Eliezer ben Yeshua (EHL-ee-eh-zer)
First Founder of Adelphism
(a.k.a. Eli, Brother)
Eliezer ben Yeshua was born in a land alive with merchants, pilgrims, and philosophers. He grew up at the crossroads of Judea, listening as much to travelers’ stories as to village prayers. From his youth, Eliezer was unsettled by boundaries — Jew and Gentile, Pharisee and Sadducee, neighbor and stranger. To him, these divisions seemed to obscure what was obvious: that all humans bore the same hunger for bread, the same longing for recognition.
As a young man, Eliezer became known not for fiery sermons but for quiet acts of hospitality. He opened his courtyard to passersby, feeding them from his family’s stores, and encouraged his companions to linger with strangers rather than hurry them on. He had no formal school at first — only a household where compassion was practiced daily. What distinguished him was not doctrine, but presence: he listened without judgment, welcomed without suspicion.
In time, people began to speak of his “school,” though it had no walls and charged no fee. The lesson was simple: all are welcome. This was a radical teaching in a world marked by sectarian suspicion. Eliezer taught that the divine was not locked in temples but revealed whenever the stranger was received as kin. His table became his pulpit; his bread, his liturgy.
Eliezer’s life remained modest. He traveled little, wrote nothing, and claimed no authority. Yet his example spread by memory and imitation, carried by those who had sat at his table. When later generations called him the First Founder of Adelphism, it was not because he proclaimed a new faith, but because he embodied one.
Date of Birth
300 zc
Date of Death
364 zc
Life
300 zc
364 zc
64 years old
Birthplace
Jerusalem, Judea
Place of Death
Jerusalem, Judea
Children
Belief/Deity
Christianity + Judaism
Founding figure of the universal hospitality ethic; lives the bridge between prophetic compassion and Accord pluralism.
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