THE BRAVE YOHANAN
1:35 am – YERUSHALÁYIM, FRIDAY, APRIL 07, AD 30
HIS IDEAS were not very clear. For a few seconds, and still hidden by the tree, Cephas hesitated.
Which way should I take?
Going back to camp and joining what was left of the group of Greeks and disciples didn't seem like the best of ideas to him, even though he knew he wasn't known for having good ideas.
Besides, who knows where they ended up? It was much more logical for Cephas to follow in the footsteps of the Temple's platoon of soldiers and guards. But how to get to them without arousing suspicion and, what was worse, without being stopped?
As he prepared to leave the olive grove and head for the Holy City, the silhouettes of two legionaries who had been left behind suddenly appeared among the olive trees on the other side of the path.
Yohanan clung as best he could to one of the logs and waited for them to pass. If his presence were discovered, he would be in a delicate situation. But, just as the soldiers got in the way, Yohanan Marcos, who had kept hidden during all that, appeared at the door of the tent. Though he proceeded with great care, the Romans immediately saw his white sheet and ran to the boy.
This time, the soldiers' reaction was so quick that Yohanan Marcos had no time to escape. One of the legionaries grabbed the sheet, while the second, also running, followed behind his companion. But the agile Yohanan Marcos did not give up. Without thinking twice, he dropped the sheet, fleeing naked through the olive trees from which the intrusive foreigners had come. He knew better to go through that shame than to be a prisoner of the Romans.
That young man's maneuver caught the Romans off guard, and made them waste precious seconds.
The one who had managed to grab Yohanan Marcos threw the sheet furiously to the ground, visibly disappointed with his failure and, releasing several curses, unsheathed his sword and ran blindly after the naked man who already had a large advantage over him.
The companion did the same, burrowing back through the woods. But that night, bad luck seemed to rage against the Roman soldiers, and the second legionnaire stumbled over one of the olive grove's roots, falling facedown which made his companion immediately laugh at his disgrace.
— There is nothing funny, Petronius.
"Maybe not for you."
As a result of the fall, the Roman's helmet was thrown, rolling down the slope. But the enraged soldier, eager to catch the ambush, did not look for the helmet. However, worried about finding the helmet, they didn't notice the presence of Cephas hiding in the tree. So they took the helmet and left.
***
YESHUA'S DRIVING
01:45 AM – YERUSHALÁYIM, FRIDAY, APRIL 07, AD 30
THE SOLDIERS WERE IN A HURRY to reach the platoon leading the Nazarene, and in a little while we saw the torches. But to his surprise, the group had stopped halfway.
As the two latecomers joined the Roman patrol, as they approached the commanding officer of the platoon, Yehudhah understood why they had stopped. The head of the Levites insisted on taking the Nazarene to Kaiafa's residence. However, the Roman optio, which in the Roman army, the noncommissioned officer who served as lieutenant to the centurion of each century. He could be appointed by him or elected by his fellows. He was classified among the main soldiers and had the category of duplicator, exempt from heavy tasks and charged double pay, a kind of lieutenant of the centurions, responsible for the capture and custody of the prisoner, he was opposed to this decision, considering that his orders were accurate.
Yeshua of Natsrat was to be brought before the former high priest Ananus. Apparently, relations between the Roman procurator and the Jewish priestly castes continued to be maintained, through the powerful and influential father-in-law of Kaiafa.
The Levite guards had to yield and Longinus, the Roman optio – ordered the patrol to resume its path to the Lower Quarter of Yerushaláyim.
During the discussion, Yeshua remained silent, eyes downcast and virtually absent. Yehudhah, for his part, placed himself between the two chiefs, the Roman and the Levite, but however much he tried to dialogue, they avoided his questions, remaining in total and violent silence.
When one of the novice Levites asked the legionnaire the reason for the attitude of the optio and the captain of the Temple guards to Yehudhah Ish Qeryoth, the legionnaire responded with a resounding statement:
— He IS a traitor.
We were a few meters from the bridge that joined the slope of the Mount of Olives to the yard located next to the eastern wall of the Temple, when a disconcerting and unexpected event took place. At the head of the procession marched both captains. In their midst, Yehudhah, and, immediately behind, the Roman patrol, surrounding Yeshua. Finally, the band of Levites and servants of the Sanhedrim, wrapped in their cloaks, furious at the firm decision of the Roman officer to hand over the Galileo to the former high priest.
Suddenly Yohanan appeared on the right, advancing until he was close to the Rabbi. Yohanan lost his cloak in the anarchic flight of the Rabbi's adherents. He wore only his short knee-length tunic and, in his sash, a sword. Upon seeing him, the Temple guards were alarmed and warned the chief of the boy's presence.
The platoon stopped again and the captain of the Levites ordered his men to arrest and bind Yohanan as well. But when Kaiafa's hit men were about to tie him up, the officer intervened again.
The veteran official, shrewd and of noble condition, interposed himself between the apostle and the Levites, exclaiming:
— High! This man is not a traitor and he is not a coward either!
The Hebrews did not seem very willing to miss that opportunity either, and they protested vigorously. The centurion's aide locked eyes with the captain of the Sanhedrim guard. He lowered his face, badly shaven, clenched his jaw tightly and, raising the staff until it was a hand's breadth from the head of the Levites, repeated in a menacing tone:
— I'm telling you that this man is neither a traitor nor a coward... I could see him before and he did not draw his sword to resist his Rabbi's arrest. Now you had the courage to come here to be with him again.
Whistling the stick with a series of short, brief flicks of the wrist, he added, as the head of the Jews recoiled in astonishment:
— Let no one lay their hands on him . . . Roman law grants all prisoners the privilege of having a friend accompany them to court." Therefore, no one will prevent this Galilean from remaining by the defendant's side and this is the final decision, whoever breaches it will be immediately arrested, perhaps killed if he resists.
The hatred and contempt of the Roman optio for the Jews, in general, and for those, in particular, must have been so great that, deep down, the unusual order of the officer could be motivated, in my opinion, not only by admiring the bold gesture. of Yohanan, but also to humiliate and antagonize those cowards, unable to face the Nazarene on their own.
As things stood, it would have been almost impossible for the priestly castes who hated the Rabbi and his disciples to relent and accept the free presence of any of the Prisoner's friends. Only a superior imposition, emanating, in this case, from the Roman authority, could allow Yohanan to witness the death of Christ.
Despite everything, the Roman officer, out of caution, ordered one of his men to disarm Yohanan. And the platoon continued on its way.
The Roman official's public recognition of Yohanan's prowess dealt a heavy blow to Yehudhah's dignity. Embarrassed, head down, brows furrowed, he abandoned the stride until he was left behind and alone.
For him, this was just the beginning of the end.
AND SO THEY ARRIVED at the house of Ananus.
Yohanan prudently never spoke to his Rabbi, who also did not express a desire to address the young and imprudent disciple. In fact, the circumstances did not advise him. However, when they got into the deserted streets of Yerushaláyim.
The apostle, his eyes red from crying after they managed to lose the legionnaires during Yeshua's arrest, he and Cephas had decided to follow Yeshua. Otherwise, Yohanan only knew that Cephas had fled towards the camp, but that from somewhere he would be watching each of them.
As he silently followed, Yohanan remembered the Rabbi's instructions to remain by his side, and hurried to catch up.
***
THE SECRET DISCIPLE
DAVID ZEBEDEU, was one of the couriers who had woken Yosef from Armathajim who was there to deliver the latest news to the corps of emissaries, which had been centered by David in the Gethsemane camp. In this way, as they approached the north gate of the Antonia Tower, Yousef and the emissary became aware of the fate of the remaining disciples and those that he had not heard from since his arrest.
— My lord, they arrested Yeshua.
— I already imagined that Kaiafa wouldn't miss this opportunity.
Yousef was thoughtful for a moment.
— What shall we do, sir?"
He was thinking about everything they had lived together, their family and everything, and she shed a tear and said:
— Unfortunately there is nothing we can do against God's will, David, but the Rabbi left me some determinations that we will have to make going forward.
He held out a sheet of twelve names.
— I need you to find these twelve people, they will testify in favor of Yeshua, but you have to be quick, time is pressing.
David nodded and ran as fast as he could.
***
HISTORY IS NOT ALWAYS WHAT WE LIVE
YOUSEF DE ARMATHAJIM was born in the city of Armathajim, a city located in the south of Judea, he was a rich man, senator and member of the Sanhedrim, the college of the highest magistrates of the Jewish people and which formed the supreme Jewish magistracy. He was a disciple of Yeshua secretly due to his friendship with his father and since he was born he knew that he was the son of God.
Yousef was a wealthy merchant, owner of a fleet of ships that exported, mainly of ores, to the entire region from Palestine to Britannia. He was sympathetic to Yeshua's ideas and often secretly visited him at Shim-on's house at night when Yeshua was staying there, talking to him for hours, mostly about his adventures with Yeshua's father and plans for the future. that he discovered the future sad end of his friend.
The two Yousef's had the same education, but Yeshua's father, Yousef bar Jacob, migrated to the field of construction, carpentry and construction sites, while Armathajim took over his father's import and export business.
The two were cousins descended from King David's lineage, so they had distinct opportunities as well as their personal tragedies.
Yousef ben Jacob and Yousef of Armathajim had the lives of their wives snuffed out on the same day, a tragedy that began with the Zealots, after an unsuccessful onslaught against the Romans, who unhappily killed the two women, Melcha, with whom he had six children, including James the Minor, disciple of younger brother Yeshua, and Edissa, wife of Armathajim.
Yousef who was already in old age was called to the Sanhedrim, by the High Priest, Zacharias, with the youth of Yerushaláyim, all descendants of the royal lineage of David, including Yousef of Armathajim, to find out which of them would be the father of the promised Messiah.
Each of the young men had a wooden staff, and God would respond by flowering the chosen staff, just as He had done with Aaron. What would have happened to Yousef, was that a lily grew on his staff.
— Would one of my six children with Melcha be . . .
— No! – Zacharias replied – there is a girl named Myriam (Myriam) who has lived with us since she was three years old, she is the chosen one of the Lord to beget the Messiah.
MYRIAM WAS A YOUNG GIRL of just fourteen years old when she met Yousef and the angel named Gabriel had appeared to her just three days confiding that she would bear a boy and that he would be the Son of God.
***
YOUSEF FIND OUT THAT MYRIAM IS PREGNANT
YOUSEF WAS in Capernaum working as a carpenter. He stayed there for six months. When he returned home, he found Myriam pregnant. Totally overcome with anguish, he cried out shakily:
— Lord God, accept my spirit, because I had better die than live.
The virgins who were with Myriam told her:
— What do you say, Mr Yousef? – We know that no man has touched her; we know that in her innocence and virginity were preserved without blemish. For she has been kept by God; she always persists with us in prayer. Daily an angel of the Lord speaks to her; daily she accepts food from the hand of an angel. How is it possible for there to be sin in it? For if you want us to express our suspicions to you, this pregnancy was caused by none other than the angel of God.
Yousef, however, said:
— Are you trying to make me believe that an angel of the Lord made her pregnant? – It is indeed possible that someone dressed as an angel of the Lord deceived her.
After saying this, he cried and said:
— With what face shall I go to the Temple of God? On what pretext should I visit the priests of God? What will I do?
After saying this, he made plans to hide and disown her.
So he planned to get up at night and run away, to live in hiding; behold, that same night an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said:
— Yousef, son of David, do not be afraid to accept Myriam as your wife, for he who is in her womb belongs to the Holy Spirit. She will have a son who will be called Yeshua; he will save his people from their sins.
Yousef woke from his sleep, gave thanks to his God, and told Myriam and the virgins who were with her of his vision. And after being comforted by Myriam, he said:
— I sinned because I suspected you.
It so happened that after this the rumor spread that Myriam was pregnant. Yousef was seized by the emissaries of the Temple and taken to the high priest who, along with the priests, began to rebuke him, saying:
— How was it that you were deceived from such a marriage and a virgin whom the angels of God fed like a dove in the Temple, who wished never to see any man, who had excellent instruction in the law of God?" If you hadn't raped her yourself, she would remain a virgin today.
Yousef, however, took an oath, that he would never touch her.
Abiathar, the high priest, said to him:
— As the living God, therefore I will make you drink the water of the Lord's trial, and immediately he will prove your sin.
The entire multitude of Israel gathered, so many that it was impossible to count them, and Myriam was led to the Temple of the Lord. Priests and neighbors and their parents cried out and said to Myriam:
— Confess your sin to the priests, you who were like a dove in the Temple of God and who took food from the hand of an angel.
Yousef was also called to the altar and given the water of proof from the Lord – that if a faulty man drinks and goes around the altar seven times, God will make his sin appear on the man's face.
When then a cheerful Yousef drank and walked around the altar, no sign of sin was revealed in it. Then all the priests and ministers and the people sanctified him, saying,
"Blessed are you because no guilt has been discovered in you."
Then they called Myriam and told her:
— Now what excuse can you have? – Or what sign will it manifest in you beyond what your pregnancy reveals in your womb? We will only demand of you that – because Yousef is innocent of you – you must confess who it is that deceived you. It is better that your confession betray you than the wrath of God give a sign in your face and expose you among the people.
Then Myriam, firm and fearless, said:
— If there is any blemish or sin in me, or if there has been any lust or lust in me, may the Lord expose me in the sight of all the people, that I may be an example for the correction of all.
And she went confident to the altar of God, drank the water of testing, went around the altar seven times, and no fault was found in her.
As all the people marveled and stuttered, seeing that she was pregnant and yet no sign of guilt had appeared on her face, they began to get agitated and murmur among themselves as crowds do. Some said a blessing, others out of conscience accused it. Then, seeing the suspicions of the people, that they were not purged by her integrity, with everyone watching, Myriam spoke in a clear voice:
— As God lives, Adonai of hosts, in whose presence I am, I have never known a man; I didn't even consider meeting a man, because from my childhood, all my life, I had this conviction. And this offering that I made to God from my childhood so that I would continue in integrity with the one who created me, to live in him only with those I confer with, and, as long as I live, to remain with him alone, without blemish.
Then everyone kissed her, asking her to forgive them for their evil suspicions. And all the people and the priests and all the virgins, with exultation and praise, led her to her house, crying out and saying,
— Blessed is the name of the Lord, who has revealed your holiness to all the multitudes of Israel...
***
THE MASSACRE OF THE INNOCENTS
BELÉM, JUDEIA MARCH, 3 BC
STRONGLY ARMED SOLDIERS from the capital Yerushaláyim are marching towards the small town of Bethlehem, determined to find and kill the little boy who had been chosen by God to be the great savior of that country, the Messiah would bring deliverance to the chosen people of Israel, and that wasn't even good for Herod, let alone the Romans.
It is a group made up of foreign mercenaries from Greece, Gaul and Syria. The child's name, which they don't know, is Yeshua, and his only crime is that some believe he will be the next king of the Jewish people, especially as he is of the royal lineage of David, as well as by Yousef, his father, as much on Myriam's part.
The monarch, a dying despot, half Jew, half Arab, named Herod, is so determined to ensure the death of this would-be future king of the Jews that he has ordered his army to execute all male children under the age of 2 years in Bethlehem. None of the soldiers knew who the child's parents were or the exact location of his home, hence the need to kill all the babies in the small town and surrounding areas. Only this can ensure the extermination of the potential king.
It was spring in Judea, the height of the sheep breeding season. The winding dirt road led the army through thickets of olive trees and shepherds tending their flocks, both by day and by night.
The soldiers wore sandals, their legs bare and wore petticoats called pteruges to cover their hips. Young people sweat profusely under the armor plates that cover their chests and the bronze helmets that protect their heads and the sides of their faces. The soldiers were well aware of Herod's notorious cruelty and knew he was willing to kill anyone who tried to threaten his throne. But there was no moral questioning about the murder of children. Nor did the soldiers wonder if they would have the courage necessary to snatch a crying baby from its mother's arms and execute it in cold blood in front of its parents, like men accustomed to war, they knew better than anyone how to kill a person, if at all. a helpless person, even better.
When the time came, they would carry out orders and do the work, otherwise they would be killed immediately for insubordination.
It is with the blade of the sword that they plan to kill the babies...
All the soldiers were armed with the Jewish versions of the sharp weapons favored by the Roman legions, pugi and gladius, and wore them strapped to their waists. The method of execution, however, would not be limited to daggers and swords. If they wanted, Herod's soldiers could also use a rock to crush the babies' heads, toss them en masse off a cliff, or simply close their fists around their necks and strangle them.
The cause of death made no difference. The only thing that mattered was that the king of the Jews, or not, the baby must die.
IN YERUSHALÁYIM, King Herod looked out of a palace window towards Bethlehem, eagerly awaiting confirmation of the massacre. In the cobbled streets below him, the Roman-appointed king sees the crowded markets, where merchants sell everything from water and dates to tourist trinkets and roast lamb. The walled city of some 80,000 inhabitants clustered in less than 2.5 square kilometers was an intersection in the eastern Mediterranean.
By simply looking around, Herod could see visiting Galilean peasants, Syrian women in sumptuous dress, and the foreign soldiers he paid to fight his battles. These men were exceptional fighters, but they were not Jews, nor did they speak a single word of Hebrew.
Herod in his youth would never have stood before a window worried about the future, a great warrior king like him would have ordered his favorite warhorse saddled to ride to Bethlehem and kill the child himself, but now he was a man 69 years old, obese and with countless health problems, he finds himself physically unable to leave the palace, the more he rode a horse, the more quickly his health would deteriorate, in theory, he was not protecting his reign, he was protecting the reign of his posterity, he felt that he was at the end of his days, but he would not for that abdicate that his children and grandchildren cease to reign over those poor wretched Jews.
His puffy face is framed by a beard that stretched from the base of his chin to his Adam's apple, he wore a royal purple Roman-style robe over a short-sleeved white silk tunic. Normally, Herod preferred soft leather leggings dyed purple, but at the moment, even the brush of the softest fabric against his swollen big toe could make him howl in pain. Thus, the most powerful man in Judea limped around the palace barefoot, looking like the brother of Emperor Tiberius, Claudius, who had no interest in the poor, deceitful figure who limped along the palace corridors, no one in their right mind would imagine that that man who was a mere ghost in the corridors of Rome's palaces would one day be the emperor.
Herod Magnus oversaw the expansion of the Temple from a distance, but that was the least of his problems. The King of the Jews, as he liked to be called, was a non-practicing convert to the Jewish faith and also suffered from lung disease, kidney dysfunction, worms, heart problems, sexually transmitted diseases and a terrible type of gangrene that made his genitals rot, leaving them black and infested with maggots, which explained why he couldn't ride a horse, let alone ride it and lead a completely unwarranted kill.
Herod had learned to live with his discomforts and pains, but these warnings about a new king in Bethlehem were making him fearful.
Since the Romans instituted him as ruler of Judea more than thirty years ago, he has thwarted numerous plots to oust him from power and fought many wars to defend his kingdom, especially against the Zealots and Sanhedrists. He murdered all who tried to take his throne and even had those he only suspected were killed. His power over his subjects was absolute. No one in Judea was safe from Herod's executions. He has already ordered deaths by hanging, stoning, strangulation, fire, sword, wild animals, snakes, beatings, and a kind of public suicide in which the victim is forced to throw himself off some tall building.
Even the execution of crucifixion, the slowest and most humiliating of deaths, in which the condemned is flogged and then nailed naked to a wooden cross in front of the city walls, in plain sight, he had already done it to try to contain the advance of the rebels, especially the men of Yehudhah ben Hezekiah, who tried to invade Fortress Antonia in search of money and weapons to make the revolution together with the Sanhedrim.
The Romans were the supreme Rabbis of this brutal art and used it almost exclusively, an art they had inherited from the Babylonians. Herod wouldn't dream of infuriating his superiors in Rome by appropriating their favorite form of murder, but what he did to Yehudhah was more an homage to them than appropriating his favorite torture.
Herod had ten wives, before executing the fiery Myriamna for allegedly plotting against him. Not to mention it, he also ordered the death of his wife's mother and their two children, Alexander and Aristobulus. In a year, he would kill another male child. No wonder there were rumors that the great Roman Emperor Caesar Augustus would have said openly:
— Better to be Herod's pig than his son.
But this new threat, though it comes in the form of a simple child, was the most dangerous of all in her fertile imagination. For centuries the Jewish prophets had been predicting the arrival of a new king to rule their people, and the news that the staff of a man descended from the lineage of King David had blossomed like Aaron's staff, in an event in the Temple without his. consent had been running rampant in the palace corridors for months.
They had prophesied five specific events that confirmed that Myriam would give birth still a virgin to a boy who would one day save that nation, the birth of the new Messiah.
The second sign is that the staff of a descendant of David would bloom during an event in the Temple, the second, a great star that would rise in the sky.
The third, that the baby would be born in Bethlehem, the small town where the great King David was born a thousand years ago.
The fourth prophecy is that the child must also be a direct descendant of David, which could easily be proven thanks to the meticulous genealogical records of the Temple.
The fifth is that three powerful men would come from far away to worship him, and finally, the child's mother must be a virgin.
What most disturbed Herod is that he knew the first three prophecies were true. He would be even more distressed if he knew that all six had already come to fruition.
The child was of the lineage of David, a highly respected king who had done so much for his people that the flag itself bore the symbol of his house, a six-pointed star, powerful men came from far and wide to adore him, and his teenage mother, Myriam , swore she was still a virgin despite her pregnancy. He also did not know that the child's name was Yeshua ben Yosef, or Yeshua in Latin, which meant:
The Lord is salvation...
Herod was informed of Yeshua's birth by travelers who came to worship the royal child. These men were called Magi and pass through the castle to pay their respects to the king before moving on and doing the same with Yeshua. They were astronomers, diviners, sages, scholars of the most important religious texts in the world. Among these books was the Tanakh, a collection of narratives, prophecies, poems, and songs that tell the story of the Jewish people.
The three foreigners who called themselves Gaspar, Baltazar and Melchior, cross almost 1,600 kilometers of a hostile desert, following a star of extraordinary brightness that appeared in the sky every day before dawn.
Herod calls them to his palace to tell him the purpose of the trip. They wanted to adore the newborn, they say. Herod then wants to know more:
— Where is the newborn King of the Jews? – They inquire firmly as soon as they arrive at the court of Herod.
— We saw your star in the east and came to adore you."
Amazingly, the Mages carry chests filled with gold and the aromatic resins myrrh and frankincense. These priests were cultured, scholarly men who saw life analytically and rationally.
— Who told you what you say and how you came to know it?
The magicians replied:
"Our forefathers bequeathed us a written testimony of this, which was kept and sealed under the greatest secrecy. And for long years parents and children, from generation to generation, kept this expectation alive, until finally that word came to be fulfilled in our day, as revealed to us by God in a vision we had of an angel. This is why we find ourselves in this place, which was appointed to us by the Lord.
Became Herod the Great:
— What is the origin of this testimony that only you know?
The magicians replied:
— Our testimony does not come from any man. Or a divine design concerning a promise made by God in behalf of the children of men, and which has been preserved among us to this day.
Said Herod:
— Where is this book that only your people have?
And the magicians replied:
— No nation, other than ours, has direct or indirect news of him. Only we have the written testimony. For, as you know, after Adam was cast out of paradise and after Cain killed Abel, the Lord gave our first father a son of consolation named Seth, and he gave him that letter, written, signed, and sealed by his own hands. Seth received it from his father and passed it on to his children. These, in turn, transmitted it to their own, and so it was passed on from generation to generation. Everyone, even Noah, was told to keep it carefully. This patriarch handed it over to his son Shem, and his sons passed it on to their descendants, who, in turn, handed it over to Abraham. The latter gave it to Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of the Most High, through whom he came to power of our people in the times of Cyrus, king of Persia. Our parents deposited it with all honors in a special hall, and so it came to us, who, thanks to this mysterious writing, we learned in advance of the new monarch, the son of Israel. And king Melkon took the book of the Testament which he kept in his house as a precious legacy of his forefathers, according to what we have already said, and presented it to the boy, saying:
— Here you have the letter sealed and signed by your own hand, which you thought it best to hand over to our superiors so that they could keep it. Take, then, this document that you yourself wrote. Open it and read it, for it is in your name. And the document, addressed to Adam, was headed like this:
In the year 6000, on the sixth day of the week, the same day I created you, and at the sixth hour, I will send my Only Begotten Son, the divine Word, who will clothe himself with the flesh of your offspring and will become a son of Man. He will restore you to your original dignity through the terrible torments of his passion on the cross. And then thou, O Adam, united to me with a pure soul and immortal body, shalt be deified, and shalt be able, like me, to discern good and evil."
Herod concluded that the Mages had gone mad, for risking such wealth stolen in the vast, lawless desert of Parthia, or they really believed that this child was the new king, which would be even more maddening given that fame it had reached Caesar's ears and hadn't reached his ears.
Furious, Herod summons his religious advisers. As a lay man, he knew little about Jewish prophecies and insisted that these priests and teachers of religious law tell him exactly where to find the new king.
The answer was immediate:
— In Bethlehem, in Judea.
The teachers Herod interrogates were humble men who wore simple white linen caps and tunics. The bearded priests of the Temple were very different. They wore elaborate attire, consisting of white and blue linen caps with a gold hem over the forehead and blue tunics adorned with fringe and showy tassels.
Over these tunics they wear capes and pockets decorated with gold and precious stones. Their dress usually distinguishes them from the rest of the population of Yerushaláyim. Yet even in his sorry state, King Herod is by far the most imposing man in the room. He continues to pressure teachers and priests, asking for an answer:
— Where is this supposed king of the Jews?
— In Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, - said a young priest named Ananus, seeing the perfect opportunity to get the king's attention and command the Sanhedrim.
They then quote verbatim the words of the prophet Micah, uttered some seven centuries earlier:
For from you will come the leader who, as a shepherd, will lead Israel, my people...
Herod tells the Mages to go his way. His last royal decree before they left was that the travelers find the child, return to Yerushaláyim, and reveal his exact location, so that he could go there to personally worship this new king.
The Mages, however, were not fooled. They did not return to the palace. Then time passed and Herod realized that he needed to take drastic action. From the windows of his fortified palace he can see the entire city of Yerushaláyim. To its left stands the great Temple, the most important and sacred building in all of Judea. Positioned on a massive stone platform that gives it the appearance of a citadel rather than a simple place of worship, the Temple is the materialized symbol of the Jewish people and their ancestral faith.
Originally built by Solomon in the 10th century BC, it was torn down by the Babylonians in 586 BC The Second Temple was erected by Zerubbabel and others under Persian rule some seventy years later.
Herod had renovated the entire complex, expanding the Temple until it took on epic proportions and became much larger than Solomon's. The Temple and its courtyards were a symbol not only of Judaism but of the cruel king himself. So it is ironic that, while Herod looks with sorrow toward Bethlehem, Yeshua and his parents have twice traveled to Yerushaláyim to visit this great stone fortress built on the spot where the Jewish patriarch Abraham nearly sacrificed his son, Isaac .
***
PRESENTATION IN TIME
YERUSHALÁYIM, 30 BC
THE FIRST VISIT to the Temple took place eight days after the birth of Yeshua ben Yousef, so that he could be circumcised. On that occasion, the child was registered with the name Yeshua, according to the prophecy.
The second visit was at 40 days of age.
The boy Yeshua was taken there to be formally presented to God, in observance of the laws of the Jewish faith. His father Yousef, a carpenter, bought a pair of young doves to be sacrificed for this very special occasion.
Something very strange and mystical occurred when Yeshua and his parents entered the Temple that day – something that clearly demonstrated that the boy was indeed very special.
Two complete strangers, an elderly man and an elderly woman - neither of whom knew anything about that baby called Yeshua, or the fact that his coming was the fulfillment of a prophecy, saw him on the other side of the crowded place of worship and went to him. Myriam, Yousef and Yeshua were traveling in complete anonymity, avoiding anything that might draw attention to them.
The old man, whose name was Shim-on, believed that he would not die before seeing the new king of the Jews. He asked to hold the newborn and Myriam and Yousef allowed it.
When he took Yeshua in his arms, Shim-on offered a prayer to God, thanking him for the chance to see the new king with his own eyes. He then handed the boy back to Myriam with the following words:
— This boy is destined to cause the fall and uplift of many in Israel, and to be a sign of contradiction, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. As for you, a sword will pierce your soul. Just then, a woman named Ana also approached. She was an 84-year-old widowed prophetess who spent all hours of the day in the Temple, fasting and praying. Shim-on's words still echoed in Myriam and Yousef's ears when Ana approached and also praised Yeshua. She thanked God out loud for bringing that very special boy into the world. Then she said something unusual, assuring the child's parents that her son would free Yerushaláyim from Roman rule.
Myriam and Yousef marveled at Shim-on and Ana's words, flattered by their attention, as any first-time mother would, but also not knowing what all that talk about swords and redemption really meant.
They finished what they had to do and walked out of the Temple towards the seething city of Yerushaláyim, both excited and fearful about the life their son seemed destined to lead. If only Herod had known that Yeshua had been so close, literally 600 meters from the throne room, his torment would have come to an end.
But Yeshua and his parents were just three more faces that crossed the noisy markets and the narrow, winding streets on their way to the Temple that day. Ironically, he was not even welcome within its walls, thanks to his utter lack of devotion or faith and the cruelty with which he subdues the Jewish people.
BEYOND THE TEMPLE, on the other side of the Kidron Valley, rose the Mount of Olives, where shepherds tended their flocks on limestone-covered slopes.
The feast of Passover approached, bringing tens of thousands of Hebrew pilgrims from all over Herod's kingdom, willing to pay a good price for those rams to be offered in sacrifice in the great Temple.
Without Rome, Herod was nothing but a poor, old, and decrepit tyrant, just a puppet who owed his power solely to that brutal, omnipotent republic. It was his right and duty to spread Roman oppression, for this kingdom was like no other under the iron fist of Rome.
The Jewish people were an ancient civilization founded on an anti-Roman belief system that worshiped several pagan deities rather than a single god. Herod was the mediator of this unstable relationship.
Caesar Augustus would hold him responsible for any trouble caused by a supposed new king of the Jews. They would not tolerate a ruler who had not been chosen by them. And if the followers of this new "king" incite a revolution, the Romans would no doubt immediately intervene to brutally crush that dissenting voice.
Herod had better take care of it himself.
He couldn't see Bethlehem from the palace, but the city was less than ten kilometers away, on the other side of some green hills. Herod cannot see the blood bathing his streets right now, nor hear the cries of terrified children and their parents.
As he looks out the palace window, his conscience is clear. Let others condemn him for the murder of hundreds of babies. He sleeps peacefully at night, knowing that the killing is for the good of his kingdom, for the good of Judea and for the good of Rome.
If Caesar Augustus is informed of the massacre, he will surely understand:
Herod is doing what needs to be done...
Yeshua and his family narrowly escape Bethlehem. Yousef bar Jacob awakens from a terrifying dream and has a vision of what is to come. He wakes up Myriam and Yeshua in the dead of night and they flee. Herod's soldiers arrive too late and butcher the babies in vain, fulfilling a prophecy made five hundred years earlier by the rebellious prophet Jeremiah.
Rome did not tolerate threats. Thanks to the examples of empires such as the Macedonians, Greeks and Persians, who came before them, the Romans learned and mastered the arts of torture and persecution. Revolutionaries and anyone who gets into trouble are treated with rigor and cruelty so that others are not tempted to imitate them. The same would happen with Yeshua who was still a baby, raised and loved by Myriam and Yousef.
He was born in a stable, visited by the Magi and received their sumptuous gifts, but is now on the run from Herod and the Roman Empire.
***
GHOSTS KILL TOO
SIX MONTHS after the misfortunes caused by Herod, he was in his bed when he saw a ghost, it was Yehudhah.
— It's... It's... impossible... I had you killed.
The revolutionary laughed.
— It is always possible to conquer death for a child of God.
Herod tried to pull away, but the pains consumed him. When Yehudhah came to him to stash him with the dagger he carried with him, Herod had a sudden illness and died right before his eyes.
The officer approached Yehudhah and asked:
— He died?
— His fear was so much of death that in trying to escape from it he ran to meet it, that the cherub of hell will take his poor and unhappy soul there.
***
THE BOY IN THE TEMPLE
YERUSHALÁYIM, YEAR 9 AD
PESSACH WAS A TIME when Yerushaláyim was filled with hundreds of thousands of believers from all over the world, and that is why it was so terrible that Archelaus had the audacity to reaffirm his authority by ordering his cavalry to charge against the crowds that filled the courtyards. of the Temple.
Herod Archelaus was a prince who briefly ruled Judea. He was the son and successor of Herod the Great. The least esteemed of his children, he was cruel and despotic. The Jews' complaints against him would send him into exile a few years later.
Archelaus was king of Judea, Idumea and Samaria for ten years, from the confirmation of Herod the Great's will by Emperor Augustus until thirty-seven years after the battle of Actium. Herod the Great had three children with Malthace, a Samaritan: Herod Antipas, Archelaus and Olympia, who married a cousin, son of Yosef, brother of Herod. Herod had a total of nine wives, and had children by seven of them.
When Herod the Great died, according to his will, Philip received Trachonitid and the surrounding regions, Herod Antipas would be tetrarch of Galilee, and Archelaus would become king.
FLASHING LANCES and long swords of steel and bronze, Archelaus's Babylonian, Thracian, and Syrian mercenaries slaughtered three thousand innocent pilgrims. Myriam, Yousef and Yeshua witnessed the bloodbath firsthand and were lucky enough to escape the Temple alive. They were also eyewitnesses to the crucifixion of more than two thousand Jewish rebels around the city walls when Roman soldiers arrived to quell other rebellions led by Yehudhah ben Hezekiah.
The bodies were not removed from the crosses and buried, which was normal in crucifixions, they were left there to rot and be devoured by wild dogs and vultures, serving as an example of what happens to those who defy the Roman Empire. Rome soon intervened in Judean politics.
Judea was a Roman province, handed over to a procurator sent from the capital of the empire. Some portions of Herod's ancient kingdom were still under the control of Jewish rulers, but they were no more than figureheads and held not the title of kings but tetrarchs, that is, rulers subordinate to the Roman Empire. The term referred to the fact that Herod the Great's kingdom of Judea was divided into four unequal parts after his death. These parts were given to his sons: one to Herod, one to Philip and two to Archelaus.
After Archelaus' exile in AD 6, Rome sent its own rulers to oversee the land of the Jews. Yerushaláyim was ruled by the local aristocracy and the high priests of the Temple, who served justice through the Sanhedrim, a court made up of 71 judges with full authority to apply Jewish religious law – although in the case of the death penalty, approval of the Roman prefectus. In this way, the emperor ensured that the needs of his empire were met without offending the Jewish faith. Even so, he still demanded total submission to his power, a humiliation the Jews had no choice but to endure. This was not to say that they had stopped rebelling, quite the contrary, the region registered more insurrections than any other part of the mighty Roman Empire, a vast kingdom stretching from one end of Europe to the other, crossing the sands of Parthia. and covering almost the entire region of the Mediterranean.
The most serious revolt was in AD 1, when Yeshua was just four years old. A rebel faction invaded the great stronghold of Sepphoris, looted the royal arsenal, distributed weapons to citizens and tried to overthrow the local government. On the orders of Caesar Augustus, Publius Quintilius Varus, the Roman procurator of Syria, ordered cavalry to massacre the rebels, burn down the city of Sepphoris, and enslave its entire population of more than eight thousand.
The Jewish people also began to boycott Roman pottery.
However passive and subtle this gesture, it served as a daily reminder that, despite oppression, the Jews would never allow themselves to be totally crushed by the Roman yoke, for while the Roman Republic kept its distance from Judean policy during the rule of the Roman Empire, which dominated the Jews in an increasingly oppressive way.
THE THOUSANDS OF FAITHFUL who spread out along the desolate road that stretched to the Jordan River could forget all the anger and fear they felt at the Roman soldiers occupying the barracks next to the Temple.
Passover was already over, so they were stopped at the city gates to pay the tax collector another one of the exorbitant taxes that made life for Jews so difficult, this time it was a tax on goods bought in Yerushaláyim . Now they were returning to their homes in Galilee.
Pilgrims marched in a huge caravan to protect themselves from thieves, kidnappers and slave traders. A lucky few led a pack donkey with their supplies, but most carried their food and water on their shoulders.
Myriam and Yosef haven't seen Yeshua, now a 12-year-old boy – since yesterday, but he will definitely be somewhere in the caravan, walking with friends or other relatives. This isn't the easiest or shortest way back, but it's the safest. The more direct route takes less than two days to travel, but travels north through Samaria, a region notorious for the racial hatred between Samaritans and Jews, along gorges where murderous bandits give vent to their prejudice.
In this way, the caravan was skirting Samaria, on a path that can only be described as treacherous. There were few inns or ways to get water and food, and the landscape alternated between deserts and wild, rugged terrain. But larger groups were safer, and Myriam and Yosef's traveling companions were not mere strangers, as they made this same journey every year.
The members of the caravan took care of each other and their families. If a child was away from his parents at nightfall, he would have a place to sleep and in the morning he would be sent back. Myriam and Yosef believed that this was exactly what had happened to Yeshua. He was an intelligent, charismatic child who always got along well with other people, so it would come as no surprise that he hadn't been sitting next to them in front of the fire the night before. The two of them had no doubt that he would show up in the morning. But morning came, passed, and the boy was simply gone.
When the two notice that the midday sun is high in the sky, Myriam and Yosef realize that it has been a long time since they had seen their son, Yeshua. They traversed the caravan from end to end in search of the lost son, increasingly worried, begging their fellow pilgrims for some clue as to the boy's whereabouts. But no one could remember seeing him from the moment the endless column of travelers left Yerushaláyim.
Myriam and Yosef realized that they not only lost their child, they probably left him behind. With no alternative, they began to make their way back down the road.
They retraced all their steps to Yerushaláyim and once more submitted to the Romans, if necessary. Nothing was more important than finding Yeshua. His destiny must be fulfilled, even though his afflicted parents had no idea how terrible that fate would be twenty-three years later on a Passover as well.
Myriam and Yosef finally finished their long walk back to Yerushaláyim in search of Yeshua. Now they had to find him somewhere among the merchants, soldiers, and exotic tourists in this frantic, crowded city.
Meanwhile, Yeshua will call himself for the first time on this day the Son of God, he listens fascinated to a group of Jewish Rabbis talking about their faith. Just 12 years old, Yeshua ben Yousef sat in the shadow of the great Temple, on a terrace near the Chamber of Wrought Stones, where the omnipotent Sanhedrim met. Not long ago, countless worshipers had flocked to that same spot during the Passover celebration, crowding the terrace and steps below to try to hear the teachings of the Temple's sages and priests.
Despite their spiritual disposition, the Jews were suspicious at all times, knowing that they were being watched closely by the Roman troops of Emperor Caesar Augustus, looking for the slightest sign of unrest. Now that the pilgrims began their long journey home and the soldiers returned to their barracks in Fortress Antonia, the faithful were able to resume their usual routine of prayer, fasting, worship, sacrifice and teaching in the religious citadel.
It was an atmosphere that the boy had never experienced before and that brought him great pleasure. No one seemed to find it strange that a beardless boy in plain clothes from the Galilee countryside was sitting alone among those grey-bearded rabbis with their flowing robes and their heightened knowledge of Jewish history, in fact it was the opposite, the priests and Rabbis are perplexed that Yeshua demonstrates such an understanding of very complex spiritual concepts.
AMONG THE DOCTORS and the elders and the sages of the children of Israel, whom he questioned on different points of science, but also answered their questions.
Yeshua asked them:
— Whose son is the Messiah?
And they replied:
— This is David's son.
Yeshua replied:
— Why then does David, moved by the Holy Spirit, call him Lord, when he says, 'The Lord said to my Lord, 'Sit at my right hand, that I may lay your enemies at your feet'?
Then an important rabbi interrogated him, saying:
"Have you read the holy books?"
Yeshua replied:
— I read the books and what they contain — and he explained to them the Scriptures, the law, the precepts, the statutes, the mysteries which are contained in the books of prophecy, and which no creature's intelligence can comprehend. And the main one among the doctors said:
— I have never seen or heard such instruction; who do you believe this child to be?
There was a philosopher there, a wise astronomer, who asked Yeshua if he had studied the science of the stars. And Yeshua answering him, exposed the number of spheres and celestial bodies, their nature and their opposition, their trinary, quaternary and sextile aspect, their progression and their movement from east to west, the computation and the forecast and other things that the no man's reason listened.
There was also among them a very wise philosopher in medicine and natural science, and when he asked Yeshua if he had studied medicine, he explained to him physics, metaphysics, hyperphysics and hypophysics, the virtues of the body and the humors. and its effects, the number of limbs and bones, secretions, arteries and nerves, temperatures, heat and dry, cold and wet, and what are its influences, what are the actions of the soul in the body, its sensations and its virtues, the faculty of speech, anger, desire, its composition and dissolution, and other things which no creature's intelligence has ever attained.
Then the philosopher rose and worshiped Yeshua, saying:
— Lord, from now on I will be your disciple and your servant.
They listen to his words and treat him like a scholar, marveling at his extraordinary gifts, Yeshua preaching in the Temple Yeshua knew very well that his parents had already started the journey back to Natsrat. He was not an insensitive child, but his thirst for knowledge and his willingness to share his ideas was so great that it did not cross his mind that Myriam and Yosef would be worried when they noticed that he had fallen behind.
Yeshua did not believe that his attitude was an act of disobedience either. The need to delve deeper into the meaning of God surpassed any other in her reality. Like all Jewish boys, when he reached puberty he would no longer be considered a child to be seen as an effective member of the religious community and therefore responsible for his own actions, but Yeshua was different from other boys his age. He was not content just to learn the oral history of his faith, called the Mixnah, and he felt a deep desire to debate its nuances and legends. This need was so great that even now, days after his parents left for home, the boy continued to find new questions to ask.
Meanwhile, Myriam and Yosef frantically combed the Lower Town's narrow streets and markets, fearing the worst. It was possible that Yeshua had wandered away from the caravan and been kidnapped. These things happened, even because Yousef was from David's family, there were many cases of disappearing with people so that, if there was a resurrection of the Jewish monarchy, there would be no doubt about who would assume the throne.
Even so, they believed that his son was in Yerushaláyim, no doubt frightened, alone and hungry. It could be that the priests had taken pity on him and allowed him to spend the night in the Temple, which had so many rooms. Or maybe Yeshua had been forced to curl up in some alleyway, shivering in the cold, which was rare given the boy's personality, but they couldn't help but think about it.
But what was most disconcerting about this disappearance was the fact that it was so out of character, normally the boy behaved very well and didn't cause Myriam and Yosef to worry.
They entered the Temple through the southern doors and then ascend the wide stone staircase that led to the Temple Mount. They arrive at a large and tumultuous square, where they begin to run their eyes over the faithful in search of their lost son. But it was almost impossible to know where to look first.
Twice the size of the Forum in Rome, the Temple Mount was a three-acre platform with a four-hundred-meter wall, a hundred and thirty-seven meters high above the Kidron Valley below. Herod the Great built the entire structure in just eighteen months, on the same site as the ancient temples of Solomon and Zerubbabel. Most of the Mount was made up of a large open-air stone courtyard known as the Courtyard of the Gentiles, which was open to both Jews and non-Jews. It is where Myriam and Yosef now meet.
When they saw no sign of Yeshua, they walked towards the center of Mt. There, like a fifteen-story island of limestone and gold, stands the Temple. This is not just a mere place of worship, but also a refuge from the repression of the Roman occupation, a place where all Jews can speak freely and pray to God without fear.
There were separate courtyards for men and women, rooms for priests to sleep when on duty, stairs, terraces where priests preached on the Jewish faith, and altars where lambs, doves and calves were sacrificed. This was the first thing any visitor saw upon arriving in Yerushaláyim after crossing the surrounding hills and looking down towards the city.
The Temple was surrounded by a low wall that separated it from the Court of the Gentiles. Only Jews could cross from one side to the other. In case a Roman soldier or other Gentile is tempted to step through the gates, a warning reminds them that they will be killed if they choose to do so.
OUTSIDERS! – Said the inscription – IT IS PROHIBITED TO CROSS THE DIVIDING GRID AROUND THE TEMPLE. THE ONE WHO IS Caught COMMITTING SUCH TRANSGRESSION WILL BE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR HIS OWN DEATH.
The threat was empty. Any Jew would be immediately executed if he dared to kill a legionnaire who had broken through the gates. And, from time to time, the Romans even sent troops inside the Temple just to reaffirm their authority. But the ominous warning served a purpose. The words were a reminder that this was a sacred and inviolable place, built, according to tradition, on the very spot on top of Mount Moriah where Abraham had almost sacrificed Isaac; where King David chose to erect the First Temple, formerly known as the threshing floor of Araunah, and where God gathered the dust to create Adam, the first man. There was no greater and deeper symbol of the Jewish faith.
Myriam and Yosef passed through the Temple gates, leaving the Court of the Gentiles behind. This only served to make the task even more frustrating, as Yeshua could be in any one of the Temple's many inner rooms – or none at all.
They passed through the colonnades of the Eastern Gate and reached the Court of Women. Seventy-one meters long on each side, surrounded by four lamps twenty-six meters high each, this quadrangular courtyard could house up to six thousand faithful.
A few days ago, at the height of Passover, there were undoubtedly many women there. But now the courtyard was empty enough that Myriam and Yosef could see that Yeshua is not there. They continued to search for a process of elimination. Yeshua was obviously not in the Chamber of Lepers.
The Fireplace Chamber housed the priests who were on duty, dormitories and offices, so it was unlikely he was there.
The Chamber of Wrought Stones was the home of the select assembly of priests known as the Sanhedrim, so that place too should have been out of the question, but Myriam and Yosef were desperate and willing to search everywhere, they searched the Temple with the the same frantic drive with which they had swept the markets and alleys of Yerushaláyim earlier.
As Myriam and Yosef crossed the courtyards, the sounds and smells of animals filled the air. Priests prepared cows and rams for their ceremonial death on the altar, skinned the carcasses, and cleaned up the liters of blood spilled when one of the animals was offered to God. These ritual sacrifices were part of the Temple's routine. An animal was slaughtered so that an individual's sins could be forgiven. Inevitably, the pungent smell of blood filled the air.
Finally, Myriam hears Yeshua's voice coming from outside, from the terrace where sages and scribes preached the Scriptures to the faithful during Pesach and other festivities. But the words that came out of her mouth were nothing like those of the son she knew so well. Yeshua has never shown any signs of possessing such a profound knowledge of Jewish law and tradition, and they are shocked to witness the ease with which he speaks about God. Even so, they are also understandably angry.
And while they were speaking thus, Myriam appeared along with Yousef, and they had been looking for Yeshua for three days, seeing him sitting among the doctors, interrogating them and answering him alternately, she said to him:
— My son, why did you act like this to us? Your father and I sought you out, and your absence caused us much distress.
He replied:
— Why are you looking for me? – Did you not know that I should remain in my Father's house?
But they did not understand the words he addressed to them. Then the doctors asked Myriam if he was her son, and she having replied that he was, they exclaimed:
— O happy Myriam, who gave birth to such a child.
If the respectable rabbis of the Temple heard Yeshua's answer, they show no sign of it. For if the boy was implying that God is really his father – literally, not figuratively – that was blasphemy. A claim of divinity, in their eyes, would be no different from Caesar Augustus's. But the Roman emperor was not a Jew, so he could not be held responsible for his blasphemy under Jewish law. Otherwise, his punishment would be death, as conveyed by Moshe, the patriarch of the Jewish people.
However Yeshua was a Jew and Jewish law stated that, in case Yeshua had committed a blasphemy, the whole congregation should lay their hands on him, step back and throw stones at his head and his helpless young body until he fell and died . Yeshua was not claiming that Yosef, the carpenter and son of Jacob who was helpless beside Myriam in the Temple courtyard, was his father. Instead, he was claiming that the one true God of the Jewish people is their rightful father. However, according to the law, he could not be guilty of blasphemy, as he was not yet old enough, he was not responsible for what he said.
He returned with his parents to Natsrat, and he was submissive to them in everything. And his mother kept all his words in her heart. And Yeshua grew in size, in wisdom and in grace before God and before men.
He started from that day to hide his secrets and his mysteries, until he turned thirty.
***
NATSRAT
THE ROADS WERE OF HARDWOOD AND the village was not protected from invaders by walls or other fortifications, several families shared the same house, divided by small backyards.
Natsrat was situated in a valley formed by the hills of the Galilee countryside. An old caravan route ran about ten kilometers away, but no main road crossed the city, it was a small town destined to remain that way, thanks not only to the topography but also to the fact that the only source of water is a small one. fresh water spring. Still, Natsrat was a wonderful place for a boy to grow up. There were hills to climb, caves to explore, and fields to run. In summer, when it got so hot that Yeshua slept on the dirt roof of his family home, figs and olives grew on the trees.
Spring was the time to plant the wheat that would provide daily bread.
The problem with Natsrat is that it was a city of mud and bricks. Even the most elaborate buildings, so to speak, would have been made of stone, but there were wooden beams on the roofs and, of course, the doors would have been made of this material. A handful of Nazarenes might have been able to afford wooden furniture, a table, a few benches, and perhaps some might have possessed wooden yokes and plows with which to sow their meager plots of land.
Even if tekton meant a craftsman who works in any aspect of the construction business, the nearly one hundred impoverished families of a modest and utterly forgettable village like Natsrat, most of whom lived just above subsistence level, could not possibly , have supported the family of Yeshua. As with most artisans and day laborers, Yeshua and his brothers had to go to larger towns or cities to offer their work.
Natsrat was just a short walk from one of the largest and richest cities in Galilee, its capital, Sepphoris, was a sophisticated urban metropolis, as rich as Natsrat was poor. While Natsrat did not have a single paved road, the roads in Sepphoris were broad paved avenues with polished stone slabs and flanked by two-story houses boasting open courtyards and private cisterns hewn into the rock. The Nazarenes shared a single public bathroom.
In Sepphoris, two separate aqueducts merged in the center of the city, providing enough water for the large luxurious baths and public latrines that served nearly the entire population of some 40,000 people. There were Roman villas and palatial mansions, some covered in colorful mosaics depicting cheerful naked men hunting birds, women in garlands carrying fruit baskets, boys dancing and playing musical instruments. A Roman theater in the center of the city had 4,500 seats, and an intricate web of roads and trade routes linked Sepphoris with Judea and the rest of the cities of Galilee, making it an important hub of culture and commerce.
Although Sepphoris was a predominantly Jewish city, as evidenced by the synagogues and ritual baths discovered there, it was inhabited by an entirely different type of Jews from those found in much of Galilee. Rich, cosmopolitan, deeply influenced by Greek culture and surrounded by a panoply of races and religions, Sepphoris' Jews were the product of Herod's social revolution – the nouveau riches who gained prominence after the massacre of the old priestly aristocracy.
The city of Sepphoris was the administrative center of Galilee during the Maccabean dynasty.
During Herod's reign, it became a vital military post, where weapons and war supplies were stored. However, it was not until Antipas chose it as the royal seat of his tetrarchy around the turn of the 1st century AD that the valiant city of Sepphoris became known throughout Palestine as "the ornament of Galilee."
Like his father, Antipas had a passion for large-scale building projects, and in Sepphoris he found a blank sheet on which to project a city with his profile. For when Antipas arrived in Sepphoris with a group of Roman soldiers in tow, the city was no longer the focal point of Galilee, as it had been under his father's rule. It was still a smoking heap of ashes and stone, victim of Roman retaliation for the rebellions that had broken out across Palestine in the wake of her father's death.
When Herod died, he left behind much more than a swarming population eager to exact revenge on his friends and allies, he also left a mob of unemployed poor that had flooded Yerushaláyim from rural villages to build their palaces and theaters. Herod's enjoyment of monumental buildings, and especially his Temple expansion project, had employed tens of thousands of peasants and day laborers, many of whom had been driven from their lands by drought or famine or often by persistence malevolent debt collectors. But with the completion of construction in Yerushaláyim and the completion of the Temple shortly before Herod's death, these peasants and day laborers suddenly found themselves unemployed and driven out of the City of David to fend for themselves.
As a result, the countryside once again became a hotbed of revolutionary activity, just as it had been before Herod was declared king.
***
THE MEN OF ZEAL
IT WAS AT THIS TIME that a new and far more fearsome band of bandits emerged in Galilee, led by a charismatic and revolutionary teacher known as Yehudhah ben Hezekiah, the failed messiah whom Herod had captured and crucified as part of his campaign to clear the field of threat of the bad guys.
After Herod's death, Yehudhah joined forces with a mysterious Pharisee named Zadok to launch an entirely new independence movement called the "Fourth Philosophy" to differentiate it from the other three "philosophies": the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes . What set the members of the Fourth Philosophy apart from the rest was their unwavering commitment to Israel's deliverance from the foreign yoke and their fervent insistence, until his death, that they would serve no lord but only the One God.
There was a well-defined term for this kind of belief, a term that all pious Jews, regardless of political position, would have recognized and proudly claimed for themselves:
Zeal...
Zeal implied a strict adherence to Torah and Law, a refusal to serve any foreign Rabbi, to serve any human Rabbi generally, and an uncompromising devotion to the sovereignty of God. To be zealous for the Lord was to walk in the burning footsteps of the prophets and heroes of the past, men and women who tolerated no one who wanted to associate with God, who bowed down to no king but the King of the World, and who dealt cruelly with idolatry and with those who transgressed the law of God. The land of Israel itself had been conquered through zeal, for it was God's zealous warriors who cleansed it from all foreigners and idolaters, just as God had demanded.
Many Jews in first-century Palestine strove to live a life of zeal, each in their own way. But there were some who, in order to preserve their zealous ideals, were willing to resort to extreme acts of violence if necessary, not just against the Romans and the uncircumcised masses, but against their fellow Jews, those who dared to submit to Rome .
They were called zealots.
During Yeshua's lifetime, zealotism did not mean a clear sectarian designation or a political party. It was an idea, an aspiration, a model of piety inextricably linked to the widespread feeling of apocalyptic anticipation that had gripped Jews in the wake of the Roman occupation.
There was a feeling, especially among the peasants and the poor devotees, that the present order of things was coming to an end, that a new and divinely inspired order was about to reveal itself.
The Kingdom of God was at hand...
Everyone talked about it. But this Kingdom could only be announced by those who had the zeal to fight for it. Such ideas existed long before Yehudhah appeared, but he was the first revolutionary leader to merge banditry and zealous bigotry into a single revolutionary force, making resistance to Rome a religious duty for all Jews. It was his fierce determination to do whatever it took to free the Jews from the foreign yoke and clear the land in the name of the God of Israel that made the Fourth Philosophy a model of zealous resistance for the countless apocalyptic revolutionaries who, a few decades later, they would join forces to drive the Romans out of the City of David.
In 3 BC, with Herod dead and buried, Yehudhah and his small army of zealots made a daring assault on Sepphoris, raided the city's royal arsenal, and seized for themselves the weapons and provisions that were stored inside. Now fully armed and accompanied by some Sephorian sympathizers, members of the Fourth Philosophy launched a guerrilla war across Galilee, sacking the homes of the rich and powerful, burning villages, and distributing God's justice over the Jewish aristocracy and those who continued to declare your loyalty to Rome.
The movement grew in size and ferocity over the next decade, marked by violence and instability.
Then, in AD 6, when Judea officially became a Roman province and Syria's procurator Quirinius called for a census to properly register, register and tax people and property in some parts of the newly acquired region, the members of the Fourth Philosophy seized the opportunity. They used the census to make a final appeal to the Jews to join them against Rome and fight for their freedom.
The census, they argued, was an abomination. It was the affirmation of Jewish slavery. To be voluntarily registered, like sheep, was, in Yehudhah's view, equivalent to declaring allegiance to Rome. It was an admission that the Jews were not God's chosen tribe but the personal property of the emperor. It wasn't the census itself that so infuriated Yehudhah and his followers; it was the very idea of paying any tax or tribute to Rome. What clearer sign of Jewish subservience would be needed? The tribute was particularly offensive since it implied that the land belonged to Rome and not God.
Indeed, the payment of tribute became, for the zealots, a test of religiosity and faithfulness to God. Simply put: if you think it's lawful to pay tribute to Caesar, then you were a traitor and an apostate. You deserved to die.
Inadvertently helping Yehudhah's cause was the clumsy high priest at the time, a Roman lackey named Joazar, who gladly agreed to Quirinus' census and encouraged his fellow Jews to do the same. The high priest's collusion was all proof that Yehudhah ben Hezekiah and his followers needed that the Temple itself had been defiled and must be forcibly rescued from the sinful hands of the priestly aristocracy.
From the point of view of Yehudhah's zealots, Joazar's acceptance of the census was his death sentence. The fate of the Jewish nation depended on killing the high priest.
Zeal required it...
Just as the sons of Mattathias "showed zeal for the law" in killing Jews who sacrificed to anyone but God, just as Josiah king of Judah slaughtered all uncircumcised men in his land because of "zeal for Mighty One," these zealots were now to turn God's wrath back on Israel, ridding the land of traitorous Jews like the high priest.
The Romans removed the high priest Joazar from his post not long after he encouraged the Jews to obey the census, which Yehudhah's argument prevailed. Joazar was overthrown by the zealots' argument. Yehudhah's problem was not his sophistry or his use of violence, but rather what he called the "royal aspirations of Yehudhah" as he fights the subjugation of the Jews and paves the way for the establishment of God's Kingdom on earth , was claiming for himself the mantle of the messiah, the throne of King David. And Yehudhah paid the price for his ambition.
Shortly after leading the attack on the census, Yehudhah was captured by Rome and crucified.
In return for ceding their weapons to the followers of the Zealots, the Romans marched on Sepphoris and burned it to the ground. Men were slaughtered, women and children auctioned off as slaves. More than 2,000 rebels and sympathizers were crucified en masse. Shortly thereafter, Herod Antipas arrived and immediately set to work to transform the crushed ruins of Sepphoris into an extravagant city fit for a king.
NATSRAT WAS just twenty miles from the Mediterranean Sea, but it was like a thousand miles away, as fish was almost as rare in young Yeshua's diet as red meat, so while it wasn't a life of excess, there was always enough . The trees and fields produced wheat, olives, onions, lentils and sometimes even a piece of lamb, and the eggs could be poached in what was the most valuable of all products:
The olive oil...
It was also used to light lamps, moisturize the skin and prepare meals.
Myriam and Yosef were devout faithful and did their best to transmit this love for God to their son. A small wooden box containing a parchment was hung over the top of her front door. On it was written the Shema, the most fundamental Jewish prayer.
— Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one Lord.
The family recited this prayer every day upon waking up in the morning and after bringing the animals indoors at night, at bedtime.
YESHUA WAS CIRCUMCITED, in accordance with the covenant between God and Abraham. His clothes were decorated with tassels, in respect of the text in the biblical book Numbers, and he went to the synagogue every week. There, Yeshua wore a prayer shawl and sat on a bench, his back against the wall in the small square room, reading the sacred texts and singing the psalms.
It was in the synagogue that he learned to read and write, for during this time of Roman occupation, keeping traditions alive became an even greater priority for the Jewish people. A group of devout teachers known as the Pharisees helped create a pedagogical system in the temples, teaching children Hebrew and initiating them in Jewish law. It is there that Yeshua sat beside his father on Shabbat, surrounded by those who claimed to be friends of Yosef.
All these men from Natsrat made the long walk to Yerushaláyim together as part of the great Passover caravan, and many even remembered seeing Myriam, pregnant before her marriage, facing the pilgrimage. They also remembered the shame that befell Myriam and Yosef in those early days of their relationship, when pregnancy was announced outside the bonds of marriage. They also recalled Yosef's unshakable loyalty and his refusal to reject her. The village of Natsrat would eventually follow their example, accepting the couple's future union.
It was in this way that Yeshua came of age, becoming a worker who was dedicated to the Jewish faith, determined to have a spiritual life, like any other man or woman in Natsrat.
The history of the Jews was a succession of acts of resistance to the oppression of foreign invaders who conquered the land that is now known as Israel. In a sense, the Roman occupation linked the people of Galilee to a centuries-old tradition. Thus, the worsening situation under Caesar Augustus was accepted tacitly but with growing bitterness. There was nothing exceptional about the creation of Yeshua.
For the inhabitants of Yerushaláyim – the city he visited every year during Passover – his thick Galilean accent was noticeable. He worked six days a week as a carpenter with his father, building the roofs and portals of Natsrat and laying the foundations of the rapidly expanding city neighboring Sepphoris.
Yeshua seemed destined to remain there forever, raising a family and building his own house on a hillside. But young Yeshua would soon leave his small town. The holiness and splendor of Yerushaláyim seemed to beckon him. He got to know the smells and music of the place during his annual visits, moving more and more easily through the region's landmarks, such as the Mount of Olives, the Garden of Gethsemane, the Kidron Valley and the Temple itself.
With each passing year, and as Yeshua grew into a man with the broad shoulders and callused hands of a carpenter, his wisdom and awareness of his faith increased. He developed the serenity and great charisma that came naturally to him and learned to speak publicly with eloquence. Still, Yeshua was cautious in addressing the masses.
A full member of the Jewish religious community from the age of thirteen, he knew that he had to answer for his actions and that any claim that he was in fact the Son of God would be considered blasphemy and would result in a public execution. The Jews would stone him for saying that sort of thing, and the Romans might kill him if he suggested he was on an equal footing with their divine emperor. The stoning, however, would seem a mild death compared to the cruelties the Romans were capable of and that Yeshua had already seen with his own eyes.
WHEN YESHUA was sixteen years old, Yousef who was already of advanced age died, leaving Myriam in her care, as it was forbidden by law for widows to be taken care of by people, with that Armathajim took care of them until Yeshua began to make signs, wonders and wonders, first at the Wedding of Armathajim's Daughter at Cana, where due to a delay in the delivery of groceries the wine ran out and Yeshua performed his first public miracle.