I was crossing one morning the Xystus Bridge on my way to the Temple, when I saw issuing from the nearest gate a herd of beasts of sacrifice. Fearing that something untoward had occurred, I hurried to the gate, and when I entered the Court of the Gentiles, I found all in confusion. The tables of the money-changers had been overturned, and the men were gathering their moneys from the ground. And in the midst I saw one with a scourge in his hand. His face was full of wrath and scorn, his eyes blazed, and on his left temple stood out a vein all blue, throbbing with his passion. He was neither short nor tall, but of sturdy figure, and clad in rustic garb.
Now, as the money-changers were escaping from his wrath, one of them ran [pg 12]against a little child that was in the court, and it fell screaming. The fellow took no heed, but went on his course. But the man with the scourge went to the little child and raised it to its feet, and pressed it to his side; the hand that rested on the curly head was that of a workman, with broken nails, and yet the fingers twitched with the excitement of the man. But, looking to his face, I saw that a wonderful change had come over it. From rage, it had turned to pity and love; the eyes that had flashed scorn on the money-changers now looked down with tenderness on the little child. I remember thinking to myself, “This man cannot say the thing that is not; his face bewrayeth him.”
Meanwhile the money-changers and those with them had collected together near the gate by which I had entered, and stood there whispering and muttering among themselves. All at once they turned towards the man as he was soothing the little child, and shouted out together, “Mamzer! Mamzer!” which in our tongue signifieth one born out of wedlock. Then the man looked up from [pg 13]the little child, his face once more full of rage, and the blue vein throbbing on his temple. He took a step towards the men, and then he stopped. His face changed to a look of pity, and the men themselves, in fear and shame, slunk away before his look through the gate and were gone.
Then he turned towards those that had for sale doves as sacrifices for the women and the poor. To these he spoke in a tone that was calm and yet full of authority, and then I noticed that his voice had the burr of our northern peasantry. He said unto them, “Take these things hence; make not my Father’s house a house of merchandise.” And these, too, went away through the gates, carrying with them the wicker cages full of doves. Ever since that time the doves have been for sale in Hanan’s Bazaar on the Mount of Olives.
Now I must tell thee that at this time there had been much disputing between the Pharisees and the Sadducees as to the sale of beasts for sacrifice. The Pharisees held that each man might buy such beasts wherever he would; but the Sadducees, [pg 14]being mainly priests, or of priestly blood, would have it that the beasts of sacrifice could only be purchased from the salesmen duly authorized by the High Priest; for they said, “Who shall tell that the beasts are according to the Law, if they are bought from any chance person?” Yet many thought they only did this in order that they might share the profit from the sale of the animals. And, indeed, the great riches of the High Priests came mainly from this source. When, therefore, I saw the man with the scourge getting rid of these sacrificial animals from the courts of the Temple, my first thought was that he was of the sect of the Pharisees. Yet these are rarely found in the country parts, and the man bore no great marks of special piety; his phylacteries were not broader than my own; the fringes of his garment were not more conspicuous, nor did he seem as one of the fanatics who are so many in our land. He had done what he had done in all calmness, and with a certain air of authority. My wonder was aroused to think what manner of man this could be, who did the [pg 15]work of the Pharisees, and was not one himself.
While I thus thought, the man turned to a group of men clad in the same rustic garb, saying, “Be ye rather approved money-changers, holding fast the good and casting forth the false;”1 and, after other words, he turned from them and went up the steps leading to the Women’s Court.
Now thou knowest, Aglaophonos, that at the entrance of this court standeth an inscription which saith, “Let none of alien birth pass within the Temple cloisters: he that transgresses is guilty of death.” As the man with the scourge would enter the Women’s Court, the Roman sentry stopped him, and pointed to this inscription with his spear. He shook his head, saying in faulty Greek, “Jewish I am,” and showed the soldier the fringes of his garment after the Jewish fashion. Then the sentry drew back, and the man passed through.
Thereupon I went up to the men to [pg 16]whom the man with the scourge had spoken, and greeted them with the greeting of peace.
“Peace unto thee, master,” said one of them in the same northern accent I had noticed in their leader.
“Who is that man,” I said, “that has just gone into the Temple cloister?”
“Jesus of Nazara, in Galilee.”
“And whose son is he?” I asked.
The man looked at his companions ere he answered,—
“Of Joseph ben Eli the carpenter, and Miriam his wife.”
“And what is his trade?” I continued.
“A wheelwright,” he said; “the best wheels and yokes in all Capernaum are made by him.”
“But is he of the country-folk,2 or a pupil of the wise?”
“Nay, master, he knoweth the Law and the Prophets.”
“Of what party is he? Boethusian he [pg 17]cannot be, nor Sadducee; but is he Pharisee or Zealot, Essene or Baptist?”
“He is of no party.”
“But from whom hath he received the tradition of the elders? At whose feet has he sat? Whom calleth he master?”
“He hath been baptized by Jochanan his kinsman, but none calleth he master.”
“If he have not the tradition, he cannot teach the Law, for his words will not be binding. Doth he sit in judgment or pronounce Din?”
“Nay, master, he but teacheth us to be good.”
“Ah,” said I, “he is but a homolist of the Hagada; he addeth naught to the Halacha. Then what is his motto?”3
“He saith, ‘Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ ”
Then I took the man away from his companions, and out of hearing of the Roman sentry, and asked him in a low tone, “And who shall be the king thereof?”
But the man answered not, but said only, “Lo! he cometh.”
[pg 18]And, indeed, at that moment Jesus came down by the steps he had ascended and beckoned to his companions. And as they went towards him I was surprised, and at the same time horrified, to see amongst them two persons whom I little thought to find in any public place in Jerusalem, still less in the courts of the Temple. One was a woman in the yellow veil of a hetæra; the other, a mere Nathin who had no name among men, but was called Dog o’ Dogs. These two pressed close to Jesus; the woman rushed forward with a sob and raised the hem of his garment to her lips, while to the man he spoke some friendly words, smiling on him as they walked towards the entrance.
I was astonished. The man had seemed so careful of the purity of the Temple that he would not allow even the necessary arrangements for its service to be performed in its precincts, yet he allowed its courts to be defiled by the vilest of the vile. Perchance, I thought, he had prevailed upon them to perform the vows enjoined by the Law, and cleanse themselves of their sin. Or was it that he was [pg 19]ignorant of their characters, being but newly come from rural parts? He must, indeed, be different from other rabbis, who kept themselves apart from all transgressors against the Law till they had repented and done penance.
While I thus meditated, I saw the High Priest Hanan, whom ye Hellenes call Annas, enter into the court of the Gentiles with his guard. Thou rememberest the man, Aglaophonos—how his tyranny extended over all the city. He was still called High Priest, though Valerius Gratius, the Procurator, had deposed him years before, lest haply he might regain the regal power of the Maccabæans. Still, even after his deposition, he had sufficient power to get his sons or sons-in-law named High Priests. It was one of the latter, Joseph Caiaphas, who at that time held the office; yet the people still called Hanan High Priest, and he himself wore on high days the bells and pomegranates round his tunic as a sign of his dignity. Thou must remember his keen-cut face, his nose like an eagle’s, his long white beard, bent neck, and sinewy hand. Was it thou or I that first called him “the Old Vulture”?
[pg 20]He had heard of the insult to his dignity by the removal, without his orders, of the money-changers and others to whom the people paid the fees from which he and his made such display in his grand dwelling on the Mount of Olives. “Where is he? where is he?” he cried, as he came bustling up, with neck extended, and looking more than ever like a bird of prey. He soon found that the man he sought had gone; but he had given his orders, and before I left the court, I saw the money-changers reënter and the cattle driven back. I had to attend a meeting of the Sanhedrim, for that year I had risen to the third and highest bench of disciples who sit under its members when they give judgment. Next year I was elected of the Seventy-One myself in the section of Israelites. It must, therefore, have been in the sixteenth year of Tiberius the Emperor, nearly five-and-twenty years agone, that I thus saw for the first time Jesus the Nazarene.
Thou canst imagine the wonder and excitement in Jerusalem at this bold deed of the Nazarene. Not even the oracle of Delphi is regarded with so much reverence as our sacred fane, and none in our time had dared to interfere with its regulations, which have all the sacredness of our traditions. And of these none was regarded by the priestly guardians of the Temple as of greater weight for them than the right of sale of beasts of sacrifice. It is from this, as I have said, that the priestly order gain their wealth, and no more deadly blow could be struck at their power than to deprive them of this. Hence had the Pharisees protested against this right, but none had hitherto dared to carry out the protest in very deed. All the poor and all the pious would have been glad if they could buy their offerings to the Lord wheresoever they would.
But more than all, men of Jerusalem [pg 24]were amazed at the daring of the Galilæan stranger in opposing the High Priest Hanan. This man had been the tyrant of the Temple and of the city for the whole span of a generation of men, and no man had dared say him nay for all that time. Even the Romans, who had deposed him from his position as High Priest, had not dared to interfere with him otherwise. Yet had this rude countryman, who had never been seen, never been known to set foot in Jerusalem before, dared to strike at the root of his power and wealth. Thou canst not wonder that men were curious to know what manner of man he might be who had dared this great thing, and busy rumor ran through all the bazaars of Jerusalem, asking, Who is this Jesus of Nazara? All that I learnt of his kindred and early life I learnt at this time, and I here set it forth in order.
It was natural that I should first direct my inquiries as to his birth, for the insulting cry of the money-changers still rang in my ears. Thou knowest our pride of birth; I learnt from thee to abate it. Every man in Israel taketh his place in [pg 25]the nation according as he is a son of Aaron or of Levi, a simple Israelite, or a proselyte that fears the Lord; each man knoweth his own and his neighbor’s genealogy. The greatest slur upon a man is to accuse him of “mixture,” the greatest insult is to call him “bastard.” Why had the money-changers cast this slur upon the Nazarene? Thou and I, Aglaophonos, who boast to be citizens of the Kosmos, would not think the worse of him if the taunt were true. Yet thou canst understand how great, even if he only thought it to be true, would be the influence of such a slur on this mans mind and on his career. If in after-days he showed himself so careless of the nation’s hopes, may it not have been that he felt himself in some way outside the nation?
Now I found, upon inquiry among the Galilæans settled in Jerusalem, that some such scandal had arisen about his birth. There had even been talk that Joseph ben Eli would have put away his wife, but for the stern penalties which our Law inflicts upon the misdoer. Yet there may have been naught but suspicion in the matter, [pg 26]for the two lived together, and Miriam bore several children to Joseph after this Jesus. But between him and them there was never good will, and I have heard things told of this Jesus which seem to show some harshness in his treatment of them, and even of his mother. Once when he was told that his mother and brethren were without, and would see him, he as it were repudiated them, saying, “Who are my mother and my brothers? Whosoever doeth the will of God, the same is my brother and sister and mother.” Again, when once his mother came to him and would speak to him, he said to her, “Woman, what have I to do with thee?” The man whom I had seen so tenderly thoughtful to a little child could not have spoken thus unless he had felt himself placed by some means outside the natural ties of men.
Of Jesus’ upbringing I could learn little. When he was at the age of thirteen, when each Jewish male child becomes a Son of the Covenant (Bar Mitzva), and, as we think, takes his sins upon his own soul, his parents brought him to Jerusalem. On [pg 27]this occasion, as some still remember, he showed remarkable knowledge of the Law, when, as is customary, they read the portion of the Law set down for the Sabbath reading next after his birthday, and he was examined in its meaning by the learned men present. Yet he fulfilled not this promise of devotion to the Law as he grew in years. I cannot learn that he dusted himself with the “dust of the wise,” as the sages have commanded.4 Not having sat at the feet of any of the holders of tradition, he could not pronounce decisions of the Law.
His father brought him up to his own trade, that of carpenter. With us manual toil is not despised, as among you Hellenes; there is a saying among us, “Whoso bringeth not his son up to a handicraft traineth him for a robber.” Jesus was a good and capable worker, and devoted himself especially to the making of yokes and wheels at Capernaum, where [pg 28]he had settled, some five hours’ journey from his native place. Here he would often read the Haphtaroth, or prophetical lessons, in the synagogue, and explain it after the manner of the Hagada.
Thus he would have passed his life, a wheelwright on week-days, a preacher on the Sabbath and festivals, but for a strange event that occurred in his own family. Among us Jews, none has more honor than the Nabi, the man who speaks the word of wisdom in the name of God. How know we that a man is a Nabi? Chiefly by his words, but mainly by his eyes, in which there shines the light of prophecy. Now, when Jesus was about thirty years old, three or four years before I first saw him, the light of prophecy came in the eyes of his cousin, Jochanan ben Zacharia Ha-Cohen. Thou knowest, Aglaophonos, that amongst us there is a sect of Essenoi, who answer in much to the Pythagoreans among the Hellenes. These Essenoi eat no flesh, they dwell not in the cities of men, they perform frequent lustrations, nor will they admit any into their community until they have been baptized [pg 29]of them; they care little for the Temple service, and in this above all distinguish themselves from either Pharisees or Sadducees. Their belief in the angels is strong, and they use magic for the healing of sickness.
Now, this Jochanan, the cousin of Jesus, seems to have adopted in many things the views of these Essenoi: he separated himself from men, and ate no flesh, nor did he go up to the Temple on the three great festivals of the year; and above all, when men began to follow after him, he would admit none to communion with him till he had baptized them in running water, and for this he was called among the folk Jochanan the Baptizer. Yet he was not an Essene, for he joined not their communion, nor established any distinction of orders among the men who came out to him; he was more like unto the prophets of old, who taught as individuals new truths about life; and his great teaching was this: “Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” And men went out to him, asking him in what they should repent so as to become worthy of the [pg 30]kingdom. Above all, those who were despised of the people because they did the work of the Romans, by being their tax-gatherers or their soldiers, feared the wrath to come in the new kingdom which he preached, and asked him in what they should alter their ways. But to them he was by no means hard, saying only to the tax-gatherers, “Act justly,” and to the soldiers, “Do no violence.” To the poor he was tender and merciful, but exhorted the rich to divide their possessions with the poor. In this way he drew unto him all who were despised of the people, and those who were poor and miserable. Thus he attracted the notice of the rulers, who feared that he was preparing to rebel against them; for they said, “Wherefore does this man attract to him the discontented and the soldiery?”
Now, when the family of Jesus heard that their relative was gaining a name among men, they sent to Jesus, asking him to go with them unto his cousin; but he, as I have heard, at first refused, saying, “Wherein have I sinned, that I should be baptized of Jochanan?” Yet afterwards [pg 31]he consented unto this, and went out to be baptized of his cousin. And when he saw the power for good that Jochanan exercised, his spirit was exalted, and he felt that he too had within him the same power. Many strange things have I heard of what happened to this Jesus when he submitted to be baptized by his cousin. And as none but Jesus would have known his feelings on that occasion, these reports must have come from him. Among us it is the custom that each Jew should select from the Psalms some stichos which should serve as the motto of his life, and identify him when he appeareth before the Angel of Death. Now, it would appear that as Jesus was being baptized of Jochanan he heard the Daughter5 of the Voice of God say to him the stichos of the psalm, “Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.” Whether this was a protest of his soul against the slur cast upon his birth, what man shall say? But henceforth he spake of the fatherhood of God as if it had to him a deeper sense than to most [pg 32]of us Jews, though with us, as I have oft explained to thee, it is the central feeling of our faith.
Jesus did not remain long out in the wilderness with his cousin; he, indeed, early recognized his superiority, though he was his master and his teacher. For at the first the teaching of Jesus differed but in little from the teaching of Jochanan. He summed up his whole aim in the words which I had heard his followers use in the Temple: “Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand;” and this he must have learnt from his cousin. So, too, like Jochanan, he mingled with the tax-gatherers and the soldiery, and above all addressed himself to the poor, and, as I was to see, exhorted the rich to distribute their possessions. In all these things he was but the follower of his cousin Jochanan. It is no wonder, therefore, that when Jesus separated himself from Jochanan, and began to be a teacher of men, many left Jochanan and followed after Jesus; and until this Jochanan met with a violent end at the hands of the rulers, there was in some sort a rivalry if not be[pg 33]tween the men themselves, at least between the followers of Jochanan and of Jesus.
But even from the first there was a difference in Jesus’ manner of teaching, if not in the teaching itself. He, indeed, did not wait for men to come out to him in the wilderness, but returned to the towns and villages around the Sea of Galilee. Many of the fishermen left their work to follow him, and become, as he said, “fishers of men.” He preached as before in the synagogues on the words of the prophets, but now he commenced to go forth to preach and teach among the people in their homes. Yet it was observed that he went not only among the rich and powerful, who are used in our country to receive all who come at meal-times, but most of all among the poor, and those despised of men for their ill life or their degraded occupations. Nor did he despise those who know not the Law nor keep its commands, but mixed freely with them, thereby incurring the wrath of those among us, and there are many, who are eager for the credit of the Law. Still, though he lived his life among the low and the vile, he practiced none of [pg 34]their ways, nor was aught of low or vile seen in him or those with him. Yet he turned against him many who would have been well disposed towards him, in that he followed his cousin’s example, and spake kindly to the tax-gatherers and to the soldiers, whom the greater part of the Jews regard as the enemies of their country.
Now, as he began to live his life among the people, he began to do many signs and wonders, like all our great teachers and prophets. In truth, we say, how shall a man be accounted a prophet unless he can do wonders? Indeed, as Jesus himself said, “Why marvel ye at the signs? I give unto you an inheritance such as the whole world holds not.” And the manner of his wonders was this: if a man was afflicted with a demon of madness, he would cause him to fix his eyes upon his, and after a while would speak sternly and suddenly to the demon within him, who would depart from him, rending his soul. So, too, would he do with women who were torn asunder by the demons fighting within. To these he would speak calmly after he had fixed their eyes, and, [pg 35]behold, a great calm would come upon them. But he used no exorcisms or magic in his healing, nor spake he in the name of God, but with the tone of one having authority in himself. Hence many thought he had within him a greater Daimon than those afflicted men and women whom he healed. Thence it was thought that for this reason the demons of madness often returned to those whom he had freed for a while with greater violence after he had gone forth from the place of their habitation. There was much murmuring against him for that he did his healing, not in the name of God, but in his own name and his own authority.
Yet he claimed no authority to decide the questions of the Law; though many applied to him in difficult cases, these he referred to the learned in the Law, saying, “Do ye as the scribes command.” Yet it was complained that he paid no great attention to their commands himself, nor for his followers. Nor did he rebuke men when he saw them transgressing the Law even in the greater transgressions. Thus I have heard it said of him, that once with [pg 36]his followers, he met a man laboring on the Sabbath day, a sin which, according to the Law, was punished with stoning. But all he said unto him was this: “Man, if thou knowest what thou doest, blessed art thou; but if thou knowest not, accursed art thou, and a transgressor of the Law.”6 This is, indeed, a dark saying. Is each man, then, to choose for himself which commands of the Law he shall do, and which not? The fence of the Law, which our Sages have built up with such labor and toil, would be stricken down at one stroke. Yet perhaps in this he only followed the principle of our Sages who have said, “The Sabbath was made for you, not you for the Sabbath.”
Such was the manner of life of this Jesus up to the time when I first saw him in the Temple. Men knew not what to make of him; many regarded him as a prophet because of the signs and the wonders which he did; and those who were looking forward to the blessed day in which Israel would be free again under its own king hoped that he was Elijah come again to prepare the way for the new kingdom.
It must have been a year after I had first seen Jesus that I saw him again the second time in Jerusalem. It fell out in this wise: I was proceeding one morning to the meeting of the Sanhedrim, when, as I came near the Synagogue of the Galilæans in the Fish-Market, I found a crowd of men entering in. I asked one of them what was going forward, and he said, “Jesus the Nazarene will expound the Law.” So I determined to take the morning service in this synagogue rather than with my colleagues in the Temple, and went in, the people giving way before me, as was my due as a member of the Sanhedrim.
Now, this synagogue of the Galilæans differed in naught from the rest of the synagogues of the Jews. It cannot be that thou hast not visited one of these when thou wast in the Holy City, but perchance thy memory is dim after all these years, and I will in a few words explain to thee [pg 40]its arrangement. In the wall at the west end was the cabinet containing the scrolls of the Law, with a curtain before it, for this is, as it were, the Holy of Holies of the synagogue. The men go up to this, on to the platform before it, by three steps. Then comes a vacant space, in the midst of which stands a dais, with a reading-desk whereon the Law is read: this we call by your Greek name bema. Then in the rest of the hall sit the folk, arranged in benches one after another, somewhat as in your theatres. Now, as I came in, they had said the morning psalms, and most of the Eighteen Blessings, and shortly after the reading of the Law began. The curtain was drawn aside from the holy ark, the scroll of the Law was taken thence, to the singing of psalms unto the bema. Then, as is customary, the messenger of the congregation summoned first to the reading of the Law a Cohen, a descendant of Aaron, one of the priestly caste. And after he had read some verses of the Law in the holy tongue, the dragoman read its translation into Chaldee, so as to be understanded of the unlearned folk, and of the women who [pg 41]were in the gallery outside the synagogue, and separated from it by a grating. Then after the priest came a Levite, who also read some verses, and after him an ordinary Israelite. Then the messenger of the synagogue called out, “Let Rabbi Joshua ben Joseph arise.” Then Jesus the Nazarene went up to the bema and read his appointed verses, and these were translated as before by the dragoman. And after the reading of the Law was concluded, the Parnass, or president of the congregation, requested Jesus to read the Haphtara, the lesson from the prophets; and this he did, using the cantillation with which we chant words of Holy Scripture. Yet never heard I one whose voice so thrilled me, and brought home to one the import of the great words; and this was strange, for his accent was, as I had before noticed, that of the Galilæan peasantry, at which we of Jerusalem were wont to scoff. Then, after the Law had been returned to the ark with song and psalm, Jesus turned round to the people on the bema and began his discourse. It is near five-and-twenty years since I heard him, and much have I for[pg 42]gotten in that long time. But many of his sayings still ring in my ears, and I will here put down, as far as possible in order, all that I can remember of the discourse.7
“It hath been written by the Prophet Esaias: Behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him. Yea, behold a man and his work before him. He that worketh not, let him not eat. Yet he that plougheth, let him plough in hope; he that thresheth, thresh in hope of partaking. Howbeit, he who longs to be rich is like a man who drinketh seawater: the more he drinketh the more thirsty he becomes, and never leaves off drinking till he perish. Blessed is he who also fasts that he may feed the poor: for it is more blessed to give than to receive. Yet let thy alms sweat into thy hands until thou know to whom thou givest. Where there are pains, thither hastens the physician: that which is weak shall be saved by that [pg 43]which is strong. For the sake of the weak I was weak, for the sake of the hungry I hungered, for the sake of the thirsty I thirsted. But woe to those who have yet hypocritically taken from others; who are able to help themselves, and yet wish to take from others: for each man shall give account in the day of judgment.
“That which thou hatest thou shalt not do to another. Good things must come; he is blessed through whom they come. Love covereth a multitude of sins; so never be joyful save when you look upon your brother’s countenance in love. Let not the sun go down upon your wrath. For the greatest of crimes is this: if a man shall sadden his brother’s spirit. Blessed, too, are they who mourn for the perdition of unbelievers. Do not give occasion to the Wicked One. Who is the Wicked One? He that tempts. Yet none shall reach the kingdom of heaven unless he have been tempted: for our Father which is in heaven would rather the repentance of a sinner than his correction. Yet he will cleanse the house of his kingdom from all offence. Be, therefore, [pg 44]careful and prudent and wise, lest any of you be caught in the snares of the devil, for that ancient enemy goes about buffeting.
“If thou hast seen thy brother, thou hast seen thy Lord, God the Father, whose fatherland is everywhere, in heaven and upon earth. Far and near, the Lord knoweth his own. So grieve not the holy spirit which is in you, nor extinguish the light which shines in you. Guard the flesh pure, and the signet spotless, so that ye may take hold upon eternal life. For our possessions are in heaven; therefore, sons of men, purchase unto yourselves by these transitory things which are not yours, what is yours, and shall not pass away.”
I cannot tell thee, Aglaophonos, how deeply this discourse affected me. Just as the Hellenes are eager to find each day some new beauty in man or the world, or some new truth about the relation of things, so we Hebrews rejoice in finding new ideals in the relations of men. Each of our Sages prides himself on this—[pg 45]that he has said some maxim of wisdom that none had thought of before him, and so each of them is remembered in the minds of men by one or more of his favorite maxims. But it is rare if in a whole lifetime a sage sayeth more than one word fit to be treasured up among men. Yet was this man Jesus dropping pearls of wisdom from his mouth in prodigal profusion. As each memorable word fell from his lips, a murmur of delighted surprise passed round the synagogue, and each man looked to his neighbor with brightened eyes. Some of the thoughts, indeed, I had heard from other of our Sages, but never in so pointed a form, surely never in such profusion from a single sage.
And if what was said delighted us, the manner in which it was said entranced us still more. The voice of the speaker answered to the thoughts he expressed, as the Kinnor of David, according to our Sages, turned the wind into music. When he spoke of love, his voice was as the cooing dove; when he denounced the oppressor, it clanged like a silver trumpet. [pg 46]Indeed, his whole countenance and bearing changed in like manner, so that every word he uttered seemed to be the outcome of his whole being.
But most of all was it the vividness of his eyes that impressed his words upon us. I had seen them flashing with scorn in the Temple, I now saw them melting with tenderness in the synagogue; and there was this of strange in them, that they seemed to speak other and deeper words. As he gazed upon us, I felt as if all my inmost being was bare to the gaze of those eyes. They seemed to know all my secret thoughts and sins; and yet I felt not ashamed, for as they saw the sins, so they seemed to speak forgiveness of them.
What I felt then, others felt with me, for, as I afterwards learnt, each man felt the same as the eyes of Jesus fell upon him; and most curious it was that each man thought as I did, that the eyes of the speaker were upon him during the whole of the discourse. I have seen here in Alexandria portraits of men painted by your subtlest artists, in which, from whatever [pg 47]place you looked at them, the eyes seemed to gaze upon you. So was it with Jesus. Not alone did I, who was, as a member of the Sanhedrim, sitting immediately before him, feel his eyes pierce to my soul, but all who were in that synagogue felt the same. Nor did the effect die away after I had left the synagogue; for days and days afterwards, whenever I closed my eyes, or gazed for long on the wall, I could see the eyes of Jesus, and with it his whole face gazing upon me.
I had left the synagogue a little before the others, because a messenger had been sent from the Sanhedrim to seek for a member who should make up the quorum of Twenty-Three; and this messenger, hearing that a member of the Sanhedrim was in the synagogue of the Galilæans, sent in to summon me. When the sitting was over, I sought for Jesus again, but found that he had left the city. And for a time I neither saw nor heard aught more of him, save such rumors as came to the Holy City from Galilee. About this time many joined themselves unto him, going whithersoever he went. Those, [pg 48]too, who had joined themselves to Jochanan passed over to him, for Jochanan had been slain by Herod, whom he had rebuked for his wicked living. It was, indeed, said that Herod had also captured this Jesus when he found that he was following in the footsteps of Jochanan; but this proved to be untrue, and the multitude thronged more and more after Jesus, and from this time he began to teach them regularly, after the manner of our Sages. Yet he did not pronounce decisions of Halacha on questions of our Law; indeed, he disclaimed all interference with such questions. “I am not come,” he said, “to take away from the Law of Moses, nor to add to the Law of Moses am I come.” Only one saying of his have I heard of wherein he said aught at variance with the Torah. When the children of a man who had recently died asked him in what way should the property be divided, he said, “Let son and daughter inherit alike.” In this, as in other things, he was more favorable to the claims of the women than the Law and the Sages. For this reason, perhaps, it was that many women followed after [pg 49]him, even joined in prayer with him and those with him, against the custom of our nation. Hence arose much scandal among the more rigidly pious among us, who follow the saying of Joseph ben Jochanan, “Engage not in much converse with women.” But I have heard naught of evil that resulted from this free mingling of men and women among his followers. Yet Jesus was not against the due subordination of women, for he also said, “Let the wife be in subordination to her husband.”
Thou must know that among us our Sages are of two kinds, the Halachists and the Hagadists. The former deal with matters of the Law according to the tradition they have received from their teacher; but the latter expound the words of the Scripture, and deal with the moral relations of man to man. Some of our Sages, indeed, like the great Hillel, who died when I was a child, have been equally masters both of the Halacha and the Hagada; and in many ways the teaching of Jesus seems to have resembled, if it did not follow, that of Hillel. I must tell thee [pg 50]one anecdote about this Hillel which is well known amongst us. He was distinguished for his evenness of temper, and men would often in sport try to make him lose it. A heathen came before him one day, and declared that he would become a Jew if only Hillel would tell him the whole Law while he stood upon one foot, hoping thereby to irritate Hillel by his presumption. But Hillel said only, “What thou wilt not for thyself, do not to thy neighbor. This is the whole of the Law; all the rest is but commentary thereon. Go and learn.” Now, among the disciples of Hillel was one who compiled for the heathen a summary of the Law in the spirit of Hillel; and it seemed to me, from what I heard of Jesus’ teaching, that he had learnt much from this summary, which is called “The Two Ways.” I will have a copy written out for thee, for it is very short.
Now, in all the teaching of Jesus which I heard of about this time, he seems to have expanded, but in no wise modified, the teaching of “The Two Ways.” Above all, he seems to have warned men against [pg 51]the evil feelings within, that lead to sins against the Law, and therein differed somewhat from the practice of our Sages, who think that by doing the Law and keeping to it rightful feelings shall grow, and evil thoughts fly away.
Yet while in many ways Jesus seemed to be of the School of Hillel, in others he cast in his lot with the men among us who claim to be especially favored of God, because—thou wilt smile, Aglaophonos—because they are poor. Thou hast read our Psalms, and knowest with what insistence the poor and the righteous, the rich and the wicked, are identified in them. Many of our nation have taken this to heart, and as it were pride themselves upon their humility, as some of them call themselves Ebionim, or the Poor; some, the Zaddikim, or Righteous; some, Chasidim, or Pious. Thou canst not call them a sect, for in a way they include the whole nation. In the Eighteen Blessings which form the staple of our daily prayers, the Lord is blessed as the Guardian and Refuge of the Zaddikim. Now, it was chiefly among these men, whether they called [pg 52]themselves Ebionim, or Zaddikim, or Chasidim, that Jesus found his chief adherents, though he seems to give his preference to the Ebionim, who have always been insisting upon the blessedness of the poor. Now, these men consider themselves to be beyond all others the servants of the Lord, and identify themselves with that picture of the servant which has been given by the Prophet Esaias. Thus in all these ways Jesus appealed to the more earnest part of our nation, and in him were conjoined most of the movements that had touched us most deeply. If any had said at this time, “Jesus the Nazarene is a follower of Jochanan the Baptizer, and preaches ‘The Two Ways’ to the Poor,” none could have gainsaid him.
Yet all were wondering what he would say to the other side of our nation’s hopes. The life of our nation had begun with a deliverance; our chief national feast recalls that deliverance from Egypt to us every year as the spring comes round. We have become subject to all the great kingdoms that have grown up round us, yet again and again we have been delivered from each. [pg 53]Thou and I have often wondered how it has come about that both Hellenes and Hebrews, who feel ourselves in different ways higher than these stolid Romans who rule us, have yet become subject to them. Thy nation hath acquiesced in their rule; my people never will. Every man who promises greatness among us is hoped for as the Deliverer. Many men about this time began to ask, Will Jesus the Nazarene be the Deliverer?
[pg 54]