The Great Gospel of John
Volume 10
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
The Lord in the mountain town of Pella
- Chapter 34 -
The Lord in the school in Pella.
Then he brought us to the synagogue where a few Jewish children received from an old rabbi some dull teaching of the Scripture.
2
I said to the rabbi: "Friend, in this manner you will rather make heathens out of these little ones than Jews. If you yourself are so poorly grounded in the Scripture, then what must these children learn from you? Give up the teaching and do something else, so that a better teacher can take and occupy your place."
3
The rabbi was greatly offended and said: "Friend, I was chosen here as rabbi by the community. They are satisfied about me, and You as a stranger should not concern Yourself as to how I am teaching the children. We live here among gentiles, and therefore, besides our Scripture, I also have to teach my scholars the manners and customs of the Romans and Greeks, and also actively recognize the good therein so that they would not call me to account. For we were placed in this world, and besides God - who does not let any manna rain from the sky anymore - we also must serve the world if we want to live from it."
4
I said: "It is because the Jews were more and more forgetting God, just like you, and were starting to serve the world already at the time when He still let the manna rain from the sky that God let them also come into the hard slavery of the world and they had to earn their meager bread in the sweat of their face. And because the Jews are becoming now less loyal to God than the gentiles, also the little light that they still have will be taken away from them and be given to the gentiles.
5
How can you be a rabbi that is pleasing to God when today you teach before the Jewish children Jewish teachings and tomorrow in this same synagogue you give pagan teachings to the gentile children and let yourself be paid for it?"
6
The rabbi began to take Me for a little prophet because I showed him things which according to him no common person and stranger could otherwise know, and he said: "May God give me to live without it being necessary for me to ask my bread also from the gentiles, then I will immediately give up my service to the gentiles."
7
I said to the rabbi: "Friend, 10 years ago you were a very wealthy man in Ephraim as a Jew, and you had food and drink in abundance. Then why did you at that time choose more for the gentiles than for the Jews?
8
Look, since you have done that without it being necessary, God let you go down and let you come here in this gentile city as a rabbi for the gentiles. The fact that since a couple of years you also became a rabbi for the Jews, was not accomplished by the poor Jews who live here but by the gentiles who are friendly to you, and these also removed the former purely Jewish rabbi from this city.
9
But I tell you that in the future this cannot go on. You should become completely a Jew like you were before. Otherwise you will be removed from this city in a few days, and a worthier person will take your place, for I came to sweep up this city so that it will become a safe refuge for all those whom I will call My followers when already in about 50 years the dark Jerusalem will be destroyed up to the last stone by the Romans. Think well about what I have told you now, for I have received the power from above to tell you this."
10
Then the rabbi still wanted to answer something but the innkeeper took him aside and told him what I had done for his son. Then the rabbi said no more word, let the scholars of the synagogue go home and left the synagogue. He immediately visited the completely healed son of the innkeeper, and he was extremely amazed about this. Then he went at once to all the Jewish and gentile houses that he knew and related what had happened in the Jewish inn, after which many came to the inn to convince themselves of what had happened there.