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Jesus the Son of Man ▾
contents
  1. James the Son of Zebedee
  2. Anna the Mother of Mary
  3. Asaph, Called the Orator of Tyre
  4. Mary Magdalene
  5. Philemon, a Greek Apothecary
  6. Simon Who Was Called Peter
  7. Caiaphas the High Priest
  8. Joanna the Wife of Herod’s Steward
  9. Rafca the Bride of Cana
  10. A Persian Philosopher in Damascus
  11. David, One of His Followers
  12. Luke
  13. Matthew
  14. John the Son of Zebedee
  15. A Young Priest of Capernaum
  16. A Rich Levite in the Neighbourhood of Nazareth
  17. A Shepherd in South Lebanon
  18. John the Baptist, to One of His Disciples
  19. Joseph of Arimathea
  20. Nathaniel
  21. Saba of Antioch
  22. Salome, to a Woman Friend
  23. Rachael, a Woman Disciple
  24. Cleopas of Bethroune
  25. Naaman of the Gadarenes
  26. Thomas
  27. Elmadam the Logician
  28. One of the Marys
  29. Rumanous, a Greek Poet
  30. Levi, a Disciple
  31. A Widow in Galilee
  32. Judas the Cousin of Jesus
  33. The Man from the Desert
  34. Peter
  35. Melachi of Babylon, an Astronomer
  36. A Philosopher
  37. Uriah, an Old Man of Nazareth
  38. Nicodemus the Poet, the Youngest of the Elders in the Sanhedrin
  39. Joseph of Arimathea
  40. Georgus of Beirut
  41. Mary Magdalene
  42. Jotham of Nazareth, to a Roman
  43. Ephraim of Jericho
  44. Barca, a Merchant of Tyre
  45. Phumiah, the High Priestess of Sidon
  46. Benjamin the Scribe
  47. Zacchaeus
  48. Jonathan
  49. Hannah of Bethsaida
  50. Manasseh, a Lawyer in Jerusalem
  51. Jephtha of Caesarea
  52. John the Beloved Disciple
  53. Mannus the Pompeiian, to a Greek
  54. Pontius Pilatus
  55. Bartholomew in Ephesus
  56. Matthew
  57. Andrew
  58. A Rich Man
  59. John at Patmos
  60. Peter
  61. A Cobbler in Jerusalem
  62. Susannah of Nazareth, a Neighbour of Mary
  63. Joseph Surnamed Justus
  64. Philip
  65. Birbàrah of Yammouni
  66. Pilate’s Wife, to a Roman Lady
  67. A Man Outside of Jerusalem
  68. Sarkis, an Old Greek Shepherd, Called the Madman
  69. Annas the High Priest
  70. A Woman, One of Mary’s Neighbours
  71. Ahaz the Portly
  72. Barabbas
  73. Claudius, a Roman Centurion
  74. James the Brother of the Lord
  75. Simon of Cyrene
  76. Cyborea the Mother of Judas
  77. The Woman of Byblos
  78. Mary Magdalene
  79. A Man from Lebanon
English ▾

Jesus the Son of Man

Kahlil Gibran

free · 39,824 words · ~3 h read

text from Standard Ebooks

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James the Son of Zebedee

Upon a day in the spring of the year Jesus stood in the marketplace of Jerusalem and He spoke to the multitudes of the kingdom of heaven.

And He accused the scribes and the Pharisees of setting snares and digging pitfalls in the path of those who long after the kingdom; and He denounced them.

Now amongst the crowd was a company of men who defended the Pharisees and the scribes, and they sought to lay hands upon Jesus and upon us also.

But He avoided them and turned aside from them, and walked towards the north gate of the city.

And He said to us: “My hour has not yet come. Many are the things I have still to say unto you, and many are the deeds I shall yet perform ere I deliver myself up to the world.”

Then He said, and there was joy and laughter in His voice: “Let us go into the North Country and meet the spring. Come with me to the hills, for winter is past and the snows of Lebanon are descending to the valleys to sing with the brooks.

“The fields and the vineyards have banished sleep and are awake to greet the sun with their green figs and tender grapes.”

And He walked before us and we followed Him, that day and the next.

And upon the afternoon of the third day we reached the summit of Mount Hermon, and there He stood looking down upon the cities of the plains.

And His face shone like molten gold, and He outstretched His arms and He said to us: “Behold the earth in her green raiment, and see how the streams have hemmed the edges of her garments with silver.

“In truth the earth is fair and all that is upon her is fair.

“But there is a kingdom beyond all that you behold, and therein I shall rule. And if it is your choice, and if it is indeed your desire, you too shall come and rule with me.

“My face and your faces shall not be masked; our hand shall hold neither sword nor sceptre, and our subjects shall love us in peace and shall not be in fear of us.”

Thus spoke Jesus, and unto all the kingdoms of the earth I was blinded, and unto all the cities of walls and towers; and it was in my heart to follow the Master to His kingdom.

Then just at that moment Judas of Iscariot stepped forth. And he walked up to Jesus, and spoke and said: “Behold, the kingdoms of the world are vast, and behold the cities of David and Solomon shall prevail against the Romans. If you will be the king of the Jews we shall stand beside you with sword and shield and we shall overcome the alien.”

But when Jesus heard this He turned upon Judas, and His face was filled with wrath. And He spoke in a voice terrible as the thunder of the sky and He said: “Get you behind me, Satan. Think you that I came down the years to rule an anthill for a day?

“My throne is a throne beyond your vision. Shall he whose wings encircle the earth seek shelter in a nest abandoned and forgotten?

“Shall the living be honoured and exalted by the wearer of shrouds?

“My kingdom is not of this earth, and my seat is not builded upon the skulls of your ancestors.

“If you seek aught save the kingdom of the spirit then it were better for you to leave me here, and go down to the caves of your dead, where the crownèd heads of yore hold court in their tombs and may still be bestowing honours upon the bones of your forefathers.

“Dare you tempt me with a crown of dross, when my forehead seeks the Pleiades, or else your thorns?

“Were it not for a dream dreamed by a forgotten race I would not suffer your sun to rise upon my patience, nor your moon to throw my shadow across your path.

“Were it not for a mother’s desire I would have stripped me of the swaddling-clothes and escaped back to space.

“And were it not for sorrow in all of you I would not have stayed to weep.

“Who are you and what are you, Judas Iscariot? And why do you tempt me?

“Have you in truth weighed me in the scale and found me one to lead legions of pygmies, and to direct chariots of the shapeless against an enemy that encamps only in your hatred and marches nowhere but in your fear?

“Too many are the worms that crawl about my feet, and I will give them no battle. I am weary of the jest, and weary of pitying the creepers who deem me coward because I will not move among their guarded walls and towers.

“Pity it is that I must needs pity to the very end. Would that I could turn my steps towards a larger world where larger men dwell. But how shall I?

“Your priest and your emperor would have my blood. They shall be satisfied ere I go hence. I would not change the course of the law. And I would not govern folly.

“Let ignorance reproduce itself until it is weary of its own offspring.

“Let the blind lead the blind to the pitfall.

“And let the dead bury the dead till the earth be choked with its own bitter fruit.

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More by Kahlil Gibran

  • The Forerunner
    You get a slim, strange book of parables where a fox argues with a crow, a king discovers wisdom has made him lonely, and Gibran keeps turning ordinary encounters toward spiritual questions. The prose is best taken slowly, a little at a time, especially if you like fables more than fully developed stories.
  • The Madman
    You get a slim, strange book of parables and prose poems, where a man’s stolen masks become a way of talking about the selves you perform for others. Gibran can turn syrupy, but if you like mystical, compact writing with a philosophical sting, you’ll find yourself rereading it.
  • The Prophet
    You spend a few quiet hours with Almustafa answering the people of Orphalese on love, work, sorrow, and freedom. Its wisdom can feel a little incense-heavy, but the short, musical passages reward rereading when you need language for feelings you can sense but cannot quite name.

—

thank you for reading

Jesus the Son of Man by Kahlil Gibran. The text is in the US public domain, from the Standard Ebooks edition. Served from our own copy; read on their site for the full edition with images and typography.

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