THE CROWN OF THORNS
11:01 am — YERUSHALAYIM, FRIDAY, APRIL 7, A.D. 30
THE LEGIONS RELEASE and, with great difficulty, grab the back of the prisoner who had served for the scourging. The soldiers of the soldiers placed themselves a few inches behind the landmark, supporting the still ill—treated body of Yeshua by their shoulders, and with sporadic and extreme, with sporadic and shuddering to the end of stitches.
He will always keep an eye on January, force himself to take care of the prisoner's water for an attentive second to take a dose with salt. Some of the wounds had begun to clot and many of the blood strands had begun to dry. As of the flanks, however, it always became a sloping pour, to the rhythm of the alternating movement in time, increasingly shorter and faster.
The centurion shook his head in clear disapproval, realizing that the triple punishment that the previous youth's law had been completely disproportionate to the point of fearing for the prisoner's life.
— Enough! Put him on his feet and wear him.
The chief officer's voice rang out, filled with impatience.
It took two legionaries supporting or mistreating his body to regain his vertical position. Extreme weakness made his knees buckle, forcing the soldiers to hold him under the armpits. Other Romans, at an order from us, did not help the companions, trying to get him stuck on the slab.
When being, some wounds especially as of the abundant flanks, raised virbuds bleeding in blood through the belly, thighs and on the slabs. Someone picked up the garment after the tunic, put the blanket over the left shoulder, after the body. The bread was firmly attached to Yeshua's chest and back, so that his back was left with the tunic, sometimes with bandages.
The Romans knew that it was an excellent process for many of the wounds, as well as this part of the hemorrhages. The blood poppy, just the white robe that began to drip down the sleeves and the bottom, and the spongy fabric was dyed with red circles. They forced them to take the steps, when they had barely dragged their bare feet across the floor, as they forced him but pushed him to give his feet to fall. The quick intervention of Janus' legionaries prevented it from falling.
The group questioned the centurion with their eyes and the latter, dismayed, indicated to his men to seat him on one of the wooden benches in the portico. Janus understands, at the time, he was on time until he was where the prosecutor was waiting. It would have been necessary for several soldiers to accompany and support him. The feverish tremors continued to shake the body of Yeshua who, little by little, step by step, was taken by the Romans to one of the benches on the eastern side of the courtyard while other legionaries began to wash the slab and column where the scourging had taken place.
The working loins, for those who tend to the source.
The centurion after meditating on the path of direction and safety, of safety, of following the tunnel that leads to the one that leads. Finally, they sat him down on one of the benches, and in so doing. A rite of pain crossed his face again. It was very possible that that gesture was provoked by blows on the coccyx or rinses.
On the contrary, in the wood, for a few minutes, the attitude of the legionaries was calm, even correct. Two will remain with the Nazarene, suspended from his recovery, and the others will join a group that was shouting, in one of the corners of the courtyard.
The soldiers started a game called Three on the Strip. Using their swords, the members of the garrison drew a circle on one of the slates, also carving, within the circle, a series of crude figures and letters. The B that serves for the so-called move of the King or Basileus, in Greek was a royal crown. These figures were constituted from each other by means of a line that zigzagged inside the circle. The participants served with four astragalus, previously marked with letters and numbers thrown, which were inside the circle, and can be presented as different plays, according to how figures or letters happened to fall.
The game gradually came to life and several of the legionaries sang plays like Alexandre, Dario and Efebo. Finally, the players were lucky enough to have one of the bones roll to the crown, playing the king, which was the final move of the game.
The astragalus caught them and the one who had won, surely by what was the last stroke of luck, noticed the prisoner comrades continuing the game, but this time with a real king. The idea was welcomed with enchantment and the group was directed to the bank or willing to have fun with those who proclaim themselves kings of the damned and the day of the Hebrews.
Janus' absence made those who escorted Yeshua hesitate, but they soon joined in the jokes and rudeness of their companions. Two of that dozen of bored and idle legionaries made wing, more soldiers passed. With a sea air containing their laughter, the two soldiers approached the Nazarene, who had the sense of bowing his usual head and the usual support and bitter trance.
One of those who had begun to parade towards the prisoner had in his hands a complicated helmet, plaited with thorny brambles. It had the shape of an orange sock, with a support at the base, formed on one side by other green reeds, formed by other fibers, also reeds. The helmet stands out with half a dozen very flexible branches, among which straight and parrot-beaked ones stand out, with dimensions between twenty millimeters and six centimeters.
The bulk of the legaries were concentrating on their mockery of Yeshua, the two had entered one of the wooden warehouses of the fortress, the idea of entering the house of a crown for the king of youth. The idea was received by the comrades with laughter and applause. The one wearing that dangerous helmet with its slender, brownish branches bows, simulating a bow. Then, head down and crowned head half a meter above Rabbi, raping her in the na.
An alarm of satisfaction of satisfaction rose from the throats of the soldiery, muffling the groan of Yeshua who, with the others, was with his head, involuntarily hitting his occipital region against the wall. The collision with the wall made it enter more like spikes in the back of the skull.
The helmet, brutally put on, covered most of his head. The arch to which the thorny net was attached was at the height of the tip of the nose, making it difficult, even, to see Yeshua. The sharp ears, which pierce the scalp, temples, temples, the scalp and part of the faces, reflexes with eyes closed, between the long ones during the seconds with the mouth open, trying to inhale.
One of the spikes, in the form of a hook, penetrated a few centimeters from the left eyebrow, into the orbicularis muscle, giving rise to a copious hemorrhage, which quickly covered the supraciliary arch, flooding the eye, face and beard with blood.
Blood began to flow in abundance, constantly from the beard to the chest. But soldiers, who were not yet intending to replace soldiers, who were not yet ready, were put in search of the cloak, which was not yet leveled.
Another legionnaire put a cane in his hands and, kneeling down, exclaimed amid the general rejoicing:
— Hail, King of the Jews!
The bows, curses, spitting and kicking in the shins of the Nazarene were ever more frequent, amusing the crowd more and more. One of the noises was the passage of gases a few centimeters from Yeshua and many soldiers neighboring the tunic face and, causing little of the intestinal gas with a lot of discomfort, causing little new and strident gas bandaged.
The amusement of the shadow of his men was suddenly hidden from the men by the presence of the great shadowless bustle of his men attracted to the man. He watched the scene in silence and, with a knowing smile, stood in front of the prisoner. The legionaries, intrigued, fell silent and lifting the diaper, the centurion urinated on his legs, chest and face.
The new insult dragged the Romans into a roar of laughter that would last even after the officer had finished.
The commander of the forces made his entrance into the central courtyard of the Antonia Fortress at the moment when one of the salmados was snatching the cane from the Nazarene's hands and giving him a strong blow on the thorn helmet. The predecessors and legionaries disappeared immediately, before the arrival of Janus.
When the centuriated the escort over that one and the new soldiers responsible for the shoulders, comrades. But these dispersed among them had like columns and the courtyard.
Visibly annoyed with the discipline of his men, or officer to the soldiers to lift the condemned man to his feet and follow him. So they did and Yeshua, a little more composed, although with evident chills, began to walk towards the tunnel, dragging himself to his left leg. Beside him, and attentive to the prisoner, came three more soldiers, who did not separate until he returned to the place of the scourging.
***
PILATE WASHES HIS HANDS
11:15 am — YERUSHALAYIM, FRIDAY, APRIL 7, A.D. 30
WHEN LEAVING THE PRATORY, the Sun, higher and higher, illuminated the tall figure of Yeshua. At the sight of him, the crowd waiting in front of the stairs let out a murmur, inevitably taken aback by his terrible appearance.
The escort stopped in the middle of the terrace, to the left of the chair where Pilatus was waiting. This one, seeing the helmet of thorns on Yeshua's skull, stirred, nervous and indignant, looked at Janus, questioning him, while pointing with his index finger at the prisoner's head.
When he stopped in front of the crowd, Yeshua bent over and with his fingers intertwined, trying to control the great tremors that shook him, he immediately felt the warm presence of the Sun. Very slowly, as if trying to absorb the sweet caress of its rays, he raised his face until he was looking straight at the solar disk.
HEAD PRIESTS and religious leaders watch him step forward, the crown of thorns still on his head. Their presence was the memory of the man who publicly humiliated them in the Temple courts just three days ago.
They see how much he suffered now, but they don't feel sorry for him. Yeshua should die, and the more painful his death, the better.
FOR A FEW SECONDS, the deep circles under his eyes and the cataract of blood that hid his face were perfectly visible to the crowd, but when he raised his head, the spikes were against the base of his neck, piercing the back of his neck again, and the pain forced him to him to lower his face. Paralyzed by the tragic transformation of his Rabbi, Yohanan Zebedee finally reacted and, releasing Yousef's arm from Armathajim, ran to Yeshua, kneeling and crying at his feet.
The legionaries questioned the centurion with their eyes, intent on pulling the young friend away from the prisoner, but Janus, extending his left hand, motioned for them to leave.
For a few minutes both Pilatus and the crowd were startled by the boy's cry, and a respectful silence reigned in the courtyard. Twice Yeshua wanted to bend over to Yohanan, trying to bring the trembling and bloody hands of the most beloved disciple, but the crown of thorns and the rigidity of the bandages prevented him. The disciple's new gesture of courage and the Nazarene's shattered countenance moved the Roman procurator.
Rising from the armchair, he took short steps to the top of the stairs. Then, pointing to Yeshua and without losing sight of Kaiafa and the Sadducees, he exclaimed, trying to arouse the pity of the accusers:
— Here you have the Man... I declare to you again that I do not find him guilty of any crime... After I have punished him, I want to set him free.
Once again Pilatus was wrong. Though the crowd did not dare to reply, the high priest and his men responded, chanting the acquaintance crucify him! Little by little, the crowd joined the manifestations of the men of the Sanhedrim, mercilessly chorusing:
— Crucify him! Crucify him!
Disillusioned, Pilatus returned to the courthouse and waited for the crowd to calm down. The wind, increasingly hot and unpleasant, began to raise great eddies of dust that were dragged to the east, lashing ever harder at the north wing of the Antonia Tower. Janus was immediately aware of the change in the atmosphere, and after seeing how the sentries on the turrets of the wall sought shelter from the gusting wind.
Once the mob had calmed down, Pilatus, with his right hand gripping the wig, which the Sirocco threatened, spoke to the Hebrews, with an unmistakable tone of dismay in his words.
— I fully recognize that you have decided to kill this man. But what did he do to deserve damnation? Who wants to declare his crime?
Kaiafa, congested with anger, climbed the stairs and, after spitting on Yeshua, faced the procurator, shouting at him:
— We have a sacred law by which this man must die. He declared himself to be the Son of God... Blessed be his name!
Turning his head towards the downcast prisoner, he spat at him again.
The procurator looked at Yeshua with sudden fear. Blood continued to drip from his forehead, staining Yohanan's cloak, who, kneeling and hugging his feet, seemed not to pay any attention to what was happening.
Kaiafa walked purposefully back into the crowd, and Pilatus, his face pale and hair in disarray, clapped both palms on the arms of his armchair, ordering Janus to take the Galilean to his residence. The soldiers forced him to turn around, again leading him into the atrium.
Obeying an impulse of pity, Yousef bent down to Yohanan, encouraging him to get up and stop his crying. Then, putting his arm around his shoulders and putting his face to his chest, he took him to the praetorium.
Pilatus, with his hands martially behind his back, took short steps through the center of the place. However, a short distance from the door, Janus and the soldiers waited.
Seeing them, the procurator stopped his nervous steps and asked them in a low voice, as if he feared that they might hear him:
— Yousef, do you believe that this Galilean could be a god who descended to Earth like the deities of Olympus?
The Roman's pale eyes glittered and fluttered, superstitious fear invaded and, it seemed to him, deepening. But Pilatus did not wait for his answer. After smoothing his false hair, putting it in place, he turned around, approaching Yeshua, and in a trembling voice asked:
— Where do you come from?... Who are you? Why do they say you are the Son of God?
Yeshua lifted his face slightly, casting a pitying glance at that weak judge, cornered by his own doubts. But Yeshua's trembling lips did not open.
Pilatus, increasingly restless, insisted:
— Do you then refuse to answer? Do you not understand that I still have power enough to set you free or crucify you?
Hearing the ominous warnings, the Galilean finally replied in a thin voice:
— You would have no power over me without permission from above..."
Yeshua's extreme weakness made his words reach the procurator's ears very muffled. The latter, getting as close as he could to the clotted blood clinging to the Rabbi's beard and mustache, asked him to repeat:
— What do you say?
— You cannot exercise any authority over the Son of Man — added Yeshua, making an effort — unless the Heavenly Father consents...
Pilatus recoiled, eyes wide with astonishment. But the Nazarene was not finished:
— But you are not entirely to blame, since you are ignorant of the gospel. He who betrayed me and handed me over to you committed the greatest of sins.
The Roman knew well enough to whom the prisoner was referring, and the unexpected confession, partly freeing Pilatus from his responsibility, seemed to relieve him greatly. The procurator forgot his questions and, with a smile of thanks, returned to the terrace.
The escort prepared to follow him, but Yeshua, addressing Yohanan, placed his hand on the disciple's head, making a request:
— Yohanan, you can't do anything for me... Go and bring my mother so she can see me before she dies.
Janus also heard those painful words and, having an intuition of the outcome, encouraged Yohanan Zebedee:
— Fulfill your Rabbi's last wish, young man, go without wasting time.
Yousef released the boy and, hiding his anguish, nodded, confirming the officer's noble intention. Yohanan crossed the threshold of the praetorium, losing himself in the crowd. Previously, the officer ordered one of his men to accompany the apostle to the gates of the wall, helping him to cross it without difficulty.
Back on the terrace, Pilatus, much more encouraged by the Prisoner's words, had begun to address the crowd. The tone of his voice denoted the firm desire to free Yeshua.
Yousef de Armathajim's face brightened with hope again, and even Yehudhah, who had been one of the few who had not joined in the crucifixion cries, seemed relieved by the procurator's resolute attitude.
— I am convinced that this Man — announced Pilatus, was only guilty of religion, so he must be arrested and subjected to your own laws — Why do you expect me to condemn him to death, for being in conflict with your traditions?
The unexpected change of the procurator of Rome exasperated the spirits of the Sadducees, who formed a circle, arguing heatedly. Pilatus, extremely pleased with the Sadducees' general annoyance, sat down in the transport chair, giving Janus a wink. But before the procurator could taste that ephemeral triumph, Kaiafa, pale and with bloodshot eyes, went back up the stairs and, threatening Pilatus with his left hand, threw these words at him at point—blank range:
—If you let go of that Man, you are not Caesar's friend...
The high priest's anger was such that his voluminous belly began to rise and fall, agitated by his breath. At the sentence of the high priest Pilatus paled.
— I will try by all means — concluded the astute son-in-law of Ananus — that the emperor has knowledge of this.
Knowing the prosecutor as he knew the wave of denunciations, arrests and executions that flooded the empire in those last few months, Kaiafa's fulminating ultimatum ended up disarming him. Without a doubt, it was a low blow. Tiberius, and more specifically the dreaded Sejanus, had heard of the two revolts provoked by Pilatus' uncompromising position, one motivated by the placement of the emperor's emblems and insignia in the center of Yerushaláyim, and the second by the illegal expropriation of the Temple treasury for the construction of an aqueduct, and both events had earned the prosecutor admonitions. If the uncompromising general of the Praetorian Guard, who took Caesar's place, were to receive disturbing news again about the conduct of his trusted man in that province, Pilatus' political career could be seriously threatened.
The high priest had intentionally referred to his title of friend of Caesar which further weakened the will of the Roman judge. Although Pontius Pilatus was undoubtedly an acquaintance and friend of Tiberius, Kaiafa's allusion was explosive. The Chief Priests knew that the procurator was a member of the equestrian order, bearing the title of aeques illustrior and the dignity of Caesar's friend, that is to say, a very special distinction. It was precisely that privilege that made Pilatus' position at the top of the Empire even more delicate.
The Sanhedrim had the means to get their complaints to Sejanus and Tiberius on the island of Capri about what they saw as a new irregularity on the part of the procurator, and Pilatus knew it.
The final astute maneuver demoralized the Roman, who, lacking a strict sense of justice and without time to coldly reflect, eventually gave in. Confused and beside himself, he got up from the curul chair and, pointing to Yeshua, said sarcastically:
— Here is your king!
Kaiafa and the Hebrew judges knew that they had just wounded the Roman's purposes to death, and, encouraging the crowd again, they replied to Pilatus:
— Finish him!... Crucify him!... Crucify him!
The prosecutor dropped into his chair and, practically without strength, exclaimed:
— Shall I crucify your king?
One of the Sadducees climbed to the second step and shouted, pointing to the front of the praetorium:
— Only Caesar is our king!
Pilatus was aware that this statement was hypocritical, but he did not dare to reply. He called Janus and, after exchanging a few sentences with the first officer, announced to the Jews his intention to release Bar Abbas. The populace applauded the procurator's decision, but Pilatus, oblivious to this recognition, asked the servants to bring him a basin of water. On hearing Pilatus, the centurion expressed his strangeness. But he complied by ordering one of the legionaries to hasten to carry out the procurator's wishes.
Head bowed, Yeshua watched in silence that last part of the dialectical struggle between the Jews and Caesar's representative. When the soldier returned to the terrace, carrying a large clay basin, overflowing with water, he stood in front of Pilatus and waited. The procurator put his chubby hands into the container, rubbing them together for a few seconds. Then, before the astonished gaze of the centurion, the legionaries and the crowd, he ordered the soldier to withdraw.
Raising his arms above his head, he shouted, so that everyone could hear him clearly:
— I am innocent of this Man's blood! — Are you determined that I die? Well, for my part, I don't consider him guilty...
The crowd cheered again, at the same time as the voice of one of the Sanhedrim's men was heard:
— May his blood be on us and our children!
The Sanhedrim was fully aware of the value and gravity of their sentence, asking that the blood of Yeshua fall on them and their descendants. Pilatus wiped his hands on the hem of his robe and, turning his back on Kaiafa and the crowd, saluted the Nazarene with an upraised arm. Immediately afterwards, as he walked towards the door of the Praetorium, he turned his face to Janus, saying:
— It's up to you.
And the legionaries, with the centurion at their head, followed in the footsteps of the procurator, withdrawing from the terrace. The lot was cast. From that moment on, events took place in the midst of great confusion.
The escort that surrounded Yeshua followed the tunnel path, ending up again in the porticoed courtyard. To Yousef's surprise, Pilatus was present when the legionaries stopped by the fountain. The procurator was in a hurry to put an end to this tedious affair and urged Janus to have Yeshua transferred without delay to the place of execution.
***
A MAN AND HIS STORIES
NEWS OF YESHUA'S INTELLECTUAL victory spread through the Temple courts. Now the pilgrims loved him even more. They spoke of him as a true prophet and hoped that he would fulfill the promise of his triumphant arrival in Yerushaláyim just two days ago.
The sun rose higher and higher in the sky, and the Temple courts went about their routine as Yeshua held the attention of the crowds. Instead of retreating after his earlier embarrassment, the chief priests and elders continued to watch over him. The Nazarene told a parable about a wealthy landowner and his troubled tenants. The parable suggested, in its conclusion, that the religious leaders would lose their authority and be replaced by others whose belief was more genuine.
Then Yeshua told a second parable, this time about the Kingdom of Heaven, comparing it to a wedding in which God, the father of the bridegroom, prepared a lavish feast for the son's guests. He again alluded to the religious leaders in the last sentence, a criticism that referred to a guest who arrived without the wedding garment and then had his hands and feet tied and was thrown out of the ceremony.
— For many are called — says Yeshua about the Kingdom of Heaven — but few are chosen.
This was a great offense to them, for the authority of the religious leaders lay precisely in the fact that they were the chosen ones. To publicly contradict this idea was a serious defamation of character. So they finally left the Temple courts and changed their strategy, sending the disciples themselves to fight a theological battle. They were cunning and, instead of attacking Yeshua, they tried to soften him up with flattery.
— Rabbi, we know that you are righteous and that you do not allow yourself to be influenced by anyone, because you do not cling to the appearance of men, but teach the way of God according to the truth.
The flattery stopped there. Knowing that they could hardly catch Yeshua in some theological slip, the disciples of the Pharisees now tried to frame him using Rome.
— Is it right to pay tax to Caesar or not? — they ask. — Should we pay or not?
— Why are you putting me to the test? — Yeshua retorts. He asks someone to give him a denarius. — Whose image and inscription are these? — He asks, lifting the coin.
— From Caesar — they reply.
— Give to Caesar what is Caesar's — Yeshua tells them — and to God what is God's.
Once again, the crowd was stunned. Although Caesar was a feared name, the Nazarene marginalized Rome without directly offending him. The brilliance of Yeshua's words would be remembered for many, many ages.
Having failed in their mission, the disciples left and would soon be replaced by the Sadducees, a wealthy and more liberal Temple sect of which Kaiafa was a part. They tried again to penetrate Yeshua's aura of vulnerability with a religious riddle, again without success.
Then the Pharisees return to try their luck.
— Rabbi — asks their leader, a man known for being an expert in the field of law. — Of all the commandments, which is the most important?
According to the teachings of the Pharisees, there were 613 religious commandments. Although each of them carried a designation that determined their degree of importance, the fact was that they all had to be followed. Asking Yeshua to choose just one was a clever way to corner him, forcing him to defend his choice.
But Yeshua does not choose any of these pre—established laws. Instead, he articulates a new commandment:
— The most important thing is this: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
The Pharisees were silent.
How to oppose this argument?
Not satisfied, Yeshua adds a second commandment:
— Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no greater commandment than these.
Yeshua defeated the brightest minds in the Temple. But he was not content with this victory. Instead, the Nazarene turned to the pilgrims and condemned the priests:
— Everything they do is to be seen by men — he tells the crowd. — They make their phylacteries very wide, and the fringes of their garments very long; they like the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in synagogues, to be greeted in the squares and to be called Rabbis.
Six times Yeshua denounced the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. He called them the race of vipers. He told them that they were unclean. He denounced them for focusing on trivial details of religious life, such as whether or not to pay tithes on their herbs and spices, completely ignoring the true meaning of God's law in the process. Worse still, Yeshua predicted that these self—styled holy men would be damned to hell.
— Yerushaláyim, Yerushaláyim — laments Yeshua, knowing that his time of preaching has come to an end.
The Nazarene leaves the Temple and would only be seen in public again at the time of his condemnation.
HE SIGNED his death warrant in predicting the destruction of the Temple:
— Are you seeing all this? — he asks. — I guarantee that no stone will be left unturned here; will all be overthrown.
Yeshua says these words to his disciples, but they were overheard by a Pharisee. This claim was considered a capital crime.
A short time later, Yeshua was sitting on top of the Mount of Olives. He had been in this exact spot for a week, riding a donkey and crying. Now he was reflective. With his disciples seated beside him, he summed up his short life. Night fell as he told his followers to make the most of their lives, speaking in parables so they would understand the magnitude of his words.
The disciples listen to him, fascinated, but worried by his prediction that, after his death, they too would be persecuted and killed. To lessen the impact of this revelation, Yeshua shared with them his ideas about the Kingdom of Heaven and promised the disciples that God would reveal himself to them and to the world.
— As you know — he concludes — we are two days away from Passover, and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified.
As Yeshua spoke, the chief priests and elders gathered in Kaiafa's palace. They were desperate. Killing the Nazarene was the only way out they could see. But time was short. First, Yeshua should be arrested. After his arrest, there should be a trial. However, religious laws stated that there should be no trials during Passover and that they could not be held at night. If they planned to kill Yeshua, he should be arrested the next day or Thursday and put on trial before sunset. The urgency is all the greater because of the religious determination that, in the event of a death penalty, a full night must pass before the sentence is carried out.
Kaiafa knew very well that all these details could be manipulated, he had the Roman procurator in his hands, Pilatus' mistakes in the past had left him with a noose around his neck. The key at this point was to get Yeshua arrested, the other problems could be resolved later. None of the people who heard Yeshua's words in the Temple courts could be alerted, lest there be a rebellion. Such a confrontation would require the interference of Pontius Pilatus and Kaiafa would be held accountable. Therefore, the arrest should take place in secret. Kaiafa would need help with this, but little did he know that one of Yeshua's own disciples was planning to hand him over. All he wanted was just some money in return.
***
GAIUS CASSIUS LONGINUS
YERUSHALAYIM, FRIDAY, APRIL 7, A.D. 30
AFTER THE PUBLIC DEFEAT suffered by the procurator in front of the Sanhedrim's dignitaries, his intention to return to Caesarea had become an obsession. Pilatus was aware of having committed a run over and did not even have the courage to face Yeshua.
The centurion exchanged impressions with several of the officers and, finally, he was named Cassius Longinus, a veteran soldier, born in Tusculum, a city nestled in the Albanian mountains, a fellow countryman and friend of Sulpicius Quirinius, who had been a senator of Emperor Augustus. With him he had fought, precisely in the war against the Homonadenes, a rebellious tribe that inhabited the Taurus mountain range, in presente-day Asia Minor. He was a man of few words, with an affectionate and direct look and a good knowledge of the people and the land. Longinus is a name derived from the Greek lonkhe, which meant spear.
At that moment, thanks to his courage and proven loyalty, he was promoted to the rank of Quartus princips posterior or centurion of the second century, of the second maniple of the fourth court. At his age, fifty-five, he was about to leave the service and go home and enjoy the laurels of a successful career. There were numerous grays in his hair and a deep scar on his cheekbones and eyebrows, the result of one of the countless battles he had fought since his youth.
In total, four legionaries and an optio, or junior officer, were appointed as a patrol in charge of the custody and subsequent execution of Yeshua.
Longinus' optio or lieutenant was precisely Marcellus, the Roman who had directed Yeshua's prison on the Mount of Olives.
Everything seemed resolved.
Longinus put one of his men in charge of measuring Yeshua's wingspan, while another made his way to the guard post at the western entrance in search of another object.
Pilatus was ready to leave when Janus, after consulting the person responsible for the escort, suggested something to him that, in principle, was not foreseen:
— Why not take the opportunity to also crucify the two terrorists, companions of Bar Abbas?
The prosecutor hesitated for a moment, but that didn't seem like a bad idea. The execution of those assassins was initially scheduled for the days following the celebration of Passover.
Pilatus grimaced with displeasure, but the chief centurion insisted, making him see that as things stood the collective crucifixion would simplify the risks that always came with the death of zealots. A good part of the Jewish people protected and encouraged the revolutionaries, and it was quite possible that their condemnation would bring about a change in public order.
After the relentless insistence of the priests on the promulgation of capital punishment for the Galilean, it was doubtful whether protests would be registered if the execution of the members of the separatist movement took place at the same time as that of the alleged king of the Jews.
The Roman procurator listened silently to the commander's reasons and, waving his hands casually, hinted to Janus that he had his approval, but to act quickly. With a simple movement of his head, the centurion indicated to Marcellus that he should see to the transfer of the Zealots.
Pilatus turned his head, moved. Then, forgetting the conversation with Janus and forgetting the defendants, he returned to the centurions. He was about to ask Janus to authorize Yousef to go in escort and witness the executions when he entered the courtyard from one of the multiple doors that opened beneath the colonnades, the legionary who had measured Yeshua's stature.
***
PATIBULUM
YERUSHALAYIM, FRIDAY, APRIL 7, A.D. 30
FOR THIS, THE SOLDIER, very used to this task, judging by his resourcefulness, had taken up one of the spears and, while another companion raised the arms of the Galileo in the position of the crucified, the bearer of the pilum stood behind the defendant, measuring the distance between the tips of the two hands.
Now, once the gruesome measurement had been taken, the Roman had returned to the central courtyard, carrying a heavy log, an extremely rough, uncut trunk, with a coarse hole in the center. This rude opening, about ten centimeters in diameter, crossed the wood from one side to the other, in the direction of thickness. The legionnaire, who was equipped with a long, thick rope, set the patibulum down, placing one of the perfectly sawn knives on the slab. And he waited.
The origin of the patibulum goes back to the beam that served to lock the doors of Rome. Removing it opens the door. Hence the name.
By placing the wood in a vertical position, the Roman officer could verify that its length reached almost two meters. As for its thickness, he calculated that it would be around eight inches. It was solid solid wood, weighing no less than thirty pounds. Janus approached the legionary, asking him which of the three that trunk was for.
The soldier smiled wryly and, pointing first to Yeshua, made a significant sign with his thumb. He put it down, in the manner of the Caesares when they decreed the death of gladiators.
Janus ran his hands over the rough surface of the patibulum and concluded that it was the trunk of a pine tree, so common in Palestine or perhaps imported from the forests of Lebanon. Engrossed in analysis, he did not notice the arrival of Bar Abbas's two fellow zealots.
The optio and the legionaries had brought them tied up, right up to the procurator and the other centurions. As soon as he saw them, Janus ordered their greasy tunics to be ripped off and the mandatory punishment that preceded the crucifixion began. Four legionaries, each one wielding his flagrum, began to flog the guerrillas.
One of them, still a boy, named Dimas, fell to his knees in front of Pilatus, moaning and begging for mercy. But the procurator hurriedly turned around, away from the prisoner. At that moment, as the whips hissed again in the middle of the room, the legionnaire who had disappeared into the vaulted tunnel of Antonia's west door came running back, handing Longinus a two-foot-by-eight-centimeter wooden tablet, completely bleached, made from plaster and whitewash. The centurion took the tablet and a kind of small coal, asking the soldier to get two more boards. He then caught the prosecutor's attention, showing him the tablet and the sharpened piece of coal, reminding him that the escort would have to put on the crosses the identity of each of the convicts and the nature of their crimes.
Discreetly, Yousef looked over the prosecutor's shoulder and saw how his hand was shaking. He held the tablet in a horizontal position, resting firmly on the gleaming breastplate. He had picked up the small charcoal in his right hand, but his face had turned away from the surface of the white wooden rectangle. He also noticed that the Roman was looking at Yeshua sideways, that he had not taken his lips apart in all that time, he had managed to regulate his breathing rhythm, but he was still bent over and trembling. Blood, though less, continued to drip from the hem of his tunic, forming a circle around his feet.
One of the guerrillas called the Gesta writhed on the slab, twisting with each lash. The legionaries had torn his tunic, leaving his torso bare. Despite having his hands tied behind his back and being held by another soldier, who kept the end of the rope with which he had been tied between his hands, the zealot, in his despair and pain, rolled over on the slabs, putting in great difficulty this last soldier.
Dimas, with his clothes equally torn, curled up around himself, trying to defend his head with his legs. But the blows were so violent and continuous that he was soon on his knees, offering his back to the executioners and screaming that made the body of the guard and numerous legionaries appear.
***
THE CALL OF THE DISCIPLES
CEPHAS WHO HAD ESCAPE from Kaiafa's palace in tears for doing exactly what the Rabbi had predicted, spent a good part of the morning crying when he got to Bethany, didn't have the courage to face the people there and stayed in a room lamenting until he was defeated by sleep and dreamed of the day he met Yeshua:
NOW, YESHUA, when He began His Ministry, was about thirty years old; since then he began to preach and to say:
— Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.
Yohanan was there again, with two of his disciples, and looking at Yeshua, who was passing by, he said:
— Behold the Lamb of God!
Those two disciples heard him say this and followed Yeshua. Yeshua turned and saw that they were following him, he asked them:
— What are you looking for?
They said to him:
— Rabbi, where are you landing?
He replied to them:
— Come and see.
So they went and saw where it landed. And they spent the day with Him. It was about the tenth hour. Andrew, brother of Simon Cephas, was one of the two who heard Yohanan speak, and who followed Yeshua. He found his brother Simon first and said to him:
— We have found the Messiah.
And he took him to Yeshua. Yeshua, fixing his gaze on him, said:
— Thou art Simon, son of Jonas, thou shalt be called Cephas.
The next day Yeshua decided to leave for Galilee. And finding Philip, he said to him:
— Follow me.
Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Cephas. Philip found Nathanael and said to him:
— We have just found the One of whom Moshe wrote in the Law and the Prophets: Yeshua of Natsrat, son of Yousef.
Nathanael asked him:
— Can anything good come from Natsrat?
Philip said to him:
— Come and see.
Yeshua, seeing Nathanael approaching him, said of him:
— Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is no guile!
Nathanael asked him:
— Where do you know me?
Yeshua answered him:
— Before Felipe called you, I saw you, when you were under the fig tree.
Nathanael answered him:
— Rabbi, You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!
To which Yeshua said to him:
— Because I told you: I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? Greater things than these you will see.
And he said to them:
— Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.
***
YESHUA KING OF THE JEWS
YERUSHALAYIM, FRIDAY, APRIL 7, A.D. 30
SUDDENLY PILATUS, increasingly nervous, began to write in his characteristic square handwriting...
Yeshua of Natsrat....
The first words were written in Aramaic, from right to left. They were about a foot tall and took up the entire top of the sign.
Pilatus hesitated.
He didn't seem to know what to add. In fact, he was aware of the falsity of the accusations and, of course, he had just stumbled upon a serious problem. Dimas raised his head and, with a sweaty and tight face, looked for Yeshua. Then, despite the guard's tugging, he dragged himself on his knees to Yeshua and, when he reached his feet, in the midst of a shower of furious lashes, putting his face on the great drops of blood that fell from the hem of Yeshua's robe, exclaimed, between sobs:
— Rabbi... Have mercy on us... Don't let us die!
Yeshua half-opened his inflamed, violet eyes, looking at the unfortunate man with infinite tenderness. But before he could answer him, the soldier who was holding the young zealot's rope gave Yeshua a violent shove, causing him to recoil and stagger.
One of the executioners then directed his flagrum, prepared to injure him, but Janus, aware of what was happening, intervened, supporting the Nazarene by the armpits and preventing him from falling. Then he turned to the platoon, ordering them not to scourge him anymore.
— This one has already received his punishment — he declared.
The executioners nodded and continued their merciless attack, opening new wounds on the backs, legs, and flanks of the two zealots, Dimas and Gesta. While Dimas, who had approached the Galilean, continued on his knees, with his head resting on the slabs, his companion, Gesta, in a desperate start, got up, throwing a frantic kick to the lower belly of one of the harassers.
The Roman sagged like a doll, falling to the ground with screams of pain. With his back to the bloodthirsty scene, Pilatus wrote again:
... King of Jews.
YRNJ transcript:
Yeshua Nazarenus, Rex Judaeorum...
Immediately, almost mechanically, the procurator repeated the phrase Yeshua of Natsrat, King of the Jews in Greek and, finally, in Latin. Handing the tablet back to Longinus, he shook his palms, making an ostentatious grimace of disgust. But the legionary sent by the centurion in search of the other two wooden planks returned at that moment, and Pilatus, much annoyed, had to repeat the operation. This time it was much faster.
After asking the names of the condemned, he wrote on the white part of the tablets:
Gesture. Bandit and Dimas. Bandit.
All this, of course, in the three languages in common use at that time in Palestine: Aramaic, in the first place, Greek, and in Latin, the native language of Pilatus.
The prosecutor took a few steps towards the circular tank and dried his hands.
— If you're really going to crucify the Nazarene, I want to be there, out of respect for the friendship I have for his family.
Pilatus shrugged his shoulders and mechanically, as if deep in thought, conveyed his request to Janus. He took it upon himself to introduce Yousef to Longinus, announcing him as a friend of Yeshua, the veteran centurion nodded indifferently.
Lifting his arm wearily, Pilatus saluted the officers and withdrew. Janus would soon follow him.
When the other legionaries saw their companion fall, victim of the terrorist's kick, the flagrum were no longer the only instruments of torture. With an unusual rage, the remaining executioners, who had been joined by other onlookers, followed the whipping with an infinity of kicks that ended up causing the revolutionary to fall. Once on land, the Romans' scorched soles embedded themselves many times in the condemned man's body, and a few seconds later, a trickle of blood ran between the corners of his lips.
The arrival of the new logs, a little shorter than the one destined for the Cruz do Nazareno, interrupted the scourging. But the momentary truce was only the prologue to an anguished pilgrimage. Under the watchful eye of Longinus and his optio, and without showing any care, the soldiers placed the two wooden logs over the shoulders and last cervical vertebrae of the zealots, while other legionaries forced the prisoners to extend their arms, until that the backs of the hands touch the rough surface of the woods. The youngest revolutionary, Dimas, remained on his knees, while his semi—conscious companion was tied to the patibulum in the same position he had been lying on his stomach. None of them had the strength to resist.
The one who had asked for mercy continued to sob pitifully, while a long, thick rope immobilized his wrists, arms and armpits. The Romans initiated the subjection of the first condemned by the right end of the patibulum. They then proceeded to tie the arms until they ended up at the left wrist. And from there the rope fell to the culprit's left foot, being tied around the ankle. With the same rope, and once the placement of the first log had been completed, the executioners lifted the second guerrilla, repeating the maneuver.
Finally, the soldiers carrying about four meters of rope (the last ones of the same arm), went to Yeshua. Docilely Yeshua saw them arrive, and before the legionaries could hurt him or pull him by the hair so that he would bend over, he threw his body forward, offering his martyred shoulders. But the Rabbi's stature far surpassed that of the executioners, and the voluntary bending of the chest was not enough. In this way, one of the soldiers, unable to push the Rabbi's head, grabbed his beard, pulling it to the ground, and held it there, waiting for the companions to place the patibulum on his shoulders.
Two legionaries extended Yeshua's arms and two other soldiers took the tree. They lifted it up by the ends and suddenly pressed it against the back of the Galilean's neck. But the multiple ramifications of the crown of thorns were a hindrance, the thick wooden cylinder didn't precisely fit the trapezius muscles, rolling down her back. More and more embarrassed, three times the Romans struck Yeshua's neck until, at last, in further pain, he bent even more, facilitating the placement of the patibulum on his shoulder blades.
With each of those savage attempts at placing the wood, I experienced a kind of whiplash that ran through my guts. The prongs of the nape of the neck and the occipital zone dig in a little more with each effort, tearing the scalp and possibly burying themselves in the cranial penosteum. The intense and continuous pain caused Yeshua to groan with each of the three hits and, in a matter of seconds, his hair and neck shone again, profusely bloodied. The executioners stretched their arms under the lower part of the torso and left them there, tying the rope, from right to left, finishing the prison in the left ankle.
The considerable weight of the patibulum, at least for such a severely punished man, caused Yeshua's body to lean dangerously, forcing him to flex his legs. Yeshua tried to lift his head. The muscles and arteries seemed to burst beneath the reddened skin of the neck, but with each attempt to get up and overcome the weight of the wood, the back of his head hit the rough bark of the patibulum and the pain caused by the thorns that mercilessly entered his head. Him, won him, forcing him to lower his face.
Realizing that all efforts to regain the upright position were useless, Yeshua seemed to resign himself. The breathing became agitated again, fearing that at any moment, the effort would end in another fainting.
Yeshua de Natsrat's weakened body was suddenly crushed by a tree, leaving his muscles in the position they were in when they were placed on his shoulders and neck. There was no preheating and no possibility for the main muscle bundles to react conveniently. That was a blow that consumed what little energy he had left.
As Marcellus nailed the three tablets to the wooden shaft of one of the pilums, another legionary noticed Yeshua's sandals and showed them to Longinus who, in a gesture of honor and commiseration, ordered the soldier to put them on his feet. The soldier crouched in front of the Nazarene and, as he forced him with both hands to lift his left foot to put on his sandal, the Nazarene's body was unbalanced to the opposite side, causing an ostentatious fall, as fast as it was unexpected.
With his arms tied, Galileo could not prevent the patibulum from dragging him and, after hitting the slabs with his right tip, he fell face down on the pavement, being crushed under the cross beam. Seeing and hearing the violent crash against the slabs, Yousef feared the worst. As the soldiers rushed to pick it up, I noticed that, fortunately, the spiked helmet had acted as a shock absorber, preventing the bones of the face from fracturing, but the spikes on the forehead, temples, and cheeks had pierced the flesh even more, leaving some of the bones uncovered. Areas part of the subcutaneous cellular tissue, giving rise to new and abundant hemorrhages.
Despite the violence of the fall, the Nazarene did not lose consciousness. Two executioners lifted the patibulum, supporting it with their shoulders, while the clumsy legionary finished putting on Yeshua. Once the unfortunate operation was over, the executioners released the wood and Yeshua returned to support its weight on his own, bowing down a second time. The impossibility of tilting his head back considerably reduced his field of vision, practically limiting him to the terrain he was walking on.
At various times during that short but bumpy walk to Calvary, Yousef watched as Yeshua struggled to lift his gaze upward. But as he wrinkled his forehead, the thorns lacerated the wounds and the intense pain forced him to lower his eyes.
By the sixth hour, Longinus gave the marching order.