democritus Hippocrates vnder Artaxerxes and his sonne Darius Nochus about the times of the Peloponesian war Plato and Xenophon were Socrates his schollers who continued towards the end of the Persiā Monarchie with Isocrates whose schollers were Theopompus and Ephorus both historiographers so contrarie one to another by their masters censure that the one needed a spur to set him on the other a bridle to hold him in Aristotle and Demosthenes saw the end Many of these were borne dwelling in those places which were vnder the Persian gouernment and payed tribute vnto them In these places and times so furnished and bewtified with these worthy ornaments marke the wayes and meanes whereby the kings of Persian made their names known preserued their memorie By proclamation whereof we haue an example in the first of Esra Thus sayeth Cyrus king of Persia and so forth By letters to and fro wherof are to be seene in the same book and Thucidides and other making mention by name who sent them and to whom By immunities priuiledges as in the seuenth of Esra By ambassage whereof manie examples are reade in Herodotus Cambyses sent to the Aethiopian king and Darius to the Grecians By leagues and couenants of peace as we read in Thucidides By coynes as the peeces of gold coyned by Darius Histaspis thereof called Darikes By erected monumentes The same king going to war against Scithia erected at Bosphorus two pillers with two inscriptions one in Greeke the other in the Assyrian language thereon engraued declaring the Nations which went with him And at the riuer Toarus in Thracia an other with this inscription HITHER CAME DARIVS THE SONNE OF HYSTASPES KING OF THE PERSIANS LEADING HIS ARMIE AGAINST THE SCYTHIANS as Herodotus declareth in Melpomine By Cities and Riuers called of their names Cyropolis of Cyrus Cambysene of Cambyses Xerxene of Xerxes Cyrus a riuer in Scythia Cambyses an other In Volaterranus Pomponius Mela Plinie Strabo by their pictures Mandrocles painted Darius sitting in a thorne after the manner of the Medes and conueying ouer his Armie which he dedicated to the Temple of Iuno with mention of Darius his name By their Images and those remayning many ages after Plutarch in Alexanders life telleth that Alexander seeing the Image of Xerxes throwen downe by the company pressing into the kinges Pallace of Persia stayed at it and spake vnto it as it had beene aliue Lastly by their Tombes testifying their names to the worlde after their death being a thing desired of al euen of meane account and willinglie yeelded of kinde posteritie that the memorie of their name may endure and not die with themselues Strabo in the fifteenth booke of his Geographie from Aristobulus and Onesicritus recordeth that the toombe of Cyrus was found by Alexander so many yeares after his death preserued with an inscription testifying who he was And that Darius also had the like memoriall The names then of the Persian kings could not possibly bee hid by so many meanes being made knowne in flourishing times and learned ages and places of knowledge and withall their Courtes frequented with many noble Grecians for vertue and birth Hippias and Demaratus whereof the one had been king of Sparta the other tyrant of Athens Metiochus the eldest sonne of Miltiades Democedes a famous Phisition of Croton in Italie who healed king Darius and his wife Atossa of grieuous paines and diuers other which were too long to rehearse to omit many braue soldiers of Greece seruing them in their warres Now let the Reader vse his skill for choice of the names and number of the kinges betwixt Cyrus and Xerxes Whether with Beroaldus he wil haue these three Assuerus Artaxerxes Darius Assyrius and Artaxerxes Pius in so many ages neuer knowne or read of in any author of reckoning or only these two Cambyses and Darius Histaspis from Theagines of Rhegium and Hecateus of Miletus storie writers the one vnder Cambyses the other vnder Darius deliuered vnto vs by continual succession from age to age by the space of two thousand yeares and more by the carefull diligence of the best historiographers that euer haue bin in the world without any disagreement or controuersie amongst them Thus much for the kings now concerning their yeares That the beginning of Cyrus was the first yeare of the 55. Olympiad is agreed of all the first yeare of Cyrus sayeth Codomon in his chronicles of all writers is applied to the first of the 55. Olympiad Ioseph Scaliger prooueth it by two testimonies in his fift booke de emendatione temporum How manie ancient and learned writers so euer saith Scaliger haue accounted times euery one of them hath cast the first of Cyrus to the first of the 55. Olympiad Diodorus Siculus Thallus Castor Polybius Phlegon as the most auncient and learned Author Tatianus writeth Africanus also in Eusebius testifieth the same in these wordes After the 70. yeres of captiuitie Cyrus raigned ouer the Persians that yeare wherin the 55. Olympiad was celebrated as may appeare by the Libraries of Diodorus and the Histories of Thallus and Castor and besides of Polybius and Phlegon yea of other also who regarded Olympiads for the time is agreed vpon of all This therefore for the beginning of the Persian Monarchie beeing so generally testified may suffice If any here doe aske in what part of that yeare Cyrus began to raigne it is gathered from the same Africanus probablie in the third booke of his Chronicles where as Eusebius testifieth of him in his tenth booke de praeparat Euang. hee reckoned from the first Olympiad to Cyrus 217. yeres Which is not otherwise true except Cyrus begin toward the end of that yeare Againe in the fift booke of his Chronicles making the fourth yeare of the 83. Olympiad the fifteenth of the Persian Monarchie as we read in the same Eusebius his eight booke de demonstrat Euang. he leaueth the beginning of Cyrus to the first yeare of the 55. Olympiad nere the end thereof as euery one may easily perceiue The beginning thus made manifest wee are now further to search the end of that Empire Which beeing once likewise founde maketh knowne the continuance thereof Alexander the great was the man which ouerthrew that Empire whose death by the testimonies of Diodorus Siculus in the seuenteenth book of his Historicall Liberarie Arrhianus in his seuenth booke and Eusebius in his Chronicles is set in the hundred and fourteenth Olympiad What say I Diodorus Arrhiamus Eusebius when as all whosoeuer wrote of those times agree herein by Gerardus
Mercator his report in his Chronicles The death of Alexander saith he of all writers is noted to haue happened in the hundred and fourteenth Olympiad when Hegesias was chiefe ruler at Athens If this testimonie of Mercator be of lesse importance in regard of the late time wherein he liued Iosephus an ancient Author of credit and skill in his first book against Appian beareth him record very constantly affirming this to be verified by the vniuersall consent of all writers that Alexander died in the hundred and fourteenth Olympiad This is somewhat but not altogether inough except we can learne in what part of that first yeare of the same Olympiad hee died For the knowledge of this we are beholding to Eusebius Whose words are these in his eight booke de demonstratione Euangelij 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is in English thus much Alexander ended his life in the beginning of the hundred fourteenth Olympiad Making then our account froÌ„ the fiue fiftieth Olympiad to the beginning of the hundred fourteenth wherein the light of Macedonia was put out wee finde the space of two hundred thirtie and sixe yeares between approued not by weake coniectures friuolous conceits or trifling toyes but a strong consent of writers which as Iosephus in his 1. book against Appian is a sure token of vndoubted truth when they all agree Six yeares and about three quarters before Alexanders death the Persians had beene by him subdued receiuing as great a blow as euer before other Nations had receiued from them their power now beeing brought to an end How is this proued The yeare is declared by Diodorus the second of the hundred and twelfth Olympiad the month by Arrhiâ—mes October the day by Plutarch is found the first of that month This was the vnhappie yeare of the Persian ouerthrow the wofull month of their fall and the sorrowfull day of king Darius his vndoing who after this victory was contemned of his men forsaken of his souldiers betraied by his seruants made a slaue to his Captaines in most base manner shut vp within a vile waggeÌ„ couered with filthie skins as it were in a prison and so carried about at their pleasure In the end they stabbed him with many woundes and left him for dead slew the waggener thrust the beasts through with darts which wanting a guide strayed from the high way about halfe a mile Where one of Alexanders souldiers going to drinke by chance espied the waggen comming vnto it found the king now drawing on who first craued of him a little water After he had drunke acknowledging this for the last miserie of his wretched estate that hee was not able to requite his kindnes and withall wishing well to Alexander for the great honour which hee had done to his wife and children hee ended his life in the third yeare of the hundred and twelfth Olympiad as appeareth by Diodorus Siculus and Arrhiames who further hath set downe the moneth Hecatombeon beeing the season of the Olympick sports and answering partly to our Iune and partly Iulie This was the tragicall end of that mightie king making proofe of the brickle estate of Princely pompe and the vnstayed stay of worldly glorie wherein he liued neere sixe yeares These limits thus bounded of the Persian Empire that is to say the fiue fiftieth Olympicke exercise for the beginning and the entrie of the third yere of the hundred and twelfth for the end giue sure euidence of the whole continuance to be two hundred and thirtie yeares if we begin from the fiftie and fiue Olympiad if from the end about nine or ten monethes after in the spring of the yeare when Cyrus began to raigne as is probable and likelie by that which before hath beene declared two hundred and nine and twentie yeares with two or three months And thus they are deuided among the Persian kinges Cyrus raigned thirtie yeares recorded by two auncient Historiographers liuing in the Persian times in their Persian Histories Dionisius and Ctesias Cicero also in his first booke De diuinatione Iustin Clemens Alexandrinus 1. Strom. Eusebius in his Chronicle Hierom on the seauenth of Daniel Beda in his book De sex aetatibus confirme the same and Orosius in his second booke against the Heathen bringeth Tomyris the Queene of Scythia after she had slaine Cyrus in battaile throwen his head into a vessell of blood insulting ouer him with this speech Now fill thy selfe with blood which could neuer yet satsifie thee this thirtie yeares This had been foreshewed to Cyrus by a dreame as Cicero from Dionisius reporteth VVherein the sunne appearing at his feete and Cyrus catching at it thrice with his handes euerie time it trowled it selfe away Which the skilfull Magi of Persia interpreted of thrice ten yeares raigne Cambyses succeeded him the time of whose raigne was seauen yeres fiue months which together with the seauen monethes more of Smerdis the vsurper and counterfait brother of Cambyses made vp eight yeares as Herodotus declareth in Thalia Darius Histaspis ruled by the space of full sixe and thirtie yeares as Herodotus writeth Eusebius in his Chronicles and Seuerus in his second booke Xerxes in the second yeare of his raigne subdued the Aegyptians and in the sixt inuaded Greece with an innumerable army yet driuen to flie by a few In the 16 yeare after and one and twentieth of his raigne being the last yere of the seauentie and eighth Olympiad as Diodorus Siculus declareth by his cowardise and corrupt life hee growing into contempt with his Nobles was slaine Many writers giue him one and twentie yeares Seuerus Beda Eusebius Clemens Alexandrinus 1. Stromatum hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 twentie six for twentie one an easie slip in writing far from the enditers minde Artaxerxes the long handed was his sonne who held that Monarchie by the space of fortie yeares witnessed by Diodorus Siculus in his eleuenth and twelfth bookes Eusebius Hierom Isidorus Beda with other Xerxes and Sogdianus after him enioyed the Empire one yeare betweene them both The next was Darius Nothus holding the imperiall crowne ninteene yeares as Diodorus Siculus Tertullianus against the Iewes Eusebius Isidorus Seuerus Beda and other declare Artaxerxes Mnemon succeeded him and continued in his gouernment the longest of all other euen three and fortie yeares my Author is Diodorus in two places first in the ende of his thirteenth book and againe in his fifteenth who likewise witnesseth that Artaxerxes Ochus his successor ruled three twentie yeres which is confirmed by the testimonie of Sulpitius in his second booke The last but one was Arses continuing three yeares in his Empire by Sulpitius In whose death the bloud Royall from Cyrus was extinguished all his brethren and children by cruell treason beeing made away A iust reward of his father Ochus his Tigerlike and Woluish crueltie in murthering his Princesse The last of all was Darius Codomanus an vsurper rather than a lawfull heire
were past and gone which must needes be in the 29. yeare Immediatlie after hee addeth that in that yere Cyrus killed two of his kinsemen for not holding their handes within a muffe when they met him as was vsed to be done to kings in token of honour and loyall dutie for their greater securitie that they might bee void of all suspition feare of harme And then followeth that the next yeare after which must needes bee the 27. and last Archytas was Ephorus of Sparta Thus from Xenophon wee learne that which Beroaldus wished the 24. and 27. yeres of the Peloponnesian warre yoaked the one with the first the other with the last of the 93. Olympiad which for sound knowledge of the Persian times to discerne them a right is very material and a sure bulwarke for defence of my former Chronologie Whereby was proued that Cyrus begun in the first of the 55. Olympiad towarde the end from which time to the fourth of the 93 nere ended are 155. yeares That is to say 30 of Cyrus 8 of Cambyses 36 of his successor of Xerxes 21. of Artaxerxes 40. with that of Xerxes and Sogdianus included 20. of Darius Nothus whose raigne ended almost together with the Peloponnesian warre as before hath beene declared by the testimonie of Diodorus Siculus and appeareth by Thucidides making his thirteenth the twentieth of the warre Erastosthenes an auncient writer in the time of Ptolomeus Euergetes a man to vse Plinie his terme cunning in the subtiltie of all learning and approued of all so Plinie testifieth of him in his second booke set forth certaine rules of Chronologie which Dionisius Halicarnasseus for the truth thereof exact reckoning greatly commendeth in his first book of Roman antiquities These rules haue beene preserued vnto this age by the carefull diligence of the ancient learned father Clemens Alexandrinus 1. Strom. From the first Olympiad to Xerxes passing into Greece he accounted 297. yeares thence to the beginning of the Peloponnesian warre 48. and after to the end and dissolution of the Athenians common wealth 27. all these gathered together are 372. from the first Olympiad so saieth Eratosthenes agreeing with Xenophons reckoning to Archytas his Maioraltie at Sparta ended with that warre and the fourth of the 93. Olympiad For 93. Olympiads are fourescore thirteene times foure yeres that is the number of Eratosthenes 372. From which summe 54. Olympiads contayning 216. before that wherein Cyrus begun being taken awaie with almost one yeare more from the beginning of it to Cyrus there remaineth for the Persian Monarchie to the end of the Peloponnesian warre 155. yeares before spoken of Diodorus Siculus was a man of wonderfull paines and exceedingly precise in exact computation He spent thirtie yeares in making his Historie from Sicilie his natiue countrie hee trauailed into Egypt and the greatest part of Asia and Europe to search the trueth of those thinges which hee wrote A diligent reader of all the auncient writers before him from Herodotus and other before and after succeding in order whom hee hath followed in the matters which he telleth And therefore not vnfitly the title of his worke is called not a Historie but a Librarie Iustinus Martyr called him the most famous Historiographer of the Grecians Eusebius commendeth him by the name of a notable man in great request among the learned But Henry Stephen aboue all other praiseth him exceedingly giuing him that place degree amongst the learned Historiographers which the sunne hath amongst the starres in regard of exact defining those thinges which he writeth of by ordered times This writer therefore confirming all those thinges before spoken of touching the kings of Persia and the time of their raigne may be in steed of many so as in him alone we may see the iudgement not onely of Herodotus Thucidides Xenophon but also of Callisthenes Duris Timaeus Philiscus Theopompus Ephorus and other by him diligentlie read perused and cyted which at this day are not any where found It were infinite to bring all that might bee said out of Authors for the verefying of this Chronologie tedious to be read toylesome to be written Therefore passing ouer many testimonies of diuers writers I will now come to the Roman Storie to see if it likewise by agreement of time may auaile any thing to fortifie those limits and bounds which haue beene set for the Persian kings The Romanes in continuance of time became Lordes of Greece where the Olympicke sports were celebrated And therefore it could not otherwise bee but that they knew well enough how the yeares of their Citie were answerable to the Olympick reckoning of the Grecians Polybius of Megalopolis a Cittie in Arcadia neere as auncient as Eratosthenes by Cicero accounted amongst the best authors for worthinesse credit commended by Iosephus by Velleius Paterculus honoured with this testimonie that he was a man excelling in wit had in great estimation and followed by Liuie and other in the third booke of his historie affirmeth that the first Consuls of Rome were 28. yeares before the passage of Xerxes into Greece which was in the end of the last yeare of the 74. Olympiad as appeareth by that which before hath bin declared Hereof it followeth that the first of the 68. Olympiad beeing the 14. of Darius Histaspis was that wherin the new gouernment of that Cittie by Consuls was established Whereas before it had bin gouerned by kings for the space of 244. yeares from the first building thereof vnto this time adding 28. yeares or seauen Olympiads more We come toward the end of the last yeare of the 74. Olympiad being the 272. of Rome wherin Xerxes passed into Greece as Polybius testifieth the next yeare after was the first of the 75. wherein Xerxes with his great armie was ouercome as before hath bin prooued The truth hereof is verified by A. Gellius in the last chapter of his seuenteenth book where he writeth that Xerxes was ouercome by Themistocles at Salamis foure yeres before the consulship of Menenius Agrippa and Horatius Puluillus wherein a great kinred of noble Romans called Fabij to the number of 306. hauing taken vpon them at their owne charge to fight against a certaine people were slaine by the subtiltie of their enemies circumuented at the riuer Cremera for this is declared by the Romane histories to haue fallen out in the 277 yeare of Rome and the 33. from the banishment of the kings Dionysius of Halicarnassus in his fift booke of Romane antiquities reckoneth sixteene yeares betwixt Brutus one of the first Consuls death in the end of his yeare and the Marathon fight referring the battaile at Marathon to the seuenteenth yeare after Brutus his buriall and the eighteenth after the kings driuen out of the Citie wherein Gegainus Macerinus and Minutius Augurinus were Consuls In his 7. Booke Which by constant agreement of almost all authors hee sayeth was in the second yeare of the 72. Olympiad So he maketh the 31.
of Pisistratus himselfe and 18. after of his children And so is Herodotus to be vnderstoode giuing them 36. in all onely differing from Aristotle in a yeare Whereby it may be thought that Pisistratus raigned some few moneths more aboue 17. yeares so his reckoning comes short by almost twentie yeares Againe there was another Pisistratus the sonne of Hippias and Grand childe to the elder Pisistratus before spoken of who in the yeare of his Maioraltie dedicated in the market place at Athens the Altar of the twelue Gods as Thucidides writeth of him in his sixt booke And this in my iudgement is the man to whome that Historie in Aelianus may be fitly applied and stand very well with that which Iustin hath concerning Themistocles fighting at Marathon Yea but Plinie in his 34. booke writeth that the Athenians the same yeare wherein the kings of Rome were driuen out being the fourth of the 67. Olympiad set vp the images of Harmodius and Aristogiton who had killed Hipparchus the tyrant farre wide from that which Dionysius telleth in his sixt booke that Hipparchus was ruler at Athens in the 71. Olympiad What say you to that Nothing but that Beroaldus being belike ashamed of his follie in bringing such an argument calleth it in againe as it were by answering that it was another Hipparchus which Dionysius speaketh of Another argument he taketh from Dionysius Halicarnassaeus in his fift booke making the warre at Marathon later by sixteene yeares then the death of Brutus thereby referring the yeare to the fourth of the 71. Olympiad which by Cicero seemeth cast to the 73. wherein Coriolanus a Senator of Rome made warre against it Here we haue nothing but vntrueth vpon vntrueth fit groundes for such a rotten building for sixteene yeares after that of the first Consuls which was by Dionysius the first of the 68. Olympiad in the end whereof Brutus was slaine reach not to the fourth of the 71. but to the second of the 72. Olympiad wherein the same Dionysius in plaine words placeth that warre As for that of Coriolanus against Rome it happened in deed in the first of the 73. Olympiad onely three yeares after the other And therefore Cicero in his Brutus affirming not that this of Coriolanus was at the same time with that other of the Persians but almost at that time speaketh a trueth dissenting nothing at all from Dionysius It followeth in Beroaldus the same Dionysius in his ninth booke Diodorus Siculus agreeing vnto him saith that Xerxes went to warre against Greece in the 75. Olympiad when Callias gouerned Athens that is twelue yeares after the Marathon fight being past to that of Xerxes at Salamis Glossa corrumpit textum the glosse here marreth the text with a manifest vntrueth for neither Dionysius nor Diodorus maketh aboue eleauen yeares distance betwixt those battailes the one placed in the second of the 72. Olympiad the other in the first of the 75 almost in the beginning thereof Now let any man count the distance betweene on his fingers ends and see if he can finde twelue yeares But to omit this and come to the purpose Gelo was at the time of Xerxes his warre by Pausanias and Herodotus tyrant of Syracusae And Gelo tyrant of Syracusae by Plutarch in the life of Lysias the Orator in the second of the 82. Olympiad So the war of Xerxes must by this reckoning come backe neere 30. yeares after the 75. Olympick sport Plutarchs words are these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is in English thus much Lysias an exceeding rich man was the sonne of Cephales grand childe of Lysanias the sonne of Cephales his father Cephales was a Syracusian borne and flitted to Athens for loue partly of the citie and partly of Pericles the sonne of Xanthippus who perswaded him thereto being his friend and host or as some say for that hee was driuen from Syracusae at such time as it was subiect to the tyrannie of Gelo. He meaneth that Lysias was borne Being borne at Athens vnder Philocles the next ruler after Phrasicles hee was first brought vp with the noblest children of the Athenians about the second yeare of the 83. Olympiad Afterward being fifteene yeares olde he went to Thuriae a citie of Italie Praxiteles then being Maior of Athens as followeth there in Plutarch Philocles was Maior at Athens in the second yeare of the 80. Olympiad as Diodorus declareth Then was Lysias borne and being about eyght yeres olde in the second yeare of the 82. Olympiad he was brought vp with other noble mens children in Athens and therein continued till the yere of Praxiteles his gouernement which was the first of the 84. Olympiad as we reade in the same Diodorus and the fifteenth of Lysias his birth Where can Beroaldus now finde in this place of Plutarch that Gelo was tyrant of Syracusae in the second yeare of the 82. Olympiad What meant he so cōfidently to burst forth into this cōplaint Tam incerta sunt apud aut hores rerum istarum tempora So vncertaine are the times of these matters what reason had hee for it For hee that vnderstandeth Greeke and compareth Plutarchs owne words with that which Beroaldus gathereth by them will bee ashamed I beleeue of such an interpreter being so blinded with conceited affection that hee seeth not what is written and careth not what he saith Plutarch doth notablie in this place confirme the receiued ancient Chronologie of the Greekes so farre he is by any disagreement from weakening their credite Let vs now examine one or two other places of Beroaldus concerning the time of Xerxes fighting in Greece In the eyght chapter of his third booke Pausanias sayth Beroaldus telleth in his Arcadikes that Xerxes then passed into Greece when Gelo gouerned at Syracuse which is likewise witnessed by Herodotus in his seuenth booke But that same Pausanias in his Eliaca affirmeth that Gelo held the gouernment of that citie in the second yeare of the 72. Olympiad Except it be a strange thing that one king should continew his raigne by the space of twelue yeares This argument of Beroaldus is not worth a rush to proue disagreement betweene ancient writers referring Gelo his tiranie some to the second of the 72. Olympiad other to the first of the 75. when Xerxes passed into Europe for the beginning of his dominion was about the second of the 72. Olympiad as Dionisius Halicarnassaeus declareth in the seauenth booke of his Roman Antiquities And the end thereof in the 75. Olympiad the thirde yeare thereof as Diodorus witnesseth in the eleauenth booke of his Historicall librarie So both might stand together well enough Beroaldus hath yet more matter from Pausanias in his Eliaca who referreth the ouerthrow of Mardonius at Plateae the next yeare after Xerxes inuaded Greece to the 75. Olympiad whereas Diodorus Siculus saith that Xerxes in that Olympiad inuaded Greece both can not bee true The worde Olympias pertaineth sometime to the game itselfe celebrated euerie first yeare of
which was not the 301. of Rome as Beroaldus saith making dissention betweene Authors where there is none at all but the 304. for adding threescore to the 244. wherein the last king was expelled the summe is 304. But what shall we say then to Dionysius Haelicarnassaeus who is contrarie to himselfe in his second book affirming those ten Cōmissioners to haue beene in the 300. yeare of Rome Euen this that it is an increase of Beroaldus his vntruths for there speaking of the Lawes which Romulus the first king ordained and namely of that whereby it was made lawfull for a father to sell his owne child that this Law saith hee was not made by the Decemuirs who three hundred yeres after were appointed to that businesse it is gathered by this ordinance of Numa Patri post hac nullum ius esto vendendi filium let it not be lawfull hereafter for the father to sell his sonne It is manifest in this place that the 300. yeare is accounted not from the building of the Citie but from the time wherein Romulus established the common wealth with lawes which was after the foundation of the Citie layed Otherwise this historiographer most vndoubtedly perfectly and exactly declareth the yere of their authoritie to be the 303 of the Citie Thus there is no cause at all for Beroaldus so earnestly with such heat to complaine of great ignorance and disagreement in these Authors one from an other beeing in truth at great concord betweene themselues and dissenting only in shew and yet all the dissention which he nameth if it were so indeede consisteth within the space of three or foure yeares betwixt 300. and 303. But that all these are wide from the true time of the Decemuirs in his opinion aboue threescore yeares hee can prooue both by prophane storie and holy scripture If Beroaldus can doe this I will say hee is a cunning iugler let vs see how Hermodorus the Ephesian the interpreter of the Decemuirs lawes was acquainted with Heraclitus and flourished in his dayes and Heraclitus citing the writings of Pythagoras must needes be after Pythagoras Againe Pythagoras reached to the times of the Peloponnesian warre as may be prooued by this that Lysis one of his familiar friendes instructed Epaminondas in Philosophie who died long after that warre Heereof we may conclude that Heraclitus and Hermodorus his friende with him flourished in the time of the Peloponnesian warre and that the Decemuirs lawes are there to bee placed The fingering of this feate is too grosie to deceiue any mans eyesight who is but carefull to marke somewhat nerelie First this is an vnprouing proofe that Heraclitus was later than Pythagoras because hee alleadgeth some sentence out of his workes for it is an vsuall thing for those which are of one standing as wee say and equall in time to read the bookes one of another Cicero liued in the same age with Varro yet notwithstanding he had recourse to his writings and alleadged vppon occasion the contents thereof The other argument touching Pythagoras his reaching to the Peloponnesian warre by Lysis and Epaminondas being the mayne reason of all is as vayne as that which a little before I haue made playne Lastlie though it were graunted that Heraclitus and Hermodorus were in the time of the Peloponnesian warre yet for all that the Decemuirs lawes might be before that time interpreted by the same Hermodorus as well as Master Beza his first interpretation of the new Testament was many yeares before the late taking of Calis by the Spanyards and yet the same light of God his Church at those dayes still shining therein This is such a sorie Sorites as maketh me meruaile what conceite came in Beroaldus his head to bring it As likewise that colde coniecture out of Liuie which followeth concerning the twelue tables of the Decemuirs lawes to be in the 370. yeare of Rome is as farre and further from Liuies minde in playne wordes otherwhere declared as threescore is from three The second weapon wherewith Beroaldus fighteth against the Latine historie is some doubt concerning the time of the French mens taking Rome in the 365. yeare from the building of that citie and the first of the 98. Olympiad For Plutarch in the life of Camillus hauing declared the receaued opinion concerning the time thereof that it happened a few more then 360. yeares after Rome was builded addeth this doubting speech If it seeme credible that an exact account of these times had been so long preserued seeing that euen the confusion of that time hath brought some doubt and controuersie to other later Plutarch least hee should seeme without cause to haue made that doubt bringeth this reason that the fame and rumor of that warre wherein Rome by the French was taken presentlie was spread abroad in Greece and came to the eares of Heraclides Ponticus and Aristotle whereby may bee gathered that it happened in the time of king Phillip of Macedonia in whose dayes those authors liued saith Beroaldus The raigne of this king began about the 105. Olympiad seuen and twentie yeares after the common receaued time of that taking of Rome set by other and endured full foure and twentie yeares For answer to this doubt I am to let the reader vnderstand that the French men discontented and vnquiet in minde for their ill successe at their taking of Rome being driuen out againe and all their pray taken from them by Marcus Furius Camillus came diuers times after into Italie and namely in the 406. yeare of Rome being the fourteenth of Philip the Macedonian King when Aristotle was about foure and thirtie yeares olde In this yeare Lucius Furius Camillus being Consull and he alone Consull after his fellowes death the French inuaded Italie with a mightie power Amongst them one at that time for stature of bodie passing other chalenging any one of the Romane hoste whosoeuer durst fight with him was with the Consuls leaue set vpon by M. Valerius a valiant Captaine In this combate a rauen came suddainely to the Romane champion and sat vpon his Helmet and flew vpon the French man against his face with bill and talents fighting till at the length being greatly amazed thereat he was slaine by Valerius Who thereof tooke name to bee called Coruinus in memorie of the rauens fighting for him which was interpreted to haue come from God The French men after the death of their champion so miraculouslie slaine were discomfited and fled and durst not of a long time after come against the Romans And this was the battaile by all likeliehoode which Aristotle and Heraclides Ponticus spake of For it is confessed by Plutarch himselfe that the conquerer of the French at that time was called Lucius in Aristotle which agreeth to this time wherein Lucius Camillus was Consull alone and conquerer not to the taking of Rome when Marcus Camillus father to this man had giuen them the ouerthrow As for the taking of Rome then mentioned by Heraclides and
fourteenth yeare of Augustus in the moneth of August yet the yeares of his Monarchie after the manner of the Romans began to bee reckoned from Ianuarie following in the beginning of the next yeare being his fifteenth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Augustus the king of the Romanes attayning the fifteenth yeare of his raigne got Egypt and the rest of the world saith Eusebius in his eyght booke de demonstratione Euangelij And in his Chronicles likewise hee beginneth the Monarchie of Augustus from the same his fifteenth yeare For foureteene yeares then past being added to 28. following the number is 42. The same beginning of Augustus his Monarchie from that yeere is confirmed by Paulus Orosius in the sixt booke of his Historie against the Gentiles Where hauing declared in the nineteenth chapter of that booke that Antonius and Cleopatra now forsaken of their nauie which in the beginning of August had turned to Caesar for griefe slew themselues And that Caesar after passed from thence into Syria by land and then into Asia and at length by Greece into Italie in the next chapter immediatly he addeth that Augustus Caesar in the yeare following wherein himselfe now the fift time and L. Apuleius were Consuls the sixt daye of Ianuarie entred into Rome with three triumphes Atque ex eo die summa rerum ac potestatem penes vnum caepit esse mansit quod Graeci Monarchiam vocant And from that daye saith Orosius the soueraigntie and cheefe power called of the Grecians a Monarchie begun to be in one mans hand and so remained Ioseph Scaliger I can but maruaile at in his sixt book de emendatione temporum affirming that Christ our Lorde was borne in the seuen and twentie yeare after the victorie at Actium which is short of the time by mee set for his birth in the 42. of Augustus by two yeares and more For the yeare of Christs birth was the 30. at the least after the Actiac victorie 29. full yeares beeing past and almost foure moneths Now touching the moneth and daye of our Sauiours birth I see no cause why we ought to referre that constant opinion of ancient Fathers that it was the 25. of December receaued of Augustine Orosius Chrysostom and other from them continued nowe by many ages to this daye except direct proofe can be brought to the contrarie Which Beroaldus after his wonted manner goeth about in the second chapter of his fourth booke of Chronicles affirming in plaine words that our Lorde Iesus Christ was borne in the middest of the moneth September when the daye and night is of one length His reason to proue that assertion of his is in this manner Christ preached three yeares and a halfe before his death this is prooued by the words of Daniel in his ninth chapter Hee shal confirme the couenant to many one weeke and halfe that weeke shall abolish sacrifice and offering which saith Beroaldus is to be vnderstoode of Christ preaching three yeares and a halfe from his baptizing to his death Now that his baptisme begun together with the 30. yeere of his age is testified by Luke in his third chapter the 23. verse where Christ is sayd to haue entred the 30. yeere of his age when he was baptized The end of the last halfe yeere wherein Christ dyed being the 14. day of the Iewes Nisan and of our March Leaue as well the begining thereof as consequently the birth of Christ to the 14. of September In deede if those his interpretations of Daniel and Luke in these places were both of them certaine and cleare as he sayeth they are his proof were good but if either of them faile his reason is not worth a strawe And so farre they are from being both certaine that neither of them both is sure Scaliger maketh it an vndoubted thing that they are otherwise to bee vnderstood referring the wordes of Daniell to the beseging and warre against Ierusalem by the Romanes and making the time of Christes preaching not three yeeres and a halfe but full foure Beda and Ignatius made it onely three yeeres after his baptisme And Apollinaris with diuers other eyther on or two at the most And as for the wordes of Luke a precise exact beginning of the thirtie yeere of Christes age can not be gathered of them Seeing hee vseth the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 importing a doubtfull and imperfect number wherevnto somewhat more or lesse may be added or taken away and signifying that Christ begunne to bee about thirtie yeeres of age at the time of his baptisme As in our English bible it is well translated and so vnderstood by Epiphanius and Iustinus Martir and Augustine with some other of the ancient fathers Wherfore this his best reason is too weake to pull backe the receaued time of Christes birth from the 25. day of December to the 14. of September An other argument of his is taken from the custome of the Greeke and the Egyptian churches beginning their yeare from September Whence also the indictions haue their begining This saith Beroaldus they did because they knew that Christ was borne in the middest of September And how proueth he that Beroaldus for sooth sayth so The mans bare yea was enough belike to perswade the simple and vnskilfull Other reason he bringeth none at all either from authoritie or otherwise Neither in deed do I see how he could possibly bring any For it is a thing held without controuersie that the cause of the yeres beginning in the midst of September was the memorie not of Christes birth but of the glorious conquest of Alexander against Darius at Gaugamela retained long after euen in the Greeke church Which Scaliger out of Epiphanius declareth in his second booke De emendatione temporum the chapter of Calippus his period beginning in Autumne and also in his fift booke the chapter of the councell of Nice which by Socrates was set downe to haue bene in the 636. yeere of Alexander But what shall we need goe further then to Beroaldus himselfe for confirmation hereof who euen in the verie next Chapter before going had prooued by the Greeke Canons the first Tome of councels printed at Paris that the Greeke church counted their yeres from Alexander If the Greeke church counted frō Alexander and that accompt of Alexanders yeeres begun in the Equinoctiū of Autumne as Scaliger teacheth about mid September how can the cause and custome of this reckoning be referred to Christs natiuitie as for the Egyptians the first month of their yeere called Thoth before they were subdewed by Augustus went through all the monthes and seasons of the yere some times in Februarie after in Ianuarie and so in order to Februarie againe But after Antonius and Cleopatra were ouerthrowen and Egipt made one of the Roman prouinces won by Augustus Caesar in the month of August the first of their Thoth was not the 14. of September nor any part of it but the 29. of August and that in
his help in that which followeth declare what I thinke Shall be desolation So I interpret the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 substantiuelie as the Greeke and Latine interpreters here and the 31. verse of the 11. chapter haue taken it though otherwise it seemeth to haue the forme of a Participle Wee haue like examples in the fift chapter of this booke and twelft verse where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth an exposition and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a loosing or dissoluing so that this need not seeme strange Vtter and precise destruction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is in proprietie of signification some difference betweene these two words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth a perfect desolation of that which is vtterlie wholie destroyed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is referred to the resolute and precise determination of that vtter destruction to come When it is precisely and certainly decreed all hope of recalling the same being quite cut off One respecteth the greatnes the other the certaintie of God his vengeance to come Esa 10.22 The Lord in the middest of the land shall make 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vtter desolation and precise waste past all calling backe Hauing thus made first a true account and reckoning of the times wherein the fulfilling of Daniels prophecie is contained by the helpe of prophane writers testifying the certaine truth thereof and secondly a true interpretation of Daniels wordes according to the originall tongue It now remaineth by applying the one to the other to search and examine where the beginning and end of those 70. weekes may be found The greatest part of those who haue laboured for the vnderstanding of this Prophesie haue vnderstood the Messias here spoken of to be Iesus Christ and first seauen weekes then 62. that is 69. in all to bee the distance betwixt the commandement and him referring the end of those yeares eyther to his birth or his baptisme or his death and the beginning eyther to Cyrus who first gaue leaue for the returne of the people and the building of the temple or to Darius Hystaspis who confirmed the same by a new decree in the second yeare of his raigne as they take it mentioned in the sixt of Esdras or lastlie to Artaxerxes the long handed supposing him to be the Artaxerxes mentioned in the seauenth of Esdras and the second of Nehemias who in the twentie yeare of his raigne gaue a new commandement for the building of the walles of the Citie and sent Nehemias about it Though some reckō from his seuenth yeare wherein Esdras was sent to Ierusalem by the Kinges authoritie with great priuiledges graunted Touching their opinion which bring the time of their yeares from Cyrus to Christ it is with good reason confuted by Iulius Affricanus in the fift booke of his Chronicles because that from Cyrus to Christ are many yeares aboue that time that the compasse of Daniels weeks can reach to which may be likewise obiected against Darius Histaspis his second yeare from which to Christs birth are aboue 500. yeares But all this reasoning of Africanus toucheth Beroaldus no whit at all bringing Cyrus downe from the 55. Olympiad to the 80. within the reach of these weeks and so Darius Hystaspis in proportion if euer there were anie such Darius among the Persian kings For Beroaldus reckoning them al by their names hath no one of this name amongst thē to bee found but other in his stead I know not who such as were neuer heard of before If these fancies had beene broched before the dayes of Africanus his answere I beleeue would haue beene as is vsed amongst the learned contra negantes principia against such as denie principles and grounds not with words but eyther with silence or hissing as Aristo Pyrrho were serued for making no difference betwixt riches and pouertie Either of these answeres is good enough for him who going against the streame of al antiquity learning neither acknowledgeth any Cyrus before the 80. Olympiad nor any king of Persia by the name of Xerxes in proper person as king to haue inuaded Greece so for mee it shall rest The true time of Cyrus his age and the Persian Monarchie which the Reader may safely leane to is alreadie declared The last opinion is of such as referre the beginning of the 490. yeres of Daniels Prophesie to Artaxerxes the longhanded some reckning them from his seaūenth yeare to the death and passion of Christ Iesus as Functius and some other The seuenth of that Artaxerxes was the second yeare of the 80. Olympiad and our Sauiour suffered in the last of the 202. The distance betweene is 490. yeares so that in regard of the time and space of yeares this opinion would in some sort agree if other things were answerable but this is certaine that Esdras was in that seauenth yeare of Artaxerxes sent to Ierusalem by the kings authoritie with letters and many priueledges graunted vnto him and great summes of monie for offerings and vses of the Temple yet no decree made for the building of the Citie eyther Temple which had bin finished before or walles which were made vp after by Nehemias by speciall commandement Moreouer if the decree to build the Citie had beene then published in the seauenth yeare of Artaxerxes we must from thence to Messias onelie account seauen yeares and sixtie two as the Angell in plaine wordes declareth which expire seauen yeeres before the death of Christ Lastlie this opinion disagreeth from the Historie of Ezra where we read of an other Artaxerxes before this vnder whom Ezra came to Ierusalem which had forbidden the Iewes to proceed in the building of God his Temple therefore this could not bee the long handed Artaxerxes before whome there was no king of Persia called by that name Which reason likewise serueth to improue the next opinion here following for manie goe somewhat lower to the 20. yere of the same Artaxerxes wherin a newe decree went out for the building of the walles of Ierusalem as we reade in the second chapter of Nehemias This twentieth yeare of Artaxerxes was for the most part of it answerable to the 4. of the 83. Olympiad and the commandement giuen in the first moneth in the beginning of the spring as wee reade in the second of Nehemias From which time to the death and passion of our Sauiour in the spring time of the last yeare of the 202. Olympiad were 477. yeares full and no more So there wants of Daniels number thirteene yeares To supply this want two waies haue bin deuised One by Iulius Africanus Beda Rupertus Comestor Pererius and other who thought the yeares of the Moone to bee vnderstood in this place Which opinion as of all other most fitlie agreeing to the true interpretation of this place Pererius on the 9. of Daniel embraceth and bringeth reason for it because it is sayd in the Latin translation 70. Hebdomadae abbreuiatae sunt that is 70. weekes are shortened
Quo significatur annos earū hebdomadarū non esse ad longitudinem annorum solarium exigendos sed ad breuitatem lunarium coarctandos Whereby is signified that the yeares of those weekes are not to be driuen out to the length of the Sunne yeares but to bee drawne into the shortnes of the Moone yeares sayth Pererius I would it were the worst that might be said of this reason to call it absurd friuolous foolish It is all that and more euen derogatorie from God and his word which by this meanes is defaced and thrust out of doores and caused to giue place to the follie and error of a sillie man For the ground of it is a decree from the Councell of Trent establishing the authoritie of the olde Latin vulgar translation as the very authenticall word of God not to bee reiected or refused of any vpon any pretence whatsoeuer Hereof the Papists in their expositions alleadge that translation preferring it before the originall text it selfe receiued from heauen And hereof it is that Pererius in his exposition on this place standeth so much vpon the word abbreuiatae shortened vrging it greatly for proof of his short Moone yeares It is a proofe indeede from the bad interpretation of a man not warrantable from the mouth of GOD whose word in this place is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in the holie tongue signifieth properly to cut In that sence it is often vsed by the Hebrew writers thereof calling a peece of a thing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Camius in the second part of his Miclol and Elias in his Tishbi testifie where he declareth the true signification thereof by the Dutch and Italian tongues Wherein the words to those Hebrew answerable are in Dutch ein schint or ein stuck in Italian Pez or talio signifying any piece of a thing cut off It is so also expounded by the Greeke interpreter who here to expresse the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying to cut The meaning is that so many yeares were determined and decreed by a speech borrowed from things cut out because that in determining and decreeing things the reason of mans minde sundring trueth from falshood good from bad doth by iudgement as it were cut out that which is conuenient and fit to bee done Whereunto a like example in the same word is read in the Chaldie paraphrasis of Ester the 4. chapter 5. verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in English is thus much And Ester called for Daniel whose name was Hathac by the word of whose mouth the matters pertayning to the kingdome were cut out that is determined and appoynted And in other wordes of the same signification wee haue like examples In the second chapter of Ester the first verse King Assuerus remembred Vashti 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that which was cut out vpon her that is decreed and by iudgemēt determined to come vpon her Also in the first booke of the Kings the 20. chapter and 40. verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So is thy iudgement thy selfe hath cut it out that is thou hast by thy owne sentence determined it A phrase in Latin Authors vsuall enough as when Cicero in his 4. plea against Verres sayth Res ad eum defertur istiúsque mere deciditur The matter is referred to him and cut off after his manner that is determined Theodoretus in his exposition of this place taketh the Greeke word in the same sence they are cut that is appoynted and decreed Hereby it is cleere that Pererius his reason being taken from mans interpretation and not Gods worde can bee no good ground for the Moone yeares to stand vpon Let the Pope and twise so many Bishops more in their Councell set it vp as sure as they can God his word is more powerfull then they to pull it downe Furthermore though this were graunted vnto him that the Latin edition by the Councels decree hath diuine authoritie and therefore force sufficient to proue the yeres of the moone to be vnderstood in this place by the word abbreuiatae shortened yet for all that such was the mans blindnes euen those his short yeares are yet too short to fill vp the want before spoken of and to reach to the passion of Christ For 490. yeares of the Moone make but 475. of the Sunne which expire two full yeares at the least before Christ dyed I am not ignorant that Pererius would help out this matter by a distinction of inclusiuè and exclusiuè computation Jnclusiuè hee termeth when the first and last are included in the number Exclusiuè when they are left out and thinketh that the whole number in all should bee 490. Moone yeares or 477. of the Sunne with the first and last included and without them two onely 488. of the Moone and 475. of the Sunne betweene to be reckoned This is a ridiculous shift For the Prophet doth not namely speake of 490. yeares or 477. that is gathered by interpreters and not without some controuersie among them but of 70. weekes So that if the extreames first and last were to bee excluded they should bee weekes rather then yeares Indeede if the Prophet had sayd that there were 490. or 477. yeares from the yeare of the commandement to the yeare of Christs death it might peraduenture haue made some cause of wrāgling about this whether the first and last yeares should be excluded or no. But heere is no such matter The extreames here expressed are the commaundement to build Ierusalem for one and the other as it is vnderstood the death of Christ Now then if the Prophet say that from one of these extreames to the other are 490. or 477. yeares exclusiuely two dayes onely must bee excluded rather then two yeares For the commandement was giuen in a daye and the death of Christ happened in a daye It were strange to make each of them of one whole yeares continuance and farre from that exact reckoning which Daniel maketh of his 70. weekes first seuen then sixtie and two and last of all one Therfore Julius Africanus who as the chiefe author of these Moone yeares is alleadged by Pererius neuer once dreamed of any such exclusiue computation I must acknowledge that he taketh indeede this place to bee vnderstood of 490. Moone yeares which kinde of yeares the Hebrewes vsed as he saith But he could not stretch them any further then to the 16. yeare of Tiberius the Emperour of Rome which is short by two whole yeares of the time set by Pererius for the passion of our Lord in the 18. yeare of Tiberius And as they are short of his passion so they goe further then his baptisme For which cause that opinion of Africanus can no waye stande making an ende of Daniels weekes neither in the birth nor the baptisme nor the death of Iesus Christ Neither can that conceit of Africanus touching the Moone yeares hereto be vnderstood by
Moone yeres to cut short the time of Daniels prophesie by 13. yeares that is two whole weekes of the 70. within a yeare Seeing that they can neither serue to fill vp the distance from Artaxerxes his 20. yeare to the suffering of Christ for which they are brought nor yet the custome of the Hebrewes reckoning in holie Scripture will beare them The other shift is as bad and sillie as that if not more For some who could not abide that forced wresting of Moone yeares where there is no likelihood of such to be ment went another way to worke making two beginnings and thence two twentieth yeres of Artaxerxes his raigne One beginning was immediatly after the death of his father Xerxes in the 4. yeare of the 78. Olympiad The other nine yeares before in the 4. of the 76. Olympiad wherein he was appoynted king by his father yet liuing nine yeares before his death from which the 20. is the 3. of the 81. Olympiad for the beginning of Daniels weekes sayth Gerardus Mercator Wherein notwithstāding he was greatly deceiued by what error I know not For reckoning from the third of the 81. Olympiad to the last of the 202. wherein Christ dyed wee shall finde no more but 486. yeares at the most And therefore I see not by what reason he sayth that the 70. weekes contayning 490. yeares beginning at that twentieth of Artaxerxes expired in the death of Christ Temporarius therefore making two beginnings and two 20. yeares of Artaxerxes as he doth accounteth from the first twentieth 483. yeares to Christ his baptisme which was aboue three yeares before his passion and so endeth the death of Christ three yeares and more before the end of Daniels weekes But what reason had Mercator and Temporarius to thinke that Artaxerxes begun to raigne whilest his father was yet aliue so long before his death This is a matter worth the examination being the ground of a great errour The reason which they bring is in this manner Themistocles the Athenian in the second yere of the 77. Olympiad being expelled out of Athens by his vnthankfull countrie men and citizens notwithstanding the great and wonderfull deliuerance of all Greece from the power of Xerxes king of Persia by his wisedome and prowesse especially wrought fled to the same Xerxes as Ephorus Deino Cleitarchus Heraclides Diodorus Siculus and other storie writers declare Againe that Artaxerxes the sonne of Xerxes raigned in Persia at such time as Themistocles fled to the king thereof for succour it is testified by an ancient author of credit euen Thucidides himselfe in his first booke of the Pelopōnesian warre writing that Themistocles flying by sea to Ephesus after going higher into Asia with a certain Persian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is sent letters to king Artaxerxes the son of Xerxes who a little before begun to raigne If Themistocles flying came to Xerxes king of Persia and sent letters to Artaxerxes his sonne then raigning also in Persia it must needes be that Artaxerxes had been made king a good while before his fathers death for that happened about sixe or seuen yeares after the banishment of Themistocles This is the force of their argument I haue heard it reported of one Doctor Medcalfe who sometime was master of Saint Iohns Colledge in Cambridge a man of no great learning himselfe but for care and earnest endeuour euery way to aduance learning giuing place to none Whereby it maye bee thought that that famous Colledge hath by his meanes the better prospered and flourished euer since with so great a companie of excellent Diuines and skilfull men in other knowledge I haue I say heard it reported of him that hauing on a certain day at supper with him some of the chiefe Seniors of the Colledge hee sent for two Sophisters to dispute before them The one tooke vpon him to proue that his fellowes blacke gowne was greene requiring this only first to be granted vnto him that if there were any greene gowne in that chamber it was on his backe Which was not thought vnreasonable because it was euident that there was none else had any This then being once granted he framed the rest of his proofe in this maner That saith he poynting to a greene carpet on the table there is a greene in this chamber all our eyes witnesse and that there is gowne in it your owne vpper garment on your backes proueth whereof it followeth that here amōgst vs in this chamber there is a greene gowne Doctor Medcalfe hearing this was greatly delighted and affirmed in good sadnesse that it was a good reason withall asked the iudgement of the Seniors there present who smiling commended the schollers wit Such a sophistication is here brought by ioyning things together which ought to bee sundred For neither they which tell of Themistocles flying to Xerxes once euer dreamed of Artaxerxes raigning at the same time nor Thucidides speaking of his cōming to Artaxerxes had this in his mind to think that Xerxes should bee then aliue which I will prooue by good witnesse For Plutarch in the life of Themistocles writeth thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thucidides saith Plutarch and Charon Lampsacenus tell that after Xerxes was dead Themistocles came to his sonne Aemilius Probus confirmeth it in these wordes Scio plaerósque ita scripsisse Themistoclem Xerxe regnante in Asiam transiisse sed ego potissimū Thucididi credo quòd aetate proximus crat I know saith Probus that many writers report Themistocles to haue passed into Asia whilest Xerxes was yet aliue but I rather beleeue Thucidides who was neere those times Lastly Lawrence Codoman in the second booke of his Chronologie is as plaine for it as may be That sayth he which Thucidides testifieth in his first booke that Themistocles fled to Artaxerxes of late hauing begun to raigne must bee vnderstoode of the Monarchie of Artaxerxes begun after his fathers death There was some difference betweene them I grant in regard of the persons to whom and the time when Themistocles came some thinking it to bee done when Xerxes was king before the raigne of his sonne Other when Artaxerxes raigned after the death of his father But all agreed in this that at such time as Themistocles fled out of Greece there was not two but only one king of Persia which is most certainly true Let the record of all histories bee sought for the whole time of the Persian Monarchie from the beginning to the ende it shall neuer bee found that the father and his sonne raigned together Herodotus indeed in Polymnia not far from the beginning telleth of a custome and lawe of the Persians that their king going to warre first appoynted an heire who was to succeede him in the Empire And that Xerxes was so appoynted by his father Darius hauing prepared all things readie for his voyage agaynst Aegypt to be next king after him Yet he neuer raigned till his father was dead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when
word is more agreeable to both It is vsed somtimes of our Sauiour Christ and sometimes more generally takē as before is shewed for any annoynted Priest Prophet Prince or chiefe Gouernour of the common wealth and this is the signification which in my iudgement best fitteth this place And of Christian interpreters Eusebius is the man which hath either taught me it or guided me to it or confirmed mee in it who in his eight booke de demonstratione Euangelica hauing brought the expositiō of Africanus vnderstanding here Christ Iesus by the name of Messias or Christ addeth these wordes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is I say that the Gouernour Christ here spoken of in this text of scripture by an other signification or acception is no other but a succession of high Priests which after this prophesie and the Iewes returne from Babilon gouerned the people which the scripture vsuallie calleth Christs or annoynteds In this number hee reckoneth Iudas Machabaeus and his brethren and their posteritie who exercised a kingly gouernment ouer the Iewes and a little after expounding these words in the 26. verse Christ shall be cut off who saith he is this Christ but the gouernour which by succession of the Priests kindred ruled the people This Christ therfore endured all the time wherin these weekes were to bee fulfilled but so soone as they once were ended according to this prophesie the chiefe ruler of the people of that succeeding kindred was cut off saith Eusebius This is a notable saying of Eusebius to declare the true meaning of the worde Messias which may direct vs to vnderstand this most excellent prophesie aright Theodoretus herein agreeth vnto him I take it somewhat more largely then Eusebius and Theodoretus doeth not of the Machabies onely but of other chiefe rulers and kings of the Iewes common wealth within the compasse of these weekes as the Hebrew scholiasts Saadias Aben Ezra Iarchi and some other expounde it Not one Hebrew writer that euer I read vndestood their Messias by this worde but a succession of annoynted eyther Priestes or Gouernours The decree to build Ierusalē I take to be that which was made by Darius for the building of the temple which was the chiefest parte of the citie In the second yeare of that Darius and the 6. month the first day toward the end of our August they were commaunded in the Lordes name by his prophet Aggie to build the holy temple of Ierusalem as wee read in the first chapter and first verse of the prophet After they had begun to build the gouernours of the countries beyond Euphrates came vnto them to know by whose authoritie they tooke that worke vpon them Ezra chap. 5. and 6. who answered that Cyrus had giuen them leaue to doe it long before in the first yeare of his raigne Of this answere they certified king Darius By whose commaundement search was made first in the recordes at Babylon after at Ecbataua the chiefe citie of Medes where a record touching that matter was found Herevpon Darius made a new decree for building thereof and sent it to the gouernours of his countries beyond Euphrates charging them to permitte and helpe forward the building thereof All these thinges were not done in a little time from the prophets sending by God about that matter to the time wherein Darius sent his decree It asked some time to beginne the worke after the prophets warning And then for the gouernours in other prouinces to be certified And after themselues to come and examine the matter At what time it is sayd that they found the worke in good forwardnesse the beames being layde in the walles Ezra the 5 chapter 8. verse and after to certifie Darius and then to search the recordes and that in those farre places of Babylon and Ecbataua And lastly to send forth the new decree So farre as we may gesse this time might be about some 8. or 9. monthes and bring vs to the month of Aprill or Maie in the 3. yeare of Darius And who was this Darius In my iudgement no other but the surnamed Nothus who was sonne to Artaxerxes Longimanus This Artaxerxes as Thucidides then liuing testifieth died in the 7. yeare of the Peloponnesian warre in winter which was the 4. of the 88. Olympiad After him Xerxes and Sogdianus raigned 1. yeare And after them this Darius whose 3. yeare at that season wherein the decree to build the temple went out falleth toward the end of the 3. yeare of the 89. Olymp. For the publishing of that decree to Messias that is the first gouernour of the new builded citie are accompted here by Daniel 7. weekes contayning 49. yeares VVhereof 17. pertained to Darius after the decree for he raigned 19. in all The other 32. were of Artaxerxes Mnemon his successor In whose 20. yeare Nehemias was sent to build the walles of Ierusalem and 12. yeares after the building of the walles being finished and the Messias or gouernour appointed and the common wealth euery way set in order hee returned to Artaxerxes in the 32. yeare of his raigne The proofe hereof is cleere by scripture In the 5. chapter of Nehemias the 14. verse From the time sayth Nehemias that the king commaunded me to be gouernour in the land of Iudea from the 20. to the 32. yeare of king Artaxerxes that is 12. yeares I and my brethren haue not eaten the bread of the gouernour For the gouernours before mee had beene chargeable to the people and so forth Also in the 13. chapter of the same booke the sixt verse All this while saith he was not I at Ierusalem for in the 32. yeare of Artaxerxes king of Babell I returned to the king Ioseph Scaliger in his sixt booke de emendatione temporum giueth his voice with this exposition affirming that Darius Nothus was the king vnder whome the decree was made to build the Citie and that from it to the streetes and walles of Ierusalem finished were nine fortie yeares After which time Nehemias directis platais vrbis vicis exaedificatis atque omnibus rebus compositis reuersus est in Persidem anno Artaxerxis altero tricesimo Nehemias saith Scaliger so soone as the streets of the citie were directed and the lanes builded all thinges set in order returned into Persia in the two and thirtieth yeare of Artaxerxes It is here to be obserued that the Prophet speaketh of the Messias and the building vp of the Citie as beginning both at one time For hauing foretold that there should bee to Messias seauen weekes it followeth immediatly after how long the Citie was to continue The reason whereof is this that there could not be conueniently any Princely gouernment of the common wealth before the building of the Citie wherein the Princes Court and Pallace should be which Pallace for the Prince was builded by Nehemias also as appeareth in the second of Nehemias verse eight Hereof it is that Sanballat in a letter
to Nehemias ioyneth these two together the building of the walles and a king set ouer the Iewes It is reported saith Sanballat among the heathen that thou the Iewes thinke to rebell for which cause thou buildest the wall that thou mayest bee their king according to their wordes Thou hast also ordained Prophets to preach of thee in Ierusalem saying there is a king in Iuda These two thinges then begun together the Citie builded and the annoynted Gouernour thereof as also the end of both was at one time declared in the 26. verse After those 62. weekes shall Messias be cut off and the Citie and Temple shall the people of the come Gouernour destroy Thus whereas Daniel hath deuided his 70. weekes into three parts The first of them hath his true meaning by text and time approued from the decree to build Ierusalem to the same building finished and the established gouernment in it beeing the space of 49. yeares The second part containeth 62. weekes wherein Ierusalem so builded with the common wealth and state and princely gouernment thereof was to continue that is to say from the building of the Citie finished and the Prince or ruler appointed in the 32. of Artaxerxes Mnemon vnto such time as the ruine and fall of the same Citie began which was about the nine yeare of Nero For about that time Albinus the Roman Gouernour of Iudea Ierusalem by his great couetousnes and crueltie in most wofull manner oppressed the Iewes for bribes euen selling them to be spoyled and robbed of their goods at the will and pleasure of most lewd ruffins and bad persons As Josephus declareth in his second booke of the Iewes warre the thirteenth Chapter inferring thereof that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the seedes of Ierusalems captiuitie approching was from that time sowne meaning that those troubles vnder Albinus were the beginnings of the Iewes thraldome and vndoing as indeede they were which in the twentieth booke of antiquities the eight chapter hee declareth more plainely where hauing spoken of the great miserie of the Iewes which they suffered by the mercilesse crueltie of Albinus hee vseth these wordes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 From that time forward saith Iosphus especially our Citie began to be sicke and all things going then more and more to decay The wofull calamities of Ierusalem euery day falling more and more to wracke after the gouernment of Albinus by a borrowed speech hee termeth sicknes In the beginning of that yeare at the feast of the Tabernacle it was that a certaine man of the common sort brought vp in the countrie called Iesus the sonne of Anani as a messenger by diuine motion from God to foreshew the vtter ruine and desolation of Ierusalem to come in that last weeke of the 70. which was yet behinde in the streetes of the Citie cryed day and night a voice from the East a voice from the West a voice from the foure windes a voice against Ierusalem and the Temple a voice against Bridegroomes and Brides a voice against all the people The Magistrates and Nobles of the Citie not abiding his outcries brought him before Albinus who caused him with scourges to bee torne to the bones when the sillie wretch neyther wept nor craued anie mercie but at euery stroke answered woe woe to Ierusalem In this manner crying hee continued seuen yeres more without anie hoarsnes or wearines neyther cursing them that hurt him nor thanking them that releeued him At the length going on the walles with this crie woe woe to the Citie and the Temple the people hee added these wordes woe also to my selfe and was presently slaine with a stone hurled by an Engine at him from the enemie beseeging the Citie Thus the second part of this Prophesie foreshewing how long the Iewes common wealth after the ordering thereof should continue before it began to decay contained 62. weekes that is 434. yeares for the 32. of Artaxerxes Mnemon was the fourth yeare of the 101. Olympiad towards the end wherof the building of Ierusalem was finished and the Iewes common wealth appointed and the first yere of the last weeke was the second yeare of the 210. Olympiad beginning toward the end of it in the spring time of the yeare The space included containeth the full number before declared The third last part is one weeke euen the last of all the 70. wherein after the former 62. weekes expired Messias that is the last Ruler was cut off and the gouernement of the Citie quite extinct for when their last king Agrippa in the twelfth yeare of Nero foure yeares before the destruction of the Citie went about to perswade the people to obey Florus the Roman deputie by whose tyrannie they had beene incomparably more vexed and oppressed then in the time of Albinus his predecessor The people were so stirred against him that they could not containe themselues any longer but threw stones at him and droue him out of the Citie as Iosephus declareth in the sixteene chapter of the second booke of the Iewes war If any here obiect that Caius Caesar the Emperour of Rome after the death of this Agrippas father made Iudea a prouince to bee gouerned by a Roman Deputie and bestowed on this Agrippa the kingdome of Chalcis which pertained to his vncle Herod I answer that this Herod had his kingly Pallace in Ierusalem and obtained of C. Caesar for himselfe his successors not onely the rule and power ouer the Temple and whole treasurie but also authority of chusing the high Priests and deposing them at his pleasure and the calling of the iudges together and other matters pertaining to the seruice of the Leuites and Priestes in Gods Temple All which his Soueraignty dyed in this last weeke about foure yeres before the destruction of the Citie yea before in the time of Albinus in the beginning of this last weeke anarchie and vnrulie disorder begun to rise and good gouernment to fall which Iosephus immediatly before the worde concerning the seedes of Ierusalems thraldome sowen in the second booke of the Iewes war the thirteenth chapter before by me cited seemeth in this short speech to signifie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tyrranie or vsurped gouernment was exercised by manie This beginning of misrule by little and little grew to further increase till at the length the king was driuen out and not long after al other magistracy of Ierusalem was likewise abolished all good gouernment ceased as Iosephus in plaine words declareth in the fourth booke and fift chapter of the Iewes warre that the citie was without a ruler to guide it And in the second chapter of the fift booke that all law of man was troden vnder foot and the law of God made a scorne and the lawes of nature it selfe disturbed All things were ordered by the will of lawlesse ruffians their pleasure stood for law A most pitifull disorder and tumultuous anarchie raigned amongst them by the wilfull malice of gracelesse rebels appoynting
Thus Seuerus Sulpitius most manifestlie declareth his iudgement for the beginning of Daniels weekes to be referred to the raigne of Darius Nothus the end of them to be made in the destruction of Ierusalem by Titus not seeing how the Prophesie of Daniel might otherwise bee vnderstood or applied beginning and end to anie other kinges Ioseph Scaliger in his 6 booke de emendatione temporum acknowledgeth Darius Nothus to bee the Persian king by whose decree the building of the temple was restored And that from that time the accompt of Daniels weekes beginneth The end he referreth to the destruction of Ierusalem Ab instaurandis Hierosolymis incipiunt hebdomades in Hierosolymorum excidium terminantur Neque enim frustrà caput hebdomadum ad Herosolymorium incolumitatem pertinet cum earum finis ad eiusdem vrbis casum et deletionem pertineat The weekes beginne sayth Scaliger at the restoring of Ierusalem and end in the ouerthrowe of it Neither is it without cause that their beginning pertayneth to the safetie of Ierusalem seeing that the end thereof belongeth to the fall and destruction of the same citie Vnderstanding the time wherein the warre against the Iewes begun their desolation Lastly Iunius in the last edition of his bible in his notes vpon the 9. of Daniell numbreth these 70. weekes from the second of Darius Nothus to the second of Vespasian wherein Titus destroyed Ierusalem Moreouer for the end of these weekes Clemens Alexādrinus was of the same iudgement a man for great knowledge rare and as ancient if not more then Tertullian whose neere age to the apostles I haue spoken of before He thought them to expire in the destruction of the citie by Titus Also Origen in his 29. treatise vpon Mathew was of the same opinion and Chrysostom in his 2. oration against the Iewes To say nothing of the Hebrew writers houlding the same Aben Ezra Iarchi and R. Leui Gershoms sonne in their commentaries and R. Abraham in his historical cabbala And surely whosoeuer readeth the place of Daniell with an euen minde not preuented with preiudice or blynded with affection shall hardly find any other end wherin those seuenets of yeares can settle their feete to rest for hauing deuided the whole 70. into 3. partes first he sheweth what was to be doone in seuen weekes and then in 62. and lastly in that one which was lefte after the 62. before the end whereof he maketh mention of Messias to bee cut off and the citie destroyed If Daniel hauing propounded to himselfe an exact and straight order of weekes should first tell of Messias his cutting off in one weeke and then of the destruction and desolation of Ierusalem about 37 yeares after it and then presently come backe againe to the sacrifices abolished in the same weeke which he had spoken of before and immediatly after go yet once againe to that desolation which happened 40. yeares after verie neere it were a strange kind of ridling and farre more confuse then the vaine oracles of Delphos especially seeing that these clauses and partes are ioyned and knit together by no other but copulatiue coniunctions And therefore it is no maruell that those excellent and worthie fathers as well as the Hebrew scholiastes could finde no place by Daniels text for his weekes to stay in but the ouerthrowe of the Iewes common wealth by the Romans The end thus appearing by their testimonie the beginning cannot bee hid It must needs fall to the raigne of Darius Nothus where I set it Hereby it appeareth that this exposition of Daniels weekes by me brought is neither new nor any singular deuise of my owne I haue Eusebius and Theodoretus and Aben Ezra and R. Abraham in his cabbala with other hebrew writers befornamed with me for the Messias cut off to be vnderstood of the gouenor of Ierusalem R. Leui also verie neere agreeing therunto and differing onely in this that in stead of the annointed princes vnderstood of them by the name of Messias he rather taketh the annointed priestes to be ment Yea and that which is of farre greater force then all their authorities the plaine testimonie of God his word which nūbreth 7. weekes only to Messias and no more as before I haue already proued by the original text which if Eusebius and Theodoretus had throughly knowne as the Hebrewes their partners in that iudgement did they would haue stoutly stood for it against all the world For the end of the weekes in the desolation of the citie Clemens Alexandrinus Tertullian Origen Crysostom Sulpitius Scaliger Iunius testifie with me And 4. of them for both beginning and end agreeing or verie little differing I am not ignorant that though Ioseph Scaliger referre the end of these weekes to the desolation of the temple yet he vnderstandeth by the name of Messias in the 26 verse Christ Iesus our redeemer to bee killed after 62. weekes contayning yeares 434. And that these 434. yeares ended in the death of Christ and begun in the 5. yeare of Artaxerxes Mnemon wherein by a new decree leaue was giuen to Esdras the priest to returne with such of his countriemen as would goe with him to Ierusalem I am loth to speake any thing without reuerence and loue of so excellent a man who hath brought much light to the true vnderstanding of this prophecie This is all which I will say that his opinion for this matter wandreth far astray out of reasons path For how can this be proued that Artaxerxes Mnemon gaue out any decree for Esdras in the 5. of his raigne either by prophane learning or diuine scripture It is sayd in Esdras that hee went to Ierusalem in the 7. yeare of that king And therefore by the authoritie of that place skilfull men haue layde the foundation of Daniels seuenets in the 7. yeare of Artaxerxes How then is his fift yeare brought in for a new decree Ab eo edicto ad perfectionem Esdrae annus solidus interest There was one whole yeare sayth Scaliger betweene the decree and Esdras his going And what reason hath he for this Surely none at all but this bare coniecture Eo interuallo opus fuit Esdrae ad reliquias Iudaeorum per Babiloniam Mediam ac Persidem sparsas colligendas That space sayth he was needfull for Esdras to gather together such Iewes as were left scattered abroade through Babylonia Media and Persia This is nothing els but a proofles conceipt a fancie vnfit to build any credit or faith vpon If such kind of gessing might stand for reason it were a hundred fould more prone to bee gathered that the decree was made presently vpon his going in the verie same yeare as Functius and other of the learned by vew of that scripture haue iudged For what matter was it for so great a man of that estimation and honor that Esdras was in to gather 1500. speedily together Could it possibly take a yeares preparation in such a willing people of themselues so readie
vnder the gouernour Albinus not long before the destruction of the citie Whereby may bee gathered that magistracie iudgement and gouernment yea the authoritie of the 70. Iudges called Sanhedrim continued long after Herods 30. yere and was not cut off till the desolation of Ierusalem brought it to an end For when the warres begun to worke the desolation thereof then king Agrippa by seditious rakehels was driuen out of it then were the Sanhedrim deposed at the rebels will and other base men set vp in their stead as Josephus telleth in the fift book of the Iewes warre the first chapter Then was the Priesthood and all good order made a mockerie The rebellious cutters did what they list no lawes to restraine them no magistracie to punish them no authoritie to bridle them They ruled al at their own pleasures themselues as they would good gouernment was turned into anarchie and disorder and Ierusalem became as Iosephus termeth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a citie without a guide And this it is that Daniel sayth touching Messias to bee cut off in the last weeke of the seuentie meaning the rule and authoritie of the annointed gouernour as before I haue expounded the place Thus by the iudgement of the Hebrew writers in their auncient monuments the comming of Christ falleth to the fall of the Iewes common-wealth in the ouerthrow of Ierusalem when gouernment and authoritie ceased therein which long before had been foretold by the Patriarch Iacob in the 49. of Genesis in that old prophesie of his concerning the comming of Christ The scepter shall not depart from Iuda nor a law giuer from betweene his feete till Shiloh come and him shall the people gather themselues vnto For together with this diuine oracle of Daniel that other most ancient and excellent prophesie of Iacob hitherto not perfectly and cleerely according to the true meaning therof declared of any that I know of may receiue light Many haue sought the fulfilling of that prophesie in the first comming of Christ at his birth but without straying it could neuer yet be there found For the meaning of it was that in the tribe of Iuda should bee royall supremacie and gouernmēt of Magistrates for the good of the Iewes vpholding of their Common-wealth till the comming of Christ whose new spirituall raigne by the preaching of the Gospell should abolish their old earthly kingdome and outward policie So was the place vnderstood by the Hebrew Doctors aforenamed R. Hama R. Mili R. Eliezer The Chaldie paraphrasts both of them most excellently expound the place which themselues vnderstood not being like therein vnto Virgils Bees which make honey for other and not themselues First Onchelos interpreteth it in this manner A Magistrate exercising authoritie of the house of Iuda shall not depart nor a Scribe of his posteritie for euer till Christ come to whom the kingdome pertaineth and him shall the people obey The other called the interpreter of Ierusalem thus Kings of the house of Iuda shall not faile neither skilful law-teachers of his posteritie vnto the time wherein the king Christ shall come vnto whom the kingdome pertaineth and all the kingdomes of the earth shall be subdued vnto him If Christ came when authoritie was gone and authoritie went away at Ierusalems fall needes must one comming of Christ bee referred to the ouerthrow of that citie R. Moses of Tyroll Bioces looked for the comming of Christ towards the end of the second Temple being led thereunto partly by their owne reckoning vpon Daniel and partly by a text in the last chapter of the prophet Esay the seuenth verse where it is sayd Before her throwes came vpon her she was deliuered of a manchilde Some of the Rabbines sayd Messias was borne the very same day that the second temple was destroyed in supposing that scripture of Esay to be therein fulfilled In their book called Bereshith Rabba is read this parable As a certaine Iew was at plow an Arabian passing by hearing one of his oxen low bad him vnyoke because the destruction of the Temple was at hand And by and by hearing also the other low bad him vnyoke out of hād because the Messias was alreadie come R. Abon in another place telling the same What neede we saith he to learne it of the Arabians seeing the text it selfe declareth it Iosephus in the seuenth booke of the Iewes warre the twelfth chapter writeth that in the holie Scripture was found an olde prophesie that at the time of the ouerthrow of Ierusalem a king should come out of Iewrie who should raigne ouer all the world which he by flattering falshood interpreted of Vespasian This prophesie in those daies was bruted abroad in many mens mouthes euery where yea some write that it was engrauen in an open place of the castle at Ierusalem which as Iosephus writeth made the Iewes at that time so readie to rebell And this was the cause that so many fained themselues to be the Messias about that time of the destruction of the Temple Vnder Cuspius Fadus one Theudas a iugler made the people beleeue that he was a prophet would deuide the waters of Iordan that they should goe ouer drie as they had done long before miraculously in the time of Ioshua by the power of God And when Felix was the Romane gouernour of Iudea one comming out of Egypt fayning himselfe to bee a prophet perswaded the people if they would follow him to mount Oliuet they should see the walles of Ierusalem fall downe And afterward one Barcozba so called of his lying tooke vpon him to bee the Messias and seduced many but in the end performing not the deliuerance looked for at his hands he was knocked on the head for his lying and slaine All these tooke aduantage of the time being answerable to their intent and of the peoples disposition then looking for their promised Christ Moreouer there was yet another prophesie bruted amongst them that Doctor Hillels schollers should neuer faile till Christ were come The youngest of them was R. Iochaman the sonne of Zacheus who liued to see the destruction of the Temple and also the miracle of a great gate thereof a little before opening of it selfe which Iosephus speaketh of in his seuenth booke and twelfth chapter of the Iewes warre Whereat this R. Iochaman being amazed remembred this saying of the Prophet Zacharie in the beginning of his 11. chapter Open thy gates O Libanus and let fire consume thy cedars applying the place to the comming of Christ Furthermore they had amongst them these olde traditions touching the tokens of Christes comming When Christ the sonne of Dauid cōmeth sayth R. Iudas there shall be few wise men in Israell and the wisdome of the scribes shall stinke and the schooles of diuinitie shall become brothelhouses R. Nehorai sayd that good men in Israell should bee abhorred and mens countenaunces past shame at Christes comming And R. Nehemias sayd that wickkednesse should bee multiplied without measure