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 202 -
The conversation between the captain and the chief.
After this unexpected assurance of the guard, who left the dormitory again, our Herodians were on the one hand very satisfied, but on the other hand there was great unrest in the mind of especially the captain, who was a Greek, and also of the chief, who was a Jew, because immediately more bread and wine was brought while they hardly had expressed their wish.
2
Now the captain said: "Wonders - wonders would so-called be a daily happening here? So there must be some kind of oracle here by which even someone's most secret thoughts are not safe because one or the other Man of wonders makes them loudly known to the one who had those thoughts.
3
If this is so - which seems very probable - then they also will precisely know word for word what we have discussed about the caution that we will observe, and then this caution will not be worth much. For if the men in the main building have directly detected our wish for bread and wine on some magic table, then they just as well and precisely must have heard our first deliberation, and they must have understood it very well, even if we had expressed ourselves in the old Egyptian language.
4
The best thing is that we had no hostile plans, not against the Nazarene, nor against no matter who of His followers. And what concerns Herod, they certainly will agree with our opinion. In short, tomorrow this curious matter will become clear from itself. So let us be optimistic, as the guard said. For according to him, this resort is a resort of salvation and not of curse and its judgment."
5
On this, the chief said: "If it is as you think, captain, we can already assume beforehand that our plan to stay in this bath resort, out of tactical considerations, will not go without problems, and they also will be completely informed about the 4 ships that sank, the 130 drowned soldiers and the true goal of our coming here. How will we justify ourselves if they will call us to account for that?
6
The more I seriously think about it now, the more confused it becomes in my mind, and therefore, the very good bread does not really taste good to me, neither the excellent wine. What do you think captain? Or anyone else of you, what is the best thing we can do now?"
7
The captain said very boldly: "This is again much easier, for if these men know everything, then they also will know that regarding the dumb and proud Herod we brought good arguments beforehand against his hard will until we finally and with obvious reluctance complied with it. And did we not accomplish our task as limited as possible? We very well could have stayed in Tiberias for another couple of weeks on the account of Herod if those fishermen and skippers would not have forced us by their story to break up. For firstly the inhabitants of Tiberias very much wanted to get rid of us, and they certainly forced us by their stories that they probably exaggerated, to perform our duty which they knew. And secondly: if we would not have done that, who knows if they would not have sent a messenger to Herod to smear us as much as possible.
8
Of course, the skippers advised against our quick action because of the hard wind and the falling night - more for their own sake than ours - but out of fear of being betrayed we had to play it courageously and quickly. So we are not guilty of our undertaking, but in the first place Herod, and then the circumstances by which we came now especially in Tiberias. Thus, I am very cheerful and am not afraid for the lords and judges of this resort, even if the Nazarene would be present, which would actually be very pleasant to me, for He must be a very good, righteous and wise Man, as I already heard several times from the people, and with such people it is easy to talk, since we always have an anti-Herod attitude. Do you not all agree with me?"
9
They agreed with the captain, and then they ate and drank in a good mood. Also the chief became more cheerful.