The Synagogue of the Freedmen

In my book, I talk about the diverse ethnic neighborhoods, or ghettos, in First Century Jerusalem and about the Synagogue of the Freedmen. I've done a little research in this area (some would say, "Very little,") and I think that I can make the following deductions.

1.     In or around 63 BCE (that would be "Before the Common Era"), Pompey the Great freed a great number of Jewish slaves who had been culled from the Roman Provinces of Libya, Egypt and the various smaller provinces in Asia Minor. My guess is that Pompey would not have granted these people land and honors along with their freedom, and so, lacking anything else to do or anywhere else to go, they returned to their ancestral Promised Land, settled in Jerusalem, utilized their own skills and started their own little shops and businesses in the Lower City where real estate was cheap.

2.     Then, as now, most large cities probably had little ethnic neighborhoods in the low-rent parts of town. Even now, Jerusalem has its own sub-sections based on religion and ethnicity.  It is also logical to assume that, over two thousand years ago, the Jewish folks who returned to the Promised Land from different countries would set up their own little ethnic neighborhoods where the food, goods and languages were all the same from this block to the next:  Little Persia, Little Egypt, Little Ethiopia, Little Phoenicia, Little Rome and Little Greece. (Little Rome would be where the married Roman soldiers lived because it is unlikely that their wives and children would be allowed to reside in the Roman barracks.)

3.     The former slaves of Pompey's army would have settled in Little Egypt and Little Phoenicia, and would have built a relatively large synagogue, the Synagogue of the Freedmen. Given its name, its construction may have been funded fully by the former slaves of Pompey instead of at the order and expense of Herod the Great. There may also have been other smaller synagogues in Jerusalem, but since we know for a fact that there was a Synagogue of the Freedmen, we're going to stick with that. It would have been finished, in all likelihood, sometime around 60 BCE. However, in around 20 BC, the eastern edge of the Mediterranean (the "Great Sea,") suffered a horrendous earthquake, and it is likely that the Synagogue of the Freedmen would have been damaged and would have needed to have been rebuilt, possibly by the children of the former Jewish slaves of Pompey.

4.     Since most of the Jewish population, even those from foreign countries, were Pharisees at the time, this rebuilt synagogue would have looked a lot like the rather plain synagogues in Capernaum and in Ostia outside of Rome: A plain stone building, lined with benches, with a raised platform in the center and a pulpit from which to read the Torah and give sermons. There the Jewish folk from the Lower City could gather, study, debate, pray and probably hold Bar Mitzvah ceremonies, including, in all likelihood, the Bar Mitzvah ceremony of Jesus, a.k.a. Yeshua bar Yosef.. It may have had four columns in front that held up the roof to the archway front door and was probably built of limestone, and if it were not destroyed by the Romans when they sacked Jerusalem in 66 CE, then it was probably destroyed by the many earthquakes in the area in the years since.

5.    The Synagogue of the Freedmen is mentioned in the New Testament, Book of Acts, when the first official martyr, Stephen, tried to preach to the assembly there that Jesus/Yeshua was the Messiah, the Son of God and the Risen Christ. They would have been the ones to have reported him to the Beth Din, which led to his being stoned to death for blasphemy in the mud pits of Golgotha.

Quiz No. 1

Quiz No. 1:

1.) According to The Heretic's Gospel, Jesus/Yeshua was not, at any time, a/an _________?
a.) Nazarene
b.) "Christian"
c.) Essene
d.) Pharisee
e.) Mandaean
f.) Sadducee

2.) Match the character to the canonical name:
a.)  Yehoshua 1.) John the Baptist
b.) Uncle Yossi 2.) James the Greater
c.) Cousin Yanni 3.) Jesus
d.) Shlomo 4.) Joseph of Arimathea
e.) Yacob 5.) Thomas
f.)  Teo 6.) Simon Peter

3.) Where was Jesus/Yeshua born?
a.) Bethlehem
b.) Parazah
c.) Beth Mizzeh
d.) Jerusalem
e.) Nazareth

4.) What language or languages did Jesus/Yeshua speak fluently?
a.) Greek
b.) Latin
c.) Farsi
e.) Aramaic
d.) Egyptian
e.) Hebrew

5.) According to The Heretic's Gospel, Mary of Migdal Nunaiya worked as a ________?
a.) Prostitute
b.) Salesclerk
c.) Baker
d.) Garum-maker
e.) Amateur herbalist
f.) Nursemaid

6.) Name all thirteen of Jesus'/Yeshua's disciples.

7.) What did Prince Herod Antipater, Prince Aristobulus the Fourth, and Prince Alexander have in common?

8.) According to The Heretic's Gospel, which bonafide miracles or miracles did Jesus/Yeshua really perform?
a.) Turned water into wine.
b.) Walked across the Sea of Galilee.
c.) Fed four thousand people on no more than a few fish and loaves of bread.
d.) Healed tens of thousands of sickly people.
e.) All of the above.
f.) None of the above.

9.) Which archangel spoke Aramaic?
a.) Michael
b.) Azrael
c.) Gabriel
d.) Raphael
e.) Uriel
f.) Hanael

10.) According to The Heretic's Gospel, which name was not ascribed to Jesus/Yeshua?
a.) Yehoshua bar Yosef
b.) Jesus bar Abbas
c.) The Moshiach
d.) The Son of Man
e.) The next King of Israel
f.) Jesus Christ
g.) Brother Joshua
h.) Rabbi Yeshua
i.) The Son of God

Answers to Quiz No. 1

Answers to Quiz No. 1:

1.) f.) Jesus was not a Sadducee or a "Christian."

2.) a.)   3 Yehoshua was the formal Aramaic name for Jesus.
b.)   4 Uncle Yossi was Joseph of Arimathea
c.)   1 Cousin Yanni was John the Baptist
d.)   6 Shlomo was Simon Peter
e.)   2 Yacob was James the Greater
f.)   5 Teo was Thomas

3.) a.) Jesus/Yeshua was born in Bethlehem.

4.) e.) Jesus/Yeshua spoke fluent Aramaic.

5.) d.) Mary of Migdal Nunaiya worked as a garum-maker and as an amateur herbalist.

6.) Shlomo, Andreas, Yacob, Little John, Matthias, Phil, Nate, Jude, Jake, Teo, Simon, Judah and Mary, otherwise known as Simon Peter, Andrew, James the Greater, John the Apostle, Matthew, Philip, Nathanael, Judah, James the Lesser, Thomas, Simon the Zealot, Judas Iscariot and Mary Magdalene.

7.) They were all executed for treason against their father, King Herod the Great.

8.) f.) None of the above.

9.) c.) Gabriel was the only archangel who spoke Aramaic.  The others probably spoke Hebrew or Babylonian.

10.) f.)   Jesus Christ.

The "Gay Gospel"

So people ask me, "Gabe, why are there so many gay people in your books?"  Well, the answer is simple arithmetic.   Human behavior remains consistent over time, and if in the year 2014, ten percent of the population is gay, then the odds are that, two thousand years ago, at least one and possibly two of the fourteen members of the original God Squad (Yeshua, Mary, Shlomo, Andreas, Yacob, Little John, Matthias, Phil, Nate, Jake, Jude, Teo, Simon and Judah) were gay.