Introduction

Welcome to an exploration of the Journey of Jesus. Following the Word of God, Jesus the Messiah (the Christ) from the beginning, to his return, each moment will be presented from both a chronological and a geographical perspective. Each story includes when and where the event might have occurred.

It is imperative that one understands that I am NOT attempting to recover the “Historical Jesus”. I am attempting to make the “Biblical Jesus” more real and memorable to a modern reader. The stories are not intended, IN ANY WAY, to “replace” the Biblical accounts, just to make them easier to understand.

I have chosen to follow the general “flow” of the Gospels according to the chronology of Mark, adding Matthew and Luke, and merging with the Gospel of John.  In general the story is presented in the spirit the writers intended, yet I have added explanations of the social situation that Jesus faced. This needs to be done in order to help the modern readers understand the situation better, and with a view to addressing some of the questions of modern scholarship.

As Jesus journeyed across the land of Canaan he was acutely aware of the historical significance of each location he visited. Thus as Jesus chose to reveal God’s will, he chose those locations where his current action could be understood through a knowledge of God’s past actions. Thus history and geography were united. I believe that by combining chronology, geography, history, and culture, it can help some people to better organize their thinking about Jesus.

When the Bible talks about Jesus, we must remember that he was a man living among people. This was REAL life. Jesus encountered real weather. He faced real problems and was overcome with real joys and real sorrows. He cared deeply and he got frustrated. He got sad and he laughed. He spoke in paragraphs, not just with pithy one-liners, and he strove to entice his listeners to seek spiritual answers. He had personality, as did everyone around him. We need to experience more of these aspects of Jesus.

This is one person’s version. There will be errors to be corrected, and other “visions” to be considered. Thus one can expect the stories to change in the future. I appreciate help in detecting mistakes and look forward to alternate “visions” from the Church. If you “see” that things might have happened differently, and it does not violate scripture, I would like to hear your “vision” of the story. Constructive criticism, alternative visions, ideas, and insights are always welcome.

If you have a photograph of the land of Canaan that might help others to “see” the story better, please feel free to send it to me.

DAB