The New Version

Paul

     Paul was a Jew and a Roman citizen and from information contained in The Acts of the Apostles, we know that he had authority to approve carrying out the death sentence of Stephen.  " He laid waste the church and entering house after house dragged off men and women and committed them to prison".  He was sent to Damascus to find any of Jesus' followers and "bring them bound to Jerusalem".  "He had authority to bind all the followers of Jesus".  Clearly Paul held a position of considerable authority in maintaining civil law and order for the Roman authorities.  I believe it was he who was given the responsibility for arresting the rebel leader and his followers.

     His first step was to assign an undercover agent to keep him informed of Jesus' whereabouts at all times so he could formulate a plan for his arrest.  With this information he was able to be in the audience whenever Jesus appeared in public.

     Knowing he was considered a rebel leader by the authorities, Jesus was not surprised at the presence of a Roman officer when he appeared in public but he may have wondered how the official always seemed to know exactly when and where he would appear.

     It was during this surveillance period that Paul was greatly affected by Jesus and his teachings.  Reflecting on these both consciously and unconsciously they fused with Pharisaic belief that Christ would appear on earth and led to his conversion on the road to Damascus.

     Paul quickly realized that to try to arrest Jesus while he was surrounded by admiring crowds would be difficult and probably lead to blood shed.  It would therefore be best to act when Jesus and his disciples were relatively isolated.  Also from his observations he determined the size of the force necessary to make the arrest.

     When his undercover agent reported that the rebels and their leader would be on the Mount of Olives on Passover Eve, when most of the people would be at home preparing for the next day's celebration, it seemed a perfect time to make the arrest and he gave the order.

     While Jesus was taken, his followers managed to escape.  Jesus was taken to Jewish headquarters where it was reported that a Jewish citizen had been arrested and would be charged with leading a rebellion, then taken to the Roman headquarters and incarcerated until he could face trial before Pilate.

     Paul's responsibility for Jesus being finished, he turned his attention to his followers that had escaped and ordered a house to house search and those that were found were "dragged off and committed to prison".

     When it was rumoured that some had taken refuge in Damascus, where they were not known by the authorities, Paul was dispatched to identify them and bring them back for trial in Jerusalem.

     It was while making this journey that Paul's conversion took place.

Judas

     While Jesus was aware of the danger he was in, his disciples were completely unaware of it , so when Paul's undercover agent approached Judas, posing as a lover of Jesus and offered to pay him to keep him informed of Jesus' movements so he might not miss any opportunity to be close to him, the unsuspicious Judas readily agreed.

     Sometime prior to Passover Eve Judas casually mentioned to Jesus this arrangement with his admirer and Jesus was quick to realize that this was how the Roman official always seemed to know of his whereabouts.  When Jesus told his disciples that one of them would betray him, Judas was as mystified as the others as to who the culprit might be.

     After the arrest he could not understand how the soldiers knew where Jesus would be at that particular time.  Only the disciples knew.  But then he remembered that he had told "the lover of Jesus" and it was only then that he realized that he must have been an informer and passed on the information to the authorities and that he, Judas, had been the one to betray this beloved master.

     He couldn't live with the knowledge and took his own life.

Pilate

     As a result of his interrogation, Pilate judged Jesus to be guilty of trying to overthrow Roman authority and sentenced him to death by crucifiction, the usual penalty for such a crime.

     As was the local custom at Passover, Pilate selected a prisoner to be released.  He selected Barabas, a petty criminal who would pose little threat to the public and certainly none to the Roman authorities.

     He then went out to the crowd and announced the freeing of Barabas and the death sentence of Jesus.

     He ordered his cross to be erected between those of two other convicted rebels and a sign, "King of the Jews", to be placed on it as a warning to the onlookers of the fate that awaited anyone they dared to proclaim king.