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The Perean Mission Begins 

January, 30 CE

Abner initiated the Perean Mission, a widespread campaign to preach the gospel, ending in Jerusalem for Jesus' final ordeal. The mission included visits to over eighty locations and featured the Women’s Evangelistic Corps ministering to the sick.

The Perean Mission Begins
  • Summary

    In January of 30 CE, Abner, chief of the seventy kingdom messengers, gathered these associates together and inaugurated the Perean Mission – the final mission to preach and teach the gospel of the kingdom. The Perean mission ended in Jerusalem three months later when Jesus entered the great city for his final ordeal.

    Abner and the seventy were accompanied at various times by Jesus and the apostles, and between them, they visited over eighty cities, towns, and villages. The Women’s Evangelistic Corps was also included in this mission, ministering to the sick along the way. There were no miracles during this mission, but in this region, many of the higher classes embraced the Master’s teachings.

    The camp at Pella was the headquarters for this mission, where Jesus and the apostles spent most of their time. By March, over four thousand people assembled at the camp daily to listen to the Master speak. The fieldwork was mostly done by Abner and his associates in areas that were very familiar to them, having been the same area where John the Baptist had done his work.

  • The Perean Mission is Inaugurated

    Abner, former chief of the twelve apostles of John the Baptist, was a Nazarite and one-time head of the Nazarite school at Engedi. Now chief of the seventy messengers of the kingdom, he called his associates together in January of 30 CE and gave them final instructions before sending them on a mission to all of the cities and villages of Perea. This was the final mission for the kingdom, and it lasted for three months. At its end, in March of 30 CE, Jesus entered Jerusalem for the last time to endure his final ordeals in the flesh.The seventy evangelists worked in the following cities and towns and some fifty additional villages: Zaphon, Gadara, Macad, Arbela, Ramath, Edrei, Bosora, Caspin, Mispeh, Gerasa, Ragaba, Succoth, Amathus, Adam, Penuel, Capitolias, Dion, Hatita, Gadda, Philadelphia, Jogbehah, Gilead, Beth-Nimrah, Tyrus, Elealah, Livias, Heshbon, Callirrhoe, Beth-Peor, Shittim, Sibmah, Medeba, Beth-Meon, Areopolis, and Aroer. They were accompanied by the Women’s Evangelistic Corps, which now numbered sixty-two; these women ministered to the sick along the way.

    Jesus' teachings had reached a higher spiritual threshold by this time. In no other area was the gospel so thoroughly preached as this Perean region in this final mission. The area was about one-half gentile, so the fields were fertile for the reception of the gospel of the kingdom. The seventy, under Abner’s instruction, baptized all believers, although Jesus had not required this ritual.

    Periodically, Jesus and his twelve apostles worked in these cities, too, assisting Abner and his associates. However, Jesus and the twelve apostles remained headquartered at the Pella camp during much of the Perean Mission, only going out into the field occasionally to lend assistance to Abner and the seventy,

  • The Pella Camp

    In January, more than twelve hundred people assembled at Pella. Jesus personally taught this crowd at least once a day, usually in the morning. Peter and the other apostles taught the multitudes in the afternoons. In the evenings, a group of about fifty people typically gathered for the daily question and answer period, presided over by Jesus and the apostles.

    By March, the crowds at Pella had swelled to over four thousand, and this was the highest level of interest in Jesus’ message in its non-miraculous stage. Most of those who came to the Pella camp to hear Jesus were truth-seekers, but there were also a large number of Pharisees, doubters, and malcontents.

    Most of Jesus’ time was spent at Pella; the apostles largely ignored the fieldwork of Abner and the seventy. Abner was very familiar with the Perean region because this was where John the Baptist had done most of his work for the kingdom. Abner and the seventy never returned to the Pella camp after the Perean mission ended.

    But in the middle of March, Jesus and the apostles left the Pella camp, traveling towards Jerusalem and the Master’s final days. Along the way, they visited with Abner and his associates. Acting on the instructions of the Apostle Andrew, David Zebedee closed the visitors’ camp at Pella on Wednesday, March 15. 30 CE.

Suggested Reading from this Essay

Related People

Related Locations

  • Perea

    An important region to the east of the Jordan River.

Contributors

MaryJo Garascia, Mike Robinson, Gary Tonge

References and Sources

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