A Time of Waiting Unique in World History (II)

"The scepter shall not pass from Judah until tribute be brought him" The first of the prophecies foretelling the coming of the Messiah is found in Genesis (Gen 49:1-10) when Jacob, the son of Isaac, blesses his son before his death. "Gather round, so that I can tell you what is in store for you in the final days." And he continues, "The scepter shall not pass from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until tribute be brought him and the peoples render him obedience." This passage which has always had Messianic significance for the exegetes of Israel, took on new significance at the time of the Blessed Virgin, after Herod 1st had been made King of Judea, bringing to an end the Jewish Hasmonean dynasty. From then on, the Jews of Israel would be governed by an Edomite, the son of a Nabatean woman, who came from an Arabian tribe; even though he had converted officially to Judaism, Herod was a friend of the Romans. Judea thus became a vassal province of Rome and remained so until the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. When Octavius confirmed Herod 1st as the King of Judea, Samaria, Idumea and Galilee, also offering him the Golan plateau and the cities bordering the Mediterranean which he had been formerly compelled to give to Cleopatra, an earthquake struck Jerusalem and claimed 10,000 victims. With the accession of Herod 1st, authority passed to the Romans and the sign presaging the coming of the Messiah was fulfilled because the scepter had left Judea for good. Thus the Jews could now quite rightly reply to Pilate at Christ's trial, "We have no king except Caesar" (Jn 19:15).