The Great Gospel of John
Volume 10
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
The Lord in Abila
- Chapter 64 -
The question how to teach the superstitious gentiles.
And we went outside this castle to a hill that was still higher than the one on which the castle was standing and from where we had a beautiful view in all directions. From there we could also see a large part of the valley of the Jordan, and on the other side to the east in the faraway plains of the Euphrates a large number of mountains and surrounding places. From here one could see as far as Jerusalem, but this time this region was completely covered in a thick morning haze so that one could not distinguish any of the Judean places.
2
The captain made the remark: "Lord and Master, it seems to me that the thick haze above the places and fields of Judea are characterizing that people, whose heart and mind are surrounded by a still thicker haze than the one that is now hiding their fields from our eyes?"
3
I said: "Yes, friend, so it is. That is why also many find death in the very dense haze of their errors and all kinds of sin that result from it. But let us put such reflections aside now and direct our eyes to the rising of the sun, for we will see again a beautiful sunrise today. Therefore, we will all rest for a while now and enjoy the sunrise."
4
Then they all kept quiet and enjoyed the beautiful, continuously changing scenes of the morning, for the morning was in this region always more beautiful because of the distant horizon in the east. Usually before sunrise a lot of rare meteors were formed there. Its reason in natural respect was the extensive volcanic soil. The superstitious gentiles and the people of those regions thought that such phenomena were the demigod companions of the goddess Aurora who always cleared the way for Apollo.
5
Now it was the moment to take away that foolish belief from the gentiles and to show them the true cause of such phenomena and explain it to them understandably. That is what I did here with the captain and his subordinates, and they also began to understand why I actually took them early in the morning on this hill.
6
When they were instructed in everything, and also had thanked Me very much for this, a first subordinate of the captain made the remark: "It finally will be very difficult for especially the common people to dissuade them from their superstition, for according to the teaching of the pagan priests they only see all kinds of spirits and gnomes in every cloud and every hazy form, in the ascending of the smoke from the kitchen, in the burning and more or less crackling of the wood, and they expect, depending on their movement, happiness or misfortune.
7
For finally, with all those many phenomena that are often very rare, there is something spiritual about it, for no phenomenon can come to an outer visible existence without a deep inner and thus first cause of existence. And to make this most important cause understandable and illustrative for the people, the old sages personified it in a corresponding image. But that image is now of course only understood by very few people, and instead of that, they keep the phenomenon itself for the most inner and first cause of existence. So it is difficult to make such people understand in a convincing way, that what they see is not what they see or for what they are taken it, but - in this or that manner - a necessary outer form of appearance of a most inner, first and for the physical eye never visible cause.
8
But now there is still another question that comes up, and that is: whether is finally not better for such people not to take away their superstition in one time? For although in this way they will lose what they had, but as to what they receive instead they cannot so easily make it their own with a full, convincing clearness. And because of that they can all too easily turn to materialism, as this has been already the case with so many Greeks and Romans, which is very dense and extremely difficult to wipe out and which the inhabitants of this city truly do not lack. Lord and Master, what do You say about this?"