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 63 -
Roklus and his companions confer with each other.
Roklus and all his eleven companions begin to scratch behind their ears and do not know what they should say to Me now.
2
Roklus goes over and discusses with them in the following way, saying, "I thought this right from the start, when the boy directed me to the Nazarene, that he would insist above all on the annihilation of our institute for the well-being of the people; this seems to annoy the miracle-working Nazarene most of all! But nonetheless he will not drive us into a dead-end too easily with all his theosophical phrases!
3
There seems really to be, however, much truth in his words; but nevertheless he will not easily condemn our well-established institute! Yet I do not want to prescribe to you your actions; you can do what you like "for you are lord masters your own affairs as much as I!"
4
Another, who had come over from Caesarea Philippi in the meantime, says, "Friend Roklus, I have listened to the whole negotiation from the beginning with the most careful attention and observed everything that happened here exactly, and I must now admit to you openly that you are very wrong in your claims, and your spiritual blindness makes me crazy! You speak openly in one way, and secretly you think something quite different! You idolize the famous Nazarene in front of the youth, but in yourself you consider him to be a magician of the oldest and most secret school in Egypt! Yet we know very well upon what all the magic and the sayings of almost all oracles known to us stand!
5
Consider well whether you know a type of magic, with the means of which one can change in an instant a granite stone into the purest gold! This miracle alone makes all of ours turn pale in comparison, ours, which are based on nothing other than on the very purest fraud! Here, however, look at this splendid new house, the garden with its wide boundary wall, the harbor with its ships, look at the number of the most magnificent fruit trees in the garden, the vines full of the most costly grapes! Four hours ago this place was yet a desert and I set foot on it as such, because I had something to do at the lake. Observe the desert now! What a luxury, what a blessing!
6
Can a man create that through some kind of magic, which is of course known through and through to us? I tell you: everything that we previously knew stops here; all our knowledge is lies and fraud, it is completely useless! If we want to exist alongside this man of God in the future, we must most obviously do what the Nazarene advised us in all friendliness!
7
True, I do not belong to your secret council and only joined you a few hours ago; but this I can say to you from my faithful observations, that we with our noble institute of lies and fraud have been found out! It would be the greatest madness here to offer any certain cheek to the God from Nazareth in such circumstances!
8
Moreover we all can see with the most open eyes of the world that all the great Roman dignitaries and authorities are his most intimate friends! He needs only to say to them: Get rid of this institute for me! And we would be nailed for all eternity! But what would happen to us then?! I therefore am of the even very moderate opinion that we should accept and follow what the man of God from Nazareth has advised you in all friendliness!
9
In any case it is a very bad assumption of yours "I tell you this quite openly to your face and without any fear "that you wanted to question the man of God who is here and can be touched with our hands, as if he had only directed you in this way because he sees our institute as a hindering obstacle in his affairs! That is however more ridiculous than ridiculous! And our measly institute is supposed to be a thorn in his foot?!
10
I tell you and all the rest of you as well: as little as we are capable of hindering the moon in its rising, no matter how violently we shout and scream against it, just as little will our empty institute be an obstacle in the way of this all-powerful man of God! He does not even need to blow, but instead only needs to want it a very little, and all our things, like buildings, walls, catacombs and all our magical equipment will become thin air! What will happen to us then? Therefore it is now high time to think about our betterment!
11
Therefore go to Him and say "but faithfully and truly "that you and we all firmly want what He advised you! For we cannot possibly lose anything at this trade-off, if we then direct our institute as it pleases him. Thereby he will become the lord and master of our institute, and we want to be and will be his very most faithful disciples. Don't you all agree with this?"
12
Most of them say, "Quite perfectly "if only He will accept us as His disciples!"
13
The good speaker, who was called Ruban, says, "He will do that, his extremely humanly friendly face tells me so! What do you think then, Roklus, still wanting to spread very foolish things?"