Unusual link connects theologian with history
YOU might wonder where George Helon developed his love of Bible history, given he’s a non-practising Christian.
The answer is more than just a little surprising.
“My ancestor was mentioned in the Bible,” he said. “And Jesus cursed our family.” He went on to explain that, according to a number of Bible-related publications compiled from contemporary texts, letters and first-person accounts, the leper Jesus cured, recorded in the Gospels of Matthew Mark and Luke, was a Jew named Helon.
Furthermore, he didn’t just heal Helon out of nowhere.
He had actually given him leprosy as punishment at an earlier point.
Mr Helon said in a wide assortment of these texts, too many to ignore, the Jew Helon was an influential man who told Mary to convince Jesus to be more radical in his protests, like Barabbus.
“Mary refused, and Jesus made him a leper,” Mr Helon said.
“Because Jesus learned from Mary what Helon was up to, Jesus cursed him.
“Helon had a wife and children, and lost everything.”
Later, as recorded in the Gospels, he asked Jesus to heal him.
But the sorry Helon saga doesn’t stop there.
“It turns out that Helon was one of the Rabbis who condemned Jesus to death after being healed by him,” Mr Helon said.
“There is evidence from letters that he disliked Jesus.”
The curse was reinstated and Mr Helon said there had even been some talk among Bible history enthusiasts that Helon is actually the legendary Wandering Jew, cursed by Jesus to walk the Earth until the Second Coming.
It was a legend that popped up in 13th Century Europe about a Jew who supposedly taunted Jesus on the way to his crucifixion.
Mr Helon said it was pretty common in the family to believe in the curse, and even his mother was told by her family not to marry her father because his family was cursed. It turns out that Helon was one of the Rabbis who condemned Jesus to death after being healed by him.
— George Helon