An uneasy quiet fell again.
He felt a chill in his kidneys. ‘No matter how you see it, that man will bring our nation to unrest and possibly to its ruin! Shall an entire nation perish because of one man? No! One man shall die for a nation! We will take him, trial him, and let him answer our questions. In this way our conduct will be lawful.’
The room broke out again.
‘But how do you propose to take him, Caiaphas? No one knows which one he is, for he and all his followers look the same and they speak the same way, one moment one speaks and then another?’
‘Kill any one member of his group and you will put fear into them all!’ answered an old Sadducee.
At this point Ananias interjected with his thin voice, ‘I disagree! If we take the wrong man Jesus will continue to foment the people. Even our guards are deceived by him!’
The elders consulted with one another and the room was again abuzz with conversation.
One man stood and said, ‘How are we to know with certainty which is the right man?’
Caiaphas sat down full of satisfaction, since this man had asked the question he had been waiting for. ‘Only one of the disciples, one close to him can say which one he is. And one of his disciples has come and is now among us!’
The gathering of elders looked to where Caiaphas was pointing, to the cold shadows of one of the yawning arches. From it emerged a man, dark of hair and eye and red of beard. He moved out of the inky hollow like a wild beast coming from a thicket, looking about him with the cold eye of suspicion, not knowing if a snare or an arrow awaited him.
A shiver of whispers was sent running through the small council.
Caiaphas grinned from his mouth to his very ears, but something caught his eye then…something in the bearing of the man bespoke an exchange with death, something mildly disconcerting. It was as if to look at this man called Judas, was to look into the horrid depths of one’s own soul and to find beasts hidden therein. His heart thumped. His fellows must have seen it for a chill silence was poured out over the room. A momentary thought came to Caiaphas and it caused him to hold his breath: was he making a bargain with a man or was this the devil himself, which stood before him? And if a devil what would befall Israel from such a bargain?
‘He is a member of the Sicarri!’ said one.
‘What if the Romans hear of it!’ said another.
Among these words Caiaphas continued holding his breath until he could hold it no more, and when he let it out, the thought went with it and was dispersed about the room, and he saw it for how it was – these days one could not choose one’s instruments.
‘His name is Judas of Cariot,’ Caiaphas said, ‘one of the disciples of Jesus and he is a friend of Pontius Pilate. He offers us a solution to all our problems. Come forward, Judas and tell us your proposal.’
Judas spoke with eyes shifting from this to that. His words in Hebrew were fine, very near scholarly and his voice was an odd mixture of passion and practicality, ‘There is no way for you to tell which of them is Jesus without me,’ he said, ‘the others all take his place and he speaks through them…their love for him prevents you from knowing who he is.’
‘Yes, yes, get to the point!’ Caiaphas said, desiring that all of it should move along, ‘Have you come to tell us what we already know?’
‘I can show you which one he is!’ Judas let it out all in one go.
The room exploded with conversations and rumbles and utterances.
‘And why would you do this, Judas of Cariot? For advantage…or…money?’ Caiaphas said, looking askance at Ananias with a smile of satisfaction.
Judas hid behind his dark brows and said nothing.
‘Money then!’ Caiaphas cried merrily, ‘Silver, the colour of the soul…in return for betrayal!’
The word betrayal seemed to sting Judas. ‘It is Israel that is betrayed!’ he burst out. ‘He is not the Messiah that was promised!’
A ring of laughter circulated the room.
‘Really? And I wonder if you are the traitor that was promised!’ Caiaphas said, to a further chorus of laughter. He leant forward and threw a bag at Judas, like a bone to a dog, and watched him bend low to catch it.
When Judas straightened he did not draw the string to peer inside the bag.
‘Thirty pieces,’ Caiaphas informed the elders, ‘You can count it if you like,’ he said to Judas, ‘that is the measure of your master’s worth!’
‘How should I point him out?’ Judas said.
‘Where does he spend the Passover feast?’ Caiaphas asked.
‘In the cenacle of the Essene house.’
Caiaphas pursed his lips in concentration. ‘He cannot be seized there, it is a sanctuary erected over David’s tomb. No. He will be protected by virtue of this. You will have to wait until he goes out. Take the guards to him then, when the population are in their houses asleep, so that it is done quietly and with a minimum of fuss.’