The Great Gospel of John
Volume 2
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
Second Journey of the Lord: Nazareth - Cave at Bethabara (First Feeding of the People) - Mountain of Prayer - Walking on the Sea of Galilee (Peter's test of faith) - By ship to Genneseret in the bay with the same name
- Chapter 160 -
The shipmates recall their previous night's experiences.
We all sit down around the boatmen upon the beautiful grass. Only Raphael remains standing up, and one bosun says to him: "Sit down, young lad, the grass is public property and no man has to pay for sitting on it!"
2
But the angel says: "Just start speaking, and I shall sit down when tired of standing up! Besides, it may happen that one or the other of you loses your balance, and I could be on hand faster to help you back on your legs!"
3
Says the same bosun: "You, for sure, a mother's lad of fifteen!? The napkins are still clinging to your legs, and you are going to pick up the likes of us, if one fell over? This my dear boy is somewhat overconfident!"
4
Says the angel: "Start your story, as asked by the Lord; the rest will show, if necessary."
5
The rough shipmate settles down, and the skipper starts the following account: "It was about the first night-watch when it became strangely bright, as if by day; yet we saw nothing shining anywhere and thought there must be a big bonfire, akin to a conflagration, behind the mountains, lighting up the atmosphere. Only the brightness was obviously too intense for a bonfire; nevertheless the brightness lasted nearly all night and sometimes so strong that we deemed ourselves in brightest day. It is obvious that we felt eerie. Several city folk joined us and thought it was the sea.
6
But we all soon became aware of another phenomenon, and same was far more peculiar! We were all about to focus on the sea. And behold, - but please - don't laugh at us!, - there was not a drop of water in it, and our ship rested upon dry ground; and we shuddered at noting the gaping depth of the sea! Our ship leaned on a jutting-out rock, surrounded by a drop of several hundred man-heights. Over there towards the Genezarethan bay however it was all shallows; there we wandered about collecting many beautiful and rare mussels and snails.
7
Harmlessly engrossed in our collecting, there came immense lightning, followed by earsplitting thunder, and we fled towards shore, forgetting our mussels, but not daring to go and pick them up, and they were left where we found them, except for a couple I put in my pocket. But only towards the third watch, when the sea again filled and flushed the shore, it began to intrigue us as to what took place with the beautiful and big sea, that it should have totally emptied somewhere to the last drop!
8
But an elderly local resident said to us that this was sometimes effected by the mountain and air spirits, to punish those of the water! Although we laughed, any answer in need is better than none indeed. Only in the fourth and final watch did it afterwards get somewhat darker, and we went to our ship to lie down to some rest. Upon wakening however, the dear sun stood already quite high, and we started looking about for breakfast. -This in short is what we experienced and observed this night."