The Years Preceding the Coming of the Savior.

The events that took place later in the history of the Jewish people are not recorded in the Bible.

In 63 B.C. the Holy Land was occupied by the Roman commander Pompey. From that time on,

Palestine with its four regions became subject and tributary to Rome. The power soon was con-

centrated in the hands of a crafty Edomite by the name of Antipater who managed to win the trust

of the Romans. Antipater passed the power on to his son, the cruel Herod the Great, who de-

clared himself the king of the Jews in 37 B.C. He was the first to call himself a king of the Jews

without being a Jew. During his reign the true King and Savior of the world, Jesus, was born in a

small  town  of Bethlehem.  Thus  was  fulfilled the prophecy which patriarch Jacob uttered 2000

years earlier: .The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his

feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be. (Gen. 49:9-11).