Page:As others saw Him.djvu/31

 Rh the nation according as he is a son of Aaron or of Levi, a simple Israelite, or a proselyte that fears the Lord; each man knoweth his own and his neighbor's genealogy. The greatest slur upon a man is to accuse him of "mixture," the greatest insult is to call him "bastard." Why had the money-changers cast this slur upon the Nazarene? Thou and I, Aglaophonos, who boast to be citizens of the Kosmos, would not think the worse of him if the taunt were true. Yet thou canst understand how great, even if he only thought it to be true, would be the influence of such a slur on this man's mind and on his career. If in after-days he showed himself so careless of the nation's hopes, may it not have been that he felt himself in some way outside the nation?

Now I found, upon inquiry among the Galilæans settled in Jerusalem, that some such scandal had arisen about his birth. There had even been talk that Joseph ben Eli would have put away his wife, but for the stern penalties which our Law inflicts upon the misdoer. Yet there may have been naught but suspicion in the matter,