Mortals

“I forget what.”

“Shekinah. Radiance of God.”

“Ehe, and, em, whilst you receive this shekinah you must in no way look straightaway at God. Even if you are in your new body, it can kill you to see his face.”

“Such is the Kingdom of Heaven, Themba. Not much moving around unless there is some scheme to shift thrones so that all can have a chance to sit near God.”

There was a ripple of amusement among the hearers. Morel is not playing by his own rules, Ray thought.

Themba said, “I think the Batswana can never be Jews, if there shall be no cows in heaven.”

Someone in the audience said “Ke dunetse,” meaning he agreed.

“So this heaven you describe is the great, final end that the Jew Jesus was urging all his people to work and die for, we see. And we are talking only about what we can tell were the beliefs of Jesus himself, in the time before Paul, and before the four Gospels were written— beginning about how many years after the death of Jesus, would you say?”

“We say Mark is written down about the year seventy, rra. Paul was writing earlier but still it was fifteen years after Jesus was killed, but Paul tells nothing of the life of Jesus and he tells only some few words of the beliefs of Jesus, which is strange.”

“Right! This is the important thing to emphasize. Great feats of scholarship have taken place in the last thirty or forty years, so we can now extract and separate, this is the point, the original ideas and beliefs and instructions of the Jew Jesus, take them out of the books of the Gospels of Mark and Matthew and Luke, where we find other beliefs and interpretations alongside them, coming from Paul for the most part, added to and plastered across them, obscuring them. And Themba, all of you… it is from these encrustations and superadditions and plasterings that Paul and his followers turned a dead Jew into a God for the gentiles, a new God, at the same time twisting, Paul was twisting the sacred writings of the Jews to make them say that they prophesied the coming of a divine Savior for the Gentiles… for everyone. And that way lies Christianity, invented by Paul.

“But we are not coming to that, yet. No. People do not like to hear any of this, really. So we must first make clear to them that we are talking about the original and pure beliefs of the Jew Jesus. And the first thing you must make clear is the answer to the question of how Jesus came to believe that the world was to come to an end at the hands of Yahweh. He thought he knew what had to be done to make Yahweh bring an end to the world as it was and create his kingdom. And other Jews of Palestine were also seeking ways to make God descend. But they were saying there were other ways to make him come, three ways. You remember the three ways?”

“Ehe, rra. Em, in Palestine the Romans were oppressing the Israelites very much. And the Jews were saying it must cease. This must cease. And they had from their scriptures stories telling of God coming to their aid, as when they came to the promised land and found it stuffed fat with enemies and vipers, and God helped them to kill their enemies…”

Morel said, “Yes, you remember we said that such a God might be called a serial killer, in fact. But this is among ourselves. When we discuss this, we say only that he killed many opponents of the Jews.”

Themba said, “In Palestine in past times, some victories would come when Yahweh would strengthen the captains of the Jews but would cause the walls and towers of their enemies to fall down. Or he would send angels to aid in the killing. So in their belief they ask how can we make Yahweh come to us once again.

“The Romans were their enemies. So they were saying, if we take up arms against the Romans, Yahweh will come down to help us. But the priests of the temple were saying they must not bother the Romans. These priests were in the pay of the Romans, of course, much as like the Zed CC saying we must not bother the Boers.”

Morel was quick. “Well, but rra, it would be best not to make overmuch of that. We have many Zed CC followers in this country and they would be, well, aggravated if they saw us criticizing their brothers in South Africa when they themselves are blameless, you see. So it would be very much the best not to make such a comparison.”

“They are tiresome,” Themba said.

“I know, but they must not see us attacking them. This is what we must do, remember. We try to enlighten about beliefs, but we must let the holders of those beliefs see for themselves what our criticism means about their churches, you see? Do you see what I mean? And as to taking one denomination and saying you are particularly in error… no.” Morel was being very deliberate.

Themba said, “Still, it is true. They are tiresome. They will listen to you less than anyone else, and when you finish they say if you only will drink salt water you will change and see God. This is what they stated to me, rra.”

“Proceed, Themba.”

Themba said, “The worst were the daggermen.”

“Who were called… by what other names?”

“Sicarii.”

“Yes, and they were called Zealots, also. And they, the daggermen, would assassinate not only Romans but Jews as well… Jews who were helping the Romans…”

Themba said, “And those men were for war against the Romans and they would say that when the Jews made an uprising, at that time God would come down as with Joshua and give them the victory over the Romans.”

“And what ways were some other Jews proposing for bringing divine intervention?”

“Ehe… at the Dead Sea lived some Jews in caves. Essenes they were named.”

“Well, no, rra… They lived in camps, and in regular buildings as well. Their writings were found in caves where they had been hidden, found only in recent years, you remember.”

“Yes, rra. And these Essenes were quite fools, who said if only they might become as clean as angels, God could come. The Zealots believed war would bring God, the Essenes believed cleanliness would bring God. Every rule of cleanliness these men would observe many times over, as to washing and putting women to the side. And in their thoughts they would be pure. As well they would be training as an army at the ready, to join with the angel- army God was sure to send when at last they have become clean enough. And so the Romans would be thrown down. So this way was through cleanliness…”

“Okay, good. But I don’t think we want to call any particular groups we discuss fools, do we?”

“But rra, they are long dead. There are none to offend.”

“Just the same, Themba. It’s best to avoid those words.”

“Yes, for fear they will give offense at times. My word, I would not do it. But here we are free, isn’t it?”

“Within these walls, yes. But we must train ourselves here to be always prudent. So. Now. So far we have violence and purity. What other means did Jewish believers propose to bring God to intervene on earth?”

Themba said, “So we come up to the followers of John the Baptist, who is stating God will come only if many Jews repent of past sins.”

“And, if you remember, there was a name for this repentance.”

“It is…”

“You may consult your study cards. And Themba, as I recommended to you, the best place to keep your study cards is in your Bible, as bookmarks, your Bible, which you will be consulting in any case. And that way you avoid having to search your pockets for them. And then as you search out things in the Bible you pass your eyes over this material and are helped to retain it.”

“Ke itumetse, rra. I will do that. And when you repent it is called teshuvah. Teshuvah is saying sorry. And Jesus was for a time following John the Baptist. And it is teshuvah when you are pushed into the water and washed, when you are baptized. But in fact, there was no coming down of God from all these teshuvahs of John the Baptist, and time was passing by. And so Jesus turned away from John. He was impatient. And then the king put John the Baptist to death, so as to teshuvah, it was the end.”

“And then what did Jesus do?”

“Jesus said if you cannot summon God down by means of war—although these daggermen were still raising up from time to time, if you cannot summon God by washing and bathing, and if you cannot summon God by