The Streets of Ashkelon

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The Streets of Ashkelon is a science fiction short story by Harry Harrison. It was first published in 1962, in Brian Aldiss's anthology New Worlds and has been reprinted over 30 times in 14 languages, both in anthologies and in academic textbooks. Science fiction critic Paul Tomlinson, who helps run Harrison's official website, has estimated that it is Harrison's most widely-published story.

Its name is a reference to a passage from the Biblical 2 Samuel 1:20, which says "...proclaim it not in the streets of Ashkelon..." In the original context it was a part of a story in which Hebrews were instructed to try to keep the defeat of a couple of their war heroes from their enemies' knowledge, so Harrison seems to have intended it in another sense.

Harrison wrote the story for a Judith Merrill-edited anthology which was to contain original stories that all violated societal taboos in some way: Streets portrayed a heroic atheist, and a naive, foolish missionary. When Merrill's project fell through, Harrison approached other markets; however, no American publisher accepted it, and so Harrison approached British markets instead. Streets was not published by an American company until six years later.

[edit] Plot

An atheist merchant, John Garth, is the only human on an alien planet where the primitive natives have no concept whatsoever of religion or sin. He is teaching them the scientific method.

One day, the merchant is surprised by the arrival of a missionary, who is intent on proselytizing to the natives, despite the merchant's best efforts to dissuade him.

Several days later, the missionary triumphantly tells the merchant that catechism lessons are going very well, and that he has just finished teaching the natives about the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Christ. The merchant immediately begins making preparations to flee the planet, and orders the missionary to come with him. The missionary refuses, not understanding what's wrong; before the merchant can explain, several natives arrive with a crudely-built cross. They seize the missionary and force him to drag the cross through their town: in accordance with what the merchant taught them about the scientific method, they are experimentally testing the hypothesis that if they crucify the missionary in accordance with what he taught them about the Gospels, he will miraculously rise from the dead three days later and thereby redeem them.

Three days later, after the hypothesis has been disproved, the natives ask the merchant what went wrong, and if it was because of their sin.