United States or Latvia ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
There was the blow of a hammer on a nail, a spurt of blood from the open hand; another blow, another spurt; and the cross, upraised, settled in a cavity already prepared, a beam behind it for support. Stegas, his thirst slaked, fell as Dysmas had, and the elder caught the gourd and offered it to the Christ.
To the rear Annas nodded his approval. His lean, lank jaws parted. “Give strong drink,” he announced, authoritatively; “give strong and heady drink to those about to die, and wine to those that sorrow.” Dysmas drank abundantly of the soporific, and held the gourd to his comrade. “Take it, Stegas.”
Stegas, catching the refrain the mob repeated, turned his eyes from the soldiery to the adjacent cross. “If you are as they say,” he cried, “save yourself and us.” As a taunt to Caiaphas, Calcol echoed, “Behold your king!” and raising a stalk of hyssop, on which was a sponge that he had dipped in the posca, the thin wine the soldiers drink, he offered it to the Christ.
To them the irony of the procurator presumably was lost. “King of the Jews!” they shouted. “Mâlkâ dî Jehudâje, come down from your cross!” It was a great festival, and as they jeered at Jesus they enjoyed themselves hugely. In their vast delight the voice of Stegas was drowned.
Over the heads of Dysmas and of Stegas the sanis were affixed, wooden tablets smeared with gypsum, bearing the name of the crucified and with it the offence. Ὁ βασιλεὺς τῶν Ἰουδαίων. Rex Judæorum. Caiaphas sprang back as from the point of a sword. “Mâlkâ dî Jehudâje!” he bellowed. “King of the Jews! It is a blasphemy, an iniquity, and an outrage. Centurion, tear it down.”
Word Of The Day