The Great Gospel of John
Volume 3
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
Jesus near Caesarea Philippi
- Chapter 125 -
Ouran shows how unfounded Helena's fear is.
Mathael says, "In any case, who will want to underestimate it; but my dearest spouse imagines the matter to be much too enormous! Yes, it will certainly not be easy work - but by no means like the Augean stables which Hercules, the giant, was supposed to have cleaned in a set short time! I am not afraid and think that things will go quite easily with the help of the Lord!"
2
Helena says, "I hope so too; but I know my people and all the traditional institutions of the land and I tell you that among them, that is, among the people of my kingdom it is very difficult to be and remain a normal human being!
3
To fight some mistakes of people is easy, but it is a huge task to battle the fanaticism of the diamond hard superstition, which the priesthood knows to activate through all sorts of false wonders.
4
One would only be capable of effecting enormous counter miracles. But that begs the question whether anything is gained with the people! One would only drive them from one superstition to another, if they are not given the correct light to distinguish a genuine wonder from a false wonder; but how can one do that if one knows the substance of the false wonders too little?!
5
But the old priests who have already performed so many false miracles before the eyes of their people for the authentication of their deceptions, will never recant! For if they do that, all the people will descend upon them and rip them to pieces; for an entire, great people can never be instructed as fast as an individual person.
6
The old priesthood must be looked after quite differently, and the nation must be prepared immediately for such a massive change, and we will be lucky if after ten years we will have managed to talk with the people about spiritual matters!
7
Do you know, my very dearest husband Mathael, I do not doubt for an instant your great wisdom, neither the necessary extraordinary help of the Lord; but I know all the massive difficulties that will face us, and it will then be very likely that we will have to seek foreign lands again!
8
This religion is divinely pure and magnificent, and endlessly blissful in addition; but the world is too much in disorder, and in my opinion it will always be a very difficult job to preach to the devils in Orcus God's gospel of peace!"
9
Mathael says, "Oh, certainly it will not be an easy job; but we will have an even greater joy when we are successful with the Lord's help! But we must succeed, even if the whole world should fall into ruin! For I am a very peculiar person; what I undertake, must be carried out! And now let's talk about something different!"
10
Ouran says, "You are very correct when you turn your conversation to something else! I have had a small but very refreshing nap in the meantime and in my dream I have seen wonderful things, but here and there I have overheard a bit of your discourse and I tell you that the little one (Jarah) is quite right, and you, my son Mathael, are also right; but the fear of my good daughter if not totally unfounded, is still somewhat too vain!
11
I know my people as well as I know myself! For the most part they are traders, they get to know all sorts of nations and alongside that their traditions, habits and religions. In the middle of the land there are certainly communities that still hang on to their oracles; but on the coasts you could buy their whole religion for a few farthings. The priesthood has had a most evil reputation with most of them for a long time, and the philosophy has replaced the actual religion.
12
In Taurien over whose southern side I also command, polytheism is already over, to which the Roman poet Ovid staying there through his Metamorphoses - through which he made a mockery of religion in an honest and poetic way - made no little contribution. Plato, Socrates and Aristotle are now the gods of today, and with them this religion will take root easily; for these three wise men preach also only one true God and totally reject polytheism as the real thing and observe it as only comparative to features of the one and only true God.
13
We ourselves had hardly ever travelled to this land of the Jews, had we not heard that in the temple in Jerusalem the only true God is almost visibly present, whom particularly Plato describes in his Symposion, and how one can unite spiritually with this one true God! My nation is not unaware about this, and something honest can surely be built on it!
14
I would naturally have let myself be initiated in everything in Jerusalem, and had I found something satisfactory, I would have then brought it from there to my people. But that we came here, directly to the smith instead of to the apprentice - which now is no longer doubtful after everything that we have experienced, heard and seen - is probably a freer and more extraordinary act of mercy by the Lord God for our earnest good will, about which we do not and never will claim to be worthy. But we will have an easier job to do at home because we can be completely prepared for every situation with the divine help that has been tested here.
15
We have, my most beloved daughter, not sought nearly as much as we have found. If we had only found a little more than in Plato's Symposium, we would have gone home again endlessly satisfied. But what now, when we have found something of which Plato in his Symposium never dreamed?! Now we will return home with great cheer and will announce it loudly to the nation what we have experienced, heard and seen on our search! I must tell you that I am now really looking forward to it with my whole heart!
16
I therefore do not understand how you, Helena, could get into such a fear about it!
17
I cannot dispute that you have some justification; but it is not suitable for our land, but perhaps rather for Judaism, which, now that I know it somewhat better, is full of deceit, full of domineeringness and full of evil will. There the fear would have a more appropriate grounding than with my true lambs of people! What do you think, my most beloved and honored son, Mathael?"
18
Mathael says, "I quite agree; for in the temple in Jerusalem things are really monstrous, and it would be very daring to appear there with this teaching! In the temple, where once Jehovah's spirit was visibly present in the holy of holies, rules everything that can be named bad and evil, there is no trace left of anything divine in reality, instead only empty names! And the priests are wolves and hyenas in sheep's clothing. If one day we are alone, I will tell you quite a bit more about it, since I was a templar myself! But for now let's leave it; for here there is something better to talk about than the now fully godless temple of Jerusalem!
19
I must now turn to my dearest Jarah; for she hides in her breast secrets about which we all never had any idea. So Jarah, tell us something about your experiences!"