WHERE DID JESUS PREPARE FOR THE MINISTRY
From the book: “Diggers For Facts”
It is next to the last day of the Feast of the Passover of the year 8 A.D. as our calendar now stands, and the Lectures that were accustomed to be given at the University of Palestine during these days we progress. This was one of the oldest seats of Higher Learning in the world. It was in the Temple of Herod, the successor of the Temple of Solomon, and stood upon the site of that world-famous structure.
In the audience, listening to the lectures of the learned was a young boy about twelve years of age. He had been attending the lectures, and giving them more than passing attention. Occasionly as was the privilege, He had asked a few questions. In the midst of this exercise, there came a time when He dared to disagree with the lecturers. The debate was on, and the young boy was invited to come to the lecture platform where He could be better seen and heard. These learned men were more than mystified and pleased at the questions that the could propound, and then answer Himself. In other words, there great “stir” in the literary and religious circles. Who was this boy could confound and amaze the famous Faculty of the University of Palestine known around the world?
About eight miles north of Jerusalem is Arimathea, also called Ramah, and at present Ramallah. Josephus calls it Amartha. It the birthplace of the Prophet Samuel. The place is on the Nazareth Jerusalem caravan route, or road. It was always the first stopping place of caravans traveling north from Jerusalem. Of course, the family would stop there on their way to Jerusalem, and returning from it. This was the country estate of Joseph of Arimathea, the uncle of Mary mother of Jesus. Joseph was the youngest brother of Mary’s father. We shall not at this time and place enter into the discussion of relationship of Joseph to Jesus, but accept it as a fact that Joseph Arimathea was the uncle of Jesus.
It was incumbent upon the Jew to remain only three or four days at the seven days feast. Joseph and Mar y, and the boy attended the Passover, and undoubtedly stayed with friends in the city, while the boy stayed with his uncle Joseph in the town house of the councillor. They started back home, evidently, without communicating with the boy, thinking that He would be with his uncle, and that they would all meet at Arimathea. But upon reaching the country home of Joseph, they found the boy was not there, nor did He arrive the following day. Another night came and passed, and still no boy. Now the worried mother and her spouse retraced their steps to the city, and found the boy at the afternoon lectures, talking with the learned, and aged instructors.
When the mother came up to Him, she gently rebuked Him. In some astonishment He replied: “How is it that you sought me? Know you not that I must be about my Father’s business?”
The last that the Gospels have to say about the boy is found in Luke 2:52. I wish to call the attention of young fathers and mothers to the 51st verse of the second chapter of Luke. I suggest to them, that in the face of conditions as they now are, the young parent study diligently this verse, yea, ponder over it, and carry it into practice.
Again I say Luke 2:52 is the last mention of the boy in the New Testament. There is a lacuna of 18 years during which time the New Testament is absolutely silent concerning the whereabouts and activities of Jesus. It has been the popular tradition for centuries that He lived in the village of Nazareth, Galilee, worked at the carpenter trade until He took up His Galilean Ministry. It is also the popular notion that Jesus was not an educated man, and that He was a very poor man. In addition, it is popularly conceived that Jesus, as the oldest of the family, had the numerous family of Joseph and Mary to support. This is all popular tradition, fostered by the Catholic church from its very beginning but, in reality, does not contain one shred of factual truth. Let us examine the subject for a moment, and see what common sense and archaeology have to say.
You will recall that the Magi sought to find the Babe in Palestine, and finally they located Him. Matt. 2: II says: ”And they came into the house and saw the young child with Mary his mother; and they fell down and adored him; and opening their treasures they offered unto him gifts, gold, frankincense and myrrh.” Who were the Magi? We shall not enter into a discussion regarding them. They were philosophers, learned men from the East. They were more powerful and richer in this world’s goods than any monarch upon any throne at that period of history. At least one of them came from India. The last sentence is enough to give the traveler of today a wide hint. The greatest wealth today in the world is to be found in India. There lives there today one man who could pay off all the World War debt of all the countries involved, and not miss the change! I am not exaggerating in this statement. One of the Magi was from Babylonia. Who the third one was is still a matter of dispute. Anyway, they were very rich, and very powerful. The gifts mentioned in the above passages are symbolical in the East. What is really said there is that they gave into the hands of Joseph what would today be considered a fortune, with the stipulation that it be held in trust for the child. This latter statement is a general tradition that will not cease in the East.
Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. Why did He do that for him, and not for thousands of others of His own generation?
You will recall that when Lazarus reached the doorway of the tomb, and stood there all bound up in his grave clothes, Jesus did not rush forward to release him as one would expect. He simply told the crowd around Him: “Loose the man and let him go.” Was Jesus hard hearted? No. He wished to teach us a lesson, and that was the objective of the whole procedure. Jesus did what no man could do; He raised Lazarus from the dead, and brought him to the door of the tomb. When Lazarus reached that point, Jesus did not need to help him further; his friends could do the rest, that ability lay within their power. God will not do for us what we can do for ourselves, or our friends can do for us. Would God do anything d ifferent for His own Son? Would God miraculously educate His Son, and thus deprive the learner of the human pleasure of learning? Jesus experienced the routine of the boy and man of His time. Attaining an education was the common experience of Jesus’ day as it is at present, popular opinion notwithstanding.
Working upon the problem of the education of Jesus was led upon a long journey through many countries. I shall give in outline only the route and a few incidents of that journey. I started from the catacombs beneath the city of Rome, and went to Egypt. The trail led from Egypt to India. In India is the oldest University known to man. It is a Rock Hewn University. The date of its founding is unknown, or at least, unrevealed. Its Faculty is a group of the most learned men on the globe. If the Occidental Psychologist just knew the psychology that these men have forgotten, or ceased to practice, or teach, the first thing that the Western philosopher would do would be to, burn all the text and reference books they have upon the subject. I merely wish to say that the writer was shown records which, he was told, were the school records of Jesus of Nazareth; that He studied there for three years, and then went into what is now Tibet. He did not complete the course, as we would say today. On to Tibet went the writer, but he was not allowed by the British to cross into the country that forms the “roof of the world.” Then back to Palestine. The journey was not yet ended, for it continued to call for a trip to the British Isles.
It has been established that Joseph of Arimathea was a very rich man in the Roman Empire. He stood high in the social order of Palestine. He was a member of the Sanhedrin, and a councilor. He made his money in tin. There was only one place known to the merchants of antiquity where this metal could be obtained, and that place was that which is now Wales. This metal was necessary for the making of bronze and other compounds known to antiquity. Tin was one of the major metals in the Temple of Solomon and it all came from England. Even when Jesus was a boy, his uncle, Joseph of Arimathea, was the Tinplate King of the Roman Empire. He either owned or controlled fifty-one percent of the tin output of Wales, and he had his own fleet with which to distribute the metal. He had his regular ports of call in the whole of the Empire.
If we may follow Tradition and records, Jesus visited England twice during his life. He visited it once as a mere boy, going with his uncle on a trip to the tin mines. How long He stayed on this first trip we have no way of knowing, or even estimating. It seems to have been merely pleasure trip, or an adventure for the boy.
The second trip was altogether a different proposition. Whether this trip was made before or after his Eastern journey is not known. Personally, I would favor the English trip as being before the Eastern journey. There are several reasons for this supposition.
Most of us get our picture of the early English from the writings of Caesar. Caesar would have made a very good war correspondent of the present time. He saw only that which his prejudices and bigotry allowed him to see and report. The impression that is given our boys and girls in our secondary schools, and our men and women of our colleges and Universities is all wrong. The popular notion is exactly one hundred percent wrong! Many of the greatest universities of all time were to be found in England, and the most learned men were on the faculties of these seats of learning. The professors were called Druids. There were, according to British records, forty of these Universities in the British Isles accommodating more than sixty thousand students. All these students were of the best families of the Isles, and some from foreign countries. The courses of study were varied, but comprehensive. When I use the word comprehensive, I also mean extensive. The basis of all study was the attempt to know as much as possible concerning the First Cause of the Universe and its ramifications wherever investigation might lead. Abstract philosophy as diametrically opposed to Natural philosophy, was pursued to the last ultimate as far as human comprehension had the ability to do so. The time consumed in completing a University career was twenty years:
In the Department of Theology and Philosophy the ultimate nature of phenomena was closely studied and speculated upon ; not in the manner of the Sophists of Greece, but with that observant an introspective comprehensiveness that characterizes the real savants of India. To illustrate what I mean: The basic Druidic belief in the First Cause was in the form of Trinity. Never did the idea of polytheism enter into their teachings. The Godhead, as a comprehensive idea, way named Duw, the one without darkness who pervaded and encompassed the universe. The emblem or symbolism of Druidism was the three golden rays of Light; these represented the aspects or persons of the Trinity emanating from the Godhead. These three aspects of Trinity were known as Beli, who was the Creator as relating to the past, Taran, the controlling principles of the present, and Yesu, the coming Savior as related to the future. The oak tree was the symbol of the Godhead and the mistletoe with its three white berries emanating from the parent oak represented the three aspects of the Trinity. It was especially associated with the coming Savior Yesu , and the title assigned to it was the “All Heal.”
Thus Druidism anticipated Christianity, and pointed to the coming Savior under the very name by which He was known when He did arrive. When one studies Druidism closely, the more on become impressed with its apparent relationship to the revealed religion as set forth in the Mosaic Law.
The most ancient Welsh literature informs us that Hu Gadarn, the mighty, was the great apostle of Druidism in Britain . He was contemporary of Abraham, born in Babylonia at about the time that Abraham was born, and he brought into Britain the worship of the one God, which was known in the East as the “Holy Wings,” the “Logos,” and the “Voice.” These ideograms of the “ineffable name we find used only three times in the whole Bible: once in the Old Testament when the burning bush spoke to Moses in reply to the question Moses asked, and twice in the New Testament when Jesus said: “Before Abraham was, I AM”; and just outside the Garden of Gethsemane, when Jesus said to the Temple Guard, who had come to find Him, “I Am he!” The word translated “I AM” in the Old Testament in reply to the inquiry of Moses was the Egyptian Puk-Nu-Puk; the New Testament word is the Greek’ which means I AM; the personal pronoun “he” does not appear in the Greek text. When the Temple Guards heard the words of Jesus, they realized that they stood in the presence of Divinity, and this presence literally knocked them down.
Hu Gadarn brought to the British Isles the doctrine of the Patriarchs as presented by Seth, and Enoch, which was the original Monotheism and Messianism. Hu Gadarn was the first man of whom we have record to express his thoughts in poetry, and was the originator of that form of expression known as Triads. He introduced writing into Britain, and taught the art of manufacturing glass.
It is difficult to say just how old this Welsh literature is, but we do know that it antedates the Christian era. In many respects its depth of spirituality and devotion to God surpass anything found in the Old Testament. In one outstanding respect it is superior to the Hebrew Scriptures; it teaches the idea of the Trinity in full, while the Old Testament writers seem not to be acquainted with it at all.
It appears that in Britain alone Monotheism and Messianism survived in its purity until the coming of the Messiah, and that the British were never converted to Christianity, for as soon as they heard the story of Jesus, they knew that their YESU had come.
Now this question is fully confronting us: “Did Jesus live and study in Britain?” First we must state with all candor that we know of no definite documentary evidence to support the claim, though there are many documents that may be interpreted to this effect. British records of that time do not exist; not that writing was unknown, but because all instruction in the schools and Universities was imparted orally. No secret order today guards more zealously its secrets than did the Druids the teachings of the schools. Nothing was ever committed to any system of writing, or record. Yet we are not left at the mercy of tradition and legend for there are weighty considerations that bear upon the question and give inferential support to the affirmative in regard to the question.
As the first step in the search for the truth, we must look for evidence of His absence from Palestine. The first straw of evidence in this regard is the utter silence of the New Testament concerning the life of Jesus between the ages of twelve and thirty. History regarding Him during that period is an absolute blank. But there are two distinct implications in the Gospels concerning this period.
John the Baptist and Jesus were first cousins, and must have known each other during their early boyhood. Yet when Jesus appears upon the banks of the Jordan where John was baptizing, the Baptist seems scarcely to recognize Him. Finally he does realize who the stranger is, and exclaims: “Behold the Lamb of God!” Now if Jesus had been living in Nazareth all the years, John would surely not have appeared puzzled as to the identity of his own cousin. Then later, John sent two of his disciples to Jesus to make a peculiar query: “Are you he who should come or look we for another?” Apparently the two had not met for years, since John displays a profoundly imperfect knowledge of the One whom he was proclaiming.
Then in Matthew 17:24, we have a perplexing scene if we rely upon the English translation from which to form our picture; but when we study the original tongue in which the incident is related, the conversation there set forth becomes plain.
The tax referred to was not the Temple Tax as is assumed by the majority of commentators, but an entirely different tax. Jesus seems to have the correct idea concerning the tax He was here called upon to pay. The Temple tax was always paid with the Hebrew shekel, a coin especially coined for that purpose. The Temple Tax could not be paid with any other form of money. Jesus uses two words for this tax: “octroi” which was a customs tax on all imports and exports passing through the country. Such duty formed part of the Government’s income. All strangers coming into the country had to pay this tax, the didrachma, a Greek coin worth about sixteen cents in our present money. The word translated “tribute” was the Roman poll-tax. These two last named taxes could be paid in the coin that was current, but the Temple tax could not be paid in anything but the especial coin provided by law for that purpose. Peter paid the tax with the Greek coin called the stator. If this be true, then Jesus must have been considered a “stranger” by the customs officers of the city who should have known Him all His life. Why this situation? The answer must be that Jesus had been out of the country for some years.
The British tradition is that Jesus visited England twice: once as as mere boy accompanying His uncle Joseph of Arimathea, and later as a youth who came to a beautiful retreat where He might study and meditate. The tradition localizes the spot as that of Glastonbury. Here Jesus built a small wattle house in which to live. If there were ever written records, they were destroyed in the great fire of 1184 which wiped out the great Abbey and its famous library of a thousand years of the history of Glastonbury. All we can hope to find will be scattered references in the works of ordinary and later historians; and that is exactly the case. One such remarkable case is an extant letter of St. Augustine to Pope Gregory in which he states that there is a church in Britain that was constructed by no human art, “But by the hands of Christ Himself.” St. Augustine arrived upon British soil during the year 597 AD. This great and famous church father found in the western part of Britain a powerful British Church with its own organization of Bishops. We have not space to carry this phase of the investigation further, for it would require a large book to cover the subject even partially.
How long Jesus lived in Britain, tradition does not attempt to say nor even hint. Whether Jesus had just come from India, Tibet, or the British Isles when He appeared upon the banks of the Jordan, we have no way of knowing. But that the Savior was a stranger to John the Baptist, and those with him, cannot be misinterpreted.
Three years after the death of our Lord upon the cross, Joseph of Arimathea and his eleven companions fled from Jerusalem under the persecution of Saul (St. Paul) and in 39 AD. settled at the foot of Glastonbury Tor where there is a wonderful well of water known as the Chalice Well. It received this name because tradition says that Joseph cast the Holy Grail into it. Here the wattle church was built by Joseph. Later it was cased in lead covered boards, and then a stone church was erected over it, thus preserving the original just as the cabin of Lincoln is preserved today.
The tradition of our Lord’s Home (Domus Dei) is very strong and persistent in all England, and has been since 449 when St. Patrick came to Glastonbury as its first Abbot. There is a hymn, written by William Blake (1757-1828), which is an English favorite, and as popular as the National Anthem. It reads as follows:
JERUSALEM
And did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon England’s mountains green?
And was the Holy Lamb of God
On England’s pleasant pastures seen?
And did the Countenance Divine
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here
Among those dark Satanic mills?
Bring me my bow of burning gold!
Bring me my arrows of desire!
Bring me my spear! O clouds unfold!
Bring me my chariot of fire!
I will not cease from mental fight;
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand
Till I have built Jerusalem
In England’s green and pleasant land.
Courtesy of Covenant Report.
British-Israel World Federation (N.Z)
P.O. Box 56-142 Auckland 3 New Zealand
