DEPART FROM JUDAH, NOR A LAWGIVER FROM BETWEEN HIS FEET, UNTIL SHILOH COME ", i. e. the THEOCRACY fhall continue over the Jews until Christ come to take poffeffion of his Father's Kingdom: For there was never any Lawgiver', in Judah, but God by the miniftry of Mofes, until the coming of his Son.

JESUS the MESSIAH, the beft interpreter of the Oracles of GOD, of which he himself is the capital fubject, and for whofe fake the chain of Prophefies was fo early drawn out, and extended to fuch a length, feems to have paraphrased and explained the words of Jacob concerning the departure of the Sceptre from Judah, by his declaration recorded in St. Matthew, THE PROPHETS AND THE LAW PROPHESIED TILL JOHN, i. e. "the Mofaic Law, and the Theocratic Government by which it was difpenfed, continued in Being till the approach of this harbinger of Chrift, John the Baptift; but was then fuperfeded by the promulgation of a new Law and the ef tablishment of a new Kingdom."

Gen. xlix. 10.

• Who took their Name from the Tribe of Judah; the reft being incorporated in that Tribe, or extinguifhed in Captivity.

f Mbbokek, Legislator, aut Legis interpres. But the first is its original and proper Signification. And thus Ifaiah [chap. xxxiii. ver. 22.]" The Lord is our Judge, the Lord is our LAW. GIVER, [Mhhokekenou] the Lord is our King, he will fave us." Where the word Mhhokek is used in its proper Signification of Lawgiver; the other Senfe of Difpenfer or Interpreter of the Law being contained in the titles of Judge and King.

* Matth. xi. 13.

R 3

But

But as this interpretation is fo different from the common, and understands the Prophefy as fortelling that the Jewish nation fhould not be bereft of Sovereign Power, by falling under a foreign Yoke, till the Advent of the MESSIAH, the Reader will excuse me, if I detain him a little longer on so important a fubject.

The common notion of the Sceptre of Judah, is explained three different ways, each of which has it's particular Followers.

1. Some suppose the Sceptre of Judab to fignify the SOVEREIGNTY OF THE JEWISH NATION at large.

2. Others again fuppofe it to fignify the SOVEREIGNTY OF THE TRIBE OF JUDAH.

3. And a third fort contend that it fignifies not a fovereign or regal, but a TRIBAL SCEPTRE only.

In the Senfe of a Sovereignty in the Jewish people at large, which is the most general interpretation, and, in my Opinion, the most natural of the three, (as the whole People were long denominated from that tribe) the pretended Prophefy was not only never fulfilled, but has been directly falfified: becaufe long before the coming of Shilo, or of Christ, the Sceptre or Sovereignty in the Jewish people was departed. During the Babylonian and Perfian Captivity, and while afterwards they continued in a tributary dependence on the Greeks, they could, in no reasonable sense, be faid to have retained their Sceptre, their Sovereignty, or inde

pendent

pendent Rule. But it may be replied," that the Prophecy by departure, meant a final departure; and in thefe inftances it was but temporary: for CYRUS reftored the Sceptre to them; and when it was again loft in the grecian Empire, the MACCABEI recovered it for them." Though this be allowed, yet we must ftill confefs, that the Romans, who, under Pompey reduced Judea to a dependant Province, effectually overthrew the Prophecy, POMPEY took Jerufalem; and left to Hyrcanus, the laft of the Afmonean family, only the office of High-Prieft. From this time, to the birth of Chrift, it was ever in dependence on the Romans, who difpofed of all things at their pleasure. The Senate gave the Government of Judæa to Antipater; and then to Herod his Son, under the title of King. And Archelaus, on the Death of his Father, did not dare to take poffeffion of this fubject-kingdom, till he had obtained leave of Auguftus: who afterwards, on complaint of the Jews against him, banished him into the Weft, where he died. Now the precarious Rule of a dependent Monarch could no more be called a Sceptre (which in the figurative mode of all languages, fignifies Sovereignty) than the condition of the Jews could be faid to be fovereign, when this Archelaus was depofed, and Coponius a Roman Knight made procurator of Judæa, at that time which the fupporters of this interpretation fix for the Departure of the Sceptre.

I reckon for nothing another objection which has been made to the common interpretation, "That after the return from the Captivity, the Jews were, from time to time, under a form of Government resembling rather the Aristocratic than the Monarchic;" because the Sceptre or Sovereignty,

R 4

reignty, belongs equally to all thofe Forms. This then makes no more against the common interpretation, than the other, I am now going to mention, makes for it, namely, that the Senate of Rome gave the Government of Judæa to Herod under the title of KING; fince the dependent rule of this Roitelet was as certainly the departure of a Sceptre, as a Sovereignty under an ariftocratic Government was the continuance of it.

The learned Father Tournemine was fo embarraffed with these difficulties, that in a differtation on the Sceptre of Judah, he endeavours to fhẹw, that the proof of the predicted birth of Christ from this Prophefy, arifes not from the departure of the Sceptre, but from its re-establishment under the Meffiah. Which thefis, (as the intelligent reader may obferve) fairly put him in the road; and, had it been purfued, would have led him, to the sense I am here endeavouring to establish,

The fecond branch of the common interpreta, tion is, That, by the Sceptre is fignified a civil fovereignty in the tribe of Judah. This, in my opinion, has still less of stability than the other. It fupposes that the Sceptre, or the fupreme rule of the Jewish People, remained in natives of that Tribe, from the time of David to the coming of Christ. But Petavius hath fhewn, that from the giving of the Prophecy to the time of David, (a Space of above fix hundred Years) there was but one or two Rulers defcended from the Tribe of Judah: And that from the death of Sedecias to the birth of Christ (a space of near the fame number of years) all the Rulers of the Jewish People were of other

h

Journal de Trevoux. Mars 1705. & Feb. 1721.

Tribes ;

Tribes; the Afmonean princes particularly being all of the tribe of Levi?.The Abbé de Houteville, who, at a very eafy rate, hath obtained the reputation of an able defender of Revelation *, hath indeed invented a curious expedient to evade this difficulty. His fyftem is, that the rulers of the tribe of Levi (and fo I fuppofe of the reft) exercised this Sovereignty by leave, or deputation from the Tribe of Judah. To fuch wretched shifts are learned men reduced, when they have reverfed the order of things, and made Truth to wait upon their Syftems; instead of making their Systems fubfervient to Truth.

These two fenfes, (by one or other of which the common interpretation hath been long fupported) being found on a stricter fcrutiny, to be intenable, men caft about for a third: and a happy one it was thought to be, which contrived, that, Sceptre fhould fignify a domeftic, not a civil rule; a TRIBAL, not a SOVEREIGN Sceptre, and of which, they fay, JuDAH, at the giving of the Prophecy, was already poffeffed. This expedient, the learned Dr. Sher

At complures antiquorum recentiorumque qui in illa Jacobi fententia Judam peculiari de tribu intellexerunt, id fibi Patriarcham voluiffe credunt, ex ftirpe ac progenie Judæ filii ipfius perpetuo Judæis præfuturum aliquem eorumque fore principem, donec Chriftus adveniat. Sed in hujus reddenda difti ratione multum æftuant, fiquidem vetuftatis omni tefte memoriâ refelluntur, quæ non folum ante Davidem unum alterumve duntaxat ex illa tribu rexiffe populum oftendit, annis circiter 675 ab edita prohetia; fed etiam poft Sedecias necem, occafumque Urbis & Templi ad Chriftum ufque de alia quam Jude firpe duces extitiffe annis 588; et enim Machabæos conftat ex Levitica et Sacerdotali progenie defcendere. Ration. Temporum, Par. II. L. III. C. 16.

* See his book intitled, Religion prouvée par les Faits.

lock,