Doras, the cruel master
Landowner in the northwest of the Esdraelon Plain, at the foot of the hill of Sepphoris. Influential member of the Sanhedrin and personally related to High Priest Annas, his relative.[1] He is a hard master who exhausts Jonah, one of the shepherds of the Nativity, until death.
"He has the richest lands in Israel... but, I swear to you: they are fertilized by the blood and the tears of his servants".[2] However, Jesus blesses his lands to spare the peasants from heavy labors.[3] The harvests are then abundant. Despite this, Doras beats his servants because the harvests of previous years were not as good.
This cruel man causes his servant Jonah to become his slave, as well as many of his other servants, through subtle and dishonest tricks:"This is how Doras operates, and he is not the only one in Israel: when he discovers a good servant, he uses a subtle trick to make him a slave. He puts inaccurate amounts on his account that the poor man cannot pay, and when it reaches a certain sum, he says: "Now you are my slave because of your debts". Jonah, as long as he had savings, could pay... then... One year it was hail, another drought. The wheat and the vineyard yielded little and Doras multiplied the loss by ten and then by ten again... Then Jonah became ill from overwork. And Doras lent him a sum for treatment, but demanded twelve for one and Jonah, having no means to repay him, added it to the rest. In short: a few years later, he became a slave for debts. And he will never let him go... He will always find reasons and new debts".[4]
Despite his abundant harvests following Jesus’s blessing, Doras knowingly deceives him when he comes to redeem old Jonah.[5] After several serious lies, including one in the name of God (perjury), his lands are then cursed by Jesus.
Doras goes to the Baptist to have the anathema removed. He is harshly rejected and sent back to Jesus, then at the "Belle-Water". "If he heals me and removes the anathema from the lands, dug as if by war machines by armies of moles, worms, and mole crickets that empty the seeds and gnaw on the roots of fruit trees and vineyards—since there is no way to get rid of them—I will become a friend to Him. But otherwise... woe to Him!"
Doras will publicly die under dramatic circumstances at "Belle-Water" [6], "struck down like Nadab and Abihu, by the Fire of divine wrath".
Character and Appearance
"Mocking, cruel and harmful jackal," says Lazarus, forced to negotiate Jonah's freedom.[7] "He is an old man with a hard profile of an old raptor. An ironic gaze, a serpent’s mouth drawing a false smile in his rather white than black beard. Short, slightly stooped, parchment-like, in his garment of an impressive fullness and abundance."
Apostolic Journey
Jesus gives a spiritual portrait of him during his preaching the day after his violent death, on the theme "Do not tempt the Lord Your God".[8] The dramatic circumstances of his death stir up the fear and resentment of the Pharisees.[9] This will cause the first proscription against Jesus, who will expel him from Belle-Water after his first year of public life.[10] His son Doras will take up his father’s implacable hatred for Jesus.
Where is he mentioned in the work?
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