Guild Brother

He wasn't founder of our guild.
Our craft is old, old.
Ancient, as our ritual says, beyond imagination.
Older than man is our profession.
He is the most famous brother of our craft,
though his fame doesn't come from his handiwork,
but from the way he talked.
He talked his way into an early grave.

People have developed curious blind spots about him.
Go to the record to find out what he really did.
Focus by blocking out all words spoken:
all the words he spoke,
all words spoken to him,
the incidental voices around and about him,
ignore all that to learn his production.
What did he make?
Only one item is in the record, his masterwork.
He made a whip, of small cords.

Jesus of Nazareth, of the Weaponmakers' Guild.
No other craft guild can claim a member so widely known,
yet so little recognized as a member.
Our labor organization holds its secrets,
and not all of them concern our skills.

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Whither?

rev 980309