Read Online Stateless by Alan Gold - Free Book Online

could not hold back a brash laugh. ‘God has a son?’
    Elisheva nodded patiently but the look she gave Abram unsettled him.
    â€˜Yes, the Lord God sent his son to earth to create the Kingdom of Heaven. He was crucified and he rose from the dead. He is our Messiah.’
    Abram ate another spoonful of the stew while he considered what Elisheva had said.
    â€˜My rabbi said there are many men who say they are sent by God. They all call themselves messiahs, from our word “to be sent”. My rabbi said I should ignore them as madmen. Was your Jesus one of them?’
    Again, Elisheva remained patient and smiled. ‘Jesus is the only true Messiah, Abram. He is truly the son of God and we know this from the miracles He performed. You see, Jesus has done what no man before him has done. He rose from the dead and came back to us alive, three days after He was crucified.’
    Abram shook his head. He didn’t understand. ‘How can a dead man come alive again?’
    â€˜He is not a man, my dear. He is our God, and we worship him.’
    Abram pushed the empty bowl of stew away as if he were pushing away the bizarre logic.
    Elisheva then poured Abram a cup of goat’s milk and slid it towards him. Abram looked at the cup as if it were a foreignobject, not to be trusted. Jewish law forbade the drinking of milk after a person had eaten meat.
    Elisheva saw Abram’s reaction. Softly, she told him, ‘My son, Jesus told us, His followers, that we need no longer obey the rules about food that are written in the Book of the Levi and the Book of Deuteronomy. Jesus, our teacher and master, told the Apostle Mark that we need no longer follow the old ways. We are free of the restrictions of the priests of the temple, now that there is no longer a temple. This is a new world, Abram. Yes, it is controlled by the Romans, but as we grow, we will ascend and we will sweep away the old and replace it with the gift of Jesus and His teachings.’
    â€˜You’ll fight the Romans,’ Abram said in astonishment.
    Elisheva smiled. ‘Dear boy, we Christians don’t fight. We are a peaceable people. Our weapons are those of love and fellowship. This is what Jesus and His Apostles taught us.’
    â€˜What’s an apostle?’ asked Abram.
    She reached over again and held his arm. ‘Oh, Abram, we have so much to teach you.’
    Abram wasn’t sure he liked the sound of that and he stood up from the table without drinking the milk. But as he did, his head swam and his knees buckled, causing him to stumble backwards. He caught himself by grabbing at the shoulder of Elisheva, who had stood quickly to assist him. But then his stomach pitched and yawed and he doubled over to vomit all over the floor, his partially digested stew spilling out in a liquid pool at his feet.
    Then Abram passed out.
    Every day since then, with the seal tucked inside his shirt, Abram had felt compelled to be on his way, to fulfil the task he had been set, and find his way to Jerusalem. But for some time he was too weak and too ill to leave the home of Elisheva and her husband Abimelech.
    They fed him and washed his clothes and gave him a corner of a room in their small house with straw for a bed. They were generous and kind but Abram did not trust them. It wasn’t just the warning of the rabbi to ‘ trust no one until the seal is returned ’, but something else about the people who were caring for him that made Abram ill at ease.
    For two weeks, as Abram recovered, Abimelech, who was the Episcopus of the local community, told him stories about a man called ‘Jesus of Nazareth’.
    Abimelech was a leather maker with a workshop next to the house. But he seemed to have endless time to spend with Abram and talk. And the young man learned many things about this Jesus, whom the whole village seemed to believe was the son of God. For his part, Abram asked many questions and felt gratified that in the