P1423:3, 129:3.1
The whole of Jesus' twenty-ninth year was spent finishing up the tour of the
Mediterranean world. The main events, as far as we have permission to reveal
these experiences, constitute the subjects of the narratives which immediately
follow this paper.
P1423:4, 129:3.2
Throughout this tour of the Roman world, for many reasons, Jesus was known
as the Damascus scribe. At Corinth and other stops on the return trip
he was, however, known as the Jewish tutor.
P1423:5, 129:3.3
This was an eventful period in Jesus' life. While on this journey he made
many contacts with his fellow men, but this experience is a phase of his life
which he never revealed to any member of his family nor to any of the apostles.
Jesus lived out his life in the flesh and departed from this world without
anyone (save Zebedee of Bethsaida) knowing that he had made this extensive
trip. Some of his friends thought he had returned to Damascus; others thought
he had gone to India. His own family inclined to the belief that he was in
Alexandria, as they knew that he had once been invited to go there for the
purpose of becoming an assistant chazan.
P1423:6, 129:3.4
When Jesus returned to Palestine, he did nothing to change the opinion of
his family that he had gone from Jerusalem to Alexandria; he permitted them
to continue in the belief that all the time he had been absent from Palestine
had been spent in that city of learning and culture. Only Zebedee the boatbuilder
of Bethsaida knew the facts about these matters, and Zebedee told no one.
P1423:7, 129:3.5
In all your efforts to decipher the meaning of Jesus' life on Urantia, you
must be mindful of the motivation of the Michael bestowal. If you would comprehend
the meaning of many of his apparently strange doings, you must discern the
purpose of his sojourn on your world. He was consistently careful not to build
up an
overattractive and
attention-consuming personal career. He wanted to
make no unusual or overpowering appeals to his fellow men. He was dedicated
to the work of revealing the heavenly Father to his fellow mortals and at
the same time was consecrated to the sublime task of living his mortal earth
life all the while subject to the will of the same Paradise Father.
P1424:1, 129:3.6
It will also always be helpful in understanding Jesus' life on earth if all
mortal students of this divine bestowal will remember that, while he lived
this life of incarnation on Urantia, he lived it for his entire
universe. There was something special and inspiring associated with the life
he lived in the flesh of mortal nature for every single inhabited sphere throughout
all the universe of Nebadon. The same is also true of all those worlds which
have become habitable since the eventful times of his sojourn on Urantia.
And it will likewise be equally true of all worlds which may become inhabited
by will creatures in all the future history of this local universe.
P1424:2, 129:3.7
The Son of Man, during the time and through the experiences of this tour of
the Roman world, practically completed his educational
contact-training with
the diversified peoples of the world of his day and generation. By the time
of his return to Nazareth, through the medium of this
travel-training he had
just about learned how man lived and wrought out his existence on Urantia.
P1424:3, 129:3.8
The real purpose of his trip around the Mediterranean basin was to know
men. He came very close to hundreds of humankind on this journey. He met
and loved all manner of men, rich and poor, high and low, black and white,
educated and uneducated, cultured and uncultured, animalistic and spiritual,
religious and irreligious, moral and immoral.
P1424:4, 129:3.9
On this Mediterranean journey Jesus made great advances in his human task
of mastering the material and mortal mind, and his indwelling Adjuster made
great progress in the ascension and spiritual conquest of this same human
intellect. By the end of this tour Jesus virtually knew -- with all human
certainty -- that he was a Son of God, a Creator Son of the Universal Father.
The Adjuster more and more was able to bring up in the mind of the Son of
Man shadowy memories of his Paradise experience in association with his divine
Father ere he ever came to organize and administer this local universe of
Nebadon. Thus did the Adjuster, little by little, bring to Jesus' human consciousness
those necessary memories of his former and divine existence in the various
epochs of the well-nigh eternal past. The last episode of his prehuman experience
to be brought forth by the Adjuster was his farewell conference with Immanuel
of Salvington just before his surrender of conscious personality to embark
upon the Urantia incarnation. And this final memory picture of prehuman existence
was made clear in Jesus' consciousness on the very day of his baptism by John
in the Jordan.