13“I am returning to you now. But while I am still here, I pray for my followers, so they may share in my joy. 14Your message, which I gave them, has taken root in their hearts. Like me, they have chosen not to walk in the ways of this world, and so the world hates them. 15I am not asking you to remove them from the world but that you keep them safe from the evil one and his ways. 16They no longer belong to the ways of this world, any more than I do. 17Make them holy through the beautiful message of your truth.
18“You sent me into the world, and now, in the same way, I send them into the world. 19I set my life apart for them in a sacred manner, so they may also set their lives apart to walk in the beauty of your truth.
20“My prayers are not only for them, but for all who will trust in me through their message. 21I pray that all who walk with me will be joined together as one, in the same way that you, Father, are in me and I am in you—that they may be one in us. This is how the world will believe that you have sent me.
22“The beauty you gave to me I have given to them. This will join them together with us. 23In the same way you are in me, I will be in them, beautifully joined together as one. This is the reason you sent me into this world, to show that you love them just as you love me.
24“O Great Father, I want the ones you have given to me to share this place of beauty that I have with you, so they can see the power of your love for me, a love that we shared before you created all things.
25“O Father of all that is good and right, the world does not know you, but I know you, and my followers know you sent me. 26I have represented and will always represent who you truly are so that the love you have for me will be in them and I will live in them also.”
BETRAYAL
1When he finished sending up his prayers, he and the ones who walked the road with him walked across the Valley of Darkness (Kidron) and entered a garden with many olive trees.
2Speaks Well Of (Judas), the betrayer, knew about this place because Creator Sets Free (Jesus) would often go there with his followers. 3The betrayer came into the garden, and with him came a band of lodge soldiers sent from the scroll keepers, head holy men, and Separated Ones (Pharisees), representing the elders of the Grand Council. The air was filled with the smell of burning torches as they entered the garden carrying clubs and long knives.
4Creator Sets Free (Jesus) knew all this would happen, yet he turned to the soldiers and asked, “Who have you come for?”
5With one voice they answered back, “Creator Sets Free (Jesus) from Seed Planter Village (Nazareth)!”
The betrayer, Speaks Well Of (Judas), was standing there with the lodge soldiers when Creator Sets Free (Jesus) answered, “I am he!”
6At the sound of his voice they all moved back and fell to the ground.
7He asked them again, “Who have you come for?”
They answered, “Creator Sets Free (Jesus) from Seed Planter Village (Nazareth).”
8“I told you already, I am the one you are looking for,” he said. “Let these other men go.”
9He said this to fulfill his promise, “None of the ones you gave to me have been lost.”33
10Right then, Stands on the Rock (Peter) drew his long knife from its sheath and cut off the right ear of the servant of the chief holy man. The servant’s name was Chieftain (Malchus).
11Creator Sets Free (Jesus) turned to Stands on the Rock (Peter) and cried out, “Enough of this! Put your long knife back into its sheath. Shall I not drink the cup of suffering my Father has asked of me?”
CREATOR SETS FREE IS ARRESTED
12The lodge soldiers, along with their head soldier and the Grand Council representatives, took hold of Creator Sets Free (Jesus), tied him securely with cowhide strips, 13and took him first to Walks Humbly (Annas), one of the high holy men. He was the father of the wife of Hollow in the Rock (Caiaphas), the chief holy man 14who had advised the Grand Council by saying, “It will be better if one man dies for all the people.”34
FIRST DENIAL
15Stands on the Rock (Peter) and one other follower35 had been watching from a distance. Since this follower was known by the chief holy man, he entered the courtyard of the house. 16But Stands on the Rock (Peter) stood outside the gate. This follower spoke to the gatekeeper, a young woman, who then let Stands on the Rock (Peter) in.
17She said to him, “Are you not one of his followers?”
“No!” he told her, “I am not.”
18The night was growing cold, so some of the men, along with the soldier guards from the lodge, built a fire in the courtyard to keep warm. Stands on the Rock (Peter) stood there with them, trying to stay warm.
CREATOR SETS FREE QUESTIONED
19Back inside, the chief holy man began to question Creator Sets Free (Jesus) about his followers and his teachings. 20Creator Sets Free (Jesus) said to him, “I have spoken openly to all, in the gathering houses and the sacred lodge. I said nothing in secret. 21Why ask me? Ask the ones who heard me. They will know.”
22One of the head soldiers struck him in the face and said, “Is that how you answer a chief holy man?”
23Creator Sets Free (Jesus) answered him back, “If I have spoken wrongly, tell me what I said wrong. If I spoke what is true, then by what right do you strike me?”
24Walks Humbly (Annas) decided to send Creator Sets Free (Jesus) to Hollow in the Rock (Caiaphas), the chief holy man. So they took him, still bound by ropes, to Hollow in the Rock (Caiaphas).
THE ROOSTER CROWS
25Outside in the courtyard Stands on the Rock (Peter) was still warming himself by the fire. The others asked him, “You are not one of his followers, are you?”
“No!” Stands on the Rock (Peter) denied. “I am not!”
26One of the servants of the chief holy man, a relative of the man whose ear had been cut off, looked at him, and said, “Yes, you are! I saw you in the garden with him!”
27Stands on the Rock (Peter) shook his head in denial—and right then a rooster began to crow.
TO THE PEOPLE OF IRON
28Creator Sets Free (Jesus) was taken from the house of Hollow in the Rock (Caiaphas) to the lodge of the governor of the People of Iron (Romans). The tribal leaders stayed outside, for they did not want to become ceremonially unclean by going inside. It was early in the morning, and many of them had not yet eaten the ceremonial meal of Passover.
29Spear of the Great Waters (Pilate) came outside to meet them.
They took Creator Sets Free (Jesus) and stood him before Spear of the Great Waters (Pilate). He took a good long look at him, then turned back to the crowd.
“What has this man done wrong?” he asked them.
30“If he were not a criminal, would we have brought him to you?” they answered.
“Take him away!” 31Spear of the Great Waters (Pilate) said to them. “Use your own law to decide what to do.”
“Our tribal law will not permit us to put him to death,” they answered.
32This proved that Creator Sets Free (Jesus) was right when he told them how he would die—by being nailed to a tree-pole—the cross.
ARE YOU THEIR CHIEF?
33Spear of the Great Waters (Pilate) went back into his lodge and had Creator Sets Free (Jesus) brought to him, so he could question him in private.
Once inside, he said to him, “Are you the chief of the tribes of Wrestles with Creator (Israel)?”
34“Is this your question,” Creator Sets Free (Jesus) asked, “or are you listening to others?”
35“I am not from your tribes,” Spear of the Great Waters (Pilate) answered. “It is your own people and their head holy men who have turned you over to me. What have you done?”
36“My way of ruling is a good road. It is not in the ways of this world. If it were, my followers would have fought to keep me from being captured.”
37“So then, you are a chief,” he said back to him.
“It is you who have said it,” Creator Sets Free (Jesus) answered. “I was born for this and have come into th
e world for this purpose—to tell about the truth. The ones who belong to the truth will listen to my voice.”
38Spear of the Great Waters (Pilate) shook his head and said, “What is truth?”
I FIND NO GUILT IN HIM
39Then Spear of the Great Waters (Pilate) went outside to the tribal leaders and said to them, “I find no guilt in this man. By your own tradition we set free one criminal during your Passover Festival. Do you want me to release Creator Sets Free (Jesus), your chief?”
40“No! Not him,” the crowd roared back. “Release Son of His Father (Barabbas)!”
Son of His Father (Barabbas) was a troublemaker who had caused an uprising.
CROWN OF THORNS
1Spear of the Great Waters (Pilate) turned Creator Sets Free (Jesus) over to his soldiers to have him beaten. 2The soldiers twisted together a headdress from a thorn bush, pressed the thorns into his head, and wrapped a purple chief blanket around him. 3They bowed down before him, making a big show of it, and kept mocking him, saying, “Honor! Honor to the Great Chief of the tribes of Wrestles with Creator (Israel).”
They took turns hitting him on his face until he was bruised and bloodied.
4Spear of the Great Waters (Pilate) stood before the crowd again and said, “I bring to you the one in whom I have found no guilt.”
Creator Sets Free (Jesus) was brought forward, blood flowing down his bruised face. 5He was wearing the headdress of thorns and the purple chief blanket that was wrapped around him.
“Behold the man!” Spear of the Great Waters (Pilate) said to them. 6“Take a good long look at him!”
The crowd stared at him in stunned silence.
But then the head holy men and the lodge guards began to shout, “Death! Death on the cross!”
“Then take him and kill him yourselves,” Spear of the Great Waters (Pilate) said to them. “I find no guilt in him!”
7They answered him back, “Our law tells us he must die, for he has represented himself as the Son of the Great Spirit.”
POWER OF LIFE AND DEATH
8When Spear of the Great Waters (Pilate) heard this, his fear grew stronger, 9so he took Creator Sets Free (Jesus) back inside his lodge.
“Who are you, and where are you from?” he questioned him.
Creator Sets Free (Jesus) stood there and remained silent.
10“Speak to me! Do you not know I have the power of life and death over you? I can have you killed or set you free,” he warned him. “Have you nothing to say?”
11“The only power you have is what has been given you from above,” he answered. “The ones who turned you over to me carry the greater guilt.”
12Spear of the Great Waters (Pilate) tried harder to have Creator Sets Free (Jesus) released, but the people would not have it.
They stood their ground, saying, “If you release a man who says he is a chief, you are not honoring the ruler of your people, for anyone who claims to be a chief challenges his power.”
STONE OF DECIDING
13When Spear of the Great Waters (Pilate) heard this, he took Creator Sets Free (Jesus) and went to the Stone of Deciding, called Gabbatha in the tribal language, and sat down. 14It was now midday on the Day of Preparation for the Passover Festival.
He brought Creator Sets Free (Jesus) before the people and said, “Here is your chief.”
15“Take him away! Take him away!” the crowd shouted with one voice. “Nail him to the cross!”
“Would you have me nail your chief to the cross?” he asked them.
This time the head holy men answered back, “We have no other chief than the Ruler of the People of Iron (Caesar).”
16Spear of the Great Waters (Pilate) then turned Creator Sets Free (Jesus) over to the soldiers to have him put to death on a tree-pole—the cross—so they took him away.
The cross was an instrument of torture and terror used by the People of Iron (Romans) to strike fear into the hearts of any who dared to rise up against their empire. The victim’s hands and feet would be pierced with large iron nails, fastening them to the cross. The victims would hang there, sometimes for days, until they were dead. This was one of the most cruel and painful ways to die ever devised by human beings.
ULTIMATE SACRIFICE
The soldiers placed a wooden crossbeam on his back and forced him to carry it to the place where he would be executed.
17Creator Sets Free (Jesus) carried the crossbeam to the Place of the Skull, which is called Golgotha in the tribal language. 18There they nailed his hands and feet to the cross, along with the two others, and placed his cross between the two of them.
19Spear of the Great Waters (Pilate) fastened a sign to the top of the cross where they attached the crossbeam with these words written on it:
CREATOR SETS FREE FROM SEED PLANTERS VILLAGE CHIEF OF THE TRIBES OF WRESTLES WITH CREATOR
20This was near Village of Peace (Jerusalem). So that many of the Tribal Members could read it, the sign was written in Aramaic, their tribal language, but also in Latin and Greek, the languages of the People of Iron (Romans).
21The chief head holy men and the tribal leaders said to Spear of the Great Waters (Pilate), “Do not write ‘chief of the tribes.’ Instead write, ‘He said he is chief.’”
22But he answered, “What I have written will stand.”
23The soldiers stripped his clothes from him when they nailed his hands and feet to the cross. They tore one of his garments into four pieces, one for each guard. His long outer garment was woven together into one piece, 24so they said, “Let us not tear this, we can draw straws for it.”
This gave full meaning to the Sacred Teachings that said, “They divided my clothes between them and gambled for my garment.”36 This is what the soldiers did as they kept watch over Creator Sets Free (Jesus).
25-26Standing near the cross was Bitter Tears (Mary), the mother of Creator Sets Free (Jesus), who had come to see him, along with her sister. Two other women also came with her, Brooding Tears (Mary) the wife of Trader (Clopas), and Strong Tears (Mary) from Creator’s High Lodge (Magdala). He Shows Goodwill (John), the much-loved follower of Creator Sets Free (Jesus), was also there with them.
When Creator Sets Free (Jesus) looked down and saw them, he said to his mother, “Honored woman, look to your son.” 27Then he said to his follower, “Look to your mother.”
From that time the follower took Bitter Tears (Mary) into his family and cared for her.
28Creator Sets Free (Jesus), knowing he had done all the ancient Sacred Teachings had foretold, said, “I thirst.”
29There was a vessel of sour and bitter wine standing nearby. One of the soldiers dipped a cloth in it to soak up some wine. He wrapped the cloth around the tip of a hyssop branch and held it up to the mouth of Creator Sets Free (Jesus).
30He then tasted the bitter wine, turned his head to the sky and cried out loud, “It is done!”
He then lowered his head to his chest and, with his last breath, gave up his spirit.
Creator Sets Free (Jesus) was dead.
NOT ONE BONE BROKEN
31Soon the sun would set and a special Day of Resting would begin, when no work could be done. It was time to prepare for this day, so the Tribal Members asked Spear of the Great Waters (Pilate) to have the legs of the men on the crosses broken, which would make them die sooner. Then they could take the bodies down and prepare them for burial.
32The soldiers came and broke the legs of the two men on each side of Creator Sets Free (Jesus). 33When they came to him, they saw he was already dead. Instead of breaking his legs, 34one of the soldiers took a spear and pierced his side. Blood and water flowed out from the wound.
35The one who saw these things with his own eyes is telling the truth about this—so that all will believe. 36This was foretold in the ancient Sacred Teachings that say, “Not one of his bones was broken,”37 37and, “They will look upon the one they have pierced.”38
TRADITIONAL BURIAL
38He Gets More (Joseph) from High M
ountain (Arimathea), a man with many possessions, was a follower of Creator Sets Free (Jesus), but in secret, because he feared the tribal leaders. Since it would soon be sunset, when the Day of Resting would begin, he went to Spear of the Great Waters (Pilate) and asked permission to remove the body of Creator Sets Free (Jesus) from the cross.
Spear of the Great Waters (Pilate) released the body to him. So he and another man, 39Conquers the People (Nicodemus), who had come to Creator Sets Free (Jesus) in secret at night, took his body away to prepare it ceremonially for burial. Conquers the People (Nicodemus) had brought a mixture of myrrh and oils weighing about seventy-five pounds. 40Together they ceremonially wrapped his body for burial in the traditional way, using strips of cloth and herbal spices and oils.
41-42So because it was the Day of Preparation for the Passover Festival, and the day of resting was about to begin, they laid the body of Creator Sets Free (Jesus) in a nearby burial cave that had never been used and then returned to their homes.
HIS BODY IS GONE
1Early on the first day of the week, Strong Tears (Mary) from Tower of Creator’s High Lodge (Magdala) came to the burial cave early in the morning while it was still dark. When she saw the stone had been removed from the burial cave, 2she ran to find Stands on the Rock (Peter) and He Shows Goodwill (John), the much-loved follower of Creator Sets Free (Jesus).
She found them and, catching her breath, she said to them, “They have taken the body of our Wisdomkeeper away, and we do not know where he is!”
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