The Great Gospel of John
Volume 2
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
Jesus in the Vicinity of Caesara Philippi (Matthew 16)
- Chapter 237 -
The Pharisees' decision.
Throws in Julius: "Hm, strange about the man who normally is in good repute as a strictly honest and just man!? But can you give me an idea of what prompted him to be so strict a way for setting right a wrong, otherwise it should b the end of all social norms upon this Earth!"
2
Says the young Pharisee: "Oh, his reasons could have been several, but in the end they all boil down to the fact that in front of the world, by evil coercion, a man can easily become a criminal or at least someone suspected of a crime, without wanting to be voluntarily! Does not your law say that for a punishable deed, evil motivation and intent must be proven, otherwise someone conceivably falling off a roof and killing a sleeping child below would have to be nailed to the cross!
3
In the eyes of the righteous world we young Pharisees and Levite nowadays rarely are despatched by the Temple for a reputable purpose; we do indeed often secretly carry such miserable Temple purpose to the harmless people in the world, which obviously we ourselves must despise from the depths of our hearts! But to what end?
4
We resemble here the soldiers who are forced by their generals to attack the country of a very peace loving nation and destroy everything, because of some secret purpose of a general, likely to be unknown to the common soldier for the rest of his life; he must act as a machine, which, when becoming incompetent for further use, will be placed in mute retirement.
5
If however the Temple with its dastardly and secret purpose has become a familiar institution to the Romans, giving rise to crime after crime against both the state as well as all mankind, then such justice-loving Juliuses should rather try to extirpate such evil from its roots, and not always only lay hands on the little twigs which by God are not to blame for obtaining an existence out of a bad stem! - This is my and all my colleagues opinion here. Make out of this what you will, but I am right before God and all just and reasonable thinking people!"
6
Asks Julius again: "This is all good and true, and you have obviously been done an injustice at Genezareth, which shall be made good to you. You would not however have fared so badly if you had not put in such a dictatorial show at innkeeper Ebahl's premises! But let's leave that, because even this kind of behaviour could be in line with your Temple's instructions. But as a friend of every good venture, I would like to know for what actual purpose you were despatched to Nazareth and Capernaum by the Temple."
7
Says the asked one: "Since you will have seen by my forthright testimony that in our hearts we are not in the least what we are made out to be, especially by the Romans, I can, since you appear to be a friend of everything good and true, also give you a more explicit reason. Behold, in Jerusalem and especially at the Temple it has become widely known that a man is beating about who is spreading a new, anti-Jewish and actually counter-Temple doctrine, working great signs in support of his doctrine, so that even long-standing and otherwise staunch Pharisees convert to it!
8
You can see why such man cannot be regarded with benevolent eyes by the Temple. On the present occasion we have been despatched under oath of secrecy, to spy out what if anything there is to this enigmatic man. Should we find him, then we should try to either win him for the Temple or in case of resistance, despatch him to the other world. This in short was the Temple's exalted aim, whose harmless and innocent bearers we were.
9
It speaks for itself by the way that the said, and probably most honest and good men, would have had nothing to fear from us; for even had we found him we would not have bent him a hair.
10
From what we were able to find out, he is by all accounts supposed to be a truly extraordinary person, full of truth, honesty goodness, uprightness, - attributes that we know how to honour everywhere in all men. In short, even if we had encountered him anywhere, the Temple should not have found out a syllable about it, for we know only too well how to keep our mouths shut. Neither would we have tried to win him for the Temple ever, because no one easily knows the Temple and its vileness the way we do. But if we were only slightly of the Temple's feather we would, notwithstanding the wine-babbling, not have spoken to you so openly.
11
But our secret intention, apart from the trouble our worldly relatives would have to expect, is to break away from the Temple altogether, for the same is no longer tolerable. For which reason we came to this region over the water by night, to somehow get to Tyre or Sidon and there go before Cyrenius, who is supposed to be one of the wisest of men, and acquaint him with our plight. But the majority of us think that we should nevertheless first go to Jerusalem, along the shortest and most untroubled route, to try to get some money out of our parents, on the pretext of some pious Temple errand, with which we could then find easy passage to Tyrus or Sidon or even Rome itself to achieve our aim. Simultaneously we also have to procure proper travel passes, without which it is hard these days to travel untroubled. But such passes cost money.
12
It would therefore be good and necessary on the one hand to obtain enough money from home; but I and few others say: our breaking away from the Temple would already cause our elders, i.e. parents and siblings every kind of problem, and even to withstand the accused water. It would therefore be grievously unfair to beforehand, as it were rob them of their money without which, in the end, they may not buy themselves out of that certain water, since the condemned ones at the Temple frequently receive the option of avoiding the accursed water with much money.
13
Well, here a decision becomes difficult. I for one am against going home for the stated reason, and for another one, which I see as the main one. Because if we should obtain some money from Jerusalem beforehand, on pretext of a pious Temple purpose, and it later comes into the open, then we are all hit by a Temple-curse of the greatest extent, and with that the curse of our parents, then God have mercy on our fate in the world! If however we depart secretly, the Temple and our parents will think we met with disaster. The result of the latter shall be mourning on the part of the Temple and parents, and all shall pray for us and bless us for all eternity. - What would you think, as seeming friend of the right and true, is the better and more correct thing to do?"