Hold the Faith

Chapter One-3

“Make me, snob! We saw you dressed up as your cousin’s attendant,” slurred Asaph, who had drunk too much too quickly, and was ready to make trouble.

“You’re not all dressed up in your wedding finery now so why are you wearing that fancy headdress?” Thomas taunted.

Asaph mocked, “What do you have to be so proud about? You are merely the daughter of a tradesman; your only value ‘girl’ is as a wife.”

“And not much value at that,” Thomas commented, looking her up and down with a sneer on his lips.

“Scrawny isn’t she?” agreed the overweight Asaph.

“Still, she has unusual eyes,” Thomas remarked, enjoying her discomfort.

Asaph moved so close to study her eyes that Rachel could smell the strong odour of wine on his breath.

“Let us pass!” Rachel insisted, alarmed but staring back at this bully.

“You’re right Thomas, they are blue. She can’t be a pure Jew.”

“Maybe some of her ancestors married the Greeks when the invader Alexander conquered our homeland.”

“Not being a pure Jew reduces her value,” Asaph remarked with a sly look at Thomas, knowing that he was interested in her, or rather the profitable business run by her father and grandfather.

“It certainly would,” Thomas stepped closer to the anxious girl.

Esther nervously drew in closer to her older sister, leaning into her back, trying to hide. Rachel, her protective instinct aroused, declared, “I know who both of you are. Just because you are much older than us, and friends of the rabbi’s son doesn’t mean that you can behave like this.”

“We can do what we like, can’t we Asaph,” hiccoughed Thomas, as the wine he had drunk gave him a false sense of his importance.

The shower became heavier, and Rachel wanted to take her sickly young sister indoors. Although the tree was protecting them from the worst of the rain, she was worried about Esther. Inwardly shaking, she tossed her head in the air and said loftily, “Thomas ben Jonas and Asaph ben Hadad get out of my way. My mother is in the kitchen...

Before she could finish her sentence, Thomas had pushed himself behind her, snatched at her treasured hairpiece, dislodging it and pulling her hair in the process. Ten-year-old Esther was sent sprawling to the ground, but neither of the young men seemed to notice. Taken by surprise Rachel shuddered knowing she and her sister were at their mercy.

Jeering at them quietly, so as not to be heard from the kitchen, the pair took turns at tugging at the adornment in Rachel’s hair. Esther lay sprawled where she had fallen in the dirt and leaves, sobbing quietly.

*******

When he finished tending to the lamps on the side where the guest accommodation was located, Benjamin walked back to collect the lamp he was going to fix above the kitchen door. Glancing in that direction, he was appalled at what he saw. The younger girl was lying on the ground crying, and the men were jumping toward the older girl, pulling at her hair.

‘This is not teasing between relatives,’ he decided. Those girls needed help. Thankfully, the shower was over, but he would have to watch he did not slip. Making sure the skin of oil was properly stoppered; he removed it, put it with the lamp, laid down the pole, and loped across the distance to the group, coming up behind them.

Rachel, her damp robe clinging to her uncomfortably, and desperate to take her sister indoors, tugged the ornament from her hair and tossed it toward her taunters. “Here, if it is so important to you, take it and let us pass.” Then her face blanched, her feet feeling rooted to the spot. Another young man was coming up behind her antagonists. How could this be happening at her cousin’s wedding?

Reaching the group, Benjamin spun the nearest ruffian around, and said firmly, “Pick on someone your own s*x and size.”

Stumbling back a step, Rachel almost tripped over Esther. “Sorry,” she breathed, and moved aside, her gaze fixed on the scene, afraid to trust what she was seeing. It looked like the other man was helping her and her sister.

Taken by surprise and befuddled by wine, it took the men a few moments to realise what was happening and recognise who was intervening.

“Leave us alone heretic!” slurred Asaph, tugging at his robe as if surprised it was wet.

“You shouldn’t even be here at a Jewish wedding,” Thomas ben Jonas jeered, then hit out, aiming for Benjamin’s chin.

Benjamin ducked, and Thomas, intoxicated, overbalanced and fell to the ground. His damp robe clung to his legs, and his feet caught in it as he tried to stand up, and he tripped again. Asaph ben Hadad slipped on some wet leaves and fell over his friend.

Recovering, he stood up shaking his fist belligerently.

“Don’t say a word,” Benjamin said angrily. “You have both drunk too much, and should be ashamed of yourselves, picking on two young girls.”

“I’ll get you for this!” Asaph blustered, chest thrust out. “You are just a heretic, and we all know what happens to heretics. You will burn in hellfire, and I will sit in the bosom of Abraham and rejoice.”

Eyes blazing and struggling to hold his temper in check, Benjamin ignored Asaph’s words.

As his friend was taunting Benjamin, Thomas ben Jonas ran off in search of Joseph and Caleb hoping they would come back with him and beat the heretic for his interference. On his way, he caught sight of Meshua ben Simon, and a better idea occurred to him. He ran over to the father of the girls.

“Sir,” he said urgently, “your daughters are being harassed by that heretic Benjamin, great- grandson of the dissident John. My friend and I tried to stop him, and he knocked me over. Look at the state of my robe.” Brushing some leaves off the damp garment, he continued, “I came to find someone to help me rescue them.”

Meshua, who had been working at his booth in the marketplace, had just arrived. He had been caught in the shower on the way and was glad he, his wife and family were staying in the guest accommodation. He had been on his way to change into a dry robe before joining the other men for a few drinks and some conversation before the wedding feast. His daughters should have been working in the kitchen with his wife. Tilting his head to the side, he studied the young man, and then recognised him. “Your father is Jonas ben Asher isn’t he?”

Thomas nodded “Yes sir. Please come, your daughters need help.”

Asaph came running up, and Thomas called him over, “Asaph, that’s right, isn’t it? That great-grandson of John, the dissident was harassing this man’s daughters, and when we tried to help them, he knocked me to the ground.”

“Yes, sir, that’s correct.’ Asaph replied, quickly tucking Rachel’s hair ornament into a fold in his damp robe. “He tripped me up and then threatened me too. I came for help, and he is still over there with them now,” he said in a rush, hoping his words were not slurred.

“Show me!” Meshua instructed. Changing his robe could wait if his daughters were in danger.

*******

Unaware of the trouble brewing, Benjamin approached the frightened girls cautiously and introduced himself. “I am Benjamin, son of Samuel the oil-seller.”

Rachel looked at him timidly, unsure of him. She would have run for the safety of the kitchen but for her sister, still lying where she had been pushed.

“Let me explain. I was seeing to the lamps when I saw those bullies run at you. When I worked out you were not family members being teased, I decided to intervene. I hope they didn’t hurt you.”

Rachel decided to trust him and smiled shyly as she tried to smooth her tangled hair. “No they didn’t, but they frightened my sister. Thank you for rescuing us.”

Bending over, he held out his hand and helped the frightened child to her feet.

Panicked, she raced off toward the kitchen without a word of thanks, calling for her mother, “Aima, Aima!”

Rachel thanked him and was apologising for her young sister’s lack of manners when her furious father appeared.

“What do you think you are doing out here alone with my daughter? Face flushed, eyes flinty he strode across the distance between them and pushed Benjamin aside.

Jonas and Asaph, who had followed him, exchanged triumphant glances and slipped away.

Bewildered, Benjamin protested, “I was intervening to protect two young girls from the unwanted attention of two slightly drunk young men who were making nuisances of themselves.

“That’s not the way I heard it!” Looking round, he saw the accusers had gone. It did not matter; he had the evidence in front of him.

A flush spreading across his cheeks, Benjamin swallowed his annoyance and said quietly, “Sir, my father is the oil-seller who supplied these lamps; I am here to ensure they are ready for tonight’s celebration. I would never do anything to harm a child.”

Listening, Rachel bristled at being called a child. She was twelve years old. Gazing up at her rescuer, she sighed and forgave him for calling her a child. He was so tall, handsome too. Not anything like the bossy Thomas ben Jonas or his overweight friend.

The veins in his neck pulsing obviously, Meshua stared furiously at the young man standing before him. “The fact of the matter is that you are out here, in the rain, alone with my daughter. From what I have been told, you attacked Thomas ben Jonas and knocked over his friend Asaph ben Hadad.”

Benjamin stiffened. Tense and exasperated by the accusation, it took all his self-control to reply calmly, “Sir, I didn’t harm them. Both of them had too much to drink. One fell over when he tried to hit me, and the other slipped on some wet leaves and tripped over his friend. They were the ones making nuisances of themselves.”

Rachel wanted to tell her father that this was the truth, but she knew he would not approve of her interrupting.

Just then, Rachel’s mother, Elizabeth, hurried out of the kitchen with Esther anxiously clutching her arm.

“That’s the man who saved us,” the girl whispered to her mother.

Flustered and torn between her duties in the kitchen and her anxiety over her other daughter, Elizabeth sped over to the group, her bare feet giving her a safe grip on the damp soil.

“Meshua, greetings,” she said nodding to her husband, “you closed the booth early then.” Quickly thanking Benjamin for helping her girls, she turned anxiously and asked Rachel if she was alright.

Before Rachel could reply, her astounded father asked, “What’s going on here? I have been told that this young man was tormenting our daughters, and you are thanking him!”

Biting her lower lip and slowly shaking her head, Elizabeth replied, “All I know Meshua, is that Esther came running into the kitchen, crying because two men had been troubling them. She said Rachel called them Thomas ben Jonas and Asaph ben Hadad, but that another man saved them. She has just told me it was this man.”

“Well?” Meshua queried looking down at his older daughter.

“Yes, Abba,” Rachel said softly, eyes lowered, “that is correct. This man rescued us from those other two.” She blushed, and turned to gaze at her rescuer.

Turning back to Benjamin Meshua cleared his throat, struggling to contain his dislike of the beliefs of the group Benjamin belonged to, “Well it seems I owe you thanks and an apology.”

“I was glad to be able to help. I know what it is like to be taunted. Over the years I have suffered much for my beliefs.”

Meshua knew that this would be the case. None of the Jewish community liked these followers of Yeshua ben Joseph. They might do business with them, but they didn’t like them.

Benjamin watched a range of emotions pass over the older man’s face, before settling into a strained smile. “You suffered because you are a heretic.” Meshua hedged, not wanting to admit the Jewish boys were in the wrong.

“My beliefs are similar to yours. The fellowship of the Way keep the Sabbaths, the Holy Days and Feasts; we keep the clean and unclean food laws and teach from the same scriptures. There are some other differences, but the main one is the matter of the Messiah.”

“Who we Jews know was an itinerant teacher. He was no ‘Messiah”. The Messiah is yet to come.” Meshua said firmly taking a step backwards, his distaste apparent. “There have been many like him in the past and surely will be again.”

Benjamin chose not to reply on what he knew would be a no-win argument, having already endured many in his young life.

Elizabeth looked down at her daughters, then seeing the enthralled, adoring look on Rachel’s face said, “Come on girls, come into the kitchen and dry yourselves. Look, Rachel, your hair is damp too.” Concerned, she hustled them off.

Dismissively, Meshua said, “I will talk to the fathers of those young men.” Barely hiding a scornful look, he said, “It might be wise for you to make yourself scarce young man; their fathers are important men in our community.”

A dozen answers tumbled through Benjamin’s mind, but he said none of them; instead he replied, “I will finish my work, then be on my way.”

Retrieving the lamp, wicks, oil and the pole from where he had put them, Benjamin went and fixed the lamp over the kitchen door. Seeing to the two remaining lamps near the great barn, he dealt with them efficiently. As he worked, he started to fret about what his father would say. He knew his parents worried about what they called his ‘impulsiveness,' but he had been especially careful to rein in his exasperation. Yes, he had intervened when those bullies had tormented the girls, but whatever they claimed, he had not hit them.

His task completed, he turned and bowed his head stiffly to the watching Meshua, and said, “I will be on my way now.”

Meshua stared after him as Benjamin quietly made his way across the courtyard, and tucking his robe into his girdle, turned up the passage to the gateway. He seemed a polite enough young man, but he was a heretic. The fathers of the other young men were well-regarded Jewish men. He would wait a while yet before talking to them, but first, he must change out of this damp robe.