Life and Times of the Carpenter: A Light Among Us

By K. G. Bell

Mr. Bell challenges his readers to view Christianity as a way of life developed out of the turmoil and conflicts of 1st century Judaism. He shows that love and compassion the cornerstones of Christianity were smothered by the shocking tensions and suspense of Roman-Palestine.

Mr. Bell attempts to show the pathways that the believers took in order to develop the Christian faith into one of the worlds most widely practiced religions. I am the way and the Truth and the Life.-Jesus Christ-The Carpenter (John 14:6).

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Aug 10, 2001
• ISBN: 9781462830138

K. G. Bell

K.G. Bell is an educationist, US Army Veteran (Paratrooper), Writer and Poet who has explored many cultures to engage the truth and beauty expressed in the styles, substance, and passion of poetry. His inspirational insights have forced him to examine the social, historical, and spiritual behaviors of different peoples within the conditions of humanity. Mr. Bell believes that humanity should continuously strive to be better always rising to that higher realm. This belief is profoundly noted in his poetry that creatively displays a magical seriousness. His poems stir the imagination of his readers, taking them along a fantastic journey of curiosity that they may embrace diversity with peaceful hearts, and enter that divine awakening.

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Copyright © 2000 by K.G. Bell.

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Contents

DEDICATION

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE CARPENTER

Foreword

AUTHOR’S NOTE

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 1

The New Era

CHAPTER 2

The Mission of John-the-Baptist

CHAPTER 3

The Temptation

CHAPTER 4

The Journey

CHAPTER 5

The Death of Jesus

CHAPTER 6

The Birth of Christianity

CHAPTER 7

The fall of Jerusalem(67 AD-70 AD)

DEDICATION

This work is dedicated to my mother Eutilda, Gloria Palmer, Terry, Beth, Rev. Smith, Richard Hunter, JR Godfrey, Dixie-Anne, Ruby Gill, Dr. Everett, Dr. Jones, Tony, Sam Vance, Velma, Lola, Cleo, Rev. King, Nannett, Soraya,Lan and many others who inspired this work.

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE CARPENTER

Foreword

Twelve decades of turmoil under Roman domination had caused the Jewish people to break up into many splinter groups and adopt some of the Roman ideologies in order to survive. Many groups integrated with other peoples with pagan beliefs to gain access to areas of power and caused negative conditions to arise within Jewish ideology. They had lost a true understanding of themselves, and were in great need of direction. The Herods, Jews themselves, were behaving like Romans, and the Samaritans had become like Canaanites, Babylonians and Assyrians.

Gone was the belief that man must never fear Satan because God will always be at his side, if he continually labors to cultivate and protect God’s earthly realm. Total despair enveloped the masses, and the Jews were no longer a self-supporting people. They felt alone—a people hated by everyone.

However, the many years of domination by different empires had made them a global people. They were scattered everywhere in the Roman Empire. Josephus, a Jew, documented Jewish history for the Emperors Vespasian and Titus.

At the advent of Jesus, many changes were taking place within the Roman world. The new tax system and governmental order set up by Augustus Caesar were disrupting whole societies forcing the Jewish people to face new challenges. Conflicts within the Empire and among the Jews themselves were causing great psychological pain. The Jewish people were in a state of crisis impacted by the enforcement rules, and the violence that Rome used to control the masses.

To survive and to acquire some measure of stability, the Jewish people were shocked into change, and were forced to make new decisions regarding their doctrine. Many groups, like the Zealots and Sicarri, saw themselves as the worst off within the Roman World, and felt that they had to take up arms for their survival.

Others adjusted the rules of the Sanhedrin in order to develop a working relationship with their Roman masters. Still others felt the need for a new consciousness, and searched for a new leader—the Messiah.

Among the Jewish people, human relations, economics, history and other truths were gravely tainted and many began to hate themselves and each other.

This story travels across the pages of History from Julius to Titus Caesar on the blazing, bloody fields of the Roman Empire. It encompasses the power and decadence of the Herods, Caligula and Nero, and highlights the strength of certain devoted Jewish men and women who would rise up to confront Rome, and put Judaism and Christianity upon the pages of modern history.

In the midst of this drama came a humble carpenter of Nazareth, Jesus, who would plant the seeds of the Christian doctrine, and become the spiritual king of a nation that would change the world forever.

Jesus came as the guiding light to teach us how to rebuke Satan who had usurped man’s place, acting as a false father in order to deceive humanity. During the many events like the visitation of the angel Gabriel, the birth of Jesus, the adoration of the wise men, John the Baptist at the River Jordan, the story of Jesus forces us to ponder and grasp the meaning of its richness, and tells us how to live in God’s light.

Today many Christians still recall Sunset at the Crucifixion and painfully ponder:

You were scorned for us under the cross: Lord

You bled for us under the cross: Lord

You wept for us under the cross

And here we stand forgiven,

Yes, here we stand forgiven!

They tore your flesh under the cross: Lord

They shed your blood under the cross: Lord

You fell with pain under the cross:

And here we stand forgiven,

Yes, here we stand forgiven!

They nailed your hands upon the cross: Lord

They pierced your side upon the cross: Lord

They mocked you Lord upon the cross,

Yet, here we stand forgiven:

Yes, here we stand forgiven!

You wept for love upon the cross: Lord

You brought us glory upon the cross: Lord

You cleansed our sins upon the cross.

Now we stand forgiven

Yes, here we stand forgiven.

AUTHOR’S NOTE

After the death of Julius Caesar, when the Roman General Cassius had sacked and plundered all of Palestine, Rome decided to put a Semite King in charge of Judea. This king, Herod the Great, assumed his rule over Judea in 27

BC,

and immediately setout to rebuild the cities of Palestine.

However, Herod heard the coming of a new King—the Messiah, of whom all the Jewish prophets had preached. Therefore, at the birth of Jesus, he had all the babies under two years of age slaughtered because of this fear.

Later realizing that Jesus did not die in his murderous net, he went mad and died a gruesome death. When his son Antipas assumed the throne, Palestine had become an uneasy Roman Protectorate that needed Roman military governors to oversee its administration.

At this time, John the Baptist was preaching in Galilee, Jesus’ ministry had reached Jerusalem, and the Zealots, Amos and Barabbas, were busy raising a rebel army to wage war against Rome.

This intense uneasiness in Palestine grew out of a deep distrust that the Romans and Jews had for each other. They did not understand each other’s customs, and instead of cooperation, hate festered. The Jews longing for the freedom of their homeland clung to any leader that promised to be their deliverer.

A triangle of political turmoil arose among the Romans, the Christians, and Zealots three groups in conflict to control Palestine. The complex conditions that grew from this political uneasiness caused the death of Jesus. This event marked the beginning of Christianity, the fading of Jewish control over Judea, and the end of Roman rule in that territory.

The Christian movement grew like wildfire, and Rome, in its dismay, began persecuting Christians anywhere they could be found. Hence, when Nero burned Rome, and blamed it on the Christians, he had about 20 thousand Christians murdered, among them Peter and Paul.

Yet, as the Christian tide swept the Roman world, Rome began to tolerate the movement. Some Roman officials became Christians. In 300

AD

Constantine the Great became the first Christian Emperor of Rome.

INTRODUCTION

Twenty centuries before Christ, in the magnificent city of Ur, on the Euphrates River, in the land of Sumer, lived a tribe of Semetic shepherds. They were descendants of Noah’s son, Shem. One of these shepherds, Abraham, later left Ur with his family and flocks in search of new grazing land. He wandered westward through the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah where he left his nephew Lot, until he came to a land called Canaan, where he settled. Abraham and his family dug wells, set up tents, and called the site Beersheba. The inhabitants of Canaan called Abraham and his lot Hebrews.

Abraham believed, so devoutly, in the one true God that he offered to sacrifice his beloved son Isaac in his honor. Isaac had a son called Jacob whose sons formed the twelve tribes of Israel. When famine spread through Canaan, the Israelites were forced to migrate to Egypt, which was the only land flourishing at that time. For four centuries in Egypt they clung steadfastly to their strange religious belief that there was but one God. This angered the Egyptians greatly. The Pharaohs, who once loved Joseph the son of Jacob and allowed him to rule Egypt at will, were now dead. The new Pharaohs out of anger and jealousy of the sacred brotherhood of the Hebrews enslaved them. They murdered all the male Hebrew children and put cruel taskmasters over God’s chosen people. Out of this suffering was born the sincere belief of a deliverer who in 1300

BC

came in the person of Moses.

Moses was an Egyptian prince of Hebrew birth who belonged to the tribe of Levi. He was beloved by the Egyptians because he had done great things for them. He had conquered Ethiopia, built the city Rameses and filled the temple granaries; but Moses was chosen to do God’s work. So much to the dislike of the Egyptians he led the Hebrews out of Egypt across the wilderness of Sinai into Canaan.

After the death of Moses, Joshua became the judge of Israel and led the Hebrews into successful battles against the Amorites, Amalekites, the Moabites, and Jericho until all the people of Canaan were subdued after many years. The tribes then formed a Hebrew Kingdom under the kingship of Saul, who defied God and was murdered, leaving his throne to the famous shepherd boy, David, who years before had conquered the Philistines and destroyed their leader, Goliath.

David brought much peace and prosperity to the Hebrew Kingdom. He rebuilt Jerusalem and fortified it. He brought the sacred Ark into the city and placed it in a sacred tabernacle. David was succeeded by his brilliant son, Solomon, who embarked on extensive commercial enterprises and building operations. Solomon traded with lands as far off as Africa and the Orient. He had fabulous copper mines, untold treasuries, and