Sign of the Cross(55)
Boyd glanced at her, focusing his icy blue eyes on her face. One minute she was soul-searching, the next she was defiant. ‘Yet you think that this is all a ruse.’
‘Not all of it,’ she stressed. ‘I believe we found the Catacombs and the scroll. But I don’t believe that Jesus was a fraud. I’m willing to accept that other stuff with little proof, but when it comes to my religion, I’ll need a lot more evidence to convince me that I’m wrong.’
‘Truthfully, I think I would’ve been disappointed if you’d taken any other stance.’
‘Really?’
‘Of course. Keep in mind that two millennia have passed since our scroll was written, and several critical events have occurred since then, things that Tiberius couldn’t have foreseen. In any case, I hope you’ll keep an open mind during our search for evidence. Once we’ve rounded up all the data, we can sit back and hypothesize as to what really happened two thousand years ago. Then we can tackle the consequences together. All right?’
‘Deal!’ she said, thrilled that he understood her position. ‘Let’s get started.’
Using the evidence they had found, Boyd and Maria drew a timeline, trying to figure out how all the pieces of their theory fit together.
32 AD
• Tiberius senses uprising
• Proven by Orvieto scroll
among the slaves of Judea
• Tiberius plans to profit
• Mentioned in Orvieto scroll
from the promised one
• Tiberius sends a message to
• Document found in Bath
Paccius in the Britains
• Paccius returns to Rome
• Paccius = laughing man???
and participates in plot
33 AD
• Paccius goes to Judea to
• This has not been verified.
carry out plot
• Paccius uses his power to
• In what way? Proof
manipulate Jesus
needed.
• Jesus becomes the
• How was Paccius involved?
Messiah in the eyes of the
masses
• Tiberius uses Jesus’s
• How is this possible???
power to finance the
Empire
34–37 AD
•Paccius disappears; never
• Historical mystery
heard from again
•Tiberius balances the
• Proven by history books
Empire’s budget
•Tiberius becomes
• Dies in 37 AD (smothered
mentally unstable; shuns
by a Roman soldier?)
Rome for Isle of Capri;
rumors of foul play
involved in death
Boyd said, ‘If my math is correct, Tiberius wrote this scroll approximately eight months before the death of Christ. That would have given Paccius enough time to read it, return to Rome, and get to Judea to start his assignment.’
‘Whatever that assignment might’ve been.’
‘The thing that makes no sense is why Tiberius felt Judea was so important. Egypt was Italy’s most reliable source of food because of its agriculture, and Greece was a major contributor of culture. But Judea? There was nothing there but sand and an angry populace.’
Boyd considered her statement. ‘Unless that was his reason. Maybe he chose Judea because it was so darn troublesome? He figured if he could whip the Jews into shape, so to speak, then the rest of the Empire would be a snap.’
Maria frowned. ‘You mean Judea was a testing ground?’
He nodded, pleased with his theory. ‘We’ll still need to verify Paccius’s presence in Judea and what he ultimately hoped to accomplish, but I think that sounds reasonable, don’t you? Now all we have to do is fill in some of the voids on our chart.’
‘Well, we know some things, don’t we? Look here. “Let us feed their hunger with our choice of food, allowing them to feast on the coming of their savior… for we know he is merely a pawn that we have lifted to the level of Jupiter.” That means Tiberius wanted to create a fake god for Jerusalem. He actually wanted them to believe that the Messiah had surfaced.’
‘Yes, my dear, that’s quite obvious. But how does one accomplish that? If you continue to read the text, Tiberius says, “… there must be no doubt among the Jews; they must witness an act of God with their own eyes, a feat so magical, so mystifying, that future generations will sing of its splendor for eternity…” That means he planned to stage something in public, something that would eliminate skepticism from even the toughest of cynics.’
‘Like a miracle?’
‘Or, at the very least, an impressive magic trick. Keep in mind, the very definition of a miracle is an event that contradicts the laws of nature, something that’s regarded as an act of God. And I have a strange feeling that the Romans didn’t have heaven’s help on this.’