Christ's Journal Read online

  Produced by Al Haines

  FROM THE COVER OF CHRIST’S JOURNAL:

  In Christ’s Journal, the author takes a daring step in this uniquenovel and places the reader for the first time in the shoes of TheFisherman. In this finely crafted and historically realistic portraitof the ancient Biblical world, Bartlett recreates the moving story ofthe last months of Christ’s life as Jesus Himself may haveexperienced them when He brought to mankind a message of love andenduring hope.

  Bartlett’s writing has been praised by many leading authors,reviewers, and critics, among them:

  JAMES MICHENER, novelist: “I am much taken with Bartlett’s workand commend it highly.”

  CHARLES POORE in The New York Times: “...believable characterswho are stirred by intensely personal concerns.”

  GRACE FLANDRAU, author and historian: “...Characters and scenesare so right and living...it is so beautifully done, onefinds oneself feeling it is not fiction but actuallyexperienced fact.”

  JAMES PURDY, novelist: “An important writer... I find greatpleasure in his work. Really beautiful and distinguished.”

  ALICE S. MORRIS in Harper’s Bazaar: “He tells a haunting andbeautiful story and manages to telescope, in a brilliantlyleisurely way, a lifetime, a full and eventful lifetime.”

  RUSSELL KIRK, novelist: “The scenes are drawn with power.Bartlett is an accomplished writer.”

  PAUL ENGLE in The Chicago Tribune: “...articulate, believable... charms with an expert knowledge of place and people.”

  MICHAEL FRAENKEL, novelist and poet: “His is the authenticityof the true and original creator. Bartlett is essentially awriter of mood.”

  WILLIS BARNSTONE, Sappho scholar and translator: “A matureartist, Bartlett writes with ease and taste.”

  J. DONALD ADAMS in The New York Times: “...the freshest, mostvital writing I have seen for some time.”

  PEARL S. BUCK, Nobel Laureate in Literature: “He is anexcellent writer.”

  HERBERT GORMAN, novelist and biographer: “He possesses asensitivity in description and an acuteness in thedelineation of character.”

  FORD MADOX FORD, English novelist, about Bartlett: “...a writerof very considerable merit.”

  LON TINKLE in the Dallas Morning News: “Vivid, impressive,highly pictorial.”

  JOE KNOEFLER in the L.A. Times: “...an American writer giftedwith...perception and sensitivity.”

  FRANK TANNENBAUM, historian: “...written with greatsensibility”

  Worchester Telegram: “Between realism andpoetry...brilliant, colorful.”

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  R

  eaders of this book who would like to acquire the bound illustratedvolume can do this through any bookstore by giving the store thepublished book’s ISBN, which is

  ISBN 978-0-6151-5645-3

  or you can order the book online through

  Barnes & Noble:

  https://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/results.asp?ATH=Paul+Alexander+Bartlett&z=y

  Amazon.com:

  https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?_encoding=UTF8&sort=relevancerank&search-alias=books&field-author=Paul%20Alexander%20Bartlett

  If you would like to ask your local library to acquire a copy, it’shelpful to the library to give the book’s ISBN, mention that the bookis distributed by Ingram and by Baker & Taylor, and give the book’sLibrary of Congress Catalog Card Number, which is 2006028950.

  ?

  ABOUT AUTOGRAPH EDITIONS

  Autograph Editions is committed to bringing readers some of the bestof fine quality contemporary literature in unique, beautifullydesigned books, many of them illustrated with original art speciallycreated for each book. Each of our books aspires to be a work of artin itself—in both its content and its design.

  The press was established in 1975. Over the years Autograph Editionshas published a variety of distinguished and widely commended booksof fiction and poetry. Our most recent publication is the remarkablequintet, Voices from the Past, by bestselling author Paul AlexanderBartlett, whose novel, When the Owl Cries, has been widely acclaimedby many authors, reviewers, and critics, among them James Michener,Pearl S. Buck, Ford Madox Ford, Charles Poore, James Purdy, RussellKirk, Michael Fraenkel, and many others.

  CHRIST’S JOURNAL

  BOOKS BY

  PAUL ALEXANDER BARTLETT

  NOVELS

  VOICES FROM THE PAST:

  Sappho’s Journal ? Christ’s Journal ? Leonardo da Vinci’s Journal

  Shakespeare’s Journal ? Lincoln’s Journal

  When the Owl Cries

  Adiós Mi México

  Forward, Children!

  POETRY

  Wherehill

  Spokes for Memory

  NONFICTION

  The Haciendas of Mexico: An Artist’s Record

  CHRIST’S JOURNAL

  by

  PAUL ALEXANDER BARTLETT

  and

  Illustrated by the Author

  Edited by

  STEVEN JAMES BARTLETT

  AUTOGRAPH EDITIONS

  Salem, Oregon

  AUTOGRAPH EDITIONS

  P. O. Box 6141 ? Salem, Oregon 97304

  ? Established 1975 ?

  This book is protected by copyright. No part

  may be reproduced in any manner without

  written permission from the publisher.

  Copyright © 2007 by Steven James Bartlett

  First Edition

  ISBN 978-0-6151-5645-3

  Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2006028950

  Printed in the United States of America

  Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

  Bartlett, Paul Alexander.

  Christ's journal / by Paul Alexander Bartlett and illustrated bythe author ; edited by Steven James Bartlett. -- 1st ed.

  p. cm.

  Summary: "A historical novel that recounts the last months ofChrist's life from an autobiographical perspective"--Provided by publisher.

  ISBN 978-0-6151-5645-3

  1. Jesus Christ--Fiction. I. Bartlett, Steven J. II. Title.

  PS3602.A8396C46 2006

  813'.6--dc22

  2006028950

 

  CONTENTS

  PREFACE by Steven James Bartlettxi

  CHRIST’S JOURNAL1

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR67

  COLOPHON71

  PREFACE

  Steven James Bartlett

  Senior Research Professor of Philosophy, Oregon State University

  and

  Visiting Scholar in Psychology & Philosophy, Willamette University

  C

  hrist’s Journal is one of five independent works of fiction whichtogether make up Voices from the Past, a quintet of novels that de-scribe the inner lives of five extraordinary people. Progressingthrough time from the most distant to the most recent they are:Sappho of Lesbos, the famous Greek poet; Jesus; Leonardo da Vinci;Shakespeare; and Abraham Lincoln. For the most part, little is knownabout the inward realities of these people, about their personalthoughts, reflections, and the quality and nature of their feelings.For this reason they have become no more than voices from the past:The contributions they have left us remain, but little remains ofeach person, of his or her personality, of the loves, fears,pleasures, hatreds, beliefs, and thoughts each had.

  Voices from the Past was written by Paul Alexander Bartlett over aperiod of several decades. After his death in an automobile accidentin 1990, the manuscripts of the five novels were discovered among hisas yet unpublished papers. He had been at work adding the finishingtouches to the manuscripts. Now, more than a decade and a half afterhis death, the publication of Voices from the Past is overdue.

  Bartlett is known for his
fiction, including When the Owl Cries andAdiós Mi México, historical novels set during the Mexican Revolutionof 1910 and descriptive of hacienda life, Forward, Children!, apowerful antiwar novel, and numerous short stories. He was also theauthor of books of poetry, including Spokes for Memory and Wherehill,the nonfiction work, The Haciendas of Mexico: An Artist’s Record, thefirst extensive artistic and photographic study of haciendas through-out Mexico, and numerous articles about the Mexican haciendas.Bartlett was also an artist whose paintings, illustrations, anddrawings have been exhibited in more than 40 one-man shows in leadingmuseums in the U.S. and Mexico. Archives of his work and literarycorrespondence have now been established at the American HeritageCenter of the University of Wyoming, the Nettie Lee Benson LatinAmerican Collection of the University of Texas, and the Rare BooksCollection of the University of California, Los Angeles.

  Paul Alexander Bartlett’s life was lived with a single value alwayscentral: a sustained dedication to beauty, which he believed was themost vital value of living and his reason for his life as a writerand an artist. Voices from the Past reflects this commitment, for hebelieved that these five voices, in their different ways, express apassion for life, for the creative spirit, and ultimately for beautyin a variety of its forms—poetic and natural (Sappho), spiritual(Jesus), scientific and artistic (da Vinci), literary (Shakespeare),and humanitarian (Lincoln). In this work, he has sought, asfaithfully as possible, to relay across time a renewed lyricalmeaning of these remarkable individuals, lending them his own voice,with a mood, simplicity, depth of feeling, and love of beauty thatwere his, and, he believed, also theirs.

  The journal form has been used only rarely in works of fiction.Bartlett believed that as a form of literature the journal offers themost effective way to bring back to life the life-worlds ofsignificant, unique, highly individual, and important creators. Ineach of the novels that make up Voices from the Past, his interest isto portray the inner experience of exceptional and special people,about whom there is scant knowledge on this level. During the manyyears of research he devoted to a study of the lives and thoughts ofSappho, Jesus, Leonardo, Shakespeare, and Lincoln, he sought to basethe journals on what is known and what can be surmised about theperson behind each voice, and he wove into each journal passages fromtheir writings and the substance of the testimony of others. Yet thefive novels are fiction: They re-express in an author’s creationlives now buried by the passage of centuries.

  I am deeply grateful to my wife, Karen Bartlett, for her faithful,patient, and perceptive help with this long project.

  ?

  For my father,

  Paul Alexander Bartlett,

  whose kindness, love of beauty and of place

  will always be greatly missed.

 

  CHRIST’S JOURNAL

  Peter’s Home

  Elul 10

  T

  he sun is setting. The evening is very warm. Across the fields I hearchildren’s voices as they play.

  This evening I have been reading the Psalms and their beauty fills mymind. I have decided to write my thoughts, not because I am apsalmist, but because I hope to get closer to the meaning of life. Ofcourse I should have started writing long ago. When I was in thewilderness I had an opportunity. Now, it is hard for me to find thetime, and writing is not a habit of mine and does not come easily.

  However, like a shepherd, I shall gather together my thoughts,watching for strays. In spite of vigilance my thoughts may wander.

  It is pleasant sitting here at this table, the night air blowing in;a star is caught in a tree. Peter is talking to a friend; Peter’svoice has always pleased me, so deep.

  Elul 20

  Yesterday, when I was in Naim, someone pointed out a sick man huddledin rags at a street corner. It was one of those windy days and dustspun around us. The man reached up his arms and mumbled; I rememberedseeing him before and maybe he remembered me. I felt his hope; I feltI could help, and I said:

  “Pick up your mat, get up...walk... God will help you.”

  The fellow trembled. He seemed to shrink inside himself as if afraidof me. He closed his eyes and doubled his hands. I waited and thenrepeated my command slowly. Like someone in a dream he untangled hisrags and knelt. As he rolled his mat I encouraged him. Glancing aboutfurtively, he stood, tottered. I thought he would fall but he kepthis eyes on mine and I urged him to walk.

  “Master...master,” he muttered, staring about uncertainly.“Master...where... how can I?”

  Limping, carrying his mat under one arm, he headed for the synagogueand as I watched he began to walk easily. He threw down his mat andbegan to run. Dust swirled around us and he disappeared from sight.

  Later, someone told me he had been bedridden, crippled for almostforty years. Forty years—he had been crippled longer than I hadlived! Now he was walking...running... I felt such joy, such joy, allday. I couldn’t eat when I sat at the table at Peter’s; his motherscolded me. To please her I nibbled a little fruit. I couldn’t findanyone who could share my joy so I walked alone, roamed thecountryside. As I walked I could see his tortured face, dirty beard,beggar’s clothes. Forty years...

  His name is Simeon.

  Probably I will see Simeon soon. And what shall I say when he thanksme? What can he say? I will see a changed man and that will beenough.

  Tishri 2

  I

  t seems only yesterday I was in Nazareth yet that yesterday was yearsago. Regardless of the passage of time I feel the summer heat andhear flies buzzing. Father is at work in his shop. Whitey comes to meand meows; she’s scared of the thunder rumbling in the distance;she’s hungry too. Mama is cooking and the smell of beef iseverywhere.

  Father begins to saw and sawdust spills over his feet. I lean againsta wall and sunshine spreads and I feel everything impregnate me, thestucco, earth floor, the bench, the broken handle of the saw, Fatherbatting flies that try to settle on his beard. This will lastforever. Caught in the web of time we will eat supper together,before lamp lighting, and Whitey will sit on my lap.

  I recall another afternoon years ago—the same place. But Father isupset, talking volubly, denouncing Herod and his tyranny, an old, oldstory for all of us. I have tried to deny the truth of that story butthere it is, Herod’s soldiers slaughtering innocent children, hopingto kill me. Surely I hate the man and yet I have learned to pity hisblundering.

  As a boy I wandered, praying, asking understanding. The dry hillswere uncommunicative. If it is impossible to forgive it is possibleto look ahead. I felt too that my guilt might become a disease. I sawthat the past can have too powerful an influence.

  Peter’s Home

  Tishri 6

  Tomorrow I am to preach on a hill... Peter says the weather will befine. I hope so, after windy days. For weeks we have had wind andcold.

  Here, in my room at Peter’s, I am discontented. The windows try tosend me outdoors. They face cornfields and the corn is waist high,brown and roughly swaying. I wish I could stretch out in the middleof a field, lie there and watch the clouds and listen to the wind. Iam happiest when outdoors.

  The sun is down but I won’t light my candle; instead, I’ll watch thecoming night and perhaps I can summon thoughts for tomorrow; perhapssomething will talk to me in the cornfields, something I can impart.Friends and strangers will arrive tomorrow...