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April 1st, 2002
Received by H.
Cuenca, Ecuador.
My dear brother:
I know that you had hoped for a message on the healing of a leper,
but I have another topic in mind.
In the year 20 of our era, a 20 year-old youth moved from his small
native village on the Golan Heights to the town of Bethsaida Julias,
in search of work. His parent’s family was very large and the
small land parcels which they used for sowing did not suffice for
feeding all the family.
Many times, people who live as a minority amidst other peoples,
become stricter, more fanatic in the observance of their customs,
and thus it happened with the principal character of our story.
His name was Simon, and the strong Greek influence in the area
where he came from, had strengthened his Jewish roots.
That first century really was a messianic century. The favorite
literature of many people was apocalyptic, such as the book of Enoch,
and the Jewish world yearned for the Messiah's coming such as they never
did before.
Simon felt pain seeing the country of his ancestors suffering under
the Roman yoke, and he felt that he had to contribute his share
to recover his people’s freedom. He joined a group of fanatic
nationalists, and this is why they nicknamed him " Simon the
Zealot."
In Bethsaida he found work on the fishing boats of the Zebedee
family, and he made friends with two of the patriarch's sons, James
and John. On many occasions when they were washing their nets, he
told them of his ideas, and finally he convinced them that they
and another friend, Philip, would join the nationalists.
However the years would teach Simon and his friends that under
the cover of nationalism many people of very mean ideas took advantage
of the situation for their own enrichment, or simply for living
out freely their perverted instincts. In the course of the following
years the group of young men withdrew gradually from the revolutionary
movement, but remained with a burning thirst in their souls for
something, but that which they did not know. It was of course the
moment when they met Jesus. This story you already know.
If one had to classify the apostles into intellectual and emotional
types, one could say that Simon belonged to the first group, together
with James, Jesus' brother. Between these two a deep friendship
would grow.
The Master's words impressed Simon very much, as they did all of
us, although we did not understand all their implications. We all
dreamt of the establishment of the "Kingdom," but here
on earth, with Jesus as our king. As you know very well, the future
would be very different.
The many miracles the Master had performed left us almost with
the impression of Jesus’ "omnipotence," and I believe
that if I had not betrayed the Master, Simon would have done it
sooner or later, to force him to demonstrate his infinite power.
In some way, we all were guilty "of having ears but not listening."
The Master's death constituted a catastrophe for the whole movement,
with a great danger of putting an end, once and for all, to the
work the Master had begun. Only through his appearances on several
occasions, and on more occasions than the Bible relates, that the
embryo of a "Christian Church" was able to survive, and
principally because of the events of Pentecost, which I, unfortunately,
could neither witness nor experience.
The diversity in the character of Jesus' first followers, of course,
caused tensions between them, and eventually a group of "liberals,"
around Peter and John, and another group of "conservatives,"
around James and Simon, formed.
Simon stayed in Jerusalem until James' authority, as the bishop
of the "central church," had become consolidated, and
then he said good-bye to his friend, to focus on his work as a missionary.
The legend relates that Simon preached the Gospel in Mauritania,
Africa, and even in Britain, where he was crucified in 74 A.D.
That is not really correct. Actually, Simon traveled to Africa,
via Sicily, where he founded the first Christian community, which
later would gain much importance. From the Roman province of Africa,
he traveled further westward, crossing the province of Numidia,
and arrived finally in Mauritania, which at that time consisted
of the northern part of what is today’s Algeria and Morocco.
There he dedicated himself to preaching until his death.
He died at a relatively young age, less than fifty
years old, from natural causes.
The regions where Simon had preached the Gospel would very soon
succumb to the influence of the gentile church, and later on, due
to the invasions of Germanic tribes, they would become ramparts
of Arianism.
Today not much of Simon’s work is left. The conquest of Islam
swept away everything.
With this short biography, I hope to have satisfied some your curiosity.
Little by little, I will deliver additional information on all the
people of Jesus' circle. It is a pity that almost nothing has been
transmitted on them, and the little that has survived is just in
the form of legends of doubtful value.
God bless you,
Judas
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