At the Feast of Tabernacles

162:9.1Through­out the week that fol­lowed the feast of taber­na­cles, scores of be­liev­ers for­gath­ered at Beth­any and re­ceived in­struc­tion from the twelve apos­tles. The San­hedrin made no ef­fort to mo­lest these gath­er­ings since Je­sus was not pres­ent; he was through­out this time work­ing with Ab­ner and his as­so­ciates in Beth­le­hem. The day fol­low­ing the close of the feast, Je­sus had de­parted for Beth­any, and he did not again teach in the tem­ple dur­ing this visit to Je­ru­sa­lem.

162:9.2At this time, Ab­ner was mak­ing his head­quar­ters at Beth­le­hem, and from that cen­ter many work­ers had been sent to the cities of Judea and south­ern Samaria and even to Alexan­dria. Within a few days of his ar­rival, Je­sus and Ab­ner com­pleted the ar­range­ments for the con­sol­i­da­tion of the work of the two groups of apos­tles.

162:9.3Through­out his visit to the feast of taber­na­cles, Je­sus had di­vided his time about equally be­tween Beth­any and Beth­le­hem. At Beth­any he spent con­sid­er­able time with his apos­tles; at Beth­le­hem he gave much in­struc­tion to Ab­ner and the other for­mer apos­tles of John. And it was this in­ti­mate con­tact that fi­nally led them to be­lieve in him. These for­mer apos­tles of John the Bap­tist were in­flu­enced by the cour­age he dis­played in his pub­lic teach­ing in Je­ru­sa­lem as well as by the sym­pa­thetic un­der­stand­ing they ex­pe­ri­enced in his pri­vate teach­ing at Beth­le­hem. These in­flu­ences fi­nally and fully won over each of Ab­ner’s as­so­ciates to a whole­hearted ac­cep­tance of the king­dom and all that such a step im­plied.

162:9.4Be­fore leav­ing Beth­le­hem for the last time, the Mas­ter made ar­range­ments for them all to join him in the united ef­fort which was to pre­cede the end­ing of his earth ca­reer in the flesh. It was agreed that Ab­ner and his as­so­ciates were to join Je­sus and the twelve in the near fu­ture at Ma­g­a­dan Park.

162:9.5In ac­cor­dance with this un­der­stand­ing, early in Novem­ber Ab­ner and his eleven fel­lows cast their lot with Je­sus and the twelve and la­bored with them as one or­ga­ni­za­tion right on down to the cru­ci­fix­ion.

162:9.6In the lat­ter part of Oc­to­ber Je­sus and the twelve with­drew from the im­me­di­ate vicin­ity of Je­ru­sa­lem. On Sun­day, Oc­to­ber 30, Je­sus and his as­so­ciates left the city of Ephraim, where he had been rest­ing in seclu­sion for a few days, and, go­ing by the west Jor­dan high­way di­rectly to Ma­g­a­dan Park, ar­rived late on the af­ter­noon of Wednes­day, Novem­ber 2.

162:9.7The apos­tles were greatly re­lieved to have the Mas­ter back on friendly soil; no more did they urge him to go up to Je­ru­sa­lem to pro­claim the gospel of the king­dom.