The Story of Mankind [42]
here now for a
month and to-morrow we shall continue our march to Petra,
where there has been trouble with some of the Arab tribes. I
shall use this evening to answer your questions, but pray do
not expect a detailed report.
I have talked with most of the older men in this city but
few have been able to give me any definite information. A
few days ago a pedler came to the camp. I bought some of
his olives and I asked him whether he had ever heard of the
famous Messiah who was killed when he was young. He said
that he remembered it very clearly, because his father had
taken him to Golgotha (a hill just outside the city) to see
the execution, and to show him what became of the enemies of
the laws of the people of Judaea. He gave me the address of
one Joseph, who had been a personal friend of the Messiah
and told me that I had better go and see him if I wanted to
know more.
This morning I went to call on Joseph. He was quite an
old man. He had been a fisherman on one of the fresh-water
lakes. His memory was clear, and from him at last I got a
fairly definite account of what had happened during the
troublesome days before I was born.
Tiberius, our great and glorious emperor, was on the throne,
and an officer of the name of Pontius Pilatus was governor of
Judaea and Samaria. Joseph knew little about this Pilatus.
He seemed to have been an honest enough official who left a
decent reputation as procurator of the province. In the year
755 or 756 (Joseph had forgotten when) Pilatus was called to
Jerusalem on account of a riot. A certain young man (the
son of a carpenter of Nazareth) was said to be planning a
revolution against the Roman government. Strangely enough
our own intelligence officers, who are usually well informed,
appear to have heard nothing about it, and when they investigated
the matter they reported that the carpenter was an
excellent citizen and that there was no reason to proceed against
him. But the old-fashioned leaders of the Jewish faith, according
to Joseph, were much upset. They greatly disliked his
popularity with the masses of the poorer Hebrews. The
``Nazarene'' (so they told Pilatus) had publicly claimed that a
Greek or a Roman or even a Philistine, who tried to live a decent
and honourable life, was quite as good as a Jew who spent
his days studying the ancient laws of Moses. Pilatus does not
seem to have been impressed by this argument, but when the
crowds around the temple threatened to lynch Jesus, and kill
all his followers, he decided to take the carpenter into custody
to save his life.
He does not appear to have understood the real nature of
the quarrel. Whenever he asked the Jewish priests to explain
their grievances, they shouted ``heresy'' and ``treason'' and got
terribly excited. Finally, so Joseph told me, Pilatus sent for
Joshua (that was the name of the Nazarene, but the Greeks
who live in this part of the world always refer to him as Jesus)
to examine him personally. He talked to him for several
hours. He asked him about the ``dangerous doctrines'' which
he was said to have preached on the shores of the sea of Galilee.
But Jesus answered that he never referred to politics. He was
not so much interested in the bodies of men as in Man's soul.
He wanted all people to regard their neighbours as their
brothers and to love one single God, who was the father of all
living beings.
Pilatus, who seems to have been well versed in the doctrines
of the Stoics and the other Greek philosophers, does not appear
to have discovered anything seditious in the talk of Jesus.
According to my informant he made another attempt to save
the life of the kindly prophet. He kept putting the execution
off. Meanwhile the Jewish people, lashed into fury by their
priests, got frantic with rage. There had been many riots in
Jerusalem before this and there were only a few Roman soldiers
within calling
month and to-morrow we shall continue our march to Petra,
where there has been trouble with some of the Arab tribes. I
shall use this evening to answer your questions, but pray do
not expect a detailed report.
I have talked with most of the older men in this city but
few have been able to give me any definite information. A
few days ago a pedler came to the camp. I bought some of
his olives and I asked him whether he had ever heard of the
famous Messiah who was killed when he was young. He said
that he remembered it very clearly, because his father had
taken him to Golgotha (a hill just outside the city) to see
the execution, and to show him what became of the enemies of
the laws of the people of Judaea. He gave me the address of
one Joseph, who had been a personal friend of the Messiah
and told me that I had better go and see him if I wanted to
know more.
This morning I went to call on Joseph. He was quite an
old man. He had been a fisherman on one of the fresh-water
lakes. His memory was clear, and from him at last I got a
fairly definite account of what had happened during the
troublesome days before I was born.
Tiberius, our great and glorious emperor, was on the throne,
and an officer of the name of Pontius Pilatus was governor of
Judaea and Samaria. Joseph knew little about this Pilatus.
He seemed to have been an honest enough official who left a
decent reputation as procurator of the province. In the year
755 or 756 (Joseph had forgotten when) Pilatus was called to
Jerusalem on account of a riot. A certain young man (the
son of a carpenter of Nazareth) was said to be planning a
revolution against the Roman government. Strangely enough
our own intelligence officers, who are usually well informed,
appear to have heard nothing about it, and when they investigated
the matter they reported that the carpenter was an
excellent citizen and that there was no reason to proceed against
him. But the old-fashioned leaders of the Jewish faith, according
to Joseph, were much upset. They greatly disliked his
popularity with the masses of the poorer Hebrews. The
``Nazarene'' (so they told Pilatus) had publicly claimed that a
Greek or a Roman or even a Philistine, who tried to live a decent
and honourable life, was quite as good as a Jew who spent
his days studying the ancient laws of Moses. Pilatus does not
seem to have been impressed by this argument, but when the
crowds around the temple threatened to lynch Jesus, and kill
all his followers, he decided to take the carpenter into custody
to save his life.
He does not appear to have understood the real nature of
the quarrel. Whenever he asked the Jewish priests to explain
their grievances, they shouted ``heresy'' and ``treason'' and got
terribly excited. Finally, so Joseph told me, Pilatus sent for
Joshua (that was the name of the Nazarene, but the Greeks
who live in this part of the world always refer to him as Jesus)
to examine him personally. He talked to him for several
hours. He asked him about the ``dangerous doctrines'' which
he was said to have preached on the shores of the sea of Galilee.
But Jesus answered that he never referred to politics. He was
not so much interested in the bodies of men as in Man's soul.
He wanted all people to regard their neighbours as their
brothers and to love one single God, who was the father of all
living beings.
Pilatus, who seems to have been well versed in the doctrines
of the Stoics and the other Greek philosophers, does not appear
to have discovered anything seditious in the talk of Jesus.
According to my informant he made another attempt to save
the life of the kindly prophet. He kept putting the execution
off. Meanwhile the Jewish people, lashed into fury by their
priests, got frantic with rage. There had been many riots in
Jerusalem before this and there were only a few Roman soldiers
within calling