GEJ 1.12

Seven days after this wedding I left Nazareth and went down to Capernaum with Mary, My five brothers, two of whom were among My disciples, and the disciples accepted up to that time. It was then a fairly important trading town on the border between Zebulun and Naphtali, thus in the midst of these two provinces on the Sea of Galilee. It lay not far from the place where John baptized on the opposite bank of the Jordan in the region of Bethabara, as long as this river, which was often entirely without water, carried a good quantity of water.

One might ask here what exactly I was seeking in this town, which had become almost entirely heathen. One need only read the prophet Isaiah 9:1 and following; there one will find it written: ‘The land of Zabulon and the land of Naphtali by the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, and heathen Galilee: this people that sat in darkness has seen a great light, and for all who sat in the place and in the shadow of death a mighty light has risen.’

Once one has found this in Isaiah and knows that I had to fulfill Scripture from A to Z, one will also easily understand why I went from Nazareth to Capernaum. Moreover, two more disciples were to be accepted in this region: James and John, the sons of Zebedee. They too were fishermen and fished in the Sea of Galilee, not far from the mouth of the Jordan and likewise not far from the fishing place of Peter and Andrew, both of whom also had the right to fish in the sea.

Once these disciples too had been accepted and had recognized Me through My words and the powerful testimony of those who were with Me, I immediately began to teach the people in an orderly way. I urged them to repent, because the kingdom of God had drawn near. I went into their synagogues and taught there. Several believed, but many took offense, wanted to seize Me and throw Me from a mountain into the sea. But I escaped them together with all who were with Me. I visited a few small places on the Sea of Galilee, proclaimed the kingdom of God and healed many who were sick. The poor and common people believed and welcomed Me gladly; several of them joined Me and followed Me everywhere, like lambs following their shepherd.

I therefore stayed in Capernaum only a short time, since almost no faith and even less love were at home there. For this town was a place of trade and shopkeeping; but where trade and shopkeeping are carried on, faith and love have been thoroughly dismissed. Where these two have been dismissed, there is little or nothing for Me to do.

The Passover of the Jews had in any case drawn near, and I went up to Jerusalem with all who were with Me. But one must not imagine the Passover of the actual Jews at the season now appointed for the corresponding festival in the various Christian communities, sometimes even as early as March, but almost a full quarter of a year later. For at the Passover Jehovah was thanked for the first harvest of the year, consisting of barley, grain and wheat. People were already eating the new bread, which according to the law was unleavened, and no one in the country was permitted to eat leavened bread at that time.

This feast of unleavened bread could therefore take place only when the newly harvested grain is, so to speak, only just being sown [according to the wording of 1871]. It is true that grain in Judea ripens fourteen to twenty days earlier than here if the year is favorable; but even in Egypt the grain and wheat are seldom fully brought in before the end of May, much less in Judea, where it is already considerably cooler than in Egypt.

The time of unleavened bread had therefore come, and, as shown above, I went up with all who were with Me to the capital of the Jews, which was also called the ‘City of God’; for Jerusalem means, in translation, ‘City of God.’

Since at that time many people always came to Jerusalem, including many heathens who bought and sold all kinds of goods, such as implements, woven goods, livestock and fruits of every kind, the festival had by then entirely lost its sacred character. Craving for profit even drove the priesthood to rent out the courts and entrance halls of the temple during this time to merchants, whether Jews or heathens, for a very considerable sum. Such temple rent amounted to more than a thousand pieces of silver for the duration of the festival. This was an enormously large and weighty sum at that time and, measured against the value of goods, was worth more than a hundred thousand gulden at the present time.

In this latter period, under the high priest Caiaphas, I went up to Jerusalem. He had known how to secure this dignity, which was of course very lucrative, for more than one year. For observance of the Mosaic law had by then sunk to the emptiest ceremony, and in truth no priest cared any more for it than for snow that had fallen a hundred years before. But as for the utterly empty ceremony itself, this had reached its highest point, so as to thoroughly swindle the poor people on a colossal scale.

He even rented out certain places in the inner part of the temple to dealers in doves and a few small money changers. These small money changers had small coins, such as groschen and staters, and supplied them, for a certain premium, to those needing smaller coins, in exchange for pieces of silver, Roman gold pieces and Roman cattle money (pecunia). For the Romans had a special currency for buying livestock: depending on which animal was stamped on such a coin, one had to be able to buy that same animal for such a coin, provided that its owner was willing to sell it. This cattle money could also be exchanged for other current money at the large and small money changers, but the premium was higher than for other kinds of money.