Thus he would have passed his life, a wheelwright on week-days, a preacher on the Sabbath and festivals, but for a strange event that occurred in his own family. Among us Jews, none has more honor than the Nabi, the man who speaks the word of wisdom in the name of God. How know we that a man is a Nabi? Chiefly by his words, but mainly by his eyes, in which there shines the light of prophecy. Now, when Jesus was about thirty years old, three or four years before I first saw him, the light of prophecy came in the eyes of his cousin, Jochanan ben Zacharia Ha-Cohen. Thou knowest, Aglaophonos, that amongst us there is a sect of Essenoi, who answer in much to the Pythagoreans among the Hellenes. These Essenoi eat no flesh, they dwell not in the cities of men, they perform frequent lustrations, nor will they admit any into their community until they have been baptized [pg 29]of them; they care little for the Temple service, and in this above all distinguish themselves from either Pharisees or Sadducees. Their belief in the angels is strong, and they use magic for the healing of sickness.
Now, this Jochanan, the cousin of Jesus, seems to have adopted in many things the views of these Essenoi: he separated himself from men, and ate no flesh, nor did he go up to the Temple on the three great festivals of the year; and above all, when men began to follow after him, he would admit none to communion with him till he had baptized them in running water, and for this he was called among the folk Jochanan the Baptizer. Yet he was not an Essene, for he joined not their communion, nor established any distinction of orders among the men who came out to him; he was more like unto the prophets of old, who taught as individuals new truths about life; and his great teaching was this: “Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” And men went out to him, asking him in what they should repent so as to become worthy of the [pg 30]kingdom. Above all, those who were despised of the people because they did the work of the Romans, by being their tax-gatherers or their soldiers, feared the wrath to come in the new kingdom which he preached, and asked him in what they should alter their ways. But to them he was by no means hard, saying only to the tax-gatherers, “Act justly,” and to the soldiers, “Do no violence.” To the poor he was tender and merciful, but exhorted the rich to divide their possessions with the poor. In this way he drew unto him all who were despised of the people, and those who were poor and miserable. Thus he attracted the notice of the rulers, who feared that he was preparing to rebel against them; for they said, “Wherefore does this man attract to him the discontented and the soldiery?”
Now, when the family of Jesus heard that their relative was gaining a name among men, they sent to Jesus, asking him to go with them unto his cousin; but he, as I have heard, at first refused, saying, “Wherein have I sinned, that I should be baptized of Jochanan?” Yet afterwards [pg 31]he consented unto this, and went out to be baptized of his cousin. And when he saw the power for good that Jochanan exercised, his spirit was exalted, and he felt that he too had within him the same power. Many strange things have I heard of what happened to this Jesus when he submitted to be baptized by his cousin. And as none but Jesus would have known his feelings on that occasion, these reports must have come from him. Among us it is the custom that each Jew should select from the Psalms some stichos which should serve as the motto of his life, and identify him when he appeareth before the Angel of Death. Now, it would appear that as Jesus was being baptized of Jochanan he heard the Daughter[5] of the Voice of God say to him the stichos of the psalm, “Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.” Whether this was a protest of his soul against the slur cast upon his birth, what man shall say? But henceforth he spake of the fatherhood of God as if it had to him a deeper sense than to most [pg 32]of us Jews, though with us, as I have oft explained to thee, it is the central feeling of our faith.
Jesus did not remain long out in the wilderness with his cousin; he, indeed, early recognized his superiority, though he was his master and his teacher. For at the first the teaching of Jesus differed but in little from the teaching of Jochanan. He summed up his whole aim in the words which I had heard his followers use in the Temple: “Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand;” and this he must have learnt from his cousin. So, too, like Jochanan, he mingled with the tax-gatherers and the soldiery, and above all addressed himself to the poor, and, as I was to see, exhorted the rich to distribute their possessions. In all these things he was but the follower of his cousin Jochanan. It is no wonder, therefore, that when Jesus separated himself from Jochanan, and began to be a teacher of men, many left Jochanan and followed after Jesus; and until this Jochanan met with a violent end at the hands of the rulers, there was in some sort a rivalry if not be[pg 33]tween the men themselves, at least between the followers of Jochanan and of Jesus.
But even from the first there was a difference in Jesus’ manner of teaching, if not in the teaching itself. He, indeed, did not wait for men to come out to him in the wilderness, but returned to the towns and villages around the Sea of Galilee. Many of the fishermen left their work to follow him, and become, as he said, “fishers of men.” He preached as before in the synagogues on the words of the prophets, but now he commenced to go forth to preach and teach among the people in their homes. Yet it was observed that he went not only among the rich and powerful, who are used in our country to receive all who come at meal-times, but most of all among the poor, and those despised of men for their ill life or their degraded occupations. Nor did he despise those who know not the Law nor keep its commands, but mixed freely with them, thereby incurring the wrath of those among us, and there are many, who are eager for the credit of the Law. Still, though he lived his life among the low and the vile, he practiced none of [pg 34]their ways, nor was aught of low or vile seen in him or those with him. Yet he turned against him many who would have been well disposed towards him, in that he followed his cousin’s example, and spake kindly to the tax-gatherers and to the soldiers, whom the greater part of the Jews regard as the enemies of their country.
Now, as he began to live his life among the people, he began to do many signs and wonders, like all our great teachers and prophets. In truth, we say, how shall a man be accounted a prophet unless he can do wonders? Indeed, as Jesus himself said, “Why marvel ye at the signs? I give unto you an inheritance such as the whole world holds not.” And the manner of his wonders was this: if a man was afflicted with a demon of madness, he would cause him to fix his eyes upon his, and after a while would speak sternly and suddenly to the demon within him, who would depart from him, rending his soul. So, too, would he do with women who were torn asunder by the demons fighting within. To these he would speak calmly after he had fixed their eyes, and, [pg 35]behold, a great calm would come upon them. But he used no exorcisms or magic in his healing, nor spake he in the name of God, but with the tone of one having authority in himself. Hence many thought he had within him a greater Daimon than those afflicted men and women whom he healed. Thence it was thought that for this reason the demons of madness often returned to those whom he had freed for a while with greater violence after he had gone forth from the place of their habitation. There was much murmuring against him for that he did his healing, not in the name of God, but in his own name and his own authority.
Yet he claimed no authority to decide the questions of the Law; though many applied to him in difficult cases, these he referred to the learned in the Law, saying, “Do ye as the scribes command.” Yet it was complained that he paid no great attention to their commands himself, nor for his followers. Nor did he rebuke men when he saw them transgressing the Law even in the greater transgressions. Thus I have heard it said of him, that once with [pg 36]his followers, he met a man laboring on the Sabbath day, a sin which, according to the Law, was punished with stoning. But all he said unto him was this: “Man, if thou knowest what thou doest, blessed art thou; but if thou knowest not, accursed art thou, and a transgressor of the Law.”[6] This is, indeed, a dark saying. Is each man, then, to choose for himself which commands of the Law he shall do, and which not? The fence of the Law, which our Sages have built up with such labor and toil, would be stricken down at one stroke. Yet perhaps in this he only followed the principle of our Sages who have said, “The Sabbath was made for you, not you for the Sabbath.”
Such was the manner of life of this Jesus up to the time when I first saw him in the Temple. Men knew not what to make of him; many regarded him as a prophet because of the signs and the wonders which he did; and those who were looking forward to the blessed day in which Israel would be free again under its own king hoped that he was Elijah come again to prepare the way for the new kingdom.