The Great Gospel of John
Volume 3
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
Jesus near Caesarea Philippi
- Chapter 115 -
Consequences of the natural disasters in Caesarea Philippi.
The Caesareans were in great fear about the expectation of the terrible things that in their opinion would come to pass on the Earth. The Jews were expecting Daniel"s judgment and the pagans expected the war of the gods, and the general people were indignant that their leaders were refused any further obedience and began themselves to destroy whatever they came across; in short, in a few hours there was the greatest anarchy in the city, which was mostly the fault of the stupid priests.
2
For there were among them several instructed in Egyptian wisdom and experience who did not make much out of the false sun that had suddenly disappeared because they had heard from old Egyptian sagas that such phenomena had already taken place many times without any damage to the Earth; and some Jewish Pharisees thought to themselves that some sort of second Joshua had arisen and had ordered the sun to shine for longer because of some sort of important action!
3
A certain sect of the Jews also had the belief that the sun, as an eternal reminder, remained longer in the sky every hundred years on the day of the complete victory over Jericho without any further evil influence on the Earth; these Pharisees therefore had almost no fear at all at the event that took place.
4
Many oriental magicians, who because of their journey were also in the city said that the sun always, whenever it was completely darkened in the day, shone longer in the evening afterwards, in order to replace the damages done to the Earth that it had caused by its day-time darkening. These had therefore no fear of the event that had occurred, but they all wanted to make use of the event in that they drove a very hellish fear into the people.
5
True, after the extinguishing of the sun the people seized every means of atonement that the priests recommended; but that was all too little for the bottomless greed of the priests, for the people did not give everything that they possessed that was expensive or valuable.
6
But an old, venerable Greek, who was also an efficient natural wise man, noticed such dirty tricks, quickly took some more sober people to his house and briefly explained to them, as well as was possible, the very natural and completely non-harmful possibility of such an appearance - but besides this he drew their attention to the unscrupulous tricks by the priests with the comment: You see, if there was something to fear from the strange occurrence that has taken place, the crafty priests would not run around the alleys so actively with their sacks and blackmail all sorts of unheard-of sacrifices! If then after several hours the sun goes up again just as usual, these deceivers of mankind will run through the alleys again and demand sacrifices of thanks from the people! Go and tell the poor, betrayed nation that the old, wise Greek tells them so!
7
Now, this old, Greek natural wise man had a good reputation among the general people and his statement went like wildfire among the people. Barely within an hour after this the latest decree was turned around and the priests had to give all the sacrifices back again and then head for the hills as fast as possible; for the people became more and more bitter and there was no anointed servant of the gods who was safe of his life any longer.
8
I saw all this in advance, of course, and made Ouran aware of it in the moment just a few seconds later that we began to discover the unmistakable traces of the people"s rebellion against the priesthood - although there were still many who were waiting outside the city for terrible things in great fear.
9
Soon after My announcement we noticed how at once several buildings began to catch fire and a great howling began to penetrate even up to our ears.
10
Here Cyrenius hurried to Me with Julius and asked Me worriedly what was happening to the city; for the whole story seemed to them very much like a civil rebellion! But I told him and Julius very quickly the whole contents of the matter, as I had just disclosed it.
11
When Cyrenius and Julius heard such a thing, they became quite calm again and simply asked Me whether there would be any other bad consequences to face.
12
And I said, "Not in the least for you, but for the priests who live there; for now the clever ordinary people are appeasing the gods with burnt offerings in that they are burning the houses of the priests and the temples of the gods! And don't tell me you have pity for these priests, for this too evil nest of vipers must be extirpated! The false sun had a good light; for it showed the blind people the turpitude of its servants of the gods, and these now are receiving their well-deserved reward!"