Therefore those friends must be of the male sex. Here too were
difficulties, as at that time, of the lads adopted by this particular
community which they were destined to join in after days, there was but
one of equal birth with Miriam. Now so far as concerned their own
order the Essenes thought little of social distinctions, or even of the
differences of blood and race. But Miriam was not of their order; she
was their guest, no more, to whom they stood in the place of parents,
and who would go from them out into the great world. Therefore,
notwithstanding their childlike simplicity, being, many of them, men
experienced in life, they did not think it right that she should mix
with those of lower breeding.
This one lad, Caleb by name, was born in the same year as Miriam, when
Cuspius Fadus became governor on the death of Agrippa. His father was
Jew of very high rank named Hilliel, who, although he sided from time
to time with the Roman party, was killed by them, or perished among the
twenty thousand who were trampled to death at the Feast of the Passover
at Jerusalem, when Cumanus, the Procurator, ordered his soldiers to
attack the people. Thereon the Zealots, who considered him a traitor,
managed to get possession of all his property, so that his son Caleb,
whose mother was dead, was brought in a destitute condition by one
of her friends to Jericho.
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