The Great Gospel of John
Volume 1
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
In Jesaira
- Chapter 182 -
Temple-fraud. Healing miracle. Sins which are forgiven. Priestly "infallibility".
As the young one comes to the house, he already finds it heavily beleaguered with the sick and the sound; he asks someone whether I am up yet. One old, upright Greek says to him, 'Yes, he is up, and has been before the house once, when the old Baram called him to breakfast, whereupon he went back into the house.'
2
Asks the young one, 'What was he doing before the house?'
3
Says the Greek, 'Nothing more than raise his eyes towards the firmament, seeming to as it were draw power therefrom. But his gaze was that of a great general, whose sign millions of men and animals must obey! Although there was something immensely amicable in his countenance, there was yet an earnestness that my eyes have not beheld previously. I was only glad that he did not give me a solid stare; truly, I admit I would not have been able to bear it! And yet I nevertheless felt irresistibly drawn to him with an inexplicable power, which I would not have been able to resist, had not Baram called him to breakfast!'
4
Says the young one, 'What do you make of him after that? What could there be to him in all probability, and who and what could he be, according to your usually well-considered opinion?'
5
Says the old one, 'I am indeed Greek, and in accordance with your saying, an idolatrous heathen; but I am in truth no more heathen than yourself, believing in one highest Being! But this wondrous man quite easily could persuade me of idolatry; because if he is not at least a demi-god, then I renounce my humanity!'
6
Says the young one, 'I really am most anxious to see him! If only one could get into the house, then I would soon get acquainted with him. Just to trade words with such a man would be of the highest interest!'
7
Even whilst the young Pharisee is saying so, I come out of the house and call to him, saying, 'Come, Ahab - Thomas of Toreh's son; if you hunger and thirst after Truth, then you shall be filled!'
8
Says the young one, 'Lord! We never saw each other, and to my knowledge you have never been to Jesaira! How can you know me and my father?!'
9
Say I, 'Quite a lot of things yet do I know of you and your entire house, but that would not be to the point here; but that you kept watch for me and risked much, that is of much worth before Me, and such your sacrifice shall not go unrewarded! Come!'
10
Ahab quickly makes his way to Me through the crowd, and cannot get over how I can know all this.
11
Say I, 'Do not be overly astonished, for you shall be witness to things of quite another kind! It is good that you put the old ones at home to fright; they would disturb these people in their faith, without which it would be hard to help these many sick. Once these are healed, then they can by all means come to satisfy their money-bag conscience. Let you therefore stay here, and let them wait for you until I have finished! I know everything. You have indeed told them an immense lie; but God always forgives a sin for such a cause! Do you understand that?'
12
Says the young one, 'I am indeed familiar with the law, and know that Moses said, 'Thou shalt not bear false witness' - an exceedingly portentous commandment, - which however none heed less than precisely my colleagues, because they say that false witness in favour of the Temple and its servants is well-pleasing to God, whereas God condemns a just witness against the Temple and its servants and such should be stoned!
13
Nothing like that indeed is written in Moses, but the Templers say that the written word in the Book is dead, but that they are the living book, into which God daily writes His will through the angels. And we have therewith actually a completely new Bible which is the exact opposite of everything that Moses and the prophets taught!
14
According to this new Temple Scripture therefore, the lie at the right time and for a good purpose, not only is allowed, but in certain cases commanded, especially for Temple benefits! Because he who can lie the best and most stubbornly and demonstrably in the Temple's favour, counts for much.
15
It may not be unknown to you that the Temple always is cleaned before feasts, with a lot of Temple dung and all kinds of unclean stuff accumulating. All of the dung - being dry, soily and sandy, is hardly worth the removal fee; but there are certain true dung-prophets. These go all over the country, selling the mire even by the minutest quantities, asking for a piece of silver the weight of an egg! The Temple-dung thus is the soul of the other varieties of dung, with which the gullible manure their fields, with actual conviction that without the Temple-dung, their fields shall not bring forth fruit, and even if bringing forth some, same shall forego God's blessing and hence benefit no one!
16
It happens that quite often, the dung-prophets get rid of the loads they scoop up at the Temple for sale in all areas quite quickly, whereupon they load their carts along the way with whatever street-dung, selling same as real Temple-dung, so that each of the hundred prophets of dung sells ten times more dung than they picked up at the Temple. Behold, here the initial sale amounts already to grossest deception, since the Temple-dung is sure to be vastly inferior to any other stable-dung, yet that's not enough; the blind and spell-bound people in the end must also purchase the street-dung for genuine Temple-dung.
17
But never mind! Such deception being for the Temple's advantage, this not only is no sin but even virtue; - and since well-pleasing to the Temple, thus naturally also to God! - Ah, Moses!
18
But let someone just dare tell the folk the truth about the Temple-dung effect, which is as good as none, even if only in respect of the second deception, with the street dung sold as Temple-dung, and he shall be cursed a sinner against the Temple, and then let him see how he gets away with it!
19
And as with the dung, there are a hundred things that are nothing but lies and deception; let someone expose it to the people, Lord, and Jehovah's grace and mercy be with him!
20
That I lied to my old colleagues by fathoms I do not regard as sin, especially where, as is here the case, I can protect a man such as yourself from the hounding to which anyone in whom my colleagues sense a spark of insight and brighter intellect is subjected. But let you now do your thing with these sick or else the old buggers might get here before I call them.'
21
Say I to Ahab, 'Behold, they already are healed! The blind see, the lame walk, the deaf hear, the dumb are speaking; and all who had been brought here suffering from any illness whatsoever are now vital and well! I shall now just tell them to go home, after which you can bring your colleagues here, after first telling them what you witnessed here.'
22
After this I bid the healed to go home, warning them to make it known neither here and still less in Jerusalem, if ever they go there. They all promise Me to keep quiet about it, thanking Me with tears in their eyes.
23
But I say again, 'Let you depart now - your faith has helped you; but let you henceforth not sin again, otherwise a second affliction shall be worse than the first!' Thereupon all who were healed depart, praising and glorifying God, Who gave man such power.
24
Says Ahab completely amazed, 'Any, this has not been seen by human eye before. Without rites, word or touch! Any, this is powerful stuff; this is too much all at once for a man of limits like me! They actually all got fully well; no drugs, no prayer, no word or touch! Lord! Let me in on just a little of this capacity of yours!
25
Say I, 'This you cannot comprehend yet; but if you want to become My disciple, then you are bound to recognise and comprehend it. But now you can go and inform your colleagues if you wish!'
26
Says Ahab, 'Yes, I shall go and tell it exactly the way they want to hear it! I shall strew their eyes with a desert storm, to blind them in the ultimate way, possessing a knack for that. They shall find out nothing about today.'
27
Say I, 'Very well; do as seems best to you! We are friends; free yourself and then follow Me, and you shall find Truth and Life, and Truth shall make you free!'