The Great Gospel of John
Volume 1
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
In Cana in the valley
- Chapter 210 -
Excursion to Cana in the valley. The poor Jewish farmers and the profiteering Greek traders. Kisjonah's debtors and his generosity. Brief life-instructions for the people. The Lord's testimony to Himself and His ministry, and its good effects.
The following day we made a so-called excursion to a valley which wound along half way between the two mountain-chains toward Samaria, through which a main road led to Damascus, and from there to all the small and great towns of Central Asia, for which reason Kisjonah's toll at Kis was one of the most profitable in all of Galilee.
2
In this valley there were of course a great number of small villages which were occupied by large numbers of Jews and Greeks, mainly for trade's sake. Most adjacent to Kis was the locality named Cana, for which reason the Cana near Nazareth was referred to with the appendage 'of Galilee'; if Cana was mentioned on its own, then it was understood to mean the above-mentioned Cana in the valley, whose location already was in the region of Samaria, the reason also for a toll at Kis, a border town between Galilee and Samaria.
3
This Cana was inhabited mainly by Greeks, Greek families outnumbering the Jewish by at least five to one. The Jews subsisted mainly from working the land, and stock breeding, whereas the Greeks only from trading.
4
We therefore visited this Cana, and namely the resident Jews who not seldom were immensely cheated by the sharp and crafty Greeks, and as owners of the land were almost exclusively subject to all the taxes and other burdens, and hence quite often sank into all sickness and infirmities from grief and wretchedness.
5
As we arrived in Cana, with the Jews as well as the Greeks noticing the familiar Kisjonah, they rushed over and greeted him, pleading forbearance for their debts, as both the Jews and Greeks owed him substantial sums of money.
6
But Kisjonah said, 'If I had wanted to make demands on you, I need not have made this journey myself, but just have sent my servants to you. But I came to bring you comfort, which I announce to you all publicly: your arrears are more than paid, for my and your Lord has paid them and restituted me, and you can cheer up and be untroubled.'
7
On hearing such, the Cana residents joyfully probe Kisjonah as to who and where such Lord would be, who did them such great favour, that they may go and thank him and do him honour.
8
Kisjonah places his hand on My shoulder, saying, 'This is He before Whom to bend your knees.'
9
Hearing this, the residents fall on their knees before Me, calling, 'Hail Thee, our as yet unknown benefactor. What favour are we supposed ever to have done you that you have shown us compassion in our immense plight? Since you have now as a perfect stranger and benefactor shown us such unheard-of grace, have the forbearance to tell us how we can repay such grace, to show ourselves more worthy of your goodness than we are, and can be, as perfect strangers to you.'
10
Say I, 'Let you from now on be righteous in everything, love God above all and your fellow men, who all are your neighbors, as yourselves. Return good unto those who do you evil; bless those who curse you, and pray for those who persecute you. In this way shall you be accepted as children of the Most High, and in this shall consist your only real gratitude for all I have done for you. This is all I ask of you.'
11
Say the Greeks, 'Lord and friend. We have many gods! Which one of the many gods should we indeed love above all: Zeus, Apollo or Mercury, or any other out of the twelve chief gods? Or should we love the God of the Jews thus? For the God of the Jews, in the final analysis, appears to be no more than our Kronos; how can we love this mythological god above all?'
12
Say I, 'The gods whom you Greeks worship are no more than idle machination, made from matter by human hands. These you can beg, worship, honour and love more than your own lives for thousands of years, and yet they shall neither hear you nor do you a good deed, for the simple reason that they, in living truth, are nothing and exist nowhere.
13
The God of the Jews however, Whom the vast majority now are no longer able to or want to recognise in fullness and in truth; and instead, in spirit and in Truth of heart, which in reality is love, worship and honour with only the filthiest and dead sacraments, nevertheless is the only true, eternal God, Who out of Himself once created heaven and this earth, with everything on it, in it and under it, that lives and has its being.
14
I am however His Messenger from eternity, and have now come to you to proclaim this Gospel to you.
15
It is this God therefore Whom you are to love above all, keeping His Commandments, which briefly consist in loving Him above all and your neighbors as yourselves, as I said to you before.
16
Besides that however you are to believe that this very God, Who is My Father and hence My love from eternity, has sent Me into this world, so that all who believe on Me should have eternal life and therefore become a child of the Most High.
17
In order for you to believe more easily however, bring all your sick, and I shall make all of them well, regardless of which sickness they may suffer from. Hence go and bring them all here.'
18
They were astounded at this My saying, calling out as with one voice, "A great blessing has overtaken this place. How mighty and marvelous is the sound of the divinely true words of this our greatest benefactor. Verily, no guile could reside in such kindness and goodness, nor falseness or deception. Hence we shall do without misgivings whatever He is pleased to ask of us. For he who was our friend before seeing us, will be the more so after he has spoken to and seen us in our great plight. Praised be the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jakob, that He should have remembered and be merciful to us".
19
With these commendable words they all rush to their dwellings, quickly bringing about two hundred sick over to Me.