e. Even people quite devoid of penetration could clearly
perceive, when looking at Judas, that such a man could bring no good....

And yet Jesus brought him near to Himself, and once even made him sit
next to Him. John, the beloved disciple, fastidiously moved away,
and all the others who loved their Teacher cast down their eyes in
disapprobation. But Judas sat on, and turning his head from side to
side, began in a somewhat thin voice to complain of ill-health, and said
that his chest gave him pain in the night, and that when ascending a
hill he got out of breath, and when he stood still on the edge of
a precipice he would be seized with a dizziness, and could scarcely
restrain a foolish desire to throw himself down. And many other impious
things he invented, as though not understanding that sicknesses do
not come to a man by chance, but as a consequence of conduct not
corresponding with the laws of the Eternal. Thus Judas Iscariot kept
on rubbing his chest with his broad palm, and even pretended to cough,
midst a general silence and downcast eyes.

John, without looking at the Teacher, whispered to his friend Simon
Peter--

"Aren't you tired of that lie? I can't stand it any longer. I am going
away."

Peter glanced at Jesus, and meeting his eye, quickly arose.

"Wait a moment," said he to his friend.

Once more he looked at Jesus; sharply as a stone torn from a mountain,
he moved towards Judas, and said to him in a loud voice, with expansive,
serene courtesy--

"You will come with us, Judas."

He gave him a kindly slap on his bent back, and without looking at the
Teacher, though he felt His eye upon him, resolutely added in his loud
voice, which excluded all objection, just as water excludes air--

"It does not matter that you have such a nasty face. There fall into our
nets even worse monstrosities, and they sometimes turn out very tasty
food. It is not for us, our Lord's fishermen, to throw away a catch,
merely because the fish have spines, or only one eye. I saw once at Tyre
an octopus, which had been caught by the local fishermen, and I was
so frightened that I wanted to run away. But they laughed at me. A
fisherman from Tiberias gave me some of it to eat, and I asked for more,
it was so tasty. You remember, Master, that I told you the story, and
you laughed, too. And you, Judas, are like an octopus--but only on one
side."

And he laughed loudly, content with his joke. When Peter spoke, his
words resou