The Great Gospel of John
Volume 2
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
Second Journey of the Lord: Nazareth - Cave at Bethabara (First Feeding of the People) - Mountain of Prayer - Walking on the Sea of Galilee (Peter's test of faith) - By ship to Genneseret in the bay with the same name
- Chapter 128 -
A discussion between the Templers and the Essenes.
Says for a change Peter, standing sideways, more to himself: "Can't figure out how the little maiden is so quick to understand! Am I not quite old, having quite some experience, yet there is no way for me understanding things quickly. Thus I still don't fully understand what He meant by the parable: what enters through the mouth does not defile a man, but only what comes out of the mouth!" If a person has to vomit, or coughs and then spits, how should this defile him? Moses made no mention of it!?"
2
Say the other disciples as well: "Here you fare like us, for we can't work this out either! Go and ask Him in the name of us all as to how this parables is to be understood!"
3
Only then did Peter step over to Me, saying: "Explain to us the parable of "What goes into and out fo the mouth (Matt. 15:15) for none of understands it!"
4
Say I: "And are you all of so little understanding still? (Matt. 15:16) How long will I have to bear you thus? You don't know yet that everything entering the mouth goes into the stomach and is cast out than natural way? (Matt. 15:17) But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart and defiles a man (Matt. 15:18) For out of the heart come evil thoughts: murder, adultery, fornication, robbery, false witness and blasphemy.
5
These are things defiling a man, whereas to eat bread with unwashed hands defiles not a man (Matt. 15:20) - Do you understand that?!"
6
Say the disciples: "Yes, Lord, we thank You for this holy light!"
7
Say I to Matthew the writer: "Thus write down the feeding in the desert, then the ride during the night to here and everything important that occurred and thereafter what took place today with few words, short and precise! Everything else that took place here, leave out for the time being; in time a few things can be added afterwards, - this is an essential piece of the Gospel."
8
Whereupon the disciples betake themselves back to their room, where the several converted Pharisees and Scribes together with the two Essenes eagerly await them. Of course they are immediately questioned in detail about how it went with the Pharisees and Scribes from Jerusalem, and the disciples tell them exhaustively. Whereto the Pharisees, Scribes and two Essenes say: "Nay, it truly takes much night and slyness, after such signs and testimonies to persist stubbornly with such wicked stupidity! And what does all their slyness serve them? They are now so tied up by the tree documents that they can't even share their thoughts among themselves! Are these not oxen and he-goats!?"
9
Says the Essenes: "The thing with Jesus is of such solar lucency as can be, and such unheard-of slyness notwithstanding! We surely are as educated in a worldly sense, intellectually, as one can be after attending all Persian and Egyptian schools and having all the wise men of Greece an ancient Jewry at one's fingertips. But even leaving aside all the unheard-of miraculous deeds: regarding His speech and its concomitant deepest wisdom, never encountered on earth before, this alone is the most sufficient proof that this Jesus is a most accomplished God. With this go His deeds of a kind undreamt-of by man; deeds possible only to a God, in Whom all the powers of the world and stars, sun and moon are united, or through Whose wondrously almighty will they received their being inexplicably!
10
We saw how in Him, will, word an accomplished deed fell into one. The heavens opened to His and countless hosts of the most charming ethereal beings stood at His service; He commanded them and empty larders bulged with the fullness of the most precious foods, and all empty skins and pitchers are filled with the most precious wine! Well! Is this really nothing?
11
He commands the sea, and its surface solidifies without turning into ice, and people can walk upon its normally deadly surface as if on marble floor! And all this was both shown and told faithfully to these shady fellows, besides their gaping this morning at the miraculous healing of several hundred people; yet they remain more intrepid than rock upon which lightening have tested their destructive forces for thousands of years! Brethren, here everything decently human comes to an end, making him either a dangerous animal or a downright devil! - Say brethren, are we not right?"
12
Say the Pharisees and Scribes: "More than completely right and truthful! Because if one can remain unmoved by such appearances one must in the end be a devil!?"
13
Say the two Essenes: "Since we now believe that such evil spirts are to be found in this world's regions, by whom men are not seldom tormented and seduced to evil deeds without a noticeable annoyance, we now fully agree with you. Because people who have no empathy for fellow man whatsoever, and like tigers cater only for their own bellies, are not humans but devils. For they have no sense for anything other than a most satisfied stomach! No means to achieve such aim is too evil for them! What of God, what of spirit! The belly must be nurtured, nothing else matters. They regard the arts and sciences only if their incomes is increased therewith! - Oh Lord, what kind of humans! Yes indeed, these are the most actual and authentic devils!"
14
Says Judas Iscariot for a change: "Were I not persuaded of truly godly almighty, I could now be scared and concerned for Him. For these people would if possible pull down even God Himself from His eternal throne in order to sit upon it; for the Templers, who are doing endlessly well since the driving out of the Samaritans, who were a fly in their ointment, would risk anything rather than have their life of luxury curtailed in any way.
15
Says Peter: "Do you think that our Lord, with all Hiss miraculous power is safe from the Templers' cunning? If He does not stand up to these parricides and matricides as a judge, with fire and lightning from heaven, then He is in a short time a victim of their insatiable revenge! Yes, a Jew is called to do great things and be an angel; however, beyond an evil and spoiled Jew no devil exists who could be worse!
16
Hence He should beware of Jerusalem! For should He come there as an obliging person, then He is ruined together with the preacher John! So long as the latter taught and baptised at Bethabara Minor (desert) he was safe; but as soon as he moved to the big Jordan in the great Bethabara desert about three months ago, he soon was a victim of the Temple mob, who knew how to cleverly hide behind Herod. But Herod was also spying about our Lord and Master already; had he been able to get hold of Him, who knows what would have happened already! But the Lord can see into people's hearts and their plans from a distance and knows how to keep out of their way! For who is cleverer and wiser than He?"
17
Says one Pharisee: "Once He starts avoiding them then that is not a good indication of His security! He may want to avoid causing a stir, and that alone would excuse His keeping out of the way; but if it signifies the smallest amount of fear, then I won't stake much on His security! For I know only too well how the Temple keeps its lethal nets spread out, making it all but impossible to escape with hide intact! But He will only be trying to avoid publicity for the time being, and hence avoid it as long as possible and therewith a heaven and earth-shaking collision; He shall encounter man's great malice when its measure is full! This I deem myself to read into His character!"
18
Say the Essenes: "We think so too! Because with such godly wisdom and fullness of hidden divine power, one is sure to know what to do in the face of the maliciousness of the world! Had we but a hundred thousandth part of His power, then in just three years we would be masters of the world. Hence we are not worried about Him! He should therefore have to personally give Himself up to the malicious world and say: 'Here am I, fulfill now upon Me, your Creator Himself, the fullness of malice, so that judgement may the sooner come over you from on high!' And there He would still lose nothing! He may indeed permit mankind to harm His body and to even kill it so that their measure be full; but who will be able to do anything to His eternally indestructible, almighty Spirit? As said, we don't doubt that He would be capable of such, but this shall not be of much use to His adversaries; because before you know it, He shall rise as an indestructible judge, judging them with fire and sword from the heavens! Beware then all His adversaries and devils! Only then shall they know Who was He Whom they persecuted by all ways and means! - What do you all say to this our opinion?"
19
Say the disciples: "Ah, far be if for that to happen to Him, although we are in no position to argue your point; but much is possible to God that man is not capable of thinking as possible!"