Читать книгу The Robber - Bertram Brooker - Страница 5

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At the time of the barley harvest, in the third week after his wounding, Barabbas returned by night to the Baptist's cave. There was no moon, but the season of meteors had come, and the robber risked recognition as he came up from the gorge of the Nimrin behind Bethabara, where he and his men had discovered a safer retreat. His height and his long stride and swinging arms were familiar, but he believed the villagers would not betray him.

They had never marvelled at his rebellious words, for he was the son of a rabbi long-remembered among them, who had been executed for sedition. The former king had ordered his men to cut out the rabbi's tongue and hang him to a tree as a warning to those who dared speak evil of the hated Herod dynasty. The wife of the rabbi had died of plague in the same year, and their only son, known then as Jeshua, had been taken by a kinsman to live in Jerusalem. Having rebelled against the life of a drudge in his uncle's house, he had been sold as a slave to a camel trader, and when he was freed after seven years, according to the law, he had fled the city and returned to his native place. The people of Bethabara, hearing of his unruly talk and violent acts, said of him that he was the true son of a rebel, and so he came to be called Bar-Abbas, "son of his father".

Proud, headstrong, bitter, yet with a great pity for the oppressed, the robber-prophet of Perea had become a creature of legend. His height and strength had been magnified by the dwellers beyond Jordan, even to the edge of the desert. It was said that he had the stature and the spirit of the ancient men of valour of whom all Israel sang. In daylight he appeared terrifying to the caravans he halted, but in the starlight, as he came up out of the shadows of the gorge, clothed in the skin of a white antelope, he looked like a figure of myth, a Nimrod reborn. The beauty of the ash-coloured fur gave the unshaped tunic a wild elegance. A belt cut from the hide of a leopard he had killed in the winter served as his sole ornament. In a pilgrim's basket over his shoulder he was taking the Baptist a cruse of oil, a measure of meal and a press of figs, gifts of thankfulness for the care the hermit had given him.

The prophet and the robber had found a common bond while Barabbas had remained in hiding. Both were fond of solitude and silence, and in the evenings they had stretched themselves out at the mouth of the cave without speaking, looking up at the stars and thinking their own thoughts. Both were men of lowly birth who aspired to greatness ... John as the forerunner of the Messiah, Barabbas as a leveller of men who would lead the world toward brotherhood.

Despite their deep understanding of each other, they disagreed strongly on the attainment of their beliefs. Elsewhere Barabbas was feared or revered, but the Baptist regarded him as a man of headstrong folly who would come to a violent end, while Barabbas put no faith in John's prophecies. He was convinced that God would not change the course of the world by a wrathful judgment out of heaven. Man, he believed, would have to change and save himself.

As he approached the pools again Barabbas had little hope that his gift would be accepted. Finding the Baptist lying on a camel skin outside the cavern, he set down the basket and stretched himself out on the rock. To his surprise, John did not spurn the food he had brought. Instead he promised to share it among the poorest of the pilgrims who came to hear him preach. He began to speak with pride of the many followers who had gathered about him as the forerunner of the Messiah, preparing themselves for the new Kingdom. Barabbas, angered by the thought of these penitents passively awaiting their salvation, burst out:

"Do your disciples never grow impatient?" There was a hint of mockery in his tone, and when John did not answer, he leaned forward and pressed his questions. "When will your kingdom come? Where is your Messiah? What delays him?"

The hermit answered in a tone unusually calm, "A prince of Jerusalem came to me from that adulterer, Herod; a soft-spoken man, a scholar and a prince of the Maccabean line. This is the second time he has come. I know my king is near when the kings of the earth tremble."

"Who trembles?"

"Herod Antipas!" John spat out the name. "This man he has sent is the youngest member of the Sanhedrin. He came at first with another of the Council, a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus."

"But surely this prince was not of the Pharisees?"

"No. The few princes that are left in Israel are all Sadducees. These Sadducees hope to die in their flesh so that they will not see God. But from afar off God has seen them and judged them. They shall be purged as chaff is purged, from the glorious floor of His kingdom."

Barabbas frowned. A scoffing grimace puffed out his cheeks as he glanced angrily at the Baptist, but John's fanatical eyes were shadowed. In the starlight his hanging tangle of hair made him look like a man with a head of double size, and without a face.

The two men fell silent until a meteor fled across the sky with the speed and brightness of lightning. The long blaze, flashing on the rocks around them, brought them out of their reveries, gasping with wonder.

"An angel with a flaming sword," said Barabbas, mockingly.

John turned with a retort on his tongue, but the robber spoke in a different tone. "This prince, you say, came a second time?"

John grudgingly answered. "The second time he was sent by Herod Antipas, who has married Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip, and a grand-daughter of his own father. It has come to his ears that I have spoken openly against this incestuous marriage. The beds of all the Herods have been defiled with adultery and incest. But this prince who came, a distant cousin of Herodias, said nothing of the accusations I brought against her. He is a true Sadducee. He speaks softly. I despise his kind, but no one could hate him. He has a sorrowful face."

"What is he called?" asked Barabbas, surprised at the other's mildness.

"He is a prince of the tribe of Ephraim. Joseph, of Arimathea. I doubt not that Herodias sent him, but he said he came from Antipas. He told me that Antipas had heard of my prophecies, and desired greatly to hear more from my own mouth concerning the new kingdom. Antipas would send his own chariot for me, he said, and had sworn an oath that not a hair of my head should be harmed."

"What did you answer?"

"I told him I had no faith in the oaths of a whoring son of a monster."

"Blood of the prophets!" burst out Barabbas, admiringly.

"He pleaded that I send a kinsman with him if I would not come myself, that I might be assured that the king bears me no ill will. Predictions of the end of the world have come to Antipas, from the astrologers of Chaldea. All the kings of the world, and not only kings, are in dread of a catastrophe that will shake the earth, he said. He is a man of words. I listened to him a long time. He speaks no evil. Antipas, he said, like many another, is in terror of what is to come and that I speak as one having authority. He asked me to return with him and tell the king what has been revealed to me."

"And will you neither go nor send a kinsman?" Barabbas asked with a sly glance.

"I have no one, except a family in Nazareth who are kin to me," said John, and for the first time that night Barabbas heard a warmth and restfulness creep into the bitter voice. "One is a man of my own age, born within a few months of me. His mother and mine were with child at the same time. They were cousins. She was a much younger woman than my mother. Her babe was born miraculously at Bethlehem, and at first she believed her child would inherit the throne of David, but now that he has begun to preach and work miracles and gather disciples about him in Galilee, they say she is afraid for him, because he offends the rabbis, and has been accused of blasphemy."

"I have heard of this man, not knowing he was your kinsman," said Barabbas. "Have you seen him since he has grown?"

"A year ago he came to Jordan and I baptized him. And some of those who were there asked me if I believed him to be the Messiah, the king who is to come. Then I recalled the prophecies of Isaiah that a holy one should be born who would bear our griefs and be bruised for our iniquities, and be brought as a lamb to the slaughterer. And when I looked on my cousin's face I knew that his kingdom was not of this world. He is too gentle for this world."

"Is this kinsman of yours still in Galilee?"

"Yes."

Barabbas suddenly saw again in his mind the swift flight of the burning meteor. Turning quickly toward John he said in a controlled voice:

"I will go into Jerusalem and see whether Antipas is to be trusted or not."

John faced Barabbas with flashing eyes and answered:

"Go, if you will, but I shall never trust him."

"Give me a message to deliver to him."

"If you gave him the message I would send him, he would have you killed for carrying it."

"Nevertheless, give me the message," the robber persisted.

"Remember, I have warned you against this, but if you seek death so anxiously, tell him that I will not come to any king. I am the voice of the new kingdom. Let him put away Herodias, who is an abomination before the Lord, and let him come across Jordan in sackcloth, with ashes on his head, and be baptized of me in penitence. But, if he hardens his heart and will not come, his soul is in danger of everlasting fire."

"I will go. I will go tomorrow," said Barabbas, leaning forward to stare across the valley at the road which led to Jerusalem.