Such freedom, and, above all, the happiness which Galilee enjoyed in being much less confined in the bonds of Pharisaic pedantry, gave to this district a real superiority over Jerusalem.

The revolution, or, in other words, the belief in the Messiah, caused here a general fermentation.

Men deemed themselves on the eve of the great renovation; the Scriptures, tortured into divers meanings, fostered the most colossal hopes.

In each line of the simple writings of the Old Testament they saw the assurance, and, in a manner, the programme of the future reign, which was to bring peace to the righteous, and to seal forever the work of God.
[Footnote 1: Luke xiii.1.The Galilean movement of Judas, son of Hezekiah, does not appear to have been of a religious character; perhaps, however, its character has been misrepresented by Josephus (_Ant._, XVII.x.

5).] [Footnote 2: Jos., _Ant._, XVI.vi.2, 3; XVIII.i.