By midday they reached a region more rugged than the one they had come
out of. The path they followed zigzagged up steep ascents and descended
into crumbling valleys and plains filled with split stones, rubble and
sand, a desert truly, without sign of a living thing till the shadow of
an eagle's wings passed over the hot stones. Jesus told Paul that the
birds nested up among the clefts yonder and were most destructive in the
spring when the ewes were lambing. Having to feed three or four eaglets,
he said, the birds would descend on the flocks, the she-eagle, the
larger, stronger and fiercer, will attack and drive off even the dog
that does not fear a wolf, yet I have seen, he continued, a timid ewe,
her youngling behind her in a coign in the hill, face the bird fiercely
and butt it till she lost her eyes, poor ewe, for I came up too late
with my staff. And the lamb? Paul inquired: was far away, Jesus
answered, aloft among the eaglets.
Jesus had stories of wolves and hyenas to beguile the way with, and he
pointed with his staff to the narrow paths above them up which they
would have to climb. But be not discouraged, he said, we shall be in a
better country presently; as soon as we pass the hill yonder we shall
begin to descend into the plain, another three leagues beyond yon hill
we shall be where we bid each other farewell. Paul answered he was
leaving Palestine for ever. His way was first to Italy and then to Spain
and afterwards his life would be over, his mission fulfilled, but he was
glad to have been to Jericho to have seen the Jordan, the river in which
John had baptized Jesus. He was sorry now when it was too late that he
had never been to Galilee, and Jesus told of wooded hills rising gently
from the lake shore, and he took pleasure in relating the town of
Magdala and the house of Dan of Arimathea, Joseph's father, and the
great industry he had established there; he continued talking, showing
such an intimate and personal knowledge of Galilee that Paul could not
doubt that he was what he professed to be, a Nazarene. There were
hundreds of Nazarenes, many of which were called Jesus: but there was
only one Jesus of Nazareth. He did not say this to Jesus; but after
Jesus had asked him how it was that he who had travelled the world over
had never turned into Galilee, he replied that the human life of Jesus
in Galilee concerned him not at all and his teaching very little. He
taught all the virtues, but these were known to humanity from the
beginning; they are in the law that God revealed to Moses. Even pagans
know of them. The Greeks have expounded them excellently well. A teacher
Jesus was and a great teacher, but far more important was the fact that
God had raised him from the dead, thereby placing him above all the
prophets and near to God himself. So I have always taught that if Jesus
were not raised from the dead our teaching is vain. A miracle, he said,
and he looked into Jesus' face just as if he suspected him to be
thinking that something more than a miracle was needed to convince the
world of the truth of Paul's doctrine. A miracle, to the truth of which
more than five hundred have already testified. First he appeared to Mary
and Martha, afterwards to Cleophas and Khuza. On the way to Emmaus he
stayed and supped with them and afterwards he appeared to the twelve.
Hast met all the twelve and consulted with them? Jesus asked, and Paul,
a little irritated by the interruption, answered that he had seen Peter
and John and James and Philip but he knew not the others; and, of
course, James, the brother of the Lord. Tell me about him, Jesus
answered. He admits Jesus as a prophet among the others but no more, and
observes the law more strictly than any other Jew, a narrow-minded bigot
that has opposed my teaching as bitterly as the priests themselves. It
was he who, Paul began, but Jesus interrupted and asked about Peter.
Where was he? And what doctrine is he preaching? Paul answered that
Peter was at Antioch, though why he should choose to live there has
always seemed strange to me, for he does not speak Greek. But what trade
does he follow? Jesus asked. There are marshes and lakes about Antioch,
Paul replied, and these are well stocked with fish, of a quality
inferior, however, to those he used to catch in the lake of Gennesaret,
but still fish for which there is some sale. He and John own some boats
and they ply up and down the marshes, and draw up a living in their
nets, a poor and uncertain living I believe it to be, for they are often
about telling stories to the faithful of our Lord Jesus Christ, who pay
them for their recitals. One is always with them, a woman called Rachel.
It is said that she poisoned a rival at a wedding, a girl called Ruth
whom Jesus raised from the dead. Ruth went to her husband, but Rachel
followed Jesus of Nazareth.... Thou'rt a Galilean, Paul said, and know
these stories better than I.
As they walked on together, Paul's thoughts returned to the miracle of
his apostleship, received, he said, by me from Jesus Christ our Lord
himself on the road to Damascus. Thy brethren have doubtless related the
story to thee how in my journey from Jerusalem to Damascus, full of
wrath to kill and to punish the saints, I was blinded by a great light
from the skies, and out of a cloud Jesus Christ our Lord spoke to me:
Paul! Paul! he cried, why persecutest thou me? Ever since I have
preached that there is but one Mediator between God and man--Christ
Jesus our Lord, and if I ran out whilst thou wast telling thy story,
crying, he is mad, he is mad! it was because it seemed to me that thou
wert speaking by order of the Jews who would ensnare and entrap me or
for some other reason. None may divine men's desire of soul, unless an
evil spirit has descended into thee I may not divine any reason for thy
story. There is some mistake that none would regret more than thou, for
thou wouldst hear the truth from me this day, thereby gaining
everlasting life. Why dost thou not answer me, Jesus? Because thou'rt
waiting to hear from me the words that our Lord Jesus Christ spoke to
me? My brethren have told it to me, Jesus answered. And thou believest
it not? Paul cried. I believe, Jesus answered, that the Jesus that spake
to thee out of a cloud never lived in the flesh; he was a Lord Jesus
Christ of thy own imagining, and I believe, too, that if we had met in
Galilee thou wouldst not have heeded me, and thou wouldst have done
well, for in Galilee I was but a seeker; go thou and seek and be not
always satisfied with what first comes to thy hand.
These words provoked a great rage in Paul, and believing Jesus to be an
evil spirit come to tempt him, he turned fiercely upon him, threatening
him with his staff, bidding him begone. But as he could not desert Paul
in the wilderness Jesus dropped behind him and directed Paul's journey,
bidding him tread here and not there, to avoid the hill in front of him,
and to keep along the valley.
In this way they proceeded for about another hour, and then Jesus cried
out to Paul: yonder are the fig-trees where the shepherd told me to look
for a pool among the rocks after the late rains. Art overcome, Paul,
with the long march and the heat? Rest. Let me untie thy sandals. Alas!
they are worn through and will scarce carry thee into Bethennabrio. But
they must carry me thither, Paul answered, and if there be water in the
pool after we have drunken and filled our water-bottle I'll loose the
thongs and bathe my feet.
The season was advanced, but there were still leaves on the fig-trees,
and among the rocks some water had collected, and having drunk and
filled the water-bottle, Jesus loosed the thongs of Paul's sandals and
bound his feet with some bandages torn from his own clothing. He broke
the bread that the passing shepherd had given him, but Paul could eat
very little so overcome was he with fatigue. I shall try to eat after I
have slept a little, and having made his head comfortable with his
sheepskin, Jesus watched him doze away.
Soon after the warm rocks brought sleep to Jesus' eyes, and he fell
asleep trying to remember that he had nothing more explicit to rely upon
than his own declaration (where should it be made, in the streets to the
people or in the Sanhedrin to the priests?) that he was Jesus of
Nazareth whom Pilate condemned to the cross, only his own words to
convince the priests and the people that he was not a shepherd whom the
loneliness of the hills had robbed of his senses. He could not bring the
Essenes as testimony, nor could they if they came vouch for the whole
truth of his story.