THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN
VOLUME 5
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
Jesus in the region of Capernaum. Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 17
- Chapter 239 -
The blessing of moderation. The preparation of the meat of impure animals.
We doubled our pace and soon reached Aziona's house, where the other disciples were waiting for us and Aziona, Hiram and Epiphan already were keeping a good meal ready for us, consisting of fish, bread and wine.
2
Here Peter took Me aside and said: "Lord, on the road You mentioned only bread and wine, and now there is also fish. May we eat fish too?" [2]
3
But I rebuked him for such petty scruples smacking of temple Jews and said: "Eat what you are served and it will harm neither your body nor your soul, but let everyone guard against excesses, including all of you.
4
What is more than moderation is evil for man. Excessive eating causes diseases of the stomach, - but excessive drinking not only creates stomach and chest ailments but also lewdness and unchastity of every imaginable kind.
5
, be moderate and sober in everything and you will have a healthy and cheerful soul in an always healthy body. Whoever prepares food for himself and others, let him prepare it fresh and wholesome so that it will not harm him. Bear this well in mind, along with all the other things."
6
But Peter still asked and said, "Lord, do the often very respected heathens not sin when they eat the flesh of unclean animals? For it is forbidden for us Jews, and whoever eats it would commit a great sin against the Law of Moses."
7
I said, "In emergency even you as a strict Jew can also eat the flesh of any animal, and it will serve you well; for all nourishment that a person is forced to take in need is purified by Me "only he must observe an even greater moderation!
8
The flesh of pigs is good, but the slaughtered animal must bleed out and then be pickled for seven days in salt, vinegar and thyme and have a weight placed on top. It is then to be taken out of the brine, well dried with a linen cloth and hung for seven weeks in a smoke from good wood and herbs until it is completely dry and hard. Who then wants to eat it shall boil it at first in half water, half wine with the addition of thyme and parsley and will thus have a good and healthful food on his table. However, these animals must always be slaughtered in wintertime.
9
In the same way as the pigs also the other unclean animals must be handled if their flesh, eaten in moderation, is not to be harmful to man. What applies to the land animals also applies to the various species of birds of the air and the various animals in the great oceans.
10
And now, Peter, you will know what you may eat and how, so that you do not sin against your stomach and neither against your soul! But now let us take this meal quickly and immediately after move on!"
11
We sat down at the table and took the meal.
12
But Aziona came and said, "Lord and Master, wouldn't You rather move on tomorrow morning than now in the evening?! It is hours from here to any place known to me, and the night will catch You up before You reach any place!"
13
But I said, "Remain with Me and in My teaching in your hearts, and I will also be here with you in your time on Earth and eternally after! But now I must go away from here; for not far from here many people are waiting for Me. Thus I must hurry and help them. But I will visit you in the winter again for a few days just like now; for I will spend the winter not far from here, in Kis near to Cana. But now release our ship for Me from its post, and I will then straightaway head away from here with My disciples!"
14
After this everything that I had ordered happened quickly. I boarded the ship and quickly set out over the water and left with a good wind. We sailed around the northern foot of the mountain and soon came into a small bay, which lay opposite the place where we had just spent several days, over the mountain that we had climbed.
15
On the shores of the bay lay a village where a lot of people lived and came together; for it was a trading place where one brought the best salt to market, also the purest mountain oil, wood, crockery and all sorts of other domestic implements. And therefore this place was a very wealthy one and always frequently visited by many people from all regions and places, and at the same time it was also the place where My disciples had come when I had sent them out for a short time before Me a few moons ago so that the people should prepare for Me, and from where I had called them then to Me in a miraculous way on the mountain near Kis; and so I was already well-known there in a certain way, and even My disciples who had spent several days there on that occasion.