7R

7R

Yeshua would never allow himself to become the focal point of a violent revolt against their Roman  masters. Yudah also knew the enemies of  Yeshua  could  do  little  to  harm  him. Yeshua's observance of the Code of Moshe was impeccable, as  that of any rabbi must always be. But for twenty brass sestertii he revealed that Yeshua recruited a tax collector, Mattiyahu, and convinced him to abandon his post. Yudah said subornation of tax officials was a crime under Roman law, and if a Jew committed the offense it was a capital one to boot.

The priests paid the twenty sestercii and kicked in ten more to use Yudah's name as a source. It was worth much more to them to be able  to say the  conspiracy against Yeshua began  within his own circle. That way Yeshua himself would be  discredited, not merely his movement.

That same evening Yeshua walked alone with Mattiyahu in a grove of olive trees. Out there in the night  he knew Yudah  must be making contact with  the other disciples to learn  where he was, and he knew the events he had set in motion  at the temple were rushing to a climax. Miriam came to  him and said,  "Lord, you will be arrested and brought before Annas, but he is longer high priest. He's too  sadistic even for the Rome. He  will ask about Mattiyahu's  choice to  walk away  from  his position  as a  tax collector,  only to  be met  with silence,  and each  failure to answer merits a  blow, until the faces of you  and your disciple are a mass of bruises. I could hardly stand to watch it."

Shyla was a witness to the ordeal because it was given to her as a B'nel Elohim that she could fade from the sight of men.

She continied. "When dawn breaks you will be taken to the house of  Yosef bar  Caiaphas,  where some  members  of the  Sanhedrin gather to  put together something  resembling a trial.  But when Caiaphas sees Mattiyahu's beaten face  he will know realizes his case is equally  battered. He will say, 'We were  to tell Pilate this Yeshua  talked a Jew  out of  collecting the taxes  due the Romans. What  do you imagine  Pilate will  do when he  sees this publican has  the marks of a  beating and he learns  that him we ourselves have done a bit more than talk him out of his job?"

"One of them will say it was the Ab Bet Din,  the father of his wife, who  delivered the blows.  And Caiaphas will  say, 'Wisdom has long  departed from  Annas,' says Caiaphas.  He will  say to Mattiyahu, 'You may  go, but you must say nothing  of this. Only your  silence  will  stay  the  forty  stripes  less  one." And Mattiyahu will reply, 'Then  let the  stripes on  my back  be a second witness.'"