The Great Gospel of John
Volume 3
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
Jesus near Caesarea Philippi
- Chapter 150 -
Raphael and Stahar.
Cyrenius says, "I am not of your opinion at all; for I believe strongly that there is a God who has created all the spiritual and material world out of His own highest complete power, and namely out of Himself, only in a somewhat longer period of time, of course, than that given by Moses, who is either badly or not understood at all. But there are men here who understand Moses better than you!
2
I also believe in an eternal life of all people who actually fulfill the commandments of God with a good will, I also believe perfectly in the formal personality of all spirits and also the angels of God, I believe firmly in a real revelation of God through the mouth of the prophets and I even believe in a divine-human personality!
3
And I believe all this not simply from hear-say, but instead from my innermost and most living conviction, and it therefore disconcerts me very much that you believe nothing of all that!
4
What would you say then if I said to you quite seriously: Look, this charming young man here is just one of those angels of God that you never believed in and can prove himself to you as such at any time through deeds? What would you be able to say to me in return?"
5
Stahar says, "High lord, I cannot say nothing to that except: You are now pleased to go easy on me before all people! This charming boy is surely only a promising son of yours, and you will not have omitted to teach him from his earliest childhood in all possible arts and sciences, and therefore it would all have been for nothing if he did not now possess certain capabilities that the likes of us have never dreamed of.
6
If I were such a gullible ox, you could certainly pull the wool over my eyes; but as it is it would be difficult to do. For I know what I know, and it will be the same case for you - only you seem to want to put me to a new test again here."
7
Cyrenius says, "Well, if you consider it so, then put him to the test in the name of the Lord God, and it will be shown whether I have told you the truth or not!"
8
Stahar says, "Good, if you grant that, I will immediately lift you triple Moses cloth from your face so that you can see clearly what your angel really is! Come over here then, my blessed young angel!"
9
Raphael steps up to Stahar and says, "What do you want me to do, you unbeliever?"
10
Stahar says, "Look, in this sea there are a large quantity of fish; could you fetch out of the depths one of the best and present it to me on a plate already cooked and very well prepared?"
11
Stahar had hardly said this when Raphael held out to him the desired fish on a large plate and then invited him to now consume the fish.
12
When Stahar saw such a thing he became terribly embarrassed and didn't know what he should say to this unexplainable occurrence.
13
Raphael however invited Cyrenius as well to try the fish, which has been very well prepared. The fish was cut into pieces. Cyrenius immediately took a large piece, ate it and praised greatly the good taste. At this Stahar also tried a piece, ate it, and found Cyrenius? praise justified, and finally other guests took portions of the fish and found it to be extremely tasty.
14
When the fish had been consumed in this way, Stahar turned humbly to Raphael and said, "Are you really an angel of the Lord, or are you only a young, extraordinary magician from Europe or Africa or from the great Asia? The deed is truly incomprehensible and wondrous like never before; but there are also conjuring tricks and great magicians among the people, through whom a layman can very easily be confused. Therefore tell me truly whether you are possibly an angel of the Lord - or perhaps really a magician?!"
15
Raphael says, "What use is my yes or no for you?! The doubter needs tangible evidence! Test me and recognize yourself whether what I do can be done by any magician!"
16
Stahar says, "Yes, yes, it would be good to test you if one only knew with what - hm - yes, nothing occurs to me that I could test you with, blessed boy, and in addition the realization of this first test demanded by me so laughably is already so extraordinary that something even less impossible cannot even be thought of! Judging by your endlessly charming figure I would much rather believe that you are seriously an angel of God than a magician! Only you seem to really have a body, and that seems to be no spirit. Let me just touch you to see whether you have bones!"
17
The angel lets Stahar feel him, and Stahar finds everything about Raphael appropriate and compact; he shrugs his shoulders violently and says, "Hmm, hmm, everything abounds in completely, desperately voluptuous fullness of flesh; it doesn't look very spiritual at all! The deed, yes, nothing can be said against that; but the whole desperately beautiful, full, voluptuous body surpassing by far all virgins, this magnificent arm, compact and of such high-quality. Yes, nothing looks similar to a spirit! One could, to be quite honest - apart from the fact that one is already an old dullard, and apart from the fact that you belong to the male gender - even with the greatest ease fall terribly in love and become as sensually as at all possible! And look, there is nothing that one can call purely and heavenly spiritual with full right! It had to then be so that you, like a young Tobias secretly invisible to us mortals were supported by an angel, that is, that from your birth on like Samuel you were an extremely pious lad! If that was not the case, you could stand in secret conjunction just as well with the "Evil One", which I certainly suppose less, since you otherwise have such a heavenly pious and beautiful appearance, and because I, if I admit it openly, never really believed firmly in the "Evil One". Even my complete faith in God suffered, all the more then in His opposite!
18
Therefore despite my external strictness I am no Zealot, but instead a sensible naturalist and therefore cannot accept any occurrence spiritually as long as it cannot be explained naturally!
19
Your deed carried out now allows no natural explanation for my understanding; but I have also never imagined that I understood everything that comes to light in the great field of nature. Therefore your miracles can have no natural base which will be well-known to you and perhaps to others. You will rather not tell it to me; alone that is all right, for in nature some things happen that in itself is a miracle whose reason we cannot see. Should we view it then as a full miracle?!"