The Great Gospel of John
Volume 1
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
In Jesaira
- Chapter 187 -
Ahab instructed and warned by the Lord. 'To remain silent is better than well-meant lies!' Salvation comes to all nations from the Jews. Comparison of the Jerusalemite Temple with that of Delphi. An instance of oracular dialectics. The Greek's testimony to the Lord. The Gospel of life to the Greeks.
Ahab, the young Pharisee, however, stepped aside from the old ones, being happy that I said such truths to the old ones. But he asked Me in confidence whether he too is such a wickedly possessed one.
2
But I said to him with friendly mien, 'If you were so, you would not ask Me thus. You also have been an arid region for Satan so far; see to it nevertheless that you don't become a fertile field for him! Hence beware of your evil colleagues!'
3
Says Ahab, 'Lord and Master! If only You will not leave me, then the power of hell is sure to have no effect on me! There shall be no lack of zeal on my part!'
4
Say I, 'Go over to them! Let you be strong through your faith and zeal for Me! But see to it that your colleagues don't drive you into a corner, for their devil has a fine nose, and sharp ears for their purposes!'
5
Says Ahab, 'Lord, You are bound to know me better now than I do myself! My cunning is artful and clever; the devil however, it is said, is blind, and hence they shall all see how I have them on the ice. I shall even today put them to the test. I shall now exchange a few sharp words with You, that they may not become aware of what I discussed with You; but You must not bear ill-will towards me for this!'
6
Say I, 'Do as you think fit, but be good, clever and truthful in all things; because a lie, regardless of how good a variety, helps only temporarily, and shortly thereafter gets men into disadvantage and harm!'
7
Says Ahab, 'I am easy, and hence shall say nothing for the present.'
8
Say I, 'That will be better! For to keep silence at the right time is better than a most resourceful lie.'
9
With these instructions, Ahab makes his way back through the crowd to his colleagues, of whom one nevertheless had noticed his conversation with Me. This one at once started to sound him out. But Ahab stood his ground well, to the extent of finding himself praised by the would-be detective.
10
But I turned away from the Pharisees and began to talk to the people. I showed them how it is not pleasing to God to abandon Judaism, because salvation comes to all men from the Jews, and that, as some had done already in their hearts, they should in all truth return to Judaism, or it is not otherwise possible to attain to the childhood of God.
11
Says one Greek, asking, 'Are we hence to once again bend our knees before the puffed-up Pharisees, eating their old, indigestible leaven? Friend, you of a truth are a grand master of the Deity's might and authority, being good, wise and righteous; yet here you are asking something very odd of us. To Moses we have no need to return, as we have never left him in actuality, and in our hearts, the God of the Jews also is our God; the outward name of Jew and Greek surely shall not detract from God's wisdom? Yet to us it nevertheless is a bastion against unremitting hounding and goading by the Pharisees! Why should we again be called Jews and Greeks?!
12
Behold, this is not a very clever demand of yours upon us. What does it matter that besides Moses, we familiarise ourselves also with the wisemen of the Greeks, besides their richly poetic theosophy, whose wise parallel poetry surely is something quite different from the expensive Temple-manure? Particularly since we don't place much store by this, knowing only too well how the Greek and later Roman Gods came into being, and that Jehovah alone is God over everything, Who has created all and maintains and guides everything!'
13
Say I, 'Friend, even though you speak, you have not understood Me, whilst those who understood Me are not saying anything, being Greek as much as yourself. There is of course not much in the name, but in the faith of the heart! But this also has to be taken into account, that it is better to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and to there with proper and intelligent devotion partake of the feasts, than to make a journey to Delphi to ask the foolish Pythia for advice!
14
The immense Temple excesses verily are better known to Me than yourselves, and you heard how I am against them. But with all its evil, the Temple nevertheless is incomparably better than the one at Delphi, whose priests and priestesses are nothing more than fine dialecticians, knowing how to give just that answer to every question which always makes them right in the end!
15
After you had at one stage decided to take a wife, you first made a trip to Delphi, and there for a lot of money asked Pythia whether you shall be happy with the woman you intended marrying. Tell Me, what was the answer?'
16
Says the Greek, 'All right, thus, with the woman you shall be, not unhappy indeed!' And behold, the oracle told me the truth, because I really am happy with my woman.'
17
Say I, 'Behold, the oracle would have been right even if you had been unhappy with your woman!'
18
Says the Greek, 'I don't see how that is possible!' Say I, 'Because you are spiritually blind! Behold, the sentence goes as follows: "With your woman you shall happy be, not unhappy indeed", but if you divide the sentence after the negation, then the oracle is right when you are unhappy; because then, without any alteration to the chain of words, the sentence would go: "With your woman you shall happy be not, unhappy indeed."
19
If nevertheless you don't believe Me, then ask your neighbour, who a year later went to Delphi on similar business, and whether the answer he got is not the same to the dot; yet he is very unhappy with his wife, who is a major scatterbrain. Yet with him, the oracle is just as correct as with you, and yet you highly regard it! Judge for yourself what is better, the Temple at Jerusalem or the oracle of Delphi!?'
20
Here the Greek is wide-eyed, saying, 'Master, now everything is clear to me! This, only God and no man can know. You are either God Himself or a Son begotten of God, but not a son of man like us! Hence we intend turning back to the Temple, although not under the Pharisees' rod, but freely. These Pharisees however must go, for they have too greatly deceived us, relieving us of nearly all our goods, both spiritually and materially! We therefore shall remain pro-forma Greeks, but in truth confessors of Moses and the prophets! We also shall go to Jerusalem annually and visit the Temple; and if same is closed to us, then the hall of strangers remains open to us, which also is part of the Temple!'
21
Say I, 'Do as you think fit; only protect your hearts against falsehood, anger, vengefulness and persecution. Let you be of chaste and pure predisposition; love God truly above all and your neighbours as yourselves; bless those who curse you, doing no harm to those who hate and persecute you; this way you shall be god-pleasing, peaceful, gathering burning coals over your enemies' heads!'