My dear brother:
I know that you had hoped for a message on the healing of a leper, but I bear another topic in mind.
In the year 20 of our era, a 20 year-old youth moved from his small native village on the Golan Heights to the town of Bethsaida Julias, in search for work.
His parent’s family was very numerous, and the scarce land parcels, which they disposed of for sowing, did not suffice for feeding all the family.
Many times, people who live as a minority amidst other peoples, become stricter, more fanatic in the observance of their customs, and likewise it happened
with the principal character of our story.
His name was Simon, and the great Greek influence in the area, where he came from, had strengthened his Jewish roots.
That first century really was a messianic century. The favorite literature of many people was apocalyptic, such as the book of Enoch, and the Jewish world
yearned for the Messiah's coming as they did never before.
Simon felt pain seeing the country of his ancestors suffering under the Roman yoke, and he felt that he had to contribute his share to recover his people’s
freedom. He joined a group of fanatic nationalists, and this is why they nicknamed him " Simon the Zealot."
In Bethsaida, he found work on the fishing boats of the Zebedee family, and he made friends with two of the family patriarch's sons, James and John. In
multiple occasions, when they were washing their nets, he told them of his ideas, and finally achieved that they and another friend, Philip, also joined the
nationalists.
However, the years would teach Simon and his friends that under the cover of nationalism many people of very mean ideas took advantage of the situation
for their own enrichment, or simply for living freely their perverted instincts. In the course of the following years, the group of young men withdrew gradually
from the revolutionary movement, but with a burning thirst in their souls for something, which they did not know. It was the moment, when they met Jesus.
This story you know already.
If one had to classify the apostles in intellectual and emotional types, one could say that Simon belonged to the first group, together with James, Jesus'
brother. Between both, a deep friendship would grow.
The Master's words impressed Simon very much, as they did all of us, although we did not understand all their implications. We all dreamt of the
establishment of the "Kingdom," but here on earth, with Jesus as our king. As you know very well, the future would be very different.
The many miracles the Master had performed left us almost with the impression of Jesus’ "omnipotence," and I believe that if I had not betrayed the Master,
Simon would have done it sooner or later, to force him to demonstrate his infinite power. In some way, we all were guilty "of having ears but not listening."
The Master's death constituted a catastrophe for the whole movement, with the great danger of putting an end, once for all, to the work the Master had
begun. Only through his appearances on several occasions, on more occasions than the Bible relates, that embryo of a "Christian Church" was able to
survive, and principally because of the events of Pentecost, which I, unfortunately, could neither witness nor experience.
The diversity in the character of Jesus' first followers, of course, caused tensions between them, and eventually a group of "liberals," around Peter and
John, and another group of "conservatives," around James and Simon, formed.
Simon stayed in Jerusalem, until James' authority, as the bishop of the "central church," had become consolidated, and then he said goodbye to his friend,
to focus on his work as a missionary.
The legend goes that Simon preached the Gospel in Mauritania, Africa, and even in Britain, where he was crucified in 74 A.D.
That is not really correct. Actually, Simon traveled to Africa, via Sicily, where he founded the first Christian community, which later would gain much
importance. From the Roman province of Africa, he traveled further westward, crossing the province of Numidia, and arrived finally in Mauritania, which in
that time consisted of the northern part of what is today’s Algeria and Morocco. There he dedicated himself to preaching, until his death.
He died at a relatively young age, less than fifty years old, from a natural death.
The regions, where Simon had preached the Gospel, very soon would succumb to the influence of the gentile church, and later on, due to the invasions of
Germanic tribes, they would become ramparts of Arianism.
Today, not much of Simon’s work is left. The conquest of Islam swept away everything.
With this short biography, I hope to have satiated some your curiosity. Little by little, I will deliver additional information on all the people of Jesus' circle. It is
a pity that almost nothing has been transmitted on them, and the little that has survived, is just in form of legends of doubtful value.
God bless you,
Judas
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