DIMAS 3

A Compromise is a Compromise

Mourning has an ending, just like happiness has it’s end. Time heals all wounds and mends broken hearts; everything passes-by, and everybody move-on.

This heartbroken and heartrending orphan is now over from grieving, no more tears to flow, his eyes dried-up for so much anguish, and nothing more to cry, for it’s all desiccated.

He has been imprisoned now for three months, and he seemed like he was forgotten, forgotten into this cold and dingy dark cell. He’s been dreaming alone in this dark cell; he’s been dreaming that one day he will be out of this prison, and he will have his revenge, to justify the betrayal they have done to him. He knows he was deceived and manipulated; these corrupt criminals victimized Dimas, and disregarded him.

The day finally came, the long-awaited day come; A warden came into his cell, and released him. They informed him that he is now free to go. A new day sprung-up, and a new life, a new beginning for Dimas came about, and on his way out he ran as fast as he could, the only thing in his mind was his father’s dead body, and what could have happened to him. As soon as he reached his house, he discovered that his father’s dead body was never buried, and it was in the house for six days. The gravediggers and some concerned neighbors concluded and decided to cast the dead body into a muddy swamp, a place where they dispose of the human wastes and the leper’s dead bodies.

It was gruesome, horrifying upon hearing. The horror of what had happened was unacceptable. Still, Dimas accepted it all, he was not able to respond, he could not even move his lips to say something, he can’t feel anymore, he was numb, no words could come out of his mouth, not even a single tear came out from his eyes. Dimas’s heart is like a hard metal, where he felt nothing at all, but vengeance, vengeance, is all he could think of, and anger is mounting-up from his chest. Dimas is in despair; there is only anger, and his heart is like a red poppy in the middle of the dried desert that was heated-up in the simmering heat under the sun of Egypt.

Dimas started walking and walking, not knowing where to go, walking around, and continuously go where ever his feet take him to, he is bewildered and alone, he is not with himself. For the rest of that day, he kept on walking, all the way through the deep of the night he was walking in, and around Jerusalem’s streets. He walked, and walked with no definite place to go, until the dawning, the first glow of the morning, sunrise has come, and he discovered as he looked around, he found himself that he is in the town called “Bezetha, or the New City.”

Bezetha – also called by Josephus the “New City,” was a suburb of Jerusalem north and northwest of the Temple, built opposite the Tower of Antonia. Today the area is known as the Muslim Quarter in Jerusalem’s Old City.

Those narrow and dirty streets, the zigzag pathways, those roads that leads to the suburbs are supposed to be, for the rich and the wealthy of Jerusalem. But it’s not for the rich and the wealthy, for the song of Sion do not reach this place, and the sweet fragrance of Herod’s garden is not in sight here, and the boastful and striking decorations in the City of David cannot be seen here. But instead, those who reside here are those poor and needy that sell items of clothing made of sheep’s wool, the blacksmiths, and the hardworking farmers.

Dimas was so tired, he cannot go on anymore, he has to find a small corner where he can lay and take a bit of sleep, just to close his eyes. He looked around and saw a door, a perfect corner to lay down for a minute from that long loiter. It was too early in the morning and the businesses were still closed including the door he chose to laid down for a quick nap. As he sat down and positioned himself for comfort, from the corner of his eyes, something glitters, he turned around, and he was overwhelmed of what he saw! It was shining, a knife with it’s blade sparkling, hanging and dangling from what looks like a cupboard. He wants that, he need it, he thought about buying that knife for himself, and so he got up and went about, and by that time, the door was ajar and ready for the day to start the business. Dimas went in, he helped himself to slightly push the door and stepped inside. The store owner was delighted to see a customer early in the morning, he was diligent to help this customer from what he needs.

Dimas chose and pointed the knife he likes, a dagger. All he could think of is vengeance, this is what he would use for his revenge.

-“How much is this knife?” Dimas asked the store owner, while pointing the sharpened and shining blade made of Damascus.

-“Two shekels of silver.” The elderly responded, while untying the knife where it was tied-up.

As Dimas grasped the knife from the hand of the store owner, he immediately inspected it, he examined it thoroughly. But then, he remembered, he doesn’t have any money, not even a dead penny in his pocket, and so he begged the store owner.

-“I don’t have money to pay you now. Can you trust me to keep this knife? I assure you that before the new moon of the month and by that Great Tower of David, I will repay you twenty-ounce of Romanian Silver.” Dimas promised.

-“And who will guarantee me that you will fulfill your words? Besides from not knowing you, we just met.” The store owner responded in hesitation.

-“As my dead father is my witness, and through all those memories he left me, my avenging heart, and revolting chest I feel right now, that I will take revenge for him with this knife, and on his head I take avow and promise you that I will repay you on that said amount, and you know that I am paying you more than your asking price, if ever I survived my vengeful attack.” Dimas responded in a very emotional and angry manner at the same time.

Dimas words indicate truthfulness where the store owner find it hard to refuse. He noticed that the young man had a secret that he kept in his heart. Through his compassion, and with the store owner’s mercy, his heart was touched and filled with kindness, something he never done before as a Jew, the store owner was overwhelmed with his emotion for this orphan, he trusted Dimas’s promise, the profitable and esoteric deal is beside the point, he believes him.

-“Cheating on me will only give you more bad luck!” The store owner said, while he is handling the knife to Dimas, “but if you kept your promise, God will protect you and He will keep you safe in seeking your vengeance.”

-“Thank you.” The orphan acknowledged with truthfulness in his heart. “But before I leave, let me tell you my name, in this manner you know who owes you this much money. My name is Dimas, and one day you will hear this name with the trumpet blasting it’s roaring sound to the twelve tribes.”

Dimas did not wait for the store owner to respond, he turned around in haste and went his way. After hours of walking, he found himself trailing this road called “The Gate of the Pomegranates,” or the “Cow’s Door.” He sat down in the side of that gate where the shades of this thick, luscious tree, the tree’s leafy lushness, gave him the shades he wanted, the Sycamore tree, where Dimas ate the fruit of it, for he hasn’t eat anything in a while. The fruit filled him up and after the long satisfying rest, he grabbed his knife, the new knife he just bought and stabbed the healthy and strong body of the tree where it pierced two-inch deep.

-“Oh! this knife is very sharp.” He said to himself. “The edge is very sharp and did not even bend; this is good, and perhaps this may pierce all the way through, and in just one blow, the neck and the heart of that person that throw my dead fathers body to the street dogs, will surely die.”

Dimas found out what happened to his father’s dead body; it was not thrown into the muddy swamp as they told him. It was given to the street dogs. It is more decent for his father’s dead body to be thrown into the muddy swamp with the dead lepers, than to be thrown and eaten-up by the street dogs. Such anger in his heart are rising-up, boiling like lava, ready to explode.

Two days had passed, and near the Tower of Siloam, Herod’s soldiers discovered and found a dead old man’s body. The old man’s dead body had a deep wound on his throat, and another deep wound on his chest through his heart. A piece of paper with a big pin nailed on his forehead, and written in blood are these words:

-“Dimas’s avenged for his father, by the death of this Pharisee, that his father’s dead body did not have the proper burial, and he swears to persecute all his families and relatives, he will avenge thoroughly unto the fifth generation of this man.” After this incident happened, the orphaned young man escaped from the priests’ city and hid in Mount Ramah. The abused corpse of his father’s dead body urged him and dissuade him from killing a person, and hunger pushed him to steal for the first time.

According to the Hebrew Bible, Siloam was built around the “serpent-stone,” Zoheleth, where Adonijah gave his feast in the time of Solomon. In the New Testament, the collapse of the Tower of Siloam is cited by Jesus as one of two examples where sudden, untimely death came to people who didn’t necessarily deserve it more than most other sinful people.

According to the Gospel of John, Jesus healed a man who had been blind from birth. Jesus spat on the ground, made mud with the saliva, and spread the mud over the blind man’s eyes. He then told the man, “Go wash yourself in the pool of Siloam.” So the man went and washed and came back seeing.

Josephus described the waters of Siloam as, “sweet and abundant.”

Continuation………………………….

Dimas snatched a goat from a shepherd at one time. It was quite exciting at first and a quick way to earn a living, and get free food. From then on, Dimas started to keep out and carefully watch his actions to survive; he hides like the bandits and lives in the woods, the forest. When the night falls, he will leave his hideout to aggress, and ambush the unarmed passers-by. This orphan used his dagger to scare and intimidate his victims to get food but never used it to pour-out blood. Time passed-by and Dimas continued his evil deeds, stealing, threatening, and harassing people for food and their goods, this is what he started for after his imprisonment, to survive. The new moon is getting nearer and nearer, and the agreement he made from the store owner, where he bought his dagger is still unfulfilled, the twenty-ounce of Romanian Silver remained unpaid. He promised and pledged to pay this debt over his father’s dead body that was never buried, with all sincerity, his words’ seriousness to render and pay the debt he owed.

But how? For he doesn’t have, not even one dead copper for money. As Dimas sat at the edge of a high cliff, he thought of what could be his fate, the destiny he is facing in the future? He started his life as a villain after he’s released from prison, his work as a bandit is not beyond comprehension, not far from these poor desolate beggars, that snatches sheep from the shepherds, the shepherds that don’t know how to fight back. They grab to steal the sheep for food, to not die of hunger. Being alone, a prison of his self, and loitering around, walking from that dreary woods, he discovered, and slowly realized that he lives in a cunning and deceitful life.

He can’t go back anymore, to desist and start over. But somehow, he can’t stop and worry that this may end up in a more profound circumstance. “A thief is a thief,” he said to himself, let’s look for money since I am one, a thief of sestercius (Roman currency, sesterce, ancient Roman coin. During the Roman Republic it was a small, silver coin issued only on rare occassions. During the Roman Empire it was a large brass coin), or the Hebrew talent (Hebrew talent or silver, called cicar, was equivalent to three thousand shekels, or one hundred and thirteen pounds, ten ounces and a fraction, troy weight). One more to loose is the honor and gain a bad reputation for stealing a dove and a bull.

After giving this plan a thought, Dimas stand-up, and shakes his thick hair, he watched and sadly looked at the lonely place. Next, he rubbed and caressed his knife and whispered the following words:

-“A life with no meaning can do such a big thing; I should be the King of this forest, and be known as the “Terror of Israel.”

At that time, there were watchmen, a group of bandits watching Mount Samaria all over, to secure the place for their gain. While Israel’s clans are fighting, these bandits carry out their ill-will, doing such horrible deeds, extortions, and usurpations. Herod is wasting his effort sending his soldiers to exterminate these said bandits. They can’t catch these criminals from Samaria, even if these gangsters are operating their horrible works in the city of Palestine. The merchants traveling from Egypt, Damascus, Tyre, and Sidon are attacked and ambushed. No one can stop the bold and daring lawlessness of these robbers from Samaria. Not once that these roads and streets of Jerusalem witnessed such aggression, the crimes committed by the marauders deadly swords even in broad daylight are dangerous and frightening. They can’t make these bandits from Mount Hebal surrender. Their aggressions and attacks reached Juda’s clans to Aser’s families. They even crossed Jordan multiple times and brought their spoils and piracy all the way to Mount Ephraim. They hide in Mount Samaria, their expertise on its’ high cliffs, can make them play and toyed Herod’s soldiers searching for them. The gloomy and lone castle standing right at the top of Mount Hebal is their camp, and station for the cold season.

Dimas is a fearless man. He can’t associate with reputable, and stately citizens anymore, and so he chose to associate himself with these fierce bandits from Samaria. He traveled by walking for four days until he reached the foot of this horrifying mountain. No one dares at that time to get near that mountain. Dimas’s bravery would double when he loosed hope of his essence in life. At the foot of the hill is dark and the air is thick, he continued to climb until he reached the top and Dimas stopped when he’s about thirty steps far from that lone camp.

Lawlessness makes him alarmed and tired. He was so weak; he’s so exhausted, which caused him to decide to sit on a rock. He was by himself, it was hushed, very tranquil, only the cold wind gently caresses his face like whispers in his ears. No birds around in sight, nor their chirping can be heard. There is no one to see or listen to humans talking, to give noise to a serene and desolate place. With those high cliffs surrounding him, he looks like that angel, that fallen angel fell from heaven and sit for sometimes on the brim of hell, and watch for a while the frightening dwelling place that God gave him, a punishment bestowed on him for his demented arrogance.

to be continued……………………..