"Without doubt," answered my uncle, "but—"
"Wait, I beseech you, learned Rabbi," said Saul, "until I read you another prophecy." And he read: "'I have made a covenant with David, Thy seed will I establish forever, and build up thy throne to all generations. His seed shall endure forever, and his throne as the sun before me. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch.'
"Now, you will all admit, brethren, that these prophecies refer to Messias. He is therefore to come of the lineage of David, and he is to be born in Bethlehem. Show me that this Jesus, the Nazarene, fulfills both conditions in his own person, and I will prepare to believe in him."
This was said haughtily, and with the air of one who cannot be answered.
But immediately Lazarus rose to his feet and said: "Although I did not recollect this prophecy, that Christ was to be born in Bethlehem, yet I am overjoyed to find the fact respecting Jesus fulfills it. He was born in Bethlehem of Judah. This I have known some years, and—"
Here, while my heart was bounding with joy, Gamaliel said sternly, "I thought this man was born in Nazareth?"
"He has lived," answered Lazarus, "in Nazareth from childhood only. During the days when Cæsar Augustus issued a decree that all the world should be taxed, his mother, and Joseph her husband, went up to the City of David to be taxed, which is Bethlehem, and there Jesus was born, as I have often heard from her lips."
"Admitting, then, that he was born in Bethlehem," said Saul, "you have to prove his lineage from David's line."
"Wherefore did his parents go to Bethlehem, David's city, unless they were of his royal line?" asked Rabbi Amos, "for none went to any other city to be taxed than that of their own family. The fact that they went there is strong evidence that they were of David's house."
"Every one born in the city of David," remarked Gamaliel, "is not of necessity of David's house; but it is surprising if this Jesus really was born in Bethlehem."