The Great Gospel of John
Volume 1
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
New events in Kis
- Chapter 233 -
Intensive interrogation of the twelve Pharisees. Augustus Caesar's favorable certification of the Templers. How the Templers fulfill God's Commandments. Heavy penalty for the evil doers for breach of forestry law, and crime against the crown.
Preliminary hearings quickly get under way, and at their rapid conclusion, the twelve are brought before the judge. In response to the Chief Judge's interrogation, they say, 'We are lords to ourselves and have our own court at the Jerusalem Temple; other than to God and that other court we are not answerable to anyone for any doings or omissions and hence you can question us as much as you like and still receive no answer from us. For our stand is based very firmly upon law, and you shall not be capable of bringing up anything against us.'
2
Says the Judge, 'For this type of intransigence I carry a special remedy: it consists in rod and scourge. These are bound to make you speak. For the court is no respector of persons; all are equal before the court!'
3
Says the first of the twelve Pharisees, 'Oh, this remedy we are fully aware of, together with its power and effect; but we are also aware of yet another remedy. If we should choose to, and probably will make use of this one, then we probably are the last ones you shall ever be putting on trial. Are you acquainted with Augustus Caesar's prestigious certification, written in his own hand for the Jerusalemite priests, which reads as follows:
4
This particular priestly caste is more pleasing to the imperial throne than any of the others; wherefore their laws and privileges are to be protected as sacred. Whoever would attack these, BEWARE. Such offender shall be severely prosecuted as traitorous.' This law is as current as it was thirty years ago. Should it not have been known to you, then we have now called it to your mind. Proceed now as you will and we shall do likewise.
5
We have completely rightful possession of our distraints, and none can or has the right to take them. Temporary power can indeed do so, for our counter-force is too small. But when we get ourselves through this, we must be set free, whereupon we shall know how to institute other proceedings.'
6
Says the Chief Judge, 'Nor do I sit in judgment here over the seizures which, before God and all righteous men, you have wrested unto yourselves as ignominious robbery rather than through just possession, for I am well aware of the privileges you have wrung out of the emperor with your artful hypocrisy.
7
Had an Augustus known you the way I do, verily, the certification you received from him would have been of a different order. Unfortunately, he let himself be deceived by false glimmer, looking upon your lamp shine as upon sunshine, giving you a concession on that account.
8
But now it is up to me and the centurion Cornelius to present you to the emperor in your true colours, and you shall soon part company with your concession. You may, by the way, counter-threaten me as it pleases you; for I too move upon the foundation of law, and we Chief Judges of this land have only just recently received new instructions concerning your machinations, of which the emperor is no longer ignorant; and that with the request that we keep the closest possible watch over you; and I assure you that we Chief Justices comply with this latest instruction from Rome in full faith and conscience, having already sketched you out in a manner that is certain not to please you. Understood?!
9
In the fashion of African basilisks you suck the last drop of blood from the emperor's subjects, making them beggars, and whatever you leave over, the despot Herod takes to keep his thousand concubines fat and voluptuous. The poor people have to languish in sheerest misery. Is this right?!
10
If there is a God with only as much sense of justice as my own and as much love for mankind as my robe, then it is not possible for Him to let devils like yourselves and Herod to lord it over poor mankind for much longer.
11
In your Book, it says: ...love your neighbor as yourself; as supposedly given you by your God; how do you keep this nonetheless?
12
Of a truth, the law that you practice unceasingly with diligence, consists in hating all who don't support you heftily in your life of utmost lustfulness and lasciviousness. For this purpose you have unfortunately obtained deviously an ordinance on which you lean for effecting unheard of extortions of all kinds.
13
By good fortune however you have, for this impending case, in the course of this purported rightful seizure, perpetrated a deed which no known sanctions, a deed for which you alone stand before me at court, a lawbreaking coming under the crime of forestry infringement, which you have committed over an extensive area in the beautiful woods of Kisjonah, who is a Greek and a staunch imperial subject, whose rights every Roman emperor would defend with an entire legion if infringed to only the slightest degree, since he pays the emperor a thousand pounds annually for this, which is no small matter.
14
For a stretch of road extending to nearly five hours, you have in the course of surreptitiously lying down your marauder's road, devastated nearly a thousand beautiful young cedars, and several thousand lesser tree trunks, causing Kisjonah damage exceeding ten thousand pounds, according to the deposition of sworn valuers. Now then, how will you make restitution for such damage?'
15
Says the first Pharisee, 'Are you not aware of the earth being God's, and that we are His children, to whom alone He gave this earth? Just as God has however the right to do with the earth as He pleases, so we, as His children, can do with the earth as we please. Even if some pagan power has wrenched such right from us for a time, it shall not possess such for long; God shall take it from them and return it to His children.
16
From the point of view of our God-given rights, we are not liable for restitution of forestry infringements, since the earth is ours and we can do with it as it pleases us. But on account of your greater, but of course only apparent worldly power, which you Romans unjustly wield over us, we shall indeed condescend to restitution. Yet of the ten thousand pounds, up to nine tenths can be dismissed. For that much we also know - that we are capable of assessing the worth of the trees that we felled, using only a minimal portion thereof for random bridge-building; and what, fundamentally, is the damage? A new road now exists which the tax collector Kisjonah can employ very well indeed. Had he himself laid it, then this would have come to at least a thousand pounds; now he can erect a new barrier there, and in one year his takings shall have amounted three times the cost of the road.'
17
Says the Chief Justice, 'In the name of the emperor and his wise law, and in view of the damage having been assessed by sworn valuators, and because by making yourselves out to be children of God, you arrogate to yourselves power over the entire earth, consequent to which the Emperor himself is subject to your power, something he probably would not as yet have dreamt of. Such shameful presumption makes you into the barest criminals. Your seizures are declared forfeited herewith!
18
Since however either the death penalty or permanent banishment is irrevocably set for crime against the crown, you now have your preferred choice; either beheading by axe, or permanent banishment to Europe's ice region. I have spoken in the name of the emperor and his wise law! It is to take effect forthwith. My all the world perish, but justice be done!
19
Behold, thus acts a Chief Justice of Rome, fearing none but the gods and the emperor!'
20
Thereupon, in accordance with Roman custom, he signals that water be handed to him, wherewith he washes his hands. A bailiff breaks a rod in two and casts it under the twelve's feet.