THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN
VOLUME 5
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
Jesus in the region of Caesarea Philippi. (cont.) Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 16
- Chapter 8 -
The religious conditions in Rome at the time of Jesus.
Cyrenius says, "My child, you are right; it is like that in Rome with the Pontifex maximus, only with the people of course, and nothing can be changed about it for the time being! But I can assure you that only the most common rabble, lacking any higher education still half believes in that; none of the better people still believes in that and that is why something can still be done with us Romans.
2
Because of the lowest people, the dissemination of these most purely divine truths will someday cause some unwelcome fight, but will also bring about confessors who according to true Roman tradition will happily employ possessions, blood, and life for this teaching. Because there is hardly any other nation on earth that fears death less than the Romans! Once a true Roman is taken in by something, he will dedicate his life to it at all times! No other nation does that, you can be sure of it!
3
Our priests are now a fifth wheel, and their festivals and sermons are just for the amusement of the people. No one cares about the traditions any more. Our all-encompassing jurisprudence takes care of that, which is an epitome from the best and wisest philosophers that have ever walked this earth as people.
4
The Pontifex maximus is preserved by the state only because of the common folk and his once free ministry has been greatly restricted. Yes, a few centuries ago, it hardly ever happened; the P.m. was then in a way a kind of god among people! He was always a very knowledgeable man, and had to be because otherwise he could not have easily reached such high function. He had to be versed in all of Egypt's mysteries and had to be fully acquainted with all oracles and their secrets. He also had to be a perfect mage on which he had to pass a most strict test in a most secret council before the oldest of Rome's patricians. If he possessed all the required characteristics the pontificate with all its rights, advantages, and disadvantages was bestowed upon him.
5
Now he could naturally dare a lot in front of the people, but had to secretly be respectful towards the patricians and also do what they requested. If they wanted war, he had to arrange his prophecies in such a way that the people saw in them the necessity of war according to the wills of the gods; but the true gods were still the patricians of the empire and with them the first and most educated citizens, artists, and poets, who started from the idea that one only had to give people's imagination a comprehensive yet exact direction in order to protect them from the most ignominious deviations.
6
Every person has an innate imagination. If it is neglected, it can turn the most noble person into a rapacious beast; if, however, his imagination is controlled and led to nobler forms under which it starts to move orderly, it will begin to create nobler forms itself, move into a more pure way of thinking and aspiring, and animate the will for the best of its inner creations.
7
Thus the entire doctrine of gods is nothing but an increasingly orderly figment of imagination, contrived for the control of the common human imagination, and as much as possible practically set to visible and effective work with all human means. For us, wise and informed patricians, arose the easily understandable obligation of appearing to be what we wanted the people to be.
8
It is still the same now as it was back then, with the distinction that now the proletariat is also privy to much of what only us patricians were privy to previously, and that is why it hardly believes in the whole pontificate any longer. The most believe in a higher god, but many do not believe in anything anymore, and a more educated part follows Plato, Socrates and very often Aristotle.
9
Those priests, who described the Pontifex maximus to you, are in part often really so foolish that they literally believe everything that has been hammered into them; however, often they are finely twisted halters, who make a terrible racket in front of the people as if they played with the gods at the Persian chess board every day! They actually do not believe anything but the words of Epicurus, which roughly sound like: EDE, BIBE, LUDE! POST MORTEM NULLA VOLUPTAS; MORS ENIM EST RERUM LINEA. [Eat, drink, and be merry! There is no pleasure after death because death is the end of all things.]
10
If you, my beloved, for your age wonderfully wise Jarah, want to judge us after the two priests, you would do us great injustice because we Romans are exactly as I have just described us. Everything else can only be the scorched account of a layman, who knows so little about Rome's nature as you had known, before what I have just revealed as one who also rules Rome. Since you now this know, you must judge and treat us Romans more leniently! "What do you think, is my request to you fair or not?"