The Life of Jesus

One of the servant girls saw him sitting in the light of the fire, stared at him and said, “This man also was with him.”

But he denied it: “Lady, I don’t even know him.”

A little later, someone else saw him and said, “You’re one of them too”; but Kefa said, “Man, I am not!”

About an hour later, another man asserted emphatically, “There can be no doubt that this fellow was with him, because he too is from the Galil!”

But Kefa said, “Man, I don’t know what you’re talking about!” And instantly, while he was still speaking, a rooster crowed.

The Lord turned and looked straight at Kefa; and Kefa remembered what the Lord had said, “Before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times.”

And he went outside and cried bitterly.

Meanwhile, the men who were holding Yeshua made fun of him. They beat him,

blindfolded him, and kept asking him, “Now, ‘prophesy’! Who hit you that time?”

And they said many other insulting things to him.

At daybreak, the people’s council of elders, including both head cohanim and Torah-teachers, met and led him off to their Sanhedrin,

where they said, “If you are the Mashiach, tell us.” He answered, “If I tell you, you won’t believe me;

and if I ask you, you won’t answer.

But from now on, the Son of Man will be sitting at the right hand of HaG’vurah,”

They all said, “Does this mean, then, that you are the Son of God?” And he answered them, “You say I am.”

They said, “Why do we need additional testimony? We have heard it ourselves from his own mouth!”

With that, the whole Sanhedrin got up and brought Yeshua before Pilate,

where they started accusing him. “We found this man subverting our nation, forbidding us to pay taxes to the Emperor and claiming that he himself is the Messiah — a king!”

Pilate asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?” And he answered him, “The words are yours.”

Pilate said to the head cohanim and the crowds, “I find no ground for a charge against this man.”

But they persisted. “He is inciting the people with his teaching throughout all Y’hudah — he started in the Galil, and now he’s here!”

On hearing this, Pilate asked if the man was from the Galil;

and when he learned that he was under Herod’s jurisdiction, he sent him over to Herod, who at that time happened to be in Yerushalayim too.

Herod was delighted to see Yeshua, because he had heard about him and for a long time had been wanting to meet him; indeed, he hoped to see him perform some miracle.

He questioned him at great length, but Yeshua made no reply.