more from "The Nazarene" by Sholem Asch

Joseph of Arimathea Among the Rocks of Albion

The prose in the volume of The Nazarene that I read was quite lofty at times. In the excerpt below Asch in one short paragraph provides a physical description of Joseph of Arimathea, a view to his character, his inquisitive nature and a description of the culture in which Joseph Arimathea lived.

"When I came to know Joseph Arimathea he was no longer young, for he had passed his fiftieth year. But his body had retained all the manliness and vigor of its prime. His limbs were firm and muscular; his body was erect and square, as if cut out of a giant cedar. But the whole was light and elastic in movement, as became a man who had frequented the gymnasium in his youth. Even his head was still youthful, despite the streaks of gray in his curly hair and trimmed beard: and I noted that, in the matter of his beard, he did not encourage the full growth, as the pietists did, nor, of course, did he permit a razor to touch his face. He compromised, and the result was the Roman style. It was strange that he should make this impression of unspoiled pristine vigor, for his face was a mask of care and thoughtfulness. Only the straight Roman nose and the long jaws had been rescued from the network of wrinkles. In the company of the philosophers Joseph was all ears; he took their discussions perhaps more seriously than they; his eyes were drawn down in the intensity of his concentration, and he sat on his raised stool like a picture of spiritual concern. One would have, said that he was not listening to an analysis of distant themes, but rather to a debate which had a practical life-and-death significance for him; and the conclusion of the discussion would have for him the validity of a juridical pronouncement on his own fate. In a sense this was comprehensible; for the struggle still went on within him and the argumentation which moved back and forth dragged his soul now to this side, now to that; it was a battle for the possession of his inmost self. Yet it was more than this; for he conceived that the dispute over his individual soul was parallel with that over the possession of the soul of his people; indeed, the soul of the world. My Rabbi [Nicodemus] was like a seraph armed with a fiery sword, bursting into the harmonious earthly paradise which the Greek philosopher Philippus [ Philippus of Gederah]had created for Joseph. Beauty, and the grace which flows from it, was for the latter the highest conceivable good; the soul of man was but a note in the wholeness of the harmony of the gods. But the soul was not entrusted to all men; it was the privilege of those who were blessed with a superior intelligence. The soul introduced balance into the passions of man, calmed the fiery outbursts of lust and imparted to his bearing the grace of the gods. Therefore the wise man followed the golden mean, having refined his desires and impulses according to the nobility of the soul."