The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah Vol 1 - Predestination

such as can scarcely be described, bad fastened on
his body,' and his sufierings were at times
agonising. By the advice of his physicians, he had
himself carried to the baths of Callirhoe (east of
the Jordan), trying all remedies with the
determination of one who will do hard battle for
life. It was in vain. The namelessly horrible
distemper, which had seized the old man of
seventy, held him fast in its grasp, and, so to speak,
played death on the living. He knew it, that his
hour was come, and had himself conveyed back to
his palace under the palm-trees of Jericho. They
had known it also in Jerusalem, and, even before
the last stage of his disease, two of the most
honoured and loved Babbis—Judas and Matthias
—had headed the wild band, which would sweep
away all traces of Herod's idolatrous rule. They
began by pqlling down the immense golden eagle,
which hung over the great gate of the Temple. The
two ringleaders, and forty of their followers,
I And yet Xekn speaks of his ffoehker pp. 197,198.