The Eighth Veil (32 page)

His student frowned and shook his head. “No, probably not. How brave one will be is something one never knows until tested, but no, I would not. The High Priest will have to find some other means to silence this man. And since the Romans have taken away our right to execute criminals or heretics I cannot imagine what that would be.”

“Well, as unlikely as it seems, the High Priest might attempt to provide evidence of sedition and remand him to the Prefect for crucifixion.”

“The High Priest hates Rome as much as the rest of us. Is that likely?”

“I have a rule, Saul. With the High Priest as with the Lord, all things are possible”

“Well, all this assumes there will be sufficient witnesses brought forth to testify about both. He thinks this disciple will do that.”

“But the High Priest does not want you to take that job on?”

“No. He has other duties for me.”

“My advice to you is this, do as you think best, of course, but I believe you would benefit most from another year or two with me. But if you do go to the Temple, do not allow yourself to be drawn into the High Priest’s mania about rabbis that do not meet his standard. It can only lead to trouble.”

“I don’t understand. The Law is the Law and it cannot be compromised.”

“Is that what I teach, Saul? Don’t I teach that the Law is from the Lord for the guidance of men? Too often we think we must do the Lord’s thinking for him rather than listening for what he has to say to us. The High Priest means well, but he is like a stubborn camel that has slipped its lead. Instead of following the path already charted for him, he has taken it into his head to break a new one.”

“You do not like the High Priest?”

“On the contrary, I do. I have known him most of my life. He works very hard at his job in very difficult circumstances. I would never doubt his sincerity, but in some things he can be like that camel. For example, this rabbi he is so addled about. My advice to you and to him is, leave him alone. Martyrs are always more attractive than the real thing, you understand? Let it be and it will dry up like the Salt Sea in the summer.”

“But if it doesn’t?”

“I can’t say what he should do then, or you either for that matter. I think I would ask myself if it won’t go away, what does that signify? And then, act—one way or the other.”

“You would seek him out?”

“Probably not. I will be frank with you, Saul. I have no interest in any of this. I wish only to continue to live my life and study my scrolls until I die. I have no further ambition. It is your decision how to deal with upstart rabbis and self-proclaimed messiahs as it will be your generation that will be affected by them in the end.”

“You do not think it is a good plan to pursue this man through his disciple?”

“I think it is a very stupid idea. Sorry, that is probably too strong. I think it ill-advised.”

“All this, of course, assumes something will come of it.”

“Yes, and what is the likelihood of that happening?”

Appendix

Those of us educated in the United States are, or perhaps more properly were, taught our history from a distinctly Eurocentric point of view. We know something of the royal families of England, France, and maybe Spain, and a bit about the Roman Empire and its successor, the Holy Roman Empire. We have the dates for the Norman Conquest, Columbus sailing from Spain. We learned the foibles of Henry the VIII, Louis the XIV, and secretly hoped the Three Musketeers really existed. American history veers off from its European roots but the reference points remain much the same.

Julius Caesar is a familiar figure to us because some of us suffered through his Gallic Wars in Latin I and almost all of us were required to read Shakespeare’s play by that name. We may also have read his
Antony and Cleopatra
. And if not either of those, saw the film with Richard Burton, Rex Harrison, and Elizabeth Taylor. (Some few of us are old enough to remember a dishy Claudette Colbert as Cleopatra—in black and white and by all accounts, in a somewhat better rendering of the story.) And Greek mythology was and perhaps still is deeply embedded in our understanding of both western literature and its culture.

However, for most of us “of a certain age,” what we know of Mid-Eastern history of that time period must be gleaned from ancient texts like
Josephus,
and the Bible
.
A very few of my generation could even spell
Gilgamesh
much less have read it. The Bible is generally viewed as a source from which one seeks spiritual guidance, but has only coincidental historical content, and
Josephus
was not on anyone’s summer reading list. Consequently, we sometimes miss the fact that these two threads of history are importantly intertwined.

Herod the Great, the instigator of the slaughter of the innocents, as the Bible reports among other things, and Cleopatra, Queen of the Nile, pharaoh, and consort to both Mark Antony and Julius Caesar at one time or another, were contemporaries, allies against common enemies, and occasional rivals for the income to be earned from tolls collected along the King’s Highway that began in Africa’s Rift Valley and ran the length of their respective countries.

Herod the Great

b. 73 or 74 BCE, d. 4 BCE in Jericho

Herod secured his place as King of Israel with sponsorship of Julius Caesar and he was an ally of Marc Antony. At his death, his kingdom was divided between his heirs, most notably Herod Antipas (the Herod cited in the Passion Narrative and the man who had John the Baptist beheaded at the behest of Herodias’ daughter, Salome—she of the infamous “Dance of the Seven Veils.”) The other mention is of Philip, Herodias’ first husband, and then we learn later of Herod Antipater and Herod Agrippa.

Herod ruled as Client King of the Roman provinces of Judea, Galilee, and Samaria. He was described as “a madman who murdered his own family and a great many rabbis.” Whatever else may be said about him, one must add that Herod the Great, once friend to Julius Caesar, Cleopatra, and Antony, and who somehow managed to retain power after Octavian’s victory, had to have been a very savvy politician.

William Barclay writes, “He murdered his wife Mariamne and her mother Alexandra. His eldest son, Antipater, and two other sons, Alexander and Aristobulus, were all assassinated by him.” (
The Daily Study Bible Series: The Gospel of Matthew
, vol.1, 2nd edition [Westminster Press: 1958], 20) History records that of the two murdered sons by Mariamne, Alexander had two children by Herod’s niece, Glaphyra, from his line stemming from his marriage to Malthace. Some believe there may have been a third child, perhaps a daughter, but there is no record of her or his name. A son, Archelaus
,
is the author’s invention as is his history.

There is also a dispute about Philip, not just the spelling of his name (one L or two) but his marriage. Some scholars question the claims made in Mark’s Gospel that he was married to Herodias and had a daughter, Salome. Or that Herodias subsequently divorced him and married his half brother, Antipas.
An alternate version has him married to Salome, his niece by Herodias’ marriage to someone else.
This book holds to the traditional view and that Mark had it right, or near enough. A second problem lies with the repetition of the name itself and confusion with another Philip, the Tetrarch, a near contemporary with a similar marital history (to a niece). And finally, Salome is a name which compounds the problem further as it pops up frequently as well in the royal line and elsewhere.

The intermingled lines of the royal family begun by Herod the Great also create problems for many, particularly this author, who would sort through them in search of a pattern or a direction. Not only do the lines cross but the names duplicate frequently. Thus Philip the Tetrarch was not, it seemed the same as Philip Boethus who was at one time, also a Tetrarch along with his half brother Herod Antipas. Or, then again, perhaps he is. And it must be reemphasized not all scholars would draw up the “family tree” as shown at the front nor would they agree on the names, dates of birth and deaths, or succession.

Lest one is tempted to shake one’s head at the seemingly incestuous and tangled mess set forth in the “family tree” illustrated at the beginning of the book, one should pause a moment and consider the royal families of Europe. At the outbreak of the First World War, for example, the primary combatants were England, Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Russia. Nicholas, Tsar of Russia, George V, King of England, and the Archduke of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and Wilhelm, the German kaiser, were cousins. They were
also related by blood and/or marriage to the King of the Belgians, the royal families of Greece, Prussia, and half a dozen other greater or lesser principalities scattered across the continent. Royalty, it seems, is reluctant to share power outside the family
.

The Egyptian Connection

Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, was Herod’s contemporary, ally, and sometime rival in the area. At first she ruled as pharaoh with her father, then with her brother to whom she was briefly married as was the custom with the Egyptian royal family, then alone, and finally with Antony by whom she bore three children who later, after her death and the suicide of Antony, and with the sponsorship of Octavian (Augustus), ruled elsewhere as kings and queens in their own right.

Cleopatra Selene married Tuba, King of Mauritania. After her death, Tuba was married briefly (for a year) to Glaphyra (the same woman who was previously married to Alexander, Herod’s son who was assassinated by his father). She left him to marry Philip the Tetrarch, not to be confused with Philip Boethus (the Philip of the New Testament) also her uncle and also son of Herod. Go figure.

Caesarion was alleged to be the son of Julius Caesar and Cleopatra. Mark Antony published a document,
The Donations of Alexandria
, which supported the claim and to which his rival, Octavian took exception. Whether this precipitated the battle of Actium or was simply the last straw in the strained relationship between the two men, we do not know, but Octavian did indeed fight a civil war with Antony and won. Both Antony and Cleopatra committed suicide and the seventeen-year-old Caesarion was elevated however briefly to pharaoh.

The fate of Caesarion has never been satisfactorily determined. The generally held view is that he was captured by Octavian and assassinated in order to remove a potential rival. Other versions have him escaping through the Eastern Sudan (modern Ethiopia) through Arabia to India with great treasure. Some hold that the Nabateans, who had been conquered by Herod the Great, killed him as he made his way east, in order to curry favor with Octavian and perhaps rid themselves of their overlord (Herod the Great) who, after all, had been allied with Antony.

In summary, because of the repetitive use of the same names, both female and male, the near incestuous intermarriage of relatives, near relatives, and the uncertain historical record, your guess is as good as any when it comes to sorting all this out. (But don’t tell the Scholars I said so. They are a determined lot and do not like outsiders tampering with their
opinions
facts).

Cappadocia

Cappadocia is part of Anatolia and lies east-central in the great plain that forms modern Turkey. Its history is not dissimilar to that of Egypt in that it boasted a royal family that traced its lineage back into antiquity, to King Midas of mythic fame, in fact. Its last king, Archelaus, was (or was not) in Herod’s line, and did produce a daughter, the peripatetic Princess Glaphyra. As a Province of the Roman Empire it was considered a prize. Though its borders varied from time to time, the country always straddled important trade routes east and west. The routes running north and south intersected these routes. Thus treasure from Africa and India (and east of that) passed through the country in all directions. This feature should never be underestimated. Trade formed a vital part of the Empire. Indeed, Herod the Great and Cleopatra frequently clashed over who would control which part of the road that originated in the Rift Valley of Africa and coursed northward along the Jordan branching westward at Magdala or eastward and on to Syria and thence east to the sea or westward to India and beyond. It also turned west through Cappadocia. Saint Paul would have used a portion of one of these roads through Capernaum on his way to Damascus. A trip, many say, that changed the course of history.