Two strands of wood, each no more than a quarter of an inch thick, were wound around each other to form an imperfect circle with a diameter of approximately nine inches. Radiating from the gray stems, not more than half an inch from one another, were thin, needlelike thorns at least three quarters of an inch long. Their sharp points bit into my flesh as I raised the crown to my eyes with unsteady hands.

“You can still see the blood, Matthias, although it grows darker with the passing years. After the crown was placed on the head of Jesus, the thorns were driven deep into his flesh with this club.”

He waited until I placed the crown on the table before handing me a heavy rod, approximately three feet in length.

“With that reed, the soldiers hit Jesus about the head, time after time, forcing the thorns down beneath the skin. Then they placed it in his hand, as if it were a royal scepter, and hung this cape on his shoulders.”

He handed me a purple piece of finely woven cloth, perhaps silk, with braided twine at one end. “After they draped this on his body, they mocked him and spun him around, spitting in his face, kicking him, taunting him, and calling him the King of the Jews. When they tired of their sport they returned him to Pilate, who brought him, scourged and humiliated, once more before the people.”

“ ‘Behold the man!’ ” I said, quoting Pilate.

“Yes,” Joseph repeated softly, “ ‘Behold the man!’ ”

There were only two items on the second table. One was the roughly cut, unfinished pine board that had been nailed over the head of Jesus on the cross, crudely lettered in three languages, latin, Greek, and Aramaic, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.”

“That sign, according to Roman procedure, was carried by a soldier walking ahead of the convicted one on the way to Golgotha, so that everyone would know his crime. Pilate’s words, words that he refused to change at the high priest’s request, were his way of insulting the Jewish authorities. As you can see,” Joseph said, holding up two pieces, “it was broken by Shem when he removed it from the cross.”

I jumped back, pointing.

“What is the matter, Matthias?”

“Have you ever paid attention to how the wood broke, Joseph?”

He turned the two pieces and tears came to his eyes. The sign had separated down the center. The Latin on one piece read “Jesus,” and under it was only one word: “Rex”—King!