The Gospels

by Sarah Ruden

  57 So they took hold of Iēsous and led him away to Kaïafas the chief priest, where the scholars and the elders were gathered.*257 58 But Petros followed him at a distance up to the chief priest’s courtyard and went in and sat down with the retainers to see how it would end.

  59 Now the high priests and the whole high council were seeking false testimony against Iēsous so that they could put him to death. 60 But they couldn’t find any, even though a lot of false witnesses came forward. At last, two came forward 61 and stated, “This man said, ‘I have the power to destroy god’s shrine and rebuild it in the course of three days.’ ”*258 62 Then the chief priest stood up and asked him, “Don’t you have any answer to what they accuse you of in their testimony?” 63 But Jesus was silent. Then the chief priest said to him, “I put you under oath to the living god, to make you tell us if you’re the anointed one, god’s son.”*259 64 Iēsous said to him, “You said it. Still, I tell you all: soon you’ll see the son of mankind sitting to the right of the power, and coming on the sky’s clouds.”*260

  65 Then the chief priest tore his clothes,*261 saying, “He’s blasphemed. Why do we need any more witnesses? Look, now you’ve heard the blasphemy. 66 What’s your decision?” They said in answer, “He’s guilty; he deserves death.” 67 Then they spat in his face and punched him, and others slapped him around, 68 saying, “You, anointed one, give us a prophecy: who’s the one who hit you?”

  69 But meanwhile Petros was sitting outside in the courtyard, and a slave girl came up to him and said, “You too, you were with Iēsous the Galilaios.” 70 But he denied it in front of all of them, saying, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” 71 After Petros went out to the gateway, another slave girl saw him and said to the people there, “He was with Iēsous the Nazōraios.” 72 And once more, he denied it, swearing, “I don’t know the guy.” 73 After a little while, those standing there came up and said to Petros, “It’s true, you’re one of them too: in fact, your dialect gives you away.” 74 At this point he started to curse himself, and to swear,*262 “I don’t know the guy!” And right away, a rooster crowed.

  75 Then Petros remembered what Jesus had told him: “Before the rooster crows, you’ll deny three times that you know me.” And he went outside and cried bitterly.

  Chapter 27

  1 When dawn had broken, all the high priests and the elders of the people came up with a plot against Iēsous so that they could kill him, 2 and they tied him up and led him away and turned him over to Pilatos the governor.*263

  3 Then Ioudas, the one who turned him over, saw that he was condemned, and was full of remorse. He returned the thirty silver coins to the high priests and the elders, 4 saying, “I did wrong, handing someone over for his innocent blood to be shed.” But they said, “What’s that to us? It’s going to be your lookout.” 5 Then he threw the silver coins down in the shrine and withdrew, and he went and hanged himself. 6 Then the high priests took the silver coins and said: “It isn’t lawful to put these in the treasury, since they’re the price of blood.” 7 So they came up with a plan and spent the coins on a potter’s field, to be used for burying foreigners.*264 8 Hence that field is called “the field of blood” up to this day. 9 Then what was stated by Ieremias the prophet was fulfilled: he said: “And they took the thirty silver coins, that princely price that the sons of Israēl placed on me, 10 and they used them to pay for the potter’s field, as the lord commanded me.”*265

  11 Now Iēsous stood in front of the governor. And the governor questioned him, saying, “Are you the king of the Ioudaioi?” And Iēsous said, “You say so.”*266 12 But when he was accused by the high priests and the elders, he gave no answer. 13 Then Pilatos said to him, “Don’t you hear all their testimony against you?” 14 But Iēsous gave him no answer, not even to a single charge, and this disturbed the governor deeply.

  15 At every festival, the governor had made a habit of releasing to the crowd the one prisoner they wanted. 16 At that time, they were holding a notorious prisoner called [Iēsous] Barabbas.*267 17 So when they were assembled, Pilatos said to them, “Who do you want me to release to you, [Iēsous] Barabbas or Iēsous who’s called the anointed one?” 18 He knew, you see, that they’d turned him over out of jealousy.

  19 As he was sitting on the platform, his wife sent a message to him, saying, “You have no business with that upright man; today, in a dream, I suffer terribly because of him.”

  20 But the high priests and the elders persuaded the crowds to ask for Barabbas, and to destroy Iēsous. 21 But the governor responded by saying to them, “Which of the two do you want me to release to you?” and they said, “Barabbas!” 22 Pilatos said to them, “So what should I do with Iēsous, who’s called the anointed one?” They all said, “He’s got to be hung on the stakes!”*268 23 But he said, “What has he actually done wrong?” But they just screamed even louder, saying, “He’s got to be hung on the stakes!”

  24 Seeing that it was no use, but that, on the contrary, the situation was turning into a riot, Pilatos took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd, saying, “I don’t bear any responsibility for this man’s blood. It’ll be your lookout.”*269 25 Then the whole of the people answered him by saying, “His blood can be on us, and on our children.” 26 Then he released Barabbas to them, had Iēsous flogged*270 and turned him over to be hung on the stakes.

  27 Then the governor’s soldiers took Iēsous with them to the governor’s headquarters and brought down on him their whole division. 28 They stripped him and draped him in a scarlet military cloak. 29 And they wove a garland from thorny branches and put it on his head, and they put a reed in his right hand,*271 and fell on their knees in front of him, taunting him by saying, “Joy to you, king of the Ioudaioi!” 30 And they spat on him, and took the reed and beat his head with it. 31 Then, when they’d finished taunting him, they took the cloak off him and put his own clothes back on him, and led him away to be hung on the stakes.

  32 When they came out, they found a man, a Kurēnaios by the name of Simōn, and they commandeered him to carry Iēsous’ stake.*272

  33 And they came to the place called Golgotha, which means the Place of the Skull.*273 34 They gave him wine mixed with gall to drink; but when he tasted it, he refused to drink.*274 35 And once they had hung him on the stakes, they shared out his clothes, throwing lots for the pieces. 36 Then, sitting down there, they kept watch over him. 37 And they put above his head a sign that had the charge against him written on it:*275

  “This is Iēsous, the king of the Ioudaioi.”

  38 At that time, two bandits*276 were hanging on stakes along with him, one on the right, and one on the side “with the blessed name.” 39 And those who passed by on the road insulted him, shaking their heads 40 and saying, “You, destroying the shrine and building it again in three days!*277 Save yourself [and] climb down from that cross, if you’re god’s son!” 41 Similarly the high priests too, along with the scholars and the elders, ridiculed him, saying, 42 “He saved other people, but he can’t save himself. He’s the king of Israēl—he needs to climb down from that stake now, and then we’ll believe in him. 43 He trusted in god—let god come to his rescue now, if he wants him.” He had said, in fact, “I am god’s son.”*278 44 And the bandits hanging on the other stakes beside him jeered at him in the same way.

  45 But from the sixth hour after dawn until the ninth, darkness came over the whole earth, 46 and around the ninth hour, Iēsous shouted in a loud voice the words

  “Eli eli, lema sabachthani?”

  This means, “My god, my god, why have you abandoned me?”*279 47 Some of those standing there, when they heard this, said, “He’s calling out to Ēlias!” 48 Then right away, one of them ran and got a sponge, filled it with vinegar, stuck it on a reed, and offered it to him to drink from.*280 49 But the others said, “Let it be—we should see whether Ēlias comes to save him.”*281 50 But once again Iēsous cri
ed out with a loud voice and gave up his life-breath.

  51 And look, the curtain of the inner shrine split in two from top to bottom.*282 And the earth shook, and rocks split. 52 And tombs opened, and many bodies of holy ones who had gone to sleep awakened. 53 They came out of the tombs after his awakening, and came into the holy city and appeared to many people.

  54 And the centurion and those with him who were keeping watch over Iēsous saw the earthquake and everything else that happened, and they were terrified, saying, “Truly, this was god’s son.”*283

  55 Now many women were there, watching from far off, who had followed Iēsous from Galilaia to wait on him.*284 56 Among them were Maria the Magdalēnē, Maria the mother of Iakōbos and Iōsēf, and the mother of Zebedaios’ sons.*285

  57 When evening fell, a wealthy man came from Arimathaia,*286 and his name was Iōsēf; he himself had been a student of Iēsous. 58 He approached Pilatos and asked for Iēsous’ body. Then Pilatos ordered it to be given to him. 59 And Iōsēf took the body, wrapped it [in] clean linen, 60 and placed it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out of solid rock, and he rolled a stone against the door of the tomb and went away.*287 61 But Mariam the Magdalēnē was there, and the other Maria: they were sitting across from the burial site.

  62 On the next day, which is after the day of preparation,*288 the high priests and the Farisaioi gathered before Pilatos, 63 saying, “Sir, we remember now what that hustler claimed when he was still alive: ‘After three days, I will wake up.’ 64 So order the burial site to be secured until the third day,*289 so that his students don’t have the chance to come and steal him and tell the people, ‘He’s woken up from among the dead.’ In that case, the last hustle would be worse than the first.” 65 Pilatos said to them, “Take a detachment of guards. Get going and secure the place as you see fit.” 66 And they went on their way and secured the burial site, sealing the stone in place with the help of the guards.

  Chapter 28

  1 After the sabbata, when the first day of the sabbata week had dawned, Mariam the Magdalēnē and the other Maria went to see the burial site. 2 And look, there was a great earthquake. And a messenger of the lord, coming down from the sky and approaching, rolled away the stone and sat on top of it. 3 And his appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. 4 And those who were keeping guard shook with fear of him, and they became like corpses. 5 But in response, the messenger said to the women, “You must not be afraid, because I know that you’re looking for Iēsous, who was hung on the stakes. 6 He isn’t here: in fact, he’s awakened, just as he said. Come look at the place where he was lying. 7 Now be on your way quickly and tell his students that he’s risen from among the dead, and look, he’s going ahead of you into Galilaia—there you’ll see him. Look, I’ve told you.”

  8 And quickly leaving the tomb with fear and great joy, they ran to bring the news to his students. 9 But look, Iēsous met them, saying, “Joy to you!” They approached him and seized his feet and prostrated themselves before him. 10 Then Iēsous said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Get moving, take word to my brothers that they should leave for Galilaia, and there they’ll see me.”

  11 But while they were on their way, look, some of the guards went into the city and reported to the high priests everything that had happened. 12 And after the high priests had gotten together with the elders and come up with a scheme, they gave the soldiers a substantial sum in silver, 13 telling them, “Say, ‘His students came during the night and stole him away while we were sleeping.’ 14 And if the governor comes to hear of this, we’ll talk [him] around and make sure you don’t have to worry about it.”*290 15 Then the soldiers took the silver coins and did as they were instructed. And this story has been spread by the Ioudaioi up to this [very] day.

  16 Then the eleven students made a journey to Galilaia, to the mountain where Iēsous had directed them. 17 And when they saw him they prostrated themselves, but some wavered. 18 Then Iēsous came near and spoke to them, saying, “All the authority in the sky and on [the] earth has been given to me. 19 So set off on your journeys and make all nations students, baptizing the people in the name of the father and the son and the holy life-breath, 20 and teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you;*291 and look, I myself am with you through all the days until the era comes to fruition.”

  Skip Notes

  *1 The striking opening of this Gospel helps characterize the book as concerned with the continuity and fulfillment of the Jewish tradition. (The earliest ancient authority on the Gospels, Bishop Papias [roughly 60–130 C.E.], claims that Matthew was first written in Hebrew or Aramaic.) This long genealogy particularly echoes the one in Genesis 5, listing paternal descent from Adam to Noah’s sons. But now the point is the identity of Jesus as a Messianic “shoot” (descendant) of David, according to predictions like those of Isaiah 11:1. Matthew mentions five mothers, but only because they play important narrative roles in scripture; the emphasis is very much on “fathering,” or (literally, according to the Hebrew verb often translated as “beget”) “causing to be born.” In three neat and (nearly) equal segments (achieved by the omission of several names, and with the length of the segments perhaps calculated according to a Hebrew alphanumeric code), Jesus’ lineage goes forward from Abraham, with whom God made the covenant, through a number of patriarchs; then through the kingship as descended from David; then through and past the Babylonian Exile, with names becoming obscure because the kingship no longer exists: Zerubbabel, the last man in the line whose existence is definitely attested to by the Hebrew Bible, was a provincial governor for the ruling Persians and led exiles back to Judah in the late sixth century B.C.E.. The most glaring difficulty is of course the lack of a bloodline through to Jesus, as David’s descendant Joseph is merely the husband of Mary, not Jesus’ biological father.

  *2 Mary is legally bound to her betrothed by an agreement between the families, which is why the same term (“let go”) as for divorce is used for the impending (and inevitably awkward) split; the marriage is just not consummated, an event that waits for the whole community’s witness and celebration of the union. A girl believed to have had premarital sex could have been executed according to the law of the Torah (Deuteronomy 22:20–27), but rural folkways may have been less stringent.

  *3 Straying from and redemption by God is the basic Hebrew Bible understanding of history. God’s chosen people stray from obedience but are put back on the right path. The name Jesus is from the root for “rescue.”

  *4 The quotation is from Isaiah 7:14, and the name Emmanuel is referred to again in Isaiah 8:8 and 8:10. The original message in context is that a young woman (the Greek word parthenos, and its Hebrew predecessor in scripture, almah, do not stipulate physical virginity; an almah can actually be married) is pregnant, and that the child will have a name indicating that God champions the nation; by the time the child is eating solid food, it will be the fresh curds and honey of security and prosperity, not the stored grain of wartime and siege. In Isaiah the child might be either the author’s own or a prince and the heir to the throne of Judah, Hezekiah.

  *5 The Hebrew Bible euphemism for sex: the “know” of the King James.

  *6 “Ioudaia” here (and generally in the Gospels) means the Jewish heartland and the home of Jerusalem and the Temple, not the entire Roman multiethnic province of Judea, which went by the same name in Greek. See below at Verse 6 concerning Bethlehem.

  *7 The Roman client-king Herod the Great died in 4 B.C.E., providing an end date for Jesus’ birth according to this account.

  *8 In these two verses there is neat wordplay involving the “risings [of heavenly bodies],” meaning the east, and the “rising” of this one star.

  *9 The appearance of a star at the birth of great leaders, and foreign embassies bringing gifts on such special occasions, are familiar from ancient legend and historiography. Magos is a term
for a dream interpreter, astrologer, or magician, skills associated with the Near East, especially Babylon.

  *10 Micah 5:2.

  *11 These gifts are some of the most expensive by weight in the ancient world. Aromatic tree or shrub resins like these two, used ritually as incense in some cults, and sometimes in embalming corpses, were imports from distant, difficult terrains such as the Arabian Peninsula and Somalia.