Project J by Sean Brandywine Page A

respectful, but little more.   I think there has always been some resentment there.
     
    “Well, anyway, Jesus found something that had been lacking in Nazareth: a place that accepted him as he was.   He stayed with John for years, about five, near as I can tell.   He learned the older man’s Mishnah .   A rabbi’s Mishnah was his repetition, the words and actions that conveyed his teachings.   Jesus learned this well from John.   John, in turn, gave Jesus something he needed, a sense of belonging to a family.
     
    “Jesus came to accept John’s insistence on the relationship between repentance and release from sin, and it became a major part of his own ministry.   Release from sin might be best translated as ‘forgiveness’.   Jesus had a firm conviction that release from sin made every Israelite pure – and thus acceptable in God’s eyes.”
     
    He paused for a moment and sighed.
     
    “Sorry, I’m getting off on too many sidetracks.   Comes from being an old man, you know.   You cannot focus your thoughts as well any more.
     
    “One day, eight armed guards of Herod Antipas came into the camp.   With drawn swords, they arrested John and took him away.   It seems that John had condemned Herod’s marriage to Herodias, his half-brother’s wife.   This was in violation of the basic understanding of purity, and was prohibited by the Torah.   Jesus thinks it was much more because John’s teachings ran counter to those of the Pharisees and the official priests in Jerusalem.   There was also the fact that Antipas might have feared that John would ferment rebellion, something that would be terrible for the people and their king, Herod Antipas himself.   The Romans were known for being strict with kings who could not keep their people in line.
     
    “Whatever the real reason for John’s arrest, Jesus and the other disciples scattered in fear of their own lives.   A short time later, he heard of John’s beheading and experienced a period of fear, disorientation and pain.   The man who had become the focal point of his life was dead.   It left him aching and lonely.   But it also gave him a new sense of confidence and independence.   He was a disciple of a great man, a man who had tried to show the people the way to salvation in the coming apocalypse.
     
    “He returned to Galilee and his family.   Surprisingly, he was welcomed by his family.   Part of that was because his stepfather, whom he still refuses to even name, had died.   And another hand could always be used in the fields or as a repairman, which was the trade his father had taught him.   There was also the fact that Galilee had heard of John and some of the respect for what some considered a prophet rubbed off on Jesus.   Anyway, he settled down in Nazareth, but not to the life he had known.   Here was someone who had done things not done by normal villagers.   Here was a man who had rubbed shoulders with a local folk hero, John, and now spoke much as that prophet had.   He began to tell others of his views.   In short, he became a teacher, a rabbi.
     
    “He was twenty years old when this happened.   It was the actual beginning of his ministry.   Slowly, his notoriety grew and more people came to listen to him.   Not all agreed with him, especially the priests, but eventually the small towns around Nazareth were not enough and he switched his base of operations to Capernaum.
     
    “Other changes came about.   He ceased the immersion in living water as a means of release from sin.   Instead, he emphasized the use of a meal as a festive celebration.   He spoke of lakhma d’ateh , the “bread that is to come.”   Bread and other foods came from the land and were pure in God’s eyes.   As was wine.   He used the meal as a means of spreading the word and as a means of purification.
     
    “Again, I’m getting off the subject.   I apologize.
     
    “Jesus taught, moved around, constantly spreading the word of the