Disciples

Today was awesome.

We're supposed to be talking about relationships and identity this week, and I'm not completely sure how what you're about to read(a.k.a. what we learned today) ties into that, but regardless, I learned something and broke down more walls in my faith! 

We did a lot today, but the coolest and almost most significant thing was our discussion of Jewish customs and how Jesus related to it.  We discussed how kids were brought up studying the scriptures.  Boys studied the Torah(first five books of the bible) and girls studied the Psalms.  When they got to be around 12 or 13, they would have their respective, "mitzvahs".  Boys had a bar-mitzvah and girls had a bat-mitzvah.  This is fairly common knowledge, but necessary in the awesome knowledge I am going to relate to you.

After their coming of age, girls would be sent to learn how to keep a house with their mothers and older sisters.  Boys would have the options of continuing in study, or going into the family trade(fisherman, carpenters, etc.).  In order for the boys to continue study, they would have to be tested on their knowledge of the Torah and all 613 laws it contained(yes, 613 laws are contained from Genesis to Deuteronomy).  If they didn't pass the test, they were sent to work in their family business.

If they did pass, they followed a Rabbi(teacher), and studied under him in how to apply the Torah to life, and they also studied the other books of scripture(Psalms, Proverbs, Prophets).  In some cases, there would be an exceptional Rabbi who had another name attached to the title of Rabbi(I forget what the word is) and it meant, "Authority".  Regardless of what kind of Rabbi it was, the boys were considered that Rabbi's disciple.

Jesus called working men to His side when looking for disciples.  In other words, Jesus called guys who had been deemed, "unfit" to be disciples.  That's the first bit of knowledge, but you probably already know that too.  The next part comes out of a story in one of the gospels(I forget which one).

The disciples ask about the tax, and Jesus explains that they are to pay the tax because it belongs to Ceasar(look it up for yourself for the details).  Jesus sends Peter to catch a fish that will have enough money for two people's tax to be paid(Jesus and Peter). 

How many disciples are there?  Twelve.  That means that including Jesus, they would need thirteen people's tax money, not two.  One assumption is that the other disciples could pay for them self, but that wouldn't make sense as they dropped everything to follow Jesus.  The age at which one was required to pay tax was 20.  This means that the only disciple over twenty was Peter.

The disciples were all teenagers save for Peter.  This is actually really comforting for many reasons, most of which I'm sure you can sort out yourself.  A big one, however, is that it helps us understand why the disciples said some really immature/stupid things thorugh out the scripture.  Some times they tried to get Jesus to rain fire down on people because they weren't allowed in a town.  That sounds like a teenager instead of a mature thirty year old man.  At least, I hope that's what it sounds like. 

Anywho, that's what I found exciting about today.  It rips out a lot of doubts I had and does a whole lot more that I find difficult to put into words.  Take it as you will

Catch you tomorrow :).