Bat-El

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BAT-EL

In the waning years of the reign of the Edomite king of Judea, Herod the Great, a nephilim named Gabriel from Menkal in the Land We Know to Israel, in the same way the nephilim called Turel came to Abraham long before. And Gabriel came to Yosef the carpenter, son of Heli, in the village of Nazareth, which was in the land that was given to the Israelite tribe of Zebulun in the days of Yehoshua son of Nun, who was the chief lieutenant of Moshe.

Gabriel established his credentials as a messenger of El with many unmistakable signs, and he took Yosef with him to El's great temple in Nath. And with them Yosef also brought his wife Miriam, who was still nursing her infant son Yeshua, but their older sons James and Yosef, and their daughter Anna, stayed behind in their home in Nazareth.

Then Yosef and Miriam learned that the tribes of the northern kingdom had not perished from the earth by intermarriage following their exile in the land of Medea, but were still thriving in the Land We Know, according to the promise El made to Abraham to raise up many nations from his loins. And it was revealed to Yosef and his wife that El had begotten offspring after the manner of the elohim, and it was the will of El to send his child into the world enrobed in the flesh of a human being.

So Yosef, together with his wife, freely offered Yeshua to be united with Bat-El, the daughter of El. And Bat-El took possession of the babe Yeshua after the manner which Chokhmah took possession of Ariel, but Bat-El went a little further. For it was not only the brain of the infant which was transformed, but also both of his hands became glorified flesh in preparation for the healing ministry of El that would commence when he came into full manhood.

Then Yosef and Miriam returned to Nazareth with Yeshua, where the boy grew up and had a normal childhood, to the extent that was possible for a family living close to poverty in a village stricken with poverty.

As Yeshua grew, the elohim Bat-El looked at the world with wonder through Yeshua's eyes. And Yeshua learned the carpenter's trade that his father gave to him, but he never embraced the work to the extent that his older brothers did.

Yosef begat two more sons after that, Simon and Judas, as well as one more daughter, Judith. Then Yosef died before he could attain the age of fifty, and his first son James became the head of the family.

Yeshua began to make a name for himself in Nazareth as a healer, and people in the town and vicinity would come to his house to be healed by him, and afterward they would leave gifts for the support of Yeshua's family.

After a time, an Essene prophet named John appeared in the wilderness proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, without recourse to the priests and the temple. And people from both sides of the Jordan River and the country all around went out to him and confessed their sins, and were baptized.

Then Yeshua came from Galilee to John at the river to be baptized by him. John was reluctant to do so and he said "I need to be baptized by you, rather than you by me."

But Yeshua said, "Nevertheless, let it be so, for the Son of Man must identify with sinners."

And John preached that the Day of the Lord was immanent, when El would come to judge with fire all the nations of the Earth now ruling with power. This underscored the urgency of repentance and baptism, so that people could meet the end of human rule with a clean heart and be ready to accept the direct rule of El.

But the priests and scribes and Jewish aristocracy and kings and Roman overlords alike all knew that John was really seeding the whole region with people who would be anxious for the coming of a new theocratic ruler, one who would completely reorder the politics of the land more in favor of the destitute.

When his preaching became embarrassingly personal, Herod Antipas, son of Herod the Great, had John arrested and executed, and many of those who held power in the land breathed a sigh of relief.

After that, Yeshua began to preach a message that differed somewhat from the message of John. It was not enough for people to simply wait for El to usher in a future kingdom. One must make the kingship of El present, here and now, and this required active participation, not just lip service.

Yeshua preached to them, saying, "A man had two sons, and he went to the first and said, 'Son, go and work in the vineyard today.' And his son said, 'I will not', but afterward he repented and went. And the man went to his second son and said the same, and his son said, 'I will go, sir,' but he did not. Which of the two did the will of his father?"

And the image Yeshua used to illustrate the kingship of El was the Banquet of God.

Again, he said to the people, "There was once a rich man who had a great castle, and when his son was to be married, this man invited all of his friends to attend, but each one of them politely declined, for they had other things to do, such as to collect the rents that were due to them. And the master said to his servant, 'Go into the street and bring back whomever you find to have dinner. And the servant invited the poor and maimed and blind and lame who lived in the streets of the city, and they came to the wedding feast, but the hall was still not full. Then the master said to his servant, 'Go out into the highways of the countryside and gather all you find, both good and bad, that my wedding hall may be filled with guests.' Whatsoever the master commanded, the servant did. And the hall was filled with people, but as they ate anyone could be found reclining at table next to anyone else. the female ate while sitting next to the male, the free man ate while sitting next to the slave, the rich man while sitting next to the poor, the saint ate while sitting next to the sinner, and the ritually pure ate sitting next to the ritually unclean."

And the people were astonished at his preaching.

Like the servant in his parable, Yeshua gathered to himself followers from all walks of life from in the land of Galilee. First to be called was Simon, and Andrew his brother, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother. They used the Zebedee's boat to haul in the fish of the Sea of Galilee with nets.

And Yeshua also drew to his side Philip, and Bartholomew, and Thomas, and Matthew the tax collector from Capernaum.

There followed him also James the son of Alphaeus, and Judas Thaddaeus, and Simon the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot. And Simon son of Jonah was called Kephas, or Peter, which means rock, because he was a large man who served as Yeshua's bodyguard. Simon Peter became the leader of the twelve closest followers of Yeshua.

When Yeshua chose Matthew, also called Levi, he dined with the man in his house. Although Matthew was a Jew, he was a tax collector for the Romans. The scribes and Pharisees considered Matthew a collaborator with the Roman occupiers, and they objected to Jesus eating and drinking with a sinner.

But Yeshua said that he was like a doctor who treated sick people. He said, "I come not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."

And when Matthew asked Jesus what will be the signs preceding the day of the Lord, Yeshua said, "The kingship of El will not come with signs beforehand that can be verified, nor will people say, 'Here it is!' or 'There!' because the kingship of God is already present among you."

Yeshua underscored to everyone present at the meal that he was not changing Judaism in any way. Rather, he attached great importance to every item in the Law, no matter how trivial.

Yeshua said, "Whosoever shall break the least one of these commandments, and shall teach others to do so, shall be called the least at the Banquet of God. For unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees you shall not make present the kingship of El."

If anything, Yeshua taught an even more strict version of Judaism by addressing the interior motives of the heart rather than purely outward actions done under the obligation of the Law. And mere lip service wasn't good enough for Yeshua.

He said, "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord' shall enter into the Banquet of God, but only the person who does the will of my Father in heaven.”

When Yeshua preached, the people were astonished at his doctrine, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as one of the scribes. For he claimed the ability to forgive sins, which many thought was a power reserved to El alone.

And Yeshua accompanied his preaching and words of forgiveness with a very practical sign: he healed the sick with a touch.

Yeshua healed a leper, and ordered him to make the gift to the priest in the temple of El according to the law of Moses. But Yeshua was saddened by the case, because the man only had a little psoriasis and was not infectious in any way, yet the priests required him to live apart from his family. wear torn clothing, disheveled hair, and say "Unclean! Unclean!" for many years.

Great multitudes began to follow him as his fame began to spread to the point where Yeshua often could not enter the cities, but had to remain in the desert, but even so, sick people sought him out. Yeshua tried to limit the growth of his fame by telling the people he healed to remain silent but this rarely worked. Which is to say, they did not do as he commanded them.

And it was not only the Jews who received his healing touch. Yeshua healed the servant of a Roman soldier who was paralyzed, to the dismay of many in the crowd who were suffering under the Roman occupation.

Yeshua said, "To make the kingship of El present, forget about the differences between Jew and Gentile. If you love your enemies as much as you love your friends, then your enemy will become your friend, and he will be destroyed as your enemy. For I say unto you that many Gentiles shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob in the second life. But many of the children of Israel shall not attain to the second life, because they do not make present the kingship of our Father in heaven."

And sometimes Yeshua's healing touch restored health to the brain of unfortunate people with mental infirmities, for the brain is an organ just like the skin or the liver. But some of these victims displayed frightening symptoms, such as raving in graveyards at night, and people said they were possessed by evil spirits. Yeshua knew they were only sick, and he healed them, but he did not have the time nor was it his purpose to teach people there were no spirits, good or evil, and it would not have been accepted in any event.

And some of the scribes and Pharisees began to hate Yeshua, because his message was about breaking down barriers between human beings and Yeshua, and between human beings themselves, and their living depended on being religious mediators and teachers in an intermediate position between the people and El. So they started to criticize everything Yeshua said or did.

And the first thing they commented on was the fact that Yeshua was often found in the homes of sinners and loose women, eating and drinking with them, and the ascetic fasting of John seemed to be far from his mind.

Yeshua said, "John came neither eating nor drinking, and they said he had a devil. The Son of Man comes eating and drinking, and they say, 'look a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of Gentiles and sinners, one who dines with whores. Neither fasting nor feasting is acceptable with them, it seems, and they assume all women must be either married or prostitutes."

And the Pharisees began to criticize Yeshua because he cured a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath day, when no work should be done, and healing was obviously work according to the letter of the Law. And Yeshua could hardly believe his ears.

He said, "What man of you, if his lamb falls into a pit, will not fetch it out on a Sabbath day? Is not a man worth much more than a lamb? So no, being merciful is not forbidden on the Sabbath day."

And when they accused Yeshua of casting out demons by Beelzebub, the Prince of Demons, Yeshua replied, "That doesn't make any sense. If Satan is divided against himself, he cannot stand and his kingdom is at an end."

And after all these things the Pharisees were silenced, for they had been made to look like fools. Then they went out, and held a council against Yeshua, how they might destroy him. But when Yeshua knew it, he withdrew himself from there, and multitudes followed him, and he healed them all.

And while he yet talked to the people, his mother and his brethren stood without, desiring to speak with him, and one told Yeshua they were waiting for him, but Yeshua stretched forth his hand to his followers and said, "These are my mother and my brethren! I assure you that to make the kingship of El present, even the lines of authority within one's family must be ignored, let alone the lines of authority found in society at large."

And some followers found this a hard saying, because it was a radical reorganization of traditional roles between men and women, Jews and Gentiles, rich and poor.

And his family quarreled with Yeshua, because they well knew of his power to heal, and they had commanded him to stay in Nazareth and establish a healing cult with themselves as the toll-taking gatekeepers, but Yeshua refused. And now Yeshua would not receive his family or even listen to them, and he remained a traveling healer instead with no permanent abode, precisely because the desire for a fixed location and roles proposed by his mother and brother James ran contrary to his vision of the Banquet of God. To Yeshua, every day should begin anew, with every person in direct contact with each other through giving and receiving of the things they needed, and also with direct contact with El through scripture and prayer.

Then there came to Yeshua the scribes and Pharisees which were of Jerusalem, saying, "Show us a sign from heaven that you have authority to say these things and to forgive sins."

And Yeshua replied, "El has already forgiven men of all their sins, it remains only for men to accept the truth that it is so. But it is a wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign when their faith has failed. Therefore there shall be no sign given to you except the sign of the prophet Jonah, who was three days in the belly of the fish, and came out again alive."

That was the first time Yeshua mentioned the manner of his death and resurrection. From that time Yeshua began to teach his followers that he must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day. But his followers refused to believe it.

And more to the dismay of Yeshua even his closest followers still accepted the terms defined by the scribes and Pharisees. They asked him, "Who shall have the greatest authority at the Banquet of God?"

And Yeshua called a little child to him, and set him in the midst of them, and said, "Unless you become as this child, and receive the kingship of El with the same unreserved faith, you shall not recline at the Banquet of God.”

After Yeshua had instructed his twelve closest followers with all of his doctrine, he prepared to send them by twos into the countryside to bring the message of the Banquet of God to the peasants. Yeshua knew he could not lead them himself, simply because thirteen men arriving in a village together, while the men were working the fields, would be received with great suspicion, as though they were bandits.

Yeshua commanded they should stay no more than one or two days, and accept nothing but food and lodging in payment for proclaiming the vision of Yeshua. For it was written in the Law of Moses, "You shall not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain." Therefore those who proclaimed the Banquet of God deserved their food and shelter.

Yeshua said, "Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me, receives the one who sent me." And the message they were to teach was happiness through freedom: Freedom from desires, freedom from fear, freedom from anger, and even freedom from grief.

They asked those who listened to them, "Who is the true ruler, the one who wants everything and cannot obtain all that he wants, or the one who wants only what he finds possible to obtain? The one who wants all of the known world, or the one who just wants a small and peaceful realm?" And this message was received well, because the peasants already had nothing. The followers of Yeshua said to them, "Be content with what you have, and you will be more free than any king."

And the followers of Yeshua reached so many towns that even King Herod Antipas heard of his ministry, and feared that he was John the Baptist raised from the dead after he beheaded him. Others said Yeshua was Elijah come down from heaven. But everyone agreed he was a major prophet on the order of Jeremiah.

For a year Yeshua and his followers journeyed through the hamlets of Lower Galilee, and Samaria, and Edom and Perea across the river Jordan, all the lands ruled by Herod Antipas, and at the last their ministry took them into the land of Judea.

And when they drew nigh unto Jerusalem, and they saw the great Temple, and at that time Yeshua warned his followers that the Temple would be completely destroyed by the Gentiles. His followers were troubled by this, but they said nothing until they could question Yeshua about it in depth.

And when it was near sunset they were come to Bethany, on the mount of Olives. There, some of his followers asked Yeshua to act in the role of an oracle, and tell them the things that would come to pass in the future. They were especially troubled by Yeshua's prophecy about the destruction of the temple, and they believed he meant that it would be a sign of the nearness of the end of the age.

And Yeshua told them, "Be careful you do not deceive yourselves. There have always been wars and rumors of wars, but the end of the age will not come until you see nations and kingdoms engaged in warfare on a world-wide scale. And men will become so violent, and their weapons so powerful, that if those days were not shortened, there should no life be preserved on the earth. And this message of the Banquet of God will be proclaimed throughout the whole world, and then the end will come.

“But it is not for you to know the day and season appointed by El for the close of the age, and neither has that knowledge been given to me. But of the destruction of the temple and the holy city, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see those things take place.

“Know, then, that when you see the armies of the gentiles encamped all around, let those in the countryside flee to the mountains of Judea. Let those working on the roof of their house not even take the time to go down into their house to gather their belongings. For the end shall come like a flood, and Jerusalem will be trampled by the gentiles until the time of the gentiles is fulfilled.”

And in the week before passover Yeshua and his twelve closest followers spent their nights in the house of Simon, a leper who had been cleansed by Yeshua, who was also the father of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus.

In the city many people began to see Yeshua's healing ministry for the first time, because he had remained in the country and journeyed from village to village, house to house.

Yeshua said, "No prophet is acceptable in his own village, no physician heals those who know him."

And Yeshua began to challenge many of the traditions that the Pharisees had added to the Law to create a safety fence around it, lest by accident a person should violate it. The first traditions he challenged was the elaborate rituals surrounding the washing of hands prior to eating.

Yeshua said, "What goes into your mouth will not defile you, but what comes out of your mouth, that will defile you. But woe to the Pharisees who encrust the pure Law with their many traditions, for they are like a dog sleeping in the manger of oxen, for neither does he eat, nor does he let the oxen eat."

Then Yeshua went into the temple, and was angered to find the house of El had become a marketplace, where animals to be sacrificed were sold at an enormous profit, and money for gifts was changed from Roman coins to money acceptable to the priests, again at a profit.

Yeshua fashioned a whip and went through the temple courtyard with great wrath, overturning tables, and saying, "The house of my Father is a place for worship and prayer, and you have turned it into a place to buy and sell religious paraphernalia! You hold the gold that sits in the temple with greater reverence than the temple itself!"

And many of the scribes and Pharisees came down to confront Yeshua, because now he was striking at their very livelihood. A portion of the profits made in the temple were kicked upstairs to them.

And Yeshua publicly derided them, saying, "Behold the scribes, who like to go about in long robes, and to have salutations in the marketplaces and the best seats in the synagogues, and the places of honor at feasts. Truly, they already have their reward!"

And many of the scribes and Pharisees picked up stones, and would cast them at Yeshua, but he told them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will rebuild it."

And by this he was speaking of the temple of his own body. But the priests were offended, because Herod the Great had begun to enlarge the temple, and even now under the rule of his son the work was still not completed. But they could not stone Yeshua, for fear of the crowd that had gathered. So they departed for a time, and they deliberately twisted his words, and reported Yeshua as saying he would destroy the temple.

And Yeshua did not try to correct them. He said only, "I have cast fire upon the world, and see, I am guarding it until it blazes." And by this the word began to spread that Yeshua and his followers planned to set fire to the temple. And they took council on how they could quietly have Yeshua arrested and put to death.

When Yeshua attended worship services in the temple, he saw a widow throw two pennies into the collection plate. Yeshua said her contribution was greater than all the others, because El wasn't looking for a specific monetary sum, but a commitment. By giving everything that she had, the widow was fully committed.

That evening in the house of Simon in Bethany, Yeshua and his followers were having supper, and a woman came in and poured a box of very expensive ointment on his head. Judas Iscariot complained that it was a waste of the ointment, because it could have been sold and the money given to the poor. He didn't mention that he normally skimmed his take right off the top of such gifts. Yeshua told him to lay off the woman, because she was anointing his body ahead of time for the burial to come.

With the stinging loss of this potential income weighing in his mind, Judas approached the priests and offered to betray Yeshua in return for a sum of money. He was already disappointed that Yeshua was not interested in serving as the focal point of a revolt against Rome, and he was already resolved to stop following Yeshua, but he realized he could at least turn things to his financial advantage.

For the priests' part, they were not paying for Judas to identify Yeshua to them, because Yeshua's appearance was well known and he always drew crowds. The priests were paying so they could say the conspiracy against Yeshua began within his own circle. Thus Yeshua would be discredited.

And Yeshua, noting the departure of Judas, was satisfied that he had sufficiently aroused the religious authorities in Jerusalem to bring matters to a head.

Knowing it would be his final meal with his followers before his death, Yeshua shared with his eleven remaining followers the Passover meal of lamb and unleavened bread. But he inveighed the meal with a new layer of meaning. It became the first of an endless series of shared meals where his followers would gather close together and drink wine in memory of his shed blood, and break bread in memory of his broken body, and renew again their commitment to make the kingship of El present. It was, in short, the formal inauguration of the Banquet of God, and its repetition in every land and every age from that moment thereafter would become the central devotion of the people who embraced the teachings of Yeshua and his message of the forgiveness of El.

Yeshua said, “But it is not enough to stop causing more damage, and to know El has already forgiven the offense, you must also go out into the world, forgive others of their sins, and repair the damage that all sin has caused to mankind.”

That evening, the priests came with many armed men to arrest Yeshua, and all of his followers fled for their lives despite their many previous assurances they would stay with Yeshua to the end.

Yeshua was subject to a series of six trials.

The first trial was before Annas, the father-in-law of the high priest Caiaphas, who had been deposed by the Romans for his gross mismanagement. At the trial of Annas no judgment was rendered, because he had no real authority, and also he had a hard time getting two false witnesses to line up their lies about Yeshua. But Yeshua was subject to much physical abuse, which seemed to satisfy Annas.

The second trial was in the house of Yosef Caiaphas the high priest, where all his enemies were gathered together from the Sanhedrin council, which had been hastily called together. Simon Peter came in through the servant's entrance to watch, but he had some problems with his Galilean accent and some of the servants seemed to recognize him. After lengthy questioning Caiaphas realized they had no legal case against Yeshua. He was blameless before the Law. All they had to go on was a statement Yeshua made that he could tear down the temple and rebuild it in three days, which was more insane than blasphemous. But it was all they had. So after some more physical abuse, Yeshua moved on to the next stage.

The third trial was in the palace of the king before Herod Antipas, the exarch and client of Rome, who referred the case back to Caiaphas because he also could find no legal basis to find Yeshua guilty, and also he didn't want to go down in history as a mass butcher of prophets.

The fourth trial was before Pontius Pilate in the Praetorium. Pilate was the Roman procurator of Judaea, who was the subordinate of Vitellius, the Roman legate of Syria. He had no respect for Jewish religious sensibilities, but as far as Pilate could tell, despite Yeshua invoking his right to remain silent, Yeshua was an innocent man. Pilate was interested in the venom Yeshua's mere presence invoked in the priests and Pharisees. Pilate's wife also sent a message to him that she had a nightmare about this Yeshua, and recommended to her husband that he have nothing to do with him. So he referred Yeshua back to Caiaphas, said try again, and he retired for the eventing.

The fifth trial lasted for the balance of the night, Caiaphas put Yeshua under oath by the living God and asked him straight out if he asserted to be divine. Yeshua said, "Henceforth you shall see me seated at the right hand of God". Caiaphas rent his robe and said, "The charge of blasphemy is proven. This man deserves to die. But we have no authority to execute Yeshua. We must bring him again before Pilate in the morning." And meantime they occupied themselves with reviling and beating Yeshua.

The sixth trial was when Pilate grew very annoyed because he was being asked to put to death what he knew to be an innocent man. But the Jewish religious authorities insisted on it, and there began to be agitation from the mob. So Pilate had Yeshua punished with the Roman flagellum, a whip with pieces of bone and metal embedded in the thongs. The flogging was very bloody and severe. Yeshua had never known so much agony in his life. Most of the skin on Yeshua's back was left hanging in strips. But Pilate was actually trying to save Yeshua's life. He hoped the crowd would look at him after the scourging and say, "It is enough, release him."

But at the instigation of the priests and scribes, the mob cried out, "Crucify him!" and Pilate was astonished. He realized the Jewish leaders were flustered by this man. Pilate began to mock them by calling Yeshua "King of the Jews".

And it was a tradition at the feast of Passover for the governor to release one prisoner. Barabbas was an assassin of Roman officials who was scheduled to be crucified on charges of insurrection and murder. Pilate gave them a stark choice: Either Yeshua would be crucified, or Barabbas will.

He asked the priests, who were Sadducees keenly sensitive to avoiding rebellion at all costs, "Shall I crucify your king?" and they replied, "We have no king but Caesar." And so with great irony, a Jewish revolutionary against Rome was released at the request of Jewish collaborators in the name of fealty to Rome, and Yeshua was crucified in his stead. Barabbas was the first man in history to have the penalty of his sins remitted by the death of Yeshua-Bat-El.

The Jewish council had obtained the penalty of crucifixion for Yeshua, even though to Jews, crucifixion was the most disgusting possible punishment. For it is written in the Law, "He who is hanged is accursed by El."

The Romans had a certain engineering genius when it came to roads and aqueducts, and this genius they also applied to the death penalty. Crucifixion was by far the worst thing they could imagine happening to a man. Yeshua was forced to carry a two-hundred pound wooden beam on his back after all the skin had been ripped off by the flagellum, and was marched through the streets of Jerusalem to a hill outside the city. The crossbeam was mounted to a post, and Yeshua's two wrists were secured to the crossbeam with large nails through the carpal bones. And a single nail was driven through Yeshua's two ankles. When the cross was raised into the upright position, Yeshua's own body weight made it impossible to breath unless he pushed his head up level with his arms.

So he became a human engine of suffering. Yeshua had to push up on the single nail in his ankles to scream and then draw a breath, then he sank back down again, constantly shifting the burden from his ankles to his wrists until he died of exhaustion. Most victims could take several days to expire, but Pilate had ordered such a thorough job with the whipping that Yeshua would only last for several hours.

Thus it was that Yeshua Bat-El knew the kind of agony that Chokhmah had spoken of and warned about. It was pain of such a level that it captured the psyche of the elohim and trapped her in Yeshua's body with no hope of escape except through death. The difference is that Belial had done it to Chokhmah without her assent while Bat-El freely accepted this punishment in obedience to her father's commandment.

And Bat-El obeyed El in full union with the human Yeshua. For these six hours as Yeshua suffered, he represented the whole human race, in every time and place. With this obedience of Yeshua Bat-El unto death, Belial's final claim against humans and jen and nephilim for their disobedience was silenced forever.

For Chokhmah, the death by torture had been a deterrent, a temporary victory for Belial. But the death of Bat-El was an eternal defeat for Belial.

And the high priest Yosef, surnamed Caiaphas, came to Pilate and said this Yeshua the Nazarene he had commanded to be crucified had often foreseen his own death, and said many times that he would lie in the earth, but rise again on the third day. "I fear, governor, that his followers will spread a lie through the city that they have seen the man risen again from the dead, exactly as he predicted. We will never be rid of the fanatics his followers will draw to themselves with that story."

And Pilate said, "Have no fear, we will simply leave the man on his cross until the crows have picked him clean. But Herod said, "Brother Pilate, we should bury him, since the Sabbath is drawing on. For it stands written in the Law of Moses: the sun should not set on one who has been put to death."

And to this Pilate also agreed, albeit somewhat more reluctantly. But Yosef Caiaphas was still unsatisfied. "Not to impugn the famous discipline of your troops, governor, but it is well known that following a Roman crucifixion, the bodies are usually buried in shallow graves, with only a light covering of stones over them. During the night, dogs are sure to uncover him and feast on his body, and we will never be able to prove he is not risen as his followers will claim. The multitude will say, 'See how righteous he was' and they will do us harm. ”

And Pilate said, “About that I can do nothing. The dogs are an important part of the invincible deterrent of the penalty of crucifixion, especially in light of Jewish beliefs about the importance of burial.”

And there was also there in the audience chamber of Pilate one Yosef of Arimathaea, a member of the Sanhedrin, who said he had a freshly hewn crypt which he had caused to be made for the use of himself and his wife when their time was at hand. And Yosef offered to lend the use of his crypt to lay the body of Yeshua within it for the span of three days that concerned the high priest. He said a heavy stone could be rolled into place to cover the entrance, and therefore the body would be safe from any beasts.

But Caiaphas had one more objection. "The crypt will keep his body safe from being devoured by dogs, but what is to stop his followers from stealing the body away? Therefore, Pilate, give us soldiers that we may watch his sepulchre for three days.” And Pilate gave them Petronius the centurion with some of his soldiers to watch the tomb, and he considered the case closed.

And with Petronius and his cohort came elders and scribes. They laid the body of Yeshua within, and and all who were there, together with the centurion and his soldiers, rolled a very heavy stone against the entrance, and put on it seven seals, and pitched a tent outside to keep watch. Early in the morning on the Sabbath people came from Jerusalem and the country all around to see the sepulchre which had been sealed.

Inside the tomb, Yeshua's brain was still alive, for it had been glorified when Bat-El took possession of his body when it was still the body of an infant. And also his hands were still alive, for they were also of glorified flesh. But the rest of his body was dead, and could hardly be recognized as human at all, because Yeshua had been scourged so severely, and there were holes in his wrists and ankles, and the hole of a spear in his chest which a Roman soldier had made to verify he was dead.

But a transformation spread from his head and hands, and the rest of his body was changed to glorified flesh, and in the space of about forty hours, Yeshua was fully alive again.

Then El caused the entrance of the tunnel leading to the Land We Know to appear within the tomb, and it was in the shape of a globe, and the light of day in the Land We Know filled the dark tomb, and Yeshua departed through the tunnel to the temple of his father in the land of Nath.

And a nephilim from Menkal who was a priest of Binah came through the tunnel with the weapon called the Golden Gift which had first been wielded by Turel in the days of Abraham, and he used it to devour the stone that blocked the entrance of the crypt.

The Roman guard, and the priests and scribes who watched the tomb were frightened, for it was before dawn on the first day of the week, and it was dark, but now the heavy stone was inexplicably missing. And there was a globe of white light within the tomb, and a tall figure with white hair and a white beard moved inside there with a staff of purple light.

So they fled in great fear, and none of the priests and scribes would speak about what happened, nor did they tell Pilate his soldiers had shirked their duty and run away. Petronius reported to Pilate that the Jewish elders themselves were satisfied and had taken the body of Yeshua away. And Petronius ordered his soldiers to forget what they had seen.

But early in the morning, after the sun had risen, Mariam Magdalena, who was the closest female follower of Yeshua, took with her two woman friends, Mary the mother of James and wife of Alphaeus, and also Salome, and they came to the sepulchre where Yeshua had been laid. And Miriam said to them, "Although we could not weep and lament on that day when Yeshua was crucified, let us now do so at his tomb."

Salome said, "But who will roll away for us the stone also that is set on the entrance of the sepulchre, that we may go in and sit beside him and anoint his body?"

Miriam Magdalena said, "If we cannot do so, let us at least put down at the entrance what we brought as a memorial for him, and let us weep and lament until we have gone home again."

So they went, but they found the sepulchre opened. And they came near, stooped down, and found there a young man sitting in the midst of the sepulchre clothed in a white robe, who said, "Why are you come? Who do you seek?"

Mariam said, "We seek him who was crucified. Please, sir, if you have taken his body away, where have you taken him?"

But he said, "You will not find Yeshua, nor has anyone taken him, for he is risen by the power of El and has gone. But in the house of Mark seek out Simon who is called Kephas, and the other followers of Yeshua, and he will appear to you there."

The women fled in much confusion and returned to the city.

And at this time the eleven followers of Yeshua hid themselves in the upper room where they had shared the Passover feast with him, and the door was locked, because they were filled with great fear on account of the Jews.

Mariam Magdelena came to them, gave the special knocking sign, and was admitted into the room with them. And she said to Kephas, "I have been to the sepulchre where they buried the Lord. He is no longer there."

And the disciples began to debate among themselves what this news meant.

Then the tunnel entrance to the Land We Know appeared in the midst of the Upper Room, and El floated through it, and the tunnel disappeared again. Yeshua stood among them, and greeted them with great joy, but they could hardly believe their eyes.

And he said, "Peace be with you."

But they were very frightened, because they thought he was a ghost.

So Yeshua said, "Be not afraid! Look at my body and see that it is I myself. Touch me and see, for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see me have."

And he invited them to put their fingers through the holes in his wrists and his ankles, and see the wound in his chest, and the whip scars on his back, to see for themselves it was he. And when some of them still did not believe he asked for something to eat. So they gave him a piece of broiled fish, and Yeshua took it and ate it in their presence to prove he was not a spirit.

Then Simon Peter regretted fleeing from Yeshua's side in his darkest hour. He sank to his knees and said, "Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man."

Yeshua assured Simon he was forgiven, and he said, "But indeed, soon I will depart from all of you, and return to my Father, but you are the eyewitnesses of all these things, and now I send you forth to preach the forgiveness of sins and to bring the Banquet of God to all the nations of the world, beginning here in Jerusalem."

And he took them out of the city as far as Bethany, and the tunnel to the Land We Know appeared again beside him, and Yeshua withdrew from them and entered the globe, and the globe was lifted into the sky, and they watched it until they could see it no more.

Then they returned to Jerusalem to begin the work that Yeshua had trained them to do with much prayer and thanksgiving, and ever they came together to eat the memorial feast established by Yeshua on the evening he was arrested.

And they had no more fear of the Jews, for their master had suffered the most cruel death men could devise, yet he was risen to a second life, and for those who were baptized and came to believe, the same was promised to them.