Sensational rumours have been sweeping the city as the body of Jesus, the preacher executed for blasphemy last Friday week, remained missing. The religious authorities have had a difficult time explaining how the body, which was guarded round-the-clock by their own soldiers, could have been taken.
It is still believed members of the Jesus campaign stole the remains, intending burial in Galilee. However despite intensive investigations there, especially in Nazareth and Capernaum, there has been no evidence to-date of any such burial. The investigations continue.
Indeed, though keeping a very low profile since the execution and still in some disarray, most members of the Jesus campaign are still in Jerusalem, including the preacher's mother Mary, her sister, and his close friend John. Fanciful suggestions that Jesus has risen from the dead have been dismissed as "a joke" by a spokesman for the High Priest, Dr Ciaiphas. "Is that a serious question?" he asked, adding that "of course there are people who will not accept he is dead. It happens all the time. There are people out there who still believe King David is alive and well, all these centuries later."
But as the week progressed reports that Jesus had been seen multiplied. An inn-keeper from Emmaus said the preacher had a meal there during the week with two of his friends. One of Jesus's closest friends, Mary of Magdala, said she saw him on the Sunday morning after the execution. She had gone to visit his tomb and found it empty. She began to weep, when the gardener spoke to her. "It was Jesus", she said.
It was also reported that Jesus visited his followers that night in a room in the city where they had locked themselves in, for their own safety. All the rumours remained unsubstantiated and were not taken seriously until Thursday's Palestine Times reported "Soldier Claims Jesus Alive".
It quoted one of the soldiers who had been guarding the preacher's grave as saying he had seen Jesus alive. "The earth shook and this guy, wearing very bright shiny clothes, appeared out of nowhere and rolled back the stone in front of the tomb. There were two woman from the Jesus campaign there and the man told them Jesus had risen. He showed them the empty grave and said Jesus was in Galilee and would meet them there. As the women left another man spoke to them and one of the women recognised him and became very emotional. He told them to go to Galilee as well. I saw him myself. He was the spit of Jesus."
At a hastily arranged press conference Dr Caiaphas denied emphatically there was any truth to the story. The soldier quoted in the newspaper was, he said, "unwell, and has been for years. You will find none of his colleagues saw any of these things." Three soldiers at the press conference with him confirmed what he said.
He was dismissive of the reports of sightings of Jesus. "Emmaus has had a bad season. They could do with a bit of business there," he said, "and as for Mary of Magdala, well how can anyone take the word of that woman seriously." This was a reference to rumours about Mary's past, rumours which have been vigorously denied by her friends. Dr Caiaphas insisted, however, that they were true.
