Then a sigh arose and a murmur, like the sigh and murmur that precedes a thunderstorm. A subdued cry arose here and there : “Alas! Blasphemy, blasphemy !”
Every man in the hall stood up and began to tear his garments. These were stolid men, men of the world, and refrained from the wild rending and ripping practised by Jewish village folk when a blasphemous word is spoken. They were content to pull open the short blasphemy-seams of their coat-lapels, and exclaim : “Woe to the mouth that utters these things !”
Reuben raised his voice above the clamour. “Simon son of Boethus, I declare this man, though he is my kinsman, to be a sorcerer and by sorcery to have defiled the Sanctuary! I demand that this declaration be converted into a charge, that Zacharias be instructed to answer it immediately, and that, if he cannot do so, a vote be taken and counted for a summary death verdict.”
Simon replied sternly : “Not so, Son of Abdiel! Summoned before us as a witness, do you set yourself up as an accuser? And must I remind you that we have met here as a Court of Inquiry, not as a Court of Justice? Even as a Court of Justice qualified to try this case we could not condemn the son of Barachias at once. For the rule runs : ‘If a verdict is for acquittal it may be spoken to-day ; if for death, it cannot be pronounced until to-morrow.’ And are you ignorant of the Law itself, which forbids a man to be tried, as you would have him tried, without at least two witnesses called against him ?”
Simon was in anguish of mind. Though he knew in his heart that Zacharias was innocent of sorcery, he could not put it to the Court that the vision might perhaps have been a divine or angelic one. Still less could he publish his own suspicions, which if they had been accepted would have plunged the nation headlong into civil war. Yet these suspicions were so strong that he would have been prepared to announce them as fact. Only one explanation of the vision was possible, now that he connected it with an incident reported to him on the following day by the priest of the Temple Watch. The Temple Watch was a standing patrol of one priest and seven Levites : they marched around the Temple all night and all day at regular intervals to see that the various priestly sentries were vigilant and that all was in order. One sentry was posted at the Chamber of the Hearth, another at the Chamber of the Flame, a third in the Attic. The Priest of the First Watch had reported to his superior officer, the Captain of the Temple : “As I passed with the Watch into the Attic, shortly after my relief of the Third Watch, I found the sentry Zichri son of Shammai asleep. I set light to his sleeve with my torch, as my orders are, but even then he did not wake. Almost he seemed drugged or drunken, for the flesh of his arm was well scorched before he awoke.” The Captain of the Temple, passing on the report, had pleaded : “Pray, Holy Father, do not bring the matter before the High Court, for this Zichri is brother to my own wife, and has already suffered for his folly. Besides, let me tell you frankly, the last refreshment that he took was at my own table.”
Simon could picture the whole scene as vividly as if he had witnessed it from the steps of the Altar. The clue to the apparition lay in the secret underground passage which ran from the Tower of Antonia to the Inner Court ; Herod’s excuse for building it had been that if a sudden riot in the Temple endangered the sacred instruments of worship they might be quickly borne away to the security of the Tower. Near the outlet of the passage a narrow stairway led to the store-rooms above the Sanctuary, and thence to the empty chamber immediately above the Holy of Holies—the Attic where the sentry stood guard. And in the floor of this empty chamber was a trap-door through which, very rarely, after a propitiatory sacrifice and a warning tinkle of bells, seven times repeated, Telmenite workmen were lowered to perform necessary repairs to the fabric of the Holy of Holies itself ; for to descend from above into this awful place, in case of need, was to evade the curse of entrance. Moreover, the robes and regalia peculiar to the High Priest, which the Power was said to have worn, were now laid up in the Tower of Antonia under the charge of the Captain of the Temple, who had been appointed by Herod himself. The golden onager’s head of Dora, the golden dog of Solomon, the golden sceptre of David—Simon recognized all three by Zacharias’s description.
Who was the Power? Simon knew. He had read the Histories of the Egyptian Manetho. Manetho recorded that the City of Jerusalem was first founded by the Shepherd Kings of Egypt when they were expelled from their great city of Pelusium, the City of the Sun, by the Pharaohs of the Eighteenth Dynasty. The Israelites had been vassals of the Shepherds. When, a generation or two later, they themselves fled from Egypt under Moses, and—after a long stay in the wilderness—returned to Canaan, they there renewed their homage to the God of the Shepherds, and to his bride, the Moon-goddess Anatha. With the homage went a mass-offering of foreskins ; for during their wanderings the Israelites had abandoned the Egyptian custom of circumcision.
The God of the Shepherds was the Egyptian Sun-god Sutekh, or Set, who appears in Genesis as Seth son of Adam, and when King David captured Jerusalem from the Jebusites, the descendants of the Shepherds, Set became the god of all Israel under the title of Jehovah. The Menorah, the sacred seven-branched Candlestick of the Sanctuary, was a reminder of his history. It was constructed to represent the Sun, the Moon and the five planets Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn ; and according to the Doctors of the Law it illustrated the text in Genesis where on the fourth day of Creation Jehovah said : “Let there be light.” The Menorah faced west-south-west, a quarter of the heavens not obviously connected with the Sun, except as he approaches his decline ; so that when the Jewish Solar religion was reformed under King Josiah the ancient tradition, “In that direction the Lord God has his habitation”, was not either altered or suppressed. Yet draw a map of Judaea and Egypt and make Jerusalem the centre of a twelve-pointed compass and follow along the ray running west-south-west. The eye travels over wild hills and desert places until it strikes the Nile at the head of the Delta, and there on the eastern bank stands On-Heliopolis, the oldest and holiest city in all Egypt, the city of the Sun-god Ra, whose titles, when he grew senile and dribbled, Set won by conquest : On-Heliopolis, where the sacred persca-tree grows from whose branches the Sun-god is said to arise each morning ; On-Heliopolis, where the sacred bull Mnevis is stabled and gives oracular responses ; On-Heliopolis, where the long-lived Phoenix dies and in a nest of frankincense is renewed ; On-Heliopolis, where Moses was a priest ; On-Heliopolis, near to where in the days of Ptolemy Philometor the fugitive Jewish High Priest Onias built a rival Temple to that of Jerusalem, justifying his action by the nineteenth chapter of Isaiah :
In that day shall five cities in the land of Egypt speak the language of Canaan and swear allegiance to the Lord of Hosts.
One of these shall be the City of the Sun.
And in that day an altar shall be raised to the Lord in the middle of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the Lord at its border.
For On-Heliopolis lies both in the middle of Egypt and at its border.
Who, then, was the Power? The Power could only be Herod himself, impersonating the Deity. He had crowned half a lifetime of premeditation by this outrageously daring act—a pretended theophany of the Lord God of Israel in his archaic character of Set, whom the Egyptians worship in the likeness of an onager, or wild-ass!
Oh, the mad fool! thought Simon. To suppose that he could turn the shadow back on the sun-dial, to suppose that the elders of Israel who had now for centuries worshipped a transcendent God, a Being so unique and so remote that neither his nature nor his appearance could be comprehended, but a God of mercy and justice and loving-kindness for all that, could be tricked into bowing the knee to this barbarous beast-headed deity! To the infamous Set, who had torn his brother Osiris in pieces and sent scorpions to sting the Child Horus to death ; to Set, the fire-breathing sirocco-demon, hated by the gods, whom the Greeks also call Typhon ; to Set, the great oppressor of mankind, in whose odious name victims were still yearly tossed to the beast of the reeds, the musky yellow-fanged crocodile of Pelusium!
Simon knew that Zacharias was in peril of death. The very walls of the Chamber seemed to cry out against him. He should never have been deceived : he should have distinguished instantly between the voice of the Lord which speaks inwardly, and the voice of man which strikes through the gross outward ear ; between the majesty of the Lord which glows in the heart and mind, and the pomp of man which flatters the gross outward eye ; between the timber of the grove, as poets call it, and Divine Wisdom who had hewn out the choicest timber for her holy temple.
Simon called for silence while he summed up the case. “If the son of Barachias, by conjuration, summoned an evil demon to defile the Sanctuary, as Reuben son of Abdiel charges, without the warrant of this Court, then the wrath of the Lord will assuredly overtake him. For it is written : ‘Against him that turns after familiar spirits and after wizards, I will set my face and cut him off from among his people.’ And that no false demon, but the Lord God himself, has appeared to Zacharias is manifestly impossible, since Zacharias is yet alive, whereas it is established that all who look upon the Lord’s face must instantly die ; Moses saw the Holy One’s hinder parts only. Moreover, Zacharias, even if he did not conjure up this demon himself but accidentally encountered him in the Sanctuary, yet by his own admission addressed him reverently as though he were the Lord himself. Has he not therefore broken the First Commandment, which runs : ‘Thou shalt have no other gods but me’? For my part, I cannot conceive Zacharias to be guiltless of a grave fault ; yet I doubt whether this honourable Court, even if convened as a Court of Justice, is empowered to try the case. It seems to me that we have no choice but to refer it to the High Court, where charges of this unusual sort are tried.”
Reuben interrupted indignantly : “But we have heard his blasphemies with our own cars! For those alone he deserves death by stoning.”
“Son of Abdiel, do not insult us by your continued pretence of ignorance. Death by stoning is meted out to a blasphemer only if he joins the Holy Name with a curse or an obscenity ; blasphemy of the Lord God’s attributes earns no more than a severe flogging. And it is my duty to warn you that if you are found to have borne false witness against your kinsman in a capital case you yourself will fall under the shadow of death.” Simon then dismissed the Court with a decisive gesture, after thanking them for their correctness in painful circumstances and requesting the twelve senior members to remain behind and advise him what precise charge, or charges, if any, should be preferred against Zacharias, and in which Court.
Zacharias himself was now free to return to his own house, for in Jewish law an accused person is regarded as wholly innocent until sentence has been passed, and is subject to no bodily restraint. But he remained brooding in his chair until Simon desired him to leave. After a formal reverence he walked slowly out into the lobby crowded with members and associates whispering excitedly to one another in groups. His distraught looks persuaded some of them that he had devils nestling in the lap of his robe and they shrank away from his shadow as if it were a leper’s.
Reuben pointed with his finger and cried : “This clemency is not to be borne. He must die to-night, else all Israel will be shamed. The sorcerer must not be permitted to look upon another sun !”
Joachim, Mary’s father, who had been sitting as a full member, reproved him : “Son of Abdiel, this is contempt of court. You take too much upon yourself.” But the words served only to rouse still angrier passions in Reuben’s heart.
Outside a noisy crowd was assembled. A junior club-meeting of the Sons of Zadok had just broken up after a festive banquet near by, and about a hundred young men, flushed with wine, were gathered at the door of the High Priest’s house, drawn by a rumour that something extraordinary was happening there. Some of them had already ventured into the lobby, where Reuben gave them a hurried and inaccurate summary of the proceedings and was now inciting them to take the law into their own hands. He advised them : “Do nothing to this sorcerer yet, my sons—do nothing in the sight or hearing of the people. But do not flinch from the deed. This touches the honour of our own House.”
Zacharias went out into the street, and Reuben with the club-members followed after him in silence. As he crossed the courtyard between the house and the gate Reuben ostentatiously prised up a cobble-stone and dropped it into the lap of his robe. The Sons of Zadok followed his example. From what Reuben had told them they expected that Zacharias would go out through the Southern Gate into the wilderness, making for the cliff of Beth Hadudo where he would claim the protection of the demon Azazel to whom the scape-goat is yearly sacrificed on the Day of Atonement. Fortified with wine, they did not fear the wiles of this fiend. But instead, he led them uphill, hurrying towards the Temple. The few passers-by were unaware that anything of importance was happening : if the Sons of Zadok had dispersed after their club-meeting and the more zealous of them were now going up to the Temple for prayer, what was that?
The moon was full, and shone so brightly that the colours of Zacharias’s embroidered cloak showed almost as truly as by day, but the shadows in the clefts of the Cheesemongers’ Valley, as they passed over the Bridge, were as black as tar. He reached the Temple and glided like a sleepwalker across the Courts. The Zadokite clubmen, in a pack, pressed hard on his heels ; behind them in a ragged procession panted the members and associates of the Great Sanhedrin, most of them anxious to restrain Reuben from an act of violence, a few, however, secretly hoping that justice would be done in the antique manner.
Zacharias entered the Sanctuary. At this, the associate with the curly beard, who had been among those most deeply moved to anger by the confession of Zacharias, drew a cobble-stone from the lap of his robe and laid it down on the pavement. He cried out loudly : “Stay, brothers, for the son of Barachias goes to be judged by the Lord God himself! Is it not written : ‘Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord, I will repay’ ?” With these words he restrained the clubmen who were near him, and they in turn restrained those that followed. But about twenty others had by this time followed Zacharias into the Sanctuary.
Zacharias took his stand by the Altar of Incense and flung out his hands in despair. He cried : “Men of Israel, in what way have I sinned? In this Holy Place I call the Lord God to witness that I have used neither conjuration nor other forbidden sorcery ; that I love him only and detest the princes of evil ; and that I have told only the truth !”
Reuben replied passionately : “Have you not heard the decision of the High Priest? You have defiled this Holy Place, Son of Barachias, and only your hot life-blood can cleanse it.”
He took the cobble-stone from his robe and let fly. It struck Zacharias full in the mouth. “Ha! ha !” Reuben cried. “ ‘He breaketh the teeth of the ungodly!’ ”
Zacharias chanted in a quavering voice :
The God of Israel, blessèd be he,
Who visited his sons in majesty
And bought them from Egyptian slavery!
Ten of Reuben’s companions were abashed and fled hastily. But those who remained took courage from him and pelted Zacharias until he fell dead with a great cry to the Lord for vengeance. His blood was spattered on the Altar and even on the lilies of the Candlestick.
Simon came stumbling in when all was over, accompanied by the Temple Watch. He was horrified by the bloody scene. “Alas, brothers !” he cried. “If you could but have waited until morning !” Reuben and his companions stood triumphant, for according to ancient tradition the crime of sorcery could be expiated only by the shedding of the sorcerer’s life-blood, and where could this expiation be more fittingly made than at the Altar which he had defiled?
Reuben answered him boldly : “Son of Boethus, do not reprove our zeal! You are provoking the Lord to anger. Come, give us instructions for expelling the demons who may still be lurking in some corner of this holy place !”
Again, Simon was faced by a painful decision. Either he must approve the act as a just one inspired by righteous zeal and transcending juridical forms or else he must condemn it as a sacrilegious
murder by a drunken gang of young patricians. To approve was to sanction contempt of court and so to weaken the authority of the Great Sanhedrin, of which he was President. Yet the young men had not acted maliciously or impiously ; it was Reuben who had misled them. And to have them condemned to death for their folly would cause endless trouble and distress : nearly every one of them was nearly related to some member of the Great Sanhedrin. Nor would their deaths recall Zacharias to life.
Simon chose the lesser of the two evils : he signified his approval, though without heartiness. Then to satisfy Reuben he ordered the heart and liver of a letos-fish to be burned on a pan over a fire, as the Angel Raphael had once advised Tobit the Babylonian to do as a charm for the expulsion of the demon Asmodeus. Evil spirits, it is said, loathe the stench of burning fish, but none more than Asmodeus, who shares with the Demoness Lilith, the First Eve, the dominion of all the Lilim, or Children of Lilith, and is believed to live in the burning deserts of Upper Egypt.
When the heart and liver had been duly burned, the work of purification continued with sulphur and brimstone, after which came washings with pure water—seven times seven washings of every stone and piece of furniture in the Sanctuary—and prayers and litanies and sin-offerings and fastings.
All concerned in these events were sworn to silence, but the news of Zacharias’s death had already been brought to Herod by the Captain of the Temple. He was greatly angered, yet not dismayed. If the Great Sanhedrin had unanimously rejected the theophany—though not one of them, it seemed, had suspected an imposture or doubted that the vision was supernatural—then, the stiff-necked bigots, they had lost the chance which he had offered them of assisting in his religious revolution ; they had condemned themselves to destruction. A fine sort of Jehovah they now worshipped! An impotent Moon-thing from Babylon! A dead-alive god of reason and legality who had ousted the god of life, love and death. A monomaniac recluse who brooded all the year round in his Sanctuary on the three paltry articles of furniture with which his worshippers saw fit to supply him : a yardstick, a liquid measure and a set of standard weights! Yet inconsistent in this boast of mathematical perfection, still daily swilling the hot blood of sheep and goats, still demanding the music of trumpets, and dressed in the stolen garments of the Great Goddess Anatha, absurdly perfumed in her scent! Well, he would wait patiently another few months and then stage a second and final theophany. This time the ruling priesthood would not be given the chance to reject their ancestral God—the ageless God in whose honour all the lesser gods of Egypt wield the ass-headed sceptre—he would sweep them away, forged Scriptures and all, and the whole indecent cult would be abolished for ever.