But the thirteen diners now dwindled to twelve. It seems that one of them, Judas Ish-Kerioth, had pressing business elsewhere.
Chapter 17
There was an urgent rapping at the door of the high priest’s palace. Malchus opened it and brought Judas in to join Caiaphas and the leading Sanhedrists he was hosting at dinner. Judas was a swarthy, somewhat obsequious Judean of slender build.
“Most Noble Excellency”—Judas bowed to the high priest—“they are planning to go to Oil-Press Garden across the Kidron after their Seder this evening. Soon now, I think. I just left their table.”
“Yeshu, and the eleven others? Anyone else?” Caiaphas inquired, a touch of excitement in his manner.
“No.”
“You’re quite certain none of his other followers will be there?”
“Yes. Yeshu said he wanted solitude for meditation. And they’re fond of the grove anyway, always going there by themselves.”
“Are they armed?”
“Only two of them have swords, Peter and James.”
“How far along was their Seder when you left them?”
“Nearly finished.”
Caiaphas thought for a moment, then said, “The Lord has shown us that tonight must be the night, my colleagues, for it’s also our last chance to arrest Yeshu before the Pesach.”
“Wait…a word, Caiaphas,” said Rabbi Ananias. “It will be very dark out there. How can we be sure to arrest the right man? It would he chaos if a mistake were made and Yeshu slipped away.”
“If you will permit, Excellency,” said Judas, “I will identify Yeshu by giving him a kiss of salutation.”
“Agreed. Malchus, tell the captain of the temple police to await us with his entire corps fully armed. And see that the members of the Sanhedrin are alerted.”
“He’ll be brought to my place first?” Annas inquired.
“Yes, Father.”
Several hundred men, clutching swords, cudgels, and torches, filed out of the temple precincts, crossed the Kidron Valley, and quickly cordoned off the grove beyond. Judas led the officers and chief priests up to a small knot of people in the shadows of the garden. Singling out one figure whose perspiration gleamed in the moonlight, he kissed him.
“Whom do you seek?” said Jesus.
“Yeshu Hannosri,” an officer answered.
“I am he. But do you take me for a bandit, that you have to use swords and staves to arrest me? Day after day I taught in the temple, yet you did not seize me there. But let the Scriptures be fulfilled.”
Few arrests were made so easily. With a servant’s eagerness to please his master, Malchus was the first to reach out and grab Jesus. That was too much for one of his followers, a burly fisherman who pulled out his sword and slashed through Malchus’s right ear.
Jesus intervened with a quick command. “Sheathe your weapon, Peter! All who take the sword die by the sword.” Sheepishly, Peter wiped the blade clean and shoved it hack into his scabbard.
The other disciples looked terrified, cringing in a huddle of horror at the edge of the grove. Jesus saw it and said, “If I am the man you want, let these others go.” They ran away and lost themselves in the darkness among the olive trees. Jesus was bound and led back to Jerusalem.
When the posse returned, Caiaphas learned the details of the arrest from Malchus, who was still clutching the right side of his head in bewilderment.
“Splendid work, Malchus!” the high priest commended. “Oh…I’m sorry about the ear, but we’ll need you at the trial as evidence that they were armed and gave resistance. Now go and see the doctor.”
Still dazed and in semi-shock, Malchus slowly removed his hand and showed Caiaphas a normal right ear, attached where it should be. “Yeshu,” he said, “picked it up…put it back…healed—”
“Fool!” Caiaphas slapped him. “We have no time for your idle lies. Get hold of yourself! Now take this over to the Herodian palace.” He thrust a note into the servant’s hand and sent him out, muttering, “A little excitement and the knave hallucinates.”
Pilate and Procula were preparing for bed when Malchus arrived with this message:
Joseph Caiaphas to Pontius Pilatus, Peace. Our guard have arrested Yeshu Hannosri near the Kidron Valley. There was little resistance. But we urge you to keep the Antonia cohort on full alert from now until this case is concluded. Rioting may break out when the news reaches the people tomorrow. Yeshu will, of course, receive a fair trial by the Great Sanhedrin. Peace.
“What does it say, Pilate?” asked Procula.
He handed her the note, then watched her face for the reaction which came almost with the first line, a flash of concern, nearly a sad frown.
“A fair trial,” she said. “Do you think there’s any chance he’ll get a fair trial?”
“Perhaps. After all, they’re only trying to head off a possible rebellion and preserve the peace. They could be after the death penalty, though Caiaphas would probably have told me if that were the case. What they may do is imprison Jesus as an object lesson, or humiliate him in some way which will compromise him with his following. Anyway, his support will melt away from Jerusalem after the Passover.”
With that, Pilate dispatched orders to the Antonia commandant: “Put your men on full alert, in shifts, until further notice.”
Meanwhile, Jesus was taken to the house of Annas for a hearing prior to formal arraignment before his son-in-law Caiaphas. For several moments the white-haired priestly patriarch stared at the prisoner. “Axe you Yeshu Hannosri?” he finally asked.
Jesus nodded.
“So you’re the man tongues are wagging about from here to Galilee. What is it, then, Yeshu? Why are you so bitter at our leadership here in Jerusalem? You’ve said and done some fearful things in the temple…and elsewhere.”
Jesus made no comment.
Annas continued, “How big is your movement? Who are your chief supporters? What is your doctrine, your message? What are you telling the people?”
But Jesus, knowing that his appearance before Annas was simply a lower-court hearing before the inevitable confrontation with Caiaphas, blunted the interrogation: “My teachings are a matter of public record. I taught openly in the synagogue and in the temple. Ask the people what I said.”
One of the temple police thought his attitude impertinent and struck him on the cheek, snarling, “Is that the way you answer a former high priest?”
Jesus turned to him and said, “If I spoke wrongly, produce the evidence. But if correctly, why do you strike me?”
Annas glowered and said, “If the accused will not cooperate, this hearing is ended. Guards, bind the prisoner and take him to the high priest.”
Members of the Great Sanhedrin were gathering at the palace of Caiaphas for an extraordinary night session. With the gates of the temple mount locked at night, they could not meet in their regular chamber. All seventy Jewish senators now took their places in a semicircle which fanned out around Caiaphas, the president of the Sanhedrin, and two clerks of the court. The great hall of Caiaphas’s palace was bathed in the rosy amber glow of flickering torches. The place smelled resinous and smoky.
Excited crosscurrents of conversation hushed when Jesus was led into the hall and directed to stand in front of Caiaphas. The prisoner glanced up at the rising tiers of benches arced about him and felt the stare of 140 eyes. Witnesses and some of the public which had been attracted to the trial crowded into the hall behind him.
Caiaphas, clad in his official garments, called the Sanhedrin to order and opened the case by soliciting witnesses who had any evidence to bring against Jesus. In Jewish law, a minimum of two witnesses was necessary to support a given charge or it would have to be quashed.