The Great Gospel of John
Volume 4
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
Jesus near Caesarea Philippi (cont.)
- Chapter 150 -
The souls of the two victims in the afterlife.
1
(Mathael:) "It did not take long and I saw something like a grey human skeleton floating slowly on the surface of the water, accompanied by very strange looking black ducks. There number was about ten. Only the feet, but only below the ankles, had a little meat on; everything else was skin and fleshless bones, which appeared highly odd to me. In the beginning the floating skeleton had its face turned upwards; but after about an hour it turned around, started like a skilful swimmer to work with hands and feet and seemed to defend itself against the black ducks. However, they were persistent and did not want to let go of the gruesome looking swimmer.
2
In this way the puzzling figure drifted for an hour around the surface of the pond in all direction, sometimes faster and then slower again, even dived a few times beneath the surface and appeared again. I would have taken this monster for a water animal, if my father also could have seen it; but despite exerting his otherwise very sharp eyes to the extreme, he nevertheless couldn't see anything, which had me to believe that the floating dead skeleton must have been something unnatural, thus soul-like and spiritual. After an hour it was completely still, and the black ducks acted as if nipping some last pieces of flesh from the skeleton.
3
Since nothing happened of any importance, we returned to our monkey, who just started to get up and tried to stand on the two hind legs and even to walk shakily. But the walking went badly. Every five steps the being sank on its front legs to the ground, but quickly got up again and all the time was looking around in all directions, and from the appearance of eagerly looking around one could conclude that the being was afraid of something or that it was extremely hungry and was looking for some suitable food. With these walking- and standing efforts it came to our already mentioned pond. There it soon saw our skeleton which floated around the pond in the society of the uncanny ducks.
4
When our monkey, or the soul of our fatally injured boy, saw the skeleton, it yelled a loud whistling cry and observed the skeleton with a peculiar attention. After about half an hour it stood erect just like a human and I could clearly discern the words in a kind of lisping voice: 'This was the unfortunate father of my bad body! Woe him and me; since the wrath and judgement of Jehovah has caught up with us! I still can be helped; but how can he be helped?'
5
Here the monkey paused and showed a very sad face, while in the pond the black ducks still quite cheerfully kept teasing and chasing the skeleton which was not expressing much life. This state again continued for half an hour and at that opportunity all the people had left, except for a few Romans and Greeks, who however were consumed in a business discussion and did not at all took note of our quiet observations.
6
My father was asking me whether I could see anything else. I said no and said shortly: 'Not the slightest!'
7
Then my father said that we should go, since everything notable and see-worthy was taken note of and anything further Jehovah will undertake with those souls, should not concern us.
8
But I said: 'Father, we already spent three hours with those two souls and do not have gained anything except a quiet, sad spectacle before my eyes; let us spent therefore another hour, - perhaps something interesting will still come up!' The father was with my recommendation quite content and we stayed. After a few moments of this exchange the matter suddenly became a different face.
9
The monkey suddenly full of rage stood completely erect, jumped onto the surface of the water and started to catch the uncanny ducks, and woe for each he managed to catch! In a split second it was torn into a thousand pieces! Except for five he had them all destroyed; the other five, however, flew away.
10
After these evil ducks disappeared in this way, the monkey lifted the skeleton out of the water and placed it about five steps away from the pond on a quite nice piece of lawn where I could see them and he said: 'Father, in your great poverty, can you hear my voice, can you hear my word?' And the sitting skeleton nodded with the apparent skull and by doing so gave to his son a clear indication that he was able to understand him.
11
And the monkey who increasingly took on a more human appearance, stood up as if he had a lot of power and said with a voice which was now very perceptible to me: 'Father! If there is a God, there can only be a good and just God! This God does not curse nobody; since if man is a product of this God, he could not be a botch-up, but only a masterpiece! However, if there would be a master who in all seriousness curses his work, he would be standing below the worst bungler; since even a bungler does not curse his own work, but regards its as something good. And God as a grandmaster of all masters should be able to curse His own work?
12
Cursing and condemnation is an invention of people as a result of the blindness and lack of education of the human nature. The lapses which are committed by a developing person, are tries for the independent becoming person how to use his freedom of will, and the actions of man are an exercise for determining his own destiny in the sphere of recognition as well as in the sphere of the free will in a certain order, which is set through all the endless rows of the great creation of the one wise Creator, and that only in such an order an existence of the beings for temporary and everlasting is and can be conceivable.
13
The curse of man is an evil piece from his dark side; they destroy themselves and their fellow people and finally cast entire nations into the biggest misery, biggest despair and in all desperation. You, my poor earthly father, was killed by the tenfold curse of the high priest, although you have made yourself not worthy of a curse by God. In your biggest despair you have taken your own temporal bodily life and now you are here as a saddest product of a pure human god-haughtiness; but perhaps I have received mercy from God and the necessary insight and power, to remove the tenfold high priest curse which tormented you in the form of the black water birds, and now you are in the open and on dry land. But I will do now everything possible, to help you in your great misery and poverty, as much as my life's strength allows me to!'
14
During this speech the former monkey man took on more and more of a human form, and at the end of the speech the person had fully developed into a quite graceful human form and was dressed like from the air with a light-grey pleated dress. Next to him something was lying on the ground wrapped in a cloth. The now quite beautiful boy unpacked it and took out a long, but dark-grey shirt and said: 'Aha, this is a dress for you; allow me to dress you with it!'
15
The skeleton person nodded affirmative, and the boy put the dress onto him in an instant and bound the cloth which was of a little lighter colour around the forehead as a kind of turban, and the skeleton thereby became somewhat of a better look. The now very brave boy grabbed the old man under the arms and wanted to help him to stand erect; but he did not succeeded.
16
After a couple of attempts, the boy, already the size of a youth, called with a penetrative loud voice, which even my father pretended to have heard, but without articulation: 'Jehovah! If You are somewhere, send me and my father some help! He has not sinned but their greatest sin, of those who claim for themselves a divine reputation to draw even more respect and use from the world, have crushed him like a stone falling from the clouds, and now he lies here as a soul condemned by the world! Will he therefore also be condemned forever by You? Give him at least a skin over the apparent bones! Since I feel very sorry for my father's horrible nakedness! Help Jehovah, help!'
17
Upon this call, soon two mighty spirits appeared and touched the skeleton at the temple. In an instant it got tendons, skin, a few hair and - as it appeared to me - also eyes, but very empty and deep seated. However, no one of the two spirits said a single word, and immediately disappeared after this action.
18
Thereupon the now already quite pleased looking boy tried to make the old man stand on his feet; and this time he succeeded. When the old man was standing, the boy asked him if was able to walk. The old man affirmed such with an extremely screamingly hollow voice; but the boy immediately grabbed him under the arms and both moved now towards the south and became invisible to me."