Where's Father Jonas?

Where Have All the Fathers Gone?

In the Bible- Long, Long ago

Who Owns This Boat?

Who's the father of Simon Peter and Andrew?

The father of James and John is Zebedee, who owns the commercial sailing vessel which brings a living to him, his two boys, his wife Salome, and his two un-named servants. This is quite clear. 

But there is a second commercial sailing vessel in this fishing consortium, probably similar to the first vessel. That vessel is operated by Simon Peter and Andrew. If their father is alive, that's who would be the owner of this second vessel. But is he alive? And what is (or was) his name?

If you start by looking for him in the Gospel of Matthew, you won't see him mentioned. In fact, you can also read through all of Mark and Luke without finding his name. You'll have to read almost to the end of the Gospel of John to find that name.

And the name doesn't designate any action by the father. In the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible, it comes from the lips of Jesus in a question:

"Simon son of Jonas, do you love me more than these?"

Four things are peculiar to this question and its translation:

1) Jesus calls Simon [Peter] by his birth name, leaving out the new name that Jesus has assigned to Simon, that is, Peter—the Rock. Has Peter lost his "rock" status?

2) Jesus does not use the word "son" but instead uses simply the Greek languages' genitive case of the name John, which is spelled Johannou. Stripped to its strict literal translation, what Jesus said was: "Simon of John, do you love me more than these?"

3) There are already two major characters in the Gospels named John, (John the Baptist and John son of Zebedee) so the KJV transliterates the Greek name as "Jonas" rather than "John" to avoid confusion. John son of Zebedee is present when Jesus asks this question.

4) Jesus says this three times to Simon Peter, but only the first time does he include "more than these." Jesus makes no attempt to explain what "these" means; evidently the intended meaning would have been clear to Simon Peter.

In any case, now we know that the father of Simon Peter and Andrew is named "John." But is he alive or dead? In this post I will endeavor to show that John (Jonas) is very much alive, and I will refute the opinion in the NIV that this passage intends to "reinstate" Simon Peter to his leadership role.

The key to Jesus' meaning is his selection and use of Simon's birth name when he addresses Simon Peter, and his meaning of "these."

Addressing Simon (Peter) by his birth name/father's name puts the focus on Simon's place in his society, in his family, and in his family's business participating in a successful fishing consortium.

In his society, he is a self-employed skilled workman who works with his hands, above, for example, a dry-farmer working for an absentee landholder. He can rightfully be proud of the position he holds in his family and in the consortium. When Jesus calls him Simon of John, he places him in a position where, as oldest son, he will inherit the family business. From that position he can marry, raise a family, and pass on the family business to his children.

In other words, his family membership and his business position comes with perks. It is these things, including the fish that is being cooked over a fire and fed to his employees, that Simon definitely loves. He has a valued and respected place in society, and without Jesus he would become an elder on the Sea of Galilee, following in the footsteps and oar-strokes of Zebedee and his own father John. He loves these things.

But he also loves Jesus. Jesus wants to know, "Do you love me more than these things?" It is time for Simon to make a decision. Will he continue to be a fisher of people, rather than a fisher of fish? Jesus has caught Simon doing the work of a fisher of fish, even inviting the other disciples to do the same.

Come on, Simon Peter, which will you be? Simon? Or Peter?

John/Jonas, father of Simon and Andrew, has withdrawn from active participation in the fish-catching side of the business, perhaps due to a weakened, elderly condition. He may still be participating in the processing and wholesale vending of the fish that are caught by his sons. But he has not yet died, and it is not yet apparent what will happen with his home and his boat, now that his sons have abandoned fishing as a profession.

This will no doubt be a difficult decision for Simon Peter, as it may be with each and every one of us, when we find that, in order to follow Jesus, there will be things that we will have to give up.

Where's Father Joseph?

Where Have All the Fathers Gone?

In the Bible - Long, Long Ago

Joseph Portrayed as a Vigorous Young Father

We first meet Joseph in the Bible as a prospective groom struggling with the finding that his young, prospective bride is with child--and not by Joseph. But God sends him a dream urging him to accept Mary (and name her son Jesus), for her pregnancy was from the Holy Spirit.

We soon see him as a traveler bound from Nazareth  to Bethlehem, to comply with a Roman census. There he registered with his new wife Mary as a man of the lineage of the historic King David. Next he flees with his family to Egypt to escape the murderous plans of Herod the Great. A few years later he comes back from  Egypt and returns to Nazareth in Galilee where he pursues his occupation as a "carpenter" -- a worker in wood and stone and construction.

Finally we see him on his annual sojourn to Jerusalem for the great Feast of Passover. Jesus goes missing for the return trip, and both parents have to go back to Jerusalem to look for him. They find him hob-knobbing with the teachers in the temple. 

It is interesting that we don't find Joseph rebuking Jesus, but rather his mother Mary, who says, "Son, why have you treated us this way? Your father and I have been searching for you in great distress!" Is this because Joseph is his adoptive, rather than his natural father? Does Mary have more authority over the child Jesus than does Joseph?

At any rate, that is the last we see of Joseph, the adoptive father of Mary's son. At about 30 years old, Jesus leaves his boyhood home, changes his occupation from carpenter's son to prophet, and moves miles away from Nazareth  to Capernaum, on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. Has Joseph died? How would we be able to tell?

There are two indicators that point to the death of Joseph, one in church tradition, and the other documented in the Bible.

Joseph the Elderly and Weakened Carpenter

A very early tradition of the church (first and second century) held that Joseph was already elderly when he married Mary. He had already begotten four sons (James, Joseph, Simon, and Jude), and two or three daughters (Mary, Salome, and Anna). His wife may have died in childbirth, leaving Joseph in need of a wet-nurse and a step-mother for his children. In this tradition, Joseph lived to a ripe old age, but nevertheless died before Jesus was 30.

But in the Gospels we find a more reliable indication, in the episode when Jesus was accused by his enemies of having totally lost his mind. When news of these accusations reached Jesus' family, there was only one thing they were required to do: that is, launch an investigation to determine whether Jesus had gone bonkers, and if so, to take him into custody for the protection of himself and the people of the land.

That unpleasant duty would fall upon the father, or if there was no father, to be taken up by the oldest male in the family. That would be James the eldest, on his way to becoming known as James the Just. But who shows up? "His mother and his brothers" (Mark 3:21). Again, who has the highest potential of authority over Jesus? His eldest stepbrother, or his mother? Probably James, always the practical one, had brought along not only Jesus' mother, but all of his stepbrothers, just to make sure.

But one might say, "If Joseph was alive but frail, he may have sent Jesus' mother and stepbrothers." Valid point. But I submit that if Joseph were alive during this incident, his inability to attend would have been noted by Mark, to protect Joseph's honor. At any rate, the likelihood that Joseph had already died is the more probable situation.

NEXT WEEK: Why don't we hear more about "Jonas," the father of fishermen Simon Peter and Andrew? Isn't he the actual owner of their fishing boat? Or has he died?

The Lepton Devotional

How Many Leptons Are You Holding?

In the story of the widow's "mite," Jesus watches a widow drop her last two lepta into the donation box at the temple. He exclaims, "This poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box!... She out of her  poverty has put in everything... she had to live on" (Mark 13:43-44, ESV).

A Lepton from the First Century

So how much is a lepton actually worth? We will deal with that later, and start by looking at the situation of the poor widow. Hearing this story, I have often wondered what happened to this widow, who gave everything she had. It brought to mind the widow who was asked by Elijah to bring him a morsel of bread: she said,

As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of flour and a little oil in a jug. And now I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it and die" (1 Kings 17:12).

I wondered, where is the prophet that will keep this widow Jesus saw supplied with food until her period of famine is over? 

But during Jesus' corporate period in history, there was a certified "widow's list" in Jerusalem, supported mostly by Pharisees, which provided her a charitable donation (food or money) each month. This giving was firmly rooted in Pharisaic principles, and they all felt the pressure to give. (Jesus decried the motives of many of them, who were boasting of their own charitable giving to enhance their social standing.) So in this case, it is likely that the widow's food ran out before the monthly food distribution was due.

Why do I bring this all up? Because it hit me in church this Sunday, when they passed the basket. It had been a rough month, and I had spent all that I had, including pocket money, and had only a single dollar bill in my wallet to keep me from feeling impoverished. So I felt shamed, comparing myself to the widow, and dropped my last dollar into the basket.

That said, my situation was nowhere near the situation of the above two poor widows. I had a refrigerator full of food, a tank full of gasoline, a mortgage paid up-to-date, and enough dogfood in the bag to last until I received the monthly distribution from my pension. In fact, I recalled, this was a non-business day for the banks, so my pension fund had no doubt sent the monthly distribution a day early. That dollar in my wallet said less about my poverty and more about my lack of trust in my God.

So now, if you're still with me, we can talk about what a lepton is worth. Our evangelist Mark thought it was important to his readers, so he tried to make it clear to his first-century readers in the Greek language of his Gospel. He wrote that the widow "put in two lepta, which make a kodrantes." So how much are those coins worth? Archaeologists have some input on this. In their searches for coins of the First Century, they have never found a lepton in Rome or in greater Italy. Likewise, they have not found a kodrantes in the near east. This settles who Mark is writing to: he addresses Romans or Italians who know instantly how much a kodrantes is worth.

A Kodrantes Coin of the First Century

The kodrantes was valued at 1/64th of a denarius, and a denarius was the standard for a single day's wage for a laborer--or for a Roman soldier. By my calculations, you should have been able to buy a loaf of bread with a kodrantes, or  with two lepta. 

Fast forward to Benjamin Franklin as a young man. He got off the boat in Philadelphia and was hungry, so he looked for a bakery. He had three pennies in his pocket, so he asked for three penny's worth of bread, and received three large puffy rolls; more than he could eat in a single setting.

Franklin may have paid for his three bread rolls with coins like these, minted two years before the Constitution. If I were to buy a loaf of bread, the pennies of today would be next to worthless. But we have a new penny in the United States; It's called a dollar.

It's tough to find a currently minted Dollar Coin. These Sacajawea Native American dollars are current legal currency in the United States, but it will cost you THREE dollars to acquire one. 

Postscript: If you have two  U.S. dollars in your pocket, you're in the same financial situation as the widow with the two lepta. 

The Dollar today is our new Penny.

Secret City #3 - the Reveal

Where Did the 2,000 Pigs Run into the Sea?

The gospel writers gave us two regions into which Jesus and Co. entered on the east side of the Sea of Galilee, typified by their cities: Gerasa and Gadara. They are both in the region of the Decapolis (Ten Towns), but Gerasa was 26 miles from the sea, and Gadara was 6 miles from the sea. Someplace closer is required for the incident of the pigs.

Fanciful Recreation of the Pig Stampede.

 

The theologian Origen proposed the village of Gergesa as the site, but there was no city nearby, and Gergesa was not a Roman Polis. It was probably under the authority of Herod Philip, who was building a city north of the lake, near the fishing village of Bethsaida. Plus, the rocky outcropping near Gergesa was unimpressive. (Note: the Greek word used in the Gospels can be translated either as a "cliff" or as a "steep slope.")

The people of a city near Jesus and Company's foray came begging him to call up his disciples and leave, for the stampeding pigs episode had frightened them. But what Roman city is near the site?

  

Hippos on its Hilltop, Viewed From the East

The answer is a city called Hippos (Greek) or Sussita (Aramaic)--both words meaning "horse." It was a small fortress city, a Roman polis of the Decapolis. Its populace was known as "sworn enemies" of the Jews. Its size was kept small by its lack of a water supply. Water was collected on rooftops and stored in cisterns until some hundreds of years later when the Romans built an aqueduct. 

  

The Fortress of Hippos Overlooking the Sea of Galilee, Viewed From the Northeast.

Mark and Luke's gospels report that there was a very large herd of pigs grazing on the hillside. Mark says that there were about 2,000 of them. Matthew says the pigs were "some distance away" from them. This fits the location of Hippos, which lies 1.2 miles from the Sea of Galilee, and 350 feet higher than the lake level.

 

The Hill of Hippos Overlooking the Sea

From this spot near the sea it is easy to imagine a large herd of pigs feeding on the steep hillside of Hippos, and stampeding for about a mile, down and across the shore and into the sea.

  

So we can safely erase from our minds the image of 2,000 pigs rushing over a steep precipice and falling into the sea. On the other hand, this view gives us an image of 2,000 pigs stampeding directly toward us. 

The Secret is Solved. The Gospel writers did not want to use the name of a small, little-known city for their story. It was more important to use the name of a Rome-allied city well-known to their readers.

Secret City #3 - Part 3 of 4 parts

Where Did the Stampede of Pigs Drown?

Does Mark and Luke disagree with Matthew?

There is no disagreement, because these three Gospel writers do not care to give us this unimportant detail. Instead, they name particular regions of people for THEOLOGICAL REASONS.

The Oval Gathering-Place in Gerasa

Mark and Luke highlight the region of Gerasa, as a stand-in for the people of the Decapolis (Ten Towns) generally. These pagan lovers of Roman Government and all things Roman reject Jesus, therefore rejecting their own salvation. This will not change until God sends the Christians into the pagan and Jewish sectors of Asia Minor.

The Ruins of the City of Magdala

Matthew highlights the region of Gadara, which was deeded by God to the Hebrew tribe of Gad, after the conquest of Canaan. This situation will not be corrected until the return of Jesus to rule his kingdom on earth.

But some of our Bibles have a third location -- Gergesa. How did that happen? Here is a map which gives Gergesa's easterly location.

The Sea of Galilee and the Golan Heights

Christian scholars have found the reason for this corruption of the Bible text--an interesting story indeed. We begin with a look at an early Christian scholar and theologian, Origen of Alexandria (a huge city in Egypt), also known as Origen Adamantius, who lived from 184 to 253 AD. Origen had available a team of secretaries to copy his works, making him one of the most prolific writers in all of antiquity. He was a father of the Church, one of the most imortant Christian theologians of his time.

But here we relate one of Origen's failures. Origen was taveling throughout the Holy Land, using the Gospels as if they were an atlas--a tourist guide, so to speak. (This opposes the Gospel writers, who were writing about the Good News, not geography.) He was looking for the place where Jesus sent a huge herd of pigs crashing into the Sea of Galilee. He encountered Gerasa in the Gospels of Mark and Luke, but considered that impossible, for Gerasa was 26 miles from the lake. Likewise in the Gospel of Matthew, he encountered Gadara, but that city was 6 miles from the lake.

He set out to search for the "true" location of the pig stampede, examining the shoreline of the Golan Heights for a cliff over which the pigs may have fallen. The closest he could come was the nondescript village of Gergesa. Here is a wide-angle view of the general area:

Luke writes that "A large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside." The above view could readily fit Luke's description. 

Here is the "cliff" that Origen found, looking north toward the village of Gergesa. Let's take a better look, looking from the lake eastward toward this rocky outcropping:

The Steep Slope South of the Village of Gergesa

Here is that outcropping that faces the sea. Now Mark's Gospel says "the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned."

I'm trying to imagine two thousand pigs hurtling over this outcropping. Perhaps they lined up and took turns--but that would take quite a while.

In any case, Origen's belief that this was the site for the pig stampede eventually made it into the text of some of the Gospel manuscripts, when over-zealous copyists attempted to "correct" the original text of the Gospels. 

Next week I will share some of the reasons I don't believe Gergesa was the site of the pig stampede, and I will reveal the more likely "Secret City" where all this took place.