The Great Gospel of John
Volume 1
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
New events in Kis
- Chapter 236 -
At the meal. Faustus' praise of Jesus' teaching. Faustus' love for Lydia. The Lord as middleman. Lydia's loving acceptance. Faustus' memorable dream about the glorious Father in Jesus. 'What God has joined, man should not sunder. Marital hints.
The Chief and the assistance Judges, together with Kisjonah, Baram, Jonael, Jairuth and Archiel, now come with Me to the dining room, and at a half hour past sunset, partake with Me, and all Mine, of a well prepared and abundant meal whilst the Chief Justice, a single man, finds great pleasure in Kisjonah's eldest daughter, saying to me, 'My most esteemed friend, you know how much I always loved You, notwithstanding our religious or theosophical differences, because I found in You no sly or one-sided Jew, but rather a most frank and liberal one, yet also a man of many sides, and well informed in every science.
2
I therefore confide to You that Kisjonah's daughter pleases me immensely. Notwithstanding, I am as You know a Roman and she would undoubtedly be a Jewess, who is not allowed to give her hand to a pagan, as the Jews call us. Tell me, friend, what is there to be done here? Could she not become my wife under any circumstances? Let me have Your solution.'
3
Say I, 'You are a Roman and she is a Greek and no Jewess, and hence, from the point of view of nature, nothing stops you from seeking her as a wife from Kisjonah, who shall also certainly give her to you. But the fact that, spiritually, she and the entire household is now Jewish, in accordance with My teaching, of which you are not ignorant, shall it be no bone of contention for you?'
4
Says the Chief Justice, named Faustus Caji Filins, 'Why should it. Am I not in my heart one of the most fervent adherents to Your most purely godly doctrine? For in my view, a god Who knew how to build a world and then call a whole range of beings into life thereon, including man himself in the end, must be exceedingly wise. If such God were to give man a doctrine, then he could surely give no other doctrine - I say - to His humans, than a most wise one, as should be in the most precise harmony with nature and with the sustaining principle among men.
5
Now then, Your doctrine is imbued with such spirit and character and is therefore perfectly divine, wherefore I have accepted same for my very life as completely true, and hence also accordingly act the preacher to my entire household, and to all my many subordinate officials. If indeed so, then that leaves only the father's consent.'
6
Say I, 'Well, this you have already, together with beautiful Lydia's love. Behold, behind you, the thoroughly happy Kisjonah, who can hardly help himself for joy at the honor his house is encountering!'
7
Faustus takes a look behind him, and Kisjonah says, 'Lord and commander over all our Galilee and Samaria. Can it be that you desire my Lydia as wife?'
8
Says Faustus, 'Indeed so, as the only one among thousands, if you will give her to me.'
9
Kisjonah calls Lydia, same coming over visibly embarrassed with love and great joy, Kisjonah saying to her, 'Well, dear daughter of mine, would you be blessed with this glorious man?'
10
And Lydia, eyes to the ground, says after a while, 'How could you still ask? When this glorious Faustus arrived today and I saw him for the first time, I heard the words in my heart: 'How blessed must be this glorious man's woman', and now that he desires me, should I encounter him with a 'no'?'
11
Says Kisjonah, 'But what shall your beloved Jesus say to that?' Says Lydia, 'His we all are. He is the Creator and we His creatures, whom He is now making into real children. Notwithstanding, he remains in my heart's depth of all depths.'
12
At this Faustus' eyes bulge, fully astonished at this unexpected testimony of Me by Lydia, 'What, what, what do I hear? Should a recent dream I had, turn out to have true meaning? I saw all of heaven open; all was light, all countless beings light, and at the depth I saw You, You my friend Jesus, and all beings tarried impatiently for a sign from You, in order to instantly proclaim Your commands throughout infinity!
13
At that time I thought to detect Zeus in Your countenance, which far outshone the sun in brightness, and it took me by surprise that You should resemble Zeus to such extraordinary degree; and since that time I secretly took You to be an earthly son of the prime deity, which however Identified with the Jews' Jehovah and the Indians' Brahma, taking all other gods to be just His earthly children resembling You, which He procreated with the earth's daughters intermittently for the purpose of providing men with earthly leaders, teachers and enliveners from such sons!
14
But now this dream takes on an entirely different hue; You Yourself are the living Zeus, Brahma or Jehovah, carnally among us, teaching us personally Your divine wisdom, probably because your former children on this earth taught it wrongly, not properly applying same in action.
15
Since unquestionably so, I am receiving this most beautiful woman by the hand of my very God, my Creator, and hence do not need to ask whether I shall be happy with her!
16
But my desire has now taken on a much different aspect. Most beautiful Lydia, behold the Lord! Now it is not up to our mutual desire, but up to the most holy will of this One and Only, this Lord of all glory, this God of all gods, out of Whom went forth all heavens, sun, moon and this earth with us all!
17
You, my godly Jesus, in the fullness of Truth! If it is agreeable to You that Lydia becomes my wife, then she is my wife; should it however be displeasing to You in the least, then say so, and my life shall be no more than the active expression of Your will.'
18
Say I, 'My most noble brother! I have already blessed you, and therewith you are fully one body; remember this however:
19
What God has joined, no man should sunder, and thus a true marriage remains indissoluble for all eternity. A false worldly bond is no bond before God in any case and therefore can be dissolved like worldly men and all their bonds, which are nothing but plain whoring in advance, through which Satan's children are brought into miserable being. You two hence are now fully husband and wife, and one flesh before God, Amen!'
20
With these My words the two embrace, and greet each other with a kiss.
21
It speaks for itself that this sudden union created quite a stir through Kis, whilst Kisjonah was in contemplation of an ample dowry.