The Great Gospel of John
Volume 3
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
Jesus near Caesarea Philippi
- Chapter 66 -
The Lord's speech on the role of the genders.
1
(The Lord) "You see, the conception of a person is a peculiar thing! In order to produce a correct and healthy fruit, two mature people, namely a man and a woman, must have a correct kinship of souls between one another, without which they will achieve with difficulty or often even not at all a fruit through the familiar act of reproduction.
2
Now if a man and a woman are of a similar nature in their hearts and in their souls, they should then take part in this act of reproduction, wedded and according to the order that is easy to find in nature, in order to achieve a living fruit in their image; more than is necessary for this goes against the order of God and of nature and therefore is an evil and a sin, which is not much better than those of Sodom and Gomorrah!
3
If a man has a lot of semen, well, he should put them in another field, according to the decent way of the old fathers and patriarchs, and he will not sin. But if he goes out secretly in order to satisfy his desire with maids who sell themselves and in this way to enjoy himself without the creation of a fruit, he commits quite certainly a crudely sodomite sin against the divine order and against the order of nature!
4
Only a young, fertile man, if he is seized too much by the sex appeal of a girl so that he is hardly master over his own senses, can sleep with a virgin, with or without conception; but after the act he must then do what Moses decreed for this case. And if a fruit is conceived from such a conception of need, he must provide the virgin ten to one hundredfold of what he would owe according to Moses if no fruit had been conceived; for a virgin brings such a person a great sacrifice of life and death! If a man can marry such a virgin, he should not fail to do so; for as I said, she has brought him a great sacrifice and freed him of a numbing burden.
5
But as a consequence such a fertile man should take a proper wife immediately and if need be also a concubine, with the permission of the legal wife, so that no discord or discontentment arises; but if such a man can abstain, he will be partake in a higher spiritual mercy in his inner life sooner than another person.
6
But how one should take a legal wife, this has already been decreed by Moses according to the order from heaven, and must remain in the future until the end of the world.
7
But you will easily see from what has already been said what fornication means and why it has been forbidden by Moses as a great sin; for everything has been decreed by God according to the divine order. Whoever remains in such an order will also reap the fruits of the blessings from above; but whoever acts against such an order will reap the fruit of the curse.
8
If any fiery passionate man cannot succeed in any natural quenching of the fire that tortures him, no matter what he does, I advise him to bath diligently in cold water and to pray whole-heartedly for the lessening of this torment, and this torment will be soon taken away from him; but any other way to quench it comes from evil and creates evil, but the evil is a sin and creates more sins.
9
At the same time all parents should be very concerned with not presenting their adult children with the dangers of attraction! For a flammable material can easily catch fire; but once the flames attack from all sides, the fire can often no longer be stopped, and there is no flame that does not claim a victim! When it is put out the damage that it has caused is soon seen.
10
Therefore particularly the virgins should be well dressed but never dressed to attract, and the young men should not give in to idleness; for idleness is always the producer of all vices and sins.
11
But whoever has taken a proper wife is bound to her until death, and Moses" letter of separation does not cancel out adultery before the order of God, if such a man then married another wife; but if the divorced wife marries, she also commits adultery. In brief, whoever marries again after a divorce is an adulterer, but whoever does not marry is not an adulterer.
12
But if the marriage is spiritually broken by him who sees a woman who is already married and harbors in his heart the plan to lead her to adultery through all sorts of tricks, even if the act is not actually carried out.
13
But if you see the attraction of your neighbor"s wife and let yourself be affected, you have committed adultery; for in this way you have made your neighbor"s wife into a whore and have whored yourself. And it is a great and crude sin before God and before mankind, even if you have produced fruit with the other wife. But naturally the evil is much greater if you have casually whored with your neighbor"s wife for the sake of blind and mute lust. Such sinners will only with difficulty partake in heaven."