Solomon's Porch

When Rabban Simeon--upon whom be peace!--Taught in these Schools, he boasted that his penHad written no word that he could call his own,But wholly and always had been consecratedTo the transcribing of the Law and Prophets.He used to say, and never tired of saying,The world itself was built upon the Law.And ancient Hillel said, that whosoeverGains a good name gains something for himself,But he who gains a knowledge of the LawGains everlasting life. And they spake truly.Great is the Written Law; but greater stillThe Unwritten, the Traditions of the Elders,The lovely words of Levites, spoken firstTo Moses on the Mount, and handed downFrom mouth to mouth, in one unbroken soundAnd sequence of divine authority,The voice of God resounding through the ages.

The Written Law is water; the UnwrittenIs precious wine; the Written Law is salt,The Unwritten costly spice; the Written LawIs but the body; the Unwritten, the soulThat quickens it and makes it breathe and live.I can remember, many years ago,A little bright-eyed school-boy, a mere stripling,Son of a Galilean carpenter,From Nazareth, I think, who came one dayAnd sat here in the Temple with the Scribes,Hearing us speak, and asking many questions,And we were all astonished at his quickness.And when his mother came, and said: BeholdThy father and I have sought thee, sorrowing;He looked as one astonished, and made answer,How is it that ye sought me? Wist ye notThat I must be about my Father's business?Often since then I see him here among us,Or dream I see him, with his upraised faceIntent and eager, and I often wonderUnto what manner of manhood he hath grown!Perhaps a poor mechanic like his father,Lost in his little Galilean villageAnd toiling at his craft, to die unknownAnd he no more remembered among men.

CHRISTUS, in the outer court.The Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses' seat;All, therefore, whatsoever they command you,Observe and do; but follow not their worksThey say and do not. They bind heavy burdensAnd very grievous to be borne, and lay themUpon men's shoulders, but they move them notWith so much as a finger!

GAMALIEL, looking forth.Who is thisExhorting in the outer courts so loudly?

CHRISTUS.Their works they do for to be seen of men.They make broad their phylacteries, and enlargeThe borders of their garments, and they loveThe uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seatsIn Synagogues, and greetings in the markets,And to be called of all men Rabbi, Rabbi!

GAMALIEL.It is that loud and turbulent Galilean,That came here at the Feast of Dedication,And stirred the people up to break the Law!

CHRISTUS.Woe unto you, ye Scribes and Pharisees,Ye hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdomOf heaven, and neither go ye in yourselvesNor suffer them that are entering to go in!

GAMALIEL.How eagerly the people throng and listen,As if his ribald words were words of wisdom!

CHRISTUS.Woe unto you, ye Scribes and Pharisees,Ye hypocrites! for ye devour the housesOf widows, and for pretence ye make long prayers;Therefore shall ye receive the more damnation.

GAMALIEL.This brawler is no Jew,--he is a vileSamaritan, and hath an unclean spirit!

CHRISTUS.Woe unto you, ye Scribes and Pharisees,Ye hypocrites! ye compass sea and landTo make one proselyte, and when he is madeYe make him twofold more the child of hellThan you yourselves are!

GAMALIEL.O my father's father!Hillel of blessed memory, hear and judge!

CHRISTUS.Woe unto you, ye Scribes and Pharisees,Ye hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint,Of anise, and of cumin, and omitThe weightier matters of the law of God,Judgment and faith and mercy; and all theseYe ought to have done, nor leave undone the others!

GAMALIEL.O Rabban Simeon! how must thy bonesStir in their grave to hear such blasphemies!

CHRISTUS.Woe unto you, ye Scribes, and Pharisees,Ye hypocrites! for ye make clean and sweetThe outside of the cup and of the platter,But they within are full of all excess!

GAMALIEL.Patience of God! canst thou endure so long?Or art thou deaf, or gone upon a journey?

CHRISTUS.Woe unto you, ye Scribes and Pharisees,Ye hypocrites! for ye are very likeTo whited sepulchres, which indeed appearBeautiful outwardly, but are withinFilled full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness!

GAMALIEL.Am I awake? Is this Jerusalem?And are these Jews that throng and stare and listen?

CHRISTUS.Woe unto you, ye Scribes and Pharisees,Ye hypocrites! because ye build the tombsOf prophets, and adorn the sepulchresOf righteous men, and say: if we had livedWhen lived our fathers, we would not have beenPartakers with them in the blood of Prophets.So ye be witnesses unto yourselves,That ye are children of them that killed the Prophets!Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers.I send unto you Prophets and Wise Men,And Scribes, and some ye crucify, and someScourge in your Synagogues, and persecuteFrom city to city; that on you may comeThe righteous blood that hath been shed on earth,From the blood of righteous Abel to the bloodOf Zacharias, son of Barachias,Ye slew between the Temple and the altar!

GAMALIEL.Oh, had I here my subtle dialectician,My little Saul of Tarsus, the tent-maker,Whose wit is sharper than his needle's point,He would delight to foil this noisy wrangler!

CHRISTUS.Jerusalem! Jerusalem! O thouThat killest the Prophets, and that stonest themWhich are sent unto thee, how often would IHave gathered together thy children, as a henGathereth her chickens underneath her wing,And ye would not! Behold, your house is leftUnto you desolate!

THE PEOPLE.This is a Prophet!This is the Christ that was to come!

GAMALIEL.Ye fools!Think ye, shall Christ come out of Galilee?