Volume 2

Jesus is Contradicted
141
directed the people to repeat His words after Him, which
they did. His discourse lasted without interruption from
nine in the morning till about four in the afternoon. Once
only there was a pause, during which they brought Hinl a
little refreshment, a glass of wine and a morsel of bread.
The listeners came and went, according as their business
in the city demanded. Jesus taught of penance and Baptism,
of which He here spoke principally as of a spiritual
purification and cleansing. No women were baptized
before Pentecost, though among the children admitted to
Baptism were little girls of from five to eight years old,
but no grown girls. The mysterious signification connected
with this, I no longer remember. Jesus spoke also
of Moses, of the broken tables of the Law, of the golden
calf, and of the thunder and lightning on Sinai.
When he had made an end of speaking and the instruction
was quite finished, many of the people including the
Governor having returned to the city, a tall, prepossessing
old Jew with a long beard stepped boldly up to the
teacher's chair and thus addressed Jesus: "Allow me now
to speak with Thee. Thou hast enumerated twenty-three
truths when, in reality, there are twenty-four," and he
proceeded to name them one after another and to argue
with Jesus on the point. But Jesus replied: "Desiring thy
conversion, I have suffered thee here. I might have sent
thee away before the whole crowd, since thou didst come
hither uninvited. Thou sayest that there are twenty-four
truths, and that I have taught only twenty-three. But thou
hast already added three to my number, for I taught twenty
only." And then Jesus counted up twenty truths according
to the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, although it was
by the same manner of reckoning that His opponent had
proved that there were twenty-four. He then descanted
upon the sin and punishment of those that add something
to the truth. But the old Jew would by no means
acknowledge his error, and he was supported by some