Paper 166 Overview: Last Visit to Northern Perea

From February 11 to 20, Jesus and the twelve apostles conducted an instructive tour through the cities and villages of northern Perea where Abner and the members of the women's corps were actively disseminating the gospel. Throughout this journey, Jesus deliberately emphasized to his apostles the significant observation that the gospel of the kingdom was gaining adherents without the necessity of miraculous demonstrations, illustrating that his message possessed inherent spiritual power that transcended supernatural validation. This successful three-month mission in Perea progressed effectively with minimal assistance from the twelve apostles, revealing that the gospel's appeal was increasingly based on Jesus' teachings rather than his personality.

The narrative provides a poignant juxtaposition between Jesus' methodical instructions regarding the non-miraculous nature of the kingdom and the subsequent historical development of early Christianity. Despite Jesus' clear directive to focus on his teachings, his followers eventually departed from this approach after his death and resurrection, reconstructing the early church around miraculous concepts and glorified memories of his divine-human personality. This fundamental reorientation from Jesus' message to stories about Jesus himself represents one of the first significant transformations of the gospel, establishing a pattern of theological development that would persist throughout Christian history and creating a disparity between Jesus' intended spiritual kingdom and the institutional church that emerged in its place.

During the period from February 11 to 20, Jesus and the twelve apostles conducted a comprehensive tour of northern Perea, visiting the cities and villages where Abner and the women's corps were actively engaged in spreading the gospel message. Throughout this period of ministry, Jesus repeatedly directed the apostles' attention to the remarkable fact that the gospel of the kingdom was effectively spreading without the accompaniment of miracles and wonders, demonstrating that the message itself carried transformative power. This successful three-month mission in Perea was accomplished with minimal direct involvement from the twelve apostles, as the gospel increasingly reflected Jesus' teachings rather than his personality.

In a revealing historical note that frames the subsequent development of Christianity, the narrative observes that Jesus' followers failed to maintain fidelity to his instructions after his death and resurrection. Rather than preserving his emphasis on the spiritual nature of the kingdom, they redirected their focus toward building the early church around miraculous concepts and glorified memories of Jesus' divine-human personality. This pivotal shift from Jesus' message to narratives about Jesus himself would establish a persistent pattern in Christian theological development, creating tension between Jesus' original teachings and the institutional religion that claimed to represent him. This divergence between Jesus' vision and the church's implementation would become one of the defining characteristics of Christianity's historical evolution.

On the Sabbath of February 18, Jesus visited Ragaba where a wealthy Pharisee named Nathaniel had arranged a morning breakfast gathering for approximately twenty Pharisees, with Jesus as the guest of honor. Upon arriving, Jesus proceeded directly to his seat at Nathaniel's left without first performing the ceremonial hand washing that was customary among Pharisees, a deliberate departure from ritual that shocked his host. Many Pharisees who were familiar with Jesus' perspective understood that he washed his hands only for practical cleanliness rather than ceremonial purposes, and thus were not surprised by his behavior. However, Nathaniel and others were visibly disturbed by what they perceived as a breach of religious protocol, initiating an undercurrent of tension that would escalate throughout the meal.

After observing the whispering, raised eyebrows, and sneering expressions from some of the Pharisees present, Jesus directly confronted the gathering about their motivations. He declared that while they had ostensibly invited him to discuss the kingdom of God, they were instead using the occasion to showcase their ceremonial devotion to self-righteousness. Jesus proceeded to deliver a penetrating critique of their religious practices, highlighting the contradiction between their meticulously cleansed exterior and their spiritually polluted interior lives filled with self-righteousness, covetousness, extortion, and wickedness. He specifically condemned their scrupulous attention to tithing and ostentatious almsgiving while simultaneously rejecting God's revelation and love, extending his rebuke to include the lawyers present who burdened others with grievous religious obligations without offering assistance.

When Jesus departed without eating, some Pharisees became sincere believers in his message, while the majority became even more determined to ensnare him with his own words to bring him to trial before the Sanhedrin. The narrative notes that the Pharisees were particularly devoted to three practices: strict tithing, scrupulous observance of purification laws, and avoidance of association with non-Pharisees. On this occasion, Jesus focused his criticism on the first two practices, reserving his comments on their social exclusivity for a later time. This encounter at Ragaba exemplifies Jesus' direct confrontation with religious formalism that prioritized external compliance over spiritual transformation, a theme that would recur throughout his ministry.

The day following the encounter at Ragaba, Jesus and the twelve journeyed to Amathus near the Samaritan border, where they encountered a group of ten lepers—nine Jews and one Samaritan—who had congregated near this location due to their common affliction, temporarily setting aside their typical religious prejudices. Having heard of Jesus' healing ministry through the announcements of the seventy who regularly proclaimed his expected arrival, these lepers positioned themselves at the city outskirts and called to Jesus from a distance: "Master, have mercy on us; cleanse us from our affliction." The apostles, particularly Simon Zelotes, were reluctant to acknowledge the Samaritan among them, but Jesus challenged Simon's prejudicial attitude, asking poignantly whether the Samaritan might love God as much as the Jews and whether he might prove more grateful upon receiving healing.

Jesus instructed all ten lepers to show themselves to the priests as required by Mosaic law, and as they departed, all were cleansed of their condition. Significantly, only the Samaritan, upon realizing his healing, returned to express gratitude, falling at Jesus' feet and glorifying God, while the nine Jewish lepers continued their journey to the priests. Jesus highlighted this disparity to his apostles, particularly to Simon Zelotes, saying, "Were not ten cleansed? Where, then, are the other nine, the Jews?" before instructing the Samaritan to rise, affirming that his faith had made him whole. The narrative reveals an additional layer of meaning to this encounter by noting that only four of the ten, including the Samaritan, actually had leprosy, while the others suffered from a skin condition mistaken for leprosy.

This encounter provided Jesus with a powerful opportunity to address ethnic and religious prejudice among his apostles. When the Samaritan alone returned to express gratitude, Jesus' question directly challenged his disciples' preconceptions. The incident also demonstrates Jesus' integration of healing ministry with spiritual teaching—maintaining strict adherence to Jewish religious law by instructing the lepers to show themselves to the priests while transcending ethnic boundaries. After this healing, Jesus instructed the twelve to remain silent about the cleansing, continuing his pattern of discouraging publicity about healing miracles that might distract from his spiritual message. Jesus subsequently used this incident to teach his apostles about gratitude, observing that "the children of the house" often take blessings for granted, while "strangers" recognize and appreciate gifts from the head of the house.

While ministering at Gerasa, Jesus responded to a question from a believing Pharisee who inquired whether many or few would ultimately be saved. Jesus began his comprehensive response by acknowledging the traditional Jewish teaching that only Abraham's children could be saved, with even gentile converts having limited hope for salvation. He then proceeded to challenge this exclusivity by referencing the Jewish proverb about the narrow way leading to life and the wide path to destruction, reframing it to emphasize universal accessibility: "But I declare that salvation is first a matter of your personal choosing. Even if the door to the way of life is narrow, it is wide enough to admit all who sincerely seek to enter, for I am that door." This proclamation established salvation as a matter of individual spiritual choice rather than ethnic or religious heritage.

Jesus then delivered a solemn warning against postponing entry into the kingdom while pursuing material pleasures and selfish indulgences, explaining that those who reject the kingdom during his incarnation might seek to enter later when it is revealed in divine glory, only to find the door closed. Using the metaphor of a householder who no longer recognizes late-coming guests, Jesus illustrated the spiritual principle that salvation cannot be claimed as an entitlement after persistent rejection of God's invitation. The narrative notes that this represented a "new and strange version of the old and familiar proverb of the straight and narrow way," as Jesus transformed a teaching about exclusivity into one emphasizing divine accessibility tempered by human responsibility.

The apostles were gradually beginning to comprehend Jesus' teaching that spiritual rebirth was necessary to enter the kingdom, although they would not fully understand his mission until after his resurrection. Particularly challenging for them was Jesus' teaching about using spiritual force to overcome material resistance in the pursuit of spiritual values. His declaration that "Behold, I stand at the doors of men's hearts and knock, and if any man will open to me, I will come in and sup with him" represented a radical personalization of salvation that established relationship with God as the foundation of spiritual life. Jesus consistently taught that while many are called, those who enter through faith in his message would be saved, emphasizing both divine invitation and human responsibility in the salvific process.

During a midday rest on the journey to Philadelphia, Thomas initiated a profound theological dialogue by asking Jesus whether spiritual beings orchestrate extraordinary events in the material world and if angels can prevent accidents. Jesus responded by directing Thomas to observe how the Son of Man lived among them, consistently refusing to employ supernatural forces for personal advantage or sustenance. He challenged the prevailing belief system that interpreted prosperity as divine approval and adversity as God's displeasure, characterizing such perspectives as mere superstition. Jesus further observed that the poor more readily received the gospel, indicating that material status bore no relation to spiritual receptivity or divine favor.

Jesus proceeded to delineate three distinct categories of events that can occur in human experience: the normal happenings shared with fellow human beings, the random accidents of nature that are not prearranged by spiritual forces, and the consequences of one's own efforts to comply with natural laws. To illustrate the third category, Jesus related the parable of the barren fig tree given one final opportunity to produce fruit, demonstrating how cooperation with natural processes yields positive outcomes. Jesus emphasized that health and sickness result from material causes rather than divine favor or disfavor, explaining that while God bestows material blessings equitably on all his children, spiritual gifts are conditioned by human faith and willingness to abide by the divine will.

Jesus provided specific examples to illustrate his teaching about random tragedies, referencing the Galileans whose blood Pilate mingled with sacrifices and the eighteen men killed when the tower of Siloam collapsed. In both cases, Jesus explicitly denied any correlation between the victims' moral standing and their tragic fate, stating unequivocally: "Think not that these men who were thus destroyed were offenders above all their brethren." This represents a revolutionary theological position that disconnects suffering from divine punishment. Jesus' threefold categorization of events established a framework for understanding causality that acknowledged both natural processes and human responsibility without attributing all events to direct divine intervention. Despite Jesus' patient and repeated explanations of these concepts throughout their journey to Philadelphia, the apostles struggled to fully comprehend his teaching about the relationship between the spiritual and material realms, a pattern that would persist until after his death and resurrection.

Jesus and the twelve apostles journeyed to Philadelphia to visit Abner and his associates, who had established the largest and most diverse community of kingdom believers in Perea, encompassing Jews and gentiles, rich and poor, learned and unlearned. The Philadelphia synagogue enjoyed a unique status in Palestine as it was not subject to the oversight of the Jerusalem Sanhedrin, allowing Jesus and his followers to teach freely in this venue. Abner conducted teachings in this synagogue three times daily, and it later became a Christian church and the missionary headquarters for spreading the gospel throughout the eastern regions. This congregation would maintain a position of spiritual leadership for centuries as a center of Christian learning.

After Jesus' death and resurrection, the Philadelphia congregation under Abner's leadership became increasingly isolated from the Jerusalem church headed by James, Jesus' brother. Abner found himself at odds with the Jerusalem leadership over questions of administration and jurisdiction, creating a significant theological and ecclesiastical division in early Christianity. More profoundly, Abner also parted ways with Paul regarding philosophical and theological matters, resisting Paul's modifications of Jesus' teachings that were designed to make them more palatable to Jewish and Greco-Roman audiences. Abner's steadfast adherence to the original formulation of Jesus' message resulted in his effective isolation from mainstream Christianity, as he led a congregation that maintained greater fidelity to Jesus' teachings than any other group on earth.

The historical significance of Abner's resistance to both Jerusalem authority and Paul's theological adaptations provides insight into the earliest tensions within the Christian movement. The narrative portrays Abner as principled but marginalized, describing him as "compelled to live a life of isolation," even as he led a church that more faithfully preserved Jesus' original teachings. Abner remained the head of the Philadelphia church until his death at age 89 on November 21, A.D. 74, having lived a life characterized by unwavering commitment to what he understood as Jesus' unmodified gospel. This account of Abner's ministry offers a poignant historical counterpoint to the more familiar narrative of early Christianity dominated by the Jerusalem church and Paul's mission, suggesting an alternative trajectory of Christian development that might have emerged had Abner's more faithful interpretation of Jesus' teachings gained wider acceptance.