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Daughter of Cana Page 31


  After seeing Yeshua resurrected on the hilltop in Galilee, James had a private meeting with the Lord. We did not know what they talked about, but James moved to Jerusalem and became the head of the church there. He also took a wife and raised a family in the Holy City.

  Joses and Simeon also took brides and began to travel, sharing the news about salvation for all people everywhere.

  In his later years, Jude wrote a book, a short epistle written to believers throughout the Roman Empire. In it he encouraged those who believed in Yeshua and warned against false teachers who were trying to infiltrate the church and mislead those who followed Christ.

  The twelve disciples and their wives also carried the good news about Yeshua’s resurrection throughout the world. Paul mentioned them when he wrote the church at Corinth: “Don’t we have the right to take along a believing wife, as do the other emissaries and the Lord’s brothers and Peter?”

  Thomas, my twin, took a wife and traveled east to a land far away. Although we lost touch with him, I was often comforted to think that we met regularly before the throne of God in prayer. Jude and I prayed daily for Thomas, and I was sure he prayed for us.

  Sometimes, when I became weary or nostalgic for the simple streets of Cana, I would remember how I used to believe my life could never be complete or fulfilled without my twin brother nearby. HaShem made it possible for me to learn otherwise—and for a blessed life with a loving, godly husband and children, I would always be grateful. But even if Jude went to be with the Lord tomorrow, I would still be content. My life was made complete in Christ.

  Author’s Note

  I realize historical novels often raise questions in the reader’s mind: Did that really happen? I’ve tried to anticipate some of those questions and provide the answers here.

  Q. Did Tasmin really exist?

  A. Yes . . . and no. We have no record of a woman named Tasmin who did the things described in this novel.

  But Scripture tells us that Thomas Didymus means twin, so apparently he had one. And while Peter and Andrew were brothers, and James and John, Thomas’s sibling appears to be absent from the roster of disciples. Was his twin not a disciple because she was female?

  Scripture also tells us that Jude, Jesus’s half brother and the author of the New Testament book, had a wife (1 Corinthians 9:5). I have no proof that Thomas’s sister and Jude’s wife were one and the same, but one is allowed to conjecture in fiction.

  One thing is certain: I do try to be as accurate and responsible as possible, because one day I will meet Jude and Thomas and their wives, and I don’t want to be embarrassed about how I portrayed them.

  Q. Did the Virgin Mary really have a sister?

  A. Yes. See John 19:25 and Mark 15:40. By comparing these two verses, you can deduce which women were present at the cross: Mary, mother of Jesus; Mary’s sister, Salome; Mary Magdalene; and Miriam, wife of Clopas and mother to Jacob and Joses.

  Q. Did Jesus really have siblings? And did you use their actual names?

  A. Matthew 13:55–56 names all his brothers and mentions his sisters, but does not name them, so I invented names for his sisters.

  Q. What does Ima mean, and how do you pronounce it?

  A. It’s what a Jewish child calls his mother, pronounced ee-mah. The word for father is abba.

  Q. Are the events of this novel true to the timeline of the Gospels?

  A. Yes and no. Jesus ministered for a period of three years, beginning with the wedding at Cana and continuing through his death and resurrection. I have tried to place the events and miracles in approximate order, but since not all the events are related in all the Gospels, it is difficult to pin certain events down to a timeline. I did exercise a bit of poetic license in this, using actual events at times and in places that suited my story.

  Q. Did I understand correctly—you have Jesus being crucified on a Thursday night instead of Good Friday?

  A. Yes. I read an excellent answer for what has been called “The Passover problem,” which details the Jewish feasts that coincided with the death of Christ. If Jesus died on Nisan 14, Thursday afternoon, Passover day, he died at the very hour the Passover lambs were being killed at the Temple. The people ate the Passover meal after sundown, on Nisan 15, which was a special Sabbath because it was the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The next day, Nisan 16, was a Saturday, a “regular” Sabbath, and the next day, Nisan 17, was the day after the regular Sabbath during Pesach—the Feast of Firstfruits.

  If we follow this pattern, Jesus fulfills his own words found in Matthew 12:40: “For just as Jonah was in the belly of the great fish for three days and three nights, so the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights.” If Jesus died on a Friday night and rose on Sunday, he was only in the heart of the earth for two nights, not three.

  This is by no means a new idea; it has been around for years. But people are so accustomed to the traditional Easter story that they are surprised to realize that crucifixion on a Friday doesn’t fulfill Jesus’s prophecy.

  Q. I’ve never seen Mary Magdalene described as Miriam. And many of the names you use disagree with the names in my Bible.

  A. The conflict arises only because different languages are involved. Depending on which version you use, your English Bible was likely translated from Greek into English. The New Testament was written by people who spoke Aramaic, the common language of the day. But educated people also spoke Greek and/or Latin, and many people born at that time had both Hebrew and Greek names, like Salome Alexandra (Hebrew/Greek) and Alexander Jannaeus (Greek/Hebrew). Some names were very common: Mary/Miriam (same name, but Greek and Hebrew variations), Joseph/Joses, Jacob/James, and Judah/Jude.

  Rather than aim for consistency and use only one language for names, I opted instead to use different variants to avoid confusion. By using Mary for Jesus’s mother, Miriam for Mary Magdalene, and Mary, wife of Clopas, for the third Mary, I hoped to make things clearer for the reader. In reality, all three women were known by the same popular name.

  Q. Why do you refer to the cross as an “execution stake”?

  A. To give a complete answer, I have to go back to my church high school handbell choir. One Friday night, Jim Whitmire, our minister of music, arranged for us—kids from a Baptist church—to play for the service at a synagogue. Before we left for the service, Jim reminded us that God promised Abraham that whoever blessed his descendants would be blessed, and whoever cursed them would be cursed (Genesis 12:3).

  Ever since that time, I’ve had a strong love for Israel and sincerely want to respect and bless the Jewish people. I have spoken at a Jewish book club and freely shared my faith. I have Jewish friends whom I treasure. I am open and honest with them, realizing that it is the Spirit who must bring them to salvation.

  Since entering adulthood, I’ve seen far too many Christians unintentionally offend Jewish people by saying that the church has “replaced” Israel in God’s plan (it hasn’t!) and by forgetting that we have been adopted into their family tree. God, in His mercy, has allowed us Gentiles to partake of the blessings brought about by the Jewish people and their messiah, Yeshua.

  Throughout history, overzealous Christians have used the symbol of the cross to force Jews to convert or die. Christian anti-Semitism has been all too real, and for many Jews the symbol of a cross elicits the same negative emotions as a swastika.

  For that reason, I and the messianic Jews who put together the Tree of Life Bible use both “cross” and “execution stake” when describing the instrument on which Jesus died. Changing the wording is a small effort for me, but it might make a big difference in a Jewish reader’s perspective. And if my small effort blesses them, I am blessed in return.

  Q. Did Jesus really live in Capernaum for a while?

  A. Yes, and I had never realized that before working on this book. But the evidence is in Matthew 4:13.

  Q. Did they really eat peacock in Jesus’s day?

  A. Yes. Originally I wrote, “T
hey wouldn’t break bread with a tax collector if you paid them and served steak,” but after doing some research I realized that steak was not on ancient menus. Peacock, however, would have been a delicacy fit for emperors.

  Q. Wasn’t James one of the twelve disciples?

  A. Yes. James, brother of John and son of Zebedee, was one of the twelve. But James, half brother to Jesus, did not believe Jesus was the Son of God until after the resurrection, at which time he had a private meeting with the risen Christ (1 Corinthians 15:7). At that point he believed and became the leader of the church in Jerusalem. He also wrote the epistle of James in the New Testament. In the letter to the church at Galatia, Paul mentions meeting James (Galatians 1:18–19). The half brother who grew up with Yeshua became one of the pillars of the early church.

  Q. Does history tell us anything about what happened to Jude or Thomas?

  A. Thomas is reported to have traveled to the land we know as India when it was the Satavahanan Empire. There he worked as an evangelist and was eventually martyred.

  As for Jude, history has given us an interesting footnote, preserved by Eusebius, about Jude’s grandchildren. “There were yet living of the family of our Lord,” Eusebius writes, “the grandchildren of Judas [Jude], called the brother of our Lord, according to the flesh. These were reported as being of the family of David, and were brought to Domitian [Roman emperor from 81–96 A.D.] . . . For this emperor was as much alarmed at the appearance of Christ as Herod. He put the question whether they were of David’s race, and they confessed that they were. He then asked them what property they had, or how much money they owned. And both of them answered that they had between them only nine thousand denarii, and this they had not in silver, but in the value of a piece of land containing only thirty-nine acres, from which they raised their taxes and supported themselves by their own labor. Then they also began to show their hands, exhibiting the hardness of their bodies, and the callosity formed by incessant labor on their hands, as evidence of their labor. When asked, also, respecting Christ and his kingdom, what was its nature, and when and where it was to appear, they replied ‘that it was not a temporal nor an earthly kingdom, but celestial and angelic; that it would appear at the end of the world, when, coming in glory, [Christ] would judge the quick and the dead, and give to every one according to his works.’ Upon which Domitian, despising them, made no reply, but treating them with contempt, as simpletons, commanded them to be dismissed, and by a decree ordered the persecution to cease. Thus delivered, they ruled the Churches, both as witnesses and relatives of the Lord. When peace was established, they continued living even to the times of Trajan [emperor from 98–117 A.D.].”

  Q. Will there be a sequel to Daughter of Cana?

  A. Not exactly a sequel, but a companion novel. The next book in the JERUSALEM ROAD series will feature Pheodora, Jesus’s sister, as the main character.

  References

  Beck, John A., ed. The Baker Book of Bible Charts, Maps, and Timelines. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2016.

  Bradford, Tom. “The Passover Problem Solved.” Torah Class: Rediscovering the Bible. https://www.torahclass.com/other-studies/47-other-studies-text/985-the-passover-problem-solved-by-tom-bradford, accessed 3/14/2019.

  Brisco, Thomas V. Holman Bible Atlas. Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1998.

  Cargal, Timothy B. So That’s Why! Bible: New King James Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2001.

  Corbo, Virgilio C. “Capernaum (Place).” Ed. David Noel Freedman. The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary, 1992.

  Elwell, Walter A., and Philip Wesley Comfort. Tyndale Bible Dictionary, 2001.

  Friedman, Joan A., Ph.D. The Same But Different: How Twins Can Live, Love, and Learn to Be Individuals. Los Angeles, CA: Rocky Pines Press, 2014.

  Fruchtenbaum, Arnold G. The Messianic Bible Study Collection. Vol. 131. Tustin, CA: Ariel Ministries, 1983.

  ———. The Messianic Jewish Epistles: Hebrews, James, First Peter, Second Peter, Jude. 1st ed. Tustin, CA: Ariel Ministries, 2005.

  Heitler, Susan. “Marriage: 6 Guidelines from Ancient Wisdom Texts.” https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/resolution-not-conflict/201304/marriage-6-guidelines-ancient-wisdom-texts, accessed 1/4/2019.

  Inch, Morris A. 12 Who Changed the World: The Lives and Legends of the Disciples. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2003.

  Lindsey, Robert L. “The Kingdom of God: God’s Power Among Believers.” https://www.jerusalemperspective.com/2445/, accessed 6/04/2019.

  MacArthur, John. The MacArthur Bible Handbook. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2003.

  Malin, Joshua. “The 8,000 Year Effort to Transport Wine Around the World.” https://vinepair.com/wine-blog/history-wine-transport-8000-years/, accessed 2/19/2019.

  Mercer, Henry C. Ancient Carpenters’ Tools: Illustrated and Explained, Together with the Implements of the Lumberman, Joiner and Cabinet-Maker. Kindle edition. Mineola, New York: Dover Publications, 1960.

  Mitchell, Elizabeth. “The Sequence of Christ’s Post-Resurrection Appearances.” Answers in Genesis.org. https://answersingenesis.org/jesus-christ/resurrection/the-sequence-of-christs-post-resurrection-appearances/, accessed 4/5/2019.

  MJL. “Feasting Before Passover.” My Jewish Learning. https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/fasting-before-passover/, accessed 3/15/2019.

  Negev, Avraham. The Archaeological Encyclopedia of the Holy Land, 1990.

  Nixon, R. E. “Thomas.” Ed. D. R. W. Wood et al. New Bible Dictionary, 1996.

  Schein, Elyse. Identical Strangers: A Memoir of Twins Separated and Reunited. New York: Random House, 2008.

  Segal, Nancy L., Ph.D. Entwined Lives. New York: The Penguin Group, 2000.

  Siegel, Richard. “How to Wave the Lulav and Etrog on Sukkot.” https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/lulav-and-etrog-the-four-species/, accessed 3/12/2019.

  Simmons, William A. Peoples of the New Testament World: An Illustrated Guide. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2008.

  Spence-Jones, H. D. M., ed. “Jude.” The Pulpit Commentary. London; New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1909.

  Utley, Robert James. The First Christian Primer: Matthew. Volume 9. Marshall, TX: Bible Lessons International, 2000.

  Watson, Joann Ford. “Manaen (Person).” Ed. David Noel Freedman. The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary, 1992.

  Wright, Lawrence. Twins and What They Tell Us About Who We Are. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1997.

  Youngblood, Ronald F., F. F. Bruce, and R. K. Harrison, eds. Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Dictionary. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1995.

  Angela Hunt has published more than 180 books, with sales exceeding five million copies worldwide. She’s the New York Times bestselling author of The Tale of Three Trees, The Note, and The Nativity Story. Angela’s novels have won or been nominated for several prestigious industry awards, such as the RITA Award, the Christy Award, the ECPA Christian Book Award, and the HOLT Medallion Award. Romantic Times Book Club presented her with a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006. She holds both a doctorate in Biblical Studies and a ThD degree. Angela and her husband live in Florida, along with their mastiffs. For a complete list of the author’s books, visit angelahuntbooks.com.

  Instagram: Bethany House Fiction

  Resources: bethanyhouse.com/AnOpenBook

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  Table of Contents

  Cover

  Half Title Page

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  Contents

  Maps

  Epigraph

  1. Tasmin

  2. Tasmin

  3. Jude

  4. Tasmin

  5. Tasmin

  6. Tasmin

  7. Jude

  8. Tasmin

  9. Jude

  10. Tasmin

  11. Jude

  12. Tasmin

  13. Tasm
in

  14. Tasmin

  15. Tasmin

  16. Tasmin

  17. Jude

  18. Tasmin

  19. Tasmin

  20. Tasmin

  21. Tasmin

  22. Tasmin

  23. Jude

  24. Tasmin

  25. Tasmin

  26. Jude

  27. Tasmin

  28. Jude

  29. Tasmin

  30. Tasmin

  31. Tasmin

  32. Tasmin

  33. Jude

  34. Tasmin

  35. Tasmin

  36. Tasmin

  37. Tasmin

  38. Tasmin

  39. Tasmin

  40. Tasmin

  41. Tasmin

  42. Jude

  43. Tasmin

  44. Tasmin

  45. Tasmin

  Epilogue: Tasmin

  Author’s Note

  References

  About the Author

  Back Ads

  Back Cover

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