Inductive Reasoning: Jesus' Journeys

© 2009 by Dylan Stephens

A Visual Comparison of the Traditional Jerusalem-centered Journeys of Jesus versus the Qumran-centered Journeys.
Here it will be shown that the Qumran-centered Journeys are much more logical in time and distance.

Also for the fun of it, see Google Map Road Trips of Jesus by foot and donkey along the current roads. This animated visual view will also illustrate the problem of distances in the Traditional Jerusalem-centered versus the more logical Qumran-centered view. Also the detailed study at YouTube Playlist: Jesus Journeys In the previous Inductive Reasoning: "Qumran the mirror of Jerusalem" the case for two Jerusalems has been presented: Jerusalem singular-form and Jerusalem plural-form (Qumran). Now it will be shown that the distance factor also points to Qumran as the second Jerusalem.

The accepted location where Jesus lived is Nazareth and nearby is the Sea of Galilee, where he met with his disciples. This location over 100 kilometers north of Jerusalem and Bethlehem! However, if Jesus lived near Qumran, where the monastery with its Dead Sea scrolls connection is located, his location would be a mere 28 kilometers east of Jerusalem and only 14 kilometers from where John the Baptist was baptizing!

One might ask whether a Messiah would really have had such influence in the affairs of Jerusalem when he was so far away from the temple of Jerusalem. It certainly remains a mystery why Joseph and Mary would have made the 112 kilometer trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem with Mary heavy with child. (The Gospel of Luke tells us that they went there because of the Roman census of 6 AD, but this date really cannot be for Jesus' birth, but rather for his Bar Mitzvah at twelve years old because Herod was long dead.) Given that the 6 AD taxation was not the purpose, it is difficult to find a reason for that long trip. Was it perhaps to cheat and say that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, the birthplace of King David? In the Catholic Church, Jesus was an Immaculate Conception so the genealogy of Joseph descending from King David had as little relevance as Bethlehem.

However, if Qumran was the place that Joseph and Mary lived, they would be much closer to Jerusalem and Bethlehem. Most importantly, when Mary was found with child and went to Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, in the wilderness, this place was right nearby Qumran. (The wilderness can be identified as that of John the Baptist who later baptized in the Jordan River nearby.) This wilderness was also a perfect hiding place as shown by the many tunnels there that were used by the Zealots in their revolt against Rome. The Therapeuts, who had their center in Egypt and contributed much of their customs to Christianity also camped there in this wilderness. Thus it could be said that Egypt came to Joseph and Mary. They were already in a perfect hiding place from Herod's wrath in the real Egypt!

As a conclusion from the distance comparisons, it can be seen that Qumran was an early Disney Epcot Center because it was a miniaturized Jerusalem, Bethlehem, with the sea of Galilee being represented by the Dead Sea. Jesus was a Nazarite, not from Nazareth as Pilate misunderstood.

This detailed study will show that a Qumran-centered Gospel makes much more sense than a Nazareth-Jerusalem one, thus supporting the inductive reasoning that Qumran was the place of Jesus' birth and crucifixion. Thus Jesus taught next to the Jewish Essene monastery of Qumran near the Dead Sea giving him strong Essene roots.

You will note that there are two columns in this chart below labeled Traditional Jerusalem-centered and Qumran-centered. From these columns, you can compare the distances for all of the major events in the life of Jesus. The first row of each section is a composite for that section.

By clicking on the dates you can to bring up two Google Maps in separate windows: a Traditional Jerusalem-centered map and Qumran-centered map that can be resized to your screen or you can click on each map to toggle between them. (They may take some time to load).

		Traditional Jerusalem-centered		Logical Qumran-centered
#	Approximate date*	Location	Distance (km)	Location	Distance (km)
All Journeys: Traditional Conception to Crucifixion
I-VI	7 BC to 33 AD**	Traditional Jerusalem-centered	~3093 km (10x)	Logical Qumran-centered	~330 km
Conception and birth of Jesus to age 12 (7 BC to 6 AD)  - GoogleEarth(kml): Traditional  Qumran
I_1-14	BC 05-31-0008 to AD 03-1-0006	Nazareth (all)	~1338 (20x)	Ain Feshkha (all)	~68.19
I_1	BC 05-31-0008	Nazareth		Mar Saba
I_2	BC 06-01-0008	Nazareth	~105	Ain Feshkha	~7.61
I_3	BC 06-15-0008	Ein Karem	~105	Mird	~24.7
I_4	BC 09-16-0008	Nazareth		Ain Feshkha
I_5	BC 02-15-0007	Bethlehem	~112	Queen's House (1 km s.of Qumran)	~2.18
I_6	BC 03-01-0007	Bethlehem		Queen's House (1 km s.of Qumran)
I_7	BC 03-08-0007	Bethlehem	~8	Queen's House (1 km s.of Qumran)	~0.23
I_8	BC 04-15-0007	Temple at Jerusalem		Temple at Jerusalem (Qumran****)
I_9	BC04-16-0007	Bethlehem	~8	Queen's House (1 km s.of Qumran)	~0.23
I_10	BC 09-15-0007	Bethlehem	~407	Queen's House (1 km s.of Qumran)	~8.54
I_11	BC 09-16-0007	Cairo		Mird
I_12	BC 09-12-0005	Nazareth		Ain Feshkha
I_13	BC 09-12-0005	Nazareth		Ain Feshkha
I_14	AD 02-15-0006	Temple at Jerusalem	~103	Temple at Jerusalem	~24.7
Beginning of Ministry at age 35 (29 AD- 30 AD)  - GoogleEarth(kml): Traditional  Qumran
II_1-8	AD 03-01-0029 to AD 03-1-00030	Galilee (all)	~214 (6x) .6 per day	Mazin (all)	~38.48 .1 per day
II_1	AD 03-01-0029	Bethany beyond Jordan		Bethany beyond Jordan (Same)
II_2	AD 03-08-0029	Bethany beyond Jordan		Bethany beyond Jordan (Same)
II_3	AD 03-10-0029	Bethany beyond Jordan		Bethany beyond Jordan (Same)
II_4	AD 03-10-0029	The Wilderness (Mird)	~22	The Wilderness (Mird) (Same)	~21.72
II_5	AD 06-24-0029	Nazareth	~90	Ain Feshkha	~7.61
II_6	AD 06-24-0029	Capernaum	~34	Mazin	~3.05
II_7	AD 06-24-0029	Nazareth	~34	Ain Feshkha	~3.05
II_8	AD 06-24-0029	Capernaum	~34	Mazin	~3.05
First Passover to Second Passover at age 36 (30 AD- 31 AD)  - GoogleEarth(kml): Traditional  Qumran
III_1-10	AD 03-24-0030 - AD 03-01-31	Nazareth (all)	~240 (12x) .7 per day	Ain Feshkha (all)	~20.07 .05 per day
III_1	AD 03-24-0030	Capernaum		Mazin
III_2	AD 03-24-0030	Capernaum		Mazin
III_3	AD 03-25-0030	Nazareth	~34	Ain Feshkha	~3.05
III_4	AD 06-04-0030	Galilee (Cana?)	~6	Ain Feshkha
III_5	AD 06-05-0030	Capernaum	~29	Mazin	~3.05
III_6	AD 06-05-0030	Capernaum		Mazin
III_7	AD 06-06-0030	Cana	~29	Ain Feshkha	~3.05
III_8	AD 06-08-0030	Cana		Ain Feshkha
III_9	AD 06-09-0030	Capernaum	~29	Mazin	~3.05
III_10	AD 06-23-0030	Capernaum		Mazin
III_11	AD 06-24-0030	Capernaum		Mazin
III_12	AD 09-20-0030	Capernaum		Mazin
III_13	AD 09-21-0030	Nain	~34	Qumran	~5.46
III_14	AD 09-22-0030	Bethany	~79	Ain Feshkha	~2.41
Second Passover to Third Passover at age 37 (31 AD- 32 AD)  - GoogleEarth(kml): Traditional  Qumran
IV_1-12	AD 03-01-0031 - AD 03-01-32	Nazareth (all)	~532 (20x) 1.5 per day	Ain Feshkha (all)	~26.66 .07 per day
IV_1	AD 03-01-0031	Galilee (Cana?)		Ain Feshkha
IV_2	AD 03-21-0031	Temple at Jerusalem	~89	Qumran	~2.41
IV_3	AD 03-23-0031	Capernaum	~107	Mazin	~5.46
IV_4	AD 03-24-0031	Gadara	~24	Ain Feshkha	~3.05
IV_5	AD 03-24-0031	Gadara		Ain Feshkha
IV_6	AD 03-25-0031	Capernaum	~24	Mazin	~3.05
IV_7	AD 06-22-0031	Sychar	~68	Ain Feshkha	~3.05
IV_8	AD 09-14-0031	Temple at Jerusalem	~40	Qumran	~2.41
IV_9	AD 09-04-0031	Nazareth	~85	Ain Feshkha	~2.41
IV_10	AD 09-20-0031	Nazareth		Ain Feshkha
IV_11	AD 09-21-0031	Cana	~6	Ain Feshkha	~2.41
IV_12	AD 09-21-0031	Pool Of Bethesda	~89	Qumran	~2.41
Third Passover to week before the Fourth Passover at age 38 (32 AD- 33 AD)  - GoogleEarth(kml): Traditional  Qumran
V_1-25	AD 03-20-0032 - AD 03-01-33	Nazareth (all)	~756 (4x) 2.1 per day	Ain Feshkha (all)	~171.71 .5 per day
V_1	AD 03-20-0032	Tiberius		Mird
V_2	AD 03-20-0032	Bethsaida	~15	Ain Feshkha	~7.61
V_3	AD 03-21-0032	Tabgha	~9	Ain Feshkha
V_4	AD 03-22-0032	Gennesaret	~5	Mazin	~3.05
V_5	AD 03-22-0032	Capernaum	~8	Mazin
V_6	AD 06-22-0032	Tyre	~56	Ain Feshkha	~3.05
V_7	AD 06-15-0032	Sidon	~33	Ain Feshkha
V_8	AD 09-01-0032	Tabgha	~66	Ain Feshkha
V_9	AD 09-01-0032	Magadan	~4	Mazin	~3.05
V_10	AD 09-02-0032	Caesarea Philippi	~41	Mazin
V_11	AD 09-12-0032	Temple at Jerusalem	~143	Qumran	~5.46
V_12	AD 09-12-0032	Mount of Olives	~1	Qumran
V_13	AD 09-13-0032	Temple at Jerusalem	~1	Qumran
V_14	AD 09-14-0032	Galilee (Cana?)	~89	Ain Feshkha	~2.41
V_15	AD 09-15-0032	Capernaum	~29	Mazin	~3.05
V_16	AD 09-17-0032	Temple at Jerusalem	~107	Qumran	~5.46
V_17	AD 09-18-0032	Bethany	~3	Ain Feshkha	~2.41
V_18	AD 11-26-0032	Temple at Jerusalem	~3	Ain Feshkha
V_19	AD 11-26-0032	Bethany beyond Jordan	~36	Bethany beyond Jordan	~36
V_20	AD 12-02-0032	Mird	~22	Mird	~22
V_21	AD 12-03-0032	Bethany	~14	Qumran	~8.68
V_22	AD 12-04-0032	Mird	~14	Mird	~8.68
V_23	AD 12-18-0032	Bethany beyond Jordan	~22	Bethany beyond Jordan	~22
V_24	AD 12-21-0032	Jericho	~12	Mar Saba	~27.38
V_25	AD 12-22-0032	Mount of Olives	~23	Mount of Olives	~11.42
Week of the Crucifixion age 39 (33 AD)  - GoogleEarth(kml): Traditional  Qumran
VI_1-10	AD 03-02-0033 - AD 03-20-33	Jerusalem (all)	~12.63 (2.5x)	Qumran (all)	~5.05
VI_1	AD 03-02-0033	Mount of Olives		Queen's House (1 km s.of Qumran)
VI_2	AD 03-02-0033	Temple at Jerusalem	~1.31	Qumran	~0.23
VI_3	AD 03-19-0033	Bethany	~3.02	Ain Feshkha	~2.41
VI_4	AD 03-19-0033	Cenacle	~3.66	Qumran	~2.41
VI_5	AD 03-20-0033	Gethsemane	~1.41	Qumran
VI_6	AD 03-20-0033	House of Annas	~1.13	Qumran
VI_7	AD 03-20-0033	House of Caiaphas	~1.04	Qumran
VI_8	AD 03-20-0033	Praetorium	~0.76	Qumran
VI_9	AD 03-20-0033	Church of the Holy Sepulchre	~0.3	Qumran
VI_10	AD 03-20-0033	Church of the Holy Sepulchre		Qumran
Traditional Jerusalem-centered Grand Total=3093 km
Logical Qumran-centered Grand Total=330 km

Footnotes

* Dates (please ignore times) are taken from Dr. Barbara Thiering just to have a chronological basis, but are not essential to this study. (Clearly there is little consensus on dates because of the absurd assumption that the gospel writers and Josephus the historian were generally confused.)

** Map displays are from Google Earth using time specific format.

*** To map Traditional Jerusalem-centered journeys a generally accepted harmony of Gospels method is used together with generally accepted places. (Although some of these places may have never existed in Biblical times, they are held to by tradition or just from resolving the problem of distances with logic!)

**** To map Qumran-centered journeys based around Qumran (Jerusalem in the plural form - the substitute for Jerusalem - see Qumran the mirror of Jerusalem) the assumption is made that when an important person visits or resides near Qumran they bring their representative city with them. For example when the President of the the United States goes on a tour, he brings Washington (DC) with him.)

***** Approximate distances are given for simplicity, therefore "as the crow flies".

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Appreciation to:

• "Jesus the Man" by Barbara Thiering November, 2006, Simon and Schuster (Chronology section)
• http://www.earthpoint.us/ for its Excel to KML convertor.
• http://www.sgrillo.net/googleearth/gepath.htm for calculation distances
• Google Earth