The Great Gospel of John
Volume 1
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
Again in Kis
- Chapter 206 -
The guests' good cheer at the morning meal, and the angel's sadness. About human nutrition. Body, soul, spirit.
It hardly needs saying that at such morning meal, all is exceedingly cheerful and talkative; for the wine has loosened all tongues. Even Jonael and Jairuth completely cheered up and even asked Me to make them return to Sychar in such frame of mind! And I let them do so after their departure.
2
Thereto they said, 'It is good that You allow this, for then we shall commit no sin in being cheery; but it is debatable whether we shall be able to be so.'
3
Said I, 'Well then, you shall and will be cheerful!'
4
But their angel cut a sad countenance to the prediction. Noticing this, Jonael asks Me for the reason.
5
Said I, 'Because the angel knows only too well that no great distance separates the greatest exuberance from sin! He foresees the effort he shall have, protecting you against sin on your way home; hence his sadness. Pass him some wine too, and maybe he shall brighten up!'
6
Whereupon Jonael hands the angel a beaker of wine; same takes it and empties it completely, which amazes the two; for such they had not noticed with him before.
7
But the angel says, 'For quite some time I have been with you now, why did you never pass me a beaker at home?'
8
Says Jonael, 'But how could it have occurred to us even in a dream that an angel takes in any material sustenance on earth?'
9
Says the angel, 'Strange! Have you not seen how the Lord of all heavens also ate and drank, and yet He is the highest and most perfect Spirit; how then should we angels not also eat and drink, when we have to put on a body in order to serve you in the physical?
10
Give me also some fish and bread, and you shall see how I can not only drink but also eat quite well; for where the Lord takes terrestrial sustenance, the angels also do so.'
11
Whereupon Jonael passes the angel a whole fish and fair-sized lump of bread, the angel taking and consuming both.
12
After the angel showed the two how a spirit also can consume material sustenance, Jonael asks him how such is possible, since he is fundamentally only a spirit.
13
Says the angel, 'Have you ever seen a dead person eat and drink?' Says Jonael, 'No one has ever seen that.'
14
Says the angel, 'But if a soulless and even more spiritless body which is almost pure matter does not and cannot take nourishment, it is obviously the soul and its living spirit that take food. Since the body being no more than an instrument for the soul does not need any nourishment for itself, it is the soul with its spirit that takes nourishment from the earth as long as it dwells in the body and sustains the latter by letting it eat its excrement. For the body is nourished with the soul's excrement.
15
Since in the still material man only the soul, while it is in the body, takes nourishment from the earth, should not I, as soul and spirit, be entitled to partake of earthly fare during my stay on earth where in order to serve you I also have a certain body which I created for myself from the matter of the air? What do you think about this?'