The Great Gospel of John
Volume 2
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
Jesus in the Vicinity of Caesara Philippi (Matthew 16)
- Chapter 196 -
Jarah loosens Josoe's gordian knot.
Say I to Josoe: "But My dear Josoe, how do you know that My dear Jarah moves within so much wisdom, having knowledge of things that none besides Myself knows?"
2
Says Josoe: "Lord, how should I not know this, and how can You ask me, since it is Yourself who placed into my heart and from there unto my tongue whatever I am to recognise and speak?!"
3
Say I: "Very well, My dear Josoe; since you know this, give us an adequate reason why, - since all the thoughts of your heart, even at the deepest level, are and must be known to Me long before you have thought them, - I nonetheless still asked you!"
4
Here Josoe is taken aback, looking within himself for a cohesive reason. After a while he says rather timidly: "Lord, for this, and because of my restricted power of discernment, no plausible reason can be found, -at least not by me; be it that You ask only for appearance's sake, like a Rabbi asking his student something that he - the Rabbi, is bound to have known long before his disciple. And yet there is an endless difference between You and some Rabbi testing his disciple! The former indeed knows what he knows himself, but does not without testing know whether his disciple knows it. But You know only too clearly and vividly, not only what in the first instance I know for my part, but also the most secret thoughts of all men and angels:-yet ask me!? Behold, even therein lies the inextricable Gordian knot. Since I am no Alexander by far I am not able to unravel it!"
5
Say I: "Tell Me why it is that the youth from Sychar paying you occasional visits, asks you as if he didn't know, when in fact he is certain to know only too well?! He actually permits himself to be instructed by you as if he were your disciple!"
6
Says Josoe: "Lord, this is my very complaint about him constantly, that with all his immense wisdom he just wants to learn from me; and if I ask him about anything, he keeps saying: 'Ah, this is what I wanted to ask you about!' But I ask, and have already asked You this morning: What teaching-method is this! Jarah's father earlier on expressed a clever opinion about such method, which I could also apply to Your question to me; but I don't fully share his view, and hence cannot fully use it as answer to Your Gordian-type question.
7
With certain diversely imitated disciples, such teaching-method certainly is the best in the world, because the otherwise still limited disciple is steered towards intense independent thought, feeling and finding; but apply such method to a disciple devoid of all elementary science, and then I would like to see when and how by such teaching method the student at last makes it to the alphabet and finally to reading of Scripture, - without a miracle!
8
Here Ebahl's otherwise reasonable opinion shall not be of any use, and hence I can't use it here. Wherefore I tell You straight out, oh Lord, that I am unable to answer Your Gordian question. You will have to show us the grace to answer Your question yourself.
9
Say I: "What if our dearest Jarah were to explain such question for us?"
10
Says Josoe, somewhat discomfited: "This she could do by all means, if capable of it! Of course if You oh Lord place the answer in her heart, then she shall easily be able to answer!"
11
Say I: "This nevertheless I shall not do so this time, and she shall have to deliver the answer herself!"
12
Says Josoe: "Well, in that case she may not fare much better than me."
13
Say I with amicable mien: "Well then, we shall see! Tell us nonetheless, dear Jarah, why I, as it were asked dear Josoe something that I was bound to know beforehand!"
14
Says Jarah, somewhat timidly: "Lord, if I may speak, then You seem to have put such 'Gordian question' as Josoe calls it, to him in order to humble his disdainful soul a little, as he had earlier said that he had no need to converse with me since he knew everything that I know, wherefore we had nothing to say to each other. Such discussion would mean pouring a full beaker into another full one. But dear Josoe forgot that You have dished out gifts of the spirit unequally even among Your angels, and that one most perfect spirit therefore still can learn much from another most perfect spirit!
15
But it is my view, oh Lord, that when You ask in this way, You do so for no purpose other than to lead someone haughty to a somewhat humbling self-re-appraisal! So far as I can see with my limited cognition of the heart, You gave dear Josoe such Gordian question for that reason.
16
He had earlier, somewhat self-contradict remarked to Marcus that through grace I had experienced things as no previous man on Earth before; yet he takes himself for an equally full beaker! If however he credits me with such extraordinary experiences, then I really don't see why he doesn't wish to enter into conversation with me. I on my part however think that, in spite of my own unheard-of experiences, still can learn something from him, and don't regard my beaker as so full that there is no room in it for something from his beaker.
17
And, as I have now discovered, here Jarah smirked a little, it seems that his beaker also is not so overfilled that there would not be room for a drop from mine!
18
But I would not by the way want to in the least make any sniggering comment about Josoe's rather ebullient self-esteem. But having been challenged, I spoke as I felt in the heart; hence I deem myself to not have committed too great a sin! If nonetheless I did so, then I should want to make amends to the limit of my ability!"
19
Say I: "No no, not at all! Your most faithful heart lies to openly before Me, and you have even done our dear Josoe a great service; for he really was quite weak on the point touched upon in your child-like wisdom, and this weakness would have been able over time to lead him somewhat astray. But now he is healed also from this aspect, and he shall be glad to enter into cheerful discussion with you, for he has style of expression.