I Appeal To Caesar!

Caiaphas completes his review of the pile of reports. He sits and stares, his stressed brain is numb and befuddled. More! He needs something more! Where is that irresistible argument! The basic question plagues his mind: “How can young Rabbi Saul be so convinced of the error of who Jesus was and what he taught that he would lead an all-out war on Jesus’ followers and their doctrines? What will persuade him?” What will Saul fight and even die for?

Like a patient baker kneading dough, the High Priest

reviews his material over and over, and over again.

He must be almost there, he can feel it! Like the eager hound chasing the scent of a fox: although the fox is not in sight, the scent is so strong, the end must be close!

What teaching of Jesus is so wrong, so threatening, that the whole Sanhedrin (and Saul) can and will agree it warrants eradicating the Jesus People?

“My strategy is good, even brilliant,” says Caiaphas, thinking out loud, “reduce the argument to just one fundamental thought, one conviction that every leader in Israel believes and insists is absolutely right, including Saul of Tarsus!”

What will incense Saul, the great Torah scholar, as so great an infraction of Scripture and Judaic teaching that he will become the director of the Purge?