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 196 -
Judas' greed for money. The advantages of sleeping on resting chairs.
1
(Aziona and Hiram) "We both are now already quite in order to believe that you above all are a half-god, and this young man (John) also; the others indeed have not let anything be noticed of their divine characteristics, but there will certainly be such a thing, because they belong to the two of you! Only the one there with a somewhat gloomy manner still has a strongly human appearance and will be among you all only a somewhat better person, because we previously have noticed, when the enemy ship approached our harbor, how much he, being very concerned, tried to hide his money pouch under his undercoat very actively; for gods do not need this rubbish of the Earth!"
2
Here some of the disciples almost began to laugh, and Thomas clapped Judas Iscariot pretty firmly on the shoulders and said, "Good shot, shepherd! Your arrows go straight along the line! That was a blow at the right time! I would have willingly rebuked your ogling with the ship and with that cliff wall over there very loudly; but I thought to myself: Such a thing will perhaps be done by someone else! And correct, I was not deceived in my truly most longing expectation! Look, you could easily have been carried away by a passing bear behind the cliff. If you casually had not been eaten up with the others by some genuine Indian sweet tooth, tomorrow morning you could have made all those valuables over there your own! But now things look a little ominous!
3
Well, because you have only brought your mite at the approaching danger into the dry under the undercoat, so you are in any case to be praised as a good landlord and economist! But you know, a secret collection, like you tried in Kis - you know in the great courtyard there! "and with Mark in the tents of Ouran, will not work here! Yes, this time there is truly no hope for you, poor chap! In your place I would have turned my back on this company long ago!"
4
At this Judas Iscariot actually doesn't know what he can say in return and so he puts everything away calmly; for he has received a great fear of Me at My merciless punishment of the tartars. But he soon laid himself down on the grass and began to sleep.
5
At this Hiram said, "Yes, yes, now I have seen the man very well! He is the same that I saw in my light dream known well to you quite darkly and without any light; you, Lord and Master, however, were the most shining! "But tell me now, you heavenly friends, have you then according to our human beings no sleep and no tiredness? We would now like to look around all sorts of matting that we have and other equipment for rest!"
6
I say, "Oh, leave that all be! We are now resting very well at this table and on these benches now even equipped with good backs. I will even tell you as in a physical and medical respect that people could prolong their earthly life span by a good third if they used good couches and easy chairs like the ones you see here, instead of lying flat in their beds, for the blood circulation varies too much between day and night when a person lies flat. This variation invites already at an early age all kinds of obstructions and changes in the alimentary canal. However, if people slept on chairs, they would remain well for many years.
7
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob slept only in certain arm- and resting-chairs and never used any beds; they were very moderate in everything and lived to a ripe old age, retaining the full vigor of the soul. Yet in later times, when people no longer observed these rules, their life span was reduced by more than half.
8
Those who suffer most from the harmful effect of lying flat are the pregnant women. Firstly, the infants become stunted and weakened already in the womb; secondly, the difficult and often very malformed births are due to the flat position at night. - Let Me tell you this for your physical health! Whoever will turn towards it will feel the physical good consequences of it.
9
Besides, in summertime you shall sleep outdoors whenever possible rather than in the rooms and stuffy huts, - and you will soon feel the good consequences. Only in wintertime can you use the moderately warm, yet always clean and dry rooms. Therefore, he who lives according to the original order and is moderate in food and drink will have little to bother with physicians and pharmacies."
10
Hiram and Aziona say, "Oh you true, divine Lord and Master of life, we owe you also for this a truly never-ending thanks, and we will put your extremely wise advice into action according to our power and insight!"
11
"I would like to add here personally," says Hiram, "The Master of all life must know best what actually is of best use and avail in life! But as once the very first people must have lived on this earth, there is the question in which natural way they lived!"