IV.THE TWO WAYS.

IV.THE TWO WAYS.[pg 57]Now, this is the“Catechism of the Two Ways”which I have had copied out for thee, for in it is the essence of the teaching of Jesus, as he himself recognized in speaking to me, as thou wilt shortly hear.“There are two ways, one of life and one of death, but there is a great difference between the two ways. Now, the way of life is this: first, Thou shalt love God who made thee; secondly, thy neighbor as thyself, and all things whatsoever thou wouldest not should be done to thee, do thou also not do to another. Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not corrupt boys, thou shalt not commit fornication, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not use witchcraft, thou shalt not use enchantments, thou shalt not kill an infant whether before or after birth, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s goods.[pg 58]“Thou shalt not forswear thyself, thou shalt not bear false witness, thou shalt not revile, thou shalt not bear malice.“Thou shalt not be double-minded nor double-tongued; for duplicity of tongue is a snare of death.“Thy speech shall not be false nor vain.“Thou shalt not be covetous, nor an extortioner, nor a hypocrite, nor malignant, nor haughty. Thou shalt not take evil counsel against thy neighbor.“Thou shalt hate no man, but some thou shalt rebuke, and for some thou shalt pray, and some thou shalt love above thine own soul.“My child, flee from all evil, and from all that is like unto it.“Be not soon angry, for anger leadeth to murder; nor given to party-spirit, nor contentious, nor quick-tempered, for from all these are generated murders.“My child, be not lustful, for lust leadeth to fornication; neither be a filthy talker, nor a lifter-up of the eyes, for from all these things are generated adulteries.“My child, be not thou an observer of birds, for it leadeth to idolatry; nor a[pg 59]charmer, nor an astrologer, nor a user of purifications; nor be thou willing to look on those things, for from all these is generated idolatry.“My child, be not a liar, for lying leadeth to theft; nor a lover of money, nor fond of vainglory, for from all these things are generated thefts.“My child, be not a murmurer, for it leadeth to blasphemy; neither self-willed, nor evil-minded, for from all these things are generated blasphemies.“Be thou long-suffering, and merciful, and harmless, and quiet, and good, and trembling continually at the words which thou hast heard.“Thou shalt not exalt thyself, nor shalt thou give presumption to thy soul. Thy soul shall not be joined to the lofty, but with the just and lowly shalt thou converse.“The events that happen to thee shalt thou accept as good, knowing that without God nothing taketh place.“My child, thou shalt remember night and day him that speaketh to thee the word of God.[pg 60]“But thou shalt seek out day by day the faces of the saints, that thou mayest rest in their words.“Thou shalt not desire division, but shalt make peace between those at strife; so thou shalt judge justly. Thou shalt not respect a person in rebuking for transgressions.“Thou shalt not be of two minds whether it shall be or not.“Be not one that stretcheth out his hands to receive, but shutteth them close for giving.“If thou hast, thou shalt give with thine hands a ransom for thy sins.“Thou shalt not hesitate to give, nor when thou givest shalt thou murmur, for thou shalt know who is the good recompenser of the reward.“Thou shalt not turn away from him that needeth, but shalt share all things with thy brother, and shalt not say that they are thine own; for if ye are fellow-sharers in that which is imperishable, how much more in perishable things.“Thou shalt not take away thine hand from thy son or from thy daughter, but[pg 61]from their youth up shalt thou teach them the fear of God.“Thou shalt not in thy bitterness lay commands on thy man-servant or thy maid-servant, who hope in the same God, lest they should not fear him who is God over you both; for He cometh not to call men according to the outward appearance, but to those whom the Spirit hath prepared.“But ye, servants, shall be subject to your masters as to a figure of God in reverence and fear.“Thou shalt hate all hypocrisy, and everything which is not pleasing to the Lord.“Thou shalt not forsake the commandments of the Lord, but shalt keep what thou hast received, neither adding thereto nor taking away from it.“Thou shalt confess thy transgressions, and shalt not come to thy prayer with an evil conscience. This is the way of life.“But the way of death is this. First of all, it is evil and full of curse; murders, adulteries, lusts, fornications, thefts, idolatries, witchcrafts, sorceries, robberies, false-[pg 62]witnessings, hypocrisies, double-heartedness, deceit, pride, wickedness, self-will, covetousness, filthy talking, jealousy, presumption, haughtiness, flattery.“Persecutors of the good, hating truth, loving a lie, not knowing the reward of righteousness, not cleaving to that which is good nor to righteous judgment, watching not for the good but for the evil, far from whom is meekness and patience, loving vain things, seeking after reward, not pitying the poor, not toiling with him who is vexed with toil, not knowing Him that made them, murderers of children, destroyers of the image of God, turning away from him that is in need, vexing him that is afflicted, advocates of the rich, lawless judges of the poor, wholly sinful.“Take heed that no one make thee to err from this way of teaching, since he teacheth thee not according to God.”V.THE WOMAN TAKEN IN ADULTERY.THE RICH YOUNG MAN.[pg 65]It must have been many months after I had heard him discourse in the Galilæan synagogue that I again saw Jesus the Nazarene. We in Jerusalem had our own concerns to think of.At this time the long monopoly of rule by the Sadducees was gradually being broken. Of the three divisions of the Sanhedrim, that of the ordinary Israelites had become almost entirely composed of the Pharisees; I myself had been elected as one of that party, and even in the other two sections of the Priests and of the Levites, many, especially among the latter, held with the Pharisees. Nor was this without influence upon the political issues of the times. The Sadducees, being the sacerdotal party, had no cause why they should be dissatisfied with the position they held in the State under the Romans; but we of the Pharisees felt far otherwise about the national hopes for deliverance.[pg 66]Since my days the influence of the Pharisees has become predominant in the nation, and I foresee that the struggle between us and the Romans cannot be delayed for long. At the time of which I am writing, the hegemony had not yet passed over to the Pharisees, and it was of import for us all to know whether any man of influence was on our side, or on that of the Sadducees, or whether he cared for neither, and cast in his lot with the smaller sects.Now, it happened about this time that I was attending my place in the Sanhedrim of Israelites, to judge of a case of adultery. But in this matter our Sages, and especially those of the Pharisaic tradition, had made great changes in the Law as laid down for us by Moses; for he, as thou knowest, commands that a woman taken in adultery shall be stoned to death. Now, for a long time among us there has been an increasing horror of inflicting the death penalty. If a Sanhedrim inflicts capital punishment more than once in seven years, it is called a Sanhedrim of murderers. Yet the Law of Moses de[pg 67]clared that whosoever was guilty of adultery would be put to death. What, then, was to be done? It is against the principle of justice that any should be punished for an offence of which he is ignorant. Hence, in capital offences, our Sages, to mercy inclined, have laid it down that a man must be assumed to be ignorant of the guilt of the offence, unless it be proved that he had been solemnly warned of its gravity; and in our Law proof can only be given by two simultaneous witnesses. Hence it is impossible to obtain conviction for a woman who hath committed adultery, unless proof is given that she hath been previously warned by two persons at once. This can scarcely ever be. No Jewish woman in my time has ever been stoned as the Law commands for this sin. Some think that this is too great a leniency, and of evil result for the morality of the folk.When I arrived at the hall of polished stones near the Temple, in which the Sanhedrim holds its sittings, the trial had nearly come to a conclusion. The inquiry had been made if any two credible wit[pg 68]nesses had given the woman the preliminary caution, and none answering to the call, it remained only for theAb Beth Din, the president of the court, to dismiss the prisoner with the words of caution and advice which are customary on such occasions:“My daughter, perhaps thou wert led into sin by too much wine, or by thoughtlessness, or perhaps by thy youth; perchance it was mixing in crowds, or wicked companions that led thee to sin: go, and for the sake of the great Name, do not bring it to pass that thou must be destroyed by the water of jealousy.”And with these words the court was dismissed, and several of us were appointed to take the woman to her home, and induce the man, her husband, to take her to him once again. Now, as we were passing through the courts of the Temple, we saw Jesus the Nazarene in one of the smaller courts, seated, teaching the people, some of whom sat at his feet. But it seemed to some of us a favorable opportunity to test what he would say as regards the Law of Moses relating to adultery: for if he would declare that the Law must be carried out in all its[pg 69]rigor, that would show that our Sages were more merciful than he; if, on the other hand, he adopted the opinion of our Sages, that would in so far commit him to support their attitude towards the Law in general. In any case, it seemed a suitable occasion to test his power of dealing with the Law, and it is customary among us to put such test cases before the younger Sages.We therefore turned aside and entered into the smaller court, and all rose to do honor to the Sanhedrim. Then one of us said to him,“Rabbi, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. Now, Moses in the Law hath commanded that such should be stoned: what sayest thou?”Now, when the man told him that the woman had been taken in the very act of adultery, a deep blush passed over his face, and he turned his eyes downwards. Then he bent down to the ground, hiding his face altogether from us, and writing, as it were, something on the sand of the floor. Now, at first, I thought of the cry of the money-changers that I had heard, and felt ashamed in my soul that such a question should be brought before this man, of all[pg 70]men: for our Sages have said,“The greatest of sins is this—to bring a blush upon thy neighbor’s face in public.”But the others thought not of this, but once more they asked him,“Rabbi, what sayest thou shall be done in this case?”Then, without raising his head, Jesus said in a low tone,“Let him among you that is without sin cast the first stone.”Then we saw that his shame had been for us, and for our want of feeling in putting such a question in the very presence of her who had sinned. And in this matter we hold that sin can be in thought as well as in act, and which of us could say that we were without sin even in thought? So, in very shame, we turned and went, and left Jesus alone with the woman.Yet, after we had come away from him, Matathias ben Meshullam said,“That is well,—we are rightly rebuked; but yet, dost thou not see that this man hath not answered our question, nor do we know, as we wished, what attitude he takes towards the carrying out of the Law? I hear that each morning he preaches to the people in the Temple. Let us now tomorrow[pg 71]put such questions to him that he cannot evade, and find out to which of our parties he belongs; for this is a man that is getting great weight with the people, and it imports us to know where he stands with regard to us.”So it was determined among us that the next morning a Sadducee and a Pharisee should put to him queries which should determine what views he held on the great questions which distinguished the two great parties of the State.But that very afternoon I was to learn that this Jesus had to deal with questions with which none of our parties concerned themselves. For, as I was coming near to Gethsemane, I met Jesus with a band of men and women going out towards Bethany, and I passed them with the salutation of“Peace.”But as I passed, a young man whom I knew, that had recently come into great possessions upon the death of his father, came up and asked,“Who is that man whom thou hast just greeted?”and I said,“Jesus the Nazarene.”Then, suddenly, he set off running to catch them up, and being curious, I turned and fol[pg 72]lowed him. When I reached them I found the young man kneeling before Jesus, gazing up to him, and he said,“Good Master, I have inherited great possessions; what shall I do that I may inherit the life everlasting?”Jesus said to him,“Call not me‘Good;’none is good but the One. If thou wouldest enter into life, do the commandments.”The young man asked,“Which?”Jesus said, using the doctrine of“The Two Ways,”“Do not kill, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not defraud, honor thy father and thy mother, and love thy neighbor as thyself.”Then the young man said,“All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?”Then Jesus said,“One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell all thou hast, and give unto the poor, and thou shalt have heavenly treasures: come then and follow me.”The young man began to scratch his head, and seemed in doubt. Then Jesus said unto him,“How is it thou canst say,‘I have done the Law and the Prophets,’since it is written in the Law,‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself’? Behold,[pg 73]many of thy brothers, sons of Abraham, are clothed but in dung, and die for hunger, while thy house is full of many goods, and there goeth not forth aught from it unto them.”But the young man rose, and went away in sorrow and confusion. Then Jesus looked round upon those who were there, and said,“How hard it is for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God! It is easier for an elephant to go through a needle’s eye, as the saying is, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.”Then a murmur arose among all those present, and they began to move on, and I left them. And I said to myself,“This man is neither Pharisee, nor Sadducee, nor Herodian; these be the thoughts of the Ebionim.”[pg 74]VI.THE TESTINGS IN THE TEMPLE.[pg 77]Now, on the morrow, many of us who had agreed together to test the opinions of this Jesus went to the Temple and found Jesus walking in the corridors. Then he that was of most authority among us said unto Jesus,“Rabbi, we would ask certain questions of thee;”and Jesus answered,“Ask, and it shall be answered unto thee.”Thou must know that among us Jews there be two chief schools of thought, or rather thou mightest say, parties of the State. The one holds with the High Priest and the rulers, and is mainly made up of those whom ye Hellenes call the Best, and their retainers. These be known as the Sadducees, for their leaders are mainly of the family of the High Priest Sadduk. Now, the other party is in some sort the party of the Demos, in that they seek to lessen the power of the High Priests and their families. But with us, as thou knowest, all things turn upon reli[pg 78]gion, and this second party differ chiefly from the Sadducees, for that they are more in earnest with the matters of the Law, and chiefly they fear the influence of thy nation, Aglaophonos, in drawing the Israelite away from the Law. Therefore have they increased precept upon precept, so as to make, as they say, a fence round the Law. And as they would separate themselves from the heathen by this fence, they call themselves Pharisees, that is, Separatists.Now, it was nowise easy to learn whether a man was of the one party or the other. For he might be eager for the Law, and so be Pharisaic in color, and yet approve of the dominion of the priests, and thus be a Sadducee. Yet in one chief matter of thought they went asunder contrariwise, and that was concerning the resurrection of the dead. Now, with regard to that, the Sadducees held that naught was said in the Law of Moses, and therefore no son of Israel need concern himself with it. But the Pharisees, on the other hand, laid great weight upon this. So here was a touchstone by which to learn whether this Jesus[pg 79]followed the one or the other of the two great divisions of our nation.Then, as was agreed upon, Kamithos the Sadducee came forward to ask him the question which should determine whether he held with them that there was no resurrection from the dead, or with the rest of the nation. He said,“Rabbi, it is written in the Torah, if brethren dwell together, and one of them die and have no son, the wife of the dead one shall not marry without, unto a stranger; her husband’s brother shall take her to him to wife, and raise up seed unto his brother. Suppose, now, there are seven brethren, and the first takes a wife, and dying leaves no son; and the second takes her, as is our custom, and dies without leaving any seed; and the third likewise, and so on, till the whole seven had married her, and yet had no son; then the woman dies also: when they shall rise from the dead together, whose wife shall she be of them? for all seven had her to wife.”And Jesus answered and said,“Ye are at fault, and know not the Scriptures, nor the power of God; for in the resurrection they neither[pg 80]marry, nor are given in marriage, but are even as the angels which are in heaven. And as an indication from Scripture that the dead rise, is it not written in the book of Moses, when God spake to him from the bush, saying,‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living: therefore are ye in error.”And we were surprised at the subtlety of the man; and chiefly men marvelled at the wisdom of this man in finding what we call a support, that is, a text of Scripture on which to hang the doctrine of the life after death, which many believe to have grown up among us since the sacred Scriptures were written: for in them little, if anything, was said of the world to come. Now, Jesus in his answer had happened upon a text which said that Abraham and Isaac and Jacob were living when they were dead to this world, and the people marvelled greatly thereat.Now, it had been agreed upon, that after the Sadducees had asked their question and been answered, I should stand[pg 81]forth and test this man Jesus on behalf of the Pharisees. Now, one of our Sages hath said,“Be as careful of a little precept as of a great one;”whereas our great master Hillel had, as I have told thee, summed up the whole Law in one precept,“Love thy neighbor as thyself.”Therefore, we of the Pharisees wished to know whether this Jesus agreed with the one sage or the other; so I spake unto him and said,“Rabbi, which is the first commandment, by doing which I shall inherit the life everlasting?”But at first he answered me not directly, but said,“How readest thou?”Then I remembered me the words of the“Catechism of the Two Ways,”and answered,“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself: whatsoever thou wouldest not for thyself, do not to another.”And he said unto me,“Thou hast answered right; and the first of the commandments is theShema:‘Hear, O Israel; the Lord thy God is one God.’And the second is like, namely this:‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor as[pg 82]thyself.’There is none other commandment greater than these. This do, and thou shalt live.”Then I was rejoiced, and said unto him,“Well, Rabbi, thou hast said the truth: there is one God, and there is none other but him; and to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as one’s self, is more than all the burnt offerings and sacrifices.”Then Jesus became gracious unto me, and said,“Thou art not far from the kingdom of God.”But then I would learn further from this man who spake so well, and ask him the question which is current in our schools on this subject, and I said to him,“But, Rabbi, who is my neighbor?”and he answered with amashal, or parable, and said,“To what is the matter like? A certain man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho; and he fell among robbers, which both stripped him and beat him, and departed, leaving him half dead. And by chance a certain priest was going down that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And in like[pg 83]manner a Levite also, when he came to the place, and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a certain Israelite,8as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he was moved with compassion, and came to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring on them oil and wine; and he set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the morrow he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said,‘Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, I, when I come back again, will repay thee.’Which of these three, thinkest thou, proved neighbor unto him that fell among the robbers?”Then I said,“Not the priest, nor the Levite, though they held office in Israel, but the simple Israelite who showed mercy upon him.”Then Jesus said unto me,“Go and do thou likewise;”and at this moment we were all summoned to the mid-day sacrifice in the Temple.When Jesus had departed, after the sacrifice, we all met together and discussed his answers, which had stamped him in[pg 84]our minds as a master in the art of question and answer, which is with us as favorable a trial of skill as oratory or poetry with you Hellenes. Now, as regards the question of the Sadducees, men thought he had spoken more openly; for though he had evaded a direct answer to the question of the seven brothers and their wife, he had yet implied that they all would have a part in the life to come. Some regretted that the question had not been put differently, and the problem set—if a son had been born through the seventh brother: for this might have thrown light upon the question of the schools, whether the brother’s widow was to be still regarded as his wife if seed had been raised to him after his death. But as to the support which Jesus had taken from Scripture for the life everlasting, though here again he had answered question by question, it was decided that he was against the Sadducees on this point.But on the questions which I had put to him, all had agreed that he had answered as a Pharisee, even as Hillel might have answered, for he had yea-said the[pg 85]doctrine which I had cited from the beginning of“The Two Ways”in which the doctrine of Hillel is summed up; and even as to my further question, as to who is thechaber, or neighbor, though opinions were divided, most thought that he had spoken as a Pharisee might have spoken: for thou knowest, Aglaophonos, that our nation is divided into three great classes—theCohanim, or Priests; the Levites; and the common Israelites. Now, of these, the two former are the officials of the Temple, and most if not all of the Sadducees are from this class. And, in declaring himself on the side of the third class of simple Israelites, Jesus had, we all thought, declared himself on the side of the Pharisees.[pg 86]VII.THE SECOND SERMON.[pg 89]I cannot clearly remember at what season of the year it was that I next saw Jesus; indeed, I am surprised to think that, after the lapse of nearly five-and-twenty years, I can still remember almost all that passed on the various occasions when I was in his presence. Yet I think it was about the time of the feast which we hold in memory of the rededication of the Temple under the Maccabæans that I again saw and heard the Galilæan stranger; for I mind me that I had just been taking the eight-branch candlestick which we use in the ceremonials of this feast to Petachayah the silversmith to be mended, when on my return I saw a throng collected round the synagogue of the Galilæans, and entering in, found that Jesus was to preach that day. The same ceremonial was gone through as I have already described to thee: the Law was taken from the ark with rejoicing; priest and Levite[pg 90]and four ordinary Israelites were summoned to hear it read, and again the crier called,“Let Rabbi Joshua, the son of Rabbi Joseph, arise.”Now, it chanced that this time, I, as a member of the Sanhedrim, was summoned to the reading of the Law immediately after Jesus, and for a time, as is customary, we stood together upon thebema. I observed that, as the reading of the Law proceeded, the eyes of the Nazarene became fixed upon the ark, and a veil of mysterious tenderness seemed to come over them, as if he were in communion with theShechinah, or Glory, itself. It seemed to me that afterwards, when he read theHaphtarafrom the prophets, and when he preached, something remained in him of this mystical communion.Perhaps it was for this that we seemed to miss that sense of individual address which we had before observed in his eyes. No longer did these speak to us other and deeper thoughts than the words of the preacher; they seemed to dream of divine things, and so caused us also to be rapt in mystic musings. I cannot on this ac[pg 91]count recall for you all or even many of the words which he uttered on this occasion. He began with some plain teaching about practice. Soon he went on to speak of himself in a marvellous way, as if he would imply that communion with him and with the Most High were one and the same, and then in his last words he seemed to speak of the Last Things. And here again his words seemed as if he identified himself with the great Judge.Now, this is not so strange to our mode of thinking in Israel as thou mightest think. Almost all our prophets speak the oracles of God as if they were using the very words of the Lord. Thou canst read in the Greek translation of the Seventy many passages of the prophets in which the very words of the Lord are given. Yet in most, if not all, cases the prophet beginneth,“Thus saith the Lord,”or endeth,“This is the word of the Lord.”But with this Jesus it was otherwise. He spoke as the ancient prophets do, but whether from his rapt intentness in the message he was delivering, or because he felt his spirit for the time merged in the[pg 92]divine, he spoke as if the message was his. And as he spoke, I saw looks of amazement pass between many in the synagogue, and one old graybeard rose as if to protest, and then, shaking his withered hands above his head, went out of the synagogue.I will here set down for thee as many of the words that fell from Jesus’ lips on this occasion as I can remember. They are but few, but many of them are weighty, and I have told thee above the general lines of thought which seemed to run through his discourse; and these are the words as far as I remember them.9“Cultivate faith and hope, through which is born that love of God and man which gives the eternal life. Those are the sons of God who walk in the spirit of God. What you preach before the folk, do in deed before every one. Accept not anything from any man, and possess not anything in this world. For the Father wisheth to be given to each man from his own gifts. Cleave unto the saints: for[pg 93]they that cleave unto them shall be sanctified. Yet shall there be schisms and heresies: for there is a shame which leadeth to death, as there is a shame which leadeth to life. Is it not enough for the disciples to be as the Master? If in a little you are not faithful, who shall give unto you what is much? Seek the great, and the little will be added to you; seek the heavenly, and the things of earth will be superadded.“He that wonders shall reign, he who reigns shall find rest. My secret is for me, and for those that are mine are the things which eye saw not, and ear heard not, which entered not into the heart of man, whatsoever things God prepared for them that love him. Those who wish to see me, and wish to cling to the kingdom, must take me through affliction and suffering. For he that is near me is near the fire, he that is far from me is far from the kingdom. Where one is, there too am I; where twain are, there too will I be. As any of you sees himself in the water or in the mirror, so let him see me in himself.“They that love me shall receive the[pg 94]crown. I will choose me the good, those good whom my Father in the heavens hath given me. Let the lawless continue in lawlessness, the just be justified. Behold, I make the last as the first, and all things new. In whatsoever state I find you, in that also will I judge you.”Never heard I any who spoke of himself as this man did. For days and days afterwards some of his words came to me again and again. Whenever I was alone I seemed to hear his voice saying,“Where one is, there too am I; where twain are, there too will I be.”Whenever I gazed on the running stream or looked on the polished steel of the mirror, again I seemed to hear him say,“As any of you sees himself in the water or in the mirror, so let him see me in himself.”And, in truth, at times my features seemed to fade away, and the face of Jesus gaze upon me.Others thought not as I. When we assembled after the sermon, to talk over it, as is our custom, I found that most had been chiefly touched by certain sayings at the end of the sermon, in which Jesus[pg 95]seemed to speak of the future life and the last judgment. Thou knowest, Aglaophonos, that with regard to these matters I incline more to the teaching of the Sadducean sect, who hold that Holy Scripture speaketh not of these things, and that, therefore, we need not and should not think thereon. But there were few who held that doctrine in the synagogue that day, and these thought most of the words in which Jesus seemed to claim the prerogatives of the Divine Judge.“I was amazed,”quoth Serachyah ben Pinchas,“when he spoke of judging us himself in the last days: it wanted but a little that I had rent my garments at the blasphemy. But surely, thought I to myself, the man will shortly tell us,‘These are the words of the Lord,’and so I refrained.”Now I will tell thee of a most strange event that happened with me and this Jesus. A day or two after this, I was sitting in my room and studying the words of Torah, and had fallen into deep thought on the things of this life and the next, and gradually I fell thinking of certain words that I had heard from Jesus[pg 96]the Nazarene, as I have before told you. Hast thou ever felt, Aglaophonos, as if some one was gazing upon thee, and thou couldst not refrain from looking round to see who it was? So I felt at this moment, and I looked up from the sacred scroll, and lo! Jesus the Nazarene stood before me, gazing upon me with those piercing eyes I can never forget. His face was pale and indistinct, but the eyes shone forth as if with tenderness and pity. Then he seemed to lean forward, and spoke to me in a low yet piercing voice these words:“Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and the Christ shall shine upon thee.”I had shrunk back from his gaze, and was, indeed, in all amaze and wonder that he should be in the room; but when I looked again, behold, he was gone, there was no man there.But this is not all the wonder of that event, for, being startled, and, indeed, somewhat fearful at his sudden appearance and disappearance, I arose and went out into the highway, and went out to walk on the Gethsemane road. Now, as I came clear of the city, I saw a group of[pg 97]men coming down the opposite hill, and when they came near, behold, it was Jesus and some of his friends. I was astonished and surprised beyond all measure, for how could Jesus have just been with me, and be now coming from Gethsemane? And when they were passing me, Jesus glanced at me very slightly, as at a stranger—he that had spoken to my soul but a few minutes since.Now, after they had passed me, there came one running after them whom I knew—one Meshullam ben Hanoch—and I stopped him and asked him whither he was going, and he said,“Stay me not. I have run all the way from Bethany to catch up that man thou seest there, Jesus the Nazarene;”and with that he took up his running and left me.I knew not what to think. I had seen and heard Jesus in my own house in Jerusalem, and lo! at that very same time, as I now learned, he had been at Bethany. What thinkest thou, Aglaophonos,—can a man be in two places at one and the same time? or can it be that the mind of man, and the power of his eye, can go[pg 98]forth from his body and create a vision of another man that hath all the semblance of reality? I know not what to think; but I have heard that, even after his death, those who were nearest and dearest to Jesus saw him and heard him even as I did. Nor do I wonder at this, after what has occurred to myself.VIII.THE REBUKING OF JESUS.[pg 101]Now, it chanced that about this time I was invited to a feast at the house of Elisha ben Simeon, one of the leaders of the Pharisees in Jerusalem. His son had become thirteen years old that week, and, as is our custom, was received into the holy congregation as a Son of the Covenant on the Sabbath. He had been summoned up to the reading of the Law, and had himself read aloud a portion of it; for from this day onward he was to be treated in all matters of religion as if he were a man. Being a friend of his father, I had attended his synagogue, and heard the lad’s pure voice for the first time in his life declare publicly his faith in the Most High.After the service in the synagogue, his friends accompanied the father and the lad to their house, and with them went I, who had known the father from our schoolboy days, and the little lad from the time of his birth.[pg 102]Now, it chanced that, as we came near the door of Elisha’s house, we met Jesus the Nazarene, and two or three with him. So Elisha greeted them, and invited them courteously to join the feast, as is the custom among us. And Jesus and the others assented, and followed into the house with us.“To table, to table!”cried Elisha, pointing to the couches standing round the well-filled board.When we were all seated, the host and his son came round with an ewer and basin to perform the washing of the hands prescribed by the Law. But when they came to the Galilæan strangers, these refused, saying,“We wash not before meals.”“Then we must serve ye last,”said Elisha, with a smile. But the others took not the matter so pleasantly; for since we have one common dish, which is handed round to the guests for them to take their food with their fingers, it is considered gross ill-breeding for a man not to perform the ceremony of washing before meals.Then Elisha took a seat at the centre of the table, and said the grace before meals. Then he broke bread, and, dip[pg 103]ping a morsel into salt for each of the guests, he called his son to him to carry it round. When he saw that each of the guests had a piece of bread dipped in salt, Elisha recited the blessing on the bread,“Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, who bringest forth bread from the earth,”and all said“Amen.”And one of the guests said to Elisha,“I am glad we are not in Babylon.”“How so, Phineas?”said Elisha to the man, who was well known at all feasts at that time in Jerusalem.And Phineas said,“For there they only eat bread with their bread.”“Nay, that would not suit thee, Phineas. Thou art no Nazarite;”and most of the guests who knew him laughed.Then Elisha clapped his hands, and the slaves took round the first course of salted fish; then afterwards the cold baked meats—for, being the Sabbath, the food had been prepared the day before.Then one of the guests said to one of the Galilæans,“Is it true that you allow fowl to be boiled in milk in your country?”“Yes, truly; why not?”said the Galilæan.[pg 104]“Is it not written thrice in the Law,”said the guest,“‘Thou shalt not seethe the kid in its mother’s milk’?”“In our country,”said the Galilæan,“fowls give no milk.”And we all of us laughed, save only Jesus.“Nay, but the Sages have carried their prohibition even unto fowls, lest the people be led to confuse flesh and flesh.”By this time we had arrived at the third and last course of salted olives, lettuces, and radishes. And again the bowl and ewer were passed round, and this time the Galilæans did not refuse the water. Then the new son of the covenant recited in his clear voice the grace after meals. And all rose, while the slaves removed the remnants. Then said Elisha,“It is not well that when so many are together we should depart without discussing some words of the Law. My little Lazarus here would fain learn some new thing from the many learned men present on this day of his being received into Israel.”“Well, then,”said one of the company,“I should like to put a question to our friends here from Galilee.”And they said,“Speak, Rabbi.”[pg 105]And he addressed himself to Jesus, and said,“Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands?”Then Jesus spoke out, and as he spoke he strode up and down the room, with his hand clutching the air, and the vein throbbing on his left temple.“Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written,‘This people honoreth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.’”Then facing us all, he added,“For ye lay aside the commandment of God, and hold the tradition of men.”“How so, master?”said Elisha;“prove thy words.”“It is said in the Word of God,‘Honor thy father and thy mother,’and yet the Sages say,‘If a man be asked by his father or mother to honor them with a gift, and he say,“I vow that thing to the Almighty,”then it isCorban,’and put aside for the Lord, so that his parents cannot enjoy thereof. Thus by your tradition about vows ye make the Word of God[pg 106]concerning honor to parents of none effect, and many like things ye do.”Then Elisha said,“But the Sages are by no means at one in that matter of the vows, and in particular many of them declare all the vows annulled that would work against our duty to our parents, or even against our love to our neighbor. Yet, even if we take the more stricter tradition, in what manner that absolves us from washing our hands before meals, I see not.”“Nay, it is the same thing,”replied Jesus.“Ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and platter, but your inward thoughts are full of ravening and wickedness. Ye fools! did not the Holy One, blessed be He, who made that which is without, make also that which is within? Therefore give for alms that which is within, kindly thoughts and friendly feelings. If ye do that, all things are clean unto you.”Then I said unto Jesus, for this matter touched us scribes nearly,“Master, in speaking thus against tradition thou reproachest us also that be scribes.”[pg 107]And he answered,“Woe, woe unto ye, scribes! which desire to walk in long robes, and love greetings in the markets, and the higher seats in the synagogues, and the chief places at feasts, which devour widows’ houses, and for a show make long prayers.”Then an angry murmur rose among all the folk there assembled at the harsh words of the stranger, when suddenly was heard the voice of Simeon ben Lazarus, the father of Elisha, a very old man, who sat in the corner and said:—“Young man, fourscore years and two have I lived upon this earth; a Pharisee have I been from the day I became a son of the covenant, like little Lazarus there; a scribe was I during all the working days of my life. I did what the Law and the Sages command, yet never thought I in so doing of men’s thoughts or praises. Surely, if the Lord command, a good Jew will obey. And as in many things, many acts of this life, the Law speaketh not in plain terms, surely we should follow the opinion of those who devote all their life to the study of the Law.[pg 108]“I have never sought the praises of men, their greetings or their honors, in obeying the Law. In all that I have done I have sought one thing—to fulfil the will of our Father which is in heaven.“As for what thou sayest, that inward thought and outward act should go together in the service of God and man, that is a verity, and often have I heard the saying from the great Hillel—may his memory be for a blessing! But if outward act may be clean when inward thought may be unclean, how, on the other hand, can we know the purity of what is within, except it be decided by the cleanliness of what is without? How, above all, shall we teach our little ones, like my Lazarus there, to feel what is good and seemly, except by first teaching them to do the acts that are seemly and good?“And as for what thou sayest as to the hypocrisy of us Pharisees and scribes, I say unto thee,—and in a few days I must see the face of my Maker,—I say unto thee, I have known many an Ebionite, which thou seemest to be, who was well spoken within, but ill doing without. So,[pg 109]too, I have known many a scribe and many a Pharisee who neither carried their good deeds on their shoulders, nor said,‘Wait, I have to finish some godly deed;’nor set off their good deeds against their sins; nor boasted of their sacrifices for godly works; nor did they seek out their sins that they might pay for them by their virtues; nor were they Pharisees from fear of the Divine punishment. They were Pharisees from love of the Lord, and did throughout their life what they knew to be his commands.”But Jesus spoke gently unto the old man, and said naught but,“Nay, master, I spoke not of thee, nor of men like thee. These be the true Pharisees; the rest but have the Pharisaic color.”“That is so,”said old Simeon.“I have heard what King Jannaus said:‘Fear not the Pharisees, nor those who are no Pharisees; but fear the colored ones, who are only Pharisees in appearance, who do the deeds of Zimri and demand the rewards of Phineas.’”But before the old man could finish there was a movement at the doorway,[pg 110]and a high, thin voice cried out,“Where is this kidnapper of souls? where is this filcher of young lives? where is Jesus the Nazarene?”“Behold me,”said Jesus, turning towards the voice; and an old man, with the rent garment of the mourner, and with hair all distraught, came up to the Nazarene with arms outstretched and clutching fingers.“Give me my son, my Elchanan!”he cried.“Thou hast taken him from me last Passover, saying,‘Father and mother, yea, all that a man hath, shall he give up to follow me.’He left me to follow thee; what hast thou done with him?—my Elchanan! my Elchanan!”“He died, and is at peace.”“Then give him back to me again. Thou canst do all things, men say: make whole the sick, let see the blind, cause the lame to walk, and give peace to the troubled mind. Give me, then, back my Elchanan thou hast taken from me.”“There is One alone that can quicken the dead,”said Jesus, and walked sternly past him.

IV.THE TWO WAYS.[pg 57]Now, this is the“Catechism of the Two Ways”which I have had copied out for thee, for in it is the essence of the teaching of Jesus, as he himself recognized in speaking to me, as thou wilt shortly hear.“There are two ways, one of life and one of death, but there is a great difference between the two ways. Now, the way of life is this: first, Thou shalt love God who made thee; secondly, thy neighbor as thyself, and all things whatsoever thou wouldest not should be done to thee, do thou also not do to another. Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not corrupt boys, thou shalt not commit fornication, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not use witchcraft, thou shalt not use enchantments, thou shalt not kill an infant whether before or after birth, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s goods.[pg 58]“Thou shalt not forswear thyself, thou shalt not bear false witness, thou shalt not revile, thou shalt not bear malice.“Thou shalt not be double-minded nor double-tongued; for duplicity of tongue is a snare of death.“Thy speech shall not be false nor vain.“Thou shalt not be covetous, nor an extortioner, nor a hypocrite, nor malignant, nor haughty. Thou shalt not take evil counsel against thy neighbor.“Thou shalt hate no man, but some thou shalt rebuke, and for some thou shalt pray, and some thou shalt love above thine own soul.“My child, flee from all evil, and from all that is like unto it.“Be not soon angry, for anger leadeth to murder; nor given to party-spirit, nor contentious, nor quick-tempered, for from all these are generated murders.“My child, be not lustful, for lust leadeth to fornication; neither be a filthy talker, nor a lifter-up of the eyes, for from all these things are generated adulteries.“My child, be not thou an observer of birds, for it leadeth to idolatry; nor a[pg 59]charmer, nor an astrologer, nor a user of purifications; nor be thou willing to look on those things, for from all these is generated idolatry.“My child, be not a liar, for lying leadeth to theft; nor a lover of money, nor fond of vainglory, for from all these things are generated thefts.“My child, be not a murmurer, for it leadeth to blasphemy; neither self-willed, nor evil-minded, for from all these things are generated blasphemies.“Be thou long-suffering, and merciful, and harmless, and quiet, and good, and trembling continually at the words which thou hast heard.“Thou shalt not exalt thyself, nor shalt thou give presumption to thy soul. Thy soul shall not be joined to the lofty, but with the just and lowly shalt thou converse.“The events that happen to thee shalt thou accept as good, knowing that without God nothing taketh place.“My child, thou shalt remember night and day him that speaketh to thee the word of God.[pg 60]“But thou shalt seek out day by day the faces of the saints, that thou mayest rest in their words.“Thou shalt not desire division, but shalt make peace between those at strife; so thou shalt judge justly. Thou shalt not respect a person in rebuking for transgressions.“Thou shalt not be of two minds whether it shall be or not.“Be not one that stretcheth out his hands to receive, but shutteth them close for giving.“If thou hast, thou shalt give with thine hands a ransom for thy sins.“Thou shalt not hesitate to give, nor when thou givest shalt thou murmur, for thou shalt know who is the good recompenser of the reward.“Thou shalt not turn away from him that needeth, but shalt share all things with thy brother, and shalt not say that they are thine own; for if ye are fellow-sharers in that which is imperishable, how much more in perishable things.“Thou shalt not take away thine hand from thy son or from thy daughter, but[pg 61]from their youth up shalt thou teach them the fear of God.“Thou shalt not in thy bitterness lay commands on thy man-servant or thy maid-servant, who hope in the same God, lest they should not fear him who is God over you both; for He cometh not to call men according to the outward appearance, but to those whom the Spirit hath prepared.“But ye, servants, shall be subject to your masters as to a figure of God in reverence and fear.“Thou shalt hate all hypocrisy, and everything which is not pleasing to the Lord.“Thou shalt not forsake the commandments of the Lord, but shalt keep what thou hast received, neither adding thereto nor taking away from it.“Thou shalt confess thy transgressions, and shalt not come to thy prayer with an evil conscience. This is the way of life.“But the way of death is this. First of all, it is evil and full of curse; murders, adulteries, lusts, fornications, thefts, idolatries, witchcrafts, sorceries, robberies, false-[pg 62]witnessings, hypocrisies, double-heartedness, deceit, pride, wickedness, self-will, covetousness, filthy talking, jealousy, presumption, haughtiness, flattery.“Persecutors of the good, hating truth, loving a lie, not knowing the reward of righteousness, not cleaving to that which is good nor to righteous judgment, watching not for the good but for the evil, far from whom is meekness and patience, loving vain things, seeking after reward, not pitying the poor, not toiling with him who is vexed with toil, not knowing Him that made them, murderers of children, destroyers of the image of God, turning away from him that is in need, vexing him that is afflicted, advocates of the rich, lawless judges of the poor, wholly sinful.“Take heed that no one make thee to err from this way of teaching, since he teacheth thee not according to God.”V.THE WOMAN TAKEN IN ADULTERY.THE RICH YOUNG MAN.[pg 65]It must have been many months after I had heard him discourse in the Galilæan synagogue that I again saw Jesus the Nazarene. We in Jerusalem had our own concerns to think of.At this time the long monopoly of rule by the Sadducees was gradually being broken. Of the three divisions of the Sanhedrim, that of the ordinary Israelites had become almost entirely composed of the Pharisees; I myself had been elected as one of that party, and even in the other two sections of the Priests and of the Levites, many, especially among the latter, held with the Pharisees. Nor was this without influence upon the political issues of the times. The Sadducees, being the sacerdotal party, had no cause why they should be dissatisfied with the position they held in the State under the Romans; but we of the Pharisees felt far otherwise about the national hopes for deliverance.[pg 66]Since my days the influence of the Pharisees has become predominant in the nation, and I foresee that the struggle between us and the Romans cannot be delayed for long. At the time of which I am writing, the hegemony had not yet passed over to the Pharisees, and it was of import for us all to know whether any man of influence was on our side, or on that of the Sadducees, or whether he cared for neither, and cast in his lot with the smaller sects.Now, it happened about this time that I was attending my place in the Sanhedrim of Israelites, to judge of a case of adultery. But in this matter our Sages, and especially those of the Pharisaic tradition, had made great changes in the Law as laid down for us by Moses; for he, as thou knowest, commands that a woman taken in adultery shall be stoned to death. Now, for a long time among us there has been an increasing horror of inflicting the death penalty. If a Sanhedrim inflicts capital punishment more than once in seven years, it is called a Sanhedrim of murderers. Yet the Law of Moses de[pg 67]clared that whosoever was guilty of adultery would be put to death. What, then, was to be done? It is against the principle of justice that any should be punished for an offence of which he is ignorant. Hence, in capital offences, our Sages, to mercy inclined, have laid it down that a man must be assumed to be ignorant of the guilt of the offence, unless it be proved that he had been solemnly warned of its gravity; and in our Law proof can only be given by two simultaneous witnesses. Hence it is impossible to obtain conviction for a woman who hath committed adultery, unless proof is given that she hath been previously warned by two persons at once. This can scarcely ever be. No Jewish woman in my time has ever been stoned as the Law commands for this sin. Some think that this is too great a leniency, and of evil result for the morality of the folk.When I arrived at the hall of polished stones near the Temple, in which the Sanhedrim holds its sittings, the trial had nearly come to a conclusion. The inquiry had been made if any two credible wit[pg 68]nesses had given the woman the preliminary caution, and none answering to the call, it remained only for theAb Beth Din, the president of the court, to dismiss the prisoner with the words of caution and advice which are customary on such occasions:“My daughter, perhaps thou wert led into sin by too much wine, or by thoughtlessness, or perhaps by thy youth; perchance it was mixing in crowds, or wicked companions that led thee to sin: go, and for the sake of the great Name, do not bring it to pass that thou must be destroyed by the water of jealousy.”And with these words the court was dismissed, and several of us were appointed to take the woman to her home, and induce the man, her husband, to take her to him once again. Now, as we were passing through the courts of the Temple, we saw Jesus the Nazarene in one of the smaller courts, seated, teaching the people, some of whom sat at his feet. But it seemed to some of us a favorable opportunity to test what he would say as regards the Law of Moses relating to adultery: for if he would declare that the Law must be carried out in all its[pg 69]rigor, that would show that our Sages were more merciful than he; if, on the other hand, he adopted the opinion of our Sages, that would in so far commit him to support their attitude towards the Law in general. In any case, it seemed a suitable occasion to test his power of dealing with the Law, and it is customary among us to put such test cases before the younger Sages.We therefore turned aside and entered into the smaller court, and all rose to do honor to the Sanhedrim. Then one of us said to him,“Rabbi, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. Now, Moses in the Law hath commanded that such should be stoned: what sayest thou?”Now, when the man told him that the woman had been taken in the very act of adultery, a deep blush passed over his face, and he turned his eyes downwards. Then he bent down to the ground, hiding his face altogether from us, and writing, as it were, something on the sand of the floor. Now, at first, I thought of the cry of the money-changers that I had heard, and felt ashamed in my soul that such a question should be brought before this man, of all[pg 70]men: for our Sages have said,“The greatest of sins is this—to bring a blush upon thy neighbor’s face in public.”But the others thought not of this, but once more they asked him,“Rabbi, what sayest thou shall be done in this case?”Then, without raising his head, Jesus said in a low tone,“Let him among you that is without sin cast the first stone.”Then we saw that his shame had been for us, and for our want of feeling in putting such a question in the very presence of her who had sinned. And in this matter we hold that sin can be in thought as well as in act, and which of us could say that we were without sin even in thought? So, in very shame, we turned and went, and left Jesus alone with the woman.Yet, after we had come away from him, Matathias ben Meshullam said,“That is well,—we are rightly rebuked; but yet, dost thou not see that this man hath not answered our question, nor do we know, as we wished, what attitude he takes towards the carrying out of the Law? I hear that each morning he preaches to the people in the Temple. Let us now tomorrow[pg 71]put such questions to him that he cannot evade, and find out to which of our parties he belongs; for this is a man that is getting great weight with the people, and it imports us to know where he stands with regard to us.”So it was determined among us that the next morning a Sadducee and a Pharisee should put to him queries which should determine what views he held on the great questions which distinguished the two great parties of the State.But that very afternoon I was to learn that this Jesus had to deal with questions with which none of our parties concerned themselves. For, as I was coming near to Gethsemane, I met Jesus with a band of men and women going out towards Bethany, and I passed them with the salutation of“Peace.”But as I passed, a young man whom I knew, that had recently come into great possessions upon the death of his father, came up and asked,“Who is that man whom thou hast just greeted?”and I said,“Jesus the Nazarene.”Then, suddenly, he set off running to catch them up, and being curious, I turned and fol[pg 72]lowed him. When I reached them I found the young man kneeling before Jesus, gazing up to him, and he said,“Good Master, I have inherited great possessions; what shall I do that I may inherit the life everlasting?”Jesus said to him,“Call not me‘Good;’none is good but the One. If thou wouldest enter into life, do the commandments.”The young man asked,“Which?”Jesus said, using the doctrine of“The Two Ways,”“Do not kill, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not defraud, honor thy father and thy mother, and love thy neighbor as thyself.”Then the young man said,“All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?”Then Jesus said,“One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell all thou hast, and give unto the poor, and thou shalt have heavenly treasures: come then and follow me.”The young man began to scratch his head, and seemed in doubt. Then Jesus said unto him,“How is it thou canst say,‘I have done the Law and the Prophets,’since it is written in the Law,‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself’? Behold,[pg 73]many of thy brothers, sons of Abraham, are clothed but in dung, and die for hunger, while thy house is full of many goods, and there goeth not forth aught from it unto them.”But the young man rose, and went away in sorrow and confusion. Then Jesus looked round upon those who were there, and said,“How hard it is for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God! It is easier for an elephant to go through a needle’s eye, as the saying is, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.”Then a murmur arose among all those present, and they began to move on, and I left them. And I said to myself,“This man is neither Pharisee, nor Sadducee, nor Herodian; these be the thoughts of the Ebionim.”[pg 74]VI.THE TESTINGS IN THE TEMPLE.[pg 77]Now, on the morrow, many of us who had agreed together to test the opinions of this Jesus went to the Temple and found Jesus walking in the corridors. Then he that was of most authority among us said unto Jesus,“Rabbi, we would ask certain questions of thee;”and Jesus answered,“Ask, and it shall be answered unto thee.”Thou must know that among us Jews there be two chief schools of thought, or rather thou mightest say, parties of the State. The one holds with the High Priest and the rulers, and is mainly made up of those whom ye Hellenes call the Best, and their retainers. These be known as the Sadducees, for their leaders are mainly of the family of the High Priest Sadduk. Now, the other party is in some sort the party of the Demos, in that they seek to lessen the power of the High Priests and their families. But with us, as thou knowest, all things turn upon reli[pg 78]gion, and this second party differ chiefly from the Sadducees, for that they are more in earnest with the matters of the Law, and chiefly they fear the influence of thy nation, Aglaophonos, in drawing the Israelite away from the Law. Therefore have they increased precept upon precept, so as to make, as they say, a fence round the Law. And as they would separate themselves from the heathen by this fence, they call themselves Pharisees, that is, Separatists.Now, it was nowise easy to learn whether a man was of the one party or the other. For he might be eager for the Law, and so be Pharisaic in color, and yet approve of the dominion of the priests, and thus be a Sadducee. Yet in one chief matter of thought they went asunder contrariwise, and that was concerning the resurrection of the dead. Now, with regard to that, the Sadducees held that naught was said in the Law of Moses, and therefore no son of Israel need concern himself with it. But the Pharisees, on the other hand, laid great weight upon this. So here was a touchstone by which to learn whether this Jesus[pg 79]followed the one or the other of the two great divisions of our nation.Then, as was agreed upon, Kamithos the Sadducee came forward to ask him the question which should determine whether he held with them that there was no resurrection from the dead, or with the rest of the nation. He said,“Rabbi, it is written in the Torah, if brethren dwell together, and one of them die and have no son, the wife of the dead one shall not marry without, unto a stranger; her husband’s brother shall take her to him to wife, and raise up seed unto his brother. Suppose, now, there are seven brethren, and the first takes a wife, and dying leaves no son; and the second takes her, as is our custom, and dies without leaving any seed; and the third likewise, and so on, till the whole seven had married her, and yet had no son; then the woman dies also: when they shall rise from the dead together, whose wife shall she be of them? for all seven had her to wife.”And Jesus answered and said,“Ye are at fault, and know not the Scriptures, nor the power of God; for in the resurrection they neither[pg 80]marry, nor are given in marriage, but are even as the angels which are in heaven. And as an indication from Scripture that the dead rise, is it not written in the book of Moses, when God spake to him from the bush, saying,‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living: therefore are ye in error.”And we were surprised at the subtlety of the man; and chiefly men marvelled at the wisdom of this man in finding what we call a support, that is, a text of Scripture on which to hang the doctrine of the life after death, which many believe to have grown up among us since the sacred Scriptures were written: for in them little, if anything, was said of the world to come. Now, Jesus in his answer had happened upon a text which said that Abraham and Isaac and Jacob were living when they were dead to this world, and the people marvelled greatly thereat.Now, it had been agreed upon, that after the Sadducees had asked their question and been answered, I should stand[pg 81]forth and test this man Jesus on behalf of the Pharisees. Now, one of our Sages hath said,“Be as careful of a little precept as of a great one;”whereas our great master Hillel had, as I have told thee, summed up the whole Law in one precept,“Love thy neighbor as thyself.”Therefore, we of the Pharisees wished to know whether this Jesus agreed with the one sage or the other; so I spake unto him and said,“Rabbi, which is the first commandment, by doing which I shall inherit the life everlasting?”But at first he answered me not directly, but said,“How readest thou?”Then I remembered me the words of the“Catechism of the Two Ways,”and answered,“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself: whatsoever thou wouldest not for thyself, do not to another.”And he said unto me,“Thou hast answered right; and the first of the commandments is theShema:‘Hear, O Israel; the Lord thy God is one God.’And the second is like, namely this:‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor as[pg 82]thyself.’There is none other commandment greater than these. This do, and thou shalt live.”Then I was rejoiced, and said unto him,“Well, Rabbi, thou hast said the truth: there is one God, and there is none other but him; and to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as one’s self, is more than all the burnt offerings and sacrifices.”Then Jesus became gracious unto me, and said,“Thou art not far from the kingdom of God.”But then I would learn further from this man who spake so well, and ask him the question which is current in our schools on this subject, and I said to him,“But, Rabbi, who is my neighbor?”and he answered with amashal, or parable, and said,“To what is the matter like? A certain man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho; and he fell among robbers, which both stripped him and beat him, and departed, leaving him half dead. And by chance a certain priest was going down that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And in like[pg 83]manner a Levite also, when he came to the place, and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a certain Israelite,8as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he was moved with compassion, and came to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring on them oil and wine; and he set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the morrow he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said,‘Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, I, when I come back again, will repay thee.’Which of these three, thinkest thou, proved neighbor unto him that fell among the robbers?”Then I said,“Not the priest, nor the Levite, though they held office in Israel, but the simple Israelite who showed mercy upon him.”Then Jesus said unto me,“Go and do thou likewise;”and at this moment we were all summoned to the mid-day sacrifice in the Temple.When Jesus had departed, after the sacrifice, we all met together and discussed his answers, which had stamped him in[pg 84]our minds as a master in the art of question and answer, which is with us as favorable a trial of skill as oratory or poetry with you Hellenes. Now, as regards the question of the Sadducees, men thought he had spoken more openly; for though he had evaded a direct answer to the question of the seven brothers and their wife, he had yet implied that they all would have a part in the life to come. Some regretted that the question had not been put differently, and the problem set—if a son had been born through the seventh brother: for this might have thrown light upon the question of the schools, whether the brother’s widow was to be still regarded as his wife if seed had been raised to him after his death. But as to the support which Jesus had taken from Scripture for the life everlasting, though here again he had answered question by question, it was decided that he was against the Sadducees on this point.But on the questions which I had put to him, all had agreed that he had answered as a Pharisee, even as Hillel might have answered, for he had yea-said the[pg 85]doctrine which I had cited from the beginning of“The Two Ways”in which the doctrine of Hillel is summed up; and even as to my further question, as to who is thechaber, or neighbor, though opinions were divided, most thought that he had spoken as a Pharisee might have spoken: for thou knowest, Aglaophonos, that our nation is divided into three great classes—theCohanim, or Priests; the Levites; and the common Israelites. Now, of these, the two former are the officials of the Temple, and most if not all of the Sadducees are from this class. And, in declaring himself on the side of the third class of simple Israelites, Jesus had, we all thought, declared himself on the side of the Pharisees.[pg 86]VII.THE SECOND SERMON.[pg 89]I cannot clearly remember at what season of the year it was that I next saw Jesus; indeed, I am surprised to think that, after the lapse of nearly five-and-twenty years, I can still remember almost all that passed on the various occasions when I was in his presence. Yet I think it was about the time of the feast which we hold in memory of the rededication of the Temple under the Maccabæans that I again saw and heard the Galilæan stranger; for I mind me that I had just been taking the eight-branch candlestick which we use in the ceremonials of this feast to Petachayah the silversmith to be mended, when on my return I saw a throng collected round the synagogue of the Galilæans, and entering in, found that Jesus was to preach that day. The same ceremonial was gone through as I have already described to thee: the Law was taken from the ark with rejoicing; priest and Levite[pg 90]and four ordinary Israelites were summoned to hear it read, and again the crier called,“Let Rabbi Joshua, the son of Rabbi Joseph, arise.”Now, it chanced that this time, I, as a member of the Sanhedrim, was summoned to the reading of the Law immediately after Jesus, and for a time, as is customary, we stood together upon thebema. I observed that, as the reading of the Law proceeded, the eyes of the Nazarene became fixed upon the ark, and a veil of mysterious tenderness seemed to come over them, as if he were in communion with theShechinah, or Glory, itself. It seemed to me that afterwards, when he read theHaphtarafrom the prophets, and when he preached, something remained in him of this mystical communion.Perhaps it was for this that we seemed to miss that sense of individual address which we had before observed in his eyes. No longer did these speak to us other and deeper thoughts than the words of the preacher; they seemed to dream of divine things, and so caused us also to be rapt in mystic musings. I cannot on this ac[pg 91]count recall for you all or even many of the words which he uttered on this occasion. He began with some plain teaching about practice. Soon he went on to speak of himself in a marvellous way, as if he would imply that communion with him and with the Most High were one and the same, and then in his last words he seemed to speak of the Last Things. And here again his words seemed as if he identified himself with the great Judge.Now, this is not so strange to our mode of thinking in Israel as thou mightest think. Almost all our prophets speak the oracles of God as if they were using the very words of the Lord. Thou canst read in the Greek translation of the Seventy many passages of the prophets in which the very words of the Lord are given. Yet in most, if not all, cases the prophet beginneth,“Thus saith the Lord,”or endeth,“This is the word of the Lord.”But with this Jesus it was otherwise. He spoke as the ancient prophets do, but whether from his rapt intentness in the message he was delivering, or because he felt his spirit for the time merged in the[pg 92]divine, he spoke as if the message was his. And as he spoke, I saw looks of amazement pass between many in the synagogue, and one old graybeard rose as if to protest, and then, shaking his withered hands above his head, went out of the synagogue.I will here set down for thee as many of the words that fell from Jesus’ lips on this occasion as I can remember. They are but few, but many of them are weighty, and I have told thee above the general lines of thought which seemed to run through his discourse; and these are the words as far as I remember them.9“Cultivate faith and hope, through which is born that love of God and man which gives the eternal life. Those are the sons of God who walk in the spirit of God. What you preach before the folk, do in deed before every one. Accept not anything from any man, and possess not anything in this world. For the Father wisheth to be given to each man from his own gifts. Cleave unto the saints: for[pg 93]they that cleave unto them shall be sanctified. Yet shall there be schisms and heresies: for there is a shame which leadeth to death, as there is a shame which leadeth to life. Is it not enough for the disciples to be as the Master? If in a little you are not faithful, who shall give unto you what is much? Seek the great, and the little will be added to you; seek the heavenly, and the things of earth will be superadded.“He that wonders shall reign, he who reigns shall find rest. My secret is for me, and for those that are mine are the things which eye saw not, and ear heard not, which entered not into the heart of man, whatsoever things God prepared for them that love him. Those who wish to see me, and wish to cling to the kingdom, must take me through affliction and suffering. For he that is near me is near the fire, he that is far from me is far from the kingdom. Where one is, there too am I; where twain are, there too will I be. As any of you sees himself in the water or in the mirror, so let him see me in himself.“They that love me shall receive the[pg 94]crown. I will choose me the good, those good whom my Father in the heavens hath given me. Let the lawless continue in lawlessness, the just be justified. Behold, I make the last as the first, and all things new. In whatsoever state I find you, in that also will I judge you.”Never heard I any who spoke of himself as this man did. For days and days afterwards some of his words came to me again and again. Whenever I was alone I seemed to hear his voice saying,“Where one is, there too am I; where twain are, there too will I be.”Whenever I gazed on the running stream or looked on the polished steel of the mirror, again I seemed to hear him say,“As any of you sees himself in the water or in the mirror, so let him see me in himself.”And, in truth, at times my features seemed to fade away, and the face of Jesus gaze upon me.Others thought not as I. When we assembled after the sermon, to talk over it, as is our custom, I found that most had been chiefly touched by certain sayings at the end of the sermon, in which Jesus[pg 95]seemed to speak of the future life and the last judgment. Thou knowest, Aglaophonos, that with regard to these matters I incline more to the teaching of the Sadducean sect, who hold that Holy Scripture speaketh not of these things, and that, therefore, we need not and should not think thereon. But there were few who held that doctrine in the synagogue that day, and these thought most of the words in which Jesus seemed to claim the prerogatives of the Divine Judge.“I was amazed,”quoth Serachyah ben Pinchas,“when he spoke of judging us himself in the last days: it wanted but a little that I had rent my garments at the blasphemy. But surely, thought I to myself, the man will shortly tell us,‘These are the words of the Lord,’and so I refrained.”Now I will tell thee of a most strange event that happened with me and this Jesus. A day or two after this, I was sitting in my room and studying the words of Torah, and had fallen into deep thought on the things of this life and the next, and gradually I fell thinking of certain words that I had heard from Jesus[pg 96]the Nazarene, as I have before told you. Hast thou ever felt, Aglaophonos, as if some one was gazing upon thee, and thou couldst not refrain from looking round to see who it was? So I felt at this moment, and I looked up from the sacred scroll, and lo! Jesus the Nazarene stood before me, gazing upon me with those piercing eyes I can never forget. His face was pale and indistinct, but the eyes shone forth as if with tenderness and pity. Then he seemed to lean forward, and spoke to me in a low yet piercing voice these words:“Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and the Christ shall shine upon thee.”I had shrunk back from his gaze, and was, indeed, in all amaze and wonder that he should be in the room; but when I looked again, behold, he was gone, there was no man there.But this is not all the wonder of that event, for, being startled, and, indeed, somewhat fearful at his sudden appearance and disappearance, I arose and went out into the highway, and went out to walk on the Gethsemane road. Now, as I came clear of the city, I saw a group of[pg 97]men coming down the opposite hill, and when they came near, behold, it was Jesus and some of his friends. I was astonished and surprised beyond all measure, for how could Jesus have just been with me, and be now coming from Gethsemane? And when they were passing me, Jesus glanced at me very slightly, as at a stranger—he that had spoken to my soul but a few minutes since.Now, after they had passed me, there came one running after them whom I knew—one Meshullam ben Hanoch—and I stopped him and asked him whither he was going, and he said,“Stay me not. I have run all the way from Bethany to catch up that man thou seest there, Jesus the Nazarene;”and with that he took up his running and left me.I knew not what to think. I had seen and heard Jesus in my own house in Jerusalem, and lo! at that very same time, as I now learned, he had been at Bethany. What thinkest thou, Aglaophonos,—can a man be in two places at one and the same time? or can it be that the mind of man, and the power of his eye, can go[pg 98]forth from his body and create a vision of another man that hath all the semblance of reality? I know not what to think; but I have heard that, even after his death, those who were nearest and dearest to Jesus saw him and heard him even as I did. Nor do I wonder at this, after what has occurred to myself.VIII.THE REBUKING OF JESUS.[pg 101]Now, it chanced that about this time I was invited to a feast at the house of Elisha ben Simeon, one of the leaders of the Pharisees in Jerusalem. His son had become thirteen years old that week, and, as is our custom, was received into the holy congregation as a Son of the Covenant on the Sabbath. He had been summoned up to the reading of the Law, and had himself read aloud a portion of it; for from this day onward he was to be treated in all matters of religion as if he were a man. Being a friend of his father, I had attended his synagogue, and heard the lad’s pure voice for the first time in his life declare publicly his faith in the Most High.After the service in the synagogue, his friends accompanied the father and the lad to their house, and with them went I, who had known the father from our schoolboy days, and the little lad from the time of his birth.[pg 102]Now, it chanced that, as we came near the door of Elisha’s house, we met Jesus the Nazarene, and two or three with him. So Elisha greeted them, and invited them courteously to join the feast, as is the custom among us. And Jesus and the others assented, and followed into the house with us.“To table, to table!”cried Elisha, pointing to the couches standing round the well-filled board.When we were all seated, the host and his son came round with an ewer and basin to perform the washing of the hands prescribed by the Law. But when they came to the Galilæan strangers, these refused, saying,“We wash not before meals.”“Then we must serve ye last,”said Elisha, with a smile. But the others took not the matter so pleasantly; for since we have one common dish, which is handed round to the guests for them to take their food with their fingers, it is considered gross ill-breeding for a man not to perform the ceremony of washing before meals.Then Elisha took a seat at the centre of the table, and said the grace before meals. Then he broke bread, and, dip[pg 103]ping a morsel into salt for each of the guests, he called his son to him to carry it round. When he saw that each of the guests had a piece of bread dipped in salt, Elisha recited the blessing on the bread,“Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, who bringest forth bread from the earth,”and all said“Amen.”And one of the guests said to Elisha,“I am glad we are not in Babylon.”“How so, Phineas?”said Elisha to the man, who was well known at all feasts at that time in Jerusalem.And Phineas said,“For there they only eat bread with their bread.”“Nay, that would not suit thee, Phineas. Thou art no Nazarite;”and most of the guests who knew him laughed.Then Elisha clapped his hands, and the slaves took round the first course of salted fish; then afterwards the cold baked meats—for, being the Sabbath, the food had been prepared the day before.Then one of the guests said to one of the Galilæans,“Is it true that you allow fowl to be boiled in milk in your country?”“Yes, truly; why not?”said the Galilæan.[pg 104]“Is it not written thrice in the Law,”said the guest,“‘Thou shalt not seethe the kid in its mother’s milk’?”“In our country,”said the Galilæan,“fowls give no milk.”And we all of us laughed, save only Jesus.“Nay, but the Sages have carried their prohibition even unto fowls, lest the people be led to confuse flesh and flesh.”By this time we had arrived at the third and last course of salted olives, lettuces, and radishes. And again the bowl and ewer were passed round, and this time the Galilæans did not refuse the water. Then the new son of the covenant recited in his clear voice the grace after meals. And all rose, while the slaves removed the remnants. Then said Elisha,“It is not well that when so many are together we should depart without discussing some words of the Law. My little Lazarus here would fain learn some new thing from the many learned men present on this day of his being received into Israel.”“Well, then,”said one of the company,“I should like to put a question to our friends here from Galilee.”And they said,“Speak, Rabbi.”[pg 105]And he addressed himself to Jesus, and said,“Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands?”Then Jesus spoke out, and as he spoke he strode up and down the room, with his hand clutching the air, and the vein throbbing on his left temple.“Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written,‘This people honoreth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.’”Then facing us all, he added,“For ye lay aside the commandment of God, and hold the tradition of men.”“How so, master?”said Elisha;“prove thy words.”“It is said in the Word of God,‘Honor thy father and thy mother,’and yet the Sages say,‘If a man be asked by his father or mother to honor them with a gift, and he say,“I vow that thing to the Almighty,”then it isCorban,’and put aside for the Lord, so that his parents cannot enjoy thereof. Thus by your tradition about vows ye make the Word of God[pg 106]concerning honor to parents of none effect, and many like things ye do.”Then Elisha said,“But the Sages are by no means at one in that matter of the vows, and in particular many of them declare all the vows annulled that would work against our duty to our parents, or even against our love to our neighbor. Yet, even if we take the more stricter tradition, in what manner that absolves us from washing our hands before meals, I see not.”“Nay, it is the same thing,”replied Jesus.“Ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and platter, but your inward thoughts are full of ravening and wickedness. Ye fools! did not the Holy One, blessed be He, who made that which is without, make also that which is within? Therefore give for alms that which is within, kindly thoughts and friendly feelings. If ye do that, all things are clean unto you.”Then I said unto Jesus, for this matter touched us scribes nearly,“Master, in speaking thus against tradition thou reproachest us also that be scribes.”[pg 107]And he answered,“Woe, woe unto ye, scribes! which desire to walk in long robes, and love greetings in the markets, and the higher seats in the synagogues, and the chief places at feasts, which devour widows’ houses, and for a show make long prayers.”Then an angry murmur rose among all the folk there assembled at the harsh words of the stranger, when suddenly was heard the voice of Simeon ben Lazarus, the father of Elisha, a very old man, who sat in the corner and said:—“Young man, fourscore years and two have I lived upon this earth; a Pharisee have I been from the day I became a son of the covenant, like little Lazarus there; a scribe was I during all the working days of my life. I did what the Law and the Sages command, yet never thought I in so doing of men’s thoughts or praises. Surely, if the Lord command, a good Jew will obey. And as in many things, many acts of this life, the Law speaketh not in plain terms, surely we should follow the opinion of those who devote all their life to the study of the Law.[pg 108]“I have never sought the praises of men, their greetings or their honors, in obeying the Law. In all that I have done I have sought one thing—to fulfil the will of our Father which is in heaven.“As for what thou sayest, that inward thought and outward act should go together in the service of God and man, that is a verity, and often have I heard the saying from the great Hillel—may his memory be for a blessing! But if outward act may be clean when inward thought may be unclean, how, on the other hand, can we know the purity of what is within, except it be decided by the cleanliness of what is without? How, above all, shall we teach our little ones, like my Lazarus there, to feel what is good and seemly, except by first teaching them to do the acts that are seemly and good?“And as for what thou sayest as to the hypocrisy of us Pharisees and scribes, I say unto thee,—and in a few days I must see the face of my Maker,—I say unto thee, I have known many an Ebionite, which thou seemest to be, who was well spoken within, but ill doing without. So,[pg 109]too, I have known many a scribe and many a Pharisee who neither carried their good deeds on their shoulders, nor said,‘Wait, I have to finish some godly deed;’nor set off their good deeds against their sins; nor boasted of their sacrifices for godly works; nor did they seek out their sins that they might pay for them by their virtues; nor were they Pharisees from fear of the Divine punishment. They were Pharisees from love of the Lord, and did throughout their life what they knew to be his commands.”But Jesus spoke gently unto the old man, and said naught but,“Nay, master, I spoke not of thee, nor of men like thee. These be the true Pharisees; the rest but have the Pharisaic color.”“That is so,”said old Simeon.“I have heard what King Jannaus said:‘Fear not the Pharisees, nor those who are no Pharisees; but fear the colored ones, who are only Pharisees in appearance, who do the deeds of Zimri and demand the rewards of Phineas.’”But before the old man could finish there was a movement at the doorway,[pg 110]and a high, thin voice cried out,“Where is this kidnapper of souls? where is this filcher of young lives? where is Jesus the Nazarene?”“Behold me,”said Jesus, turning towards the voice; and an old man, with the rent garment of the mourner, and with hair all distraught, came up to the Nazarene with arms outstretched and clutching fingers.“Give me my son, my Elchanan!”he cried.“Thou hast taken him from me last Passover, saying,‘Father and mother, yea, all that a man hath, shall he give up to follow me.’He left me to follow thee; what hast thou done with him?—my Elchanan! my Elchanan!”“He died, and is at peace.”“Then give him back to me again. Thou canst do all things, men say: make whole the sick, let see the blind, cause the lame to walk, and give peace to the troubled mind. Give me, then, back my Elchanan thou hast taken from me.”“There is One alone that can quicken the dead,”said Jesus, and walked sternly past him.

IV.THE TWO WAYS.[pg 57]Now, this is the“Catechism of the Two Ways”which I have had copied out for thee, for in it is the essence of the teaching of Jesus, as he himself recognized in speaking to me, as thou wilt shortly hear.“There are two ways, one of life and one of death, but there is a great difference between the two ways. Now, the way of life is this: first, Thou shalt love God who made thee; secondly, thy neighbor as thyself, and all things whatsoever thou wouldest not should be done to thee, do thou also not do to another. Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not corrupt boys, thou shalt not commit fornication, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not use witchcraft, thou shalt not use enchantments, thou shalt not kill an infant whether before or after birth, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s goods.[pg 58]“Thou shalt not forswear thyself, thou shalt not bear false witness, thou shalt not revile, thou shalt not bear malice.“Thou shalt not be double-minded nor double-tongued; for duplicity of tongue is a snare of death.“Thy speech shall not be false nor vain.“Thou shalt not be covetous, nor an extortioner, nor a hypocrite, nor malignant, nor haughty. Thou shalt not take evil counsel against thy neighbor.“Thou shalt hate no man, but some thou shalt rebuke, and for some thou shalt pray, and some thou shalt love above thine own soul.“My child, flee from all evil, and from all that is like unto it.“Be not soon angry, for anger leadeth to murder; nor given to party-spirit, nor contentious, nor quick-tempered, for from all these are generated murders.“My child, be not lustful, for lust leadeth to fornication; neither be a filthy talker, nor a lifter-up of the eyes, for from all these things are generated adulteries.“My child, be not thou an observer of birds, for it leadeth to idolatry; nor a[pg 59]charmer, nor an astrologer, nor a user of purifications; nor be thou willing to look on those things, for from all these is generated idolatry.“My child, be not a liar, for lying leadeth to theft; nor a lover of money, nor fond of vainglory, for from all these things are generated thefts.“My child, be not a murmurer, for it leadeth to blasphemy; neither self-willed, nor evil-minded, for from all these things are generated blasphemies.“Be thou long-suffering, and merciful, and harmless, and quiet, and good, and trembling continually at the words which thou hast heard.“Thou shalt not exalt thyself, nor shalt thou give presumption to thy soul. Thy soul shall not be joined to the lofty, but with the just and lowly shalt thou converse.“The events that happen to thee shalt thou accept as good, knowing that without God nothing taketh place.“My child, thou shalt remember night and day him that speaketh to thee the word of God.[pg 60]“But thou shalt seek out day by day the faces of the saints, that thou mayest rest in their words.“Thou shalt not desire division, but shalt make peace between those at strife; so thou shalt judge justly. Thou shalt not respect a person in rebuking for transgressions.“Thou shalt not be of two minds whether it shall be or not.“Be not one that stretcheth out his hands to receive, but shutteth them close for giving.“If thou hast, thou shalt give with thine hands a ransom for thy sins.“Thou shalt not hesitate to give, nor when thou givest shalt thou murmur, for thou shalt know who is the good recompenser of the reward.“Thou shalt not turn away from him that needeth, but shalt share all things with thy brother, and shalt not say that they are thine own; for if ye are fellow-sharers in that which is imperishable, how much more in perishable things.“Thou shalt not take away thine hand from thy son or from thy daughter, but[pg 61]from their youth up shalt thou teach them the fear of God.“Thou shalt not in thy bitterness lay commands on thy man-servant or thy maid-servant, who hope in the same God, lest they should not fear him who is God over you both; for He cometh not to call men according to the outward appearance, but to those whom the Spirit hath prepared.“But ye, servants, shall be subject to your masters as to a figure of God in reverence and fear.“Thou shalt hate all hypocrisy, and everything which is not pleasing to the Lord.“Thou shalt not forsake the commandments of the Lord, but shalt keep what thou hast received, neither adding thereto nor taking away from it.“Thou shalt confess thy transgressions, and shalt not come to thy prayer with an evil conscience. This is the way of life.“But the way of death is this. First of all, it is evil and full of curse; murders, adulteries, lusts, fornications, thefts, idolatries, witchcrafts, sorceries, robberies, false-[pg 62]witnessings, hypocrisies, double-heartedness, deceit, pride, wickedness, self-will, covetousness, filthy talking, jealousy, presumption, haughtiness, flattery.“Persecutors of the good, hating truth, loving a lie, not knowing the reward of righteousness, not cleaving to that which is good nor to righteous judgment, watching not for the good but for the evil, far from whom is meekness and patience, loving vain things, seeking after reward, not pitying the poor, not toiling with him who is vexed with toil, not knowing Him that made them, murderers of children, destroyers of the image of God, turning away from him that is in need, vexing him that is afflicted, advocates of the rich, lawless judges of the poor, wholly sinful.“Take heed that no one make thee to err from this way of teaching, since he teacheth thee not according to God.”

Now, this is the“Catechism of the Two Ways”which I have had copied out for thee, for in it is the essence of the teaching of Jesus, as he himself recognized in speaking to me, as thou wilt shortly hear.

“There are two ways, one of life and one of death, but there is a great difference between the two ways. Now, the way of life is this: first, Thou shalt love God who made thee; secondly, thy neighbor as thyself, and all things whatsoever thou wouldest not should be done to thee, do thou also not do to another. Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not corrupt boys, thou shalt not commit fornication, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not use witchcraft, thou shalt not use enchantments, thou shalt not kill an infant whether before or after birth, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s goods.

“Thou shalt not forswear thyself, thou shalt not bear false witness, thou shalt not revile, thou shalt not bear malice.

“Thou shalt not be double-minded nor double-tongued; for duplicity of tongue is a snare of death.

“Thy speech shall not be false nor vain.

“Thou shalt not be covetous, nor an extortioner, nor a hypocrite, nor malignant, nor haughty. Thou shalt not take evil counsel against thy neighbor.

“Thou shalt hate no man, but some thou shalt rebuke, and for some thou shalt pray, and some thou shalt love above thine own soul.

“My child, flee from all evil, and from all that is like unto it.

“Be not soon angry, for anger leadeth to murder; nor given to party-spirit, nor contentious, nor quick-tempered, for from all these are generated murders.

“My child, be not lustful, for lust leadeth to fornication; neither be a filthy talker, nor a lifter-up of the eyes, for from all these things are generated adulteries.

“My child, be not thou an observer of birds, for it leadeth to idolatry; nor a[pg 59]charmer, nor an astrologer, nor a user of purifications; nor be thou willing to look on those things, for from all these is generated idolatry.

“My child, be not a liar, for lying leadeth to theft; nor a lover of money, nor fond of vainglory, for from all these things are generated thefts.

“My child, be not a murmurer, for it leadeth to blasphemy; neither self-willed, nor evil-minded, for from all these things are generated blasphemies.

“Be thou long-suffering, and merciful, and harmless, and quiet, and good, and trembling continually at the words which thou hast heard.

“Thou shalt not exalt thyself, nor shalt thou give presumption to thy soul. Thy soul shall not be joined to the lofty, but with the just and lowly shalt thou converse.

“The events that happen to thee shalt thou accept as good, knowing that without God nothing taketh place.

“My child, thou shalt remember night and day him that speaketh to thee the word of God.

“But thou shalt seek out day by day the faces of the saints, that thou mayest rest in their words.

“Thou shalt not desire division, but shalt make peace between those at strife; so thou shalt judge justly. Thou shalt not respect a person in rebuking for transgressions.

“Thou shalt not be of two minds whether it shall be or not.

“Be not one that stretcheth out his hands to receive, but shutteth them close for giving.

“If thou hast, thou shalt give with thine hands a ransom for thy sins.

“Thou shalt not hesitate to give, nor when thou givest shalt thou murmur, for thou shalt know who is the good recompenser of the reward.

“Thou shalt not turn away from him that needeth, but shalt share all things with thy brother, and shalt not say that they are thine own; for if ye are fellow-sharers in that which is imperishable, how much more in perishable things.

“Thou shalt not take away thine hand from thy son or from thy daughter, but[pg 61]from their youth up shalt thou teach them the fear of God.

“Thou shalt not in thy bitterness lay commands on thy man-servant or thy maid-servant, who hope in the same God, lest they should not fear him who is God over you both; for He cometh not to call men according to the outward appearance, but to those whom the Spirit hath prepared.

“But ye, servants, shall be subject to your masters as to a figure of God in reverence and fear.

“Thou shalt hate all hypocrisy, and everything which is not pleasing to the Lord.

“Thou shalt not forsake the commandments of the Lord, but shalt keep what thou hast received, neither adding thereto nor taking away from it.

“Thou shalt confess thy transgressions, and shalt not come to thy prayer with an evil conscience. This is the way of life.

“But the way of death is this. First of all, it is evil and full of curse; murders, adulteries, lusts, fornications, thefts, idolatries, witchcrafts, sorceries, robberies, false-[pg 62]witnessings, hypocrisies, double-heartedness, deceit, pride, wickedness, self-will, covetousness, filthy talking, jealousy, presumption, haughtiness, flattery.

“Persecutors of the good, hating truth, loving a lie, not knowing the reward of righteousness, not cleaving to that which is good nor to righteous judgment, watching not for the good but for the evil, far from whom is meekness and patience, loving vain things, seeking after reward, not pitying the poor, not toiling with him who is vexed with toil, not knowing Him that made them, murderers of children, destroyers of the image of God, turning away from him that is in need, vexing him that is afflicted, advocates of the rich, lawless judges of the poor, wholly sinful.

“Take heed that no one make thee to err from this way of teaching, since he teacheth thee not according to God.”

V.THE WOMAN TAKEN IN ADULTERY.THE RICH YOUNG MAN.[pg 65]It must have been many months after I had heard him discourse in the Galilæan synagogue that I again saw Jesus the Nazarene. We in Jerusalem had our own concerns to think of.At this time the long monopoly of rule by the Sadducees was gradually being broken. Of the three divisions of the Sanhedrim, that of the ordinary Israelites had become almost entirely composed of the Pharisees; I myself had been elected as one of that party, and even in the other two sections of the Priests and of the Levites, many, especially among the latter, held with the Pharisees. Nor was this without influence upon the political issues of the times. The Sadducees, being the sacerdotal party, had no cause why they should be dissatisfied with the position they held in the State under the Romans; but we of the Pharisees felt far otherwise about the national hopes for deliverance.[pg 66]Since my days the influence of the Pharisees has become predominant in the nation, and I foresee that the struggle between us and the Romans cannot be delayed for long. At the time of which I am writing, the hegemony had not yet passed over to the Pharisees, and it was of import for us all to know whether any man of influence was on our side, or on that of the Sadducees, or whether he cared for neither, and cast in his lot with the smaller sects.Now, it happened about this time that I was attending my place in the Sanhedrim of Israelites, to judge of a case of adultery. But in this matter our Sages, and especially those of the Pharisaic tradition, had made great changes in the Law as laid down for us by Moses; for he, as thou knowest, commands that a woman taken in adultery shall be stoned to death. Now, for a long time among us there has been an increasing horror of inflicting the death penalty. If a Sanhedrim inflicts capital punishment more than once in seven years, it is called a Sanhedrim of murderers. Yet the Law of Moses de[pg 67]clared that whosoever was guilty of adultery would be put to death. What, then, was to be done? It is against the principle of justice that any should be punished for an offence of which he is ignorant. Hence, in capital offences, our Sages, to mercy inclined, have laid it down that a man must be assumed to be ignorant of the guilt of the offence, unless it be proved that he had been solemnly warned of its gravity; and in our Law proof can only be given by two simultaneous witnesses. Hence it is impossible to obtain conviction for a woman who hath committed adultery, unless proof is given that she hath been previously warned by two persons at once. This can scarcely ever be. No Jewish woman in my time has ever been stoned as the Law commands for this sin. Some think that this is too great a leniency, and of evil result for the morality of the folk.When I arrived at the hall of polished stones near the Temple, in which the Sanhedrim holds its sittings, the trial had nearly come to a conclusion. The inquiry had been made if any two credible wit[pg 68]nesses had given the woman the preliminary caution, and none answering to the call, it remained only for theAb Beth Din, the president of the court, to dismiss the prisoner with the words of caution and advice which are customary on such occasions:“My daughter, perhaps thou wert led into sin by too much wine, or by thoughtlessness, or perhaps by thy youth; perchance it was mixing in crowds, or wicked companions that led thee to sin: go, and for the sake of the great Name, do not bring it to pass that thou must be destroyed by the water of jealousy.”And with these words the court was dismissed, and several of us were appointed to take the woman to her home, and induce the man, her husband, to take her to him once again. Now, as we were passing through the courts of the Temple, we saw Jesus the Nazarene in one of the smaller courts, seated, teaching the people, some of whom sat at his feet. But it seemed to some of us a favorable opportunity to test what he would say as regards the Law of Moses relating to adultery: for if he would declare that the Law must be carried out in all its[pg 69]rigor, that would show that our Sages were more merciful than he; if, on the other hand, he adopted the opinion of our Sages, that would in so far commit him to support their attitude towards the Law in general. In any case, it seemed a suitable occasion to test his power of dealing with the Law, and it is customary among us to put such test cases before the younger Sages.We therefore turned aside and entered into the smaller court, and all rose to do honor to the Sanhedrim. Then one of us said to him,“Rabbi, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. Now, Moses in the Law hath commanded that such should be stoned: what sayest thou?”Now, when the man told him that the woman had been taken in the very act of adultery, a deep blush passed over his face, and he turned his eyes downwards. Then he bent down to the ground, hiding his face altogether from us, and writing, as it were, something on the sand of the floor. Now, at first, I thought of the cry of the money-changers that I had heard, and felt ashamed in my soul that such a question should be brought before this man, of all[pg 70]men: for our Sages have said,“The greatest of sins is this—to bring a blush upon thy neighbor’s face in public.”But the others thought not of this, but once more they asked him,“Rabbi, what sayest thou shall be done in this case?”Then, without raising his head, Jesus said in a low tone,“Let him among you that is without sin cast the first stone.”Then we saw that his shame had been for us, and for our want of feeling in putting such a question in the very presence of her who had sinned. And in this matter we hold that sin can be in thought as well as in act, and which of us could say that we were without sin even in thought? So, in very shame, we turned and went, and left Jesus alone with the woman.Yet, after we had come away from him, Matathias ben Meshullam said,“That is well,—we are rightly rebuked; but yet, dost thou not see that this man hath not answered our question, nor do we know, as we wished, what attitude he takes towards the carrying out of the Law? I hear that each morning he preaches to the people in the Temple. Let us now tomorrow[pg 71]put such questions to him that he cannot evade, and find out to which of our parties he belongs; for this is a man that is getting great weight with the people, and it imports us to know where he stands with regard to us.”So it was determined among us that the next morning a Sadducee and a Pharisee should put to him queries which should determine what views he held on the great questions which distinguished the two great parties of the State.But that very afternoon I was to learn that this Jesus had to deal with questions with which none of our parties concerned themselves. For, as I was coming near to Gethsemane, I met Jesus with a band of men and women going out towards Bethany, and I passed them with the salutation of“Peace.”But as I passed, a young man whom I knew, that had recently come into great possessions upon the death of his father, came up and asked,“Who is that man whom thou hast just greeted?”and I said,“Jesus the Nazarene.”Then, suddenly, he set off running to catch them up, and being curious, I turned and fol[pg 72]lowed him. When I reached them I found the young man kneeling before Jesus, gazing up to him, and he said,“Good Master, I have inherited great possessions; what shall I do that I may inherit the life everlasting?”Jesus said to him,“Call not me‘Good;’none is good but the One. If thou wouldest enter into life, do the commandments.”The young man asked,“Which?”Jesus said, using the doctrine of“The Two Ways,”“Do not kill, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not defraud, honor thy father and thy mother, and love thy neighbor as thyself.”Then the young man said,“All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?”Then Jesus said,“One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell all thou hast, and give unto the poor, and thou shalt have heavenly treasures: come then and follow me.”The young man began to scratch his head, and seemed in doubt. Then Jesus said unto him,“How is it thou canst say,‘I have done the Law and the Prophets,’since it is written in the Law,‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself’? Behold,[pg 73]many of thy brothers, sons of Abraham, are clothed but in dung, and die for hunger, while thy house is full of many goods, and there goeth not forth aught from it unto them.”But the young man rose, and went away in sorrow and confusion. Then Jesus looked round upon those who were there, and said,“How hard it is for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God! It is easier for an elephant to go through a needle’s eye, as the saying is, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.”Then a murmur arose among all those present, and they began to move on, and I left them. And I said to myself,“This man is neither Pharisee, nor Sadducee, nor Herodian; these be the thoughts of the Ebionim.”[pg 74]

It must have been many months after I had heard him discourse in the Galilæan synagogue that I again saw Jesus the Nazarene. We in Jerusalem had our own concerns to think of.

At this time the long monopoly of rule by the Sadducees was gradually being broken. Of the three divisions of the Sanhedrim, that of the ordinary Israelites had become almost entirely composed of the Pharisees; I myself had been elected as one of that party, and even in the other two sections of the Priests and of the Levites, many, especially among the latter, held with the Pharisees. Nor was this without influence upon the political issues of the times. The Sadducees, being the sacerdotal party, had no cause why they should be dissatisfied with the position they held in the State under the Romans; but we of the Pharisees felt far otherwise about the national hopes for deliverance.[pg 66]Since my days the influence of the Pharisees has become predominant in the nation, and I foresee that the struggle between us and the Romans cannot be delayed for long. At the time of which I am writing, the hegemony had not yet passed over to the Pharisees, and it was of import for us all to know whether any man of influence was on our side, or on that of the Sadducees, or whether he cared for neither, and cast in his lot with the smaller sects.

Now, it happened about this time that I was attending my place in the Sanhedrim of Israelites, to judge of a case of adultery. But in this matter our Sages, and especially those of the Pharisaic tradition, had made great changes in the Law as laid down for us by Moses; for he, as thou knowest, commands that a woman taken in adultery shall be stoned to death. Now, for a long time among us there has been an increasing horror of inflicting the death penalty. If a Sanhedrim inflicts capital punishment more than once in seven years, it is called a Sanhedrim of murderers. Yet the Law of Moses de[pg 67]clared that whosoever was guilty of adultery would be put to death. What, then, was to be done? It is against the principle of justice that any should be punished for an offence of which he is ignorant. Hence, in capital offences, our Sages, to mercy inclined, have laid it down that a man must be assumed to be ignorant of the guilt of the offence, unless it be proved that he had been solemnly warned of its gravity; and in our Law proof can only be given by two simultaneous witnesses. Hence it is impossible to obtain conviction for a woman who hath committed adultery, unless proof is given that she hath been previously warned by two persons at once. This can scarcely ever be. No Jewish woman in my time has ever been stoned as the Law commands for this sin. Some think that this is too great a leniency, and of evil result for the morality of the folk.

When I arrived at the hall of polished stones near the Temple, in which the Sanhedrim holds its sittings, the trial had nearly come to a conclusion. The inquiry had been made if any two credible wit[pg 68]nesses had given the woman the preliminary caution, and none answering to the call, it remained only for theAb Beth Din, the president of the court, to dismiss the prisoner with the words of caution and advice which are customary on such occasions:“My daughter, perhaps thou wert led into sin by too much wine, or by thoughtlessness, or perhaps by thy youth; perchance it was mixing in crowds, or wicked companions that led thee to sin: go, and for the sake of the great Name, do not bring it to pass that thou must be destroyed by the water of jealousy.”And with these words the court was dismissed, and several of us were appointed to take the woman to her home, and induce the man, her husband, to take her to him once again. Now, as we were passing through the courts of the Temple, we saw Jesus the Nazarene in one of the smaller courts, seated, teaching the people, some of whom sat at his feet. But it seemed to some of us a favorable opportunity to test what he would say as regards the Law of Moses relating to adultery: for if he would declare that the Law must be carried out in all its[pg 69]rigor, that would show that our Sages were more merciful than he; if, on the other hand, he adopted the opinion of our Sages, that would in so far commit him to support their attitude towards the Law in general. In any case, it seemed a suitable occasion to test his power of dealing with the Law, and it is customary among us to put such test cases before the younger Sages.

We therefore turned aside and entered into the smaller court, and all rose to do honor to the Sanhedrim. Then one of us said to him,“Rabbi, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. Now, Moses in the Law hath commanded that such should be stoned: what sayest thou?”Now, when the man told him that the woman had been taken in the very act of adultery, a deep blush passed over his face, and he turned his eyes downwards. Then he bent down to the ground, hiding his face altogether from us, and writing, as it were, something on the sand of the floor. Now, at first, I thought of the cry of the money-changers that I had heard, and felt ashamed in my soul that such a question should be brought before this man, of all[pg 70]men: for our Sages have said,“The greatest of sins is this—to bring a blush upon thy neighbor’s face in public.”But the others thought not of this, but once more they asked him,“Rabbi, what sayest thou shall be done in this case?”Then, without raising his head, Jesus said in a low tone,“Let him among you that is without sin cast the first stone.”Then we saw that his shame had been for us, and for our want of feeling in putting such a question in the very presence of her who had sinned. And in this matter we hold that sin can be in thought as well as in act, and which of us could say that we were without sin even in thought? So, in very shame, we turned and went, and left Jesus alone with the woman.

Yet, after we had come away from him, Matathias ben Meshullam said,“That is well,—we are rightly rebuked; but yet, dost thou not see that this man hath not answered our question, nor do we know, as we wished, what attitude he takes towards the carrying out of the Law? I hear that each morning he preaches to the people in the Temple. Let us now tomorrow[pg 71]put such questions to him that he cannot evade, and find out to which of our parties he belongs; for this is a man that is getting great weight with the people, and it imports us to know where he stands with regard to us.”So it was determined among us that the next morning a Sadducee and a Pharisee should put to him queries which should determine what views he held on the great questions which distinguished the two great parties of the State.

But that very afternoon I was to learn that this Jesus had to deal with questions with which none of our parties concerned themselves. For, as I was coming near to Gethsemane, I met Jesus with a band of men and women going out towards Bethany, and I passed them with the salutation of“Peace.”But as I passed, a young man whom I knew, that had recently come into great possessions upon the death of his father, came up and asked,“Who is that man whom thou hast just greeted?”and I said,“Jesus the Nazarene.”Then, suddenly, he set off running to catch them up, and being curious, I turned and fol[pg 72]lowed him. When I reached them I found the young man kneeling before Jesus, gazing up to him, and he said,“Good Master, I have inherited great possessions; what shall I do that I may inherit the life everlasting?”Jesus said to him,“Call not me‘Good;’none is good but the One. If thou wouldest enter into life, do the commandments.”The young man asked,“Which?”Jesus said, using the doctrine of“The Two Ways,”“Do not kill, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not defraud, honor thy father and thy mother, and love thy neighbor as thyself.”Then the young man said,“All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?”Then Jesus said,“One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell all thou hast, and give unto the poor, and thou shalt have heavenly treasures: come then and follow me.”The young man began to scratch his head, and seemed in doubt. Then Jesus said unto him,“How is it thou canst say,‘I have done the Law and the Prophets,’since it is written in the Law,‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself’? Behold,[pg 73]many of thy brothers, sons of Abraham, are clothed but in dung, and die for hunger, while thy house is full of many goods, and there goeth not forth aught from it unto them.”But the young man rose, and went away in sorrow and confusion. Then Jesus looked round upon those who were there, and said,“How hard it is for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God! It is easier for an elephant to go through a needle’s eye, as the saying is, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.”Then a murmur arose among all those present, and they began to move on, and I left them. And I said to myself,“This man is neither Pharisee, nor Sadducee, nor Herodian; these be the thoughts of the Ebionim.”

VI.THE TESTINGS IN THE TEMPLE.[pg 77]Now, on the morrow, many of us who had agreed together to test the opinions of this Jesus went to the Temple and found Jesus walking in the corridors. Then he that was of most authority among us said unto Jesus,“Rabbi, we would ask certain questions of thee;”and Jesus answered,“Ask, and it shall be answered unto thee.”Thou must know that among us Jews there be two chief schools of thought, or rather thou mightest say, parties of the State. The one holds with the High Priest and the rulers, and is mainly made up of those whom ye Hellenes call the Best, and their retainers. These be known as the Sadducees, for their leaders are mainly of the family of the High Priest Sadduk. Now, the other party is in some sort the party of the Demos, in that they seek to lessen the power of the High Priests and their families. But with us, as thou knowest, all things turn upon reli[pg 78]gion, and this second party differ chiefly from the Sadducees, for that they are more in earnest with the matters of the Law, and chiefly they fear the influence of thy nation, Aglaophonos, in drawing the Israelite away from the Law. Therefore have they increased precept upon precept, so as to make, as they say, a fence round the Law. And as they would separate themselves from the heathen by this fence, they call themselves Pharisees, that is, Separatists.Now, it was nowise easy to learn whether a man was of the one party or the other. For he might be eager for the Law, and so be Pharisaic in color, and yet approve of the dominion of the priests, and thus be a Sadducee. Yet in one chief matter of thought they went asunder contrariwise, and that was concerning the resurrection of the dead. Now, with regard to that, the Sadducees held that naught was said in the Law of Moses, and therefore no son of Israel need concern himself with it. But the Pharisees, on the other hand, laid great weight upon this. So here was a touchstone by which to learn whether this Jesus[pg 79]followed the one or the other of the two great divisions of our nation.Then, as was agreed upon, Kamithos the Sadducee came forward to ask him the question which should determine whether he held with them that there was no resurrection from the dead, or with the rest of the nation. He said,“Rabbi, it is written in the Torah, if brethren dwell together, and one of them die and have no son, the wife of the dead one shall not marry without, unto a stranger; her husband’s brother shall take her to him to wife, and raise up seed unto his brother. Suppose, now, there are seven brethren, and the first takes a wife, and dying leaves no son; and the second takes her, as is our custom, and dies without leaving any seed; and the third likewise, and so on, till the whole seven had married her, and yet had no son; then the woman dies also: when they shall rise from the dead together, whose wife shall she be of them? for all seven had her to wife.”And Jesus answered and said,“Ye are at fault, and know not the Scriptures, nor the power of God; for in the resurrection they neither[pg 80]marry, nor are given in marriage, but are even as the angels which are in heaven. And as an indication from Scripture that the dead rise, is it not written in the book of Moses, when God spake to him from the bush, saying,‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living: therefore are ye in error.”And we were surprised at the subtlety of the man; and chiefly men marvelled at the wisdom of this man in finding what we call a support, that is, a text of Scripture on which to hang the doctrine of the life after death, which many believe to have grown up among us since the sacred Scriptures were written: for in them little, if anything, was said of the world to come. Now, Jesus in his answer had happened upon a text which said that Abraham and Isaac and Jacob were living when they were dead to this world, and the people marvelled greatly thereat.Now, it had been agreed upon, that after the Sadducees had asked their question and been answered, I should stand[pg 81]forth and test this man Jesus on behalf of the Pharisees. Now, one of our Sages hath said,“Be as careful of a little precept as of a great one;”whereas our great master Hillel had, as I have told thee, summed up the whole Law in one precept,“Love thy neighbor as thyself.”Therefore, we of the Pharisees wished to know whether this Jesus agreed with the one sage or the other; so I spake unto him and said,“Rabbi, which is the first commandment, by doing which I shall inherit the life everlasting?”But at first he answered me not directly, but said,“How readest thou?”Then I remembered me the words of the“Catechism of the Two Ways,”and answered,“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself: whatsoever thou wouldest not for thyself, do not to another.”And he said unto me,“Thou hast answered right; and the first of the commandments is theShema:‘Hear, O Israel; the Lord thy God is one God.’And the second is like, namely this:‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor as[pg 82]thyself.’There is none other commandment greater than these. This do, and thou shalt live.”Then I was rejoiced, and said unto him,“Well, Rabbi, thou hast said the truth: there is one God, and there is none other but him; and to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as one’s self, is more than all the burnt offerings and sacrifices.”Then Jesus became gracious unto me, and said,“Thou art not far from the kingdom of God.”But then I would learn further from this man who spake so well, and ask him the question which is current in our schools on this subject, and I said to him,“But, Rabbi, who is my neighbor?”and he answered with amashal, or parable, and said,“To what is the matter like? A certain man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho; and he fell among robbers, which both stripped him and beat him, and departed, leaving him half dead. And by chance a certain priest was going down that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And in like[pg 83]manner a Levite also, when he came to the place, and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a certain Israelite,8as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he was moved with compassion, and came to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring on them oil and wine; and he set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the morrow he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said,‘Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, I, when I come back again, will repay thee.’Which of these three, thinkest thou, proved neighbor unto him that fell among the robbers?”Then I said,“Not the priest, nor the Levite, though they held office in Israel, but the simple Israelite who showed mercy upon him.”Then Jesus said unto me,“Go and do thou likewise;”and at this moment we were all summoned to the mid-day sacrifice in the Temple.When Jesus had departed, after the sacrifice, we all met together and discussed his answers, which had stamped him in[pg 84]our minds as a master in the art of question and answer, which is with us as favorable a trial of skill as oratory or poetry with you Hellenes. Now, as regards the question of the Sadducees, men thought he had spoken more openly; for though he had evaded a direct answer to the question of the seven brothers and their wife, he had yet implied that they all would have a part in the life to come. Some regretted that the question had not been put differently, and the problem set—if a son had been born through the seventh brother: for this might have thrown light upon the question of the schools, whether the brother’s widow was to be still regarded as his wife if seed had been raised to him after his death. But as to the support which Jesus had taken from Scripture for the life everlasting, though here again he had answered question by question, it was decided that he was against the Sadducees on this point.But on the questions which I had put to him, all had agreed that he had answered as a Pharisee, even as Hillel might have answered, for he had yea-said the[pg 85]doctrine which I had cited from the beginning of“The Two Ways”in which the doctrine of Hillel is summed up; and even as to my further question, as to who is thechaber, or neighbor, though opinions were divided, most thought that he had spoken as a Pharisee might have spoken: for thou knowest, Aglaophonos, that our nation is divided into three great classes—theCohanim, or Priests; the Levites; and the common Israelites. Now, of these, the two former are the officials of the Temple, and most if not all of the Sadducees are from this class. And, in declaring himself on the side of the third class of simple Israelites, Jesus had, we all thought, declared himself on the side of the Pharisees.[pg 86]

Now, on the morrow, many of us who had agreed together to test the opinions of this Jesus went to the Temple and found Jesus walking in the corridors. Then he that was of most authority among us said unto Jesus,“Rabbi, we would ask certain questions of thee;”and Jesus answered,“Ask, and it shall be answered unto thee.”

Thou must know that among us Jews there be two chief schools of thought, or rather thou mightest say, parties of the State. The one holds with the High Priest and the rulers, and is mainly made up of those whom ye Hellenes call the Best, and their retainers. These be known as the Sadducees, for their leaders are mainly of the family of the High Priest Sadduk. Now, the other party is in some sort the party of the Demos, in that they seek to lessen the power of the High Priests and their families. But with us, as thou knowest, all things turn upon reli[pg 78]gion, and this second party differ chiefly from the Sadducees, for that they are more in earnest with the matters of the Law, and chiefly they fear the influence of thy nation, Aglaophonos, in drawing the Israelite away from the Law. Therefore have they increased precept upon precept, so as to make, as they say, a fence round the Law. And as they would separate themselves from the heathen by this fence, they call themselves Pharisees, that is, Separatists.

Now, it was nowise easy to learn whether a man was of the one party or the other. For he might be eager for the Law, and so be Pharisaic in color, and yet approve of the dominion of the priests, and thus be a Sadducee. Yet in one chief matter of thought they went asunder contrariwise, and that was concerning the resurrection of the dead. Now, with regard to that, the Sadducees held that naught was said in the Law of Moses, and therefore no son of Israel need concern himself with it. But the Pharisees, on the other hand, laid great weight upon this. So here was a touchstone by which to learn whether this Jesus[pg 79]followed the one or the other of the two great divisions of our nation.

Then, as was agreed upon, Kamithos the Sadducee came forward to ask him the question which should determine whether he held with them that there was no resurrection from the dead, or with the rest of the nation. He said,“Rabbi, it is written in the Torah, if brethren dwell together, and one of them die and have no son, the wife of the dead one shall not marry without, unto a stranger; her husband’s brother shall take her to him to wife, and raise up seed unto his brother. Suppose, now, there are seven brethren, and the first takes a wife, and dying leaves no son; and the second takes her, as is our custom, and dies without leaving any seed; and the third likewise, and so on, till the whole seven had married her, and yet had no son; then the woman dies also: when they shall rise from the dead together, whose wife shall she be of them? for all seven had her to wife.”And Jesus answered and said,“Ye are at fault, and know not the Scriptures, nor the power of God; for in the resurrection they neither[pg 80]marry, nor are given in marriage, but are even as the angels which are in heaven. And as an indication from Scripture that the dead rise, is it not written in the book of Moses, when God spake to him from the bush, saying,‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living: therefore are ye in error.”

And we were surprised at the subtlety of the man; and chiefly men marvelled at the wisdom of this man in finding what we call a support, that is, a text of Scripture on which to hang the doctrine of the life after death, which many believe to have grown up among us since the sacred Scriptures were written: for in them little, if anything, was said of the world to come. Now, Jesus in his answer had happened upon a text which said that Abraham and Isaac and Jacob were living when they were dead to this world, and the people marvelled greatly thereat.

Now, it had been agreed upon, that after the Sadducees had asked their question and been answered, I should stand[pg 81]forth and test this man Jesus on behalf of the Pharisees. Now, one of our Sages hath said,“Be as careful of a little precept as of a great one;”whereas our great master Hillel had, as I have told thee, summed up the whole Law in one precept,“Love thy neighbor as thyself.”Therefore, we of the Pharisees wished to know whether this Jesus agreed with the one sage or the other; so I spake unto him and said,“Rabbi, which is the first commandment, by doing which I shall inherit the life everlasting?”But at first he answered me not directly, but said,“How readest thou?”Then I remembered me the words of the“Catechism of the Two Ways,”and answered,“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself: whatsoever thou wouldest not for thyself, do not to another.”And he said unto me,“Thou hast answered right; and the first of the commandments is theShema:‘Hear, O Israel; the Lord thy God is one God.’And the second is like, namely this:‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor as[pg 82]thyself.’There is none other commandment greater than these. This do, and thou shalt live.”Then I was rejoiced, and said unto him,“Well, Rabbi, thou hast said the truth: there is one God, and there is none other but him; and to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as one’s self, is more than all the burnt offerings and sacrifices.”Then Jesus became gracious unto me, and said,“Thou art not far from the kingdom of God.”

But then I would learn further from this man who spake so well, and ask him the question which is current in our schools on this subject, and I said to him,“But, Rabbi, who is my neighbor?”and he answered with amashal, or parable, and said,“To what is the matter like? A certain man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho; and he fell among robbers, which both stripped him and beat him, and departed, leaving him half dead. And by chance a certain priest was going down that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And in like[pg 83]manner a Levite also, when he came to the place, and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a certain Israelite,8as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he was moved with compassion, and came to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring on them oil and wine; and he set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the morrow he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said,‘Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, I, when I come back again, will repay thee.’Which of these three, thinkest thou, proved neighbor unto him that fell among the robbers?”Then I said,“Not the priest, nor the Levite, though they held office in Israel, but the simple Israelite who showed mercy upon him.”Then Jesus said unto me,“Go and do thou likewise;”and at this moment we were all summoned to the mid-day sacrifice in the Temple.

When Jesus had departed, after the sacrifice, we all met together and discussed his answers, which had stamped him in[pg 84]our minds as a master in the art of question and answer, which is with us as favorable a trial of skill as oratory or poetry with you Hellenes. Now, as regards the question of the Sadducees, men thought he had spoken more openly; for though he had evaded a direct answer to the question of the seven brothers and their wife, he had yet implied that they all would have a part in the life to come. Some regretted that the question had not been put differently, and the problem set—if a son had been born through the seventh brother: for this might have thrown light upon the question of the schools, whether the brother’s widow was to be still regarded as his wife if seed had been raised to him after his death. But as to the support which Jesus had taken from Scripture for the life everlasting, though here again he had answered question by question, it was decided that he was against the Sadducees on this point.

But on the questions which I had put to him, all had agreed that he had answered as a Pharisee, even as Hillel might have answered, for he had yea-said the[pg 85]doctrine which I had cited from the beginning of“The Two Ways”in which the doctrine of Hillel is summed up; and even as to my further question, as to who is thechaber, or neighbor, though opinions were divided, most thought that he had spoken as a Pharisee might have spoken: for thou knowest, Aglaophonos, that our nation is divided into three great classes—theCohanim, or Priests; the Levites; and the common Israelites. Now, of these, the two former are the officials of the Temple, and most if not all of the Sadducees are from this class. And, in declaring himself on the side of the third class of simple Israelites, Jesus had, we all thought, declared himself on the side of the Pharisees.

VII.THE SECOND SERMON.[pg 89]I cannot clearly remember at what season of the year it was that I next saw Jesus; indeed, I am surprised to think that, after the lapse of nearly five-and-twenty years, I can still remember almost all that passed on the various occasions when I was in his presence. Yet I think it was about the time of the feast which we hold in memory of the rededication of the Temple under the Maccabæans that I again saw and heard the Galilæan stranger; for I mind me that I had just been taking the eight-branch candlestick which we use in the ceremonials of this feast to Petachayah the silversmith to be mended, when on my return I saw a throng collected round the synagogue of the Galilæans, and entering in, found that Jesus was to preach that day. The same ceremonial was gone through as I have already described to thee: the Law was taken from the ark with rejoicing; priest and Levite[pg 90]and four ordinary Israelites were summoned to hear it read, and again the crier called,“Let Rabbi Joshua, the son of Rabbi Joseph, arise.”Now, it chanced that this time, I, as a member of the Sanhedrim, was summoned to the reading of the Law immediately after Jesus, and for a time, as is customary, we stood together upon thebema. I observed that, as the reading of the Law proceeded, the eyes of the Nazarene became fixed upon the ark, and a veil of mysterious tenderness seemed to come over them, as if he were in communion with theShechinah, or Glory, itself. It seemed to me that afterwards, when he read theHaphtarafrom the prophets, and when he preached, something remained in him of this mystical communion.Perhaps it was for this that we seemed to miss that sense of individual address which we had before observed in his eyes. No longer did these speak to us other and deeper thoughts than the words of the preacher; they seemed to dream of divine things, and so caused us also to be rapt in mystic musings. I cannot on this ac[pg 91]count recall for you all or even many of the words which he uttered on this occasion. He began with some plain teaching about practice. Soon he went on to speak of himself in a marvellous way, as if he would imply that communion with him and with the Most High were one and the same, and then in his last words he seemed to speak of the Last Things. And here again his words seemed as if he identified himself with the great Judge.Now, this is not so strange to our mode of thinking in Israel as thou mightest think. Almost all our prophets speak the oracles of God as if they were using the very words of the Lord. Thou canst read in the Greek translation of the Seventy many passages of the prophets in which the very words of the Lord are given. Yet in most, if not all, cases the prophet beginneth,“Thus saith the Lord,”or endeth,“This is the word of the Lord.”But with this Jesus it was otherwise. He spoke as the ancient prophets do, but whether from his rapt intentness in the message he was delivering, or because he felt his spirit for the time merged in the[pg 92]divine, he spoke as if the message was his. And as he spoke, I saw looks of amazement pass between many in the synagogue, and one old graybeard rose as if to protest, and then, shaking his withered hands above his head, went out of the synagogue.I will here set down for thee as many of the words that fell from Jesus’ lips on this occasion as I can remember. They are but few, but many of them are weighty, and I have told thee above the general lines of thought which seemed to run through his discourse; and these are the words as far as I remember them.9“Cultivate faith and hope, through which is born that love of God and man which gives the eternal life. Those are the sons of God who walk in the spirit of God. What you preach before the folk, do in deed before every one. Accept not anything from any man, and possess not anything in this world. For the Father wisheth to be given to each man from his own gifts. Cleave unto the saints: for[pg 93]they that cleave unto them shall be sanctified. Yet shall there be schisms and heresies: for there is a shame which leadeth to death, as there is a shame which leadeth to life. Is it not enough for the disciples to be as the Master? If in a little you are not faithful, who shall give unto you what is much? Seek the great, and the little will be added to you; seek the heavenly, and the things of earth will be superadded.“He that wonders shall reign, he who reigns shall find rest. My secret is for me, and for those that are mine are the things which eye saw not, and ear heard not, which entered not into the heart of man, whatsoever things God prepared for them that love him. Those who wish to see me, and wish to cling to the kingdom, must take me through affliction and suffering. For he that is near me is near the fire, he that is far from me is far from the kingdom. Where one is, there too am I; where twain are, there too will I be. As any of you sees himself in the water or in the mirror, so let him see me in himself.“They that love me shall receive the[pg 94]crown. I will choose me the good, those good whom my Father in the heavens hath given me. Let the lawless continue in lawlessness, the just be justified. Behold, I make the last as the first, and all things new. In whatsoever state I find you, in that also will I judge you.”Never heard I any who spoke of himself as this man did. For days and days afterwards some of his words came to me again and again. Whenever I was alone I seemed to hear his voice saying,“Where one is, there too am I; where twain are, there too will I be.”Whenever I gazed on the running stream or looked on the polished steel of the mirror, again I seemed to hear him say,“As any of you sees himself in the water or in the mirror, so let him see me in himself.”And, in truth, at times my features seemed to fade away, and the face of Jesus gaze upon me.Others thought not as I. When we assembled after the sermon, to talk over it, as is our custom, I found that most had been chiefly touched by certain sayings at the end of the sermon, in which Jesus[pg 95]seemed to speak of the future life and the last judgment. Thou knowest, Aglaophonos, that with regard to these matters I incline more to the teaching of the Sadducean sect, who hold that Holy Scripture speaketh not of these things, and that, therefore, we need not and should not think thereon. But there were few who held that doctrine in the synagogue that day, and these thought most of the words in which Jesus seemed to claim the prerogatives of the Divine Judge.“I was amazed,”quoth Serachyah ben Pinchas,“when he spoke of judging us himself in the last days: it wanted but a little that I had rent my garments at the blasphemy. But surely, thought I to myself, the man will shortly tell us,‘These are the words of the Lord,’and so I refrained.”Now I will tell thee of a most strange event that happened with me and this Jesus. A day or two after this, I was sitting in my room and studying the words of Torah, and had fallen into deep thought on the things of this life and the next, and gradually I fell thinking of certain words that I had heard from Jesus[pg 96]the Nazarene, as I have before told you. Hast thou ever felt, Aglaophonos, as if some one was gazing upon thee, and thou couldst not refrain from looking round to see who it was? So I felt at this moment, and I looked up from the sacred scroll, and lo! Jesus the Nazarene stood before me, gazing upon me with those piercing eyes I can never forget. His face was pale and indistinct, but the eyes shone forth as if with tenderness and pity. Then he seemed to lean forward, and spoke to me in a low yet piercing voice these words:“Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and the Christ shall shine upon thee.”I had shrunk back from his gaze, and was, indeed, in all amaze and wonder that he should be in the room; but when I looked again, behold, he was gone, there was no man there.But this is not all the wonder of that event, for, being startled, and, indeed, somewhat fearful at his sudden appearance and disappearance, I arose and went out into the highway, and went out to walk on the Gethsemane road. Now, as I came clear of the city, I saw a group of[pg 97]men coming down the opposite hill, and when they came near, behold, it was Jesus and some of his friends. I was astonished and surprised beyond all measure, for how could Jesus have just been with me, and be now coming from Gethsemane? And when they were passing me, Jesus glanced at me very slightly, as at a stranger—he that had spoken to my soul but a few minutes since.Now, after they had passed me, there came one running after them whom I knew—one Meshullam ben Hanoch—and I stopped him and asked him whither he was going, and he said,“Stay me not. I have run all the way from Bethany to catch up that man thou seest there, Jesus the Nazarene;”and with that he took up his running and left me.I knew not what to think. I had seen and heard Jesus in my own house in Jerusalem, and lo! at that very same time, as I now learned, he had been at Bethany. What thinkest thou, Aglaophonos,—can a man be in two places at one and the same time? or can it be that the mind of man, and the power of his eye, can go[pg 98]forth from his body and create a vision of another man that hath all the semblance of reality? I know not what to think; but I have heard that, even after his death, those who were nearest and dearest to Jesus saw him and heard him even as I did. Nor do I wonder at this, after what has occurred to myself.

I cannot clearly remember at what season of the year it was that I next saw Jesus; indeed, I am surprised to think that, after the lapse of nearly five-and-twenty years, I can still remember almost all that passed on the various occasions when I was in his presence. Yet I think it was about the time of the feast which we hold in memory of the rededication of the Temple under the Maccabæans that I again saw and heard the Galilæan stranger; for I mind me that I had just been taking the eight-branch candlestick which we use in the ceremonials of this feast to Petachayah the silversmith to be mended, when on my return I saw a throng collected round the synagogue of the Galilæans, and entering in, found that Jesus was to preach that day. The same ceremonial was gone through as I have already described to thee: the Law was taken from the ark with rejoicing; priest and Levite[pg 90]and four ordinary Israelites were summoned to hear it read, and again the crier called,“Let Rabbi Joshua, the son of Rabbi Joseph, arise.”Now, it chanced that this time, I, as a member of the Sanhedrim, was summoned to the reading of the Law immediately after Jesus, and for a time, as is customary, we stood together upon thebema. I observed that, as the reading of the Law proceeded, the eyes of the Nazarene became fixed upon the ark, and a veil of mysterious tenderness seemed to come over them, as if he were in communion with theShechinah, or Glory, itself. It seemed to me that afterwards, when he read theHaphtarafrom the prophets, and when he preached, something remained in him of this mystical communion.

Perhaps it was for this that we seemed to miss that sense of individual address which we had before observed in his eyes. No longer did these speak to us other and deeper thoughts than the words of the preacher; they seemed to dream of divine things, and so caused us also to be rapt in mystic musings. I cannot on this ac[pg 91]count recall for you all or even many of the words which he uttered on this occasion. He began with some plain teaching about practice. Soon he went on to speak of himself in a marvellous way, as if he would imply that communion with him and with the Most High were one and the same, and then in his last words he seemed to speak of the Last Things. And here again his words seemed as if he identified himself with the great Judge.

Now, this is not so strange to our mode of thinking in Israel as thou mightest think. Almost all our prophets speak the oracles of God as if they were using the very words of the Lord. Thou canst read in the Greek translation of the Seventy many passages of the prophets in which the very words of the Lord are given. Yet in most, if not all, cases the prophet beginneth,“Thus saith the Lord,”or endeth,“This is the word of the Lord.”But with this Jesus it was otherwise. He spoke as the ancient prophets do, but whether from his rapt intentness in the message he was delivering, or because he felt his spirit for the time merged in the[pg 92]divine, he spoke as if the message was his. And as he spoke, I saw looks of amazement pass between many in the synagogue, and one old graybeard rose as if to protest, and then, shaking his withered hands above his head, went out of the synagogue.

I will here set down for thee as many of the words that fell from Jesus’ lips on this occasion as I can remember. They are but few, but many of them are weighty, and I have told thee above the general lines of thought which seemed to run through his discourse; and these are the words as far as I remember them.9

“Cultivate faith and hope, through which is born that love of God and man which gives the eternal life. Those are the sons of God who walk in the spirit of God. What you preach before the folk, do in deed before every one. Accept not anything from any man, and possess not anything in this world. For the Father wisheth to be given to each man from his own gifts. Cleave unto the saints: for[pg 93]they that cleave unto them shall be sanctified. Yet shall there be schisms and heresies: for there is a shame which leadeth to death, as there is a shame which leadeth to life. Is it not enough for the disciples to be as the Master? If in a little you are not faithful, who shall give unto you what is much? Seek the great, and the little will be added to you; seek the heavenly, and the things of earth will be superadded.

“He that wonders shall reign, he who reigns shall find rest. My secret is for me, and for those that are mine are the things which eye saw not, and ear heard not, which entered not into the heart of man, whatsoever things God prepared for them that love him. Those who wish to see me, and wish to cling to the kingdom, must take me through affliction and suffering. For he that is near me is near the fire, he that is far from me is far from the kingdom. Where one is, there too am I; where twain are, there too will I be. As any of you sees himself in the water or in the mirror, so let him see me in himself.

“They that love me shall receive the[pg 94]crown. I will choose me the good, those good whom my Father in the heavens hath given me. Let the lawless continue in lawlessness, the just be justified. Behold, I make the last as the first, and all things new. In whatsoever state I find you, in that also will I judge you.”

Never heard I any who spoke of himself as this man did. For days and days afterwards some of his words came to me again and again. Whenever I was alone I seemed to hear his voice saying,“Where one is, there too am I; where twain are, there too will I be.”Whenever I gazed on the running stream or looked on the polished steel of the mirror, again I seemed to hear him say,“As any of you sees himself in the water or in the mirror, so let him see me in himself.”And, in truth, at times my features seemed to fade away, and the face of Jesus gaze upon me.

Others thought not as I. When we assembled after the sermon, to talk over it, as is our custom, I found that most had been chiefly touched by certain sayings at the end of the sermon, in which Jesus[pg 95]seemed to speak of the future life and the last judgment. Thou knowest, Aglaophonos, that with regard to these matters I incline more to the teaching of the Sadducean sect, who hold that Holy Scripture speaketh not of these things, and that, therefore, we need not and should not think thereon. But there were few who held that doctrine in the synagogue that day, and these thought most of the words in which Jesus seemed to claim the prerogatives of the Divine Judge.“I was amazed,”quoth Serachyah ben Pinchas,“when he spoke of judging us himself in the last days: it wanted but a little that I had rent my garments at the blasphemy. But surely, thought I to myself, the man will shortly tell us,‘These are the words of the Lord,’and so I refrained.”

Now I will tell thee of a most strange event that happened with me and this Jesus. A day or two after this, I was sitting in my room and studying the words of Torah, and had fallen into deep thought on the things of this life and the next, and gradually I fell thinking of certain words that I had heard from Jesus[pg 96]the Nazarene, as I have before told you. Hast thou ever felt, Aglaophonos, as if some one was gazing upon thee, and thou couldst not refrain from looking round to see who it was? So I felt at this moment, and I looked up from the sacred scroll, and lo! Jesus the Nazarene stood before me, gazing upon me with those piercing eyes I can never forget. His face was pale and indistinct, but the eyes shone forth as if with tenderness and pity. Then he seemed to lean forward, and spoke to me in a low yet piercing voice these words:“Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and the Christ shall shine upon thee.”I had shrunk back from his gaze, and was, indeed, in all amaze and wonder that he should be in the room; but when I looked again, behold, he was gone, there was no man there.

But this is not all the wonder of that event, for, being startled, and, indeed, somewhat fearful at his sudden appearance and disappearance, I arose and went out into the highway, and went out to walk on the Gethsemane road. Now, as I came clear of the city, I saw a group of[pg 97]men coming down the opposite hill, and when they came near, behold, it was Jesus and some of his friends. I was astonished and surprised beyond all measure, for how could Jesus have just been with me, and be now coming from Gethsemane? And when they were passing me, Jesus glanced at me very slightly, as at a stranger—he that had spoken to my soul but a few minutes since.

Now, after they had passed me, there came one running after them whom I knew—one Meshullam ben Hanoch—and I stopped him and asked him whither he was going, and he said,“Stay me not. I have run all the way from Bethany to catch up that man thou seest there, Jesus the Nazarene;”and with that he took up his running and left me.

I knew not what to think. I had seen and heard Jesus in my own house in Jerusalem, and lo! at that very same time, as I now learned, he had been at Bethany. What thinkest thou, Aglaophonos,—can a man be in two places at one and the same time? or can it be that the mind of man, and the power of his eye, can go[pg 98]forth from his body and create a vision of another man that hath all the semblance of reality? I know not what to think; but I have heard that, even after his death, those who were nearest and dearest to Jesus saw him and heard him even as I did. Nor do I wonder at this, after what has occurred to myself.

VIII.THE REBUKING OF JESUS.[pg 101]Now, it chanced that about this time I was invited to a feast at the house of Elisha ben Simeon, one of the leaders of the Pharisees in Jerusalem. His son had become thirteen years old that week, and, as is our custom, was received into the holy congregation as a Son of the Covenant on the Sabbath. He had been summoned up to the reading of the Law, and had himself read aloud a portion of it; for from this day onward he was to be treated in all matters of religion as if he were a man. Being a friend of his father, I had attended his synagogue, and heard the lad’s pure voice for the first time in his life declare publicly his faith in the Most High.After the service in the synagogue, his friends accompanied the father and the lad to their house, and with them went I, who had known the father from our schoolboy days, and the little lad from the time of his birth.[pg 102]Now, it chanced that, as we came near the door of Elisha’s house, we met Jesus the Nazarene, and two or three with him. So Elisha greeted them, and invited them courteously to join the feast, as is the custom among us. And Jesus and the others assented, and followed into the house with us.“To table, to table!”cried Elisha, pointing to the couches standing round the well-filled board.When we were all seated, the host and his son came round with an ewer and basin to perform the washing of the hands prescribed by the Law. But when they came to the Galilæan strangers, these refused, saying,“We wash not before meals.”“Then we must serve ye last,”said Elisha, with a smile. But the others took not the matter so pleasantly; for since we have one common dish, which is handed round to the guests for them to take their food with their fingers, it is considered gross ill-breeding for a man not to perform the ceremony of washing before meals.Then Elisha took a seat at the centre of the table, and said the grace before meals. Then he broke bread, and, dip[pg 103]ping a morsel into salt for each of the guests, he called his son to him to carry it round. When he saw that each of the guests had a piece of bread dipped in salt, Elisha recited the blessing on the bread,“Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, who bringest forth bread from the earth,”and all said“Amen.”And one of the guests said to Elisha,“I am glad we are not in Babylon.”“How so, Phineas?”said Elisha to the man, who was well known at all feasts at that time in Jerusalem.And Phineas said,“For there they only eat bread with their bread.”“Nay, that would not suit thee, Phineas. Thou art no Nazarite;”and most of the guests who knew him laughed.Then Elisha clapped his hands, and the slaves took round the first course of salted fish; then afterwards the cold baked meats—for, being the Sabbath, the food had been prepared the day before.Then one of the guests said to one of the Galilæans,“Is it true that you allow fowl to be boiled in milk in your country?”“Yes, truly; why not?”said the Galilæan.[pg 104]“Is it not written thrice in the Law,”said the guest,“‘Thou shalt not seethe the kid in its mother’s milk’?”“In our country,”said the Galilæan,“fowls give no milk.”And we all of us laughed, save only Jesus.“Nay, but the Sages have carried their prohibition even unto fowls, lest the people be led to confuse flesh and flesh.”By this time we had arrived at the third and last course of salted olives, lettuces, and radishes. And again the bowl and ewer were passed round, and this time the Galilæans did not refuse the water. Then the new son of the covenant recited in his clear voice the grace after meals. And all rose, while the slaves removed the remnants. Then said Elisha,“It is not well that when so many are together we should depart without discussing some words of the Law. My little Lazarus here would fain learn some new thing from the many learned men present on this day of his being received into Israel.”“Well, then,”said one of the company,“I should like to put a question to our friends here from Galilee.”And they said,“Speak, Rabbi.”[pg 105]And he addressed himself to Jesus, and said,“Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands?”Then Jesus spoke out, and as he spoke he strode up and down the room, with his hand clutching the air, and the vein throbbing on his left temple.“Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written,‘This people honoreth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.’”Then facing us all, he added,“For ye lay aside the commandment of God, and hold the tradition of men.”“How so, master?”said Elisha;“prove thy words.”“It is said in the Word of God,‘Honor thy father and thy mother,’and yet the Sages say,‘If a man be asked by his father or mother to honor them with a gift, and he say,“I vow that thing to the Almighty,”then it isCorban,’and put aside for the Lord, so that his parents cannot enjoy thereof. Thus by your tradition about vows ye make the Word of God[pg 106]concerning honor to parents of none effect, and many like things ye do.”Then Elisha said,“But the Sages are by no means at one in that matter of the vows, and in particular many of them declare all the vows annulled that would work against our duty to our parents, or even against our love to our neighbor. Yet, even if we take the more stricter tradition, in what manner that absolves us from washing our hands before meals, I see not.”“Nay, it is the same thing,”replied Jesus.“Ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and platter, but your inward thoughts are full of ravening and wickedness. Ye fools! did not the Holy One, blessed be He, who made that which is without, make also that which is within? Therefore give for alms that which is within, kindly thoughts and friendly feelings. If ye do that, all things are clean unto you.”Then I said unto Jesus, for this matter touched us scribes nearly,“Master, in speaking thus against tradition thou reproachest us also that be scribes.”[pg 107]And he answered,“Woe, woe unto ye, scribes! which desire to walk in long robes, and love greetings in the markets, and the higher seats in the synagogues, and the chief places at feasts, which devour widows’ houses, and for a show make long prayers.”Then an angry murmur rose among all the folk there assembled at the harsh words of the stranger, when suddenly was heard the voice of Simeon ben Lazarus, the father of Elisha, a very old man, who sat in the corner and said:—“Young man, fourscore years and two have I lived upon this earth; a Pharisee have I been from the day I became a son of the covenant, like little Lazarus there; a scribe was I during all the working days of my life. I did what the Law and the Sages command, yet never thought I in so doing of men’s thoughts or praises. Surely, if the Lord command, a good Jew will obey. And as in many things, many acts of this life, the Law speaketh not in plain terms, surely we should follow the opinion of those who devote all their life to the study of the Law.[pg 108]“I have never sought the praises of men, their greetings or their honors, in obeying the Law. In all that I have done I have sought one thing—to fulfil the will of our Father which is in heaven.“As for what thou sayest, that inward thought and outward act should go together in the service of God and man, that is a verity, and often have I heard the saying from the great Hillel—may his memory be for a blessing! But if outward act may be clean when inward thought may be unclean, how, on the other hand, can we know the purity of what is within, except it be decided by the cleanliness of what is without? How, above all, shall we teach our little ones, like my Lazarus there, to feel what is good and seemly, except by first teaching them to do the acts that are seemly and good?“And as for what thou sayest as to the hypocrisy of us Pharisees and scribes, I say unto thee,—and in a few days I must see the face of my Maker,—I say unto thee, I have known many an Ebionite, which thou seemest to be, who was well spoken within, but ill doing without. So,[pg 109]too, I have known many a scribe and many a Pharisee who neither carried their good deeds on their shoulders, nor said,‘Wait, I have to finish some godly deed;’nor set off their good deeds against their sins; nor boasted of their sacrifices for godly works; nor did they seek out their sins that they might pay for them by their virtues; nor were they Pharisees from fear of the Divine punishment. They were Pharisees from love of the Lord, and did throughout their life what they knew to be his commands.”But Jesus spoke gently unto the old man, and said naught but,“Nay, master, I spoke not of thee, nor of men like thee. These be the true Pharisees; the rest but have the Pharisaic color.”“That is so,”said old Simeon.“I have heard what King Jannaus said:‘Fear not the Pharisees, nor those who are no Pharisees; but fear the colored ones, who are only Pharisees in appearance, who do the deeds of Zimri and demand the rewards of Phineas.’”But before the old man could finish there was a movement at the doorway,[pg 110]and a high, thin voice cried out,“Where is this kidnapper of souls? where is this filcher of young lives? where is Jesus the Nazarene?”“Behold me,”said Jesus, turning towards the voice; and an old man, with the rent garment of the mourner, and with hair all distraught, came up to the Nazarene with arms outstretched and clutching fingers.“Give me my son, my Elchanan!”he cried.“Thou hast taken him from me last Passover, saying,‘Father and mother, yea, all that a man hath, shall he give up to follow me.’He left me to follow thee; what hast thou done with him?—my Elchanan! my Elchanan!”“He died, and is at peace.”“Then give him back to me again. Thou canst do all things, men say: make whole the sick, let see the blind, cause the lame to walk, and give peace to the troubled mind. Give me, then, back my Elchanan thou hast taken from me.”“There is One alone that can quicken the dead,”said Jesus, and walked sternly past him.

Now, it chanced that about this time I was invited to a feast at the house of Elisha ben Simeon, one of the leaders of the Pharisees in Jerusalem. His son had become thirteen years old that week, and, as is our custom, was received into the holy congregation as a Son of the Covenant on the Sabbath. He had been summoned up to the reading of the Law, and had himself read aloud a portion of it; for from this day onward he was to be treated in all matters of religion as if he were a man. Being a friend of his father, I had attended his synagogue, and heard the lad’s pure voice for the first time in his life declare publicly his faith in the Most High.

After the service in the synagogue, his friends accompanied the father and the lad to their house, and with them went I, who had known the father from our schoolboy days, and the little lad from the time of his birth.

Now, it chanced that, as we came near the door of Elisha’s house, we met Jesus the Nazarene, and two or three with him. So Elisha greeted them, and invited them courteously to join the feast, as is the custom among us. And Jesus and the others assented, and followed into the house with us.“To table, to table!”cried Elisha, pointing to the couches standing round the well-filled board.

When we were all seated, the host and his son came round with an ewer and basin to perform the washing of the hands prescribed by the Law. But when they came to the Galilæan strangers, these refused, saying,“We wash not before meals.”

“Then we must serve ye last,”said Elisha, with a smile. But the others took not the matter so pleasantly; for since we have one common dish, which is handed round to the guests for them to take their food with their fingers, it is considered gross ill-breeding for a man not to perform the ceremony of washing before meals.

Then Elisha took a seat at the centre of the table, and said the grace before meals. Then he broke bread, and, dip[pg 103]ping a morsel into salt for each of the guests, he called his son to him to carry it round. When he saw that each of the guests had a piece of bread dipped in salt, Elisha recited the blessing on the bread,“Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, who bringest forth bread from the earth,”and all said“Amen.”And one of the guests said to Elisha,“I am glad we are not in Babylon.”

“How so, Phineas?”said Elisha to the man, who was well known at all feasts at that time in Jerusalem.

And Phineas said,“For there they only eat bread with their bread.”

“Nay, that would not suit thee, Phineas. Thou art no Nazarite;”and most of the guests who knew him laughed.

Then Elisha clapped his hands, and the slaves took round the first course of salted fish; then afterwards the cold baked meats—for, being the Sabbath, the food had been prepared the day before.

Then one of the guests said to one of the Galilæans,“Is it true that you allow fowl to be boiled in milk in your country?”

“Yes, truly; why not?”said the Galilæan.

“Is it not written thrice in the Law,”said the guest,“‘Thou shalt not seethe the kid in its mother’s milk’?”

“In our country,”said the Galilæan,“fowls give no milk.”And we all of us laughed, save only Jesus.

“Nay, but the Sages have carried their prohibition even unto fowls, lest the people be led to confuse flesh and flesh.”

By this time we had arrived at the third and last course of salted olives, lettuces, and radishes. And again the bowl and ewer were passed round, and this time the Galilæans did not refuse the water. Then the new son of the covenant recited in his clear voice the grace after meals. And all rose, while the slaves removed the remnants. Then said Elisha,“It is not well that when so many are together we should depart without discussing some words of the Law. My little Lazarus here would fain learn some new thing from the many learned men present on this day of his being received into Israel.”

“Well, then,”said one of the company,“I should like to put a question to our friends here from Galilee.”And they said,“Speak, Rabbi.”

And he addressed himself to Jesus, and said,“Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands?”

Then Jesus spoke out, and as he spoke he strode up and down the room, with his hand clutching the air, and the vein throbbing on his left temple.“Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written,‘This people honoreth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.’”Then facing us all, he added,“For ye lay aside the commandment of God, and hold the tradition of men.”

“How so, master?”said Elisha;“prove thy words.”

“It is said in the Word of God,‘Honor thy father and thy mother,’and yet the Sages say,‘If a man be asked by his father or mother to honor them with a gift, and he say,“I vow that thing to the Almighty,”then it isCorban,’and put aside for the Lord, so that his parents cannot enjoy thereof. Thus by your tradition about vows ye make the Word of God[pg 106]concerning honor to parents of none effect, and many like things ye do.”

Then Elisha said,“But the Sages are by no means at one in that matter of the vows, and in particular many of them declare all the vows annulled that would work against our duty to our parents, or even against our love to our neighbor. Yet, even if we take the more stricter tradition, in what manner that absolves us from washing our hands before meals, I see not.”

“Nay, it is the same thing,”replied Jesus.“Ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and platter, but your inward thoughts are full of ravening and wickedness. Ye fools! did not the Holy One, blessed be He, who made that which is without, make also that which is within? Therefore give for alms that which is within, kindly thoughts and friendly feelings. If ye do that, all things are clean unto you.”

Then I said unto Jesus, for this matter touched us scribes nearly,“Master, in speaking thus against tradition thou reproachest us also that be scribes.”

And he answered,“Woe, woe unto ye, scribes! which desire to walk in long robes, and love greetings in the markets, and the higher seats in the synagogues, and the chief places at feasts, which devour widows’ houses, and for a show make long prayers.”

Then an angry murmur rose among all the folk there assembled at the harsh words of the stranger, when suddenly was heard the voice of Simeon ben Lazarus, the father of Elisha, a very old man, who sat in the corner and said:—

“Young man, fourscore years and two have I lived upon this earth; a Pharisee have I been from the day I became a son of the covenant, like little Lazarus there; a scribe was I during all the working days of my life. I did what the Law and the Sages command, yet never thought I in so doing of men’s thoughts or praises. Surely, if the Lord command, a good Jew will obey. And as in many things, many acts of this life, the Law speaketh not in plain terms, surely we should follow the opinion of those who devote all their life to the study of the Law.

“I have never sought the praises of men, their greetings or their honors, in obeying the Law. In all that I have done I have sought one thing—to fulfil the will of our Father which is in heaven.

“As for what thou sayest, that inward thought and outward act should go together in the service of God and man, that is a verity, and often have I heard the saying from the great Hillel—may his memory be for a blessing! But if outward act may be clean when inward thought may be unclean, how, on the other hand, can we know the purity of what is within, except it be decided by the cleanliness of what is without? How, above all, shall we teach our little ones, like my Lazarus there, to feel what is good and seemly, except by first teaching them to do the acts that are seemly and good?

“And as for what thou sayest as to the hypocrisy of us Pharisees and scribes, I say unto thee,—and in a few days I must see the face of my Maker,—I say unto thee, I have known many an Ebionite, which thou seemest to be, who was well spoken within, but ill doing without. So,[pg 109]too, I have known many a scribe and many a Pharisee who neither carried their good deeds on their shoulders, nor said,‘Wait, I have to finish some godly deed;’nor set off their good deeds against their sins; nor boasted of their sacrifices for godly works; nor did they seek out their sins that they might pay for them by their virtues; nor were they Pharisees from fear of the Divine punishment. They were Pharisees from love of the Lord, and did throughout their life what they knew to be his commands.”

But Jesus spoke gently unto the old man, and said naught but,“Nay, master, I spoke not of thee, nor of men like thee. These be the true Pharisees; the rest but have the Pharisaic color.”

“That is so,”said old Simeon.“I have heard what King Jannaus said:‘Fear not the Pharisees, nor those who are no Pharisees; but fear the colored ones, who are only Pharisees in appearance, who do the deeds of Zimri and demand the rewards of Phineas.’”

But before the old man could finish there was a movement at the doorway,[pg 110]and a high, thin voice cried out,“Where is this kidnapper of souls? where is this filcher of young lives? where is Jesus the Nazarene?”

“Behold me,”said Jesus, turning towards the voice; and an old man, with the rent garment of the mourner, and with hair all distraught, came up to the Nazarene with arms outstretched and clutching fingers.

“Give me my son, my Elchanan!”he cried.“Thou hast taken him from me last Passover, saying,‘Father and mother, yea, all that a man hath, shall he give up to follow me.’He left me to follow thee; what hast thou done with him?—my Elchanan! my Elchanan!”

“He died, and is at peace.”

“Then give him back to me again. Thou canst do all things, men say: make whole the sick, let see the blind, cause the lame to walk, and give peace to the troubled mind. Give me, then, back my Elchanan thou hast taken from me.”

“There is One alone that can quicken the dead,”said Jesus, and walked sternly past him.

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