The Great Gospel of John
Volume 2
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
First journey of the Lord: Kis - landing place at Sibarah - Nazareth
- Chapter 4 -
Visit to a drip-stone cave.
Kisjonah has it all brought out. Baram, who still did not want to leave us, also arranges for his remaining wine and bread stores to be brought out by his people. Jairuth and Jonael who also were reluctant to leave us ask Me if they could take part in this expedition.
2
And I say, "Most certainly; for your presence actually is necessary, and Archiel shall render us services of another kind! But I also tell you another thing: A deputation of your arch enemies right now is leaving Sychar and heading our way in order to persuade you to an earliest return; for the people have risen up against them and driven the newly appointed priest away two days ago. He shall be among the deputation. They shall arrive here by tonight, whereupon we shall work them over somewhat. But for now let us get under way!" The women and maidens also wanted to come along with this expedition and asked Me for this.
3
But I say unto them, "My dear daughters! This is no walk for you; hence stay at home and look to it that we have a meal tonight in proper measure." The women are happy with that and Mary too, and they looked after the house; Lydia nevertheless would have been most keen to come along, but seeing it was not My will, she too stayed at home and did as the others.
4
We started on our way, reaching the grotto or cave in a couple of hours, and at once entered it with our lighted flares. Kisjonah was astonished at the roominess, and the captivating configuration of the drip-stone, which would have been the most noteworthy within near-Asia, which counts many such caves. Gigantic shapes of every kind greeted the timid spectators.
5
Faustus himself, who was not lacking in Roman valour, became quite subdued, saying, "One cannot resist the belief that there have to be subterranean gods ruling, who with their mighty power bring forth works of such magnitude. There are images of man, beast and trees; but the size! What would be the huge temples and statues of Rome by comparison? Here, this well-formed Arab. Verily, to climb him by stairs to his head would take a full hour. What's more, he is in a sitting position yet it make me dizzy to look up to his head. Oh, this truly is memorable beyond all measure! Surely this could not be the work of chance? Over there from the deeper background a most colossal elephant is grinning at us; the sketch leaves nothing to be desired! Lord, Lord! How did this all come into being so miraculously?!"
6
Say I, "Friend, just take in everything that presents itself to your view, not asking so much; the most natural explanation shall follow. Some things shall still be emerging which will cause you far greater astonishment; but there also do not ask! When we shall be out of the grotto in the open, I shall clarify these things to you all."
7
We now move on, coming to an exceedingly great and lofty hall, which however isn't dark but quite well lit, for there are several oil wells in this hall which had already been lit many years ago by people who had occupied this grotto as an abode; burning with varying degrees of brightness and intense flames sporadically, partly lighting up this great hall, whilst fairly strong daylight also penetrated from one point of the high ceiling through a fairly wide outlet into the open.
8
The floor of this grotto or grotto-hall exhibited all kinds of forms. There were snakes, gigantic toads as well as all sorts of well and not-so-well formed and half formed animal-formations, as well as small and gigantic crystal formations in all colours, which made an uncommonly and surprisingly beautiful sight.
9
Here said Faustus, "Lord! This would be an abundance of imperial jewellery the like of which verily no Emperor would yet have dreamt of! Would not this be a kind of Tartarus as the Greek's legend would have it? Only the Taurus, the old Charon, the familiar three inexorable psycho-judges Minos, Aeacus and Rhadamantus and lastly the triple-headed hound Cerberus, a few furies and finally perhaps Pluto with the beautiful Proserpina, and the Tartarus of torment would be complete. All these blazes out of the ground and wall, the thousand-fold varieties of hideous animal shapes on the ground - even if dead and fossilised and masses of other Tartarus like stuff testify only too loudly that we are either in the Tartarus itself already or at least heading that way by the shortest route; or what seems to me the most likely; that this or some other similar grotto is the definite origin of the Greek Tartar myth!"
10
Say I, "The latter has much truth in it, although not entirely so, for the smart priesthood of every nation has at all times and everywhere known how to exploit such natural phenomena to their advantage. It also did so in Greece and in Rome and let their evil imagination roam, whereby nation after nation were talked around and blinded up till now, and indeed to the end of the world to greater or lesser degree.
11
For so long as the earth with its necessary and diverse structure shall have any observable formations, its mankind, who for various reasons are blind and light-shy in spirit, shall formulate their imagination distortedly, adding all kinds of extraordinary and ficine effects not being capable of discerning the foundations due to being blind.
12
Behold your ox now, or the seaman Charon, and over there, above twelve Klafters [approximately twenty-four metres] wide and a cubic deep (on average) river, which latter is only a kind of pond, through whose shallow part one can easily wade: you can in the faint light spot your three judges, several furies, Cerberus and Pluto with Proserpina - figures which give that impression only from a certain distance, but on close range resembling anything but that which human imagination has made out of them. But now let us walk on, without paying Charon the Naulaum (Shipping dues) over the ox, and have a look at Tartarus a little on the other side."
13
We wade across a shallow part of the so-called ox and break through a quite narrow crevice to the Tartarus which, lit up by our flares soon begins to expose a large treasure not yet given away by the Pharisees, and thus through Myself everything yet so hidden is exposed to the light of day.