@badger his eyesight is failing. I believe @muhammad_isa would have trouble reading such extended text
The Rebels ....from the imagination of a badger
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badger
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You raised a subject on a thread in the member's writing section that I am posting up my story on? ...with another member?
Wow...........
It's mostly my fault for derailing your thread. Sorry @badger
badger
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That's OK........ it's how conversation can move.
I've asked a question on your feedback section about protection of religions within their own sections, and all religion aggression etc etc to be directed to debate sections, that way a person who might be upset by challenges from outside does not have to even see them.
I see that you prefer me not to comment .. no problem
Ella S.
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I have started a new thread so that this side discussion will no longer detract from this thread:
https://www.interfaith.org/community/threads/20110/
@RJM and @muhammad_isa, you are both free to continue a similar conversation there. I think the implications of Jesus's supposed death and resurrection on the message of the gospels would be on-topic for the new thread if it is something you still wish to discuss. Just an offer.
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badger
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Preparation for our last supper......
That evening after we left the Temple we went straight out to Bethany, and Yeshu and the disciples stayed at the same place as before, Simon's home.
I could not stay within because there was no room, and so I slept on the roof, wrapped in some bedding under a cool clear sky . I lay awake for most of the night, thinking about the amazing events of recent days, and what might happen next. Quite early in middle of the night, I was awoken by a noise, out of place, and glanced over the parapet to see who I thought was Judah standing in the moon shadow of the building. It took a long time for him to take another single step, and then as he slowly crept past below I saw it him clearly as he stepped in to bright moonlight. I didn't think anymore about it until the hour before dawn when I heard and saw Judah sneaking back. I guessed that maybe he had met a widow who lived nearby, or something like that. I didn't think much more about it, but I'm not the kind of person to tell gossip and so never mentioned it.
That morning Simon's wife came out up me, bringing bread and water and as I enjoyed these, Cephas came up to me. He asked how my night had been, and joked about how comfortable life was on a plush mattress, although I knew that he had slept on the floor, and since it hadn't rained he had gained nothing in the way of luxury!
'Mark..... we need just you and Levi to go into the city with Simon's servant this morning. He will introduce you to a man whose master distributes water around the city and who will take you to a house big enough for us disciples to eat together.
'What's the meal for? Is it another Passover meal?' I asked, because we had taken that meal together in a refectory when we had spent the whole day looking around the Temple, three days before. That seemed like a long ago now, after all the excitement that had happened since then.
'Questions, questions!' Cephas kneeled down beside me, 'Yeshu has made a name for himself, and impressed many. And no, we won't celebrate passover again, we came to do what we did. Yesh has asked that his closest eat with him this evening. He obviously wants to speak with us about what's happened. We need you there just to serve at table.' Cephas leaned closer to speak in my ear.
'Don't tell anybody where you go with Levi and Simon's servant, not even the other disciples. The meeting place is to be a secret from everyone until the last moment. Yeshua has been warned that one of the disciples has been speaking with the authorities about the trouble in the Temple, and Yesh believes that it has been arranged for our arrest to take place this coming evening, here at Simon's home. Well we won't be here!
I was so shocked about all this that I just stared at Cephas who snapped his fingers in my face to regain my attention.
'Do you understand? Neither you, Levi nor the servant can leave the premises once you have arrived there.'
'Yes! Yes, I understand.' I replied.
So that afternoon we went with Simon's servant, met this other man who stood at the Bethany gate with a water jar to identify himself; it was fairly easy to identify our man because women usually carry the water, and he took us to his master's home. We were well received and shown a large upstairs room where we arranged tables into one long table that every disciple could sit at. Wine and bread were put aside for us two to eat before the main meal so that we could serve all the others. Only Yeshu and his closest followers would eat and drink together.
If I had been free to leave after arranging everything I might have wanted to seek out my natural mother who lived in the city with her rich husband, but I decided that if she had loved me at all then she would have provided for me, whereas she had left poor Imma to look after me; Imma had even needed me to work when an infant so as to contribute towards our keep. I decided that to have seen her would have been more of a shock to her than a pleasure, and could have been a severe embarrassment, and so my orders to stay put at the big house didn't really matter.
That evening we all came to the big house and as expected Simon's servant and I were asked to wait upon Yeshu and closest disciples at table. It would be our job to distribute the bread, bowls of vegetables, meat and wine, and to bring plates and chalices as required. As sunset approached, Yeshu and his disciples entered the room and took their places. And Mary of Magdala came in and sat with Yeshu! What a surprise that was, because I had no idea that she was even in Jerusalem that week. I was so glad to see that kind and brave lady!
After prayers, I served from one side of the room, and the servant from the other and the group chatted together quietly and then began to enjoy the food that had been prepared for them. As they reclined, ate and spoke with each other, I noticed that Yeshua and Cephas were watching all the others carefully, although they seemed relaxed enough outwardly. Eventually Yeshu called for attention. I heard every word that he said.
That evening after we left the Temple we went straight out to Bethany, and Yeshu and the disciples stayed at the same place as before, Simon's home.
I could not stay within because there was no room, and so I slept on the roof, wrapped in some bedding under a cool clear sky . I lay awake for most of the night, thinking about the amazing events of recent days, and what might happen next. Quite early in middle of the night, I was awoken by a noise, out of place, and glanced over the parapet to see who I thought was Judah standing in the moon shadow of the building. It took a long time for him to take another single step, and then as he slowly crept past below I saw it him clearly as he stepped in to bright moonlight. I didn't think anymore about it until the hour before dawn when I heard and saw Judah sneaking back. I guessed that maybe he had met a widow who lived nearby, or something like that. I didn't think much more about it, but I'm not the kind of person to tell gossip and so never mentioned it.
That morning Simon's wife came out up me, bringing bread and water and as I enjoyed these, Cephas came up to me. He asked how my night had been, and joked about how comfortable life was on a plush mattress, although I knew that he had slept on the floor, and since it hadn't rained he had gained nothing in the way of luxury!
'Mark..... we need just you and Levi to go into the city with Simon's servant this morning. He will introduce you to a man whose master distributes water around the city and who will take you to a house big enough for us disciples to eat together.
'What's the meal for? Is it another Passover meal?' I asked, because we had taken that meal together in a refectory when we had spent the whole day looking around the Temple, three days before. That seemed like a long ago now, after all the excitement that had happened since then.
'Questions, questions!' Cephas kneeled down beside me, 'Yeshu has made a name for himself, and impressed many. And no, we won't celebrate passover again, we came to do what we did. Yesh has asked that his closest eat with him this evening. He obviously wants to speak with us about what's happened. We need you there just to serve at table.' Cephas leaned closer to speak in my ear.
'Don't tell anybody where you go with Levi and Simon's servant, not even the other disciples. The meeting place is to be a secret from everyone until the last moment. Yeshua has been warned that one of the disciples has been speaking with the authorities about the trouble in the Temple, and Yesh believes that it has been arranged for our arrest to take place this coming evening, here at Simon's home. Well we won't be here!
I was so shocked about all this that I just stared at Cephas who snapped his fingers in my face to regain my attention.
'Do you understand? Neither you, Levi nor the servant can leave the premises once you have arrived there.'
'Yes! Yes, I understand.' I replied.
So that afternoon we went with Simon's servant, met this other man who stood at the Bethany gate with a water jar to identify himself; it was fairly easy to identify our man because women usually carry the water, and he took us to his master's home. We were well received and shown a large upstairs room where we arranged tables into one long table that every disciple could sit at. Wine and bread were put aside for us two to eat before the main meal so that we could serve all the others. Only Yeshu and his closest followers would eat and drink together.
If I had been free to leave after arranging everything I might have wanted to seek out my natural mother who lived in the city with her rich husband, but I decided that if she had loved me at all then she would have provided for me, whereas she had left poor Imma to look after me; Imma had even needed me to work when an infant so as to contribute towards our keep. I decided that to have seen her would have been more of a shock to her than a pleasure, and could have been a severe embarrassment, and so my orders to stay put at the big house didn't really matter.
That evening we all came to the big house and as expected Simon's servant and I were asked to wait upon Yeshu and closest disciples at table. It would be our job to distribute the bread, bowls of vegetables, meat and wine, and to bring plates and chalices as required. As sunset approached, Yeshu and his disciples entered the room and took their places. And Mary of Magdala came in and sat with Yeshu! What a surprise that was, because I had no idea that she was even in Jerusalem that week. I was so glad to see that kind and brave lady!
After prayers, I served from one side of the room, and the servant from the other and the group chatted together quietly and then began to enjoy the food that had been prepared for them. As they reclined, ate and spoke with each other, I noticed that Yeshua and Cephas were watching all the others carefully, although they seemed relaxed enough outwardly. Eventually Yeshu called for attention. I heard every word that he said.
badger
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Brilliant! I'll go to it later on.... (the boot fair will be full of wondrous goodies, and starts in 2 hours' time.
)
badger
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Yeshua's Traitor
After the splendid meal Yesh spoke with his closest followers at the table. I busied myself in tidying and bringing more to drink and so heard every word.
'You know that the authorities and priesthood are after me,' he said ,'especially after these last days in the Temple. Well, you must know by now that it did not go as I hoped, I am being blamed for the commotions that have happened and for the riot that raged after we left yesterday. I could soon be taken, and I already know that one of you, here at this table has already betrayed me.'
The disciples all vowed that they neither would nor could betray Yesh, but he insisted that it was true.
'I was to be arrested this very hour at Simon's house, which is why we are here now, but in any event I'll probably be taken within the next few hours.' He took a long breath. 'The Chief Priest has used the rioting to blame me because he is more scared about what I can do to him than the mobsters who actually caused most of the mayhem. Pilate was more interested in arresting a brigand called Yeshua Barabba, known to be here in the city, who has been robbing his tribute and revenue wagons for months, but he has sought permission for Caiaphas to send out his officers to arrest me, even beyond the Temple's boundaries.'
Temple officers had no authority outside the Temple, so for Pilate to give them warrant for any outside action was very unusual.
'So, ...... we run!' exclaimed Andrew, '.....And who has informed upon you?'
'You can run, but I won't.' replied Yeshua, and then he turned towards Judah and stared at him for several moments.
'Why, Judah? Why?' Asked Yeshua.
Judah jumped up from the table so quickly, and drawing his deadly dagger he held it ready to stab any who would try to stop him as he ran to the balcony, jumping over and out of sight below. I ran to look down into the street. expecting to see him laying hurt, but there was no sign of him.
Several men jumped up from the table but Yeshua beckoned them to sit back down, which they eventually did.
'I can't get away,' Yeshua told us all. 'All the guards who have watched me speaking over the last two days have been sent out with other officers to identify and take me. I can't possibly get clear of Jerusalem, friends, but I can do my best to explain everything to the Roman Prefect because he is the only man who could actually convict me of anything.'
And then, taking bread and breaking it, he passed it round and asked us to eat in remembrance of him. And passing wine to drink in remembrance of him. Please do this each year at Passover, will you?' He asked, and every one of us, utterly downcast, promised that we would.
We sang, said prayers together and then the disciples left the room to go up to the Mount of Olives in the dusk, to take rest in Gethsemane on it's lower slopes, because it was obvious to us by then that the road to Bethany and Simon's house would be watched.
Judah must have been complely thrown out by the city venue which was kept secret until the point of the disciple's arrival, and it was his tense and nervous expression that he had given him away at that last meal together. Before he left, Cephas told me that he had been ready to kill whoever had betrayed us, but Yeshua had signed to him to stay still just before he accused Judah.
I wanted to leave with everybody else, but Simon's servant was clearing the table, and insisted that I stay and do my fair share of the work, which I had no choice but to do. I worked as fast as I could because I wanted to join Yeshu, Cephas and the others, and as soon as I was free I raced out towards the Mount of Olives and Gethsemane, where I knew that they had gone. On the way out of the city I saw a person in the darkness and immediately recognised his shape, gait and movement. I ducked in beside a wall and stood still, and it was Judah who was sneaking back into the city after his frantic flight, looking to left and right as he proceeded. I stayed still so as not to be noticed because if I had shown myself he would almost certainly have murdered me for fear of my giving the alarm.
After the splendid meal Yesh spoke with his closest followers at the table. I busied myself in tidying and bringing more to drink and so heard every word.
'You know that the authorities and priesthood are after me,' he said ,'especially after these last days in the Temple. Well, you must know by now that it did not go as I hoped, I am being blamed for the commotions that have happened and for the riot that raged after we left yesterday. I could soon be taken, and I already know that one of you, here at this table has already betrayed me.'
The disciples all vowed that they neither would nor could betray Yesh, but he insisted that it was true.
'I was to be arrested this very hour at Simon's house, which is why we are here now, but in any event I'll probably be taken within the next few hours.' He took a long breath. 'The Chief Priest has used the rioting to blame me because he is more scared about what I can do to him than the mobsters who actually caused most of the mayhem. Pilate was more interested in arresting a brigand called Yeshua Barabba, known to be here in the city, who has been robbing his tribute and revenue wagons for months, but he has sought permission for Caiaphas to send out his officers to arrest me, even beyond the Temple's boundaries.'
Temple officers had no authority outside the Temple, so for Pilate to give them warrant for any outside action was very unusual.
'So, ...... we run!' exclaimed Andrew, '.....And who has informed upon you?'
'You can run, but I won't.' replied Yeshua, and then he turned towards Judah and stared at him for several moments.
'Why, Judah? Why?' Asked Yeshua.
Judah jumped up from the table so quickly, and drawing his deadly dagger he held it ready to stab any who would try to stop him as he ran to the balcony, jumping over and out of sight below. I ran to look down into the street. expecting to see him laying hurt, but there was no sign of him.
Several men jumped up from the table but Yeshua beckoned them to sit back down, which they eventually did.
'I can't get away,' Yeshua told us all. 'All the guards who have watched me speaking over the last two days have been sent out with other officers to identify and take me. I can't possibly get clear of Jerusalem, friends, but I can do my best to explain everything to the Roman Prefect because he is the only man who could actually convict me of anything.'
And then, taking bread and breaking it, he passed it round and asked us to eat in remembrance of him. And passing wine to drink in remembrance of him. Please do this each year at Passover, will you?' He asked, and every one of us, utterly downcast, promised that we would.
We sang, said prayers together and then the disciples left the room to go up to the Mount of Olives in the dusk, to take rest in Gethsemane on it's lower slopes, because it was obvious to us by then that the road to Bethany and Simon's house would be watched.
Judah must have been complely thrown out by the city venue which was kept secret until the point of the disciple's arrival, and it was his tense and nervous expression that he had given him away at that last meal together. Before he left, Cephas told me that he had been ready to kill whoever had betrayed us, but Yeshua had signed to him to stay still just before he accused Judah.
I wanted to leave with everybody else, but Simon's servant was clearing the table, and insisted that I stay and do my fair share of the work, which I had no choice but to do. I worked as fast as I could because I wanted to join Yeshu, Cephas and the others, and as soon as I was free I raced out towards the Mount of Olives and Gethsemane, where I knew that they had gone. On the way out of the city I saw a person in the darkness and immediately recognised his shape, gait and movement. I ducked in beside a wall and stood still, and it was Judah who was sneaking back into the city after his frantic flight, looking to left and right as he proceeded. I stayed still so as not to be noticed because if I had shown myself he would almost certainly have murdered me for fear of my giving the alarm.
badger
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The Arrest..... and my escape.
I carried on out to Gethsemane where I eventually found groups of the disciples, resting or sleeping on the ground. But Yeshu, Cephas, James and John were not with them. I moved silently further on amongst the low trees, and soon I found Cephas and the brothers. They were snoozing as well, but not with Yesh.............
It took me a while to find Yesh, because a mist had formed throughout Gethsemane and the trees held it in the still air. And then I heard a voice. As I crept nearer I could tell that it was Yeshu, but the way in which he spoke caused me to not call out. I could not hear what he was saying, but he definitely sounded as if very distressed. And then he stood up and walked back through the trees. At a distance I followed him back to where he stood above Cephas and the brothers.
And then I heard the cracking of twigs underfoot and the brushing aside of low branches, and a large group of people came out of the mist from several directions, half surrounding Yeshu and the disciples. These people spoke loudly, and one of two of the other disciples ran up to Yeshu and stood with the startled brothers and a fierce Cephas who looked as if about to charge. And I did see some of others of our group who were already running into the darkness.
Then a man who I knew stepped out of the crowd, walked up to Yeshu and said, 'Teacher!' and kissed him. It was Judah.
If you've been struck by a sudden situation like a loved one's unexpected death, or something like that, then you'll have an idea about how I felt in those seconds.....to have been warned about Judah and to actually see him do it..... the shock.
After that things happened very quickly. Judas stepped back as armed guards and Temple officials thrust forward to grasp Yeshu and arrest him. Cephas rushed forward with speed that was amazing in such a short stocky man. As he ran he drew his short sword and struck at an official, missing his head and shaving down the side of his face to cut his right ear clean through.
Yeshu was speaking loudly at the guards but I couldn't hear, and then all the disciples jumped back, turned and fled into the misty darkness. I had not moved, because I was frozen still with fear, shock and bewilderment. And then people bumped into my back as they grabbed my arms and tunic.
I twisted round and backhanded a young man in the face with my right fist, and then lunged round to my left with my free right arm and punched another in the face, I then struggled out of my tunic which was still being grasped strongly and ran for my life, but a guard held my loincloth from behind. I kicked back with all my force and heard him grunt, but he didn't let go, and I knew that in seconds I would be grasped again by those that I had punched away. I snatched the release knot free and then turned away and ran for my life, racing through the trees and across the open places. I could hear breathing just behind me all the way, and believed that I might be taken hold of at any second, but then I came to a small ditch and cleared it in one clean jump. There was a crash and a snapping sound behind me, and then a strangled sound that became a scream, and I ran on into the night alone.
I carried on out to Gethsemane where I eventually found groups of the disciples, resting or sleeping on the ground. But Yeshu, Cephas, James and John were not with them. I moved silently further on amongst the low trees, and soon I found Cephas and the brothers. They were snoozing as well, but not with Yesh.............
It took me a while to find Yesh, because a mist had formed throughout Gethsemane and the trees held it in the still air. And then I heard a voice. As I crept nearer I could tell that it was Yeshu, but the way in which he spoke caused me to not call out. I could not hear what he was saying, but he definitely sounded as if very distressed. And then he stood up and walked back through the trees. At a distance I followed him back to where he stood above Cephas and the brothers.
And then I heard the cracking of twigs underfoot and the brushing aside of low branches, and a large group of people came out of the mist from several directions, half surrounding Yeshu and the disciples. These people spoke loudly, and one of two of the other disciples ran up to Yeshu and stood with the startled brothers and a fierce Cephas who looked as if about to charge. And I did see some of others of our group who were already running into the darkness.
Then a man who I knew stepped out of the crowd, walked up to Yeshu and said, 'Teacher!' and kissed him. It was Judah.
If you've been struck by a sudden situation like a loved one's unexpected death, or something like that, then you'll have an idea about how I felt in those seconds.....to have been warned about Judah and to actually see him do it..... the shock.
After that things happened very quickly. Judas stepped back as armed guards and Temple officials thrust forward to grasp Yeshu and arrest him. Cephas rushed forward with speed that was amazing in such a short stocky man. As he ran he drew his short sword and struck at an official, missing his head and shaving down the side of his face to cut his right ear clean through.
Yeshu was speaking loudly at the guards but I couldn't hear, and then all the disciples jumped back, turned and fled into the misty darkness. I had not moved, because I was frozen still with fear, shock and bewilderment. And then people bumped into my back as they grabbed my arms and tunic.
I twisted round and backhanded a young man in the face with my right fist, and then lunged round to my left with my free right arm and punched another in the face, I then struggled out of my tunic which was still being grasped strongly and ran for my life, but a guard held my loincloth from behind. I kicked back with all my force and heard him grunt, but he didn't let go, and I knew that in seconds I would be grasped again by those that I had punched away. I snatched the release knot free and then turned away and ran for my life, racing through the trees and across the open places. I could hear breathing just behind me all the way, and believed that I might be taken hold of at any second, but then I came to a small ditch and cleared it in one clean jump. There was a crash and a snapping sound behind me, and then a strangled sound that became a scream, and I ran on into the night alone.
badger
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Refuge, and Golgotha
I ran to the Bethany road, turned east away from the city, and raced at my best speed to Simon's home where I knocked and called out, begging to be given sanctuary. If I had stopped to think, then that would have been the very last place that I would have sought refuge, but in the event there were no officials or officers there at all beuse Judah had informed the authorities that Yeshua was not there but going to be Gethsemane.
He let me into his home and saw that I was scratched, bleeding and naked. After bathing my wounds he gave me a girdle and tunic then hid me in his aunt's home just down the road. While the ancient lady brought food to me she told me that her nephew's home had been surrounded not long before and searched. Obviously the authorities had not trusted Judah altogether, they may have believed that he had changed heart and attempted to throw them off at the last minute.
But Simon was not arrested. He had a good reputation in his village, and told the guards that he had given lodging and board to a group of travellers, like everybody did at Passover festival, but that he knew nothing more about them and that they had all left that morning. In any event, thanks to Simon and his Aunt, I was saved.
I fell into a deep sleep, and was set upon by more demons than I've ever seen before in my life, until I was shaken awake and told that I had to leave immediately. Simon's aunt lived on the road to Jerusalem, and she watched until a large group of travellers was passing and then ushered me out into the road and among them all as they went towards the city gates. I pushed in amongst the people and walked close to a group to look as if I was a relative of theirs. We walked and jostled our way towards the city, and as we approached, most people were turning off the road and walking through fields towards the Siloam gate. I went with these people because my mother's house was near the southern wall of the city. As the crowd entered Jerusalem they mostly turned north towards the temple, but I walked on to the West with some others, and eventually reached my mother's home.
This time I did knock, and call out. A man came to the door and just stared at me as I gave my name and begged for sanctuary. He was my mother's husband and he knew of me, had known me as a baby. I was ushered inside, given water to wash and then given food. My mother came in to see me and, to my surprise, took me in her arms and embraced me, asking question after question. How was Imma? Were we all well? What had happened to me? and so on.......
I told her about Yeshu and his mission, but she didn't need me to give much detail because everyone was talking about him, his followers and the recent events. But of course the stories that she had heard about him were really crazy! She was convinced that he was the violent brigand and insurrectionist who had rioted in the temple only two nights before. Although I tried to convince her that Yeshu had never rioted, she told me that he and his band had killed people and tried to break out into the city, but that the Roman forces had been ready and overcame the rioters before they could arouse the whole city to rebellion. That was how the Priests and city leaders were lying about events, and of course some people will believe what they are told.
Some were saying that he had been killed, some said that he was one of the arrested rebels, and others said that he was taken by the priests last night in Gethsemane, which I knew to be true. Word was also racing around the city that he had been tried by the Sanhedrin, and was even now at this early hour taken to the Roman Prefect by the Priests who wanted Roman approval for his execution.
Learning of my involvement with the troubles my step-father was not so pleased to see me or give me sanctuary, and he told Imma that I must leave immediately. I was horrified and terrified by this new development, but mostly because I could not believe that such lies about as peaceful a man as Yesh could grow so fast. I don't know, all these years later, what I could have expected. As far as the people were concerned one man had caused all that trouble and anybody who harboured any of his men would probably suffer the same fate.
I wanted to go to the Prefect's Palace to see what was happening, but my Mother pleaded with me to see sense.... if anyone in the crowd recognised me from the Temple demonstrations I would be grabbed and dragged in front of Pilate with Yeshu and any others.
'What is the use in that?' She pleaded.
I had never believed that my mother cared until now. Imma and I had struggled for years to gain our keep, and my hands were still scarred from the wounds of the flax heckling spikes. Now that a fully grown young man of her blood stood before her maybe she saw value in me? I had never asked her.... never found out. There are many unanswered questions about me because I had neither cared nor dared to ask. But when in desperate need she did help me, and I give thanks to her for that kindness.
I must have been more dear to my mother than I had believed, because she insisted that I be given good sandals, a cloak, shoulder bag and a hat so as to look like a respectable pilgrim rather than a brigand on the run. After about a couple of hours, washed, cleaned, fed and with some strength restored, I left her house, hoping to discover what had happened to Yeshu and the others. She hugged me, stepped outside to check that nobody was watching her home and then ushered me outside.
I never saw her again.
I walked through the city towards Pilate's residence, but as I approached a crowd of people was surging towards Golgotha. I could see convicts being lead to their execution, staggering under the weight of the cross-beams that they would be lashed and nailed to. At hundreds of paces away I could not identify Yeshu, but three convicts were staggering to their deaths under the weight of their cross timbers. All had been whipped but the one at the back was running red with blood, his whole head was bloody. He was wearing some kind of a headress. A very large man was helping to keep this convict up, and also shouldering his cross beam up the hill. The urge to rush forward to see more clearly was balanced by the urge to flee for my life. I could not identify any of them.
I followed at a distance, and as the soldiers stripped, lashed, nailed and hoisted those poor men up I dropped to my knees in horror. And then hands took hold of my shoulders. It was Mary of Magdala who lifted me up and embraced me in her arms.
'You have come!,' She said as she held me, 'So you have come.' was all she said just then. I kissed that brave woman and looked about.
Salome and Maram were there as well, and together we went a little way futher up the hill and sat at a distance from the crosses with some other women who had followed Yeshua. None of the men were there as far as I could see.
'Where is everyone else?' I asked them.
'They ran, and we don't blame them for that,' said Maram, gesturing to the executions. 'Yeshua gave himself up, nearly all the followers fled, and the officials weren't interested in us.'
'Probably didn't realise we were with them' said Salome.
Mary kept looking towards the crosses and shaking in shock and horror, her face soaked in tears and the others did their best to comfort her. She was such a brave woman to be there and despite the distance, Mary believed that her Yeshua was the one drenched in blood and being crucified between the other two.
'I just know it's him there, in the middle... Even bloody like that I know him!' She cried.
I had seen much death in my life, but I had never witnessed such an horrific execution, and it was the most dreadful, heartrending, disgusting spectacle possible. A crowd of onlookers, kept at a distance by the execution detail, jeered and laughed, and great shouts of laughter erupted when a convict defecated, or shuddered.
I know now that crucified people cannot breath easily, their arms ache most dreadfully, but their roped arms secured from struggling by nailed hands are in agony, and the only way to gain the slightest relief is by pushing upwards with their legs.
Within a short time the push-ups started, and as a convict pushed himself up the crowd would call 'Ooops!', and as he collapsed back to hang by his roped arms and nailed hands the crowd would call out 'Aahhhh!'
'Ooops!..... Aaagh!' . 'Ooops!..... Aaagh!'
Yeshua's arms were lashed by his elbows and nail heads produced from the palms of his hands. His feet were placed upon a step and a nail was driven through both and then into the step itself. But I could see that the other convicts were being crucified in a different way and had big nails hammered into the beam through their wrists, with their ankles nailed to either sideof the upright beam. And so when they pushed themselves upwards the full weight of their bodies was upon those nails which held their ankles. Yeshua was in agony, but the convicts were in hellfire. I did not know the other two convicts and can tell you that they were neither disciples nor followers of Yeshua's.
'Ooops!' ..... 'Aaahh!' .... 'Ooops!' ...... 'Aahh!' and the condemned began to rise and fall in a slow but steady rythm, screaming, shuddering and shaking. Some priests stood nearby and seemed to be enjoying themselves as they gestured at the ripped, torn, bleeding and naked bodies.
How quickly a mob can change, only a few days before the people had cheered and appeared to suppot our Yesh and his followers, yet now it roared its approval as he and the others gasped, screamed, struggled and shook their last long slow journey of continual agony towards death.
One young woman ran forward and reached the left hand cross and was laughing as she managed to grasp the convict's genitals in one hand as she raised a knife in the other, but a Roman soldier reached her in time and kicked her away, continuing to kick her down the hillside until she lay bloodied and insensible at the edge of the crowd. The soldier turned and climbed back to his comrades, grinning and joking with them as he did so.
The priests, who were allowed to stand a little more closely than the rest of the crowd, called out to the soldiers, 'Which is which? We can't see!'
I could not hear everything said in answer, but I gathered that the man on the left was a brigand from the riot, the one in the middle was 'The great debater' and the one on the right was a rioter who had been caught with a bag of Temple coins. But in all the shock and dreadful trauma of the moment I thought no more about such details, just then.
We four embraced each other in a circle for what comfort that provided, neither attempting to leave nor stare on at our dear friend in his long drawn out death agony, which might continue for a very long time. The best thing we could do was to hope for as quick a death as possible. But it did not end. Hour after dreadful hour the convicts pushed up to take breaths and relieve the upper agony, then drop back down to save from the hellfire below. I did take glances from time to time, and I definitely saw another young woman get past the guards and run up to the convict on the left to lunge at his genitals, and I heard peels of laughter as a guard went slowly forward and kicked her hard in the stomach, then threw her back. The crowd roared its approval.
I scanned among the watching, cheering, laughing, leering crowd but never did see any more of Yeshua's followers or disciples. We continued to clutch each other and we cried, prayed and comforted each other as best we could. As the day drew towards its end so the screams from the stakes became moans, the shudders became invisible and the upward pushes and downward collapses reduced to the smallest motions.
At this time the weather was threatening to change for the worse, and giant thunder clouds were looming and racing towards us from the West. The sky was darkening and the crowds began to disperse, heading back into the city's cover. Dry executions were fun to watch. Wet ones were somewhat less attractive.
We prayed to the Lord to end the suffering of all the condemned as quickly as possible.
'I'll give myself to the guards. I'll do anything to end his suffering.' said Salome, 'just so long as they will end his torment.' and before we could react she had stood up and walked away, straight to the group of soldiers to offer 'anything' to the supervising decurion if he could end Yeshu's suffering either accidentally or deliberately.
Maram and Mary shouted, called her back and Maram jumped up and made to go to her, but Mary and I held and pleaded with her. Mary slapped her face hard.
'They'll kill you!' She shouted at Maram,'They'll use you and kill you! What use will that do?'
Mary vowed never to let her go, clutching at her clothing, but Maram insisted that she did not care what happened as long as Yeshu's agony should be ended as soon as possible. After a brief struggle she gave up and stayed with us, but none of us had been quick enough or had dared to race forward and drag Salome back for fear that we might be identified.
We had watched as that brave woman, Yeshu's true and brave follower, had pushed past a soldier who moved forward to stop her, walked straight up to the seated soldiers and kneeled by one of them. They talked at length, and I watched her place a hand on his forearm as she spoke.
I have no idea what she said, or promised. But he leaned forward and kissed her upon the cheek. He then sent her to sit a little distance off. But at this time a well dressed man stepped out of the crowd and approached the same soldier and spoke earnestly with him.
'That man!' Mary recognised him....'That is Joseph! Yeshua healed his mother's leg pains.' . She told me that the man was a wealthy merchant from Arimathea, a town just to the south of the Samarian border wth Judea. He sat upon the Sanhedrin Court and was a trader in metals, owning several ships based up the coast in Tyre and Sidon. And he was a friend of Yeshua's.
I ran to the Bethany road, turned east away from the city, and raced at my best speed to Simon's home where I knocked and called out, begging to be given sanctuary. If I had stopped to think, then that would have been the very last place that I would have sought refuge, but in the event there were no officials or officers there at all beuse Judah had informed the authorities that Yeshua was not there but going to be Gethsemane.
He let me into his home and saw that I was scratched, bleeding and naked. After bathing my wounds he gave me a girdle and tunic then hid me in his aunt's home just down the road. While the ancient lady brought food to me she told me that her nephew's home had been surrounded not long before and searched. Obviously the authorities had not trusted Judah altogether, they may have believed that he had changed heart and attempted to throw them off at the last minute.
But Simon was not arrested. He had a good reputation in his village, and told the guards that he had given lodging and board to a group of travellers, like everybody did at Passover festival, but that he knew nothing more about them and that they had all left that morning. In any event, thanks to Simon and his Aunt, I was saved.
I fell into a deep sleep, and was set upon by more demons than I've ever seen before in my life, until I was shaken awake and told that I had to leave immediately. Simon's aunt lived on the road to Jerusalem, and she watched until a large group of travellers was passing and then ushered me out into the road and among them all as they went towards the city gates. I pushed in amongst the people and walked close to a group to look as if I was a relative of theirs. We walked and jostled our way towards the city, and as we approached, most people were turning off the road and walking through fields towards the Siloam gate. I went with these people because my mother's house was near the southern wall of the city. As the crowd entered Jerusalem they mostly turned north towards the temple, but I walked on to the West with some others, and eventually reached my mother's home.
This time I did knock, and call out. A man came to the door and just stared at me as I gave my name and begged for sanctuary. He was my mother's husband and he knew of me, had known me as a baby. I was ushered inside, given water to wash and then given food. My mother came in to see me and, to my surprise, took me in her arms and embraced me, asking question after question. How was Imma? Were we all well? What had happened to me? and so on.......
I told her about Yeshu and his mission, but she didn't need me to give much detail because everyone was talking about him, his followers and the recent events. But of course the stories that she had heard about him were really crazy! She was convinced that he was the violent brigand and insurrectionist who had rioted in the temple only two nights before. Although I tried to convince her that Yeshu had never rioted, she told me that he and his band had killed people and tried to break out into the city, but that the Roman forces had been ready and overcame the rioters before they could arouse the whole city to rebellion. That was how the Priests and city leaders were lying about events, and of course some people will believe what they are told.
Some were saying that he had been killed, some said that he was one of the arrested rebels, and others said that he was taken by the priests last night in Gethsemane, which I knew to be true. Word was also racing around the city that he had been tried by the Sanhedrin, and was even now at this early hour taken to the Roman Prefect by the Priests who wanted Roman approval for his execution.
Learning of my involvement with the troubles my step-father was not so pleased to see me or give me sanctuary, and he told Imma that I must leave immediately. I was horrified and terrified by this new development, but mostly because I could not believe that such lies about as peaceful a man as Yesh could grow so fast. I don't know, all these years later, what I could have expected. As far as the people were concerned one man had caused all that trouble and anybody who harboured any of his men would probably suffer the same fate.
I wanted to go to the Prefect's Palace to see what was happening, but my Mother pleaded with me to see sense.... if anyone in the crowd recognised me from the Temple demonstrations I would be grabbed and dragged in front of Pilate with Yeshu and any others.
'What is the use in that?' She pleaded.
I had never believed that my mother cared until now. Imma and I had struggled for years to gain our keep, and my hands were still scarred from the wounds of the flax heckling spikes. Now that a fully grown young man of her blood stood before her maybe she saw value in me? I had never asked her.... never found out. There are many unanswered questions about me because I had neither cared nor dared to ask. But when in desperate need she did help me, and I give thanks to her for that kindness.
I must have been more dear to my mother than I had believed, because she insisted that I be given good sandals, a cloak, shoulder bag and a hat so as to look like a respectable pilgrim rather than a brigand on the run. After about a couple of hours, washed, cleaned, fed and with some strength restored, I left her house, hoping to discover what had happened to Yeshu and the others. She hugged me, stepped outside to check that nobody was watching her home and then ushered me outside.
I never saw her again.
I walked through the city towards Pilate's residence, but as I approached a crowd of people was surging towards Golgotha. I could see convicts being lead to their execution, staggering under the weight of the cross-beams that they would be lashed and nailed to. At hundreds of paces away I could not identify Yeshu, but three convicts were staggering to their deaths under the weight of their cross timbers. All had been whipped but the one at the back was running red with blood, his whole head was bloody. He was wearing some kind of a headress. A very large man was helping to keep this convict up, and also shouldering his cross beam up the hill. The urge to rush forward to see more clearly was balanced by the urge to flee for my life. I could not identify any of them.
I followed at a distance, and as the soldiers stripped, lashed, nailed and hoisted those poor men up I dropped to my knees in horror. And then hands took hold of my shoulders. It was Mary of Magdala who lifted me up and embraced me in her arms.
'You have come!,' She said as she held me, 'So you have come.' was all she said just then. I kissed that brave woman and looked about.
Salome and Maram were there as well, and together we went a little way futher up the hill and sat at a distance from the crosses with some other women who had followed Yeshua. None of the men were there as far as I could see.
'Where is everyone else?' I asked them.
'They ran, and we don't blame them for that,' said Maram, gesturing to the executions. 'Yeshua gave himself up, nearly all the followers fled, and the officials weren't interested in us.'
'Probably didn't realise we were with them' said Salome.
Mary kept looking towards the crosses and shaking in shock and horror, her face soaked in tears and the others did their best to comfort her. She was such a brave woman to be there and despite the distance, Mary believed that her Yeshua was the one drenched in blood and being crucified between the other two.
'I just know it's him there, in the middle... Even bloody like that I know him!' She cried.
I had seen much death in my life, but I had never witnessed such an horrific execution, and it was the most dreadful, heartrending, disgusting spectacle possible. A crowd of onlookers, kept at a distance by the execution detail, jeered and laughed, and great shouts of laughter erupted when a convict defecated, or shuddered.
I know now that crucified people cannot breath easily, their arms ache most dreadfully, but their roped arms secured from struggling by nailed hands are in agony, and the only way to gain the slightest relief is by pushing upwards with their legs.
Within a short time the push-ups started, and as a convict pushed himself up the crowd would call 'Ooops!', and as he collapsed back to hang by his roped arms and nailed hands the crowd would call out 'Aahhhh!'
'Ooops!..... Aaagh!' . 'Ooops!..... Aaagh!'
Yeshua's arms were lashed by his elbows and nail heads produced from the palms of his hands. His feet were placed upon a step and a nail was driven through both and then into the step itself. But I could see that the other convicts were being crucified in a different way and had big nails hammered into the beam through their wrists, with their ankles nailed to either sideof the upright beam. And so when they pushed themselves upwards the full weight of their bodies was upon those nails which held their ankles. Yeshua was in agony, but the convicts were in hellfire. I did not know the other two convicts and can tell you that they were neither disciples nor followers of Yeshua's.
'Ooops!' ..... 'Aaahh!' .... 'Ooops!' ...... 'Aahh!' and the condemned began to rise and fall in a slow but steady rythm, screaming, shuddering and shaking. Some priests stood nearby and seemed to be enjoying themselves as they gestured at the ripped, torn, bleeding and naked bodies.
How quickly a mob can change, only a few days before the people had cheered and appeared to suppot our Yesh and his followers, yet now it roared its approval as he and the others gasped, screamed, struggled and shook their last long slow journey of continual agony towards death.
One young woman ran forward and reached the left hand cross and was laughing as she managed to grasp the convict's genitals in one hand as she raised a knife in the other, but a Roman soldier reached her in time and kicked her away, continuing to kick her down the hillside until she lay bloodied and insensible at the edge of the crowd. The soldier turned and climbed back to his comrades, grinning and joking with them as he did so.
The priests, who were allowed to stand a little more closely than the rest of the crowd, called out to the soldiers, 'Which is which? We can't see!'
I could not hear everything said in answer, but I gathered that the man on the left was a brigand from the riot, the one in the middle was 'The great debater' and the one on the right was a rioter who had been caught with a bag of Temple coins. But in all the shock and dreadful trauma of the moment I thought no more about such details, just then.
We four embraced each other in a circle for what comfort that provided, neither attempting to leave nor stare on at our dear friend in his long drawn out death agony, which might continue for a very long time. The best thing we could do was to hope for as quick a death as possible. But it did not end. Hour after dreadful hour the convicts pushed up to take breaths and relieve the upper agony, then drop back down to save from the hellfire below. I did take glances from time to time, and I definitely saw another young woman get past the guards and run up to the convict on the left to lunge at his genitals, and I heard peels of laughter as a guard went slowly forward and kicked her hard in the stomach, then threw her back. The crowd roared its approval.
I scanned among the watching, cheering, laughing, leering crowd but never did see any more of Yeshua's followers or disciples. We continued to clutch each other and we cried, prayed and comforted each other as best we could. As the day drew towards its end so the screams from the stakes became moans, the shudders became invisible and the upward pushes and downward collapses reduced to the smallest motions.
At this time the weather was threatening to change for the worse, and giant thunder clouds were looming and racing towards us from the West. The sky was darkening and the crowds began to disperse, heading back into the city's cover. Dry executions were fun to watch. Wet ones were somewhat less attractive.
We prayed to the Lord to end the suffering of all the condemned as quickly as possible.
'I'll give myself to the guards. I'll do anything to end his suffering.' said Salome, 'just so long as they will end his torment.' and before we could react she had stood up and walked away, straight to the group of soldiers to offer 'anything' to the supervising decurion if he could end Yeshu's suffering either accidentally or deliberately.
Maram and Mary shouted, called her back and Maram jumped up and made to go to her, but Mary and I held and pleaded with her. Mary slapped her face hard.
'They'll kill you!' She shouted at Maram,'They'll use you and kill you! What use will that do?'
Mary vowed never to let her go, clutching at her clothing, but Maram insisted that she did not care what happened as long as Yeshu's agony should be ended as soon as possible. After a brief struggle she gave up and stayed with us, but none of us had been quick enough or had dared to race forward and drag Salome back for fear that we might be identified.
We had watched as that brave woman, Yeshu's true and brave follower, had pushed past a soldier who moved forward to stop her, walked straight up to the seated soldiers and kneeled by one of them. They talked at length, and I watched her place a hand on his forearm as she spoke.
I have no idea what she said, or promised. But he leaned forward and kissed her upon the cheek. He then sent her to sit a little distance off. But at this time a well dressed man stepped out of the crowd and approached the same soldier and spoke earnestly with him.
'That man!' Mary recognised him....'That is Joseph! Yeshua healed his mother's leg pains.' . She told me that the man was a wealthy merchant from Arimathea, a town just to the south of the Samarian border wth Judea. He sat upon the Sanhedrin Court and was a trader in metals, owning several ships based up the coast in Tyre and Sidon. And he was a friend of Yeshua's.
badger
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The Tomb
We had watched as Joseph, accompanied by two servants carrying a mattress and linen cloths, passed a document and a purse to the decurion guard.
They spoke for a short while longer and then the soldier gave orders to another before setting off himself, running back towards the city.... he ran fast. Joseph then went towards our brave Salome, kneeled with her, and they spoke for a time. Salome then kissed Joseph, stood and began to walk slowly back to us. We sat, huddled together...... the frightened ones, and we wondered what could be happening.
At this time Yeshu began to give out cries. Joseph ran to the cross, took a sponge, plunged it into a bowl and then ran towards Yeshu but a soldier pulled him back, took the sponge from him, pushed it onto the point of his spear and thrust it up towards Yeshu who sucked it as best he could.
It didn't take long for the decurion to return and start shouting orders out; his men immediately jumped in to action. They took a great hammer up and going to each of the convicts either side of Yeshua a soldier heaved it high in to the air to then come crashing down upon an upper leg; I heard the crack as the convict's leg smashed but there was no great cry of pain from him and I could hardly hear any sound come from that poor man as the great hammer then smashed down upon his other thigh. He then dropped until the full weight of his body hung upon his tied wrists and pinned hands.
The soldiers then treated the other coinvict in the same way. While this happening other soldiers went to Yeshua's cross; one of them took the sponge that had been offered to Yesh and used it to wipe the blade of a spear which was then thrust in to Yesh's side. It was horrible to watch as fluids gushed from the wound.
Yeshu let out a great cry, calling out, and then fell limp and silent. Someone in the crowd cried out that the soldier had speared Yeshua.
And then it came. The storm that had threatened for some time released itself with a great flash and bang, almost together. The water fell from heaven in one great downpour. We had to lower our heads to breath, it was so violent.
Salome returned to us and knelt by Mary, hugging and kissing her. Then they shouted to each other which was the only way to hear anybody speak just then. So much water fell in that dreadful storm that streams formed all over the hillside, which turned to floods carrying mud and debris away. I looked towards Yeshus and saw that he was no longer soaked in blood from head to foot, but washed clean save for a trail of bloody fluid still running from his side.
But then the soldiers clustered around Yeshua's cross and knocked out the wedges that secured it, lifted it out of its retaining hole in the ground and they then laid it down upon the ground with Yeshua staring at the sky. The guards, together with Joseph, then did their best to hold each of his limbs while two others drew the nails from Yeshua's hands and feet, and after cutting through his arm lashings they lowered him slowly down. They gently removed the circlet of wicked thorns from his head and placed Yeshua upon the mattress and then Joseph covered his body with a shroud.
Joseph's servants were lifting Yeshu's mattress as we arrived and we all grasped it between us and carried it away under Joseph's direction. I looked back to see The soldiers pulling down the corpses of the other two convicts. My guess is that they were thrown into burial pits soon after and to be eaten by wild dogs. I don't think much ceremony was afforded to dead convicts. I didn't know what was happening, but I just kept quiet and helped.
Joseph led us from the hill and to a tomb that was carved into the rock, I heard later that it was his own intended burial place. The women and I all wanted to go inside the tomb as well but a servant stopped us at the entrance and told us to leave.....
'Go now!', he told us all, 'Leave everything to us....we'll look after everything. Go on! Go now!'
Before I left the tomb I peered in to the gloom and could see a servant pouring something all over Yeshua's body, but then a final push sent me back and away and I turned back with Magdalene and the others. We all went a short distance but went no further.
Eventually, Joseph came out with the servants, then they took staves and heaved an entrance stone into place.
It had been dark for at least two hours by now, and we were too tired to do more than follow Joseph to his Jerusalem home where he let us stay for the night. I slept until well after sunrise, and felt too ill to go out or do anything. But Joseph seemed like a tower of strength, and all that day he and his servants were busy with comings and goings.
We had watched as Joseph, accompanied by two servants carrying a mattress and linen cloths, passed a document and a purse to the decurion guard.
They spoke for a short while longer and then the soldier gave orders to another before setting off himself, running back towards the city.... he ran fast. Joseph then went towards our brave Salome, kneeled with her, and they spoke for a time. Salome then kissed Joseph, stood and began to walk slowly back to us. We sat, huddled together...... the frightened ones, and we wondered what could be happening.
At this time Yeshu began to give out cries. Joseph ran to the cross, took a sponge, plunged it into a bowl and then ran towards Yeshu but a soldier pulled him back, took the sponge from him, pushed it onto the point of his spear and thrust it up towards Yeshu who sucked it as best he could.
It didn't take long for the decurion to return and start shouting orders out; his men immediately jumped in to action. They took a great hammer up and going to each of the convicts either side of Yeshua a soldier heaved it high in to the air to then come crashing down upon an upper leg; I heard the crack as the convict's leg smashed but there was no great cry of pain from him and I could hardly hear any sound come from that poor man as the great hammer then smashed down upon his other thigh. He then dropped until the full weight of his body hung upon his tied wrists and pinned hands.
The soldiers then treated the other coinvict in the same way. While this happening other soldiers went to Yeshua's cross; one of them took the sponge that had been offered to Yesh and used it to wipe the blade of a spear which was then thrust in to Yesh's side. It was horrible to watch as fluids gushed from the wound.
Yeshu let out a great cry, calling out, and then fell limp and silent. Someone in the crowd cried out that the soldier had speared Yeshua.
And then it came. The storm that had threatened for some time released itself with a great flash and bang, almost together. The water fell from heaven in one great downpour. We had to lower our heads to breath, it was so violent.
Salome returned to us and knelt by Mary, hugging and kissing her. Then they shouted to each other which was the only way to hear anybody speak just then. So much water fell in that dreadful storm that streams formed all over the hillside, which turned to floods carrying mud and debris away. I looked towards Yeshus and saw that he was no longer soaked in blood from head to foot, but washed clean save for a trail of bloody fluid still running from his side.
But then the soldiers clustered around Yeshua's cross and knocked out the wedges that secured it, lifted it out of its retaining hole in the ground and they then laid it down upon the ground with Yeshua staring at the sky. The guards, together with Joseph, then did their best to hold each of his limbs while two others drew the nails from Yeshua's hands and feet, and after cutting through his arm lashings they lowered him slowly down. They gently removed the circlet of wicked thorns from his head and placed Yeshua upon the mattress and then Joseph covered his body with a shroud.
Joseph's servants were lifting Yeshu's mattress as we arrived and we all grasped it between us and carried it away under Joseph's direction. I looked back to see The soldiers pulling down the corpses of the other two convicts. My guess is that they were thrown into burial pits soon after and to be eaten by wild dogs. I don't think much ceremony was afforded to dead convicts. I didn't know what was happening, but I just kept quiet and helped.
Joseph led us from the hill and to a tomb that was carved into the rock, I heard later that it was his own intended burial place. The women and I all wanted to go inside the tomb as well but a servant stopped us at the entrance and told us to leave.....
'Go now!', he told us all, 'Leave everything to us....we'll look after everything. Go on! Go now!'
Before I left the tomb I peered in to the gloom and could see a servant pouring something all over Yeshua's body, but then a final push sent me back and away and I turned back with Magdalene and the others. We all went a short distance but went no further.
Eventually, Joseph came out with the servants, then they took staves and heaved an entrance stone into place.
It had been dark for at least two hours by now, and we were too tired to do more than follow Joseph to his Jerusalem home where he let us stay for the night. I slept until well after sunrise, and felt too ill to go out or do anything. But Joseph seemed like a tower of strength, and all that day he and his servants were busy with comings and goings.
badger
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Back to the North
Later that day I felt a little stronger. Mary, Maram and Salome had all risen at dusk and gone out of the house together.
I rose up, ate and drank and then sat at table alone, wondering what to do with the rest of my life. Something had been nagging at me ever since we had left the tomb. I kept thinking about how the soldiers had despatched the other convicts by breaking their legs, and about Joseph who had been so busy throughout the following day. Then the women returned in the darkness and slept.
'Yeshua has gone,' Mary told me next day,' I think that Joseph got him carried away in a litter last night. We've been washing everything down'.
'Please tell me what is going on!' I asked. Mary Magdala looked very tired.
'You'd better listen to Salome.' was all that she said.
Joseph had asked them to return to the tomb just before dusk on The Sabbath and they had arrived by the new day to find it open and entered to find a young servant inside. Yeshua was gone and the young man asked them to assist him in washing the walls, floor and stonework until it was completely clean. Salome asked many questions, but the servant would not tell her any details at all.
'Yeshu is gone! Now, please help me to clean everything.' .....was all that he would say.
They had all worked steadily in the darkness, the tomb lit only by oil lamps until the night was truly dark, when servants brought food and drink and they had sat together, sometimes quiet, at other times talking excitedly about what could have happened. And when theTomb was cleansed throughout they had helped the servant roll back its entrance stone and returned to the house.
The women all lay down and slept through what was left of the night and through the morning until after noon, when Joseph hustled back into the house and gave orders to his servants in every direction. He came into the room and then sat beside Mary and gently shook her awake.
'You need to come with me now,' he said, 'My servants have already packed everything you could need.'
'Where? Why? What is happening?'
'I need you to listen to me. Will you just listen to me?' He asked. Mary nodded to him.
'You're going to see Yeshua again!', Joseph waited a few moments for a stunned Mary and us all to take that in, 'Although Pilate and Antipas have always disliked each other they both dislike the Jewish Court even more and would happily cause it as much embarrassment as possible. What I've been asked to do will please Pilate immensely! It's no secret that Pilate enjoyed all that turmoil in the Temple immensely'
'And so I'll see Yesh again?' asked a Mary stricken and shocked to silence. Joseph just smiled and nodded his head.
'But why you?,' she asked, 'Why have you done so much?'
'If you knew how totally corrupt the Temple and its Court is, then you would understand. A very few of us have heard about Yeshua's mission, his appeals for a return of the poorlaws.... all of the laws, and if we can bring enough shame upon the heads of the Sanhedrin's leaders then we might be able to make some changes.'
Both Salome and Mary stared at him for some moments and then nodded, 'Yes..... Yes.' they said.
'You three are coming out of Jerusalem with me', he told the three women, 'You'll be escorted back to Galilee,'
'And you, Mary, You need to come on with me to Sidon where I have a ship that is trading with Gaul and the Cornish people as well. I need you to come with me!' he told Mary.
Mary must have asked 'Why' a hundred times, but Joseph quietly and calmly told her that she had to trust in him, for her safety and his, and had to do what he said, when he said it, without delay or question. She eventually promised that she would do that. The head servant soon came to report that all was ready, and then Joseph told the women to embrace me and go with the servants to his carriage.
And so I was not to go with them after all. Joseph told the women to say their farewells to me and Mary hugged and embraced me with tears streaming down her cheeks. She had always been kind to me and I had always enjoyed visiting and staying with her at Magdala. She went outside with Joseph and I never saw her or him again.
Joseph had ordered me, 'You must stay inside here for a week, young Mark. A servant will accompany you out of the City and past Bethany, and then you must make your own way home to Galilee. Find Cephas, if he has managed to get away. Otherwise go to Zebedee who will look after you. Look after your stepmother, and go back to the boats. You will be safe there. Goodbye and good luck, young Mark.'
I waited until after the following Sabbath, and the servant accompanied me to the Jericho road where he then left me to continue North to Galilee. It was only one hard-day's walk for a fit young man but I was out of shape and was travelling more slowly and with more caution, and so by the time I reached the beautiful Lake I had been travelling for four days. I met with a boat in the Jordan entrance and some of the crew knew me and gave me working passage to the North Jordan, which for me was home water. It was only two hours walk to Capernaum, and when I reached home I called out and banged upon our door until an excited and very relieved Imma opened to me. She hugged and kissed me and cried for joy, for in truth I was her son and she my mother, regardless of birth.
She took me inside, washed me, fed me, and then sat and listened as I told her every detail of what had happened to us during our journey to and mission in Jerusalem. She had loved Yeshu....... everyone there did, because he loved and cared for everybody.
Later that day I felt a little stronger. Mary, Maram and Salome had all risen at dusk and gone out of the house together.
I rose up, ate and drank and then sat at table alone, wondering what to do with the rest of my life. Something had been nagging at me ever since we had left the tomb. I kept thinking about how the soldiers had despatched the other convicts by breaking their legs, and about Joseph who had been so busy throughout the following day. Then the women returned in the darkness and slept.
'Yeshua has gone,' Mary told me next day,' I think that Joseph got him carried away in a litter last night. We've been washing everything down'.
'Please tell me what is going on!' I asked. Mary Magdala looked very tired.
'You'd better listen to Salome.' was all that she said.
Joseph had asked them to return to the tomb just before dusk on The Sabbath and they had arrived by the new day to find it open and entered to find a young servant inside. Yeshua was gone and the young man asked them to assist him in washing the walls, floor and stonework until it was completely clean. Salome asked many questions, but the servant would not tell her any details at all.
'Yeshu is gone! Now, please help me to clean everything.' .....was all that he would say.
They had all worked steadily in the darkness, the tomb lit only by oil lamps until the night was truly dark, when servants brought food and drink and they had sat together, sometimes quiet, at other times talking excitedly about what could have happened. And when theTomb was cleansed throughout they had helped the servant roll back its entrance stone and returned to the house.
The women all lay down and slept through what was left of the night and through the morning until after noon, when Joseph hustled back into the house and gave orders to his servants in every direction. He came into the room and then sat beside Mary and gently shook her awake.
'You need to come with me now,' he said, 'My servants have already packed everything you could need.'
'Where? Why? What is happening?'
'I need you to listen to me. Will you just listen to me?' He asked. Mary nodded to him.
'You're going to see Yeshua again!', Joseph waited a few moments for a stunned Mary and us all to take that in, 'Although Pilate and Antipas have always disliked each other they both dislike the Jewish Court even more and would happily cause it as much embarrassment as possible. What I've been asked to do will please Pilate immensely! It's no secret that Pilate enjoyed all that turmoil in the Temple immensely'
'And so I'll see Yesh again?' asked a Mary stricken and shocked to silence. Joseph just smiled and nodded his head.
'But why you?,' she asked, 'Why have you done so much?'
'If you knew how totally corrupt the Temple and its Court is, then you would understand. A very few of us have heard about Yeshua's mission, his appeals for a return of the poorlaws.... all of the laws, and if we can bring enough shame upon the heads of the Sanhedrin's leaders then we might be able to make some changes.'
Both Salome and Mary stared at him for some moments and then nodded, 'Yes..... Yes.' they said.
'You three are coming out of Jerusalem with me', he told the three women, 'You'll be escorted back to Galilee,'
'And you, Mary, You need to come on with me to Sidon where I have a ship that is trading with Gaul and the Cornish people as well. I need you to come with me!' he told Mary.
Mary must have asked 'Why' a hundred times, but Joseph quietly and calmly told her that she had to trust in him, for her safety and his, and had to do what he said, when he said it, without delay or question. She eventually promised that she would do that. The head servant soon came to report that all was ready, and then Joseph told the women to embrace me and go with the servants to his carriage.
And so I was not to go with them after all. Joseph told the women to say their farewells to me and Mary hugged and embraced me with tears streaming down her cheeks. She had always been kind to me and I had always enjoyed visiting and staying with her at Magdala. She went outside with Joseph and I never saw her or him again.
Joseph had ordered me, 'You must stay inside here for a week, young Mark. A servant will accompany you out of the City and past Bethany, and then you must make your own way home to Galilee. Find Cephas, if he has managed to get away. Otherwise go to Zebedee who will look after you. Look after your stepmother, and go back to the boats. You will be safe there. Goodbye and good luck, young Mark.'
I waited until after the following Sabbath, and the servant accompanied me to the Jericho road where he then left me to continue North to Galilee. It was only one hard-day's walk for a fit young man but I was out of shape and was travelling more slowly and with more caution, and so by the time I reached the beautiful Lake I had been travelling for four days. I met with a boat in the Jordan entrance and some of the crew knew me and gave me working passage to the North Jordan, which for me was home water. It was only two hours walk to Capernaum, and when I reached home I called out and banged upon our door until an excited and very relieved Imma opened to me. She hugged and kissed me and cried for joy, for in truth I was her son and she my mother, regardless of birth.
She took me inside, washed me, fed me, and then sat and listened as I told her every detail of what had happened to us during our journey to and mission in Jerusalem. She had loved Yeshu....... everyone there did, because he loved and cared for everybody.
badger
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Capernaum
I stayed at home for a few days and Imma listened to the local gossip, which featured mostly about Yeshua and his death, and somehow the story had got out about the disappearance of his body. The stories of his mission and teaching were growing day by day.
After a couple of Sabbaths had passed I felt fit to go out to pick up and continue with my old life, and Imma reassured me that no officials were searching for me or my name, so once again I walked along my beloved lake shoreline, and saw Zebedee supervising a net crew in mending a great net. He always pretended to be hard, Zebedee, so when he saw me he just stared for a few seconds, grunted at me and then turned back to shout at a crewman........ then wandered along the section of net that was hung for repair, moaning about the uneven meshes. As I reached him he said, 'So where've you been then? ....... OK...... you can join this lot for now.' He started to smile, and thumped me on the back before he walked on.
I scrounged a needle off a mate and found myself a place to work my old trade, and then his features softened...... well, for him, that is.
'Good to have a proper netter back amongst this lot!' he said and turned away to try and hide the tears that ran down his face. His sons had not returned home at this time.
It was two more weeks before Cephas appeared. He was very thin and ill, and Ruth tended him for a month before he could walk slowly along the shoreline and speak with the crews. John and James came home together, and one by one the others returned to Capernaum, Philip and Andrew together, Nathaniel, Thomas and Little James....... and Levi; but I never saw Judah again. Eventually Big Simon came back, looking as strong and fit as when he had left.
Somehow they all returned, and eventually gathered together in the customs house where they sat and spoke in low voices. There was a general feeling of disgrace and shame amongst them, apart from Big Simon, who felt both shame and much embarrassment that he had been sleeping, covered up in grass for comfort, during the arrest...................... and had continued to sleep until he awoke to find himself completely alone and Gethsemane deserted!
But Judah won't be seen again,' he told us all. 'The week after Yeshu's death he bought a field outside Jerusalem, probably with our funds together with whatever he got for his treachery. Well friends, I can tell you that he had an 'accident'..... he was walking through his field, smiling big, when suddenly he just fell down and cut his guts open on something. Took him several hours to die, shouting and calling for help....... but nobody heard him.........Well...... nobody apart from me, that is. Sad tale. Sad tale. And then somehow he became tangled up in a nearby tree.'
There was silence amongst us.....until he spoke again.
'Well..... he must have felt such shame that he wanted to leave this life. That's it...... he couldn't go on. After all it's much better if everyone thinks he was depressed about things.'
From Big Simon's demeanour it was obvious how Judah's accidents had occured. Nobody needed to ask Simon more about this; the set of his jaw and look in his eye told us all we needed to know. Then he told us something that caused us to believe that he was completely demonised. He just sat there, large as life, and said, 'I heard that Yesh had been seen; folks were saying stuff like that....I listened to people saying these things on my way here, as I made my way through Magdala fields.'
Well, the room went quiet, and Thomas said something like ,'Oh yeah!.....Of course you did..... sure, friend.'
'Are we all going back to fishing now?' asked Philip, and everyone mumbled that they were, even Levi who knew that he for one could never go back to the revenue, nor to his family home in Judea.
'You'll be alright,' said James,'You know that our Dad needs a good bookkeeper.' and Levi smiled back at him.
Everybody thought that Big Simon was possessed....... until two days later when we assembled again in Cephas's home, when in walked Yesh. I should say hobbled to be more precise, because Yeshua helped himself along with crutches.
I couldn't believe my eyes. He sat down, right beside me, looked me in the eyes and smiled.
'Hello, Matty! Good to see you here.' I could only mumble greetings back. I was actually scared silly, because I thought he must be a spirit.
Cephas jumped up and came to sit the other side of him. 'Is it really you?' ..... kept touching him.
'Yes.... really me'.
Thomas didn't believe it, that Yeshu still lived, but Yesh pulled back his cuffs and showed us his hands, which had been pinned by a nail in each palm so that he couldn't struggle out of the ropes that lashed him to that dreadful cross, still ugly red, and the marks where his arms had been lashed to the beam, slowly healing. He showed Thomas the nail wounds through the tops of both of his feet. Then Thomas believed. We sat still, some frightened, others struck dumb with surprise and shock, and one or two smiling faces.
'I cannot stay', said 'Yeshu, 'I'm sad if you were put out by my appearance here....'
'No! Never! We just can't believe it. It's amazing!' we were all saying at once.
'I must leave now. The men outside are servants of Joseph; but you can choose to carry on the struggle if you will. It's up to you now to spread the message for the people. It's for you to go out into our World and change the hearts and minds of good faithful hard-working true followers of our Lord.'
'How did this happen?', asked big Simon, 'How did you survive?'
'Pilate!' Yesh spoke that one name.
'What?' asked Thomas, who still didn't look as if he believed that Yesh was real.
'Why Pilate? Why would Pilate help a Jewish convicted of mayhem?' asked Thomas..... he could be a real bore, that bloke, he never believed anything anybody said that was good, only the bad stuff.
Yesh looked amazed himself as he told us what Joseph had told him....
'Pilate's wife had dreamed about Yeshu the night before, and told her husband that Yeshua was going to be caught, arrested and brought to him for sentence, but if he executed Yeshu then dreadful fates would await both him and her. Pilate trusts his wife's psychic powers absolutely, and in any case he had so enjoyed hearing about the mayhem in the Temple and the embarrassment that Yesh had caused the whole priesthood.'
Nobody could think of anything to say. There was stillness and silence until Yesh made to get up, when everybody rushed to help him.
'I must go North to Sidon,' Yesh told us, 'I must leave this land, that's Pilate's order. One of Joseph's boats will take me somewhere.......wherever it is going. Good bye my friends!'
We all embraced Yesh, clumsy Cephas hugged him a little too hard and Yesh yelped.
Joseph's servants came to help Yesh in to a closed carriage. Rumours that Yesh had come back to life were many, but clearly Pilate didn't want his ruse discovered. As Yesh staggered up and through the door of the carriage beautiful hands came in to view to help him ........ the closed carriage was too dark inside for me to see clearly, but I thought that I saw Magdalene for a brief second.
And then the carriage moved on and away.
Clearly, even the most powerful are just servants to their adored wives.
I never saw Yesh again, but never a day went by that I didn't hear him spoken of, and never has a day gone by that I haven't thought of him myself.
I stayed at home for a few days and Imma listened to the local gossip, which featured mostly about Yeshua and his death, and somehow the story had got out about the disappearance of his body. The stories of his mission and teaching were growing day by day.
After a couple of Sabbaths had passed I felt fit to go out to pick up and continue with my old life, and Imma reassured me that no officials were searching for me or my name, so once again I walked along my beloved lake shoreline, and saw Zebedee supervising a net crew in mending a great net. He always pretended to be hard, Zebedee, so when he saw me he just stared for a few seconds, grunted at me and then turned back to shout at a crewman........ then wandered along the section of net that was hung for repair, moaning about the uneven meshes. As I reached him he said, 'So where've you been then? ....... OK...... you can join this lot for now.' He started to smile, and thumped me on the back before he walked on.
I scrounged a needle off a mate and found myself a place to work my old trade, and then his features softened...... well, for him, that is.
'Good to have a proper netter back amongst this lot!' he said and turned away to try and hide the tears that ran down his face. His sons had not returned home at this time.
It was two more weeks before Cephas appeared. He was very thin and ill, and Ruth tended him for a month before he could walk slowly along the shoreline and speak with the crews. John and James came home together, and one by one the others returned to Capernaum, Philip and Andrew together, Nathaniel, Thomas and Little James....... and Levi; but I never saw Judah again. Eventually Big Simon came back, looking as strong and fit as when he had left.
Somehow they all returned, and eventually gathered together in the customs house where they sat and spoke in low voices. There was a general feeling of disgrace and shame amongst them, apart from Big Simon, who felt both shame and much embarrassment that he had been sleeping, covered up in grass for comfort, during the arrest...................... and had continued to sleep until he awoke to find himself completely alone and Gethsemane deserted!
But Judah won't be seen again,' he told us all. 'The week after Yeshu's death he bought a field outside Jerusalem, probably with our funds together with whatever he got for his treachery. Well friends, I can tell you that he had an 'accident'..... he was walking through his field, smiling big, when suddenly he just fell down and cut his guts open on something. Took him several hours to die, shouting and calling for help....... but nobody heard him.........Well...... nobody apart from me, that is. Sad tale. Sad tale. And then somehow he became tangled up in a nearby tree.'
There was silence amongst us.....until he spoke again.
'Well..... he must have felt such shame that he wanted to leave this life. That's it...... he couldn't go on. After all it's much better if everyone thinks he was depressed about things.'
From Big Simon's demeanour it was obvious how Judah's accidents had occured. Nobody needed to ask Simon more about this; the set of his jaw and look in his eye told us all we needed to know. Then he told us something that caused us to believe that he was completely demonised. He just sat there, large as life, and said, 'I heard that Yesh had been seen; folks were saying stuff like that....I listened to people saying these things on my way here, as I made my way through Magdala fields.'
Well, the room went quiet, and Thomas said something like ,'Oh yeah!.....Of course you did..... sure, friend.'
'Are we all going back to fishing now?' asked Philip, and everyone mumbled that they were, even Levi who knew that he for one could never go back to the revenue, nor to his family home in Judea.
'You'll be alright,' said James,'You know that our Dad needs a good bookkeeper.' and Levi smiled back at him.
Everybody thought that Big Simon was possessed....... until two days later when we assembled again in Cephas's home, when in walked Yesh. I should say hobbled to be more precise, because Yeshua helped himself along with crutches.
I couldn't believe my eyes. He sat down, right beside me, looked me in the eyes and smiled.
'Hello, Matty! Good to see you here.' I could only mumble greetings back. I was actually scared silly, because I thought he must be a spirit.
Cephas jumped up and came to sit the other side of him. 'Is it really you?' ..... kept touching him.
'Yes.... really me'.
Thomas didn't believe it, that Yeshu still lived, but Yesh pulled back his cuffs and showed us his hands, which had been pinned by a nail in each palm so that he couldn't struggle out of the ropes that lashed him to that dreadful cross, still ugly red, and the marks where his arms had been lashed to the beam, slowly healing. He showed Thomas the nail wounds through the tops of both of his feet. Then Thomas believed. We sat still, some frightened, others struck dumb with surprise and shock, and one or two smiling faces.
'I cannot stay', said 'Yeshu, 'I'm sad if you were put out by my appearance here....'
'No! Never! We just can't believe it. It's amazing!' we were all saying at once.
'I must leave now. The men outside are servants of Joseph; but you can choose to carry on the struggle if you will. It's up to you now to spread the message for the people. It's for you to go out into our World and change the hearts and minds of good faithful hard-working true followers of our Lord.'
'How did this happen?', asked big Simon, 'How did you survive?'
'Pilate!' Yesh spoke that one name.
'What?' asked Thomas, who still didn't look as if he believed that Yesh was real.
'Why Pilate? Why would Pilate help a Jewish convicted of mayhem?' asked Thomas..... he could be a real bore, that bloke, he never believed anything anybody said that was good, only the bad stuff.
Yesh looked amazed himself as he told us what Joseph had told him....
'Pilate's wife had dreamed about Yeshu the night before, and told her husband that Yeshua was going to be caught, arrested and brought to him for sentence, but if he executed Yeshu then dreadful fates would await both him and her. Pilate trusts his wife's psychic powers absolutely, and in any case he had so enjoyed hearing about the mayhem in the Temple and the embarrassment that Yesh had caused the whole priesthood.'
Nobody could think of anything to say. There was stillness and silence until Yesh made to get up, when everybody rushed to help him.
'I must go North to Sidon,' Yesh told us, 'I must leave this land, that's Pilate's order. One of Joseph's boats will take me somewhere.......wherever it is going. Good bye my friends!'
We all embraced Yesh, clumsy Cephas hugged him a little too hard and Yesh yelped.
Joseph's servants came to help Yesh in to a closed carriage. Rumours that Yesh had come back to life were many, but clearly Pilate didn't want his ruse discovered. As Yesh staggered up and through the door of the carriage beautiful hands came in to view to help him ........ the closed carriage was too dark inside for me to see clearly, but I thought that I saw Magdalene for a brief second.
And then the carriage moved on and away.
Clearly, even the most powerful are just servants to their adored wives.
I never saw Yesh again, but never a day went by that I didn't hear him spoken of, and never has a day gone by that I haven't thought of him myself.
badger
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Not quite..................
A relic ......
I stayed with the boat crews for many years, but my closest friend Cephas became involved in the new movement that somehow got started after Yeshu was gone.
The real campaign, for the return of the laws, slowly disappeared from view, the healings that we saw Jesus perform every day became less important. That he could caste out demons became much less attractive within this new movement.
Then the movement was taken over by others who saw that the story could be adapted and built up into an incredible story of Yeshua the God. As this movement grew, so the initial mission evaporated, because people outside of our faith and life began to grasp the new and amazing message: 'Join the Saviour and live forever'. Everybody wanted to live forever.
And then Yeshu's close followers began to die, by the stones, the cross, the bow, the sword and the spear. Years after my last meeting with Cephas I heard a story that he died upside down on a Roman cross because he insisted that he was not worthy to be crucified upright like Yeshua. At least that would have been a quicker death.
I was secreted away by followers who counted my life as special. They brought me here, to Alexandria, where I could see the great sea from my new home. If I tottered outside to feel the sun on my chilled bones people would touch me; I became a relic to be cherished but not to be listened to.
But Matthias has been true. He says that he understands what is happening. He is the only one who has actually listened to my true story.... seems to be the only one who truly cares about my stories. And he has written as I have spoken, in between bringing me drinks and plates of gorgeous fish that the boats bring in from the Great Sea.
I have asked Matthias, and he has promised to make four copies of my story, seal them in jars, and bury all deep in the ground, one in the garden of this house, one by the Great Sea (since Yeshu so loved shorelines), one out in the desert to the South West of here and one under the new temple that is being built for the new cause, which they call Christianity. That is, if he can manage it
My days are numbered now, and I sit in comfort waiting for my end and thinking of the amazing and wonderful life and experiences that I had with the boat crews and wonderful Yesh. And I have one small trophy which I keep with me, a bone net needle, the last one that Yeshu ever gave to me....
badger
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@Cino and @RJM both. Thank you for your kind words and thoughts.
Because of your making mention about 'start of day' I decided to move my tomb day around. And Gentile readers would benefit from that change because it probably indicates that the tomb was left between Friday evening and Saturday late evening, rather than Friday-Sunday.
Thank you for letting me post it all up here.
Because of your making mention about 'start of day' I decided to move my tomb day around. And Gentile readers would benefit from that change because it probably indicates that the tomb was left between Friday evening and Saturday late evening, rather than Friday-Sunday.
Thank you for letting me post it all up here.
It was your idea. It will always be here, if you link it for others who might be interested. They won't have to join IO to read itThank you for letting me post it all up here.
Thanks to you we have a new forum now. There might not be an immediate rush by people to post, it sometimes takes a while to catch on, but it will start to fill up