The Inquest

by Stephen Dando-Collins

  Martius looked at Varro, smiling. “We have to be lucky occasionally, do we not?”

  Varro immediately recognized the man’s potential value. “In what capacity were you with Pilatus at Jerusalem at that time?” he asked.

  “As an under secretary, my lord. Pilatus brought me out from Rome with him. Diamedes was his chief secretary. However, at the time that Pilatus went up to Jerusalem for the Passover Festival during which this Jesus fellow was executed, Diamedes was ill at Caesarea. I served as the prefect’s secretary during that particular visit to Jerusalem.”

  “The secretary Diamedes was ill?” Varro mused. He remembered that Philippus had claimed to have also been prevented by illness from going up to Jerusalem for the Passover in question. “Was there much sickness in Caesarea at that time?”

  “Quite a wave of sickness, my lord. People died. Such an epidemic in the low-lying areas is not uncommon following the winter. It was much healthier in the hills.”

  “Tell me about that visit to Jerusalem at the time of the Passover Festival.”

  Aristarchus said that he had gone to Jerusalem that year in a party which comprised the prefect, his wife, his household, and several cohorts of the 12th Legion. Pilatus always took reinforcements up to Jerusalem for the Passover. Many Jewish pilgrims went to the city for the festival each year, as many as a million in some years, he estimated. Some, he said, came from as far away as Parthia.

  “What do you know of the circumstances surrounding the execution of Jesus of Nazareth?” Varro asked, as he noted the two secretaries dutifully recording proceedings.

  “I was present, in the Judgment Hall at Jerusalem, my lord, when Pilatus heard charges against four Jews accused of sedition, in the days leading up to the Passover Festival.” Without prompting, Aristarchus then explained that the Roman Judgment Hall at Jerusalem was at that time located in the Antonia Fortress, beside the Jewish Temple. This hall was called ‘the Pavement’ by the Jews. They had their own Judgment Hall within the Temple complex itself, where they judged matters relating to religious law.

  “You said that four rebels were brought before Pilatus?”

  “I did, my lord.” The scribe testified that all four had been charged with sedition. All were Jews from Galilee. Roman cavalry had captured them under arms in Galilee, and they were brought to Jerusalem for trial before the Roman prefect. On the Thursday, they were found guilty and condemned to be executed next day.

  “What of the fourth prisoner?”

  Early on the Friday morning, Aristarchus explained, the fourth man had been brought before Pilatus. He was a Jew like the others, but he was no ordinary outlaw. He had been charged by the High Priest with blasphemy. This prisoner was said to be a holy man from Nazareth, the man known subsequently as Jesus of Nazareth. “He was charged under the name of Joshua bar Josephus,” he said, looking over at Pythagoras. “Joshua bar Josephus,” he repeated for the secretary’s benefit.

  “Joshua bar Josephus,” Pythagoras repeated. “I have it.”

  Aristarchus continued. Shortly after sunrise, he said, during the first hour, the priests of the Great Sanhedrin had demanded an immediate hearing before the prefect. This was because their holy day would begin at sunset. The chief priests wanted to execute the prisoner at once. They had already found him guilty of transgressing Jewish Law by making blasphemous statements. Aristarchus later heard that the Nazarene had threatened to destroy the Jewish Temple, and then rebuild it again within three days.

  “Some threat,” Martius remarked with a smile.

  “Some builder,” young Venerius added.

  It was also said that the prisoner claimed to be a descendant of Davidus, an ancient King of the Jews, Aristarchus went on, and that he had been sent by their God to reclaim this Davidus’ crown as King of the Jews. He said that when the chief priests brought the prisoner before Prefect Pilatus all they wanted from him was a sanction of their sentence of death by stoning.

  “The prefect refused the Great Sanhedrin’s petition?” Varro asked.

  Aristarchus nodded. The chief priests were sorely disappointed, he related. Pilatus would have none of their finding. He examined the priests’ witnesses himself, and these men only contradicted each other. With the consequence that Pilatus dismissed the Sanhedrin’s charges against Jesus. The priests were not at all pleased.”

  “Was another charge brought?” Varro asked. “That of bearing arms?”

  Aristarchus said that had been the case, and two swords had been presented in evidence. He said that before that occurred, however, after the initial interview with the prisoner at the Judgment Hall, Pilatus sent Jesus to Herod Antipas, the Tetrarch of Galilee. Antipas was at Jerusalem for the Passover and staying at his own palace, a stone’s throw from the Antonia Fortress. This was done partly as a matter of courtesy to Antipas, and partly because of a dream of the prefect’s wife the night before.

  “A dream?” Varro knew all about dreams.

  Aristarchus revealed that the prefect’s wife held great store in the predictive power of dreams, and the prefect always strove to respect his wife’s wishes. Aristarchus then claimed that Pilatus had confided to him that, as he was leaving the Palace of Herod to attend the hearing at the Judgment Hall, his young wife had urged him not to condemn Jesus. Her dream had warned her against harming a holy man from Nazareth. Antipas had subsequently interviewed the Nazarene, then sent him back to Pilatus with a message to say that he found the man guilty of no crime. The chief priests had been incensed by this, and, soon after, the two swords had been produced by the Captain of the Temple Guard. Testimony was given that one of Jesus’ accomplices had struck and wounded a member of the High Priest’s arresting party. The witness was heavily bandaged. He claimed that his ear had been sliced off by the blow. The Guard captain’s testimony that the prisoner had been found in possession of the two swords had been confirmed by his officers.

  “What did the Nazarene say in his defense?” Varro asked.

  “Nothing. He spoke barely a word. He offered no testimony to contradict the priests, or the wounded man, or the officers of the Guard. Pilatus had no option. He had to declare the prisoner guilty of sedition. He was not altogether happy about it. I think his wife’s likely reaction weighed heavily on his mind.” But, said the scribe, the evidence had been clear, and as neither the prisoner nor anyone else could or would offer contradictory testimony, Pilatus had no choice but convict him. His wife was unhappy with him afterwards, so Aristarchus later heard. Yet the law had to be upheld. Pilatus sentenced the Nazarene to die that same day with the other condemned men. “I myself wrote the execution warrant, which I then took to the prefect, for him to affix his seal.”

  Varro, surprised, clarified the man’s testimony: “You personally wrote the warrant for the execution of Jesus of Nazareth?”

  “That I did, questor.” The Greek didn’t consider the fact of importance.

  Varro called for Artimedes to produce the warrant found in the archives at Caesarea, and it was presented to Aristarchus. “Is that the warrant written by you?”.

  “This seal, the lion’s head, this is Pilatus’ seal, my lord,” Aristarchus said at once, pointing to the yellow wax seal on the reverse bottom edge of the roll of parchment. “Let me consider the warrant itself.” After studying the document at length, he said, “This is the warrant that I wrote. My writing has matured since then. It is however without doubt my penmanship. The certification at the bottom is by Longinus. He was the centurion in charge of the execution.” He returned the warrant to Artimedes.

  Instructed by Varro to continue with his testimony, the scribe said that the condemned man had then been taken into the assembly hall of the Antonia, stripped, and bound to a whipping post. The guard maniple was paraded to witness the punishment, and in front of the soldiers he was given thirty-nine powerful strokes with wooden rods, as the law prescribed. After personally witnessing this punishment being exacted, Aristarchus had returned to the Palace of Herod. He believed tha
t the prisoner would then have been chained to a man of his escort in the usual manner, and, in the second hour, taken out of the city to be executed with the two other condemned men.

  Varro frowned. “Two other condemned men? You testified that three other men had been sentenced to death. Explain.”

  All three of the other men had been prepared for execution, he said. They too had received beatings with rods. They were about to be led down the sixty steps from the Antonia to the street when a pardon was delivered for one of the men. “I know this because it was I who delivered the pardon into the hands of Centurion Longinus.”

  “Who was the pardoned man?”

  “He was one Joshua bar Abbas, if I remember correctly, a leader of the rebel band of which the other two prisoners were members, the Sicarii, the Daggermen.”

  When asked why this Bar Abbas had been reprieved, Aristarchus answered that it was in accordance with an arrangement that Prefect Pilatus had come to with the Sanhedrin. Late during the first hour, he said, after the Nazarene had been handed over to Centurion Longinus, Pilatus had summoned him and instructed him to write a pardon in the name of Joshua bar Abbas, which he would endorse at once. The scribe had been careful to clarify that the pardon was for Joshua bar Abbas and not Joshua bar Josephus, then penned the document. Once he had added his seal, the prefect sent Aristarchus to the garrison commander with the pardon. The prisoner Bar Abbas was released into the custody of the Sanhedrin. The other three were taken out and executed.

  “Did you witness the execution?”

  “I did not, my lord.”

  Varro thought for a moment. “Are you aware that the Nazarene’s followers claim he rose from the dead, following his crucifixion?”

  “I have heard that said since, once or twice.”

  “What do you think of such a claim?”

  “It is a nonsense, my lord.” There was a positive ring to the Greeks voice.

  “His body was delivered to the Nazarene’s family for burial?”

  “It was given over to the Jews, yes.”

  “How can you be sure that he was dead?” Marcus Martius called.

  Aristarchus replied that he had absolutely no doubts in that regard. He went on to explain that he had been with the prefect that same afternoon, at the bathhouse in the Palace of Herod, in the west of the city. This palace was where the prefect and those who came up from Jerusalem with him stayed when visiting the city. After lunch, Pilatus had exercised by throwing javelins from the Palace wall, after which he had bathed. Aristarchus had been taking dictation from him while he was undergoing a massage at the bathhouse when a member of the Great Sanhedrin came to him. Pilatus was on good terms with this man, a Pharisee by the name of Josephus of Arimathea, who came from a village lying twenty miles from Emmaus. Josephus of Arimathea sought the prefect’s permission to have Jesus of Nazareth’s body taken down from his cross, reminding Pilatus that the Jews could not pollute their Sabbath with the dead. Josephus had assured the prefect that this particular prisoner, Jesus, was dead, and asked for permission to take the body down and inter it without delay.

  “What was Pilatus’ reaction to this?”

  “He was surprised, my lord. Very surprised. As Your Lordship will be aware, it takes several days for a crucified man to die. That is the whole point of this form of punishment. To die within a matter of hours is unusual, and undesirable.”

  “Were you not suspicious that perhaps the Nazarene was not dead?”

  “Like the prefect, I was surprised at Josephus’ claim. Pilatus sent for Centurion Longinus, the officer in charge of the executions that day.” Aristarchus said that Longinus soon arrived at the palace, which was quite close to the execution site. At that time, he remarked, it was possible to see the three men on their crosses from a palace balcony. Prefect Pilatus had asked Longinus whether the prisoner Jesus was dead. In answer, the centurion had confirmed that the man was indeed dead. “And one does not doubt the word of a Roman centurion,” he added.

  “Quite rightly,” Martius remarked.

  “Let us be clear,” said Varro. “Pilatus accepted that the Nazarene was dead?”

  This Aristarchus confirmed. He said that Centurion Longinus then informed the prefect that the other two condemned men were still alive. To hasten their deaths he sought permission to break their legs. This would prevent the crucified men from supporting their weight with their legs, and they would soon asphyxiate. Pilatus granted permission for the legs of these two to be broken, and for all three bodies to be brought down from their crosses.

  “A physician was not present?” Varro asked. “No one with medical knowledge certified the deaths of the prisoners?”

  Aristarchus replied that no physician had been present at the executions. That was not normal practice, he reminded his listeners, because the bodies of crucified men were usually left up on their crosses to rot. Had the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth taken place at any other time, his body would have been left on public display for at least a week. It was only because the execution was rushed through on the eve of the Passover Sabbath that his body could be taken down so soon after being put up, said the scribe.

  Varro was nodding. From his readings of the Lucius Letter and the Marcus and Matthias documents it seemed likely that Jesus had come to Jerusalem in the week leading up to the Passover with the fixed intention of being crucified, and specifically on the day before the Sabbath. Jesus would have known that his body would be taken down before sunset on the Friday, to prevent the pollution of the Sabbath. When put up on his cross that morning, Jesus had known that he would only be left up there for six or seven hours. “Let us be sure about this, Aristarchus,” the questor said, fixing his eyes on those of the witness, “as far as you were concerned there was absolutely no doubt in the prefect’s mind that the Nazarene was dead when he was taken down from his cross?”

  “None, my lord. Longinus informed the prefect that to ensure the man was truly dead he had stabbed him with a spear. This convinced Pilatus, and he gave permission for the body to be taken down, in the ninth hour, toward the tenth hour.”

  “So, two to three hours before sunset, the body was handed over to the Nazarene’s family, allowing time enough for the body to be disposed of before day’s end?”

  The witness replied that the receivers of the body had not actually been the Nazarene’s family. Josephus of Arimathea had told Pilatus he was providing his own tomb for the interment of the prisoner, a new tomb in the vicinity of the execution place, in a garden just to the northwest of the city.

  “The Jews do not cremate their dead, like ourselves?” Varro queried.

  “I understand that outside Jerusalem the Jews used to cremate their poor on a large communal pyre, my lord, a rubbish dump which burned perpetually. Those who can afford a family tomb are interred.”

  Varro had become suspicious. He heard King Agrippa’s words in his mind. “The body was handed over to Josephus of Arimathea,” he said. “What then?”

  Aristarchus said that he could not testify to exactly what happened once the prefect gave Josephus permission to take charge of the body. No one seemed to know precisely what followed, and he was not an authority on Jewish burial customs.

  This comment prompted Varro to instruct Callidus to fetch the expeditions expert on Jewish customs, Antiochus. As much as he dis liked the man, his knowledge might be invaluable. When Antiochus arrived soon after, Varro directed him to a place on one of the couches and instructed him to listen carefully to the witness’ testimony. In this interim Varro provided a stool for Aristarchus, and the Greek gratefully took a seat. The concession had the effect of putting the scribe more at his ease. Once Antiochus had sulkily taken his place, the questor resumed the questioning. “Scribe, we know that two days after the execution the Nazarene’s body disappeared from its tomb. What was Prefect Pilatus’ response to that?”

  Aristarchus said that Pilatus was annoyed by this, particularly because the Sadducee members of the Great Sanhedrin
created a great stir. They had asked Pilatus for men from the Roman garrison to guard the tomb against body snatchers, but Pilatus had told them to use their own Temple Guards, which they did. It came to light that someone bribed these sentinels to later say that they had fallen asleep, and this was when the body had been removed. The Sadducee members of the Sanhedrin then accused their fellow councilor Josephus of Arimathea of having been involved in a conspiracy to remove the body, and put Josephus in chains and lodged him in the Temple cells. He was released a day later, after the other Pharisees on the Sanhedrin had gone to Pilatus and protested.

  “If I may make a comment, questor?” Antiochus spoke up.

  Varro looked over at the Jewish magistrate. “If it is pertinent,” he agreed.

  “It occurs to me,” Antiochus began, “that perhaps Pharisees on the Great Sanhedrin, led by Josephus of Arimathea, planned to wrest control of the council from the Sadducees by claiming that the Nazarene was the Messiah, proving that their philosophy was superior to that of the Sadducees. But this plan failed; the Sadducees continued to control the Great Sanhedrin right up to the time of the Revolt.”

  “The plan failed,” said Martius, “because the Pharisees were unable to produce a walking, talking Nazarene following his execution.”

  “How could they?” commented young Venerius with a laugh. “If he was still alive, we would have arrested Jesus and nailed him up a second time, and we would have crucified the Pharisees into the bargain, for harboring an escaped criminal.”

  “Was Josephus of Arimathea acting alone,” Varro pondered, “or was there a broad conspiracy?”

  “If I may speak, questor?” said Pythagoras. “In relation to the documentary evidence relating to the man Josephus of Arirriathea.” When Varro assented, he went on: “To refresh your memory, the Marcus document identifies Josephus of Arimathea as a member of the Great Sanhedrin, and a Pharisee, one who was expectant of the appearance of the Messiah. The Lucius Letter goes a little further, stating that Josephus did not vote for the execution of the Nazarene when the Great Sanhedrin heard the accusation of blasphemy. The Matthias document describes Josephus of Arimathea as both a rich man and one of the Nazarene’s disciples.”