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 41 -
The egotistical housekeeping of the ancient Egyptians and its poor state.
1
(Raphael) "But later, when the lords of the land became rich to varying degrees through the slave's work, so that some became significantly richer than others, soon envy, quarrel and strife popped up, and then it was seen to be necessary to create civil laws that everyone had to obey; even the Var (Pharaoh = shepherd) was not excluded from this. Then they also soon began to cultivate the slaves so that they were taught impressions "naturally quite dubious ones "of the divinity and so an allegorical personality for every single visible effect that came from God was given, which the slaves had to honour as a divinity. In this way the slaves that had become more powerful became tamer and gentler with time and bore their fate with greater patience; for they feared the invisible rulers very much, because they had come to a sort of conviction through the secret arts of the Egyptians that there were truly such gods and that they should not be joked about.
2
If, as we already said, the slaves had not become powerful "both through the increase in their number as well as through the annually renewed purchases - the ancient Egyptians would never have taught them to recognise any false gods and even less any more genuine gods; only the fear of the raw physical power and strength of the slaves forced the old, very wise Egyptians to teach the slaves some notions of the divinities.
3
But now just consider the situation of the old, wise Egyptians! They were wise and rich; whatever one had and understood, every other understood as well, the same also had riches and had no need at all to serve his neighbour for bread; each only worried about his wealth and his children. As long as the people were younger and stronger, such egotistical running of the household progressed well; but when the people became older and weaker and more fragile, the longing for reward awoke in them. But who was supposed to attend to them? You say: Their children! That would all be fine; but at that time Moses had not yet announced the Commandments of God to the people. According to their inherent laws, however, the children were nothing more than any other free person in relation to their parents. The children served and obeyed their parents only until they came of age. After this they became free and no longer had any responsibility towards their parents; for their pure common sense had created such a wise principle, according to which the children as works of their parents owed just as little as a house owes its builder anything, except that he may live there "but how he does it, is the foreman's and the builder's affair. If the house has been built well, one may live in it well and comfortably; but if the house was built badly and carelessly, it will serve as poor accommodation, for which not the house, but the foreman himself carries the blame.
4
Well, the parents would well have brought up their children so that they would then have served them their whole life long; but the children had also received the five senses through the education by their parents, often more practical than theoretical, and so they became wise egotists like their parents, and the parents were then forced to look around for external servants. These came and served; and the old wise men's pure common sense told them: If we want these people to remain our constant servants, they must not be allowed to learn even the least about our wisdom, otherwise they will become in the end like our children who also do not want to serve us because they have been let in on all our wisdom!
5
For a long time the slaves remained accordingly very foolish and received no other education except for what they had to do as servants and labourers. But the slaves multiplied very much and began to realise their power, which the old wise men secretly began to fear very much! Then the pure common sense of the wise men said: Quickly make people out of them, otherwise they will tear you to pieces like great herds of the most savage animals! Only then did they invent these familiar gods for the feared slaves and had all sorts of miracles carried out by the gods before the slaves. In this way the slaves were intimidated and then willingly served the old Egyptians as their own caste of people with doubled industriousness. Only then in this way did Egypt become extremely prosperous, attracted many foreigners, among whom there were also enviers and traitors, through whom great dilemmas were caused in the later times.
6
You see, those are sheer works of the human, pure common sense which seems to me to be the same as a person who begins to run up a high and steep mountain and can never give up once he has begun the run! You can easily imagine the consequences of this yourself."