The life they never had ...


By
the year
of my birth,
Herod was old!
People could no longer speak of him
as the greatest warrior in Israel.
But when he was young,
his triumphs had been so many that he was full of lust
and took ten wives.

~

The people of Israel
did not love him.
He was an Idumean from south of Judea,
a Jew only in name,
in truth a pagan.
Caesar had made him emperor
over all the Hebrews
by declaration from Rome,
and Herod put graven images of the Roman eagle
on the gates of the Great temple,
a sacrilege forbidden by
the Commandments.
And his life was full of many unclean hours
and evil deeds.

~

Afflicted by suspicion,
he could not trust the fidelity of his wife,
Mariamne,
his most beloved,
and having convinced himself that she would soon betray him,
he ordered his bodyservant
to slay her.
Afterward he mourned Mariamne
and gave large favors
to the two sons
he had had with her,
but neither could
forgive him.

~

They sought
to murder their father
for the slaughter
of their mother.
They laid plots.
They were discovered.
They were beheaded.
In Rome,
Emperor Augustus said:
"Better to be Herod's swine
than his son."
That was much repeated
among the Jews.

~

Later,
as Herod grew older,
he grew mad.
Not a day after he heard
of my birth,
he sent three wise men
to Bethlehem.
He said:
"Find the holy babe
and bring me word.
I wish to come
and worship."
They did not believe him,
but they knew
they had to leave
at once,
and at night.

~

On the short journey
to Bethlehem,
a star came from the east
and passed above them,
then moved to the south,
and they followed the star until
they came to
our manger.
There, they knelt before Mary and Joseph,
and gave worship.
So it is told in the Gospel of Matthew.
Matthew would also claim
that the wise men brought gifts
of gold and frankincense and myrrh ~
but that may not be true.
For Joseph and Mary never spoke
of such presents.

~

It is true, however,
that the wise men offered one gift
of considerable value:
They warned Joseph
not to live for even one more day
under the rule of Herod.
Indeed, these wise men
were also quick to leave the land of Israel,
and departed soon after they came
to the manger.
And Joseph left
in the next hour.
All of us traveled by night
until we came
to Egypt.

~

Herod exacted
a vengeance.
When the wise men
did not return,
executioners were sent
to Bethlehem
with a command
to slay all male children
who had been born
at the time of my birth.
The words of the prophet Jeremiah
were fulfilled:
"Lamentation
and weeping
and mourning."

~

Herod soon died,
and Joseph came back
to Nazareth,
where he gave two sons
to my mother,
James {Ya'akov}
and John {Yochanan}.
It may be that our love for each other
was cursed,
for in later years
I did not feel as near
to these brothers
as to the children
who had been slain
in Bethlehem.
When Joseph's death
opened the seal of my mind,
I brooded often
upon those children
and the life
they never had.

~
engel
09 sep 2004 - bewerkt op 30 jan 2008 - meld ongepast verhaal
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