The Great Gospel of John
Volume 10

Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching

The Lord in the region of Caesarea Philippi (cont.)

- Chapter 10 -

The Philosophical questions of the captain.

When I said that to Ebal, the captain stood immediately up from his chair and came with a friendly face to Me. When he was close to Me, he said: "Great and mighty Master in the mysterious sphere of Your art and science by which You have subdued all secret powers of nature, I listened to your conversations with great attention and have concluded that you all belong to that Jewish religious cult which contains many good things, but besides that, also a lot of very bad things out of which slowly the many abuses of your priests have developed in a much worse degree than with us gentiles, as we are called by your fundamentalists.

But no matter how, You, very mighty Master, seem to be much deeper initiated in your religion than the otherwise also very wise Ebal. Only, I do not understand what You meant to say when You said that only You are the basic principal of all existence, life and survival. Being the Truth and the eternal Life. Whoever believes in You and loves You, would never see, feel or taste death. And also that You are the One who will resurrect the souls to eternal life on the youngest day, and more of such things.

Is that only Your wise manner of speaking or are You Yourself this or that mysterious 'I' who presents Himself to us men as the basic principle of all existence, life and subsistence. I am not a leek in the old Greek wisdom, and You also can speak to me from Your wisdom which I now gladly would like to know better."

I said: "Then come with your 2 subordinates to sit at this table. Then we will see how far you can be led."

Then the captain called his subordinates at once to our table.

When they were with us, I said to the captain: "Tell Me now openly what you want to know from Me. But do not speak about what I just discussed with friend Ebal, because your reason cannot understand that."

When the captain heard this from Me, he was greatly embarrassed and he did not know what he actually should ask Me. After having thought about it for a while, he said: "Perfectly mighty Master, in what kind of school, which I certainly do not know, were You formed?"

I said: "In My highest own school. And this from eternity, because before there was any existence in the endless space, was I, for what concerns My most inner Spirit, and I filled the eternal infinity."

When the captain heard that, he looked at Me very surprised and said: "Is Your inner being than greater than Your outer being? Your speaking is confused. How must we understand that? What do You mean by that?"

I said: "The full truth, but since there is until now no truth in you, you also cannot understand this first truth. But listen, I will reveal you more.

Look, in the beginning of all beginning and for the existence of all existence was the Word. This Word was with God, for God Himself was the Word, and everything which is and which fills the endless space, about which your wise men spoke, was created by the Word, and without that Word, nothing was created.

Now the eternal Word took on the flesh out of Himself and came now as a human being to His people in this world, and those who are His do not recognize it. And you are also a human being and do not recognize the eternal Word in Me because you are blind of heart. Did you not read the prophets of the Jews?"

The captain said: "I have read them, yes, as well as many others, but who can understand them? Your priests do not understand them, how can I as a Roman understand them? They wrote as incomprehensibly as You have now spoken to me about Yourself.

I can see that I will never receive complete clearness with You. Let us, if You like, rather speak about other things. Please tell me, wonderful, supreme mighty Master, in which country were You actually born, and to which people do You belong for what concerns Your body?"

I said: "Look, here next to Me sits the mother of My body. Speak about that with her."

Then the captain turned to Mary, and she told him everything, extensively and very precise, from her conception until My 12th year, and how miraculous it always was with Me.

This story made the 3 Romans greatly wonder, and they did not know what they actually had to think of Me. For they no more believed already for a long time in their gods, and still less in the God of the Jews. They completely lived according to Epicurus, and a deity was for them an absurdity. But now they discovered divine qualities in Me, and they did not know how they could combine this with someone who in their opinion also lived and existed temporarily as a human being.

Therefore, the captain asked Me: "Great Lord and Master. Tell me if You will also die for what concerns Your body, or that You will continue to live forever."

I said: "There is only a short time left. Then I will, as I am now, return from where I came, and those who are Mine will be with Me forever."

The captain said: "Then who are those whom You call Yours, and where is the place to where You already in a short time will return?"

I said: "Those who are Mine are those who believe in Me, who love Me and keep My commandments. The place however is not like the places on this Earth, but it is the Kingdom of God which is now established by Me among the people and in the heart of the people.

That Kingdom of true, eternal life cannot be reached along the broad roads of this world, but only along a very small path, and this is called humility, patience, self-denial with all temptations that come from this world, and complete dedication to the will of the one, only true God."

The captain said: "Where can it be known what God wants, and what are Your commandments actually which those who are Yours have to follow?"

I said: "My will is God's will and My commandments are God's commandments. Whoever does My will, and who will thus keep My commandments, will walk on the good way to the Kingdom of God. Do the same. Then you also will walk on the right way to the Kingdom of God."

Then the captain stood up from his chair, walked to one of My disciples and asked him what he thought of Me.

That one said: "We all think of Him what He told you Himself. He is the Lord, and we are His disciples. In Him lives the fullness of God. Apart from Him there is no God."

After these words, the captain left the disciple and returned to Me.

Footnotes

⮜ Back | Contents | Next ⮞