The Gospel According to the Son by Norman Mailer Read Free Book Online Page B

for your souls. Yet I would also say" ùand saying this, felt as if new powers had again been granted to meù"if you ask, 'Lord, will you cast out devils?' then they will be cast out."
    It was as I said. It was exactly as I said. A man came forward from the congregation, and I could see that he frightened others, for he looked like a brigand. His nose was broken, and many scars were on his faceùan old brute with a spirit so unclean that the stench of his body came before him. Yet he cried out, "What have we to do with you, Yeshua of Nazareth? Are you come to destroy us?"
    And I saw that his features were thickened by the blows he had received in payment for the unrest within him. So I stood in my place as he approached. I stared into his eyes and said, "Hold your peace." And he did not move.
    I knew that a foul presence had to be drawn forth from his heart even as a small beast is torn from a burrow, and I knew that he had come to me so that this demon could be expelled. Nor did I need a magicians ring or aromatic herbs to place beneath his nostrils. With one breath, I said no more than: "Demon, come forth. Come out!"
    And an evil being tore out of his throat. It cried aloud in a bestial voice.
    This unclean spirit was invisible. Yet all could see that the presence had been cast forth into the midst of the synagogue. Empty benches fell over, and there was a wind on the floor, and dust. Then all such disturbance was gone.
    The good Jews of the synagogue were amazed. They were pious people, and their greatest uneasiness was to share a room with these unclean spirits. They did not know how to resist them. Therefore they desired no traffic with people who were ready to war with evil. They now said: "What new doctrine is this? Who does he command? Is it unclean?"
    In that moment I felt as if I had hurled a stone into the midst of the Sea of Galilee and ripples had traveled to every shore. Word of my deed would pass through all the regions about us.
    "Ask," I said to them who were in the synagogue.
    "Ask, and it shall be given unto you.
    "Seek, and you shall find.
    "Knock, and it shall be opened to you."
    My new friends Simon Peter and Andrew and James and John came out of the synagogue and went back with me to the house of Simon Peter.

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    So alive was I with new strength that when we came into Peter's house and his wife's mother was lying there with a fever, I had only to take her by the hand and the fever left. She rose from her bed and was delighted and cooked for us. We were well fed.
    In the evening, friends of Simon and Andrew and James and John came to the house with men and women who thought they were possessed of devils. I felt full of wonder and happiness at my new skill and cures came quickly. I had no more than to put my hand upon someone, and out came many small devils.
    Then, in the morning, Peter said to me, "People seek for you now, and I fear they will be many. I would warn you. They are curious. They wish to witness miracles. But will that give you the power to change men's souls?"
    His speech made me think of John the Baptist in the dungeon of Herod Antipas. Pain came like a knife to slash at my chest. For if the Lord gave me great talents, then I would be open to vengeance from those who hated the Lord. So I encouraged Peter and Andrew and James and John to leave with me. We would move on to other synagogues in Galilee and cast out devils there. It would be better to do the deed and leave each throng with wonder than to remain in one circle until such wonder became our noose. And I knew that now I was thinking with the wisdom of Peter.
    In the courtyard of another synagogue in another town, a leper came to me and asked, "Can you make me clean?" When I was silent, he said, "Until I am clean, I cannot enter the synagogue. Yet if I cannot enter, how can I become clean?"
    I did not know how to cure a leper. Yet I could not turn away from his eyes. So I whispered to the Lord, "Grant me this power on this