THERE WAS NEVER A CHANCE
10:01 am – YERUSHALAYIM, FRIDAY, APRIL 7, A.D. 30
ON LEAVING THE ROOM the applause of Herod's clique still echoed, extremely pleased by that last gesture of mockery and scorn from the Idumean. Yeshua was covered with a robe with a bright red robe, which reflected the mockery of Herod Antipas, considering him a liberator or a false king. A cloak that would accompany Yeshua of Natsrat until the critical moment of the scourging and which the Roman legionaries covered him.
The escort withdrew from the Palace of the Hasmoneans, resuming the return journey to Fortress Antonia. As on the way out, a large group of Hebrews followed, silent and vigilant, the legionaries who were protecting the prisoner.
At that moment, unexpectedly, Yehudhah Ish Qeryoth walked away from the group headed by Kaiafa and surprised Yousef with a question... At first he hesitated. He looked around with distinct suspicion and finally made up his mind to speak. Yehudhah must have thought that his constant presence near the Rabbi had made him one of his adherents. Eventually, however, he overcame his fear and, moving away from the escort squad, asked him how the interrogation in Antipas's palace had gone.
Yousef told him what had happened and Yehudhah, as the only comment, regretted Yeshua's silence, adding:
— What a missed opportunity!
Yousef told him that he did not understand and Yehudhah, avoiding looking him in the eye, spoke of his times as a disciple of the Baptist and of how he had never forgiven the Rabbi for not interceding for Yohanan's life.
Now, according to the traitor, Yeshua also did nothing to claim the memory of his friend and precursor.
The confession surprised him.
The two continue in silence following the entourage. Yousef burned with the desire to ask him the reason for his betrayal, but he didn't have the courage, and he only dared to ask why he had anticipated the group of soldiers on the night of the arrest. Isolated and humiliated by some, Yehudhah felt the need to confess. But his answer was a half-truth...
— I know no one believes me — he lamented — but I meant well. If I put myself in front of the soldiers and Levites of the Temple, it was to warn the Rabbi and my companions of the troops that were coming to arrest him.
Yousef was silent, that explanation, in fact, was difficult, perhaps, impossible to accept. It was possible that Yehudhah, coward that he was, could have contrived such an arrangement. In any case, the disciples might not have come to distrust him. But his intentions, if indeed they were, were nullified by the unexpected presence of the Nazarene halfway down the path leading to the garden.
Janus and his men reentered the northern wall of the Torre Antonia, heading for the Praetorium steps. Upon reaching the terrace where the first part of the interrogation had taken place, Yousef was surprised by the presence of a semi-circular dais, on which a curule chair had been placed, usually intended to administer justice.
The centurion left Yeshua to his men and entered the residence. The Hebrews, with the high priest in the first line, waited, as usual, by the stairs.
This time, Yousef of Armathajim had entered the Tower's precinct and saw Pilatus reading Herod Antipas' letter.
***
THE CARD OF HERODS ANTIPAS
HERODS, TETRACCH of the Galileans, greets the procurator of the Jews, Pontius Pilatus.
I am filled with great affliction, as the Holy Scriptures say, for the things which I will now relate to you, just as I think that you, for your part, will be afflicted in reading them. Know that my daughter with Herodias, whom I love dearly, died when she was playing by the ice-covered water and it broke. His body sank and his head, severed by the ice, remained on the surface. Then her mother collected her, as the rest of her body was lost in the waters. Now my wife, crying, presses her head to her knees, and my whole house is given over to endless pain.
I, for my part, find myself surrounded by many evils, from the moment I learned that you had despised Yeshua, and I want to set out just to see him, adore him and hear a word from his lips. , for I have done many evil things against him and against Yohanan Baptista; I am certainly receiving in all justice what I deserve, for my father shed the blood of other people's children on the earth because of Yeshua, and I, in turn, killed Yohanan, the one who baptized him.
Righteous are the purposes of God, because each one receives his reward according to his desires. So, since it is possible for you to see Yeshua again, fight now for me and say a word to him in my favor; for to you Gentiles the kingdom has been delivered, according to what Christ and the prophets said.
Asbonius, my son, has been in the throes of death, in the grip of a strenuous illness, for some days now. I, for my part, am seriously ill, subjected to the torment of dropsy, to the point of worms coming out of my mouth. My wife even lost her left eye due to the misfortune that befell my house. Righteous are the purpose of God, because we insult.
Eye of Righteousness. There is no peace for those who eat evil, says the Lord.
For great affliction befell the priests and the scribes of the law. Death will soon come to them and to the senate of the children of Israel, for they laid their hands on the Righteous One unjustly. All this came to be fulfilled at the consummation of the ages; and so the Gentile nations will inherit the Kingdom of God, while the children of light will be thrown out for not keeping what was preached concerning the Lord and his Son.
Gird up therefore your loins, and embrace justice, you and your wife, remembering Yeshua day and night; and the kingdom will belong to you, the Gentiles, because the chosen ones have rejected the Righteous One. And if there is room for my supplications, O Pilatus, since we were in power at the same time, give us burial, me and my household, since we wish to be buried by you and not by the priests, whom Judgment awaits them soon, according to the Scriptures, at the coming of Christ. Farewell to you and Procla, your wife.
I have sent you my daughter's earrings and my own ring, so that they may be a memory of my death, for I already feel the worms blooming in my whole body, as I am receiving the temporal punishment; but I am more afraid of the judgment that will come, for in both I will be before the works of the living God. But this judgment, which is temporal, is only for a period, but the other will be eternal.
***
YESHUA OR ABBAS BAR?
YERUSHALAYIM, FRIDAY, APRIL 7, A.D. 30
PILATUS DIDN'T KNOW who to trust anymore, he heard what his centurion said about the judgment and about the sarcasm of Herod Antipas before Yeshua and in his letter the content was different, he well knew what the man was like, but in the letter it was the which he could base himself on, as it was a direct account and without his occasional eccentricities in front of people.
PILATUS did not take long to appear, and, sitting down in the transportable chair, addressed Kaiafa and the Sadducees:
— You have brought this Man before me, accusing him of perverting the people, of preventing the payment of tribute to Caesar, and of claiming to be king of the Jews. I questioned him and I do not find him guilty of such charges. In fact, I don't see any fault... I sent him to Herod and the tetrarch must have come to the same conclusion, since he sent me again. Surely this Man has not committed any crime that warrants death. If you consider that he should be punished, I am prepared to impose a sanction on him before I release him.
Unable to contain his joy, Yohanan jumped up, hugging Yousef of Armathajim. But when everything seemed in the prisoner's favor, the courtyard between the steps and the wall gate was suddenly invaded by hundreds of Jews. They entered quietly and silently, with a group of Roman soldiers at the head. As the elder of Armathajim had predicted, the crowd had flocked to the prosecutor's house, eager to see a defendant pardon.
By the time that human mass arrived in front of Pilatus' residence with the prior authorization of the guard, none of the Israelites knew what was happening. It was there, in the sight of Yeshua and the priests, that they were carried away by the skillful and timely intervention of Kaiafa and the Sadducees. If Yeshua's judgment had taken place at another time or another day, without the presence of that mob, it is quite possible that the Sanhedrim would not have prevailed. Pilatus knew of the arrival of the crowd. In fact, the placement of the dais and the chair on the cobblestones of the terrace obeyed only and exclusively the traditional amnesty ceremony. But, desiring to act in good faith, Pilatus made a grave mistake.
After making a series of consultations with his centurions, he rose to his feet and, raising his voice, asked the crowd for the name of the chosen prisoner.
— Bar Abbas! – The people answered as one man.
Until that moment, neither Pilatus nor the judges had pronounced the name of Yeshua. This meant, as he supposed, that the Hebrews had come to the praetorium with the premeditated intention of asking for the release of the terrorist zealot, and that they did so before the procurator asked for silence and explained to them how the priests had brought Yeshua to their presence and of which they accused him.
In short, those people even without the presence of Yeshua would have cried out for Bar Abbas, the Zealot. But, as the timely intervention of Kaiafa and his henchmen and the gold that had been distributed among a handful of Jews, strategically placed among the crowd, ended up tipping the balance in favor of the Sanhedrim.
When Pilatus had finished explaining to the crowd the presence of Yeshua in the courtroom, making it clear that he saw no reason in the man to justify the sentence, he asked a second question:
— Who do you want me to release? Bar Abbas, the murderer, or this Yeshua from Galilee?
For a moment the crowd of Jews was stunned. There was no immediate response. Those people, it was evident, wavered. Kaiafa and the Sadducees understood the grave risk that this silence represented, and, advancing towards Pilatus, they shouted loudly:
— Bar Abbas! Bar Abbas!
The initiative of the Sanhedrim's men had a quick echo. From different parts of the crowded courtyard, other voices rose, undoubtedly belonging to the bought Jews, who also cried out for the revolutionary's release. In a matter of seconds, the entire crowd imitated the priests joining in chorus to Kaiafa. It was useless for Yohanan Zebedee to almost lose his voice shouting his Rabbi's name. It got smothered by a Bar Abbas! Round and generalized, repeated again and again until the prosecutor, raising his arms, asked for silence.
In Pilatus' eyes there was a glint of hatred for those Sadducees, blatant instigators of an amorphous and ignorant mass. The irritation of the Roman procurator did not have its origin in the fact that this Galileo could or could not be executed. What angered him was, precisely, that his decision to release Yeshua found himself olympic despised by the priestly caste. But Pilatus' error in offering Yeshua as a possible candidate for deliverance was still susceptible of rectification.
Taking the floor again, he reproached them for their treacherous conduct:
— How is it possible to choose a murderer's life? — He said, pointing directly at Kaiafa — against that of this Galileo, whose most serious crime is to judge himself king of the Jews?
The result of those words was quite contrary to what Pilatus could have expected. The judges were extremely offended by what they saw as an insult to their national sovereignty, prompting the crowd to shout even louder for the zealot's freedom. And so it happened. Those Hebrews, mostly uneducated people, fullers, porters, beggars, pilgrims and, of course, Levites free from Temple service, raised their voices again, demanding the release of Bar Abbas.
The sudden popular explosion made the procurator hesitate, and, accompanied by his officers, he retired to deliberate. Yousef was convinced that if Pilatus hadn't put Yeshua in that election, he certainly wouldn't have been compromised before religious dignitaries. However, Yeshua remained calm in front of the crowd. Those minutes of waiting, and the ones that followed, were decisive for Kaiafa.
Taking advantage of the procurator's momentary absence, he arranged for his fellow conspirators to spread themselves among those gathered there, constantly inciting them to demand the release of the popular Bar Abbas. It was sad and disappointing for Yousef to watch these Jews, many of whom had known and admired Galileo's words and courage, as he had swept the Gentile court of the sacrilegious trade of money changers and middlemen.
In an instant, and without the slightest personal judgment, they had turned against the helpless Yeshua.
Pilatus returned to his chair and surveyed the crowd. He had braced his elbows on the arms of the chair, resting his head on his clasped hands in a thoughtful attitude. As a precautionary measure, Janus had ordered the wall door closed, placing several armed units around the crowd. The Jews did not notice that maneuver of the Romans.
Knowing as they knew Pilatus' cruelty, perhaps when they saw that they were being surreptitiously surrounded, they were more concerned with their safety than with anyone's release. The legion's commander-in-chief gave precise orders to his legionaries. If the order was threatened, they were allowed to draw their swords.
For a few minutes the Roman procurator was completely silent. The crowd followed suit, waiting for a decision. And they were at it when one of the Praetorium's servants appeared on the terrace, handing Janus a sealed letter, while communicating something to him. The centurion examined the small sheet of parchment and advanced to the chair, pulling Pilatus from his thoughts. The prosecutor opened the letter and, after reading it carefully, stood up.
Kaiafa, the judges and all who were gathered there were intrigued. Pilatus seemed to hesitate. He took two brief steps across the terrace, and finally, stopping, facing the crowd, he announced that he had received a letter from his wife, Claudia Prócula, and that he wished to read it in public. The wind forced him to hold the parchment in both hands.
In a clear, strong voice he began to read:
— I beg you, do not intervene for the condemnation of the righteous and innocent man who is called Yeshua. Last night, during a dream, I suffered a lot for Him.
Upon learning the contents of the letter, Yousef de Armathajim seemed to be very happy. Although the elder did not openly confess, all indications pointed to the important fact that Pontius' wife knew and accepted the teachings of Yeshua who had miraculously healed her son.
At first, upon noticing Janus' intense gaze, Yousef did not associate the text of Procula's letter with the acute superstition that dominated the procurator and with the augury he had dared to formulate in the centurion's presence. It was shortly afterwards, as they were heading to the central courtyard of the fortress to witness the scourging of Yeshua, that the chief officer recalled the words about the strange celestial phenomenon he had predicted for that morning, linking it to the mysterious dream of the procurator's wife.
All that, it seemed, had had a great effect on Pilatus. Maybe that's why, after reading the woman's message, the prosecutor, with a trembling voice, addressed the crowd again, asking them:
— Why do you want to crucify him? What harm did you?
The priests immediately realized the growing weakness of Caesar's representative and launched themselves at him, blustering nonstop:
— Crucify him... Crucify him!
The paroxysm of the Jews reached such an extreme that Pilatus' next question was hardly heard.
— Who wants to testify against Him?
The crowd could only repeat one word:
— Crucify him!
In view of the tumult, Janus unsheathed his sword and, raising it higher than his helmet, prepared to signal his men to action. But Pilatus compelled the centurion to sheath his weapon, and, waving his palms, asked for silence. Little by little, those fanatics regained their composure. And the prosecutor, ignoring the previous requests of the populace, repeated the question:
— I ask you once again to tell me which prisoner you want us to release on this Passover day. The response was equally monolithic and blunt:
— Give us Bar Abbas!
Pilatus was silent and, shaking his head in disapproval, insisted:
— If I release Bar Abbas, the murderer, what do I do with Yeshua?
That new sign of the prosecutor's weakness was met with a brutal outburst of violence. And the word crucify him! It rose like thunder.
The mob, with their fists raised, went on crying, ever louder:
— Crucify him! Crucify him! Crucify him!
The shouting so impressed Pilatus that, frightened, he withdrew from the terrace, returning to his residence. One of the officers, following Janus' instructions, hurried after the procurator. And a moment later, while the crowd, possessed by the idea of killing Yeshua, continued with their ominous request for crucifixion, the centurion who had left just after Pilatus reappeared at the entrance of the praetorium, bringing Janus a tragic order.
The chief centurion nodded and, raising his arms in an authoritative gesture, ordered:
— Silence!!!
The crowd obeyed, aware of the foreigner's power and extreme hardness. Once silence was obtained, Janus uttered brief but dramatic words that froze the hearts of Yousef and Yohanan:
— The procurator's order is this, the prisoner will be flogged...
And with utter contempt he turned on his heel, gesturing to his men to lead the defendant to the praetorium.
Without pausing to think, Yousef launched himself after Janus, joining the escort that crossed the vestibule of the official residence.
***
COMPLETELY ALONE
10:30 am – YERUSHALAYIM, FRIDAY, APRIL 7, A.D. 30
THAT TIME, Yohanan Zebedee did not accompany the Rabbi. The spectacle he was about to witness would have morally broken him.
They took the stairs on the right and we went down a long, damp corridor, lit only by a few oil lamps, the flames of which flickered as the escort passed. The centurion, visibly disgusted by the course of events, lamented the procurator's weakness.
— If it had been up to him, the trial against that Galileo would have ended without contemplation...
Yousef nodded.
— Between this visionary and a murderous zealot — he assured us as we walked the last few meters down the hall — Rome would not have hesitated. And even less so when this nest of snakes has the gall to challenge Caesar's authority...
Upon exiting the tunnel, Yousef soon recognized the porticoed courtyard that he had crossed on Wednesday morning, when he was preparing to meet Pilatus. From the vestibule of the praetorium, access could be gained, therefore, to that courtyard and the vaulted tunnel of the western entrance to the fortress, for which it was enough to walk the corridor of scarce fifty meters. The exit was exactly in the northeast corner of the courtyard, to the right of the marble stairs that led to Pilatus's oval office.
Following, apparently, a very frequent custom, the soldiers reached the center of the courtyard, stopping by the circular fountain of the goddess Roma. The centurion ordered the horses being brushed out, and as the riders pulled them by the reins, several dozen off-duty legionaries approached.
The news of the imminent scourging of that Jew who claimed to be king of the Hebrews had quickly spread through the garrison, who naturally did not want to miss the event. Janus suggested that Yousef step aside.
— Pilatus wants a… special punishment — added the centurion with a sarcastic smile — And by Zeus you will have it!
The officer's words made Yousef shiver. He looked at his friend, Yeshua, but he was still absent and immobile, his eyes fixed on the stream of water that came out of the small sphere that the goddess held in her left hand. The horses' hooves, retreating to one of the corners of the enclosure, marked the beginning of the torture.
Two of the legionaries had separated, especially strong ones. Both held large flagrums, or short whips, made of leather and metal handles, a foot long in their hands. From the cable came three straps of forty or fifty centimeters each, supported at the ends by pairs of astragalus or ram's hails. The other executioner was stroking the iron rings of his plumbata, from which two leather straps came out, with a pair of metal balls at each end.
At a signal from the commanding officer, two of the soldiers of the escort placed Yeshua in front of one of the four marks, forty centimeters in height, that surrounded the fountain and that were used to fasten the reins of the horses. One of the legionaries tried to loosen the bandages from Yeshua's wrists, but the knots had been so tied that, after several futile attempts, he had to use his sword, cutting them with one blow.
After nearly eight hours with his wrists tied behind his back, Yeshua's hands were swollen and violet in color.
Once untied, the legionaries removed the purple cloak that Herod Antipas had tied around his neck, then stripped off his wide robe. With the same violence they stripped him of his tunic. His clothes fell into one of the pools of horse urine. Finally, they took off her sandals. Then the same soldier who had cut the bandages stood in front of the prisoner, tying his wrists in front with the remnants of the rope he had just cut. With complete and absolute docility, Yeshua consented to everything without reacting.
With a tug, the legionnaire forced him to lean over the stone frame, hooking the rope to the metal ring that crowned the small column. Yeshua's great height and the small size of the frame forced him to open his legs a lot, getting into a very forced position. His hair had fallen into his face, hiding his features completely. Somehow Yousef was glad he couldn't see his face.
Suddenly, one of the executioners came forward and, grabbing Yeshua's loincloth, ripped it off with a sharp tug, leaving him entirely naked. The breaking of the strings that held the thong brought a sudden, intense pain to his genitals. His body jerked and his knees buckled for the first time. Seeing him naked, the legionaries burst out laughing. But the soldiers' mockery was interrupted by the arrival of Pilatus.
Without further preamble, the procurator ordered the executioners to begin.
***
THE BEGINNING OF THE SUPPLICE
YERUSHALAYIM, FRIDAY, APRIL 7, A.D. 30
IN A SILENCE OF EXPECTATION, the taller legionnaire, posted to Yeshua's right, raised his triple-tailed flagrum, shooting a terrible lash at Yeshua's back, at the same time singing the number of the blow.
— Unus!
The lash was so brutal that the Rabbi's knees buckled and hit the limestone cobbles with a thud. But with a reflex movement, Galileo got back to his feet, while the second executioner struck another blow with his bifid flagrum.
— Duo!
— Three!
— Quattour...
The consummate professional soldiers, wielded whips with a simple twist of the wrists. In this way, the belts rippled, achieving maximum effect with minimum effort.
— Quinque!
The clatter of small bones and metal balls was the only perceptible sound during the first few minutes. Yeshua, fully bowed, had not yet let out a single groan. Astragalus and lead pieces fell on his back, tearing off pieces of skin each time. At the first lash, several threads of blood had started to run through his body, running down his sides and dripping onto the pavement.
After sweating blood, Yeshua's skin was in a state of extreme fragility, and that volley of multiple blows soon ripped through it, turning his shoulders, back and waist into raw flesh.
Little by little, with each hiss of the flagrum, the astragalus and balls penetrated his skin, causing its ablation or separation, tearing the muscular tissues and tearing out vessels and nerves.
— Trigint!
At the thirtieth lash, Yeshua fell to his knees with his fingers gripping the metal rim of the column. His back, shoulders, and lower back were drenched in blood, with a multitude of bluish bruises as big as chicken eggs. The straps, for their part, had drawn dozens of burgundy welts.
The multiple bruises, some of which had begun to burst, led Yousef to think that the pain that Yeshua endured in those first few minutes must have reached paroxysm. But, fortunately for Him, the lashes, inflicted with as much fury as precision, opened many of the bruises, turning the back into a river of blood and, consequently, to some extent, lessening the pain.
— Quadragint!
Whip number forty arrived four or five minutes after the ordeal began. But far from shuddering, as it had with the previous blows, the Nazarene's body did not react.
Janus raised his vine rod, stopping the scourging. One of the sweaty executioners approached him, pulling his hair. After verifying that he had passed out, he let go of his head, which dropped in a swoon into the opening between his arms. The centurion hurried his men.
One of the legionaries filled a bucket with water from the spring, pouring it on the back of the Nazarene's neck. Upon contact with the liquid, Yeshua's head moved slightly, while part of the blood flowed to the ground, dragged by the water. The column, a wide swath of the fountain's circular wall, and the executioners' faces, arms and robes had been dyed red for some time. The bleeding, generalized in the back and kidney area, had begun to be worrying.
Even though the torture had stopped at the fortieth lash, thus coincidentally coinciding with the Jewish formula of scourging, the intention of Pilatus who accompanied him, impassive and silent, the course of the torture was that the massacre would continue. The executioners took advantage of their brief rest to lean over the tank and refresh their faces, while rubbing their arms to wash away all those splashes of blood. Although the legionaries in charge of the torment knew Latin, they were Syrian or Samaritan mercenaries. Generally, the Romans designated them when the condemned was Jewish. Their ancestral hatred for the Jews made them exemplary executioners.
Yeshua had gotten himself together. One of the executioners then grabbed him by the armpits, pulling him up. But the weight was excessive and he had to ask for help. When, at last, they managed to lift him, another soldier with a brass pot in his hands, stood in front of the tortured Nazarene, while the executioners, without any contemplation, pulled his hair and forced him to look up. So they kept it until the Roman who had the pan to empty into the Galilean's mouth.
When Yousef asked Janus what it was, he explained that the saucepan contained salt water. It was evident that the Roman army knew all too well the serious problems that could come from such a punishment. In particular, that of dehydration. Although Yeshua had been forced to drink a lot of water in the Sanhedrim, the excessive sweating in the Garden of Gethsemane and now, during the scourging, plus the massive hemorrhages he had suffered, had determined the body's water reserves and balance, both intracellular and extracellular. The salt water was, therefore, a decisive reinforcement, if Pilatus really wanted the prisoner not to die during the lashes.
Jewish law stipulated for the punishment of scourging a total of forty lashes minus one. The defendant was flogged with his hands tied to a pillar. The synagogue servant grabbed him by his clothes and tore them, tore them and tore them apart, tore them apart until his chest was exposed. Then he would place a stone and on top of it the synagogue servant, holding a veal thong in his hand. This one was first folded in two and the two in four, the other two straps went up and down on it.
But, as Janus had sentenced, the procurator's intention was to torture Yeshua to the limit, in such a way that his lamentable state could satisfy and move the aggressive moods of the Sadducees. So, once the contents of the pot had been drunk, the centurion raised his staff and the legionaries took up their flagrums again, continuing the punishment.
— Unus!
The new blow and the ones that followed were aimed especially at the thighs, legs, buttocks, belly and part of the arms and chest. The back and waist were spared this time.
The blows of the straps, wrapping themselves around Yeshua's legs, forced him to a supreme contraction of the muscular bundles, especially those found on the posterior sides of the thighs, which were thus more vulnerable. Very quickly, his skin opened up, causing a much stronger hemorrhage than the one on his back.
— Decem!
In a titanic effort to bear the pain, Yeshua had clung to the ring on his spine, lifting his face as far as he could. The muscles in his neck, as taut as a bowstring, contrasted with his supraclavicular fossae, bathed in a cold sweat that ran incessantly and dimmed the bright red of his blood.
— Duo-de-viginti!
The executioner sang the number eighteen, throwing the whip at Yeshua's chest. One of the pairs of bones must have injured Yeshua's left nipple, and the intense pain provoked a reflex movement.
Yeshua stood up with all his strength, at the same time that the teeth solidly pressed against each other opened, releasing a piercing groan.
It was his first lament.
The jerk was so fast and strong that the ropes that held him to the ring broke and the Galilean's body was violently thrown backwards, catching the executioners and the rest of the troop unawares, who retreated, frightened. The Nazarene landed heavily on his back, skidding across the cobblestones, where he left a wide trail of blood.
When the legionaries rushed at him, lifting him heavily, Yeshua's breathing was extremely agitated. The soldiers dragged him to the small column, attaching him to the ring again. And the executioners began the whippings again, extremely irritated by that annoyance.
The lashes, more and more relentless, gradually took down the prisoner's body, who ended up bending his knees, while his fingers, dripping with blood, twitched in pain. With each lash, Yeshua had begun to respond with a short, short groan.
The executioners, consummate specialists, knew very well which areas they could touch and which they could not. The precision of the lashes, on the other hand, opened Yeshua's flanks until the fibrous bands, or aponeuroses, of the infraspinous muscles were uncovered. The pain, by destroying these last protections of the ribs, had to reach thresholds difficult to imagine, great part of the muscles of the back appeared torn and full of bruises that, by not bursting, extraordinarily stretched what was left of skin, multiplying the sensation of pain. .
The legionaries had chosen the areas that were most painful, but least likely to cause cardiac arrest, which could perhaps kill the Nazarene. They mainly chose the front of the thighs, pectorals and inner areas of the muscles, avoiding the heart, liver, pancreas, spleen and main arteries, such as those in the neck.
Some of the blows, especially one of the last ones, which had directly hit the testicles, causing the second fainting.
— Quadragint!
The lash forty, which in reality completed the eighty lashes, if we consider the first forty, fell on a man practically destroyed. Yeshua, with his body deformed by bruises and bathed in blood, was barely moving. His imperceptible wails could no longer be heard and all he could hear in the courtyard was the crack of whips as they slammed into the flesh and the increasingly labored breathing of the executioners, visibly exhausted.
The prisoner had been curled up in a ball for some time, with his head and part of his chest resting on his arms, in a fetal position. The lashes, increasingly slower and more spaced, continued to lacerate her buttocks, belly, sides and sides of her legs, even injuring the soles of her feet. Some of the legionaries, annoyed or moved by this savage beating, had begun to leave the place, going about their usual business.
Janus, who was watching the progressive exhaustion of the executioners, directed a significant look at Lucilius, the gigantic centurion I had seen at the Roman soldier's palace. The one from Pannonia understood the primus prior's intentions and, pushing his way through the elements of the court, raised his arm, catching in flight the flagrum of the legionary posted to Yeshua's right, as he prepared to vibrate another blow. The sudden presence of that human tower, wielding the triple-tailed whip, was enough for both executioners to retreat, letting themselves fall almost breathlessly onto the flagstones of the courtyard.
The soldiery, who knew the officer's strength and cruelty, was silent, suspended in each and every movement of that seven-foot-tall giant. Lucilius stroked the straps, cleaning them of blood with his fingers. Then, placing himself a meter from the prisoner's left side, he raised his right arm, launching a fierce and sure lash to the lower part of Yeshua's buttocks.
The lash hit his coccyx and the sharp pain reactivated the Rabbi's nervous system, and he got up for a few seconds. But between great tremors, his muscles buckled, falling to his knees. The legionaries welcomed that studied attack with an exclamation that was repeated with each lash:
— Soon alter!
A second blow, this time aimed at the crook of his left leg, made him groan, while the soldier repeated excitedly:
— Soon alter!
The third, fourth and fifth lashes fell on the kidneys...
— Soon they alter!... Soon they alter!... Soon they alter!...
Lucilio's violence was such that the mutton astragalus became embedded in the flesh, causing a profuse hemorrhage with each blow.
— Soon they alter!... Soon they alter!...
The sixth and seventh lashes fell on each of Yeshua's ear pavilions. Almost instantly, on either side of his neck, wide rivulets of blood ran.
Yeshua bent his head to the metal rim and the centurion sought his right flank, unleashing all his fury in his navel.
— Soon alter!
The savage blow to the prisoner's belly decisively affected the punished diaphragm, practically cutting off his labored breathing. That was one of the most delicate moments of the punishment. For seconds that seemed interminable, the prisoner's rib cage remained motionless. But eventually the intercostal muscles responded, relieving the pulmonary tension.
— Soon alter!
The ninth lash, vibrated by the colossus on Yeshua's lacerated flank, emitted a hollow sound, as if the astragalus had hit him squarely in the ribs. The impetus of the officer, who had begun to sweat profusely from his forehead, was such that the prisoner's body became unbalanced, falling to the left side.
At that moment, another pain muffled by the atrocious ordeal of the flagellation injured the prisoner's organism, the urinary bladder, so full that, involuntarily, the sphincters of the ureters opened, giving rise to abundant urination.
The involuntary discharge of urine only served to provoke the laughter of the Romans and a far more violent fit of rage in Lucilius, who took it as a personal insult. Lifting the whip, he angrily aimed it at his testicles. One of the ends of the flagrum touched the skin of the scrotum and the other two fell into the testicular pouch.
Reacting to the lacerating blow, Yeshua flinched, at the same time as his pulse quickened and an anguished groan mingled with the last "Early alter!"
Immediately the pulse dropped and Yeshua, turning pale, fainted.
Janus raised the pole again, ordering the soldiers to examine him. Then, approaching the prosecutor, he asked him for instructions.
— Should I continue the punishment?
Before Pontius could make a decision, the brutal Lucilius insinuated to the procurator that, given the prisoner's situation, it would be best to finish him on the spot.
Pilatus looked at Yeshua's stiff and bloody body, hesitating. The officer who had performed that last part of the scourging took up his sword, convinced that Pilatus' common sense would lean towards the solution he had just proposed. But the water that had been poured over the prisoner's head and neck again stimulated the precarious state of Yeshua, who slowly regained his senses.
The progressive recovery of the Nazarene inclined Pilatus to continue with his plan and, before retiring from the courtyard, he ordered Janus:
— Take care of the Galilean and bring him to my presence as soon as possible.