Jesus…the original SUL backpacker

pedantic mike

Lots of interesting thoughts here about this, but I should clarify that I was not implying that Jesus and his followers would do the CDT or something mooching off people. They lived off the gratitude of others bc that was the culture then and is still the culture in many parts of the world, that when you go through villages they often WANT to assist you and its quite offensive to not allow them to do so. But the other issue is that the people that would assist them werent people they would beg from but rather folks that were followers of the gospel!

I agree with Tony (i think it was tony) about the other peoples who lived off the land etc etc, I just meant that the disciples depended on hiking to get out their message and its interesting that they took basically nothing, but still all their needs were met.

"They had soo much spare water that they turned some of into wine."

That was their way of treating polluted water back before the age of Steripens and Hiker Pro's. These guys were wilderness savvy hikers. ;-)

One thing to keep in mind is that Jewish society operated differently than most modern Western societies. My understanding is that they were clannish & family-based; they thought in terms of "us" and "we" (sort of like some Asian cultures and a few American Indian cultures nowadays). They were a group-think society that looked down on traits such as individualism and self-reliance.

In the context of the culture in that area in that time, I think it would be more accurate to say Jesus and his followers were giving others an opportunity to show them goodwill & hospitality by not taking taking any gear with them. Most of us sitting here reading this thread would read the situation instead as an exercise in freeloading. My guess is that it rather faciliated community building & instilled faith that things tend to work out no matter what.

"My guess is that it rather faciliated community building & instilled faith that things tend to work out no matter what."

Right up until the end. ;}

Must be nice to turn water into wine, especially at camp.

I turned water into margaritas last weekend. Packit Gourmet helped some though.

Sixbey, that was deep man. Im digging your commentary on Jewish social customs. I agree with your analysis.