8. On this rather strongly direct remark of Mine, the Roman commissioner began to laugh aloud, and Simon also could not refrain from laughing. But the acrimonious speaker stepped aside and sat down quite sullen on a bench in the background.

9. Thereupon a chief of the Synagogue of Bethlehem who was also present in the Temple at the examination of the boys, said: “Well, I see that I shall have to devise means, or else we shall never come to an end with this boy! He has now a purchased right to ask us questions for a whole week; we must answer him whether we like it or not! If he already gives us so much trouble with his first question, we had better prepare ourselves at once for his inquiries and capital questions!