King Jesus (Penguin Modern Classics) (25 page)

“Come, stiff-necks, dunces, abecedarians, off with you now to the hippodrome, to the other wonderful hippodrome which I have built here at Jericho. Off with you now, like little scampering children who are taken to see their first negro, or their first captive lion, or their first view of the wide shining sea. I desire you to meditate throughout the coming night on the stanza of the psalm which I have quoted to you ; for to-morrow your new illumination must begin. This is not to say that to-morrow chariot teams will compete for your entertainment ; but that since the hippodrome is roofless and unprovided with awnings you will at last, willy-nilly, become aware of the fiery Titan whom all the civilized world delights to honour, yourselves alone excepted : to-morrow you will have nothing else to do all day but dutifully to mark the stages of his course from sunrise to noon, from noon to sunset, and the same simple task will be yours the next day, and the next, until you shall have thoroughly learned your lesson.

“In honour of the Sun, King Solomon set up those pillars and groves which in the littleness of your hearts and the darkness of your intellect you condemn as idolatrous—Solomon the son of David, I say, whom
you name the wisest of men, notwithstanding! How is it, renegades from your ancient faith, that you adore our God in the character of the thievish Moon, that you blow trumpets every month to greet that absurd silver shred which gives neither warmth nor light to man? The prophet Jonah—how did he name Jerusalem? Was it as Beth Sin, the abode of the aberrant Moon-god Sin, hated by all good-hearted men throughout the world, or as Nineveh, the abode of Nimrod, resplendent Lord of the Solar Year?

“Be off now, hurry, go, I say, moon-struck fools, for my soldiery are the warders who will escort you to the curative building of which I have spoken !”

Troops had been posted all about the Palace grounds with drawn swords and javelins at the ready, and the great crowd, puzzled, helpless and without a leader, began to move down the slope towards the hippodrome, the soldiers guarding every path of escape and encouraging laggards with kicks and blows.

As soon as the officers were able to report to Herod that the entire priesthood, except those who were officiating at the Temple, had been herded into the empty hippodrome and that the gates had been locked, he issued a new edict deposing Matthias the High Priest and appointing to the office Mattlias’s brother-in-law, who was absent in Cyprus. At Jerusalem, on the same day, Carmi had summoned all the priests in the Temple, except the three or four without whom the rites would have come to a sudden standstill, to a brief conference in the Court of the Gentiles. There they were arrested and sent down to Jericho under escort to join their comrades in the hippodrome. The stage was cleared for the performance, next day, of a terrible sacrifice at the Altar of Burned Offering.

That same night, three Damascene Jews of the tribe of Issachar arrived at the Jericho Palace and demanded an audience with the King. They announced themselves as astrologers and Herod consented to see them. They proved to be Covenanters, a sect who claimed to have made a new covenant with God through the mediation of a spirit named “The Coming One” or “The Star”, whom they expected shortly to become incarnate in human form. They seemed eager, simple-minded men, and their leader told Herod : “Your name shall be glorious for ever, Majesty, for the stars tell us that the Prince of Righteousness has been born at last under your benignant sway, to be your heir and to rule over all Israel for a thousand years. We know that you are sensible of this great honour bestowed on you by the Lord God, for we have handled the coins struck at your Royal Mint, where a six-pointed star is shown shining upon the sacred mountain-top.”

Herod smiled encouragingly. “To whom, learned Damascenes, do you suppose this Prince to have been born ?”

They bowed and replied : “We are ignorant men, but since it is known that he is to be the King of the Jews, we presume him to be
either your son or your grandson. We are not believers in the direct descent of the Coming One from David, for as one of our teachers has said : ‘He will be called David even if he is not of David’s blood.’ Well, now he is born at last. The stars do not lie.”

“No, they do not lie, but often they mislead. When do you suppose this child to have been born ?”

“By our calculations he was born at this last winter solstice.”

“And where ?”

“We do not know, but we presume at Bethlehem of Ephrath. As your Majesty knows, the prophet Micah wrote distinctly : ‘And you, Bethlehem in the land of Judah, are not the least of the Princes of Judah, for out of you shall come one who shall rule my people Israel.’ ”

“Would you recognize the child if you were to see him ?”

“Certainly! He would have marks of royalty on him.”

“You have my permission to go to Bethlehem to search for him, good men. If you find him let me know and I shall come and worship him. But in this at least you are mistaken : he is no son or grandson of mine.”

“May Your Majesty live for ever! We will set out at once.”

Herod was astonished by the coincidence ; for the House of David were to be registered at Bethlehem on the following day.

When the Damascenes had gone, Herod began to doubt first whether Archelaus could be trusted to destroy the child and then whether the tale of the birth in the Grotto were true. Had it perhaps been ingeniously fabricated by him as a means of getting command of troops with which to raise a revolt? Were the Damascenes his accomplices? Was the standard of revolt to be raised at Bethlehem? Thus from a single doubt his mind raced through a whole circuit of doubts. He even felt uncertain of the loyalty of his cousin-german the Edomite Achiabus, the only man whom he had taken wholly into his confidence about the grand plan —Achiabus who had accompanied him into the tombs of Solomon and David, and who was to become High Priest of the reformed religion. He began to groan and complained once more of the pain in his bowels, and presently in a piteous voice asked Achiabus, who was sitting with him, for an apple to cool his parched throat and a knife with which to pare the apple. When Achiabus fetched them, Herod pretended that his pains had suddenly become so violent that he could not bear to live even an hour longer, and made as if to stab himself with the knife. Would Achiabus try to restrain him, or would he allow him to die without hindrance? That was a fair test of his love.

Achiabus wrenched the knife away and cried : “Help! Help !” The servants came in at a run, and seeing the two men struggling for the knife concluded that Achiabus was a secret assassin. A great outcry and commotion followed ; the word ran through the Palace “The Lion is dead”. His name was so feared that a huge wailing arose from far and near to frighten the ghost away from the scene of his horrid crimes.

The frightful noise and the rumour of Herod’s death reached the Royal prison, where Antipater was now confined. A quick-witted young
warder hurried into his cell, knocked off his gyves and fetters and led him tottering towards the gate. But the gate was barred and the porter surly ; before he could be persuaded to open it, the prison governor, to whom Archelaus had made large presents, intercepted Antipater and marched him back to his cell. The governor sent a hurried message to Archelaus informing him of what had happened, and begging to be the first to congratulate him on his accession to the Throne. But the other warders crowded around, shouting : “Release King Antipater, release him! He is innocent! He is our own true King. He will reward us all with wonderful gifts.”

The governor made a quick decision : he sent two of his men into Antipater’s cell, who struck him suddenly from behind as he knelt in prayer and killed him outright.

Thus by too great cunning Herod had over-reached himself, and the antique God of Jerusalem was cheated of his burned offering.

The news reached Emmaus on the following night. When Mary heard that Antipater was dead she could not weep openly nor unburden her heart even to the faithful Shelom. But she whispered in the ear of her infant son, whom she called Jesus : “O my son, he is dead! O little son, do you hear, he is dead !” The child wailed. He was all the world to her now : her first child, and her last. She began to rock him and soothe him, telling him of the journey that lay ahead of them. “You and I are going on a journey in the morning. We are going to the place where you were born. We are going to Bethlehem. I will take good care of you, and do you take good care of me, and the Lord will take good care of us both, and good old Joseph will travel with us.” At this the child smiled, which was the first smile she had ever had from him. She kissed him tenderly and said : “Sleep now, Son Jesus, for soon we go on a long, long journey.” But she little guessed how long and weary a journey it would be.

They were delayed on the road by the lameness of one of their asses and did not reach Bethlehem until after midnight. Then it was too late to knock up a merchant of the town with whom Joseph had once dealt in business ; but he led the lame ass to the backside of the merchan’s house and tied it up in the stable with the other beasts. Then they continued up the hill to the village inn, Mary riding, Joseph walking beside her with his hand on the bridle. They found the inn filled to overflowing with members of the House of David who had come for the registration. Men were sleeping huddled in blankets in the doorway and under the porch, so close together that Joseph could not have entered without treading on one of them. The night was cold, with rain drizzling down. He looked for shelter in the barn ; but the barn was also crowded, and as he tried to thrust his way in someone banged the door and barred it from inside.

The inn-keeper, who came up at that moment with a lantern, said to Joseph : “Sir, I do not know your name, but I see that you are an
old man and that your wife has a young child with her. I cannot refuse you what poor hospitality it still remains in my power to offer. Just over the brow of the hill in a clearing of the wood stands a shed where one of my sons keeps his beasts ; I will accompany you to it. It is a small, foul-smelling place, but warm and dry at least.”

They thanked him and he led them through the mire to the shed, and wished them good-night, promising to come again in the morning to salute them. They settled down in the straw and slept until daylight.

The next morning, while Mary cooked breakfast in the earthenware pots that she found in a corner of the shed, Joseph walked down to the village to see to the needs of his lame ass ; he said : “It is written that a merciful man is merciful also to his beast.” As he went he was trying to recall a frightful dream that had disturbed his night but had vanished at dawn, leaving a vague sense of fear and uneasiness. His merchant friend was not at home, so Joseph took the ass in search of a surgeon. As he stood doubtfully at the cross-roads, he heard three rich Jews, Damascenes by their dress, in earnest conversation with a Kenite tribesman. The man was saying : “As the Lord lives, eminent merchants, I do not lie. The bird came sailing across the valley with lazy flappings of her wings, but when she reached the point in the sky directly above the cave where the child was being born, she was arrested in flight and stood poised there like a buzzard. Indeed, my lords, as I watched I was aware that my heart had stopped beating, and I believed myself a dead man. Only my eyes still had motion in them, and when I turned them towards the Grotto it seemed to me that a great glory shone above it—”

Joseph hastily moved on, for he recognized the Kenite’s face and did not wish to be recognized himself. But the man cried out : “Hist! If this is not the very person! I am not an ass-surgeon for nothing. I know him again by his she-ass. I treated her hock—it was the hock of the off-foreleg—and now she has gone lame in the off-hindleg.”

He ran after Joseph and said : “Sir, leave the she-ass in my care. In three weeks’ time, please the Lord, she will be running races.”

“Sir, I thank you. But I cannot wait for three weeks.”

“Take my ass in exchange, and keep her for your own.”

“What sort of a man are you to offer me a fine young white ass in exchange for my old lame red beast? Upon my word, you do not drive a very hard bargain.”

“Did not your lady and the child ride that ass on their journey to Bethlehem three months ago? I will sell the braided hairs of that ass’s tail to my kinsmen as charms of good luck ; they will pay five shekels a braid and think the money well spent. The ass I will keep for myself.”

“Take the old ass, then, and give me the new, for my foreboding is that I shall need a reliable beast before the day is out ; and may the Lord go with you! Yet I charge you not to tell a soul that I am here in Bethlehem until the registration of our House is completed and I have returned home.”

Joseph began to unsaddle the ass, but the Kenite protested : “No, no,
the saddle goes with each ass. Is mine not handsome enough? Its silver bells and green tassels will please your lady and her child. But I require your own saddle for the sake of the precious burden that it has supported : it will be a glorious legacy for my children and my children’s children.”

The three Damascenes stood listening in silence. When Joseph rode off, they followed him hastily and watched from a distance where he went. Then they returned to their camp for the sacred gifts they had brought, washed and perfumed themselves and put on their richest ceremonial robes so that they appeared like kings.

Mary was giving suck to her child when they appeared at the door of the shed. She looked up in alarm. But they made the sign of peace to Joseph and prostrating themselves on the floor of rammed earth, which Mary had swept well, did silent homage to the child. One of them laid at his feet a twelve-pointed golden crown, with a different jewel for each point, according to the jewels of the twelve tribes, and whispered :

“In token of thy sovereignty, Great One !”

The next set an alabaster pot of myrrh to the left of the crown and said :

“In token, Great One, of thy love !”