The Great Gospel of John
Volume 7
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
The Lord on the Mount of Olives. (cont.) Gospel of John, Chapter 8
- Chapter 31 -
The fifth commandment.
Said Helias: "O Lord, as previously, I say now: Whoever does what You want, is verily not sinning! And as such I take the fifth commandment of Moses and say: It is written: 'You shall not kill!' I just take the simple law for my critical consideration and for the time being am not concerned about the explanation which Moses and also another prophet had given; since a truly divine commandment must in its simplest form contain what is useful for any reasonable person. But this commandment does not contain this at all, and therefore a thinking person can not possibly say and state anything else, other than that this is either a human product or, - only later for the sake of making war - that something has been left out by someone.
2
You shall not kill! Firstly, who is actually "you", who should not kill? Is this applicable for every person irrespective gender, age and social standing or only for the male gender and for a particular age and for a particular social standing? And secondly: Whom or what should actually not be killed? Only people or also animals? According to my judgement neither one or the other is meant by it.
3
Not the killing of people, since Joshua already had destroyed the city of Jericho and killed all citizens on the instruction of Jehovah. The slaughter of the idol priests by the hand of the great prophet Elias is well known. Then let's look at King David, the man after the heart of God, not even thinking about all the others! How many thousands and hundreds of thousands have been killed by him and how many are still being killed each year! The mighty of the earth have still, despite the complete categorically proclaimed divine law, the fullest right from God, to kill their fellow man. And as such, this law only concerns the oppressed, poor human devils. To what extend this law also concerns women, cannot be estimated, although it can be shown in Chronicles, that women also have used the sword, and how!
4
If we poor people should not kill animals, is, from my point of view, not even worth discussing; since nature teaches man, that he without difference of social standing, gender and age must protect himself against the many dangerous animals, if he does not want to be attacked, torn to pieces and be eaten by savage beasts which have proliferated everywhere .
5
You shall not kill! But if I were attacked by a wild way robber, who wants to rob me and will surely kill me, - but I, as the one being attacked, have the strength, courage and a weapon to kill him in the moment he delivers the final death blow, - what should I do? Self defence should have been expressed in the law where it says: 'You should not kill, except in case of extreme self defence!' But no, the law does not mention one syllable about that! It very simply says: 'You shall not kill!' But if the simple law reads like this, where is the divine love and wisdom contained therein, who must have actually known, under which surely extremely sorry circumstances the people on this earth have to go through?
6
Why did God give such a law and then He Himself instructed David, to completely annihilate the Philistines and Moabites? Why was Judith allowed to kill Holofernes, and why I am not allowed to take without sin someone's life? Who gave the Egyptians, the Greek and the Romans the right to kill everyone who in an extreme manner sins against their law?"
7
Here she turned around to see the reaction of her criticism in the faces of the others.
8
Nearly all agreed with her and one of the Pharisees who also was a scribe, said: "Yes, yes, regarding this matter and viewed with our human concepts, one can not completely disagree with this beautiful child; since literally taken this is what this main commandment actually means, although later on in the book of Moses it has been explained how this commandment is to be taken and to be held. But a primitive main- and basic law should verily contain the essentials for which it stands, at least with the most necessary incidental circumstances already expressed within; since each subsequent and additional explanation and greater completion of a law once given, appears to say that the legislator during the proclamation of the basic law, did not think of everything, what he actually intended to achieve by the commandment.
9
Now, if people make laws, this is understandable, since in their thinking and intentions there can be no clear divine perfection, and therefore it is completely natural that with human laws, all sorts of additions and explanations start to appear afterwards; but with a truly divine law verily no gaps are supposed to appear, requiring all kinds of additions and explanations! Yes, considering the matter in this way, regarding the law of Moses one can verily get the idea, that it is either no divine law at all, or that it has been badly disfigured by the selfish evil will of people. However, having said this, I do not want to judge the law, but only expresses my surely still very blind opinion."
10
Said I: "Yes, for sure; since when you judge My laws with human sense, then surely you must find gaps and shortcomings therein. If you love your neighbour as yourself, you will not hate him, not treat him with hostility and not harm to him; but if you do this, even less so would you try to ever kill him, either physically or even to a lesser extend emotionally by all kinds of nuisances.
11
You shall not kill! This is absolutely correct and true stated in the law. But why? Because since primeval times under 'kill' is understood, jealousy, enviousness, rage, hatred and revenge.
12
'You shall not kill!' therefore means: You should not envy anybody, you should not look at the more fortunate with askance eyes and you should not burn with anger against your fellow man; since anger breeds hate, and from hate arises the evil revenge destroying everything!
13
It also is written: "Mine is the anger and Mine is the revenge, says the Lord."
14
But you people should respect each other in all love, and one should do good to the other; since you all have in Me one Father and are therefore equal before Me! You should not annoy and curse each other and the one should not through bad lies cut off the honour of the other; since who does that, kills the soul of his fellow man!
15
And see, all that is in shortly expressed with 'You shall not kill!' And the first Jews, also during the times of Solomon, did not understood this law any other way, and the Samaritans as the old Jews, still understand it today in the same manner. If this law from its foundation is understood only like this, - how can anyone assume that through this law man is forbidden to defend himself against evil people and even savage animals?"
16
Said Helias: "Yes, Lord, we all surely understand this now quite properly, since You have explained it to us in the most perfect and most true manner; but without this Your most merciful explanation, we would not be able to understand it so easily. Why did Moses not immediately give such an explanation together with the law? Since he as a prophet must have seen this coming that the later Jews would not understand this simple image of the law, as the Jews of his own time understood it."
17
Said I: "Yes, you My dear critic, Moses surely new this, and therefore he wrote down a large number of explanations for the future; but that you haven't read them yet, is not the fault of Moses nor Me.
18
But your criticism was still very good, since you identified the shortcomings and gaps, which indeed do not exist in the law, but more so in your understanding, and in order to level them, I allow you to criticise the old law of Moses.
19
And since we in this way have purified the fifth commandment, you can start with the sixth commandment and also show us certain shortcomings and gaps, if you have identified any. And so speak!"