Free The Crown and the Cross: The Life of Christ by Frank G. Slaughter Page A

Gilead.” This was the same balm the Ishmaelites had been taking to Egypt to sell when they had found the sons of Jacob in the act of conspiring to slay their brother Joseph.
    The region just west of the Sea of Galilee was a land of broad fields and gently rolling hills. Here Asher had “dipped his foot in oil”—the oil that flowed like a river from the olive presses at harvest time—and had been blessed. Truly was it said, “It is easier to raise a legion of olives in Galilee than one child in the land of Judea.”
    In the lovely sunny land, away from the teeming cities of the lake, grapevines hung heavy with fruit and the wine was generous and rich. Grain sowed in the fall grew during the mild winters to a harvest of bounteous proportions. When wheat fields were ready for harvest, the heavy heads of grain bowed down in waves with a hissing noise as they rubbed together. Then the farmer would know the time had come to put in his sickle and reap the grain.
    Living was not hard in Galilee as it was in Judea, where prices were often five times as high. In fact, so plump and tasty were the fruits of this region, particularly the Plain of Gennesaret lying on the northwestern shore of the lake, that the priests at Jerusalem would not allow them to be sold there at festival time, lest people from less favored sections come only to taste the fruits and forget their duties at the temple.
    Life was busy and active in Galilee. In the towns many artisans labored, while shepherds, farmers, and the keepers of vineyards worked busily in the surrounding countryside. From the higher hills the eye could look westward to the Great Sea with its busy harbors and watch the many-oared vessels plying between them. Smoke rose from dozens of potteries and from furnaces where sand was melted into glass which Phoenician blowers expanded into delicate vases and other articles to be sold in the markets of the world. Weavers, dyers, and workers in wood and metal were always busy, for the excellence of their craftsmanship was widely known and the caravans moving westward to the market at Ptolemais on the seacoast were eager to purchase their products.
    Jesus was a little over two years old when Joseph brought his family back to Nazareth. He was a sturdy boy toddling about, eager to explore the wonders of a small child’s world when His father set up his carpenter shop once again. Since Joseph worked for the most part in the open court adjoining the house, that part of the home was naturally taboo for the boy, but in sleepy, quiet Nazareth there was still much to attract His eager curiosity.
    Jewish home life was a warm and pleasant thing, the ties that bound parents and children very strong. Having been weaned at the age of two, as was customary, Jesus was no longer known by the diminutive of jonek , meaning “sucker,” but was now gamul , the “weaned one.” The weaning and their arrival from Egypt were celebrated with a feast, to which the many relatives of Mary and Joseph in this region were invited, some coming from as far away as Capernaum and Bethsaida on the shores of the beautiful lake, where several cousins near Jesus’ own age lived.
    The early years passed quickly and almost before Mary realized it, her son was no longer gamul , but taph , an active growing boy able to run and play with the other children. Early in boyhood the children of the village were sent out to watch the flocks by day. It was easy work, most of it play as they raced about the hillsides or swam in the brooks in summer, for all Jewish families were strictly enjoined to teach their children to swim. In the evening they would drive the flocks back to the safety of the fenced area just outside the town, and afterwards there would be exciting games in the streets and along the steep hillside overlooking the city.
    At the age of five, Jewish children were expected, according to an ancient tradition, to begin reading the scrolls of the Torah in Hebrew, but this was