Under the freedom of information act, certain documents have been released from the archive in Rome. This document has come to light. It is an item of personal correspondence from Totalus Cluless (Chief administration official in charge of personnel for Caesar’s Scriptorium Magna ).
A Jewish Feast Day
The crowds were dreadful, the place is a lot more cramped than I remember, bad timing on my part, I arrived just about sunset the day before one of those Jewish feasts, (they have so many), I pulled a bit of rank and got a room in the fortress Antonia in the hospitality suite, no good being in charge of personnel for the whole region, if you can’t get a few perks now and again, eh? I found a Centurion who had been there, he said, for thirty three years man and boy, even married on of the local girls (fool), anyway they’ve done a lot of building since I was here last so he took me round the walls, he was very knowledgeable. I asked him why he stayed as only a centurion when with his experience and specialist knowledge (buildings) he could work any where in the empire. Come to think of it he didn’t answer my question he just smiled. Anyway the long and short of it is that we ended up drinking rather more than was good for us and slept most of the night on the city wall at the southern end. Don’t tell your father will you I’ve a feeling he won’t approve, he likes everything done by the book, you know what he’s like, ‘make them come to you,’ he always says. I can here him now.
It was incredible, we’d just staggered down from the wall when the whole place sounded as if a desert storm was passing by, but there was no wind, just the sound. I turned to the centurion to ask what it was that we drank so much of, but I never did ask him. He stood there transfixed, a smile on his face and well, I know this sounds daft, he shone, I don’t really understand how else to describe it, he started running, so I followed. That wasn’t easy either it was only three hours after sunrise but the streets were crowded. He seemed to know where he was going, so I followed. We went to the southern end of the city, not very far really and all the time there was this roaring noise, like a strong wind. The whole trip couldn’t have taken more than, oh, I don’t know, not long anyway, he knocked on a door and without waiting went in, they all seamed to know him, but I couldn’t see another Roman, it was a bit dark inside I suppose. Anyway he led me up to the roof and we stood staring across the road at the house opposite. It had a sort of half roof and a big room opened out onto it. If I’d had an orange I could have thrown it across, the street here was quite narrow at that point, you won’t believe the fuss that was going on, they, (the room seemed quite crowed) were going on in a very unruly manner, calling out, singing, one or two may have even been dancing. Quite frankly it looked as if a celebration was going on. I don’t know when I noticed it, but the sound of the wind or storm or whatever had gone but the noise that lot were making held my attention, some of them spilled out onto the half roof and called out to those in the street below. Then I noticed, I could understand them, well two of them at least were speaking the best Greek I’ve heard anywhere and not a trace of accent. I was just about to ask the centurion what was going on, but when I turned to him, he was crying. I mean to say, crying! He must have been quite old, at least forty years, who ever heard of a forty year old crying. Anyway, he then said something very odd, he said, ‘He’s come back’, then he pushed right past me and disappeared down the stairs.
I wondered who HE was, then I saw the centurion pushing through the crowd and heading for the house opposite.
Then I heard one of the odd lot across the street calling out in fluent Egyptian, (I was there for five years you remember, it’s the only other language I speak). Something else dawned on me too, those who were speaking all looked like peasants, none of them dressed as Romans or Greeks… or Egyptians for that matter, just as peasants. Then one of them, the leader I suppose went up to the edge of the roof and delivered a speech the like of which I’ve not heard in a long time. It was odd, the whole crowd (and they were by now, packed into the street and hanging out of every window I could see, and on all the house tops around), everywhere was silent, but they all seemed to understand and I could tell they were from all over the place, if their clothes is anything to go by.
I can’t remember everything he said, except these bits, ‘I will pour out my Spirit on all people’ which I don’t understand and ‘everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved’ and this, ‘God raised him from the dead.’ I intend to find out who they were talking about. Something very odd is going on.
I must admit I was then and still am, two days later, confused, The speaker carried on for about an hour, some in the crowd started weeping, others started singing would you believe, (at that time of the morning), a great many pushed into the house with the upper room and added to the crowd on the roof.
I don’t really know what was going on but it was really very exciting. I will ask some questions and explain in my next letter. I can’t stop thinking about it.
Bother those administration and personnel checks, somehow they don’t seem important just at the moment.
