4umi Khalil Gibran : Jesus, The Son Of Man / Annas the high priest

Annas the high priest

On Jesus the rabble

He was of the rabble, a brigand, a mountebank and a self-trumpeter. He appealed only to the unclean and the disinherited, and for this He had to go the way of all the tainted and the defiled.

He made sport of us and of our laws; He mocked at our honor and jeered at our dignity. He even said He would destroy the temple and desecrate the holy places. He was shameless, and for this He had to die a shameful death.

He was a man from Galilee of the Gentiles, an alien, from the North Country where Adonis and Ashtarte still claim power against Israel and the God of Israel.

He whose tongue halted when He spoke the speech of our prophets was loud and ear-splitting when he spoke the bastard language of the low-born and the vulgar.

What else was there for me but to decree His death?

Am I not a guardian of the temple? Am I not a keeper of the law? Could I have turned my back on Him, saying in all tranquility: "He is a madman among madmen. Let Him alone to exhaust Himself raving; for the mad and the crazed and those possessed with devils shall be naught in the path of Israel" ?

Could I have been deaf unto Him when he called us liars. hypocrites, wolves, vipers, and the sons of vipers?

Nay I could not be deaf to Him, for He was not a madman. He was self-possessed; and in His big-sounding sanity He denounced and challenged us all.

For this I had Him crucified, and His crucifixion was a signal and warning unto the others who are stamped with the same damned seal.

I know well I have been blamed for this, even by some of the elders in the Sanhedrim. But I was mindful then as I am mindful now, that one man should die for the people rather than the people be led astray by one man.

Jesus was conquered by an enemy from without. I shall see that Judea is not conquered again, by an enemy from within.

No man from the cursed North shall reach our Holy of Holies nor lay His shadow across the Ark of the Covenant.

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 Khalil Gibran Introductory biography Spirits Rebellious The Broken Wings A Tear and a Smile The Madman The Forerunner The Prophet The New Frontier Sand and Foam Jesus, The Son Of Man James the son of Zebedee Anna the mother of Mary Assaph called the Orator of Tyre Mary Magdalen Philemon, a Greek Apothecary Simon who was called Peter Caiaphas Joanna, the wife of Herod's steward Rafca A Persian Philosopher in Damascus David, one of his followers Luke Matthew John the son of Zebedee A young priest of Capernaum A rich levi in the neighborhood of the Nazarene A shepherd in South Lebanon John the Baptist Joseph of Arimathea Nathaniel Saba of Antioch Salome to a woman friend Rachael, a woman disciple Cleopas of Bethroune Naaman of the Gadarenes Thomas Elmadam the Logician One of the Mary's Rumanous, a Greek poet Levi, a disciple A widow in Galilee Judas the cousin of Jesus The man from the desert Peter Melachi of Babylon, an astronomer A philosopher Uriah, an old man of Nazareth Nicodemus the poet Joseph of Arimathea Georgus of Beirut Mary Magdalen Jotham of Nazareth to a Roman Ephraim of Jericho Barca, a merchant of Tyre Phumiah, the high Priestess of Sidon Benjamin the scribe Zacchaeus Hannah of Bethsaida Manasseh Jephtha of Caesarea John the beloved disciple Mannus the Pompeiian, to a Greek Pontius Pilatus Bartholomew in Ephesus Matthew Andrew on prostitutes A rich man on possessions John at Patmos Peter on the neighbor A cobbler in Jerusalem Suzannah of Nazareth Joseph surnamed Justus Philip Birbarah of Yammouni Pilate's wife to a Roman lady A man outside of Jerusalem Sarkis, an old Greek shepherd Annas the high priest A woman, one of Mary's neighbors Ahaz the portly Barabbas Claudius a Roman sentinel James the brother of the Lord Simon the Cyrene Cyborea The woman in Byblos Mary Magdalen thirty years later A man from Lebanon The Earth Gods The Wanderer Al-Nay The Garden of the Prophet Lazarus and His Beloved Satan My Countrymen I Believe In You Your Thought And Mine You Have Your Lebanon History and the Nation The Vision Visual art