2.) _Her'od's temple._ Her'od was thoroughly hated by the Jews, less for his character than for his foreign birth. To gain their favor he began rebuilding the temple upon a magnificent scale. It was not completed until long after his death, which took place at Jer'i-cho about the time when Je'sus Christ, the true King of the Jews, was born (Matt. 2. 1, 2). 3.) _The tetrarchies._ By Her'od's will his dominions were divided into four tetrarchies ("quarter-rulings," a title for a fourth part of a kingdom). Three of these were in Pal'es-tine: Ar-che-la'us receiving Ju-de'a, I-du-me'a, and Sa-ma'ri-a; An'ti-pas (the Her'od of Luke 3. 1; 9. 7; 23. 7-11) receiving Gal'i-lee and Pe-re'a; and Phil'ip (Luke 3. 1) having the district of Ba'shan. About A. D. 6 Ar-che-la'us was deposed, and a Ro'man, Co-po'ni-us, was appointed the first procurator of Ju-de'a, which was made a part of the prefecture of Syr'i-a. The rest of Jew'ish annals belongs properly to the New Testament history. II. Through these periods we notice the gradual =Preparation for the Gospel=, which was steadily advancing. 1. =There was a political preparation.= Six centuries before Christ the world around the Med-i-ter-ra'ne-an was divided into states, whose normal condition was war. At no time was peace prevalent over all the world at once. If Christ had come at that time it would have been impossible to establish the gospel except through war and conquest. But kingdoms were absorbed into empires, empires rose and fell by turns, each with a larger conception of the nation than its predecessor. From the crude combination of undigested states in the As-syr'i-an empire to the orderly, assimilated, systematic condition of the Ro'man world was a great advance. Christ appeared at the only point in the world's history when the great nations of the world were under one government, with a system of roads such that a traveler could pass from Mes-o-po-ta'mi-a to Spain and could sail the Med-i-ter-ra'ne-an Sea in perfect safety. 2. =There was a preparation of language.= The conquests of Al-ex-an'der, though accomplished in ten years, left a deeper impress upon the world than any other two centuries of history. They gave to the whole of that world one language, the noblest tongue ever spoken by human lips, "a language fit for the gods," as men said. Through Al-ex-an'der, Greek cities were founded everywhere in the East, Greek kingdoms were established, the Greek literature and Greek civilization covered all the lands. That was the language in which Paul preached the gospel, and in which the New Testament was written--the only language of the ancient world in which the thoughts of the gospel could be readily expressed. While each land had its own tongue, the Greek tongue was common in all lands.