If thou wouldst not miss Mathias' discourse, Brother Jesus, thou must
hasten thy steps. He is telling that the Scriptures are but allegories.
Some of us are opposed to this view, believing that Adam and Eve
are--Yea, Brother, and my thanks to thee for thy admonishment, Jesus
said, for he did not wish to discredit Mathias' reputation for
theological argument; but no sooner was he out of sight of the
gate-keeper than he began to examine the great rock that Joseph had
predicted would one day come crashing down, and, being no wise in a
hurry, fell to wondering how much of the mountain-side it would bring
with it when it fell. At present it projected over the pathway for
several yards, making an excellent store-house, and, his thoughts
suspended between the discussion that was proceeding regarding Adam and
Eve--whether the original twain had ever lived or were but allegories
(themselves and their garden)--he began to consider if the brethren had
laid in a sufficient stock of firewood, and how long it would take him
to chop it into pieces handy for burning. He would be glad to relieve
the brethren from all such humble work, and for taking it upon himself
he would he able to plead an excuse for absenting himself from Mathias'
discourses. Hazael would not refuse to assign to him the task of feeding
the doves and the cleaning out of their coops; he would find occupation
among the vines and fig-trees--he was something of a gardener--and
Hazael would not refuse him permission to return to the hills to see
that all was well with the flocks. Jacob will need to be looked after;
and there are the dogs; and if they cannot be brought to look upon Jacob
as master their lives will be wasted, he said.
I seem to read supper in their eyes, he said, and having tied them up
supperless he visited the bitch and her puppies. Brother Ozias hasn't
forgotten to feed her. There is some food still in the platter. But they
must submit, he continued, his thoughts having returned to his dogs,
Theusa and Tharsa, and then he stood listening, for he could hear
Mathias' voice. The door of the lecture-room is closed; if I step softly
none will know that I have returned from the hills, and I can sit
unsuspected on the balcony till Mathias' allegories are ended, and
watching the evening descending on the cliff it may be that I shall be
able to examine the thoughts that assailed me as I ascended the
hillside; whether we pursue a corruptible or an incorruptible crown the
end is the same, he said. It was not enough for me to love God, I must
needs ask others to worship him, at first with words of love, and when
love failed I threatened, I raved; and the sin I fell into others will
fall into, for it s natural to man to wish to make his brother like
himself, thereby undoing the work of God. Myself am no paragon; I
condemned the priests whilst setting myself up as a priest, and spoke of
God and the will of God though in all truth I had very little more
reason than they to speak of these things. God has not created us to
know him, or only partially through our consciousness of good and evil.
Good and evil do not exist in God's eyes as in our eyes, for he is the
author of all, but it may be that our sense of good and evil was given
to us by him as a token of our divine nature. If this be true, why
should we puzzle and fret ourselves with distinctions like Mathias? It
were better to leave the mystery and attend to this life, casting out
desire to know what God is or what nature is, as well as desire for
particular things in this world which long ago I told men to
disregard.... A flight of doves distracted his attention, and a moment
after the door of the lecture-room opened and Saddoc and Manahem
appeared, carrying somebody dead or who had fainted. As they came across
the domed gallery towards the embrasure Jesus heard Manahem say: he will
return to himself as soon as we get him into the air. And they placed
him where Jesus had been sitting. A little water, Saddoc cried, and
Jesus ran to the well, and returning with a cup of water he stood by
sprinkling the worn, grey face. The heat overcame me, he murmured, but I
shall soon be well and then you will bear me back to hear--The sentence
did not finish, and Jesus said: thou'lt be better here with me, Hazael,
than listening to discourses that fatigue the mind. Mathias is very
insistent, Manahem muttered. He is indeed, Saddoc answered. And while
Jesus sat by Hazael, fearing that his life might go out at any moment,
Manahem reproved Saddoc, saying that whereas duty is the cause of all
good, we have only to look beyond our own doors to see evil everywhere.
Even so, Saddoc answered, what wouldst thou? That the world, Manahem
answered, was created by good and evil angels. Whereupon Saddoc asked
him if he numbered Lilith, Adam's first wife, among the evil angels. A
question Manahem did not answer, and, being eager to tell the story, he
turned to Jesus, who he guessed did not know it, and began at once to
tell it, after warning Jesus that it was among their oldest stories
though not to be found in the Scriptures. She must be numbered among the
evil angels, he said, remembering that Saddoc had put the question to
him, for she rebuked Adam, who took great delight in her hair, combing
it for his pleasure from morn to eve in the garden, and left him, saying
she could abide him no longer. At which words, Jesus, Adam sorrowed, and
his grief was such that God heard his sighs and asked him for what he
was grieving, and he said: I live in great loneliness, for Lilith, O
Lord, has left me, and I beg thee to send messengers who will bring her
back. Whereupon God took pity on his servant Adam and bade his three
angels, Raphael, Gabriel and Michael, to go away at once in search of
Lilith, whom they found flying over the sea, and her answer to them was
that her pleasure was now in flying, and for that reason I will not
return to Adam, she said. Is that the answer we are to bring back to
God? they asked. I have no other answer for him, she answered, being in
a humour in which it pleased her to anger God, and the anger that her
words put upon him was so great that to punish her he set himself to the
creation of a lovely companion for Adam. Be thou lonely no more, he said
to Adam. See, I have given Eve to thee. Adam was never lonely again, but
walked through a beautiful garden, enjoying Eve's beauty unceasingly,
happy as the day was long, till tidings of their happiness reached
Lilith, who by that time had grown weary of flying from sea to sea: I
will make an end of it, she said, and descending circle by circle she
went about seeking the garden, which she found at last, but failing to
find the gate or any gap in the walls she sat down and began combing her
hair. Nor was she long combing it before Lucifer, attracted by the
rustling, came by, saying: I would be taken captive in the net thou
weavest with thy hair, and she answered: not yet; for my business is in
yon garden, but into it I can find no way. Wilt lend me thy sinewy
shape, Lucifer? for in it I shall be able to glide over the walls and
coil myself into the tree of forbidden fruit, and I shall persuade Eve
as she passes to eat of it, for it will be to her great detriment to do
so. But of what good will that be to me? Lucifer answered, wouldst thou
leave me without a shape whilst thou art tempting Eve? Thy reward will
be that I will come to thee again when I have tempted Eve and made an
end of her happiness. We shall repeople the world with sons and
daughters more bright and beautiful and more supple than any that have
ever been seen yet. All the same, Lucifer answered, not liking to part
with his shape. But as his desire could not be gainsaid, he lent his
shape to Lilith for an hour. And it was in that hour our first parents
fell into sin, and were chased from the garden. Did she return to
Lucifer and fulfil her promise or did she cheat him? Saddoc asked. As
Manahem was about to answer Saddoc intervened again: Manahem, thou
overlookest the fact that Mathias holds that the Garden of Eden and Adam
and Eve, to say nothing of Lilith, are a parable, and his reason for
thinking thus is, as thou knowest well, that the Scriptures tell us that
after eating of the forbidden fruit Adam and Eve sought to hide
themselves from God among the trees.
He holds as thou sayest, Saddoc, that the garden means the mind of man
as an individual; and he who would escape from God flees from himself,
for our lives are swayed between two powers: the mind of the universe,
which is God, and the separate mind of the individual. Then, if I
understand thee rightly, Manahem, and thy master, Mathias, the
Scriptures melt into imagery? What says Jesus? This, Saddoc, that it was
with such subtleties of discourse and lengthy periods that Mathias
fatigued our Father till he fainted away in his chair. Jesus is right,
Manahem answered; it was certainly Mathias' discourse that fatigued our
Father, so why should we prolong the argument in his face while he is
coming back to life?
It was not the length of Mathias' discourse, nor his eloquence, Hazael
said, that caused my senses to swoon away. My age will not permit me to
listen long. I would be with Jesus, and I would that ye, Saddoc and
Manahem, return to the lecture-room at once, else our brother will think
his discourse has failed. Jesus is here to give the attendance I
require. Go, hasten, lest ye miss any of his points. The brethren were
about to raise a protest, but at a sign from Jesus they obeyed; Mathias'
voice was heard as soon as the door of the lecture-room was opened, but
the brethren did not forget to close it, and when silence came again
Hazael said: Jesus, come hither, sit near me, for I would speak to thee,
but cannot raise my voice. Thou'lt sleep here to-night, and to-morrow we
shall meet again. And this is well, for my days are numbered. I shall
not be here to see next year's lambs and to agree that this new shepherd
shall be recompensed by a gift of eighteen, as is the custom. And Jesus,
understanding that the president was prophesying his own death, said:
why speakest like this to me who have returned from the hills to
strangers, for all are strangers to me but thou. I shall be sorry to
leave thee, Jesus, for our lives have been twisted together, strands of
the same rope. But it must be plain to thee that I am growing weaker;
month by month, week by week, my strength is ebbing. I am going out; but
for what reason should I lament that God has not chosen to retain me a
few months longer, since my life cannot be prolonged for more than a few
months? My eighty odd years have left me with barely strength enough to
sit in the doorway looking back on the way I have come. Every day the
things of this world grow fainter, and life becomes to me an unreal
thing, and myself becomes unreal to those around me; only to thee do I
retain anything of my vanished self. So why should I remain? For thy
sake, lest thou be lonely here? Well, that is reason enough, and I will
bear the burden of life as well as I can for thy sake. A burden it is,
and for a reason that thou mayest not divine, for thou art still a young
man in my eyes, and, moreover, hast not lived under a roof for many
years listening to learned interpretations of Scripture. Thou hast not
guessed, nor wilt thou ever guess, till age reveals it to thee, that as
we grow old we no longer concern ourselves to love God as we used to
love him. No one would have thought, not even thou, whose mind is always
occupied with God, and who is more conscious of him perhaps than any one
I have known, no one, I say, not even thou, would have thought that as
we approach death our love of God should grow weaker, but this is so. In
great age nothing seems to matter, and it is this indifference that I
wish to escape from. Thou goest forth in the morning to lead thy flock
in search of pasture, if need be many hours, and God is nearer to us in
the wilderness than he is among men. This meaning, Jesus said, that
under this roof I, too, may cease to love God? Not cease to love God:
one doesn't cease to love God, Hazael answered. But, Hazael, this night
I've yielded up the flocks to a new shepherd, for my limbs have grown
weary, and what thou tellest me of old age frightens me. Thou wouldst
warn me that God is only loved on the hills under the sky---- I am too
weak to choose my thoughts or my words, and many things pass out of my
mind, Hazael answered. Had I remembered I shouldn't have spoken. But why
not speak, Father? Jesus asked, so that I may be prepared in a measure
for the new life that awaits me. Life never comes twice in the same way,
Hazael replied; nor do the same things befall any two men. I know not
what may befall thee: but the sky, Jesus, will always be before thine
eyes and the green fields under thy feet, even while listening to
Mathias. But thou didst live once under the sky, Jesus said. Not long
enough, Hazael murmured, but the love of God was ardent in me when I
walked by day and night, sleeping under the stars, seeking young men who
could give up their lives to the love of God and bringing them back
hither into the fold of the Essenes. In those days there was little else
in me but love of God, and I could walk from dusk to dusk without
wearying; twelve and fifteen hours were not too many for my feet: my
feet bounded along the road while my eyes followed white clouds moving
over the sky; I dreamed of them as God's palaces, and I saw God not only
in the clouds but in the grass, and in the fields, and the flower that
covers the fields. I read God in the air and in the waters: and in every
town in Palestine I sought out those that loved God and those that could
learn to love God. I could walk well in those days, fifteen hours were
less than as many minutes are now. I have walked from Jerusalem to Joppa
in one day, and the night that I met thy father outside Nazareth I had
walked twelve hours, though I had been delayed in the morning: eight
hours before midday, and after a rest in the wood I went on again for
several hours more, how many I do not know, I've forgotten. I did not
know the distance that I had walked till I met thy father coming home
from his work, his tools in the bag upon his shoulder. His voice is
still in my ear. But if it be to Nazareth thou'rt going, come along with
me, he said. And I can still hear ourselves talking, myself asking him
to direct me to a lodging, and his answering: there's a house in the
village where thou'lt get one, and I'll lead thee to it. But all the
beds in that house were full; we knocked at other inns, but the men and
women and children in them were asleep and not to be roused; and if by
chance our knocking awakened somebody we were bidden away with threats
that the dogs would be loosed upon us. Nazareth looks not kindly on the
wayfarer to-night, I said. Yet it shall not be said that a stranger had
to sleep in the streets of Nazareth, were thy father's very words to me,
Jesus. Come to my house, he said, though it be small and we have to put
somebody out of his bed, it will be better than that our town should
gain evil repute. Thou canst not have forgotten me coming, for thy
father shook thee out of thy sleep and told thee that he wanted thy bed
for a stranger. I can see thee still standing before me in thy shift,
and though the hours I'd travelled had gone down into my very marrow,
and sleep was heavy upon my eyes, yet a freshness came upon me as of the
dawn when I looked on thee, and my heart told me that I had found one
that would do honour to the Essenes, and love God more than any I had
ever met with yet. But I think I hear thee weeping, Jesus. Now, for what
art thou weeping? There is nothing sad in the story, only that it is a
long time ago. Our speech next day still rings in my ear--my telling
thee of the Pharisees that merely minded the letter of the law, and of
the Sadducees that said there was no life outside this world except for
angels. It is well indeed that I remember our two selves sitting by the
door on two stools set under a vine, and it throwing pretty patterns of
shadow on the pavement whilst we talked--whilst I talked to thee of the
brethren, who lived down by the Bitter Lake, no one owning anything more
than his fellow, so that none might be distracted from God by the
pleasures of this world. I can see clearly through the years thy face
expectant, and Nazareth--the deeply rutted streets and the hills above.
The days that we walked in Nazareth are pleasant memories, for I could
never tell thee enough about the Essenes: their contempt of riches, and
that if there were one among them who had more than another, on entering
the order he willingly shared it. We were among the hills the day that I
told thee about the baker; how he put a platter with a loaf on it before
each of the brethren, how they broke bread, deeming the meal sacred, and
it was the next day that we bade farewell to thy father and thy mother
and started on our journey; a long way, but one that did not seem long
to us, so engaged were we with our hopes. It was with me thou sawest
Jerusalem for the first time; and I remember telling thee as we
journeyed by the Jordan seeking a ford that the Essenes looked upon oil
as a defilement, and if any one of them be anointed without his
approbation it is wiped off, for we think to be sweaty is a good thing,
and to be clothed in white garments, and never to change these till they
be torn to pieces or worn out by time.
And of the little band that came with us that day from Galilee there
remain Saddoc, Manahem and thyself. All of you learnt from me on the
journey that we laboured till the fifth hour and then assembled together
again clothed in white veils, after having bathed our bodies in cold
water. But, Jesus, why this grief? Because I am going from thee? But,
dear friend, to come and to go is the law of life, and it may be that I
shall be with thee longer than thou thinkest for; eighty odd years may
be lengthened into ninety: the patriarchs lived till a hundred and more
years, and we believe that the soul outlives the body. Out of the
chrysalis we escape from our corruptible bodies, and the beautiful
butterfly flutters Godward. Grieve for me a little when I am gone, but
grieve not before I go, for I would see thy face always happy, as I
remember it in those years long ago in Nazareth. Jesus, Jesus, thou
shouldst not weep like this! None should weep but for sin, and thy life
is known to me from the day in Nazareth when we sat in the street
together to the day that thou wentest to the Jordan to get baptism from
John.
Ah! that day was the only day that my words were unheeded. But I am
saying things that would seem to wound thee, and for why I know not!
Tell me if my words wound or call up painful memories. Thy suffering is
forgotten, or should be, for if ever any man merited love and admiration
for a sincere and holy life thou---- I beg of thee, Father, not to say
another word, for none is less worthy than I am. The greatest sinner
amongst us is sitting by thee, one that has not dared to tell his secret
to thee.... The memory of my sin has fed upon me and grown stronger,
becoming a devil within me, but till now I have lacked courage to come
to thee and ask thee to cast it out. But now since thou art going from
us this year or the next, I wouldn't let thee go without telling it; to
none may I tell it but to thee, for none else would understand it. I am
listening, Jesus, Hazael answered.
The mutter of the water in the valley below them arose and grew louder
in the silence; as Jesus prepared to speak his secret the doors of the
lecture-room opened and the monks came out singing:
In the Lord put I my trust:
How say ye to my soul, Flee
As a bird to your mountain?
For, lo, the wicked bend their
Bow, they make ready their arrow
Upon the string, that they may privily
Shoot at the upright in heart.
If the foundations be destroyed, what
Can the righteous do?
For the righteous Lord loveth
Righteousness; his countenance
Doth behold the upright.
The words of the psalm are intended for me, Jesus whispered, and now
that the brethren are here I may not speak, but to-morrow---- There may
be no to-morrow for us, the president answered. Even so, Jesus answered,
I cannot speak to-night. It is as if I were bidden to withhold my secret
till to-morrow. We know not why we speak or why we are silent, but
silence has been put upon me by the words of the psalm. Be it so, the
president answered, and he was helped by Saddoc and Manahem to his feet.
Our Brother Jesus, he said, has given over the charge of our flocks to a
young shepherd in whom he has confidence, and Jesus sleeps under a roof
to-night, the first for many years, for, like us, he is getting older,
and the rains and blasts of last winter have gone into his bones. All
the cells, Father, Saddoc replied, are filled. I know that well, Saddoc,
Hazael said as he went out; Jesus can sleep here on these benches; a
mattress and a cloak will be sufficient for him who has slept in
caverns, or in valleys on heaps of stones that he piled so that he might
not drown in the rains. Manahem will get thee a mattress, Jesus; he
knows where to find one. I am strong enough to walk alone, Saddoc. And
disengaging himself from Saddoc's arm he walked with the monks towards
his cell, joining them in the psalm:
All the powers of the Lord
Bless ye the Lord; praise and
Exalt him above all for ever.
As the doors of the cell closed Saddoc approached Jesus, and, breaking
his reverie, he said: thou hast returned to us at last; and it was not
too soon, for the winter rains are cold on bones as old as thine. But
here comes Manahem with a mattress for thee. On the bench here, Manahem;
on the bench he'll lie comfortably, and we'll get him a covering, for
the nights are often chilly though the days be hot, we must try to make
a comfortable resting-place for him that has guarded our flocks these
long years. Wilt tell us if thou beest glad to yield thy flock to Jacob
and if he will sell ewes and rams to the Temple for sacrifice? Ask me
not any questions to-night, Brother Saddoc, for I'm troubled in mind.
Forgive me my question, Jesus, Saddoc answered, and the three Essenes,
leaning over the edge of the gorge, stood listening to the mutter of the
brook. At last, to break the silence that the brook rumpled without
breaking, Jesus asked if a wayfarer never knocked at the door of the
cenoby after dark asking for bread and board. None knows the path well
enough to keep to it after dark, Saddoc said; though the moon be high
and bright the shadows disguise the path yonder. The path is always in
darkness where it bends round the rocks, and the wayfarer would miss his
footing and fall over into the abyss, even though he were a shepherd.
Thyself wouldst miss it. Saddoc speaks well; none can follow the path,
Manahem said, and fortunately, else we should have all the vagrants of
the country knocking at our door.
We shall have one to-night--vagrant or prophet, Jesus said, and asked
his brethren to look yonder; for it seemed to him that a man had just
come out of the shadow of an overhanging rock. Manahem could see nobody,
for, he said, none could find the way in the darkness, and if it be a
demon, he continued, and fall, it will not harm him: the devil will hold
him up lest he dash himself at the bottom of the ravine. But if it be a
man of flesh and blood like ourselves he will topple over yon rock, and
Manahem pointed to a spot, and they waited, expecting to see the shadow
or the man they were watching disappear, but the man or the shadow kept
close to the cliffs, avoiding what seemed to be the path so skilfully
that Saddoc and Manahem said he must know the way. He will reach the
bridge safely, cried Saddoc, and we shall have to open our doors to him.
Now he is crossing the bridge, and now he begins the ascent. Let us pray
that he may miss the path through the terraces. But would you have him
miss it, Saddoc, Jesus asked, for the sake of thy rest? He shall have my
mattress; I'll sleep on this bench in the window under the sky, and
shall be better there: a roof is not my use nor wont. But who, said
Saddoc, can he be?--for certainly the man, if he be not an evil spirit,
is coming to ask for shelter for the night; and if he be not a demon he
may be a prophet or robber: once more the hills are filled with robbers.
Or it may be, Jesus said, the preacher of whom Jacob spoke to me this
evening; he came up from the Jordan with a story of a preacher that the
multitude would not listen to and sought to drown in the river, and our
future shepherd told me how the rabble had followed him over the hills
with the intent to kill him. Some great and terrible heresy he must be
preaching to stir them like that, Manahem said, and he asked if the
shepherd had brought news of the prophet's escape or death. Jesus
answered that the shepherd thought the prophet had escaped into a cave,
for he saw the crowd dispersing, going home like dogs from a hunt when
they have lost their prey. If so, he has been lying by in the cave. Who
can he be? Saddoc asked. Only a shepherd could have kept to the path.
Now he sees us ... and methinks he is no shepherd, but a robber.
The Essenes waited a few moments longer and the knocking they had
expected came at their door. Do not open it, Saddoc cried. He is for
sure a robber sent in advance of his band, or it may be a prisoner of
the Romans, and to harbour him may put us on crosses above the hills. We
shall hang! Open not the door! If it be a wayfarer lost among the hills
a little food and water will save him, Jesus answered. Open not the
door, Jesus; though he be a prophet I would not open to him. A prophet
he may be, and no greater danger besets us, for our later prophets
induced men to follow them into the desert, promising that they should
witness the raising of the dead with God riding the clouds and coming
down for judgment. I say open not the door to him, Jesus! He may be one
of the followers of the prophets, of which we have seen enough in these
last years, God knows! The cavalry of Festus may be in pursuit of him
and his band, and they have cut down many between Jerusalem and Jericho.
I say open not the door! We live among terrors and dangers, Jesus; open
not the door! Hearken, Saddoc, he calls us to open to him, Jesus said,
moving towards the door. He is alone. We know he is, for we have seen
him coming down a path on which two men pass each other with difficulty.
He is a wayfarer, and we've been safe on this ledge of rock for many
years; and times are quieter now than they have been since the dispersal
of the great multitude that followed Theudas and were destroyed, and the
lesser multitude that followed Banu; they, too, have perished.
Open not the door, Jesus! Saddoc cried again. There are Sicarii who kill
men in the daytime, mingling themselves among the multitude with daggers
hidden in their garments, their mission being to stab those that disobey
the law in any fraction. We're Essenes, and have not sent blood
offerings to the Temple. Open not the door. Sicarii or Zealots travel in
search of heretics through the cities of Samaria and Judea. Open not the
door! Men are for ever fooled, Saddoc continued, and will never cease to
open their doors to those who stand in need of meat and drink. It will
be safer, Jesus, to bid him away. Tell him rather that we'll let down a
basket of meat and drink from the balcony to him. Art thou, Manahem, for
turning this man from the door or letting him in? Jesus asked. There is
no need to be frightened, Manahem answered; he is but a wanderer,
Saddoc. A wanderer he cannot be, for he has found his way along the path
in the darkness of the night, Saddoc interjected. Open not the door, I
tell thee, or else we all hang on crosses above the hills to-morrow.
But, Saddoc, we are beholden to the law not to refuse bed and board to
the poor, Manahem replied, returning from the door. If we do not open,
Jesus said, he will leave our door, and that will be a greater
misfortune than any that he may bring us. Hearken, Saddoc! He speaks
fair enough, Saddoc replied; but we may plead that after sunset in the
times we live in---- But, Manahem, Jesus interjected, say on which side
thou art.... We know there is but one man; and we are more than a match
for one. Put a sword in Saddoc's hand. No! Manahem! for I should seem
like a fool with a sword in my hand. Since thou sayest there is but one
man and we are three, it might be unlucky to turn him from our doors.
May I then open to him? Jesus asked, and he began to unbar the great
door, and a heavy, thick-set man, weary of limb and mind, staggered into
the gallery, and stood looking from one to the other, as if trying to
guess which of the three would be most likely to welcome him. His large
and bowed shoulders made his bald, egg-shaped skull (his turban had
fallen in his flight) seem ridiculously small; it was bald to the ears,
and a thick black beard spread over the face like broom, and nearly to
the eyes; thick black eyebrows shaded eyes so piercing and brilliant
that the three Essenes were already aware that a man of great energy had
come amongst them. He had run up the terraces despite his great
girdlestead and he stood before them like a hunted animal, breathing
hard, looking from one to the other, a red, callous hand scratching in
his shaggy chest, his eyes fixed first on Saddoc and then on Manahem and
lastly on Jesus, whom he seemed to recognise as a friend. May I rest a
little while? If so, give me drink before I sleep, he asked. No food,
but drink. Why do ye not answer? Do ye fear me, mistaking me for a
robber? Or have I wandered among robbers? Where am I? Hark: I am but a
wayfarer and thou'rt a shepherd of the hills, I know thee by thy garb,
thou'lt not refuse me shelter. And Jesus, turning to Saddoc and Manahem,
said: he shall have the mattress I was to sleep upon. Give it to him,
Manahem. Thou shalt have food and a coverlet, he said, turning to the
wayfarer. No food! he cried; but a drink of water. There is some ewe's
milk on the shelf, Manahem. Thou must be footsore, he said, giving the
milk to the stranger, who drank it greedily. I'll get thee a linen
garment so that thou mayst sleep more comfortable; and I'll bathe thy
feet before sleep; sleep will come easier in a fresh garment. But to
whose dwelling have I come? the stranger asked. A shepherd told me the
Essenes lived among the rocks.... Am I among them? He told me to keep
close to the cliff's edge or I should topple over. We watched thee, and
it seemed every moment that thou couldst not escape death. It will be
well to ask him his name and whence he comes, Saddoc whispered to
Manahem. The shepherd told thee that we are Essenes, and it remains for
thee to tell us whom we entertain. A prisoner of the Romans---- A
prisoner of the Romans! Saddoc cried. Then indeed we are lost; a
prisoner of the Romans with soldiers perhaps at thy heels! A prisoner
fled from Roman justice may not lodge here.... Let us put him beyond our
doors. And becoming suddenly courageous Saddoc went up to Paul and tried
to lift him to his feet. Manahem, aid me!
Jesus, who had gone to fetch a basin of water and a garment, returned
and asked Saddoc and Manahem the cause of their unseemly struggle with
their guest. They replied that their guest had told them he was a
prisoner of the Romans. Even so, Jesus answered, we cannot turn him from
our doors. These men have little understanding, Paul answered. I'm not a
criminal fled from Roman justice, but a man escaped from Jewish
persecution. Why then didst thou say, cried Saddoc, that thou'rt a
prisoner of the Romans? Because I would not be taken to Jerusalem to be
tried before the Jews. I appealed to Cæsar, and while waiting on the
ship to take me to Italy, Festus gave me leave to come here, for I heard
that there were Jews in Jericho of great piety, men unlike the Jews of
Jerusalem, who though circumcised in the flesh are uncircumcised in
heart and ear. Of all of this I will tell you to-morrow, and do you tell
me now of him that followed me along the cliff. We saw no one following
thee; thou wast alone. He may have missed me before I turned down the
path coming from Jericho. I speak of Timothy, my beloved son in the
faith. What strange man is this that we entertain for the night? Saddoc
whispered to Manahem. And if any disciple of mine fall into the hands of
the Jews of Jerusalem---- We know not of what thou'rt speaking, Jesus
answered; and it is doubtless too long a story to tell to-night. I must
go at once in search of Timothy, Paul said, and he turned towards the
door. The moon is setting, Jesus cried, and returning to-night will mean
thy death over the cliffs edge. There is no strength in thy legs to keep
thee to the path. I should seek him in vain, Paul answered. Rest a
little while, Jesus said, and drink a little ewe's milk, and when thou
hast drunken I'll bathe thy feet.
Without waiting for Paul's assent he knelt to untie his sandals. We came
from Cæsarea to Jericho to preach the abrogation of the law. What
strange thing is he saying now? The abrogation of the law! Saddoc
whispered to Manahem. The people would not listen to us, and, stirred up
by the Jews, they sought to capture us, but we escaped into the hills
and hid in a cave that an angel pointed out to us. Hark, an angel
pointed out a cave to him! Manahem whispered in Saddoc's ear. Then he
must be a good man, Saddoc answered, but we know not if he speaks the
truth. We have had too many prophets; he is another, and of the same
tribe, setting men by the ears. We have had too many prophets!
Now let me bathe thy feet, which are swollen, and after bathing Paul's
feet Jesus relieved him of his garment and passed a white robe over his
shoulders. Thou'lt sleep easier in it. They would have done well to
hearken to me, Paul muttered. Thou'lt tell us thy story of ill treatment
to-morrow, Jesus said, and he laid Paul back on his pillow, and a moment
after he was asleep.