The Childhood of Jesus
The Gospel of James
Biographical Gospel of the Lord
- Chapter 277 -
The Child Gives Dumas A Mighty Setback
WHEN JOSEPH SAW how Dumas made a great effort to find out from whence the little Child had such a remarkable attribute, he said to him,
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'Brother, I know only too well that you studied the wisdom of the Greeks and have often quoted the precepts of the wise Socrates to me.
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And there it states: Man does not have to learn anything, for his spirit needs only to be awakened on the path of recollection,
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and man then has everything he needs for all eternity.
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See, as a wise teacher of young people you have often told me that.
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Now behold, if such precept of yours is surely correct, what more is needed?
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And with my Child you accordingly see nothing else than a living confirmation of your Socratic precept.
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His Spirit has been awakened in a manner peculiar to His nature, and thus this Child-man even now has enough for eternity,
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and therefore we do not need to give Him anything besides what He has of Himself.
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Do you not find that to be as right as it is right that one plus one equals two?'
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Here Dumas grasped his forehead and said with a certain pathos,
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'Yes, so is it; and so it was I who gave the Jewish dumbbells a whiff of such wisdom!
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But I do not of course mean to include you among them, for you are really almost the only one with whom, in an atmosphere of mutual understanding, I have been able to talk about the divine Socrates, Aristotle, Plato and others.
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To be sure, we also have very great men such as the prophets and the first great kings of this people;
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but as far as practical matters are concerned, they are not as useful as the wise old men of the Greeks.
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For our prophets constantly expressed themselves in such speech which they themselves understood perhaps as little as we do now.
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But compared to that the old Greeks are quite something else;
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for these say clearly and plainly what they want, and therefore are also of greatest benefit to practical men.
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And that surely stems from the fact that they, like me, were teachers of the people.'
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This made Joseph smile, for here he beheld his old venerator of the Greeks as unchanged as ever, besides being the same old self-praiser.
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He accordingly agreed with him, so as to not bring his Child under suspicion.
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But the little Child now went over to Dumas and declared,
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'But friend! You are still very confused and foolish if you place the Jewish wise men after the philosophers of the Greeks;
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And since you are still filled with the spirit of the world and empty of the Spirit of God, you therefore understand worldly matters better than divine matters!'
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This gave Dumas a mighty setback. He gave a learned yawn and merely remarked to Joseph in Latin, 'Dixit puer ille! Ergo autem intelligo eius ironiam quam acer-bam. Dixi!' - Then he departed and left Joseph sitting there; whereupon the latter also went his way.