(AN: I refer you once again to Joshua for what I think regarding this miracle.)
Pentecost
Shavuot, 31 AD
Over the next several weeks, the fledgling group of believers made the Upper Room their natural gathering house. Its owner, a woman named Miriam, who was mother to John Mark, by now was a believer and welcomed the believers gladly into her home.
They remained here for many days, waiting for the coming of the Ruach HaKodesh as had been promised them. For, they remembered, one of the last things Joshua had told them was to wait for the out-pouring. Yet still they waited, for they did not know when it could come, or in what matter it would come to pass. So they gathered in prayer, unceasing prayer, for many days, until the festival of the Shavuot had come.
Suddenly, all the windows were thrust open. A great wind blew through the windows and into the Upper Room. It roared in their ears, even as the sound of a mighty whirlwind. Then a gust of flame, floating upon the wind, blew into the room. It burned nothing, but seemed to dissipate as tiny flickering tongues of red fire, that danced for a moment above the heads of all those in the room. As suddenly as it had appeared, the wind and the fire were gone, and all was quiet in the Upper Room.
"I'm going outside!" James, the brother of John, abruptly stated.
"I'm going with you!" Philip added.
"Wait, please!" Miriam, the owner of the house, interjected. "What has suddenly come over you?"
"There are people out there," James said. "From all corners of the world, come to Jerusalem for the Shavuot."
"We have to tell them the good news!" Simeon added.
With that, James and Philip took off down the steps and out the door. Behind them, Miriam of Magdala, young Stephen, even old Nathanael, took up the rear. One by one the inhabitants of the room began to file out, with Matthew, Lucas and Peter at the rear.
Once outside, James approached a group of people who, by their clothes, were from Crete.
"érchontai akoúsoun ta kalá néa tou Iisoú!" he said to them.
Simeon walked over to a group of Israelites who lived in Rome and said to them: "Audi Iesu venerunt evangelii!"
Philip found his way to a small group of Parthians and addressed them: "գալիս ենք բարի լուրը Հիսուսի"
Likewise Nathanael approached another group, whose faces were shrouded in their hoods and addressed them likewise in their own tongue: "تأتي سماع أنباء طيبة من يسوع"
As others began to disperse and address other groups of pilgrims, Peter turned to Matthew.
"Is this what it's like, Levi?" he asked.
"What what's like?" Matthew returned.
"When you realize that the word of the prophets is being fulfilled before your very own eyes?"
Matthew smiled, looking upon the glorious chaos that was arising, as Judaeans spoke to their foreign kin in their own unique languages. "Every time, Peter. Every time."
Unfortunately, the tumult also attracted several others, natives of Jerusalem, who looked not so approvingly on the proceedings.
"Damn drunken Galileans!" one said. "Shouldn't be allowed to profane the sacred Shavuot with their babbling!"
Hearing this, Peter found a place to stand up and addressed the people of Jerusalem.
"Good people," he began. "Please, have patience with us. We are not drunk." He pointed then to the sun. "It's still morning." This elicited scattered laughter from several among the crowd of Jerusalem.
"What you see here, sons of Israel, people of Jerusalem, is the fulfillment of the Word of HaShem...of JEHOVAH, which He spoke to the prophet Joel: 'And it shall come to pass, thus sayeth the LORD, that I shall pour out the Ruach HaKodesh, My Spirit of Holiness, upon all flesh: your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will dream dreams and your old men shall see visions. Even upon your servants, male and female, I shall pour out My Spirit. And I shall show forth wonders in Heaven and on earth, ere the Great and Terrible Day of the LORD: fire, pillars of smoke, the sun turned to darkness and the moon to blood. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call upon the name of the LORD shall be saved!' Now come, hear the good news about Joshua of Nazareth!"
And so Peter walked among the people of Jerusalem, and told them of Joshua. Yet still in the doorway stood John the brother of James, and Lucas the Physician and Miriam the Elder.
"Is this it?" Lucas asked with amazement.. "Is this the coming of the Ruach HaKodesh, the promise of the Spirit?"
Miriam nodded.
"You know?" Lucas asked, while John went down to join the others. "But how do you know?"
"I have seen this before," she said. "This jubilant behavior, this...passion for HaShem..."
Fortunately for the young Miriam, it would still be some time before she would begin to show. The only thing that had changed was that she had not bled, and she felt a little light-headed. Yet she knew that this would be the least of her worries; sooner or later, she would have to tell Joseph. He was a good man, a believer in HaShem and a devout and ardent keeper of the Torah: how would he respond to this?
He had allowed her to visit Elisabeth, her cousin, for about three months' time. She was grateful, but for more reasons that she outwardly explained. The angel, Gabriel, had told her that Elisabeth was now six months into a pregnancy of her own. It seemed odd, for she was old and had been barren in her youth. Yet Miriam needed something, something to assure her that what she believed was certain.
So it was that she came to their house, in the southern region of Judah. It was a journey of several days, through a beautiful yet rugged country filled with bandits and wild animals. The sight of Zechariah's house filled her with joy, as if she were a little girl, going to visit her favorite cousin with her family.
As she approached the house, a servant-girl approached her and greeted her.
"Where is Elisabeth?" she asked.
"She is indisposed," the maid said. "She hasn't seen anyone in months."
"I'm her cousin," Miriam replied. "She will see me." Then, despite the girl's protests, Miriam made her way toward the house, calling out Elisabeth's name. As she was even at the door of the house, calling out Elisabeth's name, the sound of laughter resounded from inside, and a door was opened. There stood Elisabeth, old and yet with child, with a smile on her face. She saw Miriam, walked out to her and wrapped her arms around the young girl.
"Oh, my dear," she exclaimed. "Blessed are you among women!" She took a step back, and then looked down at Miriam. "And blessed is the fruit of your womb."
Miriam looked quite surprised at this.
"But," Elisabeth laughed again. "Why is it that I should be allowed to be visited by the mother of my LORD? Truly..." she placed a hand on her bulging stomach. "...the child within me leaped for joy the moment I heard your voice calling my name!" Miriam smiled again, then Elisabeth embraced her again.
"Blessed is she that believed," Elisabeth said. "For there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the LORD."
-~-o-~-|-O-|-~-o-~-
Three months later, and Elisabeth had at last given birth to a son. The ordeal was quite a trial for the old woman, but even more so for Miriam. For she knew that, soon, she would endure this as well. Yet, at last, the pain was through and there was joy at the birth of this beautiful baby boy.
Eight days later, after Elisabeth had undergone the purification after child-birth, according to the Torah, the mohel came to their residence to perform the circumcision.
"It is truly regretful," the mohel said. "That HaShem took Zechariah's voice at such an important time. Since there are none others to speak for him, his son shall be given his father's name."
"No," Elisabeth replied, to everyone's astonishment. "He must called John."
"But why?" the mohel replied. "No one from your family or his is known by that name." He sighed. "Somebody get Zechariah over here, see if we can get him to tell us what the name shall be."
So they brought the old rabbi out, and spoke to him both in words and in gestures, thinking he couldn't hear as well as speak. At length he nodded, and gestured for a clay tablet and a stylus. With swift gestures, he inscribed the name Jehonan into the tablet and presented it to the mohel.
"No, this can't be!" the mohel returned. "There's nobody in your family with that name!"
"Can't you read? His name is John!"
If they hadn't seen it, none of them, not even Miriam, would have known that it was Zechariah who spoke. He put his hands to his mouth, then laughed aloud. With a smile on his face, he walked over to the mohel and took up his son in his hands.
"Blessed is HaShem, the God of Israel, who has redeemed His people and raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David! Even the word that He spoke to the prophets since the beginning of the world, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of those who hate us, to perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember the covenant He made with Abraham, that we might serve before Him in righteousness and holiness, without fear, all the days of our lives!" He lifted up the baby in his old, wrinkled hands.
"My child," he said. "You shall be the prophet of the Highest, for you shall go before the face of HaShem, to prepare His way, giving knowledge of salvation to His people by the remission of their sins through the tender mercies of HaShem! Whereby the day-spring has visited us from on High, to give light to them that dwell in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace."
(AN: So far, not much to say, because I haven't received feedback. It would be helpful, so please...just one click and a few types and that's all [-big smiles-])
(We do have our main epic to tell, and so the recounting of the Nativity won't be a main point of the story, and it will tie in to something else that happens in our story, which is why you see either Matthew or Luke in the same scene when Miriam starts retelling her story.)
(How did you like my little depiction of the Pentecost miracle? That's how I feel it happened. The languages, Armenian [for Pontus], Arabic [for Mesopotamia] and Greek and Latin, all say pretty much the same thing: "Come, hear the good news of Jesus." I'm not a language scholar, like Tolkien, so I couldn't uproot all the languages used here, and I'm probably off with a few of them. Hopefully you will get the general idea.)