Need help for a story I'm working on
 

To put it simply, it's a vampire story. But I want it to be historically accurate. For the most part, I'm happy with, but there's one part that I'm not too sure about.

An excerpt from the time-line I created for the story...

000? AD - Jesus of Nazareth cures a vampire in Capernaum of his immortal curse. Soon after, many vampires flock to Capernaum with the hopes of seeing Jesus and being cured.

Does anyone know when Jesus was in Capernaum? Also, I'm using a story from the Bible for that part, that describes Jesus attending mass at the beginning of the Sabbath, and a man getting up and saying, "I know who you are!" and Jesus drives a demon out of him. So I need to know about Sabbaths back in Jesus's day. I know that the Sabbath started at sundown, so would that mean that mass in question would be shortly after sundown? The story is Mark 1:21-28...

21They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. 22The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law. 23Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an evil spirit cried out, 24"What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!" 25"Be quiet!" said Jesus sternly. "Come out of him!" 26The evil spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek. 27The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, "What is this? A new teaching—and with authority! He even gives orders to evil spirits and they obey him." 28News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee.

Basically, I want the "evil spirit" in the Biblical story to be the magic done on the vampire to make them what we have come to know them as. Would this work, do you think? That is, making the "demon" in the man in question the magic that turned blood-drinkers into what we know as vampires?

It would have been about early 33 A.D., as He must have already been famous, because He was attracting large crowds by the time He arrived in Capernaum.

The Sabbath ("Shabbat") begins at sundown Friday and lasts until sundown Saturday night, so he could have healed a man during the day on the Sabbath, it would have been a Saturday. For more ideas in terms of background for the story, you might want to read the new Anne Rice book, "Out of Egypt".

Good luck on the story, I hope you share it with us! I am very keen on reading it.

Cheers.

But would there have been a mass (or whatever they called it back then) after sundown, right after the Sabbath began? It would make no sense to have a vampire running around in the middle of the day.

Yes, Friday night after sundown there would be the temple ceremony, with one of the members reading the Torah (reading it in trope, a beautiful singing chant), then the scroll being passed around for all of the members to kiss the top of it, then it would be placed back in the...I forget the name of it, but it is basically an ornate bookshelf.

You might want to consider going to a local synagogue and asking them if you may watch the temple services. Very enlightening. I have, and have also attended a bat mitzvah. Beautiful. If you do, the proper greeting is "Shabbat Shalom".