Urantia Book Paper 122 Birth And Infancy Of Jesus

Urantia Book Paper 122 Birth And Infancy Of Jesus
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Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings
of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal
Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of
Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus'
Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's
Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John
The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The
Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning
The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And
In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of
Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The
Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The
Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last
Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And
Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour
Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles
Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean
Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The
Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way
To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem ...
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Paper 122 Birth And Infancy Of Jesus

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Introduction

IT WILL hardly be possible fully to explain the many reasons which led to the
selection of Palestine as the land for Michael's bestowal, and especially as to
just why the family of Joseph and Mary should have been chosen as the immediate
setting for the appearance of this Son of God on Urantia.

After a study of the special report on the status of segregated worlds prepared
by the Melchizedeks, in counsel with Gabriel, Michael finally chose Urantia as
the planet whereon to enact his final bestowal. Subsequent to this decision
Gabriel made a personal visit to Urantia, and, as a result of his study of
human groups and his survey of the spiritual, intellectual, racial, and
geographic features of the world and its peoples, he decided that the Hebrews
possessed those relative advantages which warranted their selection as the
bestowal race. Upon Michael's approval of this decision, Gabriel appointed and
dispatched to Urantia the Family Commission of Twelve--selected from among the
higher orders of universe personalities--which was intrusted with the task of
making an investigation of Jewish family life. When this commission ended its
labors, Gabriel was present on Urantia and received the report nominating three
prospective unions as being, in the opinion of the commission, equally
favorable as bestowal families for Michael's projected incarnation.

From the three couples nominated, Gabriel made the personal choice of Joseph
and Mary, subsequently making his personal appearance to Mary, at which time he
imparted to her the glad tidings that she had been selected to become the earth
mother of the bestowal child.

1. JOSEPH AND MARY

Joseph, the human father of Jesus (Joshua ben Joseph), was a Hebrew of the
Hebrews, albeit he carried many non-Jewish racial strains which had been added
to his ancestral tree from time to time by the female lines of his progenitors.
The ancestry of the father of Jesus went back to the days of Abraham and
through this venerable patriarch to the earlier lines of inheritance leading to
the Sumerians and Nodites and, through the southern tribes of the ancient blue
man, to Andon and Fonta. David and Solomon were not in the direct line of
Joseph's ancestry, neither did Joseph's lineage go directly back to Adam.
Joseph's immediate ancestors were mechanics--builders, carpenters, masons, and
smiths. Joseph himself was a carpenter and later a contractor. His family
belonged to a long and illustrious line of the nobility of the common people,
accentuated ever and anon by the appearance of unusual individuals who had
distinguished themselves in connection with the evolution of religion on
Urantia.

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Mary, the earth mother of Jesus, was a descendant of a long line of unique
ancestors embracing many of the most remarkable women in the racial history of
Urantia. Although Mary was an average woman of her day and generation,
possessing a fairly normal temperament, she reckoned among her ancestors such
well-known women as Annon, Tamar, Ruth, Bathsheba, Ansie, Cloa, Eve, Enta, and
Ratta. No Jewish woman of that day had a more illustrious lineage of common
progenitors or one extending back to more auspicious beginnings. Mary's
ancestry, like Joseph's, was characterized by the predominance of strong but
average individuals, relieved now and then by numerous outstanding
personalities in the march of civilization and the progressive evolution of
religion. Racially considered, it is hardly proper to regard Mary as a Jewess.
In culture and belief she was a Jew, but in hereditary endowment she was more a
composite of Syrian, Hittite, Phoenician, Greek, and Egyptian stocks, her
racial inheritance being more general than that of Joseph.

Of all couples living in Palestine at about the time of Michael's projected
bestowal, Joseph and Mary possessed the most ideal combination of widespread
racial connections and superior average of personality endowments. It was the
plan of Michael to appear on earth as an average man, that the common people
might understand him and receive him; wherefore Gabriel selected just such
persons as Joseph and Mary to become the bestowal parents.

2. GABRIEL APPEARS TO ELIZABETH

Jesus' lifework on Urantia was really begun by John the Baptist. Zacharias,
John's father, belonged to the Jewish priesthood, while his mother, Elizabeth,
was a member of the more prosperous branch of the same large family group to
which Mary the mother of Jesus also belonged. Zacharias and Elizabeth, though
they had been married many years, were childless.

It was late in the month of June, 8 B.C., about three months after the marriage
of Joseph and Mary, that Gabriel appeared to Elizabeth at noontide one day,
just as he later made his presence known to Mary. Said Gabriel:

"While your husband, Zacharias, stands before the altar in Jerusalem, and while
the assembled people pray for the coming of a deliverer, I, Gabriel, have come
to announce that you will shortly bear a son who shall be the forerunner of
this divine teacher, and you shall call your son John. He will grow up
dedicated to the Lord your God, and when he has come to full years, he will
gladden your heart because he will turn many souls to God, and he will also
proclaim the coming of the soul-healer of your people and the spirit-liberator
of all mankind. Your kinswoman Mary shall be the mother of this child of
promise, and I will also appear to her."

This vision greatly frightened Elizabeth. After Gabriel's departure she turned
this experience over in her mind, long pondering the sayings of the majestic
visitor, but did not speak of the revelation to anyone save her husband until
her subsequent visit with Mary in early February of the following year.

For five months, however, Elizabeth withheld her secret even from her husband.
Upon her disclosure of the story of Gabriel's visit, Zacharias was very
skeptical and for weeks doubted the entire experience, only consenting
halfheartedly to believe in Gabriel's visit to his wife when he could no longer
question that she was expectant with child. Zacharias was very much perplexed
re-

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garding the prospective motherhood of Elizabeth, but he did not doubt the
integrity of his wife, notwithstanding his own advanced age. It was not until
about six weeks before John's birth that Zacharias, as the result of an
impressive dream, became fully convinced that Elizabeth was to become the
mother of a son of destiny, one who was to prepare the way for the coming of
the Messiah.

Gabriel appeared to Mary about the middle of November, 8 B.C., while she was at
work in her Nazareth home. Later on, after Mary knew without doubt that she was
to become a mother, she persuaded Joseph to let her journey to the City of
Judah, four miles west of Jerusalem, in the hills, to visit Elizabeth. Gabriel
had informed each of these mothers-to-be of his appearance to the other.
Naturally they were anxious to get together, compare experiences, and talk over
the probable futures of their sons. Mary remained with her distant cousin for
three weeks. Elizabeth did much to strengthen Mary's faith in the vision of
Gabriel, so that she returned home more fully dedicated to the call to mother
the child of destiny whom she was so soon to present to the world as a helpless
babe, an average and normal infant of the realm.

John was born in the City of Judah, March 25, 7 B.C. Zacharias and Elizabeth
rejoiced greatly in the realization that a son had come to them as Gabriel had
promised, and when on the eighth day they presented the child for circumcision,
they formally christened him John, as they had been directed aforetime. Already
had a nephew of Zacharias departed for Nazareth, carrying the message of
Elizabeth to Mary proclaiming that a son had been born to her and that his name
was to be John.

From his earliest infancy John was judiciously impressed by his parents with
the idea that he was to grow up to become a spiritual leader and religious
teacher. And the soil of John's heart was ever responsive to the sowing of such
suggestive seeds. Even as a child he was found frequently at the temple during
the seasons of his father's service, and he was tremendously impressed with the
significance of all that he saw.

3. GABRIEL'S ANNOUNCEMENT TO MARY

One evening about sundown, before Joseph had returned home, Gabriel appeared to
Mary by the side of a low stone table and, after she had recovered her
composure, said: "I come at the bidding of one who is my Master and whom you
shall love and nurture. To you, Mary, I bring glad tidings when I announce that
the conception within you is ordained by heaven, and that in due time you will
become the mother of a son; you shall call him Joshua, and he shall inaugurate
the kingdom of heaven on earth and among men. Speak not of this matter save to
Joseph and to Elizabeth, your kinswoman, to whom I have also appeared, and who
shall presently also bear a son, whose name shall be John, and who will prepare
the way for the message of deliverance which your son shall proclaim to men
with great power and deep conviction. And doubt not my word, Mary, for this
home has been chosen as the mortal habitat of the child of destiny. My
benediction rests upon you, the power of the Most Highs will strengthen you,
and the Lord of all the earth shall overshadow you."

Mary pondered this visitation secretly in her heart for many weeks until of a
certainty she knew she was with child, before she dared to disclose these un-

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usual events to her husband. When Joseph heard all about this, although he had
great confidence in Mary, he was much troubled and could not sleep for many
nights. At first Joseph had doubts about the Gabriel visitation. Then when he
became well-nigh persuaded that Mary had really heard the voice and beheld the
form of the divine messenger, he was torn in mind as he pondered how such
things could be. How could the offspring of human beings be a child of divine
destiny? Never could Joseph reconcile these conflicting ideas until, after
several weeks of thought, both he and Mary reached the conclusion that they had
been chosen to become the parents of the Messiah, though it had hardly been the
Jewish concept that the expected deliverer was to be of divine nature. Upon
arriving at this momentous conclusion, Mary hastened to depart for a visit with
Elizabeth.

Upon her return, Mary went to visit her parents, Joachim and Hannah. Her two
brothers and two sisters, as well as her parents, were always very skeptical
about the divine mission of Jesus, though, of course, at this time they knew
nothing of the Gabriel visitation. But Mary did confide to her sister Salome
that she thought her son was destined to become a great teacher.

Gabriel's announcement to Mary was made the day following the conception of
Jesus and was the only event of supernatural occurrence connected with her
entire experience of carrying and bearing the child of promise.

4. JOSEPH'S DREAM

Joseph did not become reconciled to the idea that Mary was to become the mother
of an extraordinary child until after he had experienced a very impressive
dream. In this dream a brilliant celestial messenger appeared to him and, among
other things, said: "Joseph, I appear by command of Him who now reigns on high,
and I am directed to instruct you concerning the son whom Mary shall bear, and
who shall become a great light in the world. In him will be life, and his life
shall become the light of mankind. He shall first come to his own people, but
they will hardly receive him; but to as many as shall receive him to them will
he reveal that they are the children of God." After this experience Joseph
never again wholly doubted Mary's story of Gabriel's visit and of the promise
that the unborn child was to become a divine messenger to the world.

In all these visitations nothing was said about the house of David. Nothing was
ever intimated about Jesus' becoming a "deliverer of the Jews," not even that
he was to be the long-expected Messiah. Jesus was not such a Messiah as the
Jews had anticipated, but he was the world's deliverer. His mission was to all
races and peoples, not to any one group.

Joseph was not of the line of King David. Mary had more of the Davidic ancestry
than Joseph. True, Joseph did go to the City of David, Bethlehem, to be
registered for the Roman census, but that was because, six generations
previously, Joseph's paternal ancestor of that generation, being an orphan, was
adopted by one Zadoc, who was a direct descendant of David; hence was Joseph
also accounted as of the "house of David."

Most of the so-called Messianic prophecies of the Old Testament were made to
apply to Jesus long after his life had been lived on earth. For centuries the
Hebrew prophets had proclaimed the coming of a deliverer, and these promises
had been construed by successive generations as referring to a new Jewish ruler
who would sit upon the throne of David and, by the reputed miraculous methods

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of Moses, proceed to establish the Jews in Palestine as a powerful nation, free
from all foreign domination. Again, many figurative passages found throughout
the Hebrew scriptures were subsequently misapplied to the life mission of
Jesus. Many Old Testament sayings were so distorted as to appear to fit some
episode of the Master's earth life. Jesus himself onetime publicly denied any
connection with the royal house of David. Even the passage, "a maiden shall
bear a son," was made to read, "a virgin shall bear a son." This was also true
of the many genealogies of both Joseph and Mary which were constructed
subsequent to Michael's career on earth. Many of these lineages contain much of
the Master's ancestry, but on the whole they are not genuine and may not be
depended upon as factual. The early followers of Jesus all too often succumbed
to the temptation to make all the olden prophetic utterances appear to find
fulfillment in the life of their Lord and Master.

5. JESUS' EARTH PARENTS

Joseph was a mild-mannered man, extremely conscientious, and in every way
faithful to the religious conventions and practices of his people. He talked
little but thought much. The sorry plight of the Jewish people caused Joseph
much sadness. As a youth, among his eight brothers and sisters, he had been
more cheerful, but in the earlier years of married life (during Jesus'
childhood) he was subject to periods of mild spiritual discouragement. These
temperamental manifestations were greatly improved just before his untimely
death and after the economic condition of his family had been enhanced by his
advancement from the rank of carpenter to the role of a prosperous contractor.

Mary's temperament was quite opposite to that of her husband. She was usually
cheerful, was very rarely downcast, and possessed an ever-sunny disposition.
Mary indulged in free and frequent expression of her emotional feelings and was
never observed to be sorrowful until after the sudden death of Joseph. And she
had hardly recovered from this shock when she had thrust upon her the anxieties
and questionings aroused by the extraordinary career of her eldest son, which
was so rapidly unfolding before her astonished gaze. But throughout all this
unusual experience Mary was composed, courageous, and fairly wise in her
relationship with her strange and little-understood first-born son and his
surviving brothers and sisters.

Jesus derived much of his unusual gentleness and marvelous sympathetic
understanding of human nature from his father; he inherited his gift as a great
teacher and his tremendous capacity for righteous indignation from his mother.
In emotional reactions to his adult-life environment, Jesus was at one time
like his father, meditative and worshipful, sometimes characterized by apparent
sadness; but more often he drove forward in the manner of his mother's
optimistic and determined disposition. All in all, Mary's temperament tended to
dominate the career of the divine Son as he grew up and swung into the
momentous strides of his adult life. In some particulars Jesus was a blending
of his parents' traits; in other respects he exhibited the traits of one in
contrast with those of the other.

From Joseph Jesus secured his strict training in the usages of the Jewish
ceremonials and his unusual acquaintance with the Hebrew scriptures; from Mary
he derived a broader viewpoint of religious life and a more liberal concept of
personal spiritual freedom.

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The families of both Joseph and Mary were well educated for their time. Joseph
and Mary were educated far above the average for their day and station in life.
He was a thinker; she was a planner, expert in adaptation and practical in
immediate execution. Joseph was a black-eyed brunet; Mary, a brown-eyed
well-nigh blond type.

Had Joseph lived, he undoubtedly would have become a firm believer in the
divine mission of his eldest son. Mary alternated between believing and
doubting, being greatly influenced by the position taken by her other children
and by her friends and relatives, but always was she steadied in her final
attitude by the memory of Gabriel's appearance to her immediately after the
child was conceived.

Mary was an expert weaver and more than averagely skilled in most of the
household arts of that day; she was a good housekeeper and a superior
homemaker. Both Joseph and Mary were good teachers, and they saw to it that
their children were well versed in the learning of that day.

When Joseph was a young man, he was employed by Mary's father in the work of
building an addition to his house, and it was when Mary brought Joseph a cup of
water, during a noontime meal, that the courtship of the pair who were destined
to become the parents of Jesus really began.

Joseph and Mary were married, in accordance with Jewish custom, at Mary's home
in the environs of Nazareth when Joseph was twenty-one years old. This marriage
concluded a normal courtship of almost two years' duration. Shortly thereafter
they moved into their new home in Nazareth, which had been built by Joseph with
the assistance of two of his brothers. The house was located near the foot of
the near-by elevated land which so charmingly overlooked the surrounding
countryside. In this home, especially prepared, these young and expectant
parents had thought to welcome the child of promise, little realizing that this
momentous event of a universe was to transpire while they would be absent from
home in Bethlehem of Judea.

The larger part of Joseph's family became believers in the teachings of Jesus,
but very few of Mary's people ever believed in him until after he departed from
this world. Joseph leaned more toward the spiritual concept of the expected
Messiah, but Mary and her family, especially her father, held to the idea of
the Messiah as a temporal deliverer and political ruler. Mary's ancestors had
been prominently identified with the Maccabean activities of the then but
recent times.

Joseph held vigorously to the Eastern, or Babylonian, views of the Jewish
religion; Mary leaned strongly toward the more liberal and broader Western, or
Hellenistic, interpretation of the law and the prophets.

6. THE HOME AT NAZARETH

The home of Jesus was not far from the high hill in the northerly part of
Nazareth, some distance from the village spring, which was in the eastern
section of the town. Jesus' family dwelt in the outskirts of the city, and this
made it all the easier for him subsequently to enjoy frequent strolls in the
country and to make trips up to the top of this near-by highland, the highest
of all the hills of southern Galilee save the Mount Tabor range to the east and
the hill of Nain,

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which was about the same height. Their home was located a little to the south
and east of the southern promontory of this hill and about midway between the
base of this elevation and the road leading out of Nazareth toward Cana. Aside
from climbing the hill, Jesus' favorite stroll was to follow a narrow trail
winding about the base of the hill in a northeasterly direction to a point
where it joined the road to Sepphoris.

The home of Joseph and Mary was a one-room stone structure with a flat roof and
an adjoining building for housing the animals. The furniture consisted of a low
stone table, earthenware and stone dishes and pots, a loom, a lampstand,
several small stools, and mats for sleeping on the stone floor. In the back
yard, near the animal annex, was the shelter which covered the oven and the
mill for grinding grain. It required two persons to operate this type of mill,
one to grind and another to feed the grain. As a small boy Jesus often fed
grain to this mill while his mother turned the grinder.

In later years, as the family grew in size, they would all squat about the
enlarged stone table to enjoy their meals, helping themselves from a common
dish, or pot, of food. During the winter, at the evening meal the table would
be lighted by a small, flat clay lamp, which was filled with olive oil. After
the birth of Martha, Joseph built an addition to this house, a large room,
which was used as a carpenter shop during the day and as a sleeping room at
night.

7. THE TRIP TO BETHLEHEM

In the month of March, 8 B.C. (the month Joseph and Mary were married), Caesar
Augustus decreed that all inhabitants of the Roman Empire should be numbered,
that a census should be made which could be used for effecting better taxation.
The Jews had always been greatly prejudiced against any attempt to "number the
people," and this, in connection with the serious domestic difficulties of
Herod, King of Judea, had conspired to cause the postponement of the taking of
this census in the Jewish kingdom for one year. Throughout all the Roman Empire
this census was registered in the year 8 B.C., except in the Palestinian
kingdom of Herod, where it was taken in 7 B.C., one year later.

It was not necessary that Mary should go to Bethlehem for enrollment--Joseph
was authorized to register for his family--but Mary, being an adventurous and
aggressive person, insisted on accompanying him. She feared being left alone
lest the child be born while Joseph was away, and again, Bethlehem being not
far from the City of Judah, Mary foresaw a possible pleasurable visit with her
kinswoman Elizabeth.

Joseph virtually forbade Mary to accompany him, but it was of no avail; when
the food was packed for the trip of three or four days, she prepared double
rations and made ready for the journey. But before they actually set forth,
Joseph was reconciled to Mary's going along, and they cheerfully departed from
Nazareth at the break of day.

Joseph and Mary were poor, and since they had only one beast of burden, Mary,
being large with child, rode on the animal with the provisions while Joseph
walked, leading the beast. The building and furnishing of a home had been a
great drain on Joseph since he had also to contribute to the support of his
parents, as his father had been recently disabled. And so this Jewish couple
went forth from their humble home early on the morning of August 18, 7 B.C., on
their journey to Bethlehem.

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Their first day of travel carried them around the foothills of Mount Gilboa,
where they camped for the night by the river Jordan and engaged in many
speculations as to what sort of a son would be born to them, Joseph adhering to
the concept of a spiritual teacher and Mary holding to the idea of a Jewish

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Messiah, a deliverer of the Hebrew nation.

Bright and early the morning of August 19, Joseph and Mary were again on their
way. They partook of their noontide meal at the foot of Mount Sartaba,
overlooking the Jordan valley, and journeyed on, making Jericho for the night,
where they stopped at an inn on the highway in the outskirts of the city.
Following the evening meal and after much discussion concerning the
oppressiveness of Roman rule, Herod, the census enrollment, and the comparative
influence of Jerusalem and Alexandria as centers of Jewish learning and
culture, the Nazareth travelers retired for the night's rest. Early in the
morning of August 20 they resumed their journey, reaching Jerusalem before
noon, visiting the temple, and going on to their destination, arriving at
Bethlehem in midafternoon.

The inn was overcrowded, and Joseph accordingly sought lodgings with distant
relatives, but every room in Bethlehem was filled to overflowing. On returning
to the courtyard of the inn, he was informed that the caravan stables, hewn out
of the side of the rock and situated just below the inn, had been cleared of
animals and cleaned up for the reception of lodgers. Leaving the donkey in the
courtyard, Joseph shouldered their bags of clothing and provisions and with
Mary descended the stone steps to their lodgings below. They found themselves
located in what had been a grain storage room to the front of the stalls and
mangers. Tent curtains had been hung, and they counted themselves fortunate to
have such comfortable quarters.

Joseph had thought to go out at once and enroll, but Mary was weary; she was
considerably distressed and besought him to remain by her side, which he did.

8. THE BIRTH OF JESUS

All that night Mary was restless so that neither of them slept much. By the
break of day the pangs of childbirth were well in evidence, and at noon, August
21, 7 B.C., with the help and kind ministrations of women fellow travelers,
Mary was delivered of a male child. Jesus of Nazareth was born into the world,
was wrapped in the clothes which Mary had brought along for such a possible
contingency, and laid in a near-by manger.

In just the same manner as all babies before that day and since have come into
the world, the promised child was born; and on the eighth day, according to the
Jewish practice, he was circumcised and formally named Joshua (Jesus).

The next day after the birth of Jesus, Joseph made his enrollment. Meeting a
man they had talked with two nights previously at Jericho, Joseph was taken by
him to a well-to-do friend who had a room at the inn, and who said he would
gladly exchange quarters with the Nazareth couple. That afternoon they moved up
to the inn, where they lived for almost three weeks until they found lodgings
in the home of a distant relative of Joseph.

The second day after the birth of Jesus, Mary sent word to Elizabeth that her
child had come and received word in return inviting Joseph up to Jerusalem to
talk over all their affairs with Zacharias. The following week Joseph went to
Jerusalem to confer with Zacharias. Both Zacharias and Elizabeth had become
possessed with the sincere conviction that Jesus was indeed to become the
Jewish deliverer, the Messiah, and that their son John was to be his chief of
aides, his right-hand man of destiny. And since Mary held these same ideas, it
was not difficult to prevail upon Joseph to remain in Bethlehem, the City of
David, so that Jesus might grow up to become the successor of David on the
throne of all Israel. Accordingly, they remained in Bethlehem more than a year,
Joseph meantime working some at his carpenter's trade.

At the noontide birth of Jesus the seraphim of Urantia, assembled under their
directors, did sing anthems of glory over the Bethlehem manger, but these
utterances of praise were not heard by human ears. No shepherds nor any other
mortal creatures came to pay homage to the babe of Bethlehem until the day of
the arrival of certain priests from Ur, who were sent down from Jerusalem by
Zacharias.

These priests from Mesopotamia had been told sometime before by a strange
religious teacher of their country that he had had a dream in which he was
informed that "the light of life" was about to appear on earth as a babe and
among the Jews. And thither went these three teachers looking for this "light
of life." After many weeks of futile search in Jerusalem, they were about to
return to Ur when Zacharias met them and disclosed his belief that Jesus was
the object of their quest and sent them on to Bethlehem, where they found the
babe and left their gifts with Mary, his earth mother. The babe was almost
three weeks old at the time of their visit.

These wise men saw no star to guide them to Bethlehem. The beautiful legend of
the star of Bethlehem originated in this way: Jesus was born August 21 at noon,
7 B.C. On May 29, 7 B.C., there occurred an extraordinary conjunction of
Jupiter and Saturn in the constellation of Pisces. And it is a remarkable
astronomic fact that similar conjunctions occurred on September 29 and December
5 of the same year. Upon the basis of these extraordinary but wholly natural
events the well-meaning zealots of the succeeding generation constructed the
appealing legend of the star of Bethlehem and the adoring Magi led thereby to
the manger, where they beheld and worshiped the newborn babe. Oriental and
near-Oriental minds delight in fairy stories, and they are continually spinning
such beautiful myths about the lives of their religious leaders and political
heroes. In the absence of printing, when most human knowledge was passed by
word of mouth from one generation to another, it was very easy for myths to
become traditions and for traditions eventually to become accepted as facts.

9. THE PRESENTATION IN THE TEMPLE

Moses had taught the Jews that every first-born son belonged to the Lord, and
that, in lieu of his sacrifice as was the custom among the heathen nations,
such a son might live provided his parents would redeem him by the payment of
five shekels to any authorized priest. There was also a Mosaic ordinance which
directed that a mother, after the passing of a certain period of time, should
present herself (or have someone make the proper sacrifice for her) at the
temple for purification. It was customary to perform both of these ceremonies
at the same time. Accordingly, Joseph and Mary went up to the temple at
Jerusalem in person to present Jesus to the priests and effect his redemption
and also to make the proper sacrifice to insure Mary's ceremonial purification
from the alleged uncleanness of childbirth.

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There lingered constantly about the courts of the temple two remarkable
characters, Simeon a singer and Anna a poetess. Simeon was a Judean, but Anna
was a Galilean. This couple were frequently in each other's company, and both
were intimates of the priest Zacharias, who had confided the secret of John and
Jesus to them. Both Simeon and Anna longed for the coming of the Messiah, and
their confidence in Zacharias led them to believe that Jesus was the expected
deliverer of the Jewish people.

Zacharias knew the day Joseph and Mary were expected to appear at the temple
with Jesus, and he had prearranged with Simeon and Anna to indicate, by the
salute of his upraised hand, which one in the procession of first-born children
was Jesus.

For this occasion Anna had written a poem which Simeon proceeded to sing, much
to the astonishment of Joseph, Mary, and all who were assembled in the temple
courts. And this was their hymn of the redemption of the first-born son:

Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,

For he has visited us and wrought redemption for his people;

He has raised up a horn of salvation for all of us

In the house of his servant David.

Even as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets--

Salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us;

To show mercy to our fathers, and remember his holy covenant--

The oath which he swore to Abraham our father,

To grant us that we, being delivered out of the hand of our enemies,

Should serve him without fear,

In holiness and righteousness before him all our days.

Yes, and you, child of promise, shall be called the prophet of the Most
High;

For you shall go before the face of the Lord to establish his kingdom;

To give knowledge of salvation to his people

In the remission of their sins.

Rejoice in the tender mercy of our God because the dayspring from on high
has now visited us

To shine upon those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death;

To guide our feet into ways of peace.

And now let your servant depart in peace, O Lord, according to your word,

For my eyes have seen your salvation,

Which you have prepared before the face of all peoples;

A light for even the unveiling of the gentiles

And the glory of your people Israel.

On the way back to Bethlehem, Joseph and Mary were silent--confused and
overawed. Mary was much disturbed by the farewell salutation of Anna, the aged
poetess, and Joseph was not in harmony with this premature effort to make Jesus
out to be the expected Messiah of the Jewish people.

10. HEROD ACTS

But the watchers for Herod were not inactive. When they reported to him the
visit of the priests of Ur to Bethlehem, Herod summoned these Chaldeans to ap-

top of page - 1354

pear before him. He inquired diligently of these wise men about the new "king
of the Jews," but they gave him little satisfaction, explaining that the babe
had been born of a woman who had come down to Bethlehem with her husband for
the census enrollment. Herod, not being satisfied with this answer, sent them
forth with a purse and directed that they should find the child so that he too
might come and worship him, since they had declared that his kingdom was to be
spiritual, not temporal. But when the wise men did not return, Herod grew
suspicious. As he turned these things over in his mind, his informers returned
and made full report of the recent occurrences in the temple, bringing him a
copy of parts of the Simeon song which had been sung at the redemption
ceremonies of Jesus. But they had failed to follow Joseph and Mary, and Herod
was very angry with them when they could not tell him whither the pair had
taken the babe. He then dispatched searchers to locate Joseph and Mary. Knowing
Herod pursued the Nazareth family, Zacharias and Elizabeth remained away from
Bethlehem. The boy baby was secreted with Joseph's relatives.

Joseph was afraid to seek work, and their small savings were rapidly
disappearing. Even at the time of the purification ceremonies at the temple,
Joseph deemed himself sufficiently poor to warrant his offering for Mary two
young pigeons as Moses had directed for the purification of mothers among the
poor.

When, after more than a year of searching, Herod's spies had not located Jesus,
and because of the suspicion that the babe was still concealed in Bethlehem, he
prepared an order directing that a systematic search be made of every house in
Bethlehem, and that all boy babies under two years of age should be killed. In
this manner Herod hoped to make sure that this child who was to become "king of
the Jews" would be destroyed. And thus perished in one day sixteen boy babies
in Bethlehem of Judea. But intrigue and murder, even in his own immediate
family, were common occurrences at the court of Herod.

top of page - 1355

The massacre of these infants took place about the middle of October, 6 B.C.,
when Jesus was a little over one year of age. But there were believers in the
coming Messiah even among Herod's court attaches, and one of these, learning of
the order to slaughter the Bethlehem boy babies, communicated with Zacharias,
who in turn dispatched a messenger to Joseph; and the night before the massacre
Joseph and Mary departed from Bethlehem with the babe for Alexandria in Egypt.
In order to avoid attracting attention, they journeyed alone to Egypt with
Jesus. They went to Alexandria on funds provided by Zacharias, and there Joseph
worked at his trade while Mary and Jesus lodged with well-to-do relatives of
Joseph's family. They sojourned in Alexandria two full years, not returning to
Bethlehem until after the death of Herod.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings
of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal
Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of
Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus'
Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's
Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John
The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The
Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning
The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And
In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of
Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The
Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The
Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last
Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And
Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour
Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles
Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean
Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The
Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way
To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The
Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The
Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final
Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before
The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The
Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus
Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final
Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The
Faith Of Jesus

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