CHAPTER 80

It took Rubria a few days to regain her strength. At first she was disoriented and had a hard time recognizing people. She couldn’t remember a thing about what had happened to her. Over time she became more lucid and could follow conversations, though she still had a constant headache. She remembered everything up to the night of the assault but could not recall anything about the attack in the temple that had caused her injuries.

She drank lots of water and began eating small pieces of bread, fruit, and cheese, along with a little bit of honey. She gained strength and took short walks with Flavia. The swelling on her face receded.

Flavia told her about the servant of Nero who had been punished for the assault. But she also whispered her own suspicions. “Nero and Tigellinus were heard talking about violating the Vestals during Saturnalia. Nero hasn’t been seen since the last day of the festival, and I think he’s trying to let the scratches heal.”

Rubria took the news in stride. She tried harder to remember the events of that night but would get frustrated, shake her head, and apologize when she couldn’t.

“It’s not your fault,” Flavia said. “It will come back someday.”

Five days after Rubria awoke, her blazing headache finally vanished and her spunkiness returned. Flavia knew it was time for her to leave the House of Vestal. But first she wanted to share one last walk with her friend.

They were in the gardens under the statues when Flavia told Rubria what had happened that night in the temple of Aesculapius.

“Do you think that’s why I was healed?” Rubria asked.

“I don’t know,” Flavia said thoughtfully. “All I know is that when Paul left, I felt different. His faith gave me hope that night. For some reason, it still does. When you opened your eyes, the first thing I thought about was his prayer.”

Rubria furrowed her brow, an expression Flavia had seen hundreds of times before. “Everything seems so confusing,” she said.

“I know,” Flavia said. She reached out and touched her friend’s hand. “I’m just grateful that you were healed.”

For Mansuetus, defending Paul became a personal crusade. My son was certain that Paul had healed Rubria. He was convinced that we had all now witnessed the same type of miracle Luke had written about in his manuscripts. How could anyone not believe?

Flavia eventually began thinking the same way. She found excuses to spend time at Paul’s house, listening to him preach. She became good friends with Procula, who told her about her own experience in the temple of Aesculapius. Flavia started suggesting that we give money to the followers of the Way who were struggling to put food on the table.

Flavia and I had more than a few arguments about how much we could help them. I was already handling Paul’s case without charging a fee. What more could she ask?

I was struck by the similarities between Rubria’s healing and Procula’s. Both had occurred in the temple of Aesculapius when all else had failed. One involved a vision of Jesus; the other involved a prayer to him. In Luke’s manuscript, Jesus had not only healed people but had supposedly raised some from the dead.

But questions still lingered. If Paul had healed Rubria, why didn’t she awake right after his prayer? And if Jesus was so powerful, why hadn’t he saved himself?

For the sake of my client, I tried to remain objective. The man needed an advocate who could convince Nero. To be that person, I would need to regard this new strand of religion with the same skepticism that Nero would bring to the trial. Flavia and Mansuetus could react emotionally. I could not. Not yet.

As I continued to analyze Luke’s manuscripts and the merits of our case, I realized we were going to need a lot of witnesses. To prove that the Way was an outgrowth of Judaism and not some new and dangerous religion, I needed an expert who could talk about the Jewish Messiah. Nicodemus, a member of the Sanhedrin, would be ideal for that.

Luke had also described two centurions who became followers of Jesus. The first was the man whose servant Jesus had healed. The second was Quintus, the centurion in charge of Jesus’ crucifixion. I wanted the first man to testify that Jesus never told him to leave the Roman army. If Paul was on trial for insurrection as a follower of Jesus, that would be strong testimony. With regard to Quintus, whom I knew from my time in Judea, he could testify about the earthquake and darkness that accompanied the crucifixion of Jesus. Even Nero would have to admit that these were strong signs that the gods had sided with the Nazarene.

I also wanted someone who had personally heard Jesus tell the Jews to pay their provincial taxes. Then there was that jailer in Philippi who could talk about the way Paul and his friend Silas had remained in prison even when they had a chance to escape as a result of another earthquake.

Nero loved the Greeks, and I thought it would be great to have Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, talk about how he became a follower of Jesus after Paul preached in Athens. The city clerk in Ephesus could provide an affidavit describing how Paul’s enemies, not Paul, had stirred up trouble in that city.

I put together a long list of witnesses who could certify the truth of the events recorded in Luke’s manuscripts. I wanted as many witnesses as possible who had seen Jesus walking the earth in the days after his crucifixion.

Three months before trial, we met at Paul’s house. I had gone over my list with Paul, and he had called in every favor he could to make it happen. His house was packed that night with men who had been part of his ministry or had become followers of Jesus under Paul’s preaching in Rome. These men had already agreed to go wherever it took to bring the witnesses back to Rome. There was no time to waste.

We sent Tychicus to Ephesus, Crescens to Galatia, and Titus to Dalmatia. I met John Mark for the first time that night. He was young and healthy, and we sent him to Jerusalem to find witnesses who had seen the risen Christ. Aristarchus was dispatched to Greece and told to look for Dionysius.

It was an amazing sight, each of these men willing to pack up and leave on a moment’s notice for the sake of Paul and the cause of the man they called Christus. Paul prayed for each of them before he sent them out.

After they left, the house seemed quiet and deserted. Luke stayed behind because I needed him to verify the manuscripts. Procula, Mansuetus, Flavia, and I were there as well. Sergius, who had switched places with another soldier so he could be there that night, had tears in his eyes.

I thought about how different this was from the maiestas trials. Even a good man like Apronius had been abandoned by his colleagues. When the wrath of Caesar came down on someone, his friends ran for the hills.

Not so with Paul. The men who had gone out that night were standing with him, willing to put themselves in harm’s way for the sake of the apostle.

“How many do you think will return?” I asked.

“All of them,” Paul said.

The little man had no doubt. And nobody in the room would have expected him to say anything different.