"Or you mock the Lord Himself?" asked my uncle Alphaeus, whose Greek was as good as the Teacher's Greek.
"I don't mock anyone," said the Teacher, looking at me as he spoke, "but I marvel you can leave Egypt behind so easily over a little hubbub in the street."
"That has nothing to do with it," said Joseph.
"Then why go? Jesus is coming along wonderfully here. Why, Philo is so impressed with his learning and James here is a marvel, and..."
"Yes, and this isn't Israel, is it?" asked Cleopas. "And it isn't our home."
"No, and it's Greek that you're teaching them, Scripture in Greek!" said Alphaeus. "And we teach them here at home in Hebrew because you don't even know Hebrew and you are the Teacher, and this is what the House of Study is here, Greek, and you call it the Torah, and Philo, yes, the great Philo, he gives us work to do, and so do his friends, and all this is very fine, and we've done well, and we're grateful, yes, but he too speaks Greek and reads the Scriptures in Greek, and marvels at what these boys know in Greek - ."
"All the world speaks Greek now," said the Teacher. "The Jews in every city of the Empire speak Greek and read the Scripture in Greek - ."
"Jerusalem does not speak Greek!" said Alphaeus.
"In Galilee we read the Scripture in Hebrew," said Cleopas. "Do you even understand Hebrew, and you call yourself a Teacher!"
"Oh, I'm weary of your attacks, why do I put up with you, where are you taking yourselves and these boys, back to some dirt village! You leave Alexandria for that."
"Yes," said Uncle Cleopas, "and it's no dirt village, it's my father's house. Do you know one word of Hebrew?" He then sang out in Hebrew the psalm that he loved and had long taught to us. "The Lord shall preserve my going out and my coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore." Following it with "Now do you know what that means?"
"Do you yourself know what that means!" shot back the Teacher. "I'd like to hear you explain it. You know what the scribe in your synagogue taught you what it means, that's all you know and if you learned enough Greek here to shout in my face, you're the better for it. What do any of you know, you hardheaded Galilean Jews? Coming to Egypt for refuge, and leaving as hardheaded as you came."
My mother was anxious.
The Teacher looked at me.
"And to take this child, this brilliant child - ."
"And what would you have us do?" asked Alphaeus.
"Oh, no, don't ask such a thing!" my mother whispered. It was so unusual for her to speak up.
Joseph glanced at her, and then looked at the Teacher. The Teacher went on.
"It's always the same," said the Teacher with a great drawn-out sigh. "In times of trouble, you come down to Egypt, yes, always to Egypt, she receives the dregs of Palestine..."
"The dregs!" Cleopas said. "You call our forefathers the dregs?"
"They didn't speak Greek either," said Alphaeus.
Cleopas laughed. "And the Lord on Sinai didn't speak Greek," he said.
Uncle Simon said quietly, "And the High Priest now in Jerusalem, when he lays his hands on the goat, he probably forgets to tell all our sins in Greek."
They were all laughing. The older boys laughed. Aunt Mary laughed. But my mother was still crying. I had to stay by her side.
Even Joseph smiled.
The Teacher was angry. He went on:
"...if there's a famine, come down to Egypt, if there's no work, come down to Egypt, if there's a murderous rampage on the part of Herod, come down to Egypt, as if King Herod took the slightest care as to the fate of a handful of Galilean Jews such as you! A murderous rampage! As if - ."
"Stop," Joseph said.
The Teacher stopped.
All the men stared at the Teacher. No one said a word. No one moved.