At the gateway we met Mary of Bethany, and we three now hastened
together towards the garden of Joseph, I wishing my feet wings, that
I might reach the sepulchre sooner, fearing that the vision of Jesus
would be vanished ere I arrived. As we were going out of the gate, we
were met by four or five Roman soldiers, who, with aspects stamped with
fear, were running past us into the city.
"What means this flight and terror, men?" cried the captain of the
gate. "You fly as if you were in full retreat from an enemy. Speak,
Marius! You seem to have your senses!" he demanded of the youngest of
the soldiers, an officer under a centurion.
We paused to hear what he said.
"Per Dian, captain! we have been terrified beyond measure," answered
the soldier. "My heart beats yet, as if it were an alarum-drum. You
see, we were a part of the guard left in charge of the sepulchre
of this Jewish Prophet, crucified three days ago. Before dawn this
morning, as I was pacing to and fro before the tomb, there suddenly
shone round about us a light, like a descending meteor, accompanied
by a rushing as if of a legion of wings. The men started to their
feet in amazement! On looking about us I saw a dazzling form, in the
mid-heavens, with broad wings of gold, sparkling with myriads of stars,
every feather a star, and clad in raiment white and gleaming as the
summer's lightning. This terrible presence, like that of one of the Dii
Immortales, made us fear exceedingly, beyond any terror we had before
experienced. But when we saw this mighty being descend straight towards
the tomb, and beheld the resplendent majesty of his celestial visage,
which blinded us, our hearts failed within us. The angel, or god,
alighted amid a blaze of radiance at the door of the sepulchre; and as
his foot touched the earth it trembled, as if with a great earthquake.
The soldiers shook with terror, and fell to the ground, before his
presence, as dead men. I stood, unable to move, frozen by fear to a
statue. He touched the great stone door with one of his fingers, and it
rolled outward at his feet, as if a catapult had struck it, and, like
Jove taking his throne, he sat upon it!
"But one thing more," continued the soldier, "was wanting to fill my
cup of terror to the full. And it followed. I saw the crucified Prophet
rise up from the slab on which he was laid, and stand upon his feet,
and walk forth alive, with the tread of some mighty conqueror! The
celestial being, so terrible in his majestic splendor, veiled his face
with his wings before his presence, and prostrated himself at his feet,
as if in homage to one greater than himself!
"I saw no more, but fell, insensible with terror, to the earth. When,
at length, I came to myself, the tomb was filled with dazzling forms
of resplendent beauty; the air rang with music, such as mortals never
before heard; and I fled, pursued by my fears, the rest of the soldiers
rising and following me, each man fearing to look back, but bewildered
we lost our way."
The soldiers hurried forward into the city; while, confirmed now in the
certainty that Jesus was risen, I hastened, with Martha and Mary, in
the direction of the garden.
"How and where did you behold him, Mary?" I interrogated, as we drew
near to the steep path leading to the gate of Joseph's garden.
"When we reached the tomb, with our spices and precious ointments, to
embalm the body, we found it open, and the soldiers, who had guarded
it, lying about upon the ground like dead men. Upon the stone sat the
archangel, but the resplendent light of his apparel and countenance was
so tempered to our eyes, that, although we believed it was an angel, we
were not terrified, for his looks were serene, and the aspect of his
face divinely beautiful, combined with a terrible and indescribable
majesty. We shook with fear, and stood still, unable to move, gazing on
him in silent expectation.
"'Fear not,' said he in a voice that seemed to fill the air about us
with undulating music, 'fear not, daughters of Abraham. I know that ye
seek Jesus, which was crucified! He is not here, but is risen, as he
foretold. Lo! see the place where the Lord of Life, and Conqueror of
Death, hath lain!'
"We then timidly approached, and looked in, and saw the sepulchre
empty; but a soft light filled the whole place.
"'Go and tell his disciples that the Lord is risen,' added the angel,
'and that he will go before them into Galilee. There shall they see him
not many days hence!'
"When the angel had thus spoken to us," continued Mary, "we departed
quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy, and ran to go into
the city, to bring his disciples word, according to the command of the
angel. But I had not advanced so far as the gate of the garden, being
behind the rest, when I beheld Jesus himself standing in my path. I
stopped, between terror and joy.
"'All hail! daughter of Israel,' he said. 'Be not afraid. I am living,
that was dead! Go, Mary, and tell my mother and my brethren, and Peter,
and John, and Lazarus, that I am risen, and that I have spoken with
you. Be not afraid! I am the resurrection and the life!'
"I then cast myself at his feet, and worshiped him with awe; and when I
looked up, he was gone.
"The others did not see him. We now continued on to the city, as if we
had wings. But see! we are now at the gate of the garden," added Mary
of Bethany, in a low tone of awe. "He must be near us."
But we approached the tomb without seeing any man, having arrived
before Peter and John, who had been delayed some time at the Jaffa
gate. We, therefore, found no one at the sepulchre. It was open, and
empty. The stone in front, on which the archangel sat, was vacant. As
we drew near, a bright light suddenly shone out from the tomb; and upon
going higher I beheld two angels, clothed in white robes, and with
countenances of divine radiance, seated, one at the head and the other
at the foot of the slab of marble, on which the body of Jesus had lain.
"Be not afraid, daughters of Jerusalem," said one of the angels,
speaking to us in the Hebrew tongue; "He whom ye seek, liveth! He
is risen from the tomb, which could not hold him but through his
consent; for Jesus is Lord of Life, and Victor over Death and Hell, for
evermore! Go your way, and tell his disciples that he awaits them by
the seaside."
The angels then vanished from our sight; and at the same moment John
and Peter came running, and seeing the stone rolled away, John stooped
down, and looked in, and said that he saw the linen clothes in which
the body of Jesus had been wrapped, lying folded together, and also
the napkin which had been bound about his head. Peter, now coming up,
breathless with eagerness and haste, no sooner saw the tomb open, than
he went boldly in, and carefully examined all for himself. When we
made known to them what the angels had said to us, that Jesus would go
before and meet them in Galilee, they rejoiced greatly, and shortly
afterwards departed, to hasten into Galilee. I also returned with them,
to convey the news to Mary, the mother of Jesus, who had scarcely left
her couch, in her great sorrow, since the day of the crucifixion. Mary
of Bethany, however, remained, lingering near the tomb, hoping that
Jesus had not yet left the garden, and that she might once more behold
him.
Seated upon the steps of the tomb, weeping for joy at his resurrection,
and wishing once more to behold him, she heard a footstep behind her,
and, turning round, saw a man standing near her. It was Jesus himself,
and kneeling, she was about to clasp his feet, when he said to her:
"Touch me not, Mary. I am not yet ascended to my Father. But go and
tell Lazarus, and my brethren, and my mother, that I ascend ere many
days, unto my Father and your Father, and unto my God and your God."
Jesus then vanished out of her sight; and she came and told all these
things to us, and to the disciples.
But what pen can describe, my dear father, the amazement and
consternation of Caiaphas, and the chief priests, and the rest of his
enemies!
Caiaphas, hearing the uproar of the soldiers, sprang from his couch to
inquire the cause, and on being assured by his servants that "Jesus had
burst his tomb and risen alive from the dead!" he quaked, and became
deadly pale.
When Pilate received the account from the centurion of the guard, he
said:
"We have crucified a god, as I believed! Henceforth I am accursed!" and
leaving his Hall of Judgment, he went and shut himself up in his own
room, which he has not since left.
Caiaphas and the chief priests and scribes, in the meanwhile assembled
together in full Sanhedrim, and hearing the testimony of the centurion,
were convinced that the fact could not be concealed of Jesus'
resurrection.
"Who has seen him alive?" demanded the High Priest.
"I have seen him, my lord," answered the centurion. "I saw his pierced
feet and hands as he walked past me; and the morning breeze blew aside
his mantle and exposed to my eyes the open wound made by the spear of
my soldier, Philippus. He was alive, and in full strength of limb!"
"Thou sawest a vision, Roman!" answered Caiaphas. "Come aside with us,
and let us talk with thee."
In a few minutes afterwards the centurion left the court of the High
Priest's palace, followed by a Gibeonite slave, bearing after him a
vase of Persian gold. He has told every one since, that he must have
seen a spirit, for "the disciples of Jesus came by night and stole away
the body of their master, while they slept, overcome with watching."
His soldiers have also been bribed to tell the same tale!
Such is the false version that now goes about the city, my dear father;
but there are few that give it credence, even of our enemies. As
Æmilius, who is filled with great joy at the resurrection of Jesus,
to-day very justly says:
"If these soldiers slept on guard, they merited death therefor, by the
military laws of the empire. If, while sleeping, their charge--the
dead body of Jesus--was taken away, they deserve death for failing
to prevent it. Why then are they not placed under arrest by Pilate's
orders, if this story be true? Because Pilate well knows that it is not
true! He knows, because he has privately examined many of the soldiers,
that Jesus did burst his tomb, and that angels rolled away the stone
without breaking his seals, which could not have been left unmarred but
by a miracle. He knows that Jesus has arisen--for it is believed that
he has also beheld him--at least such is the rumor at the Pretorium.
It was the form of Jesus visible before him, doubtless, that drove
him in such amazement from his Hall to his secret chamber; for it was
remarked that he started, turned deadly pale, and essayed to address
the invisible space before him, as if he saw a spirit."
Besides the facts which I have stated, is the increasing testimony
of the thousands who, to-day, have gone out of the city to see the
sepulchre where He was laid. They say, both enemies of Jesus as well as
our friends, that it was impossible for the door to have been opened by
any human being, not by Pilate himself, without marring the seals. They
also assert that, to remove the stone by night, which would require
four men, and to bear forth the body, would have been impossible, if
the guard had been present; and if they had been asleep, they must have
been awakened with the heavy noise made by rolling the massive door
along the hollow pavement outside the sepulchre.
"If," say the common people, "the watch slept, why does not the
Procurator put them to death?"
This question remains unanswered, and the watch go about the streets
unharmed! My dear father, remember no more my unbelief, but with me
believe in Jesus, that he is the Son of God, the Savior of Israel, the
immortal Christ of the Prophets.
Your affectionate daughter,
Adina.