The Perean Mission Begins

165:0.1On Tues­day, Jan­uary 3, A.D. 30, Ab­ner, the for­mer chief of the twelve apos­tles of John the Bap­tist, a Nazarite and one­time head of the Nazarite school at En­gedi, now chief of the sev­enty mes­sen­gers of the king­dom, called his as­so­ciates to­gether and gave them fi­nal in­struc­tions be­fore send­ing them on a mis­sion to all of the cities and vil­lages of Perea. This Perean mis­sion con­tin­ued for al­most three months and was the last min­istry of the Mas­ter. From these labors Je­sus went di­rectly to Je­ru­sa­lem to pass through his fi­nal ex­pe­ri­ences in the flesh. The sev­enty, sup­ple­mented by the pe­ri­odic labors of Je­sus and the twelve apos­tles, worked in the fol­low­ing cities and towns and some fifty ad­di­tional vil­lages: Za­phon, Gadara, Macad, Ar­bela, Ra­math, Edrei, Bosora, Caspin, Mis­peh, Gerasa, Ragaba, Suc­coth, Am­athus, Adam, Penuel, Capi­to­lias, Dion, Hatita, Gadda, Phil­a­del­phia, Jog­be­hah, Gilead, Beth-Nim­rah, Tyrus, Elealah, Livias, Hes­h­bon, Cal­lir­rhoe, Beth-Peor, Shit­tim, Sibmah, Medeba, Beth-Meon, Are­opo­lis, and Aroer.

165:0.2Through­out this tour of Perea the women’s corps, now num­ber­ing sixty-two, took over most of the work of min­is­tra­tion to the sick. This was the fi­nal pe­riod of the de­vel­op­ment of the higher spir­i­tual as­pects of the gospel of the king­dom, and there was, ac­cord­ingly, an ab­sence of mir­a­cle work­ing. No other part of Pales­tine was so thor­oughly worked by the apos­tles and dis­ci­ples of Je­sus, and in no other re­gion did the bet­ter classes of cit­i­zens so gen­er­ally ac­cept the Mas­ter’s teach­ing.

165:0.3Perea at this time was about equally gen­tile and Jew­ish, the Jews hav­ing been gen­er­ally re­moved from these re­gions dur­ing the times of Ju­das Mac­cabee. Perea was the most beau­ti­ful and pic­turesque prov­ince of all Pales­tine. It was gen­er­ally re­ferred to by the Jews as “the land be­yond the Jor­dan.”

165:0.4Through­out this pe­riod Je­sus di­vided his time be­tween the camp at Pella and trips with the twelve to as­sist the sev­enty in the var­i­ous cities where they taught and preached. Un­der Ab­ner’s in­struc­tions the sev­enty bap­tized all be­liev­ers, al­though Je­sus had not so charged them.