[Pearl-Maiden by H. Rider Haggard]@TWC D-Link bookPearl-Maiden CHAPTER I 4/22
Now he was almost forgotten, but very strangely, the fame of this crucified demagogue, Jesus, seemed to grow, since there were many who made a kind of god of him, preaching doctrines in his name that were contrary to the law and offensive to every sect of the Jews. Pharisees, Sadducees, Zealots, Levites, priests, all called out against them.
All besought Agrippa that he would be rid of them, these apostates who profaned the land and proclaimed in the ears of a nation awaiting its Messiah, that Heaven-born King who should break the Roman yoke and make Jerusalem the capital of the world, that this Messiah had come already in the guise of an itinerant preacher, and perished with other malefactors by the death of shame. Wearied with their importunities, the King listened.
Like the cultivated Romans with whom he associated, Agrippa had no real religion.
At Jerusalem he embellished the Temple and made offerings to Jehovah; at Berytus he embellished the temple and made offerings there to Jupiter. He was all things to all men and to himself--nothing but a voluptuous time-server.
As for these Christians, he never troubled himself about them.
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