Caiaphas, nervous and weary from the perplexity of the day, reclines on an elaborate divan in an alcove off from his spacious court, where the Sanhedrim of seventy elders were wont to convene and discuss important matters. As he sips wine to drown his troubles, trouble seems to arise, when he is startled from his phlegmatic vision by an intruder in the form of a huge lizzard, creeping over a cactus urn. Then the great high priest murmured, "I wonder if there is a God, as that which I daily proclaim; if I knew there were not it might eliminate this fear of the devil."
As he thus soliloquized at the dead of night, a trusted servant intrudes upon his forced quietude, by announcing that the gatekeeper informs him that one of the disciples of Jesus of Nazareth is at the gate, craving audience with the high priest personally.
Caiaphas, frowning, orders the servant to bring his message, "but first," says he, "send two officers of the court to detain him."
Servant returns: "He must commune with the high priest personally."
Caiaphas hesitates, then to the servant growls: "Summon my guard." To the guard he says, "Search him that he bears no arms and bring him to my inner court chamber."
The arch conspirators now meet. Caiaphas thin and pale, with his three score years and ten all past, while the broad burly frame of Judas Iscariot indicated not more than forty years.
"Art thou a Galilean?"
"I am not."
"Are not the disciples of Jesus Galileans?"
"All but me. I am an Edomite."