2026-05-04
The Urantia Book Explained: A Simple Introduction to the 197 Papers
What Is The Urantia Book?
The Urantia Book (published in 1955) is a 2,097-page spiritual and cosmological text that presents a comprehensive narrative of reality: from the nature of God and the structure of the universe, through the history of our planet and the evolution of religion, to a detailed account of the life and teachings of Jesus. The book claims to be authored by celestial beings — a commission of truth revealers from the superuniverse of Orvonton — and was channeled through an anonymous human subject in Chicago between 1924 and 1935.
It is organized into 197 papers (plus a Foreword), divided into four parts:
- Foreword — Foreword only (1 papers)
- Part I: The Central and Superuniverses — Papers 1–31 (31 papers)
- Part II: The Local Universe — Papers 32–56 (25 papers)
- Part III: The History of Urantia — Papers 57–119 (63 papers)
- Part IV: The Life and Teachings of Jesus — Papers 120–196 (77 papers)
Each paper below includes a brief summary and a link to read the full text on EightMind. The parts build on each other: Part I establishes the cosmic hierarchy, Part II zooms into local universe administration, Part III traces our planet's history, and Part IV presents the life of Jesus as the culminating revelation.
Foreword
Foreword
IN THE MINDS of the mortals of Urantia—that being the name of your world—there exists great confusion respecting the meaning of such terms as God, divinity, and deity. Human beings are still more confused and uncertain about the relationships of the divine personalities designated by these numerous appellations.
Part I: The Central and Superuniverses
Paper 1: The Universal Father
THE Universal Father is the God of all creation, the First Source and Center of all things and beings. First think of God as a creator, then as a controller, and lastly as an infinite upholder.
Paper 2: The Nature of God
INASMUCH as man’s highest possible concept of God is embraced within the human idea and ideal of a primal and infinite personality, it is permissible, and may prove helpful, to study certain characteristics of the divine nature which constitute the character of Deity. The nature of God can best be understood by the revelation of the Father which Michael of Nebadon unfolded in his manifold teachings and in his superb mortal life in the flesh.
Paper 3: The Attributes of God
GOD is everywhere present; the Universal Father rules the circle of eternity. But he rules in the local universes in the persons of his Paradise Creator Sons, even as he bestows life through these Sons.
Paper 4: God’s Relation to the Universe
THE Universal Father has an eternal purpose pertaining to the material, intellectual, and spiritual phenomena of the universe of universes, which he is executing throughout all time. God created the universes of his own free and sovereign will, and he created them in accordance with his all-wise and eternal purpose.
Paper 5: God’s Relation to the Individual
IF THE finite mind of man is unable to comprehend how so great and so majestic a God as the Universal Father can descend from his eternal abode in infinite perfection to fraternize with the individual human creature, then must such a finite intellect rest assurance of divine fellowship upon the truth of the fact that an actual fragment of the living God resides within the intellect of every normal-minded and morally conscious Urantia mortal. The indwelling Thought Adjusters are a part of the eternal Deity of the Paradise Father.
Paper 6: The Eternal Son
THE Eternal Son is the perfect and final expression of the “first” personal and absolute concept of the Universal Father. Accordingly, whenever and however the Father personally and absolutely expresses himself, he does so through his Eternal Son, who ever has been, now is, and ever will be, the living and divine Word.
Paper 7: Relation of the Eternal Son to the Universe
THE Original Son is ever concerned with the execution of the spiritual aspects of the Father’s eternal purpose as it progressively unfolds in the phenomena of the evolving universes with their manifold groups of living beings. We do not fully comprehend this eternal plan, but the Paradise Son undoubtedly does.
Paper 8: The Infinite Spirit
BACK in eternity, when the Universal Father’s “first” infinite and absolute thought finds in the Eternal Son such a perfect and adequate word for its divine expression, there ensues the supreme desire of both the Thought-God and the Word-God for a universal and infinite agent of mutual expression and combined action. 8:0.2 (90.2) In the dawn of eternity both the Father and the Son become infinitely cognizant of their mutual interdependence, their eternal and absolute oneness; and therefore do they enter into an infinite and everlasting covenant of divine partnership.
Paper 9: Relation of the Infinite Spirit to the Universe
A STRANGE thing occurred when, in the presence of Paradise, the Universal Father and the Eternal Son unite to personalize themselves. Nothing in this eternity situation foreshadows that the Conjoint Actor would personalize as an unlimited spirituality co-ordinated with absolute mind and endowed with unique prerogatives of energy manipulation.
Paper 10: The Paradise Trinity
THE Paradise Trinity of eternal Deities facilitates the Father’s escape from personality absolutism. The Trinity perfectly associates the limitless expression of God’s infinite personal will with the absoluteness of Deity.
Paper 11: The Eternal Isle of Paradise
PARADISE is the eternal center of the universe of universes and the abiding place of the Universal Father, the Eternal Son, the Infinite Spirit, and their divine co-ordinates and associates. This central Isle is the most gigantic organized body of cosmic reality in all the master universe.
Paper 12: The Universe of Universes
THE immensity of the far-flung creation of the Universal Father is utterly beyond the grasp of finite imagination; the enormousness of the master universe staggers the concept of even my order of being. But the mortal mind can be taught much about the plan and arrangement of the universes; you can know something of their physical organization and marvelous administration; you may learn much about the various groups of intelligent beings who inhabit the seven superuniverses of time and the central universe of eternity.
Paper 13: The Sacred Spheres of Paradise
BETWEEN the central Isle of Paradise and the innermost of the Havona planetary circuits there are situated in space three lesser circuits of special spheres. The innermost circuit consists of the seven secret spheres of the Universal Father; the second group is composed of the seven luminous worlds of the Eternal Son; in the outermost are the seven immense spheres of the Infinite Spirit, the executive-headquarters worlds of the Seven Master Spirits.
Paper 14: The Central and Divine Universe
THE perfect and divine universe occupies the center of all creation; it is the eternal core around which the vast creations of time and space revolve. Paradise is the gigantic nuclear Isle of absolute stability which rests motionless at the very heart of the magnificent eternal universe.
Paper 15: The Seven Superuniverses
AS FAR as the Universal Father is concerned—as a Father—the universes are virtually nonexistent; he deals with personalities; he is the Father of personalities. As far as the Eternal Son and the Infinite Spirit are concerned—as creator partners—the universes are localized and individual under the joint rule of the Creator Sons and the Creative Spirits.
Paper 16: The Seven Master Spirits
THE Seven Master Spirits of Paradise are the primary personalities of the Infinite Spirit. In this sevenfold creative act of self-duplication the Infinite Spirit exhausted the associative possibilities mathematically inherent in the factual existence of the three persons of Deity.
Paper 17: The Seven Supreme Spirit Groups
THE seven Supreme Spirit groups are the universal co-ordinating directors of the seven-segmented administration of the grand universe. Although all are classed among the functional family of the Infinite Spirit, the following three groups are usually classified as children of the Paradise Trinity: 17:0.2 (197.2) 1.
Paper 18: The Supreme Trinity Personalities
SUPREME Trinity Personalities are all created for specific service. They are designed by the divine Trinity for the fulfillment of certain specific duties, and they are qualified to serve with perfection of technique and finality of devotion.
Paper 19: The Co-ordinate Trinity-Origin Beings
THIS Paradise group, designated the Co-ordinate Trinity-origin Beings, embraces the Trinity Teacher Sons, also classed among the Paradise Sons of God, three groups of high superuniverse administrators, and the somewhat impersonal category of the Inspired Trinity Spirits. Even the Havona natives may properly be included in this classification of Trinity personalities along with numerous groups of beings resident on Paradise.
Paper 20: The Paradise Sons of God
AS THEY function in the superuniverse of Orvonton, the Sons of God are classified under three general heads: 20:0.2 (223.2) 1. The Descending Sons of God.
Paper 21: The Paradise Creator Sons
THE Creator Sons are the makers and rulers of the local universes of time and space. These universe creators and sovereigns are of dual origin, embodying the characteristics of God the Father and God the Son.
Paper 22: The Trinitized Sons of God
THERE are three groups of beings who are called Sons of God. In addition to descending and ascending orders of sonship there is a third group known as the Trinitized Sons of God.
Paper 23: The Solitary Messengers
SOLITARY Messengers are the personal and universal corps of the Conjoint Creator; they are the first and senior order of the Higher Personalities of the Infinite Spirit. They represent the initial creative action of the Infinite Spirit in solitary function for the purpose of bringing into existence solitary personality spirits.
Paper 24: Higher Personalities of the Infinite Spirit
ON UVERSA we divide all personalities and entities of the Conjoint Creator into three grand divisions: the Higher Personalities of the Infinite Spirit, the Messenger Hosts of Space, and the Ministering Spirits of Time, those spirit beings who are concerned with teaching and ministering to the will creatures of the ascendant scheme of mortal progression. 24:0.2 (264.2) Those Higher Personalities of the Infinite Spirit that find mention in these narratives function throughout the grand universe in seven divisions: 24:0.3 (264.3) 1.
Paper 25: The Messenger Hosts of Space
RANKING intermediately in the family of the Infinite Spirit are the Messenger Hosts of Space. These versatile beings function as the connecting links between the higher personalities and the ministering spirits.
Paper 26: Ministering Spirits of the Central Universe
SUPERNAPHIM are the ministering spirits of Paradise and the central universe; they are the highest order of the lowest group of the children of the Infinite Spirit—the angelic hosts. Such ministering spirits are to be encountered from the Isle of Paradise to the worlds of time and space.
Paper 27: Ministry of the Primary Supernaphim
PRIMARY supernaphim are the supernal servants of the Deities on the eternal Isle of Paradise. Never have they been known to depart from the paths of light and righteousness.
Paper 28: Ministering Spirits of the Superuniverses
AS THE supernaphim are the angelic hosts of the central universe and the seraphim of the local universes, so are the seconaphim the ministering spirits of the superuniverses. In degree of divinity and in potential of supremacy, however, these children of the Reflective Spirits are much more like supernaphim than seraphim.
Paper 29: The Universe Power Directors
OF ALL the universe personalities concerned in the regulation of interplanetary and interuniverse affairs, the power directors and their associates have been the least understood on Urantia. While your races have long known of the existence of angels and similar orders of celestial beings, little information concerning the controllers and regulators of the physical domain has ever been imparted.
Paper 30: Personalities of the Grand Universe
THE personalities and other-than-personal entities now functioning on Paradise and in the grand universe constitute a well-nigh limitless number of living beings. Even the number of major orders and types would stagger the human imagination, let alone the countless subtypes and variations.
Paper 31: The Corps of the Finality
THE Corps of Mortal Finaliters represents the present known destination of the ascending Adjuster-fused mortals of time. But there are other groups who are also assigned to this corps.
Part II: The Local Universe
Paper 32: The Evolution of Local Universes
A LOCAL universe is the handiwork of a Creator Son of the Paradise order of Michael. It comprises one hundred constellations, each embracing one hundred systems of inhabited worlds.
Paper 33: Administration of the Local Universe
WHILE the Universal Father most certainly rules over his vast creation, he functions in a local universe administration through the person of the Creator Son. The Father does not otherwise personally function in the administrative affairs of a local universe.
Paper 34: The Local Universe Mother Spirit
WHEN a Creator Son is personalized by the Universal Father and the Eternal Son, then does the Infinite Spirit individualize a new and unique representation of himself to accompany this Creator Son to the realms of space, there to be his companion, first, in physical organization and, later, in creation and ministry to the creatures of the newly projected universe. 34:0.2 (374.2) A Creative Spirit reacts to both physical and spiritual realities; so does a Creator Son; and thus are they co-ordinate and associate in the administration of a local universe of time and space.
Paper 35: The Local Universe Sons of God
THE Sons of God previously introduced have had a Paradise origin. They are the offspring of the divine Rulers of the universal domains.
Paper 36: The Life Carriers
LIFE does not originate spontaneously. Life is constructed according to plans formulated by the (unrevealed) Architects of Being and appears on the inhabited planets either by direct importation or as a result of the operations of the Life Carriers of the local universes.
Paper 37: Personalities of the Local Universe
AT THE head of all personality in Nebadon stands the Creator and Master Son, Michael, the universe father and sovereign. Co-ordinate in divinity and complemental in creative attributes is the local universe Mother Spirit, the Divine Minister of Salvington.
Paper 38: Ministering Spirits of the Local Universe
THERE are three distinct orders of the personalities of the Infinite Spirit. The impetuous apostle understood this when he wrote respecting Jesus, “who has gone to heaven and is on the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers being made subject to him.” Angels are the ministering spirits of time; authorities, the messenger hosts of space; powers, the higher personalities of the Infinite Spirit.
Paper 39: The Seraphic Hosts
AS FAR as we are cognizant, the Infinite Spirit, as personalized on the local universe headquarters, intends to produce uniformly perfect seraphim, but for some unknown reason these seraphic offspring are very diverse. This diversity may be a result of the unknown interposition of evolving experiential Deity; if so, we cannot prove it.
Paper 40: The Ascending Sons of God
AS IN many of the major groups of universe beings, seven general classes of the Ascending Sons of God have been revealed: 40:0.2 (443.2) 1. Father-fused Mortals.
Paper 41: Physical Aspects of the Local Universe
THE characteristic space phenomenon which sets off each local creation from all others is the presence of the Creative Spirit. All Nebadon is certainly pervaded by the space presence of the Divine Minister of Salvington, and such presence just as certainly terminates at the outer borders of our local universe.
Paper 42: Energy—Mind and Matter
THE foundation of the universe is material in the sense that energy is the basis of all existence, and pure energy is controlled by the Universal Father. Force, energy, is the one thing which stands as an everlasting monument demonstrating and proving the existence and presence of the Universal Absolute.
Paper 43: The Constellations
URANTIA is commonly referred to as 606 of Satania in Norlatiadek of Nebadon, meaning the six hundred sixth inhabited world in the local system of Satania, situated in the constellation of Norlatiadek, one of the one hundred constellations of the local universe of Nebadon. Constellations being the primary divisions of a local universe, their rulers link the local systems of inhabited worlds to the central administration of the local universe on Salvington and by reflectivity to the superadministration of the Ancients of Days on Uversa.
Paper 44: The Celestial Artisans
AMONG the courtesy colonies of the various divisional and universe headquarters worlds may be found the unique order of composite personalities denominated the celestial artisans. These beings are the master artists and artisans of the morontia and lower spirit realms.
Paper 45: The Local System Administration
THE administrative center of Satania consists of a cluster of architectural spheres, fifty-seven in number—Jerusem itself, the seven major satellites, and the forty-nine subsatellites. Jerusem, the system capital, is almost one hundred times the size of Urantia, although its gravity is a trifle less.
Paper 46: The Local System Headquarters
JERUSEM, the headquarters of Satania, is an average capital of a local system, and aside from numerous irregularities occasioned by the Lucifer rebellion and the bestowal of Michael on Urantia, it is typical of similar spheres. Your local system has passed through some stormy experiences, but it is at present being administered most efficiently, and as the ages pass, the results of disharmony are being slowly but surely eradicated.
Paper 47: The Seven Mansion Worlds
THE Creator Son, when on Urantia, spoke of the “many mansions in the Father’s universe.” In a certain sense, all fifty-six of the encircling worlds of Jerusem are devoted to the transitional culture of ascending mortals, but the seven satellites of world number one are more specifically known as the mansion worlds. 47:0.2 (530.2) Transition world number one itself is quite exclusively devoted to ascendant activities, being the headquarters of the finaliter corps assigned to Satania.
Paper 48: The Morontia Life
THE Gods cannot—at least they do not—transform a creature of gross animal nature into a perfected spirit by some mysterious act of creative magic. When the Creators desire to produce perfect beings, they do so by direct and original creation, but they never undertake to convert animal-origin and material creatures into beings of perfection in a single step.
Paper 49: The Inhabited Worlds
ALL mortal-inhabited worlds are evolutionary in origin and nature. These spheres are the spawning ground, the evolutionary cradle, of the mortal races of time and space.
Paper 50: The Planetary Princes
WHILE belonging to the order of Lanonandek Sons, the Planetary Princes are so specialized in service that they are commonly regarded as a distinct group. After their Melchizedek certification as secondary Lanonandeks, these local universe Sons are assigned to the reserves of their order on the constellation headquarters.
Paper 51: The Planetary Adams
DURING the dispensation of a Planetary Prince, primitive man reaches the limit of natural evolutionary development, and this biologic attainment signals the System Sovereign to dispatch to such a world the second order of sonship, the biologic uplifters. These Sons, for there are two of them—the Material Son and Daughter—are usually known on a planet as Adam and Eve.
Paper 52: Planetary Mortal Epochs
FROM the inception of life on an evolutionary planet to the time of its final flowering in the era of light and life, there appear upon the stage of world action at least seven epochs of human life. These successive ages are determined by the planetary missions of the divine Sons, and on an average inhabited world these epochs appear in the following order: 52:0.2 (589.2) 1.
Paper 53: The Lucifer Rebellion
LUCIFER was a brilliant primary Lanonandek Son of Nebadon. He had experienced service in many systems, had been a high counselor of his group, and was distinguished for wisdom, sagacity, and efficiency.
Paper 54: Problems of the Lucifer Rebellion
EVOLUTIONARY man finds it difficult fully to comprehend the significance and to grasp the meanings of evil, error, sin, and iniquity. Man is slow to perceive that contrastive perfection and imperfection produce potential evil; that conflicting truth and falsehood create confusing error; that the divine endowment of freewill choice eventuates in the divergent realms of sin and righteousness; that the persistent pursuit of divinity leads to the kingdom of God as contrasted with its continuous rejection, which leads to the domains of iniquity.
Paper 55: The Spheres of Light and Life
THE age of light and life is the final evolutionary attainment of a world of time and space. From the early times of primitive man, such an inhabited world has passed through the successive planetary ages—the pre- and the post-Planetary Prince ages, the post-Adamic age, the post-Magisterial Son age, and the postbestowal Son age.
Part III: The History of Urantia
Paper 57: The Origin of Urantia
IN PRESENTING excerpts from the archives of Jerusem for the records of Urantia respecting its antecedents and early history, we are directed to reckon time in terms of current usage—the present leap-year calendar of 365¼ days to the year. As a rule, no attempt will be made to give exact years, though they are of record.
Paper 58: Life Establishment on Urantia
IN ALL Satania there are only sixty-one worlds similar to Urantia, life-modification planets. The majority of inhabited worlds are peopled in accordance with established techniques; on such spheres the Life Carriers are afforded little leeway in their plans for life implantation.
Paper 59: The Marine-Life Era on Urantia
WE RECKON the history of Urantia as beginning about one billion years ago and extending through five major eras: 59:0.2 (672.2) 1. The prelife era extends over the initial four hundred and fifty million years, from about the time the planet attained its present size to the time of life establishment.
Paper 60: Urantia During the Early Land-Life Era
THE era of exclusive marine life has ended. Land elevation, cooling crust and cooling oceans, sea restriction and consequent deepening, together with a great increase of land in northern latitudes, all conspired greatly to change the world’s climate in all regions far removed from the equatorial zone.
Paper 61: The Mammalian Era on Urantia
THE era of mammals extends from the times of the origin of placental mammals to the end of the ice age, covering a little less than fifty million years. 61:0.2 (693.2) During this Cenozoic age the world’s landscape presented an attractive appearance—rolling hills, broad valleys, wide rivers, and great forests.
Paper 62: The Dawn Races of Early Man
ABOUT one million years ago the immediate ancestors of mankind made their appearance by three successive and sudden mutations stemming from early stock of the lemur type of placental mammal. The dominant factors of these early lemurs were derived from the western or later American group of the evolving life plasm.
Paper 63: The First Human Family
URANTIA was registered as an inhabited world when the first two human beings—the twins—were eleven years old, and before they had become the parents of the first-born of the second generation of actual human beings. And the archangel message from Salvington, on this occasion of formal planetary recognition, closed with these words: 63:0.2 (711.2) “Man-mind has appeared on 606 of Satania, and these parents of the new race shall be called Andon and Fonta.
Paper 64: The Evolutionary Races of Color
THIS is the story of the evolutionary races of Urantia from the days of Andon and Fonta, almost one million years ago, down through the times of the Planetary Prince to the end of the ice age. 64:0.2 (718.2) The human race is almost one million years old, and the first half of its story roughly corresponds to the pre-Planetary Prince days of Urantia.
Paper 65: The Overcontrol of Evolution
BASIC evolutionary material life—premind life—is the formulation of the Master Physical Controllers and the life-impartation ministry of the Seven Master Spirits in conjunction with the active ministration of the ordained Life Carriers. As a result of the co-ordinate function of this threefold creativity there develops organismal physical capacity for mind—material mechanisms for intelligent reaction to external environmental stimuli and, later on, to internal stimuli, influences taking origin in the organismal mind itself.
Paper 66: The Planetary Prince of Urantia
THE advent of a Lanonandek Son on an average world signifies that will, the ability to choose the path of eternal survival, has developed in the mind of primitive man. But on Urantia the Planetary Prince arrived almost half a million years after the appearance of human will.
Paper 67: The Planetary Rebellion
THE problems associated with human existence on Urantia are impossible of understanding without a knowledge of certain great epochs of the past, notably the occurrence and consequences of the planetary rebellion. Although this upheaval did not seriously interfere with the progress of organic evolution, it did markedly modify the course of social evolution and of spiritual development.
Paper 68: The Dawn of Civilization
THIS is the beginning of the narrative of the long, long forward struggle of the human species from a status that was little better than an animal existence, through the intervening ages, and down to the later times when a real, though imperfect, civilization had evolved among the higher races of mankind. 68:0.2 (763.2) Civilization is a racial acquirement; it is not biologically inherent; hence must all children be reared in an environment of culture, while each succeeding generation of youth must receive anew its education.
Paper 69: Primitive Human Institutions
EMOTIONALLY, man transcends his animal ancestors in his ability to appreciate humor, art, and religion. Socially, man exhibits his superiority in that he is a toolmaker, a communicator, and an institution builder.
Paper 70: The Evolution of Human Government
NO SOONER had man partially solved the problem of making a living than he was confronted with the task of regulating human contacts. The development of industry demanded law, order, and social adjustment; private property necessitated government.
Paper 71: Development of the State
THE state is a useful evolution of civilization; it represents society’s net gain from the ravages and sufferings of war. Even statecraft is merely the accumulated technique for adjusting the competitive contest of force between the struggling tribes and nations.
Paper 72: Government on a Neighboring Planet
BY PERMISSION of Lanaforge and with the approval of the Most Highs of Edentia, I am authorized to narrate something of the social, moral, and political life of the most advanced human race living on a not far-distant planet belonging to the Satania system. 72:0.2 (808.2) Of all the Satania worlds which became isolated because of participation in the Lucifer rebellion, this planet has experienced a history most like that of Urantia.
Paper 73: The Garden of Eden
THE cultural decadence and spiritual poverty resulting from the Caligastia downfall and consequent social confusion had little effect on the physical or biologic status of the Urantia peoples. Organic evolution proceeded apace, quite regardless of the cultural and moral setback which so swiftly followed the disaffection of Caligastia and Daligastia.
Paper 74: Adam and Eve
ADAM AND EVE arrived on Urantia, from the year a.d. 1934, 37,848 years ago.
Paper 75: The Default of Adam and Eve
AFTER more than one hundred years of effort on Urantia, Adam was able to see very little progress outside the Garden; the world at large did not seem to be improving much. The realization of race betterment appeared to be a long way off, and the situation seemed so desperate as to demand something for relief not embraced in the original plans.
Paper 76: The Second Garden
WHEN Adam elected to leave the first garden to the Nodites unopposed, he and his followers could not go west, for the Edenites had no boats suitable for such a marine adventure. They could not go north; the northern Nodites were already on the march toward Eden.
Paper 77: The Midway Creatures
MOST of the inhabited worlds of Nebadon harbor one or more groups of unique beings existing on a life-functioning level about midway between those of the mortals of the realms and of the angelic orders; hence are they called midway creatures. They appear to be an accident of time, but they occur so widespreadly and are so valuable as helpers that we have all long since accepted them as one of the essential orders of our combined planetary ministry.
Paper 78: The Violet Race After the Days of Adam
THE second Eden was the cradle of civilization for almost thirty thousand years. Here in Mesopotamia the Adamic peoples held forth, sending out their progeny to the ends of the earth, and latterly, as amalgamated with the Nodite and Sangik tribes, were known as the Andites.
Paper 79: Andite Expansion in the Orient
ASIA is the homeland of the human race. It was on a southern peninsula of this continent that Andon and Fonta were born; in the highlands of what is now Afghanistan, their descendant Badonan founded a primitive center of culture that persisted for over one-half million years.
Paper 80: Andite Expansion in the Occident
ALTHOUGH the European blue man did not of himself achieve a great cultural civilization, he did supply the biologic foundation which, when its Adamized strains were blended with the later Andite invaders, produced one of the most potent stocks for the attainment of aggressive civilization ever to appear on Urantia since the times of the violet race and their Andite successors. 80:0.2 (889.2) The modern white peoples incorporate the surviving strains of the Adamic stock which became admixed with the Sangik races, some red and yellow but more especially the blue.
Paper 81: Development of Modern Civilization
REGARDLESS of the ups and downs of the miscarriage of the plans for world betterment projected in the missions of Caligastia and Adam, the basic organic evolution of the human species continued to carry the races forward in the scale of human progress and racial development. Evolution can be delayed but it cannot be stopped.
Paper 82: The Evolution of Marriage
MARRIAGE—mating—grows out of bisexuality. Marriage is man’s reactional adjustment to such bisexuality, while the family life is the sum total resulting from all such evolutionary and adaptative adjustments.
Paper 83: The Marriage Institution
THIS is the recital of the early beginnings of the institution of marriage. It has progressed steadily from the loose and promiscuous matings of the herd through many variations and adaptations, even to the appearance of those marriage standards which eventually culminated in the realization of pair matings, the union of one man and one woman to establish a home of the highest social order.
Paper 84: Marriage and Family Life
MATERIAL necessity founded marriage, sex hunger embellished it, religion sanctioned and exalted it, the state demanded and regulated it, while in later times evolving love is beginning to justify and glorify marriage as the ancestor and creator of civilization’s most useful and sublime institution, the home. And home building should be the center and essence of all educational effort.
Paper 85: The Origins of Worship
PRIMITIVE religion had a biologic origin, a natural evolutionary development, aside from moral associations and apart from all spiritual influences. The higher animals have fears but no illusions, hence no religion.
Paper 86: Early Evolution of Religion
THE evolution of religion from the preceding and primitive worship urge is not dependent on revelation. The normal functioning of the human mind under the directive influence of the sixth and seventh mind-adjutants of universal spirit bestowal is wholly sufficient to insure such development.
Paper 87: The Ghost Cults
THE ghost cult evolved as an offset to the hazards of bad luck; its primitive religious observances were the outgrowth of anxiety about bad luck and of the inordinate fear of the dead. None of these early religions had much to do with the recognition of Deity or with reverence for the superhuman; their rites were mostly negative, designed to avoid, expel, or coerce ghosts.
Paper 88: Fetishes, Charms, and Magic
THE concept of a spirit’s entering into an inanimate object, an animal, or a human being, is a very ancient and honorable belief, having prevailed since the beginning of the evolution of religion. This doctrine of spirit possession is nothing more nor less than fetishism.
Paper 89: Sin, Sacrifice, and Atonement
PRIMITIVE man regarded himself as being in debt to the spirits, as standing in need of redemption. As the savages looked at it, in justice the spirits might have visited much more bad luck upon them.
Paper 90: Shamanism—Medicine Men and Priests
THE evolution of religious observances progressed from placation, avoidance, exorcism, coercion, conciliation, and propitiation to sacrifice, atonement, and redemption. The technique of religious ritual passed from the forms of the primitive cult through fetishes to magic and miracles; and as ritual became more complex in response to man’s increasingly complex concept of the supermaterial realms, it was inevitably dominated by medicine men, shamans, and priests.
Paper 91: The Evolution of Prayer
PRAYER, as an agency of religion, evolved from previous nonreligious monologue and dialogue expressions. With the attainment of self-consciousness by primitive man there occurred the inevitable corollary of other-consciousness, the dual potential of social response and God recognition.
Paper 92: The Later Evolution of Religion
MAN possessed a religion of natural origin as a part of his evolutionary experience long before any systematic revelations were made on Urantia. But this religion of natural origin was, in itself, the product of man’s superanimal endowments.
Paper 93: Machiventa Melchizedek
THE Melchizedeks are widely known as emergency Sons, for they engage in an amazing range of activities on the worlds of a local universe. When any extraordinary problem arises, or when something unusual is to be attempted, it is quite often a Melchizedek who accepts the assignment.
Paper 94: The Melchizedek Teachings in the Orient
THE early teachers of the Salem religion penetrated to the remotest tribes of Africa and Eurasia, ever preaching Machiventa’s gospel of man’s faith and trust in the one universal God as the only price of obtaining divine favor. Melchizedek’s covenant with Abraham was the pattern for all the early propaganda that went out from Salem and other centers.
Paper 95: The Melchizedek Teachings in the Levant
AS INDIA gave rise to many of the religions and philosophies of eastern Asia, so the Levant was the homeland of the faiths of the Occidental world. The Salem missionaries spread out all over southwestern Asia, through Palestine, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Iran, and Arabia, everywhere proclaiming the good news of the gospel of Machiventa Melchizedek.
Paper 96: Yahweh—God of the Hebrews
IN CONCEIVING of Deity, man first includes all gods, then subordinates all foreign gods to his tribal deity, and finally excludes all but the one God of final and supreme value. The Jews synthesized all gods into their more sublime concept of the Lord God of Israel.
Paper 97: Evolution of the God Concept Among the Hebrews
THE spiritual leaders of the Hebrews did what no others before them had ever succeeded in doing—they deanthropomorphized their God concept without converting it into an abstraction of Deity comprehensible only to philosophers. Even common people were able to regard the matured concept of Yahweh as a Father, if not of the individual, at least of the race.
Paper 98: The Melchizedek Teachings in the Occident
THE Melchizedek teachings entered Europe along many routes, but chiefly they came by way of Egypt and were embodied in Occidental philosophy after being thoroughly Hellenized and later Christianized. The ideals of the Western world were basically Socratic, and its later religious philosophy became that of Jesus as it was modified and compromised through contact with evolving Occidental philosophy and religion, all of which culminated in the Christian church.
Paper 99: The Social Problems of Religion
RELIGION achieves its highest social ministry when it has least connection with the secular institutions of society. In past ages, since social reforms were largely confined to the moral realms, religion did not have to adjust its attitude to extensive changes in economic and political systems.
Paper 100: Religion in Human Experience
THE experience of dynamic religious living transforms the mediocre individual into a personality of idealistic power. Religion ministers to the progress of all through fostering the progress of each individual, and the progress of each is augmented through the achievement of all.
Paper 101: The Real Nature of Religion
RELIGION, as a human experience, ranges from the primitive fear slavery of the evolving savage up to the sublime and magnificent faith liberty of those civilized mortals who are superbly conscious of sonship with the eternal God. 101:0.2 (1104.2) Religion is the ancestor of the advanced ethics and morals of progressive social evolution.
Paper 102: The Foundations of Religious Faith
TO THE unbelieving materialist, man is simply an evolutionary accident. His hopes of survival are strung on a figment of mortal imagination; his fears, loves, longings, and beliefs are but the reaction of the incidental juxtaposition of certain lifeless atoms of matter.
Paper 103: The Reality of Religious Experience
ALL of man’s truly religious reactions are sponsored by the early ministry of the adjutant of worship and are censored by the adjutant of wisdom. Man’s first supermind endowment is that of personality encircuitment in the Holy Spirit of the Universe Creative Spirit; and long before either the bestowals of the divine Sons or the universal bestowal of the Adjusters, this influence functions to enlarge man’s viewpoint of ethics, religion, and spirituality.
Paper 104: Growth of the Trinity Concept
THE Trinity concept of revealed religion must not be confused with the triad beliefs of evolutionary religions. The ideas of triads arose from many suggestive relationships but chiefly because of the three joints of the fingers, because three legs were the fewest which could stabilize a stool, because three support points could keep up a tent; furthermore, primitive man, for a long time, could not count beyond three.
Paper 105: Deity and Reality
TO EVEN high orders of universe intelligences infinity is only partially comprehensible, and the finality of reality is only relatively understandable. The human mind, as it seeks to penetrate the eternity-mystery of the origin and destiny of all that is called real, may helpfully approach the problem by conceiving eternity-infinity as an almost limitless ellipse which is produced by one absolute cause, and which functions throughout this universal circle of endless diversification, ever seeking some absolute and infinite potential of destiny.
Paper 106: Universe Levels of Reality
IT IS not enough that the ascending mortal should know something of the relations of Deity to the genesis and manifestations of cosmic reality; he should also comprehend something of the relationships existing between himself and the numerous levels of existential and experiential realities, of potential and actual realities. Man’s terrestrial orientation, his cosmic insight, and his spiritual directionization are all enhanced by a better comprehension of universe realities and their techniques of interassociation, integration, and unification.
Paper 107: Origin and Nature of Thought Adjusters
ALTHOUGH the Universal Father is personally resident on Paradise, at the very center of the universes, he is also actually present on the worlds of space in the minds of his countless children of time, for he indwells them as the Mystery Monitors. The eternal Father is at one and the same time farthest removed from, and most intimately associated with, his planetary mortal sons.
Paper 108: Mission and Ministry of Thought Adjusters
THE mission of the Thought Adjusters to the human races is to represent, to be, the Universal Father to the mortal creatures of time and space; that is the fundamental work of the divine gifts. Their mission is also that of elevating the mortal minds and of translating the immortal souls of men up to the divine heights and spiritual levels of Paradise perfection.
Paper 109: Relation of Adjusters to Universe Creatures
THE Thought Adjusters are the children of the universe career, and indeed the virgin Adjusters must gain experience while mortal creatures grow and develop. As the personality of the human child expands for the struggles of evolutionary existence, so does the Adjuster wax great in the rehearsals of the next stage of ascending life.
Paper 110: Relation of Adjusters to Individual Mortals
THE endowment of imperfect beings with freedom entails inevitable tragedy, and it is the nature of the perfect ancestral Deity to universally and affectionately share these sufferings in loving companionship. 110:0.2 (1203.2) As far as I am conversant with the affairs of a universe, I regard the love and devotion of a Thought Adjuster as the most truly divine affection in all creation.
Paper 111: The Adjuster and the Soul
THE presence of the divine Adjuster in the human mind makes it forever impossible for either science or philosophy to attain a satisfactory comprehension of the evolving soul of the human personality. The morontia soul is the child of the universe and may be really known only through cosmic insight and spiritual discovery.
Paper 112: Personality Survival
THE evolutionary planets are the spheres of human origin, the initial worlds of the ascending mortal career. Urantia is your starting point; here you and your divine Thought Adjuster are joined in temporary union.
Paper 113: Seraphic Guardians of Destiny
HAVING presented the narratives of the Ministering Spirits of Time and the Messenger Hosts of Space, we come to the consideration of the guardian angels, seraphim devoted to the ministry to individual mortals, for whose elevation and perfection all of the vast survival scheme of spiritual progression has been provided. In past ages on Urantia, these destiny guardians were about the only group of angels that had recognition.
Paper 114: Seraphic Planetary Government
THE Most Highs rule in the kingdoms of men through many celestial forces and agencies but chiefly through the ministry of seraphim. 114:0.2 (1250.2) At noon today the roll call of planetary angels, guardians, and others on Urantia was 501,234,619 pairs of seraphim.
Paper 115: The Supreme Being
WITH God the Father, sonship is the great relationship. With God the Supreme, achievement is the prerequisite to status—one must do something as well as be something.
Paper 116: The Almighty Supreme
IF MAN recognized that his Creators—his immediate supervisors—while being divine were also finite, and that the God of time and space was an evolving and nonabsolute Deity, then would the inconsistencies of temporal inequalities cease to be profound religious paradoxes. No longer would religious faith be prostituted to the promotion of social smugness in the fortunate while serving only to encourage stoical resignation in the unfortunate victims of social deprivation.
Paper 117: God the Supreme
TO THE extent that we do the will of God in whatever universe station we may have our existence, in that measure the almighty potential of the Supreme becomes one step more actual. The will of God is the purpose of the First Source and Center as it is potentialized in the three Absolutes, personalized in the Eternal Son, conjoined for universe action in the Infinite Spirit, and eternalized in the everlasting patterns of Paradise.
Paper 118: Supreme and Ultimate—Time and Space
CONCERNING the several natures of Deity, it may be said: 118:0.2 (1294.2) 1. The Father is self-existent self.
Paper 119: The Bestowals of Christ Michael
CHIEF of the Evening Stars of Nebadon, I am assigned to Urantia by Gabriel on the mission of revealing the story of the seven bestowals of the Universe Sovereign, Michael of Nebadon, and my name is Gavalia. In making this presentation, I will adhere strictly to the limitations imposed by my commission.
Part IV: The Life and Teachings of Jesus
Paper 120: The Bestowal of Michael on Urantia
ASSIGNED by Gabriel to supervise the restatement of the life of Michael when on Urantia and in the likeness of mortal flesh, I, the Melchizedek director of the revelatory commission intrusted with this task, am authorized to present this narrative of certain events which immediately preceded the Creator Son’s arrival on Urantia to embark upon the terminal phase of his universe bestowal experience. To live such identical lives as he imposes upon the intelligent beings of his own creation, thus to bestow himself in the likeness of his various orders of created beings, is a part of the price which every Creator Son must pay for the full and supreme sovereignty of his self-made universe of things and beings.
Paper 121: The Times of Michael’s Bestowal
ACTING under the supervision of a commission of twelve members of the United Brotherhood of Urantia Midwayers, conjointly sponsored by the presiding head of our order and the Melchizedek of record, I am the secondary midwayer of onetime attachment to the Apostle Andrew, and I am authorized to place on record the narrative of the life transactions of Jesus of Nazareth as they were observed by my order of earth creatures, and as they were subsequently partially recorded by the human subject of my temporal guardianship. Knowing how his Master so scrupulously avoided leaving written records behind him, Andrew steadfastly refused to multiply copies of his written narrative.
Paper 122: Birth and Infancy of Jesus
IT WILL hardly be possible fully to explain the many reasons which led to the selection of Palestine as the land for Michael’s bestowal, and especially as to just why the family of Joseph and Mary should have been chosen as the immediate setting for the appearance of this Son of God on Urantia. 122:0.2 (1344.2) After a study of the special report on the status of segregated worlds prepared by the Melchizedeks, in counsel with Gabriel, Michael finally chose Urantia as the planet whereon to enact his final bestowal.
Paper 123: The Early Childhood of Jesus
OWING to the uncertainties and anxieties of their sojourn in Bethlehem, Mary did not wean the babe until they had arrived safely in Alexandria, where the family was able to settle down to a normal life. They lived with kinsfolk, and Joseph was well able to support his family as he secured work shortly after their arrival.
Paper 124: The Later Childhood of Jesus
ALTHOUGH Jesus might have enjoyed a better opportunity for schooling at Alexandria than in Galilee, he could not have had such a splendid environment for working out his own life problems with a minimum of educational guidance, at the same time enjoying the great advantage of constantly contacting with such a large number of all classes of men and women hailing from every part of the civilized world. Had he remained at Alexandria, his education would have been directed by Jews and along exclusively Jewish lines.
Paper 125: Jesus at Jerusalem
NO INCIDENT in all Jesus’ eventful earth career was more engaging, more humanly thrilling, than this, his first remembered visit to Jerusalem. He was especially stimulated by the experience of attending the temple discussions by himself, and it long stood out in his memory as the great event of his later childhood and early youth.
Paper 126: The Two Crucial Years
OF ALL Jesus’ earth-life experiences, the fourteenth and fifteenth years were the most crucial. These two years, after he began to be self-conscious of divinity and destiny, and before he achieved a large measure of communication with his indwelling Adjuster, were the most trying of his eventful life on Urantia.
Paper 127: The Adolescent Years
AS JESUS entered upon his adolescent years, he found himself the head and sole support of a large family. Within a few years after his father’s death all their property was gone.
Paper 128: Jesus’ Early Manhood
AS JESUS of Nazareth entered upon the early years of his adult life, he had lived, and continued to live, a normal and average human life on earth. Jesus came into this world just as other children come; he had nothing to do with selecting his parents.
Paper 129: The Later Adult Life of Jesus
JESUS had fully and finally separated himself from the management of the domestic affairs of the Nazareth family and from the immediate direction of its individuals. He continued, right up to the event of his baptism, to contribute to the family finances and to take a keen personal interest in the spiritual welfare of every one of his brothers and sisters.
Paper 130: On the Way to Rome
THE tour of the Roman world consumed most of the twenty-eighth and the entire twenty-ninth year of Jesus’ life on earth. Jesus and the two natives from India—Gonod and his son Ganid—left Jerusalem on a Sunday morning, April 26, a.d.
Paper 131: The World’s Religions
DURING the Alexandrian sojourn of Jesus, Gonod, and Ganid, the young man spent much of his time and no small sum of his father’s money making a collection of the teachings of the world’s religions about God and his relations with mortal man. Ganid employed more than threescore learned translators in the making of this abstract of the religious doctrines of the world concerning the Deities.
Paper 132: The Sojourn at Rome
SINCE Gonod carried greetings from the princes of India to Tiberius, the Roman ruler, on the third day after their arrival in Rome the two Indians and Jesus appeared before him. The morose emperor was unusually cheerful on this day and chatted long with the trio.
Paper 133: The Return from Rome
WHEN preparing to leave Rome, Jesus said good-bye to none of his friends. The scribe of Damascus appeared in Rome without announcement and disappeared in like manner.
Paper 134: The Transition Years
DURING the Mediterranean journey Jesus had carefully studied the people he met and the countries through which he passed, and at about this time he reached his final decision as to the remainder of his life on earth. He had fully considered and now finally approved the plan which provided that he be born of Jewish parents in Palestine, and he therefore deliberately returned to Galilee to await the beginning of his lifework as a public teacher of truth; he began to lay plans for a public career in the land of his father Joseph’s people, and he did this of his own free will.
Paper 135: John the Baptist
JOHN the Baptist was born March 25, 7 b.c., in accordance with the promise that Gabriel made to Elizabeth in June of the previous year. For five months Elizabeth kept secret Gabriel’s visitation; and when she told her husband, Zacharias, he was greatly troubled and fully believed her narrative only after he had an unusual dream about six weeks before the birth of John.
Paper 136: Baptism and the Forty Days
JESUS began his public work at the height of the popular interest in John’s preaching and at a time when the Jewish people of Palestine were eagerly looking for the appearance of the Messiah. There was a great contrast between John and Jesus.
Paper 137: Tarrying Time in Galilee
EARLY on Saturday morning, February 23, a.d. 26, Jesus came down from the hills to rejoin John’s company encamped at Pella.
Paper 138: Training the Kingdom’s Messengers
AFTER preaching the sermon on “The Kingdom,” Jesus called the six apostles together that afternoon and began to disclose his plans for visiting the cities around and about the Sea of Galilee. His brothers James and Jude were very much hurt because they were not called to this conference.
Paper 139: The Twelve Apostles
IT IS an eloquent testimony to the charm and righteousness of Jesus’ earth life that, although he repeatedly dashed to pieces the hopes of his apostles and tore to shreds their every ambition for personal exaltation, only one deserted him. 139:0.2 (1548.2) The apostles learned from Jesus about the kingdom of heaven, and Jesus learned much from them about the kingdom of men, human nature as it lives on Urantia and on the other evolutionary worlds of time and space.
Paper 140: The Ordination of the Twelve
JUST before noon on Sunday, January 12, a.d. 27, Jesus called the apostles together for their ordination as public preachers of the gospel of the kingdom.
Paper 141: Beginning the Public Work
ON THE first day of the week, January 19, a.d. 27, Jesus and the twelve apostles made ready to depart from their headquarters in Bethsaida.
Paper 142: The Passover at Jerusalem
THE month of April Jesus and the apostles worked in Jerusalem, going out of the city each evening to spend the night at Bethany. Jesus himself spent one or two nights each week in Jerusalem at the home of Flavius, a Greek Jew, where many prominent Jews came in secret to interview him.
Paper 143: Going Through Samaria
AT THE end of June, a.d. 27, because of the increasing opposition of the Jewish religious rulers, Jesus and the twelve departed from Jerusalem, after sending their tents and meager personal effects to be stored at the home of Lazarus at Bethany.
Paper 144: At Gilboa and in the Decapolis
SEPTEMBER and October were spent in retirement at a secluded camp upon the slopes of Mount Gilboa. The month of September Jesus spent here alone with his apostles, teaching and instructing them in the truths of the kingdom.
Paper 145: Four Eventful Days at Capernaum
JESUS and the apostles arrived in Capernaum the evening of Tuesday, January 13. As usual, they made their headquarters at the home of Zebedee in Bethsaida.
Paper 146: First Preaching Tour of Galilee
THE first public preaching tour of Galilee began on Sunday, January 18, a.d. 28, and continued for about two months, ending with the return to Capernaum on March 17.
Paper 147: The Interlude Visit to Jerusalem
JESUS and the apostles arrived in Capernaum on Wednesday, March 17, and spent two weeks at the Bethsaida headquarters before they departed for Jerusalem. These two weeks the apostles taught the people by the seaside while Jesus spent much time alone in the hills about his Father’s business.
Paper 148: Training Evangelists at Bethsaida
FROM May 3 to October 3, a.d. 28, Jesus and the apostolic party were in residence at the Zebedee home at Bethsaida.
Paper 149: The Second Preaching Tour
THE second public preaching tour of Galilee began on Sunday, October 3, a.d. 28, and continued for almost three months, ending on December 30.
Paper 150: The Third Preaching Tour
ON SUNDAY evening, January 16, a.d. 29, Abner, with the apostles of John, reached Bethsaida and went into joint conference with Andrew and the apostles of Jesus the next day.
Paper 151: Tarrying and Teaching by the Seaside
BY MARCH 10 all of the preaching and teaching groups had forgathered at Bethsaida. Thursday night and Friday many of them went out to fish, while on the Sabbath day they attended the synagogue to hear an aged Jew of Damascus discourse on the glory of father Abraham.
Paper 152: Events Leading up to the Capernaum Crisis
THE story of the cure of Amos, the Kheresa lunatic, had already reached Bethsaida and Capernaum, so that a great crowd was waiting for Jesus when his boat landed that Tuesday forenoon. Among this throng were the new observers from the Jerusalem Sanhedrin who had come down to Capernaum to find cause for the Master’s apprehension and conviction.
Paper 153: The Crisis at Capernaum
ON FRIDAY evening, the day of their arrival at Bethsaida, and on Sabbath morning, the apostles noticed that Jesus was seriously occupied with some momentous problem; they were cognizant that the Master was giving unusual thought to some important matter. He ate no breakfast and but little at noontide.
Paper 154: Last Days at Capernaum
ON THE eventful Saturday night of April 30, as Jesus was speaking words of comfort and courage to his downcast and bewildered disciples, at Tiberias a council was being held between Herod Antipas and a group of special commissioners representing the Jerusalem Sanhedrin. These scribes and Pharisees urged Herod to arrest Jesus; they did their best to convince him that Jesus was stirring up the populace to dissension and even to rebellion.
Paper 155: Fleeing Through Northern Galilee
SOON after landing near Kheresa on this eventful Sunday, Jesus and the twenty-four went a little way to the north, where they spent the night in a beautiful park south of Bethsaida-Julias. They were familiar with this camping place, having stopped there in days gone by.
Paper 156: The Sojourn at Tyre and Sidon
ON FRIDAY afternoon, June 10, Jesus and his associates arrived in the environs of Sidon, where they stopped at the home of a well-to-do woman who had been a patient in the Bethsaida hospital during the times when Jesus was at the height of his popular favor. The evangelists and the apostles were lodged with her friends in the immediate neighborhood, and they rested over the Sabbath day amid these refreshing surroundings.
Paper 157: At Caesarea-Philippi
BEFORE Jesus took the twelve for a short sojourn in the vicinity of Caesarea-Philippi, he arranged through the messengers of David to go over to Capernaum on Sunday, August 7, for the purpose of meeting his family. By prearrangement this visit was to occur at the Zebedee boatshop.
Paper 158: The Mount of Transfiguration
IT WAS near sundown on Friday afternoon, August 12, a.d. 29, when Jesus and his associates reached the foot of Mount Hermon, near the very place where the lad Tiglath once waited while the Master ascended the mountain alone to settle the spiritual destinies of Urantia and technically to terminate the Lucifer rebellion.
Paper 159: The Decapolis Tour
WHEN Jesus and the twelve arrived at Magadan Park, they found awaiting them a group of almost one hundred evangelists and disciples, including the women’s corps, and they were ready immediately to begin the teaching and preaching tour of the cities of the Decapolis. 159:0.2 (1762.2) On this Thursday morning, August 18, the Master called his followers together and directed that each of the apostles should associate himself with one of the twelve evangelists, and that with others of the evangelists they should go out in twelve groups to labor in the cities and villages of the Decapolis.
Paper 160: Rodan of Alexandria
ON SUNDAY morning, September 18, Andrew announced that no work would be planned for the coming week. All of the apostles, except Nathaniel and Thomas, went home to visit their families or to sojourn with friends.
Paper 161: Further Discussions with Rodan
ON SUNDAY, September 25, a.d. 29, the apostles and the evangelists assembled at Magadan.
Paper 162: At the Feast of Tabernacles
WHEN Jesus started up to Jerusalem with the ten apostles, he planned to go through Samaria, that being the shorter route. Accordingly, they passed down the eastern shore of the lake and, by way of Scythopolis, entered the borders of Samaria.
Paper 163: Ordination of the Seventy at Magadan
A FEW days after the return of Jesus and the twelve to Magadan from Jerusalem, Abner and a group of some fifty disciples arrived from Bethlehem. At this time there were also assembled at Magadan Camp the evangelistic corps, the women’s corps, and about one hundred and fifty other true and tried disciples from all parts of Palestine.
Paper 164: At the Feast of Dedication
AS THE camp at Pella was being established, Jesus, taking with him Nathaniel and Thomas, secretly went up to Jerusalem to attend the feast of the dedication. Not until they passed over the Jordan at the Bethany ford, did the two apostles become aware that their Master was going on to Jerusalem.
Paper 165: The Perean Mission Begins
ON TUESDAY, January 3, a.d. 30, Abner, the former chief of the twelve apostles of John the Baptist, a Nazarite and onetime head of the Nazarite school at Engedi, now chief of the seventy messengers of the kingdom, called his associates together and gave them final instructions before sending them on a mission to all of the cities and villages of Perea.
Paper 166: Last Visit to Northern Perea
FROM February 11 to 20, Jesus and the twelve made a tour of all the cities and villages of northern Perea where the associates of Abner and the members of the women’s corps were working. They found these messengers of the gospel meeting with success, and Jesus repeatedly called the attention of his apostles to the fact that the gospel of the kingdom could spread without the accompaniment of miracles and wonders.
Paper 167: The Visit to Philadelphia
THROUGHOUT this period of the Perean ministry, when mention is made of Jesus and the apostles visiting the various localities where the seventy were at work, it should be recalled that, as a rule, only ten were with him since it was the practice to leave at least two of the apostles at Pella to instruct the multitude. As Jesus prepared to go on to Philadelphia, Simon Peter and his brother, Andrew, returned to the Pella encampment to teach the crowds there assembled.
Paper 168: The Resurrection of Lazarus
IT WAS shortly after noon when Martha started out to meet Jesus as he came over the brow of the hill near Bethany. Her brother, Lazarus, had been dead four days and had been laid away in their private tomb at the far end of the garden late on Sunday afternoon.
Paper 169: Last Teaching at Pella
LATE on Monday evening, March 6, Jesus and the ten apostles arrived at the Pella camp. This was the last week of Jesus’ sojourn there, and he was very active in teaching the multitude and instructing the apostles.
Paper 170: The Kingdom of Heaven
SATURDAY afternoon, March 11, Jesus preached his last sermon at Pella. This was among the notable addresses of his public ministry, embracing a full and complete discussion of the kingdom of heaven.
Paper 171: On the Way to Jerusalem
THE day after the memorable sermon on “The Kingdom of Heaven,” Jesus announced that on the following day he and the apostles would depart for the Passover at Jerusalem, visiting numerous cities in southern Perea on the way. 171:0.2 (1867.2) The address on the kingdom and the announcement that he was going to the Passover set all his followers to thinking that he was going up to Jerusalem to inaugurate the temporal kingdom of Jewish supremacy.
Paper 172: Going into Jerusalem
JESUS and the apostles arrived at Bethany shortly after four o’clock on Friday afternoon, March 31, a.d. 30.
Paper 173: Monday in Jerusalem
EARLY on this Monday morning, by prearrangement, Jesus and the apostles assembled at the home of Simon in Bethany, and after a brief conference they set out for Jerusalem. The twelve were strangely silent as they journeyed on toward the temple; they had not recovered from the experience of the preceding day.
Paper 174: Tuesday Morning in the Temple
ABOUT seven o’clock on this Tuesday morning Jesus met the apostles, the women’s corps, and some two dozen other prominent disciples at the home of Simon. At this meeting he said farewell to Lazarus, giving him that instruction which led him so soon to flee to Philadelphia in Perea, where he later became connected with the missionary movement having its headquarters in that city.
Paper 175: The Last Temple Discourse
SHORTLY after two o’clock on this Tuesday afternoon, Jesus, accompanied by eleven apostles, Joseph of Arimathea, the thirty Greeks, and certain other disciples, arrived at the temple and began the delivery of his last address in the courts of the sacred edifice. This discourse was intended to be his last appeal to the Jewish people and the final indictment of his vehement enemies and would-be destroyers—the scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees, and the chief rulers of Israel.
Paper 176: Tuesday Evening on Mount Olivet
THIS Tuesday afternoon, as Jesus and the apostles passed out of the temple on their way to the Gethsemane camp, Matthew, calling attention to the temple construction, said: “Master, observe what manner of buildings these are. See the massive stones and the beautiful adornment; can it be that these buildings are to be destroyed?” As they went on toward Olivet, Jesus said: “You see these stones and this massive temple; verily, verily, I say to you: In the days soon to come there shall not be left one stone upon another.
Paper 177: Wednesday, the Rest Day
WHEN the work of teaching the people did not press them, it was the custom of Jesus and his apostles to rest from their labors each Wednesday. On this particular Wednesday they ate breakfast somewhat later than usual, and the camp was pervaded by an ominous silence; little was said during the first half of this morning meal.
Paper 178: Last Day at the Camp
JESUS planned to spend this Thursday, his last free day on earth as a divine Son incarnated in the flesh, with his apostles and a few loyal and devoted disciples. Soon after the breakfast hour on this beautiful morning, the Master led them to a secluded spot a short distance above their camp and there taught them many new truths.
Paper 179: The Last Supper
DURING the afternoon of this Thursday, when Philip reminded the Master about the approaching Passover and inquired concerning his plans for its celebration, he had in mind the Passover supper which was due to be eaten on the evening of the next day, Friday. It was the custom to begin the preparations for the celebration of the Passover not later than noon of the preceding day.
Paper 180: The Farewell Discourse
AFTER singing the Psalm at the conclusion of the Last Supper, the apostles thought that Jesus intended to return immediately to the camp, but he indicated that they should sit down. Said the Master: 180:0.2 (1944.2) “You well remember when I sent you forth without purse or wallet and even advised that you take with you no extra clothes.
Paper 181: Final Admonitions and Warnings
AFTER the conclusion of the farewell discourse to the eleven, Jesus visited informally with them and recounted many experiences which concerned them as a group and as individuals. At last it was beginning to dawn upon these Galileans that their friend and teacher was going to leave them, and their hope grasped at the promise that, after a little while, he would again be with them, but they were prone to forget that this return visit was also for a little while.
Paper 182: In Gethsemane
IT WAS about ten o’clock this Thursday night when Jesus led the eleven apostles from the home of Elijah and Mary Mark on their way back to the Gethsemane camp. Ever since that day in the hills, John Mark had made it his business to keep a watchful eye on Jesus.
Paper 183: The Betrayal and Arrest of Jesus
AFTER Jesus had finally awakened Peter, James, and John, he suggested that they go to their tents and seek sleep in preparation for the duties of the morrow. But by this time the three apostles were wide awake; they had been refreshed by their short naps, and besides, they were stimulated and aroused by the arrival on the scene of two excited messengers who inquired for David Zebedee and quickly went in quest of him when Peter informed them where he kept watch.
Paper 184: Before the Sanhedrin Court
REPRESENTATIVES of Annas had secretly instructed the captain of the Roman soldiers to bring Jesus immediately to the palace of Annas after he had been arrested. The former high priest desired to maintain his prestige as the chief ecclesiastical authority of the Jews.
Paper 185: The Trial Before Pilate
SHORTLY after six o’clock on this Friday morning, April 7, a.d. 30, Jesus was brought before Pilate, the Roman procurator who governed Judea, Samaria, and Idumea under the immediate supervision of the legatus of Syria.
Paper 186: Just Before the Crucifixion
AS JESUS and his accusers started off to see Herod, the Master turned to the Apostle John and said: “John, you can do no more for me. Go to my mother and bring her to see me ere I die.” When John heard his Master’s request, although reluctant to leave him alone among his enemies, he hastened off to Bethany, where the entire family of Jesus was assembled in waiting at the home of Martha and Mary, the sisters of Lazarus whom Jesus raised from the dead.
Paper 187: The Crucifixion
AFTER the two brigands had been made ready, the soldiers, under the direction of a centurion, started for the scene of the crucifixion. The centurion in charge of these twelve soldiers was the same captain who had led forth the Roman soldiers the previous night to arrest Jesus in Gethsemane.
Paper 188: The Time of the Tomb
THE day and a half that Jesus’ mortal body lay in the tomb of Joseph, the period between his death on the cross and his resurrection, is a chapter in the earth career of Michael which is little known to us. We can narrate the burial of the Son of Man and put in this record the events associated with his resurrection, but we cannot supply much information of an authentic nature about what really transpired during this epoch of about thirty-six hours, from three o’clock Friday afternoon to three o’clock Sunday morning.
Paper 189: The Resurrection
SOON after the burial of Jesus on Friday afternoon, the chief of the archangels of Nebadon, then present on Urantia, summoned his council of the resurrection of sleeping will creatures and entered upon the consideration of a possible technique for the restoration of Jesus. These assembled sons of the local universe, the creatures of Michael, did this on their own responsibility; Gabriel had not assembled them.
Paper 190: Morontia Appearances of Jesus
THE resurrected Jesus now prepares to spend a short period on Urantia for the purpose of experiencing the ascending morontia career of a mortal of the realms. Although this time of the morontia life is to be spent on the world of his mortal incarnation, it will, however, be in all respects the counterpart of the experience of Satania mortals who pass through the progressive morontia life of the seven mansion worlds of Jerusem.
Paper 191: Appearances to the Apostles and Other Leaders
RESURRECTION Sunday was a terrible day in the lives of the apostles; ten of them spent the larger part of the day in the upper chamber behind barred doors. They might have fled from Jerusalem, but they were afraid of being arrested by the agents of the Sanhedrin if they were found abroad.
Paper 192: Appearances in Galilee
BY THE time the apostles left Jerusalem for Galilee, the Jewish leaders had quieted down considerably. Since Jesus appeared only to his family of kingdom believers, and since the apostles were in hiding and did no public preaching, the rulers of the Jews concluded that the gospel movement was, after all, effectually crushed.
Paper 193: Final Appearances and Ascension
THE sixteenth morontia manifestation of Jesus occurred on Friday, May 5, in the courtyard of Nicodemus, about nine o’clock at night. On this evening the Jerusalem believers had made their first attempt to get together since the resurrection.
Paper 194: Bestowal of the Spirit of Truth
ABOUT one o’clock, as the one hundred and twenty believers were engaged in prayer, they all became aware of a strange presence in the room. At the same time these disciples all became conscious of a new and profound sense of spiritual joy, security, and confidence.
Paper 195: After Pentecost
THE results of Peter’s preaching on the day of Pentecost were such as to decide the future policies, and to determine the plans, of the majority of the apostles in their efforts to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom. Peter was the real founder of the Christian church; Paul carried the Christian message to the gentiles, and the Greek believers carried it to the whole Roman Empire.
Paper 196: The Faith of Jesus
JESUS enjoyed a sublime and wholehearted faith in God. He experienced the ordinary ups and downs of mortal existence, but he never religiously doubted the certainty of God’s watchcare and guidance.
Where to Go From Here
The Urantia Book is deep — most readers don't consume it cover to cover. A common approach is to start with Parts IV and I (the life of Jesus and the nature of God), then explore Parts II and III as curiosity dictates. The book rewards rereading: concepts introduced in early papers gain new meaning once you've seen how they connect in later ones.
On EightMind, you can browse all 197 papers with full text, or ask questions to any of our corpus-grounded AI personas. The Urantia Book is one of seven traditions we synthesize — Compare what the Urantia Book, Bible, and Law of One teach about death, or explore what each tradition says about suffering. Dive deeper into how these teachings converge, diverge, and illuminate each other.