The Household of Lazarus,

Bethany Village, Jerusalem,

Seventh Day of the Month Sivan,

In the Year of Our Lord 89.

Elder Theophilus,

Assembly of the Nazarene,

In Care of the House of Aquilla, The Tent-Maker,

Artemis Way, Ephesus.

(Carried by the hand of Tychicus)

My Dear Theophilus,

Tychicus arrived with your letter yesterday, and is even now writing this for me as I speak, my own hand these days being so much atremble with the palsies of age that I cannot even bear to hold the lightest quill therein.

The Lord's own here in Jerusalem rejoice with those there in Ephesus to hear that you have found a personal faith in Christ through the good news of Jesus' life, death and resurrection which was written for you by the beloved physician, Luke. We also understand that you now have left your post of excellency in the city administration to be active in the leadership of the saints who assemble at Ephesus in the house of Aquilla and Priscilla.

I do not wonder at your concern about the new records of the life of Christ which your beloved elder, John, has prepared and left in your charge to distribute among the churches. Now that John is imprisoned for his faith on Patmos Island, and his memories are fading under the present suffering, you do well to be concerned that the accounts are reliable before you share them with others.

You have said that if you can only authenticate his seemingly incredible story of my resurrection, so strange to you, this will give you confidence to circulate copies of John's material. I believe that his idea of making an extended narrative out of selected miraculous signs performed by Jesus to be a good kind of construction for such a document. I am delighted that he chose to include my restoration (which he, himself, also witnessed) as the sixth such sign written that his readers might believe that Jesus is the Christ. Of course, I am glad to write now as requested, and share some of the facts and my feelings about that experience which you may wish to compare with his record.

I love John's idea of plunging right into the Gospel story by using a prologue which interprets Jesus' birth as the coming of God into human flesh to be our Messiah. Somehow I believe I discern Mary's hand in this for, as you will remember, during her last years in John's home she always talked about the meaning of His coming rather than just about the factual details which she had already shared with Matthew and Luke.

I have well completed the three score years and ten which Moses says is all that a man may expect on this earth, and I feel the weight of my age. My older sister, Martha, has long since gone to her well-earned rest in Abraham's bosom, and even Mary (my younger sister -- the dreamy one) now walks as little as she can, and that very stiffly. Of course I was barely into my late 20s when Jesus lived among us, but the memories remain as fresh as if I had only experienced them yesterday.

Our tiny village perches high on a shoulder of the Mount of Olives, just 40 minutes' walk from the city of Jerusalem. Our family has lived here in Bethany (which means The Place Of Dates) for five generations. Father died many years ago, and mother left us with the birth of young Mary just a few months later so, while my sister Martha takes care of our domestic needs, I have always managed the farm and father's date business.