It is a great story that thou tellest, Jesus, Manahem said, and it is well to hear that there are great souls still amongst us, as in the days of the Maccabees.  However this may be, Saddoc interposed, these men in their strife against the Romans must look to our flocks for food.  Three sheep were taken from me last night, Jesus answered, and the rest will go one by one, two by two, three by three, unless the revolt be quelled.  And if the revolt be not quelled, Saddoc continued, the robbers will need all we have gotten, which is little; they may even need our cave here, and unless we join them they will cast us over the precipices.  It was to ask:  are we to take up arms against these robbers that I came hither, Jesus said.  You will confer amongst yourselves, brethren, Hazael said, and will forgive me if I withdraw:  Jesus would like to speak with me privately.

The Essenes bowed, and Hazael walked up the domed gallery with Jesus, and as soon as they disappeared at the other end Shallum began:  your shepherd tells you the truth; the hills are once more infested with the remains of Theudas’ army.  But who may Theudas be? one of the brethren asked.  So you have not heard, Shallum cried, of Theudas, and you living here within a few miles of the track he followed with his army down to Jordan.  Little news reaches us here, Saddoc said, and he asked Shallum to tell of Theudas, and Shallum related how Theudas had gathered a great following together in Jerusalem and provoked a great uprising of the people whom he called to follow him through the gates of the city, which they did, and over the hills as far as Jordan.  The current of the river, he said, will stop, and the water rise up in a great wall as soon as I impose my hands.  We have no knowledge if the waters would have obeyed his bidding, for before the waters had time to divide a Roman soldier struck off the prophet’s head and carried it to Jerusalem on a spear, where the sight of it was well received by the priests, for Theudas preached against the Temple, against the law, and the traditions as John and his disciples had done beforetimes.  A great number, he continued, were slain by the Roman soldiers, and the rest dispersed, having hidden themselves in the caves, and become robbers and rebels.  Nor was Theudas the last, he began again, there was another, an Egyptian, a prophet or a sorcerer of great repute, at whose bidding the people assembled when he announced that the walls of the city would fall as soon as he lifted up his hands.  They must follow him through the breach into the desert to meet the day of judgment by the Dead Sea.  And what befell this last prophet?  Saddoc asked.  He was pursued by the Roman soldiers, Eleakim cried, starting out of a sudden reverie.  And was he taken prisoner?  Manahem asked.  No, for he threw a rope into the air and climbed out of sight, Eleakim answered.  He must have been a great prophet or an angel more like, for a prophet could not climb up a rope thrown into the air, Caleb