The Great Gospel of John
Volume 1
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
First day in Sychar
- Chapter 37 -
The chant in the morning of the priests at Sychar. The Lord directs them to the mountain. The calling of Matthew as a Gospeller and disciple. About the nature of dreams.
Early in the morning, before the sun stood hardly a span above the horizon, a great number of priests who dwelt in Sychar on account of the proximity of the holy mount (Gerizim) came before Irhael's house and started a great bawling, yelling: 'Hosanna over hosanna' and 'glory to Him Who came in the name of God's glory! Tarry, sun, and stand still, moon, until the Lord of all glory with His mighty right arm has smitten and destroyed all His enemies, who also are our enemies! Only the Romans spare, Oh Lord, because they are our friends, as they protect us from the Jews, who no longer are children of God but of Beelzebub, offering to this their father in the temple, which Solomon built for You, oh Lord. You did right, oh Lord to come to Your true children, who believed on Your promises and yearningly awaited You right up to this hour. Of a truth You came from the Jews, - but we have heard how you have now been to Jerusalem and smittedst the Jews in the temple with cords and overturnedst their chairs! Oh Lord, in this You did well, and all heavens should praise Thee with Psalms, harps and trumpets: We always maintained that when you came You would not by-pass the holy place where Daniel Your prophet proclaimed the horror of the destruction of Jerusalem. And from this place oh Lord, You shall proclaim salvation to Thy peoples.' 'Praised be Thy name, hosanna to Thee on high, and blessing to all children of goodwill!'
2
This partly apt but partly nonsensical bawling naturally attracted a lot of people and certainly all those who had been at the well with Me the day before and now wanted to see and hear Me again. The clamour and the throng swelled by seconds, and inside the house all rose to see what went on. The disciples got up first and asked Me what the tumult was about and whether it was advisable to stay rather than flee.
3
Said I: 'Oh ye fainthearts! Listen to them calling hosanna! Wherever hosanna is being sung there it is without danger to tarry!'
4
With this the disciples were reassured and I said to them again: 'Go ye forth now and say unto them that they be still now and to move out to the mountain; because I shall come out after the sixth hour, (i.e. after twelve hours midday), with you all and shall proclaim salvation to you and them from the mountain. They are to also take scribes with them however so that these may record what I shall teach from the mountain.'
5
'But you, John, need not write it, as this My teaching shall be written down several-fold anyway. But a certain scribe - a Galilean too, by the name of Matthew, is resident here; this one has already recorded a considerable amount from My childhood, and because he commands great facility he is sure to write down all that he shall hear and see. Him bring up, - call him by his name and he shall follow you at once! But ask the chief priests also to come up, as well as some of the chief ones who you will have seen at the well yesterday. But call Me Matthew first, as I want him to follow us!'
6
The disciples quickly went down to do as I commanded them.
7
While the disciples were engaged in the street below all the other guests, together with Mary, came to Me in the dining room and greeted Me most amicably, thanked Me and briefly related to Me the wonderful dreams they had this night, asking Me if one is to think much of such dreams.
8
But I said: 'Whatever the soul beholds in a dream corresponds with its nature. If the soul moves within the true and the good as I taught you to believe and do, then she will in dreams also behold the true, and can for her life create the good therefrom; but if the soul moves within error and through that in evil, then she shall see falsehood in her dreams and create evil therefrom.
9
Since you however move within truth through My teaching and therefore also follow Me, your soul also shall have seen only the true, from which she can do much good.
10
Whether the soul is nevertheless also capable of grasping what it sees in a dream is another matter. Because just as you do not grasp and comprehend what you behold in the outer world in which you live by day, just so the soul does not grasp what she beholds in her world.
11
When however the spirit shall be reborn within you, as I explained to Nicodemus in Jerusalem when he called on Me by night, then you shall grasp and comprehend and completely understand everything.' With this all are content and move back.