The Great Gospel of John
Volume 3
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
Jesus near Caesarea Philippi
- Chapter 60 -
Suetal shows himself to be a chatterbox.
Suetal says, "Friend, no person of this world speaks as you do! You must be a higher being from God"s heaven! Are you actually the great Savior of Nazareth himself?"
2
Raphael says, "Oh, not at all! I am eternally unworthy to even untie His shoelace! I am quite high up according to the spirit, but now according to this likewise earthly body I am only what and who you have got to know me as!"
3
Suetal says, "But now, since we, like many other guests, have already eaten, I would like to get to know the heavenly Master in order to show him my deepest honor!"
4
Raphael says, "I have not yet been empowered to do that; when the right time comes, you and your brothers will recognize Him! But look, there are still some impure things in your hearts! You must recognize that and avoid it as such and get rid of the fact that you as a consequence and from the moment on when you recognize the dishonest part, never again exert it in any opportunity; then you will be suitable to recognize the great Master completely!
5
But now pay attention everyone! The friend with whom you spoke earlier will now, judging by his looks, make a speech; for I have noticed that Supreme Governor Cyrenius, sitting beside him, has just asked him something - and look, when the great people speak, the little ones must be silent and listen when such a thing is allowed! Therefore we will now be silent and let our great neighbor speak for once!"
6
Suetal asks Raphael once more, "Could you, dearest young friend, not tell me, who is the good friend who wants to speak now?"
7
Raphael says, "No, not now, for now we must be silent and listen! For when he begins to speak about something seriously, it is always of the greatest interest to listen to him! So from now on, until he has said everything, no more loud word at our table!"
8
Suetal and all the others make do with this and wait with impatience for the beginning of My speech. But I couldn't begin My speech sooner until Cyrenius had finished with his very weighty questions about marriage, adultery, divorce and sleeping with a virgin who was still single.
9
Suetal asks after a few minutes of silent waiting, "Well, when will he begin then?"
10
Raphael says, "But you blind and deaf person, don't you see then that Cyrenius has not finished asking his question!? Or can one begin to speak and answer a question before the question has been fully asked?! Be patient, the answer will follow shortly!"
11
Suetal is satisfied with this decision for the moment, but Cyrenius extends his question through all sorts of side-comments, and I cannot get to answering. Cyrenius speaks quite quietly for the sake of Jarah, who is sitting nearby, so that our neighbors naturally understand very little of the question and begin to get bored, because they cannot hear a loud word from any side; for with the Romans it was a major tradition that thousands would be silent if a high person made a motion to signify to the others that he wanted to speak.
12
Now several minutes pass again, and I am still not speaking; Suetal says to Raphael, "My friend, both men speak so quietly to each other! We will not benefit much from this perhaps very wise conversation and we could begin to speak about something amongst us, which would even be desired by our neighbors! For if such great lords speak silently between themselves they make the surrounding little people understand that they don't want to be heard! We are therefore wrong if we are completely silent and thereby lay our bad manners before them; thus we should talk about something!"
13
Raphael says, "Look, look, what a sharp one you are! - Look over there, a second serving of well-prepared fish and bread are coming to this table, and several beakers full of the best wine, because you have all been left hungry because of my significant appetite!"
14
Suetal says, "God be praised therefore; for I at least have some emptiness in my stomach! The fish which I consumed earlier was not one of the larger ones, and there was actually no significant affluence of bread at our table, and so such a second helping is only too welcome."
15
Now Mark had come to our table with the desired second helping and said, "Forgive me, dear friends! This table was much less richly served than the others earlier, and so I have let another helping be prepared from my large store. God the Lord bless it for all of you!"
16
At this everyone except the angel reach hungrily for the dish and consume with haste the very well prepared fish, they don't spare the bread either and start on the wine. It doesn't last long and the table is fully freed of its new load.
17
When they have cleared the table without the help of the angel, Suetal says, "All praise alone to God the Lord and the only good father of angels and people! Now I am as satisfied as I have not been in the last half year! Now I can be silent and wait with all patience for the promised speech by the wise Greek, who probably is a secret advisor of the high Governor of Coelesyria and respectively the Governor of all Asia. But the speech by our young friend makes us wait a long time!
18
The Governor is not finished with his certainly very complicated question and the other cannot give him an answer sooner before the Governor is finished with his certainly very important question! That will last still another long time! Also the thirty young Pharisees and Levites are perking up their ears! But it"ll be a long time before the speech!
19
I like the young girl quite well; but she seems to be head over heels in love with the Greek! She never turns an eye away from him and seems to read all sorts of things in his eyes; she has no eye for the young son of the Governor, although he sits beside her officially clothed and, as it seems, is beginning to get bored! Oho, now another four pretty maids are coming out of the house! That must be the daughters of the innkeeper! What will they do now?!"
20
Raphael says, "I think that you, friend, are a gas-bag and cannot be quiet at all! Don't you see then that the house maid is coming to collect the empty dishes in order to clean them for the evening?! Are you then of such a limited spirit that you don't see this at first sight? Truly, you will not be like Mathael for a long time yet!
21
Try once more to see if you can be silent and think just in silence; for a certain inner rest is necessary to awake the spirit, without which this very important act of life can never become fulfilling reality!"