The Great Gospel of John
Volume 1
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
Back in Nazareth
- Chapter 106 -
A righteous man gives a good and true testimony of the Lord in the Synagogue. Comments on the personal and public life of Jesus of Nazareth - His life, deeds and teaching. The Pharisees' heated reaction. The man's renewed attack on the Pharisees' wickedness and his testimony to the Lord's Deity, causes the accused's furious departure. The believers try to elevate Jesus to teacher and high priest.
Here a reputable man from the Capernaum area steps up and speaks, 'Highly esteemed servants in Jehovah's Temple at Jerusalem! The Jesus about Whom you have queried us was so to speak born in this city, having always behaved in a most proper and thoroughly God-fearing manner! One saw him pray often and at great length; no one has ever seen Him laugh, but rather weep in secluded places that He frequented often.
2
From earliest times in His life already, the most peculiar things were happening; and now, having taken to travelling as a proper physician without equal upon earth, He is accomplishing through the mere Word healings which Jehovah alone can accomplish!
3
In comparison, all deeds from Moses onwards till our time can be regarded as next to nothing! Cripples, totally withered for many years, He makes whole instantly; every fever, ever so intense, has to bend to His Word; and the dumb, deaf and blind from birth speak, hear and see like unto any of us! The most advanced leprosy He chases away instantly, from the possessed He casts out legions of devils by the mere Word and He calls out to the dead and they rise, eat and drink and move about as though there had never been anything wrong with them! Similarly He commands the elements and they obey Him as if His most faithful and ready servants!
4
His teaching in general can be summed up thus, love God above all and your neighbour as yourself, in deed!
5
Since He does however perform such deeds, proclaiming the purest teaching to His disciples, we are taking Him for an extraordinary prophet Whom Jehovah, as He once did with Elijah, has sent us from the heavens, in our greatest extremity! This is all that I and many others know of this glorious Jesus and we can't thank God enough for having once again thought of His poor and exceedingly troubled people.
6
Many hold Him to be the great promised Anointed of God! I myself however am neither for nor against this, but would ask whether Christ, Who is to come, shall perform greater works once?'
7
Says the priest, 'You speak the way a blind judges colours! Where is it written that a prophet shall be called out of Galilee?! We tell you that this your Jesus is nothing but an evil magician who should be consumed by fire! His teaching however is a mask behind which he hides his blasphemous nature! He performs his wonders not through God but the devils' chief - yet you blind ones take him for the Promised one even! Truly, you are for this worthy of a fiery death with him!'
8
But the man takes up an imposing stance and says, 'Indeed, as far as you are concerned, if we were not Galileans and I myself fully a Roman and if you yourselves were still masters instead of the Romans, we would have been burnt long ago! But fortunately your glory with us Galileans had long since come to an end! We are fully Roman subjects and hence have nothing more to do with you, other than perhaps show you the way out of Galilee once and for all, should you dare to lay hands on even the least of us Romans!
9
But in relation to our great prophet Jesus I tell you yet more, beware of a temptation to lay your evil hands on him in this country!
10
Because to us verily He is a God; He has done things in front of us which can be possible only to God!
11
A God Who does good to poor mankind must be a right and true God! A god like yours however who can be appeased only with gold, silver and all sorts of other fat sacrifices, doing next to nothing in response to long and exorbitantly-priced prayers, is like yourselves, who call yourselves his servants, evil through and through and deserves like yourselves to be tossed out of the country.
12
You say Jesus is a ravenous wolf in sheep's clothing! What then are you?! Truly, you yourselves are in fullest measure just what you say of Jesus, a man of lamb-like devoutness!
13
With friendly mien you hear our complaints, but deep down you plot for us complainants the dastardly revenge and if it were possible, wipe us out with Sodom's fire from the heavens! But not to worry, you evil brood of vipers and scorpions! Here we Romans are the masters and shall know how to show you the way from here to Jerusalem, if you don't get yourselves going immediately on your own accord!'
14
This talk had of course cast the three scribes into the most glowing fury, but they did not dare to come up with anything else in front of so numerous a crowd and hence now tried to make off through a small back door and more exactly for the road to Capernaum, where most of the Jerusalemite Pharisees and scribes were want to stay, abandoning themselves unhindered to every imaginable vice and fornication and every possible racket.
15
When the three had so to speak cleared the Synagogue, one other came forward, thanking the speaker on behalf of all spokesmen and individual complainants present, adding however and saying, 'If we don't do as the Samaritans did, we shall not be left in peace by these beasts! Their names shall have to be more odious to us than Gog and Magog and Jerusalem a place to piss on, otherwise we shall not be rid of this plague, worse than pestilence!'
16
All chimed in with him and said, 'If only our miracle-working Jesus could now be located, then He should have to come along at once and we could make Him our only true teacher and High priest!'
17
Says the speaker, 'I am all for it, yet we should first have to ask the Roman governor whether it is all right with him. Because the Romans don't have it all that easy with our priesthood, because the Temple is supposed to be constantly in touch with the Roman Emperors secretly!'
18
All agreed to this suggestion, gradually leaving the hall where the Synagogue (meeting) was held.