Premonition
Page 39
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Agrippa: Marcus Julius Agrippa, also called Herod Agrippa II, last Jewish scion of the Herod family. Born about A.D. 27.
Albinus: Lucceius Albinus, governor of Judea A.D. 62-64.
Armilus: A “wicked king” who kills the Messiah ben Yoseph in some Jewish messianic legends.
Berenike: Agrippa’s oldest sister. Born about A.D. 28. Rumors of incest dogged her and Agrippa. Intensely jealous of her young sister Drusilla.
Caesar Nero: The emperor Nero.
Eleazar ben Hananyah: Son of high priest Hananyah ben Nadavayah. Captain of the Temple in early sixties. Born to a Sadducean family, apparently became a Pharisee, sparked the Jewish revolt in A.D. 66.
Felix: Marcus Antonius Felix, governor of Judea approximately A.D. 52-59. Lured Agrippa’s youngest sister Drusilla away from her husband.
Festus: Porcius Festus, governor of Judea approximately A.D. 59-62. Died in office, leaving Judea temporarily without a governor.
Hanan ben Hanan: “Annas, son of Annas.” A Sadducee, youngest son of the “Annas” who presided over the trial of Jesus. Became high priest in A.D. 62 and promptly executed James son of Joseph, the brother of Jesus.
Hananyah ben Nadavayah: “Ananias, son of Nedebeus.” A Sadducee, high priest circa A.D. 52-59. Widely hated for stealing tithes.
Ishmael ben Phiabi: A Sadducee, high priest approximately A.D. 59-61. Built a wall to block Agrippa’s view of the sacrifices.
Josephus: See Yoseph ben Mattityahu.
Mattityahu ben Theophilus: A Sadducee, high priest A.D. 64-66, nephew of Hanan.
Moshe: Hebrew form of Moses.
Polemon: King of Pontus A.D. 38-64. Agreed to circumcision in order to marry Berenike, but the marriage soon failed.
Saul: Saul of Tarsus, the apostle Paul. Saul is the English form of the Hebrew “Sha’ul.” Paul is the English form of his Greek name, “Paulos.”
Seneca: Lucius Annaeus Seneca, a Roman philosopher who tutored Nero and later served as his court adviser. Nero forced him to commit suicide in A.D. 65.
Shlomo: Hebrew form of King Solomon.
Shmuel: “Samuel.” I have vastly expanded Shmuel from two sentences in Josephus describing an unnamed “impostor” promising “relief from troubles” in the desert.
Yaakov ben Yoseph: “James, son of Joseph.” Brother of Jesus, leader of The Way in Jerusalem, murdered in A.D. 62 by Hanan ben Hanan.
Yeshua ben Dannai: “Jesus, son of Damneus.” A Sadducee, high priest A.D. 62-63.
Yeshua ben Gamaliel: “Jesus, son of Gamaliel.” A Sadducee, high priest approximately A.D. 63-64. Friend of Josephus and protégé of Hanan.
Yeshua ben Yoseph: “Jesus, son of Joseph.” Jesus of Nazareth.
Yeshua ben Hananyah: “Jesus, son of Ananias.” Peasant who shouted obscure oracles in the Temple from A.D. 62-70.
Yohanan ben Zakkai: A Pharisee, one of the most influential Jews of all time, the traditional founder of rabbinic Judaism after the war.
Yoseph ben Mattityahu: “Joseph, son of Matthew.” Born A.D. 37/38, aristocrat, priest, soldier, historian. Main historical source for this period.
Yoseph Kabi: “Joseph Kabi.” A Sadducee, high priest approximately A.D. 61-62.
Bibliography
I have read many books in my research for this book. A few have been especially helpful, including the following:
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Nahman Avigad, Discovering Jerusalem (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1980).
Meir Ben-Dov, In the Shadow of the Temple: The Discovery of Ancient Jerusalem (Jerusalem: Keter Publishing House, 1982).
F. F. Bruce, New Testament History (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1980).
F. F. Bruce, Peter, Stephen, James & John: Studies in Non-Pauline Christianity (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1980).
Shaye J. D. Cohen, From the Maccabees to the Mishnah (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1989).
Gaalya Cornfeld, Josephus: The Jewish War (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1982).
L. Sprague de Camp, The Ancient Engineers (New York: Ballantine Books, 1960).
Henri Daniel-Rops, Daily Life in the Time of Jesus (Ann Arbor, Mich.: Servant Books, 1961).
James D. G. Dunn, Unity and Diversity in the New Testament: An Inquiry into the Character of Earliest Christianity (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1977).
Martin Hengel, Acts and the History of Earliest Christianity (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1979).
Martin Hengel, Between Jesus and Paul (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1983).
Joachim Jeremias, Jerusalem in the Time of Jesus (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1969).
J. G. Landels, Engineering in the Ancient World (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978).
Bruce J. Malina, The New Testament World: Insights from Cultural Anthropology (Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1981).
Richard M. Mackowski, S.J., Jerusalem, City of Jesus (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1978).
Jacob Neusner, First Century Judaism in Crisis (New York: KTAV Publishing House, Inc., 1975).
Jacob Neusner, The Mishnah: A New Translation (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1988).
Raphael Patai, The Messiah Texts: Jewish Legends of Three Thousand Years (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1979).
Tessa Rajak, Josephus: The Historian and His Society (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1983).
David M. Rhoads, Israel in Revolution 6-74 C.E. (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1976).
Emil Schurer, The History of the Jewish People in the Age of Jesus Christ, Revised and edited by Geza Vermes, Fergus Millar and Matthew Black (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, Ltd., 1973).
A. N. Sherwin-White, Roman Society and Roman Law in the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1963).
About the City of God Series
When I began writing fiction, I had a dream to write a particular kind of suspense novel. It would be similar to the historical suspense Ken Follett writes, and somewhat like the historical action-adventure fiction of Wilbur Smith’s River God, but it would be set in first-century Jerusalem.
Why first-century Jerusalem? Because that place and time set the direction for the next twenty centuries of western civilization. Something big happened in Jerusalem in the first century.
Not just one big thing. Not even two big things. Three big things—the Jesus movement, the Jewish revolt, and the birth of rabbinic Judaism.
And they were related.
My gut instincts told me that the Sunday-School version of those three things wasn’t quite right.
As I dived into my research, I found that my instincts were correct. I discovered an amazing and exciting world. I felt sure that many people would care about this world if only they could see it the way I saw it.
In my City of God series, I hope to show you more of that world. Have fun! Here are the books that I’ve written so far in this series:
Book 1: Transgression (A.D. 57)
Book 2: Premonition (A.D. 57-62)
Book 3: Retribution (A.D. 62-66)
Sneak Peek at Retribution
What If …?
What if you were studying for your Ph.D. in archaeology and somehow got trapped in first-century Jerusalem after a controversial physics experiment went horribly wrong?
What if you knew the exact date when Roman troops would come sweeping into Jerusalem to crucify 3000 innocent people?
What if you could save some of those people — not all of them, but you could save the ones you loved — only if you stayed there in Jerusalem yourself during the rampage?
It’s A.D. 62 and Rivka Meyers has given up hope of ever going home. Her husband Ari is a physicist, and he says they’re stuck in the first century. He also says that the laws of physics say Rivka can’t change history. Rivka now believes him, but she also knows that anything not written in the history books is fair game for her to influence. The only problem is that the history books say nothing about whether she herself is going to survive.
Click here to check out Ret
ribution.
Chapter 1
Rivka
* * *
RIVKA WOKE FROM A LIGHT sleep, her heart aching. The room was pitch black and smelled of incense and sweat and cheap wine. Like her apartment building back home in Berkeley.
A dull sigh caught in Rivka’s throat. She was not in Berkeley. Not even in America. She was in Jerusalem, a city of shimmering white stone, simmering with rage. And she was in the biggest trouble of her life.
Beside her, Ari moaned quietly. Dear, sweet, opinionated, lovable, infuriating Ari Kazan. They had been married for five years, and she knew now why people said it was a mistake to marry an unbeliever. More accurately, a half-believer. Ari believed in God. He did not believe in Yeshua. Three days ago, that unbelief had saved his life.
Deep grief welled up in Rivka’s heart. She felt so very grateful Ari had been saved. But not that way.
She could smell him in the deep darkness, the stale sweat rank on his naked body. Rivka touched a gentle finger to his jagged back. Thank God, Ari had survived the flogging. Blessed be HaShem, as they said here in Jerusalem, where they were too polite to say God’s name, but they had no qualms about torturing in his name.
“Rivka, are you awake?” Ari’s voice was a tight whisper.
“I’m sorry, did I hurt you?”
“A little.” Ari rolled to face her. His labored breathing rasped in Rivka’s ear. “Please forgive me for bringing you to this city.”
“There’s nothing to forgive.” Rivka clutched his hands to her chest. “It was my fault, not yours.” She closed her eyes, too late to stop the hot tears.
Five years ago, thanks to a physics experiment gone horribly wrong, they had come through a wormhole and ended up trapped forever in a world they could never have imagined. First-century Jerusalem.
It was a world that treated women like children. Rivka had hated it at first. Slowly, slowly, she had gotten used to the men who would not deign to speak to a woman, the women who looked askance at her. But she would never feel at home in this world.
Unlike Rivka, Ari had quickly found a niche in this city of God. Trained as a physicist at the Hebrew University, MIT, and Princeton, Ari had floundered when he first came to this primitive culture. Then certain young men had found him a job with a builder, and before long, Ari’s talents as an engineer had blossomed into a lucrative consulting career. Now he had a great many friends.
Plus one very powerful enemy. Hanan ben Hanan, leader of the great and powerful House of Hanan, a man with no conscience at all, a conservative who despised the unorthodox, the strange, the new. Most of all, Hanan hated a stranger named Ari the Kazan, a “magician” who knew deep secrets of the universe that were surely forbidden by HaShem.
A few months ago, Hanan ben Hanan had been appointed high priest. This past week, he had arrested fifteen men he hated and tried them in his kangaroo court. Thirteen of them were now dead—killed in a stoning pit in the Hinnom Valley. One, Brother Baruch, had escaped entirely. The fifteenth—Ari—had received a flogging intended to kill him.
A flogging that should have killed him. Ari would be dead now, except for a miracle. Wracked by fever and loss of blood, Ari had slipped into unconsciousness, had found himself before the Throne, had exchanged words with HaShem, and then ...
... and then had been sent back because of the intercession of Brother Baruch, a man gifted in healing. HaShem had sent Ari back, but he had asked Ari to do some great and mysterious task. Neither Rivka nor Ari had any idea what that task might be.
Rivka felt a spasm of rage rush through her body. She hated Hanan ben Hanan. The man was evil, pure evil. She would never breathe easily until she saw him dead.
Ari sighed deeply. “Your thoughts are dark.”
“I’m scared.” Rivka felt nausea well up in her throat. She’d been trying not to admit it to herself, but now she couldn’t keep quiet anymore. “Please, don’t be mad at me, but ... I think I might be pregnant again.”
A sudden intake of breath. “Are you sure?”
“Not a hundred percent,” Rivka said. “I was due to start my niddah uncleanness three days ago. Last time I was this late, I was pregnant with Rachel. We need to get out of this city—go somewhere safe.”
“Perhaps a son this time.” Ari’s voice sounded thick, husky. Thrilled. “Rachel has been asking for a brother.”
“You’re not angry?” Rivka couldn’t believe he was taking this so calmly. She was furious with herself. They did not dare get pregnant at a time like this. She would love to have another child—but at the right time. Not now.
“It is a gift from HaShem.” Ari pulled Rivka’s hands to his lips and kissed them.
“Are you crazy?” Rivka felt so relieved, she wanted to cry. Ari wasn’t angry. But he would be if he understood. “This is the worst possible time to get pregnant.”
“My grandfather’s sister became pregnant four months before they put her on the train to Auschwitz. She went straight to the showers. Please, you will remember that there is always a worse thing than what you are enduring.”
Rivka knew all that, but Ari was wrong. In Berkeley, she had specialized in the history of this time period, and she knew that a thing worse than Auschwitz was coming to this city. “Listen, we have less than four years until the war begins. Eight years from now, the Romans are going to slaughter everybody in this city. Everybody. I want you to take me away from here. Now.”
“And will we abandon our friends to die?”
Panic shoved a dagger into Rivka’s heart. “If they won’t come with us.”
“We must persuade them.” Ari’s voice was infuriatingly calm. “You will tell them what is to come.”
“Ari, nobody believes a word I say, remember? They call me the witch woman.” And I am a witch woman. Every time I turn around, I’m using my knowledge to manipulate people. I’m a scheming, deceitful—
“Our friends will believe you now.” Ari’s voice sounded tired and sad. “You foretold what would befall at the hands of Hanan ben Hanan, and none believed you. Now thirteen good men are dead.”
“Will you talk to Shimon for me?” Rivka knew no man would listen to her, but they would listen to Ari, because he was a man. It wasn’t fair, but she couldn’t fight the system anymore.
“Which Shimon should I speak to?”
“Sorry, I guess I haven’t told you about that yet. Shimon ben Klopas will be our new leader. According to Eusebius, he’ll lead our people to safety.”
“When?” Ari’s voice sounded tight.
“I don’t know. I’m assuming we’ll leave before the war. For sure before the Romans destroy the city. You’ll talk to Shimon?”
A long pause. “Yes, I will speak with Shimon, but I must know what to tell him.”
“I’ll try to figure it out, but ...” Rivka felt her throat tighten. She could not imagine giving birth to another child in this wretched city of God. “Ari, if I’m really pregnant, then I want you to take me somewhere safe right away.”
“I will pray on the matter.”
Rivka had never heard Ari say he would pray about anything before. It caught her like a slap, because ... she hadn’t prayed about it. What was there to pray about? Of course God wanted them to get away from here. It said so in the Bible. Yeshua said to leave.
“You will pray on the matter also, Rivkaleh?”
Rivka held her breath for a long moment. “Yes.”
“Then sleep.” Ari kissed her fingers again. “All is in the hands of HaShem.”
Which was exactly what Rivka was afraid of.
Rivka
* * *
“Rivka, wake up! There is trouble.”
Rivka forced her eyes open. Her best friend Hana knelt over her, holding an olive-oil lamp, her face tight with anxiety.
Hana handed Rivka a tunic and cloak. “Please, you must come. Do not wake Ari the Kazan.”
Rivka felt her heart thumping against her ribs. She pulled on her tunic and slid out onto the cold stone
floor.
Hana flung the cloak around her.
Rivka stepped into her stiff camel-leather sandals, wrapped her hair in a head-covering, and followed Hana out into the corridor.
Surprise sparked through her. Where was Hana’s husband? If there was trouble, they would need him. “Where’s Baruch?” Rivka whispered.
“Hurry!” Hana pattered down the hall.
Rivka hurried. She reckoned it was still an hour before dawn. Every few feet, olive-oil lamps flickered in small insets in the stone walls. Rich tapestries of silk hung on the walls. The floor was inlaid with polished marble. The owner of this compound was an extremely wealthy man named Mattityahu, one of the most powerful men in Jerusalem. He had sworn to protect them all. Rivka was not sure he could keep his oath.
They reached the door and went out into the early morning chill. Rivka snugged her cloak tighter around her shoulders.
Hana led her across the large courtyard toward the outer gate of the palace. Outside the iron gate stood two dozen men in the linen garb of Temple guards. In their center, Rivka spotted a sixtyish-looking man in aristocrat’s clothing. Hanan ben Hanan, the high priest.
Her heart skipped a beat.
Hanan ben Hanan was the reason they had taken refuge here. Now he must have come for Ari. Rivka would scratch his eyes out first.
Hanan ben Hanan took absolutely no notice of Rivka or Hana. In this city, women were of no consequence. Empty heads, vessels for bearing children, property to be hidden from the eyes of other men. A man of honor did not speak to a woman.
Rivka bit her lip to keep from shrieking at the stupidity of a culture that made so much of wretched honor.