The Urantia Book
PAPER 134
THE TRANSITION YEARS
134:0.1 DURING the Mediterranean journey Jesus
had carefully studied the people he met and the countries through
which he passed, and at about this time he reached his final
decision as to the remainder of his life on earth. He had fully
considered and now finally approved the plan which provided that
he be born of Jewish parents in Palestine, and he therefore
deliberately returned to Galilee to await the beginning of his
lifework as a public teacher of truth; he began to lay plans for a
public career in the land of his father Joseph's people, and he
did this of his own free will.
134:0.2 Jesus had found out through personal and
human experience that Palestine was the best place in all the
Roman world wherein to set forth the closing chapters, and to
enact the final scenes, of his life on earth. For the first time
he became fully satisfied with the program of openly manifesting
his true nature and of revealing his divine identity among the
Jews and gentiles of his native Palestine. He definitely decided
to finish his life on earth and to complete his career of mortal
existence in the same land in which he entered the human
experience as a helpless babe. His Urantia career began among the
Jews in Palestine, and he chose to terminate his life in Palestine
and among the Jews.
1. THE THIRTIETH YEAR (A.D. 24)
134:1.1 After taking leave of Gonod and Ganid at
Charax (in December of A.D. 23), Jesus returned by way of Ur to
Babylon, where he joined a desert caravan that was on its way to
Damascus. From Damascus he went to Nazareth, stopping only a few
hours at Capernaum, where he paused to call on Zebedee's family.
There he met his brother James, who had sometime previously come
over to work in his place in Zebedee's boatshop. After talking
with James and Jude (who also chanced to be in Capernaum) and
after turning over to his brother James the little house which
John Zebedee had managed to buy, Jesus went on to Nazareth.
134:1.2 At the end of his Mediterranean journey
Jesus had received sufficient money to meet his living expenses
almost up to the time of the beginning of his public ministry. But
aside from Zebedee of Capernaum and the people whom he met on this
extraordinary trip, the world never knew that he made this
journey. His family always believed that he spent this time in
study at Alexandria. Jesus never confirmed these beliefs, neither
did he make open denial of such misunderstandings.
134:1.3 During his stay of a few weeks at
Nazareth, Jesus visited with his family and friends, spent some
time at the repair shop with his brother Joseph, but devoted most
of his attention to Mary and Ruth. Ruth was then nearly fifteen
years old, and this was Jesus' first opportunity to have long
talks with her since she had become a young woman.
134:1.4 Both Simon and Jude had for some time
wanted to get married, but they had disliked to do this without
Jesus' consent; accordingly they had postponed these events,
hoping for their eldest brother's return. Though they all regarded
James as the head of the family in most matters, when it came to
getting married, they wanted the blessing of Jesus. So Simon and
Jude were married at a double wedding in early March of this year,
A.D. 24. All the older children were now married; only Ruth, the
youngest, remained at home with Mary.
134:1.5 Jesus visited with the individual
members of his family quite normally and naturally, but when they
were all together, he had so little to say that they remarked
about it among themselves. Mary especially was disconcerted by
this unusually peculiar behavior of her first-born son.
134:1.6 About the time Jesus was preparing to
leave Nazareth, the conductor of a large caravan which was passing
through the city was taken violently ill, and Jesus, being a
linguist, volunteered to take his place. Since this trip would
necessitate his absence for a year, and inasmuch as all his
brothers were married and his mother was living at home with Ruth,
Jesus called a family conference at which he proposed that his
mother and Ruth go to Capernaum to live in the home which he had
so recently given to James. Accordingly, a few days after Jesus
left with the caravan, Mary and Ruth moved to Capernaum, where
they lived for the rest of Mary's life in the home that Jesus had
provided. Joseph and his family moved into the old Nazareth home.
134:1.7 This was one of the more unusual years
in the inner experience of the Son of Man; great progress was made
in effecting working harmony between his human mind and the
indwelling Adjuster. The Adjuster had been actively engaged in
reorganizing the thinking and in rehearsing the mind for the great
events which were in the not then distant future. The personality
of Jesus was preparing for his great change in attitude toward the
world. These were the in-between times, the transition stage of
that being who began life as God appearing as man, and who was now
making ready to complete his earth career as man appearing as God.
2. THE CARAVAN TRIP TO THE CASPIAN
134:2.1 It was the first of April, A.D. 24, when
Jesus left Nazareth on the caravan trip to the Caspian Sea region.
The caravan which Jesus joined as its conductor was going from
Jerusalem by way of Damascus and Lake Urmia through Assyria,
Media, and Parthia to the southeastern Caspian Sea region. It was
a full year before he returned from this journey.
134:2.2 For Jesus this caravan trip was another
adventure of exploration and personal ministry. He had an
interesting experience with his caravan family -- passengers,
guards, and camel drivers. Scores of men, women, and children
residing along the route followed by the caravan lived richer
lives as a result of their contact with Jesus, to them, the
extraordinary conductor of a commonplace caravan. Not all who
enjoyed these occasions of his personal ministry profited thereby,
but the vast majority of those who met and talked with him were
made better for the remainder of their natural lives.
134:2.3 Of all his world travels this Caspian
Sea trip carried Jesus nearest to the Orient and enabled him to
gain a better understanding of the Far-Eastern peoples. He made
intimate and personal contact with every one of the surviving
races of Urantia excepting the red. He equally enjoyed his
personal ministry to each of these varied races and blended
peoples, and all of them were receptive to the living truth which
he brought them. The Europeans from the Far West and the Asiatics
from the Far East alike gave attention to his words of hope and
eternal life and were equally influenced by the life of loving
service and spiritual ministry which he so graciously lived among
them.
134:2.4 The caravan trip was successful in every
way. This was a most interesting episode in the human life of
Jesus, for he functioned during this year in an executive
capacity, being responsible for the material intrusted to his
charge and for the safe conduct of the travelers making up the
caravan party. And he most faithfully, efficiently, and wisely
discharged his multiple duties.
134:2.5 On the return from the Caspian region,
Jesus gave up the direction of the caravan at Lake Urmia, where he
tarried for slightly over two weeks. He returned as a passenger
with a later caravan to Damascus, where the owners of the camels
besought him to remain in their service. Declining this offer, he
journeyed on with the caravan train to Capernaum, arriving the
first of April, A.D. 25. No longer did he regard Nazareth as his
home. Capernaum had become the home of Jesus, James, Mary, and
Ruth. But Jesus never again lived with his family; when in
Capernaum he made his home with the Zebedees.
3. THE URMIA LECTURES
134:3.1 On the way to the Caspian Sea, Jesus had
stopped several days for rest and recuperation at the old Persian
city of Urmia on the western shores of Lake Urmia. On the largest
of a group of islands situated a short distance offshore near
Urmia was located a large building -- a lecture amphitheater --
dedicated to the "spirit of religion." This structure was really a
temple of the philosophy of religions.
134:3.2 This temple of religion had been built
by a wealthy merchant citizen of Urmia and his three sons. This
man was Cymboyton, and he numbered among his ancestors many
diverse peoples.
134:3.3 The lectures and discussions in this
school of religion began at 10:00 o'clock every morning in the
week. The afternoon sessions started at 3:00 o'clock, and the
evening debates opened at 8:00 o'clock. Cymboyton or one of his
three sons always presided at these sessions of teaching,
discussion, and debate. The founder of this unique school of
religions lived and died without ever revealing his personal
religious beliefs.
134:3.4 On several occasions Jesus participated
in these discussions, and before he left Urmia, Cymboyton arranged
with Jesus to sojourn with them for two weeks on his return trip
and give twenty-four lectures on "The Brotherhood of Men," and to
conduct twelve evening sessions of questions, discussions, and
debates on his lectures in particular and on the brotherhood of
men in general.
134:3.5 In accordance with this arrangement,
Jesus stopped off on the return trip and delivered these lectures.
This was the most systematic and formal of all the Master's
teaching on Urantia. Never before or after did he say so much on
one subject as was contained in these lectures and discussions on
the brotherhood of men. In reality these lectures were on the
"Kingdom of God" and the "Kingdoms of Men."
134:3.6 More than thirty religions and religious
cults were represented on the faculty of this temple of religious
philosophy. These teachers were chosen, supported, and fully
accredited by their respective religious groups. At this time
there were about seventy-five teachers on the faculty, and they
lived in cottages each accommodating about a dozen persons. Every
new moon these groups were changed by the casting of lots.
Intolerance, a contentious spirit, or any other disposition to
interfere with the smooth running of the community would bring
about the prompt and summary dismissal of the offending teacher.
He would be unceremoniously dismissed, and his alternate in
waiting would be immediately installed in his place.
134:3.7 These teachers of the various religions
made a great effort to show how similar their religions were in
regard to the fundamental things of this life and the next. There
was but one doctrine which had to be accepted in order to gain a
seat on this faculty -- every teacher must represent a religion
which recognized God -- some sort of supreme Deity. There were
five independent teachers on the faculty who did not represent any
organized religion, and it was as such an independent teacher that
Jesus appeared before them.
134:3.8
When we, the midwayers, first prepared the summary of Jesus'
teachings at Urmia, there arose a disagreement between the
seraphim of the churches and the seraphim of progress as to the
wisdom of including these teachings in the Urantia Revelation.
Conditions of the twentieth century, prevailing in both religion
and human governments, are so different from those prevailing in
Jesus' day that it was indeed difficult to adapt the Master's
teachings at Urmia to the problems of the kingdom of God and the
kingdoms of men as these world functions are existent in the
twentieth century. We were never able to formulate a statement of
the Master's teachings which was acceptable to both groups of
these seraphim of planetary government. Finally, the Melchizedek
chairman of the revelatory commission appointed a commission of
three of our number to prepare our view of the Master's Urmia
teachings as adapted to twentieth-century religious and political
conditions on Urantia. Accordingly, we three secondary midwayers
completed such an adaptation of Jesus' teachings, restating his
pronouncements as we would apply them to present-day world
conditions, and we now present these statements as they stand
after having been edited by the Melchizedek chairman of the
revelatory commission.
4. SOVEREIGNTY -- DIVINE AND HUMAN
134:4.1 The brotherhood of men is founded on the
fatherhood of God. The family of God is derived from the love of
God -- God is love. God the Father divinely loves his children,
all of them.
134:4.2 The kingdom of heaven, the divine
government, is founded on the fact of divine sovereignty -- God is
spirit. Since God is spirit, this kingdom is spiritual. The
kingdom of heaven is neither material nor merely intellectual; it
is a spiritual relationship between God and man.
134:4.3 If different religions recognize the
spirit sovereignty of God the Father, then will all such religions
remain at peace. Only when one religion assumes that it is in some
way superior to all others, and that it possesses exclusive
authority over other religions, will such a religion presume to be
intolerant of other religions or dare to persecute other religious
believers.
134:4.4 Religious peace -- brotherhood -- can
never exist unless all religions are willing to completely divest
themselves of all ecclesiastical authority and fully surrender all
concept of spiritual sovereignty. God alone is spirit sovereign.
134:4.5 You cannot have equality among religions
(religious liberty) without having religious wars unless all
religions consent to the transfer of all religious sovereignty to
some superhuman level, to God himself.
134:4.6 The kingdom of heaven in the hearts of
men will create religious unity (not necessarily uniformity)
because any and all religious groups composed of such religious
believers will be free from all notions of ecclesiastical
authority -- religious sovereignty.
134:4.7 God is spirit, and God gives a fragment
of his spirit self to dwell in the heart of man. Spiritually, all
men are equal. The kingdom of heaven is free from castes, classes,
social levels, and economic groups. You are all brethren.
134:4.8 But the moment you lose sight of the
spirit sovereignty of God the Father, some one religion will begin
to assert its superiority over other religions; and then, instead
of peace on earth and good will among men, there will start
dissensions, recriminations, even religious wars, at least wars
among religionists.
134:4.9 Freewill beings who regard themselves as
equals, unless they mutually acknowledge themselves as subject to
some supersovereignty, some authority over and above themselves,
sooner or later are tempted to try out their ability to gain power
and authority over other persons and groups. The concept of
equality never brings peace except in the mutual recognition of
some overcontrolling influence of supersovereignty.
134:4.10 The Urmia religionists lived together
in comparative peace and tranquillity because they had fully
surrendered all their notions of religious sovereignty.
Spiritually, they all believed in a sovereign God; socially, full
and unchallengeable authority rested in their presiding head --
Cymboyton. They well knew what would happen to any teacher who
assumed to lord it over his fellow teachers. There can be no
lasting religious peace on Urantia until all religious groups
freely surrender all their notions of divine favor, chosen people,
and religious sovereignty. Only when God the Father becomes
supreme will men become religious brothers and live together in
religious peace on earth.
5. POLITICAL SOVEREIGNTY
134:5.1
While the Master's teaching concerning the sovereignty of God is a
truth -- only complicated by the subsequent appearance of the
religion about him among the world's religions -- his
presentations concerning political sovereignty are vastly
complicated by the political evolution of nation life during the
last nineteen hundred years and more. In the times of Jesus there
were only two great world powers -- the Roman Empire in the West
and the Han Empire in the East -- and these were widely separated
by the Parthian kingdom and other intervening lands of the Caspian
and Turkestan regions. We have, therefore, in the following
presentation departed more widely from the substance of the
Master's teachings at Urmia concerning political sovereignty, at
the same time attempting to depict the import of such teachings as
they are applicable to the peculiarly critical stage of the
evolution of political sovereignty in the twentieth century after
Christ.
134:5.2 War on Urantia will never end so long as
nations cling to the illusive notions of unlimited national
sovereignty. There are only two levels of relative sovereignty on
an inhabited world: the spiritual free will of the individual
mortal and the collective sovereignty of mankind as a whole.
Between the level of the individual human being and the level of
the total of mankind, all groupings and associations are relative,
transitory, and of value only in so far as they enhance the
welfare, well-being, and progress of the individual and the
planetary grand total -- man and mankind.
134:5.3 Religious teachers must always remember
that the spiritual sovereignty of God overrides all intervening
and intermediate spiritual loyalties. Someday civil rulers will
learn that the Most Highs rule in the kingdoms of men.
134:5.4 This rule of the Most Highs in the
kingdoms of men is not for the especial benefit of any especially
favored group of mortals. There is no such thing as a "chosen
people." The rule of the Most Highs, the overcontrollers of
political evolution, is a rule designed to foster the greatest
good to the greatest number of all men and for the greatest
length of time.
134:5.5 Sovereignty is power and it grows by
organization. This growth of the organization of political power
is good and proper, for it tends to encompass ever-widening
segments of the total of mankind. But this same growth of
political organizations creates a problem at every intervening
stage between the initial and natural organization of political
power -- the family -- and the final consummation of political
growth -- the government of all mankind, by all mankind, and for
all mankind.
134:5.6 Starting out with parental power in the
family group, political sovereignty evolves by organization as
families overlap into consanguineous clans which become united,
for various reasons, into tribal units -- superconsanguineous
political groupings. And then, by trade, commerce, and conquest,
tribes become unified as a nation, while nations themselves
sometimes become unified by empire.
134:5.7 As sovereignty passes from smaller
groups to larger groups, wars are lessened. That is, minor wars
between smaller nations are lessened, but the potential for
greater wars is increased as the nations wielding sovereignty
become larger and larger. Presently, when all the world has been
explored and occupied, when nations are few, strong, and powerful,
when these great and supposedly sovereign nations come to touch
borders, when only oceans separate them, then will the stage be
set for major wars, world-wide conflicts. So-called sovereign
nations cannot rub elbows without generating conflicts and
eventuating wars.
134:5.8 The difficulty in the evolution of
political sovereignty from the family to all mankind, lies in the
inertia-resistance exhibited on all intervening levels. Families
have, on occasion, defied their clan, while clans and tribes have
often been subversive of the sovereignty of the territorial state.
Each new and forward evolution of political sovereignty is (and
has always been) embarrassed and hampered by the "scaffolding
stages" of the previous developments in political organization.
And this is true because human loyalties, once mobilized, are hard
to change. The same loyalty which makes possible the evolution of
the tribe, makes difficult the evolution of the supertribe -- the
territorial state. And the same loyalty (patriotism) which makes
possible the evolution of the territorial state, vastly
complicates the evolutionary development of the government of all
mankind.
134:5.9 Political sovereignty is created out of
the surrender of self-determinism, first by the individual within
the family and then by the families and clans in relation to the
tribe and larger groupings. This progressive transfer of
self-determination from the smaller to ever larger political
organizations has generally proceeded unabated in the East since
the establishment of the Ming and the Mogul dynasties. In the West
it obtained for more than a thousand years right on down to the
end of the World War, when an unfortunate retrograde movement
temporarily reversed this normal trend by re-establishing the
submerged political sovereignty of numerous small groups in
Europe.
134:5.10
Urantia will not enjoy lasting peace
until the so-called sovereign nations
intelligently and fully
surrender their sovereign powers into the hands of the brotherhood
of men -- mankind government. Internationalism -- Leagues of
Nations -- can never bring permanent peace to mankind. World-wide
confederations of nations will effectively prevent minor wars and
acceptably control the smaller nations, but they will not prevent
world wars nor control the three, four, or five most powerful
governments. In the face of real conflicts, one of these world
powers will withdraw from the League and declare war. You cannot
prevent nations going to war as long as they remain infected with
the delusional virus of national sovereignty. Internationalism is
a step in the right direction. An international police force will
prevent many minor wars, but it will not be effective in
preventing major wars, conflicts between the great military
governments of earth.
134:5.11 As the number of truly sovereign
nations (great powers) decreases, so do both opportunity and need
for mankind government increase. When there are only a few really
sovereign (great) powers, either they must embark on the life and
death struggle for national (imperial) supremacy, or else, by
voluntary surrender of certain prerogatives of sovereignty, they
must create the essential nucleus of supernational power which
will serve as the beginning of the real sovereignty of all
mankind.
134:5.12
Peace will not come to Urantia until
every so-called sovereign nation surrenders its power to make war
into the hands of a representative government of all mankind.
Political sovereignty is innate with the peoples of the world.
When all the peoples of Urantia create a world government, they
have the right and the power to make such a government SOVEREIGN;
and when such a representative or democratic world power controls
the world's land, air, and naval forces, peace on earth and good
will among men can prevail -- but not until then.
134:5.13
To use an important nineteenth- and
twentieth-century illustration: The forty-eight states of the
American Federal Union have long enjoyed peace. They have no more
wars among themselves. They have surrendered their sovereignty to
the federal government, and through the arbitrament of war, they
have abandoned all claims to the delusions of self-determination.
While each state regulates its internal affairs, it is not
concerned with foreign relations, tariffs, immigration, military
affairs, or interstate commerce. Neither do the individual states
concern themselves with matters of citizenship. The forty-eight
states suffer the ravages of war only when the federal
government's sovereignty is in some way jeopardized.
134:5.14 These forty-eight states, having
abandoned the twin sophistries of sovereignty and
self-determination, enjoy interstate peace and tranquillity. So
will the nations of Urantia begin to enjoy peace when they freely
surrender their respective sovereignties into the hands of a
global government -- the sovereignty of the brotherhood of men. In
this world state the small nations will be as powerful as the
great, even as the small state of Rhode Island has its two
senators in the American Congress just the same as the populous
state of New York or the large state of Texas.
134:5.15 The limited (state) sovereignty of
these forty-eight states was created by men and for men. The superstate (national) sovereignty of the American Federal Union
was created by the original thirteen of these states for their own
benefit and for the benefit of men. Sometime the supernational
sovereignty of the planetary government of mankind will be
similarly created by nations for their own benefit and for the
benefit of all men.
134:5.16 Citizens are not born for the benefit
of governments; governments are organizations created and devised
for the benefit of men. There can be no end to the evolution of
political sovereignty short of the appearance of the government of
the sovereignty of all men. All other sovereignties are relative
in value, intermediate in meaning, and subordinate in status.
134:5.17 With scientific progress, wars are
going to become more and more devastating until they become almost
racially suicidal. How many world wars must be fought and how many
leagues of nations must fail before men will be willing to
establish the government of mankind and begin to enjoy the
blessings of permanent peace and thrive on the tranquillity of
good will -- world-wide good will -- among men?
6. LAW, LIBERTY, AND SOVEREIGNTY
134:6.1 If one man craves freedom -- liberty --
he must remember that all other men long for the same
freedom. Groups of such liberty-loving mortals cannot live
together in peace without becoming subservient to such laws,
rules, and regulations as will grant each person the same degree
of freedom while at the same time safeguarding an equal degree of
freedom for all of his fellow mortals. If one man is to be
absolutely free, then another must become an absolute slave. And
the relative nature of freedom is true socially, economically, and
politically. Freedom is the gift of civilization made possible by
the enforcement of LAW.
134:6.2
Religion makes it spiritually possible
to realize the brotherhood of men, but it will require mankind
government to regulate the social, economic, and political
problems associated with such a goal of human happiness and
efficiency.
134:6.3 There shall be wars and rumors of wars
-- nation will rise against nation -- just as long as the world's
political sovereignty is divided up and unjustly held by a group
of nation-states. England, Scotland, and Wales were always
fighting each other until they gave up their respective
sovereignties, reposing them in the United Kingdom.
134:6.4
Another world war will teach the
so-called sovereign nations to form some sort of federation, thus
creating the machinery for preventing small wars, wars between the
lesser nations. But global wars will go on until the government of
mankind is created. Global sovereignty will prevent global wars --
nothing else can.
134:6.5 The forty-eight American free states
live together in peace. There are among the citizens of these
forty-eight states all of the various nationalities and races that
live in the ever-warring nations of Europe. These Americans
represent almost all the religions and religious sects and cults
of the whole wide world, and yet here in North America they live
together in peace. And all this is made possible because these
forty-eight states have surrendered their sovereignty and have
abandoned all notions of the supposed rights of
self-determination.
134:6.6 It is not a question of armaments or
disarmament. Neither does the question of conscription or
voluntary military service enter into these problems of
maintaining world-wide peace. If you take every form of modern
mechanical armaments and all types of explosives away from strong
nations, they will fight with fists, stones, and clubs as long as
they cling to their delusions of the divine right of national
sovereignty.
134:6.7 War is not man's great and terrible
disease; war is a symptom, a result. The real disease is the virus
of national sovereignty.
134:6.8 Urantia nations have not possessed real
sovereignty; they never have had a sovereignty which could protect
them from the ravages and devastations of world wars. In the
creation of the global government of mankind, the nations are not
giving up sovereignty so much as they are actually creating a
real, bona fide, and lasting world sovereignty which will
henceforth be fully able to protect them from all war. Local
affairs will be handled by local governments; national affairs, by
national governments; international affairs will be administered
by global government.
134:6.9 World peace cannot be maintained by
treaties, diplomacy, foreign policies, alliances, balances of
power, or any other type of makeshift juggling with the
sovereignties of nationalism. World law must come into being and
must be enforced by world government -- the sovereignty of all
mankind.
134:6.10
The individual will enjoy far more
liberty under world government. Today, the citizens of the great
powers are taxed, regulated, and controlled almost oppressively,
and much of this present interference with individual liberties
will vanish when the national governments are willing to trustee
their sovereignty as regards international affairs into the hands
of global government.
134:6.11 Under global government the national
groups will be afforded a real opportunity to realize and enjoy
the personal liberties of genuine democracy. The fallacy of
self-determination will be ended. With global regulation of money
and trade will come the new era of world-wide peace. Soon may a
global language evolve, and there will be at least some hope of
sometime having a global religion -- or religions with a global
viewpoint.
134:6.12
Collective security will never afford
peace until the collectivity includes all mankind.
134:6.13 The political sovereignty of
representative mankind government will bring lasting peace on
earth, and the spiritual brotherhood of man will forever insure
good will among all men. And there is no other way whereby peace
on earth and good will among men can be realized.
* * *
134:6.14 After the death of Cymboyton, his sons
encountered great difficulties in maintaining a peaceful faculty.
The repercussions of Jesus' teachings would have been much greater
if the later Christian teachers who joined the Urmia faculty had
exhibited more wisdom and exercised more tolerance.
134:6.15 Cymboyton's eldest son had appealed to
Abner at Philadelphia for help, but Abner's choice of teachers was
most unfortunate in that they turned out to be unyielding and
uncompromising. These teachers sought to make their religion
dominant over the other beliefs. They never suspected that the
oft-referred-to lectures of the caravan conductor had been
delivered by Jesus himself.
134:6.16 As confusion increased in the faculty,
the three brothers withdrew their financial support, and after
five years the school closed. Later it was reopened as a Mithraic
temple and eventually burned down in connection with one of their
orgiastic celebrations.
7. THE THIRTY-FIRST YEAR (A.D. 25)
134:7.1 When Jesus returned from the journey to
the Caspian Sea, he knew that his world travels were about
finished. He made only one more trip outside of Palestine, and
that was into Syria. After a brief visit to Capernaum, he went to
Nazareth, stopping over a few days to visit. In the middle of
April he left Nazareth for Tyre. From there he journeyed on north,
tarrying for a few days at Sidon, but his destination was Antioch.
134:7.2 This is the year of Jesus' solitary
wanderings through Palestine and Syria. Throughout this year of
travel he was known by various names in different parts of the
country: the carpenter of Nazareth, the boatbuilder of Capernaum,
the scribe of Damascus, and the teacher of Alexandria.
134:7.3 At Antioch the Son of Man lived for over
two months, working, observing, studying, visiting, ministering,
and all the while learning how man lives, how he thinks, feels,
and reacts to the environment of human existence. For three weeks
of this period he worked as a tentmaker. He remained longer in
Antioch than at any other place he visited on this trip. Ten years
later, when the Apostle Paul was preaching in Antioch and heard
his followers speak of the doctrines of the Damascus scribe,
he little knew that his pupils had heard the voice, and listened
to the teachings, of the Master himself.
134:7.4 From Antioch Jesus journeyed south along
the coast to Caesarea, where he tarried for a few weeks,
continuing down the coast to Joppa. From Joppa he traveled inland
to Jamnia, Ashdod, and Gaza. From Gaza he took the inland trail to
Beersheba, where he remained for a week.
134:7.5 Jesus then started on his final tour, as
a private individual, through the heart of Palestine, going from
Beersheba in the south to Dan in the north. On this journey
northward he stopped at Hebron, Bethlehem (where he saw his
birthplace), Jerusalem (he did not visit Bethany), Beeroth,
Lebonah, Sychar, Schecham, Samaria, Geba, En-Gannim, Endor, Madon;
passing through Magdala and Capernaum, he journeyed on north; and
passing east of the Waters of Merom, he went by Karahta to Dan, or
Caesarea Philippi.
134:7.6 The indwelling Thought Adjuster now led
Jesus to forsake the dwelling places of men and betake himself up
to Mount Hermon that he might finish his work of mastering his
human mind and complete the task of effecting his full
consecration to the remainder of his lifework on earth.
134:7.7 This was one of those unusual and
extraordinary epochs in the Master's earth life on Urantia.
Another and very similar one was the experience he passed through
when alone in the hills near Pella just subsequent to his baptism.
This period of isolation on Mount Hermon marked the termination of
his purely human career, that is, the technical termination of the
mortal bestowal, while the later isolation marked the beginning of
the more divine phase of the bestowal. And Jesus lived alone with
God for six weeks on the slopes of Mount Hermon.
8. THE SOJOURN ON MOUNT HERMON
134:8.1 After spending some time in the vicinity
of Caesarea Philippi, Jesus made ready his supplies, and securing
a beast of burden and a lad named Tiglath, he proceeded along the
Damascus road to a village sometime known as Beit Jenn in the
foothills of Mount Hermon. Here, near the middle of August, A.D.
25, he established his headquarters, and leaving his supplies in
the custody of Tiglath, he ascended the lonely slopes of the
mountain. Tiglath accompanied Jesus this first day up the mountain
to a designated point about 6,000 feet above sea level, where they
built a stone container in which Tiglath was to deposit food twice
a week.
134:8.2 The first day, after he had left
Tiglath, Jesus had ascended the mountain only a short way when he
paused to pray. Among other things he asked his Father to send
back the guardian seraphim to "be with Tiglath." He requested that
he be permitted to go up to his last struggle with the realities
of mortal existence alone. And his request was granted. He went
into the great test with only his indwelling Adjuster to guide and
sustain him.
134:8.3 Jesus ate frugally while on the
mountain; he abstained from all food only a day or two at a time.
The superhuman beings who confronted him on this mountain, and
with whom he wrestled in spirit, and whom he defeated in power,
were real; they were his archenemies in the system of
Satania; they were not phantasms of the imagination evolved out of
the intellectual vagaries of a weakened and starving mortal who
could not distinguish reality from the visions of a disordered
mind.
134:8.4 Jesus spent the last three weeks of
August and the first three weeks of September on Mount Hermon.
During these weeks he finished the mortal task of achieving the
circles of mind-understanding and personality-control. Throughout
this period of communion with his heavenly Father the indwelling
Adjuster also completed the assigned services. The mortal goal of
this earth creature was there attained. Only the final phase of
mind and Adjuster attunement remained to be consummated.
134:8.5 After more than five weeks of unbroken
communion with his Paradise Father, Jesus became absolutely
assured of his nature and of the certainty of his triumph over the
material levels of time-space personality manifestation. He fully
believed in, and did not hesitate to assert, the ascendancy of his
divine nature over his human nature.
134:8.6 Near the end of the mountain sojourn
Jesus asked his Father if he might be permitted to hold conference
with his Satania enemies as the Son of Man, as Joshua ben Joseph.
This request was granted. During the last week on Mount Hermon the
great temptation, the universe trial, occurred. Satan
(representing Lucifer) and the rebellious Planetary Prince,
Caligastia, were present with Jesus and were made fully visible to
him. And this "temptation," this final trial of human loyalty in
the face of the misrepresentations of rebel personalities, had not
to do with food, temple pinnacles, or presumptuous acts. It had
not to do with the kingdoms of this world but with the sovereignty
of a mighty and glorious universe. The symbolism of your records
was intended for the backward ages of the world's childlike
thought. And subsequent generations should understand what a great
struggle the Son of Man passed through that eventful day on Mount
Hermon.
134:8.7 To the many proposals and
counterproposals of the emissaries of Lucifer, Jesus only made
reply: "May the will of my Paradise Father prevail, and you, my
rebellious son, may the Ancients of Days judge you divinely. I am
your Creator-father; I can hardly judge you justly, and my mercy
you have already spurned. I commit you to the adjudication of the
Judges of a greater universe."
134:8.8 To all the Lucifer-suggested compromises
and makeshifts, to all such specious proposals about the
incarnation bestowal, Jesus only made reply, "The will of my
Father in Paradise be done." And when the trying ordeal was
finished, the detached guardian seraphim returned to Jesus' side
and ministered to him.
134:8.9 On an afternoon in late summer, amid the
trees and in the silence of nature, Michael of Nebadon won the
unquestioned sovereignty of his universe. On that day he completed
the task set for Creator Sons to live to the full the incarnated
life in the likeness of mortal flesh on the evolutionary worlds of
time and space. The universe announcement of this momentous
achievement was not made until the day of his baptism, months
afterward, but it all really took place that day on the mountain.
And when Jesus came down from his sojourn on Mount Hermon, the
Lucifer rebellion in Satania and the Caligastia secession on
Urantia were virtually settled. Jesus had paid the last price
required of him to attain the sovereignty of his universe, which
in itself regulates the status of all rebels and determines that
all such future upheavals (if they ever occur) may be dealt with
summarily and effectively. Accordingly, it may be seen that the
so-called "great temptation" of Jesus took place some time before
his baptism and not just after that event.
134:8.10 At the end of this sojourn on the
mountain, as Jesus was making his descent, he met Tiglath coming
up to the rendezvous with food. Turning him back, he said only:
"The period of rest is over; I must return to my Father's
business." He was a silent and much changed man as they journeyed
back to Dan, where he took leave of the lad, giving him the
donkey. He then proceeded south by the same way he had come, to
Capernaum.
9. THE TIME OF WAITING
134:9.1 It was now near the end of the summer,
about the time of the day of atonement and the feast of
tabernacles. Jesus had a family meeting in Capernaum over the
Sabbath and the next day started for Jerusalem with John the son
of Zebedee, going to the east of the lake and by Gerasa and on
down the Jordan valley. While he visited some with his companion
on the way, John noted a great change in Jesus.
134:9.2 Jesus and John stopped overnight at
Bethany with Lazarus and his sisters, going early the next morning
to Jerusalem. They spent almost three weeks in and around the
city, at least John did. Many days John went into Jerusalem alone
while Jesus walked about over the near-by hills and engaged in
many seasons of spiritual communion with his Father in heaven.
134:9.3 Both of them were present at the solemn
services of the day of atonement. John was much impressed by the
ceremonies of this day of all days in the Jewish religious ritual,
but Jesus remained a thoughtful and silent spectator. To the Son
of Man this performance was pitiful and pathetic. He viewed it all
as misrepresentative of the character and attributes of his Father
in heaven. He looked upon the doings of this day as a travesty
upon the facts of divine justice and the truths of infinite mercy.
He burned to give vent to the declaration of the real truth about
his Father's loving character and merciful conduct in the
universe, but his faithful Monitor admonished him that his hour
had not yet come. But that night, at Bethany, Jesus did drop
numerous remarks which greatly disturbed John; and John never
fully understood the real significance of what Jesus said in their
hearing that evening.
134:9.4 Jesus planned to remain throughout the
week of the feast of tabernacles with John. This feast was the
annual holiday of all Palestine; it was the Jewish vacation time.
Although Jesus did not participate in the merriment of the
occasion, it was evident that he derived pleasure and experienced
satisfaction as he beheld the lighthearted and joyous abandon of
the young and the old.
134:9.5 In the midst of the week of celebration
and ere the festivities were finished, Jesus took leave of John,
saying that he desired to retire to the hills where he might the
better commune with his Paradise Father. John would have gone with
him, but Jesus insisted that he stay through the festivities,
saying: "It is not required of you to bear the burden of the Son
of Man; only the watchman must keep vigil while the city sleeps in
peace." Jesus did not return to Jerusalem. After almost a week
alone in the hills near Bethany, he departed for Capernaum. On the
way home he spent a day and a night alone on the slopes of Gilboa,
near where King Saul had taken his life; and when he arrived at
Capernaum, he seemed more cheerful than when he had left John in
Jerusalem.
134:9.6 The next morning Jesus went to the chest
containing his personal effects, which had remained in Zebedee's
workshop, put on his apron, and presented himself for work,
saying, "It behooves me to keep busy while I wait for my hour to
come." And he worked several months, until January of the
following year, in the boatshop, by the side of his brother James.
After this period of working with Jesus, no matter what doubts
came up to becloud James's understanding of the lifework of the
Son of Man, he never again really and wholly gave up his faith in
the mission of Jesus.
134:9.7 During this final period of Jesus' work
at the boatshop, he spent most of his time on the interior
finishing of some of the larger craft. He took great pains with
all his handiwork and seemed to experience the satisfaction of
human achievement when he had completed a commendable piece of
work. Though he wasted little time upon trifles, he was a
painstaking workman when it came to the essentials of any given
undertaking.
134:9.8 As time passed, rumors came to Capernaum
of one John who was preaching while baptizing penitents in the
Jordan, and John preached: "The kingdom of heaven is at hand;
repent and be baptized." Jesus listened to these reports as John
slowly worked his way up the Jordan valley from the ford of the
river nearest to Jerusalem. But Jesus worked on, making boats,
until John had journeyed up the river to a point near Pella in the
month of January of the next year, A.D. 26, when he laid down his
tools, declaring, "My hour has come," and presently presented
himself to John for baptism.
134:9.9 But a great change had been coming over
Jesus. Few of the people who had enjoyed his visits and
ministrations as he had gone up and down in the land ever
subsequently recognized in the public teacher the same person they
had known and loved as a private individual in former years. And
there was a reason for this failure of his early beneficiaries to
recognize him in his later role of public and authoritative
teacher. For long years this transformation of mind and spirit had
been in progress, and it was finished during the eventful sojourn
on Mount Hermon.
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