




                            AS OTHERS SAW HIM





                            AS OTHERS SAW HIM

                             _A RETROSPECT_

                                A. D. 54

         "_It cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem_"
                                        LUKE xiii. 33

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BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY
*The Riverside Press, Cambridge*
1895





                            Copyright, 1895,
                        BY HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO.

                          _All rights reserved._




             _The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U.S.A._
             Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghton & Co.





TO AGLAOPHONOS, PHYSICIAN OF THE GREEKS AT CORINTH, MESHULLAM BEN ZADOK, A
SCRIBE OF THE JEWS AT ALEXANDRIA, GREETING:--

_It was a joy and a surprise to me to hear news after many days from thee,
my master and my friend. To thee I owe whatever I have of Greek wisdom;
for when in the old days at the Holy City thou soughtest me for
instruction in our Law, I learnt more from thee than I could impart to
thee. Since I last wrote to thee, I have come to this great city, where
many of my nation dwell, and almost all the most learned of thy tongue are
congregated. Truly, it would please me much, and mine only son and his
wife, if thou couldst come and take up thy sojourn among us for a while._

_Touching the man Saul of Tarsus, of whom thou writest, I know but little.
He is well instructed in our Law, both written and oral, having received
the latter from the chief master among those of the past generation,
Gamaliel by name. Yet he is not of the disciples of Aaron that love peace;
for when I last heard of him he was among the leaders of a riot in which a
man was slain. And now I think thereon, I am almost certain that the slain
man was of the followers of Jesus the Nazarene, and this Saul was __among
the bitterest against them. And yet thou writest that the same Saul has
spoken of the Nazarene that he was a god like Apollo, that had come down
on earth for a while to live his life among men. Truly, men's minds are as
the wind that bloweth hither and thither._

_But as for that Jesus of Nazara, I can tell thee much, if not all. For I
was at Jerusalem all the time he passed for a leader of men up to his
shameful death. At first I admired him for his greatness of soul and
goodness of life, but in the end I came to see that he was a danger to our
nation, and, though unwillingly, I was of those who voted for his death in
the Council of Twenty-Three. Yet I cannot tell thee all I know in the
compass of a letter, so I have written it at large for thee, and it will
be delivered unto thee even with this letter. And in my description of
events I have been at pains to distinguish between what I saw myself and
what I heard from others, following in this the example of Herodotus of
Halicarnassus, who, if he spake rude Greek, wrote true history. And so
farewell._





                                CONTENTS.


                                                             PAGE
   I.   THE MAN WITH THE SCOURGE                                9
  II.   THE UPBRINGING                                         21
 III.   EARLIER TEACHING. SERMON IN THE SYNAGOGUE OF THE       37
        GALILAEANS
  IV.   THE TWO WAYS                                           55
   V.   THE WOMAN TAKEN IN ADULTERY. THE RICH YOUNG MAN        63
  VI.   THE TESTINGS IN THE TEMPLE                             75
 VII.   THE SECOND SERMON                                      87
VIII.   THE REBUKING OF JESUS                                  99
  IX.   JESUS IN THE TEMPLE                                   111
   X.   THE ENTRY INTO JERUSALEM                              121
  XI.   THE CLEANSING OF THE TEMPLE                           133
 XII.   THE WOES                                              145
XIII.   THE GREAT REFUSAL                                     155
 XIV.   THE MEETING OF THE HANANITES                          167
  XV.   THE EXAMINATION BEFORE THE SANHEDRIM                  181
 XVI.   CONDEMNATION AND EXECUTION                            195
        EPILOGUE                                              207






                                   I.
                        THE MAN WITH THE SCOURGE.


I was crossing one morning the Xystus Bridge on my way to the Temple, when
I saw issuing from the nearest gate a herd of beasts of sacrifice. Fearing
that something untoward had occurred, I hurried to the gate, and when I
entered the Court of the Gentiles, I found all in confusion. The tables of
the money-changers had been overturned, and the men were gathering their
moneys from the ground. And in the midst I saw one with a scourge in his
hand. His face was full of wrath and scorn, his eyes blazed, and on his
left temple stood out a vein all blue, throbbing with his passion. He was
neither short nor tall, but of sturdy figure, and clad in rustic garb.

Now, as the money-changers were escaping from his wrath, one of them ran
against a little child that was in the court, and it fell screaming. The
fellow took no heed, but went on his course. But the man with the scourge
went to the little child and raised it to its feet, and pressed it to his
side; the hand that rested on the curly head was that of a workman, with
broken nails, and yet the fingers twitched with the excitement of the man.
But, looking to his face, I saw that a wonderful change had come over it.
From rage, it had turned to pity and love; the eyes that had flashed scorn
on the money-changers now looked down with tenderness on the little child.
I remember thinking to myself, "This man cannot say the thing that is not;
his face bewrayeth him."

Meanwhile the money-changers and those with them had collected together
near the gate by which I had entered, and stood there whispering and
muttering among themselves. All at once they turned towards the man as he
was soothing the little child, and shouted out together, "_Mamzer!
Mamzer!_" which in our tongue signifieth one born out of wedlock. Then the
man looked up from the little child, his face once more full of rage, and
the blue vein throbbing on his temple. He took a step towards the men, and
then he stopped. His face changed to a look of pity, and the men
themselves, in fear and shame, slunk away before his look through the gate
and were gone.

Then he turned towards those that had for sale doves as sacrifices for the
women and the poor. To these he spoke in a tone that was calm and yet full
of authority, and then I noticed that his voice had the burr of our
northern peasantry. He said unto them, "Take these things hence; make not
my Father's house a house of merchandise." And these, too, went away
through the gates, carrying with them the wicker cages full of doves. Ever
since that time the doves have been for sale in Hanan's Bazaar on the
Mount of Olives.

Now I must tell thee that at this time there had been much disputing
between the Pharisees and the Sadducees as to the sale of beasts for
sacrifice. The Pharisees held that each man might buy such beasts wherever
he would; but the Sadducees, being mainly priests, or of priestly blood,
would have it that the beasts of sacrifice could only be purchased from
the salesmen duly authorized by the High Priest; for they said, "Who shall
tell that the beasts are according to the Law, if they are bought from any
chance person?" Yet many thought they only did this in order that they