It was not until Archelaus’s return to the Palace that Herod’s sickness took a turn for the worse. The symptoms were a low fever and an intolerable itching all over his body, constant diarrhoea, a foul breath, inflammation of the belly, swollen feet, and a throat so dry that he could hardly breathe. When the palliatives prescribed by Machaon and his other physicians ceased to have any effect on him, he dismissed them with ignominy, flinging them out of the Palace barefoot and naked. He was his own physician for a while, but then, his health growing steadily worse, he sent for others. At last he decided to put himself under the care of the Essenes of Callirrhoë, where the chief physician prescribed draughts of the hot medicinal spring which flows into the Dead Sea ; and a bath in a great jar of sanctified olive oil. But he vomited up the water and he fainted in the jar, and when they pulled him out the whites of his eyes turned up and he seemed to be dying. But still he fought death off.
The edict about the coming registration of the Sons of David reached Joseph at Emmaus and put him in a quandary. He could not leave Mary’s child behind, since to do so would amount to a public disavowal of paternity ; yet to take him might be dangerous. He consulted Mary, who answered at once : “Take us with you, Joseph, and put your trust in the Lord.”
“But I cannot write the child down as a member of the House of David !”
“Do not let that trouble you yet. There are still ten days before we need travel to Bethlehem. Much may happen in those ten days.”
Much did happen. Herod returned in melancholy to Jerusalem and found dispatches waiting there from Augustus. He tore them open and uttered a shout of triumph. Augustus commiserated with him on the disaffection of yet another of his sons, and one who had hitherto shown no signs of disloyalty ; the evidence of treachery, he wrote, seemed conclusive and Antipater might be executed as soon as his father pleased, and in whatever manner he pleased, though the Lady Livia and himself counselled the more merciful punishment of perpetual exile.
In whatever manner he pleased! There was only one manner of sacrifice acceptable to Set, the true Jehovah, and only one place where the sacrifice might properly be made. The text was to be found in Genesis : “Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land ofMoriah and offer him there upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.” It was the very mountain-top on which the Temple stood, and the present Altar of Burned Offering was the very stone to which the unsuspecting Isaac had been bound. This offering of his first-born, the son whom he secretly cherished and pitied, would alone satisfy Jehovah and persuade him to renew the covenant sworn with Abraham. Jehovah, whether or not he again chose to substitute ram for man, would thereupon heal him of all his bodily distresses and renew his youth, as Abraham’s youth had been renewed, and grant him victory over his multitudinous enemies. But even this supreme sacrifice would be insufficient unless the Temple Hill were first purged of its rabble of false priests ; they must be hewn in pieces as the resolute Elijah had hewn in pieces the priests of Baal. Set must sail back to glory over billows of blood. Herod called his officers together and gave them great presents of money to secure their further loyal service, with a donation of fifty drachmae, besides, to every soldier in the ranks. He told them : “Children, I shall have work for you soon.” These soldiers were all foreigners : the bodyguard were Edomites mixed with Nabataeans from Petra—Herod’s mother had been a Nabataean—and with the permission of Augustus he had also recruited a regiment of Belgian Celts, another of Thracians, and another of Galatian Gauls—all of them devotees of the same variously named Sun-god. The Edomites called this god Kozi or Nimrod ; the Nabataeans, Ouri-tal Dusares ; the Thracians, Dionysus ; the Galatians, Esu ; and the Celts, Lugos.
Chapter Eleven
The Flight Into Egypt
THROUGHOUT his long life Herod had studied the stars intently and directed his policy according to their guidance. His birth had been heralded by a close conjunction of the great planets Jupiter and Saturn, and in his fifty-eighth year a recurrence of the same rare event had assured him that the years of patient preparation were over : the period of bold action was to begin. In the three ensuing years he had put into execution the preliminary plans which culminated in the theophany witnessed by Zacharias and in the condemnation of his son Antipater. Now the dawn of the fifth millennium, and of the third Phoenix Age, was breaking, and the hour of deliverance long ago promised by the patriarch Isaac to his son Esau, which is to say Edom, had been sounded as it were with trumpets : the celestial sign had been a total eclipse of the Moon. His grand plan could at last be put into execution—must be put into execution before it was too late. His aches and itchings had grown almost past bearing and drove him into fits of uncontrollable rage, so that even the valets were terrified to enter his presence. His sense of urgency was heightened by a private letter from the Emperor’s Oriental Secretary warning him that the princes Archelaus and Philip were building up a secret army in Samaria (their mother was a Samaritan) and intended to seize the throne as soon as Antipater had been executed. The letter was inspired by Livia, who could not refrain from further confusing the situation at Jerusalem : the Roman Imperial system is founded on a policy of divide et impera—“Cause divisions in your neighbour’s kingdom and profit from them by assuming the sovereignty yourself.” Herod did not believe the accusation, but the letter caused him anxiety nevertheless.
He issued an edict summoning the whole ruling priesthood of Jerusalem, and every Levitical Doctor of the Law from all over the kingdom, to assemble in his Palace grounds at Jericho on the following Sunday, under pain of death. Some fifteen thousand men obeyed, not without fear, but trusting that there would be safety in numbers.
Towards the evening of this day, when all were assembled on the immense parade-ground in front of the Palace, crowded together in no order, Herod appeared on a balcony and laughed silently at them, but could not speak because of the dryness of his throat. He handed a paper to Ptolemy, his chamberlain, which Ptolemy read as follows, shouting the words through his trumpeted hands :
“The words of your August Sovereign, Herod, King of the Jews :
“Priests and Doctors of Israel! You are assembled here on the opening day of a new week, of a great week, of a week that will be remembered by your children and your children’s children for ever. Raphael the archangel is the warden of this day, which is called the Day of the Sun. Those of you who are skilled in angelology will bear me out when I declare that it is this archangel who is destined at last to heal Ephraim—which is customarily understood to signify the ten tribes of the North—by converting them all at once from their prolonged iniquity. Yet let Raphael first practise his curative art upon you who boast yourselves Sons of Levi—a tribe which for its bloody-mindedness, in ancient days, was granted no single stretch of territory but dispersed instead in mischievous pockets and enclaves throughout the land of Israel ; let Raphael, I say, heal you by the rays of the fiery Being to whose service he is dedicated.
“I have summoned you here, rebellious ones, to recall to your memory a psalm composed by David son of Jesse, my predecessor in this troublesome kingdom. In it he extols the Creator in the familiar stanzas beginning :
Far in the East a stable for the Sun
The Lord our God has set, whence with a shout
Titan springs rutilant out,
Like a bridegroom
From his anointing room,
Rejoicing across Heaven his wheelèd race to run.
Your pious ancestors once kept white horses stabled on the Temple Hill and every morning harnessed them to golden chariots which were driven out splendidly to meet the rising Sun. Who commanded you to turn your backs to the Sun when you worship? Who led you astray? Did you dredge up this impious custom from the stinking canals of Babylon?
“Deaf adders, blind moles! I have built a beautiful hippodrome below the Temple of Jerusalem, a marble hippodrome with gilded bronze gates and barriers, capacious benches and an exquisitely adorned spi
na—by which is meant the middle space enclosed by the track—such as would not disgrace any of the richest and greatest cities of the Greeks. But to what purpose? You never frequent that admirable place, because of your superstitious obstinacy. You close your eyes to its very existence ; on festival days you fastidiously stop your ears against the shouts of joy which flow in great waves from the benches, when in rivalry around the elliptical track gallop teams of beautiful horses, urging along chariots decorated with red, white, blue and green. The teams run sun-wise, in honour of the supreme luminary for which the Lord God, as David testifies, has provided a hippodrome in Heaven and rosy stables in the East. Their chariot colours are those of the four prime seasons, and upright stands each resolute charioteer.
“Come, stiff-necks, dunces, abecedarians, off with you now to the hippodrome, to the other wonderful hippodrome which I have built here at Jericho. Off with you now, like little scampering children who are taken to see their first negro, or their first captive lion, or their first view of the wide shining sea. I desire you to meditate throughout the coming night on the stanza of the psalm which I have quoted to you ; for to-morrow your new illumination must begin. This is not to say that to-morrow chariot teams will compete for your entertainment ; but that since the hippodrome is roofless and unprovided with awnings you will at last, willy-nilly, become aware of the fiery Titan whom all the civilized world delights to honour, yourselves alone excepted : to-morrow you will have nothing else to do all day but dutifully to mark the stages of his course from sunrise to noon, from noon to sunset, and the same simple task will be yours the next day, and the next, until you shall have thoroughly learned your lesson.
“In honour of the Sun, King Solomon set up those pillars and groves which in the littleness of your hearts and the darkness of your intellect you condemn as idolatrous—Solomon the son of David, I say, whom you name the wisest of men, notwithstanding! How is it, renegades from your ancient faith, that you adore our God in the character of the thievish Moon, that you blow trumpets every month to greet that absurd silver shred which gives neither warmth nor light to man? The prophet Jonah—how did he name Jerusalem? Was it as Beth Sin, the abode of the aberrant Moon-god Sin, hated by all good-hearted men throughout the world, or as Nineveh, the abode of Nimrod, resplendent Lord of the Solar Year?
“Be off now, hurry, go, I say, moon-struck fools, for my soldiery are the warders who will escort you to the curative building of which I have spoken !”
Troops had been posted all about the Palace grounds with drawn swords and javelins at the ready, and the great crowd, puzzled, helpless and without a leader, began to move down the slope towards the hippodrome, the soldiers guarding every path of escape and encouraging laggards with kicks and blows.
As soon as the officers were able to report to Herod that the entire priesthood, except those who were officiating at the Temple, had been herded into the empty hippodrome and that the gates had been locked, he issued a new edict deposing Matthias the High Priest and appointing to the office Mattlias’s brother-in-law, who was absent in Cyprus. At Jerusalem, on the same day, Carmi had summoned all the priests in the Temple, except the three or four without whom the rites would have come to a sudden standstill, to a brief conference in the Court of the Gentiles. There they were arrested and sent down to Jericho under escort to join their comrades in the hippodrome. The stage was cleared for the performance, next day, of a terrible sacrifice at the Altar of Burned Offering.
That same night, three Damascene Jews of the tribe of Issachar arrived at the Jericho Palace and demanded an audience with the King. They announced themselves as astrologers and Herod consented to see them. They proved to be Covenanters, a sect who claimed to have made a new covenant with God through the mediation of a spirit named “The Coming One” or “The Star”, whom they expected shortly to become incarnate in human form. They seemed eager, simple-minded men, and their leader told Herod : “Your name shall be glorious for ever, Majesty, for the stars tell us that the Prince of Righteousness has been born at last under your benignant sway, to be your heir and to rule over all Israel for a thousand years. We know that you are sensible of this great honour bestowed on you by the Lord God, for we have handled the coins struck at your Royal Mint, where a six-pointed star is shown shining upon the sacred mountain-top.”
Herod smiled encouragingly. “To whom, learned Damascenes, do you suppose this Prince to have been born ?”
They bowed and replied : “We are ignorant men, but since it is known that he is to be the King of the Jews, we presume him to be either your son or your grandson. We are not believers in the direct descent of the Coming One from David, for as one of our teachers has said : ‘He will be called David even if he is not of David’s blood.’ Well, now he is born at last. The stars do not lie.”
“No, they do not lie, but often they mislead. When do you suppose this child to have been born ?”
“By our calculations he was born at this last winter solstice.”
“And where ?”
“We do not know, but we presume at Bethlehem of Ephrath. As your Majesty knows, the prophet Micah wrote distinctly : ‘And you, Bethlehem in the land of Judah, are not the least of the Princes of Judah, for out of you shall come one who shall rule my people Israel.’ ”
“Would you recognize the child if you were to see him ?”
“Certainly! He would have marks of royalty on him.”
“You have my permission to go to Bethlehem to search for him, good men. If you find him let me know and I shall come and worship him. But in this at least you are mistaken : he is no son or grandson of mine.”
“May Your Majesty live for ever! We will set out at once.”
Herod was astonished by the coincidence ; for the House of David were to be registered at Bethlehem on the following day.
When the Damascenes had gone, Herod began to doubt first whether Archelaus could be trusted to destroy the child and then whether the tale of the birth in the Grotto were true. Had it perhaps been ingeniously fabricated by him as a means of getting command of troops with which to raise a revolt? Were the Damascenes his accomplices? Was the standard of revolt to be raised at Bethlehem? Thus from a single doubt his mind raced through a whole circuit of doubts. He even felt uncertain of the loyalty of his cousin-german the Edomite Achiabus, the only man whom he had taken wholly into his confidence about the grand plan —Achiabus who had accompanied him into the tombs of Solomon and David, and who was to become High Priest of the reformed religion. He began to groan and complained once more of the pain in his bowels, and presently in a piteous voice asked Achiabus, who was sitting with him, for an apple to cool his parched throat and a knife with which to pare the apple. When Achiabus fetched them, Herod pretended that his pains had suddenly become so violent that he could not bear to live even an hour longer, and made as if to stab himself with the knife. Would Achiabus try to restrain him, or would he allow him to die without hindrance? That was a fair test of his love.
Achiabus wrenched the knife away and cried : “Help! Help !” The servants came in at a run, and seeing the two men struggling for the knife concluded that Achiabus was a secret assassin. A great outcry and commotion followed ; the word ran through the Palace “The Lion is dead”. His name was so feared that a huge wailing arose from far and near to frighten the ghost away from the scene of his horrid crimes.
The frightful noise and the rumour of Herod’s death reached the Royal prison, where Antipater was now confined. A quick-witted young warder hurried into his cell, knocked off his gyves and fetters and led him tottering towards the gate. But the gate was barred and the porter surly ; before he could be persuaded to open it, the prison governor, to whom Archelaus had made large presents, intercepted Antipater and marched him back to his cell. The governor sent a hurried message to Archelaus informing him of what had happened, and begging to be the first to congratulate him on his accession to the Throne. But the other warders crowded around, shouting : “Release King Anti
pater, release him! He is innocent! He is our own true King. He will reward us all with wonderful gifts.”
The governor made a quick decision : he sent two of his men into Antipater’s cell, who struck him suddenly from behind as he knelt in prayer and killed him outright.
Thus by too great cunning Herod had over-reached himself, and the antique God of Jerusalem was cheated of his burned offering.
The news reached Emmaus on the following night. When Mary heard that Antipater was dead she could not weep openly nor unburden her heart even to the faithful Shelom. But she whispered in the ear of her infant son, whom she called Jesus : “O my son, he is dead! O little son, do you hear, he is dead !” The child wailed. He was all the world to her now : her first child, and her last. She began to rock him and soothe him, telling him of the journey that lay ahead of them. “You and I are going on a journey in the morning. We are going to the place where you were born. We are going to Bethlehem. I will take good care of you, and do you take good care of me, and the Lord will take good care of us both, and good old Joseph will travel with us.” At this the child smiled, which was the first smile she had ever had from him. She kissed him tenderly and said : “Sleep now, Son Jesus, for soon we go on a long, long journey.” But she little guessed how long and weary a journey it would be.
They were delayed on the road by the lameness of one of their asses and did not reach Bethlehem until after midnight. Then it was too late to knock up a merchant of the town with whom Joseph had once dealt in business ; but he led the lame ass to the backside of the merchan’s house and tied it up in the stable with the other beasts. Then they continued up the hill to the village inn, Mary riding, Joseph walking beside her with his hand on the bridle. They found the inn filled to overflowing with members of the House of David who had come for the registration. Men were sleeping huddled in blankets in the doorway and under the porch, so close together that Joseph could not have entered without treading on one of them. The night was cold, with rain drizzling down. He looked for shelter in the barn ; but the barn was also crowded, and as he tried to thrust his way in someone banged the door and barred it from inside.