The Inquest (16 page)

“No earthly power could make or unmake His kingship. Heaven crowned Him.”

“I see. We have heard that Jesus willingly submitted to crucifixion, to prove that he was this predicted king. How could he rule the Jews if he were dead, crucified?”

“He is not dead, and He does rule, from Heaven.”

Varro could see another diversion into theology looming, and determined to stay on his temporal course. “You say you were called to Jerusalem after the crucifixion. When was that, and why was that?”

Philippus said that Jesus stayed among the people for forty days, and then, after He had ascended into Heaven, the apostles Simon called Petra and Johannes bar Zebedee became the leaders of the seventy. They enlarged the body of disciples, the council of elders, to one hundred and twenty, from a following which numbered some five thousand. They selected the disciples Josephus bar Sabas, a Temple priest, and Matthias of Galilee, as men who had accompanied Jesus since his baptism by Johannes, and as men who had seen Him after the resurrection. These two drew lots to see who would replace Judas the betraying apostle as one of the twelve, and Matthias was chosen in this manner. The apostles made decrees that were committed to writing, concerning the dissemination of Jesus’ teachings and the observance of Jewish Law. Philippus said that it came to pass that some among the faithful complained that they were being daily neglected by the apostles, so the apostles called all the disciples together and appointed seven deacons, to serve at table, to aid the widows, to act as shepherds to the flock and to minister to the faithful while the apostles devoted themselves to spreading the message, and Philippus had been appointed one of those deacons.

He had remained at Jerusalem, until Stephanus, a fellow deacon, was arrested by the Great Sanhedrin, convicted of blasphemy, and stoned to death. With much persecution of the Nazarene’s followers by the Sanhedrin, the disciples had scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. Philippus had come into Samaria, where, among the many he baptized in the name of Jesus was a magician called Simon. He returned to Jerusalem for a time, and baptized the chamberlain of Queen Candace of Ethiopia, then continued his mission in the south, from Azotus. Simon Petra and Johannes bar Zebedee had then directed him to return to Caesarea, where he had remained ever since.

Martius now spoke up. “Permission to question the witness, questor?”

Varro granted his deputy permission, and Martius came to his feet. As he posed his questions, he prowled back and forth in front of the tables like a caged lion, sometimes looking at the witness, sometimes addressing his questions to the rafters.

“Philippus, do you believe that Jesus was a god?” the tribune began.

“He was and is the Son of God.”

“You people believe in just a single god? A commendably economical concept. Answer me this: if your man Jesus was the son of your God, as Apollo is the sun of Jove, then as Apollo is both a god and the son of a god, so then Jesus is a god and the son of a god, and you have two gods, not one.” He smirked. “Am I not correct?”

“No,” said Philippus calmly. “The Son and the Father are one.”

Martius screwed up his face. “How can that be? That is a nonsense, old man!

“It is the truth. The two are indivisible. There is but one God.”

“Arrant nonsense!” Martius countered with rising frustration. “Two gods in one? To any educated, thinking man, such a concept makes no sense at all. I am my father’s son, old man, but I am not my father.” He glared at the Nazarene with arms folded.

Varro now intervened. “If we were to enter into a debate about differing philosophies, I fear that we would make no headway at all. I have yet to find two philosophers who can agree on little more than what day it is, and even then they will find a reason for dispute. We should concentrate on the central matter, and confine our questions to the circumstances surrounding the death of the Nazarene.”

Martius let out a long, exasperated hiss of air between his teeth. “Very well, questor,” he then said. “May I continue to address questions to the witness?”

“If the questions are relevant.”

Martius turned his now cold gaze on Philippus. “If your man Jesus was a god, or half of a god, or part of a god, how is it that he allowed himself to be executed by mere mortals? Why not just fly away, or strike down those who would harm him?”

“He was a man of peace, so He would never strike anyone down. Secondly, it was written, long ago, that the Messiah would be crucified, and would then rise on the third day. So the ancient prophets had decreed, and so it had to be.”

“Let me be absolutely clear about this. Jesus wanted to conform to these prophesies, to be able to claim to be this Messiah of yours? Is that correct?”

“By conforming to the prophesies, He proved that He was the Messiah, yes.

“Now, according to the Lucius Letter,” Martius continued, “the Nazarene was charged with blasphemy by the Jewish authorities. However, the Prefect of Judea, Pilatus, found him guilty of a crime under prevailing Roman law, that of sedition, because he was found in possession of weapons when arrested by the Jewish authorities. Do you deny that your man of peace was armed when arrested? This is and was a clear and blatant breach of Roman law in any part of the Empire, as you well know, and a capital offense.”

“Two swords were recovered when our Lord was taken into custody by the Temple Guard, that is true,” Philippus replied, unruffled.

Martius swung on the Evangelist, glaring at him. “So, your man Jesus was no more than an armed insurrectionist! This ‘priest’ was a bandit and a rebel, just like the two other men we know to have been executed alongside him.”

“No, for the prophesies to be met, it was necessary to be convicted of bearing arms, not of blasphemy, to ensure execution by crucifixion, not by stoning.”

“This sounds to me like a very ungodly way of manipulating events.” Martius resumed his pacing. “Surely, if you are a god, you can will things to occur?”

“His God-given powers would come later, after He had risen. This was His trial.”

“Surely, he must have used divine powers to perform the so-called miracles?”

“Those were the only divine powers granted to Him, and to His apostles.”

Martius raised his eyebrows. “His apostles had divine powers as well? Soon you will be telling me that you too are a god, Philippus!”

Philippus smiled. “Heaven has indeed seen fit to empower me to perform powerful works of healing in His name.”

Martius shook his head. “I refuse to be drawn into your world of sham and magic, old man. Jesus had divine power to perform miracles, yet had no power to save himself?”

“That is how our Father in Heaven ordained it should be.”

Martius chuckled. “You give Heaven as your answer for everything that is inexplicable, old man. You are a true philosopher.”

Philippus shrugged. “This is the truth as I know it.”

“Your version of the truth is suitable only for the theater!”

“Tribune,” Varro interceded, “the arrest, the trial and the execution should be the focus of our questioning, I think. Let us not stray too far from the path.”

“Agreed, questor,” Martius responded with a sigh. “Old man, help me clarify one thing if you will. Jesus and several of his apostles took two swords with them on the night he was arrested, to ensure that he was convicted of carrying weapons. Is that what you are saying? Did the apostles know that Jesus had deliberately set out to be arrested?”

“He had reminded them of the prophesies. Some of the apostles, such as Simon called Petra, definitely knew what was planned, prior to the event; he told me so later.”

“And the betrayal was also planned?” Martius continued. “According to the Lucius Letter, one of the apostles, a fellow named Judas, betrayed Jesus to the Jewish authorities,
with the Nazarene’s full prior knowledge
. Jesus took himself to a suitably remote spot, in possession of weapons, and accompanied by only a few close associates, and waited to be arrested. The arrest took place outside the city, at night, when he was not surrounded by the usual mob of followers who could have put up resistance. Would you not agree that Jesus seems to have carefully planned his own arrest?”

“I would agree that our Lord made his arrest possible, and was expecting it to take place. I do not agree that he prearranged the arrest with Judas. Judas betrayed Him.”

“What became of Judas?” Varro asked from the bench.

“As far as I know, my lord, he took his own life shortly after his act of betrayal. I have been told that, overcome with remorse, Judas returned his betrayer’s wages to the priests of the Sanhedrin, and they used the money to buy a potters field outside the city, as a place for the graves of strangers. Some say Judas died in that field, others that he hanged himself from a tree. I cannot testify to his fate. He was never heard of again.”

“What do you believe happened to him?” Varro asked.

“I only know that he was not heard of again, and that is nothing I regret. Only the Lord God knows the truth. He is all-knowing.”

“Oh?” Martius raised his eyebrows. “Is he indeed? Did your all-knowing man of peace know that one of his associates would strike and wound a member of the arresting party by cutting off his ear? According to the Lucius Letter, one of those with Jesus used his sword against a servant of the Jewish High Priest in that manner. Do you dispute it?”

“This is true. It was Simon called Petra who wounded Malchus the servant of the High Priest with the sword, but our Lord healed the man’s wound on the spot.”

“A miracle, was it? The man’s ear grew back? Or Jesus picked it up and magically affixed it to the side of his head once more? Why did this ‘miracle’ fail to convince the other members of the arresting party that Jesus was indeed a miracle worker and a god? Surely, in that event, they would have recognized him as the Messiah and set him free? Either that, or they would have run as fast as their legs could carry them in fear for their lives from this man of superhuman powers!”

“Perhaps the others did not see the wound heal. It was dark. Perhaps our Lord did not want them to see it. It was his objective to be arrested, if you remember.”

“Very well. Explain to me why Simon Petra was not also arrested for bearing arms and for striking the High Priest’s man with a sword.”

“He escaped. Simon later confided to me that he had intended to also be arrested and share our Lord’s fate on a cross, but that his courage had failed him at the last moment and he had run away.”

“Very noble of him,” Venerius sneered.

“Did Simon Petra also expect to rise from the dead?” Martius asked.

Bearing a faint but perceptible expression of ridicule, Philippus slowly shook his head. “I would not have thought so, tribune.”

“Yet Simon Petra was prepared to die on a cross, even though he knew his leader was planning to somehow come back from the dead? A useless gesture, would you not say?” When the Evangelist did not reply, Martius went on. “When Jesus alone was arrested, he was found to be in possession of arms. Despite this, the Jewish authorities seemingly hid the breach of Roman law and charged him with blaspheming against Jewish Law. Is that the case?”

“The Sadducees were determined to stone him to death, as a demonstration of their authority to all the Jewish people,” said Philippus. “You must understand, our Lord had to be very careful not to blaspheme while being questioned by the priests, so that he would be convicted under Roman law and sentenced to crucifixion, to meet the prophesies. Despite this, the Sanhedrin produced false witnesses who testified that He had blasphemed, and on that basis the Sanhedrin convicted Him and sentenced him to death by stoning. To his credit, Prefect Pilatus recognized the worthlessness of the false witnesses, and dismissed the Sanhedrin’s charges and invalidated their sentence. The evidence on the charge of bearing arms could not be disputed, and our Lord quite deliberately offered no defense, leaving Pilatus no choice but to convict Him.”

“Your man Jesus wanted the Roman death sentence, and so duped our Prefect into giving it to him; is that what you are saying?” said Martius.

Philippus replied with an open-handed gesture.

Martius nodded in the direction of Pythagoras and Artimedes. “I understand from our secretaries that according to the official records of the province Pontius Pilatus served as Prefect of Judea for ten years, and that he would have been in the fifth year of his posting in Judea at the time of the trial of your man Jesus. So, Philippus, for Tiberius Caesar to have retained Pilatus so long in his post would suggest that the prefect was neither inept nor stupid. Yet, you say he allowed himself to be manipulated.”

“I have heard it said that Tiberius Caesar left all his appointees in their posts for many more years than had his father Augustus before him, but I would not suggest that the prefect was either inept or stupid. I have in fact heard it said that Pontius Pilatus later became a follower of our Lord, at Rome.”

“What!” Martius exclaimed. “Now you truly test my credulity and my patience, old man. Do you have proof of such an outrageous claim?”

“Can you disprove it? As for Longinus, the centurion who had charge of our Lord’s execution, it has been said that he recognized our Lords divinity and deserted his post not long after the execution.”

“Oh, this is too much!” Martius cried, his eyes flaring. “The Roman procurator who condemned him and the Roman centurion who executed him both becoming his followers? Is there nothing you people will not invent to suit your ends?”

“There is more,” said Philippus calmly. “Longinus was arrested by his own troops after his desertion, and was executed claiming our Lord as his savior.”

“I have had enough!” Martius exclaimed. He turned to Varro. “Questor, I shall not waste my time any further with this duplicitous old man.” Martius sat back down. Refusing to even look at
the Evangelist, he averted his eyes and folded his arms.

“Thank you, tribune,” said Varro. Bearing a grave expression, he addressed the witness. “Philippus, I came here seeking evidence that Jesus of Nazareth rose from the dead. To date I have seen nothing or heard nothing that would confirm that he did indeed rise. Is there any undeniable proof that you can offer to that effect?”