The Great Gospel of John
Volume 3
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
Jesus near Caesarea Philippi
- Chapter 216 -
The Pharisees' dispute about the divinity of the Lord.
With all this which had befallen and happened after this Sabbath meal, the day's work could be seen as over; but one never rests in heaven from doing good, just as hell never rests from doing evil, and so for this Sabbath something very special had been held back and had to be actively ended before midnight.
2
An argument had developed between the fifty Pharisees, at whose head were the leader Stahar and the speaker who was now well known to us, Floran. These half-baked people had thought up all sorts of doubts in one of Ouran's tents during the storm and the present laying out of the corpses confirmed some of their doubtful opinions about Me and My deeds. Only among them the opinion was shared that the better part accepted very celebratory that I was an extraordinary prophet, something like Elijah - but a darker part thought that despite all great study of the scriptures I was only a scholar from the catacombs of Egypt and had learnt wisdom and genuine magic in the temples of Korak (Carnac). I was therefore so well accepted by the Romans, for among the Romans the genuine magicians were revered more than the gods, for the Romans considered such magicians to be the fingers of the god Zeus, who works among the people and is very disposed to the great people! But the Romans were very clever people and knew that the Jews were not to be trusted until they had become Romans, body and soul. Such a thing could be ensured most easily if one worked the Jews, who were the most miracle-seeking, through such an archmagician from the school at Korak, but so that the Jews also found their Moses and their prophets in it. And that had happened now, and with the most visible success in the world; for whoever did not convert thought words and miracles, several cohorts of Roman soldiers constantly stood at the ready to frighten him into conversion. Therefore at every opportunity the temple in Jerusalem was incriminated with all power; one would raise only the bad things, but the good things would be left unnoticed and never mentioned with even one syllable, while it was of course well-known how much good the temple was untiringly performing!
3
Stahar and Floran, who certainly had more than the others a better conviction about Me and the Romans, truly made a great effort to dissuade their colleagues from such opinions; but they did not manage much, although they presented Me with all force as a prophet in the category of Elijah.
4
The opponents said, "Look over there, how medically workmanlike the nine drowned people are laid with their heads facing out and their faces to the ground! Why then that?! A God is all-powerful enough to animate the drowned people without such preparations; but where such genuinely artificial provisions must be made, in order to possibly bring the drowned back to life, pure miracle-working has a significant problem! Also the three drowned who were previously risen from the dead had to be brought into a room so that the cold night air would not harm them and they would then have a better and fresher appearance the next morning! We know that business very well now!"
5
But Floran asked them about their judgment of Raphael, who had then performed the most unbelievable miracles. Certainly, a few stopped and did not know what they should answer.
6
But nonetheless a main opponent said, "Friend, we know actually nothing; but that is certainly to be accepted that there are very many secret and undiscovered powers in nature about which none of us had ever dreamed. These have made themselves familiar with it in Egypt and understand how to restrain the secret natural powers in a way that is totally unknown to us, so that such suppression of the mute nature must obviously seem to us lay-people to be the purest miracle. If this young person showed us the reason and the tangible advantages and means, we would also be able to perform miracles. Oh the people can perform very curious things and make the whole of nature subservient; but they nonetheless cannot make something out of nothing, only God alone can do that! And that is the great difference between the all-power of God and the power of miracles of some enlightened people.
7
Let that young man only create a new Earth with everything that is, lives and breathes on it, and he would certainly become short of breath at such a task! Yes, manipulating the already existent nature is certainly no particular skill for those who understand it; but to create a world out of nothing, or even a piece of grass without seeds, or even a person - but out of nothing at all! - then it will soon be shown how far the omnipotence of such people reaches!"
8
Floran says, "Yes, friend, I would not like to bet a large piece of gold on it that both these people, if it really has to be, would not be capable of creating a world out of nothing; I would truly not like to take a chance!"
9
Stahar says, "Nor would I; for both have done immense things already! At the same time such a great wisdom speaks in both of them in all matters, through which all my knowledge and all my experiences are completely beaten down; but where a great wisdom lies visible, God's spirit is working there for whom no thing is impossible.
10
If we look back to everything that was possible for Elijah and for Moses, we will also be able to understand thereby how both of them could always put their incomprehensible miracles through the same all-powerful spirit into action!
11
Well, what is it then?! If we know that only for the all-powerful spirit of God things are possible which are impossible to all men, then the same spirit of God is very easily active which once called the Earth into existence out of nothing and later performed the most wonderful things through Moses and Elijah!
12
Moreover I must mention something here, and I ask you: Where, apart from in the circles of the children of Israel, did a people ever exist which would have been deeper in wisdom and in its power than we, as true descendents of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob?! Who could not have found the true wisdom and power in the house of Jacob, where else would he have found it?! Truly I know also something about the secret school of Egypt and know what was taught there! Yes, this school in Korak came into the fore-court at the most; but it never into the holy of holies, the center!
13
But to both of these men the holy of holies, the innermost place, which can be seen at the first glance at them, seems to be as familiar as the inner of a parlor to a housewife. One can immediately see on the cheerful face of a housewife who takes care of everything domestic that the parlor is well stocked; and that one can also see very well with these two however, just by observing their faces a little and one sees how they are full of the most cheerful and unworried peace and total lack of concern!
14
Whoever is equipped with such wisdom and power and can look at the world with such a truly divine calm, and who frets for the greatest storm just as little as the first winter which the father of fathers Adam experienced for us, he is in the holy of holies, a Lord himself and the freest arbiter! He needs no school of wisdom in Carnac because the spirit of God has laid a better one through His Self into the heart! That is my opinion and now also my firm belief; and that this belief of mine is good, I can recognize in the fact that I also begin to feel a very divine and free rest in it, which I have never previously felt or sensed.
16
At the words by Stahar, the speaker now says to the opponents, who have now got smaller in number by a few heads, "Yes, yes, dear friend, you have spoken very appropriately and correctly, but our objection is only against the laying out of the nine drowned people according to a doctor's demands; for the doctors as well as the experienced boats-men lay out the drowned in this way, and it often happens that they already come back to life because of this, for the water comes out of their lungs through this positioning, and if every little spark of life has not yet been extinguished in the heart, then life returns; for the soul is supposed to remain in the body of the drowned for another three days, therefore then in this way, which rests on age-old experience, the reanimation of the drowned is even possible if they have lain in the water for two full days. Well, if the true spirit of God lives in this Elijah of a prophet, why does he need this medical preparation?!
17
According to legend, when Elijah animated a whole pile of dead bones and clothed them in flesh, he did not need any medical preparation, but instead his word and his will were enough. Deeds were previously performed by this Elijah as well alone through the power of the word; why now such actions with the nine drowned people, as if he had become devoid of the power of the divine spirit in Him?!
18
You see, friend, if you make a tiny dirty spot on an already thoroughly dirty cloth, it will not stand out to any sharp-seeing eye; but on a perfectly purely white cloth even a dark spot will embarrass you! And it is the same with this great prophet in whose heart the fullness of the divine spirit is supposed to live; every little thing embarrasses it that does not correspond to the great most eminent expressions and with the very highest worth of the divine spirit. If he had only not done that, I would have been able to consider him to be Jehovah himself, for his previous speech and deeds were quite of a divine type, but through this manipulation of the nine drowned people he has wiped away the whole previous divine nimbus, and I cannot fully accept it now and never more!"
19
Stahar says once again, "Friend, if that embarrasses you so, then I wonder very much how in the end the belief in Jehovah has not embarrassed you, if you have observed the slow growth of the plants, animals and people often enough! Why does the all-powerful spirit of Jehovah need to make such annoying actions?! For what does He need the trees at all, the bushes and plants, in order to let various types of fruit gradually become ripe on them?! If He only wanted it, they would fall from the clouds to the earth already ripe! Why does He need a field on Earth?! The spirit of God could prefer to let the purest and ripest grain rain from the heavens, and even better still, the best and most tasty bread! Why the procreation of animals and people?! Why must a man be first born fully helpless and as weak as a fly?! He could fall to the Earth already strong, wise and equipped with everything!
20
Don't you think that such a thing would be much cleverer and worthier for the omnipotence of the divine spirit than the familiar path of dilatoriness, as a consequence of which a starving child often must observe a tree for weeks until the fruit becomes ripe on its boughs?! What joy would a couple concerned about the well-being of their children have, if they already came into the world with all the wisdom of Samuel?! Yet they must be born with much pain, and then it needs at least twelve years until a child has managed to become capable of higher education, and then it has to use hard work until it comes of age so that it receives the demanded firmness in some skill or knowledge. Do you think this appropriate according to the highest wisdom of the divine spirit?!
21
But if with all this the endless divine wisdom does not suffer, how can you now criticize this prophet if he lays the nine corpses according to the doctor's order?! Speak now, my friend!"
22
The adversary, who was called Murel, says, "Yes, yes, friend Stahar, you are right, and I now see the nothingness of my previous remark! But despite all that there is still something in what I have just said, and that is the dilatoriness of God which seems to me very correct in many things, but in many other things not at all! Yes, in some ways even more could be dilatory, as for example in destructive lightning and the too short days in winter; also the full moon should keep its full light longer than just a few days! If the lightning did not shoot with such a cruel speed, one could avoid it, and it would then be less damaging; also the storm winds could blow in slower gusts, whereby much damage could be avoided! One finds in creation mostly an enormous power of God, which harms the animated nature, but where in my judgment a longer, often too long wait has no advantage, there can be almost no talk of progress.
23
Well, every man knows from personal experience that this is so. But why must it be that way, and why must I then not recognize it as good, if it is good, and besides become impatient and annoyed? Why does it often rain when according to the recognition of all farmers the sunshine would be the greatest advantage, and why does the sun often shine for months without any rain in the meantime? Yes, friend, you see, those are sheer important questions; but who can answer them for me?"
24
Stahar says, "There, the great Master! Go to Him and I bet He will shed a correct light on it for you. For your questions are too much for me, yes, so much that I could almost call them foolish; but not because they are really foolish, but instead because they seem foolish to my lack of understanding."
25
Murel says, "Oh, you are a cool customer and are much wiser than I and you bear such a witness to my question!? How should I step before the very wisest One with this?!"
26
Stahar says, "Well then, if you see that, do not ask for the reason of such things and apparitions which God's wisdom has decided since eternity! We people understand very endlessly little, yes, we actually understand nothing at all; for all our understanding is against the divine wisdom hardly a speck of sunlight, and he would like to have the justification from God, why He ordered this and that?! We have not even come up to the first line of the alpha and already we ask about the omega! Oh, how blind and foolish we must still be!
27
In the school at Korak (Carnac) in Egypt among the blind heathens such a thing can certainly be normal; but among the children of Israel who are supposed to see, such questions should certainly not come up. For if the blind do not recognize themselves, then we should recognize that our recognition has achieved the highest possible peak of wisdom if we have reached the opinion that all our knowledge and recognition is sheer nothingness in comparison with only a spark of divine wisdom!
28
Certainly, the pondering spirit of man sees well in the area of the most wonderful creations of God some things that he cannot approve too much in the limitation of his understanding; but then he thinks back to his childhood in which his wise parents often withheld certain subjects that would have certainly done him as an inexperienced and frivolous child great harm if he had known about it! If God's love and compassion now withholds some things from us immature and inexperienced children which, if we knew about them, would certainly bring us to some great and unforeseeable damage, then we can only praise and worship God for it! For if we become capable of a greater wisdom, it will surely not be withheld from us by God!"