 | X. Julian, or Scenes in Judea |  |
10. X.
The beauty of this region, my mother, which
lies on the shores of the Jordan, would delight
your eye which so loves to dwell on the works of
nature. If Tivoli and the Alban hills, the base
of Soracte, the sea views of Baiæ and Naples,
draw you so often from the heated walls of
Rome, and send you back again so much happier
and better, as you do ever affirm, not less
would this Jewish world minister to both mind
and body, to the eye loving beauty alone, and
to the soul, seeking God in beauty as in
all things. Indeed to thy spirit, which ever
seems half caught away from earth by its
familiar musings upon the future and unseen,
this land would supply a nourishment
others never can. Even I have come to perceive
and feel the difference. It is like no
other spot of earth. The mind thinks of the
many times through so many centuries that the
spirit of the Universe, the infinite and incomprehensible
energy on which all depend, while
from other nations he hath hidden himself in a
made himself visible, hath here conversed with
man, and taught and guided him as a child,
that through one people so instructed truth
might be then spread abroad in the world —
and thinking thus, a dread falls upon it in the
midst of the scenes, where such things have
been, which, though it awes the soul, yet
strangely adds to the pleasure with which it
gazes and contemplates. The very leaves of
the trees as they tremble on their branches seem
shaken by the invisible God; the dark woods
and the silent grotto are here entered with a
hesitating step, as if there especially would be
felt his presence. On the banks of the sacred
Jordan the ear hears Him in the murmuring of
its waters. And over the face of the whole land,
and in the overhanging air there seems brooding
the spirit of Him, who hath indeed made all,
and is the Father of all, but is in a nearer sense,
as the past hath proved, the Father and Protector
of this people, and may at any moment and in any
place again make himself suddenly to be seen,
and heard, and felt. Now especially are all looking
and waiting for the place and the hour, when
He shall shine forth and put in some soul his
mind and his power, and establish his kingdom
as of old in the sight of all men. Every rumor
of what is strange is caught up and magnified,
feverish expectations, who are prompt to believe.
Is this feeling that holds all alike, the
high and the low, the slave and the lord, the
Pharisee, the Sadducee, and the Herodian, the
mother and the child, the sound and diseased of
mind, the whole and the possessed, the Samaritan
as well as the Jew, — is this a delusion? or
is it indeed stirred up within us by the visitings
of God himself, as a preparation for that which
is to be soon unfolded? Oh, my mother, who
can doubt, that hath dwelt upon the writings
of our Scriptures, as I have lately done,
whether it be of a divine origin, this general
moving and heaving of the common mind?
The time spoken of by the prophets hath come,
and as they are true, must the kingdom of God
quickly appear. And of a surety if ever this
people is to be saved, it must be now; if ever
they are to be snatched from the jaws of the
devourer, it must be now ere they are quite
swallowed up. A little while and they will be
dissolved and lost in the mighty mass of the
Leviathan, whose teeth are now gnashing upon
them ready to destroy.
Concerning this I have now at length somewhat
of moment to say unto thee. But let it
come in its order.
It was on the first day of the week, the day
Onias, that as I sat reading, not as in Rome,
Ennius or Virgil or Seneca, but the Prophets,
Judith with steps light as a falling leaf, drew
near, and wished to converse. For Judith I was
ready, alas! how ready, to close even the Prophets.
I saw at once that some trouble had
come into her clear spirit to stir and cloud its
depths. “What is it?” said I, as she placed
herself at my side; “your eye is often sad, but
never troubled as now. Of what wouldst thou
speak?”
“Of my father, Julian — of Onias.”
“And what of Onias?” said I with alarm;
“is it not well with him?”
“Yes, it is well with him,” she replied, “and
yet is he sick. He is not as he used to be.
He is silent; he hears not what is spoken; by
night he wakes, and dreams by day. Then, as
thou knowest, he leaves the harvest, and the
care of his fields, where once was all his delight,
for the company of those in Beth-Harem,
whom formerly he knew not, for those long
visits to Machærus, and journeys to and fro
over Judea. I know not what it all portends.”
“Confides he not in thee, Judith?”
“Alas! not in all things. My mother, as I
have heard, shared not only his love but his
trust also. Me, though he loves as fondly as
a child to be loved indeed, but not wholly
trusted.”
“But to me, Judith, will he entrust less of
himself than to thee. I am a stranger in comparison
of thee. He has spoken to me only of
things common to all. On our journey hither,
indeed, he talked more largely, but since, he
has been closer to me than even to thee.”
“Yet,” said Judith, “do I guess from the
looks which from time to time he fixes on you,
that to you he will ere long impart that, whatever
it may be, which causes his anxiety.
But I would that before that, nay at once,
you might tear his secret from him, and so
either deliver him from his yoke, or, if it be
worthy, share it with him, laying on me also an
equal weight.”
“Do you not,” said I, “even so much as surmise
what it is that hath so possessed him?”
“I cannot, Julian, but think I do; yet may God
grant it to be an error. I know nothing; but,
as thou sayest, I surmise. I fear then, that
Onias plans a rising in Israel. Since my memory
can tell of anything, it tells of nothing
with such clearness and strength as of Onias's
worship of the names and deeds of the Maccabees,
and of Judas of Galilee. In the morning
and the evening prayer these are the names,
my mind. The petition, that God would grant
salvation to his people in these times by some
arm like theirs, to which he would give his
own strength, has been with him the first and
the last, the alpha and omega, of his prayers.
And when the oppressions of Judea have been
named, he has been ever wont to pour forth,
with even a prophet's force, the wrath that has
burned within him, so that our quiet vales have
echoed far and near to the tones of his voice —
when so roused the voice of a tempest.”
“I shall never forget it,” said I. “In the
streets of Cæsarea it towered over all the crash
of the falling temple, the noise of the battle,
and the braying of the trumpets.”
“What I would say,” continued Judith, “is,
that of late all this hath ceased. While his
heart seems to burn hot within him, and the
eye, starting and suspicious, shows that all is
awake there — he speaks not of his old themes,
and when of anything, of my veil perhaps,
my sandal, or some idle household care. Then
messengers arrive and depart in the silence
of the night, and Onias ofttimes himself joins
them — while upon me, though not indeed by
words but otherwise more strictly, is enjoined
silence and secrecy.”
“I cannot, my cousin, like you, compare
the signs which to-day make him to be unlike
what he has been before. But neither can I
doubt the truth of your conjectures. But, Judith,
there is not within the compass of the hills and
valleys of Judea, from the mountains of Lebanon
to those of Idumea, a man for wisdom and
power like Onias. If he be indeed laying, as
he thinks, the foundation of a new Israel, he is
a workman of whom we need not be ashamed,
and who will put the top stone over where he
has laid the foundation for it. What he begins
he will end.”
Judith drew back, with pain and distress in
her countenance, as I said these words.
“Oh Julian, and do you then think that such
is to be the salvation of Israel? That the
Saviour of our country is to be one whose garments
shall be rolled in blood, his footsteps
marked by the slaughter of embattled hosts, the
devastation of cities and villages, and whose
aim shall only be conquest and dominion? It
may be so. So our people will think it to
be. But for me, my heart, blindly perhaps,
cries out against it. Though Onias should grow
to be king of all Israel with Rome at his feet —
't would bring no joy to me. At Cæsarea, surely,
if I have heard you aright, you withstood
the madness of Philip and Anna.”
“I did, indeed,” I answered; “but I might
not therefore, dear Judith, the enterprise of
Onias. Philip was one — Onias is another. A
rising in Israel, that was but the rising of an
Israelite, as in Cæsarea, I would now, as then,
oppose as useless waste of life and strength, —
though not as of itself to be held guilty. The
slave may always turn on his enslaver, and
plead God and the right. But when Israel —
Israel through all her tribes — is roused, and
rises in her ancient might, then, Judith, I shall
be of her side, and my life, little as it may be,
and with it all my wealth, shall be cast a
bubble on the tide of war to bide the issue.
And certain as we may find it to be, that Onias
is laying the plans which you surmise, so certain
is it that that is on foot, to which it will
behove every son of Abraham to lend his heart
and hand — from which none but a traitor to his
country can turn away. It will be no affair of
Cæsarea or Beth-Harem, but of Israel in all her
borders.”
Judith was silent. I saw that her disappointment
was great at finding in me so prompt a
defender of the cause, which she believed her
father was engaged in originating or promoting.
She could not conceal her grief.
“But if,” she again resumed, “the purposes
hand be, as in the case of Cæsarea, one narrow
and confined” —
“Then,” I rejoined, “may you depend upon
Julian taking the same part now as before.”
“Let me hope,” she said, “that it will be so.”
Saying these things, she returned with a step
less light and quick to her apartments.
Many things have served to convince me,
that Judith's conjectures are not without some
good foundation. I too have noted in the manner
of Onias, when present, and the manner of
his absence, that which hath put me upon considering
the probable causes of what appeared
to me a conduct too unusual and singular to
be the effect of mere accident, or a momentary
humor. But what I had reached only through
much reasoning, and bringing into one connexion
things apparently diverse and remote, and
was then after all an obscure and doubtful
conclusion, was soon made certain and clear,
and placed beyond question by the communication
of Onias himself. By no means was I
prepared for all that he unfolded, when, soon
after Judith had left me, as I was walking
slowly toward Beth-Harem by the early twilight,
he overtook me and began to converse.
When we had talked for a space of such things
little on the road, we came to a well which
lies half way between the house of Onias and
the gate of the city, whither the inhabitants
often resort, that they may refresh themselves
on the spot with its cooler waters, and bear
them in pitchers and skins to their houses.
Trees on every side shield it from the rays of
the sun, save where the highway passes it in a
straight course to the city, whose gates, seen at
a distance, seem to be a wall to prevent the
further passage of the traveller. All around among
the trees, are seats rudely constructed of rocks,
nearly in the shape in which nature left them,
but which, covered with moss or leaves that
have grown up and spread over them, afford an
agreeable resting place to the weary pilgrim as
he arrives thus far on his journey, or to those
who seek them for the cool air, or water, and
as a relief from the noise and dust of Beth-Harem.
Here Onias led me; and here we sat by the
well side about the tenth hour. He seemed
like one who wishes yet fears to speak; and
while he fears and doubts, first discourses of
many things about which he cares not.
“It was not far from here,” he said, “that
we first saw the Roman Saturninus, as he advanced
towards Beth-Harem.”
“It was but a few paces distant,” I said.
“Saturninus,” he resumed musingly, “is a
good man. He is a Roman, a sinner of the
gentiles, but he is a good man. Moreover, he
loves our nation, and already hath conferred
many favors on our Synagogue.”
“He seems to me,” I replied, “to be one, to
whom it is natural to do well; and for whom
it matters little, whether he believes in the
gods of Rome, or the God of Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob. He hath that ready for which alone
we need a knowledge of the truth, virtue; and
it is enough.”
“For this world,” said Onias. “But how
shall he have a part in the resurrection, except
he be a son of Abraham? The promises of
Jehovah are to no others. Nevertheless, he is
a good man; and it were a pity evil befell him
in this world, or the world to come.”
“As for the world to come,” said I, “I am
willing to leave him to the compassions of God,
which are more than man's. In Zadok's hands
he would fare ill — nor would I readily trust
him to Eleazer. It is well for man, that in
the judgment day, a being of larger mercy than
his holds the balance in which sin is weighed.”
“May I be delivered from the judgment of
man,” said Onias, “for his mercies are cruel;
nor would I that Saturninus suffer therefrom.”
“Why should he fear, or shouldst thou fear
for him?” I asked.
“Julian,” said thy brother, “he and his men
are as those who once stood upon the plain by
the Salt Sea. The earth is on fire beneath
them, and is ready to part asunder and swallow
them up. At a moment when they look not
for it, yea when they are in security, at the
feast it may be, or the dance, sudden destruction
may overtake them.”
Hardly doubting what the thought was in
thy brother's mind, I yet asked him of what he
spake, and whence the danger to Saturninus.
As he was about to reply, the form of one walking
toward the city drew nigh, and pausing at
the well, then approached us where we sat, and
surveying us a moment, gave the salute of peace
to Onias. The obscurity of the air did not allow
us to discern who it was, especially as he
was much wrapped about in his garment, for
the evening was cool; but no sooner had he
spoken, than we knew the voice of Zadok.
I was vexed that we were so interrupted, but
Onias seemed, on the other hand, glad that the
Ruler was come, and acceded readily to his
request that we would pass the gates and enter
his dwelling, which was just within them.
We accordingly rose from our seat, and accompanied
him to the city. We were soon once more
gave us hospitable entertainment. Onias soon
returned to what we had been conversing of.
“You ask,” said he, “of what danger I
spake? — Zadok, Julian, is of our side.”
“Aye,” said the Rabbi,” that am I. Say
on. Fear me not.”
“Of part at least of what I would say,” continued
Onias, “I doubt not, Julian, thou more
than surmisest — that there is to be a rising in
Israel!”
I said, that so much I could not but gather
from what he had said at different times, and
from what I had observed.
“Yes,” said Onias, “the hour has come, when
once more Judea shall own her king! The
time for her redemption hath drawn nigh! —
and but that in Cæsarea, the tumult that happened
there threw a hindrance in our way, the
hour ere this had fully come. A secret league,
invisible to all eyes save those whom it concerns,
binds together all parts of our land to
our enterprise. In Galilee, in Samaria, in Peræa,
in Judea, in Idumea, are there those who
stand ready and waiting, their hands upon their
swords and their loins girded — a multitude that
no man can number. Who is he, in whose
veins runs the blood of a true Israelite, that
will refuse to join himself to such a company —
perish, shall purchase redemption for Israel;
shall be the sacrifice with which the Lord shall
be well pleased; shall lay the first stones of
the foundations of that kingdom of our God
that shall be everlasting. It is not thou, Julian,
of the house of Alexander, who will draw
back! Since I saw thee in the fight in Cæsarea,
I knew thee to be an Israelite indeed, and
what I have heard since from thee hath persuaded
me, that on thee one may rely as a staff
that shall not bend nor break.”
I then was about to say what I had but just
before declared to Judith, concerning the extent
in which the whole people were engaged in the
present enterprise; but Onias interrupted me, —
“I know what thou wouldst say. Fear not.
This is not, Julian, a revolt on the part of
Onias, the vine-dresser, nor on the part of Beth-Harem
and the country round about, nor on the
part of the inhabitants of Peræa alone. It is not
one against a thousand, nor a thousand against
the innumerable hosts of Rome. But it is, or
it shall be Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, who
shall rise as one man against the oppressor! If
with their handful among the rocks and the
hills, Matathias and Judas overcame the great
Antiochus, and wrought out deliverance for
Israel, how shall it be but that when the same
arrayed, and the Lord and his anointed to lead
them on, we shall again triumph, and more than
triumph, over the uncircumcised, and upon the
necks of those who have been our rulers, set our
feet as kings and conquerors? Julian,” continued
thy brother, with a voice low and mysterious,
“to the ears of one who is worthy to hear so
glad tidings I say it, We have found the
Messiah!” —
“Aye,” said Zadok, “we have found the
Messiah!”
“And it is he,” continued Onias, “who shall
lead the hosts of Israel.”
“Yea,” said Zadok, “it is under our king
we shall fight.”
“What mean you?” I asked; “what, and
whom mean you? — this prophet on the banks
of the Jordan?”
“A man possessed of a Devil?” cried Zadok.
“What mark,” said Onias, “do we behold in
John, of him who is to redeem Israel? What
is he but a wandering beggar, if indeed he be
not, as Zadok saith, in the possession of a
Devil? So in truth affirm, — and who should
discern in such things clearer than they, — so
affirm Pharez the Diviner, and Uzzi the Exorcist.
Is he such an one as the people are looking
foretold? In Herod! Julian, in the Tetrarch of
Galilee, do we behold our future king.”
Neither was I wholly unprepared for this
disclosure. Onias had more than once hinted
his belief, and his frequent intercourse with
Herod at Machærus had confirmed my suspicions.
But though, for myself, I was ready to give due
honor to Herod as a king, I was not ready to
own him as the great and expected Prince.
And so, at once, I said to Onias.
He heard me, and replied, “Be not in haste
to reject him ere you have known and seen him.
As there were not wanting those who in former
days believed the Great Herod to be the
Sent of God, so there are not wanting a greater
number who for better reasons put their faith
in his Son. If it be the office of the Anointed
of God to be the Saviour of his country, to
drive from her borders the Gentile, to raise Jerusalem
from where she sits in sackloth and
ashes to her ancient pinnacle of renown, to
exalt the law in the eyes of all nations and
establish it, and bring under its dominion all
the nations of the Earth, and if now, as all our
wise men affirm, and the Scriptures declare,
the set time is come, and the times of the
prophecies are fulfilled, where shall we look but
to Herod? where are the signs for which we
and wise; his brother of Iturea is also a
prince, of power hardly less, and in Jerusalem
dwells Philip, who holds no small sway over
the hearts of the people of that great capital.
Moreover, an inward voice persuadeth Herod
that he is the man, and they, who are wise in a
knowledge of things hidden to common eyes,
announce him such — diviners and soothsayers,
they are of one and the same mind.”
“Yea,” said Zadok, “it is so. Pharez and
Uzzi both hail him king.”
“If Herod be not He, where shall we find
him?” continued Onias — “it, is now, or it is
never. The Prophets say now — yet I say
again, where is he? Who will show him to us?
If Herod be not he, we may again lie down in
despair, for there is no other. Over the whole
face of Judea the eye beholds no other; and
the days are fulfilled.”
“And who,” I asked, “believe in him?”
“There are those scattered throughout all
the borders of the land,” he replied, “who are
believers, and who stand with their hands on
their swords, prompt to act when he shall declare
himself. The Herodians, save a few, are
with him. No words are spoken; but the
seeds of revolt are sown in all parts, and are
taking root. And what think you when I say,
the time that he in Rome strikes for the Empire,
Herod strikes for Judea, and while the
Tetrarch subdues the common enemy here and
Sejanus there, as Sejanus will be Emperor of
Rome — yet but for a season — Herod will
reign King of the Jews.”
“Is it indeed so?” I asked; for this I own
amazed me.
“It is so,” replied Onias; “and the proof
thereof thou shalt behold at Machærus with
thine own eyes. Herod has not been idle these
many years, though others have slept. We
have forgotten even ourselves; but he hath
remembered us. The secret chambers of
Machærus shine with the arms and the harness
of thousands, which he hath caused to
be furnished and laid away in their dark repository.
So is it in Beth-Harem, at Herodium,
but chiefly at Tiberias and Sepphoris, in whose
vaults are piled spear, and sword, and shield,
javelin, and polished armor, for as many as for
the love of Judea shall be ready to use them.”
“Let my eyes have knowledge of this,” I
cried — “though I doubt not thy word Onias —
and —”
“Thine eyes shall see it all,” cried Zadok,
“and when they have seen, thou wilt say, the
half was not told thee.”
Onias paced impatiently the room where we
sat, as if he would break through its walls for
a larger space.
“Yea,” he exclaimed, lifting up his eyes to
Heaven and spreading forth his arms, “yea, the
time, the set time is come, and He will comfort
Zion. He will build up her waste places.
Put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the
Holy City. Thou shalt no more be called Desolate,
but thou shalt be called Hepzi-bah and
thy land Beulah, for the Lord delighteth in thee.
Mine eyes, even mine, shall behold thine honor,
and shall see thine enemies, the uncircumcised
and the accursed, broken, and scattered, and
destroyed, as the chaff before the whirlwind,
as the stubble beneath the flail of the thresher,
as the fine dust beneath the hoofs of the horses
and the wheel of the chariot! Yea, let mine
eye see its desire upon mine enemies, and upon
thine, O Jerusalem, daughter of God, and then,
having seen thy salvation, shall I lie down and
sleep in peace.”
Zadok then took up the word, and in strains
yet more triumphant, sang the redemption of
Israel and the glorious kingdom of Messiah.
If I shared their zeal in some degree, my
mother, thou wilt not marvel, seeing it is now
so long a time that I have laid aside the Roman
and stood forth a veritable Hebrew. Yet
of Herod. It may be that by him as an instrument,
and a forerunner of our Messiah, a
way is to be cleared, obstructions to be removed,
the enemy driven out, the land restored to its
rightful possessors and governors, and that then
the reign of the mysterious Prince, whom all
look for, but none seemeth to comprehend, shall
commence, and its fruits bless the earth. So
much is certain, that of all who live of our
faith and name, Antipas is he who possesseth
more than any other the power to do Israel a
service, which needs first to be done, — raise
her out of the dust and deliver her from her
oppressors. Till there be victory over her enemies,
there can be no peaceful years when the
people, sitting under their own vine and fig tree,
shall be free to listen to the voice of the prophets
whom God shall send, or of eye so single
as to acknowledge and rejoice in Messiah,
though God should send him forth. Herod,
with the people well disposed toward him, and
aided by Philip, may do for Israel what Judas
did and Matathias, and so doing, will do a work
for which the ages to come shall celebrate his
name even as of that Elias who is first to come.
I did not refuse ere we took our departure
from the dwelling of Zadok, nor did I wish to
refuse, to assure Onias that heartily would I
of our common country. But first I
required a more certain knowledge of what the
Tetrarch had truly purposed, and of what he
was truly capable to accomplish, and whether
to the extent supposed, the people of Israel
would lend themselves to his undertaking. It
was therefore agreed, that I should see Herod,
and from communication with himself derive
the satisfaction, which one can only derive
by conversing with the principal of any affair
that is to be prosecuted.
To Zadok it seemed a thing already established,
that the new kingdom was begun, and himself
already one among the chief officers of the
king's court. He could speak only of the riches
which should flow in from conquered nations
and tributary provinces; of the places of trust
that should be bestowed upon such as, like himself,
were early in their zeal, and were known
to him who should first fill the throne. His
ambition hardly knew any bounds in these imaginary
honors. Jerusalem — nothing less —
would thenceforward be the place of his abode.
Onias, though he seasonably rebuked such excess
of expectation, yet in another manner
failed not to utter the hopes he could not but
entertain of the happy changes that should take
place in Judea, when Jerusalem and not Rome
and trusts; and which should then be bestowed
not as now upon the stranger, and the
gentile, but upon the true sons of the Patriarchs;
and when each tribe, in its ancient dominion and
limits, should enjoy its own prince on his own
seat of judgment judging over it.
| X. Julian, or Scenes in Judea | |