johan (4)

At the opposite extremity of this rocky ravine...

the country was somewhat more open... 

and John pressed on, until he reached a little lake, with a low shore, covered with white sand. I saw him there wading far out into the water. The fish swam up and gathered around him, he seemed quite at home with them. 

He lived in this region a long time, and I saw that he wove for himself - out of branches - a sleeping hut among the bushes. It was very low, and only large enough to allow him to lie in it.

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Both here and afterward in other places, I often saw by him radiant figures, angels, with whom he treated fearlessly and confidently, though most reverently. They appeared to be teaching him, directing his attention to different things. 

He had fastened a piece of wood to his staff, thus giving it the form of a cross, also a strip [strook] of broad grass, or bark, or leaves like a little flag. He often played with it, waving it here and there. 

While he lived in this part of the desert, I saw his mother visiting him twice, but they did not meet at this spot. He must have known when she was coming, for he always went some distance to meet her. Elizabeth brought him a tablet with a slender reed for writing.

After his father’s death...

John went secretly to Juttah, to console Elizabeth. 

He remained concealed with her for some time. She told him many things of Jesus and the Holy Family, some of which he noted down with strokes on his tablet. Elizabeth wanted him to go with her to Nazareth, but he would not. He returned again to the desert.

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Once when Zachary had gone with a herd to the Temple, he was set upon by Herod’s soldiers and rudely maltreated in a narrow pass on the side of Jerusalem nearest to Bethlehem, at a spot whence the city could not be seen. 

The soldiers dragged him into a prison on that side of Mount Zion by which, at a later period, the disciples used to ascend. Zachary was frightfully maltreated, tortured, and at last pierced with a sword, because he would not disclose John’s retreat. 

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Elizabeth was at the time in the desert with John. 

When she returned to Juttah, he accompanied her part of the way, and then went back to the desert. On reaching Juttah, Elizabeth learned of the murder of her husband and great were her lamentations. Zachary was buried by his friends in the vicinity of the Temple. 

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He is not that Zachary... 

who was slain between the altar and the Temple, and whom I saw at the time of the Crucifixion with the other risen dead. He issued from that part of the wall in which the aged Simeon once had his cell for prayer, and walked about the Temple. 

The last Zachary was murdered in a struggle that had taken place among many at the Temple, concerning the genealogy of the Messiah and certain privileges and places of individual families.

~bron~