Taken aback, he answered : “I am grateful to you for your solicitude, brother. But of what sins do I need to be cleansed? Evidently you are offended in me.”
“What man is free of sin? And do you not commit a sin of presumption in asking me : ‘Of what sins do I need to be cleansed?’ ”
“If I have offended, may the Lord forgive me! Have you also invited our brother Jose ?”
“We have not. He is vexed with us over a small matter of a broken harness.”
“Because a harness breaks, should the bond of brotherhood break with it? But tell me, brothers, who is to cleanse me of my sins? The power to wash away sins is given only to certain Great Ones.”
“Why, brother Jesus, have you not heard of the wonders that are being done by our cousin John of Ain-Rimmon? He is assuredly a Great One! With a mouth like the vent of a furnace he preaches repentance to the four quarters of the world, and he dips into the swift stream of Jordan all sinners who come to seek him out. When they emerge they are like new men.”
“Tell me more about this baptist, and if your account pleases me I will come with you, perhaps.”
“He spent seven years at Callirrhoë with the godly Essenes, but has since been granted a dispensation to travel. He baptized at Ain-Rimmon first, but since at Beth Arabah. He is tall and gaunt. His food is carobs and wild honey ; his drink, water. He wears a broad leather girdle and a white coat of camel’s hair.”
“Camel’s hair? The Essenes hold that whoever wears camel’s hair is either a fool, a sinner or Elijah himself !”
“How so ?”
“The very first prohibition in the Law against eating the flesh of unclean beasts is against eating that of the camel. The camel is no less unclean than the hare or the hog. Though our father Abraham accepted camels as a present from Pharaoh, it is not recorded that he touched or mounted them. We read that Laban, Jacob’s father-in-law, owned a camel, or at least the saddle of a camel ; but Laban was not of the seed of Abraham. Though King David possessed camels, they were put in the care of an Ishmaelite, not of a Jew, and were pack-beasts, used for trade with Damascus and Babylon. The Land of Uz, where Job lived, is not within the boundaries of Israel and doubtless Uzzites tended his camels. Brothers, a camel is a dangerous possession, since a hair from its hide may blow into a man’s food and defile him ; and how can he avoid defilement if he wears a coat of camel’s hair ?”
“Camel’s hair is not camel’s flesh !”
“If you found a hog’s bristle in your broth, would you not turn faint and pour away the bowlful? Then if John is neither a fool nor a sinner yet dares to wear camel’s hair, trusting that the angels will guard his mouth from hairs, he must be a man among men.”
“At least we can tell you this : Doctors from the High Court at Jerusalem have questioned him and he denies that he is Elijah. He claims to be the prophet foretold in Isaiah : the outrider who clears the way for the King, preaching repentance.”
“That same repentance which every prophet has preached since prophecy began ?”
“He declares that it is not enough for us Jews to boast : ‘We are sons of Abraham’ ; for our God can transform desert stones into sons of Abraham, if he so pleases. He also declares that the days of trial are upon us, that the axe is already laid at the root of every unprofitable tree. And now that the path of the Phoenix has crossed the path of the Dove (but this is a dark saying), he is preparing the way for one greater than himself.”
Here was the sign at last : the Phoenix and the Dove! Jesus asked in the calmest tones that he could muster : “For another greater even than this Great One? For the Messiah, Son of David ?”
“We suppose, rather, that he means the Son of Man foretold by the prophet Daniel, who is to ride up to Jerusalem seated on a storm-cloud. He says : ‘His winnowing fan is in his hand and he will blow away the chaff from the threshing floor and burn it in unquenchable fire ; but the grain he will save.’ ”
“Your account pleases me. I am ready to come with you to see whether our cousin is a prophet, a madman or such a pretender as Athronges was. But first, pray, make your peace with Jose.”
“We will not be the first to speak ; the fault was his.”
“He declares that it was yours.”
“He lies.”
“I will come with you as mediator and cast the fault upon God’s Adversary.”
The three of them went to Jose’s timber-yard at Bethlehem. All agreed to cast the fault of the quarrel upon God’s Adversary. They kissed and were reconciled ; but it was left to Jesus to replace the broken harness with a new one, for they were proud men.
Jose also consented to be baptized, and all four brothers set off together on the next day for Beth Arabah, which lies in the gorge of the Lower Jordan, close to where it enters the Dead Sea : a gloomy and desolate place, overhung by tremendous rocks. They found a crowd of people waiting to be baptized, women as well as men ; some had even brought their children with them. John stood straddle-legged in midstream, as if at a sheep-shearing, and dipped under the water all who came to him. If they struggled, he held them by force until their breath rose in great bubbles, and prayed loud and earnestly over them. When they had regained the bank, choking and spluttering, they presently began to laugh, shout and dance, glorifying the Lord for the new vistas of holiness that opened for them.
As Jesus and his brothers watched, John cried out suddenly : “I baptize with water, but after me comes one who will baptize with fire. What sins I have not washed away, he will burn away. He will burn them, I say, to white ash and clinker !”
Jose, Judah and Simeon entered the water with a rush, not waiting their turns, shouldering men aside zealously. John baptized them, and coming out glorified, they began to dance and shout on the river-bank with the rest, though they had the reputation of being staid men. They cried to Jesus, who sat on a tree-stump apart from the crowd : “Go in now, laggard, and be cleansed! Oh, what a joyful thing it is to feel the burden fallen from the back! Go in now, brother, and be freed of your black crusted sins! Why do you dawdle there ?”
“I await my turn.”
“Well, well, as you please. But we are busy men and must return at once. The joy of sinlessness wings our heels.” So off they went.
Jesus waited until everyone had been baptized and had turned for home. Then he advanced towards John, who, hurrying out of the water, embraced him and cried : “At last, at last !”
“My brothers urged me to accept your baptism, Cousin,” said Jesus.
“Let it wait until it may serve as a lustration when I anoint you King.”
“Who put the word ‘King’ into your mouth ?”
“The Watchman of the Mountain, who is your former tutor Simeon.”
“Of Mount Horeb, the navel of this earth ?”
“The same.”
They forded the Jordan and skirted the eastern shores of the Dead Sea, passing by Callirrhoë and the fortress of Machaerus, counted next to Jerusalem in strength, and crossing the River Arnon into Moab. Then they turned towards the south-west, past the sites of the ancient cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, and began to ascend the foothills of the mountain-wilderness of Seir. A weary journey took them to the Ascent of Akrabbim, the winding path linking Petra with Hebron, and there above them towered the splendid limestone peak of Madara, which, under the names of Mount Horeb, “the Mountain of the Glowing Sun”, and of Mount Hor, appears in the Book of Exodus as the sacred seat of Jehovah. The Zadokites denied that Madara was Horeb, resenting that it should lie in Edomite rather than Israelitish territory ; and, concluding that Moses led his people out of Egypt by way of the Red Sea rather than the Sea of Reeds—the lagoon that lies eastward from Pelusium—they attached the name of “Horeb” to Mount Sinai, which rises colossally above Cape Poseidon, between the two arms of the Red Sea. However, the Essenes have preserved the true tradition. Kadesh Barnea, the tribal centre of the Israelites during their later wanderings in the wilderness, lies a day’s travel to the westward of Hor
eb ; there Jehovah first appeared to Moses.
When they had crossed the pass, John said : “Rest here under this tree of wild broom and sleep well, for you will need a store of sleep to draw upon in the days and nights that lie ahead.”
Jesus slept, and when he awoke in the morning he found a pitcher of water and a batch of freshly baked ember-loaves at his side. He heard John’s voice from behind him : “Eat and drink well, then sleep again, Lord, for you will need a store of food and drink to draw upon in the days and nights that lie ahead.”
Jesus ate and drank and afterwards slept again. When he awoke in the evening, he found more ember-loaves ready baked, and water in the same pitcher. John told him : “Eat and drink, sleep another few hours yet ; the trial will be too hard for you otherwise.”
Once more he ate and drank, and once more slept.
While Jesus lay asleep, John climbed in moonlight up the white crags of Horeb until he came to a watch-tower which the Essenes had built there for the Watchman.
Simon son of Boethus, now very aged, greeted John tremulously, asking him : “Is it good news ?”
“It is good.”
“He is come ?”
“He lies asleep under the tree of Elijah and will present himself for trial to-morrow.”
“Many years I have waited for this day !”
In the morning John brought Jesus before Simon. They kissed and Simon asked : “Lord, are you instructed in the figure ?”
“I am instructed.”
Simon said to the single disciple whom he had with him, Judas of Kerioth : “Conduct my Lord to his station !”
Judas led Jesus to a level platform under a thorn-bush, close to the peak of the mountain, and there left him.
It was noon ; and with his forefinger Jesus drew a circle in the dust about himself, revolving sunwise three times. Then he divided the circle into four by means of a cross of equal arms, and seated himself in the southern quarter, facing towards the Red Sea and the desert lands of Arabia.
Ten days and ten nights he waited there patiently under the thorn-bush, unsleeping, his pulse and respiration slow, eating nothing and drinking nothing, preoccupied with his vigil. On the morning of the tenth day, as the sun rose from the direction of Elam, a loud roaring sounded in his ears and it seemed to him that out of the eye of the sun a huge tawny lion with bloody jaws sprang into the circle to devour him. He addressed the lion : “Enter in peace, God’s creature! There is room for both of us in this circle.” He remembered the allegory in which Jehovah sent an angel to stop the lions’ mouths that would otherwise have devoured the prophet Daniel. The lion roared and ramped for anger, lashing its tufted tail ; but could do Jesus no harm, being confined by the cross within the eastern quarter of the circle.
Ten more days and nights passed. On the twentieth day at noon, it seemed that a wild he-goat with a single horn capered into the circle from the rear ; and as the lion was Anger, so the goat was Lust. Jesus turned and said : “Enter in peace, God’s creature! There is room for the three of us in this circle.” The goat, which was of immense size, danced lecherously, rolling its eyes and tossing its horn ; the smell of its rut was as pervasive as that of ambergris. Jesus remembered another allegory of the prophet Daniel, where it is written : “The he-goat waxed very great, but when he was strong, his great horn was broken.” The goat could do Jesus no harm, being confined within the northern quarter of the circle. So lion and goat continued with him ten more days.
Then, at sunset, on the last day of his vigil, from the western side of the circle came a still more terrible beast : it was a seraph, a fiery serpent with fangs, hissing and rattling its brazen scales ; and as the power of the lion was Anger, and that of the goat was Lust, so the seraph’s power was Fear. Jesus said : “Enter in peace, God’s creature! There is room for the four of us in this circle.” But though he spoke the word of Love that he had learned from the Psyllian, the seraph hissed and darted its head towards him from sunset to midnight ; and this was the hardest trial of all. But he remembered how good King Hezekiah had broken in pieces the seraph whom the men of Jerusalem held in awe, crying : “It is a mere piece of brass.” The seraph could do Jesus no harm, being confined within the western quarter of the circle.
Then, at dawn, it seemed that the three creatures were joined together into one, with lion’s head, goat’s body and legs, seraph’s tail. He recognized the Chimaera of the Carians, which is an emblem of their three seasons—for, like the Etruscans, they do not reckon the dead season of winter in their sacred year. The lion was the springtime aspect of the waxing sun ; the goat the midsummer aspect of the sun in glory ; the seraph the autumn aspect of the waning sun. “And I am child to the white bull of winter.” Turning, he was suddenly aware that a great white bull had all the while shared the southern quarter of the circle with him, stretched out at his left side. But as soon as he attempted to study its power, it vanished. He said : “This beast has shared the southern quarter with me. Is it my secret fault? May our God protect me from its power !”
At noon the month of thirty days and nights was over, and out of the circle Jesus stepped ; the lion, goat and seraph, discrete again, following subserviently at his heels. Thereafter he had authority over these three Powers : over Anger, Lust and Fear. But the thought of the white bull troubled him exceedingly.
Simon, as Master of the Trials, came up to greet him. He said : “Lord, you have endured your vigil well. The three beasts follow at your heel. Now is the time to break your fast. Here is bread freshly baked and fresh spring water fetched from the source of the Madara brook.”
“Do not deceive me! You know that ten days and nights remain to be endured. Forty days were required of Moses and of Elijah on this very mountain—neither of whom ate bread or drank water during all that time.”
“Moses was a prophet, Elijah was a prophet. But are you not more than a prophet? How are you bound by such trifles as a count of days ?”
The smell of the water and of the freshly baked bread was delicious, yet Jesus took the bread, broke it, scattered it for the birds to eat and poured the water over his hands lest any fragment of bread should have clung to them.
Simon said : “Lord, that was honestly done. But why do you not change these stones into loaves and this sand into water : then though you eat stones, not bread, and drink sand, not water, your pangs will be eased.”
“It is written that man shall not live by bread alone, but by the word of our God. My soul has eaten bread of Bethlehem for thirty days, and drunk water of Bethlehem.” At these words, it seemed to Simon, a wild boar sprang up from where the bread was cast and followed obediently behind Jesus with the other three beasts ; which was the power of Greed.
Simon said : “Lord, that was honestly done. Now you shall see your reward.”
He led him up to a pinnacle of the mountain, and desired him to look east and west and north and south.
“Here,” he said, “a fine prospect extends, does it not? To the west, the Mediterranean Sea and ancient Egypt ; to the east, Moab and Elam ; to the south, Arabia ; to the north—ah, to the north the Holy Land of Israel stretches as far as Hermon, whose snowy peak glitters at us invitingly. Yet the regions that you view are in extent as nothing to those that will presently be yours. Beyond Arabia lie Ethiopia and Ophir and the Land of Frankincense ; beyond Egypt lie Libya and Mauretania ; beyond Elam lies India ; beyond Israel lie Syria, Asia and the Black Sea ; beyond the Mediterranean Sea lie Greece, Italy, Gaul, Spain, and the Land of the Hyperboreans. At the point of the lance you will drive the Romans out from every land that they have overrun ; you will also break the Kings of the South and East ; you will establish the Empire of our God over all the one hundred and fifty-three nations, to become the King of Kings, the greatest who ever reigned. Alexander beside you will seem a mere robber-chieftain !”
“It is recorded that the great Caesar killed a million men ; Pompey the Great two million ; Alexander the Great three million. Must your servant destroy ten
million or more to earn the title of ‘Greatest’? How may this be? Is your servant a warrior? Is it his destiny to spill blood and rule by the sword? And is it not written : ‘Thou shalt not kill’ ?”
“Your ancestor David had never put on armour, yet the Spirit of the Lord came upon him in the valley of Elah and in the sight of two armies he destroyed Goliath the champion of the Philistines, whose height was six cubits and a span, and rescued his nation from oppression. Do you shrink from battle? Is it not prophesied that the Son of David shall rescue his people by a mighty hand, that he shall be victorious in a bloody battle, and shall restore peace to Israel for a thousand years ?”
“Let others choose the path of conquest and petulantly sever with the sword the master-knot of mystery as did Alexander at Gordium. Let it rather be granted to me to weave the same sacred knot again, with golden wire, fastening it to the canopy bar above my throne. Have you not heard the judgement of the wise Hillel, how he said to the skull floating in the lake : ‘Because you drowned, you are drowned ; but in the end those who drowned you shall also drown’? So I say : ‘The sword makes no decision, but only confusion ; and he who lives by the sword, by the sword must perish.’ The battle to be fought is on another field.”
“Lord, that was honestly spoken. Let the battlefield be of whatever kind you please : only rule your people and deliver them. You shall master the Empire of the Romans in the name of the Lord of this Mountain, whose image is the golden calf which was set up in this very place when the tribes first came out of Egypt. Look yonder, where his apparition stands gleaming. He is the gracious bull-calf of the Cow Leah (which is to say Libnah, the White One), the universal Mother whom the Greeks call Io and the Egyptians Isis or Hathor. Adore him now as he deserves, and the whole world through which his raging mother wandered, stung by the breese, is yours !”
“Would you have me adore a golden calf ?”
“What else did Solomon worship, who was the wisest of men ?”
“Behind me, God’s Adversary! Is it not written : ‘Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve’ ?”