“Yes, in order to see inside. Carrying my torch I stooped down and went into the sepulchre, crawling through the small outer room until I was close to the shelf on which the body must have rested. I could see that the grave cloth was still there, wrapped round and round, but inside it there was no body! I couldn’t understand it. Then I shouted to the others to come and see, but none dared enter a place of the dead, even when I told them that the body was gone. I sat there alone, in the tomb, trying to collect my senses. What could I tell Caiaphas to convince him that we had not been derelict in our duty? All my years of loyalty and hard work would be wiped away as soon as the high priest was told that the body was missing. Never would he trust me again. Everything, for me, was lost. In anger and futility I remember pulling the linen napkin from my waist and throwing it upon the shelf near the larger cloth. Finally I decided that all I could do was tell Caiaphas the truth, as I had seen it, and hope that his wisdom would allow him to judge me as I deserved to be judged. I crawled from the cave and commanded the others to bring a torch from the fire and follow me, and we all ran from the garden, not stopping until we were back in the courtyard of the high priest.”

“You told Caiaphas everything?”

“Everything, but he refused to believe my story. He slapped me and the others, many times, accusing us of sleeping on duty, screaming that we should all be stoned to death for our crime.”

“You even told him about the stranger who passed near you at the tomb?”

“I did … and while we were still on our knees, not knowing what he would do to us next, he asked me to tell him about the stranger once more. Then he called for his orderly and ordered that four pouches be brought to him, each filled with silver coins. To our great surprise he presented one to each and warned us to say nothing of our experience, and if we were asked about the tomb we should only say that the disciples had come and stolen the body away while we slept. Then he excused us.”

“What did you do then?”