To the Death (2 page)

To Ananus, an astute and worldly Sadducee, this was a deadly threat. Far too often the High Priest of all Israel was seen to be supportive of Roman law, exercising political power to his own advantage.

As the people suffered under crippling taxes imposed by the Romans, they saw priests living in luxury. The vast quantity of meat offered up daily on the High Altar ensured they lived well. Ananus enjoyed the lifestyle of an emperor, for he controlled the huge inflow of Temple offerings. He also raked in a share of the profits made by the money changers, the merchants and the drovers, who traded in the outer courts.

The house of Ananus, the High Priest reasoned to himself, had a duty to destroy the leader of this new religion. God, he decided, had delivered the brother of the so-called Christ into his hands. Like his brother-in-law Ciaphas, he would distance himself from the actual killing. True he had no Pilate but, he mused, a legal execution by the Jews was possible, for devout Jews were flocking to the Temple in their thousands to celebrate
Passover.
These people were the faithful, the true believers in the God of Abraham and Moses. Let the law of Abraham and Moses he thought, nodding to himself in quiet satisfaction, determine this man's fate.

“Blasphemy!” For the first time he spoke out loud.

The room stilled. Anxious faces turned expectantly towards him.

“This man, out of his own mouth, denies the God of our fathers. He is guilty of the most heinous blasphemy. This whole family is an offence to God. Did not his brother delude the people with tricks and sorcery? Did not” he continued, his voice rising to a shout “this Jesus falsely claim to be the Messiah?” There was another pause. Head bowed, hands clasped in front of him, the High Priest paced the floor. The only sound in the room was his heavy breathing. Every man stood tense and still, watchful, waiting.

The bearded head came up and with it a clenched fist, jewelled rings flashing in the light. “And now his brother rises up like Satan” spittle flew from his lips, his sweating face dark with blood, eyes bulging “to challenge God from the walls of His own house”.

The assembled priests, roused by Ananus' impassioned speech, could contain themselves no longer. They screamed and shouted their anger. For a full minute the High Priest could not make himself heard. With satisfaction he viewed the contorted faces, the shaking fists and the eyes wild with outrage.

Raising his hands above his head he waved them to silence. “Brethren, this enemy of God has delivered himself into our hands. Let us go out and question him. He stands in full view of the people. If he truthfully answers the charges put to him, he is guilty. If he fails to answer the charges, his very silence will serve to prove his crime. Either way he will stand condemned out of his own mouth”.

Eleazar was ordered to take four priests and ascend the tower James was on. This group left with secret orders. “Under no circumstances is James the Just to leave the tower alive”.

A second much larger group of priests was ordered to proceed to the Court of the Gentiles. They were instructed to say or do nothing, until the High Priest himself mounted the top of the Corinthian Gate, from where he would accuse James of blasphemy, a capital crime for which he would either make an adequate defence or die.

The unexpected blast of sound, the distinctive wild skirl of the
shofar
, the ceremonial trumpets made from rams' horns, silenced the crowd. Heads swivelled. Uplifted faces turned on craning necks. Searching eyes swept the Temple's towers and ramparts. Ananus, flanked by his most senior high priests, stood on the top of the Corinthian Gate, trumpeters on either side. He was crowned with the mitre of Aarron and carried a symbol of his high office, the rod the brother of Moses had flung at Pharaoh's feet.

Resplendent in his ceremonial robes he raised his staff to silence the crowd, a silence broken only by the sounds of the domestic animals in their pens. “Brethren, people of the one God, the God of Israel, His chosen people. Did He not make a covenant with our forefathers, binding us, His chosen people alone, to Him forever?”

A murmur of agreement rose in the still air. The High Priest continued, “The God who delivered us from Pharaoh, leading us to this land. The land He promised to our fathers as He struck off the chains of slavery and led His people out of Egypt. The God who will send us the promised Messiah, a king of kings, to rule over all peoples in righteousness. His chosen people first among all nations, raised up in glory. The God of Moses smote your enemies and delivered up this land to your fathers”. The rich baritone continued, lifting their spirits. “Solomon, the son of David, raised this house to the glory of His name, in His holy city”. Ananus was a skilled and practiced orator. His words reached every ear and every heart of the multitude gathered below. “Children of the covenant, we alone are His chosen people. He who denies that, denies God”.

This final pronouncement was hurled like a challenge from the heights of the Corinthian Gate. It echoed and reverberated round the great court. There was a moment of silence, of stillness and then a great eruption of sound; a roar of approval that brought a small smile of satisfaction to the High Priest's lips. Just being in the Temple precincts was an emotional experience. The unexpected appearance of the High Priest was high drama. The Hebrews were a passionate race and of a volatile nature - as the Romans had found out to their cost. They were deeply moved by Ananus' address; feelings were running high. On religious matters the Hebrews were intractably stubborn, unbendingly obstinate. When pushed on matters of theology, they were capable of foolhardy courage, refusing to give ground on a point of principle, no matter what the cost.

The crowd shifted uneasily. An inexplicable sense of expectation had assailed their collective senses. It was though a tuning fork had been struck, its vibrations resonating endlessly in their minds.

Slowly, majestically, Ananus raised his arm. His fist uncurled and a finger pointed across the open space to the figure standing on the opposite tower. The High Priest spoke directly to the man. “
Just one
, you cry out to the people. You tell them to follow Jesus the Crucified, the false messiah who claimed he was the
Way
and the
Word
of God”.

The man on the tower, dressed in a plain white robe, raised his head, the sun darkened face almost lost in the unkempt and wildly curling hair and beard. Brown eyes fixed unblinkingly on Ananus. For a moment there was no response, no movement other than that caused by the breeze which stirred the tangle of coarse, uncut white hair fluttering round his shoulders. James was fully aware of the trap that had just been set for him, as indeed were many in the crowd. A Jew from Armenia, a Pharisee with neither love nor respect for the High Priest said to his brother who had made the pilgrimage with him, “Ananus looks as though he is sucking on a lemon with his arse. This should be interesting”.

This sally brought as many appreciative chuckles as it did frowns of censure from the brothers' immediate neighbours. James replied in a level voice, without inflection or special emphasis. “Why do you ask me again about Jesus the son of man? Have I not said on many occasions, that Jesus was the door of the sheepfold, the way to the Father?”

Like a rippling sea every head swung towards the Corinthian. What reply would the High Priest make?

With a gesture that embraced the whole assembly, Ananus replied, “Is not the law, given by God for His chosen people, the Way?”

This was the Law of Moses. The law God had uttered from the inferno of creation. For the sake of which, Jews believed the very world had been created. The law which Jesus himself had said he came not to destroy but to fulfil.

The fanatical descendants of that venerable race, stood with the ghosts of the prophets from their ancient past, waiting for James the Just to reply.

Before he answered, James turned from side to side as though to ensure that every tower, dome and pinnacle of the Holy City was bearing witness. “He who was the Christ, taught the law which God gave to his prophet Abraham - That there is one God for
all
the nations of the earth, Gentile and Jew. That the Way to God is love. To do unto others as you would be done by. For by this hangs the whole of the law”.

The crowd gasped for this was the heart of it. Judaism taught that the one God
excluded all except his chosen people.

If what James had just said was true, the covenant given to Moses was broken. The covenant of Abraham proclaimed
all
men were brothers, under one God.

The High Priest let out a wild shriek and tore his robe, the stitching of which had, in anticipation of this moment, been weakened. In a spray of spittle, one word was hurled across the court. “Blasphemer!”

A great howl rose; a thousand throats producing a hideous animal sound
. Ish –Maveth -
A man of death. All the deadly poison of the religious fanatic was in that sound.

This was the signal to Eleazar and the four priests. They scrambled on to the tower and rushed James, who offered no resistance. They hurled him into the court, the crowd scattering as his body landed with a sickening thud on the stone paving. Unbelievably he wasn't killed outright.

A circle formed around the sprawled body. One leg was twisted unnaturally beneath the torso. An arm had been shattered at the elbow. Blood dripped from chin to breast. The eyes were unfocused, eyelids fluttering wildly. With a deep groan James the Just used his one good arm to pull himself into a kneeling position.

“Stone him”.

The command came from the leader of the priests whom Ananus, with earlier orders, had sent to this part of the court. They had also shown a sense of anticipation in bringing with them a plentiful supply of fist sized rocks. The first of these struck the injured James full in the face and knocked out an eye. The ensuing fusillade smashed into his ribs, broke his other arm, tore a large piece of scalp from his head and snapped off most of his front teeth.

The crowd roared their self-righteous anger. Those nearest the front sought missiles of their own. In a brief interlude lasting no more than a few seconds the dying man, swaying on his knees, raised his bowed and bleeding head. In a voice which was surprisingly strong, he called out to his God, “I entreat thee, oh Lord God, forgive them as I forgive them”.

One of the police, the son of Rechab, suddenly sprang forward, trying to shield James with his own body. As he did so he cried out “Stop. What are we doing? The righteous one is praying for us”.

Startled by this unexpected intervention, arms that had been pulled back ready to hurl another deadly shower of projectiles, paused and the fusillade petered out.

But one of the Temple police, who was also a fuller, stepped out of the crowd. In his hands he carried the tool of his trade – a heavy club. With a savage head butt he knocked the son of Rechab aside. With the mob screaming its encouragement, the skull of James the Just was shattered with a single blow.

2

A
fter
the murder of James, Eleazar went to a villa he kept in the lower city. He not only wielded enormous power in Jewish society, he lived in considerable luxury, supported by a generous share of the immense profit skimmed off the Temple's vast revenues.

As a secret nationalist, he controlled one of the many clandestine terrorist groups that were scattered around the country, some of which had hidden agendas that were mostly concerned with gathering wealth and power for themselves. Publicly they professed the common cause, whose manifesto was ‘Home rule for Israel'. This and ‘Romans out' or ‘Roman pigs go home', were scrawled on walls in towns and villages across the country, despite the fact that when caught the perpetrators were crucified.

Among the growing opposition to the Romans was a group of terrorists known as Zealots, who laid claim to be the true champions of the people. Unfortunately, the people had to put up with rival groups of nationalists who were as often at odds with each other, as they were with the Romans.

What they had in common was that they all battened on the people. From Galilee in the north, down through Samaria, Judea and Idumaea in the south, they forced the people to hide weapons, shelter and feed them.

The most feared of these terrorist organisations were the Sicarii, the dagger men, led by a self-styled ‘freedom fighter' called Menahem. They got their name from the unusual dagger they carried, which had a thick straight central rib, supporting a wavy double-edged blade coming to a needle point. With these weapons hidden in their clothing, the Sicarii would join a crowd and single out their victims, attacking them with a sudden deadly thrust, then they would disappear from the immediate scene by mingling with the crowd.

While influential Jews were the Sicarii's principle targets, they also assassinated members of rival groups and murdered citizens who refused to support their ‘cause' which was financed by theft and extortion.

When Eleazar arrived at his villa he was on edge. The adrenalin rush from the action at the Temple still coursed through his body. The violence of James' murder had left him excited and sexually aroused. He was a man with a large and catholic sexual appetite.

Eleazar kept his wife and children in a town house in Jerusalem's upper city and Amal, his Egyptian mistress, in his villa in the lower city – an arrangement that protected his reputation and kept his wife in ignorance.