The Great Gospel of John
Volume 10
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
The Lord in two additional towns
- Chapter 159 -
What the sun actually is.
The innkeeper said: "O Lord and Master, I think that even the wisest angel-seraphim will in eternity not be able to completely understand what Your mouth is saying. But at this opportunity I have to ask You something special because today the sun is coming up so pure and beautiful - and this is very rare to see in this region from the east because of the many hazes that develop continuously on this immeasurable plain. Is the sun a fire of itself of which the flames illuminate the Earth so strongly that no one can ever make or see such enormous light on Earth?
2
The extreme heat of the sun, which it sends to us at the same time, makes us guess that it must be an extremely strong fire. But since it shines just as much during the winter as now, and since we cannot feel much of the heat of its supposed fire, a few people are of the opinion that it is probably not a real fire after all. We form a community here, mostly composed of Romans, Jews, Greeks, Arabs and Egyptians, and there are different opinions among us, and we nevertheless cannot make any sense out of them."
3
I said: "In this way you will not make sense out of them for a long time because you all are surrounded of old by the deepest night of superstition. Whoever wants to understand it, should know that sunrise and sunset are only apparent because that which gives you the day and the night is caused by the turning of the Earth, which is no round disk as you think, but a very big ball. So the day and the night are nothing else but the result of the globe's rotation, and for each rotation the Earth needs a time of about 24 of your hours.
4
And as the Earth is no round disk, but a ball, so is the sun, but 1.000 times 1.000 times bigger than this Earth. That it looks so small the way you see it, is because of its enormous distance from this Earth. Even if I would tell you the number of hours it is away from the Earth, you still would not have any idea, for you are not enough knowledgeable in the Arabian system of numbers. But imagine a distance of almost 44.000.000 hours - a couple of Arabians who live here can translate this for you - then you will have a small idea of how far the sun is away from the Earth. And it does not turn around the Earth to bring about day and night, and it also does not sink each day into the big sea - according to the superstition of the Romans and the Greeks - as if it would take a bath and clean itself and then illuminate the whole Earth again in the full strength of its light.
5
The sun rotates around the sun in about 365 days, and this second movement of the Earth gives you a year with its spring, summer, autumn and winter.
6
However, the sun as such is no fire, but what you can perceive as light is the beaming of its atmospheric surface that is caused by the rotation of the sun itself around its own axis and even more so by its extremely fast movement around a middle sun that is much further away from it. These movements of the sun in the vast ether space result in a big electric action. Through that, its brilliance of light is the same as your flashes of lightning, but with a much greater intensity and with the difference that the enormous process of the flashes of lightning continues uninterruptedly on the air surface of the sun while a flash of lightning on this Earth develops only to a small extent here and there by an increased friction of parts of the air and will therefore flash only for a very short time.
7
But there are also regions and certain spots on this Earth above which lightning matter develops to a much larger extent and will therefore greatly lighten that spot for hours.
8
If someone wants to convince himself he should travel to those regions of middle Africa where the highest and most extensive mountains of that continent are located, and there he will see many of such electric appearances. But he will be even more discouraged when often electrical storms will come over these regions by which men can then better lock himself up in the deepest and darkest cellar because of the countless flashes of lightning and its cracking of thunder instead of admiring outside the lights of the dangerous, often numerous flashes of lightning.
9
Yes, friend, not all natural phenomena on this small Earth are meant to inspire man such confidence to cheerfully bear and watch them without fear and trembling.
10
But if strange natural phenomenal things happen now and then on this small Earth for you people, then how much more will it be the case on a big celestial body like the sun.
11
Later in the spirit you all will be able to watch all this with the greatest joy and the greatest pleasure, but for your flesh this cannot be.
12
With this, I have told you now what the shining of the sun actually is, and so I have given you a little spark of light. But what you cannot entirely understand now, in a thousand years and another few hundred years from now, My children in Europe, and still much further away, will calculate on their fingers, and this will greatly contribute to the decrease and finally the entire disappearance of the old, very primitive superstition. But for you it is sufficient to believe in Me and live and act according to My teaching. All the rest will be given to you at the right time."
13
The innkeeper thanked Me for this explanation that was very surprising to him, and he told Me that it was very similar to a dream he once had by the spirit of the prophet Elijah - from whose close relatives he was a descendant - and it was similar to what I, the Lord, just told him.
14
"In that dream", said the innkeeper further, "I had the feeling that I was high above the Earth and I did not see it as a round disk but as a big ball under my feet. Then I asked the spirit of Elijah what it meant.
15
He said: 'This you will hear from the One who was and will be forever before me.'
16
Then I woke up again and I was in Joppe where I was born, because I am living here in this city for only 20 years."
17
While the innkeeper was still speaking, a messenger came and invited us for the morning meal. And we left our mountain and went to the house of our very friendly innkeeper.