The Great Gospel of John
Volume 10
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
Der Herr im Jordantal
- Chapter 232 -
The opinion of the innkeeper about the Jews.
Then the innkeeper came back to us, fell on his knees before Me and said: "O noble friend of men, You have only been here 1 hour and made me already a debtor. You must be a great prophet among the Jews who probably do not recognize You, for in my opinion, the Jews are the worst people, especially those who live in the cities. And as far as I know, they persecute all great men who arose from among them, especially the very proud priests, and they consider every simple Jew who associates with a Roman or a Greek as a sinner. But they do not despise the gold of the Greeks and Romans, which is very well known to me."
2
I said: "That is why, when you asked Me from where I was, I answered: from above. This you do not understand yet, but you will understand it. But that sneaky offshoot of priests in most cities and markets of this land, that was highly praised before, is a breed of snakes and vipers and they do not come from above, but I say to you: from below. Do you know what it means: from below?"
3
The innkeeper said: "Dear friend and maybe the most remarkable Man who ever walked on the dirty ground of this Earth, there is a little light that comes in me: You are one of the greatest prophets of Your people. But I advice You as friend not to travel to Jerusalem, for You will know best that there is no worst rabble than actually those Jerusalemites together with their priests and their feudal king Herod. We Greeks cannot understand how the otherwise wise Romans could have leased a kingdom like Judea to such person.
4
Look, I am a Macedonian and I had the opportunity to look around in the great library of Alexandria. Then I chose the military service, and during different small and big expeditions I even have been in India, then in Africa unto the Pillars of Hercules. And in Europe I went so far that I was almost frozen from all the ice. And I also visited Britain, actually from Gallia. But, dear friend, I assure You that I never met such breed of dogs as in Jerusalem.
5
Look, from here, an average traveler can reach the shore of the Dead Sea in 3 hours. They say about that sea that in former times, by the power of the great God of the Jews, 10 cities with people and animals were swallowed in it by the rain of fire from the Heavens and as a result of an enormous heavy earthquake. But I would bet everything that those unhappy people, who are buried in the Dead Sea, could not have been worse than the extremely proud and pompous people of Jerusalem.
6
Let the gods of the Olympus or the great God of the Jews descend from his Heavens, and I assure You that the Jerusalemites will urinate on Him and finally even stone Him.
7
I am a gray soldier but I always have been a friend of great and exceptional men, although I actually never was a great worshipper of the gods, but every great man was for me in a certain way a god.
8
But with whom shall I compare those Jerusalemites? As soldiers they are the worst, but as human beings they are even a thousand times worse. Therefore, You certainly can forgive me that immediately after Your arrival I could not express myself in favor of the Jews, for I did not know You before and I also took You half and half for a Jerusalemite. But by Your words and deeds You proved to me that You are quite different.
9
Look, this place consists of about 60 residents, only Greeks. Once there was a Jew who also possessed a piece of land here, but we bought it with quite a high amount of money in order to be completely free from Jews in our little village. Now we live in great unity with each other, but as long as that Jew was with us, he knew how to mess up everything.
10
We breed sheep, bovine animals and pigs. The latter grow very well here close to the Jordan and produce a lot for us. In order to protect the pigs against the animals of prey we also need a great number of so-called pig's dogs. I myself have 14 of them, but I assure You, my noble, wonderful friend, the worst of my pig's dogs is much better than the Jerusalemites. I really do not mean all the Jerusalemites with that - because also among them there may be here and there a better or nobler human being - but I never was that lucky to meet such person, and therefore, as a very experienced person of the world, I warn You against Jerusalem and its inhabitants."
11
I said: "We will further talk about that tomorrow, and I say to you that you are not wrong, but now the caravan that I announced will soon arrive. So take care to give them accommodation."