The Great Gospel of John
Volume 3
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
Jesus near Caesarea Philippi
- Chapter 149 -
The High Pharisee Stahar makes known his notions of faith.
Cyrenius pushed away the thanks, saying, "Friend! The Lord of heaven and Earth is alone due all thanks and all praise; but you will now give me for my education as a person most highly indoctrinated in all Judaism and as a perfect scribe the explanation of what meaning you attach to the notion of "angel?! What are the angels of God actually, and how do they serve God and mankind?"
2
Stahar says, "High ruler, that is a very prickly question, especially since it has not yet been completely proven that angels really exist! The Scriptures mention them at certain moments; but it never mentions even a syllable about what and who the angels actually are, and how and in what way they serve God and mankind!
3
According to the Dahahlmud[Talmud, ed.] we understand them to be only the powers emitted by the divine being in the form of bundles of flames, which move in the most unthinkable speed of thought in all directions from the eternal, uncharted centre of God, approximately like the beams of light which are emitted by the sun. That seems to me to be the most acceptable; but whether that is the correct and truest definition is another question, about which a mortal person will probably not be in the position to give a true answer.
4
According to the Scriptures the angels have often been seen to serve people on the Earth as youths of incredible beauty! Well, for deep thinkers that is a piece of deep belief; I and all my colleagues have at least never got to see something similar! It could be so! But it could just as well be an old, lyrical way of speech, through which one personified the spiritually effective powers for the sake of greater symbolization, giving them a full, youthfully active, powerful form of a most beautiful youth; for a female angel has never been mentioned in verse - probably because the enthusiastic poet never assumed that great strength would be in a perfect and attractive virgin like in a full and healthy young man.
5
You see, high master, thus the opinions according to pure reason are very different! Something real seems to exist everywhere in this issue; but what is actually true cannot be measured by us people. The best thing is to leave the people with their imagination because one cannot offer anything better in return! But that is now everything that I can give you in answer to your very important question; for I cannot come to you with what one tells the people!"
6
Cyrenius says, "So you do not fully believe in the possibility of a physical personal appearance of an angel?"
7
Stahar says, "Not only not fully, but not at all; for I have never had the honor and the luck to see such a thing even in dreams, not to mention in reality. Just as well all my colleagues, with whom I have had an open discussion on this topic, could not tell me anything different to what I have already experienced.
8
It is true that I do not want to fully deny the most extreme possibility except for me personally; but it is certain that such a spirit of an angel can present himself to us much less as a formal being without a natural medium than a beam of light can manifest itself as such when it cannot find any retrospective medium.
9
The beam of sunlight cuts through the air much easier than it touches the ground of the earth. But in the air, as a too weak medium, it cannot become grass; but on the ground of the Earth it can change itself like a Proteus into anything if he finds the appropriate method in the material world.
10
And so I think that one can discover a certain order in the great nature of all things, but one never sees anything be created where no suitable cause led the way, and where no suitable medium would effectively be in the foreground, since one never discovers any leap no matter how carefully one observes nature, I am then also against all so-called miracles and against the formal personal appearance of a spirit under whatever name - be it an angel or a devil, a god or its opposite.
11
Yes, a higher spirit can manifest itself, but never as anything other than flesh and blood; above that is either a fantasy of a spiritual person or a complete lie!
12
Unfortunately we, who recognized the truth a long time ago, have to be mystically looking and acting spreaders and maintainers of the lie and the deepest superstition! We have to make pious faces where we could explode in anger over the great foolishness! But there is Moses, there are the prophets - sheer domineering people who had to destroy the people first with all sorts of natural spooks so that they can then crown them as their all time leaders and give them the right to tyrannize them with everything that is called "evil"!
13
But once a people has been talked round and blinded by many miracles into the deepest foundations of life, then just give such a nation light, but a true light, and it will fall upon you like a tiger and tear you to pieces!
14
Therefore it is better if one leaves a very foolish people to its old, foolish belief and renews and enlivens it through false miracles, rather than trying to enlighten such a people because a very foolish people in general can no longer be enlightened!
15
There was once a time for me in which I attacked every person, who obviously made an effort to make the already very foolish humanity even more foolish with a miracle, like a tiger full of fury and anger for his shameful undertaking and even killed him if possible; but in time I came to the conviction after many sublime attempts that the foolish people cannot be enlightened, and found also that I was very wrong to wage war against any person who sought to strengthen the people in its old superstition in an effective way through artificial miracles.
16
I think I have now been honest about myself. You will hopefully see without anger that I of course had to take a stand against the people! But that I always thought differently, my inner, better conviction speaks for me, which I would never have been able to show if it was not at hand in myself! But now I don't care about people who perform miracles; only they should not wage war against awakened people like me through professional jealousy, but instead they should join us, and we will all make a good living.
17
For one must never let the unenlightened humans notice that there is actually nothing behind us, but instead through artificial miracles one must keep them in their opinion and their blind faith that unfathomable secrets are behind us which only a priest, filled with the spirit of God, and a prophet awakened by God can understand completely.
18
It is enough that only a few see that all religions about some divine being are nothing but - just between us - vain, old fables, which have a basis in human imagination and otherwise nowhere else."