The Great Gospel of John
Volume 3
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
Jesus near Caesarea Philippi
- Chapter 191 -
The travelers' two delegates in conversation with the Lord.
With this our Mark leaves the travelers and heads into the house, in order to see to the evening meal. But the travelers now discuss among themselves whether they should all go to the hill, or whether they should just elect a few from their midst. But they soon agree to elect only two of the wisest from their midst. The vote is done, and both immediately head for the hill.
2
When they reach us, they bow deeply before us, and the first person they bow to is the pilot they have now found again, to whom they immediately address their debt in a most friendly manner.
3
But the pilot asserts saying, "I am just a servant of my Lord, from whom I have everything I need; therefore I cannot accept a reward from anyone because it's only owed to my Lord!"
4
The representatives ask the pilot, "Where and who then is your happy lord?"
5
Raphael points with his right hand to Me and says, "It is He, there, go to Him and ask Him, and He will tell you what you owe Him!"
6
Both bow before the angel and then immediately head towards Me. Once they have reached Me, they fall down on their faces according to Persian custom and, lying on the ground, they say, "Lord, whose shining face we do not dare to look at! You sent Your extremely skilled and daring pilot to us in our greatest need, without whom we obviously would have been lost! But we are not poor people who would not have to reward such a service with a fee. We are very rich people and do not demand from anyone a service for free, all the less so this inestimable one. What do we owe for our rescue from the greatest life threatening peril?"
7
I say, "Firstly that you rise as men and, as is our custom, stand up straight before us; for we are no vain and highly arrogant great ones of the slave kingdom of Persia. Thereafter we want to speak among ourselves a little about this rescue fee!"
8
At these words of Mine both rise and ask Me gratefully to decide their fee for the rescue.
9
But I say, "I know where you come from and why you came here, I know that you are rich in gold, silver and jewels as few Jews are in all great Jerusalem; I know that you would pay as much for your rescue as you are owed by the Greek merchants in this now devastated city and therefore have to demand, and which you will only hardly ever receive!
10
Therefore the reward which I could ask from you, especially since you are Persians and our members, could justifiably run as massively high as your certain loss from these Greek merchants, now seeking shelter in the forest huts; but what would you gain through it? You would take it up there and then lay it down again here! Then you would return home again the way you came!
11
But I do not charge anything for the rescue, and I even give you the assurance that your stay here, even the journey here and back again through Genezareth, from where you came by ship, shall not cost you a single stater! (For this was one of Ebahl's ships, and they were also his sailors.) Are you satisfied with that?"
12
Both the representatives say, "Lord, you are still full of the blooming strength of youth, but at the same time you also seem to be full of genuine wisdom of Solomon and you are this in all truth - what you have now pronounced as the price for our rescue, we already wanted to give the half of this to the temple in Jerusalem and the other half to the poor Jews of this area, if the merchants of this places wanted to pay us the not insignificant sum.
13
But since they have had such a harsh fate, this loss no longer matters to us at all, and we are prepared to help them with a sum of money twice as large, and without repayment or taxes, but to also give you besides the decided ten thousand pounds as reward for our rescue with the friendliest hearts in the world! For you see, Lord of this area, we are very rich; we could not bring all our earthly treasures here on a hundred thousand camels, even if each carried a burden of four thousand pounds. (A Persian pound was equal 5 to 6 Lot today: J. Lorber.) [with one lot equaling 17.5 grams the Persian pound is between 88 and 100 grams or about 0.1 kg] In addition we possess much land and many and great herds. Therefore this is as little as nothing to us; just demand from us whatever you want, and we will only rejoice to have acted according to your will and pronouncement! For we still have ten times as much in the cities of Judea! We will give you then gold immediately or else the most assured directives.
14
Whatever is more pleasing to you, oh Lord of this area that we will do; for we were never greedy and mean! We know, of course, that wealth finds itself in the hand of the Almighty, who can give it to a man overnight and take it away again the next minute! We are only the guardians of his possessions; the single Lord over it is the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob!
15
You can already see with what sort of people you are dealing; therefore just command, and we will act according to your certainly very wise dictum!"
16
I say, "What I have said to you once remains so! For I know you and all your circumstances, and you do enough if you follow My demand; but if you truly want to do more for the poor, no-one will lay an obstacle in your path. But there is something more to be had here that is of endlessly greater value than all your almost immeasurable treasures! But more about that later!"
17
Both the representatives say, "You seem to be a very strange wise man! The treasures of this Earth cannot move you; also you seem to be no particular friend of a perhaps exaggerated benevolence! Mental treasures surely are worth more to you than all the gold of the Earth! You are completely correct in every such respect; for the treasures of the spirit last eternally, while the earthly ones last for every man only until the grave, and then it is over for him who is taken away from this world!
18
Yes, you wise Lord, give us the treasures of wisdom - they will be dearer to us than all our gold, our jewels and heavy masses of silver! But now we want to go and report all this truly and accurately to our brothers!"
19
I say, "Yes, yes, go, tell all this to your brothers, and come again with your brothers; for you are only twenty in all, without the sailors, and easily have space here!"
20
"Certainly!" say the cheerful representatives, "We do have space; but there is only the question of whether you have the goodness to share with us some wisdom. For at home in Persia genuine wisdom is becoming ever rarer, and in its place the conjuring of the pagan priests becomes ever more wide-spread and will certainly put an end even to the wisdom of all the Jews living there - particularly if the domineering and greedy priests and idolaters receive power from the king, which is very much to be feared, since they pester the king above all measure and nag him day and night.
21
We have kept ahead of them so far through our great wealth; but these evil people also know how to procure immeasurable treasures, and exploit the wasteful king at every opportunity. And so it will surely happen that they will end the tolerance of the otherwise soft-hearted king. But more about that later; now we must inform the longing brothers about everything that we have heard here!" With these words they bow and hurry back to their brothers. Once there, they faithfully report everything that they heard and now discuss some matters with their male and female companions.