Miryam
A novel narrated by Mary Magdalene
by Louise Rinser
Part 3
A day�s journey later I came to the Kineret Sea. It lay still between the hills on this side and the desert mountains on the other. A moonlit night. Far out a few fishing boats. Now and then a fish sprang up and, plunging back, described a round trace of silver. Sometimes a rustle in the reeds. It was beautiful. It was peace and home. I sat there for a long time, completely one with the breath of the landscape that was my home.
Suddenly a wind sprang up, from one moment to the next, south-wind, a storm in an almost clear sky, a ferocious storm, without warning. And the boats out there, the wind against them. The fishermen�s wives gathered on the shore, the old, the children. The boats danced and sprang and couldn�t come in because of the waves, and they couldn�t be helped, no boat came through the sharp breakers.
As suddenly as the storm sprang up, so suddenly did it subside. Nothing. Stillness. The sea was mirror smooth and the boats came in undamaged and with full nets. Cries of joy and tears and embraces.
A man stepped out of one of the boats, paid no attention to the ships, fish or fishermen, but waded to shore, pulled his cloak closely around him and walked away, alone and very solitary. One whom no one was waiting for. One without a family. Who was he?�������������������
Hadn�t I seen those motions before, this wrapping himself in his cloak, this wordless leaving? Then I realized: he was the one from the Jordan. Who was he though, this special one whom you couldn�t overlook?
Why didn�t I run after him that time either?
I saw him disappear through the reeds and the bushes. Where did he go?
The fishermen had pulled their nets on shore. A fine catch, nets in good shape despite the storm.
I spoke to one of the fishermen: Who was the man in this boat?
Which?
Who got out and walked away. Is he one of you, a fisherman?
He? If you mean Yeshua, he�s a rabbi, not a fisherman.
Do you know him?
Why shouldn�t I?
And you? Who are you?
Shimon.
You were lucky to have escaped safely.
Luck, you say. Luck? That�s not luck, young lady.
What then?
Shimon looked up at me. What do you know, he said, you weren�t with us out there.
No, I only saw how you were about to capsize and the storm abated.
Yes, and how it abated. Like a dog lies at its master�s feet when the master orders it to.
What�s that supposed to mean?
Why are you asking? Don�t you see I have work to do?
I left him alone. He was hiding something. But what?
I asked someone from the second boat: Tell me what happened out there.
What then? We were rescued. Isn�t that enough?
But another one said: If the rabbi hadn�t been with us we would never have made it to land. Have you ever seen such a storm or how it abated?
Oh sure, I said, such storms happen. They go as they came.
He looked at me angrily. That�s what you think? he asked.
I got no more out of him. But it was clear to me: they believed this rabbi had stopped the storm. Fools, miracle-addicts. What power they attributed to him.
But why had he, the rabbi, gone out with the fishermen? What did he have to do with them? He was no fisherman, nor the son of a fisherman. He was from Nazareth, Shimon had said.
From Nazareth. From Nazareth. And I remembered: the boy! That one! It�s him. It must be him. I wove the threads to a yarn: he had gone to the Essenes and returned. He came back to life. It is he! And now he was a rabbi and went out to sea with the fishermen, with the poor. A rabbi, a scholar who cared about the poor fishermen.
Could he be one of the secret rebels? But what did he have in common with that penance-preacher? That didn�t make sense. Either one or the other.
But what?
What was unclear made me angry. What do I care, I thought. What do I care about this rabbi? The miracle-rabbi of whom the lepers spoke, was this he? Now that: a miracle worker. A sectarian. One of the hundreds of prophets who wander around the land. Or even one who thinks he�s the Messiah.
No, no, I wanted nothing to do with him. I felt the dagger under my cloak. It had become warm against my flesh. That was sound, that was a clear decision.
Before going to seek a rebel group, I went home to Magdala and put my house in order. What I didn�t need, I gave away, as the Essenes did, something that was in the air and affected even me, though I didn�t understand it. I did take something with me, though, it seemed very foolish to take just that: three small alabaster flasks, fused closed so that none of the valuable fragrance could be lost: ointment for the king. Each of the flasks was worth a fortune. In any case, I thought, I can sell them some day, which would mean a lot of money for the rebellion.����
I didn�t tell anyone about my plan, nor did I take any of the servants with me. I let two go, richly endowed; two I kept, the most conscientious. Keep the house in good condition until I return.
So I left, flasks and dagger under my clothing.
I wandered around and no one was surprised. They had become accustomed to me, as they would to a beggar, leper, wandering preacher or minor prophet. Everything was possible in our land in our times.
Once a group of wandering men approached me in a narrow pass. The path was narrow, one could only go through single file. Who would make way? I, still the Jewish woman, still habit formed, stood aside to let the men pass. It wasn�t proper to look strange men in the face. I adhered to such rules � then.
But one of them forced me to break the rule: it was a look that gripped me and wanted reciprocation. What a look. My heartbeat stopped, I saw a flash of lightning and fell unconscious.
This is the basis for the story of the curing of the possessed one, of the expulsion of the seven or eight demons.
When I regained consciousness, the sun was down. I found myself under a cover of branches and leaves beyond the pass. I had been brought there and put in a safe place. Beside me lay some bread and a small flask of wine. No one was to be seen. I felt strange. When I stood up, I felt as light as a handful of grass, and I saw that the earth was beautiful. That was it: I SAW.
Then I went to sleep. I awoke amazed and felt as though I had been cured of a long, serious illness.
HE. And once again he had disappeared.
Where to?
He couldn�t have got very far in one night. I deceived myself: I had lain there for three days and three nights in a deep sleep. But Yeshua told me that much later. I asked the early workers in the fields and all the pilgrims on the road if they had seen a group of men. Finally two soldiers on horseback stopped me. I said boldly: I got lost and can�t find my brothers, have you seen them?
How many?
Luckily I said: six.
Probably they thought: six against two, we better let the woman go.
They went that way, your people.
Apparently they said that to have something to say.
I took it as a sign. That way. Your people.
So they are my people.
Henceforth and forever mine.
The riders had pointed to the northeast. The road led again to the sea, and along the sea to Kefarnachum.
And there I found him, and this time the decision between us was made.
I saw the small group come from the sea and go to a scribe�s house. It was midday, time to eat. He and his group, including Shimon the fisherman, entered the house. The door stood open.� What if I went in, uninvited, a woman. A stranger, or perhaps known as �the one from Magdala�, �with the evil look�, the demons? What would happen? They would throw me out. Surely. And HE? No matter, I jumped the hurdle, it had to be, the time had come, now or never: I went in. No one held me back. It was only very quiet in the room, as if they all were holding their breath. As though destiny itself was holding its breath. I stood before him.
I took one of my alabaster flasks out and broke it on the tabletop. The room was filled with fragrance. The king�s ointment. I poured a little over his hair, the rest on his feet. I knelt and remained kneeling, and wept. I would have stayed kneeling for a thousand years. It was a blissful death. What died was my earth-I. The scene made the men speechless. Finally though one of them said something that sounded unfriendly. I heard: Don�t you know who she is, Rabbi?
Yeshua said: Do you know? You don�t. Listen: A creditor had two debtors. One owed him fifty denars, the other five hundred. Neither one was able to pay back the debt. The creditor forgave both their debts. Which of the two will be most thankful?
He who was forgiven most, of course.
So is it. Don�t judge though, neither in words, in looks nor in thoughts. Miryam, (how did he know my name?) stand up, look at me, dry your tears. With these tears you have washed yourself clean.
Rabbi!
That was all I could say.
The host grumbled, there was an awkward discord in the room. The rabbi didn�t wait for the meal to end. As he stood up he said to the host: Did you provide me with water to wash my feet? Did you give me the brother-kiss? Do you know whom you invited? But she recognized me.
He motioned to his disciples and me, and we went out. A scandal. One of many which I experienced later.
I stood there undecided.
What are you waiting for? Come!
I came. I stayed. I followed him until under the cross. Until today I am his.
The men, however, his disciples, looked dismayed. A woman among them? A woman at the rabbi�s side, and not his wife? That was intolerable. That would cause much talk. But they didn�t dare to argue. They accepted me in the hope (they told me later) that I would soon grow weary of the constant moving about. They acted as though I wasn�t there, and I acted as though it was all completely normal. And Yeshua treated me as though he had known me forever. With him I was safe. Once and forever. A difficult safety, but there is no other.
��������
We were eight: Shimon, the fisherman, his brother Andrew, the other brothers Ja�akov and Jochanan the Elder, also fishermen, and a young man named Jochanan, who was no fisherman but a scholar who had studied in Greece, and then one from the Jewish Diaspora, from Decapolis, and he also had a Greek name: Philippos; he was no simple worker; and Yeshua and I.
It was evening and no lodgings were in sight. The men didn�t care. It seemed that they left everything to the rabbi. He finally found an empty farmhouse, one of those whose owner had been dispossessed and his property expropriated.
Can you cook? Shimon asked hopefully. He meant: can you at least do that, since otherwise you�re nothing but a bother.
No, I can�t cook. I come from a house where the servants do that.
They all laughed.
Yeshua said: Why should she cook for us? Haven�t we always done that ourselves? Has she come to serve us?
Shimon grumbled: She should do something, shouldn�t she? Why else is she with us?
Why are you with me, Shimon?
Yes, sure. But a woman�
Yes, a woman. Now go and gather herbs, and you, Philippos and Andrew, clean the fish, and Jochanan, go and fetch water.
So I was alone with him for the first time. He arranged wood for the fire. How calmly he moved, how skillfully and easy. I sat there doing nothing and looking at him. He tossed a flint stone and wood to me. Can you do it? he asked, or do your servants also do that?
I was ashamed, but he laughed. His laughter was cheerful and warm.
When the fire was burning he sat next to it, watched the flames and was silent.
Who are you? I thought. Whoever are you, that I sit here with you as if it must be so? I, the lone wolf, without men, untamed. And now suddenly this. How did it happen? It came over me like silent thunder. Did he bewitch me? He had something about him that was indescribable. He was irresistible, but he didn�t possess you. He attracted and kept his distance. There was something between him and everyone else that forbade intimacy, but permitted nearness, even encouraged it.��
I didn�t know him yet. I never really knew him, but he was known to me since eternity. He, however, knew me.
I hadn�t said a word, yet he answered the unasked question: What are you worrying about, Miryam? I am who I am. You will never know more about me than you do at this moment.
Then the others came back, the fished was cooked, the herbs eaten, the spring water drunk, a farmer�s meal, a fisherman�s meal. But something was different: before we began to eat the rabbi took the flat bread, blessed it, divided it into eight parts and gave each of us a piece. A simple gesture, but there was meaning in it, and solemnity.
How often did I experience this bread breaking in the following years! And one time it was the last time, and that last time was the testament, the great bond between him and us.
I ate and drank and forgot what he had said to me. But it came back to me some days later: I am who I am.
That could mean: Take me as I am. It could also mean something else though, something I barely allowed myself to think. I-Am-Who-I-Am. A name. One of the names of the Eternal One. But this, no, he couldn�t have meant that. Not that. So I took it as a simple meaning: I am who I am and I am HERE, and you must be satisfied with my being here.
That first evening around the fire was beautiful. Full of peace. As though neither Romans nor rebels existed, neither masters nor slaves, neither rich nor poor, neither men nor woman, neither the learned nor the ignorant, only brothers, and nothing but peace. The rabbi had that peace to offer.
For that one night the kingdom of heaven was a reality. We slept in the barn on hay and straw, until the cold of morning woke us. Then we broke camp and left. I didn�t ask where we were going. The going-with-him was the fulfillment.
At a bend in the road I threw my dagger into the bushes. Yeshua turned around. Had he seen what I did? He said: good.
Fear went through my bones: Did he know everything? Was nothing hidden from him?
You are uncanny, I thought, did you bewitch me after all? In any case you are clairvoyant. A strange one. One to fear, not only to love.
The next day at the border between Galilee and Samaria we met a customs agent at the customs gate. He was dealing with a wagon that was heavily laden and well covered. We couldn�t see what was in it. The inspection went very quickly. The driver showed a piece of parchment, the agent glanced at it, raised the gate and let the wagon pass. Then he spat after it and cursed. I recognized the curse from a psalm: �His children be lost in the wilderness and go begging, expelled from their ruins�In the next generation their names be erased. For he hates the poor and the suffering��
Then he saw us and was silent. There were many informers around and one could be turned in. Someone who was dissatisfied was also a rebel and a potential friend of the freedom fighters.
Yeshua said: Whom are you cursing, friend?
The customs agent said: I was praying, that�s allowed, isn�t it?
Yeshua said: Don�t you know the saying: Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord?
The man looked at him mistrustfully. Then he saw our cheap clothes and our old sandals and the men�s long hair, and he said: The Lord, the Lord, I know only many lords and they all get off without punishment, for there is no lord over them. Did you see that wagon? Tax free goods for the priests in Jerushalem. A stamp, a seal, and they go through. I�m here to collect taxes. Demand taxes from them, try to control them! I tried it and this was the answer, look.
He showed us the scars on his back.
But I must hand money in. Who should I take it from if the lords don�t pay? From those who are no lords: from the farmers. They must pay. I stop them and take the customs tax from them. I, who used to be a farmer.
Why aren�t you still one?
Why? My farm caught the eye of one of Herod�s ministers. He sent a control agent. You manage this farm miserably, he says. Yes, I say, and why do I manage miserably? Because I have to pay high taxes. But, he says, you don�t pay them all. Yes, I say, that�s it: I don�t pay them because I can�t, because they�re so high that I can�t manage the farm properly anymore. He says: See, you admit that you run the farm badly. We�ll put in a lessee who will do it better; you may stay as a servant. I shout: A servant, I, a free farmer! He says: No one�s forcing you to stay, you can go. I went to the judge: Can that be, what they�re doing to me? He says: What can and what cannot be the authorities decide. I say: And who decides what the authorities may and may not decide? Who allows the tetrarch Herod to exploit us? Do you think we don�t know where the twelve thousand talents come from to support his court, that court of whores? He says: You�re lucky I don�t cite you for rebellion, there are enough stakes for people like you. What could I do? I left. I must be happy that I got this job.
Damned dogs, said Shimon, and reached for the dagger he carried under his cloak just in case, and which he never used except for once, at the wrong time, when Yeshua was arrested.
Yeshua said nothing. He drew with his finger in the sand, something he often did when he silently listened.
Finally he said: Have you anything against our sitting here with you to eat something, friend?������������������������������
We ate bread and olives and onions and shared it with the customs agent, and he brought water from a cistern. Meanwhile another wagon arrived, heavily loaded and sealed. Again a parchment with a stamp, and the agent again opened the gate. I saw how the man driving the wagon pressed something into his hand.
Yeshua said: And you, friend, you sit here and serve the unjust and accept bribes, like them all.
Like them all, the agent said, so it is, like them all.
Yeshua said: Show me one of the coins, which you have in your purse. Whose picture is on it?
The Roman emperor�s.
Doesn�t the coin burn in your hand? Don�t you see that there is blood on it? Wash your hands clean, friend!
How then?
Come with us.
And do what?
Prepare the peace.
Now the man became curious. So you are with those who are against injustice?
We are for justice and freedom, said Yeshua.
Do you belong to a larger group? The man asked.
Yeshua said: We are a small group, but we are like a mustard seed, tiny, but when it grows it is a tree and many birds find shelter in its branches.
Aha, said the man, you aim so high.
So high, said Yeshua.
I like you, the man said, you have something about you that gives one courage. I would like to follow you. But you don�t know who I am. I�ll tell you frankly: After I was ejected from the farm I became a street thief, on my own and for my own pocket. Then I met others like me. We joined together and attacked caravans up there on the border. But we weren�t common thieves. We had a goal. For a while we joined the Zealots. But when many of them were arrested and crucified, I gave that up. So then I was without a permanent group, but I did belong somewhere. I was a Am-ha-arez. Do you know anything about us?
Yeshua looked up: Are you a Galilean?
That�s right, friend, and an Am-ha-arez. One of those who have been circumcised, but no longer lives by the Torah, and why not? Because the Torah is a law made of letters, a barren tree, a dead one. Look at them, the ones who live by the Law! Look at them, the scribes and priests, the hypocrites, the oppressors of the people. Is that what the Law meant? What did Moses write on the tablets? Thou shalt love the All-High and thy neighbor as thyself. That is the Law and that lives. I am a Galilean, yes, and proud to belong to a people who lets him who thinks differently live in peace. In the mixture of peoples which we now are, one learns that there isn�t only one religion.
Shimon said: For a robber you talk big.
Ha, you, the customs agent said, you�re also a Galilean, I hear it from your speech. Tell me, am I right in my opinion about the true Law?
Yeshua said: Friend, how can you be an agent in the service of one who does not observe the highest Law?
The customs agent stood and entered the house. When he came out again, Yeshua said, not that, my friend. We didn�t understand what he meant. The man understood though. He brought the purse, which he had hidden, out again.
Here, you take it! he said to Yeshua, but Yeshua told him: Lay it there!
The man laid it on the bench.
Now come, Mathaios! Said Yeshua.������
The customs agent opened the gate, let us through and closed it behind us. The bottom line.
I looked at Yeshua. What had he done so that that man simply followed him? Was there some kind of witchcraft involved after all? What kind of power did he have, that he could simply look at someone, who then left his workplace and family, property and house, boat and sure food and followed him blindly? Where to then? Was there a goal? Was there an advantage, some kind of profit? Was it an easy life at his side? Was it the thought of the end of times, was it salvation which he promised as the Essenes did? No. HE was the profit. My profit anyway.
Mathaios, the customs agent, had his own thoughts. I often observed him, how he stared at Yeshua and his question, the question of questions, was left unasked. But once he asked me secretly: What do you think of him? Is he perhaps�?
Who then, what then?
The Messiah!
So it came out.
What should I answer? I said: Why should he be the Messiah? Isn�t the Messiah a war hero, royalty or a priest? And our rabbi: is he either one?
Mathaios was, however, a stubborn questioner. Maybe, he said, it�s not yet known, and some day he will reveal it.
So wait! I said, and turned away and was confused, because naturally the question occurred to me as well, but not so urgently.
Another was completely sure that the rabbi, if not exactly the promised Messiah, was certainly Yisrael�s savior. That was Yehuda, who came to us one day. The only one from the south, from the city of Karioth in Judea. Clever, but dark. He spoke little, but saw and heard everything. He never laughed and slept little. He was always alongside the rabbi, like a watchdog ready to spring. He only left in order to get news. He became a courier: every day he brought news of arrests, tortures, crucifixions; he noted the rising prices and the taxes, the triple taxes: to the priests, the Romans, the royal court, he described the misery of the poor and the luxurious life of the powerful, and while doing so stared at Yeshua with glowing eyes.
He was a rebel. Yeshua never put him off, he listened silently and calmly. Jochanan didn�t like him, Shimon feared him. For the others he was the bringer of news and the money manager. He took over that office on his own. You should know how much you have in the purse; it won�t do to go along blindly.
Yeshua said: If you share the money with the poor, I permit it. But be careful that you don�t close your heart in the purse.������
Jochanan wrote later that Yehuda was a thief. Malicious talk and untrue. The truth is that Yehuda had not one, but two purses, and he put what we absolutely needed in the second one. For what? Not for him. He didn�t take one dinar for himself. He saved the money for the rebellion against the Romans, which must come, and Yeshua would lead it. Yehuda didn�t say it so plainly, but it became ever clearer that that�s what he meant. Poor Yehuda. Desperate revolutionary. When he finally realized that Yeshua was not who he wanted him to be, he left and hanged himself from a tree. Yeshua�s dark twin brother: they died on the same day, both on wood, both from suffocation; both names united for all eternity. Yeshua the light, Yehuda his earthly shadow.���
Once a delegation of scribes came to Yeshua in order to ask him this and that, but they wanted only to know this: if he was the Promised One. Yeshua pulled his cloak closely around him and was silent.
They had barely left when Shimon cried out in a fit of divine enthusiasm: You are no man, you are the son of the Eternal One.
Yeshua said: What are you talking about? Who told you such a thing? Why shouldn�t I be a man, Shimon? Listen: I am the son of man. Do you understand that?
Later we discussed it between us: what did Shimon mean? Did he mean that the rabbi was the Messiah? Or what? Afterwards he didn�t know himself what came over him. And the rabbi: he didn�t say yes, didn�t say no, and didn�t explain himself.
So everything remained in suspense. It wasn�t important for me. I knew only one thing: He was he. And I knew what he was to me: everything.
There was much argument later as to whether Yeshua was the Messiah or not, and if he claimed this high rank for himself and if he even called himself God. Dangerous words. He never spoke them.
What things were put into his mouth by our brothers and friends and later companions, who long after his death chose from the mass of things heard with� gradually fading, overlapping and contradictory recollections � what seemed important to them and appropriate to form a teaching and to insure the belief of their listeners. They didn�t write history, they preached. Only� one, Jochanan, described the reality, but he was an eagle who flew to the heights, from time to time dived down, in descent grasped a piece of history and rose up again with it, spreading more secrets than simple explaining. Much was deleted, enhanced, prettified, added, deduced in order to accommodate average Jewish and heathen mentalities, also translated from one language to another, and on the other hand demanding unreasonableness, too many miracles as evidence of his divinity beyond the pure teachings, making Yeshua into an occidental magician and his austere teachings into a collection of fairy tales and legends.
Not that the reporters cheated at the cost of the master, not that, they were all committed to the truth, but their eyes and ears were addicted to miracles and they felt it appropriate to ascribe certain characteristics to their beloved master derived from heroic and godly sagas, whereas his only and true heroism lay in the fact that he didn�t want to be a hero or do Hercules-like things, but accomplished only the heroic deed of perfect non-violence. The greatest of all heroic deeds.
Much was not written down which would have been important to report: that evening discussion between Yeshua, Jochanan and me, when Yeshua didn�t speak in stories and parables, but revealed great mysteries. They also didn�t write anything about the conversations between Yehuda and Yeshua, which, in the year of their deaths, was finally plainly and clearly political: about the freeing of Yisrael from the Roman heathens and the question of violence. How they described Yehuda in anger, how they made him into a common criminal who betrayed the master for money. Malicious, foolish twaddle. I always understood him. He was a burning patriot and as passionately loving as none other of us was.���������������
I must correct this and much more, and I can, for I am the living memory. Nothing has been lost to me, for I have only my memories. They have remained fresh and clear. Nothing diverts me any more. There are days, though, when my acquired calm is broken, when I receive news from home; when I hear what has been made of Yeshua�s pure teaching and how not our enemies but our friends seize and use it with good intentions or as pretext for this of that objective, which is far from what was meant. Then I scream, so that the bats fly crazily out of the cave and sheep, dogs and shepherd flee in terror. Then the bread and cheese and milk remain untouched for days on end, until I am again resigned to my destiny.
It was hard for me. It is still hard for me to think of how wonderfully it all started back then, when, seven days after Yeshua�s death, we, terrified as hunted hares, hid like followers of a political criminal expecting to be arrested, and how we finally dared to hold the first meeting in that room in which we celebrated the last supper, Yeshua with us, and in which we then sat without him and despaired of being able to continue with our task, his task, and if we should even try and if we shouldn�t go back to the old traditions, and when Shimon again had the right idea: ask advice from the Eternal One, and as he recited the psalm of David: �When the Eternal One rises up his enemies scatter, flee before him, the father of orphans, defender of widows, He, the All-High, who leads refugees back home and frees prisoners; show us your power, Adonai! Free the troubled, who have no other helper��
At this point his voice broke, tears flowed over his face, and then we all wept as our forefathers had wept on the rivers of Babylon.
But suddenly something happened: a gust of wind flowed over us, as if someone had opened the windows and doors which, however, were closed shut and barred, and it was as though the gust of wind had let in a swarm of golden bees or sparks; it howled around us, and then Shimon, our fearful, cowardly Shimon, sprang up, ran to the door, lifted the bar, stood on the threshold, spread his arms out and cried loudly: Citizens of Yerushalayim, hear my words, listen to was I proclaim, I, who was a witness to what occurred in this city a few weeks ago: He whom they killed, Yeshua, rabbi from Nazareth, he lives! He has risen from death! We saw him, many times and at many places, he walked with us, spoke to us, he ate and drank with us, we touched his scarred wounds, and he promised to send the Spirit who will give us the strength to announce the truth and to fear nothing, neither prison nor death. That he really died and really rose up from the dead, that is the sign that death has been vanquished, that it has no terror more for us, since we know that we also will rise from the dead. Fear no more! You are also destined to live with him forever.
Many people gathered around him.
A drunk! Crazy! He is disturbing public order! Starting again with that talk of resurrection! They will give us no peace until they are killed like their crazy rabbi.
But others said: Look how this man stands there without fear. As though he had authority. What is it about this teaching that makes one so courageous? They know something that we don�t know. What makes them so sure and full of joy in times of confusion and fear and sorrow? Let�s find out so we may be as courageous as they are!
Shimon�s words: the fishnet thrown out. It brought hundreds of fish in to us. We went to the city and spoke in the public squares, in all the languages and dialects we knew, some of us even went into the temple and no one threw us out, no one forbade us to speak freely. As though we had become untouchable.
What a beginning! What love at first sight! Now there was no longer anything to fear or to doubt, now the kingdom of peace had been born, now the promised future had become the present. Many of the newcomers shared their property, everything belonged to everyone, families united to live together in voluntary poverty, and they took in the old, the poor and the orphans, and we came together daily to pray and to attend the remembrance supper. And no one persecuted us. Who could stop the spring storm, who could extinguish the spirit-fire!? But when too many joined us, also from outside the city, and when it was no longer possible to determine who belonged to us and who to political groups, Shimon and Jochanan were arrested and interrogated. And it wasn�t Jochanan, the eloquent speaker, but Shimon whose tongue was loosened for all time.
You may forbid us to speak. Do so! But we will speak, again and again, for it�s impossible to obey you more than him who is our master and who gave us the mission to publicly bear witness to what we experienced: the death and resurrection of the rabbi Yeshua. And if you silence us by killing us, then thousands of others will proclaim the truth to the world.
On of the councilors, Gamaliel, made a clever suggestion: Let them go, they don�t speak against the rulers or law and order. If what they say is true we can do nothing against them, for the Father of Truth protects them. If it is all idle lies, they will disappear as so many others have disappeared.
But they must be punished as a warning, said others.
So it was decided to scourge them.
I saw them returning, bent over and with blue-red lash marks, which they showed us full of pride and drunk with joy that they had been scourged like the Master. The next day they preached again. At first they were left alone.
But when Shimon, in holy exuberance and blind confidence in the rabbi�s words, �What I can do, you also can�, healed a cripple and some other illnesses, it was too much for the High Council and they arrested both of them again.
You heal the sick. In whose name? Speak the truth; you stand before the High Court.
You also asked our rabbi this question, and you know his answer; it is also ours.
There was nothing to object to in that answer or against the healing, but both were kept preventively in prison until more exact information could be obtained. But they were freed from the jail the following night, by an angel, Shimon said; by a light-form, Jochanan said; by a man who carried a torch and looked like an official and acted like he had authority, the jailor said.
This strange freeing, considered by some to be a miracle, by others to be a sign that we had powerful friends, brought us some new enemies and many new followers. Everything considered, our work was going very well.����
Why then couldn�t I be so unreservedly happy like the others? The mustard seed grew too quickly in me. Trees that shoot up too quickly have soft wood. And what a short time ago it was that the people had shouted: Crucify him, the criminal! And what a short time before that they had called out: Hoshiana! However, my worries seemed unjustified. Everything continued to go well for a long while.
Translated, from the German, by Frank Thomas Smith
Continued in the next issue of Southern Cross Review
