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 41 -
Raphael and the Greeks.
After this remark from Lazarus the Greek turned to the youth (Raphael) and said: "dear boy, the innkeeper has referred us with our concern to you, and that you would give us the right information! What it pertains, you have heard anyway, and therefore you can immediately start to speak!"
2
Said the angel: "My dear people, this cannot happen as quickly as you think! Since it is written in our books which you are also not so unfamiliar with: "The land Canaan is given to the children of Jehovah, and gods will live there." And so you are now in the land of the gods, and as such you are dealing with gods and not with worldly people such as yourself. But if you want to achieve something with gods, you must first learn to asked very seriously, otherwise the gods close their mouths and will not give you any teachings nor any advice. - Do you understand me?"
3
At that the Greek's eyes widened and he said to the youth: "Well, well, my dear, young Jew, it seems that there are some shortcomings with your gods; if you were gods, the Romans would not be able to subjugate you! But this doesn't matter if you as a young probably not very experienced Jew place a lot of emphasis on your old mystic scriptures and fancy yourself to be a god. Therefore I can ask that you to tell me some of your cooking secrets, and thus I request it very seriously!"
4
Said the angel: "Now I will tell you and everyone else even less of our cooking secrets than before, because now you have become even a little rude, and with rudeness you can achieve nothing at all with us gods! Since you people have to behave according to us, and not we according to you, since we can live and exist for ever quite well without you, but you without us, never. - Have you understood?"
5
Said the Greek: "O yes, only too well, and we infer from that, that you as an unbearded youth are a very strange customer! But if you think so much of your divinity, give us an example, and we will know for sure, how we have to deal with you! Since with words alone an ostensible person can never manifest himself as a god, but only by a deed, which would only be possible to a god according to the testimony of experts who are knowledgeable about all kinds of arts and sciences, - did you understand this, boy, who wants to be revered as a god?"
6
Said Raphael: "O yes, but with this kind of empty Greek phrases of wisdom you will achieve nothing with me; because I possess divine power and strength and have therefore no fear from any person and also not from all the people of this earth. He who wants something from me, must ask me first with a serious and a pure and humble heart; but by means of your phrases of wisdom you will get nothing from me. - Do you understand this?"
7
Said the Greek: "Listen, you are quite an unruly boy, and, if you in all seriousness have any secrets, with all human reasoning nothing can be achieved with you, what we already clearly have established! You have rehearsed it quite well, to play a god before the people; just go ahead! If you continue like that, at one stage you will become a very famous man. But if you in all seriousness possess a divine omnipotent nature and at the same time being Jew, you cannot be a friend of the Romans. It would be easy for you to expel all the Romans over night out of this your country of gods. Why do you tolerate their harsh laws?"
8
Said the angel: "The laws of the Romans are hard but at the same time just and now serve the better Jews as protection against those evil Jews, who call themselves Jews, but in their hearts they are no Jews and even less so children of God. And as such the Romans are now our friends and for already a very long time enemies no longer, and keep a good order over the depraved people of this country as well as many other countries, and thus we are rather their protectors than those who want to expel them from this country. But that we also could, if it were necessary, expel the mighty Romans like a gale the chaff from this country, I will give you a little proof thereof, so pay very close attention!"
9
Said the Greek: "Boy, what is it you want to show us or produce from your bag of tricks?"
10
Said Raphael: "Leave your preliminary remarks and judge me only after the performance!"
11
Said the Greek: "Very well; we will judge you after the performance!"
12
Said Raphael: "Very well, judge me after the performance! As I have told you clearly, judge me according to your highly wise Greek reason, and tell me then, what your highly wise reason has to say about this!"
13
Said the Greek: "Very well, give us a small sample, and so we can see if there is anything to it! Since at home in Athens we have many wise people, and hence we Greek are very good in judging between magic and a true divine miracles. Therefore just go ahead with your divine omnipotent little test!"
14
Said the angel: "But be very careful, that you will not run out of your very natural breath!"