Letters from Adina - #6

Letter VI. A Hopeful Convert

Aemelius - The Roman Centurion

My Dear Father:

Health and peace to thee, and to all my honoured and beloved friends in Alexandria. I have again seen the excellent Ben Israel, with whom, four months ago, I came from Egypt to sojourn in Jerusalem.

You will remember the young Roman centurion, to whose courtesy I was indebted for rescuing me from the rudeness of the two Gentile soldiers.

He has preserved, since then, acquaintance with Rabbi Amos, who speaks of him with respect; and as he has of late expressed some interest in knowing what the studies are which occupy the Rabbi so constantly, a copy of the prophets has been placed in his hands; but as he has professed he was not learned enough to read Hebrew, the good Rabbi, who believed he in him a hopeful convert to the faith of Judah, called in Mary, that she may read and interpret to him.

But her knowledge of the Roman tongue did not prove sufficient; and at her request the Rabbi sent for me to come into the marble hall of the corridor, where they sat by the fountain under the shade of the acacia, which Amos says you took with your own hands from Isaiah's grave and planted here, many years ago, and which I, therefore, call "my father's tree."

"Come hither, Adina," said my uncle, in his benevolent tones; "here you behold a noble Roman youth whom you must be too generous to have forgotten."

I bowed, and scarcely lifted my eyelids from the tessellated floor; for there was a fire in the glance of the handsome youth that they could not encounter. He spoke some words of salutation; but I only heard the voice, which fell upon my heart with a strange vibration, like the effects of music.

Surely these barbarians of Italia have the richest language of all men; compared with it our Hebrew is harsh and strangely guttural.

"The Roman centurion," continued Amos, "hath desired to know something of the sacred books of our nation, of which he saith he hath heard much; and of the prophecies, from which he believes the famed Sibylline books were composed."

“I have studied the sacred books of Etruna, of Egypt, and of Persia, as well as of my own people,” said the centurion, modestly, “but in all these I find rites and ceremonies, doctrines and laws, that are unworthy to emanate from the Supreme Ruler of so vast a universe. We Romans, in the multiplicity of our gods, seem to deify everything, and in reality deify nothing! We call everything a god but we realise God nowhere.”

“Then thou hast well directed thy inquiries touching this book,” answered Amos, with warmth; and he looked on the Roman with respectful compassion.   “Here is to be found the true and only revelation of Jehovah to men. Here is developed a divine character worthy of the Creator of the universe. Here are laid down laws and ceremonies, rites and doctrines, commands and precepts, worthy to emanate from the Father and God of all men. Thou shalt hear and judge for thyself.

"I am but imperfectly skilled in the Roman Tongue, save for daily intercourse; but behold an Egyptian maiden, who can interpret for thee in the idiom of Grecia, or of Italia, and I will place the sacred roll in her hands while I listen. Come Adina, open and read the beginning of the Book of Moses."

I obeyed, as I would have obeyed you, dear father; and seated at the feet of Amos, I read and translated aloud into Greek which the Roman youth had said was ‘even more familiar to him than his native tongue, as it is to all educated persons - the first five hundred lines.

These, as you know, give an account of the creation of the world: and of man; of his fall and his expulsion from Paradise; of the promise of Messias to restore what man had lost; of the curse denounced upon the creation ; of the slaying of the patriarch Abel; of the peopling of the earth, its wickedness, and destruction by the flood.

To all this narrative the youthful warrior listened with the profoundest respect and attention; and when he had thanked me, and asked permission to come and be further taught from the pages which he said seemed, indeed, to be written with ‘the finger of the Supreme Lord of the universe, he asked if the Messias had yet come who was to restore all things; and, if not, when he was to be looked for.

This inquiry led to a conversation upon the preaching of John in the wilderness and his predictions of the near advent of Shiloh. Rabbi Amos, seeing that he was becoming deeply interested in the subject, made me turn to the particular prophecies of Daniel, Esaias, David and others, and read them to him; both those which described, in golden words, the glory and dominion of His power, and those which represented Him as despised and rejected.

The young man remained some time very thoughtful. At length he said, "I can now comprehend why men run into the wilderness. I should like to hear this prophet."

When Amos told him that he contemplated journeying to Gilgal the next week, and intended to go forth into the desert to hear the preacher, he at once asked permission to go in his company, but when I remarked that Mary and I were also to go, his dark eyes beamed with pleasure, and he immediately said;

"I will accompany you with a squadron of horse, as the roads are not safe; for no longer ago than yesterday we received a rumor that the celebrated robber chief, Barabbas, at the head of a large band, has made his appearance again on the hills between Ephraim and Jericho, and robbed not only two caravans, but many of those who were travelling to hear this prophet. I will undertake an expedition against him, after seeing you safe to your journey’s end,”

It is therefore decided, dear father, that we leave early next week for Jericho and Gilgal, and also go into the wilderness to see and hear the prophet. On my return I shall not fail to write you without delay. Till then withhold your judgment, and have confidence in mine. With holy aspirations for the coming of the kingdom of David and the restoration of his throne in Zion, I remain, with filial love, your daughter,

Adina.

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 LADY DONNA PROGRAM

The new Lady Donna Immersion in Spirituality, Academics and Citizenship @ the "I AM" School will study abridged excerpts of the Letters from Adina taken from Reverend Ingraham's original edited version of 'The Prince of the House of David', published by Cassell & Co. Ltd (1903), that reveal remarkable insights into the Living Etheric Record left by Beloved Jesus's Ministry in the Holy Land.