Messages 2001

The education of Jesus in Egypt.

October 8th, 2001

Received by H.

Cuenca, Ecuador.

My dear brother H___, I would like to take this opportunity to clarify some questions that have come up because of messages I have delivered previously.

When I spoke about soulmate love, I mentioned the fact that Mr. Padgett started a new relationship with a woman some years after the death of his wife Helen. I want to stress that I have not mentioned this amorous relationship of Mr. Padgett in order to express my disagreement, because it is very natural that a person might seek a new relationship when he feels alone and when he realizes that in spite of a loved one’s death, life goes on. No, this reaction is very natural and it doesn’t deserve any reproach. I only presented that as an example of demonstrating that Mr. Padgett, despite his theoretical knowledge of soulmate love, didn’t understand it, and that he was unable to feel and to live this love, as nobody is able to do this, while they live in the flesh.

Second, I am aware that the Book of Urantia relates that Joseph escaped with his family to Egypt, and he headed for the great cultural center of that country, Alexandria. I, on the other hand, have indicated that the family went to the region of Heliopolis, and I want to make it clear that this statement is correct. I may even deepen a little more on the topic: Joseph didn’t settle exactly in Heliopolis, but in its outskirts. We have already dealt with the interesting story of the perfumed gardens of Matariyah, and practically adjacent to these gardens was a settlement of Jews, which the Roman administration called “vicus Iudaeorum”, or village of the Jews. It was exactly that place, where originally those expert gardeners from Jericho settled, who had been called by queen Cleopatra from their country in order to take care of the balsam shrubs.

Later on, as it is natural, other Jews of other professions joined this village, and at the time, when Jesus’ family arrived, they found a prosperous place, full of trade and culture. The location was very favorable, because it lay very near Onias’ temple, which we have already spoken of previously, and also was very near the Jewish educational and scientific center in Leontopolis.

As you know, Joseph was a fabricator, and very skilful, diligent and meticulous. And within a short time he managed to establish his own workshop. He had savings, and his investment soon paid off.

But something perhaps much more important happened to Joseph. The events which had led to the flight to Egypt caused him to meditate a lot. Was it true that Jesus could be the Messiah of the Jews? If not, why Herod’s strange reaction? Because very soon they received notice of the misfortune which had befallen Bethlehem. The only conclusion that Joseph could arrive at was that Jesus really was God’s chosen one. And he felt a great obligation to provide an appropriate education for his son, that is to say, to support him in the study of the Scriptures.

And in fact the possibilities so near the center of Leontopolis were excellent. But Joseph also dedicated much of his free time to the study of the Scriptures, and the more he studied, the greater was his conviction that his son would be the Messiah. Everything coincided. Yes, he was of David’s lineage, Jesus had been born in Bethlehem, yes, his doubts vanished one by one. Joseph not only decided to facilitate every opportunity for study to his son, but also to put himself in charge of giving him instructions and guidance, a normally very praiseworthy approach; but eventually it would lead to great conflicts between father and son, caused by Joseph’s lack of comprehension.

Joseph also understood that the Messiah of the Jews, of course, had to live in Judea, and when some years later Herod died, he thought that the moment had come for returning. But Herod’s successor, his son Archelaus, was even worse than his father, and so, Joseph, with a sad heart, stayed with his family in this involuntary exile.

Jesus has already communicated through Mr. Padgett and Dr. Samuels that he had brothers and sisters. All were born in Egypt, except him.

[H.: could you give us a complete list of the names of Jesus’ brothers and sisters?]

Of course, I will do this with great pleasure. Jesus had five brothers, namely, James (Ya’qov), Simon (Shim’on), Judah (Yehudah), Joses (Yosef) and Thomas (Toma’). And he also had two sisters, Rachel (Rakhel) and Lea (Le’ah).

His brothers, all of them, would play a very important role in early Christianity. All this we will deal with when we will speak of the first years after Jesus’ death. By the way, Jesus, of course, is the Greek form of his true name, Yeshua, because the Greeks had the custom of masculine names ending in “s,” and they invented the form “IesouV”, and in Latin it assumed the form of “Iesus.” In both languages the sound “sh” didn’t exist, and for this reason also the name Shim’ón or Shime’ón became Simon, etc. Jesus’ friends and relatives called him Yeshu.

Jesus’ stay in Egypt lasted 10 years, and in those years he had the opportunity to study the Scripture, and to know a very liberal Judaism that didn’t exist in Judea at that time. He realized the merely symbolic role of the Temple in Jerusalem, and he learned the Greek “Koiné”, the most important language in the empire, especially in its eastern half. In short, at so young an age, he already possessed a firm base of knowledge. It would have been very difficult to attain to this kind of education in Galilee. In those times, Galilee was the backyard of Judaism, without major opportunities for education and without important centers. Later this would change, and Galilee would become an extremely important center of rabbinical Judaism, but this happened many decades later, after the destruction of Jerusalem.

In the following message of this series I will deal with the political development in Palestine and the situation which caused Joseph and his family’s return to Galilee.

I am sorry that yesterday I did not find the opportunity to deliver a message, but I understand that you had to attend two funerals, and that you really were not in an appropriate condition for receiving a message. But we have been very diligent already, and we have communicated a lot of material up to now unknown. Also, in the following messages, we will deal with new revelations, because even though the information about Jesus’ life in the gospels is not very historical, at least there are some stories of the few years of his public ministry contained in them. But his childhood and youth hide under a cover of silence.

God bless you always, my brother, and continue praying and cooperating. I leave all my love to you, and I extend it to the whole world, especially to those who engage in the spreading of the truth.

Your brother in Christ,

Judas Iscariot.

This message tells that Jesus had five brothers and two sisters, but an earlier one through James Padgett says four brothers and three sisters. H was both an avid scholar of Biblical times, as also the Padgett Messages, so he would have been well aware that James Padgett received “four” brothers, which is in line with the New Testament. Dr. Samuels also received “eight children,” which included Jesus. The New Testament gives the names as James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas plus more than one sister, of which possibly one might be called Salome.