The Great Gospel of John
Volume 9
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
The Lord in the region of Caesarea Philippi
- Chapter 162 -
The discussion between the Roman supreme judge and the Greek doctor.
Mow a prominent Roman came, who had listened to the doctor for already some time, and said to him: "Friend, what kind of only true God have you found, for whose almightiness sake you have declared war before your more modest companions against all ancient gods, all men, all furies and devils, against the wild devouring animals, vipers and snakes, and in your fantasy perhaps also against the nature elements? You know the laws of Rome and its strict and relentless preservation, and I am a Roman supreme judge, and I have my men here. What would you say if I now, despite the almightiness of your new God, of whom you know for sure or hope that He will protect you, would nevertheless let you grab by my servants of justice and would throw you in a miserable dungeon? So justify yourself about your new, only true God, or this will happen to you what I have said."
2
Full of manly audaciousness the doctor said: "High judge, you also came here as a sick person, after you first went to all the gods and also to all the doctors, even to me at Melita, and were looking for help for your incurable lung disease. What would you say of someone whom we can see and talk to, who can heal in one moment by the miraculous power of his will, even at a distance, in such a way that you would be as perfectly and permanently healthy as you were never before in your youth?
3
Would you make such person equal to us who cannot help each other anymore, and threaten him with your Roman power of justice? Or would you finally not say to yourself: 'Look, that man is capable of doing what only a God, but never a human being can do. So He must have in Himself also a perfect divine nature and be a divine Being'?
4
Look, we have found such Person. Over there are standing 2 people who were healed by Him this morning on the mountain, only by His will. They brought us the good news. I am a doctor at Melita, as you will know because you yourself visited me a year ago because of my widely spread good reputation, and I have well recognized the incurability of your old affliction, as well as my own bad condition. I have, according to the conviction of my 2 friends, taken up a complete trust in myself of that true God-Man, and asked Him to help me in the same manner as He helped the 2 friends, if He still would maybe blissfully come today to this cure resort, as He had promised.
5
But I hardly had loudly spoken out that wish before my companions of misfortune and place, fully trusting in the miraculous power of that God-Man, when there was as if a flash of lightning shooting through all the fibers of my body. And look, at that same moment I became as completely healthy as I never was before.
6
That God-Man, high judge, about whom I am telling you now, does therefore not only possess the pure godly quality to heal every sickness by the almightiness of His will, but He also knows from a distance the most secret things that you think and feel in yourself, and He can therefore help you from the greatest distance.
7
Can the emperor do that also with all his most brave legions, or our dumb Zeus, Apollo or any other god that is highly honored by you? If they could do that, then we certainly would not have entrusted ourselves in our old and last days to this cure resort of which we have heard many famous wonderful things. Despite all our many prayers and offerings to our gods we did not improve one hair. On the contrary, we became worse from day to day. And this so highly praised institution, in which you are staying already longer than I, has, according to me, not yet visibly improved your condition.
8
Now if my new God, who according to my audacious statement is the only true One and not the one who is invented by the old, selfish and lazy priests, would also help you as suddenly as He has helped me, then what would be your opinion about Him, and what kind of words would you certainly loudly thrust out of your mouth, coming from the deepest of your mind?"
9
Now the judge said: "Yes, if this is the case, then everything has to be seen in a different perspective. I work in Tyre, and I also have heard already many things about a certain miraculous Savior who travels around in the Jewish land, and also that He spreads a totally new religion among the Jews, who receives a great following and who is therefore persecuted everywhere by the Jewish priests and their chiefs, but whom they nevertheless cannot catch. However, about the, according to you, definitely established divinity of Him, I have not heard anything yet.
10
But no matter how, since He recently is staying in this place and even wants to visit this cure resort, I will at that opportunity also be able to know Him better.
11
I know from our supreme governor Cyrenius and his subordinate advisors that they think highly of Him, but I do not know if they also consider Him as a God. This could secretly be so, but they will not talk openly about that, but only among themselves.
12
Thus, I would advise you now as friend to keep it secret a little longer, and only talk loudly about it when more things will appear among the people of your God of truly divine nature, otherwise you could be in serious trouble, especially with the dark priests.
13
I myself am now no more a friend of those lazy and moreover always malicious idol worshippers, for they stole from me many pounds of gold and a lot of pounds of silver, and all this for nothing, completely nothing. But woe the one who would dare to poke into their ancient nests of wasps, hornets and scorpions. I do not have to tell you more."
14
Then the doctor said with glowing zeal: "Friends, with the sure help of my new and only true God I dare to speak out loudly the holy, great and living truth to all men, and they will not touch me. This conviction lives now already deeply in me, although I still did not receive the mercy to see my God and Lord personally. How much greater will be my courage when I will have seen Him and spoken to Him myself. May He quickly come to us now."