Stephanus - Chapter 7 - The Woman

With their newfound freedom following the loss of their father, Akakios and Stephanus had ventured into the city for weeks on end, coming to know every road, byway, and alley. Few places remained unvisited: King Herod’s Fortress on the west-central side of the Upper City near the Preatorium, and just south of Herod’s Palace below the upper city was the Essence Quarter, home of the High Priest of Jerusalem. Which Akakios jokingly referred to as “the low-rent district”,

Before dawn that morning, Stephanus thought he had been dreaming when he overheard his mother speaking to their older sister Ophelia that Y’shua of Nazareth had been arrested during the night in the Garden of Gethsemane. Akakios had heard the same conversation, so, the brothers decided to find out what was going on?

As they dashed out the door, Akakios grabbed a worn, long-strapped leather water-skin pouch, for the day’s outing, thinking they would be gone for some time. Once they made it to the streets, the neighborhood was eerily quiet - homes and roads were empty of any signs of life other than goats, a few sheep, and chickens scratching the ground for grub. It seemed everyone had heard the news and rushed to learn the fate of “the carpenter’s son”.

Stephanus struggled with all of this: hadn’t he recently heard Y’shua boldly speaking to the crowds in the Temple’s Court of the Gentiles? And, now, they have arrested him? For what?

Why wasn’t he arrested when he was in the temple area and why did they wait to arrest him in the middle of the night?

"What do you think,Akakios?"

"I don't know? He shrugged, Maybe because we don’t have a Colosseum like Rome? The people crave a spectacle."

Are we that barbaric? Stephanus feared that his brother’s cynical insight was correct.

Hurrying by foot from Mishneh, on the north side of the ancient city of Jerusalem's Tyropoeon Valley, the two boys raced southwest. They reached a swelling crowd near the Praetorium where Pontius Pilate, the Roman Prefect of Judea held court from his 'Bema', the judgment seat for those accused of crimes outside the rule of the Sanhedrin Counsel. These trials often resulted in death.

The gathered crowd had their attention fixed on a scourging taking place inside the Praetorium south of the three Towers of Hippicus, Phasaelus, and Mariamne. This was no ordinary flogging, but, a Roman Scourging which involved leather whips with embedded metal pellets that tore flesh apart!

From the crowd's edge, Stephanus and Akakios struggled to see, peering between legs as they lie on the ground. At first Stephanus could not recognise the victim suffering at the hands of the Roman Evocati, who were specialized in what they do. But a shout from the crowd revealed that it was Y’shua, the very same “carpenter’s son” they hurried to see.

His appearance was unrecognizable - his face had hideous bruises, swollen beyond recognition. And his back was a mass of shredded human flesh and muscle, blood pooling around the pillar. Stephanus wondered how the man was still able to be alive?! Let alone stand?

But, he did. When the Roman Evocati paused, exhausted, Y'shua would defiantly rise up, once again, into a standing position, shocking them!  You could see in the soldiers faces! As they shook off their disbelief, they replaced it with rage, and resumed their brutal assault. Even, more remarkable to Stephanus was the only sound that came from Y’shua was the breath of air that was forced from his lungs when the whip landed squarely across his exposed back! It was as if Y’shua would not give his abusers the satisfaction of hearing him cry out from the pain inflicted by their whips! They were denied any satisfaction for their cruelties!

Stephanus admired Y’shua all the more by this act of defiance! You might take me, but you can't break me! he thought, his heart swelling with respect.

They would have beat Y'shua to death if it had not been for a Tribune of the Praetorian Guard, who rode up on his horse and bellowed “Cease, Immediately! Pilate ordered you to scourge the prisoner, not kill him!!” One soldier, caught up in the frenzy ignored the Tribune’s order, and took one more strike at the victim, making a loud cracking sound as the metal-hooked leather whip struck Y’shua's right shoulder, then as the soldier retrieved the whip to his side, a large section of muscle was ripped out of Y’shua’s shoulder exposing his clavicle bone! Stephanus winced in horror! The sight of this event made his stomach churn, and the little scrapes of bread he had hurriedly mouthed that morning threatened to come up.

The Tribune’s horse reared, startled by the whip’s loud crack, it's hooves looming over the two young boys as they lay frozen, nostrols flared!  Suddenly, a woman appeared - the most beautiful person Stephanus had ever seen! Despite the fact that she wore a full length robe which covered her from head-to-toe her beauty shone through. She was tall, had long, slender, elegant hands, and a perfectly oval face framed by her hood, with striking green eyes. With a gentle wave of her hand, she calmed the rearing stallion, which settled instantly into docility!  She said nothing but her presence commanded the situation.

Turning to Stephanus she offered a slight smile, but her eyes held a deep sorrow. He felt a sudden urge to cry, but held back. Hasn’t there been enough crying since I lost my father?

The woman melted into the crowd, joining others who shared her quiet greif. They did not wail, or make a spectacle of themselves, but it was obvious by their posture with heads hung inside their hoods hiding, and slumped shoulders that they suffered much the same as Y’shua did! Stephanus thought to himself, They show how much they love him in such a sorrowful way! Where have I seen these people, before? He wondered. But, he was having trouble placing them.

Stephanus had a fleeting thought of John bar Zachariah at the Jordan River, and realized that the very same feeling he felt as the woman calmed the Arabian mount, he had experienced during the baptism he and Akakios had received at the hands of John the Baptist.

By now, the Tribune had steadied himself on his mount, as Stephanus and Akakios picked themselves up off the ground to see the soldiers brutally, and quite literally dragging the barely concious prisoner, Y’shua, off to their guard house for, Stephanus assumed, further torment.

Reflecting later, Stephanus realized the most profound moment wasn't the fear of the startled horse, or it's sudden calm, but the divine love he felt radiating from this woman! It wasn't a fleeting pleasure, like a good meal, or a game won. But a deep, soul-filling joy that banished his fears. He felt it again whenever he thought of her. The same joy he had a his basptism. This can never be taken from me! he realized.

“What are you grinning about, little brother?” Akakios had too ask, “We nearly got trampled by an Arabian stead, and you liked it? Well, I’m not ready to join father, just yet!”

Stephanus, seldom tongue-tied with his brother, was mute and unable to offer an answer.

The crowd began moving through the Gennath Gate towards the Towers Pool, some complaining about the boys with comments like, "Where are your mother and father?", or, "What are you doing here?"  The boys tried to ignore the people pressing them for a response, knowing it would only make things worse, but then a man stepped forward and said they were with him. Several people recognized the man, and the matter got dropped as everyone continued to move towards the Praetorium.