The Blind Man & Father Time

Joseph F. Dumond

Isa 6:9-12 And He said, Go, and tell this people, You hear indeed, but do not understand; and seeing you see, but do not know. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn back, and be healed. Then I said, Lord, how long? And He answered, Until the cities are wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land laid waste, a desolation, and until Jehovah has moved men far away, and the desolation in the midst of the land is great.
Published: Dec 29, 2016

News Letter 5852-039
The Shemitah Year-The Acceptable year of Yehovah
The 1st day of the 11th month 5852 years after the creation of Adam
The 11th Month in the Seventh year of the Third Sabbatical Cycle
The 3rd Sabbatical Cycle after the 119th Jubilee Cycle
The Sabbatical Cycle of Earthquakes, Famines and Pestilence
The Year of letting the land rest
The Sabbatical year that begins March 10, Aviv 2016 and goes to Aviv 2017

December 31, 2016

 

Shabbat Shalom to The Royal Family of Yehovah,

 

The New Moon should have been sighted Friday December 30, 2016. It is also the 30th day of the 10th month so whether or not it was sighted, this Shabbat is the 1st day of the 11th month. Since Nehemiah has stopped reporting the sighting of the moon, have you been able to replace him with a reliable source? I would like to recommend those of you who are looking for weekly Torah portion teachers to go to Nehemiah’s wall and subscribe to the Podcast he has done called Torah Pearls and Prophet Pearls. He also has other teachings there for you to learn from. I have no trouble recommending him as a teacher. You may not agree with everything, but there are many things you can learn.

I have never been one for trying to keep all my sheep under my control. I do share teachings from those who have good messages in order that each of you can grow to become the creation Yehovah has planned for you. I even use teachings of those who hate us. But Nehemiah is a friend and I have learned a great deal from him. Even though we do not agree this year about the barley, he and Keith Johnson have great teachings you can profit from.

I listen to them on iTunes while I am at work.

We are just two months away from what is, for many of you, the completion of your first Sabbatical year.

Yehovah bless each of you who are keeping this year as the Sabbatical year and can and have proven it to be so.

 


 

“The Shemitah year of 2016”

I have read how some of you have been out cutting back trees and bushes. Some have run out of the stored up food. And others just are not even trying. So I am posting this here again as a reminder of what you are to do in the Sabbatical year.

You are to keep the Sabbath, The Holy Days of Lev 23 and no others, and the Sabbatical and Jubilee years. In order to do that you must know when they come and you must be able to teach others how they can also know.

It is so very important for each of us to keep the Sabbath and Holy Days at the proper time in order to meet with Yehovah when He said to meet with Him. The Sabbath begins at sunset Friday. It is setting earlier now. Some of you will have to leave work early. Work through lunch or stay late on some of the other days of the week.

Some are trying to tell you the Sabbath is only the day part in order for them to justify working late on Friday or going out clubbing or shopping Friday night. Do not fall for the lies.

If it is not important that we keep the Sabbath Holy or at the right time or that we keep the Holy Days at the right time, then we all might as well go back to keeping Sunday. If it is important to Yehovah, then you should make it important to yourself.

Next year will once again quite possibly prove to be a controversial year for many who follow Yehovah.

Yehovah also said we are to keep this year as the 7th Year of rest. We are in the 11th month of this Sabbatical year. It is not over yet. In the Southern Hemisphere, they have already planted and the summer season has begun but it is still the Sabbatical year. There are no exceptions in Lev 25, whether you live in the northern or southern hemisphere. You either obey and keep it or you disobey and plant before the month of Aviv and risk the curses of Lev 26.

The Sabbatical year ends when Aviv begins. Will that be Feb 27, 2017 or will it be March 28, 2017?

In the coming weeks we will once again walk through all of these teachings so that you yourself will know and not have to rely on following me or anyone else. After all, if you are going to be a King in the Kingdom of Yehovah, you will be expected to lead in this understanding as well. If you’re going to be a Priest in the Kingdom, then you are going to have to teach this, so you need to learn it and understand it.

We read the Torah out loud in Jerusalem this year. We posted the video to give you some of the highlights of us doing it. Yet I am very disappointed that I have not heard of anyone, anywhere else reading the Torah as we are commanded. Not one report of anyone else having done so at any of the Feast sites you went to.

Again I am going to share with you the commandments for the Sabbatical year, maybe each week until you have it memorized. The Sabbatical year began with the sighting of the moon on the evening of March 10, 2016.

1)  Do not plant

2) Do not harvest

Lev 25:3  You shall sow your field six years, and you shall prune your vineyard six years, and gather in the fruit of it. 4  But in the seventh year shall be a Sabbath of rest to the land, a Sabbath for Jehovah. You shall neither sow your field, nor prune your vineyard. 5  You shall not reap that which grows of its own accord of your harvest, neither gather the grapes of your undressed vine. It is a year of rest to the land.

3) You can eat what grows on it’s own.

Lev 25:6  And the Sabbath of the land shall be food for you, for you and for your servant, and for your slave woman and for your hired servant, and for your stranger who stays with you, 7  and for your cattle, and for the beast that is in your land, shall all the increase of it be for food.

4) Stock up on food in the 6th year.

Lev 25:20  And if you shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? Behold, we shall not sow nor gather in our increase! 21  Then I will command My blessing on you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years.

5) Forgive any debts people owed to you by Sukkot.

Deut 15:1  At the end of every seven years you shall make a release. 2  And this is the manner of the release. Every man who has a loan to his neighbor shall release it. He shall not exact it from his neighbor, or from his brother, because it is called Jehovah’s release. 3  You may exact it from a foreigner, but your hand shall release that which is yours with your brother,

6) Read the Torah out loud at Sukkot so all can hear it being read. Basically what you need to read is Deuteronomy. I would then read Exodus 19- to the end. And Lev 23 and 25.

We have linked you to the News Letter with the laws you are to read just by clicking the link above.

Deut 31:10  And Moses commanded them, saying: At the end of seven years, at the set time of the year of release, in the Feast of Tabernacles, 11  when all Israel has come to appear before Jehovah your God in the place which He shall choose, you shall read this Law before all Israel in their hearing. 12  Gather the people, men and women and the little ones, and your stranger who is within your gates, so that they may hear and that they may learn and fear Jehovah your God, and be careful to do all the words of this Law, 13and that their sons who have not known may hear and learn to fear Jehovah your God, as long as you live in the land where you go over Jordan to possess it.

And by now you should also have completed all your obligations to the widows, orphan, and Levites from your tithes for the 6th year that is now past.

Deut 14:28  At the end of three years you shall bring forth all the tithe of your increase the same year, and shall lay it up inside your gates. 29  And the Levite, because he has no part nor inheritance with you, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, who are inside your gates, shall come, and shall eat and be satisfied, so that Jehovah your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do.

Ask Yehovah to bless you for having completed this task and then ask Him to bless your efforts as you keep the Sabbatical year and keep your food safe from decay or flood or hydro blackouts and from scavengers like rodents. Ask Him to protect it and to bless you for keeping His commandments.

Deu 26:12  When you have made an end of tithing all the tithes of your increase the third year, the year of tithing, and have given it to the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow (that they may eat inside your gates and be filled), 13  then you shall say before Jehovah your God, I have brought away the holy things out of my house, and also have given them to the Levite, and to the stranger, to the fatherless, and to the widow, according to all Your commandments which You have commanded me. I have not broken Your commandments, neither have I forgotten. 14  I have not eaten of it in my mourning, neither have I put any of it away for unclean use, nor have I given of it for the dead. I have listened to the voice of Jehovah my God, and have done according to all that You have commanded me. 15  Look down from Your holy dwelling, from Heaven, and bless Your people Israel and the land which You have given us, as You swore to our fathers, a land that flows with milk and honey. 16  Today Jehovah your God has commanded you to do these statutes and judgments. You therefore shall keep and do them with all your heart and with all your soul. 17  You have today said that Jehovah is your God, and that you would walk in His ways, and keep His statutes and His commandments and His judgments, and listen to His voice. 18  And Jehovah has taken you today to be His peculiar people, as He has promised you, and to keep all His commandments, 19 and to make you high above all nations which He has made, in praise and in name and in honor, and that you may be a holy people to Jehovah your God, even as He has spoken.

May Yehovah bless each and every one of you for keeping the Sabbatical year commandment and breaking the curses that are upon our nations because we have not kept them in the past.

 


 

“Psa 119:18 Open my eyes, so that I may behold wonderful things out of Your Law.”

Last week we talked to you about how Yehshua was keeping the 8th Day Feast at the end of Sukkot and it was called and is called The Feast of Dedication as this is when Solomon dedicated the Temple for the first time and Yehovah came to dwell in it. It is and was a huge deal. Just imagine how great an event that was and then when it is compared to the false Dedication at Keslev 25, ….well there is no comparison. Once again Satan the false light is trying to steal from the one true great light, Yehovah.

As we explained John 7 through to John 11 to you last week we spoke of a man who was blind.

Joh 8:58  Jesus said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, Before Abraham came into being, I AM!

Joh 8:59  Then they took up stones to throw at Him. But Jesus hid Himself and went forth out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and passed on by.

Joh 9:1  And passing by, He saw a man who was blind from birth. 2  And His disciples asked Him, saying, Master, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? 3  Jesus answered, Neither has this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God might be revealed in him. 4  I must work the works of Him who sent Me, while it is day. Night comes when no man can work. 5  As long as I am in the world, I am the Light of the world. 6  And when He had spoken these things, He spat on the ground and made clay from the spittle. And He anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay. 7  And He said to him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam (which translated is Sent). Therefore he went and washed and came seeing. 8  Then the neighbors and those who had seen him before, that he was blind, said, Is this not he who was sitting and begging? 9  Some said, This is he. Others said, He is like him. He said, I am he. 10  Then they said to him, How were your eyes opened? 11  He answered and said, A man called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes and said to me, Go to the pool of Siloam and wash. And going and washing, I received sight. 12  Then they said to him, Where is he? He said, I do not know. 13  They brought him who once was blind to the Pharisees. 14  And it was a sabbath when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes. 15  Then again the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. He said to them, He put clay upon my eyes, and I washed, and I see. 16  Therefore some of the Pharisees said, This man is not from God, because he does not keep the sabbath. Others said, How can a man, a sinner, do such miracles? And there was a division among them. 17  They said to the blind man again, What do you say about him, for he has opened your eyes? He said, He is a prophet. 18  But the Jews did not believe concerning him, that he had been blind and had received his sight, until they called the parents of him having received sight. 19  And they asked them, saying, Is this your son, whom you say was born blind? How then does he now see? 20  His parents answered them and said, We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind. 21  But by what means he now sees, we do not know. Or who has opened his eyes, we do not know. He is of age, ask him. He will speak for himself. 22  His parents spoke these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone confessed that He was Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue. 23  Therefore his parents said, He is of age, ask him. 24  Then a second time they called the man who was blind and said to him, Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner. 25  He answered and said, Whether He is a sinner, I do not know; one thing I do know, that being blind, now I see. 26  Then they said to him again, What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes? 27  He answered them, I have told you already, and you did not hear. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also desire to be His disciples? 28  Then they reviled him and said, You are his disciple, but we are Moses’ disciples. 29  We know that God spoke to Moses, but we do not know from where this man is. 30  The man answered and said to them, Why, this is a marvelous thing, that you do not know from where He is, and He has opened my eyes. 31  But we know that God does not hear sinners, but if anyone is God-fearing and does His will, He hears him. 32  From everlasting it was not heard that anyone opened the eyes of one who was born blind. 33  If this One were not of God, He could do nothing. 34  They answered and said to him, You were altogether born in sins, and do you teach us? And they cast him out. 35  Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and finding him, He said to him, Do you believe on the Son of God? 36  And he answered and said, Who is He, Lord, that I might believe on Him? 37  And Jesus said to him, You have both seen Him, and it is He who is speaking with you. 38  And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshiped Him. 39  And Jesus said, I have come into this world for judgment, that they who do not see might see, and that they who see might be made blind. 40  And those of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these words, and said to Him, Are we also blind? 41  Jesus said to them, If you were blind, you would have no sin. But now you say, We see. Therefore your sin remains.

Here on the 8th Day Feast Yehshua healed the eyes of the man born blind from birth. The 8th day represents the 8th Millennium when Yehovah will dwell with mankind. That is why the 8th day is so important and to have it hijacked by people keeping Chanukah in December is a shame.

Isaiah talks about the blind being made to see many times in reference to the millennium. Yehshua also healed others that were blind as we are told in Luke.

Isa 29:18  And in that day the deaf shall hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of their gloom and darkness.

Isa 35:5  Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.

Isa 42:6  I Jehovah have called You in righteousness, and will hold Your hand, and will keep You, and give You for a covenant of the people, for a Light of the nations; 7  to open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, those who sit in darkness out of the prison house. 8  I am Jehovah; that is My name; and My glory I will not give to another, nor My praise to graven images.

Luk 4:17  And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And unrolling the book, He found the place where it was written, 18  “The Spirit of the Lord is on Me; because of this He has anointed Me to proclaim the Gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim deliverance to the captives, and new sight to the blind, to set at liberty those having been crushed, 19  to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”

Luk 7:20  And coming to Him, the men said, John the Baptist has sent us to You, saying, Are You He who should come, or do we look for another? 21  And in the same hour He cured many of infirmities and plagues, and of evil spirits. And He gave sight to many who were blind. 22  And answering, Jesus said to them, Go and tell John what you have seen and heard; that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the gospel is proclaimed to the poor.

This event took place in 30 C.E. Yehshua would be murdered the following Passover in 31 C.E.

Have you ever wondered what became of this blind man and have you any idea what his name was?

Yehshua was Crucified Passover 31 C.E.

Shavuot came and the Apostles received the Holy Spirit on the same day the Law was given to Moses. After that time, and I do not think it was very much later, Stephen was stoned to death. The year 36 C.E. has been given as the year he was stoned to death.

Act 8:1  And Saul was consenting to his death. And in that day there was a great persecution on the church at Jerusalem, and all were scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. 2  And devout men buried Stephen and made a great mourning over him. 3  But Saul ravaged the church, entering into every house. And dragging men and women, he delivered them up to prison. 4  Then, indeed, the ones who had been scattered passed through, preaching the gospel, the Word.

We can then read about James the Lesser who was beheaded by Herod Agrippa II in 44 AD.

Paul of Tarsus was still on the rampage at this time, since Stephen was struck down near Damascus before the years of the famine.

Act 9:1  And Saul, still breathing out threats and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest 2  and asked letters from him to Damascus to the synagogues; so that if he found any of the Way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. 3  But in going, it happened as he drew near to Damascus, even suddenly a light from the heaven shone around him. 4  And he fell to the earth and heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?

Then there was The Great Famine in Judea and the known world in 45-46 AD.

Act 11:25  And Barnabas went out to Tarsus to seek Saul. 26  And finding him, he brought him to Antioch. And it happened to them a whole year they were assembled in the church. And they taught a considerable crowd. And the disciples were first called Christian in Antioch. 27  And in these days prophets from Jerusalem came to Antioch. 28  And one of them named Agabus stood up and signified by the Spirit that there should be great famine over the world (which also happened in the days of Claudius Caesar).

Paul and Barnabas sent on the first missionary on 48 AD, but notice that they were first called Christians when they were in Antioch, in verse 26 above. Before this they were known as a Jewish sect called the Way.

Act_9:2  and asked letters from him to Damascus to the synagogues; so that if he found any of the Way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.

Act_19:9  But when some were hardened and did not believe, speaking evil of the Way before the multitude, he departed from them and separated the disciples, reasoning daily in the school of one Tyrannus.

Act_19:23  And about that time there was not a little a stir about the Way.

Act_24:14  But I confess this to you, that after the Way which they call heresy, so I worship the God of my fathers, believing all things that are written in the Law and in the Prophets.

Act_24:22  And having heard these things, Felix put them off, knowing more accurately of the Way, saying, When Lysias the chiliarch has come down, I will examine the things concerning you.

However, “since the Jews were continually making disturbances at the instigations of Chrestus, he [Claudius] expelled them from Rome.… ” So writes the Roman historian Suetonius about events in Rome around 52. “Chrestus” may have been a thorn in the side of Roman politicos anxious to be rid of him and his cohorts. Or “Chrestus” may be the way uninformed bureaucrats pronounced the name about which Jews argued: Christus. Such arguments between Jews and Christians were not unknown (e.g., in Ephesus; Acts 19). Claudius likely and inadvertently was the first emperor, then, to persecute Christians (who were perceived as a Jewish sect)—for, it seems, disturbing the peace.

 

Okay, let me get back to the story of the blind man that Yeshua healed, before I go way too far down this rabbit trail. I want to show you those things that were going on in the years after the death and resurrection of Yehshua.

 

 

Joseph of Arimathea Cast Adrift in the Mediterranean You can also read our article on Joseph at this link as we will not cover all of his story here today.

According to Cardinal Baronius, appointed librarian of the Vatican in 1596 and noted historian for the Roman Catholic Church, in his magnum opus, Annales Ecclesiastica, that took him over thirty years to complete, he wrote under the year AD 35 the following:

Cardinal Baronius – “In that year the party mentioned was exposed to the sea in a vessel without sails or oars. The vessel drifted finally to Marseilles and they were saved.  From Marseilles Joseph and his company passed into Britain and after preaching the Gospel there, died.” (Cited by Lionel Smithett Lewes, late Vicar of Glastonbury, St. Joseph of Arimathea at Glastonbury or the Apostolic Church of Britain, James Clarke & Co. Ltd, Cambridge, PO Box 60, Cambridge, CBI 2NT, 1922, 1955, 1988.pg. 92)

To this same account other sources add Zaccheus, Mary Salome, the wife of Zebedee and mother to James and John, Joanna and her son, Restitutus, the man born blind and whose sight was restored by Jesus, Simon the Cyrene and Philip the evangelist. These were all prominent disciples of Jesus and would have attracted hatred and suspicion by the ‘Jews’, the House of Ananus and the Sanhedrin.

Did you catch that?

Restitute was the son of Joanna and was the one born blind and healed by Yehshua. He was also called Sidonius. He was famous in Jerusalem for being that person healed by Yehshua. Lazarus was also famous in Jerusalem for being raised from the dead. These 12 Paul could not outright kill, but he did want them all dead. Every one of them can be found in the book of Acts. This man Sidonius would continue to teach about Yehshua, even during those times of persecution.

Now let’s read the rest of the story of these 12 people and see what happened.

This date of exodus from Caesarea on the coast of Judea has been a date in dispute amongst various historians of the early Christian Church.  Many date the exodus after the beheading of James the Greater, the brother of the Apostle John in 41-42 CE by the newly anointed King Herod Agrippa I now living in Herod’s Palace in Caesarea.  Other scholars date this exodus by boat just after the stoning of Stephen by the Sanhedrin and the assault by the rabbinic student Shaul of Tarsus on the life of James the Just in Jerusalem during his debate with the great Jewish scholar Gamaliel on the inner steps of the temple.

(Note we have proven beyond all doubt the year of the death of Yehshua was 31 C.E.

With a 30 CE date for the death of Jesus, three years before the more traditional date of 33 CE date for the crucifixion, most modern Christian historians date the death of Stephen in 36 CE, near the date when Pontius Pilate and Caiphas are deposed by the Roman legate. If the date for the crucifixion were to be put forward to an earlier date of 30 CE, then the early growth and development of the Hebrew Nazarene Ecclesia had almost six years of growth before fierce opposition came against them by the House of Annas now by the ascending “Man of the Year” in Jewish religion and politics, the Rabbi Shaul, student of Gamaliel.

With the persecution of the Hebrew Ecclesia in Jerusalem by the Pharisee student Shaul (Saul), many of the official members of the Nazarene Ecclesia fled the city. In this political drama, we find the direct assault of the ‘enemy’, which appears to be the Shaul the Pharisee against James the Just as he was in debate with Gamaliel on the steps of the temple of Herod.  At this time the wounded James the Just quickly escapes from Jerusalem and flees to Jericho in the region of Qumran.  Many of the Nazarene followers continue onward to Perea to the east of the Jordan River.

Also around 36 CE would be the most appropriate date for the exodus of Joseph of Arimathea from the land of Palestine. Yet the date of the exodus of James the Just to Jericho and the date of the forced exile of Joseph of Arimathea and those under his protective care off the coast of Caesarea appear to be before the death of Stephen by stoning by the members of the Sanhedrin.

The Rabanus Story of Joseph of Arimathea and Mary Magdalene

In Magdalene College Library in Oxford University in England, there is a remarkable and beautiful manuscript of Life of Mary Magdalene, which professes to be a copy of an original manuscript written by the Rabanus Maurus, Archbishop of Mayence (776-850 AD). This copy of the text has been dated to the early 1400’s.

Its history is unknown but is written in high quality parchment style with multicolor gold embossed illuminations done by a professional scribe, similar to the Tertius Opus by Robert Bacon found in the same library. (Taylor 80-81)  Scholars accept that this is probably a copy of the original or the original author followed closely the style of writing found in the Homilies of Rabanus, whose manuscript is known.  The Rabanus document was also known and accepted as authentic by the well-known cataloger, William Cave in his Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Historia Literaria.  (Cave, Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Historia Literaria, vol ii, p. 38 fol., Oxford, 1740-1743)

This document in fifty chapters chronicles the life of Mary Magdalene (and Martha) in a style that the late Gaskoin, in his analysis of Rabanus Maurus states,

Gaskoin – “The writings of the Fathers, on which his commentaries were based, were literally produced, the share of the compiler in the composition being designedly and almost ostentatiously reduced to the smallest possible proportions.” (Gaskoin , in Alcuin, his Life and Work,  London, 1904, cited by John W. Taylor, The Coming of the Saints, Artisan Sales/Hoffman Printing, POB 1529, Muskogee, OK 74402. 1985, pg. 82)

This document can now be compared to several other manuscripts on the life of Mary Magdalene.  The manuscript of Rabanus, like the following all profess to be copies of older documents which were in themselves were copies of older histories.  They tend to record in literary and plain details the historical facts of life and death, without the abundance of miraculous accounts which abounded in the writings of the middle ages.  Though Rabanus is a longer story, it also is literal with very little miraculous elements.

Miriam Magdala with Yahshua

The following Lives of Mary are found in:

7th c. – Hymn published M. l’Abbe Narbey in supplement to the Acta Sanctorum. – cryptic – Mary and Maximinus leave Palestine after the stoning of Stephen, arrival at Marseilles, missionary labors, their death and burial at Aix.

Lives of St. Mary – Faillon – 10th c. in Paris library – traces original to 6th c.
Lives of St. Mary – Duchesne – 11th to 13th c.
MS Laud 108 of Bodleian – 13th c.
Bucheed Mair Vadlen and Buchedd martha, – Hafod Collection at Cardiff (1604).
Fragment – Llwfyr Gwyn Rhydderch of the Hengwrt MS – British libraries.
Devotional Life of St. Mary Magdalene – Italian unknown – 14th c. – corresponds with the Bethany family story as told in Rabanus.

In chapter 37 of the Acts of Mary Magdalene, Rabanus Maurus continues to describe this dangerous journey.

Rabanus Maurus – “Leaving the shores of Asia and favored by an east wind, they went round about, down the Tyrrhenian Sea, between Europe and Africa, leaving the city of Rome and all the land of Italy to the right.  They happily turning their course to the right, they came near to the city of Marseilles, in the Viennese province of the Gauls, where the River Rhone is received by the sea.  There, having called upon God, the great King of all the world, they parted; each company going to the province where the Holy Spirit had directed them, presently preaching everywhere, ‘the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following.’”

Though traditions are sketchy, within this boat was a company of twelve that included: (Cardinal Baronius, Ecclesiastical Annals, quoting from Mistral, in Mireio and another Vatican document, cited by Jowett, George F. The Drama of the Lost Disciples, Covenant Pub., Co, 8 Blades Court, Deodar Road, London SW15 2NU, 1961, 1993, pg 70)

Joseph of Arimathea plus

1.      Mary Cleopas was present yet Cleopas who was walking with Luke 6-7 years earlier is absent.

2.      Mary Salome and Sarah handmaiden

3.      Lazarus, who became bishop of  Marseilles

4.      Mary Magdalene

5.      Martha with  Marcella her handmaid

6.      Maximinus – ‘Rich young Ruler’ became the paranymphos of Mary Magdalene – went to Maximinus, France

7.      Trophimus – became the paranymphos of Martha’s  – went to Arles, France

8.      Clemon – the convert of Barnabus, Clementos Romanus visiting with  Peter and Joseph in Caesarea who became the third Bishop of Rome

9.      Eutropius, who later went to Orange

10.  Sidonius – “Man born blind”, called St. Restitutes, who later went to Aix, France

11.   Martian, who later went to Limogenes, France

12.  Saturinus, who later went to Toulouse, Toulouse.

It was Gervais de Tilbury, the Marshall of the kingdom of Arles (along the Rhone in central France) wrote in his book, Otis Imperialis in the year 1212 in dedication to Otho IV, the following about the old chapel of Les Saintes Maries in the Camaroque:

Gervais de Tilbury – “on the seacoast, one sees the first of Continental churches which was founded in honour of the most blessed of our Lord, and consecrated by many of the seventy-two disciples who were driven from Judea and exposed to the sea in an oarless boat:  Maximin of Aix, Lazarus of Marseilles, the brother of Martha and Mary, Eutrope of Orange, George of Velay, Saturinus of Toulouse, Martial of Limoges in the presence of Martha, Mary Magdalene and many others. (Gervais de Tolbury, Otis Imperialis, cited in Joseph of Arimathea and David’s Throne in Britain, Triumph Prophetic Ministries, Altaden CA, pg 19-20)

And then there is the testimony of Faillon in Monuments Inedits, which states,

Faillon – The tradition of Joseph of Arimathea and his companions in the oarless boat was accepted by the whole Latin Church for over a thousand years.  For proof of this we have only to turn to the Breviary (book of prayers, hymns, psalms and reading used by Roman Catholic priests) at St. Martha’s Day, July 29.  There we find a lection for the second nocturne (night) which tells how Mary, Martha and Lazarus, with their servant Marcella, and Maximin, one of the seventy-two disciples, were seized by the Jews, placed in a boat without sails or oars, and carried safely to the port of Marseilles.  Moved by this remarkable fact, the people of the neighboring lands were speedily converted to Christianity; Lazarus became the bishop of Marseilles, Maximinus at Aix…and…Martha…died on the fourth day before the Kalends of August, and was buried with great honour at Tarascon.” (Faillon, vol. ii, pg 114, cited in Joseph of Arimathea and David’s Throne in Britain, Triumph Prophetic Ministries, Altaden CA, pg 19-20)

Raymond Capt, in The Traditions of Glastonbury quotes another source,

Raymond Capt – “without sails and oars, they drifted with the wind and the currents arriving unharmed at Cyrene, in northern Africa.  After obtaining sails and oars, the little party of refugees followed the trade route of the Phoenician merchant ships as far west as Marseilles, France.”  (Raymond Capt, The Traditions of Glastonbury, cited by Joseph of Arimathea and David’s Throne in Britain, Triumph Prophetic Ministries, Altaden CA, pg 21)

Near their landing site at Les St. Marie de la Camarague, the boat with the thirteen occupants and two children landed.  This was about twenty miles from one of four of the greatest cities of the Roman world in the first century, the ancient city of Masilla (Marsella), and now called Marseilles, France.

The city of Marseilles on the southern coast of southern France was the capital of the province of Bouches-du-Rhone.  To the west of the city, was the mouth of the mighty Rhone River and on the white sandy shores there was a rock harbor with dry docks and an armory.  The Ephesium was the prized temple dedicated to Diana of Ephesus.  Also in the city was a temple dedicated to the Delphians of  Apollo.

The city was controlled by a well regulated aristocracy called the Timuchi or the council of 600.  It was this city that Joseph had traversed many times as it was the exit point of the tin traders as they brought the tin overland Gaul from the city of Morlaix on the Atlantic coast.  The city was an ancient city at the time of Joseph, founded about 600 BCE by the Phoenician mariners and was called Massilia, meaning ‘settlement’.  It became one of the great maritime cities with large natural harbor possessing dry-docks and amouries with many vessels, arms and siege machines. Not only was commerce its greatest asset, but developed into a great learning center of the west, vying for importance with Ephesus, Athens and Rome. (Taylor, John W., The Coming of the Saints, Artisan Sales/Hoffman Printing, POB 1529, Muskogee, OK, 74402. 1985. pg. 111-113)

Here along the marshy shores of the delta of the Rhone is now a nature preserve, the Camarague, where wild grey horses and native black bulls roam the marsh lands of the Rhone delta along with flamingos, eagles, hawks and harriers.  It was here that the disciples with Joseph disembarked and from there the earliest traditions of the church depict that France was one of the first to hear the message of the risen Christ.

While Joseph and the disciples were resting near Marseilles, the Apostle Philip was traveling with the instructions by the Apostle Peter to scout out the region of Gaul and begin to establish the mission of the Nazarenes on the European continent above province of Spain which had already been started by James the Greater, the brother to John. (Stough, Henry W., Dedicated Disciples, Artisan Sales/Hoffman Printing, POB 1529, Muskogee, OK 74402.1987. pg 78)

At this time, Lazarus took a great interest in the cosmopolitan city of Marseilles.  His father was a Syrian governor, called Theophilus and his mother a Jewess.  He lived most of his life as a landed gentry in Judea, was very comfortable conversing with the educated and the commercial minded citizens in this great city.  Though we have testimony in the traditions of the Church in Lyons on the Rhine in southern France that Lazarus along with Martha and Mary Magdalene in later years returned to Marseilles, it can be assumed at this time that he passed through this city to live with his friend Joseph of Arimathea.  It was to the great city of Marseilles that Lazarus eventually returned to live the last seven years of his life as the Bishop of Marseilles.

Lazarus is asserted to have accompanied Joseph. The only records we possess of him beyond the Scripture narrative is in the traditions of the Church of Lyons makes him return with Martha and Mary to Marseilles, of which town he became the first bishop, and there he died.  His name is attached to a very ancient British Triad; ‘ The Triad of Lazarus’, or the ‘Three councils of Lazarus’ and as such also attaches him to the Celtic traditions of Cornwall, Glastonbury and Wales.  These three triads are:

The Triad of Lazarus of Ancient Britain
“Believe in God who made thee; Love God who saved thee; Fear God who will Judge thee.”

It is difficult to explain how the name and counsel of Lazarus could find their way into these peculiarly British memorials except by his presence and teaching in Britain.

Some traditions state that when the oar-less and sail-less boat landed at Les Saintes Maries de la Mer, the Apostle Philip under the instruction of Peter was awaiting them, taking charge of the company.  He dedicated Joseph with the apostolic commission to Britain.

The logistics of this seem impossible except that the commission to be the Apostle to the British was given to Joseph of Arimathea by Philip in his home on the eastern Mediterranean coast of Caesarea.  This event must have occurred when the fires of persecution in Jerusalem sent the flaming firebrand Shaul (Paul) to Caesarea. Is this a fact?  No, we do not have any testimony by name, but who else was on the warpath of persecution except Shaul under the directed orders of Ananus and Caiaphas in Jerusalem? There under the nose of the Roman centurion and the Italic troops, Shaul and his security guards rounded up Joseph and his followers and put them into a boat to be carried on western flowing currents out to the middle of the Mediterranean.

 

The Assault of James the Just by Shaul Triggers the Exile of Joseph of Arimathea

There is an interesting statement in the Ascent of Jacob describing the scene when the ‘enemy’, whom we identify as Shaul (Saul), attacked and assaulted James the Just. In the midst of the debate, the ‘enemy’ arrives and began to revile and harass the priests, trying to raise up a furor so that they would allow their murderous thoughts to flame into living reality.  And then the account continues:

Ascents of Jacob – “Much blood is shed; there is a confused flight, in the midst of which that enemy attacked Jacob (James the Just), and threw him headlong from the top of the steps; and supposing him to be dead, he cared not to inflict further violence upon him. But our friends lifted him up, for they were both more numerous and powerful than the others; but, from fear of God, they rather allowed themselves to be killed by an inferior force than they would kill others.  But when the evening came the priest shut up the Temple and we returned to Jacob’s house, and spent the night there in prayer.  Then before daylight we went down to Jericho, to the number of five thousand men.” (Ascents of Jacob, quoted in the Recognitions of Clements liii to lxxi as quoted by Schonfield, Hugh Joseph, The Pentecost Revolution, The Story of the Jesus Party in Israel, AD 36-66, Macdonald and Janes’s, St. Giles, 49/50 Poland Street, London, W.I., 1974, p)

 

The Route of the Ancient Tin Trader – Map by Stough, in “Dedicated Disciples”

 

The young and tempestuous Shaul, who would someday become the Apostle to the Gentiles, had a rabid temper and when he lost his cool, he did not focus on details.  Throwing James the Just violently down the stairs, he left James thinking that he was dead not checking to make sure.  Shaul had a different ‘plan of execution’ to deal with Joseph of Arimathea. The power of Joseph in this Roman controlled cosmopolitan city was enormous.  Overt violence would not be tolerated on the streets of Caesarea.  Shaul was too smart for that. Besides being a Roman citizen himself, he did not want Roman laws convicting him in the Roman courts.  He knew that there was a weakness in the Romans.  They did not want to stir up trouble.  Though they methodically did their military duties, as a whole they were very tolerant of the people that they were to govern.

So Shaul quietly escorted the entire company of Nazarenes to a beach north of the city, according to some traditions and there they had a prearranged boat beached on the sandy beach. All the occupants were ordered in the boat and pushed out to sea.  No oars and no sail.  Not even a rudder.  The elements would be at their mercy and their death would be an “Act of God”.  There on the beach they watch the boat drift westward until it was out of their sight.  No violence and no bloodshed.  If anyone inquired, they could truthfully say, “They left by ship last night going west.”

The Route of the Tin Traders

Like any detective story, the elements of the picture are all there. The traditions for over a thousand years all seem to converge that the forced exile of Joseph of Arimathea included a drifting boat without oars or sails headed out to sea and by a miracle of the Lord, they all landed safely on a beach on the opposite side of the Mediterranean.

The route of the earliest Christian missions from Jerusalem followed the path of Phoenician colonization / the tin trade, as described by Didorus Siculus.

Initially from the cities and the towns along the Phoenician / Syrian coast to Antioch (1). Then all the main Phoenician settlements Cyprus (2), Crete (3), Sicily (4), Cyrenia (5), Massilia (Marseilles) (7), Sardinia (6), Spain (8) and ultimately Southwest Britain (9).

How long Joseph of Arimathea and his company lived in the vicinity of Marseilles we do not know. That Joseph of Arimathea did have provisions, plus plenty of business friends and associates in that maritime city can be expected.

There appears to be a strong hint that a message was sent to Britain by courier to Siluria on the southern Wales coast with request for permission to enter the country of Britain, Cornwall and Wales to live. The only clue is that we do find hints of Joseph along the path of the ancient Tin traders.

Isle off the Brittany Coast of Morlaix, France

It was from here in Marseilles that Joseph with twelve companions followed this same path of the tin traders…  From Marseilles, they traveled to Narbonne on the southern coast of France.  They then traveled by horseback across central Celtica or France up the route through Figeac, Rocamadour, Limoges and on to Morlaixon  the western coastal peninsula of France.

How long did it take from their exile from Caesarea to the landing in Marseilles? This passageway in an oarless and sailless boat to the northern coast of Africa and finally to the maritime city of Marseilles could have taken months.  How long did Joseph of Arimathea and his followers live in the vicinity of Marseilles?

Did Joseph send word by a fast courier to the royal House of Siluria of the story of their exile and ask for asylum within their country? Somehow the word reached the royal court of the Celtic King of Wales and Cornwall.

Somehow Joseph knew when it was time to leave the city of Marseilles, for there at Morlaix on the Atlantic coast, so the traditions say, Joseph and his company were met by a British Druidic delegation led by Arviragus, the crown prince of the Silurian tribe in the Dukedom of Cornwall.  He was the son of Cunobelinus, the Cymbeline of Shakespeare fame, and cousin to the renowned British Pendragon and warrior, Caradactus. It was this Pendragon called Caradactus, the most feared warrior by Rome, the Tudor Kings and Queens claim their descent from. This tribe represented the most powerful tribal confederation on the Isle of Britain. (Stough, Henry W., Dedicated Disciples, Artisan Sales/Hoffman Printing, POB 1529, Muskogee, OK 74402.1987. pg 78)

It was on the Isle off the Brittany coast of Morlaix, France, where the ancient ships of Joseph that carried the mined tin ingots from the Isle of Ictus (St. Michael’s Mount), landed after traversing across the watery strait. From ancient Britain to the ancient land of Gaul the first path of transport for this valuable commodity to Rome began.

Here again was Morlaix, a city well known to Joseph of Arimathea. As the tin and lead ingots were unloaded off his ships that were docked at the harbor, he then had them loaded unto pack animals and there taken by protective escort of Roman soldiers across the southern part of France to the city of Marseilles. The site of Morlaix was well known to the ancient Brits for it also was the site of entry by the invading Brits into French Gaul in the Middle Ages. Where they invaded they also left their name on this ancient land, the land of Brittany.

The British royal and druidic delegation was there to greet and persuade Joseph and his followers to live near their homeland in the western isles of Britain. As Freculphus said,

Freculphus – “Joseph and his company, including Lazarus, Mary, Martha, Marcella and Maximin came at the invitation of certain Druids of high rank(‘Negotium habuit cum Druidis quorum primi precipuique doctores  erant in Britannia.’) from Marseilles into Britain, circa AD 38-39; were located at Yens Avalon, the seat of a Druidic cor, which was subsequently made over to them in free gift by Arviragus. Here they build the first church, which became the centre and mother of Christianity in Britain. Joseph died and was interred in 76 AD. (Freculphus, apud God., p.10 cited in Morgan, R.W., St. Paul in Britain, Artisan Sales/Hoffman Printing, POB 1529, Muskogee, OK 1984 pg 73)

Three years after being exiled from Judea, they took small ships across the English Channel to St. Michael’s Mount called Ictis. There they landed in the small wharf which was the loading dock for the tin that was shipped towards Rome to the east from the town of Marazion. As they disembarked from their boats, they waited until the tides went out and were able to walk across the dried out bay to the small Celtic town of Marazion.

From Marazion, the company of Yahshua’s disciples along with Joseph traveled on hide covered skiffs around Lands End in southern Cornwall and up the western coast of Cornwall. There in what was called the Severn Sea they weaved in and out of island mounds that jutted out of this mystical land. In the distance they could see the Glastonbury Tor. Memories swelled up in their heads of the beautiful Mount Tabor jutting nineteen hundred feet from the Galilean plains southwest of the between modern day Nazareth and Nain.

I would like to close out this section on the blind man by showing you some of the other people that are mentioned by the Apostle Paul. To know who they are and how they are related is fascinating.

50-51 AD – When it came time to start their second missionary journey, (Acts 15:36) a rift between Paul and Barnabus, John Mark’s uncle resulted when Barnabus wanted John Mark to go with them again and Paul refused. Therefore Paul selected Silus (vs.38-40) and split with Barnabus, who selected John Mark and went to Cyprus to evangelize that area.   John Mark later goes back to Jerusalem and Barnabus appears to stay at Cyprus.

Death of Barnabus:

58 AD – On the island of Cyprus, Barnabus appears to live out the rest of his days, ordained by Paul as the Bishop of Cyprus later dies at the island of his home about the year 58. (or 73 AD as “supposed to have taken place” – Fox’s Book of Martyrs, 5)

58 AD – Clement returns to Rome, where he becomes friends with the Apostle Paul and the family of Rufus Pudens Pudentiana and Gladys, whose home was the site of the first Gentile church in Rome.  Paul lived with this family, because he was the half-brother of Rufus Pudens, whose mother and Paul’s, whose name was Priscilla, was a Jewess.

John Mark
Mission of John Mark – Rome

56 AD – How long John Mark was in Jerusalem, we do not know.  Apparently he was there during the arrest of Paul and during Paul’s interim stay in prison for three years in Caesarea.  Paul was sent to Rome about 56 AD, “during the second year of Nero”, according to Jerome.

58 AD – After the death of Barnabus, we see John Mark going to Rome at Paul’s request to assist Paul during his house arrest and imprisonment.  To his good friend, Timothy, Paul wrote, “Do your best to join me soon; for Demas has deserted me because his heart was set on this world; he has gone to Thessalonica, Crescens to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia; I have no one with me but Luke.  Pick up Mark and bring him with you, for I find him a useful assistant.  John Mark and Paul not only mended their theological fences but Marcus, as Paul knew him by his Roman name in Rome, recognized that Aristarchus, Mark, and Jesus Justus (the brother of Jesus?) “of the Jewish Christians, these are the only ones who work with me for the kingdom of God, and they have been a great comfort to me.” (Col.4:10-11)

It was during this stay in Rome (58-60 AD), that it is believed that John Mark wrote the Gospel of Mark, reputed to be the oldest of the Synoptic Gospels, probably soon after the death of the Apostle Paul in Nero’s time.

The British Church in Rome and the First Bishop of Rome

58 AD – Palatium Britanneum, British Royal Palace –  When Paul was released from house arrest, it appears he lived for some time in the residence, Palatium Britanneum, of his half brother, Rufus Pudens and Gladys (Celtic for princess), known in Rome by her Roman name Claudia, along with their children, Timotheus, Pudentiana, Praxedes, Novatus.

This gives new meaning to Paul’s writings, “salute Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine.” (Rom. 16:3)  Also the statement in the letter to Timothy, who was called after the first born son of  Rufus and Claudias, Timothea, Paul send the following greeting; “Eubulus (Aristobulus) greeteth thee, and Pudens (Rufen Pudens), and Linus, and Claudia (Gladys) and all the brethren.” (II Timothy 4:21)

Even a more personal touch, we find this touching scene recorded in the Roman martyrologies, “The children of Claudia were brought up on the knees of Paul.”

58 AD – Linus – the first Bishop at Rome – Linus, the brother to Claudia (Gladys) , baptized at Avalon by Joseph of Arimathea, now a Christian teacher in Rome, was ordained by Paul to be the first Bishop of Rome.  And therein started the famed succession of the Bishops of Rome.

Linus, the First Bishop (Pope) of Rome, ordained by Paul

For it was stated in the Apostolic Constitutions, “The first Christian Church above ground in Rome, was the Palace of the British.  The first Christian Bishop was a Briton, Linus, son of a Royal Kind, personally appointed by St. Paul. AD 58)

Also in the Apostolic Constitutions (Bk 1, p. 46), the statement is attributed to the Apostle Peter, “Concerning those Bishops who have been ordained in our lifetime, we make known to you that they are these; of Antioch, Eudius, ordained by me, Peter, of the Church of Rome, Linus, brother of Claudia, was first ordained by Paul, and after Linus’s death, Clemens, the second ordained by me, Peter.” (Quoted in Jowett 125-6)

Annales Ecclesias by Cardinal Baronius (ad 19 Maii, Jowett 130) “It is delivered to us by the firm tradition of our forefathers that the house Pudens was the first that entertained St. Peter at Rome, and that there the Christians assembling formed the Church, and that of all our churches the oldest is that which is called after the name Pudens.”

Rufus Pudens, the Senator and Gladys Claudia Britannica
Pudentiana (Claudia), the Celtic Princess

58-66 AD – Roman authors on Pudens and Claudia:

Is this the only reference to the British mission in Rome? No, we can now look outside the literature of the Christian church, to the secular writer, Tacitus and Martial.  Tacitus describes succinctly the arrival of the feared British Pendragon, Caractacus, and his whole family as hostages of Rome, the famous trial of Caractacus, his unprecedented speech to the Roman Senate where they stood in ovation at its finish and where his death sentence was pardoned to include seven years of city arrest and then a promise on his word of honor that he would never raise the sword again against Rome.  He told also of how Caractacus’ daughter, Gladys, refused to leave her father, and became the first woman and child to stand in the Roman Senate,  how she, Gladys, was adopted into the family of Claudius Caesar, renamed Claudia, and a year later married Rufus Pudens, the aide de camp of the Roman general, Aulus Plautonius,  Aulus was married to Pomponia Graecinia (also named Gladys, “princess”),  a sister to Caractacus and a convert by Joseph of Arimathea and Aulus was later baptized by Paul.

It was to Rome’s most famous gossip columnist, and epigrammist, Martial, known to articulate vividly of the vagrancy and vulgarity of Roman society, spoke of his friends he admired the most, Rufus and Claudia.

Listen to his works.

“Though Claudia Rufina sprang from the blue Britons, how Latin is her mind! What beauty of form! Italian mothers might believe her Roman, Attic mothers their own.  Thank the gods, she has been fertile of offspring to her virtuous husband, and though but a girl, hopes for sons- and daughters-in-law.  So may it please the High Ones that she rejoices in one partner and rejoice always in three children.”  Martial Bk xi, p.49

Martial – on how high his esteem was of Claudia: “Claudia, you could measure up to the top of the Palatine colossus if you were shortened by a foot and a half.”  Martial Bk viii, p. 211.

Martial – on how different the Pudens family, in marriage was to the Roman society. “The foreign Claudia marries my Rufus Pudens; she calls him Rufus her Holy husband.” (Martial Bk IV, XVIII)

“Claudia Peregrina weds, Rufus, with my own Pudens; a blessing, O Hymenaeus, be upon they torches!  So well does rare cinnamon blend with its own nard; so well Massic wine with Attic combs.  Not closer are elms linked to tender vines, nor greater love that the lotus for the waters, the myrtle for the shore. Fair Concord, rest thou unbroken on that bed, and may Venus be ever kindly to a bond so equal knit!  May the wife live with her husband when anon he is grey, and she herself, even when she is old, seem not so to her spouse.” Martial Bk IV. Xiii.

Martial on how we valued the literary advice of his friends.  “You compel me to correct my poems with my own hand and pen, Pudens.  Oh, how overmuch you approve and love my works who wish to have my trifles in autograph!”  Martial Bk vii, xii.

The relationship of the Roman family of Pudens and the British Silurian family is documented in Usher, British Ecclesiastic Antiquities 19, Archdeacon Williams’s, Claudia and Pudens; the Rev R.W. Morgan’s St Paul in Britain, Conybeare and Howson’s Life and Epistles of St. Paul, Vol II, p. 581,582,584,585, Baronius’ Annales Ecclesiastic, Vol. 1, p. 228, re Vol 2, Sec. 56, p. 56,64;  Sec IV and V, pp. 111-112; Sec I and II, pp 148 and 150, Jowett, The Drama of the Lost Disciples, p. ; Lewis, Lionel Smithett, St. Joseph of Arimathea at Glastonbury, p. 23-26.

 

AD 78 – Linus – murdered

AD 96 –    Rufus Pudens

AD 97 –    Gladys Claudia Britannica Pudentiana – died natural death age 61 in Samnios

AD 107 – Pudentianna – martyred in Third Christian Persecution Palladium Britannica – renamed in her honor about 150 AD as the Church of Pudentianna.

AD 137 – Novatus – martyred in 5th Roman Persecution. Timothea was absent for he had gone to Britain to baptize his nephew, grandson of Argaviras, Lucius, king of Britain, known as Lucius the Great, at Winchester the site of the renowned Round Table of King Arthur.

AD 140- Timothea returned and was martyred at age 90.

AD 140 – Praxedes – martyred the same year – age 88-89

Roman martyrologies  “Rome was drunk with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus”.          Jowett.127

The Apse of the Basilica of Ste. Pudentianna

There on a side street near the famous Basilica Saintes Maria Maggiore on the Via Urbana just off the Via Agostino Depretis, is the small Basilica of Sainte Pudentianna located over the site of the first Christian Nazarene Church in the city of Rome located at the home of Gladys and Rufus Pudens.  .

The origin of the Basilica dates to 400 CE and there on the apse of the Basilica just to the right of Jesus’ head is an artist’s recreation of the Octagonal Memorial Church commissioned by Theodosius I (about 382 CE).  To the right of the Octagonal Church is the Church of the Apostles depicting the small synagogue as it is supposed to appear at 400 CE.  To the left of Jesus’ head is depicted the Anastasis which is now built into the larger Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

 

That this apse mosaic is still intact today is a remarkable feat on a Basilica site.  Yet it is  which the Roman Catholic Church who is not sure it truly wants to fully affirm the origins if this basilica that does not affirm their apostolic succession that Peter was the first bishop of Rome.

This is the story of the two patron saints, Pudentianna and Praxedes who are part of the most remarkable untold stories of Christendom.  Yet the Catholic Church has virtually dropped these two Christian virgins from their official saint’s lists because their traditions, legends and stories are not affirmed by the orthodox Roman church.  Though they were born and raised in Rome, both came out of the Celtic British Culdee Nazarene-Christian history and as such are not part of the official Roman Christian history.  Telling the story also affirms that the story of the Christian Church is a bigger picture than that affirmed by the Roman Christian Community.

The traditional interpretation of this mosaic is that it is a portrayal of the buildings on the apse as they appeared contemporary to the artist that created the mosaic.  If so, then the portrayal of the Cenacle or the Synagogue of the Apostles would be how it would have been visualized in 400 CE as a synagogue.  To espouse the interpretations of scholars that there were no synagogues or churches after the Bar Kokhba Revolt in 130 CE because a battalion of the 10th Roman Legion was living on Mount Zion suggests that either the history is not correct or the portrayal of the apse of the Basilica of Ste. Pudentianna is not correct.

It was in 1998 that I spent ten days investigating the early archeological evidence of the Early Christian Church in Rome.  With my historical knowledge of the British Culdee traditions of Joseph of Arimathea and his school (university) built at Glastonbury, it was easy to trace the earliest roots of the Nazarene Ecclesia not only in Celtic Britain but the remarkable transplantation of the message of salvation by the ‘blood of the messiah Yeshua’ from Britain to Rome.  The message of the death and resurrection of Yeshua found fertile soil of the Druids in Celtic Wales and western Britain for they also were looking for a messiah called Yesu.

Yet in the powerful and unrelenting drive of Rome to conquer the world, the most powerful resistance to the unconquerable legions of Rome came from the tribe of the Royal Silurians, the kinsmen of that wealthy and powerful Roman Decurio, Joseph of Arimathea, who also was the maternal uncle of Jesus.

In 42 CE, Claudius Caesar gave an edict to expel all Jews from the city of Rome yet within that same edict by the Roman Senate, it was also a capital offense to convert to Christianity and to the Druidic faith.  What was not recognized in this edict was that the thrust of Roman resistance was not towards the Jews but towards Christians and Druids in Britain.

The next year, 43 CE, a major invasion was planned by Claudius Caesar into Britain to be spearheaded by Aulus Plautinus, the “Scipio” of his day with headquarters in Chichester, Britain and Rufus Pudens as his aide de camper.  They were to conquer and exterminate the British Christians.

Over in Wales and Cornwall, the stronghold of the tribe of the Silurians, we find three brothers, Guiderius, the eldest who was first in command but killed in the second battle. Arviragus, prince of the Cornwall dukedom who was a friend and confidant of Joseph of Arimathea and Caradoc, the leader of the Welch Silurian returning from military retirement, was elected as the commander in chief of the royal forces (Pendragon) and joined his forces with Arviragus.

Here we have a Celtic Druid, Caradactus, whose father, Bran the Blessed,  was the arch-Druid (high priest) of the all the Celtic Druids.  According to the history of the Culdee Christians, the family of Caradactus was baptized as Christian Nazarene converts by Joseph of Arimathea, Mary, Martha and Lazarus.  Caradactus was multi-lingual in Gaelic, Latin, Greek and Hebrew/Aramaic, yet more than that he was one of the fiercest opponents of Rome. Culdee literature calls him ‘bold and honorable’, feared by all of Rome as the ‘scourge of Rome’ and the first general to lead an army of Christians to battle.

For nine years and 38 pitched battles, the Romans suffered defeat after defeat in pitched battles with the Pendragon Caracticus who had not received any reinforcements from either Ireland, Scotland or Gaul.  In the 39th pitched Battle of Clune in 52 CE, the forces of Caradactus met four of Rome’s most brilliant generals in history; Vespasian, who later placed the siege against Jerusalem and became the future Emperor of Rome, Titus, the son of Vespasian, who put Jerusalem and the temple of the Lord to the torch in 70 CE, Geta, the conqueror of Mauritania and Claudius Caesar who arrived with the 2nd and 14th Legions on the eve of battle directing the forces with a squadron of elephants.

The Silurian forces in Britain made their first retreat when their horses panicked by the stench of the elephants.  While regrouping his forces, Caradactus spent the evening with his cousin, Aricia, the queen of the Brigantes, not knowing that she had been bought off by the Romans and turned traitor.  While asleep, she put him in chains and turned him over to the Romans.

Imprisoned, the entire royal family of Caradactus was taken to Rome; Caradactus and wife, his father, the Arch-Druid turned Christian, Bran the Blessed, Linus the crown prince, Gladys (princess in Gaelic) with her sister Eurgen.  According to the Roman historian Tacitus (Tacitus, bk xii, ch 36) the arrival of Caradactus and his family spread like wildfire to Rome and three million people lined the roads into Rome, awaiting the most feared man in the empire.  According to Tacitus,

Tacitus – “Rome trembled when she saw the Briton, though fast in chains.” (Tacitus, bk xii, ch 36)

There in Rome, Caradactus was sent to trial in the Roman Senate.  To a capacity crowd which for the first time, the Empress of Rome was allowed into the Senate and Gladys, the young seventeen year old daughter, refusing to leave her father’s side, stood by him on the Senate floor as he made his defense.  After Caradactus, in a manner free of spirit with a passion of righteous vigor and defending the rights of the free throughout all ages plead his own case to the Roman Senate who then to a standing ovation the Roman Senate gave him clemency. (Tacitus Annals 12:37)

Queen Agrippa rose from her dais and went to the platform and shook hands with Caracticus and Gladys according to British customs and embraced them both according to Roman custom.

Caracticus was given clemency yet was to stay in Rome for seven years and for his lifetime to renounce taking arms against Rome.  He was the only military enemy against Rome that was given his political freedom. Yet it was not for the sake of Caradactus but so that the cause of Yeshua could be permanently established by the Nazarenes in the city of Rome.

Out of this act of clemency were forged bonds and alliances with the Claudian family that affected the polity of Rome and the development of the Roman Christian Church.

Caradactus’ sister, Gladys Pomponia Graecinia, a convert of Joseph of Arimathea and the Bethany sisters, married the Roman military commander over all Britain, Aulus Plautinus.  For forty years, Pomponia Graecinia was a leader of high Roman society, scholar of classical Greek and Roman literature, author of prose in Greek, Latin and Cymric and whose works survived for 1500 years until they were burned in the Library of Glastonbury by the forces of Cromwell.

Gladys, the daughter of Caradactus was adopted into the family of Claudius Caesar and the next year married Rufus Puden Pudentius the aide de camp of the Roman Military Commander in Britain Aulus Plautinus.  Gladys’ new name was Gladys Claudia Britannica Pudentianna.  She was renown for her beauty and personal friends with Martial, the satirist of Rome, whose praise to Claudia and Rufus will be forever a part of classical Rome literature. Her children were all martyrs for Christ and her brother, Linus, became the first bishop of Rome.

Linus, the prince heir to the throne of Siluria, son of Caradactus and sister to Claudia Britannica was ordained by the Apostle Paul in 58 CE as the first bishop of Rome.  The Apostle Peter was not the first bishop of Rome neither were any of the other Apostles were ever bishops of any ecclesia.  The apostles were commissioned to travel the world and were not appointed to the hierarchy of any one ecclesia.  According to the Apostolic Constitutions, the Apostle Peter stated,

Apostolic Constitutions – “Concerning those Bishops who have been ordained in our lifetime, we make known to you that they are these; of Antioch, Eudius, ordained by me, Peter, of the Church of Rome, Linus, brother of Claudia, was first ordained by Paul, and after Linus’s death, Clemens, the second ordained by me, Peter.”(Apostolic Constitutions, bk 1, p 46.in Jowett 125-6)

Arviragus, the ruler of the western Silurians married Venus Julia, the daughter of Claudius Caesar, his arch military opponent.  When Arviragus again took up arms again against Rome when armistice between Rome broke, it never severed their love for each other or Venus love for her father.

Rufus Puden Pudentianna was the son of Senator Quintus Cornelius Pudens who hosted the Apostle Peter in the city of Rome in 44 CE.  It was the senatorial estates willed to Rufus Pudens that resided on one of the seven hills of Rome, the Vermilion Hill.  This home became the home also for Caradactus and his family and known as the Palatium Britannica.  It was this home of the Roman Senator that hosted the first Christian Nazarene Church in the city of Rome, a magnificent estate which required 200 males and another 200 females to manage the estates.  Here were two magnificent baths, some of the largest in Rome, named after their two sons: Thermae Timotheus and Thermae Novanteus.

The Apostle Paul, when he arrived to Rome in chains, found family awaiting him.  It was Rufus Puden who was the half brother of Paul and the Jewess mother that gave birth to both of them was the wife of Senator Quintus Cornelius Pudens.

Romans 16:13 – “Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine.”

It was Claudia, Paul’s sister-in-law who cared for him in their palatial home, the Palatium Britannica, and by tradition their children, Timotheus, Novanteus, Pudentianna and Praxedes were taught the love of Jesus on the lap of their uncle, the Apostle Paul.  It was in second Timothy that Paul sent greetings back to his family, Rufus and Claudia.

II Timothy 4:21 – “Eubulus (Aristobulus, father-in-law of Peter) greets you, as well as Pudens, Claudia, and all the brethren.”

Two daughters were born to Gladys Claudia Britannica Pudentianna and Rufus Pudens Pudentianna: Pudentianna and Praxedes.  Both sisters died as virgins giving their lives entirely to the cause of the Lord, protecting, preserving and ministering to the families that were killed as martyrs in the infamous persecution of Nero.

The Basilica Sainte Pudentianna was built over the bathhouses of the Palatium Britannica.  There enclosed within the church is a well by the basilica which is reputed to have the bones or relics of over 3000 martyrs for Christ during the Neronian Persecution.  And there on the apse of this ancient basilica built in 400 CE, one of the most ancient in Rome, is a mosaic picture of Jesus and His disciples and over them are mosaic pictorial representations of the chief Christian sites in Jerusalem in 400 CE.  One of these mosaic pictures is the “Church of the Apostle”, the Nazarene Synagogue of the Hebrew Nazarene Ecclesia in Jerusalem.

 


 

“Mail This Week”

Hey Joe

I’m SO GLAD you nipped this Hannukkah thing in the bud with that picture of the snake with the “Santa” hat, because so many many many people are celebrating this stuff. I put a comment to Bill Cloud yesterday, in saying “do not add to the words…. Revelation 22:18.
Bless You Joe, I really appreciate your letters, and hearing the truth.
Bonnie

I pray each of you would write to each of your religious and political leaders each and every week, telling them of their sins they are committing. If you’re going to call yourself a watchman, then you had better be telling their sins to those who dropped the ball, as this lady is doing. To remain silent is also sin against you for not speaking out.

Lev 19:17  You shall not hate your brother in your heart. You shall always rebuke your neighbor, and not allow sin on him.

The one thing I have prayed that each of you would do is to prove those things I am teaching. Prove me wrong if you can. Everyone is proving me right, though. The real reason you need to prove it is because once you do then it no longer is Joseph Dumond’s teaching. Once you have proven it from your own bible then you know how to teach it to others and you then understand those things I have been saying. Until you actually do the work, you will never own the results. Read what happened to this one group who took up the challenge and set out to prove things from their own bibles. Yes, they had my books to refer to once or twice but look what happened once they completed the task.

Hi Joe

I forgot to say, “Thanks for all the leg-work” you did for those charts, and for some key scriptures.  I didn’t realize that pg. 135 in the 2016 Sabbatical Years Book was there.  Silly me!!!!

I’m so excited that I proved it through SCRIPTURE that 2500 is a JUBILEE year, the year that Joshua and the Israelites entered into the PROMISED LAND.

I’m so excited.  Just had to email you.  It’s so helpful when we all get-together to study, this really helps me.  Our little group did this on Sunday, and Susan did a good job.

Before I was totaling the total number of years the first born lived, and then I thought about it, and Yehovah revealed it to me, no not the total number, the number of years each first born seed was when he begat his son.  Ding dong, then it CLICKED!!

Yehovah revealed it to me.  The night before I dreamt a female cow rolling and rolling on the ground, wrestling and struggling.  And that I figured out was me wrestling and struggling, cause when I got up, I sat down at the table and then step-by-step I got it.  Scripture by scripture, precept by precept, line upon line. Leviticus 25:1-2 WAS KEY in figuring out Abraham’s age from 2500 backward to when he was 75 years old when he had left Haran, after first figuring out from Adam to the birth of Abraham was 1,948 years FIRSTLY.  Then remembering  what  Yehovah  told Moshe Exodus 12:40-41 Now the sojourning of the children of Israel who dwelt in Egypt, was  430 years.  verse 41 And it came to pass at the end of the 430 years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of Yehovah went OUT from the land of Egypt.

So 1,948 + 430 + a total of 42 years of total wandering in the wilderness, reading very carefully through Passover when they went out Exodus 16:1And they took their journey from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came unto the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the 15th day of the 2nd month AFTER THEIR DEPARTING  OUT OF THE LAND OF EGYPT.

A year later….Exodus 40:1 Yehovah spoke to Moshe saying v 2 On the 1st day of the 1st month shalt thou set up the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation v 3 and thou shalt put therein the ark of the testimony, and cover the ark with the vail and bring in the candlestick, etc.

Exodus 40:17 And it came to pass in the first month in the second year on the first day of the month that the tabernacle was reared up.

Now at this point all the tribes haven’t even presented their offerings yet for the altar, etc.

It was for the clincher from Lev 25:1-2 And Yehovah spoke unto Moshe in Mount Sinai, saying 2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them.  When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath unto Yehovah, and the chapter goes into the jubilee 10 And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof;  it shall be a jubilee unto you, and ye shall return every man his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.

The children of Israel entered into the promised land in 2500 a Jubilee, and were finally no longer sojourners but rightful owners.

Knowing that scripture, we can then figure out Abraham’s age to be 80, and we are knowing that he left Haran at age 75, Genesis 12:4

I am so glad our little sabbath group did this, and thank you for your digging and research that could really help us get going.

Sorry to be so long with this note.  I’m just so excited.  Now we want to go further to study out after year 2500.

Yehovah Bless You Abundantly Joe

Bonnie

 

The following is from someone who shares my teachings with other groups. And he sent the one on Chanukah to one group and got the following reaction. Here are a couple of scriptures for people to keep in mind in regards to Chanukah and Christmas.

Luk 15:7  I say to you that likewise joy shall be in Heaven over one sinner who repents, more than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance. 8  Or what woman having ten drachmas, if she loses one drachma, does she not light a lamp and sweep the house, and seek carefully until she finds it? 9  And when she has found it, she calls her friends and her neighbors together, saying, Rejoice with me, for I have found the drachma which I had lost. 10  Likewise I say to you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.
We also have this scripture sent to us to remind those of you who even though you now know the truth, you’re going to keep it anyway.

Heb 10:26  For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remains no more sacrifice for sins, 27  but a certain fearful looking for judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. 28  He who despised Moses’ Law died without mercy on the word of two or three witnesses. 29  Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy of punishment, the one who has trampled the Son of God, and who has counted the blood of the covenant with which he was sanctified an unholy thing, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? 30  For we know Him who has said, “Vengeance belongs to Me, I will repay, says the Lord.” And again, “The Lord shall judge His people.” 31  It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Shalom J.D., very occasionally I get some breathtaking humbleness (caused via J.D.’s research) from my Scriptural betters. See Philip’s below.
I have now picked my fainted-self up from the floor.
S.S.
I have added you. Thank you for your email regarding Chanukah, it really challenged me and I dug a bit deeper this year and had to rectify a few things I had wrong, especially the passage in John and the Feast of Dedication.

Shalom

Philip

We also got this note from Cambodia. If you are in Cambodia or know of others in this area, we would love to hear from you so you could contact this next man.

Shalom Joseph,
I hope you are well and enjoying not being part of the seasonal insanity. And I hope you and I can begin a more fruitful dialogue than I had previously initiated.

My wife has since died, leaving a great hole in my life. But after the funeral and stress of taking care of all the bills, I am in better shape to communicate.

First, let me say unequivocally, I know of no other source of ACCURATE information about scripture than sightedmoon. Your diligence and tireless efforts are not wasted on me. Where you find time to do all the work required to produce your teachings is beyond me. There is no doubt in my mind that you have serious spiritual help. No man could produce the volume of information you deliver each week without the Ruah ha Kodesh guiding and helping.

Also, I want to say that your newsletter about unclean food was exceptionally clear. I got more from that reading than I could ever have imagined. I have studied nutrition and used to work with very sick and dying people. I can only agree that the forbidden foods are clearly a source of serious disease in our culture.

Thank you for that, and all your work. You have taught me a great deal and I am truly grateful.

I do have some concerns though. You made it perfectly clear that Yah’wah does not want us eating these foods. About that I am convinced.

Yet, the biblical statements that seem to support eating anything one wants is difficult to refute. I am confused. What do they refer to? Has scripture been corrupted? Is there some context wherein they are applicable? What are we to make of statements that seem to justify bacon? What do these statements refer to? If you could give me some insight regarding this I would be grateful.

As for this week’s newsletter, again I must say you have gone the full distance in clarifying the reasons why God abhors these holidays. I have learned about this in the past from various sources but you have put it into a very clear light. Thank you.

I have hated christmas for many years. Not because I knew scripture, but because I knew in 1971 that it had nothing to do with our Saviour. I used to sell christmas trees back then, and I placed a tag on every tree that read, ‘Remember Christ on Christmas’ because I knew in my heart that no one did. It made me very sad.

I felt that christmas was about feeling charitable so one can convince himself that he is not such a bad person after all. People use it to assuage their guilt for not being good parents or for not putting in the effort to love one another effectively. In one day they expect to make up for a year of ignoring God by having a warm fuzzy feeling for their fellow man and throwing money around that they don’t have. It’s nonsense!

I do not celebrate any holy days not prescribed by our Creator. I am happy to have learned which days He has given us to honour through you. I do not eat any food which Yah’wah has declared unclean. (Did you know that hotdogs are made with blood?)

To the best of my ability I have tried to keep holy the Sabbaths and Holy Days. But the truth is, I don’t really know how. When I am in Canada, I live in a very small village on Vancouver Island. I don’t know anyone to share these appointed times with. When in Cambodia, I don’t know another living soul who knows, or cares to know about God. So, sometimes all I can do is sit alone remembering that it’s the Sabbath. I long for real community.

Last week my wife was cremated. During the Buddhist funeral I was required to sit with my feet pointing away from the monks performing the ceremony. To show them the soles of my feet would be an insult. The position was impossible for me due to injuries. Yet, I was not permitted to sit cross-legged because the monks had that distinction. And it would have made me taller than them. I got dirty looks for trying. Then when  I was supposed to bow to them, I left the room and stood outside praying and crying.

I was not crying simply because I had lost my wife but I was deeply concerned for all the people who had bought into the mumbo-jumbo these money grubbing, pompous spiritual fools were laying on them.

I cannot speak their language well enough to teach them truth. But I try.

I had asked if I could say a few words during our after the ceremony through a translator. I was given permission, but when he understood what I wanted to say the translator said it would offend the monks and refused to help me.

I believe my best chance is to show them the love Yah’wah has for all of us by being respectful, responsible and charitable. By observing the Sabbath, they may wish to know why and ask me to explain. If they do I hope I will have learned to speak so they can understand and be interested.

Now that Malin is gone and I am here on my own until April, I will try to express my faith and beliefs to all who will listen.

Please pray for me that I might be given the words which may awaken those who wish to know truth.

Shalom
Ross

And here is one from Canada,

I am always impressed at the excellence of the newsletter week in week out. I have always learned something new every week during Sabbath to grow and meditate on since I first subscribed. It was certainly quite a long read but this weeks News Letter was another great peace of work

I see a duplexity between yourself and Mr. Herbert W Armstrong. I remember reading how He and his wife kept the Holy Days by themselves after they first learned we needed to observe them in his auto/bio. When you shared how you kept the Sabbatical year by yourself it brought that to my mind. He sure seen the Briton exit of European Union before anyone else did. Maybe he was more of a prophet than WWCG gave him credit for he he he. Yes and also makes me think about how Elijah left Elisha with a double portion of Yhvh’s spirit. One can say that between the two of you also. You have had a double portion of Truth commissioned to you to share with Israel.

Rev_10:11  And he said to me, “You have to prophesy again concerning many peoples and nations and tongues and sovereigns.”

Gerry Flurry likes to claim that this scripture refers to his ministry but I think it stands for a greater deeper understanding that is to be taught about Yhvh and Elohim myself. I really feel Sabbatical year observances is that deeper understanding that this scripture could be referring to.

Everyone I know is out somewhere doing xmas stuff. I am home alone reading articles from your website continued on from today’s Sabbath. Plan on spending the next few days reading the material and videos over again. Always get something I missed every time I watch them.

Cannot think of a better way to spend this holiday than learning about the truth about the times we live.

It almost done for another year thankfully; so Yhvh be with you Mr. Dumond.

Shalom
Steven Smith

 


 

Last week was the start of Saturnalia parties around the world. Some of them were disguised as Chanukah parties. You can call them whatever you fancy, but know for a fact they are sin against you for adding to the Torah and for worshipping other gods and not obeying Yehovah.

This week we must once again review the end of this Saturnalia festivities and look at the evil from which we get Father Time and the New Year Baby. What is all of this and where does it come from?

Click on the link and share this to as many as you want or can. Warn them while you can. The 4th curse of Lev 26 is still coming and is going to be compounded to the other 3 that preceded it.

New Years Day Father Time

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