Early Life and Surroundings

"It is with youth as with plants, from the first fruits they bear we learn what may be expected in future."

The "Dead Sea" of America.

Flowing north from Utah Lake through part of the Great Basin, and emptying into the Great Salt Lake, the Dead Sea of America, is the river Jordan. Utah Lake is fresh water and abounds in fish; Salt Lake, as its name suggests, is so briny that no fish can live in its waters. To President Brigham Young and the worthy band of Pioneers, the Salt Lake Valley with the "Dead Sea" reflecting the glorious rays of a July sun, was indeed a "promised land."

The "Dead Sea" of the Holy Land.

Away across the Atlantic Ocean, stretching along the east shore of the Mediterranean Sea is another salt sea, another river Jordan, and another fresh water lake, and the river flows through the "Promised Land," or the Land of Canaan. However, if you will refer to a map of that country, you will see that the relative position of this lake, river and sea are just opposite in direction from these in Utah. In the Holy Land the fresh water lake is in the north, and the Jordan river flows south into the Dead Sea.

The land that contains these three important marks in history has several names. As given above, it is called The Holy Land; also The Land of Canaan; also the Land of the Hebrews, or the Land of Israel, because Jacob's children once settled there; also the Land of Judah, after one of Jacob's sons; also Palestine, probably after the Philistines, who lived, as you know, in the days of the shepherd boy David.

Size of Cannan.

Salt Lake is eighty miles long and about forty miles wide. The Land of Canaan is about twice as long and twice as wide; or in extreme length about one hundred seventy miles, and its width about eighty. The City of Dan was in the northern part, and Beersheba in the southern part; so when you hear the expression "from Dan to Beersheba," you will know that it once denoted the entire length of the land of Canaan.

Sea of Galilee.

The fresh water lake, of the Holy Land, also has several names. It is known generally as the "Sea of Galilee;" but it is also called "Sea of Tiberias," "Lake of Gennesareth," "Lake of Tiberias," and the "Sea of Cenneroth." It is about sixteen miles long and six miles wide. "The waters of this lake lie in a deep basin, surrounded on all sides with lofty hills, excepting only the narrow entrance and outlet of the Jordan at each extreme. * * * The appearance of this sea from the town of Capernaum, which is situated near the upper end of the bank on the western side, is extremely grand; its greatest length runs nearly north and south. The barren aspect of the mountains on each side, and the total absence of wood give, however, a cast of dullness to the picture, which is increased to melancholy by the dead calm of its waters."

On the west side of this lake was one of the important divisions of Palestine, called Galilee. One ancient writer says that at one time this province "contained two hundred and four cities and towns, the least of which contained fifteen thousand inhabitants."^[1]

Bethsaida.

Somewhere in this province, probably very near Capernaum, was a little town called Bethsaida. There was another town by this name on the north-eastern shore, but it is the Bethsaida, near Capernaum, in which we are now most interested. To must have been near the lake, because many of the men who lived there made their living by fishing, not with poles and hooks and lines, as the boys fish for trout in our mountain streams, but with nets, which they let down from their boats, and with which they dragged the lake until they would entangle the fish, which they then hauled to shore.

Simon.

In one of these fishermen's homes, probably a few years before the Savior's birth, was born one day, a little baby boy whom his parents named Simon or Simeon. He had a brother named Andrew.^[2] Their father's name was Jonas or Johanna, but very little is known about him, and nothing about their mother.

Simon's Home and Boyhood.

Nothing definite is known about either Simon's childhood or his boyhood. However, we are safe to conclude from what we know about the customs, beliefs, and practices of the Jews of his time that he lived in a small, flat-roofed house containing very little, if any, furniture; that either at home or at school, perhaps at both, he learned all about the prophets in what is now our Old Testament; that he observed the Sabbath day strictly; and what is most important of all, he learned to look forward to the day when the Savior of the world would come to His people.

In fancy, we can picture Simon and Andrew and their playmates amusing themselves on the shore of Galilee; but it is only in imagination that we can see any of the incidents in Simon's childhood. "We may think of him," writes George L. Weed, "as a useful boy, helping his mother in the labors of the house—carefully bringing the little red clay lamps for trimming, or the corn to be parched, or the fish his father had caught, or the charcoal on which it was to be cooked, or the bread from the oven, and the oil and honey-cakes to be eaten with it, or water from the stream that flowed from the hill behind their home into the lake, or filling the water-jars at the door. Was he not his mother's joy when for the first time he shook the olives from the trees and brought them to her as a part of their frugal meal; or when he spread the maize and hemp to dry on the flat roof in the summer sun? Was he not his father's pride the first time he handled the oar, and dipped it aright in the wave, and helped to spread the net, and counted the fish they had caught? He watched the flight of the sparrows and gathered the flowers—poppies, daisies and anemones—like those from which the Great Teacher, whom now he knew not, would teach him lessons of wisdom and love. Childlike, he gathered shells upon the seashore, and dug in the white sand of the beach with a rude stick, with delight equal to that of the boy of today with his finished toy-shovel and little painted pail."

None of the fishermen who saw Simon with his playmates scampering around the nets and boats ever suspected that he would grow up to be among the greatest men of the world!

Some writers tell us that the Galileans were generally brave and fearless, and loved liberty. The men made good soldiers for they were "bold and intrepid." The boy, Simon, as he grew to manhood must have admired the brave, bold men around him, for he, too, became a man of strong character, as we learn from the first recorded instance of his life.

SIMON'S NAME CHANGED

Simon Hears John the Baptist.

Soon after Simon had grown to manhood there came a man from the wilderness of Jordan, clothed only in camel's hair and a leathern girdle about his loins, but preaching with such mighty power that people from "Judea and all the regions round about" came to hear him. This great preacher was John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ. Among those who came to hear him was Simon, who, no doubt, rejoiced to hear this preacher of Repentance declare that the Son of Man was about to come to the earth. Simon, Andrew and some of their friends believed what the Baptist taught.

One day, when, with some of his followers, John was near Bethabara (a word which means "a place of crossing") he saw Jesus coming toward them, and said:

"Behold the Lamb of God."

"Behold the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world! This is He of whom I said, After me cometh a man who is preferred before me." Again, the next day, probably about 10 o'clock in the morning, John was standing talking with two of his disciples. They were Andrew, Simon's brother, and John. Walking a short distance from them was the same man whom John had pointed out the day before as the Lamb of God "And looking upon Jesus as He walked, John saith, Behold the Lamb of God. And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus."

CHRIST AND JOHN.

"CHRIST AND JOHN."

Simon's Brother Believes in Jesus.

Accepting the invitation of Jesus to go with Him to the place where He stayed, these two men remained with Him, listening to His words all the rest of the day. When they left, they believed that Jesus was the King of Israel, the Savior of the world. Thus they became, in that day the first two, beside John the Baptist, to believe in Jesus.

Whenever we have anything which is really good, we always desire to share it with one we love. It was so with these two brothers. They no sooner felt the divine influence that radiated from the Savior than they were filled with a desire to bring those whom they loved under that same influence. Andrew went out to find his brother Simon, and John to find his brother James. Andrew found Simon first, and said:

"We have found the Messiah, which is, being interpreted, the Christ."

Simon is Called "Cephas."

And he brought him to Jesus, and when Jesus beheld him, He said, "Thou are Simon the son of Jonas: thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, A stone" (or The Rock).

In those days the Jews spoke the Hebrew language; but the new Testament was written in the Greek language. Now, in Hebrew "Cephas" means "rock;" but in Greek the word for "rock" is "Petras," or "Peter." So from that time, Simon was known as Simon Peter, or "Simon, the Rock."

When we think of this wonderful world in which we live, of its great division of land called continents; that in the eastern continent there are the countries of Europe, Asia, and Africa; that in one little corner of Asia, there is a strip of land only about twice as long and twice as wide as our Salt Lake; that in that strip of land was a division, like one of our counties, called Galilee; that in this province were over two hundred cities, and in each city several thousand people, among whom one day was born a little baby whose parents were unknown; that this baby boy grew to be a man of such strong character that Jesus named him "a Rock," and for nineteen hundred years now he has been known and honored by millions and millions of people—when we think of all these things we must surely realize, even in our youth, that a humble birth is no hindrance to greatness.

Footnotes:

1. Josephus.2. John 1:42-43.