Just at this time Judas Iscariot took the first definite steptowards the Betrayal. He visited the chief priest Annas secretly.He was very roughly received, but that did not disturb him in theleast, and he demanded a long private interview. When he foundhimself alone with the dry, harsh old man, who looked at him withcontempt from beneath his heavy overhanging eyelids, he stated thathe was an honourable man who had become one of the disciples of Jesusof Nazareth with the sole purpose of exposing the impostor, andhanding Him over to the arm of the law.
"But who is this Nazarene?" asked Annas contemptuously, making asthough he heard the name of Jesus for the first time.
Judas on his part pretended to believe in the extraordinaryignorance of the chief priest, and spoke in detail of the preachingof Jesus, of His miracles, of His hatred for the Pharisees and theTemple, of His perpetual infringement of the Law, and eventually ofHis wish to wrest the power out of the hands of the priesthood, andto set up His own personal kingdom. And so cleverly did he mingletruth with lies, that Annas looked at him more attentively, andlazily remarked: "There are plenty of impostors and madmen in Judah."
"No! He is a dangerous person," Judas hotly contradicted. "Hebreaks the law. And it were better that one man should perish,rather than the whole people."
Annas, with an approving nod, said--
"But He, apparently, has many disciples."
"Yes, many."
"And they, it seems probable, have a great love for Him?"
"Yes, they say that they love Him, love Him much, more thanthemselves."
"But if we try to take Him, will they not defend Him? Will they notraise a tumult?"
Judas laughed long and maliciously. "What, they? Those cowardlydogs, who run if a man but stoop down to pick up a stone. Theyindeed!"
"Are they really so bad?" asked Annas coldly.
"But surely it is not the bad who flee from the good; is it notrather the good who flee from the bad? Ha! ha! They are good, andtherefore they flee. They are good, and therefore they hidethemselves. They are good, and therefore they will appear only intime to bury Jesus. They will lay Him in the tomb themselves; youhave only to execute Him."
"But surely they love Him? You yourself said so."
"People always love their teacher, but better dead than alive.While a teacher's alive he may ask them questions which they willfind difficult to answer. But, when a teacher dies, they becometeachers themselves, and then others fare badly in turn. Ha! ha!"
Annas looked piercingly at the Traitor, and his lips puckered--whichindicated that he was smiling.
"You have been insulted by them. I can see that."
"Can one hide anything from the perspicacity of the astute Annas?You have pierced to the very heart of Judas. Yes, they insulted poorJudas. They said he had stolen from them three denarii--as thoughJudas were not the most honest man in Israel!"
They talked for some time longer about Jesus, and His disciples, andof His pernicious influence on the people of Israel, but on thisoccasion the crafty, cautious Annas gave no decisive answer. He hadlong had his eyes on Jesus, and in secret conclave with his ownrelatives and friends, with the authorities, and the Sadducees, haddecided the fate of the Prophet of Galilee. But he did not trustJudas, who he had heard was a bad, untruthful man, and he had noconfidence in his flippant faith in the cowardice of the disciples,and of the people. Annas believed in his own power, but he fearedbloodshed, feared a serious riot, such as the insubordinate,irascible people of Jerusalem lent itself to so easily; he feared, infact, the violent intervention of the Roman authorities. Fanned byopposition, fertilised by the red blood of the people, which vivifieseverything on which it falls, the heresy would grow stronger, andstifle in its folds Annas, the government, and all his friends. So,when Iscariot knocked at his door a second time Annas was perturbedin spirit and would not admit him. But yet a third and a fourth timeIscariot came to him, persistent as the wind, which beats day andnight against the closed door and blows in through its crevices.
"I see that the most astute Annas is afraid of something," saidJudas when at last he obtained admission to the high priest.
"I am strong enough not to fear anything," Annas answered haughtily.And Iscariot stretched forth his hands and bowed abjectly.
"What do you want?"
"I wish to betray the Nazarene to you."
"We do not want Him."
Judas bowed and waited, humbly fixing his gaze on the high priest.
"Go away."
"But I am bound to return. Am I not, revered Annas?"
"You will not be admitted. Go away!"
But yet again and again Judas called on the aged Annas, and at lastwas admitted.
Dry and malicious, worried with thought, and silent, he gazed on theTraitor, and, as it were, counted the hairs on his knotted head.Judas also said nothing, and seemed in his turn to be counting thesomewhat sparse grey hairs in the beard of the high priest.
"What? you here again?" the irritated Annas haughtily jerked out, asthough spitting upon his head.
"I wish to betray the Nazarene to you."
Both held their peace, and continued to gaze attentively at eachother. Iscariot's look was calm; but a quiet malice, dry and cold,began slightly to prick Annas, like the early morning rime of winter.
"How much do you want for your Jesus?"
"How much will you give?"
Annas, with evident enjoyment, insultingly replied: "You arenothing but a band of scoundrels. Thirty pieces--that's what we willgive."
And he quietly rejoiced to see how Judas began to squirm and runabout--agile and swift as though he had a whole dozen feet, not two.
"Thirty pieces of silver for Jesus!" he cried in a voice of wildmadness, most pleasing to Annas. "For Jesus of Nazareth! You wishto buy Jesus for thirty pieces of silver? And you think that Jesuscan be betrayed to you for thirty pieces of silver?" Judas turnedquickly to the wall, and laughed in its smooth, white fence, liftingup his long hands. "Do you hear? Thirty pieces of silver! ForJesus!"
With the same quiet pleasure, Annas remarked indifferently:
"If you will not deal, go away. We shall find some one whose workis cheaper."
And like old-clothes men who throw useless rags from hand to hand inthe dirty market-place, and shout, and swear and abuse each other, sothey embarked on a rabid and fiery bargaining. Intoxicated with astrange rapture, running and turning about, and shouting, Judasticked off on his fingers the merits of Him whom he was selling.
"And the fact that He is kind and heals the sick, is that worthnothing at all in your opinion? Ah, yes! Tell me, like an honestman!"
"If you--" began Annas, who was turning red, as he tried to get in aword, his cold malice quickly warming up under the burning words ofJudas, who, however, interrupted him shamelessly:
"That He is young and handsome--like the Narcissus of Sharon, andthe Lily of the Valley? What? Is that worth nothing? Perhaps youwill say that He is old and useless, and that Judas is trying todispose of an old bird? Eh?"
"If you--" Annas tried to exclaim; but Judas' stormy speech boreaway his senile croak, like down upon the wind.
"Thirty pieces of silver! That will hardly work out to one obolusfor each drop of blood! Half an obolus will not go to a tear! Aquarter to a groan. And cries, and convulsions! And for the ceasingof His heartbeats? And the closing of His eyes? Is all this to bethrown in gratis?" sobbed Iscariot, advancing toward the high priestand enveloping him with an insane movement of his hands and fingers,and with intervolved words.
"Includes everything," said Annas in a choking voice.
"And how much will you make out of it yourself? Eh? You wish torob Judas, to snatch the bit of bread from his children. No, I can'tdo it. I will go on to the market-place, and shout out: 'Annas hasrobbed poor Judas. Help!'"
Wearied, and grown quite dizzy, Annas wildly stamped about the floorin his soft slippers, gesticulating: "Be off, be off!"
But Judas on a sudden bowed down, stretching forth his handssubmissively:
"But if you really.... But why be angry with poor Judas, who onlydesires his children's good. You also have children, young andhandsome."
"We shall find some one else. Be gone!"
"But I--I did not say that I was unwilling to make a reduction. DidI ever say that I could not too yield? And do I not believe you,that possibly another may come and sell Jesus to you for fifteenoboli--nay, for two--for one?"
And bowing lower and lower, wriggling and flattering, Judas submissivelyconsented to the sum offered to him. Annas shamefacedly, with dry,trembling hand, paid him the money, and silently looking round, asthough scorched, lifted his head again and again towards the ceiling,and moving his lips rapidly, waited while Judas tested with his teethall the silver pieces, one after another.
"There is now so much bad money about," Judas quickly explained.
"This money was devoted to the Temple by the pious," said Annas,glancing round quickly, and still more quickly turning the ruddy baldnape of his neck to Judas' view.
"But can pious people distinguish between good and bad money! Onlyrascals can do that."
Judas did not take the money home, but went beyond the city and hidit under a stone. Then he came back again quietly with heavy,dragging steps, as a wounded animal creeps slowly to its lair after asevere and deadly fight. Only Judas had no lair; but there was ahouse, and in the house he perceived Jesus. Weary and thin,exhausted with continual strife with the Pharisees, who surroundedHim every day in the Temple with a wall of white, shining, scholarlyforeheads, He was sitting, leaning His cheek against the rough wall,apparently fast asleep. Through the open window drifted the restlessnoises of the city. On the other side of the wall Peter washammering, as he put together a new table for the meal, humming thewhile a quiet Galilean song. But He heard nothing; he slept onpeacefully and soundly. And this was He, whom they had bought forthirty pieces of silver.
Coming forward noiselessly, Judas, with the tender touch of amother, who fears to wake her sick child--with the wonderment of awild beast as it creeps from its lair suddenly, charmed by the sightof a white flowerlet--he gently touched His soft locks, and thenquickly withdrew his hand. Once more he touched Him, and thensilently crept out.
"Lord! Lord!" said he.
And going apart, he wept long, shrinking and wriggling andscratching his bosom with his nails and gnawing his shoulders. Thensuddenly he ceased weeping and gnawing and gnashing his teeth, andfell into a sombre reverie, inclining his tear-stained face to oneside in the attitude of one listening. And so he remained for a longtime, doleful, determined, from every one apart, like fate itself.
. . . . . . . .
Judas surrounded the unhappy Jesus, during those last days of Hisshort life, with quiet love and tender care and caresses. Bashfuland timid like a maid in her first love, strangely sensitive anddiscerning, he divined the minutest unspoken wishes of Jesus,penetrating to the hidden depth of His feelings, His passing fits ofsorrow, and distressing moments of weariness. And wherever Jesusstepped, His foot met something soft, and whenever He turned Hisgaze, it encountered something pleasing. Formerly Judas had notliked Mary Magdalene and the other women who were near Jesus. He hadmade rude jests at their expense, and done them little unkindnesses.But now he became their friend, their strange, awkward ally. Withdeep interest he would talk with them of the charming littleidiosyncrasies of Jesus, and persistently asking the same questions,he would thrust money into their hands, their very palms--and theybrought a box of very precious ointment, which Jesus liked so much,and anointed His feet. He himself bought for Jesus, after desperatebargaining, an expensive wine, and then was very angry when Peterdrank nearly all of it up, with the indifference of a person wholooks only to quantity; and in that rocky Jerusalem almost devoid oftrees, flowers, and greenery he somehow managed to obtain youngspring flowers and green grass, and through these same women to givethem to Jesus.
For the first time in his life he would take up little children inhis arms, finding them somewhere about the courts and streets, andunwillingly kiss them to prevent their crying; and often it wouldhappen that some swarthy urchin with curly hair and dirty littlenose, would climb up on the knees of the pensive Jesus, andimperiously demand to be petted. And while they enjoyed themselvestogether, Judas would walk up and down at one side like a severejailor, who had himself, in springtime, let a butterfly in to aprisoner, and pretends to grumble at the breach of discipline.
On an evening, when together with the darkness, alarm took post assentry by the window, Iscariot would cleverly turn the conversationto Galilee, strange to himself but dear to Jesus, with its stillwaters and green banks. And he would jog the heavy Peter till hisdulled memory awoke, and in clear pictures in which everything wasloud, distinct, full of colour, and solid, there arose before hiseyes and ears the dear Galilean life. With eager attention, withhalf-open mouth in child-like fashion, and with eyes laughing inanticipation, Jesus would listen to his gusty, resonant, cheerfulutterance, and sometimes laughed so at his jokes, that it wasnecessary to interrupt the story for some minutes. But John toldtales even better than Peter. There was nothing ludicrous, norstartling, about his stories, but everything seemed so pensive,unusual, and beautiful, that tears would appear in Jesus' eyes,and He would sigh softly, while Judas nudged Mary Magdalene andexcitedly whispered to her--
"What a narrator he is! Do you hear?"
"Yes, certainly."
"No, be more attentive. You women never make good listeners."
Then they would all quietly disperse to bed, and Jesus would kissHis thanks to John, and stroke kindly the shoulder of the tall Peter.
And without envy, but with a condescending contempt, Judas would witnessthese caresses. Of what importance were these tales and kisses and sighscompared with what he, Judas Iscariot, the red-haired, misshapen Judas,begotten among the rocks, could tell them if he chose?