Paul

by Howard Brenton

  The CHIEF GAOLER steps out of the darkness. He carries linen cloth and a wooden bucket of water.

  CHIEF GAOLER. All right, let ’em alone! They could have a visit tonight. From a very distinguished person. Don’t want them to stand there with faces like cabbages.

  PETER. What visitor?

  CHIEF GAOLER. Well, you’ll just have to shit yourselves waiting to see, won’t you.

  PAUL. The only visit we crave is by the Risen Lord.

  2ND GAOLER. Oh gobbyledegook, shut your mouth . . .

  The 2ND GUARD about to kick PAUL.

  CHIEF GAOLER. No no . . .

  PETER. Who will visit? A magistrate? To reopen our cases? Release us?

  CHIEF GAOLER. I tell you your only hope of release is if your God magics a hole in that wall, magics your chains away and magics you out of here in a cloud.

  PAUL. What do you believe in?

  The GAOLER is startled by the question.

  CHIEF GAOLER. I believe in a mystery, baby killer. In a secret place. A holy cave, where you can never go.

  The CHIEF GOALER signals to the other two GAOLERS and turns to go.

  PAUL. So you believe in the Lord of Light.

  The CHIEF GAOLER stops in his tracks.

  The Victorious One. The Warrior. The God of Truth. The Giver of Bliss. The Saviour from Death. Mithras.

  The CHIEF GAOLER turns.

  We are both religious men.

  CHIEF GAOLER. Don’t you dare to compare the obscene teachings of your crucified criminal, with the glory of the Lord Mithras.

  PAUL. I don’t compare them. But the followers of Jesus and the followers of Mithras long for the same thing.

  CHIEF GAOLER. I swear I’ll have you lashed through your ribs to your lungs, Christian. When you reach the execution ground you’ll be a sack of blood.

  PETER (low). Paul, the man’s a brute . . .

  But PAUL is calm, and persists.

  PAUL. You and I, we believe in the immortality of the soul.

  The CHIEF GAOLER is taken aback.

  You and I, we believe life has triumphed over death. Mithras killed a bull in a cave. That’s how you think he overcame death.

  CHIEF GAOLER. I can’t talk about these mysteries, baby killer . . .

  PAUL. The Lord Jesus came back from the dead. He is alive, now, He’s not a painting on the end wall of a Mithras lodge, He’s a living being. He wants to come to you, and to be in your heart, and save you when the end of the world comes. Imagine the glory when He calls the dead from their graves. And He leads those who followed Him, the dead and the living, to Heaven. You could be one of them.

  A beat.

  CHIEF GAOLER. Yeah, well, pretty picture.

  PAUL. No, it will happen soon! The end of the world! In our lifetime! Tonight! Or, now, right now, it could be a moment away!

  He claps his hands.

  A moment of unease from the CHIEF GAOLER then he laughs.

  CHIEF GAOLER. Your executions are set. Come the morning, you’re for the banks of death’s river, or wherever you Jews have your hell. Here’s some water, some cloth, clean yourselves up. And . . . no singing. Or I’ll have your faces kicked in after all.

  Nods to the other GAOLERS.

  I can’t stand Christian hymns. They make my teeth go funny.

  The GAOLERS exit.

  PAUL, chains dragging, goes to PETER.

  PAUL. Peter.

  They embrace.

  The peace of Jesus be with you.

  PETER. And with you.

  PAUL. When did they arrest you?

  PETER. Two weeks ago. With ten others. The congregation is terrified.

  PAUL. I thought after they’d taken me, they’d leave the congregation alone.

  PETER. Your sense of your own importance hasn’t exactly taken a knock.

  PAUL. I only hoped for peace. And that the Lord would come.

  PETER. Ah the end of days, yes. Well. If it comes before the morning it’ll spare us a certain amount of dis . . . discomfort.

  He cannot stop his hand trembling.

  PAUL. Peter, my brother . . .

  PETER. No, I’m all right. At the moment. Who knows what state I’ll be in come sunrise . . .

  PAUL. A state of grace.

  PETER. Yes. Yes, well.

  A beat.

  We couldn’t reach you in prison, we tried.

  PAUL. They kept me in solitary confinement.

  PETER. When did they condemn you?

  PAUL. A month ago.

  PETER. We watched the magistrates’ courts, we never saw you brought to trial.

  PAUL. I appeared before the Emperor’s court.

  PETER. The Emperor’s court . . .

  PAUL. I’m a citizen of the Roman Empire, remember? The legal niceties must be seen to be kept.

  PETER. Was the Emperor himself there?

  PAUL. Oh yes.

  PETER. Did you speak to him?

  PAUL. I told him I wanted to die on the cross, like my Saviour.

  PETER. What did he say?

  PAUL. Nothing. He was wearing a mask with a woman’s face.

  PETER. In Heaven’s name, Paul, you can have the axe, as a Roman citizen that’s your right . . .

  PAUL. No no, the axe it will be. They couldn’t have a Roman citizen die a non-citizen’s death.

  PETER. Where will they take us?

  PAUL. The execution ground at the third milepost on the Appian way.

  PETER. After all these years it comes to this.

  PAUL. Tomorrow we’ll be in Paradise.

  PETER. After all these years, to die in Rome, not Jerusalem.

  PAUL. It’s His will.

  PETER. Oh yes, His will.

  PAUL. Peter?

  PETER. Never your will, was it, Paul?

  PAUL. What’s the matter?

  PETER is overcome with fury.

  PETER. Matter? What’s the matter? It’s because of you we’re dying in Rome. The mission to the Gentiles? Congregations in Corinth, Athens, Ephesus, even here in Rome? All this was never meant to be!

  PAUL is shocked.

  PAUL. The mission to the Gentiles was ordered by Christ.

  PETER. Yeshua never preached that.

  PAUL. That is a terrible thing to say!

  PETER. The mission to the Gentiles came from you.

  PAUL. Peter, I know why you’re talking like this, but we mustn’t be afraid, He Himself must have felt terrible fear . . .

  PETER. No no, you don’t understand! You can’t understand! My life is a lie!

  PAUL. I beg you, stop this. We’re not the only people to die for His truth.

  PETER is near to weeping.

  PETER. His truth, His truth, His truth.

  A beat.

  No I . . . forgive me. But when you saw Him on the way to Damascus, He never told you to travel endlessly around the world converting kiddam and pagans. Did He?

  PAUL. He told me in my heart, when I was in Arabia. Through my faith. What I felt in the heart.

  PETER. I always thought that bit of your teaching was dangerous. Terrible sins can flow from what you feel in the heart.

  PAUL. I had it from the Lord that I was right. In the Jerusalem Temple, when I was praying and fell into a trance.

  PETER. Yes. Your trance in the temple.

  PAUL. I fell into a trance and He told me to leave Jerusalem.

  PETER. Paul, it was in James’s house?

  PAUL. He sent me out into the world with His blessing.

  PETER. You saw Him when you came to James’s house, with Barnabas?

  PAUL. No, it was in the Temple, He appeared to me in the Temple . . .

  PETER. No, you don’t remember properly. You had an attack . . .

  PAUL. It was in the Temple!

  PETER. I know it was in James’s house, Paul.

  PAUL, remembering.

  PAUL. James’s house, in Jerusalem . . .

  Scene Six

  Jerusalem, AD 39. The house of JAMES, YESHUA’s brother.
PAUL and BARNABAS.

  BARNABAS. I can’t face them.

  PAUL. They’ll understand.

  BARNABAS. I can’t. I don’t want them to know who I am, what I did.

  PAUL. I did worse, I led the persecution. Face them. These are wise and good men.

  BARNABAS. Jesus’s brother, no, I can’t.

  PAUL. Then wait for me in the street.

  BARNABAS. No, I should stay, what if they become violent . . .

  PAUL smiles.

  PAUL. They won’t harm me. The Lord Jesus will speak to their hearts. Go.

  BARNABAS, unhappy, exits.

  A beat.

  MARY MAGDALENE enters. She is 25 years old. Accent: uneducated.

  PAUL. Lady . . .

  MARY. You’re Saul of Tarsus.

  PAUL. I’ve a new name.

  MARY. Yes, Yeshua gave it to you.

  PAUL. You know . . .

  MARY. Know your story? Oh yeah. They’re arguing about whether to meet you or not.

  PAUL. Can I ask your name?

  MARY. I’m Mary. Yeshua’s wife.

  A beat.

  He kneels.

  What you doing . . .

  PAUL. It’s a blessing to meet you.

  MARY. Get up!

  PAUL. I thank God for the privilege . . .

  MARY. No no, don’t do that. I’m sick of religious men kneeling in front of me. They usually want to wash my feet.

  PAUL stands.

  PAUL. Forgive me I . . .

  MARY. Yeshua was kneeling in front of me when he asked me to marry him. Washing my feet. I told him when we were hitched that would stop.

  PAUL. It’s that I didn’t know He married.

  MARY. His brother keeps it very quiet.

  PAUL. Do you still see your husband? Does He appear to you?

  MARY laughs.

  MARY. You really are one of ’em, aren’t you? The ‘God’s sonners’.

  PAUL. The . . .

  MARY. The lunatics who say Yeshua was God’s son.

  PAUL. You of all people must know that He was.

  MARY. Oh really? You think bed with him was some kind of mystical experience?

  PAUL. I . . .

  MARY. Know why he married me? To spite his mother and father. They’re rich, you know. Own just about the only business in Nazareth, employ half the village. Wood workshops. They’re stuck up too: aristocratic blood, ‘We are of the House of David’ blah blah, they love all that. They saw Yeshua as High Priest one day, paid through the nose for him to be taught at the Temple in Jerusalem. Bright little kid he was too, they say. Knew the Torah off by heart. So when Yeshua took to the road with no shoes and a begging bowl, they weren’t well pleased. Nothing compared though, to when he married me. They didn’t like that, not one bit. But he was over thirty so he could insist. His mother was in charge of the wedding party of course, so you know what she did? Served water. Yeshua had wine brought in. No, they didn’t it like one bit, having a daughter-in-law who was a whore.

  A beat.

  PAUL is bewildered.

  PAUL. He married you to save you?

  MARY. Yeah, he saved me. If he hadn’t taken a liking to me, I’d be dead by now. Or good as, lying in a gutter outside a Roman barracks.

  Looks around nervously.

  I’ve got to go, they mustn’t find me here.

  PAUL. One thing, lady, please . . . Were you there when He died?

  She stares at him, shocked.

  Forgive me, it must be painful for you, but we who weren’t there, we long for the words, the look, the . . . touch of the real Christ.

  MARY. Christ?

  PAUL. Yeshua. You were there? As His wife?

  MARY. I can’t talk about this.

  He grabs her wrist.

  PAUL. You saw Him buried. You went to the burial ground.

  MARY. Yeah all right, I went there. With his mother. Three days later . . .

  PAUL. Three days. He rose in three days?

  MARY. I can’t talk about this.

  PAUL. You were a witness, you were there, I must have the authentic . . .

  MARY. All right!

  She pulls her arm away.

  Sometimes I think men want religion more than they want sex.

  PAUL. What did you see?

  MARY. There was nothing to see.

  PAUL. The grave . . .

  MARY. It was a tomb, some rich friend had paid.

  PAUL. He was in the tomb.

  MARY. I can’t talk about this.

  PAUL. He wasn’t.

  MARY. No.

  PAUL. His body wasn’t in the tomb.

  MARY. It’s a secret.

  PAUL. The tomb was empty.

  MARY. I said it’s a secret.

  PAUL. But you want to tell me.

  MARY. It’s too terrible. What it means, it’s . . . too terrible to say.

  PAUL. The tomb was empty.

  A beat.

  MARY, a whisper.

  MARY. Yes.

  PAUL. Did you see any one?

  MARY. There was a bit of garden there, and a man.

  PAUL. A gardener?

  MARY. A man.

  PAUL. Did he say anything to you?

  MARY. He said Yeshua wasn’t there.

  PAUL. And?

  MARY. Nothing else, he went away . . .

  PAUL. Was it Him? Was it Yeshua?

  MARY. No! No . . .

  PAUL. Maybe He looked different, transformed, after He had risen . . .

  MARY. No, nothing like that! It wasn’t him! No.

  She turns to go.

  PAUL. Tell me just one thing, I beg you. Since the garden, have you seen Him?

  She looks at him.

  MARY. I don’t want to be a holy woman. I don’t want men on their knees praying to me, I don’t want my fucking feet washed any more.

  She runs away and exits.

  A moment.

  Then JAMES, aged 28, and PETER, aged 35, enter. JAMES is aggressive.

  JAMES. Have you got men waiting in the street?

  PAUL. No . . .

  JAMES. Soldiers, waiting for a signal?

  PAUL. No . . .

  JAMES. That thug you came with, has he sneaked away to tell them the layout of the house? So he can lead them in here and arrest us all?

  PAUL. No, send someone to look!

  JAMES. Oh we have.

  PAUL. Then you know I’m alone.

  JAMES looks at PAUL.

  A beat.

  JAMES. All I know about you is that you had forty-two of us stoned to death, fifteen of them women. Then, mercifully, you disappeared. Now after three years, suddenly here you are, in Jerusalem, with a new name. You must expect a certain . . . reserve from us. Suspicion. Loathing. Dread.

  PAUL. With my head bowed, weighted down by your anger, in sorrow and shame, in the deepest remorse, before God I beg your forgiveness for what I did in my old life.

  JAMES. Oh your ‘old life’, you have a new one now?

  PAUL. I lived within Judaism, there was simply no limit to the way I persecuted you. In my attempts to destroy, I know I outstripped all my contemporaries in my limitless enthusiasm for the traditions of our ancestors. But God had set me apart from the time I was in my mother’s womb. And has called me to reveal His son to the world.

  JAMES. You really want us to believe that someone could change so much?

  PAUL. Nothing prepared me for the revelation. There is no human explanation for it. I hid myself away, I couldn’t come to you. I waited for His truth to work in me.

  PETER is moved by this. He is about to speak but JAMES makes a sign to him to keep silent.

  JAMES. And now ‘truth’ has ‘worked’ inside you, you’ve decided to present yourself.

  PAUL. You are the Lord’s brother, James?

  JAMES sighs.

  JAMES. Yes.

  PAUL kneels.

  JAMES turns away.

  PAUL. Give me your blessing.

  JAMES. Yes. Yes, you have my bless
ing. Now get up.

  PAUL. Your blessing in the name of the risen Lord.

  JAMES and PETER glance at each other.

  JAMES. You have it.

  PAUL stands, looking from JAMES to PETER.

  PAUL. May I meet the other apostles?

  JAMES. I think not.

  PAUL. I would like to draw spiritual strength from them . . .

  JAMES. If you want spiritual strength, live according to Yeshua’s teachings. I give thanks for your change of heart. But as leader of the congregation here, I have to tell you: leave Jerusalem, go back to wherever you came from.

  PAUL. You don’t understand. He has asked me to be His messenger.

  JAMES. He?

  PAUL. The Lord. He has made me an apostle.

  JAMES. Only the Jerusalem congregation can appoint apostles.

  PAUL. Though on the Lord’s authority.

  JAMES irritated.

  JAMES. You keep on calling him the . . .

  Controls his temper.

  Let me be clear to you. The authority amongst Yeshua’s followers lies with his family and those who knew him when he was teaching.

  PAUL. Of course I want your authority for my mission.

  JAMES. Mission.

  PAUL. To take the Gospel to the world.

  JAMES. ‘Gospel’, what is this Greek word?

  PAUL. Euangelion. The good news. That the Lord is risen. And is coming again. That we are in the last days and any time, any day, night, the Kingdom Of God will come. As Yeshua preached.

  JAMES sighs.

  JAMES. My brother did preach the coming of the Kingdom of God. But in a religious sense. He didn’t mean the overthrow of Rome in Judea and he didn’t mean what you seem to think: Armageddon. The end of the world.

  PAUL. But He did. That’s why He died on the cross and rose again, to show that in Him, we will all be brought to life, the living and the dead. Jew and Gentile.

  JAMES. I am telling you he did not teach that! My brother’s message was for Jews.

  PAUL. What then did he mean by the ‘Kingdom of God’?

  JAMES. It is something in the hearts of devout people.

  PAUL. But, you say, just for Jews?

  JAMES. Yeshua wanted to cleanse the Temple, not pull it down! To purify Judaism, not deny it. The last three years we have worked to make the authorities, the kiddam and the Temple priests, understand that. The teaching of Yeshua is no threat. He was a great religious reformer.

  PAUL. ‘Reformer’? He came to change everything, to end everything, not ‘reform’ it!

  JAMES. Do not tell me what my brother did or did not preach! I was with him. You weren’t.

  PAUL. But I have seen Him. He has called me.