As everyone must know by now, all the garrisons in the city have been on high alert for the past two weeks. The Roman authorities always anticipate trouble around Passover, and this year was no exception. Last Saturday we were able to interview a couple of soldiers who were standing guard duty in front of a tomb in a garden near the area known as Golgotha .
Record-Express: Can you please introduce yourselves and tell our readers what you are doing here? It’s a bit unusual to be guarding a tomb, isn’t it?
First Guard: My name is Justinius and I’ve been stationed in this back-water province of the empire for seven years now. That fellow over there is Sixtus. What we’re doing is trying to prevent any more trouble from that Galilean gang.
Sixtus: Yeah, we caught their ringleader yesterday and took care of him in a hurry. What’s left of him is in this tomb behind us. Usually getting rid of the leader makes the rest of a gang see the uselessness of any more rebellion against the great and mighty Caesar. But this guy apparently made some claim about being able to rise from the dead, so we’re here to make sure that none of his followers steals the body and puts out some tall tale about his making good on his promise.
