7. It was not until the third day that I asked my father to explain why he had not returned to Kerioth to defend his good name.
8. Abba believed that his very presence would continually remind all around him of the unwitting role he had played in the death of Jesus.
9. He could also never forget Peter’s parting words: It would be better for you not to have been born.
Mark 14:21;
Matt 26:24
10. Once he had told me of that final encounter with Peter, he made no further reference to his days as a disciple of Jesus of Nazareth.
11. He only seemed interested to talk about our family and what had become of them.
12. I did not answer all the questions Abba put to me, as I had no desire to acquaint him with the fact that even distant relatives were daily reminded that they shared the same blood as Judas Iscariot, the disciple who had betrayed Jesus.
13. I did tell him that my mother had given up her spirit at the age of two score years and three, after two of my brothers had fled from Israel to live in far-off lands.
14. Later, I admitted that none of my sisters was married, and I had yet to produce a son.
15. Abba’s only response was that the sins of the father would surely be visited on the third and fourth generation.
Deut 5:9
16. With each new revelation, Abba became more and more desolate.
17. For days, no words passed his lips, and I feared for his life.
18. It was not until the eleventh day that he began to speak again, and then only to acquaint me with his work during those years of self-imposed exile at Khirbet Qumran.
19. He and his fellow Essenes had laboured night and day to build a library of scrolls that would ensure that the history of the Jewish people would not be lost, however long the pagan invaders inhabited the Holy Land.
20. Moreover, the Romans had become more and more authoritarian after their informers had warned them of a possible uprising among the people.
[xxxvi]
21. Titus had issued an edict declaring that all establishments that refused to open their gates to the Romans were to be razed to the ground and their inhabitants sentenced to death for defying the authority of Caesar.
see
Josephus,
Jewish War
VI. 323–355
[xxxvii]
22. Legions of Roman forces swept through the land of Israel carrying out the Supreme Commander’s orders.
23. Following the sacking of Jerusalem, Judas told me that he feared it would not be long before the Romans crossed the desert and turned their attention to Khirbet Qumran.
24. Whenever my father spoke, it was only to talk of our ancient past, and I was beginning to despair that he would ever refer to those days when he had been a disciple of Jesus of Nazareth.
25. That changed when he asked if I had any knowledge of what had become of the other eleven disciples.
26. I told him of a document that had been circulating among the Christians in Antioch and another that had appeared more recently in Ephesus.
27. My father listened to these revelations in disbelief.