Philochristus: Memoirs of a Disciple of the Lord

by Edwin Abbott Abbott

Perplexity and sore grief fell upon us all, and the old man would have retired abashed. But Jesus took him by the hand and constrained him to stay, and made him sit down by his side and spake kindly unto him. Yet he began to speak again of the words of Jonathan as being a sore temptation, telling us how in former times he had undergone a like temptation from Satan. He had been in the wilderness, he said, and lo, in a moment of time he had been borne to the top of a mountain, whence he saw the kingdoms of the earth and the glory thereof, and Satan said to him, “All these things will I give unto thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.”

While we marvelled at the words of Jesus, and disputed among ourselves how that temptation in the wilderness could be like unto this temptation, behold, Judas of Kerioth came into the chamber, saying the [pg 131]same things which Barabbas had said, to wit that the Pharisees in Capernaum were laying a snare for Jesus, for to catch him in his teaching, that they might cause the people to stone him. But Jesus gave command that we should pass over on the morrow to the other side of the lake.

On the morrow, while we rowed across the lake, I asked Nathanael what seemed to him the nature of the temptation of Satan whereof Jesus had spoken. Nathanael made answer and said, “Thou perceivest that the heart of our Master overfloweth with pity for the miseries of men; and even to redeem them from these miseries he hath been sent by the Lord. Now as for silver and gold, or fame, or wisdom, none of these things can in any wise tempt him once to go aside either to the right hand or to the left from the straight path of Redemption. Howbeit, pity and love can tempt him. Wherefore the only temptation that can befal him is from the Voice that saith, Be pitiful, even though thou transgress in pitying; Do evil that thou mayest do good; Gain power by crooked ways, that thou mayest straighten the paths of salvation for them which wander astray; Wink thou at falsehood, that they which err may be guided toward truth. Now this Voice, as it seemeth to me, is to our Master the Voice of Satan; and to listen to it is to bow down to Satan. And Satan, perchance, knowing that in this way alone can our Master be tempted, hath caused Jonathan the son of Ezra to tempt him. But I know no more than thou; only such is my conjecture.”

While we thus conversed together the boat drew nigh unto the eastern shore. The mountains came [pg 132]down to the water’s edge, so close, and so precipitous withal, that there was scarce space enough to land: and, because the sun still lay low in the east, all was dark before us, though the waters behind us shone fair and bright. But when we were now entering under the shadow of the cliffs, so that we could discern things more clearly, we perceived that there was a margin of shore, but narrow and exceeding rocky, strewn all over with large and small fragments of black rock, which had fallen from the mountain above. Then suddenly there fell on our ears a marvellous strange cry, neither as of a man nor yet as of a wild beast; and while we ceased rowing for to listen, behold, yet another cry, more piercing and strange than the first, and then straightway another: and withal the rocks and cliffs took up the sound and multiplied it, and tossed it this way and that way till all the land seemed alive with the clamour. But Gorgias trembled and said it was an evil spirit, for, said he, “There be burial-places in this part of the coast.” Then Peter cried aloud and said, “I see a form as of a man, lank and lean, coming out from the rocks; and it is naked.” Then some of us bade steer towards another part of the coast; but Jesus commanded to keep on our course.

Now when we landed, we perceived that it was a man, but he was one possessed with evil spirits. For he had chains about his body; and he had cut and lanced his flesh with grievous wounds. When he saw us, he took up stones to cast at us, so that we feared to approach him; and certain shepherds from afar off beckoned to us to go back from him. But Jesus went [pg 133]before the rest of us and accosted him. And lo, at the voice of Jesus, the man straightway let the stones fall from his hands; and, for a moment, he stood as one astonied and in a trance. Then he shrieked aloud and made answer to Jesus in two voices, after the manner of those possessed with unclean spirits. For at one time the man spake, and at another the devils. But the devils, speaking in a deep hollow voice, declared that they were swine, and three thousand in number, and that their name was Legion. Moreover they besought Jesus that he would not send them into the abyss (for by this name do the evil spirits use to call that place wherein they must needs wander so long as they have no bodies of men to dwell in), but that he would suffer them to remain in the man’s body. But Jesus drove them out, and the Legion went forth into the abyss, to the number of three thousand, and in the shapes of swine. But Jesus did not suffer the man to accompany him, but bade him return to his friends, and to tell them what great things the Lord had done for him.

This mighty work of Jesus I have set down the more exactly, because no such unclean spirit as this was ever cast out by any other exorcist. For other men have been possessed with swine, or toads, or scorpions, or serpents, but not with many in number, seldom with more than seven. But this man was possessed with three thousand swine. For I not only heard him say this to Jesus, but he also repeated it to me; for I conversed with him. He told me also that he himself saw the three thousand swine go forth and run, first upward, and then violently down [pg 134]from the cliff, even to the abyss. Now the man was a Gadarene, a Jew by birth, and a patriot, one of the sect of the Galileans. Howbeit, living in Gadara, which is a Greek city, he had suffered himself to become defiled, and had rejected the Law and the Worship, and had eaten swine’s flesh. But it came to pass that on a certain day, even at the hour of prayer, when he thought on these things, a darkness fell upon his soul, and he saw sights of demons; and sometimes also he saw the sun as though it were red as blood; and he loathed his food as it had been poison. And this continued for the space of six months. But at the end of the six months, on a certain Sabbath, as he stood in the streets of Gadara, so it was that there came a cohort, which is the tenth part of a Roman legion, marching through the town. And he turned and cursed them in the name of the Lord; and lo, as the curse went forth from his mouth, the devils entered into him in the shape of a legion of swine; and they possessed him even to the day when Jesus healed him. All this I heard from the demoniac himself.

When Jesus had worked this miracle we all rejoiced greatly; for we thought that whoso could do so mighty a work, to him all things were possible; and we desired Jesus to go back to the other side of the lake, and there to work miracles that he might convince the Pharisees. But we marvelled that Jesus set so little store on his mighty works, insomuch that he even seemed oftentimes unwilling to work them. Many also he wrought in private; and many he would fain have kept secret, but he could not. Now when I asked Nathanael (for he was as it were an interpreter unto me to explain [pg 135]such sayings of Jesus as were hard to understand) for what cause Jesus lightly esteemed his own miracles, he asked me whether I had not noted how the common folk resorted to Jesus as a mere worker of wonders, so that sometimes they even interrupted his discourse, being desirous that Jesus should cease to teach that he might begin to work cures. “Now Jesus,” he said, “doth not desire that men should come to him merely as the healer of their bodies, but as the healer also of their souls.”

“For this cause,” said Nathanael, “Jesus often biddeth such as he healeth in Galilee to keep silence, although he suffered the Gadarene in these distant parts to make it known. For he deemeth it his especial work not so much to drive out diseases and evil spirits from the body, as rather to heal the soul, ministering bread to the hungry and wine to them that are athirst, loosing the tongue of the dumb, and causing the deaf to hear, opening the eyes of the blind, and making the lame to leap as a hart in the paths of salvation.”

We made no long stay on the eastern side of the lake; but when we came again to Capernaum we found the hearts of the people turned from us. For not only did the chief ruler and the elders of the synagogue watch us, as before, if perchance they could take us at an advantage; but the zeal of the townsmen also seemed to have waxed cold. Scarcely had our boat touched the strand at Capernaum when my uncle Manasseh met me. He took me aside and spake with me very earnestly, saying that he had rebuked his son Baruch for his slackness at business, because poverty [pg 136]was coming upon them as an armed man, by reason of his constant attending on Jesus; and he added, “It is true also of thee as of Baruch, ‘He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand; but the hand of the diligent maketh rich. He that gathereth in summer is a wise son; but he that sleepeth in harvest is a son that causeth shame.’ ” “And what said Baruch?” I asked. “He hath consented to my words,” said Manasseh, “and hath promised that he will no longer accompany this Jesus of Nazareth in his wanderings: and do thou the like.” But this I would not do; so we parted in anger.

Not a few left Jesus at this time, mostly they of the wealthier sort, as were Baruch and Manasseh; some going back to their vineyards, others to their olive-presses, others to the dye-works and glass-furnaces, whereof there were many in Galilee. But the poorer sort joined themselves to Jesus as much as before, being drawn unto him by the fame of his mighty works. Howbeit they also began to wax impatient that Jesus should give the sign for war. Nor did they give now much heed to the words of Jesus; but they paid regard to him as to some great exorcist and sorcerer, who useth his art for good ends. Therefore the heart of our Master was sad at this time; and he was grieved that the simple folk knew him not: and their words of praise were an abomination to him.