My Dear Father:
When, on the morning of the Passover, it was noised abroad that the
Prophet of Galilee was entering the city by the gate of Jericho, the
whole city was stirred, and from houses and shops poured forth crowds
which turned their steps in that direction. Mary and I went upon the
house-top, hoping to see something; but far and near was visible only
a sea of heads, from which a deep murmuring arose, like the ceaseless
voice of the ocean chafing upon a rocky shore. The top of the gate-way
was visible from the place where we stood, but it was black with the
people who had crowded upon it to look down. There was heard at length
an immense shout, as of one voice, which was followed by a swaying and
onward pressure of the crowds.
"The Prophet must have entered the gate," said my Cousin Mary,
breathlessly. "How they do him honor! It is the reception of a king!"
We were in hopes he would pass by our house, as we were on one of the
chief thoroughfares, but were disappointed, as he ascended the hill of
Moriah to the Temple. A part of the ascent to the house of the Lord
is visible from our roof, and we had the satisfaction of seeing the
Prophet at a distance. We knew him only because he was in advance.
The nighest one to him, Mary said, was her Cousin John, though
at that distance I could not have recognized him. The head of the
multitude disappeared beneath the arch of the Temple, and thousands
upon thousands followed after; and in the rear rode the young Roman
centurion, whom I have before spoken of, at the head of four hundred
horse, to keep order in the vast mass. Mary could not recognize him,
saying it was too far to tell who he was; but I knew him, not only by
his air and bearing, but by the scarlet pennon that fluttered from his
iron lance, and which I had bestowed upon him, for he told me he had
lost one his fair Roman sister, Tullia, had given him, and as he so
much regretted its loss, I supplied its place by another, worked by my
own hands.
[Illustration: STREET IN JERUSALEM]
The multitude, as many as could gain admission, having entered the
great gate of the Temple, for a few minutes there was a profound
stillness. Mary said:
"He is worshiping or sacrificing now."
"Perhaps," I said, "he is addressing the people, and they listen to his
words."
While I was speaking there arose from the bosom of the Temple a loud,
irregular, strange outcry of a thousand voices, pitched to high
excitement. The people without the gate responded by a universal shout,
and then we beheld those nighest the walls retreat down the hillside
in terrified confusion, while, to increase the tumult, the Roman horse
charged up the hill, seeking to penetrate the masses to reach the
gate out of which the people poured like a living and tempest-tossed
river, before which the head of the cohort recoiled or was overwhelmed
and down-trodden! I held my breath in dreadful suspense, not knowing
the cause of the fearful scene we beheld, nor to what it might lead.
Mary sank, almost insensible, by my side. A quarter of an hour had not
passed when young Samuel Ben Azel, who had the day before come up from
Nain to the Passover with his mother, entered and explained to us the
cause of the scene I had witnessed.
"The Prophet Jesus, having entered into the Temple, found all the
courts filled with merchants, changers of money, and sellers of cattle
to the sacrificers. Portions of the sacred place were divided off by
fences, in which hundreds of sheep and cattle were stalled. On his
way to the inner Temple the Prophet found his path so obstructed by
the stalls and the tables of the brokers, that he had to go around
them, and often to turn back and take a less hedged-up avenue. At
length finding, upon the very lintel of the Court of the Priests,
a priest himself engaged at a table as a money-changer, and near
him a Levite keeping a stall for selling doves and sparrows to the
worshipers, he stopped upon the step, and turning round, cast his eye,
which now beamed with an awful majesty and power, over the scene of
noisy commerce and bartering. Every face was turned towards him in
expectation. The half-completed bargain was suspended, and buyer and
seller directed their gaze, as by a sort of fascination, not unmingled
with a strange fear and awe, upon him. Those who had crowded about him
drew back farther and farther, slowly but irresistibly widening the
space between them and him, they knew not by what impulse, till he
stood alone, save near him remained John, his disciple. The uproar of
the buying and selling suddenly subsided, and the loud lowing of the
cattle and the bleating of the sheep stopped as if a supernatural awe
had seized even the brute creation at his presence, and only the soft
cooing of doves stirred the vast, death-like stillness of the place, a
moment before a scene of oaths, cries, shouts, of running to and fro,
buying and selling, the ringing of money, and the buzz of ten thousand
voices! It was as if a hurricane, sweeping with deafening uproar of
the elements over the lashed ocean, had been suddenly arrested and
followed by a great calm. The silence was dreadful! It stopped the very
beating of my heart. Every eye of the vast multitude seemed to fasten
itself on the Prophet in expectation of some dread event. The step of
the Temple upon which he stood seemed to be a throne, and the people
before him expecting judgment. Suddenly the silence was broken by a
young man near me who gave a piercing shriek, and fell insensible upon
the marble floor. There was a general thrill of horror, yet the same
awful stillness succeeded this startling interruption. That one intense
shriek had spoken for us all. Suddenly the voice of the Prophet was
heard, clear, authoritative, and ringing like the trumpet that shook
Sinai when the Law was given.
"'It is written, My Father's house shall be called a house of prayer;
but ye have made it a den of thieves!'
"He then picked up from the pavement at his feet a small cord, which
some one had thrown down, and doubling it in the form of a scourge, he
advanced. Before his presence fled the changers of money, priests and
Levites, sellers of oxen, sellers of sheep, sellers of doves, leaving
their property to its fate.
"'Take these things hence,' cried the Prophet; 'make not my Father's
house a house of merchandise!'
"Such a scene of confusion and flight was never witnessed as now
followed! In the moment of panic I was borne along with the current.
Money tables were overturned on all sides, but not the most avaricious
one present thought, at that moment, of stopping to gather any of
the gold and silver which the rushing thousands trampled beneath
their feet. It was not the whip of small cords before which we fled,
for he touched no man therewith, but it was from the majesty of his
countenance. To the eyes of all the little whip seemed to blaze and
flash above their heads, as if it were the fiery sword of a destroying
angel. In a few moments the Priests' Court of the Temple was cleared of
every soul, as we fled towards the South gate. On looking back, I saw
that the Prophet pursued not, but stood alone, Master and Lord of the
Temple. The whip was no longer in his hand, and his whole attitude and
expression of face seemed changed from their late impress to an air of
the profoundest compassion, as he looked after us, still flying from
his presence."
My uncle, Rabbi Amos, who, on his return from the Temple, corroborated
what Samuel had stated, added that as Jesus stood alone, possessor of
the gold-strewn floors of the courts of the Temple, the High Priest
advanced towards him, and with awe, not unmixed with anger, demanded of
him by what authority he did these things.
His answer was, "My Father's house must not be made a house of
merchandise."
"Art thou the Christ?" asked the High Priest, still standing some
distance off from him.
"If I tell thee that I am, ye will not believe."
"What sign showest thou that thou art sent, and hast authority to do
what thou doest here to-day within the Temple?"
"Hast thou not had proof of my power from heaven?" answered Jesus,
stretching forth his hand towards the still terror-stricken multitude;
and then laying it upon his breast, he added: "Destroy this temple, and
in three days I will raise it up! Be this to you, O priest, and to all
Judea, the sign that I am sent by my Father who is in heaven. As he
hath given me commandment, so I do!"
At this there was a great murmuring, said Rabbi Amos, for many of the
priests, with Annas also, had got boldness and drawn near to hear.
"He cannot be a just man," said Annas, "nor doth he honor God, if he
would have us destroy the Temple."
"Yet if he be not sent of God, whence hath he this power over men?"
answered another.
"He doeth this by Beelzebub, whose prophet he doubtless is," said
Annas, in a loud tone, "for a true prophet would not seek the
destruction of God's holy house."
Thereupon there was a multitude of voices, some crying one thing, and
some another. Caiaphas at length obtained silence, and said to him with
awe:
"Art thou that Christ of the Prophets?"
"I am!" calmly and firmly answered the Prophet; and, raising his eyes
to heaven, he added impressively, "I am come down from God."
When, adds my uncle, Annas heard this, he lifted up his voice in an
exclamation of horror, and cried out:
"Hear ye this blasphemer! Let us cast him forth from the Temple which
he pollutes!"
But no man dared approach the Prophet.
"Bear witness," then said he, sorrowfully, rather than in anger, "that
I have come unto my own, and ye have received me not! This Temple of
my Father, from which you would drive me forth, shall no longer be
the dwelling place and altar of Jehovah. The day cometh when your
priesthood shall be taken away and given to others, and among the
Gentiles shall arise my Father's name, on every hill and in every
valley of the earth, holy temples, wherein he shall delight to dwell;
and men shall no longer need to worship God in Zion, but in all places
shall prayer and praise be offered to the Most High. This Temple, which
ye have polluted, shall be overthrown, and ye shall be scattered among
the nations."
Thus speaking, the Prophet quitted the Temple, leaving the High Priest
and priests and Levites standing gazing after him, without power to
utter a word.
Such, my dear father, is the account given by Rabbi Amos of what passed
in the Temple. That Jesus is the Christ is now beyond question, for he
has openly acknowledged it to the High Priest.
Adieu, dearest father. The servants are bringing in boughs for the
booths, and I must close this letter, with prayers to our fathers' God
for your peace and welfare.
Adina.