The Gospel According to Judas by Benjamin Iscariot (13 page)

xlii. M
ASADA:
An almost impregnable palace-fortress was built by Herod the Great (
circa
73–4bc) on the top of a mountain beside the Salt Sea. Even today, it is accessible only by foot from the side of the Salt Sea by what is called ‘the snake path'. The Romans, under Titus, eventually overran it in
AD
74.

xliii. C
RUCIFIXION BY
T
ITUS:
Crucifixion was regarded by the Romans as the most supreme form of punishment (
summum supplicium
). Josephus reports that Titus used this form of execution regularly during the Jewish War, and especially following the siege of Jerusalem. See, for example, Josephus,
Jewish War
, V.449–451, where Josephus reports the crucifixion of so many Jews each day that ‘there was no longer room for the crosses and not enough crosses for the bodies'.

F
RANCIS
J. M
OLONEY
J
EFFREY
A
RCHER

JEFFREY ARCHER
is an international best-selling author, with sales of over 125 million copies of such novels as
Kane and Abel, The Prodigal Daughter, The Eleventh Commandment
and, among his short stories,
The First Miracle
.

He was educated at Oxford and is a former Member of Parliament. He is currently a Member of the House of Lords.

He lives with his wife Mary, at the Old Vicarage, Grantchester, and in London. They have two sons.

 

PROFESSOR MOLONEY
has been a leading figure in the Roman Catholic theological tradition for the past thirty years. For the past eighteen years as a member of the International Theological Commission to the Holy See, he has been closely associated with its chairman, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI. The author of many studies of the New Testament and its world, his most recent publication is
The Living Voice of the Gospel: The Gospels Today
.

He is currently a major superior of a Roman Catholic religious congregation, the Salesians of Don Bosco.