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 36 -
Roklus is referred to Raphael.
Cyrenius was so amazed by Roklus' experiences and right assessment of occurrences - in the area of peoples' moral-political state of affairs, their diverse customs and life-styles, their religious cults, as well as in the still broader area of the natural phenomena of all kinds - that he did not know with what solid reason he could reply; all of Roklus' descriptions were based on the steady ground of experiences, against which, strictly speaking, nothing could be argued. Cyrenius was acquainted with priesthood only too well and knew on what kind of ground it carried on its old, dark thing. Besides, he recognized in Roklus a good and extremely unselfish man, who only became an Essenian in order to help the constantly and everywhere suffering people by every means that do not clash with humanity and true altruism towards all people blind through no fault of their own. In short, Cyrenius was constantly more and more taken in by Roklus.
2
All the other present guests could not have been amazed enough by this Essenian's acumen and only regretted on and on that Roklus had still not made My acquaintance. Everyone was now most highly curious about what I will say to all that in the end. But for Me it was still not time to get involved in a kind of negotiation with Roklus because he was still hiding something in his heart which he had not brought up in this very open instance; but Cyrenius would no longer be a match to Roklus for a further pursuit.
3
Hence, I secretly summoned Raphael and also gave Cyrenius the sign to introduce Raphael to Roklus and to tell him that this young man will now further deal with him because he (Cyrenius) holds himself too weak and too inexperienced to put forth for Roklus' most sterling sagacity such counter arguments that they would ruin the atheism of the sharp thinker; but this young man will be able to array for him, Roklus, the most founded counter arguments of which he can be completely assured.
4
Cyrenius then turned once more to Roklus and announced this to him.
5
But Roklus immediately said to Cyrenius, "Dearest, great friend, if you as a wise, old man of royal descent, who has been governing for so long, do not dare to reply to me with the great wealth of your many experiences and knowledge, what will this delicate young man, who apparently is not yet twenty years old, do with me? Or do you consider my reasons too weak and unsubstantial to give me a reply?"
6
Cyrenius says, "No, no, not at all. The situation is exactly as I have made it known to you! First try the young man and then judge! "
7
Roklus says, "Now then, let us see where he found the philosopher's stone!"
8
Thereupon Roklus turned to Raphael who was already standing beside him, "Now, reveal what you understand! If you can destroy my experiences or hit my mind with blindness, then you can find in me a weak reed which is easily bent to all sides by all kinds of winds; if, however, you leave me as I am, you will hardly succeed to reshape me from your experiences! You can hardly have seen more than Rome and everything you came across on the trip here! You certainly were never in Egypt, the land of the old wisdom, and have definitely not learned from experience how many kinds of faith in one or several gods and goddesses different people have, and you want to take on us twelve giants in matters of experience? Alright then, I have nothing against it; we will see how sharp your tongue is! Start out and disprove my purely atheistic reasons, and show me the god who gets along with a person's pure reason and a person's innermost life principle, which is evidently love! But do not come to us with a different god because he will be rejected from the start, since there can be no other and will never be another! If this is alright with him, he can begin to work on us! "