King Jesus (Penguin Modern Classics) (24 page)

Herod leaned forward intently in his chair. “Are the parents known ?” he asked.

“Nobody can tell me their names, though it is agreed that they were members of the House of David come on a visit to Bethlehem. The woman, who was young and beautiful, was overcome by the pains of childbirth at some distance from the town. She was taken to the Grotto and delivered there. Her servant, who acted as midwife, called out to some Kenite shepherds who have grazing rights thereabouts to fetch her water for the childbirth washings. The shepherds were superstitiously excited that a child had been born in the Grotto, and on a day too which is locally called ‘The Day of Peace’. They came crowding up and found the child cradled in a harvest-basket of the sort used in the Tammuz cult ; but what excited them most of all was that the midwife testified that she had found the woman’s maidenhead intact, which recalled the prophecy of Isaiah, that ‘A virgin shall conceive and bear a son’. This is, of course, against the laws of nature, but I report what I heard. The parents remained in the cave for three days and then rode off again by night with the child ; meanwhile Kenites and peasants had streamed in from fifteen miles around to adore and serenade him. The father, it is said, was elderly and mild-mannered and appeared to be a man of substance.”

“You can tell me nothing more ?”

“It is said that as the old man and his young wife were walking along the road before they came to the Grotto, he said to her : ‘Woman, why are you laughing and weeping alternately in this strange manner?’ And that she answered : ‘It is because in my mind’s eye I see two peoples—those on my left hand weeping and lamenting, and those on my right hand laughing and exulting.’ And there is another nonsensicality. The shepherds claim that about noon on that day, just before the news reached them from the Grotto, they became aware of a sudden suspension of time. One of them was seated at the stream-side washing his hands after dinner when he saw a heron flap across the valley. Suddenly it seemed to stand still in the sky as if arrested in flight by an invisible hand. He looked towards his companions, who had not yet finished their dinner ; they were seated around a dish of mutton boiled in barley and pulling pieces out with their hands in shepherd fashion. But those who had their hands in the dish kept them there ; those who were conveying food to their mouths sat frozen with their hands raised half-way ; those who were chewing ceased to chew. A shepherd was watering his flocks a little way upstream ; the sheep had their mouths in the water but ceased to drink. The illusion persisted for as long as it would have taken him to count up to fifty, and then slowly all things moved onward again on their course, while a burst of music sounded from the grove on the hill-top—the grove sacred to Tammuz—and a voice cried out : ‘The Virgin has brought forth. The Light is waking.’ ”

Herod said slowly : “It is an extraordinary story, my son, and I thank you heartily for bringing it to me. Even the account of the suspension of time is useful since it confirms the day of the child’s birth. The nomad Kenites pretend that when the Sun stands still in midwinter, having reached the day on which he rallies his failing strength, all Nature does the same, which accounts for the name ‘The Day of Peace’. The superstition has indeed become absurdly incorporated in the story of Joshua’s victory over the five Amorite kings, from a misunderstanding of the ancient poem : ‘Sun, upon Gibeon stand thou still!’ which celebrates the birth of the Sun-god at that season. Nor can I reject the story of the virgin birth as necessarily false, for a child may be conceived without breach of maidenhead ; there are several attested cases. Now, Archelaus, my son, I would have you prove your wisdom. The child, if he lives, is bound to cause immense trouble to our country because of the coincidence of his birth with popular Messianic prophecy, unless I intervene decisively before the mischief ripens. What do you advise ?”

Archelaus answered after reflexion : “Father, my advice is this. Issue an edict, endorsed by the High Priest, that according to many complaints that have reached you of late certain persons are fraudulently claiming to be members of the famous House of David ; and that you have therefore decided to compile an accurate register of the entire House. Henceforth nobody who cannot produce a certificate proving that he has been registered as a Davidite will be accepted in the quality that he professes.
Order the registration to be held at Bethlehem in three weeks’ time, when all Davidite heads of houses must appear in person and bring with them such of their sons as have been born since the last registration—get thee into the land of which was, I believe, fifteen years ago. The parents of the child are bound to attend, and their arrival will attract the same popular excitement as before. Supply me with soldiers and I will soon settle the matter for you.”

“And if they fail to attend ?”

“Then their names and the child’s name will not appear on the register, and the child will forfeit his claim to be called a Son of David.”

“Three weeks’ time? Short notice for the Davidites of Babylonia, Asia Minor and Greece !”

“A later registration date can be arranged for them in their own countries.”

Herod slapped his knee and cried : “Admirably argued. You are to-day restored to your rank and place, my dear Archelaus. And if you succeed in this business I shall appoint you my colleague ; you are a man after my own heart.”

It was not until Archelaus’s return to the Palace that Herod’s sickness took a turn for the worse. The symptoms were a low fever and an intolerable itching all over his body, constant diarrhoea, a foul breath, inflammation of the belly, swollen feet, and a throat so dry that he could hardly breathe. When the palliatives prescribed by Machaon and his other physicians ceased to have any effect on him, he dismissed them with ignominy, flinging them out of the Palace barefoot and naked. He was his own physician for a while, but then, his health growing steadily worse, he sent for others. At last he decided to put himself under the care of the Essenes of Callirrhoë, where the chief physician prescribed draughts of the hot medicinal spring which flows into the Dead Sea ; and a bath in a great jar of sanctified olive oil. But he vomited up the water and he fainted in the jar, and when they pulled him out the whites of his eyes turned up and he seemed to be dying. But still he fought death off.

The edict about the coming registration of the Sons of David reached Joseph at Emmaus and put him in a quandary. He could not leave Mary’s child behind, since to do so would amount to a public disavowal of paternity ; yet to take him might be dangerous. He consulted Mary, who answered at once : “Take us with you, Joseph, and put your trust in the Lord.”

“But I cannot write the child down as a member of the House of David !”

“Do not let that trouble you yet. There are still ten days before we need travel to Bethlehem. Much may happen in those ten days.”

Much did happen. Herod returned in melancholy to Jerusalem and found dispatches waiting there from Augustus. He tore them open and uttered a shout of triumph. Augustus commiserated with him on the disaffection of yet another of his sons, and one who had hitherto shown no signs of disloyalty ; the evidence of treachery, he wrote,
seemed conclusive and Antipater might be executed as soon as his father pleased, and in whatever manner he pleased, though the Lady Livia and himself counselled the more merciful punishment of perpetual exile.

In whatever manner he pleased! There was only one manner of sacrifice acceptable to Set, the true Jehovah, and only one place where the sacrifice might properly be made. The text was to be found in Genesis : “Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land ofMoriah and offer him there upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.” It was the very mountain-top on which the Temple stood, and the present Altar of Burned Offering was the very stone to which the unsuspecting Isaac had been bound. This offering of his first-born, the son whom he secretly cherished and pitied, would alone satisfy Jehovah and persuade him to renew the covenant sworn with Abraham. Jehovah, whether or not he again chose to substitute ram for man, would thereupon heal him of all his bodily distresses and renew his youth, as Abraham’s youth had been renewed, and grant him victory over his multitudinous enemies. But even this supreme sacrifice would be insufficient unless the Temple Hill were first purged of its rabble of false priests ; they must be hewn in pieces as the resolute Elijah had hewn in pieces the priests of Baal. Set must sail back to glory over billows of blood. Herod called his officers together and gave them great presents of money to secure their further loyal service, with a donation of fifty drachmae, besides, to every soldier in the ranks. He told them : “Children, I shall have work for you soon.” These soldiers were all foreigners : the bodyguard were Edomites mixed with Nabataeans from Petra—Herod’s mother had been a Nabataean—and with the permission of Augustus he had also recruited a regiment of Belgian Celts, another of Thracians, and another of Galatian Gauls—all of them devotees of the same variously named Sun-god. The Edomites called this god Kozi or Nimrod ; the Nabataeans, Ouri-tal Dusares ; the Thracians, Dionysus ; the Galatians, Esu ; and the Celts, Lugos.

T
HROUGHOUT
his long life Herod had studied the stars intently and directed his policy according to their guidance. His birth had been heralded by a close conjunction of the great planets Jupiter and Saturn, and in his fifty-eighth year a recurrence of the same rare event had assured him that the years of patient preparation were over : the period of bold action was to begin. In the three ensuing years he had put into execution the preliminary plans which culminated in the theophany witnessed by Zacharias and in the condemnation of his son Antipater.
Now the dawn of the fifth millennium, and of the third Phoenix Age, was breaking, and the hour of deliverance long ago promised by the patriarch Isaac to his son Esau, which is to say Edom, had been sounded as it were with trumpets : the celestial sign had been a total eclipse of the Moon. His grand plan could at last be put into execution—must be put into execution before it was too late. His aches and itchings had grown almost past bearing and drove him into fits of uncontrollable rage, so that even the valets were terrified to enter his presence. His sense of urgency was heightened by a private letter from the Emperor’s Oriental Secretary warning him that the princes Archelaus and Philip were building up a secret army in Samaria (their mother was a Samaritan) and intended to seize the throne as soon as Antipater had been executed. The letter was inspired by Livia, who could not refrain from further confusing the situation at Jerusalem : the Roman Imperial system is founded on a policy of
divide et impera
—“Cause divisions in your neighbour’s kingdom and profit from them by assuming the sovereignty yourself.” Herod did not believe the accusation, but the letter caused him anxiety nevertheless.

He issued an edict summoning the whole ruling priesthood of Jerusalem, and every Levitical Doctor of the Law from all over the kingdom, to assemble in his Palace grounds at Jericho on the following Sunday, under pain of death. Some fifteen thousand men obeyed, not without fear, but trusting that there would be safety in numbers.

Towards the evening of this day, when all were assembled on the immense parade-ground in front of the Palace, crowded together in no order, Herod appeared on a balcony and laughed silently at them, but could not speak because of the dryness of his throat. He handed a paper to Ptolemy, his chamberlain, which Ptolemy read as follows, shouting the words through his trumpeted hands :

“The words of your August Sovereign, Herod, King of the Jews :

“Priests and Doctors of Israel! You are assembled here on the opening day of a new week, of a great week, of a week that will be remembered by your children and your children’s children for ever. Raphael the archangel is the warden of this day, which is called the Day of the Sun. Those of you who are skilled in angelology will bear me out when I declare that it is this archangel who is destined at last to heal Ephraim—which is customarily understood to signify the ten tribes of the North—by converting them all at once from their prolonged iniquity. Yet let Raphael first practise his curative art upon you who boast yourselves Sons of Levi—a tribe which for its bloody-mindedness, in ancient days, was granted no single stretch of territory but dispersed instead in mischievous pockets and enclaves throughout the land of Israel ; let Raphael, I say, heal you by the rays of the fiery Being to whose service he is dedicated.

“I have summoned you here, rebellious ones, to recall to your memory a psalm composed by David son of Jesse, my predecessor in this troublesome
kingdom. In it he extols the Creator in the familiar stanzas beginning :

Far in the East a stable for the Sun

The Lord our God has set, whence with a shout

Titan springs rutilant out,

   Like a bridegroom

   From his anointing room,
Rejoicing across Heaven his wheelèd race to run.

Your pious ancestors once kept white horses stabled on the Temple Hill and every morning harnessed them to golden chariots which were driven out splendidly to meet the rising Sun. Who commanded you to turn your backs to the Sun when you worship? Who led you astray? Did you dredge up this impious custom from the stinking canals of Babylon?

“Deaf adders, blind moles! I have built a beautiful hippodrome below the Temple of Jerusalem, a marble hippodrome with gilded bronze gates and barriers, capacious benches and an exquisitely adorned spina—by which is meant the middle space enclosed by the track—such as would not disgrace any of the richest and greatest cities of the Greeks. But to what purpose? You never frequent that admirable place, because of your superstitious obstinacy. You close your eyes to its very existence ; on festival days you fastidiously stop your ears against the shouts of joy which flow in great waves from the benches, when in rivalry around the elliptical track gallop teams of beautiful horses, urging along chariots decorated with red, white, blue and green. The teams run sun-wise, in honour of the supreme luminary for which the Lord God, as David testifies, has provided a hippodrome in Heaven and rosy stables in the East. Their chariot colours are those of the four prime seasons, and upright stands each resolute charioteer.