Difference between revisions of "Claudius"

<p> a Roman emperor; he succeeded [[Caius]] Caligula, A.D. 41, and reigned thirteen years, eight months, and nineteen days, dying A.D. 54. King Agrippa was the principal means of persuading Claudius to accept the empire, which was tendered him by the soldiers. As an acknowledgment for this service, he gave Agrippa all Judea, and the kingdom of [[Chalcis]] to his brother Herod. He put an end to the dispute which had for some time existed between the Jews of [[Alexandria]] and the other freemen of that city, and confirmed the Jews in the possession of their right of freedom, which they had enjoyed from the beginning, and every where maintained them in the free exercise of their religion. But he would not permit them to hold any assemblies at Rome. King Agrippa dying A.D. 44, the emperor again reduced [[Judea]] into a province, and sent Cuspius Fadus to be governor. About the same time the famine happened which is mentioned &nbsp;Acts 11:28-30 , and was foretold by the [[Prophet]] Agabus. Claudius, in the ninth year of his reign, published an edict for expelling all Jews out of Rome, &nbsp;Acts 18:2 . It is very probable that the Christians, who were at that time confounded with the Jews, were banished likewise. </p> <p> <strong> 2. </strong> [[Claudius Felix]]  successor of [[Cumanus]] in the government of Judea. Felix found means to solicit and engage Drusilla, sister of Agrippa the Younger, to leave her husband Azizus, king of the Emessenians, and to marry him, A.D. 53. Felix sent to Rome Eleazar, son of Dinaeus, captain of a band of robbers, who had committed great ravages in Palestine; he procured the death of Jonathan, the high priest, who sometimes freely represented to him his duty; he defeated a body of three thousand men, whom an Egyptian, a false prophet, had assembled upon the Mount of Olives. St. Paul being brought to Cesarea, where Felix usually resided, was well treated by this governor, who permitted his friends to see him, and render him services, hoping the [[Apostle]] would procure his redemption by a sum of money. He however neither condemned Paul, nor set him at liberty, when the Jews accused him; but adjourned the determination of this affair till the arrival of Lysias, who commanded the troops at Jerusalem, where he had taken Paul into custody, and who was expected at Cesarea, &nbsp; Acts 23:26-27 , &c; &nbsp;Acts 24:1-3 , &c. </p> <p> While the Apostle was thus detained, Felix, with his wife Drusilla, who was a Jewess, sent for him, and desired him to explain the religion of Jesus Christ. The Apostle spoke with his usual boldness, and discoursed to them on justice, temperance, and the last judgment. Felix trembled before this powerful exhibition of truths so arousing to his conscience; but he remanded St. Paul to his confinement. He farther detained him two years at Cesarea, in compliance with the wishes of the Jews, and in order to do something to propitiate them, because they were extremely dissatisfied with his government. Being recalled to Rome, A.D. 60; and many Jews going thither to complain of the extortions and violence committed by him in Judea, he would have been put to death, if his brother Pallas, who had been Claudius's slave, and was now his freedman, had not preserved him. Felix was succeeded in the government of Judea by [[Porcius]] Festus. </p>

<li> Claudius Lysias, a Greek who, having obtained by purchase the privilege of Roman citizenship, took the name of Claudius (&nbsp;Acts 21:31-40; &nbsp;22:28; &nbsp;23:26 ). <div> <p> '''Copyright Statement''' These dictionary topics are from M.G. Easton [[M.A., DD]]  Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Third Edition, published by [[Thomas]] Nelson, 1897. Public Domain. </p> <p> '''Bibliography Information''' Easton, Matthew George. Entry for 'Claudius'. Easton's Bible Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/ebd/c/claudius.html. 1897. </p> </div> </li>

<p> '''Claudius Lysias''' ( ''Klaw'Di-Ŭs Lĭsh'Ĭ-As'' or ''Lĭs'Ĭ-As'' ). A Roman tribune, commanding in Jerusalem. His conduct on two occasions, in reference to Paul, is creditable to his efficiency and humanity. &nbsp;Acts 21:31-40; &nbsp;Acts 22:1-30; &nbsp;Acts 23:1-35. </p>

<p> ( '''''Κλαύδιος''''' , for Lat. ''Claudius,'' perh. from ''Claudus, Lime'' ) '','' the name of two Romans mentioned in the N.T. (See Felix). </p> <p> '''1.''' The fourth Roman emperor (excluding J. Caesar), who succeeded [[Caligula]] Jan. 25, A.D. 41. His full name was [[Tiberius Claudius Drusus Nero Caesar Augustus Germanicus]]  He was the son of Drusus and Antonia, and was born Aug. 1, B.C. 10, at Lyons, in Gaul. Losing his father in infancy, he was abandoned to the care and society of domestics, and despised by his imperial relatives (Tacitus, ''Ann.'' 6, 46, 1 Suetonius, ''Claud.'' 2). [[Notwithstanding]] the weakness of intellect resulting from this neglect, he devoted himself to literary pursuits, and was the author of several treatises. On the murder of Caligula, he hid himself through fear of sharing his relative's fate, but was found by a soldier, at whose feet he fell a suppliant, but who saluted him emperor; and he was thus unexpectedly, and almost by force, hurried into the popular assembly, and constituted emperor chiefly by the Praetorian Guards, under promise of a largess to each soldier (Suetonius, ''Claud.'' 10). According to [[Josephus]] ( ''Ant.'' 19, 2, 1, 3 and 4), the throne was in a great measure finally secured to him through the ad- dress and solicitations of Herod Agrippa I (q.v.). </p> <p> This obligation he returned by great and peculiar favors to that personage, for he enlarged the territory of Agrippa by adding to it Judaea, Samaria, and some' districts of Lebanon, and appointed his brother Herod to the kingdom of Chalcis (Josephus, Ant. 19, 5, 1; Dion Cassius, 60:8), giving to this latter also, after his brother's death, the presidency over the [[Temple]] at [[Jerusalem]] (Josephus, Ant. 20, 1, 3). Indeed, the Jews were generally treated 1by him with indulgence, especially those in Asia and Egypt (Ant. 19, 5, 2, 3; 20:1, 2), although those in Palestine seem to have at times suffered much oppression at the hands of his governors (Tacitus, Hist. 5, 9, etc.); but about the middle of his reign those who abode at Rome were all banished thence (&nbsp;Acts 18:2; see Hebenstreit, De ''Judaeo [[Roma]] Exule,'' Lips. 1714). From the language of Suetonius in relating this event (Claud. 25), it is evident that the [[Christians]] were also indiscriminately included in the execution of the edict as a sect of the Jews, if, indeed, they were not the more numerous part of that portion of the inhabitants: "Judaeos, imlulsore Chresto [i.e. Christo, see Rossal, De Christo, in Chrestum commutato, Gron. 1717] assidue tumultuantes, Roma expulit" ("He banished the Jews from Rome on account of the continual disturbances they made at the instigation of one Chrestus"). (See [[Chrestus]]). </p> <p> The historian has evidently, in his ignorance of the merits of the case, attributed the proverbial insurrectionary spirit of the Jews to the influence of Christianity, a confusion which the disputes between the Jews and Christians on the subject of the [[Messiah]] may have contributed to increase. Suetonius does not give the exact year of this event, nor can it be made out from any other classical authority; he mentions it, however, in connection with other events which are known to have taken place at different dates between A.D. 44 and 53: a comparison of the associated events in the Acts appears to fix it in the year A.D. 49. Orosius (Hist. 7, 6) fixes it in the ninth year of Claudius, A.D. 49 or 50, referring to Josephus, who, however, says nothing about it. Pearson (Annal. Paul. p. 22) thinks the twelfth year more probable (A.D. 52 or 53). [[Anger]] remarks (De ratione temporum in [[Actis]] App. p. 117) that the edict of expulsion would hardly be published as long as Herod Agrippa was at Rome, i.e. before the year 49. The Jews, however, soon returned to Rome. Several famines occurred under Claudius from unfavorable harvests (Dion Cass. 60:11; Eusebius. Chron. Armen. 1, 269, 271; Tacit. Ann. 12, 43), one of which, in the fourth year of his reign, under the procurators Cuspius Fadus and Tiberius [[Alexander]] (Joseph. Ant. 20, 2, 6; 5, 2), extended to Palestine and Syria, and appears to be that which was foretold by Agabus (&nbsp;Acts 11:28; see Biscoe, ''On Acts,'' p. 60, 66; Lardner, Credibility, 1, 11; Kitto, [[Daily]] Bible Illust., last vol., p. 229- 232; compare Kuinol, in loc.; also Krebs, Obs. in N.T. p. 210). </p> <p> The conduct of Claudius during his government, in so far as it was not under the influence of his wives and freedmen, was mild and popular, and he made several beneficial enactments (see Merivale, Romans unders the Empire, 5 474 sq.). He also erected numerous public buildings, and carried out several important public works. Having married his niece Agrippina, she prevailed upon him to set aside his own son Britannicus in favor of her own son Nero by a former marriage; but, discovering that he regretted this step, she poisoned him on the 13th of October, A.D. 54. (See Smith's Dictionary of Classical Biography, s.v.) During the reign of Claudius several persecutions of Christians by Jews took place in the dominions of Herod Agrippa, and in one of them the apostle James was executed. These dominions embraced by far the largest number of [[Christian]] congregations which were established up to the time of his death (A.D. 44). After his death, most of the territory over which he had ruled was reincorporated with the Roman empire, his son, Agrippa II, receiving only [[Trachonitis]] and Gaulonitis. Thus the Christian congregations began to attract to a larger degree the attention of the Roman authorities. At the same time, the apostle Paul began to establish congregations in many of the larger cities of the empire, while those of earlier origin assumed much larger dimensions. Nevertheless, the difference between Jews and Christians was not generally understood by the Roman authorities, and this circumstance had some beneficial, but also some injurious consequences as regarded the Christians. On the one, hand, the missionary activity of the apostles and their helpers met with no opposition on the part of the Roman state (see Kraft, Prolus. II de nascenti [[Christi]] ecclesia sectae Judaicae nomine tuta [Erlang. 1771], and J. H. Ph. Seidenstucher, Diss. de Christianis ad Trojanum usque a Ceasaribus et Senatu Romano pro cultoribus religionis Mosaicae semper habitis [Helmstadt, 1790]); on the other hand, many who might have been willing to join the Christian Church were deterred from doing so by the fear that the yoke of all the Jewish law would be placed upon them. (See Wetzer und Welte, Kirchen-Lexikon, s.v.) </p> <p> '''2.''' [[Claudius Lysias]]  (&nbsp;Acts 23:26). (See [[Lysias]]). </p>

<p> ''''' klô´di ''''' - ''''' us ''''' ( Κλαύδιος , <i> ''''' Klaúdios ''''' </i> ): Fourth Roman emperor. He reigned for over 13 years (41-54 ad), having succeeded Caius (Caligula) who had seriously altered the conciliatory policy of his predecessors regarding the Jews and, considering himself a real and corporeal god, had deeply offended the Jews by ordering a statue of himself to be placed in the temple of Jerusalem, as [[Antiochus]] [[Epiphanes]] had done with the statue of [[Zeus]] in the days of the [[Maccabees]] (2 Macc 6:2). Claudius reverted to the policy of Augustus and Tiberius and marked the opening year of his reign by issuing edicts in favor of the Jews ( <i> Ant. </i> , Xix , 5), who were permitted in all parts of the empire to observe their laws and customs in a free and peaceable manner, special consideration being given to the Jews of Alexandria who were to enjoy without molestation all their ancient rights and privileges. The Jews of Rome, however, who had become very numerous, were not allowed to hold assemblages there (Dio LX, vi, 6), an enactment in full correspondence with the general policy of Augustus regarding [[Judaism]] in the West. The edicts mentioned were largely due to the intimacy of Claudius with Herod Agrippa, grandson of Herod the Great, who had been living in Rome and had been in some measure instrumental in securing the succession for Claudius. As a reward for this service, the [[Holy]] Land had a king once more. Judea was added to the tetrarchies of [[Philip]] and Antipas; and Herod Agrippa I was made ruler over the wide territory which had been governed by his grandfather. The Jews' own troubles during the reign of Caligula had given "rest" (the American Standard Revised Version "peace") to the churches "throughout all Judea and [[Galilee]] and Samaria" (&nbsp;Acts 9:31 ). But after the settlement of these troubles, "Herod the king put forth his hands to afflict certain of the church" (&nbsp;Acts 12:1 ). He slew one apostle and "when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to seize" another (&nbsp;Acts 12:3 ). His miserable death is recorded in &nbsp;Acts 12:20-23 , and in <i> Ant </i> , Xix , 8. This event which took place in the year 44 ad is held to have been coincident with one of the visits of Paul to Jerusalem. It has proved one of the chronological pivots of the apostolic history. </p> <p> Whatever concessions to the Jews Claudius may have been induced out of friendship for Herod Agrippa to make at the beginning of his reign, Suetonius records ( <i> Claud </i> . chapter 25) " <i> Judaeos impulsore Chresto assidue tumultuantes Roma expulit </i> ," an event assigned by some to the year 50 ad, though others suppose it to have taken place somewhat later. Among the Jews Thus banished from Rome were [[Aquila]] and [[Priscilla]] with whom Paul became associated at [[Corinth]] (&nbsp;Acts 18:2 ). With the reign of Claudius is also associated the famine which was foretold by Agabus (&nbsp;Acts 11:28 ). Classical writers also report that the reign of Claudius was, from bad harvest or other causes, a period of general distress and scarcity over the whole world (Dio LX, 11; Suet. <i> Claud </i> . xviii; Tac. <i> Ann </i> . xi. 4; xiii.43; see Mommsen, <i> Provinces of the Roman Empire </i> , chapter ix; and Conybeare and Howson, <i> Life and [[Epistles]] of Paul </i> , I). </p>