Volume 2

154
Life of Jesus Christ
In Seleucia, also, Jesus spoke of the Baptism as of a
purification; and when they wished to detain Him longer,
He told them that they were at present incapable of understanding
more.
From Seleucia Jesus returned to Adama. In the synagogue
a feast of thanksgiving was celebrated by the newly
baptized who occupied the places of honor and chanted
canticles of praise. Nunlbers of others were baptized when
Andrew and Nathanael ret1lrned from Seleucia. The converted
Jew exhibited naught but humility and a desire to
render assistance to Jesus, delighted to act as servant and
messenger on all occasions.
A great nurrlber of sick had been unable to attend Jesus'
instructions and the Baptism; consequently, with Saturnin
and the disciple who was related to Him, He went to hunt
them up in their homes. The other disciples started for the
cities Azor, Cades, Berotha, and Thisbe, all from two to
three hours north of Adama, in order to invite the inhabitants
to the instruction which Jesus was going to deliver
on a gently rising mountain on the road from Cades to
Berotha. On the top of that mountain, which was covered
with vegetation, and in an open space surrounded by a
wall stood a chair used from remote times for teaching. In
some places the disciples went to the chief magistrates and
called upon them to invite the people to the instruction
that the Prophet from Galilee would deliver on the 1110Untain
the day after the Sabbath, while in others, they themselves
went to the houses and invited the occupants to the
instruction.
Meanwhile, Jesus was going around in Adama among
the rich and the poor, Jews and heathens, healing the
dropsical, the lame, the blind, and those afflicted with a
bloody flux. I was especially surprised at the sight of ten
possessed men and women, all of them pure Jews. I never
saw so many possessed among the heathens. Some of
these ten were of distinguished families. They were con­