The Brook Kerith: A Syrian story

  CHAP. XL.

  By midday they reached a region more rugged than the one they had comeout of. The path they followed zigzagged up steep ascents and descendedinto crumbling valleys and plains filled with split stones, rubble andsand, a desert truly, without sign of a living thing till the shadow ofan eagle's wings passed over the hot stones. Jesus told Paul that thebirds nested up among the clefts yonder and were most destructive in thespring when the ewes were lambing. Having to feed three or four eaglets,he said, the birds would descend on the flocks, the she-eagle, thelarger, stronger and fiercer, will attack and drive off even the dogthat does not fear a wolf, yet I have seen, he continued, a timid ewe,her youngling behind her in a coign in the hill, face the bird fiercelyand butt it till she lost her eyes, poor ewe, for I came up too latewith my staff. And the lamb? Paul inquired: was far away, Jesusanswered, aloft among the eaglets.

  Jesus had stories of wolves and hyenas to beguile the way with, and hepointed with his staff to the narrow paths above them up which theywould have to climb. But be not discouraged, he said, we shall be in abetter country presently; as soon as we pass the hill yonder we shallbegin to descend into the plain, another three leagues beyond yon hillwe shall be where we bid each other farewell. Paul answered he wasleaving Palestine for ever. His way was first to Italy and then to Spainand afterwards his life would be over, his mission fulfilled, but he wasglad to have been to Jericho to have seen the Jordan, the river in whichJohn had baptized Jesus. He was sorry now when it was too late that hehad never been to Galilee, and Jesus told of wooded hills rising gentlyfrom the lake shore, and he took pleasure in relating the town ofMagdala and the house of Dan of Arimathea, Joseph's father, and thegreat industry he had established there; he continued talking, showingsuch an intimate and personal knowledge of Galilee that Paul could notdoubt that he was what he professed to be, a Nazarene. There werehundreds of Nazarenes, many of which were called Jesus: but there wasonly one Jesus of Nazareth. He did not say this to Jesus; but afterJesus had asked him how it was that he who had travelled the world overhad never turned into Galilee, he replied that the human life of Jesusin Galilee concerned him not at all and his teaching very little. Hetaught all the virtues, but these were known to humanity from thebeginning; they are in the law that God revealed to Moses. Even pagansknow of them. The Greeks have expounded them excellently well. A teacherJesus was and a great teacher, but far more important was the fact thatGod had raised him from the dead, thereby placing him above all theprophets and near to God himself. So I have always taught that if Jesuswere not raised from the dead our teaching is vain. A miracle, he said,and he looked into Jesus' face just as if he suspected him to bethinking that something more than a miracle was needed to convince theworld of the truth of Paul's doctrine. A miracle, to the truth of whichmore than five hundred have already testified. First he appeared to Maryand Martha, afterwards to Cleophas and Khuza. On the way to Emmaus hestayed and supped with them and afterwards he appeared to the twelve.Hast met all the twelve and consulted with them? Jesus asked, and Paul,a little irritated by the interruption, answered that he had seen Peterand John and James and Philip but he knew not the others; and, ofcourse, James, the brother of the Lord. Tell me about him, Jesusanswered. He admits Jesus as a prophet among the others but no more, andobserves the law more strictly than any other Jew, a narrow-minded bigotthat has opposed my teaching as bitterly as the priests themselves. Itwas he who, Paul began, but Jesus interrupted and asked about Peter.Where was he? And what doctrine is he preaching? Paul answered thatPeter was at Antioch, though why he should choose to live there hasalways seemed strange to me, for he does not speak Greek. But what tradedoes he follow? Jesus asked. There are marshes and lakes about Antioch,Paul replied, and these are well stocked with fish, of a qualityinferior, however, to those he used to catch in the lake of Gennesaret,but still fish for which there is some sale. He and John own some boatsand they ply up and down the marshes, and draw up a living in theirnets, a poor and uncertain living I believe it to be, for they are oftenabout telling stories to the faithful of our Lord Jesus Christ, who paythem for their recitals. One is always with them, a woman called Rachel.It is said that she poisoned a rival at a wedding, a girl called Ruthwhom Jesus raised from the dead. Ruth went to her husband, but Rachelfollowed Jesus of Nazareth.... Thou'rt a Galilean, Paul said, and knowthese stories better than I.

  As they walked on together, Paul's thoughts returned to the miracle ofhis apostleship, received, he said, by me from Jesus Christ our Lordhimself on the road to Damascus. Thy brethren have doubtless related thestory to thee how in my journey from Jerusalem to Damascus, full ofwrath to kill and to punish the saints, I was blinded by a great lightfrom the skies, and out of a cloud Jesus Christ our Lord spoke to me:Paul! Paul! he cried, why persecutest thou me? Ever since I havepreached that there is but one Mediator between God and man--ChristJesus our Lord, and if I ran out whilst thou wast telling thy story,crying, he is mad, he is mad! it was because it seemed to me that thouwert speaking by order of the Jews who would ensnare and entrap me orfor some other reason. None may divine men's desire of soul, unless anevil spirit has descended into thee I may not divine any reason for thystory. There is some mistake that none would regret more than thou, forthou wouldst hear the truth from me this day, thereby gainingeverlasting life. Why dost thou not answer me, Jesus? Because thou'rtwaiting to hear from me the words that our Lord Jesus Christ spoke tome? My brethren have told it to me, Jesus answered. And thou believestit not? Paul cried. I believe, Jesus answered, that the Jesus that spaketo thee out of a cloud never lived in the flesh; he was a Lord JesusChrist of thy own imagining, and I believe, too, that if we had met inGalilee thou wouldst not have heeded me, and thou wouldst have donewell, for in Galilee I was but a seeker; go thou and seek and be notalways satisfied with what first comes to thy hand.

  These words provoked a great rage in Paul, and believing Jesus to be anevil spirit come to tempt him, he turned fiercely upon him, threateninghim with his staff, bidding him begone. But as he could not desert Paulin the wilderness Jesus dropped behind him and directed Paul's journey,bidding him tread here and not there, to avoid the hill in front of him,and to keep along the valley.

  In this way they proceeded for about another hour, and then Jesus criedout to Paul: yonder are the fig-trees where the shepherd told me to lookfor a pool among the rocks after the late rains. Art overcome, Paul,with the long march and the heat? Rest. Let me untie thy sandals. Alas!they are worn through and will scarce carry thee into Bethennabrio. Butthey must carry me thither, Paul answered, and if there be water in thepool after we have drunken and filled our water-bottle I'll loose thethongs and bathe my feet.

  The season was advanced, but there were still leaves on the fig-trees,and among the rocks some water had collected, and having drunk andfilled the water-bottle, Jesus loosed the thongs of Paul's sandals andbound his feet with some bandages torn from his own clothing. He brokethe bread that the passing shepherd had given him, but Paul could eatvery little so overcome was he with fatigue. I shall try to eat after Ihave slept a little, and having made his head comfortable with hissheepskin, Jesus watched him doze away.

  Soon after the warm rocks brought sleep to Jesus' eyes, and he fellasleep trying to remember that he had nothing more explicit to rely uponthan his own declaration (where should it be made, in the streets to thepeople or in the Sanhedrin to the priests?) that he was Jesus ofNazareth whom Pilate condemned to the cross, only his own words toconvince the priests and the people that he was not a shepherd whom theloneliness of the hills had robbed of his senses. He could not bring theEssenes as testimony, nor could they if they came vouch for the wholetruth of his story.