ling them the while that Jesus had driven them
out of the house. It is a main struggle that is going by in him, Philip
said, and so we left him, being afraid of his looks. Isn't that so,
Bartholomew? And they all acquiesced, and Bartholomew nodded, saying:
yes, we were afraid of his looks. It was then that Simon the Leper
opened the door, and Joseph, remembering his promise to his father, laid
his hand on Nicodemus' shoulder: I may not enter, he said. I have come
thus far but may not go into the house; but do you go in and tell him,
Nicodemus, that in spirit I am with him.

On these words Nicodemus passed into the house, leaving Joseph in the
centre of a small crowd of apostles, disciples and sympathisers in
several degrees, all eager to talk to him and to hear him say that they
had but to follow Jesus to Jerusalem and the Scribes and Pharisees would
give way before them at once. You that are of the Sanhedrin should know
if we are strong enough to cast them out of the Temple. But, my good
men, I know nothing of your plot to clear the Temple of its thieves,
Joseph answered, and there'll always be thieves in this world, wherever
you go. But the Day of Judgment is approaching. When may we expect his
second coming? somebody shouted from out of a group of men standing a
little way back from the others, and the cry was taken up. He is coming
with his Father in a chariot, one said. With our Father, somebody
interrupted, and an eddying current of theology spread through the
crowd. I've come from Galilee, from my father's sick-bed, and know
nothing of your numbers and have not seen him these many months, Joseph
said. He is the true Messiah, and we believe in him, was an unexpected
utterance; but Joseph was not given time to ponder on it, for a woman,
thrusting her way up to him, cried out in his face: he can destroy the
Temple and build it again in three days. And when Joseph asked her who
had said that, she told him that Jesus had said it. He turned to Peter,
John and James to ask them the meaning of these words. What did Jesus
mean when he said he could destroy the Temple and build it again in
three days? He means, said half-a-dozen voices, that the priests and the
Scribes are to be cast out, and a new Temple set up, for the pure
worship of the true God, who desires not the fat of rams. Joseph
understood that the rams destined for sacrifice were to be given to the
poor.

If you don't mind, will you be telling us why you refus