The case of the lost body
Breaking News: Jerusalem, April 4th – this morning - There
was consternation in the city today as rumours that the Nazarene who was
crucified last Friday was not found in the grave where he was laid after being
certified dead by the Roman commander of the execution, Longinus. There were rumours that this dead man had
risen from the dead. Others claimed
that his body had been stolen to simulate his resurrection. There were no immediate confirmed facts of
the events. A guard had been placed
outside the tomb that had also been blocked with a big stone rolled across the
entrance. The guards are said to have
disappeared, perhaps run away.
The reasons for the execution of this man had been shrouded
in mystery. The Roman Governor Pilate,
while claiming to find no wrong in this man according to Roman law, even
consulted the Jewish leader Herod before issuing the sentence, and both agreed
there nothing in the evidence to condemn the man. Yet the Roman leader was
somehow forced to bow to pressures from the Jewish religious leaders who wanted
this Nazarene, popularly known as Jesus,
eliminated at all costs in the worst possible manner – by crucifixion –
even though their own laws do not permit this. The death of the Nazarene too had a lot of the unusual about it
and a spokesman for the Roman Pretorium would not confirm an eyewitness report
that at the end of the crucifixion the Roman commander at the site commented
that this man must surely have been the Son of God. It is said that his comment
came after supernatural incidents occurred immediately after his death.
Asked about this morning’s incidents at the grave, the Roman
spokesman refused to be drawn into the argument and would not accept that the
guards on duty who had actually run away were Romans. “They know that this is the equivalent of an immediate death
sentence for them if proved to be the truth” he commented. “We do not do this
sort of thing. On the other hand, if the guards were mercenaries or were from
the Temple Guards, ah then, that is a different matter and explains why they
didn’t stand their ground.”
The rumours started to circulate around Jerusalem early in
the morning when some women from among the dead man’s followers went to the grave to
anoint the dead body as is customary.
The tomb is situated near the hill called The Skull just outside the
city walls, and is owned by a Pharisee symapatiser from Arimathea. Our reporters were not able to clearly
understand what happened. One woman said that when she went this morning there
was no one there, no guards, no stone blocking the tomb, no body. Only the
cloths that were used to wrap the dead body.
In other reports, a group of other women including one Mary,
not clearly identified whether it was the Nazarene’s own mother or not, claimed
similar events, an empty tomb and no one around. Another Mary, this time from
the Galilean town of Magdala, claimed
that she to went to the tomb this morning and there she met some men who asked
her why she was looking for the living among the dead. Confused at this she
said she left in a hurry and bumped into the gardener who looked after the area
around the tomb and demanded to know what he did with the body. But she said he
only looked at her and called her name, “Mary”, making it, though, sound like
he meant “Don’t you recognise me?” In
this confused state she said she thought the gardener was the dead man come
back to life.
The followers of this Nazarene quickly got wind of these rumours
and in an attempt to try to quash them, their leader Peter and another named
John, rushed to the grave area to see for themselves. They too confirmed that there was no one there but folded grave
clothes. Peter told us that this was
proof that his Master was alive and had come back to life again as he had
predicted in the Temple some days before. "Our religion does not allow us to touch a dead body directly so it is inconceivable that one of us - or any Jew for that matter - could have stolen the unwrapped body, naked as it now was, leaving behind the cloths that were wrapped around him. He either unwrapped them himself when he resurrected himself, as he said he would, or someone else above our law did it for him", explained Peter. Asked to elaborate as to who he was referring to, he said: "his angels perhaps?"
There was disbelief to this claim and sources close to the
Temple leaders were quoted as saying that they did not know how to handle this
rising situation. There was already
some talk of further action against his followers to silence them once and for
all but one leader, a certain Gamaliel, widely recognised for his wisdom, was
cautioning them not to hurry. An
eyewitness stated that Gamaliel told the Sanhedrin (the Temple wise men) that
if these incidents were of human creation then they would soon die away
naturally, but if, on the other hand, they were from God, then they should be
wary not to go against the Divine.
We will continue to monitor this breaking news and update
you with reports as and when they come in.
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STOP PRESS:
Emmaus, April 4th – this evening –
New, hot reports of sightings of the Nazarene being seen
in the town of Emmaus were also filtering in tonight, giving life to further
speculation that he is, somehow, truly alive.
Two men walking from Jerusalem to Emmaus, a few miles away, are claiming they met the
Nazarene this afternoon on the road out of the city.
They said he joined them and walked with them discussing the
events of the last days in the city.
They didn’t recognise him immediately as the dead man especially since
he questioned them about what the fuss was all about in Jerusalem today. They said
he seemed to be the only one not to know what was going on.
At sun down though, when they went into an inn to have
something to eat and a rest, they claim that his actions gave him away and they
recognised the Nazarene. In their
enthusiasm they don’t exactly know what happened to him. Reports reaching us
from Emmaus state that these men are claiming that he actually disappeared in
front of their eyes.
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Jerusalem, April 4th – tonight -
A report has just reached us that the
Nazarene’s disciples have received news from their Master directly when he
joined them for dinner in the abode where they were in hiding fearing for their
lives. He is said to have appeared in their midst suddenly, with closed doors,
and told them he was hungry. They offered him a piece of roasted fish, for
which he thanked them and ate it. We are awaiting further news from our
reporters on site for further updates.
