The Book of All Things New

I am more than semi-remembered. I now know my name and it is Zebulon (they called me Zeb for short). My father was a great man at the court of Zedekiah. He was granted the privilege of 'the white horse' and his steeds were among the snowiest. Our fields were rich in corn (what you call wheat) and the income from our many retainers (peasants) provided a lifestyle unparalleled along the shores of The Levant. We marched in the forefront of the great Temple processions. Our menagerie featured little-known and exotic specimens from the far corners of creation. Elephants? Giraffes? We had those. But my favorite was a 'forest gnome,' what you now call a bonobo and the chimpanzee-like ape was a special friend to me. When the Great Rebellion failed and we were carried off to live amongst the pagans by the shores of the Rivers of Babylon, my special friend escaped. He eluded the soldiers and ran off to live a bandit's life in the forests that grow around The Sea of Harps (what you call the Galilee). But then my mother fell victim to a strange water borne malady from the wells of Babel and I was left in the care of a nurse, another foreign sojourner in the land, the third daughter of a lesser Bactrian nobleman. How she got to the Mesopotamian capital I  do not know. But my father became 'involved' with her and after a time, she filled the role of a second mother. Did she know our ways? Not really. But the sophisticated life of The Great City had changed us. Such things did not feel inappropriate. And my father married her. And she taught me many wondrous and mystical things. Let me collect my thoughts. Soon I will tell you more.