It was a spring evening. The hot summer sun later would burn off the green and leave the hills barren, but now the grey-tan of their rocky slopes was mottled with sparse vegetation and bright patches of spring flowers. There was a cool edge in the air as the sun drifted toward the far horizon and the company of men walked briskly along the trait that wound northwestward from Bethany to Jerusalem.

There were eleven in the group, two having gone earlier in the day to arrange for a room where the Passover meal would be eaten. Nothing about the company called special attention to it. These men were like hundreds of similar groups - at least ten men in each - who were gathering in Jerusalem for the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

Mostly they walked in silence. Occasionally there wa…