Jesus In India — Page 32
32 J e s u s i n I n d i a was he kept on the cross hungry and thirsty for so many days, nor were his bones broken to put a stop to his life at once. It would be understandable if even one of the two thieves had died and there had been no need to break his bones. Furthermore, Joseph, a close friend of Pilate’s, who was a chief in those parts, and a secret disciple of Jesus, happened to arrive at this very moment. I presume that he too was summoned by Pilate. Jesus was declared dead and his body was placed in his custody. Since Joseph was a respected personality, the Jews could not quarrel with him. Thus, he took charge of Jesus, who had been declared dead whereas he was actually in a coma. Following Pilate’s instructions, he took Jesus to a room with an opening which was used as a grave according to the prevailing custom of the time, and was beyond the access of the Jews. All this took place in the midst of the 14 th century after the demise of the prophet Moses, and the Messiah was the divine reformer who was to revive the Jewish faith in that century. Although the Jews themselves were awaiting the Messiah in the fourteenth century, and the prophecies of the earlier prophets testified to his coming, it is a pity that the Jews did not recognize the person and the time and denounced their Promised Messiah as an imposter. They called him an apostate, pronounced a verdict of death against him, and dragged him to court. This shows that the fourteenth century has the inherent quality of making people’s hearts callous, and causing religious clerics to become blind and averse to the truth. A comparison between the fourteenth century after Moses and the