Deliverance from the Cross — Page 130
Prince Prophet Yuz Asaph. It is well known that there was a large Jewish community in and around Damascus which might have attracted the visit of Jesus at the commencement of his journey to the lands in which the lost tribes of Israel were then to be found. Jesus, finding he could no longer remain with safety in Galilee, started on his journey to visit the lost tribes of Israel in the East, via Damascus, where he remained a considerable time, long enough to make disciples of Ananias and others. This may have been the reason why the Commission was sent by the Jewish authorities to carry out persecutions there. Jesus, knowing of this approach, went out like Elijah of old, to meet his enemy Saul, the result of his wonderful personal power being the conversion of the persecutor into a disciple. The intercourse between them probably continued for some days in the house of Ananias, or wherever Jesus was residing. The arrival of the Commission, however, showed Jesus that it was no longer safe for him to remain in Damascus, and he proceeded towards Babylon on his way to the East. " At p. 324 of Vol. III of his works, Josephus mentions a Jewish Community in the city of Nasibus. He says: Now the whole nation of the Jews was in fear both of the Babylonians and of the Seleucians because all the Syrians that lived in those places agreed with the Seleucians to war against the Jews, so most of them 1 Doker, Ernest Brougham, District Court Judge, Sydney, If Jesus did not Die upon the Cross, pp. 75-76. 130