THE ANSWER FOR

    

  QUESTION

     wpe25.jpg (4624 bytes)

  SIXTEEN

 

 

RETURN TO

  
 

uestions for

   esus  
    wpe6.jpg (3275 bytes)nterview esus  

 

  THE QUESTION:  Just what was so different with these particular six years that so set it apart from your earlier years in Egypt?  Where you in contact with some of your earlier friends and scholars?  

 

Home Page

Question One

Question Two

Question Three

Question Four

Question Five

Question Six

Question Seven

Question Eight

Question Nine

Question Ten

Question Eleven

Question Twelve

Question Thirteen

Question Fourteen

Question Fifteen

Question Sixteen

Question Seventeen

Question Eighteen

Question Nineteen

Question Twenty

Question Twenty-one

Question Twenty-two

Question Twenty-three

Question Twenty-four

Question Twenty-five

Question Twenty-six

Question Twenty-seven

Question Twenty-eight

Question Twenty-nine

Question Thirty

Question Thirty-one

Question Thirty-two
 

Question Thirty-three

  

 

  THE ANSWER:  As smart and precocious as I was in the intellectual arena, I was still a bit arrested in my social skills.  I’m sure that much of what I had missed was due in large part to my own choices in that I rarely associated with anyone close to my own age; most of the other children, with rare exception, never seemed to be on the same mental or spiritual level.  When I first returned to Egypt, the friends I had left behind so unlike me had made all sorts of discoveries beyond just the academics.  I was almost instantly barraged with inquiries as you whether I had discovered that “exciting” sexual part of my being; I now understand just how natural all of this is and what I had missed by being so naturally disinterested, but at the time I was still more focused on what I had learned than what to do with my body in a sexual manner.  I probably wouldn’t even be addressing any of this except that that most natural part of any man’s maturity seemed to have been totally avoided by those who reported much of my life as though my supposedly being a ‘god’ somehow precluded such carnal knowledge; as a man, I was quite normal in most all aspects even if some things came to me a bit slower than it did to others.  What I had left behind me in Egypt were mostly male friends and I was quickly initiated into having that first sexual experience with some of these closer friends.  This practice of congenial sex between male friends just didn’t carry with it the same sense of forbidden fruit as it was later so unnecessarily burdened by so many church prohibitions; it was all quite natural and I must add, quite pleasurable.  Having done the male thing, I was also quickly introduced to the added pleasures women; of course, these were young prostitutes, as any regular girl was expected to ‘save’ her sexual behavior only for the one to whom she was to be betrothed as it was in my own homeland and with my own people.  I was often teased with the idea of taking an Egyptian bride, but the real purpose of my return to Egypt was the completion of my education.  I never was quite sure exactly what this education was to have necessarily included and in many ways just being apart from my own people for a period time gave me the opportunity to become more objective about their actual spiritual needs without the constant harassment of the Pharisees looking over your shoulder and telling you exactly what you were to be thinking.  With the freedom to exploring alternatives and no actual constraints on the time frame in which to learn so many new things, I was able to organize my thoughts and soon began to understand just what I might have wanted to accomplish when I returned to Judea.  The Greeks had developed several philosophies that were more focused on the individual that were not laden with the need or presence of some god to rule over the daily routine of living.  I was particularly taken with the practical applications of many of the Stoics, as they seemed so real in their approach to living.  What the Stoics seem to be lacking was some fundamental reason to live their lives and a justification for treating others with the same respect that they treated themselves.  I found the solution within my own religion and it was a respect for one’s neighbors; even an obligation to treat them as though they might be of you same family.  Much of my time was actually spent just ‘living’ and ‘practicing’ what I was discovering.  I guess that is possibly why it took me some six years to be sure that what I had concluded just wasn’t some ideal that wasn’t at all applicable to a real life; I think I nearly ran some of my friends crazy and at the same time this new-found behavior did appear to work and I found myself with more friends than I knew what to do with.  My other unexpected discovery was just how pleasurable all of this was for my own being.  I was actually happy in most things that I accomplished and even the work that I had undertaken to sustain my existence seemed less of a choir than before.  I was tempted to remain in Egypt for an extended period of time, but I still had the underlying urge to return to Judea and see if I might bring some of this experienced joy to my own people, especially those who appeared so downtrodden.  It seemed that six years was far more time than was actually needed in Egypt, but it was such a pleasant experience that it was at times difficult to finally leave, but out of a nagging necessity I did eventually return to Judea.