Judas Iscariot, His Life and Times (eBook)

The Most Hated Man in All of Christendom

BC Crothers (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2022 | 1. Auflage
147 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
978-0-9881913-9-6 (ISBN)

Infos

Over 50,000 words take you into the world of first-century Palestine when Jesus of Nazareth and Judas Iscariot enjoy their childhoods. For Judas, he learns a trade and falls in love with numbers. He forms a friendship bond with his four closest friends that remains with them throughout young adulthood. Exposed to the outside world, they learn the harshness of their reality. Being sent to the Moses' Camp teaches them skills needed to survive in a world of Roman abuse. Too young, they learn the rule an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. Then, at just the right moment, a Zealot prophet enters their lives, teaching them the history of the Zealot Freedom Fighters Movement and the concept of 'holy war'.

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Judas Iscariot's younger days are exciting, challenging, filled with friendships, and learning from intelligent teachers who fill his mind with possibilities. His parents, Simon and Damaris, love him dearly. However, his older brother, Haman, thinks he is a pain, his older sister-Maai-thinks he is adorable, and Eunice, with the younger siblings, Orpah and Chelluh, ignores Judas as much as he ignores them. Still children (by our standards), Judas and his friends become assistants to Shepherd Darda, with whom they spend a year caring for the village's sheep and goats. Their learnings from Darda and the shepherding trade ready them for their adulthood responsibilities. When they return, the new schoolhouse awaits. Judas loves his sefer, the art of writing, and figuring out the mystery of numbers. Judas enjoys celebrations and feasts with his friends and neighbors throughout the years, like their sheep-shearing gathering and the long-anticipated wealthy wedding in Hebron. Food, drink, dancing, singing, contests-ten days of pure happiness. But no joy lasts long. The people are in debt and losing their homes. Flocks diminish in size due to Roman and Temple taxes. Robbers roam freely, without consequences, while fake messiahs proclaim salvation from these troubling times. Worst of all is when Judas' mother and sister Maai attend a wedding in Maon, a small village not far from Kerioth. The wedding is very poor, a stark difference from Hebron. But the people are happy-that is, until the Roman soldiers appear. What happened is a true story. At age ten, Judas and his friends begin their Freedom Fighters training. Fraught with difficulty, confusion, fear, immense learning about field survival, test after test by their Wilderness Scout Master, the boys grow into young adulthood. From a Zealot Prophet, who lives in a cave, the boys learn details about the Zealot Sect and its Freedom Fighters founders who readily become their heroes. Notably, the prophet teaches the concept of righteous fighting in a 'holy war'. As the language of the day, Biblical Hebrew is essential to the story and is used sparingly. Also, Point of Interest offers a wealth of exciting information to the reader.

Textauszug

Chapter 27: CHILDHOOD BEGINNINGS: A TRADE

For five long years, from his birth in 4 BCE to now in 1 CE, Judas bar Simon of Kerioth has waited impatiently for this day’s dawning. At long last, hours before boker, Judas leaves his sleeping mat and dons his haluk, the long garment, over his short undergarment, the nikli. Before leaving the dwelling, he will add a shepherd’s cloak and a camel’s hair mantle called a simlah. The head shepherd, Darda, wears a keffiyeh, a headwear that younger boys are not eligible to don. The yard-square piece of cloth called agals folds diagonally and is held in place with black goat-hair rings. His simlah is of leather, excellent for the chilly nights.

Judas studied these unfamiliar words with great care, as his older brother Haman warned that Darda quizzes his new assistants on their “shepherd” knowledge. Failure to repeat the proper names means a harsh word, sometimes followed by a swift swat which lands the child on the ground, bringing great embarrassment, but never tears.

Creeping over to the low table where ′êm had told him the evening before to sit, Judas finds his regular place set with a cup filled with goat’s milk and a chunk of bread smeared with honey. Judas cannot believe his eyes. “Break of fast” occurs long after sunrise. In the rising heat, called out is a “break” from work, and the “fast” of around fifteen hours ends. The laborers find a place to sit near their work and eat the first of their two daily meals. Judas glows over the thought he can now work longer hours before being hungry. What a brilliant morning he is having—a new job and morning food! The honey is sweet, the bread soft, and the milk still cold from a heavy pottery jug. Judas will never forget how this day of new beginnings began. Nothing is more wonderful than to be a grownup who has a full day’s work ahead as a person who values the richness of life. Suddenly, Judas’s face flushes with embarrassment.

“′el ′elohe yisrael, forgive me,” pleads Judas, as he stares into the dim candlelit room toward Jerusalem’s Temple. Young Judas does not yet know the more complex prayers. Still, he has memorized this part: “These are the things of which a man eats the fruit in this world, but their possession continues for the next world: To honor ′abba and ′êm, pious works, peacemaking between man and man, and the study of the Law, which is equivalent to them all’.”

Judas prays these words with great piety, while acknowledging that šadday knows he does not understand their meanings! Still, being an excellent student of the Faith, Judas realizes intent is his first obedience. To prove to šadday his intention is wholesome, he even struggles with the first line of the regular prayer spoken upon waking: “My God, the soul You put within me is pure; You did form it in me; You did breathe it into me, and You do preserve it within me. And You … ah …” Judas does not remember the rest, so he whispers a quick “Amen”, ducking his head, chagrined at not remembering the entire prayer. Still, pleased with what he had remembered, Judas also feels a certain pride in that he had not, this time, stumbled over saying the term “equivalent”. He knows it means “equal”, “the same”. However, remembering the soreness of his backside from ′av’s hand, Judas will never again ask why he could not just use the simpler word since it meant the same.

Finishing prayers, food, and drink, Judas left the loft, tip-toeing past the still-sleeping animals to the front door. There, he surprisingly found the door cracked open, and a new pair of leather sandals on the step. He picks them up and brings them to his nose, for there is no grander odor than new leather! Judas puts on his brand-new sandals, tying the straps tight in a knot, for which he will later be sorry, as sweat and walking through streams made leather knots even tighter. Wet knots prove impossible to loosen.

Next, he picks up a bundle lying near the door. He recognizes this as a strap, a separate piece of cloth worn over the shoulder which serves as a satchel. Looking inside the cloth folds, he finds his food for the day. Judas puts on the simlah and then the strap over his shoulder. His body thus loaded, Judas rushes out of the house, eager to start this new day, unaware that Simon and Damaris have been watching him this entire time.

They stand now at the door, watching their little ben, their second son, run toward the village marketplace square.

“First, it was Haman who helped guard the sheep, and now our little Judas. How do they grow so fast? Where does the time go?” questions Simon’s remorseful, tearful mate.

“This is ’living’, Dama. And the more involved we are in this thing called ’life’, the quicker its time goes by. Tell me, are you aware our ben forgot something important?” asks Simon.

“You mean something other than his morning prayers?”

“Yes. I will speak to Judas about this. But that is not what I meant.” Before he gets another word out, Judas appears before them.

“′av, ′êm! What are you doing here?” asks a startled Judas.

With a tear in her eye, his mother smiles, and says, “Watching you.”

“Ah,” says Judas, stealing a quick glance in his father’s direction. “Have you been awake long?” he quizzes as he rushes forward to kiss the hands of his parents.

“Long enough,” replies Simon, his answer letting Judas know a discussion on prayer will be forthcoming. Then, ignoring his son’s worried look, Simon asks, “Have you returned for a reason?”

Judas stares at the ground. He does not want to admit he has overlooked taking along the family’s animals. He, a new shepherd’s assistant, forgetting such a thing! His face burns with shame.

While still standing there, looking everywhere but at ′av, Damaris brings the sheep and goats. She hands the goat lead to Judas, the sheep needing no leads as they follow the goats. Sheep never give thought to their direction. Damaris notes that Judas’s hands are too small for the day’s work ahead. Her heart grieves at the thought that Palestinian children must work instead of play.

“Judas.”

“Yes, ′abba?”

“It is not so important you forgot a certain thing. What is important is you remembered before someone pointed it out to you. What is essential is that you corrected your error before it came to anyone’s notice. You did not cow or hesitate, but reacted quickly. Do this always and you shall do well in life. Do you understand?”

“Yes, ′abba.”

“Good. Go now. We will never speak of this matter, for the slate is clean.”

“Does this include the prayer, ′abba? Remember, I corrected my error there.”

“Well, you are quite the little bargainer! All right, Judas, since you were brave enough to mention it first, it too is part of the cleaned slate. Go now or you will be late on your first morning. That would be unforgivable!”

Simon and Damaris stand in the doorway with arms wrapped around one another, watching Judas run with the goats and sheep toward the village square. The goats were eager to join the larger flock and ran along Judas’s side, eager to be munching on juicy grasses.

Judas arrives just in the nick of time. His friends are waiting for him with their family goats and sheep: Jethro, ben of Jahzerah; Reuben, ben of Bani; and Agag and Zur, the twin bens of Lamech. These four boys were closer to Judas than his own brother, Haman. Their ′abōt are best friends, making it easier for the five youngsters to bond together. Upon seeing Judas, the four ran up to him and, in typical fashion, began pounding upon one another in youthful high spirits. Darda, the village’s head shepherd, appears out of nowhere and gives a swat to the nearest boy. That brought them to order! They stand erect, wide-eyed in front of their first “boss”.

“Tell me this is not the new group?” pleads Darda of the wind. “Are these the irresponsible boys I must train, who are so stupid they leave their goats to play with one another? Am I such a bad person who must receive punishment in this manner? What have I done to offend thee, sëbâ′ôt?” Darda cocks his head into the wind as though listening to the answer.

“Ah, I see,” replies Darda, knowingly nodding his head. Then he spins and glares at the boys, who have watched him in great awe.

“Do you know what I was just told?” demands Darda.

The boys move closer together, and as one, shake their heads.

“No? Well, I will tell you—.”

Before Darda can impart this great and secret knowledge to his young charges, a neighbor appears with his goat and sheep. Then another enters the marketplace square, leading his small flock. Darda turns to the...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 17.1.2022
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Lyrik / Dramatik ► Dramatik / Theater
• ISBN-10: 0-9881913-9-3 / 0988191393
• ISBN-13: 978-0-9881913-9-6 / 9780988191396