Support for the Jesus campaign collapsed this week following an extraordinary speech by the preacher in the synagogue at Capernaum on Wednesday. He was heckled and hand-clapped before some people, mainly women, led a mass walk-out.
"How do we do what God wants?" he was asked. "Believe in who he has sent," said Jesus. Some in the crowd muttered darkly at what was considered to be an outrageous claim. "How can you prove this?" a woman asked.
"The bread of God is he who has come down from heaven and gives life to the world," Jesus said. Everyone was confused.
"Why can't he talk plain like everyone else?" wondered one man.
"I am the bread of life. Anyone who comes to me will never be hungry. Anyone who believes in me will never be thirsty. And whoever comes to me will never be turned away. You have all seen what I can do and still you don't believe in me.
"I have come down from heaven to do the will of him who sent me. Not my will. Everyone who believes in his son I will raise up on the last day," Jesus said.
There was uproar. "He thinks he is the son of God," shouted a man above the boos and jeers. "Isn't he the son of that carpenter Joseph?"
Another said: "Don't we all know his seed, breed and generation? And the likes of him now tells us he came from heaven . . . for the love of God."
Jesus declared: "I tell ye whoever believes in me will live forever." "Lunatic," shouted a voice from the crowd. "Go back to where you came from," roared another. But he continued: "I am the bread of life. Your forefathers ate manna and still they died. But I am the living bread that came from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh. I will give it for the world."
"He wants to turn us into cannibals," shouted someone in the crowd.
"I tell you unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood, you will have no life in you," Jesus told them.
"Outrageous . . . " "disgusting", "blasphemy . . . " were among the responses as the crowd began to walk out. "Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood will live forever and I'll raise them on the last day . . . they remain in me and I in them." Soon the synagogue was nearly empty.
"Who can believe this sort of thing?" asked a man who stayed on.
"Why does it upset you?" Jesus replied. "Suppose you saw the son of man ascend to where he came from. What then? The spirit is what matters. The flesh is nothing. What I have been saying is spirit. And still . . . even you, some of you, don't believe."
Soon only the core 12 were left.
"Do ye want to go too?" Jesus asked. Peter replied: "Where would we go? You have the words that will live forever. We believe in you. That you are the holy one of God." But Jesus seemed unconvinced.
"Have I not chosen ye?" he asked," . . . yet one of you will betray me." There was deep shock at this remark.
A source close to the 12 felt it must refer to either Peter or John.
Peter, it was said, was unreliable. While John, it was said, was "unhealthily close" to Jesus. Lately he has been referring to himself as "the beloved disciple". There are fears of sad consequences if the friendship should sour. So it was said.
A suggestion that the reference might be to Judas was dismissed out of hand. Mr Iscariot, it was said, is seen as "one of Jesus's most valued and trusted friends".
Regardless, informed opinion in Palestine is firmly of the view that the Jesus campaign is now well and truly finished, "in secula seculorum" (forever and ever) as the Romans say.
