Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ

“[F]or I thought there was a relation between God and the soul as yet unknown. On this theme the mind can reason to a point, a dead, impassable wall; arrived there, all that remains is to stand and cry aloud for help.”

Gaspar, the wise man from Greece, explains that despite the philosophical accomplishments of his people, it did not bring them closer to God. It is only once he gives himself up totally to his faith, praying for divine inspiration, that he can prove himself worthy to see the infant Christ.

“Why should such a God limit his love and benefaction to one land, and, as it were, to one family? I set my heart upon knowing. At last I broke through the man’s pride, and found that his fathers had been merely chosen servants to keep the Truth alive, that the world might at last know it and be saved.”

When Gaspar learns about Judaism from a Jewish man who has been shipwrecked, he intuits that this is a religion dedicated to the one, true God. When the Jew tells him that the Messiah will only redeem the Jews, Gaspar does not accept it, reasoning that a loving god would not withhold salvation from the great majority of the world.

“The happiness of love is in action; its test is what one is willing to do for others. I could not rest. Brahm had filled the world with so much wretchedness.”

Through intense prayer, the wise man from India, Melchior, has realized the truth that there is a single, loving God. Melchior’s description of his attempt to live a life dedicated to love parallels much of Jesus’s good works and trials. Both Melchior and Christ minister to those condemned as unclean, and both are called heretics and attacked by the religious establishment for doing so.