CHAP. XVI.
And on his arrival in Jerusalem Joseph stood for a moment before hiscamel thanking the beast for his great, rocking stride, which has givenme, he said, respite from thinking for two whole days and part of twonights. But I cannot be always on the back of a camel, he continued, andmust now rely on my business to help me to forget; and he strove toapply his mind to every count that came before him, but in the middle ofevery one his thoughts would fly away to Galilee, and the merchantwaiting to receive the provisions he had come to fetch wondered of whatthe young man was thinking, and the cause of the melancholy that was inhis face.
He was still less master of his thoughts when he sat alone, his ledgerbefore him; and finding he could not add up the figures, he wouldabandon himself without restraint to his grief; and very often it was sodeep that when the clerk opened the door it took Joseph some moments toremember that he was in his counting-house; and when the clerk spoke ofthe camel-drivers that were waiting in the yard behind thecounting-house for orders, it was only by an effort of will that hecollected his thoughts sufficiently to realise that the yard was stillthere, and that a caravan was waiting for orders to return to Jericho.The orders were forgotten on the way to the yard, and the clerk had toremind him, and sometimes to say: Master, if you'll allow me, I willsettle this business for you.
Joseph was glad of his clerk's help, and he returned to the ledger, and,staring at figures which he did not see, he sat thinking of Jesus, ofthe night they walked by the lake's edge, of the day spent in the woodsabove Capernaum, and the various towns of Syria that they visited. Itseemed to him that the good days had gone over for ever, and it was buta sad pleasure to remember the pagans that liked Jesus' miracles withoutbeing able to abandon their own gods. Only Peter could bring a smileinto his face; a smile wandered round his lips, for it was impossible tothink of Peter and not to smile. But the smile faded quickly and the oldpain gripped his heart.
I have lost Jesus for ever, he said, and at that moment a sudden rap athis door awoke him from his reveries. He was angry with his clerk, buthe tried to disguise his anger, for he was conscious that he mustpresent a very ridiculous appearance to his clerk, unless, indeed, whichwas quite likely, his clerk was indifferent to anything but the businessof the counting-house. Be this as it may, he was an old and confidentialservant who made no comments and asked no questions. Joseph wasgrateful to his clerk for his assumed ignorance and an hour later Josephbade him good-night. I shall see thee in the morning, to which Samuelanswered: yes, sir; and Joseph was left alone in the crowded street ofJerusalem, staring at the passengers as they went, wondering if theywere realities, everyone compelled by a business or a desire, or merelyshadows, figments of his imagination and himself no more than a shadow,a something that moved and that must move across the valley ofJehoshaphat and up the Mount of Olives. Why that way more than any otherway? he asked himself: because it is the shortest way. As if thatmattered, he added, and as soon as he reached the top of the Mount ofOlives he looked over the desert and was surprised by the smallness ofthe hills; like the people who lived among them, they seemed to him tohave dwindled. The world is much smaller than I thought, he said. Thatis it, the world seems to have dwindled into a sort of ash-heap; lifehas become as tasteless as ashes. It can only end, he said to himself,by my discovering something that interests me, but nothing interests meexcept Jesus. Lack of desire, he said, is my burden, for, desiring onething too much, I have lost desire for all else, and that is why lifehas come to me like an ash-heap.
As the days went by he began to feel life more oppressive andunendurable, till one evening the thought crossed his mind that changeof scene might be a great benefit to him. If he were to go to Egypt, hewould journey for fifteen days through the desert, the rocking stride ofthe camel would keep him from thinking, and he might arrive in Egypteager to listen to the philosophers again. But the temptations thatEgypt presented faded almost as soon as they had arisen, and he deemedthat it might be better for him to choose a city oversea. A sea voyage,he thought, will cheer me more than a long journey across the desert,and Joppa is but a day's journey from Jerusalem. But the shipping ismore frequent from Caesarea, and it is not as far; and for a moment itseemed to him that he would like to be on board a ship watching thewind making the sail beautiful. But to what port should he be makingfor? he asked. Why not to Greece?--for there are philosophers as greator greater than those of Alexandria. But philosophers are out of myhumour, he added, and, putting Athens aside, he bethought himself ofCorinth, and the variegated world he would meet there. From every portships come to Corinth, bringing different habits, customs, languages,religions; and for the better part of the evening Corinth seemed to behis destination.
Corinth was famous for its courtesans, and he remembered suddenly thatthe most celebrated were collected there; and it may have been thecourtesans that kept him from this journey, and his thoughts turningfrom vice to marriage a bitterness rose up in his mind against hisfather for the persistency with which Dan reminded him in and out ofseason that every man's duty is to bring children into the world.
It had seemed to him that in asking him to take a wife to his discomforthis father was asking him too much, and he had put the question aside;but he was now without will to resist any memory that might befall him,and for the first time he allowed his thoughts to dwell on his father'simplied regret that he had never caught his son near a servant girl'sbed. His unwillingness to impugn his father's opinions kept himheretofore from pondering on his words, but feeling his life to be nowbroken and cast away, there seemed to arise some reasons for anexamination of his father's words. They could not mean anything elsethan that a young man was following the natural instincts if he lingeredabout a young girl's room; and that to be without this instinct wasalmost a worse misfortune than to be possessed by it to the practicalexclusion of other interests.
His father, it is true, may have argued the matter out with himselfsomewhat in this fashion: that love of women in a man may be controlled;and looking back into his own life he may have found this viewconfirmed. Joseph remembered that his grandmother often spoke to him ofDan's great love of his wife, and it might be that he had never lovedanother woman; few men, however, were as fortunate as his father, andJoseph could not help thinking that it were better to put women out ofhis mind altogether than to become inflamed by the sight of every woman.He believed that was why he had always kept all thoughts of women out ofhis mind; but it seemed to him now that a wife would break the monotonythat he saw in front of him, and were he to meet a woman such as hisfather seems to have met he might take her to live with him. He thoughtof himself as her husband, though he was by no means sure that marriedlife was a possible makeshift for the life he sought and was obliged toforgo, but as life seemed an obligation from which he could notreasonably escape he thought he would like to share it with some womanwho would give him children. His father desired grandchildren, and sincehe had partly sacrificed his life for his father's sake, he might, itseemed to him, sacrifice himself wholly. But could he? That did notdepend altogether on himself, and with the view to discovering the turnof his sex instinct he called to mind all the women he had seen, askinghimself as each rose up before him if he could marry her. There weresome that seemed nearer to his desire than others, and it was with theview to honourable marriage that he called upon his friends, and hisfather's friends, and passed his eyes over all their daughters; but thegirl whose image had lingered more pleasantly than any other in hismemory had married lately, and all the others inspired only a physicalaversion which he felt none would succeed in overcoming. He had seensome Greek women, and been attracted in a way, for they were not toolike their sex; but these Jewish women--the women of his race--seemed tohim as gross in their minds as in their bodies, and it surprised him tofind that though many men seemed to think as he did about these women,they were not repelled as he was, but accepted them willingly, evengreedily, as instruments of pleasure and afterwards as mothers ofchildren. But I am not as these men a
re, he said; my father must bearhis sorrow like another; and in meditation it seemed to him that itwould not be reasonable that his father should get everything he desiredand his son nothing.
His father had gotten more out of life than ever he should get; he wouldhave his son till he died (so far as he could he would secure him thatsatisfaction), and after death this world and its shows concern us not.But it may well be that we die out of one life to be born into anotherlife, that everything that passes is replaced by an equivalent, he said,repeating the words of a Greek philosopher to whom he had been muchaddicted in happy days gone by, and that reality is but an eternalshaping and reshaping of things. All that is beyond doubt, he continued,is that things pass too quickly for us to have any certain knowledge ofthem, our only standard being our own flitting impressions; and as allmen bring a different sensitiveness into the world, knowledge is a wordwithout meaning, for there can be no knowledge. Every race is possessedof a different sensitiveness, he said, as he passed up the Mount ofOlives on his way home. We ask for miracles, but the Greeks aresatisfied with reason. Am I Greek or Jew? he asked, for he was lookingforward to some silent hours with a book of Greek philosophy and hopedto forget himself in the manuscript. But he could not always keep histhoughts on the manuscript, and, forgetful of Heraclitus, he often satthinking of Jesus' promise--that one morning men would awake to findthat God had come to judge the world and divide it among those thatrepented their sins. He remembered he had forfeited his share in theKingdom for his father's sake, or had he been driven out of thecommunity because his belief in the coming of the Kingdom wasinsufficient? It is true that his belief had wavered, but he had alwaysbelieved. Even his natural humility, of which he was conscious, did notallow him to doubt that his belief in Jesus was less fervid than that ofPeter, James, John and the residue. The conviction was always quick inhim that he felt more deeply than these publicans and fishers, yet Jesusretained them and sent him away.
The manuscript glided from his hand to the floor, and his thoughtswandered back to Alexandria, and he sat thinking that death must berather the beginning than the end of things, for it were impossible tobelieve that life was an end in itself. Heraclitus was right: hispresent life could be nothing else but the death of another life. And asif to enforce this doctrine a recollection of his grandmother intrudedupon his meditation. She was seventy-eight when she died, and herintellect must have faded some months before, but with her passing oneof the servants told him that a curious expression came into her face--asort of mocking expression, as if she had learnt the truth at last andwas laughing at the dupes she left behind. She lay in a grave inGalilee, under some pleasant trees, and while thinking of her grave itoccurred to him that he would not like to be put into the earth; hisfancy favoured a tomb cut out of the rocks in Mount Scropas, for there,he said to himself, I shall be far from the Scribes and Pharisees, andgoing out on the terrace he stood under the cedars and watched for anhour the outlines of the humped hills that God had driven in endlessdisorder, like herds of cattle, all the way to Jericho, thinking all thewhile that it would be pleasant to lie out of hearing of all the sillyhurly-burly that we call life. But the hurly-burly would not be silly ifJesus were by him, and he asked himself if Jesus was an illusion likeall the rest, and as soon as the pain the question provoked had diedaway, his desire of a tomb took possession of him again, and it left himno peace, but led him out of the house every evening, up a zigzaggingpath along the hillside till he came to some rocks over against thedesert. I shall lie in quiet here till he calls me, on a couch embeddedin the wall and surmounted by an arch--but if he should prefer me torise out of an humble grave? That I may not know, only that the poorestis not as unhappy as I, so I may as well have a tomb to my liking.
It was a long time since he had come to a resolve, and having come toone at last, he was happier. And in more cheerful mood he decided thatnow that the site was settled it would be well to seek information as towhich are the best workmen to employ on the job.
But for him whose thoughts run on death nothing is harder to settle thanwhere his bones shall lie; and next time he visited the hillside Josephcame upon rocks facing eastward, and it seemed to him that the rays ofthe rising sun should fall on his sepulchre; but a few days later,coming out of his house in great disquiet, it seemed to him he would liehappy if his tomb were visited every evening by the peaceful rays of thesetting sun, and he asked himself how many years of life he would haveto drag through before God released him from his prison. If he wishedto die he could, for our lives are in our own hands. But he did not knowthat he cared to die and, overpowered with grief, he abandoned himselfto metaphysical speculation, asking himself again if it were not truethat to be born into this world meant to pass out of one life intoanother; therefore, if so, to die in this world only meant to pass intoanother, a life unknown to us, for all is unknown--nothing being fixedor permanent. We cannot bathe twice in the same river, so Heraclitussaid, but we cannot bathe even once in the same river, he added; and tocarry the master's thought a stage further was a pleasure, if any momentof his present life could be called pleasurable. He heard these sayingsfirst in Alexandria, and, looking towards Jerusalem, he tried to recallthe exact words of the sage regarding the futility of sacrifice. Ourpriests try, said Heraclitus, to purify themselves with blood and weadmire them, but if a filthy man were to roll himself in the mud in thehope of cleaning himself we should think he was mad. In some such wiseHeraclitus spoke, but it seemed to Joseph he had lost something of thespirit of the saying in too profuse wording of it. As he sought for theoriginal epitome he heard his name called, and awaking from hisrecollections of Alexandria he looked up and saw before him a young manwhom he remembered having seen at the Sanhedrin. Nicodemus was his name;and he remembered how the fellow had kept his eyes on him for one wholeevening, trying at various times to engage him in talk; an insistentfellow who, despite rebuffs, had followed him into the street after themeeting, and, refusing to be shaken off, had led the way so skilfullythat Joseph found himself at last on Nicodemus' doorstep and with nooption but to accept Nicodemus' invitation to enter. He did not like thefellow, but not on account of his insistence; it was not his insistencethat had prejudiced him against him as much as the young man'selaboration of raiment, his hairdressing above all; he wore curls oneither side that must have taken his barber a long while to prepare, andhe exhaled scents. He wore bracelets, and from his appearance Joseph hadnot been able to refrain from imagining lascivious pictures on the wallsof his house and statues in the corners of the rooms--in a word, hethought he had been persuaded to enter an ultra-Greek house.
In this he was, however, mistaken, and in the hour they spent togetherhis host's thoughts were much less occupied than Joseph expected them tobe with the jewels on his neck and his wrists, and the rich tassels onhis sash. He talked of many things, but his real thoughts were uponarms; and he showed Joseph scimitars and daggers. Despite a longdiscussion on the steel of Damascus, Joseph could not bring himself tobelieve that Nicodemus' interests in heroic warfare were more thanintellectual caprice: and he regarded as entirely superficial Nicodemus'attacks on the present-day Jews, whose sloth and indolence he reproved,saying that they had left the heroic spirit brought out of Arabia withtheir language, on the banks of the Euphrates. One hero, he admitted,they had produced in modern times (Judas Maccabeus), and Joseph heardfor the first time that this great man always had addressed his soldiersin Hebrew. All the same he did not believe that Nicodemus was serious inhis passionate demands for the Hebrew language, which had not beenspoken since the Jews emerged from the pastoral stage. We should dowell, Nicodemus said, to engage others to look to our flocks and herds,so that we may have leisure to ponder the texts of Talmud, nor do Ihesitate to condemn my own class, the Sadducees, as the least worthy ofall; for we look upon the Temple as a means of wealth, despising thepoor people, who pay their half-shekel and bring their rams and theirgoats and bullocks hither.
He could talk for a long time in this way, his eyes abstracted
fromJoseph, fixed on the darkness of the room. While listening to him Josephhad often asked himself if there were a real inspiration behind thatlean face, carven like a marble, with prominent nose and fading chin, orif he were a mere buffoon.
He succeeded in provoking a casual curiosity in Joseph, but he had notinfected Joseph with any desire of his acquaintance; his visits to thecounting-house had not been returned. Yet this meeting on the hillsidewas not altogether unwelcome, and Joseph, to his surprise, surveyed theyoung man's ringlets and bracelets with consideration; he admired hismany weapons, and listened to him with interest. He talked well, tellingthat the sword that hung from his thigh was from Damascus andrecommending a merchant to Joseph who could be trusted to discover asfine a one for him. It was not wise to go about this lonely hillsideunarmed, and Joseph was moved to ask him to draw the sword from itsscabbard, which Nicodemus was only too glad to do, calling Joseph'sattention to the beautiful engraving on the blade, and to the hiltstudded with jewels. He drew a dagger from his jacket, a hardly lesscostly weapon, and Joseph was too abashed to speak of his buckler on hisleft arm and the spear that he held in his right hand. But, nothingloath, Nicodemus bubbled into explanation. It was part of his project toremind his fellow-countrymen that they too must arm themselves if theyever wished to throw off the Roman yoke.
So long as the Romans substitute a Hebrew word or letter for the head ofTiberius on the coin we pay the tribute willingly, he said as theyfollowed the crooked path through the rocks up the hillside towardsJoseph's house. And in reply to Joseph, who asked him if he believed inthe coming end of the world, he answered that he did, but he interpretedthe coming end of the world to mean the freeing of the people of Israelfrom the Roman yoke, astonishing Joseph by the vigour of his reply; forJoseph was not yet sure which was the truer part of this young man, theringlets and the bracelets or the shield and the spear.
He was partial to long silences; and the next of these was so long thatJoseph had begun to wonder, but when they reached the crest of the hillhe burst into speech like a bird into song, asking what was happening inGalilee, avouching much interest in Jesus, whom he had heard of, but hadnever seen. Joseph, guessing that it was to obtain news of Jesus thatNicodemus sought him on the hillside, told him that he had not spoken ofJesus for many weeks, and found a sudden relief in relating all he knewabout him: how Jesus said that father, mother, brother and sister mustbe abandoned. Yes, he had said, we must look upon all sacrifice asnaught if we would obtain our ancient kingdom and language. But theEssenes have never spoken like that, Nicodemus urged: he is not anEssene, nor Moses, nor Elijah, nor Jeremiah. He is none of these: he isJudas Maccabeus come to life again: and henceforth I shall look uponmyself as his disciple.
He spoke so loudly that any passer-by might have caught up his words;and there was danger from Joseph's servants, for they were now standingby his gate. He looked round uneasily, and as Nicodemus showed no signsof taking leave of him, he thought it would be more prudent to ask himinto the house, warning him, however, that he had no beautiful things toshow him in the way of engraved weapons, swords from Damascus or daggersfrom Circassia. It was not, however, to see beautiful weapons thatNicodemus inclined; only so far as they related to Jesus was heinterested in arms; and he besought Joseph to tell him more of Jesus,whom he seemed to have already accepted as the leader of a revoltagainst the Romans. But Joseph, who had begun to fear the young man,protested that Jesus' Kingdom was not of this earth, thinking thereby todiscredit Jesus in Nicodemus' eyes. Nicodemus was not to be put off soeasily: the Jews spoke of the Kingdom of Heaven so that they might gainthe kingdom of earth. A method not very remarkable for its success,Joseph interposed. The Romans do otherwise, never thinking about theKingdom of Heaven, but only of riches and vainglory, whereas Jesus, hesaid, says it is as hard for the rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heavenas it would be for a sword to pass through the eye of a needle. A swordthrough the eye of a needle, Nicodemus repeated, walking up and down thefloor, stamping his lance as he went. He is the leader we have beenwaiting for. But it is not always thus that he speaks, Josephinterposed, I have heard him myself say: it is as hard for a rich man toenter heaven as it would be for a cow to calve in a rook's nest. As hewent to and fro Nicodemus muttered: there is much to be said for thisrevision of his words. Jesus wishes to reach the imagination of the poorthat know not swords. And he spoke for a long time of the indolence ofthe rich, of their gross pleasures and sensual indulgences. But we mustgive them swords, he added under his breath, as if he were speaking forhimself alone and did not wish Joseph to hear, and then, awaking fromhis reverie, he turned to his host: tell me more of this remarkable man.And Joseph, who was now a little amused at his guest's extravagances,asked him if he knew the answer he had given to Antipas, who had invitedhim to his court in Tiberias in consequence of the renown of hismiracles. Wishing to witness some exhibition of his skill, Antipasseated himself in imperial fashion on his highest throne, and, drawinghis finest embroideries about him, asked Jesus if he had seen anybodyattired so beautifully before, to which Jesus, who stood between twosoldiers, a beggar in rags, before the king, replied: I have indeed;pheasants and peacocks, for nature apparelled them. Neither Moses norElijah nor Jeremiah, Nicodemus declared, could have invented a replymore apt. He asked Joseph if any further doubt lingered in his mind thatJesus was the prophet promised to the Jews. How I envy thy intercoursewith him, he cried. How I envy thee, for thou art the friend of him thatwill overthrow the Romans.
Overthrow the Romans! Joseph repeated to himself, and as soon as hisguest had left his house he was brought to a presentiment of the dangerhe incurred in allowing this man to come to his house: a young man whowalked about extravagantly armed would, sooner or later, find himselfhaled before Pilate. Joseph felt that it would be better to refuse tosee him if he called at the counting-house: an excuse could be foundeasily: his foreman might say: Master is away in Jericho. But whenNicodemus called a few weeks afterwards Joseph was constrained to tellhis foreman to tell Nicodemus that he would see him. The truth was,Joseph was glad of an interruption, for his business was boring him morethan it did usually, but he liked to pretend to himself that he couldnot escape from Nicodemus.
A new opinion of Nicodemus began to shape itself in his mind whenNicodemus said that many and many a year will have to pass before thatcan be done with success, and the Roman rule is so light that the peoplefeel it not. It saves us from quarrels among ourselves, and who havequarrelled as bitterly as we have done? Joseph's heart softened at thisappreciation of the Jewish people, and they began to talk in sympathyfor the first time, and it was a pleasure to find themselves in thisagreement, that before the Jews could conquer the Romans they would haveto conquer themselves. He is more cautious than I thought for, Josephmuttered as he returned to his camel-drivers, for his guest had departedsuddenly without giving any reason for his visitation. A spy he cannotbe, Joseph said to himself. I stand too well with Pilate to be suspectedof schemes of mutiny. But he will soon come under the notice of Pilate;and Joseph was not surprised when Pilate asked him if he knew anextravagantly dressed young man, Nicodemus by name. Joseph replied thathe did, giving Pilate to understand that Nicodemus was no more than oneof the many eccentrics to be found in every city, with a taste for thebeauty of engraved swords, and little for the use of these weapons; andPilate, who seemed to be of the same opinion himself, suddenly asked himif he had ever met in Galilee one named Jesus. Jesus from Nazareth,Pilate said; and Joseph watched the tall, handsome, pompous Roman, oneof those intelligently stupid men of which there are so many about. Hearrived, Pilate continued, in Jerusalem yesterday with a number ofGalileans, all talking of the resurrection, and news has just reached methat he had been preaching in the Temple, creating some disturbance,which will, I hope, not be repeated, for disturbances in the Temple leadto disturbances in the streets. Does your father know this new prophet?As Joseph was about to answer one of Pilate's apparitors enteredsuddenly with papers that demanded the procurator's attention. We willtalk
over this on another occasion, Pilate said as he bent over thepapers, and Joseph went out muttering: so he has come, so he has come toJerusalem at last.
At any moment he might meet Jesus, and to stop to speak to him in thestreet would, in a sense, involve a profanation of his oath to hisfather; and he knew he could not turn aside from Jesus. He musttherefore refrain from going up to Jerusalem and transact his businessfrom his house by means of messengers. But if Pilate were to send forhim? We cannot altogether avoid risk, he said to himself. I can do nomore than remain within doors.
It was not many days afterwards that one of his servants came suddenlyinto the room. Nicodemus, Sir, is waiting in the hall and would see you,though I told him you were engaged with business. He says the matter onwhich he is come to speak to you is important. Well, then, let me seehim, Joseph answered.
Now, what has happened? he asked. Has he said anything that theSanhedrin will be able to punish him for? He threw some more olive rootson the fire and told the servant to bring a lamp. A lamp, he said, willbe welcome, for this grey dusk is disheartening.
The weather is cold, so draw your chair near to the fire. I am glad tosee you. The men waited for the servant to leave the room. We shall bemore comfortable when the curtains are drawn. The lamp, I see, isbeginning to burn up.... Nicodemus sat grave and hieratic, thin andtall, in the high chair, and the gloom on his face was so immovable thatJoseph wasted no words. What has fallen out? he said, and Nicodemusasked him if he knew Phinehas, the great money-changer in the Temple.Joseph nodded, and, holding his hands before the fire, Nicodemus toldhis story very slowly, exasperating Joseph by his slowness; but he didnot dare to bid him to hasten, and, holding himself in patience, helistened to him while he told that Phinehas was perhaps the worst of theextorters, the most noisy and arrogant, a vicious and quarrelsome man,who, yester-morning, was engaged with a rich Alexandrian Jew, Shamhuth,who had lately arrived from Alexandria and was buying oxen, rams andewes in great numbers for sacrifice. We wondered at his munificence,Nicodemus said, not being able to explain it to ourselves, for the Feastof the Tabernacles is over; and our curiosity was still more roused whenit became known that he was distributing largess. The man's appearancearoused suspicion, for it is indeed a fearful one. From his single eyeto his chin a fearful avariciousness fills his face, and the empty,withered socket speaks of a close, sordid, secret passion, and soclearly that Jesus said: that man has not come to glorify God nor torepent of his sins. He is guilty of a great crime, and he would have itforgiven him. But the crime? Of what crime is he guilty? we asked. Jesusdid not answer us, for at that moment some young man had come to listento him, and the man's crime appeared to him as of little importancecompared to his own teaching. Has he come, we asked, to pray that hissight may be restored to him? Jesus motioned to us that that was so; andhe also bade us be silent, for stories of miracles have a great holdupon the human mind, and Jesus wished to teach some young men who hadcome to ask him how they were to live during these last days. Butmyself, consumed with desire to hear the man's story, mingled with theherdsmen who had brought in the cattle, and inquired how Shamhuth hadlost his eye. None could tell me, and I failed to get tidings of himtill I came upon an Alexandrian Jew who told me a strange story.Shamhuth's money came from his friend's wife, whom he married aftercausing him to be killed by hirelings; and when his senses tired of herhe persuaded her daughter to come over to him in the night. Shamhuthalways walked praying aloud, his eyes cast down lest they should fallupon a woman, and his wife did not suspect him. But one night she wasbidden in a dream to seek her husband, and rising from her bed shedescended and opened the door very softly, not wishing to disturb him inhis sleep. The sight that met her eyes kindled such a great flame ofhate in her that she returned to her room for a needle, and placing herhands upon her daughter's mouth she quickly pricked out both her eyes,and then, approaching her husband, she pricked out his right eye, andwas about to prick out the other, but he slid from her hands andescaped, blind of an eye, to Jerusalem, bringing with him great sums ofmoney in the hope that he may purchase a miracle, which is a greatblasphemy in itself, and shows what the man really is in his heart.
Such was the story that the Alexandrian Jew, who knew him, told us; andas soon as these abominations became known in the Temple a riot began,and somebody cried: the adulterer must be put away. Whereupon Phinehas,seeing the large profits he had expected vanishing, turned to Jesus andsaid: it is thou who hast brought this disaster upon me, lying Galilean,who callest thyself the son of David, when all know ye to be the son ofJoseph the Carpenter.
Son of David! Son of David! How can that be? the people began to askeach other, and in the midst of their questioning a great hilarity brokeover them. In great wrath Jesus overturned Phinehas' table, and Phinehaswould have overthrown Jesus had not Peter, who had armed himself with asword, raised it. The people became like mad: tables were broken forstaves, some rushed away to escape with a whole skin, and the frightenedcattle dashed among them, a black bull goring many. And in all the mobJesus was the fiercest fighter, lashing the people in the face with thethongs of the whip he had taken from a herdsman, and felling others withthe handle. The cages of the doves were broken, the birds took flight,and the priests, at their wits' end, called for the guards to come downfrom the porticoes, and it was not till much blood had been spilt thatorder was restored. Joseph asked how Phinehas came out of all thistrouble, and heard that he had escaped without injury. Merely losing afew shekels, not more, though he deserved to lose his life, for heplaced his money above the Temple, not caring whether it was polluted bythe presence of an adulterer, only thinking of the great profit he couldmake out of the man's sins, differing in no wise in this from thepriests and sacristans.
Jesus should never have gone to the Temple nor come to Jerusalem, Josephsaid. But in this Nicodemus could not agree with him, for if Jesus werethe Messiah his mission was nothing less than to free Jerusalem from theRoman yoke. But he should have brought a larger body of disciples withhim--some thousands, instead of a few hundreds--not enough to bringabout the abolition of the Temple, which, according to Nicodemus, wasthe Galilean's project--one more difficult to accomplish than he thinksfor. The Romans support the Temple, he cried, because the Temple dividesus. I say it myself, Sadducee though I am.
It was these last words that proved to Joseph that the ringlets andbracelets did not comprise the whole of this young man's soul, and hewas moved forthwith to confide the story of his father's sickness tohim, dwelling on all its consequences: he had not been elected anapostle, and Jesus consequently had no one by to tell him that he mustnot speak of the abolition of the law in Jerusalem. But if he did notcome to incite the people against the Temple, for what did he come?Nicodemus asked. You've heard him preach in Galilee, tell me who he is,and in what does his teaching consist?--a direct question that promptedJoseph to relate his associations with the Essenes, Banu, John, thesearch for Jesus in Egypt and among the Judean hills--a long story I'mafraid it is, Joseph mentioned apologetically to Nicodemus, who beggedhim to omit no detail of it. Nicodemus sat with his eyes fixed on Josephwhile Joseph told of the discovery of Jesus in Galilee among hisfather's fishermen; and as if to excuse the almost immodest interestawakened in Nicodemus, Joseph murmured that the story owed nothing tohis telling of it; he was telling it as plainly as it could be told fora purpose; Nicodemus must judge it fairly. Resuming his narrative,Joseph related the day spent in the forest and Jesus' interpretation ofthe prophecies. Nicodemus cried: he is the stone cut by no hand out ofthe mountain; the idol shall fall, and the stone that felled it shallgrow as big as a mountain and fill the whole earth.