The Gospel According to the Son

6

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 body-servant 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 myrrhùbut 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 and John. 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.