THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN
VOLUME 5
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
Jesus in the region of Caesarea Philippi. (cont.) Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 16
- Chapter 100 -
The blessing of the Roman reign for the Jewish people.
Stahar says, "As it seems to me then, you believe firmly in his divinity?!"
2
Floran answers, "What should mislead me then?! Did God not make great signs in the days of Moses?! But if a person here, equipped with the highest wisdom, does such never-heard-of things that are possible only for the divine omnipotence "what should then hold me back from regarding such a person as being fully filled by the true spirit of God and considering him directly to be the only true God?! My opinion, my acceptance and my faith founded on these things stand firmer than the unthinkably old pyramids of Egypt!
3
But I now do not only believe that things are so and not otherwise, but I am also convinced in my innermost fibers of life, and nothing can make me waver any longer in such a most living conviction of mine, and you, fickle Stahar, least of all!
4
In this respect I can even call out like the Roman heroes with the best conscience in the world: SI TOTUS ILLABATUR ORBIS, IMPAVIDUM FERIENT RUINÆ! [Even if the whole world crumbles the intrepid will dominate the ruins . editor.] For I know what I see and what I believe, and I am therefore no wind vane and no reed in a pond full of mud and swamp. But I have indeed become a marble cliff in the sea on whose hard forehead hurricanes and huge waves must surely crash!"
5
Stahar says, "Even the divine judgments of the temple in Jerusalem?"
6
Floran says, "Whoever has this Lord and Master and the rulers of Rome as their shield, has no fear of the so-called divine judgments that God never set in place. Truly, no fear, no matter how little, could befall me at Jerusalem's greatest threats "even all the thunderous curses of the high priest went in one ear and out the other, leaving no trace! For whoever walks during the day, does not need to fear the terrors of the night, in my opinion, and so I also have no fear of the temple in Jerusalem!
7
If you compare this teaching which is as bright as the sun with the statutes of the temple, which I know only too well, you will recognize at the very first glance that the highest spiritual day rules this teaching, and the highest spiritual night the temple. Yes, those who still belong to the night will still have a lot to fear, namely the death of their souls; but at most the death of the body awaits me, which is actually no death at all!
8
But the eternal life of my soul cannot be robbed of me by anyone; for I see and feel it already most livingly in myself and I also perceive the eternally incalculable advantages of such life. But if I therefore do not feel the slightest fear of the secession of the body, how should I then feel any fear of the so-called divine judgments of the temple?! Therefore I say and remain most actively firm in this matter: Whoever walks in the day, does not need to fear the terrors of the night!"
9
Stahar says with a meaningful, very temple-like dark face, "Why and how can you name the place night where the Scriptures and the word of God is taught to the people?!"
10
Floran says, "The Scriptures, which we both as "let's say "scribes understand as little as one who never got to see them, and the supposed word of God put together out of sheer base human interest I know only too well. Therefore do not mention a single syllable more of that to me! What miracles have we then achieved through the supposed almighty word of God? What else have we got to prove with a good conscience other than simply that we have filled our sacks and money boxes with the free-willed, taxed sacrifices forced through violence and have striven to press every spark of better light in the most arduous way with all means, among which even the worst cannot be found to be too bad?
11
Is it not an outrageous disgrace that we, as the old people of God, have had to allow the heathens to prescribe to us wise laws and state rules? And if these had not come to lead us to some more humane and better administration of justice, our nation would now find itself in such a disorder that there could be no more pitiful one even among the wildest animals.
12
What was our law then before the Romans? Nothing but the blindest arbitrariness of every person who had acquired any kind of power of his own in whatever manner!
13
Take a rich man, he proposed something just yesterday; but today he regrets it because in his opinion the offer he had submitted was not of real advantage for him. He became angry about it, firstly punished his advisor, then everyone who had observed the law of the previous day; for they should have gone and thrown themselves in the dust before the law-giver and made him aware of the fact that the law given was laid down more to their benefit than to his! But whoever had said to the powerful one: Listen, you powerful and most wise ruler, the law you gave should not be followed! And if it is followed, then you and all your subordinates will perish thereby; for this law stems from a treacherous and malice advisor who certainly has been bribed to do this by one of your jealous neighbors! What happened then? He who had drawn the attention of the ruler to such a lacking or mistake in the law was taken to the most severe punishment because of shameless audacity; the evil advisor was also punished, and those who were known to have observed the bad law were also held accountable, and that often even before a new law had been announced. How do you like such a legal system?
14
But before the Romans the great land of the Jews had a number of such small rulers, each of whom was a veritable tyrant to his small crowd languishing in the greatest physical and spiritual affliction, and he terrorized them on a daily basis according to his mood and according to his willfulness that was responsible to no-one else at all. Were the Romans then not true messengers from heaven when they came with great power and drove out all the hundreds of most unscrupulous small rulers?! Then they gave reasonable and constant laws, under which everyone was the lord of his own goods; he paid his moderate taxes and could then go after his trade unrestricted, however he pleased "it goes without saying "on the path of legality.
15
We know that the temple was no friend of the Romans, nor is it today, and the reason is also not unknown to us; for the powerful Romans also demanded from the temple their tribute, while previously the small tyrants paid tribute to the temple, so that their priests kept the people in darkness and always preached to them the very most unconditional obedience.
16
Oh, when have we ever heard the Jews preach of an unconditional obedience towards the rule of Rome? The people are indeed told that the Romans are a whip in the hand of God which one must allow to happen; but the hundred most terrible tyrants who tortured the poor nation worse than the devil were no whip of God, but instead sheer angels of scrutiny sent by God. Whoever opposed them was immediately declared an adversary of Jehovah and damned.
17
Oh, those were certainly happy times for the temple, from which the Lord may protect the poor humanity forever in the future! The divine laws of the temple are a small, but still an adequately evil remainder, of which I now have no fear at all "all praise to the Lord alone!; for I am now the Lord's and Rome's, and that is enough to be allowed to never quake at the threats of the temple! Are you satisfied with this explanation?"