54
THE APOSTLE
countenances around me for a potter God, a maker of things according to a pattern? (Turning to Paul.) The Christ that possesses thee, Paul, is but the Logos, the principle that mediates between the supreme God and the world formed out of matter, which has no being of its own, for being is not in that mere potency of all things alike, which thou callest Power, but in Divine Reason.
PAUL: Thou'rt nearer to Christ than thou knowest, yet among the Greeks that I heard in Athens.
MATHIAS: I gather from thy Greek that thy stay in Athens was not long, and from thence I would have had thee go to Alexandria, my city, to learn philosophy from the masters. Essenes are among them; Philo would have persuaded thee into a purer conception of God than a mere potter.
PAUL: Neither life, nor death, nor angels can separate me from the love of our Lord Jesus Christ.
(Rising from his seat Mathias leaves the table and passes on to the balcony like one offended, and leaning his arms on the rail looks into the abyss.)
MANAHEM (whispering to Paul): A Jew of Alexandria, but he holds fast by the law in his own sense.
SHALLUM (To Paul): We would hear from thee a tale of Peter, the Lord's head servant.
MANAHEM: We care not for Peter, but would hear of the Lord Jesus Christ.
saddoc: But who was this Christ when he lived upon earth?
PAUL: Born of a virgin's womb and crucified and raised by the power of his Father from the dead.
HAZAEL: Our brother Jesus was born in Nazareth.
PAUL: Which among you is that Jesus of Nazareth? (He scans the ten or a dozen faces.)
saddoc: Jesus is away on the hills with Jacob, our new shepherd.
(Enter Jesus.)
But here he is, returned to lead thee to Caesarea.
(Jesus hangs a wallet over Paul's shoulders.)
jesus: Herein is food for three days. The journey before us is as long, and it is time that we started.
MATHIAS: We thought our guest would remain with us till evening, and that under cover of darkness—
