and treacherous. A few days before his end, he had once more altered his will, and

nominated Archelaus his successor in the kingdom; Herod Antipas (the Herod of the

gospels), tetrarch of Galilee and Peraea; and Philip, tetrarch of Gaulonitis, Trachonitis,

Batanaea, and Panias --districts to which, in the sequel, we may have further to refer. As

soon after the death of Herod as circumstances would permit, and when he had quelled

a rising in Jerusalem, Archelaus has tened to Rome to obtain the emperor's confirmation

of his father's will. He was immediately followed by his brother Herod Antipas, who in a

previous testament of Herod had been left what Archelaus now claimed. Nor were the

two alone in Rome, They found there already a number of members of Herod's family,

each clamorous for something, but all agreed that they would rather have none of their

own kindred as king, and that the country should be put under Roman sway; if

otherwise, they anyhow preferred Herod Antipas to Archelaus. Each of the brothers

had, of course, his own party, intriguing, manoeuvring, and trying to influence the

emperor. Augustus inclined from the first to Archelaus. The formal decision, however,

was for a time postponed by a fresh insurrection in Judaea, which was quelled only with

difficulty. Meanwhile, a Jewish deputation appeared in Rome, entreating that none of

the Herodians might ever be appointed king, on the ground of their infamous deeds,

which they related, and that they (the Jews) might be allowed to live according to their

own laws, under the suzerainty of Rome. Augustus ultimately decided to carry out the

will of Herod the Great, but gave Archelaus the title of ethnarch instead of king,

promising him the higher grade if he proved deserving of it (Matt 2:22). On his return to

Judaea, Archelaus (according to the story in the parable) took bloody vengeance on

"his citizens that hated him, and sent a message after him, saying, We will not have this

man to reign over us." The reign of Archelaus did not last long. Fresh and stronger

complaints came from Judaea. Archealus was deposed, and Judaea joined to the Roman

province of Syria, but with a procurator of its own. The revenues of Archelaus, so long

as he reigned, amounted to very considerably over 240,000 pounds a year; those of his

brothers respectively to a third and sixth of that sum. But his was as nothing compared

to the income of Herod the Great, which stood at the enormous sum of about 680,000

pounds; and that afterwards of Agrippa II, which is computed as high as half a million.

In thinking of these figures, it is necessary to bear in mind the general cheapness of

living in Palestine at the time, which may be gathered from the smallness of the coins in

circulation, and from the lowness of the labour market. The smallest coin, a (Jewish)

perutah, amounted to only the sixteenth of a penny. Again, readers of the New

Testament will remember that a labourer was wont to receive for a day's work in field or

vineyard a denarius (Matt 20:2), or about 8d., while the Good Samaritan paid for the

charge of the sick person whom he left in the inn only two denars, or about 1s. 4d (Luke

But we are anticipating. Our main object was to explain the division of Palestine in the

time of our Lord. Politically speaking, it consisted of Judaea and Samaria, under Roman

procurators; Galilee and Peraea (on the other side Jordan), subject to Herod Antipas, the

murderer of John the Baptist--"that fox" full of cunning and cruelty, to whom the Lord,

when sent by Pilate, would give no answer; and Batanaea, Trachonitis, and Auranitis,

under the rule of the tetrarch Philip. It would require too many details to describe

accurately those latter provinces. Suffice, that they lay quite to the north-east, and that

one of their principal cities was Caesarea Philippi (called after the Roman emperor, and

after Philip himself), where Peter made that noble confession, which constituted the rock

on which the Church was to be built (Matt 16:16; Mark 8:29). It was the wife of this

Philip, the best of all Herod's sons, whom her brother-in-law, Herod Antipas, induced to

leave her husband,and for whose sake he beheaded John (Matt 14:3, etc.; Mark 6:17;

Luke 3:19). It is well to know that this adulterous and incestuous union brought Herod

immediate trouble and misery, and that it ultimately cost him his kingdom, and sent him

into life-long banishment.

Such was the political division of Palestine. Commonly it was arranged into Galilee,

Samaria, Judaea, and Peraea. It is scarcely necessary to say that the Jews did not regard

Samaria as belonging to the Holy Land, but as a strip of foreign country --as the Talmud