It begins: the trip to Annas' house on Thursday night

My name is Trivinius.

I've drawn a strange detail. Our job was to find and detain a man named Jesus. We were told he was a rebel and that we might come across dangerous and difficult circumstances when we arrested him.

But when we found him in the garden of olive trees on the hill they, the Jews, call Olivet, he was very calm and serene and took the capture with grace and dignity.

It was mysterious at worst, strange at best.

As we took him to this Annas, brother-in-law of the chief priest of these people Caiaphas. Annas'palace was to the north of the city, up beyond the massive temple these people had built. Some of my fellow Roman legion members took it upon themselves to have some fun by hitting our soldier. One was particularly viscious, knocking Jesus down with a strong fist that left a bloody streak across his face and a large mark there. Jesus stayed down a few long seconds before he was dragged to his feet by the chains that wrapped his wrists. He was yelled at and cursed by my fellows, but I promise I did not do these things. I was still thinking about how he had healed Malchus, a glorious and mysterious happening for which some of us could not stop pondering.

As I said, we took him to Annas where there was a preliminary hearing of some kind. I understood that Annas had been high priest, and since that was an office that sort of was for life though my authorities had actually appointed his son-in-law Caiaphas to the position at one time, we had to run this arrest by him. Clearly you could tell that Annas cared more for the political ramifications of this event than for whomever this Jesus truly was. He didn't want to get too much blood on his hands, but he surely wanted this Jesus disposed of.

So he did the one thing he could do that would settle everything as far as he was concerned. He sent Jesus to Caiaphas. I heard as we left this palace that the high council was waiting. It was getting late into the night but we were required to see this through, so we did what we were told though we didn't like it. It felt like we were doing what the Jews required. Some of my fellows took it out on this Jesus, who was to them nothing but a rebel turned punching bag.