© 2015 Demetrio Gómez
© 2015 Urantia Association of Spain
[Presentation given at the XIV Meeting of Urantia Book Readers in Spain, April 30–May 3, 2015]
[Note: Due to the length of this article, it has also appeared in a condensed version in the magazine “Luz y Vida.” You can read it here.]
In the first century CE, Yahshua ben Yosef, the carpenter from Nazareth, spent part of his 28th year and all of his 29th year traveling across almost the entire Mediterranean basin of the Roman Empire. This was a fascinating period of his life. Possibly the most captivating adventure of his human experience. And for many reasons, at that time, he was known as “THE SCRIBE OF DAMASCUS.”
Yahshua ben Yosef worked as a shipwright in a shipyard in Capernaum with the shipwright, Zebedee, until he left him in March 22 CE to spend the Jewish Passover of that same year in Jerusalem. During the week of Passover, apparently by chance, he met a wealthy merchant from India and his son, a young man of about 17 years of age.
Since Yahshua spoke Greek well, in addition to Hebrew and Galilean Aramaic, and was quite good at the language spoken by Gonod and Ganid (as these rich travelers were called), they soon became friends, and Gonod asked Yahshua to accompany them, hiring him as a translator for their business dealings and, incidentally, as a tutor for the boy. Gonod immediately realized that he had hired a valuable and cultured teacher.
Yahshua had learned the rudiments of the language spoken by Gonod and Ganid when He had been in Damascus for four months, working with the aid of a native of the region where Gonod and Ganid lived, translating from Greek into one of the languages of India. [UB 128:4.1] [UB 132:0.3]
The main purpose of such a long journey was to meet people of the world directly in their own countries. He met many men and women: rich, poor, powerful, humble, slaves, religious, atheists, philosophers, and many others. All of this was before the ministry of public life. [UB 129:3.8]
They left Jerusalem on Sunday morning, April 26, 22 CE. The journey took 19 months and 14 days.
From Jerusalem they headed to Caesarea, the capital of Palestine, stopping in Joppa. In Caesarea, they boarded a ship for Alexandria. From Alexandria, they sailed to Lasea on the island of Crete. From Crete, they continued by sea to Carthage, stopping in Cyrene. In Carthage, they took another ship to Naples, stopping in Malta, Syracuse, and Messina. From Naples, they went to Capua, and from there they traveled along the Appian Way to Rome (the first part of the journey).
Young Ganid learned a lot from his tutor, as he observed how, at every opportunity, he made friends with the people he met along the way. His teacher also learned a lot about Indian civilization and culture from Gonod and Ganid.
During their stop in Joppa, they became friends with a young Philistine truth-seeker, and since the Master was a truth-giver, one day after supper the young Philistine, not knowing that this “scribe of Damascus” was well-versed in Hebrew culture, asked him: “Do you really believe that the great fish swallowed Jonah?” UB 130:1.2.
“My friend,” the scribe replied, “we are all sometimes like Jonah, with a life to live according to the will of God. Whenever we try to evade the duty of daily life in pursuit of distant temptations, we place ourselves under the sway of influences that are not directed by the power of truth or the force of righteousness. To flee from duty is to sacrifice truth. To flee from the duty of serving light and life can only lead to those agonizing conflicts with the dread whales of selfishness; which ultimately lead to the darkness of death.”
“Unless those Jonasses who forsake God, even in the depths of despair, desire to turn their hearts to seek God and His goodness with a hunger for truth and a thirst for righteousness, nothing can hold them any longer in their captivity. No matter how deep the abysses into which they may have fallen, when they seek the light with all their hearts, the spirit of the Lord God of heaven frees them from their chains. The tribulations of life cast them down to the firm ground of new opportunities for renewed service and a wiser life.”
This wasn’t all Gadiah (for that was the young Philistine’s name) wanted to know, so he continued talking with the kind Hebrew scribe. The young man, like many people today, wondered: Why does God, if He is so infinitely good, allow evil and injustice? How can He allow us to suffer so much pain because of evil? I can imagine the kind look on the scribe’s face as he answered this question. UB 130:1.5-6
“My brother: God is love, therefore he must be good, and his goodness is so great that it cannot contain the unreal things of evil… Evil is the immature and thoughtless choice of those who resist goodness, and reject the beauty of good and betray the truth… Evil is the inevitable darkness that closely follows the reckless rejection of light. Evil is falsehood and darkness; when one consciously chooses to do evil and voluntarily approves of it, it becomes sin.”
“By giving you the power to choose between the truth of good and the error of evil, your Heavenly Father has created the negative potential of the positive path of light and life; the errors of evil do not exist until an intelligent creature wills them to exist… That is why our Heavenly Father in heaven allows good and evil to grow together until the end of life, just as nature allows wheat and tares to grow together until the harvest.”
¶ In Caesarean section
When our traveling friends arrived in Caesarea, they had to stay there longer than they had anticipated because one of the large oars that served as the ship’s rudder was about to break, so the captain decided to replace it with a new one. Since there were no carpenters in Caesarea qualified to make such enormous oars, Yahshua, who was a good carpenter, offered to help with their making.
The afternoons were spent exploring the city. On the second afternoon, the three attended a performance in the enormous amphitheater, which could hold some 20,000 people. On the third day, they visited the governor’s royal palace.
A young Greek man, who was working as an assistant to the Master Carpenter in the making of the rudder-oar, when he heard him say that the Father in heaven is interested in the welfare of his children on earth, asked him: “If the gods care so much for me, why do they not remove this cruel and unjust taskmaster who runs this shop?” UB 130:2.4
The boy was greatly surprised when the Master Carpenter retorted: “Since you know the ways of goodness and value justice, perhaps the Gods have placed this misguided man here so that you can guide him to a better path. As things stand, this man dominates you because his ill-treatment influences you unfavorably. Perhaps you are the salt that can make this brother more agreeable, if you have not lost your savor. I can predict that the good in you could overcome the evil in him… This should be a challenge for you… Surely you are not a coward capable of standing on the seashore watching a fellow swimmer drown! How much more valuable is the soul of this man struggling in the darkness, compared to his body that is about to drown!”
Ganid noticed that his Master spent much of his free time talking and interacting with the people he met. The young Indian decided to find out the reason for his tutor’s behavior in this way, so he asked him directly: “Master, why do you constantly talk to strangers?” To which the Master replied: “Ganid, no man is a stranger to him who knows God. In the experience of meeting the Father in heaven, you discover that all men are your brothers, and is it not natural for one to feel joyful when they meet a new brother? To meet our brothers and sisters, to understand their problems and to learn to love them, is the supreme experience of life.” UB 130:2.6
That afternoon they had enjoyed playing with a very intelligent sheepdog, and Ganid wanted to know if the dog had a soul. The Master told him: “The dog has a mind that can know man, its owner, but it cannot know God because God is spirit. Thus, the dog does not possess a spiritual nature, and therefore it cannot enjoy a spiritual experience… The mind of the dog is not a reflecting mind. The possession of the power to discriminate the meanings of spiritual and eternal values… the power to choose truth, is what makes mortal man a rational moral being.” UB 130:2.8
That afternoon they talked well into the night, for the young man had also asked the Master to explain the difference between God’s will and the human act of choosing, also called willpower. In summary, Yahshua told him: God’s will is God’s way, choosing to associate with God over any potential alternative. In fact, doing God’s will is the progressive experience of becoming more and more like Him. God is the source and destination of all that is good, beautiful, and true. Doing God’s will is the deliberate choice of a self-conscious being, leading to a decision and even behavior based on intelligent reflection. The will of man is to do things and make decisions in his own way and manner. It is what a mortal chooses to be and do. Willpower is that manifestation of the human mind that allows subjective consciousness to express itself objectively and experience the phenomenon of aspiring to be like God.
¶ In Alexandria
The journey to Alexandria was very pleasant for the three of them. Ganid kept his tutor busy throughout the trip answering his questions. As they approached the city, the boy was thrilled to see the enormous lighthouse. It was not for nothing that it was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
Seeing the young man so moved, the Master said, “And you, my son, will resemble this beacon when you return to India, even when your Father rests in peace. You will be like the light of life to those around you in the darkness, showing all who desire it the safe path to reach the haven of salvation.” Shaking his master’s hand, Ganid said, “I will be.”
Four hours after disembarking, they were settled near the eastern end of the grand avenue, about thirty meters wide and eight kilometers long. Alexandria was a vast city of a million inhabitants, with many attractive sites to visit: the university museum, the library, the royal mausoleum, the palace, the Temple of Neptune, the theater, and the gymnasium.
Ganid went about his business while teacher and student went to the library, the largest in the world. This library contained nearly a million manuscripts from all civilized countries: Greece, Rome, Palestine, Parthia, India, China, and even Japan. Yahshua told Ganid that the Hebrew scriptures had been translated into Greek in this place (the Septugint).
Under the direction of his Master, Ganid compiled all the world’s religions that recognized a Universal Deity, although they were also able to admit other subordinate deities.
The university-museum was more of a university of fine arts, painting, sculpture, science, and literature. Learned professors gave daily lectures there. Day after day, the scribe from Damascus interpreted the lectures for Ganid. Suddenly, one day the young man exclaimed: “Teacher, you know more than all these professors put together. You should stand up and tell them the great things you have taught me. I think they are confused because they think too much. I will speak to my father to set this right.” Yeshua smiled and said to him:
“You are an admiring student, Ganid, but these masters are not willing to let you and I teach them anything. The pride of unspiritualized scholarship is a trap in human experience. The true teacher maintains his intellectual integrity by always remaining a student.”
The Master praised Ganid for many aspects of Greek philosophy and the doctrine of the Stoics, but impressed upon him the truth that these belief systems, as well as the imprecise teachings of some of Ganid’s compatriots, were only religions in the sense that they led men to find God and to enjoy the living experience of knowing the Eternal.
¶ The discourse on reality
One evening, before leaving Alexandria, they had a long conversation with one of the professors who gave lectures at the university. This professor was giving a lecture on the teachings of Plato. The scribe from Damascus acted as interpreter for the learned Greek teacher, adding nothing to or subtracting from what the professor had explained. Yeshua moderately approved of some of the theories about the material things of the world being vague reflections of invisible, but more substantial, spiritual realities. Nevertheless, he tried to lay a more solid foundation for the young man’s reflection.
The Master began a long discussion about reality. In short, he said:
The source of reality is Infinity. Finite material things are the space-time repercussions of the Paradise Archetype and the Universal Mind of the Eternal God. Causality exists in the physical world, self-consciousness exists in the intellectual world, and the progressive self exists in the spiritual world. These realities, projected on a universal scale, combined in eternal connection and experienced with perfect qualities and divine values, constitute the reality of the Supreme. The highest level that finite creatures can attain is the recognition of the Universal Father and the knowledge of the Supreme.
The creature can only be unified with the Creator through perfection, harmony, and unanimity of will. The desire to do the Father’s will must always be supreme in the soul and must dominate the mind of an ascending son of God. A causation devoid of mind cannot transform the simple rudimentary into refined and complex elements; nor can experience without spirit transform the material minds of the mortals of time into divine characters of eternal survival.
A one-eyed person can never perceive the depth of a perspective. Likewise, one-eyed materialist scientists and one-eyed allegorical spiritual mystics cannot have a correct vision nor adequately understand the true depths of universal reality.
The one attribute of the universe that is entirely unique to the Infinite Deity is the perpetual creative bestowal of personality, which can survive to achieve divinity. Personality is the cosmic endowment; it is that phase of universal reality that can coexist with unlimited change and yet retain its identity indefinitely throughout eternity.
Life comes into existence through the action of the Universal Mind and the activation of the spiritual spark of God, which is spirit. The value of life is its capacity for progress. And its meaning is its harmonious adaptability to the universal environment. The maladaptation of self-conscious life to the universe produces cosmic disharmony. If the will of the personality definitively diverges from the tendency of the universe, it ends in intellectual isolation and the segregation of the personality. The loss of the inner spiritual pilot occurs with the spiritual cessation of existence.
Knowledge is the ability of the material mind to discern facts. Truth is the domain of the spiritually endowed intellect that is conscious of knowing God. Knowledge can be demonstrated, but truth is experienced. Knowledge is a possession of the mind; truth is the experience of the soul, of the progressing self.
Error (evil) is the consequence of imperfection. The presence of evil constitutes proof of the inaccuracies of the mind and the immaturity of the evolving self. Thus, evil is also a measure of the imperfection with which the universe is interpreted. Error (evil) is not a real peculiarity of the universe; it is simply the observation of a relativity in the relationships between the imperfection of the incomplete finite and the ascending levels of the Supreme and the Ultimate.
The Master explained all this in a language that the young man could properly understand, but Ganid’s eyes kept closing and he eventually fell into a deep sleep.
The next morning they got up early to embark for Lasea, on the island of Crete.
¶ In Crete
The stop on the island of Crete was only worth remembering on a couple of occasions, as our travelers had planned to relax by visiting the island and hiking through its mountains.
One day during the visit to Fair Havens, an incident occurred that Ganid would never forget. One day during the visit to Fair Havens, an incident occurred that Ganid would never forget. A drunk was assaulting a young slave girl on the street. When Yahshua saw the girl in trouble, he didn’t hesitate for a moment and rushed at the couple, pulling the girl back while holding the drunk tightly with his powerful outstretched arm, until the drunkard exhausted himself kicking and punching the air. Ganid wanted to help his guardian in the event of a fight, but Gonod prevented him. Probably Yahshua in his entire human life had never been so close to a fight with one of his fellow human beings as on this occasion.
The young woman was extremely grateful for this timely help, and the three then accompanied her home. That afternoon, the Master struggled to make Ganid understand why he hadn’t hit the drunk. Ganid thought this man deserved at least as many blows as he had given the young slave.
¶ The young man who was afraid
The next day, the three friends went to the mountains (the White Mountains), and while walking through the hills, they met a solitary young man, sad and dejected. Seeing him in this state, Yahshua greeted him kindly, saying: “Greetings, my friend! Why are you so sad on such a splendid day? If something has happened to distress you, perhaps I can help you in some way.” When the young man said nothing, the Master continued: “I would like to know if you know these places well, and if so, could you tell me the best way to get to Phoenix?” Then the young man, who knew those places very well, became so interested in answering the stranger who was asking him, that he drew on the ground in great detail all the roads and shortcuts that led to the city of Phoenix.
The scribe from Damascus was determined to bring the young man out of his despair, and when the young man still said nothing, he continued: “It would be unfair of me, since you have given us such valuable help in finding the best way to Phoenix, to then walk away without making the slightest effort to respond to your request for help so that you can find the best way to the destination you seek in your heart. Just as you know the roads that lead to Phoenix well, having traveled them many times, I know the way to the city of your frustrated hopes and thwarted ambitions, and since you have asked me for help, I will not disappoint you.”
The young man was astonished and stammered, replying, “But I haven’t asked for anything.” Then the Master, placing his hand on his shoulder, said, “No, my son, not with words, but with your look you have appealed to my heart. Come, sit by my side while I speak to you of the paths of service and the paths of happiness that lead from the sorrows of self to the joys of loving activities in the brotherhood of men and in service to the God of heaven.”
Then the scribe of Damascus, highlighting the physical and mental qualities that the young man possessed, urged him to get up and put his mind to work to solve the problems of life, to free himself from his fears, to trust in the inner spirit that would guide him to the point of being reborn in the spirit, restoring his lost faith, and to return quickly to his duties and live life in the flesh as a child of God and as a mortal dedicated to the service of others on Earth and in the hereafter to the magnificent destiny and perpetual service of God in eternity.
This young man, named Fortunatus, later became the leader of the Christians of Crete and the close associate of Titus in his efforts to spiritually uplift the Cretan believers.
¶ In Cyrene
At Cyrene, the travelers made another two-day stop as they sailed toward Carthage in North Africa. It was here that Jesus and Ganid gave first aid to a boy named Rufus who had been injured when a loaded oxcart overturned. They took him to his mother’s house, and as for his father, Simon, he could never have imagined that the man he later helped carry the cross to Jerusalem on the orders of a Roman soldier was the same foreigner who had once helped his son. (Matthew 27:32, Mark 15:21, Luke 23:26)
¶ In Carthage - discourse on time and space
On their way to Carthage, Gonod and Ganid noticed that the Damascus scribe was also a good storyteller, so they asked him to tell them anecdotes about his early life in Galilee. Ganid also noticed that most of the people they met by chance were attracted to their teacher, so he asked him, “Teacher, what must be done to make friends?” His teacher replied, “Take an interest in your fellow men, learn to love them, and keep an eye out for opportunities to do more for them.”
There, the Master had a long conversation with a Mithraic priest about time and space. Briefly and succinctly, he told him: “Time is the stream of temporal events that flow periodically, perceived by creature consciousness. Time is a name given to the order in which events occur, which allows them to be recognized and separated. The movement of time is only revealed in relation to something that does not move in space as a time phenomenon. There are seven different concepts of space as it is conditioned by time. Space is measured by time, not time by space. Space is not empty, and the mind is the only thing that the person who knows God can transcend, even partially. The closer consciousness approaches the notion of the seven cosmic dimensions, the closer the concept of potential space approaches ultimacy.”
¶ Road from Naples to Rome
The first stop on the way to Italy was the island of Malta, where the scribe comforted a dejected and discouraged young man named Claudius. This boy had contemplated suicide, but when he had finished speaking with the scribe of Damascus, he said: “I’m going to face life like a man; no more of this cowardice. I’m going to go back to my people and start all over again.” UB 130:8.1. Later he joined Peter in proclaiming Christianity in Rome and Naples, and after Peter’s death he went to Spain to preach the gospel. This was another of the many men who never knew that the person who had inspired him in Malta was Yahshua the carpenter of Nazareth, whom he later proclaimed as the Savior of the world.
In Syracuse he associated with a wayward Jewish tavern keeper named Ezra. When he met the scribe from Damascus, he asked him for help because, although he wanted to be a good Jew, he could not find God. The scribe answered him with a few questions, saying: “Have you not read the prophet Jeremiah how he says in his scripture, ‘You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. ’ And have you not read in the scriptures where he says: He looks on men, and if anyone says, I have sinned and perverted that which was right, so that it has not profited me, then God will deliver that man’s soul from darkness, and he shall see the light?” UB 130:8.2 And it was then that Ezra truly found God to the satisfaction of his soul.
Already in Naples, Yahshua and Ganid had plenty of time to wander about the city giving alms to many people, for in those days there was much poverty in the streets of Naples. Ganid was greatly surprised on one occasion when his Master, after giving some coins to a beggar who was sitting in the street, did not stop to comfort the poor man. When the Master noticed Ganid’s surprised face, he said: “Why waste words on one who cannot perceive the meaning of what you are saying?” UB 130:8.4 (implying that the man did not have a normal mind.)
From Naples, they continued on to Rome via Capua, where they stayed for three days. From there, along the Appian Way, they continued their journey to Rome with their pack animals, all three eager to see the largest city in the entire world in the 1st century AD.
¶ The stay in Rome
In the first century CE, the Roman Empire included all of southern Europe, Asia Minor, Syria, Egypt, and North Africa. Gonod and Ganid brought greetings from the princes of India to the taciturn Emperor Tiberius. That day, Tiberius was in good spirits and received them in a friendly manner. When our friends left, he remarked, referring to Yashua: “If I had that fellow’s royal bearing and pleasing manner, I would be a real emperor, wouldn’t I?” UB 132:0.1
The main reason the scribe from Damascus went to Rome was to study the people of the different countries who were living in or visiting Rome. And above all, to establish contact with the main religious leaders of the imperial capital. Perhaps he anticipated that the Jews would reject his mission, but he certainly anticipated that his messengers would soon come to Rome to announce his message about the kingdom of heaven.
He selected five Stoic leaders, eleven Cynics, and sixteen from the Mystery Cult, particularly the Mithraic group. The method he used to instruct them was simply to select the truth contained in their teachings and then embellish and illuminate them in such a way that, in a short time, the truth would effectively displace the errors of their beliefs. He was able to accomplish this great work of religious education because these men and women were not bound by tradition and were not victims of preconceived ideas.
There were three fundamental reasons that contributed to preparing the ground for the rapid spread of Christianity throughout Europe:
- The election and maintenance of Simon Peter as an apostle.
- The conversation in Jerusalem with Stephen, whose death led to the attraction of Saul of Tarsus.
- The preliminary preparation of these thirty Romans for their subsequent leadership of the new religion in Rome and throughout the empire. UB 132:0.6-8
¶ True values
In Rome, the scribe from Damascus met a man named Angamon, the religious leader of the Stoics. After a long conversation, Angamon learned:
- That the model of true values must be sought in the spiritual world and in the divine levels of eternal reality.
- That unless the moral insight and spiritual achievement of humanity increase proportionately, the unlimited progress of a purely materialistic culture may become a threat to civilization.
- That the materialist scientist and the extreme idealist are destined to continually clash.
- That if the so-called science or the so-called religion of each era are false, then they must purify their activities or disappear with the emergence of a new material science or spiritual religion of a more authentic and more dignified order.
When Paul came to Rome, he became friends with Angamon, who became one of the passionate followers of the Christian religion in Rome.
¶ Good and Evil
Mardus, the leader of the Cynics in Rome, became very friendly with the scribe from Damascus, and the two had interesting conversations. One night, Mardus asked the Master about good and evil. The Master replied:
My friend, good and evil are simply words that symbolize the levels of human understanding of the observable universe. If you are spiritually indolent and morally static, you may choose the religious practices and traditions of your contemporaries as your model of good. But the soul that survives time and emerges in eternity must make a living, personal choice between good and evil, as these are determined by the true values of the spiritual standards established by the divine spirit, which the Father in heaven has sent to reside in the heart of man. This inner spirit is the standard of personality survival.
“The spiritually blind individual who follows the logic of scientific dictates, social customs, and religious dogmas is in grave danger of sacrificing his moral independence and losing his spiritual freedom. Such a soul is destined to become an intellectual parrot, a social automaton, and a slave to religious authority.”
“The possibility of evil is necessary for moral choice, but the actuality of evil is not…Actual evil is not necessary as a personal experience. Potential evil functions equally well as a decision stimulus in the realm of moral progress, and on the lower levels of spiritual development. Evil only becomes a reality of personal experience when a moral mind deliberately chooses it.” UB 132:2.2
¶ Truth and Faith
Nabon, high priest of the Mithraic cult in Rome, was a Greek-Jewish man who conversed frequently with the scribe of Damascus, as he was not entirely clear on the concept of faith. Jews do not, in fact, mention faith as such in the Torah, but rather as a form of trust. His intention was to convert the Master to Mithraism, unaware that the scribe of Damascus was, in turn, preparing him to be one of the first converts to the gospel of the kingdom.
Nabon wanted the Master’s opinion about truth and faith. The Master taught him the following:
“Truth cannot be defined in words, but only by living it. Truth transcends purely material levels in the sense that it is associated with wisdom and encompasses concepts of incalculable value, such as human experience and living spiritual realities. Knowledge deals with facts; wisdom with relationships; truth with the values of reality.”
“Revealed truth, truth personally discovered, is the supreme delight of the human soul. It is the joint creation of the material mind and the inner spirit.”
“Man can never possess the truth without the exercise of faith. This is because man’s thoughts, wisdom, ethics, and ideals will never rise above his faith and his sublime hope.”
“Faith is the inspiration of the creative imagination imbued with spirit. All true faith must be based on deep reflection, sincere self-criticism, and an uncompromising moral conscience.”
“Faith acts to release the superhuman activities of the divine spark, the immortal germ that lives within the mind of man and is the potential for eternal survival.”
“Human life continues (survives) because it has a function in the universe: the task of finding God. The faith-activated soul of man can never stop until it has reached the goal of its destiny, and once this divine goal is attained, it can have no end because it has become eternal like God.” UB 132:3.2-10
These truths that the scribe from Damascus taught him continued to burn within the heart of the High Priest Nabon, who provided great help to the preachers of the Christian gospel when they arrived in Rome. The central idea of his message was that men and women were reborn as children of God through faith and that God is a God of love.
The Master had the same ability to teach by answering questions as by asking them. Those who benefited most from his teachings were the depressed and the burdened, because they had the opportunity to unburden their souls to such a compassionate listener. He was that and much more. During his stay in Rome, Jesus had affectionate and uplifting contact with more than 500 people.
He spoke with a Roman senator, a wealthy slave owner, dined with a Greek doctor, and conversed with all kinds of people from all walks of life and professions. The only place in Rome he didn’t visit was the public baths, due to the sexual promiscuity practiced there.
As he walked along the Tiber River, he told a Roman soldier, “Let your heart be as brave as your arm. Dare to do justice and be noble enough to show mercy. Love your fellow man and seek God with all your heart, for God is your Father who is in heaven.”
To a forum speaker he said: “Your eloquence is pleasing, your logic is admirable, your voice is pleasant, but your teaching is hardly true. If you could only enjoy the inspiring satisfaction of knowing God as your spiritual Father, then you might employ your powers of speech to liberate your fellows from the bondage of darkness and from the slavery of ignorance.” UB 132:4.7 This was the same Mark who heard Simon Peter preach and became his successor, boldly preaching the new gospel of the kingdom after the Romans crucified Peter.
Meeting with a poor man who had been falsely accused, the scribe of Damascus escorted him before the magistrate and delivered a magnificent speech, saying: “Justice makes a nation great, and the greater a nation the more solicitous will it be to see that injustice shall not befall even its most humble citizen. Woe upon any nation when only those who possess money and influence can secure ready justice before its courts! (…) Civil government is founded on justice, even as true religion is founded on mercy.” UB 132:4.8 The judge reconsidered the case and, after examining the evidence, acquitted the accused.
¶ Advice to a rich man
A certain wealthy Roman citizen and Stoic became very interested in the teachings of the Scribe of Damascus, who had been introduced to him by Angamon, the leader of the Stoics. After many friendly conversations, this wealthy citizen asked the scribe what he would do with wealth if he had it, to which the Scribe replied:
“I would bestow material wealth for the enhancement of material life, even as I would minister knowledge, wisdom, and spiritual service for the enrichment of the intellectual life, the ennoblement of the social life, and the advancement of the spiritual life. I would administer material wealth as a wise and effective trustee of the resources of one generation for the benefit and ennoblement of the next and succeeding generations.”
“But what do you think a man in my position should do with his wealth? Should I keep it, or should I give it away?”
“My good friend, I discern that you are a sincere seeker after wisdom and an honest lover of truth; therefore am I minded to lay before you my view of the solution of your problems having to do with the responsibilities of wealth. I do this because you have asked for my counsel, and in giving you this advice, I am not concerned with the wealth of any other rich man; I am offering advice only to you and for your personal guidance.
And as a help in the study of the sources of your great fortune, I would suggest that you bear in mind the following ten different methods of amassing material wealth:
“1. Inherited wealth—riches derived from parents and other ancestors.
“2. Discovered wealth—riches derived from the uncultivated resources of mother earth.
“3. Trade wealth—riches obtained as a fair profit in the exchange and barter of material goods.
“4. Unfair wealth—riches derived from the unfair exploitation or the enslavement of one’s fellows.
“5. Interest wealth—income derived from the fair and just earning possibilities of invested capital.
“6. Genius wealth—riches accruing from the rewards of the creative and inventive endowments of the human mind.
“7. Accidental wealth—riches derived from the generosity of one’s fellows or taking origin in the circumstances of life.
“8. Stolen wealth—riches secured by unfairness, dishonesty, theft, or fraud.
“9. Trust funds—wealth lodged in your hands by your fellows for some specific use, now or in the future.
“10. Earned wealth—riches derived directly from your own personal labor, the fair and just reward of your own daily efforts of mind and body.“And so, my friend, if you would be a faithful and just steward of your large fortune, before God and in service to men, you must approximately divide your wealth into these ten grand divisions, and then proceed to administer each portion in accordance with the wise and honest interpretation of the laws of justice, equity, fairness, and true efficiency;
“While I offer further suggestions concerning your attitude toward wealth, I would admonish you to receive my counsel as given only to you and for your personal guidance. I speak only for myself and to you as an inquiring friend. I adjure you not to become a dictator as to how other rich men shall regard their wealth. UB 132:5.1-14
One day, as Yahshua and Ganid were on their way to the library, they saw a boy who had gotten lost while walking away from his home. They found him crying uncontrollably. Seeing him like this, they tenderly calmed him by asking him where his mother could be. The boy gave them a rough description of where his house was, and the two of them set about taking the boy home, which was not far from there, to return him to his distraught mother. Ganid never forgot his teacher’s comment:
“Do you know, Ganid? Most human beings are like lost children. They spend a lot of time crying out of fear and suffering from distress, when in reality they find shelter and safety very close at hand, just as this child was not far from home. Didn’t we take supreme pleasure in handing this child over to his mother? In the same way, those who lead people to God experience the supreme satisfaction of human service.”
There was also a widow with five children there, whose husband had died in an accident and they went many times to comfort this mother and her children, while Ganid asked his father for money to provide them with food and clothing and they did not stop in their efforts until they found a job for the eldest son, so that he could help support his family.
That evening, as Gonod listened to the account of these experiences, he affectionately said to the tutor, “I intend to make my son a scholar or a businessman, and now you begin to make him a philosopher or a philanthropist.” Jesus replied, smiling, “Perhaps we shall make him all four. He will then be able to enjoy fourfold satisfaction in life, because his ear, trained to recognize human melody, will be able to appreciate four tones instead of one.”
Then Gonod said, “I perceive that you are truly a philosopher. You must write a book for future generations.” And Jesus replied, “Not a book… my mission is to live a life in this generation and for all generations.” He stopped and said to Ganid, “My son, it is time to go to bed.”
Near the end of their stay in Rome, they traveled to Switzerland to contemplate that country’s fabulous mountains. It was there that Gonod asked Master Yahshua a direct question about Buddha.
The Master said to him: “Your Buddha was much better than your Buddhism. Buddha was a great man, even a prophet to his people, but he was an orphan prophet; by that I mean that he early lost sight of his spiritual Father, the Father in heaven. His experience was tragic. He tried to live and teach as a messenger of God, but without God. You see, Gonod, Buddha knew God in spirit, but he failed to discover God in the mind. The Jews discovered God in the mind, but they largely forgot to know Him in spirit. Lacking a vision of God as spirit and as Father, Buddha failed to provide in his teachings the moral energy and spiritual motive power that a religion must possess to change a race and uplift a nation.” UB 132:7.4
Then Ganid, hearing this, exclaimed: “Master, let you and I work out a new religion, one that will be good enough for India and great enough for Rome, and perhaps we may offer it to the Jews in exchange for Yahweh.” UB 132:7.6
That night, Ganid couldn’t sleep. Speaking to his father, he said, “You know, Father, sometimes I think Yahshua is a prophet.” His father replied, in a sleepy tone, “My son, there are others…”
What a scene for heavenly intelligences to behold, this young Indian boy proposing to the Creator of a universe that they develop a new religion! Although the young man did not know it, at that time and place they were developing a new and eternal religion—a new way of salvation, the revelation of God to man through Jesus Christ. What the young man most desired to do in the world, he was unconsciously doing at that moment. It always was so, and so it will forever be. That which an enlightened and reflective human imagination, instructed and guided by the spirit, desires to be and to do unselfishly and wholeheartedly, becomes perceptibly creative according to the degree to which the mortal is totally committed to divinely doing the will of the Father in heaven.
In the years that followed, Peter, Paul, and the other Christians teaching in Rome heard many times about this “scribe of Damascus” who had gone before them and who had so evidently prepared the way (unwittingly, they supposed) for their arrival with the new gospel. Paul never actually guessed the identity of this “scribe of Damascus,” but shortly before his death, because of the similarity of the descriptions of the person, he concluded that the “tentmaker of Antioch” was also the scribe of Damascus.
On one occasion, while preaching in Rome, Simon Peter suspected, upon hearing a description of the “scribe of Damascus,” that this scribe might have been Yahshua ben Yoshef… but he quickly dismissed the idea, knowing full well (so he believed) that the Master had never been to Rome.
And so it happens and so it should be…When man partners with God, great things can happen, and indeed they do.