THE FOURTH KEY

The Roman God, Janus, is depicted with two faces staring in opposite directions: one face looking into the past and the other into the future.

The past can tell us a lot about who we are and what we will one day create, or do. That’s why I find it essential to retrace the steps that led me to a new novel and in so doing the fourth key to writing The Sixth Key is closely linked to my love of history and my passion for mysteries.

My love of history began at around age fifteen when I first read Gone With the Wind. I became a lover of historic novels and developed a fascination for history itself. My passion for mysteries was ignited when I saw my first Indiana Jones movie. The idea of lost artefacts, codes, puzzles and unsolved enigmas, excited me so much that I told myself I would one day write thrilling mystery novels based on true history.

Two books later, the protagonist in my historic mystery thriller, The Sixth Key, is Otto Rahn - the living inspiration for Steven Spielberg’s Indiana Jones. Rahn is racing against time to solve numerous puzzles, codes and enigmas to find a lost artefact that actually existed in history and although the book is predominantly set in the late 1930’s, it is interwoven with other historic time-lines.

I guess we never know what influences will work on us strongly enough to become actions. The best we can do is to look back every so often, like the God Janus. We might then better understand the present and even prepare ourselves for the future. In this case – a sequel!

On Writing THE SIXTH KEY

THE SECOND KEY 

I’m often asked how long it takes to write a book and I have to restrain myself from answering: ‘How long is a piece of string?’ 


There is so much more to a book than those hours  a writer sits plying the craft in glorious abandon. But I’m not talking about those nights one can’t sleep because a particular plot line isn’t working, or a character just isn’t developing. I’m talking about the deeper influences that long before one puts pen to paper or finger to key, mould the thoughts and feelings that will one day surface as the epiphany I spoke about in my last blog.

I was born in Brazil where Catholicism mixes easily with magic and the occult. Some of my earliest memories include lying in bed listening to the sounds of the Macumba drums while my grandmother told me stories of the martyred saints; they include hearing whispers about people who attended these magic rituals in order to debunk them but returned forever changed. 


My atheist father was always looking for conspiracies and rejected all religion and superstition with a passion. Conversely, my mother was a religious seeker and exposed me to a cornucopia of faiths. At one stage, I had a mother who was not only sanctioned by the Catholic Church to conduct exorcisms, but who was also, incidentally, a Freemason. Interesting!

As you can expect, this mystical milieu did have an effect on an impressionable child: I was very afraid of churches and anything atavistic for a long time, but it did have the effect of stimulating my curious nature and opening my mind. It is not so hard to see how all of the above would come bubbling out of me when I began to write The Sixth Key: a book about a man who is afraid of churches and is unwittingly drawn in the world of occult conspiracies, corrupt priests, heretics, black magic rituals and secret masonic societies.

As Sherlock Holmes would say, ‘Elementary, dear Watson!’

SIX KEYS TO WRITING - THE SIXTH KEY

THE FIRST KEY

My latest novel The Sixth Key is published and in bookstores and now, as I bask in the warm afterglow of past labours, I find myself turning philosophical. You see, it's my habit to retrace my steps, to search beyond those numerous drafts, sleepless nights, moments of self doubt and, of course, the usual last minute panic, to find the impulse that led to the book: the epiphanic moment – the birth of the idea.

James Joyce was the first to apply this word epiphanic to literature – a moment of insight which briefly illuminates the whole of existence and makes time stand still. For me these moments always come in the middle of life: while I’m on the way to driving my daughter to the mall or when my son is physically moving the house with music - everything is normal one moment, and the next - Eureka!

So what was the epiphanic moment that led to The Sixth Key? It came the morning I had a meeting with my agent and publisher. I was locked in dense Sydney traffic, and all at once the world faded away and three things popped into my head: Hitler, the Grail and the Apocalypse - I had my book!

In reality such a moment is only the tiny peak of an enormous iceberg and the very first key to what lives in an author just waiting to bubble up as an epiphany. As a literary device I will say there were six keys to writing The Sixth Key and in the coming blogs I will explore them with you. Are you ready for an adventure? Bring your rope and your flashlight, because as my protagonist Otto Rahn says, one has to dare to travel to hell if one wants to find heaven – I dare!

AKASHA - excerpt from earlier version of FIFTH GOSPEL - a novel - (ETERNAL GOSPEL)

IN THE BEGINING, in the fine airs of heaven, was written the Eternal Gospel, and the Gospel was with God and the Gospel was God. All things were written therein and without it there was not a thing written that was written. It speaks of the life, the life that is the light of men. This light that shines into darkness and is not understood by men is Christ, the true light, which enlightens every man. Christ came into the world and Christ is the Gospel and the Gospel was made by Him. But the world has understood it not.

I am the Akasha, the ancient breath of the spirit. Upon my airs is written the Gospel. I am the guardian of beginnings and endings; the possessor of the eternal knowledges and intelligences; keeper of hidden things. In future times, when wisdom has ripened in the soul, what I embody shall be seen and heard and known by every human heart. Now I give it only to those who are mine, and I will make them who see and and hear it to swear an oath, by heaven and earth and fire and water and the seven rulers of the substances and the creating spirit in them, that they will guard these things, for wrath will come to each one who violates it.

  It begins before the remote first making when the purest essence was lifted out from Adam and the purest essence was lifted out from Eve and taken to the sun to be tended and nurtured and loved. Inwardly luminous, morally chaste, unmixed with knowledge and worldliness and untouched by sin, this dual life creation, waited. Now did the sun gods know the earthly Eve and she begat Cain. The moon god, the Lord Jehova breathed life into the earthly Adam and separated him from Eve and man and woman created he them.

Thus was Paradise.

But Eve desired more than this eternal bliss. She was inquisitive, she sought a wisdom that was promised only by Lucifer and fell into his waiting arms. Adam who loved her followed and Lucifer opened both their earthly eyes to the world made by wisdom’s working…and at the same time passed a veil over their spirit eyes. 

Thus was the down-fall of man and woman.

On earth now Adam knew Eve and Eve through wisdom begat Abel and from that time onwards, Cain and Abel, sun and moon, fire and water, knowledge and wisdom, king and priest walked the earth, side by side.

Generations passed and the light of the spirit, which yet shone beyond the veil of darkness, grew dim. Forgotten were the fathers in the heavens, deserted were, therefore, the great sanctuaries of the mysteries in India and Persia in Memphis, Delphi and Eleusis, their altars lay broken and forsaken for the priests of the ancient oracles were no longer able to evoke the forms of the true gods.

Darkness of night held sway.

Selfishness ran free.

But the spirit light of the world was descending.

The mystics dreamt of a saviour.

In Egypt and Israel prophets foretold His coming.

In Chaldea astrologers began to calculate His arrival.

In Greece Sibyls, drunk on sulphurous fumes, swayed and danced to the portents of the last age.

Those who still remembered the echoes and the shadows of former days drew together in austere circles and waited with hope for the plague of deafness and lifelessness ravaging the earth to end.

What had long ago been taken from Eve-Adam and kept from the fall was male and female and the male formed a body garment for the coming God while the female part, descended to earth to prepare a womb for his birth.  

The world held a breath.

The task fell on the people of Abraham, those chosen by God to prepare this perfected body, the vessel for the Messiah.

When fourteen generations had passed, a king called David had two sons: to his first-born son Solomon, he gave the Kingdom; to his second son Nathan, he gave the Priesthood. And so those who yet possessed spirit sight presaged the birth of two children. The first child would be a wise, old soul, destined to enter into the womb of the oldest woman, Eve, from the lineage of Solomon. This child would be born first and would be known as the King of Kings. The second child would be a young soul untouched by sin, preserved from the fall and destined to enter into the womb of the youngest woman, a heavenly Eve, from the lineage of Nathan. This child would be called the Priest of Priests.

Because both children were destined to be the salvation of their people, they would be called Jesus; their fathers who would be lifted up by God would be named Joseph and their mothers, who were set to suffer a harsh fate, would be known as Mariam or Mary, according to the law - she who will suffer bitterness.  

Through the centuries successions of old Magi noted the skies with dreamy eyes, looking for the sign that would herald the birth of the Kingly child - a great conjunction of planets in the constellation of Pisces – an effulgent star.

In the depths of their souls generations of young Shepherds dreamt of the birth of a Priest, whose coming would be announced by the great choirs of heaven intoning melodies that would set a seal upon their souls in the image of a lamb.

At the turning point in time the Akasha, the imperishable substance upon which all things are written, spoke out from the heavens and into the heads and hearts of men. It rang out this word:

Awaken!

RESURRECTION, ASCENCION, & PENTECOST - Author's Cut from FIFTH GOSPEL a Novel.

‘I am the light that is over them all, I am the All. The All has come forth from me, and the All has attained unto me. Cleave the wood: I am there. Raise up the stone, and you will find me there.’

Gospel of Thomas saying 77

THAT EVENING, when his followers were gathered in the Cenacle, Christ Jesus came to them. He bestowed peace upon them and the comfort of the Holy Spirit and showed them the nascent life forces and the creative power of his resurrected body of light.

Thomas did not believe that this body which stood before him belonged to his resurrected master and Christ Jesus bade him to touch it that he might believe. Though Thomas’ senses did not recognise Him, but his own soul could now do what Magdalena was not able to do in the garden, it could reach out and be one with his master’s soul, for the mystery of his resurrected body was consummated, that is Christ had raised up the perfected body and united with Jesus once more.

Thus did Thomas know him and yet Magdalena had known him even without touching him.

Now those disciples who had fled the garden on the night of his arrest could see all that transpired in their absence for within their Lord’s youthful body of light was written, like a great tableau, the memory of it.

Forty days did He remain with them and in that time He taught them sacred things and deeply moved were those who were able to partake of his words with full awareness, for they were like a food and drink, like an enrichment that formed the higher aspect of his last Passover meal. Lazarus-John, his beloved disciple, Mary Magdalena, his spirit pupil and his Mother and the  women were able to partake of it, however the other male disciples only heard his words with some lucidity here and there, so that all of it was experienced as in a dream.

Many times these teachings appeared to the male disciples as visions experienced in far off places - a garden of a new earth, which they accordingly likened to those places they had frequented with him: Mount of Olives, Mount Tabor, or Galilee. More than once did they see themselves on a boat, floating on the glittering Sea of Galilee with the sun upon its waters shimmering in their eyes, and in this state they saw themselves as naked as babes, for they were born again through their experiences and were purified and had cast off the garments of matter. Christ directed them to catch fish and years later they did catch many fish – those who in future times would be taught the teachings of Christ.

And the disciples said to themselves:

‘We are blessed above all men on earth because the Saviour has revealed this to us, for we have received the pleroma - the fullness of his teachings and the entire consummation of them!’

Christ Jesus said unto Simon-Peter, son of Jonah at these times, ‘Do you love me?’

And Simon-Peter answered him, ‘Yes, Lord, you know all things and you know that I love thee!’

‘Then feed my lambs, feed my sheep, take these words that I have spoken to those who are young and are old, feed them the outer knowledge, the outer teachings I have given you. For while you are yet young you may walk wherever is your want but when you are old you will stretch forth your hands and another shall take you where you do not wish to go, for you shall drink of my cup. You shall follow me and you shall glorify God through your own death…’

Simon-Peter turned around then, and his vision was raised so that for the first time he saw what grandness of spirit indwelt Lazarus-John and he asked his Lord, ‘What shall your beloved disciple, Lazarus-John, do, if I am to feed the old and the young?’

‘It is my will that he tarry, or come into the world, life after life in order to take into it what is appropriate only for a few, the inner teachings. This is not your concern for the inner teachings shall not unite with the outer ones until I come again. All of you shall walk after me!’

But as time passed the vision of Christ walking and talking among them began to fade and in their hearts it was as if the sun were descending in the west. They had been dazzled and dizzied to have his light and warmth these many days, but now a coolness was descending over them as their master’s spirit began to sink into the darkness of their souls and they fell upon their faces and were afraid when they could no longer see him. Loss and confusion and a mood of dullness came over them. Even the sacred meals had mislaid their meaning, for their master was no longer at the table in the Cenacle with them. Only Lazarus-John, Magdalena and the Mother of God knew this to be a further step reached, pointing to a promise - the promise that would soon find its fulfilment.

Full with despair, James, the step-brother of Christ Jesus, knelt in prayer from dawn to dusk, and so intensely did he beseech, with his questing heart, to know how he must draw close to the One whom he had not recognised until the very end, that Christ appeared to him in the fullness of his glory and said to him,

‘Fetch the bread and the wine, my brother, and eat and drink of it, do this in memory of me, for the Son of Man has risen! The sacrament of the bread and wine possesses the power to realize my presence if it is celebrated at the same time in many different places. It can cause my presence to light up in the fine airs of the earth so that it can shine forth and be experienced by you…for where two or three are gathered in my name; there I am in the midst of them. I am always with you, even unto the end of the earth!’

And so James, radiant as if he himself were the resurrected one celebrated the first Christian ritual with the disciples.

On the fiftieth day after Passover, the tenth day after the ascension of Christ and the failure of their spirit vision, the disciples were yet again in the Cenacle assembled to celebrate the ancient festival of Pentecost, which celebrated the gift of the Ten Commandments to Moses. During the night they observed the reading of the scriptures which was followed by the teachings and the soul loosening, heart-lifting, choral singing and dancing which evoked the mood of an offering before the Pentecostal sunrise. The breath of transubstantiation overshadowed the meal and its celebration lasted throughout the night until near sunrise when they heard the wind pick up outside the Cenacle. A wind had entered the city, an ancient wind called Ruach. It moved over the colossal bridge and swept through archways, forcing its way through the streets, curving its back around the walls of the houses and rising up to the upper room.

Ruach, Elohim, Aur! Breath, Elohim, Light!

They had heard it before, the roar of this wind and it turned their memory to the night of their Lord’s sacrifice when such a wind had blown through the city. Out of this recalling and the suffering that it evoked in their hearts they saw a vision as the mother of their Lord stood before them. She seemed to them like a pillar of light, full with a fire of holy enthusiasm, which was outspread towards all those present, descending like flames over their heads. A love filled their hearts to the very brim and overflowed in good will. This was a power of immortality, a divine spark, the spirit of truth that needed no outward law, was now birthed in each one individually through the agency of the Mother of God. This was the comforter, which caused an inner spring, an inner sunrise in peach blossom hues and the culmination of the Mother’s task prefigured in the marriage of Cana. For this was that community in which wine had turned to water, in which each soul had married the spirit! This was the moment foreseen by Simeon when he said that Mary would be pierced through her heart to become, once and for all, the mother of all!

What a mighty awakening was experienced now in each one! In them lived a force that could enable them to speak forth in a language that all men could understand, how Christ Jesus had died for all men and that each man now needed to come to his own knowledge of this mystery on earth, and not after death! To take this Good News to the world was to be their apostolic task.

But this awakening also caused a second realisation: they could see how they had been walking these last days since Gethsemane like sleepwalkers. Christ Jesus had returned after his sacrifice and had sat with them and had taught them over forty days and yet they had not clearly understood that he was that same man that had been with them for three years! Only now did they see Him truly, wakefully, consciously!

What joy! What sadness! What exquisite longing!

Only Lazarus-John, the Mother, Magdalena and Mary Cleophas had experienced these last fifty days in full consciousness and they had understood from the first, that just as the sun shines upon Thebes, upon Olympia, upon Jerusalem and Mecca, so too does His spirit live in the heart of every human being who chooses to hear His voice when he says: 

I am with you always, even unto the end of the world!

In the beginning, in the fine airs of heaven, was written the Eternal Gospel. And the Gospel was with God and the Gospel was God. All things were written therein and without it there was not a thing written that was written. It speaks of the life, the life that is the light of men. This light that shines into darkness of the heart and is not understood by men is Christ, the true light that enlightens every man. Christ came into the world and died and was resurrected.

Christ is the Gospel and the Gospel was made by Him.

But the world has not yet understood it.

FOUR VEILS - Excerpt from FIFTH GOSPEL - a Novel.

FOUR VEILS

             

C

AIAPHAS had been in the Temple with Ananias preparing for the evening ritual, when two Pharisees burst into the court, with their eyes wide in their pale faces. He knew they were afraid, they were all afraid. The events of these last hours had all men jumping out of their skins.

But not Caiphas.

He sighed and scratched his back absently. Would this day never end?

‘What do you want?’

One man said, with authority, ‘We’ve come to ask why you have not dispatched the Levites to Golgotha? They have to break the bones of those men before the beginning of the Sabbath, so that they can be taken down!’

Caiaphas did not like being told. He said, ‘Impossible! It is too late, soon is sunset, besides, I have to go and kindle the incense.’ He began to ascend the steps.    

But those dreadful Pharisees would not be put off.

‘Listen Caiaphas…there is time. If not, the families will have to wait until after the feast to bury them.’

‘So what?’ he said looking at the fools. ‘Let them rot for a few days on their crosses…what harm can it do? It may be a good thing to let the birds have their fill of Jesus’ pitiful carcass. Let all men see it as they come and go! That way, whoever passes will be reminded that Jesus of Nazareth was not a god, just a liar, full of his own importance!’

He turned to go, but was prevented by the other man.

‘No!’ the stubborn Pharisee countered, ‘The Sanhedrin must comply with the law, this Sabbath is a High day, Caiaphas, and you know as well as we, that when the Sabbath falls on the second Paschal day, the law is even more inviolable! How can the people celebrate, the Feast of the Unleavened Bread, with the smell and sight of carrion meat outside the gates!’

Caiaphas sighed, weary and bored; he waved a hand as if he were shooing a fly. ‘Very well…you may send three guards.’

‘But the Romans won’t allow it unless you go, Caiphas!’ said the other Pharisee, ‘for without you the soldiers have no authority.’

Caiaphas turned an indolent eye upon the Pharisee, a look that could whither a plant, but it did nothing to change the resolve on that stubborn face. ‘The lot, dear Solomon, has fallen to me, I must kindle the incense…do you see how impossible it is?’

‘If you send the captain of the guards, with the lance of Phineas,’ Annanias offered now, from behind them, ‘the Romans will know that a mandate has been given, and they must demure before it.’

Caiaphas was full of pleasure for it, since the lance of Phineas had been that lance used to kill idolaters and adulterers, who had also not complied with the Laws of Moses. There was a species of poetic eloquence in using it against a heretic. He wished that he had thought of it himself.

Later, as he ascended the three steps, to commence the ritual burning of the incense, a speck of a feeling announced itself, a feeling against all logic. He pushed it back into the dull corners of his ill used heart, and tried to preoccupy himself with his task, but it would not go, it would have its way, until finally, it spread apart the curtains of his mind, and announced itself loudly in his ears:

Could he have been the Messiah?

This petition rang out from his soul, before he could snatch it, and fell over the heavy four-coloured veil that hung taut before the Holy of Holies, over the golden altar of incense that glowed red with coals.

Oh no! He had unwittingly petitioned the ancient oracle!

Behind him, the Levites were kneeled and he was full of relief – it had seemed to him that he had said it out loud, but he had not.

He gathered his wits about him, kindled the incense and took the golden censer from the fire, but at that moment a wind had entered the city - an ancient wind called Ruach. It moved over the colossal bridge and swept through the archways, forcing its way through the gates of the Temple, curving its back around the sanctuary of shining marble and glittering gold, sweeping through the court of the women, the court of Israel and the court of the Priests, and entering the chambers so strongly, as to fan the sacred fires into flames.

Ruach…Elohim…Aur!  Breath…Elohim…Light!

It moved from behind the columns and the walls and reached out its hands to grasp at Caiphas’ vestments and tore at his robes. It spoke, and the sound of it grew loud in his ears. He drew his hands to dampen its voice and dropped the sacred incense to the marble floor.

Dismay and confusion swirled around the sanctuary now, but Caiaphas heard only these words:

HE IS!

Now, day turned to night, and the earth began to move of its own accord, sending the golden candlestick, with its seven lit lamps, crashing to the floor. Caiphas lost his balance and followed it, hitting his head on the altar. The priests dissolved in panic as the wind, full of sand and dust, made them choke, and the shaking of the earth tore through the ground like the hand of a furious god.

Caiaphas struggled to stand, but his vestments were lifted up to his face, like devil’s wings. And as the earth exchanged places with the air, he was gripped by terror and tried to make a way out of the Temple, but there was a great commotion and confusion among those who had come for the service. The crowds, coming together of a sudden, made a crush through the porches and many fell and were trampled underfoot. At this point, a crack in the earth was heard and those veils guarding the holy place, long and wide and thick and wrought in seventy-two squares joined together, gathered the wind into themselves like sails, and were made pregnant. In their convulsions and birth throws, there began a rip, and a loud rent sounded as the four veils were torn from top to bottom, making open, the most Holy Place to the eyes of all.

The storm and the earthquake swallowed up the cries of terror and shock. God Himself, in His wrath, had rent the four veils with His own hands, and was gone from that place where he had dwelt in mysterious gloom. What portent was this? The priests asked themselves.

Only Caiaphas knew the answer, for he had heard the voice of the oracle. God had forsaken their Temple because they had killed His only Begotten Son.

TRIALS AND VISIONS - Excerpt from FIFTH GOSPEL - a Novel.

TRIALS AND VISIONS

T

HE stepbrother of Jesus was asleep in the sanctuary at the Temple. Before that he had spent the hours since the Paschal feast on his knees, communing with God, in contemplation of his destiny.

Years ago, after his baptism in the Jordan, Jacob son of Mariam, had let go of the power of his inherited birthright and had wandered the land like a fish without a sea, not belonging to any place. The corrupt priests and hypocritical rabbis of the Temple could not draw him to their side and he did not feel at ease with the Essenes, though they welcomed him always in their outer circles. He did not even consider himself a Nazarite in the strictest sense, and so could not call himself a true follower of John the Baptist.

He was a man in search of a spirit home.

During the years, conflicting words had reached him concerning his stepbrother. He had heard tales of John the Baptist’s testimony and rumours had abounded of Jesus’ healings and his exorcisms, his sermons and signs. Other rumours told that his stepbrother was a magician, a sorcerer ruled by devils; that he had broken the laws of their forefathers, that he had blasphemed and desecrated the Sabbath.

For his part, Jacob had kept himself aloof from all of it, not wishing to know what truth there might be to one or another rumour, that is, until this Paschal week.

Like others Jacob had come to Jerusalem to celebrate the holy day and to unite with the heart of his people. For he was tattered and thin after long months of wandering through the land–long months of punishing his body with fasting and prayer–and had sought a place to rest his head. But here, in Jerusalem, he could not avoid his stepbrother, who seemed to be everywhere; speaking out against the priests in one place, condemning the rituals of the Temple in another. Making more and more enemies as each day came, not only in the Sanhedrin, but also among the people.

He had not seen Jesus since that afternoon at Nazareth those years ago, and on hearing him in Jerusalem these last days it was hard to imagine him the same man, so strong and full of authority was his mien, and so powerful were his words. Yes. Jacob's baptism and those years of wandering had made his ears sensitive and discerning and he heard the ring of truth in his stepbrother’s voice, and over the days this had formed in him a question.

After all this time, and after all the wanderings and painful prayers…do I now realise that I have been in search of something, which I have always known?

On the eve of the Paschal feast, he took himself to the house given over to the Essenes, where he knew his family would be celebrating the Pascha. He took the steps that led from the outside of the house up to the cenacle, the upper room lit by candles, but when he came to be standing beneath the lintel, not quite in view and yet at the threshold of the room, he was taken by incertitude. In his heart, something told him that the circle around his stepbrother was closed and that there was no room for him. He was overcome then, with a feeling of grief for it and had decided to go, when a man he recognised, one of his stepbrother’s disciples, brushed past him making for the stairs. He had seen this man at the Temple, speaking to the priests. His name was Judas Iscariot.

The man was wild-eyed and taken by his own thoughts, and did not excuse himself, but continued on into the darkness. Disconcerted, Jacob made his way to the Temple, where he waited in the cold, awful wind for the gates to open for those in charge of preparing the morning offering of the Chagigah. Thereafter, in the court of the Nazarites he kneeled and alone and confused, fell to sleep, until disturbed by the sounds of the bleating of the animals, and a great commotion.

As he came out into the streets to see what had caused it, he realised that he had slept long, for the night was near given over to the green light of morning. He saw that the palace of Caiaphas was surrounded by a great crowd, gathered beneath lamps and torches. He went to it.

The pregnant moon hung in the west as he pushed past those people gathered outside, and made his way through the outer court and into the inner court of the palace. He looked about for anyone he knew.

‘What has passed?’ he asked a man.

‘The heretic, Jesus of Nazareth, is seized, and stands trial!’ the man answered.

With a vacant nod Jacob glanced about at a number of men huddled around a coal fire, in the middle of the court. The glow of the fire’s blue flame threw shadows over a face he recognised, another of his brother’s disciples. Jacob made to go to him but when he came near, he heard a Levite say to the man,

‘Are you not Simon-Peter, one of those who followed Jesus, the heretic?’

The disciple buried his face in his wool robe and said, ‘No…I am not!’

‘Yes, I saw you at the Garden!’ another Temple guard added.

‘No! I tell you, you are wrong!’

‘He lies!’ said a woman nearby, ‘I have seen him with the Nazarene!’

He turned on the woman, ‘I do not know what you are saying, addled woman! For I know not the man! Leave me be!’

A cock crowed then, and perturbed by it, the disciple hunched his shoulders and ran off into the crowds.

But Jacob did not go after him, he continued to the palace, where he was recognised and allowed passage. Once inside the great rectangular hall surrounded by columns, he searched among the many faces. The torches flapped in the breeze, and in that cold light he saw no face he recognised. A great uproar was heard coming from the front of the hall, where, on the raised platform, sat the high priest, Caiphas among members of the Sanhedrin. From what Jacob could see, there were only enough to make a quorum, twenty-three priests and rabbis, in a half circle formed by seats. As he made a way through the crowds he realised that the man who stood before these elders, surrounded by his accusers, was his stepbrother.

What had become of him since the supper in the cenacle made Jacob take a deep breath; nothing could have prepared him for what now met his eyes. His stepbrother was a battered man, leaning to one side, with one eye bruised and the other squinting away at the blood that oozed from cuts to his scalp and his forehead. His nose was broken, his lips were swollen and he shook from his head to his bare feet, for his garments had been torn from his body and he wore only a loin cloth. His hands were trussed up before him like an animal ready for the slaughterhouse.

A rising up of indignation was caught in his throat and his eyes filled with tears. He looked about for a support and found a column and leaning against it, transfixed, he watched and listened while the room erupted in screams for his brother’s blood.

Caiaphas was speaking to Jesus from his grand position on the dais,

‘Witnesses have heard your words, which make of you a defiler…and a seducer…and a heretic!’

Jesus did not answer.

One by one, came the accusers then, to shout out their charges and claims.

‘He said he would destroy the Temple, and rebuild it in three days!’

‘But he did not say he would build it with his hands!’

‘He calls himself the Son of Man!’

‘No! He says he is the Son of God!’

‘But he heals the sick and he casts out demons! Is this not a holy man, who can do this?’

‘He might cure the sick but he does it on a Sabbath!’

‘He casts out demons because he is a demon himself and he is in league with them!’

‘He teaches false doctrines!’

‘He does not wash his hands before he breaks bread!’

‘But he speaks of peace and love and breaks bread with the poor!’

‘Yet he has members of the Sicarri as his disciples!’

These contradictions fell into a confusion and rabble of voices.

Jacob saw Nicodemus, a well-respected member of the Sanhedrin come into the fray, followed by Gamaliel and Joseph of Arimathea.

Nicodemus entered into the centre of the horseshoe of gathered men and said, ‘Why have you called this council without us? This meeting is not lawful! There has not been proper notice, and an attendance of all the members of the council!’

The people grew quiet.

Gamaliel pointed to Caiaphas and added his own words, ‘You have tried to prevent those of us who do not agree with you from being here! Such a trial conducted in haste, while many of the council are preparing this morning for the ceremony, is not legal!’

Joseph was angry. ‘Where is the passage in the law that approves of trying a cause at night, and so close to a feast day!’

Caiaphas stood and came forward with a scornful eye. ‘My colleagues…it was not our intention to exclude you…we had to act quickly. If we had not seized this heretic and stopped him from inciting the people to rebellion, the Romans would have done so, and this would have caused grief to the Temple and to Israel!’ 

‘But these accusations only show the confusion of your witnesses, for they bear no proof of his wrongdoing!’ Nicodemus pointed out.

‘Well then!’ said Caiaphas, drawing close to Jesus. ‘Let the man say something himself!’

But there was only silence from Jesus.

‘Why do you not give answer to these accusations?’ Caiaphas taunted, ‘I adjure you to tell us if you are Christ, the Messiah, the son of the living God!’

When the voice came, Jacob recognised no authority in it, it was the voice of a man, not the voice of a god, ‘If I tell you that I am he, you will not believe me…and if I ask you who you think that I am, you will not answer me, nor let me go…no matter what I say, I am condemned.’

‘Are you the Son of God?’ the high priest said.

‘This is a question which only you can answer,’ Jesus said. ‘For it only has value if you, yourself can see the God in me. But I tell you, one day all will see the Son of Man, sitting on the right hand of the power of God, and coming in the ether-cloud realms of heaven. Then, you will know, that I am He!’

Jacob knew it suddenly; in his heart he knew it – what he said was true!

But he was torn from the vision by the words:

‘Giddupha! Blasphemy!’ Caiaphas had a blade in his hand. ‘Blasphemy and sedition!!!’ He took up the corner of his outer and his inner garment and made a tear from top to bottom, renting both. ‘What further need have we of witnesses! Now all of you have heard it for yourselves, with your own ears! What say you to this,’ he said to the crowds, ‘for life or for death?’

The hall resounded with such fierceness, that it near reached heaven.

‘Death! Death! Death!’

‘No!’ Gamaliel cried, outraged. ‘A capital sentence is not legal unless it is pronounced at a regular meeting of the Sanhedrin!’

But his words were drowned out. The priests were already coming off their dais. Each man took his turn to spit into Jesus’ face or to hit him with a staff or to slap him with a hand before leaving the court.

Jacob’s soul welled up with anger and he spoke out so loudly and so heartily that the voices took a pause. ‘The golden band on your mitre has the graven words, “Holiness unto Jehovah”! It means you have the power to atone for those who blaspheme!’

The pause was breathless, the crowd waited.

The cold, fierce gaze of the high priest moved to Jacob. ‘I will not atone for a man who profanes the name of God, again and again!’ Caiaphas raised his staff and looked to the vaults of the hall. ‘I–will–not!’

A terrible draft, unearthly and cruel, washed over the room now, and Jacob saw shadows, and shadows of shadows, sweep over all gathered there; like malignant birds borne by an unfelt wind. He saw, with his own eyes, how these shades were inspired into the souls of those present, and enticed them to rise up in a high pitch of hate and rage, so that snarling, like one great rabid animal, the throng moved on Jesus.

Caiaphas shouted out over the din, ‘Put this king in the dungeon until he is delivered to Rome, for only Rome can render him what he is due!’

By the time the members of the council had left the tribunal, the crowds had descended upon Jesus and were revelling in trampling upon the fallen greatness of the man they had welcomed to Jerusalem like a king only a few days ago. He was clubbed and beaten with fists, and insulted and hit with staves, and in the midst of this brutality, this coarseness and ferocity and profanity, he fell, and was swallowed up by the crowds, and Jacob saw him no more.

Jacob was aghast. The representatives of the highest human knowledge in Jerusalem had failed to see the Messiah of their people! But he was soon reminded of that peaceful morning, looking into Joseph’s workshop, when the image of his brother Yeshua had surfaced on the face of Jesus, and he had not wished to see that Jesus was his brother.

Was he any better than these men?

And so it was, on that terror-full night, when all hell seemed to be let loose on the world that Jacob finally found the purpose of his life, and his spirit home…and it had come too late.