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48 preacher, I forgot thy fealty. Forgive me, Saddoc. We are enemies no longer; common misfortunes make friends of former disputants.


 * I am an Essene and will hold myself faithful to my vows. (He goes up the stage and listens, returning after a moment to Mathias.) Hear him now. He is saying that circumcision is in the heart! (Mathias goes up the stage and listens and returns to Saddoc.)


 * I will set a noose for him, and thou shalt see him run into it.


 * Like a foolish rabbit. I shall pray that thy noose prevail against him, and though he never comes to kick in it I shall abide in Kerith with the few that remain with us till God calls me, going to him as he made me, the same in the end as in the beginning.


 * I have offered thee friendship, Saddoc, and shall not desert Kerith though the brethren leave us.


 * But thou'lt weary in Kerith without brethren to instruct in the Scriptures, and thou mightest do worse than join the brethren upon the thither side of Jordan who have taken wives lest the order of the Essenes should perish utterly.


 * My first business is to overcome Paul in disputation, and, as I have said, I shall impose arguments that he will not be able to answer.


 * But the brethren will turn a deaf ear. May it not be that thy interpretation of the Scriptures is the cause of the dissidence—


 * Of the dissidence, Saddoc!


 * Thy discourses dispose the mind to restlessness—

(Enter Hazael. Mathias goes up the stage to meet him.)


 * Why are the brethren gathered on the balcony?

To view the path that Paul came by, already a sacred way!


 * Thy meaning is not plain, Mathias.


 * Will my meaning be plain if I tell thee that our guest is the bearer of a new Gospel and that the brethren are receiving instruction in it?