Ben-Hur

A Tale of the Christ

by Lew Wallace

to
THE WIFE OF MY YOUTH
who
still abides with me

Contents

[BOOK FIRST]
[I. Into the Desert]
[II. Meeting of the Wise Men]
[III. The Athenian Speaks—Faith]
[IV. Speech of the Hindoo—Love]
[V. The Egyptian’s Story—Good Works]
[VI. The Joppa Gate]
[VII. Typical Characters at the Joppa Gate]
[VIII. Joseph and Mary Going to Bethlehem]
[IX. The Cave at Bethlehem]
[X. The Light in the Sky]
[XI. Christ is Born]
[XII. The Wise Men Arrive at Jerusalem]
[XIII. The Witnesses before Herod]
[XIV. The Wise Men Find the Child]
[BOOK SECOND]
[I. Jerusalem under the Romans]
[II. Ben-Hur and Messala]
[III. A Judean Home]
[IV. The Strange Things Ben-Hur Wants to Know]
[V. Rome and Israel—A Comparison]
[VI. The Accident to Gratus]
[VII. A Galley Slave]
[BOOK THIRD]
[I. Quintus Arrius Goes to Sea]
[II. At the Oar]
[III. Arrius and Ben-Hur on Deck]
[IV. “No. 60”]
[V. The Sea Fight]
[VI. Arrius Adopts Ben-Hur]
[BOOK FOURTH]
[I. Ben-Hur Returns East]
[II. On the Orontes]
[III. The Demand on Simonides]
[IV. Simonides and Esther]
[V. The Grove of Daphne]
[VI. The Mulberries of Daphne]
[VII. The Stadium in the Grove]
[VIII. The Fountain of Castalia]
[IX. The Chariot Race Discussed]
[X. Ben-Hur Hears of Christ]
[XI. The Wise Servant and his Daughter]
[XII. A Roman Orgie]
[XIII. A Driver for Ilderim’s Arabs]
[XIV. The Dowar in the Orchard or Palms]
[XV. Balthasar Impresses Ben-Hur]
[XVI. Christ is Coming—Balthasar]
[XVII. The Kingdom—Spiritual or Political?]
[BOOK FIFTH]
[I. Messala Doffs his Chaplet]
[II. Ilderim’s Arabs under the Yoke]
[III. The Arts of Cleopatra]
[IV. Messala on Guard]
[V. Ilderim and Ben-Hur Deliberate]
[VI. Training the Four]
[VII. Simonides Renders Account]
[VIII. Spiritual or Political?—Simonides Argues]
[IX. Esther and Ben-Hur]
[X. Posted for the Race]
[XI. Making the Wagers]
[XII. The Circus]
[XIII. The Start]
[XIV. The Race]
[XV. The Invitation of Iras]
[XVI. In the Palace of Idernee]
[BOOK SIXTH]
[I. The Tower of Antonia—Cell No. VI.]
[II. The Lepers]
[III. Jerusalem Again]
[IV. Ben-Hur at his Father’s Gate]
[V. The Tomb Above the King’s Garden]
[VI. A Trick of Pilate’s—The Combat]
[BOOK SEVENTH]
[I. Jerusalem Goes out to a Prophet]
[II. Nooning by the Pool—Iras]
[III. The Life of a Soul]
[IV. Ben-Hur Keeps Watch with Iras]
[V. At Bethabara]
[BOOK EIGHTH]
[I. Guests in the House of Hur]
[II. Ben-Hur Tells of the Nazarene]
[III. The Lepers Leave their Tomb]
[IV. The Miracle]
[V. Pilgrims to the Passover]
[VI. A Serpent of the Nile]
[VII. Ben-Hur Returns to Esther]
[VIII. Gethsemane—“Whom Seek Ye?”]
[IX. The Going to Calvary]
[X. The Crucifixion]

BOOK FIRST

CHAPTER I

The Jebel es Zubleh is a mountain fifty miles and more in length, and so narrow that its tracery on the map gives it a likeness to a caterpillar crawling from the south to the north. Standing on its red-and-white cliffs, and looking off under the path of the rising sun, one sees only the Desert of Arabia, where the east winds, so hateful to vinegrowers of Jericho, have kept their playgrounds since the beginning. Its feet are well covered by sands tossed from the Euphrates, there to lie, for the mountain is a wall to the pasture-lands of Moab and Ammon on the west—lands which else had been of the desert a part.