 | XVII. Julian, or Scenes in Judea |  |
17. XVII.
At length, my mother, after long waiting,
and when the people had nearly abandoned all
hope of what they desired, Jesus hath again
appeared, not as before on the Jordan but far
from us, in Galilee. At the same time that this
news has been brought to our ears, we are told
also of astonishing miracles which he has
wrought in the towns and villages of that
quarter. How shall I describe the amazement
and joy that fill the minds of all! Every day
and every hour are reports brought to our ears
of new wonders he has done, and every day
and hour doth the joy of the people rise higher
and higher. No one doubts now that God has
indeed visited his people. Great numbers not
patient enough to wait for the time when Jesus
shall visit other parts of the country, and doubtless
among others, the valley of the Jordan,
have flocked to Galilee that they may at once
remove their doubts, or invigorate their faith by
themselves seeing and hearing the new prophet.
All Beth-Harem is astir, and the synagogues, the
of the worshippers, giving thanks for the great redemption
that has drawn nigh. All Jerusalem
also, so we hear, not less than the parts about us
is moved, and multitudes have already resorted
to Capernaum, and the shores of the lake of
Galilee. We remain, for many reasons, on the
banks of the Jordan, — satisfied with the knowledge
which we continually receive from such
as are arriving and departing, and on whose
truth and exactness we know that we can rely.
All that has reached us of the character and
conduct of this prophet shows that, in respect of
wisdom and a holy life, he is well worthy to be
a messenger of God. But what his purposes
truly are, we cannot pretend as yet to determine.
I say that we cannot. For ourselves, who have
so espoused the cause of Herod, we cannot
hastily nor without the strongest reasons abandon
it for another. To him, who should appear
and afford proof sufficient by the signs he gave
that he was the Messiah of God, should we
without hesitation or delay transfer ourselves.
But no such signs have as yet been given. In
the mean time we remain steadfast to him who
seems well able to accomplish all the objects, or
the greatest which are expected of that personage;
nor do we think it an event to be looked
for from present appearances, that Jesus will
tell. Though we cannot quite share the
excessive transports of the people, we hold ourselves
silent, and attentive to what shall come
to pass. We are filled with amazement at what
we hear, and pretend not to say what shall, or
what shall not be the issue. As surely as the
presence of God was manifested of old by Moses
and Elijah, so surely is it now, by Jesus. Of
this all see the evidence, Pharisee and Sadducee,
Jew and Samaritan.
Judith is made happy beyond all others, as it
seems to me by this coming of Jesus, and by the
things we every day hear concerning him and
his teachings and his works. She will not
doubt that he will prove all we can desire,
and hardly can she be restrained from journeying
to Galilee, that she may herself hear, see,
and judge. But though she cannot see and
listen for herself, she can scarce converse of any
other subject.
“Ah, Julian” said she, as we were lately
seated on the housetop as the day was declining,
“how glad I am that anything has happened
to separate you, even though but for a
season, and in part from that bad man.”
“And whom do you mean, my cousin?”
said I.
“Could I mean any one,” she replied, “besides
Herod?”
“He is not perfect,” said I, “yet as God
works his designs by storms, pestilence, and
whirlwinds, so may he by demons and bad
men.”
“I believe,” replied Judith, “that he does
indeed use men's wickedness for some ends,
so that even from this, the darkest evil,
somewhat beneficial springs. But who can
believe, that for his Messiah, promised so long
a man like Herod would be chosen?”
“None of the wise men of Israel,” I answered,
“can tell me, nor have I been able
from any quarter to learn with certainty what
sort of a personage the looked-for Messiah is
to be. Some say he is to be a prophet, and
some a king, and some both; and besides these
a priest. The only thing in which they agree
is, that he is to be a conqueror, and deliver
Israel from her slavery. I know not therefore
what to make of him with exactness. But if
the only belief in which they unite is any guide,
then is there some good reason for thinking
well of Herod, seeing that already he stands so
that with but little doubt he may work out the
deliverance of Judea. Though we should not
judge him Messiah, why may we not judge of
him as one who may avail, like the Maccabees,
to save our land from the spoiler?”
“You do not then, Julian, believe Herod to
be the Christ.”
“To confess the truth,” I replied, “I do not.
I believe he may do great good to Judea; that
he stands with his harness on, ready, if the people
will aid him, to accomplish the very work
which by all is looked for from the Messiah;
but I do not believe he is therefore that person.
I will give him my service as a Jew, as I would
enlist under a general in the Roman camp;
but no more.”
“I joy to find it is so,” said Judith; “I too
may believe as much; though to speak to you
a truth, which were it spoken in Beth-Harem
or Jerusalem would bring down heavy judgments,
I verily think that under Rome we enjoy
as much of both freedom and peace, as we
should do under princes of our own — as we
should were Herod king of Israel, instead of
Tiberius and Pilate. Ah, I should tremble,
were Herod king. I have seen him once, and
once has he spoken to me. But I would not
think of that. Others, however, though not
yourself, believe him Messiah! — a man spotted
with many crimes, and who will be with many
more; a man both crafty and cruel — a fox and
a tiger. I wonder at the delusion, and above
all, that Onias should have bound himself by so
many ties to him.”
“Onias,” I replied, “like most of our people,
is ruled by one idea, and one hope, the deliverance
of Judea; and after many disappointments,
after waiting so long in vain for the coming of
the prince who was to work out the deliverance,
and beholding no signs of his approach,
notwithstanding that, according to the interpretations
of our rabbis and priests, the time has
more than arrived, when, if prophecy be more
than a fable, he ought to arise, it surely is not
surprising, that he should be willing to fall back
upon Herod, in whom it must be confessed
by the most hostile, there are centered many
of the claims which would characterize the
Messiah. For myself, I marvel that greater
numbers, ere this, have not sought to him as
their only hope. Even the Herodians themselves
are many of them but lukewarm adherents,
especially those of Cæsarea, who seem to
be content with their present relations to him
and his opinions and customs, and doubt the
wisdom of the attempt now in hand. In truth
it was only among the smaller portion of them,
that the Tetrarch, with all his secret endeavors,
had succeeded in planting the seeds of a
firm faith in his pretensions. But no other so
sure hope can I discern in the wide future for
Israel, as that which at this moment rests on
Herod.”
“Can you,” asked Judith, “see none in Jesus?
Surely the seal of Jehovah is upon
him.”
“I know not at present,” I replied, “what nor
who he is, nor what he will prove. I have with
sincerity sworn allegiance to Herod. I cannot
at once, nor without better reasons than can as
yet be given, transfer it to Jesus.”
“But, Julian, can he whose baptism was
marked by so great an event as the opened
heavens, whose birth was announced by angels,
and by whose power miracles have been
wrought in Galilee, great as ever came from a
prophet's hand, be other than He for whom we
look?”
Before I could answer Judith's question,
Onias, with Shammai, Zadok, and other of our
friends from Beth-Harem joined us.
“Ah, my daughter,” said Shammai, as he
placed himself by the side of Judith, “I am
glad to see thee in these days of promise.
Days, too, happily that join in one those who
differ. Even Zadok smiles now when I do.” —
“Not quite as often, I trust, Shammai,”
he replied. “Were it so, I should scarce
think myself in my place, at the synagogue,
remembering what Solomon saith of laughter.”
“Nay now, my brother,” replied Shammai,
have said that at length Zadok and Shammai
smiled at the same time and thing. I will
grant that for once thou hast smiled, I have
laughed an hundred times. But of what did
you converse, daughter, with our young Roman
as we came up?”
“Of what should it have been?” said Judith.
“We converse now but of one and the
same theme.”
“Of Jesus you mean.”
“Yes, of Jesus.”
“It is, indeed, the only theme as thou hast
said,” replied Shammai. “In the city it is so;
whether you meet in your walks those of one
sect, employment, condition of life, or another,
it is still the same words you hear from
every mouth, and one hopeful eye you behold
in every countenance. Even children and
slaves have caught the general joy, and utter
the name of the prophet as if it were a charm
to keep them from evil. And with reason.”
“They are a foolish people,” said Zadok,
“and easily seduced as ever. I marvel, Shammai,
that thou shouldst encourage them in their
folly. They may soon have to sing another
song.”
“Why thou thyself,” said the Ruler, “hast
been little less stirred than I, by the news from
sing in their joy?”
“I rejoice,” replied the other, “as one whose
joy may speedily be turned into mourning. It
is not impossible that Jesus may be the Christ.
But what can we say more?”
“Surely,” replied Shammai, “it is not certain
that he now is, or that he will be; yet is
there such a hope, as Israel was never before
permitted to entertain, and in that hope let all
be glad who will. Say you not so, my daughter?”
“Indeed I do, Rabbi. I had just said to
Julian as you ascended and joined us, that it
was no small token to us, that this Jesus of
Galilee is the fulfilment of our hope, in that his
birth was so announced, that at his baptism the
very heavens were opened, and the voice of
Jehovah, or of his angel was heard, and that he
hath power to do the works which are filling
the land with astonishment. Who else should
he be?”
“Could the voice of the whole land of Judea
this moment be heard,” replied Shammai,
“it would say with thee, lady, who else should
he be? The people are waiting and ready to
hail him king, prophet, deliverer. Leaving
every other ruler, they would now at his word
flock together, and under his supremacy lay the
which there shall be no end. Yet, Judith, are
there some things that cause a doubt.”
“Yea, verily, that are there,” said Zadok.
“But still,” said Shammai, “none to extinguish
hope.”
“Wait for that,” said Zadok, “until to-morrow.”
“I will wait longer,” said Shammai.
“I am ready,” said Judith, “to believe even
now; I see no room for doubt. The reports
which have come to our ears are by the lips of
those whom we know; why should I not believe?”
“Believe what, my child?” asked Shammai.
Judith hesitated; but said, after a moment's
pause, “believe in him, as one whom God has
sent to instruct us, and why not also to save us
from our enemies? Messiah we are taught will
be a prophet and priest, as well as king.”
“Doubtless it is so,” said the Ruler. “And
it may not be denied that thus far Jesus has
shown himself possessed of the wisdom of a
prophet, and of the holiness of a priest; but
no signs has he given of the greatness of a
prince.”
“Not,” asked Judith, “in his miracles?
Who should do a miracle but one who comes
from God? — And is not every greatness his?”
“True, daughter, there are those who pretend
to do wonders like these of Jesus, but a
wise man receives them not. To God alone
belongs such power. But surely it has been
imparted to many who were not Messiah, and
may be to many more. His works show God
to be with this Jesus of Nazareth, but they
show him not to be the Christ.”
“Spoken like the King of Wisdom himself,”
said Zadok. “Yet is there a remnant of folly
to be rebuked. Works great as these of Jesus
can Pharez do, and many a Magian and Egyptian
besides. Who knows not that these have
power to foretell things to come, to expel demons,
to call forth spirits from the air, the ocean,
and the grave? The sorceress of Endor has
left those behind who can do her own deeds
and more.”
“So,” replied Shammai, “do the ignorant
believe, but so do not the wise. They are
liars, deceivers, impostors all; and the people
fools and blind, who put their trust in them.
Who knows not how their tricks are done?
even like unto those of her of Endor, — in the
terrors of darkness and the night, in hollow
caves of the earth, in tombs, and on blasted
heaths, amidst sulphurous flames and burning
pitch, the yells of tortured men and beasts,
where no eye can see aright, nor ear hear, and
What wonder if so the dead may be reported to
have arisen, and spirits to have come forth at
a word?”
“The works of Jesus,” said Judith, “are not
like these.”
“Truly they are not,” said Shammai, “but
are done in the open light of day, and in the
streets of our cities, in the midst of watching
crowds, with some Zadok ever nigh at hand.
They who are sick he restores; they who are
blind he causes to see; those whose limbs are
withered and dead he makes whole as before,
who all live and are among us to bear testimony
to what has been done, as well as others
who stood by and were witnesses of such deeds.
These wonders, therefore, who shall deny it?
show him to be of God.”
“Yet show him not to be the Christ,” said
Zadok, “nor, as I believe, and shall believe,
not with certainty to be of God, but with much
likelihood of the devil.”
“Blaspheme not,” said Onias; “thou knowest
not whereof thou affirmest. If ever the
God of our nation has appeared for us, if he
indeed thundered with his voice at Sinai, or
gave his spirit to Moses and Elias, then has
he given it also unto Jesus. He is a prophet
mighty in his power, even like unto them.
but we shall know soon. But we may hope
that he shall prove a redeemer for Israel. And,
saying this, I forget not Herod, nor our duty to
him. I am his. But we know well that upon
Herod rests no spirit like unto this that manifests
itself in Jesus. He cannot in this be
what Jesus is, while Jesus can be what Herod
is, and more. It is no treason to say so. When
and where God, the God of our Fathers reveals
his hand and presence, there should his children,
forsaking all others, cleave to him alone. Others
are set aside. Let Jesus, therefore, declare
himself Messiah, and use his powers to achieve
Messiah's work, and we then muster under his
banner, as under one whom God himself hath
anointed. And to such an one do I believe
would Herod himself show allegiance.”
“I thank thee, my father, for these words,”
said Judith. “Thou wilt wait then. I feared”
—
“Fear nothing,” said Onias, “least of all, that
I shall in anything turn a deaf ear to the evident
voice of Jehovah. I look to Jesus with
hope, as doth every one in Israel whose heart
is right before God, and I wait to see what a
few more days or weeks shall bring forth.”
“Yet the people do everywhere hold him,”
said Judith, “to be not only a prophet, but the
the voice of God?”
“The people,” replied Onias, “believe hastily
and without reason, as their passions lead
them. And then again ofttimes with as little
reason deny and reject, what a moment before
they believed, as new passions dictate. No;
the voice of the wise man, if it may be affirmed
of any, is rather the voice of God. Solomon,
David, and the Prophets, rather than the
multitudes of their day, spake with the warrant
of Jehovah. When Jesus shall declare himself,
and put forth his powers in the great work
God shall have given him to do, will it be time
enough to own him Christ. The people, in
their shoutings and acclamations, in their ready
faith and promises, are as the blind rushing
toward the edge of a precipice, — they know not
whither they go, and it may be toward their
ruin — yet also it may be toward their salvation.”
“Yea,” said Zadok, “it is not more hours
than one can easily reckon up, that this same
people deemed John some great one, and now
he is forsaken for Jesus. And to-morrow let a
third arise, and Jesus will be forsaken in turn.”
“That,” said Onias, “is true, Zadok. But
in respect of what thou hast said of John, as I
learn, his disciples abandon him not, but cleave
Jesus.”
“I know not how his followers judge either
of him or Jesus,” replied the Pharisee, “but the
people, of whom we were speaking, while but
now they thronged John wheresoever he moved,
now speak the truth of him, the truth at
first, as well as the truth now, and say that he
is as one beside himself, seeing that he dwells
apart in the manner he does, feeds upon the
wild fruits and berries of the wilderness, and
for his clothing wears the garments of a beggar.
Doubt not that presently they shall say
yet worse things of Jesus; nay, that they do
already, marvelling if he can be a Son of God
who eats and drinks as others do, consorts with
publicans and sinners, and by the power of God
makes wine of water, that he and others with
him may drink at will.”
“Are such things reported?” asked Judith.
“It must be said that they are,” replied Zadok,
“and already among those who follow
him doth it beget shrewd suspicions of whence
he comes, and of the true spirit that inspireth
him.”
“Oh, say not so, Rabbi,” cried Judith; “say
not so. All that has thus far come to our
ears speaks of him as gentle and holy. This
is but the jealousy of a Herodian — admit it
Zadok.”
“As a follower of Herod,” replied Zadok,
“I profess not to love either him or John;
that thou knowest, daughter. But in respect of
what I have just said, I utter it not of my own
knowledge, but speak only the common rumor.”
“Common rumor,” I said, “changes its hue
and quality, however, even as water, according
to the nature of that through which it passes.
Thou wouldst not take as justly exact a rumor
concerning John from the lips of Herod, nor
can we any more one from Zadok concerning
Jesus.”
“We shall see,” replied the Priest, “time
will show; only, as I think, there will be found
to be even less of Christ in Jesus, than in John;
but in neither, what should throw a stumbling
block so big as a midge's wing in the way of
Antipas.”
“Let us not,” said Onias, “be over-confident,
nor judge beforehand. Who would willingly
be found to fight against God?”
“As to what is said of the life and manner
of the Prophet,” said Shammai, “it surely matters
little one way or another. If the Messiah
drink wine, it would make it hard for one to
say, why that should hurt him in the eye of the
nation, and if he keep company with publicans
and those who are little better, it were not easy
to see how he should consort with many and
narrowly, to be found. He who is to be gathering
armies and laying the foundations of a
new kingdom, will hardly employ himself in
choosing nicely his company. As thou sayest,
Onias, let us not judge beforehand, nor make
mountains of ant-hills. Let us not pry into his
secret life searching for rents, and spots of uncleanness.
It matters not. It matters not.
To be a busybody is worse than to be a sinner,
and to judge bitterly worse than to be, or be
called a child of the devil.”
So we conversed until the hour of retiring,
when our visitors took their leave and returned
to Beth-Harem.
When they were gone, Onias, as is his wont,
called together his household for the evening
prayer. Morning and evening he worships
God surrounded by all who dwell beneath his
roof, pouring forth the wants and desires of
his heart concerning his own, and concerning
Israel. This night, standing on the house-top
in the midst of his large family, the air being
calm, the stars shining bright in the firmament,
and no sound heard but the low music of innumerable
insects, and the distant murmuring of
the Jordan, he prayed with an earnestness more
than common. His voice, not loud but deep,
and bearing upwards not only so many words,
upon the ear, as the voice of one more than
man. When he had prayed for his own, and
for thee, my mother, and for all in any sort
bound to him, and for other things, with somewhat
of that repetition to be noted in the devotions
of all of this sect, he then prayed for Judea,
for her peace, prosperity, and deliverance;
“Make haste to help us, O Lord, make haste
to appear for us, and with thy strong arm to
cause us to stand, for we are now fallen to the
ground and buried in the dust of the earth,
and sunk into the deep mire, and overwhelmed
beneath mighty waters, so that we are of no account
in the sight of men, verily they hoot at
us, shooting out the lip and laughing us to
scorn as they pass by, saying, where is thy
helper, Israel, and thy Gods, O Jacob? And
truly, O Lord, it is not as it was wont to be
of old with thy people, when thy servant David
sat on thy glorious throne, and the inhabitants
of the earth trembled and fled from before him
astonished. Then was thy people as the
chosen of the Lord. Then each sat beneath
his own vine and figtree, and the gentile who
is accursed forever licked the dust at our feet.
But now we are had in derision; our enemies
have risen up against us and hold us in bondage,
the yoke is upon our neck, our feet are in
field, and the cattle upon a thousand hills they
are not for us, but the oppressor devoureth them
before our eyes, and for our wives and our little
ones their skin cleaveth to their bones, and
their substance is carried away, and the stranger
and alien has gotten possession thereof.
By reason of these things, O Lord, thy people
are full of sighings and tears; we sit beneath
the willows whereon we have hung our harps
of pleasant sound, and bewail and lament.
How long, O Lord! how long, wilt thou cause
us to wait? How long before we shall see our
desires accomplished upon those whom we
hate? How long before thy wrath shall be
poured out upon our enemies and consume them
from the face of the earth, so that men shall
seek them and shall not find them, and the
smoke of their ruin and the stench of their corruption
shall alone declare the place where once
stood the cities of their pride, and dwelt the
multitudes of their inhabitants. Consume them
quickly in thy wrath, O God, and in thine anger
cause them to perish. Let thy enemies
and the enemies of Jacob flee before the face
of thine anointed, and the kingdom be again
given to Israel. Now is the set time, O Lord,
the set time, the time for the redemption of
Judah and the reign of Israel. Give us to
eyes be blind when the messenger of the covenant
shall suddenly appear; let not our hearts
be hard nor our ears dull of hearing. Make
the signs to be plainly discerned even in
the broad face of the heavens, that shall proclaim
the King of Israel; and may the people
quickly gather themselves unto him, with their
swords girded upon their loins, with bows, and
javelins, and spears, to take vengeance upon
the oppressor, and bring deliverance to the captive.
May thy kingdom come, even now, O
Lord, that the eyes of thy servant may behold
it, and may there be no tarrying. Show us
him whom thou hast sealed, on whom thou
hast set thy name, whom thou hast called
thy Son, — Son of David, King of Israel,
Saviour of Judah, Redeemer of Jacob, The
Anointed. Light hath arisen, O Lord, upon
our land, but our hearts are divided, our minds
are in doubt and amazement. Scatter the
clouds, and let us see plainly in whom thou
wouldst have us to trust, and where is the hiding
of thy power. If it be in thy servant Jesus
and in no other, or in John and no other,
or in Herod and no other, cause that he quickly
array himself in his royal robes, and crown
himself with his royal diadem, and sit upon
the throne of his fathers, so that we may know
of the people. Then upon our enemies
shall there fall blasting and mildew, and a
curse and utter destruction before the face of
thy Lord; and the Kingdom of God shall be
established, it shall be unto the ends of the
earth, and there shall be no other.”
These and other like things did Onias pour
forth in his prayer; and truly if prayers be answered
according to the faith and truth of those
who make them, then will the petitions of thy
brother be fulfilled; for his words are things
rather than their names and shadows only.
What he says, is as a thing done, having its
force, and reality.
As we descended from the house-top to the
lower apartments of the house, Judith desired
to speak with me; but when we had withdrawn
to the portico, she deferred still to some other
time that which she wished to communicate,
and together with the rest of the household we
also retired.
The earnest manner of Judith, while at the
same time she lightly postponed the interview
which a moment before she had sought, led me
not with doubt or difficulty to conjecture what
it was, that would have been the burden of her
discourse. As I have already said to thee, my
mother, she is beloved of the noble Roman,
beloved, and well are they worthy each of the
regards of the other. But the bar which their
religions raise between them appears insurmountable.
In Rome, indeed, as thou knowest,
it is not seldom overleaped, and the Roman
and the Jew are joined together. So too in Judea
are these differences overcome on the part
of many; especially in those places where the
introduction of Roman usages and the Roman
tongue with Roman inhabitants, has helped to
bring the two people into a nearer intercourse,
and a better knowledge of each other. They
have in this manner discovered, what else they
might forever have remained ignorant of, that
save in name and in other matters not less accidental,
they have been made by the Father of
of All much alike; that a Roman heart is much
like a Jewish heart, a Roman nature much like
a Jewish; that a man is a man, and a woman a
woman, notwithstanding name, country, religion,
and outward beauty or ugliness; and that
the things in which they are the same outweigh,
by an immense preponderance, those
wherein they are different. So that in such
circumstances, in spite of the outcries of many,
and the prejudices inherited from ancient customs,
the Jews and natives of Rome and other
countries have obeyed the instincts which have
are there many, very many, who would by no
means give way to such affection in themselves,
nor permit it in a child. And of such is Onias.
The regard, which at first he conceived for
Saturninus, led him to extend towards him hospitalities
and a friendship, rare in a Jew toward
an alien, and which have brought upon him in
no light measure the rebukes of the more strict.
But had he foreseen the consequences, sooner
would he have sacrificed his life, I believe,
than have done aught to provoke them. He
relied doubtless on the natural hatred of the
Jew for the Roman, to defend his daughter, as
himself, from any nearer intercourse than the
distant one allowed by the most formal observances
of society. Alas! how vain the reliance.
Love laughs such barriers to scorn. It is free
of country, religion, and the wide world. Nevertheless,
what shall Onias do or say? Only
one thing possibly. Never would thy stern yet
loving brother, that Jew of Jews, that hater of
the gentile, surrender her to a Roman. How
will Zadok now, and such as he, gall the spirit
of Onias by their harsh constructions. How
will they charge this issue as a judgment of
God upon him for his looseness in receiving the
heathen to his board. Yet in Shammai will
he find a gentle adviser and friend, and so too
I thank thee, my mother, for thy late full
supplies of Roman news. Surely Sejanus must
have been made blind by the Gods not to perceive
the significancy of such conduct and such
language in Tiberius. Yet perhaps it is but
the blindness which a low ambition and a wicked
selfishness inflicts necessarily upon itself.
He has gazed upon his own dazzling fortunes
so long, that eyesight is gone for other things.
Grim and deadly as Tiberius stands before him,
he sees him not; nor any better can he hear
the low but heavy rumbling, as of an earthquake,
of a nation's discontent, — of that vast multitude
whom he has injured in themselves, their
friends, or their fortunes, and who now begin to
perceive that the Emperor is also on their
side, and one tyrant may be set against the
other. That were a sight truly grateful, to
behold either of those who have glutted their
fatal appetite on so many innocent, at length
falling into the bloody fangs of the other.
Such a fate seems likely enough to befall Sejanus,
yet after all he may first spring upon Tiberius.
You say that little heed is given among our
people in Rome to the rumors which have
by your replies, that your own concern is much
deeper. Judith marvels at this. I do not;
seeing that the accounts which have reached
you of Jesus, are none of them such as agree
with the prevailing hopes of the expected
deliverer. Jesus having given no sign by which
to judge him, save his miracles, I marvel not
at all that you in Rome at once rank him with
those who, by the arts of magic, and credulity
on the part of the multitude, have a thousand
times deluded the nation. The wonders which
are ascribed to Jesus cause him naturally, where
there is no opportunity of a careful examination
and comparison, to be put but on a level with
sorcerers and exorcists, of whom the world is
full. But I am clearly persuaded, my mother,
that there is something more in what is now
taking place than you, and others in Rome, dream
of; widely different from what has been witnessed
before, either here or elsewhere. For
the works of a wonderful kind, which are related
of Jesus, are in their nature, and the manner
in which they are performed, so different
from such as are done by magicians, that all
who have witnessed them declare with one
voice, they can be performed by no other power
than that of God. Pharisee and Sadducee, Jew
and Samaritan, all agree in bearing this testimony.
prophet, filled for some purpose, not as yet
known or by him declared, with the spirit
and power of Jehovah. But besides this, it
is affirmed that his teachings are such as
declare him to be of God, not less, or more
than his miracles, that his character is every
way admirable, and his life holy, beyond the
measure of other men. Can we doubt that he
will presently show himself to be more than
a prophet? It will not be long, therefore, as
I judge, ere you, in Rome and in other distant
places, will, even as they who are here
present, be curious to learn all that is to be
known of this strange person. As you will
yourself, my mother, be more and more desirous
of further intelligence, just in the proportion
to that which I shall send you — for where
was there ever goodness in which you felt not
interest? — I shall take all pains to keep you informed
of whatever there is worthy of trust
that comes to my ear. I cannot well judge
myself what shall be its issue; but shall, I
confess, be amazed, if so much do not result as
shall fill with astonishment not only Judea but
Rome also.
Remember me with affection to the members
of our household, and to my fellow travellers.
| XVII. Julian, or Scenes in Judea | |