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 99 -
The philosophy of the Essenes.
Bartholomew: "The nicest thing is that every now and then really dead children of rich parents are accepted for awakening, but where the re-awakened son or daughter is not returned to the parents before one or two years. When after much begging and for much gold and silver, a deceased son is accepted into the Essene awakening centre, a purported Essene saviour goes to the depressed parents, inquiring to a hair's breadth concerning everything about the deceased child. The exact age as well as everything the child ever heard, saw and learned, what were its preferred food and drink; what its bed and its room looked like, what were the child's amusements and play mates, what took place among them and on what occasion and location; in short, not the minutest details must be concealed - otherwise, says the Essene, the awakening cannot take place!
2
The good parents are glad to tell everything in minutest detail, and undoubtingly believe that the inquiring Essene Saviour really needs this for the awakening of their deceased and well-loved child. Notwithstanding, the Essene requires it for something quite different!
3
On the Egyptian border the Essenes have an immense human stocking place of all types and shapes. They make a portrait of the deceased and then bury him deeply in the ground. Taking the portrait to the large breeding-ground, they look among the thousands of children for one with the greatest likeness to the portrait, taking the child and nurturing it most carefully, in line with what they know of the deceased, often secretly taking it to the locations which the deceased frequented, gradually inviting also the deceased's friends into the cloister and introducing the newly-awoken in a favourable light. They familiarise him as accurately as they can with the layout of his future parental home, describing all rooms so that he can ask everything of his parents, who are then truly happy with their son or daughter. In short, the thing is arranges so cunningly that he parents have not the slightest doubt the son or daughter retuned to them from the awakening centre is genuine. Of course an enormous payment is made upon their return, and that with much joy.
4
Such miracle however hardly ever occur too poor parents, but instead they are sincerely comforted and strengthened through all sorts of inexpensive wonders in their belief that their deceased child had ascended to Elysium, and this puts the parents in a happy mood.
5
Basically the Essenes' actions are not evil ones; they say: there has to be a fraternity of erudite people among mankind who have the task of bringing happiness to their fellowmen, regardless of the means they find suitable to this end. Such a fraternity of literates, through years of learning, thinking and investigating, has found that death is the lastline of all things, and that after death there is no consciousness or life of any form or shape. The members of the fraternity are sufficiently philosophical to scorn life, not regarding the latter as the highest goods by any means. But in order to make the outsiders happy, one has to preach a more perfect life of the soul after death to them. To make this comprehensible to outsiders one has to make use of apparent miracles. The more amazingly these are brought about, the more effective they will be.
6
But with this goes deepest secrecy on the part of the initiated members at all times, and each is strictly obliged with outsiders to steer clear of the truth more than pestilence, for every truth makes man a slave of death, wherefore Moses also already in a short verse in his Genesis alluded to pure truth when he said: '... for in the day that thou eatest thereof (the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, - which is to say the tree of truth) thou shalt surely die.' And so it goes with every person looking everywhere for truth and throwing himself into its and therefore death's arms. Wherefore Moses, an initiate into all wisdom and truth of the Egyptian caste of priests, immediately founded a priestly class for the Jews, which has maintained itself to this day, but of course in a degenerated state.
7
The main principle however has to be love, to which the outsiders should be obliged by God to be steadfastly committed in life, for which reason people should even be held to the practice of this virtue through commandments, which God is supposed to have revealed. In order to cultivate this virtue more and more, gradually sensorializing the Deity preached to them, the love to God before all has to be implanted in their hearts as firmly as possible, and God Himself conceptualised as on the one hand a good Father full of the deepest love, but to the stubborn on the other hand as a most just judge, who rewards all good in accordance with the love preached, but who also punishes everything opposed to the love preached, temporally and eternally. In this way it is easiest to keep mankind in check and made employable for all kinds of useful things.
8
However, should some person turn up who started preaching the truth to fellow man whilst casting doubts on their own, then on the Institute's part everything should be done to put such monster, who brings millions their death through such truth-doctrines, out of the way as quickly as possible or, even better, to win them over to the initiates if possible. Because nothing is supposed to be more dangerous to the outsider than an enlightenment in the sphere of faith in a God and an eternal life.
9
Behold, these are the life principles of your so highly praised, famous Essenes, Brother Judas! Taken in a worldly sense they cannot be criticised too strictly; but spiritually, in the quite different light we now have, they are reprehensible beyond measure! Because an uninitiated one will not ever hear one syllable of truth from their mouth; and if he wants to speak truth in front of them then he signs his certain death warrant!"
10
Says Judas, appearing quite grim: "Oh, are these not beasts! Nay that these would-be anointed are anointed with such ointment I could not have believed by one iota without you; but now that you, as an erstwhile Essene tell us that, I believe it! But how did you get away from the cloister unscathed?"
11
Says Bartholomew: "I had my initiation rounded off, passed my test and then came here for my Foreign Service. And because I enjoyed their full trust I was left outside, for this favour the cloister readily grants since it can only benefit therefrom rather than be harmed.
12
Now, since I have learnt to know the full truth instead of the lie, I shall remain outside, that more certainly! I shall not be the one from whom those in the cloister find out what I know; but with time those outside shall find out what the Essenes in the cloister are doing!"