The Great Gospel of John
Volume 10
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
The Lord in the mountain town of Pella
- Chapter 50 -
The Lord drives out 17 spirits from a possessed person.
When I had said that, the heathens who were present were seized by fear and great fright, for they already had great respect for the 5 spirits.
2
But I stood quickly up from My place, went to the possessed one and said with My hand held up: "I want it. So go out of the inward parts of this man, visibly before all who are present, for you have no right to possess and to torment him."
3
Then they shook the man a few times, so that he fell on the ground, but he quickly stood up again when the evil spirits went out of him in the form of little, black crocodiles.
4
However, these looked much more compact and could not lift themselves into the air but crawled around on the ground. They finally directed their mouth at Me and furiously screeched at Me (the spirits): "What have we to do with You? We do not know You and could never go against Your laws on Earth because they never existed. With what right do You want to chastise us now? Why did You chase us out by You superior power of this our habitation that we conquered with difficulty?"
5
I said: "Were you not there when I gave the laws on the Mount Sinai? Who urged you at that time to defy Me, to mock Me, to make a golden calf and then to worship it instead of Me? You were the greatest troublemakers then and convinced many people to turn their back on Me. How then do you say now that I am completely strange and unknown to you and that I never gave you any laws according to which I can now rightly command you?
6
That what happened to you at the time when Moses came in the valley to you, and who in justified zealous anger smashed the stone tables of the law, should also happen to you now. So go away from here, for no salvation will dawn for you for a long time."
7
Then they hurriedly crawled away from us along the steep slope of the hill to a swampy cleft that was densely overgrown with all kinds of weeds, and they howled and screeched wildly.
8
Then the captain said to Me: "O Lord and Master, that cleft will be a disaster for all the inhabitants of this place if You will not purify it from those 17 evil demons, for even I became afraid of these truly bestial spirits. So please let them not stay in that cleft."
9
I said: "Just wait awhile until I am ready with the healed person, then we will see how this cleft can be purified."
10
On this, also the second healed person fell on his knees before Me, thanked Me for the healing of his torment that lasted already several years, and he made then the same confession of faith which his brother had done before. Then he asked Me not to forget the request of the captain, for also he could not look anymore into this dirty cleft without disgust.
11
I said: "A little more of the right patience, for we still will see whether 1 of the 17 will come back in another form and dispute with Me. For also these spirits still have a completely free will."
12
The captain said: "Lord and Master, what is actually the reason that those spirits became visible for us in the form of the very horrible animals that I know? Although the first 5 finally changed their appearance, but those 17 retained their horrible, ugly appearance in which they became visible for us, and they also went away from here in that same appearance. Why do those spirits become visible before men in such form?"