Chapter I: The Last Magus

«Assurons-nous bien du fait, avant que de nous inquiéter de la cause», Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle

The very person of Pontius Pilate for the average Christian ‘fundamentalist’ has become a source of disgust. But for many religious historians the name of the character is an embodiment of awe and excitement. So far, many of them have gone an extra mile to absolve the scoundrel of his ‘mortal sin’.

Few, if any, have the actual knowledge of the years of Pontius Pilate after the Passion of the Christ Jesus. Certainly, not any ignorant Christ follower knows it. Fragments of the Q-document in the library of the Irish missionary may give some light into the subject.

The library, as figured in the articulate will of Rev J.H.,sj, has been bequeathed to his only “begotten” son Rev Joseph Sandoval Duarte, a companion of Jesussj.

 Many books in the illustrious library talk profusely about the Passion of Christ Jesus. They hint out on the key figures that featured prominently in the many stages of the trial of the Son of David.

Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus were by now former members of the Sanhedrin. Their key testimony in the trial of Jesus before the Sanhedrin was one of the main reasons of such an unprecedented church punishment. Their gesture, unbeknownst of them, had made big fools of Caiaphas and his accomplices.

For this and many other grudges harbored against them, these council members have been unceremoniously excommunicated from the esteemed institution. Their closeness with Jesus which has become evident during the Trial of the Nazarene was not to help matters.

Left with a gloomy future with no mores privileges, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus did not cry on their own fate and with the help of some sympathetic people, they managed to secure a decent burial in a hewn stone for the mortal remains of the dead messiah.

They had previously made a feat by their courage and faith in the Son of man. With the discrete support of Claudia Procula, a high level roman citizen and a secret disciple of Jesus, they got a writ from Pontius Pilate in order to remove away from the cross, the corpse for burial. Even buried, the revilers of the Son of Man did not relent on their evil design.

Fearing that the apostles of the man will come and steal away his body, Caiaphas, Annas and a good number of their  enthusiast supporters  went to Pontius Pilate by night. Upon their arrival, they made a funny request to the roman official.

. By then, after what the eyewitnesses y saw happened in the temple during ‘the hour of smoke and darkness’, many people out of the lot, out of remorse and perhaps through enlightenment, have already withdrawn their formal support to this vile scheme and the minds behind it.

‘Ave Caesar,’ greeted Caiaphas the High Priest.

‘Ave Caesar,’ responded a tormented Roman Procurator.

It was not customary for a Jew, and a high ranking one for that matter, to greet a Roman official in such a Roman style. But in their desperate situation, Caiaphas and companions were willing by all available means to suppress any possible mark from the face of the earth of the preacher and the healer that hailed from Galilee.

‘What do you want again from me?’ asked an anxious Pontius Pilate.

Since their last encounter, the prefect of Judea had lost all sleep and was already bitterly regretting his major involvement in the casa contra Iesu NazarenensisNazarenenus, rex Iudaeorum.

The Roman Prefect granted to the Chief Priest and all his accomplices a formal security made up of temple’s guards to keep watch over the tomb. Thereafter, he sent them packing.

‘Go and look for him on Golgotha,’ an angry Pontius Pilate at his wits end told Caiaphas and comrades.

These temple’s guards had the primal duty to insure that the order- and discipline- pertaining to the temple activities were kept. They did not wear the heavy military attire of the Roman guards. The crew was less equipped to deal with a riotous crowd. Therefore y were tooled only only ffor lesser works, hardly could they quell and not for quelling any riots if it ever occurred. And God knows there were many riots at hands at the time of the roman occupation.

Under the lead of the inglorious Cassius Longinus -the soldier who is notorious for having pierced the side of Jesus on the cross- and his assistant, the security crew of the temple guards set out to keep a watch over the tomb.

 The duty was due to last for at least three days. This ultimate precaution was taken to prevent the prediction of Jesus to come true.

For Caiaphas, Annas and the rest of the scheming lot did not see how, unless someone comes to steal away his corpse, Jesus could possibly resurrect. That, by all means, necessary or not, they wanted to prevent, for prevention, as they contended, wais better than cure.

 In the presence of the Jewish authorities, the guards under the military survey of Cassius Longinus were instructed to put a thick seal over the tomb.

Apart from being an important Praetorian at the service of Pontius Pilate, Cassius Longinius was in the middle way between an obedient soldier and a skeptical roman. He was schooled in on all kinds of bizarre philosophies , to name but about the transmigration of the soul.

But he was not so interesting as the otherwise notorious sycophant Lipsonius, who though, not a praetorian, was his best closest match in the dear art of sycophancy. He was an expert in lip service.

The scheming lot formally summoned the guards not to allow anyone draw nigh the tomb, lest the Apostles of the man steal away the corpse and pretend Jesus has indeed resurrected.

This would have given a heavy blow onto the great scheme against Jesus. This they could not afford.

***

Unlike the atheists, the heathens and the Pythagoreans, especially the latter, believe in the transmigration of the soul through the cycle of rebirths. Only the Catholic Church and many Christians believe in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Opposing the general tenet widely articulated in the Passion narratives of the Gospel and the Pauline letters, and to bring to light why his discovery of the skeleton of Jesus is genuine, Lord Byde had explained that on the second day of their perilous mission of guarding the tomb of ‘the King of the Jews’, the infamous crew of Temple’s guards in charge of the safety of the tomb got some wine mixed with Indian hemp from people at the behest of the secret disciples.

Furthermore, the latter, the scientist of doom maintained, expressed more zealousness than the Apostles.

The earthquake that occurred on the day of crucifixion has left a backdoor into the tomb of Jesus; an entrance not unknown to the secret disciples unlike the guards. They were all -the guards of course- too busy watching over the entrance of the tomb -and drinking the intoxicated beverage; they could not discover it.

Though, there existed other tombs not unworthy to shelter the embalmed corpse of the crucified, the secret disciples chose to bury the corpse of their beloved master in that particular place. Theit camouflaged backdoor was the perfect mean through which they could skillfully steal away his corpse on the day fixed for the resurrection. All the security measures, to ward off access to the tomb, were set in place to respond to any possible sham.

For there was a strong suspicion that the secret disciples have vowed to steal away the corpse of the dead guru to make people accept as a true fact that Jesus has resurrected.

The wine they took to help them enjoy a happy watch over the tomb caused the guards to see ghostly shadows, representing angels pushing the block away and Jesus coming out of the tomb. Under the influence of the intoxicated beverage, they have come to believe their vision was real,- there was a resurrection.

From the backdoor, a group of followers led by the secret disciples -Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, to name but the key figures- went in to push open the gate that was blocking the entrance of the hewn stone tomb after having made sure they had, at first, thieved away the corpse at the center of the controversy.

On realizing at dawn that the tomb was empty, and because the influence of the poisoned wine, to which they were subjected, was gradually fading away; the guards hurried upaway in order to report back to the Roman Procurator the grave event.

“Thate the engineered resurrection which was already prophesied by the King of the Jews has occurred.”

The much weary Pontius Pilate sent the guards back to the High Priest to sort out the many problems this man Jesus though dead still appears to be causing.