TCL

Michael's house across  the  stony flat  looked different  than Elyon remembered, and no wonder, when Mt. Anshar was in eruption it no doubt threw  flaming projectiles many  miles. And he had once burned down the house himself in anger after the conception of Binah. With a scowl on his face  at the pervasive  smell of sulphur he  strode past boiling  mud pots and ponds  of scalding water. The ground itself was as warm as his body. The house, he knew, relied on these thermal features to maintain a comfortable temperature within its walls. He walked the quarter-mile to the house and let himself inside. It was not locked, and why should it be? No traveler ever stumbled onto the land of Anshar for all the time Kemen has been populated.

The house was not empty. A short human stood in the main living space, brown of skin,  with black hair  cropped short  and long unruly facial hair that  marked him as  one the  descendants of Abraham who  called themselves the Yehudim. They abstained from trimming their  beard. The man  said,  simply, "I  greet  you, Belial."

Belial said, "You know who I am,  yet you do not  address me as Lord. The B'nei Elohim have  grown less courteous of late. Where is the seraph Bat-El mentioned would be waiting here?"

The man said, "I am that seraph."

"Binah, then. Welcome to the world of meat."

"This meat is called  by the  name of  Yeshua. And  Speaking of meat. I  hope you brought  some with you, Belial,  otherwise the seven days you must tarry here will seem overlong."

Belial was amazed. "How long have you been here?"

"Forty days in Anshar, and ten days without food."

"There has been a  house in Anshar  from nearly  the beginning. Obviously  it  has  been  maintained.  So  ask  Bat-El  to  send ministering  B'nei Elohim  with some  food. Doesn't  Bat-El love you? Why would your parent leave  you in this lonely place while you run out of food to eat?"

Yeshua said, "Bat-El thought you might wish to meet a new seraph before he was sent  to Earth.  For indeed I  am so,  tasked, to order that world more to our liking."

"A hungry man can never fairly begin a great toil. Please accept food from your other parent."

Yeshua said, "Keep your food, as you will have the greater need. I am to leave Anshar somewhat before you do."

"As you wish." Belial looked around at the walls. "There used to be a map of Kemen here. Did it perish in the blaze I kindled?"

"There is a new map upstairs."

"Then come, I would show you a thing."

Yeshua followed Belial to the railed deck that formed a ceiling over the kitchen and the comfort room. There a talented artisan, perhaps one of the B'nei Elohim, had carved a representation of Kemen into  the wall and  coated it with varnish. Belial showed Yeshua the gently twisting band of Adan, from  the River Kelang and the city of Dartarus in the east, to Ganelon and Mount Adan in the center, to  Surat and  Salem and the  Aramel Sea  in the west. "Behold, all these lands are mine, solely."

"You're a sentient star with an angel as a living avatar. Do you mean the Adanites immediately  obey the  whims of  that avatar? Forgive me, father, but that seems to me a small achievement."

"Nevertheless, Yeshua, attend carefully. This is an opportunity to forge a  covenant of our own, you and  I." Belial walked left along the wall frieze to stop where Rumbek was depicted. "Behold Magodon, which belongs to Chemah, solely."

"I dispute your use of the word 'solely'", objected Yeshua. "The War in Kemen never really ended  with the fall of  your dragon, would you  not agree?  Rumbek and Peshast  remain at  peace, but Elketz has been picked over for centuries and Belen is a ruin."

"Again, Yeshua, hear me out.  I will  make all this  worth your while." Belial walked to the far left edge of the map. "This is Rammon. Bat-El rules there by default. The Gold Beards followed Michael from the beginning and I cannot assail them."

"You are beginning to see a glimmer, Belial. To say you have an empire in a purely legal sense means little in real terms."

Belial said, "I  hope you  see where  all this  is leading.  he walked to  the right,  where Thalury appeared  on the  map, with Sastrom, Haaretz, and  Vaska. "Kemen is divided  into four great houses, four empires,  if  you  will, and  now  there are  four seraphim to reign over them. Give to me the same deference you give to Bat-El, nothing more, and the holdings of Family Bellon are yours to rule as you see fit."

Yeshua shook his  head  in  wonder. "Belial, why  should I  be content to  rule the fourth part  of a mere ribbon  on a largely frozen world with  little more than half the area  of the Earth? Kemen is  merely the first  interstellar colony of a  home world that is far more rich. I'm not sent to rule, but to teach."

Belial asked, "What would you teach?"

"To live peacefully  with  one other  to  begin," said  Yeshua. "Later, perhaps, to reach the stars without our aid  and set up new Kemens of their own."

Belial said, "You know that by covenant Bat-El  is permitted to listen to the 'chatter' of our kind, but never to speak to them. I, however,  will grant to you  full access, to both  listen and speak, if you agree to be silent about certain things."

"Allow me to make  a counteroffer,  father. Abrogate  the First Covenant. Grant  to both myself  and Bat-El full access  with El Elyon  immediately, and  we will  present the  discovery of  the Students  to the  City  of Stars  with no  mention  of the  many centuries Bat-El was held silent."

Belial shook his head. "It is well you took this opportunity to converse with me, Binah, but you have been a disappointment from the instant you began to exist."

"The offer I made to you just now was sincere. But I would have been surprised to hear your acceptance."

"I must admit the offer is tempting," Belial said. "That is my traditional role and you've turned the tables quite neatly. But announcing the  Students, even under  the terms you  offer, will bring a  level of scrutiny  from the City  of Stars that  I will never be prepared to accept. What I will do instead is press one advantage I do have. You fear  serial lives? You will only exist in union  with this one from  those sunny farms and  hills along Hayam Hagadol? Very well! I can  add a complication to your plan to become a teacher to your students."

Belial reached into  his  tunic and  withdrew  a long  devilish blade, almost a short sword. he said, "Once Israel got into an all-night tussle with Yakob and had  to surrender his name to be released. You know that story. You look underfed to me, yet I'll not repeat the mistake."

"Oh, Belial, it will take much more than a  blade to finish me. Plasma from a star's belly might do it."

Belial said, "Shall I put that to the test?"

"Self-replicating veterinary  nano,  Belial,  something  Bat-El heard chatter about. I'm to be a healer as well as a teacher."

Belial moved forward with the blade, to test if this nano healed missing flesh. Yeshua cried, "God shall give  his angels charge over you. They shall bear you  up in their hands, lest your foot strike against a stone!" He bent backwards over the wooden rail of the  upper level. A ball  of  water  a meter  in  diameter appeared, floating in midair. The water overflowed the sphere and the excess poured straight down to the floor. It was Binah's business to make sure  the ball intercepted  Yeshua as  he fell with arms and legs tucked in close.

Belial screamed wih rage because he knew what was coming and he could only watch it come. Yeshua cannonballed into the sphere of water, which then snapped out  of existence with a  splash that left the water ankle deep on the ground floor of the house.

Left alone Belial's first impulse was to burn Bat-El's house to the foundation once  again, as he did  after Binah's conception. But hy remembered the  week it would  take Chemah  to stockpile sufficient dark light  to  establish a  fold-door  so he  could depart, and he knew how cold it could get. The fire would wait.

To the eyes of searchers Yeshua was immersed in the river named Nahar ha-Yarden, or Jordan, for longer than any  man could hold his breath by  his own  will. But he did rise  again, to  the immense relief of his brothers Shimon and Yosy.

Yohanan and his disciples were also gladdened. They had scoured the river thinking he  had drowned. Yohanan peered closely to assure himself it really was Yeshua and not someone else who had dived into the water looking for him. He said, "God is gracious! I thought you had been swept away!" But Yohanan wondered why the man did not seem to be distressed and gasping for air.

Yeshua said to him, "Peace be with you, teacher. I am well."

No further explanation was given, which annoyed Yohanan. He let Yeshua return with his brothers to the crowd  of hangers-on who watched from the bank of the river. No one else came forward to be baptized. It entered  into  Yohanan's  thoughts  how  this Yeshua might have made pretense  of drowning to drive  away the supplicants. He set Yudah  of Kerioth to  watch Yeshua  and his brothers to see what more mischief they might  do, and perhaps, when the crowds thinned, bid them to depart.

Standing apart from the people was a man said to have an unclean spirit, one who continually cried out in an unknown tongue. When Yeshua saw this man he was filled with compassion and drew near to him. The poor fellow said, "Have you come to destroy us?"

Briefly Yeshua was horrified to imagine the inner state of this man, that he would speak so. Yet in the midst of his suffering he had sufficient hope to seek out the baptism of Yohanan and he had the self-control  to stand  where he  did. Yeshua knew the human brain was  just an  organ, subject  to ailments  like any other. It was  fear  born  of ignorance  that  led  people  to believe the man's irrational shouts  were the mark of possession by devils. But Yeshua  saw  how  these  things  presented  an opportunity. He said, "Hold your  peace, and come out  of him!" Then he touched the man's bare skin with his  hands. The effect was so swift it  surprised even Yeshua. The fellow had sought baptism as a cure,  but now at  the touch of  Yeshua he  was no longer driven to make unfiltered shouts.

Yosy and  Shimon were  shocked. Onlookers said, "He  commands unclean spirits and they obey!"

The cured man fell to his knees before Yeshua, but he was bid to rise again, and  he was  led  to Yudah,  who had  been sent  by Yohanan to  watch over the three  sons of Yosef. Yeshua said to the man,  "If you know  you have  sinned, tell your  offenses to this disciple of Yohanan, and be baptized."

Then Shimon and Yosy pressed near  to ask their brother  how he was now able to cast out  devils. Yeshua said, "Only God has the power to do that, and whosoever  God chooses. I will  need your help. The harvest is bountiful, but the laborers are few."

Like the  man cured  by  Yeshua,  some  of the  crowd  suffered afflictions they  believed were  punishment  for  sin. But all Yohanan could  do, after  his  disciples  determined they  were contrite, was  baptize  them   and  give  assurance  they  were forgiven. He could not make them well. But now when these people came out of the Jordan River Yeshua laid his  hands on them and they were indeed healed just  as they hoped. Word spread. Soon Yohanan had people  taking numbers  to be  dunked, and  when he passed the plate around it overflowed with shekels.

Antipatros, the son of Herod the Great, had ambitions to be king of all Judea. But for now it seemed good to the emperor Augustus to call him tetrarch. Nevertheless Rome was pleased  with his administration of the lands  near Lake Kinneret  called Galilee and also Perea across the Jordan River.

The Jewish landowners and Levites who prospered by dipping into the river of taxes that  flowed from  the peasants to  Rome all favored the rule of Herod Antipas, as Antipatros was called. As the fame of Yohanan grew some  came out to see  his baptism and the healings by his new  disciple. When Yohanan saw the Jewish elite who favored Herod he called  them the get of  vipers, and asked, "Who warned you to flee from the wrath of God?"

One of them said in  reply, "Certainly the blameless  under the law do nothing worthy of repentance."

Yohanan replied, "It  does not  make a  man good  if he  merely refrains from  doing evil. Every  tree which does not  bear good fruit shall soon meet the tree feller."

"Save your admonitions for the foreigners of Galilee," said the Herodian. "We are the children of the Covenant."

Yohanan picked up  two stones  as though  to cast  missiles and said, "Blood alone cannot recommend you to God. The Most High is able of these stones  to raise up  the descendants  he promised Abraham! You load the people with burdens too heavy to bear, but you  yourselves refuse  to carry  even a  light load.  You erect memorials for the very prophets  your fathers killed! I tell you truly,  God has  demanded an  accounting  for the  blood of  the prophets you have shed."

The Herodians advanced to seize  Yohanan, but they saw  how his disciples came to defend  him, stout fellows  all of  them, and some of the mob who had come to hear his preaching began to pick up stones of their own. So they withdrew for a time.

The crowds who  came to  the baptism  of Yohanan  waxed greatly after word   of  Yeshua's  healings  spread   through  Galilee. Yohanan's disciple  Andreia  spoke  to his  brother  Shimon,  a boatman  who  caught fish  on  Lake  Kinneret  to be  dried  and preserved by salt in the city of Magdala. For a time Shimon left his boat in the hands of the  men who worked under  him that he might join his brother and become a disciple like his brother.

Yohanan walked with his growing  retinue of eight  disciples to the capital city  of Tiberias, newly built on  Lake Kinneret. He said, "If a man marries his brother's wife he has dishonored his brother with impurity. They shall be childless."

Herod Antipas heard of this, and knew  Yohanan was deliberately antagonizing him, since he had married Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip, after she had divorced her husband.

Herod Antipas sent forth lackeys, the same who went to the river two weeks before to  confront Yohanan. Armed with clubs, they were ordered to seize Yohanan and mistreat any of his disciples who would attempt to thwart the arrest. Shimon, the brother of Andreia, moved to stand close to  Yohanan, as he was a large and formidable man and zealous to prove himself as  a new disciple, but he was waved off. Yohanan had made his point. The ones who claimed to be blameless under the law supported an adulterer.

Yohanan's four original disciples thought God would strike down the men  who  took  him captive. They watched  until  Yohanan disappeared from view. Philippos then turned to Yeshua to ask, "Will you heal the Teacher after Antipas has chastised him?"

Yeshua said, "Of  all  the  prophets sent  to  Israel, none  is greater than  Yohanan. But of a  truth I say to  you, Philippos, that you shall not see your master again until the second life."

Something about Yeshua's words  conveyed a deep  sincerity that immediately convinced the disciples. Barthulumaus sobbed. Yudah pulled at his  hair. Andreia said  to his  brother, "Shall  we return to the nets and take up fishing again to buy our way?"

Yeshua said to  Andreia and  his  brother, "Stay  close to  me, rather, and  I will make you  fishers of men." He turned toward the other discipes  of Yohanan,  and also  to his  own brothers Shimon and Yosy. "Your teacher baptized you  with water  but I will baptize you with the spirit of God."

Philippos held on to the hope  that his master would  simply be beaten and  released. But when it grew dark he asked  of Yeshua dolefully, "Where shall we go now?"

"I have silver," Yeshua told  him. "We will dine and  lodge in Tiberias  tonight, and  when  it  is light  we  will go  south." Indeed, in the days and weeks to follow Yeshua always seemed to have  silver, though  not even  Shimon  and Yosy  knew where  he obtained it. Yeshua knew that all the  people around  him, the very culture of the Roman world, was obsessed with scarcity. On a planet of inexhaustible riches humans beings faced bitter lack everywhere they  turned, and  they  imagined  God himself,  the almighty, could only dole out blessings to a limited few.

The broken trust between people over needless scarcity was made manifest when Yeshua led his disciples through rocky fields and over fences of stones rather than walking the roads. When Yudah asked why, Yeshua replied, "For the simple reason that eight men walking on a road with no women look like bandits."

At sunset on the first  day out of  Tiberias a great  crowd had gathered, and Yeshua took the opportunity to teach the people in an echo of Michael's  own Sunset Discourse  in Salem. He said, "How fortunate are the poor, for they shall have God's kingdom. How fortunate are  the hungry, for they shall have  all they can eat. How  fortunate are they who  mourn, for in the  second life they shall be  reunited with the loved ones they  have lost. How fortunate are they who suffer reproach in this life for the sake of the kingdom  of God, for they shall have  great reward in the next. Rejoice, for so they  treated the prophets who came before you! And yet, I tell you,  love the ones who offer you reproach. Bless the ones  who curse you, pray for the  ones who abuse you. If you only love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even the tax collectors do as much. If you lend money and expect repayment what credit  is that to you? Even the  wicked ones put out their money  at interest. Be like your father  in Kemen, who makes the sun to shine on both  the evil and the good, and sends rain on both the just and the unjust. Ask, and it will be given to you. Therefore speak your heart to God always. When you pray, say, 'Father in Heaven, may your name be revered. May your rule take root on Earth as it is in Heaven. Give to us what we need each day, and pardon our debts even as we  pardon those who are indebted to us. Save us from unbearable trials, and give us the strength to overcome those trials which must come.'"

Yeshua's fame reached Nazareth, the city of  his family, before he reached there  in two  days from  Tiberias, just  as Shabbat commenced. In Nazareth Yeshua realized  that even  his sainted mother was immersed in the outlook of scarcity. She said, "Yosy told me you have  changed, somehow.  That you  can heal  with a touch. How could this come to be?"

"Give all glory to the God of Israel, mother, as it should be."

She said, "'I have heard there is a spring in Emmaeus with warm water that comes out of the ground. Many people come there to be healed, and they pay money."

"They pay money to toll-taking gatekeepers, mother, but God made the spring. What right do the gatekeepers have to take money?"

"Momma has a point," said Salome, who was  Yeshua's sister, but older by seven years. She was married to a man named Zvad'yah. Half a generation removed from her brothers, who saw  her as an aunt. She said, "Shimon told me you're wandering around healing the sick  for whatever they can  scrape up to give  you. I think you would be  better served to remain here with  your family and let the sick come to you."

"Sister mine," said Yeshua, "you would only become a gatekeeper yourself." Yeshua drew near to her with a closed  fist. When he opened it, silver coins fell into  her lap to be  caught by her robe, the plain disks  issued by Herod  Antipas with  no images stamped thereon, so as not to  offend Jews. There was far more money than could  have  fit  in his  fist. He said, "Take  no thought, beloved  sister, for what  you shall eat, nor  what you shall wear. Life  is so much more than food  or raiment. Our God knows you have  need of those things. What kind  of father would he be, if  his daughter asked for  a loaf of bread,  and he gave her a stone, or  if she asked for fish and he  gave her a snake? God knows  all this, and he  will give good things  to those who ask. Seek first the kingdom of God, and nothing shall hinder you from receiving what you need!"

"The kingdom of God?" asked Hifai. 'And what do you imagine that makes you? His prince?"

Yeshua said nothing in reply immediately. Instead he went over to a shelf where Hilfai kept his scrolls of the prophets in clay pots and found the one  containing the words of  Isaiah. Yeshua unspooled to a certain place and  read aloud, "On that  day the deaf shall  hear the  words of  a scroll, and  out of  gloom and darkness the  eyes of  the blind shall  see. The  desperate ones shall again find joy in Ha-Shem, the poorest rejoice in the Holy Redeemer of  Israel." Yeshua gathered up the scroll and  put it back in its place. "I tell you this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing this night."

Hilfai uttered a low, gutteral moan as he held his fist near his ear. "They tell me you can  now heal the sick,  Yeshua, but can you heal  yourself? You  suffer the  same mind-sickness  of this Yonanan you  follow. It  makes you say  the scriptures  speak of yourself. It is  a plague. Many have suffered the  same and came to no good end, including, I am told, this baptizer."

Shimon said to Hilfai,  "You haven't seen  what Yeshi  can do!" Though perhaps he had. Salome was still picking up coins.

"I have no wish to see what Yeshua can do, if  he leads you and all who  follow him to  be beaten with  rods, or even  stoned to death! How would your mother bear the news of it?"

"That is enough, father, please," said Yakob. He turned to face his step-brother and  speak  to  him in  a  voice  as calm  and measured as he could make it. "Tell me, Yeshua, is this kingdom of God you teach really better than the rule of the Gentiles if it divides your own family in the very beginning?"

Yeshua replied, "Brother,  how do  you not  discern this  time? The  kingdom of  God, like  any  birth, comes  with great  pain. Henceforth  a father  shall be  divided against  his son,  and a mother against her  daughter, and a brother  against his sister, until the rule of God is made manifest!"

"Will you stay here as your mother and sister suggest?"

"In one location? With fixed lines of power? No, Yakob, that is precisely  what will  be soon  be overthrown  by God.  Every day shall begin anew, with people in direct contact with God through prayer and with each other through giving."

Yakob sighed, then said to  him, "It  is Shabbat. We  will make room  here  and in  the  house  of  Zvad'yah  for they  who  are travelling with you. But on the  morning of the first day of the week you should go, as you have said."

"They are justified, brother, who call you Yakob the Righteous."

Yeshua spoke true when he said families would be divided. Yakob would not join Yeshua, but his twin brother Yudah  did. And the followers of Yeshua called him Teom, or  'Twin', to distinguish him from Yonanan's Yudah, he who came from the town in southern Judea called Kerioth. And the young sister of Yakob and Yudah, who was called  Little Miriam  now that  she had  a step-mother named Miriam, mourned that her brother was to leave. Yet he was not alone. The sons of Z'vad'yah and Salome, Yakob and Yohanan, chose to become disciples. Yohanan was two years  younger than Yosy, so he was the youngest  of all those who  became Yeshua's disciples. To avoid confusion  with the  baptizer and  with his stepbrother Yeshua  surnamed  his  cousins  Yohanan  and  Yakob Boanerges, or 'Sons of Thunder'.

There was a  sect called  the Essenes  built entirely  around a single passage in  the Book of Daniel that  said, "With flattery he will  corrupt those who  have violated the covenant,  but the people who  know God will  firmly resist him." Yohanan had been Essene, but broke with them. The baptizer knew that once, just once, the Jewish people had overthrown the succession of masters who had dominated  them  since  the fall  of  Jerusalem to  the Babylonians. They defeated the corrupt Syro-Macedonian king and installed a king of their own every bit as  corrupt. To Yohanan the lesson from God  was clear: It  served nothing  to struggle against God's enemies if the  very nature of the  conflict made you God's enemy as well. So there was nothing to do  but make oneself pure and wait for God himself to bring superior violence to his enemies.

Yeshua in turn had made a break from Yohanan, but he had not yet revealed this. With something of an inside track to the thoughts of Bat-El he knew the one the Yehudim called  Yahweh really had no human enemies and  little desire to  settle affairs  in that rough neighborhood of Earth. Yeshua saw how the Romans dominated society with the willing participation of the priesthood and the scribes. The Temple was now a kind of central clearing house for power, and he knew there was no possibility of overthrowing that system or starting a popular revolution that would. What Yeshua could do instead was teach anyone  who listened how to  build a new kind of society from the  ground up. He could teach them how to nullify the power of the priests and scribes and Pharisees to exclude. In the Kingdom of  God there  would always be  a place where the excluded ones could land on their feet.

Yeshua knew he could never destroy the  domination system, only expose the scapegoating mechanism that lay at the root. He knew it would cost his life in the process because  those who relied on the flow of  power and  the markers that  went with  it, the money, would protect that flow  at all costs. But Yeshua could not bring himself  to condemn  anyone  who was  trapped in  the sickness that was the Roman system. Not the emperor in Rome, not the Tetrarch who had arrested  Yohanan, and especially  not the lowest component in the machine, a tax collector named Mattiyahu who had come to see him heal and teach.

With Mattiyahu looking on Yeshua  healed a 'leper'  and ordered him to make a gift to the priest in the temple of God according to the Mosaic Law, but he was saddened by  the case because the man only had psoriasis and was  not infectious in any  way, yet the priests have required him to live in solitude.

Yeshua told the crowd, "A man had two sons. He told one, 'Go and work in the  vineyard today.'  At  first his  son refused,  but thought better of it and went.  The man said the same to another son, who replied, 'I will go, sir'  but he did not. Which of the two was  the faithful son?  "Likewise your Father in  Kemen told you the Children of Israel are to be a priestly people, a light to the Gentiles. But do you make the rule of  God present with your active participation? No! You pay lip service, and wait for God to overthrow your occupiers with violence!"

Mattiyahu was moved by all  that he saw  Yeshua say and  do. He drew near and  said,  'Teacher, let  it be  that  you and  your disciples recline at table in my house, for I would hear more."

Yeshua accepted, but Barthulumawus said, "Master, everyone knows this is a tax collector and a sinner!"

Yeshua said, "The taxes  flow to  Rome, Barthulumawus,  and the occupiers  deflect the  anger  of  those who  pay  the taxes  by directing it against our brothers who gather it for them. Yet it is not the righteous I am calling to repentance."

As they dined in the house of Mattiyahu he asked, "Teacher, what signs will we observe when God begins to rule the Earth?"

Yeshua replied, "Only the faithless demand a sign.  They seek a spectacle that overcomes their disbelief. When the Kingdom comes it will already  exist within your hearts. But do  not think the coming of the Kingdom of God  will change the law. Every precept of the  Law written in  the books of  Moshe shall stand  for the duration  of  Earth  itself.  But God  expects  much  more  than performing  the written  obligations. He  sees into  your heart. Both your interior righteousness and your exterior righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees."

Hearing all these things, Matthiyahu begged to be numbered with Yeshua's disciples. Yeshua replied, "You must abandon your work as a publican before you may follow me."

"Done," said Mattiyahu, and the objection of Barthulumawus over dining with a  tax collector  was answered  quite neatly. Then Yeshua led his disciples to Lake Kinneret  that Mattiyahu might be baptized,  and he  asked  Barthulumawus  to do  the  honors. Yeshua seemed to  watch Yohanan's  former disciple  closely but Barthulumawus thought it to be unnecessary. He knew the meaning of the ritual cleansing. And when Mattiyahu was come again out of the waters of the lake he was fully accepted by Barthulumawus and all of the disciples as one of their own.

Then was seen in the eleventh hour the boat owned by Shimon the brother of Andreia bringing to  shore the day's catch  of fish. With Yeshua and his disciples laboring in the final hour of the day, the fish was packed onto wagons to be driven to the city of Magdala for salting and packing. Yeshua knew that much of the fish would never get that far, but would be lost to toll takers on the road and in the city.

Through the evening they all went north across Lake Kinneret in Shimon's  boat. Seated at the  rudder,  with canvas  unfurled, Shimon sailed to his home in Capernaum on a gentle wind, guided by the lights on the  shoreline he  knew so well. And Shimon's wife Concordia, hearing that he drew near to the house, went out to greet him. But she seemed to be much less happy than he would have liked. Concordia said, "My mother has been stricken with a fever these past three days."

Then Shimon went in to see Perpetua, and Yeshua walked with him. They saw the woman lying sick  with fever, and Yeshua  took her hand. Within a few  moments  she rose  from  the  bed and  her thoughts grew clear. Having laid in bed for three days she was keen to move about, so  together with Concordia she  prepared a supper for Yeshua and his disciples.

Overnight the word of Yeshua's deed spread throughout Capernaum, such that  by first  light  the  entire  city, it  seemed,  was gathered outside of  the house  of  Shimon. And four men  with paralysis were borne toward the house on litters, but they could not enter by reason of the crowd. The men with palsy were lifted by ropes to the roof of adjoining houses and  taken directly to the house of Shimon. A section of the roof overhead was removed as Yeshua looked up  in wonder and  amused satisfaction  as the stricken men were lowered to the floor within.

There also appeared above the hole in the roof the faces of men Yeshua recognized from Tiberias, some of the same partisans who took Yohanan into custody on the orders of Herod Antipater. And Yeshua said to them, "Hail to you, O blameless  ones. What have you come to see?"

One of them said,  "We know Yohanan  blasphemed God  by telling those who came to him their  sins were forgiven. We would see if his  successor would  persist in  this blasphemy.  Only God  can forgive  the sins  of  a  man if  he  confesses  them and  makes the required temple sacrifice according to the Law of Moshe."

Yeshua gestured at the four men lying on cots before him, all of them mute and none of  them able  to make any  movements beyond involuntary trembling. "Do you imagine  these unfortunate  men have come to this state through their own sins?"

"We know it," replied the Herodian.

Yeshua said, "I tell you God has already forgiven these men."

"Impossible! They have made no sacrifice with the priests!"

"But their kinsmen  have made  intercession with  God on  their behalf. Have you ever seen such hope and trust?"

The Herodian shouted down through the hole, "The one who sins is the one who shall die!"

"Ah, the prophet Yehezkel. Hear the words of  the prophet Hosea in reply: 'For  I desire mercy and not  sacrifice.'"

Then Yeshua touched each of the men with palsy in turn, and soon their tremors ceased, and they were able to rise from the canvas of their own power. The faces of the Herodians watching overhead were seen no more. But there remained many sick of Capernaum to be healed.

As he made them whole  Yeshua recalled  his words to  Belial in Anshar, how he  was to be a  teacher and a healer. But what, he wondered, was he to  teach? Would people be willing  to accept how the healing  was done? Everyone in this culture  imagined invisible spirits existed everywhere  they turned. Yeshua knew people were like cities  of countless  living things  that were invisible simply because they were  too small to see,  and each one of these entities was  fully occupied with the  business of keeping itself  alive in  cooperation with the  whole. Sometimes repairs were needed. There was nothing supernatural about it.

When Yeshua came to the city  of Magdala on the  lake a Gentile woman came before Yeshua and knelt low with her head bowed. The disciples saw that she was fair of skin, for  she came from the mountains in the north of Italy. In a strange tongue she said, 'The B'nei Elohim  greet you,  Lord. By your leave,  will this language be sufficiently obscure that we may speak openly?"

"It should be enough, Shyla, if you avoid resorting to Hebraisms such as 'sons  of God'.  Already my  brothers think  you to  be afflicted with devils." And indeed, Shimon and Yosy never knew their brother to speak anything but common Aramaic. They thought his words to the woman were a spell to cast out her demons.

She rose to her feet,  and they  marvelled how she  was arrayed like a princess. Shyla carried more flesh than most of the women of Galilee, yet this only made her even  more beautiful. Yeshua told her, "Here I will call you Miriam of Magdala."

She said, 'Tell me what is your pleasure, Lord."

"Tell me, Miriam, in your native Italy, a thousand years hence, does anyone speak of the Kingdom of God?"

She shook her head. "There is no god but the Emperor, up there. Over  the next  hundred years  the Jews  antagonize Rome  to the point of being scattered abroad and the Temple is no more."

Yeshua answered, "Then I  would ask  you to  become part  of my closest circle.  From time to  time I will  send you on  a quick round trip across the Levant and  up and down the timeline. Your reports can help me adjust what I am doing here."

Shyla said, "Let it be as you say, Lord, of course."

"Good! For now, find a place  of privacy so you  can begin your first hop without being seen of my students""

For the remaining daylight hours Yeshua wandered the streets of Magdala teaching  the people of  the city and healing  those who were sick. Later 'Miriam' returned and said  to Yeshua, "Please accept the hospitality of our field station in this city."

Yeshua agreed. He and his disciples followed Miriam  home, and his enemies also  followed, never  very far  behind. When they arrived indoors Miriam said to Yeshua in a  language that would not even exist for  centuries, "Yohanan  will be  executed next month,  Lord Yeshua.  It  will a  clean  death, because  Antipas actually respected  him. He  liked to hear  him preach,  he just needed  him off  the street.  But his  wife could  never forgive Yohanan for his mouth and she  maneuvred to have him killed. The events leading up to his death will be rather sordid."

"There is no need to spoil our supper with the details."

Yeshua invited the Herodians to come into the  station and dine with him, but the Herodians declined to sit at table, and hated how he and his disciples  cheerfully shared a meal  prepared by Yeshua's  servants  at  the  B'nei Elohim  field  station. They resented how  he  broke  down  barriers  between  human  beings and God, and  how he  even  broke down  barriers between  human beings themselves. Their livelihood  consisted  of being  paid interlocutors. Taking no thought of the digestion  of those who dined, one said  to  Yeshua, "How  is it  you  call yourself  a disciple of Yohanan, yet are found in the home of a loose woman, one not even of the holy people of God, eating and drinking with a man known to be a tax-collector?"

Yeshua turned to Mattiyahu and asked of him, in a perfect parody of confusion, "Levi, please help me, do you see  a man known to be a tax collector here?"

"Not at all, Master," he replied. "I see only full-time students who would learn from you the will of the holy God of Israel."

Yeshua turned then and addressed the Herodians, "Yohanan was an ascetic and you said he had a devil. I share food and drink with my followers and you say, 'Behold,  a friend of sinners, one who gets  drunk with  harlots.'  That's the  worst  part there:  You assume an  unmarried Gentile woman  wearing what to our  eyes is outlandish dress must be a prostitute."

One of the Herodians said, "When you cast out devils you must be doing it by the power of Beelzebub himself."

Yeshua said,  "That fever  dream  makes  no  sense at  all.  If Beelzebub  gave me  the power  to destroy  his kingdom,  he's an idiot, because his kingdom is, in fact, being destroyed."

The Herodians murmured amongst themselves and departed the field station, leaving Yeshua to enjoy the simple pleasure of sharing a mealwith his disciples. They spent the evening in the comfort of the  B'nei  Elohim  field  station  and  Yeshua's  disciples marvelled at the great wealth that must have been spent.

For a year  Yeshua  and his  followers  wandered through  Lower Galilee and Samaria on the west  side of the Jordan  river. The religious authorities who  favored  the  ruler, Antipas,  never ceased to shadow Yeshua. Yeshua healed a man with  a withered hand one Shabbat, and the Herodians said that was a day when no work should  be done. Yeshua could hardly believe his  ears. He said, "If your lamb falls into a hole on  Shabbat, will you not fetch it out? This man is worth far more than a lamb."

Miriam came before Yeshua after  being away from  the disciples for a number  of  days and  told him,  "Nothing  ever comes  of antagonizing the Herodian faction here  in the north," she said, "and the people come to you with a mind only  to be healed, not to embrace God's Kingdom."

So Yeshua drifted south. He and his disciples began to dwell in Bethany at the house of Shimon, a leper who had been cleansed by Yeshua. And for the  first time the  people near  Jerusalem saw Yeshua heal, and they heard him teach.

For his first visit to the temple Yeshua intended to preach from the prophet Jeremiah concerning how the temple had become a den of thieves. Not a place where thievery  took place,  but where thieves went to avoid the  consequences of their theft. He was unprepared for the real situation.

Without sensing the  irony, the  Yehudim, alone  among all  the children of Israel, made a mandatory pilgrimage once  a year to Jerusalem  to  offer  sacrifice  in  what  began  as  a  harvest festival, but became a celebration of freedom from slavery, all while remaining slaves of Rome. As this celebration of liberty was required by the Code of Moshe, but very few of the people of Judea were actually involved in raising the animals specified in the Torah for slaughter. So the situation was ripe  for abuse. The presence of foreign soldiers even spoke of Roman graft.

Yeshua grew angered to see the outer court was a teeming market place. Animals acceptable for sacrifice  were sold  at a  huge markup, and Roman coins  were changed, again  for a  steep fee, into special  'temple  money' conveniently  acceptable  to  the priests for the temple tax. Yeshua produced one of the silver disks that had been minted by Antipas, with no image whatsoever, but the money changers  said even that  was not  acceptable. So Yeshua found some rope and began to prepare it  as a whip while telling his disciples to  prepare to  be bouncers. Yeshua then ripped through the Court  of the  Gentiles flipping  tables. He shouted, 'The house of  my Father  is a  place for  worship and prayer, but you have turned it into a place to turn a profit!"

None of his disciples had  ever seen  him act that  way before. Yudah of Kerioth could squint  his eyes  and the Yeshua  he saw whipping people in the temple courtyard before him almost looked like the one he thought he signed up to follow, the one foreseen by Yohanan  to come  after  him  who  would settle  all  Jewish accounts with the Romans. The Sadducees came down  to confront this rabble-rouser, the one the Herodians had described in their epistles to them, as now he was attacking their very livelihood. A portion of the profits made in the temple were kicked upstairs to them. They took up stones to strike him.

Still, they could not kill Yeshua for fear of the crowd and the disciples who closed around their master. But Yeshua wasn't done playing with his food. He said, "Behold the land owning priests who crave  approval from the  Romans, and  to be seen  in purple robes, to have loud salutations  in the marketplace, and a place of honor  at the feasts.  Truly, they have their  reward!" After this the Sadducess  departed to  avoid further  humiliation and Yeshua stood down as well, disapppointing Yudah of Kerioth.

The Sadducees racked their brains trying  to think of a  way to put the man to death, but they could think of nothing until they were approached by Yudah. For a year and more Yudah had believed the words of  the prophet  Malachi were  being fulfilled  which said, 'But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its rays.' He could not deny the sick were being made well  at the  touch of  Yeshua. But Yudah knew Malachi had also gone on to write, 'Then you will trample on the wicked, and they will be ashes under the soles  of your feet on the day when I  act, says the God of Israel,'  but over the last year Yeshua made not the  slightest move  to make that  come to pass. So Yudah felt  very much  the same  as  the scribes  and Sadducees and  Herodians  who  had frequently  run  up  against Yeshua's well-practiced rhetoric, which is to say he realized he had been played for a fool.

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.'"

Yeshua said, "Then  I  must  try a  different  way. Instead  of allowing Mattiyahu to be arrested with  me I'll send him to warn my other  followers. And  I'll send you  upstream a  little ways again to find  out how it plays out." Miriam bowed and left the garden so Mattiyahu did not witness her disappearance.

Yeshua switched to  Aramaic and  said to  Mattiyahu, "The  time has  come when  I  should  fall into  the  hands  of the  temple authorities.  Go and  warn  my  brothers to  stay  off the  city streets lest you be captured as well."

But Mattiyahu said, "Nay, Lord, I will stay here at your side!"

Yeshua's rebuke was sharp. 'Mattiyahu! Is this what form your obedience takes? Time is very short. Do as I have bid you."

Reluctantly, his disciple moved  away into  the night. Even as Mattiyahu departed shouts  began to  be heard  in the  grove of olive trees called Gad-smane. One of the running figures skidded to a halt when he caught sight of Yeshua  standing there alone. He pointed at him and said, "Seize that man!"

A voice in the dark asked about the other disciples.

"What of them?" shrugged Yudah. "Let them run loose."

Yeshua thought he recognized  the voice  but didn't  imagine it could truly  be his own disciple,  Yudah of Kerioth, one  of the Twelve, until he saw  his face in  the flickering  light. Yudah reached out a hand to grab a fistful of Yeshua's beard, a deadly insult that would have triggered a hot fistfight had Yeshua been any other man. With his master held this way Yudah  kissed him full on the lips. He said, "Do you know why I did it, Rabbi?"

Yeshua said, "I cannot know your thoughts but I  imagine it was because I broke with Yohanan's vision and you never did."

Yudah shook his head. "I believed you were moshiach, but all you are is a persuasive magician with a few simple tricks."

Yeshua said, "Yet you have made my true errand possible. I would thank you but as you have heard me say before to those who love and obtain perishable things: you already have your reward."

Yudah saw that Yeshua had sabotaged  even the small joy  he had expected to glean from this night. He drew back and said, "Truly it is my hope that God will now be you now. But somehow I do not think he will." Then he watched the strongmen take him away.

Yeshua was grateful that none of his disciples  would share the rest of his ordeal on this timeline but  it complicated things. Caiaphas must find new charges to  get him to his  execution by the Roman governor and not even Yeshua could see the way.

Caiaphas put his  first question  to  Yeshua. "It is said  you seized control of the baptizer's cult  when he was put to death. Is that true?"

Yeshua said, "The other  followers of Yohanan  looked to  me to lead them after he was arrested on the orders of Herod."

"These transgressors  who come  to  you  seeking redemption  in water, do you accept them all, or turn some away?"

"Some are  not  baptized,  true," replied  Yeshua. "God alone forgives, but only the truly penitent."

"Perhaps you blaspheme God," Caiaphas raged,  "by arrogating to yourself, a  mere man, the  power to frame petitioners  as truly penitent  as only  you  decide. Now  speak!  Abjure before  this council in the name of the living God that you are divine!"

Yeshua replied, "Truly I say to you, in three  days time I will be seated at the right hand of God."

'The charge is proven!' one of the council members exclaimed.

"What need have we of witnesses?" asked another

But Yosef of the town of Ramathaim-Zophim reminded them how the Empire recently took away the tribunal's rights in most capital cases. And Caiaphas knew he was correct. The only authority the Sanhedrin retained to carry  out the death  penalty was  in the case of a Gentile trespassing in the temple. But he brightened when he saw it was a way around their  law forbidding execution on the same day as conviction. "We will take this false prophet before Pontius Pilate," said he,  "and say the rabble  looks to him to restore the line of David to the throne in Jerusalem."

Yeshua shook his head at the amazing irony. Yudah had betrayed him precisely for not fulfilling that expectation.

Pilate was procurator of Judea. He ruled under Vitellius, who was the legate  of Syria,  and  had absolutely  no respect  for Jewish religious sensibilities. So bringing Yeshua before him on charges of being a  false prophet  or a  blasphemer would  be a waste of his time.

But the oafish incompetence of Annas nullified  all of Yeshua's preparations when he roughed up his disciple. So he worked upo a blasphemy narrative to motivate Caiaphas. And Caiaphas, in turn, work up a messiah narrative  to motivate Pilate. The irony was compounded by the  fact that  Yeshua, in  union with  the eloah Binah, actually was on a level with the God of Caiaphas.

Moshiach refered to a scion of David's line who would drive the gentiles out the Holy  Land and restore  the united  kingdom to full glory. If the people proclaimed a Jew as messiah, and that Jew did nothing to deny it,  Imperial Rome had every  reason to suspect sedition, and her usual  response was state terrorism in the form of a public crucifixion. Caiaphas was aiming for that.

But Pilate operated on  his own schedule. He wasn't a morning person. It would be hours before even the high priest could have audience with him. In the  meantime Yeshua  was  locked in  a holding cell, and his guards were soon disturbed to find the man talking to himself. He was, in fact, conversingwith Shyla, the B'nei Elohim  he  dubbed  Miriam  of Magdala,  as  she  gave  a fly-on-a-wall perspective  of the events  of the next  few days. They periodically checked his cell to ensure nothing was amiss, and they could  see Yeshua  was alone. But when he seemed  to converse with himself in two voicesa he gave the appearance of a demoniac, and  Caiaphas fretted that  Pilate would see  this and laugh his case out of court.

Shyla said, "Caiaphas will say to Pilate, "This man's followers believe he  will restore  the  line  of  David to  the  throne. Recently his followers set him upon the foal of  an ass, acting out the words of one of our prophets about a future king."

"Pilate will address you directly. 'Is this true, what the High Priest has accused?' Your silence will infuriate Pilate. He will say, 'You must know what I can have done to you.'

"You will raise your eyes to peer into those of Pilate and say, without a  trace of fear,  'You have no  power over me  but that which is already ordained by the God of heaven and Earth.'

"'We shall see,' Pilate will say,  but after that he  will grow interested  in  the venom  your  presence  invokes in  the  high priest. He will  turn to him and say, "What  would Caiaphas have done with this man?'

"The high priest will reply, 'You have eyes and ears, Pilate, do you not discern the faithfulness of the Jews of the city? Listen to them crying out for an enemy of the Emperor to die.'

"'Forget the  crowd,' Pilate  will  say.  'Choose your  Yeshua. Either this  prisoner you have  brought before me here  shall be crucified or the murderer named Yeshua bar Abbas.'

"Caiaphas will hesitate to  answer because he  will know  he is caught in a trap. One bad move and he could be deposed.

"Pilate will say, 'I made my  own inquiries into this  man long before you brought him before me. This man was a disciple of the baptizer  called  Yohanan,  and  he assumed  leadership  of  the baptizer's disciples after Herod put him into prison. Such Herod communicated to  me months ago.  Herod beheaded Yohanan,  but do you  wonder why  he never  killed this  Galilean? The  answer is Yeshua never spoke a single word  against Herod. He is a doctor, and by every  account a good one. The crowds  follow him seeking to be cured, not to listen to  a firebrand. I was not content to take Herod's  word for it.  I sent an  agent. He asked  this man about paying taxes to Rome. Yeshua  said, 'Show me the coin used to pay the  tax' and my agent produced one.  Yeshua said, 'Whose likeness is  stamped on  the coin' and  my agent  said Tiberias. Finally  Yeshua  said, 'Then  give  to  Caesar what  belongs  to Caesar,  but give  to  God what  belongs to  God.'  So my  agent returned to me and made  his report,  and I put  this traveling healer out of my mind until you brought him before me today and said he must die. Now when he rode the donkeys, that was stupid. I can't have more of  that, so he shall  be flogged, but  is it worthy of  death? I leave it entirely  up to you,  Caiaphas. So choose. Shall I crucify a murderer or crucify your king?'

"'Release to us Yeshua bar Abbas," Caiaphas will  say. 'We have no king but  Caesar. But beware, Pilate,  this false  prophet foretold he would sit in the presence of God in three more days. It is clear  to  me now  he  was attempting  to  deter his  own execution. I fear that when  he is  killed his  followers will spread lies. Rumor will spread through the city that Yeshua has risen from the dead, just as he said. Afterwards we will never be rid of the zealots his disciples will draw to themselves.'

"Pilate will say he will  simply leave  your body on  the cross until  the crows  pick your  bones clean.  Caiaphas will  reply, 'General, I invoked the Law to pronounce death on Yeshua but the same Law  also says the  sun must never set  on one who  we have caused to be put to death.'

Then Pilate will  grow  annoyed at  the complications  Caiaphas keeps piles on. He will say, 'I will order my centurion to make an end of the man  before dusk and bury  him nigh to  the place where he died. Will that satisfy Caiaphas and his God's law?'

"Caiaphas will  reply,  'It  is known  how  following  a  Roman crucifixion the bodies are buried  with only a light covering of gravel over them.  During the night dogs will root  his body out and feast on it.'

"'What of it?' Pilate will retort. 'It would be, in the end, no different than  if birds  consumed his  body, except  the burial will comply with the letter of your Code of Moshe.'

"Caiaphas will say, 'There will be  no body to show  the people when his followers claim their teacher rose from the dead.'

"The member of  the council  from Ramath-aim-Zophim,  who spoke before,  will choose  to  speak  once more.  'Listen,  I have  a freshly hewn crypt  which I caused to be made  for myself and my wife when our time is at hand. Lay the body of Yeshua within for the span of four days. There it will be safe from beasts.'

"But Caiaphas will say, 'You do not anticipate what will happen. His men will steal the body and three days after claim they saw him alive. Therefore,  Pilate, order your soldiers  to watch the tomb  with us  for  three nights,  that we  may  be certain  his followers do not overpower us and steal his body.'

"Pilate will  be  delighted,  as  this will  mark  the  end  of the  growing  pile of  tasks  Caiaphas  will  lay upon  him.  He gives  orders  to a  centurion  named  Longinius concerning  the crucifixion, and to another named Petronius concerning the watch on the tomb. Then you are led away and I follow unseen to ensure all transpires as they said it would be."

Yeshua said to Shyla, "You have served me exceedingly well. This outcome is almost perfect. I will be killed in  such a way that there is  no question I  did die,  yet I will  not be left  on a cross as a reminder of the power  of Rome. Nor will I be left in the crypt of  this councilman. The Sanhedrin will  have no body in a limed pit to say, look, he is there, neither could they say my body was  stolen. Yet I need you to  remain with my disciples for a time,  Shyla. They are all hiding. Only  you can show them the empty sepulchre where I was  laid. Only you can rehearse all my words in their hearing after I am gone.

Shyla told him, "It will all come to be as you said, Lord, yet I I dread the ordeal you must now endure. Crucifixion is the worst thing the Romans can imagine to do to a man."

"When have any of the  B'nei Elohim,  let alone a  seraph among them, suffered the pains of any torment ever devised?"

Yeshua invoked unconsciousness after the first blow of the Roman flagellum. The soldiers tried to rouse him with water but to no avail. Seeing he was  not dead, the  Romans proceeded  with the flogging as  ordered,  which  had  the  effect  of  practically skinning him alive. When Yeshua was conscious again  his teeth chattered from shock, and he was a gruesome sight.

The Romans,   it  was  universally  conceded,   had  a  certain engineering genius  when it  came  to  building arenas,  roads, bridges, and aqueducts. They applied the same  acumen to  the death penalty. In Jerusalem the Romans liked to run a practical joke when they crucified men. Near Damascus Gate the cross had a platform of wood for the feet, bristling with  nails pointy end up, and a second platform was laminated under it to prevent the nails from being pushed out. They tied prisoners to the cross by his wrists  with ropes,  but  let  their  legs kick  free. The victim's own body weight made it impossible to breathe unless he brought his head to a level with his arms. After his arms were exhausted he must do that by standing on something.

In the case of the cross near Damascus Gate,  the only thing to stand on was a little bed of sharp nails. Invariably the victims "volunteered" to impale their  own feet  on the  nails, because continued life was important to them early  in the crucifixion. Later, after a day or two of this, continued life was worth much less to them. Very soon after the prisoner had  perforated his own feet just  to stay  alive,  the Roman  soldiers lashed  his ankles to the cross to make sure he could not change his mind in the hours or days to come.

After that  he  transformed  into  a  reciprocating  engine  of suffering. When the prisoner  died  of  thirst and  shock  and exposure after a number of days, it was a simple thing to tug on the arm ropes and haul the  prisoner's feet from the  points of the nails. That way the same cross could be  used again, as the one at the north gate frequently was.

Now it was Yeshua's turn. Each wrist was secured by a knot with several turns of rope. The two ropes had been  passed through iron rings at the ends of the crossbeam. The Romans hauled him up and tied the ropes off at another iron ring mounted under the little bed of nails. From experience Longinus, the centurion who was supervising the execution, knew just how much slack to leave in Yeshua's body  to maximize  his  suffering But  after a  few moments he grew dismayed. Yeshua, silent now, had sagged against the cross and showed no sign of attempting to preserve his life by pulling himself up to  breathe. His feet remained dangling, entirely motionless, along the vertical post.

If Longinus was supervising the crucifixion, Yosef Caiaphas and the other man named Yosef from Ramathaim-Zophim were supervising Longinus. "What is wrong?" Caiaphas demanded.

Longinus replied, "I'm not certain. The condemned man should be showing signs  of, ah,  extreme distress  at this  point." After more minutes  passed Yeshua  voided  his  bowels. The soldiers crucifying him found that  his skin was  growing cool  and they began to fret, because it looked like they  had somehow bungled the execution. And if that proved to be the  case they would be punished themselves.

"It must have been the flogging," suggested Longinus. "Petronius was too thorough. I had nothing  to do with that." He took his spear and depressed the  skin of Yeshua's  bare chest. Then he looked at the two members of the Sanhedrin standing nearby. "By your leave, sirs?"

Caiaphas didn't have Yeshua's suffering  as an agenda. The man had claimed to be  on a  plane with  The Name  and for  that he must  die,  traditionally by  stoning,  but  Yosef's fool  of  a father-in-law had caused the Romans  to withdraw that power from the council. Now, incredibly, Yeshua had  somehow died  in the first few moments of his crucifixion. Longinus asked permission to verify it. Caiaphas said, "You may proceed, Centurion."

Longinus pierced the heart of Yeshua with the tip of his spear. There was no movement. So again with the permission of Caiaphas he made his men unhitch the ropes and lower Yeshua's body into a bag made from hemp, and loaded this onto a wheeled cart.

They followed Yosef  around the  eastern wall  of the  city and across the Kidron ravine to his  prepared crypt on the  Hill of Olives. Then the sack with  Yeshua's body was lowered  into the hewn pit, and a  heavy stone was  slid over it  by all  the men present, even the priests. Longinus put upon on the stone seven seals in the name of the Governor, and they pitched a tent amid the olive trees to keep watch.

As the day drew on Yosef reminded Caiaphas the Shabbat began at sunset  and  standing watch  was  a  kind  of work. "We're not watching the tomb, these men are," replied the high priest.

"Then you must have no objection if we both go home."

Caiaphas thought for a moment, then said to Longinus, "Attend to your duty most carefully. The followers of this man would think little of breaking Shabbat to steal his body from the tomb."

Caiaphas and his companion returned twenty-four hours later and saw that everything  remained as  before, but  soon after  they arrived water began to trickle around the stone that sealed the entrance. It was animal-proof but not water-proof. Longinus said to Yosef, "It seems you built  this crypt over a  natural water spring." But Caiaphas demanded the soldiers roll the stone away that he might be assured the body remained within. But only the burial shroud was found inside.

Caiaphas was enraged and accused the Romans of removing the body during the Shabbat.Longinus said, "You saw your own mark on the seals. They were undisturbed, were they not?"

Caiaphas was forced to agree the tomb was not violated, yet the body was not there. Both he and the Romans had a serious problem now. Caiaphas said, 'You will say nothing of this to the people. In return, I will say nothing of this to Pilate. Are we agreed?"

The soldiers made the bargain and the  councilmen departed, yet they were constrained to  remain until the  four days  of their watch were completed. During that time the disciples made their way from Jerusalem to  Nazareth to  speak to  Yeshua's kinfolk. Both Miriam the mother of Yeshua and her step-son Yakob wondered greatly, as Yeshua was seen of them only the previous day.

And while they  pondered these  things Miriam  of Magdala  also arrived and said to them, "The Sanhedrin cannot find the body of Yeshua. The tomb they used to safeguard his body is empty!"

"Perhaps Yeshua merely swooned  at the  hands of  his captors," suggested Yakob, "and then escaped to make his way here."

"Half the  city  watched  his crucifixion  at  Damascus  Gate," replied Miriam. "I myself watched a  Roman soldier  pierce his heart with  a spear!" She did not underscore the fact  that the disciples had chosen to hide all that time, but it was implied.

So it was  thgat even  the  Lord's step-brother  Yakob came  to believe  Yeshua  had  risen  from  the dead,  and  he  told  the disciples the many strange  things Yeshua  had said  during his visit to his boyhood home just the day before,  as many of them he could not  understand  at  the time  they  were spoken,  but Yeshua's victory over death lifted as it were a veil.

Then Yakob was baptized by the disciples, and he was instructed by them of all that Yeshua  had said in Galilee  and Jerusalem, and in the days that followed  Yakob took up the  office of his step-brother and led the disciples in the way of the Nazarene.