Who He Is
The chief of Pontius Pilate's secret guard in Yershalaim. He appears in chapters 25 and 26: it is through him that Yeshua's last remark reaches the procurator, and he is the one who sets Judas's death in motion.
He said only that of all human weaknesses, the one he considers worst is cowardice.
Trajectory
In chapter 25 he arrives from soaked Golgotha, once the storm calms down, confirms to Pilate that Yeshua is dead, and repeats the condemned man's remark. He receives from the procurator, in confidence, the request to protect Judas of Kerioth, calmly weighs that the plan is nearly impossible on a night of festivities, and, before leaving, receives a heavy bag of coins, which Pilate justifies as the repayment of an old loan.
The remark reaches Pilate secondhand, through a police report, and that is how it reaches him: not as a direct accusation, but as routine information that the subordinate hands over without understanding what he is handing over. Having heard the sentence, the procurator changes the subject and comes to what really matters: he asks for news of Judas of Kerioth, the young man who denounced Yeshua for money.
Afranius calmly points out that the plan is nearly impossible to carry out in a single night of festivities, but Pilate insists, pounding on his own intuition, which has never failed him, an excess of certainty that is only explained afterward, when one discovers where the information really came from:
Afranius says the procurator owes him nothing, and Pilate insists on the pretext.
When I arrived in Yershalaim, you'll recall, a crowd of beggars... I wanted to throw them money and did not have any with me, so I took some from you.
At night he posts soldiers outside the city, dresses in a threadbare tunic, and goes to the Lower City to arrange something with Nisa, the woman who lures Judas to Gethsemane. Still at night, under the Moon, he reports everything to Pilate as though the guard had failed to protect Judas, and asks to be tried.
I ask you to hand me over to the court, procurator. You were right. I did not know how to protect Judas of Kerioth, he was stabbed and killed. I want to be tried and dismissed.
The procurator suggests that Judas may have killed himself, and Afranius, startled, rejects the hypothesis; shortly afterward, looking at him with an ironic air, he describes how the death happened. In the end, Pilate says that handing him over to the court would be a crime, praises his work, and gives him a ring as a keepsake.
He was killed with astonishing skill, procurator
Themes Embodied
The standard themes that run through him are Justice and law and Appearance and reality.
Relationships
- Pontius Pilate: the procurator he serves and whose disguised order he carries out.
- Yeshua Ha-Notzri: whose last remark he reports.
- Judas of Kerioth: the man he was supposed to protect.