The same is told by every poet’s tongue
Who truth has uttered since the world was young
And in his Name prophetically has sung :
Promise of rescue from our foes, of peace
To serve him righteously, with huge increase,
Holy and fearless, until life shall cease.
Now is renewed the oath which once before
To our great father Abraham he swore
That Canaan should be ours for evermore.
And of you, Child, the wondering world shall say :
“Look, the King’s outrider who clears the way
Preaching salvation and the longed-for day,
Who like the dawn scatters the doubts of night
With largesse of pure gold, in sin’s despite
Leading our feet to mercy by his light.”
When the infant John was one month old, Elizabeth vowed to dedicate him to Jehovah as a life-long Nazirite, according to the regulations set out in the sixth chapter of the Book of Numbers : his hair was never to be shaved and he was never to eat grapes or drink wine. And in emulation of Zacharias’s poem she composed a lullaby for him which is still current at Ain-Rimmon, where I myself heard it sung by a village woman to her fretful child :
Down in the garden as I walked
One lovely day of spring
A tall pomegranate-tree I spied,
Of every tree the king.
More green his leaf than beryl stone
Caught in a blaze of sun ;
His scarlet flowers that budded out
More sweet than cinnamon.
With trembling hand a flower I plucked
Between my breasts to lie—
Fruit of the tall pomegranate-tree,
Sleep well and lullaby!
The news that Zacharias had suddenly been cured of his dumbness soon reached Jerusalem. Summoned to appear before the High Priest, he locked his unfinished concordance in a cedar box, signed and sealed his Will, kissed Elizabeth and the infant John goodbye and rode off alone towards the City, his heart heavy with foreboding.
When on the following afternoon he reported his arrival at Simon’s house in the Old Quarter he was instructed to wait in an ante-chamber, where refreshments would be brought him. Then Simon summoned the Great Sanhedrin, or Council ; they were to meet as soon as possible at his house, not at the House of Hewn Stone, as they usually did, “for the purpose of investigating the nature and circumstances of the priest Zacharias’s recent experience in the Sanctuary, in so far as it raises any question of political importance”. He requested them to keep secret the time, place and business.
The Great Sanhedrin must not be confused with the other Sanhedrin, called the Beth Din, or High Court. Originally there had been only one Sanhedrin, but when Queen Alexandra, widow of King Alexander Jannaeus the backsliding Maccabee, was forbidden by the dominant Pharisee party to give his body decent burial, she had persuaded them to change their attitude by promising that the Sanhedrin should thereafter consist only of Pharisees, to the exclusion of the Sadducees who had been Alexander’s chief supporters and who had assisted him in the massacre of eight hundred Pharisees. The Sadducees had then formed a rival Sanhedrin, to which Herod’s father, when Julius Caesar made him Governor-General of Judaea, gave official recognition. The original Sanhedrin, the High Court, remained exclusively Pharisee, and dealt with religious questions only ; but the political Sanhedrin, which called itself the Great Sanhedrin and dealt with lay questions, was prominently Sadducee, though the Pharisees were represented in it. Ideally, there was no distinction between religious and lay questions among the Jews, because the Law of Moses governed all social and economic life ; yet the Great Sanhedrin was a political convenience, since it could take realistic cognizance of foreign institutions within the Judaean state which for the Pharisees had no existence. For this reason the High Court insisted that the Mezuzah, which was fixed on the door-post of every building not sacred in itself, should be displayed at the House of Hewn Stone when the Great Sanhedrin met there ; yet when the High Court met there it became a sacred building and the Mezuzah was temporarily removed. (The Mezuzah is a piece of parchment inscribed on one side with the “Hear, O Israel” text from Deuteronomy and on the other with the divine Name SHADDAI ; it is rolled up in a container of horn or wood with the Name showing through an aperture.)
Simon had decided to call Zacharias’s case before the Great Sanhedrin, although the matter seemed to lie wholly in the jurisdiction of the High Court, because if Zacharias should be proved guilty of any ceremonial irregularity, the Leader of the Course of Abijah would be able to persuade his broad-minded Sadducee colleagues to quash the matter with a discreetly worded report and an adjournment sine die. He acted quickly and secretly in order to forestall a claim by the joint-Presidents of the High Court that the inquiry should be conducted by themselves. The members of the Great Sanhedrin were all men of wide juridical experience, and since they were required to understand foreign languages and the humane sciences, besides being word-perfect in the Canonical Scriptures, would be sufficiently men of the world, Simon trusted, to settle the affair without scandal.
By the time that his messengers had gone the rounds and a full Court of Inquiry had assembled under Simon’s Presidency, it was an hour after nightfall ; but Zacharias was not brought before them at once. Simon preferred to begin his investigation by questioning Reuben the son of Abdiel, who was asked to explain why, on the night that Zacharias had been struck dumb, just before dawn, he had secretly removed from the Sanctuary some wet object wrapped in his cloak.
When Reuben looked around him—at the grave elders, priests and doctors, full members of the Court, seated in a semicircle about the President’s chair, with three rows of associate members ranked behind them, all fully qualified magistrates, at the two clerks with pens poised and paper ready to record the proceedings, he was seized with sudden alarm. He decided to reveal the whole truth, rather than continue to shield Zacharias.
He deposed on oath that when he had entered the Sanctuary on the evening in question he had found the sacrificial fire quenched on the Altar of Incense, though the seven lamps of the Sacred Candlestick were still burning brightly. Then, to preserve the honour of the Course of Abijah, he had taken the wet cinders from the Altar, relaid and rekindled the fire and duly burned incense ; it was these wet cinders that he had removed from the Sanctuary in his cloak at first cock-crow, when he went off duty, hoping that the Watcher of the Curtain who had come to relieve him would not notice anything amiss.
Simon commented : “In my opinion you did well, Son of Abdiel, though you would doubtless have done better still had you immediately reported the occurrence either to myself or to the venerable Leader of your Course.” Here he bowed to the aged priest, who nodded gravely. Then he added : “Brothers and Sons, does any of you wish to question the learned Reuben further ?”
A curly-bearded, youthful associate member sprang up and cried impetuously : “Holy Father, ask him this : ‘By what evil hand do you suppose that the fire was quenched?’ ”
There was a murmur of agreement, mixed with exclamations of disgust. The white-bearded elders of the front row craned around to glare their disapproval of this unseemly interruption. It was held that associates of the back row should be always seen but seldom heard. Moreover, the rules of the Court forbade them to speak for the prosecution, and though no charge was being preferred against either Reuben or Zacharias, so that the distinction between prosecution and defence could not yet be drawn, it was clear that this associate wished Zacharias no good.
Simon reluctantly asked the question.
Reuben answered : “Holy Son of Boethus, if I tell you how I think that the fire was quenched this honourable Court will be angry with me. I shall therefore refrain from an opinion. I am bound to disclose facts, but I am ignorant of any rule that compels me to disclose the innermost thoughts of my heart.”
“I undertake,” said Simon, “that
your opinion will not be censured by this Court, whatever its nature.”
Then Reuben said : “Notables of the Sanhedrin, none of you is admitted as a member of this famous tribunal who is so little experienced in the magical arts that he cannot expose and punish magic when it is practised by the enemies of our religion. Seventy-one of you, a full Court, are assembled in this hall, and only one chair is empty, the chair reserved for the great prophet Elijah, who has not yet suffered death. I call this same Elijah to witness, if he is within hearing, as he may invisibly be, that what I say is the whole truth, with nothing added or omitted. It was thus. When I entered the Sanctuary that evening as deputy for my kinsman Zacharias, I noticed at once that the air was noxious and that wet marks sullied the clean marble floor. The smell may have been merely the stale odour of quenched incense and embers, but I fancied that my nostrils distinguished something else : the subtle but pervasive odour of evil. And when I stooped to wipe the marks away with the broidered napkin, in horror I recoiled. O learned Elders of Israel, refrain from anger against me—for alas, as the Lord our God lives, the marks that I saw were the clear imprints not of a man’s feet but, horrible to relate, of hooves—the narrow hooves of an unshod ass !”
Without pausing to observe the effect on the Court of the dreadful declaration, Reuben continued : “I am asked my opinion on how the fire at the Altar of Incense was quenched. I will give it. My opinion is that by blasphemous and abominable charms, there in the very Sanctuary of our God, my kinsman Zacharias had conjured up one of the fiendish ass-haunched Lilim and compelled him to his service. But why? Was it to persuade the demon to quicken the womb of his wife Elizabeth who had been barren twenty years? For demons are credited with such powers. Or was the demon summoned to reveal the whereabouts of buried treasure? Or to do a cruel injury to some man whom Zacharias hated? These are questions that I cannot resolve, but my studied opinion is that a fiend was summoned and that, pricked by diabolic spite, this fiend quenched the coals with a spurt of foul water from his mouth. And why do I believe this unlikely thing? Because, though I looked carefully about me, I could find no vessel of any sort in the Sanctuary by means of which the fire could have been extinguished. And if I am asked why I consider that Zacharias was struck dumb, this is my reply : in my opinion Zacharias was struck dumb by an angel of the Lord so that he might utter no further blasphemies, charms or abominable incantations.”
Simon asked again : “Brothers and Sons, does any of you wish to question the learned Reuben further ?”
All sat silent, awed and scandalized, each hoping that his neighbour would speak before him. At last the same curly-bearded associate arose, but this time looked modestly about him and coughed inquiringly as if seeking permission to ask another question.
Encouraged by a low murmur, he said : “Holy Father, pray ask him this : ‘Were the tracks that you saw like those of an ass walking on all fours, or like those of an ass walking on his hind legs?’ ”
Simon asked the question.
“On his hind legs,” answered Reuben, shuddering. He persisted in his story without contradicting himself, though Simon attempted to shake his evidence by ridicule.
Simon then requested the associates to retire while he consulted with the full members : the question was, whether the case should at this point be referred to the High Court, since it had taken so painful and embarrassing a turn. But jealousy triumphed over embarrassment. A vote was taken and it was decided to continue with the inquiry.
The associates were recalled, and when the clerks had read out Reuben’s deposition Zacharias was summoned to appear. He came in blinking, for he had fallen asleep from weariness.
Simon began mildly : “Son of Barachias, this Court wishes to know how it happened that the fire was extinguished on the Altar of Incense during the evening of your ministry, when you were struck dumb. Let me warn you before you answer : you have been accused of sorcery.”
Zacharias stood silent for a while. Then he asked bitterly : “Shall I tell you the truth, which will outrage you, or shall I tell you a comfortable lie ?” He added with a groan : “Would to God that I were dumb again !”
“You are to tell the truth, Brother, as you desire justice.”
“You will kill me if I tell you the truth ; yet my soul will have no peace if I lie to you or withhold the truth. Will you not mercifully leave me in peace? Will you not dismiss the Court ?”
“I cannot dismiss this Court, which is a Court of Inquiry. I may only adjourn it. Do you pray for an adjournment ?”
Zacharias considered. After a while he said : “An adjournment would mean only increased misery of soul. No ; so be it! I will tell you the truth to-night, but you shall swear by the living God that if I must die because I have told it, you will take no vengeance on my family, and that you will kill me cleanly, for the truth’s sake. Do you hear me? You shall swear by the Holy Name that I shall not die by hanging or strangulation or fire : that you will grant my body decent burial at least. For to die is hateful ; but to die accursed is to wander houseless among lizards and jackals, an unquiet phantom perpetually seeking rest.”
Simon answered gently : “There is no need for the swearing of oaths. Tell the whole truth and trust to the mercy of the Lord.” He then read Reuben’s deposition and asked Zacharias whether it were true.
“That Reuben saw what he deposes that he saw,” said Zacharias, “I do not doubt, nor that in the uncharitableness of his heart he thought, and thinks, that I am capable of abominable crime. His anger has been hot against me ever since I testified before the Court of Disputes sixteen years ago in the matter of the Well of the Jawbone, the property of my brother-in-law Joachim, whom I see yonder : for Reuben’s heart is a nest of grudges. May the Lord cleanse it with a sudden scare-fire !” He fell silent again, but at last, by fits and starts, nervously fumbling with the phylactery on his arm, he told his story.
“I was offering incense on the Altar, clean in body and clean in dress, having fasted all day. The Watcher of the Curtain had left the Sanctuary upon my arrival, as the custom is. And as I was finishing the rite, suddenly I heard the sound of a still, small voice. It proceeded from behind the Holy Curtain and it called me by my name : ‘Zacharias!’ I answered : ‘Here I am, Lord! Speak, for thy servant heareth.’ The voice said : ‘What things are these that you are burning at my altar?’ And I answered : ‘The sweet incense, Lord, according to the command that thou gavest to thy servant Moses.’ Then the voice asked : ‘Is the Sun of Holiness a harlot or a catamite? Do my nostrils snuff storax, hinge of scallop, frankincense, narthex, pounded together and smoking on coals of cedar-wood? Would you make a sweat-bath for the Sun of Holiness?’ I could make no reply. Then, as I abased myself, I heard the Curtain drawn and majestic steps approaching. And I heard a hissing and a spluttering as the fire was suddenly extinguished on the Altar. My senses left me.”
The Sanhedrin listened in a fearful silence. Not a man dared look his neighbour in the face to read what was written there.
At last Simon spoke in a faint voice : “Once to John Hyrcanus the High Priest, when he was offering incense at the same altar and at the very hour, came a divine voice informing him of the victory of his sons over the evil King Antiochus. But a voice only was heard : no sound of footsteps. Proceed with your evidence !”
“Have I not told you enough ?”
“You have more to tell. Proceed !”
“Then, when I came to myself I saw—and I saw, when at last I came to myself, and when I raised my head to look, I saw—”
“What did you see ?”
“I saw—O merciful God, return to me my dumbness !”
“What did you see ?”
“Holy Son of Boethus, pity me that I have to declare the nature of my vision! I saw a Power clothed in robes of light that resembled the same sacred robes which you yourself wear at the grand festivals. And this Power hugged to its breast a triple-headed golden dog and a golden sceptre in the form of a budding palm branch ; and, a
s the Lord our God lives, this Power stood in a gap between the Curtain and the wall on the right hand ; and this Power was of more than human stature ; and this Power spoke in the same still, small voice that I had heard before, saying : ‘Be not afraid, Zacharias! Go out now and tell my people truthfully what you have both heard and seen!’ But I could not, for I was struck dumb.”
Beads of sweat started on Zacharias’s brow and rolled down into his beard, where they hung shining in the light of the pine-torches that blazed beside him in an iron cresset. He opened his mouth to say more, but closed it again convulsively.
Simon’s heart ached for Zacharias. He told the Court : “I have done with my questions. Need we question the son of Barachias further? These are words of frenzy or of a sick imagination. To record them in the minutes of this meeting would be injudicious in the extreme.”
An old Doctor named Matthias son of Margalothus rose resolutely. “Holy Son of Boethus,” he said, “if Zacharias alone had testified to the apparition, I should support your kindly proposal to stop our ears to his raving. But what of Reuben’s testimony? Reuben saw tracks. Am I permitted to cross-examine the son of Barachias ?”
“You are permitted,” said Simon.
Matthias said : “Zacharias, answer me with care. Did this Power who spoke in the Name of the Holy One reveal his countenance to you ?”
Zacharias answered with trembling lips : “Son of Margalothus, I am commanded to tell the truth. The countenance was revealed.”
“Listen to his blasphemies, elders and sons of Israel! What need have we of further evidence? Is it not written that the Lord instructed his servant Moses : ‘But for my face, thou canst not see it ; for there shall no man see it and live’ ?”
Zacharias stood like an antelope-ox at bay. He shouted out : “The Lord God has given me ears to hear, eyes to see, a mouth to speak. Why should I deny these holy gifts? Hear me, all you Elders and Sons of Israel, hear me well! What did I see? I say that I saw the face of the Power, and the face shone, though not unmercifully bright, and the likeness of the face”—his voice rose to a scream—“and the likeness of the face was that of a Wild Ass !”