A TRIAL: WHO STOLE JESUS’S BODY?

By David Snyder

To any reader, I wish you to know that Jesus did rise from the dead! He did it because he was God incarnate, and he did it that he might save you from your sins. This trial was a work of fiction. What was not fictional, however, is the fact that Jesus rose from the dead and that the Jewish Sanhedrin went to a great deal of trouble, as fictionalized here, to keep the knowledge of Jesus's resurrection from the world. If Jesus did not rise, Jesus was not God. If Jesus was not God, Jesus could not save anybody from their sins

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Aug 15, 2023
• ISBN: 9798888323267

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A TRIAL: WHO STOLE JESUSaEUR(tm)S BODY?

David Snyder

ISBN 979-8-88832-325-0 (paperback)

ISBN 979-8-88832-326-7 (digital)

Copyright © 2023 by David Snyder

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Epilogue

About the Author

Chapter 1

May I attend the crucifixions today, Father? Cephas asked his dad on that fateful night which was to change the lives of everybody in Jerusalem. He was less than four hours away from it being time to go to work, the third and fourth watches of the day. The morning promised to bring him a chance to see for the first time an actual crucifixion. In the past, when these things happened, he had been kept at home. Now, however, he was nearly an adult. Besides, crucifixions were becoming more and more common in Jerusalem. There was always a Jew somewhere angering the Romans and giving them an excuse to kill another Jew. Though he didn't think his father thought as he did, Cephas felt that the Romans only looked for reasons to kill Jews—they seemed to get a kick out of it.

What information do you bring me from the Romans, my son? Simon asked, instead of answering his son's question.

No more than before, Father. The Romans hate us, but they are also afraid of us. They say we make too much of this rebel that everybody says is the Messiah.

Cephas was the son of the Pharisee Simon, a chief leader of the Jews at Jerusalem and a friend of Annas and Caiaphas, the high priests. As these two men's friend, Simon had agreed to allow his son to be employed by their pagan enemies, the Romans. Cephas worked the third and fourth watch of the night, the six hours from the beginning of the third watch to cock crow or sunrise six nights a week. As such, Cephas had become very skilled in the art of spying by simply listening to their conversation as he served the Romans each night.

At first, Cephas had resisted the effort to take a job working for the Romans. He had finished his Jewish schooling and was eager to enter the academy to begin study for his Pharisaical Priesthood Ordination. His father had insisted, however, pointing out that Cephas's knowledge of Latin gave him an advantage as a spy for the Jews—the Pharisees in particular. Being unclean for six hours a night, six days a week, could be washed away by the observation of cleansings and ordinances of the Pharisaical Orders as proclaimed by Mosaic Law and Pharisaical customs.

You should not attend the crucifixions today, my son. There is liable to be trouble. For the Pharisee Simon, it was not so much the question of whether Jesus was the Messiah or not but about the political expediency of the moment, as well as a debt Simon had to settle with Jesus. Jesus had once eaten in Simon's home. The meal had been a near disaster when a woman entered Simon's house as they sat down to meat. Jesus, Simon, and many of Simon's friends and other high placed rulers in Jerusalem were just being served at Simon's table.

At that moment, a woman who was a sinner, an adulterer even, dared to come into Simon's house, attack his chief guest by going to Jesus, and while bowing on the floor before him weeping, began wiping Jesus's feet with tears and poured out an alabaster box of ointment on his feet. She then kissed the feet of Jesus, and Jesus, all that time, just allowed her to do it. Simon had directed his servants to get her out of the house, but Jesus rebuked Simon instead of the woman, the worst sinner of the two. Jesus, then seemingly reading Simon's mind, had told Simon that he was as great a sinner as the woman—him, a Pharisee of all people. Embarrassing Simon to death in front of his colleagues, Jesus then pointed out that he, Simon, a Pharisee of all people, had not offered to wash Jesus's feet personally.

From that day to this, Simon made it a point to never be seen with Jesus again. As the crucifixion was carried out today, Simon intended to be there, mocking the man who had so humbled him in his own home that day. Now who is boss, seeing you are on the cross? If you be the son of God, come down off the cross, Simon intended to shout at the man.

Simon's own personal power was derived from his close acquaintance with Annas and in particular, Caiaphas. Simon did not want to jeopardize his political career and as such, had volunteered his own son to be a spy for the Pharisees by allowing him to be hired out to the Roman barracks. After all, the Romans were lenient taskmasters. So long as the Jews paid the tax demanded by Rome and conducted themselves in a manner showing their submission to Roman rule, the Pharisees were mostly left to themselves. Simon looked forward to the time when he might be appointed to some higher office, and such an appointment would not happen if this Jesus continued to cause an uproar. Besides, if Jesus was Messiah, Jesus would overthrow the Romans, and that would be the end of Pharisaical rule in Jerusalem.

Also, as Simon well knew, in the past fifty or so years, there had been many false messiahs that appeared on the scene for short periods and then vanished. In his own lifetime, as a youth, he had witnessed the uproar over a man named Theudas, who boasted of himself as the Messiah, gathered four hundred or so men, and had attacked the Romans near to Jerusalem. Theudas had been slain, and those who followed him were dispersed, except several dozen who were captured and crucified. Then only a few