Paper 122
BIRTH AM INFANCY 0F JESUS
1. After a study of the special report on the status of segregated worlds prepared by the Melchizedeks, in counsel with Gabriel, Michael finally chose Urantia as the planet whereon to enact his final bestowal ... Gabriel ... decided that the Hebrews possessed those relative advantages which warranted their selection as the bestowal race ... From the three couples nominated, Gabriel made the personal choice of Joseph and Mary.
2. Joseph, the human father of Jesus (Joshua ben Joseph), was a Hebrew of the Hebrews...Joseph's immediate ancestors were mechanics—builders, carpenters, masons, and smiths. Joseph himself was a carpenter and later a contractor. His family belonged to a long and illustrious line of the nobility of the common people, accentuated ever and anon by the appearance of unusual individuals who had distinguished themselves in connection with the evolution of religion on Urantia.
3. Mary, the earth mother of Jesus, was a descendant of a long line of unique ancestors embracing many of the most remarkable women in the racial history of Urantia. ..Mary's ancestry, like Joseph's, was characterized by the predominance of strong but average individuals ... she was...a composite of Syrian, Hittite, Phoenician, Greek, and Egyptian stocks.
4. It was the plan of Michael to appear on earth as an average man, that the common people might understand him and receive him; wherefore Gabriel selected just such persons as Joseph and Mary to become the bestowal parents.
5. It was late in the month of June, 8 B. C..... that Gabriel appeared to Elizabeth at noontide one day... I, Gabriel, have come to announce that you will shortly bear a son who shall be the forerunner of this divine teacher, and you shall call your son John...Your kinswoman, Mary shall be the mother of this child of promise, and I will also appear to her."
6. It was not until about six weeks before John's birth that Zacharias, as the result of an impressive dream, became fully convinced that Elizabeth was to become the mother of a son of destiny, one who was to prepare the way for the coming of the Messiah.
7. John was born in the City of Judah., March 25, 7 B.C......From his earliest infancy John was judiciously impressed by his parents with the idea that he was to grow up to become a spiritual leader and religious teacher.
8. To you, Mary I bring glad tidings when 1 announce that the conception within you is ordained by heaven, and that in due time you will become the mother of a son; you shall call him Joshua, and he shall inaugurate the kingdom of' heaven on earth and among men.
9. When Joseph heard all about this...he was much troubled and could not sleep for many nights ... after several weeks of thought, both he and Mary reached the conclusion that they had been chosen to become the parents of the Messiah, though it had hardly been the Jewish concept that the expected deliverer was to be of divine nature.
10. Joseph did not become reconciled to the idea that Mary was to become the mother of an extraordinary child until after he had experienced a very impressive dream... "Joseph, I appear by command of Him who now reigns on high, and I am directed to instruct you concerning the son whom Mary shall bear, and who shall become a great light in the world. In him will be life, and his life shall become the light of mankind.
11. In all these visitations nothing was said about the house of David. Nothing was ever intimated about Jesus' becoming a "deliverer of the Jews," not even that he was to be the long‑expected Messiah. Jesus was not such a Messiah as the Jews had anticipated but he was the world's deliverer. His mission was to all races and peoples, not to any one group ... .Most of the so‑called Messianic prophecies of the Old Testament were made to apply to Jesus long after his life had been lived on earth ... The early followers of Jesus all too often succumbed to the temptation to make all the olden prophetic utterances appear to find fulfillment in the life of their Lord and Master.
12. Joseph was a mild‑mannered man, extremely conscientious, and in every way faithful to the religious conventions and practices of his people. He talked little but thought much ... Mary's temperament was quite opposite to that of her husband. She was usually cheerful, was very rarely downcast, and possessed an ever‑sunny disposition...Jesus derived much of his unusual gentleness and marvelous sympathetic understanding of human nature from his father; he inherited his gift as a great teacher and his tremendous capacity for righteous indignation from his mother ... From Joseph Jesus secured his strict training in the usages of the Jewish ceremonials and his unusual acquaintance with the Hebrew scriptures; from Mary he derived a broader viewpoint of religious life and a more liberal concept of personal spiritual freedom.
13. Joseph and Mary were educated far above the average for their day and station in life. He was a thinker; she was a planner, expert in adaptation and practical in immediate execution. Joseph was a black‑eyed brunet; Mary, a brown‑eyed well‑nigh blond type.
14. The larger part of Joseph's family became believers in the teachings of Jesus, but very few of' Mary's people ever believed in him until after he departed from this world. Joseph leaned more toward the spiritual concept of the expected Messiah, but Mary and her family, especially her father, held to the idea of the Messiah as a temporal deliverer and political ruler.
15. The home of Joseph and Mary was a one‑room stone structure with a flat roof and an adjoining building for housing the animals. The furniture consisted of a low stone table, earthenware and stone dishes, and pots, a loom, a lampstand, several small stools, and mats for sleeping on the stone floor.
16. In the month of March, 8 B.C .... Caesar Augustus decreed that all inhabitants of the Roman Empire should be numbered ... Throughout all the Roman Empire this census was registered in the year 8 B.C., except in the Palestinian kingdom of Herod, where it was taken in 7 B.C. one year later.
It was not necessary that Mary should go to Bethlehem for enrollment ... but Mary, being an adventurous and aggressive person, insisted on accompanying him.
17. Every room in Bethlehem was filled to overflowing ... They found themselves located in what had been a grain storage room to the front of the stalls and mangers. Tent curtains had been hung, and they counted themselves fortunate to have such comfortable quarters ... All that night Mary was restless so that neither of them slept much. By the break of day the pangs of childbirth were well in evidence, and at noon, August 21. 7 B. C., with the help and kind ministrations of women fellow travelers, Mary was delivered of a male child. Jesus of Nazareth was born into the world, was wrapped in the clothes which Mary had brought along for such a possible contingency, and laid in a near‑by manger...and on the eighth day, according to the Jewish practice, he was circumcised and formally named Joshua (Jesus).
18. At the noontide birth of Jesus the seraphim of Urantia, assembled under their directors, did sing anthems of glory over the Bethlehem manger, but these utterances of praise were not heard by human ears. No shepherds nor any other mortal creatures came to pay homage to the babe of Bethlehem until the day of' the arrival of certain priests from Ur, who were sent down from Jerusalem by Zacharias ... These wise men saw no star to guide them to Bethlehem. The beautiful legend of the star of Bethlehem originated in this way: Jesus was born August 21 at noon, 7 B.C. On May 29, 7 B.C., there occurred an extraordinary conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in the constellation of Pisces. And it is a remarkable astronomic fact that similar conjunctions occurred on September 29 and December 5 of the same year ... Oriental and near‑by Oriental minds delight in fairy stories, and they are continually spinning such beautiful myths about the lives of their religious leaders and political heroes.
19. There lingered constantly about the courts of the temple two remarkable characters, Simeon a singer and Anna a poetess...Zacharias knew the day Joseph and Mary were expected to appear at the temple with Jesus, and he had prearranged with Simeon and Anna to indicate, by the salute of his upraised hand, which one in the procession of first‑born children was Jesus.
For this occasion Anna had written a poem which Simeon proceeded to sing, much to the astonishment of Joseph, Mary and all who were assembled in the temple courts.
20. But the watchers for Herod were not inactive. When they reported to him the visit of the priests of Ur to Bethlehem, Herod summoned these Chaldeans to appear before him...but they gave him little satisfaction...He then dispatched searchers to locate Joseph and Mary...When, after more than a year of searching, Herod’s spies had not located Jesus ... he prepared an order directing that a systematic search be made of every house in Bethlehem, and that all boy babies under two years of age should be killed ... But there were believers in the coming Messiah even among Herod's court attaches, and one of these, learning of the order to slaughter the Bethlehem boy babies, communicated with Zacharias, who in turn dispatched a messenger to Joseph; and the night before the massacre Joseph and Mary departed from Bethlehem with the babe for Alexandria in Egypt ... They sojourned in Alexandria two full years, not returning to Bethlehem until after the death of Herod.
U.B. 122: 1344‑1354
Discussion Questions
1. What can we learn from the elaborate process of selecting the parents of Jesus?
2. How important is heredity in our spiritual development?
3. Why did Gabriel appear to Elizabeth before his appearance to Mary?
4. How important are dreams in our spiritual growth?
5. Will Christian leaders reject the Fifth Epochal Revelation as the leaders of Judaism rejected the Fourth Epochal Revelation?
6. Was the different theological views of Joseph and Mary conducive to the more inclusive religion of Jesus?
7. Are the myths surrounding the birth of Jesus constructive in our scientific age?