Palestine, the Jewish people
were waiting for something to happen--or, really, were waiting for
someone to come.

"When will he come?" was the question they were always asking one
another. "Will he come in five years? next year? Or is he already on
his way?"

They were waiting for someone, and when he came they would call him
"the Messiah." If they spoke the Greek language, they would call him
"Christ." The people thought he would be a great king.

They had one king already. His name was Herod the Great. But Herod was
not the kind of king they wanted. Herod was hard and cruel. He
poisoned and beheaded those who made him angry. He was not a Jew by
birth. The Messiah, when _he_ came, would be a good king. He would be
a Jew himself, and a friend to all the Jewish people. One of the
prophets said he would be like the shepherds of Palestine, who watched
their sheep night and day, and carried the small lambs in their arms.

But the most important thing about the Messiah was that he would drive
Caesar and his armies out of the country. Caesar! How they hated his
very name! For Caesar was the emperor of the Romans. Some years
before, the Romans had occupied the country and begun to rule it.
Herod was still king of the Jews, but now he took his orders from
Caesar. Everybody had to take orders from Caesar. The Jews were not a
free people any more.

"It used to be so different," the older people sighed, "before the
Romans came."

Everywhere in Palestine Roman armies went marching. Their shields
flashed in the sunlight, and when they were on the march they carried
golden eagles which stood for Caesar's power.

The Romans tried to rule the country well. They said that everybody
would get justice and fair play. But the Jews could not see the
fairness in having to pay taxes to a foreign king who did not even
worship God. They did not like to see Roman soldiers whipping people
with long leather whips called scourges, into which bits of glass and
lead and iron were fastened to make them bite more deeply into some
poor Jew's back. They were sick at heart when the Romans began to
punish criminals by nailing them up by their hands and feet to big
wooden crosses, and leaving them to hang there until they died.

[Illustration]

Well, the Messiah would take care of the Romans. He would gather an
army from east and west and north and south. Then there would be a
great day for the Jewish people, a great day for the nation that was