The Great Gospel of John
Volume 8
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
The Lord and His adversaries
- Chapter 94 -
Observation of the starry sky.
When I had said that, all those who were present, who were quite a lot, were immediately willing to spend that hour in the open air, and we stood up and went outside where there was a big free space. All of them were surprised about the countless big stars and praised the almightiness and greatness of God.
2
After contemplating the starry sky for some time, Marcus, the Roman, asked: "Lord and Master, are these, except of a few planets, only suns around which then the planets, moons and also the comets are circling around?"
3
I said: "Indeed, as I have told you already on the Mount of Olives. Still, among those many suns you also can see several central suns where, as you already know, the planetary suns with all their planets are moving around in large circles, and also you can again see the bigger central suns, around which whole sun regions are moving around, and also a couple of central suns, around which whole solar galaxies are moving around in extremely great circles. But it would be of little or no use at all if I would point them out to you now with the finger. However, when you will be awakened in your spirit, the Spirit of the most inner life and all truth will certainly lead you into all the light. And how this is and will be possible, I have on the Mount of Olives already a few times given you clearly to experience it yourselves. Here, I only can repeat that in the house of My Father there are many and big habitations."
4
Marcus said once again: "Lord and Master, I thank you for this lesson. But now I still would clearly like to hear from You where the sun is at this moment. You have shown us indeed, and more precisely in a very wonderful efficient way that all celestial bodies have the form of a round ball, and so this Earth also, but in my young years I was working in the extreme southwest of Spain, and there I saw the beginning of a terribly great sea which was reaching far. With several companions I climbed there on one of the highest mountains on the coast to see if this sea would perhaps just like the Mediterranean Sea still end somewhere. But I was terribly wrong on that, for there was no trace of any end in the far distance. No matter to where we were pointing our sharp eyes to the west, we only could discover water and once more water.
5
From the mountain that I mentioned I saw the sun then also completely sinking into the sea. This confirmed for me also the following: when the sun was sinking down completely into the water, its fire and light faded so completely that, after it was completely set, no trace of twilight could be seen, and from the mentioned appearance we concluded that the sun, the moon and all stars in the far west sank simply literally into the sea, and after 12, sometimes 14 and sometimes - in the middle of the summer - also after 9 hours they would rise again out of the sea somewhere in the very far east.
6
Now the fact that this is in reality certainly very different, I surely know, but the appearance that the sun, when it is apparently going down into the great sea, not leaving any trace of twilight - more specifically during very bright and cloudless evenings - that is surely a bit strange. How can I explain this?"
7
I said: "Well now, My dear friend Marcus. Look, in about a 1.000 years even the children will have a complete correct notion about such appearances, which still seems to be very surprising to you.
8
Look, your world sea has also its limits in the far west, just like any other sea, and there is still another enormous great continent that will be discovered in western direction by the later descendants from Europe. From the northeastern part of the Asian continent it is however already more than 1.000 years ago that it was discovered, and since that time it is inhabited by various people from Asia, among them even the old Phoenicians, Trojans and Greeks.
9
From Europe to the west it will however only be discovered when their ships will be of a better quality than that which your ships have at present time.
10
However, the reason why the sun that you can see from Spain sets in the far west without leaving a twilight behind, especially on clear evenings without a haze, is mostly because of the great and widely extended mass of air through which actually the light of the sun penetrates quite as difficult as it penetrates to the deep bottom of the sea. Wherever it is shallow, you still can see sufficient light on the bottom of the sea, because the light has only to do with a mass of water that is very shallow, but wherever the sea is about 20 to 100 men heights deep, you will not be able to see a soil that is enlightened by the sun. Look, so this is a reason why the sun in the far west of the sea often sets without twilight.
11
The second reason is however that there is often totally no vapor present, for if the rays of the light of the sun encounter practically nothing at all which is close enough to be able to see, and from there are broken and projected further again, then you cannot see them although they still are there. You can discover something similar with the moon, just like with the other planets.
12
Look, the moon and also the other planets are as such quite as dark bodies as the Earth. The light of the sun, a round body, shines in all possible directions, but it shows itself only when it is reflected and it will be visibly present where it falls upon an object from where it is reflected and can be seen by your eyes.
13
When I should place now a big object somewhere at about the distance from the moon to this Earth, you would see immediately that the sun did not go down in the sea of this little Earth, but is floating free in the air, just as during the daytime, and all planets that circle around it will receive its light as well as its warmth. Now what is causing the day and the night on this Earth, as on the other earths that you call planets, I have shown you already more than enough. Therefore, you surely can give up now completely your idea which is from a worldly point of view."
14
Marcus said: "I thank You, o Lord and Master, also for this lesson. Although this is not as exalted as other lessons that we have already received from Your holy mouth, but I consider it also as very important and exalted for us Romans who from a worldly point of view still have many wrong ideas. For when man has wrong ideas about one or the other matter - even if it is only in relation to this world - then he cannot but come to all kinds of errors concerning other, spiritual, matters, for one error leads to another, just as long as the whole man is full of errors and foolishness. But if for someone it has become light - often it is something small - then this light will slowly spread to greater and more important things, and so man comes to true wisdom. Therefore, You, o Lord, also thanks for such lessons which are for us Romans extremely useful."