never returned from their captivity, and were utterly dispersed, and their genealogies wholly lost or confounded, the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, which had formed a separate kingdom under Rehoboam, returned to their own land with their genealogies unmixed and uncorrupted, and resumed the government of it: And from that time, they all assumed the name of him to whon the blessing was promised; they called their land Judæa, and them- . selves Jews.

But after our Saviours birth, and before his crucifixion, the Jews had lost their ancient claim to dominion, when Coponius

Judges, who ruled their nation in Babylon are mentioned. It is to them, that the Jewish traditions refer this prophecy, and to the posterity of their great Doctor Hillel, who were celebrated teachers of the law. "Non recedet sceptrum a Juda. Hi sunt Æchmalotarchæ Babylonici, qui dominantur Israeli sceptro. Et legislator e medio pedum ejus. Hi sunt posteri Hillelis qui docent legem publicé." Sanhedrin Cap. i. 1.

* In chronico Ebræorum parvo, quod voctint, deducuntur per conduuam seriem Achmalotarchæ Babylonici a Jechonia usq; ad chishjæ filium. Annotat. in Sanhedrin ut suprà at Johan. Cock.

was

was made Procurator of Judæa; for then the power of inflicting capital punishments, was taken from them, and placed solely in the hands of the Roman Governor *. Then also the Sceptre must evidently be departed from Judah, when the Jews confessed, John xix. 15, we have no King but Cæsar. Now Coponius entered† on his office in the 12th year of our Saviour's age, when he first opened his mission in the temple, Luke xi; and then the Jewish sceptre and legislature began to depart from them, and were finally abolished, in the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus 62 years afterwards.

The word Shiloh in the prophecy is not well understood, and is very differently explained, though it is generally agreed, that the Messiah is meant by it. Grotius and the learned Bishops Chandler and Burnet translate it, "He that is to be sent," or

*It is not lawful for us to put any man to death. John xviii. 31.

+ Prideaux s Connetion, vol. 8vo. edit, where this is clearly explained.

"the

"the sent," and with these the vulgate agrees. But it is of little consequence that the learned think differently concerning the Hebrew root, from which the word is derived*, as long as it is not disputed that it relates to Christ, and was exactly fulfilled in him

This

* Granville Sharp and others, suppose it to have a reference to peace; as Isaiah calls our Lord the prince of peace, and similar terms are in many places applied to him. Dr. Gregory Sharpe translates Shiloh " the deliverer," and supports his opinion by very strong and unexception→ able testimony, both of ancient and modern Hebræans.See his " Argument," p. 6. note.

Junius translates Shiloh, "filius ejus" his son, or descendant, i. e. of Judah; and, in the Septuagint version, the whole passage is somewhat different, and may be rendered in this manner; "" a ruler shall not fail from Judah, nor a leader from among his decendants, till He cometh for whom it is appointed (ω αποκειται, Grabe; Τα αποκειμένα ul, Vatican edit.) and he is (or shall be) the expectation of the nations," which is quite as applicable to Christ, as the text of our common version is, and the last part of it particularly agrees with the description of him in Haggai ii. 7.

+ The ancient Jews universally allowed it.-See Onkelos, as quoted in Coch's notes on Sanhedrim; Jonathan's and the Jerusalem Targum, as quoted by Prideaux. And

Sanhedrin

manner.

This prophecy, has been more particularly enlarged upon, because it is the last. of those delivered by the Patriarchs which referred to Christ; and it is not only clear and unequivocal, but has also been fulfilled, in a most obvious and remarkable For the Sceptre and Lawgiver are completely departed from Judah; the Jews are no longer in any part of the world, a people governed by their own laws *, though still separated from the nations among whom they dwell; therefore if the prophecy be true, as the Jews themselves allow it is, the Messiah must be come . Nor can the Jews get rid of

this

Sanhedrin xi. 36. “Quod illi nomen? Familiares R. Sila aiebant, Siloh nomen ejus esse. Quia dictum est, Usque dum veniat Siloh."

* In order to evade the strength of this argument, R. Benjamin of Tudela published his pretended travels in the 12th century; a miserable collection of falsehoods, by which he endeavored to prove, that a Jewish government still subsisted in several parts of the world.

† Some of them perceived this consequence, and therefore asserted, that Hezekiah was the promised Messiah, and that no other was to be expected. To which others

ingeniously

this argument, but by saying, that their sins have prevented him from coming, at the appointed time; and therefore when the temple was destroyed by Titus, they ceased to expect him*.

Henceforward then the promise given to Abraham, was confined to the tribe of Judah; but the God who gave it, was still to be styled, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And he chose to be so called, in order to distinguish that family, from which the Messiah was to proceed, from the rest of the world. Nor was any other family, nor any, even

ingeniously as well as truly replied, that this must be an error, because the Messiah was foretold long after Hezekiah's death, even under the second temple. "Rabbi Hillel ait: Non dabitur Israeli Messias. Jam enim comporiti illo sunt vivente Ezechia. R. Joseph: condona ipsi, domine ipsius. Ezechias quando vixit? Stante templo primo. At Zecharias vaticinatus est sub templo secundo: Exulta valde, filia Tzion." &c. Zech. ix. 9. Sanhedrin xi. 36. And this prophecy is quoted both by St. Matthew and St. John.

* Rabbi Jose, qui excidium templi vidit, Messiæ tempus advenisse dicebat, ut testatur R. Jacobin Caphtor.

Grot. de veritat. Lib. v. 14. aunotat.

of