good news of miriam - the lost gnostic gospel of mary magdelene - chapters 19, 20, 21

- 19 -

Many significant events were to take place before this Passover would pass into history.

One - Jesus came into the city by one of the gates. The disciples had whipped up a small crowd to greet him as he entered Jerusalem on my donkey.

I moved back into a room at the luxury gentile inn that I had stayed at before at tremendous expense. Rooms were hard to find with the influx of tourists and pilgrims for the high holy day. My room this time had no view of the Temple area.

I still had access to my townhouse but I preferred to stay away. Some of the committee tolerated me and I tolerated them. Other members of the committee, Rocky in particular, hated me. I do not hate but never, except for my evil brother in law, did I dislike someone so much as I disliked him. I know that he did not like women. I pitied his poor wife. I also pitied his ex-wives as well.

It would be the ultimate insult of my life if my testament here were to ever be merged in any way with the good news versions of that brute of a man. That would surely put me into the myth of hell forever.

Peter was one of the early Galilee crowd. He was an early patron with his boats and children and sons in law in the fishing business.

Rocky was so thick. He was waiting for Jesus to return to his roots in Galilee and establish a theocracy there.

Indeed, Jesus in giving him the title as leader when Judas was in fact the main manager of this show said something to me. Jesus’ active ministry started out touching the common man. Peter was indeed that common man. I think that Jesus kept Peter around out of guilt and possibly as a reminder of his past.

No doubt Jesus was looking ahead to the future. He had screwed up once before as an up and coming member of the Temple crowd in his youth. If he blew his opportunities again, there always was obscurity and a small synagogue with a bible study school in Galilee after this big visit to Jerusalem. In such a case, Peter would once again be his only patron.

Two – There was some great commotion at the Temple. I heard rumors of a riot. I also heard that bloodshed had occurred. In any event the Romans put Jerusalem on total lockdown mode. Soldiers were at every gate. Small patrols were constantly moving through all the small streets and alley ways looking for any signs of dissent.

There was little commotion but mostly fear in the streets as I traveled by foot. I did not like the feel of this situation.

Three – When I got to my townhouse, I took a headcount. All of the committee and Jesus were present and accounted for.

I stayed and helped in the kitchen until I remembered that it was almost sunset. I ascended the stairs to the second floor. The men were all huddled over a middle table in what used to be my bedroom. They paid me no mind. I exited out a rear doorway and on a tiny exterior nook I grabbed hold of and climbed a ladder to the roof. In hotter weather, living and sleeping would be done under awnings on the roof. It was not summer yet but the political atmosphere was keeping all activities indoors for more houses than my own.

I looked up to the fortress and wondered what the Romans had in mind. In spite of my own fears, there was calm at the end of the day. The myth states that the sun would take its sleep and ride a chariot through the dark underworlds. Right then, it was a peaceful moment.

The sunset helped me prepare and make good prayers at this fifth prayer session of the day. I may be a half baked Jew to some but at least I am whole in the traditions of my adoptive father. Somehow I hoped that he was looking out for me from the realm beyond death.

My son was not out of danger, nor was I. Nor was Manny.

Below, on either side of the central table close to the floor were two other tables. All sat on cushions or the bare floor.

Women sat at one table with small children. My table was mostly with women and the older children.

Jesus officiated over the Passover meal. Some women were coming and going from the kitchen and serving the men at the main table.

The rabbi sat in view of myself. He performed the prayers and rituals associated with the Seder. There was the lamb and the bitter herbs and a blessing of the wine.

Manny first picked up the unleavened bread and then a cup of wine.

“When you meet again at the next Seder table. Remember me. Take. Eat.” He said and broke the bread and passed it in different directions.

He then handed his cup of wine to his disciples and spoke.

“Take. Drink. It looks as if I may well be the lamb to seal a new covenant with the Almighty for all peoples.”

Nobody seemed to understand what he meant. Then again, he was almost always quoting parables and riddles.

The meal finished. The women began to clean up. The men sat around the table. I heard Matthew say something like –

“They have betrayed us upon the hill. I knew that we could not trust them.”

Jesus spoke to Judas.

“Go and do as I have instructed you to do.”

With that Judas left the room and the house.

One of the disciples asked Jesus what he thought was the greatest commandment. Then Jesus replied.

“To love the Almighty with all your ability of mind, heart and soul. And just as importantly to love everyone else as you would be loved. To love your neighbor as yourself…”

The house was suddenly very close. Many of the group and some of the women exited the house. There was a curfew on with trouble in the city. The city was so crowded for the holy day that people were still everywhere in the streets.

Many had partaken of the Passover meal in other peoples’ houses and were on their way out of the city.

We walked toward a small gate in the city wall. Many people were filing out in a single line in view of Roman guards. No foot traffic or horse or camel traffic were being allowed into the city that night. I think that the Romans thought it a good idea to drain the city of any potential rioters or revolutionaries.

We passed through the gate and walked a small distance past pilgrims in tents and sleeping out in the open. We came at last to a grove of olive trees on a sloping side of a hill opposite the walls of the city.

Lit torches could be seen on the infamous Roman fort towering over the city.

Jesus talked to me as we walked.

“They are blaming us, me, for the riot that took place earlier in the day. Judas has gone to try and smooth things over.”

I did not understand. I waited to ask questions. I stayed silent and listened as Manny poured his heart and soul out to me.

I sounded as if Judas had greased come Temple palms with cash. Jesus was supposed to be allowed to briefly preach to a national crowd. This would have made his reputation. He could be somebody respected among the Temple crowd.

The Temple people told him to preach off in some obscure corner in a space filled with thousands of pilgrims.

Then suddenly, bad luck showered down on the master’s speech.

In such a crowded area some person bumped into a moneychanger’s table which unfortunately helped another moneychanger’s table to topple over and so forth and so on.

Human nature took over and people started grabbing for coins falling all over the place. Chaos. Confusion. The feel of a riot first brought in the Temple police and then the Romans.

The various areas on and about the Temple mount were designed to seal off any section at any time in order to contain any riot. Herod and later the Romans had planned for civil disobedience with in this architectural masterpiece.

Once the Romans came in swinging with swords, few of any true rioters or innocent victims were left standing. Those left alive were likely to be crucified no matter who they were. The Roman hammer dispenses justice swiftly.

When Jesus left me he went amongst his male companions and from a distance I could see him begin to pray.

I made my way over to an impromptu woman’s section beyond some bushes and lay on the ground and fell asleep.

I dreamt of severed hands and limbs and heads and a cascade of blood pouring out of the Roman fortress. These things touched everything in the city. I saw the Temple burned in a great fire. Then I saw my Manny on a cross.

I awoke in a sweat. And more so than my own personal distress and confusion there was some disturbance nearby.

Temple police were taking Manny away.

Peter was ranting and raving. Matthew, James and John among some other disciples were in shock and anguish.

All the women were now awake.

Questions and confusion.

Amidst all the current chaos, I saw fear. All the men knew that they too could have been arrested along with Jesus.

Peter started to blame Judas.

“He left us. He knew where the master liked to come at night to pray. Only Judas could have led the Temple police here.”

I tried to talk but was drowned out in the hysteria of the moment.

In less than a small breath of time all had scattered with their women. I was alone in Jesus’ favorite natural place.

I walked back to the city and found all foot traffic back into the city had been banned.

I tried a bribe. The Romans stood pat.

I then walked back to the olive grove. I was hoping that J.D. would make his way to my townhouse and somebody still there would tell him about this place outside the walls.

I was too upset to sleep. I prayed until dawn.

  

- 20 -

J.D. did find me. Foot traffic into and out of the city was now being allowed to occur under strict scrutiny of the Romans.

We made our way first to my townhouse. A few women and disciples remained there. They were reluctant to open the door when we knocked. Word of Jesus’ arrest had reached home.

J.D. told me that this was going to be difficult. He told me that as soon as he had learned of my location he tried to get out the city gates to reach me. Knowing that the gates would be closed until dawn he went about and roused his street snitches to get a picture of the whole situation. They gave him the low down and what to expect from both the Temple police and the Roman army after a so-called riot at the Temple.

About high noon, the Romans would start crucifying criminals and or rioters near one of the main gates of the city. All forms of traffic in and out of the city would then resume. People would be glad that commerce and full access into the city would have resumed. They would only grumble remarks as someone like Jesus was put to death and visible to all coming and going along ones of the main roads leading in and out of the city.

J.D. had walked into an area between the Temple area and the Roman fortress and prison. Some people were standing around and were no doubt relatives of so-called rioters. These people were waiting word to determine the fate of loved ones. One of these people present was Peter. I was told that he three times denied knowing any man named Jesus. I guess Peter knew a way to get back into the city with the gates restricted to incoming traffic at night.

It was too early for J.D. to access his usable and willing to be bribed official crowd. We had to wait until these people showed up at their posts.

J.D. was right. Criminals were going to be crucified today. No amount of money as a bribe could find any helpful information.

We left and watched in the streets as Roman soldiers paraded prisoners along the way. The prisoners were in chains. These poor few were consigned as slaves to help Herod build his great Caesarea. I looked and looked. No Jesus.

The city came alive with normal street activity and traffic. Still visiting tourists and pilgrims made it almost impossible to move anywhere on foot.

Soon the Romans paraded men bearing wooden beams on their shoulders and backs along the narrow streets. Soldiers pushed the crowds into doorways and alleys. The Roman procession of punishment and death took all priority.

As we struggled to get a view of the prisoners we seemed to get pushed further back into the crowds.

Finally, after much effort, we reached the city gate. It had just closed after the condemned men and soldiers had passed through this opening. An inner gate door was closed as opposed to the great solid doors to the city gate. This inner door was made of wood with metal bracing and had a latticed face with small square holes in it. This lesser gate let us see outside onto the road outside the city walls. We could see nothing but the road and people and carts and horses waiting entrance into this temporarily closed gateway.

We had to wait there for some time. We saw brief glimpses of Roman soldiers and prisoners mounting the high hill which was an outcrop of rock just to the right and out of our view. We heard screams of prisoners and the pounding of hammers onto what must have been large metal nails. We saw the anguish of faces in the crowd on the other side of the gate that were direct witnesses to the executions being on the top of the hill.

Then all the noise seemed to cease. The gate was pulled back. Traffic resumed.

I walked through the gate with my legs shaking. In stunned horror, I came within sight of the three men crucified on top of the rock outcrop near the gate. There were still other men crucified in sections descending from the hill of death.

All the men crucified were bloody all over starting with their faces and dripping drown to their nailed feet. No doubt the Romans had given each a fresh scourging on the cross for an extra effect on the crowds. Their faces and bodies twitched in agony, their arms were spread out and their wrists were tied to a beam and the palms of their hands were impaled with huge black nails.

An official stood before the middle man crucified on the hill and made a public announcement in a loud voice for all to hear below and to those walking by on the road.  He spoke in Latin, Greek and Aramaic

“For crimes against the peace and order of Roman rule, Jesus of Nazareth, so called king of the Jews is hereby condemned to death. Hear ye. Hear ye. Rome stands for law and order. The peace and calm of the state is hereby restored.”

This public announcer handed a wooden plaque to one of the Roman soldiers. The soldier nailed the plaque to a long stick and then climbed up a ladder at the back of Jesus’ cross. The soldier nailed this stick to the back of the upright stake in the ground supporting the cross beam that held the bulk of the weight of the upper body nailed to that cross beam. The plaque now was right above Jesus’ head.

My body shook in rage. Never in a thousand lives if I ever lived them did I ever see such an outrage to the face of human dignity.

Rome was a monster. A beast! Pure evil lurked behind and looked out from its benign Greek style stage mask.

Marble temples, roads, aqueducts and commerce were the ugly weeds of the evil corrupt men who ruled on their seven hills so far away.

Tears flowed down uncontrollably. I took my fist and struck my breasts and screamed to the heavens that on this day nobody above could see or hear of this great injustice. It was a day to test anybody’s faith in anything.

My life could end here and nobody would ever know that my life had ever been lived. But my Manny. My Manny! My fragrant breeze of heavenly air. How could the world above let this happen?

J.D. held me for sometime. I could not look. I did not want to see.

In time we were visited by others. Some were familiar. Some were strangers. Many were merely the curious among the foot and horse traffic.

Almost, without noticing, they were here. The mother of Jesus, two of his female patrons and friends and a distant cousin.

I was cried out. I could feel the salt from my recent tears dried upon my face.

His mother was motionless. What did she feel in her heart and her soul?

Oh for a mother to lose a child and in such a horrible way! I walked over to her and pointed to the middle cross. Her eyes erupted into nothing but tears.

I embraced and held her full body and felt hers and my newly arriving tears.

The others who knew him were holding each other and crying.

Here beneath this place of crucifixion stood five women and a eunuch. We were the whole of Jesus’ true followers here at the end of his ministering to the people of Palestine.

Out of heat and exhaustion I withdrew to beyond the gate to sit in the shade and to drink some water.

Though the horror seemed to last forever, after some hours the body of Jesus gave up the ghost.

I had to keep a steady head at that point in time. There were loose ends to tie up here.

The Romans usually let the bodies of the dead on a cross rot there for days, in invitation to insects and birds to feed upon the dead.

J. D. knew the ropes and explained some strategy to me. Since the Romans would not deal with a woman, I had to think of who would the Romans release a dead body to.

Joseph of Aramethea was one of the richest merchants in Jerusalem. It was said he had a villa in Rome and that he was on a first name basis with Tiberius himself. In spite of this rumor, he was a respected and devout Jew. Better than that, I had had business dealings with him recently.

I went to Joseph’s house to plead with him to go directly to the Roman governor and appeal for the release of Jesus’ body.

Aramethea seemed to have knowledge of the whole mess. He was close to several members of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish high council.

I told him that price was no object. A hundred pieces of gold, a thousand pieces of gold, anything. Any Roman general or governor had an earthly price. Pay him and let me bury my Manny in a fashion fit for a noble Jew.

Joseph complied to my wishes.

In the last hours of the day, the Romans pulled down Jesus’ body.

Servants of Aramethea took the body to a new tomb carved into the rock and in the side of a nearby hill. Owing to the late hour, the Sabbath was approaching, we would have to come back on Sunday to cleanse and anoint the body.

I asked Joseph to recite the Jewish prayer of the dead for Jesus.

A stone was rolled into place in front of the entrance to the tomb.

Jesus was dead. Jesus was gone. My little Manny was no more.

In a world without so sweet and powerful and innocent a voice such as Jesus’ voice, the world was a sadder place.

In such a world without the light of the word, we were all afraid.

  

- 21 -

Once my spies delivered the news to me, I was beside myself. Two of them arrived in the middle of the night at my room in the inn. I was not asleep. I had not slept since Friday.

I had been preparing the items I was going to take to the tomb at dawn. I would enlist the help of the other women who had been there at the end to help me prepare the body for eternal rest.

I then deciphered the facts as best as I could but it hit me all at once. I could not believe all the facts my trusted spies had delivered to me.

I rushed to the tomb thinking of all the circumstances.

The immediate family had followed the body to the interment. They were there watching us. They were the ones standing off at a distance.

My spies had witnessed the body’s removal from the tomb. They then followed the grave robbers who then took the body and buried it off in the distance in another cemetery.

The relatives then went to their homes. The relatives in full mourning were kin of none other than Judas Iscariot.

I retraced my own thoughts. A series of people had all identified the body hanging on the cross as that of Jesus of Nazareth.

Indeed, in my shock and disappointment of his death I had assumed that this dead look alike person had been that whom all had assumed it to be. I believed what I saw. Or did I believe what I had been told I was seeing? What sort of con or black magic is this?

I saw a dead man’s bloody face. The hour was late. It was getting dark and was even darker in an unlit tomb at day’s end. No time to clean the body before sunset and the beginning of the Sabbath. I put a piece of cloth over the face and kissed the dead messiah on his forehead before they rolled the stone across the tomb’s doorway.

“Good bye dear one! Farewell into the great mystery passed death.”

Now, later, I stood at the entrance of that same doorway. Yes, this was the same tomb. It had indeed been unsealed. The stone had been rolled back. It took three strong men to roll it into place. How many were needed to unseal it?

I had to stoop to enter the tomb. I carried a lantern with a lit candle inside. The air was tight with the terrible smell of death. On the stone slab where the body had been placed were the marks of dried blood and dried body fluids.

I put my scarf to my nose hoping that a few drops of perfume on cloth could cover the smell.

The body had been placed there. I had given the wealthy merchant a pouch of gold to buy this place of eternal rest.

Not feeling like a full Jew in any mental sense, I also requested the merchant who was of the same faith of the dead messiah to say the Jewish prayer of death.

Of all the prayers and incantations from my own sacred faith that I might have uttered, my words could not have matched the simple eloquence of this Jewish prayer.

I made a mental note that if nothing else be said over my own grave, I would insist that as one born as a Jew that it would be my right to have these words uttered over my corrupt vessel that once held my soul.

The prayer would be a grand energy flow to send that departed soul into its mystical trip back to the one creator.

My memory of that final parting with the crucified man was shattered by the loud voice of a crude vulgar man. Simon was standing up in the tomb doorway after having stooped to get through the entrance.

“Why was I summoned here by your eunuch?”

“I am surprised he could find you at all Simon called Peter by some. I sent him to the faithful ones, the ones who cared most for the master.” I stated.

Simon’s look was the look of murder with me in mind.  J.D. was outside, just a few feet behind this man and outside this cramped tomb.  My man had the skill and possession of a great knife. Without J.D. there to protect me, I am certain that the great brut would have harmed me.

“What is this?” he demanded.

“The tomb is empty. Jesus is missing.” I stated the obvious.

Simon’s face was suddenly on another plane of existence.

He held up his hands almost in defense of a hostile spirit confronting him, a spirit only he could see.

I continued.

“This is the tomb I bought for him. This is where we placed the crucified man, the king of the Jews. This is where we said the Jewish prayer of death over the body.

“Where were you Simon, you coward?”

Simon focused on my words. In an instant he was back into his normal self.

“Shut up! Stupid woman! Don’t you see? He is risen just like he said he would.”

“Simon. Get real. You don’t have a clue about what happened here or up on the hill where the crucifixion took place.”

“He is risen! He is the lord!”

Simon stood over the place where blood marked the resting place of where the dead body had been.

He turned and exited the tomb. I followed him out into the fresh sweet morning air.

Simon walked off in a confident stride and then began to run and proclaiming his new found belief.

“He is risen! He is risen! I will never die!” he shouted as he ran.

I shook my head and looked at J.D.

“Come. We have many more men to bribe. We must find out what happened to Manny.”