The Great Gospel of John
Volume 2
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
First journey of the Lord: Kis - landing place at Sibarah - Nazareth
- Chapter 1 -
Jesus and His stay at Kis and Nazareth.
Late at night, the treasures from Kisjonah's cave arrive, consisting of gold, silver and an immense mass of polished and unpolished precious stones of great worth. These consisted of up to three pounds of polished and up to seven pounds of unpolished diamonds, with as many accompanying rubies, twice that many emeralds, hyacinths, sapphires, topaz and amethysts, and up to four pounds of pearls the size of large peas. There were over 20,000 pounds of gold and about five times that much silver.
2
Faustus taking in this horrendous wealth, claps his hands above his head saying, "Oh Lord! As a son of one of the wealthiest patricians of Rome have I not had occasion to behold great terrestrial treasures; yet has my eye not seen anything like this! This exceeds all the Pharaohs and the legendary Croesus who in the end did not know what to do for all his wealth and would have in actual fact built himself three palaces of gold if his vanquisher had not relieved him of his excess.
3
Now tell me, a poor sinner, oh Lord, to whom all things are known, how these twelve servants of Satan have come by such treasures! By even a small amount of honesty this could never be possible much less over a short period! - How then was such possible?"
4
Say I, "Friend, trouble yourself no more about it! It truly is not worth wasting more words over this satanic filth. You can of course be assured that not one honest dime is involved. It would however be too drawn-out a thing to detail the thousand-fold trickeries by which this brood of vipers and serpents has amassed and robbed it.
5
That these are villains of the craftiest variety you surely shall doubt no longer; in what way they are however even more than roguish, no man needs to know. They have already according to Roman law, merely on account of their robbery of the imperial tax troupe earned tenfold death; and this booty of an immeasurable treasure lying before us is not better by a hair's breadth, notwithstanding that it does not concern imperial taxation moneys so plainly.
6
Were you to even know everything, you surely would not kill them more than once. You can of course heighten the torture, but to what end? If the torture is most severe - in line with your legal jargon, then it is also lethal; but if less severe yet more prolonged, well, the prisoner then feels it hardly more than you would feel a bothersome fly; because a soul even of the most material type, fearing the death of her body beyond all measure, soon retreats to its innermost chambers, starting to voluntarily loosen from its body, within which there is no further tarrying, which totally de-sensitizes the body. You then can torment such body as much as you like and it shall feel little or nothing thereof. But were you to cause the soul's body great and sudden pain, then the soul shall not bear it for long and tear out, and you then can boil or roast a dead body and it shall feel no more punishment.
7
Therefore I am not in favour of the death penalty, because it is to no advantage of the dead person and is even less useful as a shield or purpose to any justice system; since you have killed one, - and thousands have sworn revenge to you because of it! However, out of the necessary divine order I'm very much in favour to place a criminal under the sharpest penalties and do not lift them until a complete improvement has taken place! A corrective rod applied in a justified manner at the right time is better than money and purest gold; because the soul is more and more loosened from matter by the blows of the corrective rod and finally turns to her spirit. And if the corrective rod has achieved this, it has saved the soul and therefore the whole person from the downfall and everlasting death.
8
Therefore every judge should according to the order of God not punish even the greatest criminal by the death penalty, which is to no use, but always punish with the rod according to the measure of wrongdoing. If he does this, he is a judge for the people to heaven, however, if he does not do it, he is a judge for hell, for which he verily will never ever be rewarded by God; because for the kingdom he has judged the people, from the same kingdom he will receive his reward! - Now you know enough, and so let the treasures be put under lock and key! Tomorrow those from Chorazin shall also arrive, whereupon immediate distribution and dispatch of this devil's filth shall be undertaken. But now let us proceed to the dining-room, for the evening meal is waiting for us! Verily, this whole thing is most irksome to Me, and time is pressing Me towards Nazareth!"
9
Says Faustus, "Lord, I see all too clearly how this whole business must cause You revulsion beyond measure; but what can be done if the thing has taken this course? I beg You by the way, my Lord and my greatest and best friend, that You would not leave this place before me, for firstly without you I can do nothing, and secondly, without You the most terrible boredom would kill me notwithstanding my dearest little woman here! Hence I implore You not to leave this place until I have finished with this most tiresome business! With Your help I should hope to have this thing under control by lunch tomorrow!"
10
Say I, "Very well! But I want to see no more of all the treasures and the eleven Pharisees, for they repel Me more than a carcass."
11
Says Faustus, "This shall be taken care of!"