Speculation has been growing in Galilee this week that the preacher Jesus is setting up a new sect to promote his own brand of Judaism. He has gathered around him a group of young men and women who help deal with the crowds following him everywhere. They also relay what he is saying to those who can't get within hearing range.
Last week he was seen entering the town of Capernaum on the shores of Lake Galilee accompanied by a group of fishermen. These included the brothers Simon and Andrew, originally from Bethsaida further north on the lakeshore, and two other brothers, James and John, sons of Zebedee, one of the best-known fishermen in Capernaum.
Jesus calls Simon, the older of the young men, "Peter". At the beginning it was thought this was a nickname to differentiate him from all the other Simons in Galilee, but he said it was because petros was the Greek word for "rock". Peter would be his rock, his main man, he said.
Simon Peter is married to Miriam, a member of one of Capernaum's best known families. Her mother Anna lives with them, and one of the strangest events of the week centred on her. She had a high fever for a long time and none of the usual remedies helped.
Last month, in desperation, she and her cousin Zebedee, father of James and John, went to Judaea where she had heard the preacher John was curing people. Anna could find no evidence of John's miracles and was most unimpressed. So when he asked her to step into the cold Jordan to be baptised she refused, believing it would make her worse. In anger she set off home, and took to her bed.
On Tuesday, Simon Peter brought Jesus to see her. She was as dismissive as she had been of John. "All you preacher fellows are quacks as far as I'm concerned," she said, and turned to the wall. Simon Peter was embarrassed. Jesus laughed.
"Anna, give me your hand like a good woman," he said. "Sure you have nothing to lose." Slowly, she turned to them, perspiration rolling from her forehead. "I suppose that's true," she said and raised her left hand which Jesus took in his. She felt better immediately. Within a half hour she was out of the bed and fussing.
"You must be starving, you poor man," she said and went to the kitchen. "Simon", she roared back, "will you get Miriam." And so began a swirl of activity as the children were put to bed and the women prepared food for Jesus and his friends. James and John wanted to go home but Anna insisted they stay to celebrate her recovery.
Much wine was drunk.
"He's the real thing. Where did you get him?" she asked Simon Peter when Jesus had left. And Peter explained about the crowds and the boat and the fish and the walk to Capernaum and how Jesus wanted him, Andrew, James and John to help him spread his message and how he would love to do so but was worried about Miriam and the children and how they would be in his absence ". . . and he calls me Peter," he said.
"He does, does he!" said Anna. "After the Greek for `rock'," said Peter. And she laughed. "What's the Greek for sand?" she asked, and Miriam got angry. "Mother, only for Simon you'd still be sick in bed. You just can't leave him alone, can you?" Anna, however, was in form. "Well it's the first right thing he's done since you married him," she said. "Rock is it? Sure he'd let down even his own mother, and when she needed him most. You can't rely on him. And now he wants to go off, leaving you and the kids. What sort of man is he at all?" And it was clear she had too much wine.
The other men began to leave quietly. Peter reassured Miriam. Her mother's remarks ran off him like water off a fish, he said, "don't let it bother you." And Miriam encouraged him to go with Jesus if that was what he wanted to do. "We'll be fine," she said, "and it'll probably only be for a little while anyway."
