Charax

• Charax

130:0.1The tour of the Ro­man world con­sumed most of the twenty-eighth and the en­tire twenty-ninth year of Je­sus’ life on earth. Je­sus and the two na­tives from In­dia—Gonod and his son Ga­nid—left Je­ru­sa­lem on a Sun­day morn­ing, April 26, A.D. 22. They made their jour­ney ac­cord­ing to sched­ule, and Je­sus said good-bye to the fa­ther and son in the city of Charax on the Per­sian Gulf on the tenth day of De­cem­ber the fol­low­ing year, A.D. 23.

• Charax

130:0.3Af­ter their stay in Rome they went over­land to Tar­en­tum, where they set sail for Athens in Greece, stop­ping at Nicopo­lis and Corinth. From Athens they went to Eph­esus by way of Troas. From Eph­esus they sailed for Cyprus, putting in at Rhodes on the way. They spent con­sid­er­able time vis­it­ing and rest­ing on Cyprus and then sailed for An­ti­och in Syria. From An­ti­och they jour­neyed south to Sidon and then went over to Da­mas­cus. From there they trav­eled by car­a­van to Mes­o­po­ta­mia, pass­ing through Thap­sacus and Larissa. They spent some time in Baby­lon, vis­ited Ur and other places, and then went to Susa. From Susa they jour­neyed to Charax, from which place Gonod and Ga­nid em­barked for In­dia.

133:9.4At last the day came for the sep­a­ra­tion. They were all brave, es­pe­cially the lad, but it was a try­ing or­deal. They were tear­ful of eye but coura­geous of heart. In bid­ding his teacher farewell, Ga­nid said: “Farewell, Teacher, but not for­ever. When I come again to Da­mas­cus, I will look for you. I love you, for I think the Fa­ther in heaven must be some­thing like you; at least I know you are much like what you have told me about him. I will re­mem­ber your teach­ing, but most of all, I will never for­get you.” Said the fa­ther, “Farewell to a great teacher, one who has made us bet­ter and helped us to know God.” And Je­sus replied, “Peace be upon you, and may the bless­ing of the Fa­ther in heaven ever abide with you.” And Je­sus stood on the shore and watched as the small boat car­ried them out to their an­chored ship. Thus the Mas­ter left his friends from In­dia at Charax, never to see them again in this world; nor were they, in this world, ever to know that the man who later ap­peared as Je­sus of Naz­a­reth was this same friend they had just taken leave of—Joshua their teacher.

134:1.1Af­ter tak­ing leave of Gonod and Ga­nid at Charax (in De­cem­ber of A.D. 23), Je­sus re­turned by way of Ur to Baby­lon, where he joined a desert car­a­van that was on its way to Da­mas­cus. From Da­mas­cus he went to Naz­a­reth, stop­ping only a few hours at Ca­per­naum, where he paused to call on Zeb­e­dee’s fam­ily. There he met his brother James, who had some­time pre­vi­ously come over to work in his place in Zeb­e­dee’s boat­shop. Af­ter talk­ing with James and Jude (who also chanced to be in Ca­per­naum) and af­ter turn­ing over to his brother James the lit­tle house which John Zeb­e­dee had man­aged to buy, Je­sus went on to Naz­a­reth.