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 53 -
Roklus justifies the formation of the Essenian order.
Roklus, somewhat concerned, says, "Friend, no crime, however committed, makes my conscience fear! I have always lived very strictly according to the law; what should make my hairs stand on end? But if our institute is such an abomination in the eye of God that can never be seen by man, whose existence I certainly can no longer deny after everything that I have heard from you, then the all-knowing, all-seeing and all-powerful, highly wise God should then have some means through which He could very easily prevent the establishment of such institutes! We and our forefathers however have never felt either before or during the establishment of this institute any obstruction from any side; also the government, to whom the plan was openly presented, approved in all willingness the establishment of this institute, which seemed most useful to them and us agreed most faithfully their silence for all time and also promised to protect and cover us with weapons when necessary. The people, for whose visible well-being the institute was created, also raised no objection. Therefore there was no contradiction from either side, neither from the divine nor from the governmental and civil, and it was therefore purely impossible to sin against anyone's will with the establishment of this institute, and we members of this institute can therefore step before the eyes of everyone and even of a god with quite calm conscience, and I truly do not know why you should make my hairs stand on end!
2
You are indeed in possession of a particular power, according to your words, in the end you are the one who preformed this miracle, you can perhaps wake the dead simply through your words and will, as in our city the tale has come of a Nazarene who is able to do such a thing before the eyes of all the world, which I do not doubt very much; for the people are inwardly spirits of very different sizes, and there soon one invents either of himself or through an accident something which millions before him and millions with and after him have absolutely no idea, and he practises it and often puts half the great Earth in the greatest amazement. And our institute cannot be paid with any gold to find such an inventor and make every effort to win him over and to make his individual inventions into the common good for man!
3
We Essenes will never persecute a person of extraordinary qualities or lay obstacles in his path, but instead we give him all possible assistance and try to win him over for us, which has already succeeded many times. The whole institute as one man insists on no harm coming to him! You see, this is how we think, stand and act, without any regard to any reward either on this side or on the other! We do what we recognise to be good according to a general council, for its own sake! Before which judge should we then shiver?
4
Are you in the end that wonderful Nazarene himself? That is also good, and actually even better; for then we will get to know the man or the youth in the end ourselves, about whom we have heard already so many extremely extraordinary things! Only you seem to me a little too young for the Nazarene, who according to the description is supposed to be at least thirty years old! But that doesn't matter, you do not need to be the famous Nazarene at all; for you also possess a very active and ambitious spirit, you have been everywhere and have been able to gather all sorts of experiences. Why should you not have been able to also achieve skills of whose size I can have no idea? Oh, I am not in the least jealous of you! Nor do I deny that there could be also true miracles as well as our false one; for there must always have been true miracles before the false ones, otherwise the false ones could not easily have ever been invented by the people. But there is just one thing that I will not agree with you on, that we ever wanted to achieve anything recognisably evil with our false miracles.
5
Certainly, we did not know that through such deceptive miracles the moral sphere of the soul of a person must be totally destroyed, which is a great evil for the people; but we were atheists one and all and could have no other sphere of happiness before us except the earthly one, since we did not believe in a life after the death of the body, at least not in any self-aware one! But what distracts us from the existence of a divine being and had led us to the fullest atheism I have already presented to you in the most reasonable possible vivid way PER LONGUM ET LATUM and now believe that I am standing before you, even if you were God Himself, as purely as possible.
6
There is no secret ill point of conscience in my innards, and so I stand here quite courageously before you! I do not fear death, although I am truly no friend of pain and suffering. What could you use to make the hair stand on end of a man who can say about himself: SI TOTUS ILLABATUR ORBIS, IMPAVIDUM FERIENT RUINÆ! [Even if the whole world would collapse the intrepid will stand on the ruins.] Let's rather remain good friends and support each other in everything good and true, which must certainly make all the people pious in any case, and then as far as I can see we will not need to frighten each other! By the way, however, you may do as you will, the world will never become better in general than as it is now and always was!
7
But I would prefer now most of all to move away with my companions! For I have just noticed several Pharisees here, and "forgive me, friend! "I encounter them very unwillingly, because they are against all progress EX DIAMETRO. I will leave you to all the further explanations and efforts! I now know what I am made of and how I have to direct myself spiritually in order to achieve eternal life from God; I do not need anything more for the time being, and the further explanation of the miracle of this house I will leave to you as well, although I would have heard it very fundamentally! But the many Pharisees, even the leader from Caesarea Philippi here as well?! Oh, we will soon make ourselves disappear!"
8
Raphael says, "Oh, you can remain despite these people; for these are little more Pharisees than you are! Whoever walks here is a pure person except for one who is tolerated here because of the Scriptures. Thus you no longer have to fear the Pharisees present! Tell me something about it and I will give up frightening you! Do you want that?"
9
Roklus says, "Why not? I do not know much, it is true; but what I know has head, hands and feet and deserves all belief. Only I ask for a very little patience for me to gather myself!"