Body is missing after preacher crucified

Jerusalem 33AD - By any standards it has been a remarkable week in Jerusalem. The Jesus campaign is over. Finished forever, is the consensus.

The preacher is dead and his body is missing. He was crucified by the Romans on Friday at Golgotha and laid in a sepulchre nearby. Yesterday it was discovered the stone at the front of the sepulchre had been moved and the preacher's body was gone.

It is believed to have been stolen by some of his supporters for burial, at Nazareth probably, the preacher's home town. Or possibly at Capernaum, where he had his campaign headquarters.

One of his main supporters and one-time spin doctor, as well as the campaign treasurer, Judas Iscariot was found dead, hanging from a tree, on Friday also.

It is believed his death may have been suicide. Initial reports suggest such was his despair at the execution of Jesus he decided to end his own life, but this is unclear. There have been unsubstantiated rumours in the city that he may have actually played some part in the death of Jesus.

And it has been reported that Jesus's deputy, Peter, denied on oath, and on at least three different occasions, that he ever knew the preacher.

The denials took place after Jesus was arrested on Wednesday night. They were reported in the Moon tabloid under the headline "No, No, No . . ." Its front page was a stark "Crucify Him". The article beneath demanded that Jesus "be made an example of to all these fanatics that have plagued our country."

A headline in the Palestine Times on the same day asked "What has be done?"

It called for Jesus to be released immediately and for a tribunal to be set up to investigate how "this innocent man came to be arrested in the first place. Who is responsible for this travesty?" it asked, and reminded readers that it was just a short time since the Sanhedrin, the council of chief priests, had denied vehemently there was a plot against Jesus.

Such was the pace of events last week much remains unclear but it appears Jesus and his friends met for a Passover meal on Wednesday evening in the upper room of an inn in the city. From accounts to date it was a convivial affair, apart from two incidents which have been attributed to the amount of wine drunk. Jesus had "words" with both Peter and Judas. This may be significant in the light of what has occurred since. What Jesus said to them is not know.

Later that evening the preacher was arrested by a mob, including some soldiers and servants of the Sanhedrin (the council of chief priests), in a garden on the Mount of Olives, near the city. It is thought he and the three men with him, Peter, and the brothers John and James, were on their way to stay the night with friends in Bethany and had paused for a breather. Possibly they planned to sleep off the wine.

A passer-by recalled passing the garden some time earlier and hearing the preacher plead to the sky: "Take this cup from me" - or something like that. He seemed to be out of his mind. And from further down the garden you could hear the snores of the other fellas. They all seemed very drunk to me," he said.

When he heard the mob approaching he hid, and saw what followed from behind a large boulder. "One man kissed the preacher before he was taken away," he said. "And one of the sleepers chopped off a soldier's ear with a swipe of his sword. "He was told to put it away by Jesus, and he did. To tell you the truth, I was afraid of my life and got out of there as quick as I could."

In one of its reports of the arrest the following morning the Moon had a headline which asked: "Has Judas come out of the closet?" It was a reference to Mr Iscariot's kissing Jesus before the arrest. For it was he who did so.

There is much confusion over the jumble of events which followed the arrest in such rapid succession but it appears Jesus was first taken before Dr Annas, who had been High Priest last year, and then before the current High Priest, Dr Caiaphas. He was then sent to Governor Pilate who seems to have been unhappy about ordering an execution and twice asked the crowds what he should do. They demanded crucifixion, both times. And so it was done on Friday.

"The End", announced Saturday's Moon.