Fifth Gospel(125)

‘But he heals the sick, and he casts out demons! Is this not a holy man, who can do this?’

‘He might cure the sick but he does it on a Sabbath!’

‘He casts out demons because he is a demon himself and he is in league with them!’

‘He teaches false doctrines!’

‘He does not wash his hands before he breaks bread!’

‘But he speaks of peace and love and breaks bread with the poor!’

‘Yet he has members of the Sicarri as his disciples!’

These contradictions fell into a confused rabble of voices.

Jacob saw the well-respected member of the Sanhedrin Nicodemus enter the fray followed by Gamaliel and Joseph of Arimathea.

Nicodemus came up to the horseshoe of gathered men and said, ‘Why have you called this council without us? This meeting is not lawful! There has not been proper notice and an attendance of all the members of the council!’

The people grew quiet.

Gamaliel pointed to Caiaphas and added his own words, ‘You have tried to prevent those of us who do not agree with you from being here! Such a trial conducted in haste while many of the council are preparing this morning for the ceremony is not legal!’

Joseph was angry. ‘Where is the passage in the law that approves of trying a cause at night and so close to a feast day!’

Caiaphas stood and came forward with a scornful eye. ‘My colleagues, it was not our intention to exclude you but we had to act quickly. If we had not seized this heretic and stopped him from inciting the people to rebellion the Romans would have done so and caused grief to the temple and to Israel!’

‘But these accusations only show the confusion of your witnesses, for they bear no proof of his wrongdoing!’ Nicodemus said to him.

‘Well then!’ said Caiaphas, coming up to Jesus. ‘Let the man say something himself!’

But there was only silence from Jesus.

‘Why do you not give answer to these accusations?’ Caiaphas taunted, ‘I adjure you to tell us if you are Christ, the Messiah, the son of the living God!’

When the voice came Jacob recognised no authority in it, it was the voice of a man, not the voice of a god, ‘If I tell you that I am he, you will not believe me…and if I ask you who you think that I am you will not answer me, nor let me go…no matter what I say, I am condemned.’

‘Are you the Son of God?’ the high priest asked.

‘This is a question which only you can answer,’ Jesus said. ‘For it only has value if you, yourself, can see the God in me. But I tell you, one day all will see the Son of Man, sitting on the right hand of the power of God coming in the ether-cloud realms of heaven. Then, you will know that I am He!’

He knew in his heart that Jesus was speaking the truth! But he was torn from the vision by terrible words:

‘Giddupha! Blasphemy!’

He realised that Caiaphas had a blade in his hand. ‘Blasphemy and sedition!!!’ the man said, and took up the corner of his outer and his inner garment, and made a tear from top to bottom renting both. ‘What further need have we of witnesses! Now all of you have heard it for yourselves – with your own ears! What say you to this,’ he said to the crowds, ‘for life or for death?’

The hall resounded with such fierceness, that it near reached heaven.

‘Death! Death! Death!’ was the chant.

‘No!’ Gamaliel cried, outraged. ‘A capital sentence is not legal unless it is pronounced at a regular meeting of the Sanhedrin!’

But no one heard him. The priests were already coming off their dais. Each man took his turn to spit into Jesus’ face or to hit him with a staff or to slap him with a hand before leaving the court.

Jacob’s soul welled up with anger and he spoke out,

‘The golden band on your mitre has the graven words, “Holiness unto Jehovah”! It means you have the power to atone for those who blaspheme!’

There was a breathless pause.

The cold, fierce gaze of the high priest moved over the crowd until it fell on him.

‘I will not atone for a man who profanes the name of God, again and again!’ Caiaphas raised his staff and looked to the vaults of the hall. ‘I–will–not!’

A terrible draft, unearthly and cruel, washed over the room, and Jacob saw shadows, and shadows of shadows, sweep over all gathered there. Like malignant birds borne by an unfelt wind they fluttered and he saw with his own eyes how these shades were inspired into the very souls of those present to entice them to rise up in a high pitch of hate and rage, so that snarling, like one great rabid animal, the throng moved on Jesus.

Caiaphas shouted out over the din, ‘Put this king in the dungeon until he is delivered to Rome, for only Rome can render him what he is due!’