I certainly could not deny it. Then Scaurus pointed out to me how Luke avoided this dangerous interpretation, by inserting “daily,” so as to give the words a metaphorical twist, “Let him take up his cross _daily_.” But this, he said, was manifestly an addition of Luke’s. If Jesus had inserted “daily” why should Mark and Matthew have omitted it? “Daily” would make no sense till a generation had passed away, so that “to be crucified with Christ” had become a metaphorical expression for mortifying the flesh. On this point, at all events, Scaurus seemed to me to be right. He continued as follows, “I am disposed to think that Mark has misunderstood a Jewish phrase as referring to the cross when it really referred to something else. You know that, in Rome, a rascally slave, regarded as being on the way to crucifixion, is called ‘_yoke-bearer_,’ which means practically ‘_cross-bearer_.’ Mark, who has a good many Latinisms, might regard _‘take the yoke’ as meaning ‘take the cross’—if the former expression could be proved to have been used by Jesus_. Still more easily might ‘_take the yoke_’ be regarded as equivalent to ‘_take the cross_’ _if it could be proved that the Jews themselves connected ‘taking the yoke’ with martyrdom_. “Both these facts can be proved. In the first place, Christ actually said to the disciples, ‘_Take my yoke_ upon you.’ It is true that this saying is preserved by Matthew alone; but its omission by others is easily explained, as I will presently shew. In my judgment, it is certain that Christ did give this precept, and that it had nothing to do with crucifixion. The context in Matthew declares that the kingdom of heaven is revealed only to ‘babes’—whom Christ elsewhere calls ‘little ones’ or those who make themselves ‘least’ in the kingdom of God—and soon afterwards come the words, ‘_Take my yoke upon you_ and learn from me, for I am meek and lowly in heart.’ This is the fundamental truth of Christ’s teaching, that those who make themselves the humblest of servants to one another are greatest in his ‘kingdom.’ In order to reign, one must serve, or ‘_take the yoke_.’ “The next fact is that Jews of the present day—so I am credibly informed—would say of a Jewish martyr that he ‘_took the yoke_ upon himself,’ when he made a formal profession of obedience to the Law just before death. This I must ask you to take for granted. It would be too long to prove and explain.” I suppose Scaurus heard this from the teacher he called “his rabbi.” It was confirmed, to my own knowledge, by something that happened nearly thirty years ago when one of the most famous Jewish teachers, Akiba by name, was put to death under Hadrian. I heard it said by a credible eyewitness that “they combed his flesh with combs of iron,” and another added “Yes, and Akiba, all the while, kept _taking upon himself the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven_,” by which he meant repeating the profession of faith.