Steven Licht

The Book of Susan Steven Licht

What if the Book of John, one of the Christian gospels, was based on the recollections of a real woman, who lived through the events in question. If so, who was this woman, and how was she related to Jesus?Her name has been lost, but let's call her Susan. Luke 8:3 says that there was a woman with Jesus named Susan. Luke does not explain who Susan is. In our story, Susan will be the woman whose memoirs will be used by John, when he writes his gospel. What if Susan, the woman that Luke says was with Jesus, was his wife? Why not? The Book of John refers to her as "the disciple who Jesus loved." If not his wife, it sounds like at least she was his sweetheart. What if the good works and miracles reported in the Book of John were not interpreted as magical exceptions to the laws of nature, but as examples of the same kind of good works and miracles that good people perform today and every day. What if that were precisely what the writer of the Book of John intended? What if that was really the moral of the gospel story?It would make a lot of sense. It's what we teach our children. Maybe that's precisely what we are supposed to be doing with the gospels. Teaching the next generation about taking care of the present world, a little better than we did, while we were in it. I have in mind taking you with me on a journey along time's river. Are you ready to go?