Kingdom 04

Of Such Is The Kingdom, A Novel of Biblical Times

Pilate and Portia (Ch.7) decide to send complaint letters to Caesar about Herod. A messenger from Herod tells Pilate to raise the temple tax. He replies telling Herod to mind his own business. Portia compliments Pilate, but wonders if more taxation might not be good. Manaheem recruits Barabbas (Ch.8) as insurrection leader. Barabbas tries to convey to his wife the serious political situation. Manaheem (Ch.9) meets his ex-wife, Claressa, and drives her home. They express their love and decide to try again despite financial concerns. Meanwhile (Ch. 10) Barabbas has managed to form a small group of insurgents. He plans the strategy for the attack on his way home, but is interrupted by a cry for alms from the two beggars. He says he's as poor as they, and that if all goes well, one day there may be no more poor people. Timotheus(Ch. 11) wonders what his last remark means. Lucas dismisses it, but later recalls the previous visit from Manaheem (Ch. 1) and wonders if the two incidents are related. Their food supply running low, they start out next morning in search of a new begging spot. Timotheus spys a crowd listening to someone speak and they go to work the crowd. The speaker is John the Baptist and Timotheus is touched by his call for repentance, but Lucas says it shouldn’t concern them.