Nahum, counsellor of the High Priest
Nahum or Nahoum is the trusted man of Annas the High Priest. This acquaintance of Judas, is part of the delegation that, with the scribes Samuel and Sadoc, comes to admonish Jesus at Clear Water because of the presence of Aglae[1] and pursues him with his vindictiveness.[2]
Influential in the Sanhedrin, he is among those who lead the first banishment of Jesus at the end of the 1st year of his public life and his departure from Clear Water.[3]
He is found towards the end of the Public Life of Jesus, leading a delegation that chases Jesus in the Temple. Andrew, frightened, sees the demon expelled from a little girl flare up against Nahum:
"«Yes. But you did not see because you had your back turned on him", he said to Thomas, "but the fire burst out just over his head» says Andrew while his teeth are almost chattering. «I was close to him and I got a fright!»"[4]
The demon had sneered: "I'm not going far..."[5] Jesus however brings his apostles back to reason. Nahum is the grandfather of Shalem, this deformed child of his son Annas. Shalem seeks Jesus to ask him to die, but Jesus heals him.
"«What a wasted miracle! Do You think that by doing so You will make friends with his father and Nahum? You will make them more resentful! Because they were only looking forward to the death of this boy, the offspring of an unfortunate marriage» exclaims Judas of Kerioth. [...]
«Nahum will consider Your action a revenge.»
«I will face Nahum… I shall not be hated more because of this. His hatred cannot increase. It is not possible. It is already complete.»"[6]
On the day of the death of the Christ, he is a victim, with his son, of a landslide. He emerges crippled and dazed. His son dies. Immediately Nahum turns against his "master" Anna, grabbing him by the throat: “Because of you! Because of you!”[7]
His name
Nahum means "one who has compassion" - Historical reference: the prophet.
Where is he mentioned in the work?
GRM 123 GRM 135 GRM 137
GRM 309
GRM 529 GRM 537 GRM 546 GRM 584 GRM 598
GRM 604 GRM 630 GRM 636
Learn more about this character
Works of the Lemann brothers
Msgr. Augustin Lemann, 1836-1909 and Msgr. Joseph Lemann, 1836-1915, converted Jews, in "Value of the assembly that pronounced the death sentence against Jesus-Christ" (1877), present a certain "Nachum Halbalar" as follows: Rabbinical books name him as part of the Sanhedrin, in the year 28 of Jesus Christ; but they mention nothing remarkable about him.
Remarkable points
In his note no. 1 written for the site Valtorta.fr, Jean-François Lavère notes:
Nahum, a "crippled" Sanhedrist
This "trusted man of the high priest Hanne" is presented in the work of Maria Valtorta as one of the most relentless enemies of Jesus. Judas prides himself that he is one of his friends… When in the last days of his public life, Jesus proclaims on the Temple forecourt: "My Father and I are One",[8] this solemn statement is felt as blasphemy by the Sanhedrists, and Nahum, at their head, drives Jesus away with stones.
Just after the earthquake following the Passion, Maria Valtorta gives us this surprising dialogue: "Do you know that Nahum is crippled [...] Nahum was with others like him, and I do not know what happened to him, whether he was struck by a rock or he had a stroke of apoplexy. I know that he looks like shattered and does not even understand. He looks like a beast, he slobbers and howls, and yesterday with his only sound hand he caught by the throat his… master who had gone to him and he shouted and shouted: 'Because of you! Because of you!'"[9]
How Maria Valtorta, bedridden and without documentation, could have known of this fact, if not by an authentic revelation? A document of the Talmudic tradition indeed mentions that "in his old age, Nahum was paralyzed in the hands and feet, and suffered various troubles"?[10]