It takes two people to construct a camel pack-frame. I mean the size is one thing, but the complexity of it to ensure the load, sometimes the weight of three people or more, is spread evenly over the camel’s back. But when the workmen are masters of their craft, they can work and talk at the same time.
“Did Yeshua actually say to drink his blood and eat his flesh?” Samuel asked.
Eli didn’t answer straight away. Three nails between his lips made talking problematic, besides he needed time to think. Samuel was used to this, so he pondered his own question a bit more.
“What makes you mention that?” Eli asked.
“My Greek teacher told me” said Samuel.
“Looks like your teacher is off-topic, straying from Greek into the language of the street”, the nails now firmly driven home, just like this observation from Eli. He continued.
“There is a huge difference between what Yeshua said, and what people think he said; between what he meant, and what people want to say he meant. I think many people want to fashion what he said into a fancy way of preserving their religion. Those that hated Yeshua have done this all along, but even some of his followers are wanting to keep parts of what they grew up with. In the process, they get distracted, they argue a lot, and focus on things that don’t matter”.
“It matters to my teacher”.
“Yes, as an educated man, part of the elite, the wealthy, and for those holding religious or political authority over ordinary people, these distractions matter. Especially the distractions that bring scorn and contempt upon the Yeshua movement. The idea of eating flesh and drinking blood is repulsive, so, to attach it to our private worship makes their disgust of us, and falsehoods about what we do seem warranted. They feel justified in despising us” said Eli.
Eli continued, “I am disappointed that some Yeshua followers want to take a few of his words literally, and being distracted, completely ignore the simple teachings we should take literally. I mean, take their obsession with sacrifice and the idea of blood cleansing us. It takes away the power of Yeshua’s core message, and leaves only things to write and argue about. The widows, orphans, the sick and the poor get neglected when such ideas take over”.
Samuel loved the way Eli seemed to know so much. It was knowledge that came from somewhere deep within him, and even though there was work to do, Eli placed such value on explaining these things. It was as though, as a master craftsman with wood and leather, the same dexterity flowed over into working with ideas and concepts. Samuel realised how much he admired him.
“So, if Yeshua talked about eating flesh and drinking blood, what did he actually mean?”
Eli put the hammer down, sat on the stool by the stove and moved the kettle toward the hot spot. It signaled a pause with the tools, and getting ready to drink in ideas.
“It seems to me that many of Yeshua’s sayings were meant to confuse clever people, and make sense to simple ones. The people who were attracted to him around here, like the fisherman and farmers, the poor and uneducated, they somehow got what he meant. They couldn’t read, so they relied on memory. They were just as devout as the synagogue leaders, but their focus was on living with the little they understood and showed no interest in fancy talk. I think it was what Moses meant when he told the people to make a simple choice; choose life and prosperity or death and adversity. He stressed that it was not an idea from up in the heavens or across the ocean, so don’t go sending people to look for it. It it is in your mouth, he said, on your tongue and in your heart. In other words, digest this idea and let it settle in your very being; let it become part of you”.
Eli continued, “I remember Thomas talking about something that Yeshua said; it made no sense, and yet it did. ‘Blessed is the lion that the human will eat so that the lion becomes human’. It makes sense if we humans take on the qualities of the lion; courage, measured actions, conserving strength yet fluid speed when needed. And the idea of ‘eating’ the lion means the lion qualities become part of us and live on even though the lion has been killed. That’s what Yeshua meant; that after he has been killed, to take part of the loaf and the cup as though you are taking him to heart; and his teachings are becoming part of your very being. Not just talked about and written about, but a living manifestation of simple truth. In a way, choosing life. Like we do every Sabbath as you know”.
Samuel did know. In fact, he felt he knew enough to give his teacher a better explanation. Perhaps without the Thomas part, for Samuel had an uncanny ability to read people, and to know what they really thought of others by how they spoke about them. A skill, he realised without shame, that was developed in gang life. In situations where alliances were rarely stable, one had to be observant and nimble – just like the lion as it turns out.
To the observant villager at the well that early morning, it would have seemed odd that a young Greek-looking woman was filling the water pots for a very dark-skinned slave girl. The former exuding an air of easy industry, while the latter in a motherly trance, her arms wrapped around a tiny infant. The Jewish women tended to keep to themselves, and while they yearned to know more, were restrained by centuries of custom and an unhealthy disdain for foreigners. They conjectured among themselves and it was many weeks before one of their number got to tell the others why an infant was regularly at the well.
Her account, however was only partly true. The part she got right was the slave girl from the Sudan had been purchased by a prominent citizen of the village some months prior. What couldn’t be ascertained with any certainty was what he had in mind. Having impregnated her made her usefulness in the role of servant-hood somewhat doubtful. He demanded she dispose of the child without him having ever seen it. It was also true that the Greek-looking girl, hardly more than a teenager herself, looked after the child, and brought it to the well each morning so its mother could feel some sense of hope in an otherwise heart-rending situation.
The part that wasn’t true was the Jewish woman’s assertion that these foreigners have all sorts of weird religious practices, including child sacrifice and eating human flesh. Behind closed doors. Different from us. And, not only foreigners. Some Jewish people had become followers of a dead man they claim is still alive. All very weird, but all claims that held the attention of her companions at the well, much to the delight of the speaker.
It may be conjecture, but it was commonly believed that the speaker was in an adulterous relationship with the Greek teacher. Her information, both the accurate and the fanciful, came from a source her companions had no access to. They could only listen, and while wondering where the information came from, at no stage did they treat any of it with caution. They knew for example, that the infant at their well wasn’t the only abandoned child being reared by these strange people. They also knew that the dead man had said something about flesh and blood, so it all made sense to them.
The Greek teacher, a scribe with an air of authority and village recognition, was indeed the source of much information. He handled it with a carelessness and a disregard for truth that meant his information was fashioned to appeal. It was also available for a price, and the buyer usually had little interest in either its accuracy or where it came from.
He had one student that he respected, and it puzzled him as to why he did so. Samuel was learning to speak Greek from him, and he had known the lad well. He remembered, for example, when Samuel ran wild with a group running amok and causing all sorts of carnage in the village and surrounds. And now, this changed young man raised a point on the flesh and blood idea that astounded him. Not least by his quoting of Moses in a way that the learned scribe had never considered. He let it slide, for in his mind there arose an uneasiness that a young maker of donkey pack frames could enter his intellectual domain with such ease.
Also puzzling to him, was the recognition that the change in the young man had to be more than who he worked for, and that Samuel’s love interest was the woman taking the baby to the well each morning. It had to be something the scribe didn’t understand, for these changes in people do not fit with the unusual followers of a dead man. The sad thing is, the scribe lived with the perplexity and had little desire to find out how strange practices could produce such thoroughly decent people. He found the excitement and intrigue of dealing with indecent people to be more useful to him; for they could further his power and esteem.
More satisfying, is the water-carrier woman who did get to see the faith practice that took place behind closed doors. The practice considered ‘weird’ by those who had never been witness to it, turned out to be intriguing but also inspiring. The woman is not likely to inform the others at the well because she was so distracted during the event. The teen-aged slave girl was so overwhelmed by her baby asleep in her arms, she would have difficulty telling anyone about the proceedings. So she didn’t.
As usual the scribe knew what had transpired in the village – in this case information he didn’t seek nor pay for. The slave owner told him. He talked about negotiating her value and release, but it was clear to the scribe there wasn’t any negotiation. The elderly woman whose home became the subject of such curiosity, acted with such speed and ferocity that the papers were signed and the girl gone before the ink had dried.
Were we to inquire of the worshippers in that home about eating flesh and drinking blood, in all likelihood they would have no idea. A few of them may refer to a choice for life on their tongue, and taking true words to heart, but they would avoid anything that made their beloved teacher’s message appear confusing or repulsive.
What is clear, not so much from what they say but how they live, is the fact that the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, known to have been tortured and killed, was alive and well in the hearts and minds of ordinary villagers; helping people, carrying water, and making pack-frames for camels and donkeys.
NOTE: For those who are comfortable with textual criticism and follow the scriptural threads in these stories, the reference to 'eating flesh and drinking blood' does not appear in any manuscript of John's gospel prior to the second century, and in nearly all of them since then. According to Helmut Koester John 6:52-59 'cannot possibly have been part of John's original text'. This raises doubt as to whether Jesus ever said it.
This story was prompted by a reference in Neil Harvey’s ‘From faith to religion: the untold history of the early church’ to the scorn the early church suffered as a result of the misunderstood and literal interpretation of Jesus’ reference to eating his flesh and drinking his blood. Many believed the practice of taking in abandoned babies was linked to that verse.
