JERUSALEM — A Pharisee by the name of Ahaziah asked his fellow scribes if it was normal for the temple curtain to suddenly and spontaneously rip in half from top to bottom.
The incident occurred on the afternoon of the day of preparation for the Passover, which just so happened to coincide with the execution of a trio of condemned criminals just outside the city.
"Is it, uh, supposed to do that?" asked Ahaziah, staring at the split halves of the massive curtain believed to separate mankind from God's presence. "I haven't been a Pharisee very long, but I sort of had the idea the curtain was supposed to stay put. I'm not sure if four-inch-thick, 60-foot-tall curtains are supposed to just violently split like that. It seems a little strange, is all."
Ahaziah further queried whether anyone knew if earthquakes were common in the region, or if people coming up out of their graves to walk around the city was something that happened frequently.
"Is this out of the ordinary, people getting up out of their own graves?" Ahaziah asked an elder Pharisee, his legs still shaking from the earthquake. "Do they usually do that when we execute a guy for blasphemy? It feels different, at least to me."
At publishing time, Ahaziah had asked if it was typical for three-thousand-pound stones to suddenly move away from a tomb opening.
Do you think you can guess which one is the terrorist?
