The Great Gospel of John
Volume 3
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
Jesus near Caesarea Philippi
- Chapter 147 -
The falsified document.
On the shore however the high Pharisee says to his colleagues, "You have done your job well; for the appearance supposedly against me was at just the right time at which I gave you the sign through my silence! Now they are trapped and no longer know what to do! If only the three announced people would not come, who could make life a little difficult for us! Or if they even brought the famous Nazarene with them! Yes, if so, then we are completely written off! There nothing would help us anymore!
2
Therefore my opinion is this: we should now strive to get away by water early and to turn towards Jerusalem linea recta (in a straight line); for once the officials have arrived, it will be too late for us! Cyrenius has withdrawn the guards, we have no obstacle! If we therefore move along the shoreline on the sea several miles upwards, we will meet the vessel of a Greek fisherman on which we can bring ourselves to safety!"
3
The previous speaker says, "But the people's guard from the city! How will we escape them? For they will spy on us from behind the bushes and once they have us, we are lost!"
4
The high Pharisee says, "That is certainly a very desperate story! How would it be then if we were to demand quite cheekily a safe escort from Cyrenius?! He cannot and must not deny it to us because of the imperial document! Go, speaker, and do that!"
5
The speaker does it; but Cyrenius has sought advice from Me beforehand, and naturally I told him everything that the Pharisees had said and decided on the shore, and Cyrenius now knew what was going on and what he had to do for the moment.
6
When the speaker made his demand as cheekily and domineeringly as possible to Cyrenius, Cyrenius said, "My friend, the certain document did shock me beforehand; for I did not know that it is false! But since I have now seen things in a different light, I am no longer shocked and will not follow the demand of your high Pharisee!
7
In any case, go there and tell your high Pharisee that he should deliver to me the familiar document immediately, otherwise it will be taken from him with violence; but should he make the effort to destroy the document, he can consider his crucifixion to be prepared for today! Go there and tell him that!"
8
The speaker now makes a deep bow and goes away with great trembling in his whole body. As he nears the high Pharisee, he says stuttering in great fear, "We are - lost! The accursed, false document - was - the straw - that broke - the camel's - back! - If not - today - then certainly tomorrow - to the cross! - Hand over immediately without vacillation or hesitation the accursed document to the supreme governor, otherwise you will hang today on the cross! - A devil must have betrayed you! - Cyrenius knows everything!"
9
When the sinister party along with their head hear this, they and he all feel quite ill, and the high Pharisee takes the document, gives it to the speaker and says, "There, take it, and take it over there; we are lost, for with that our last hope is gone!"
10
The speaker does that, brings the document to Cyrenius and says, "High ruler, here is the document! We are all great and coarse criminals and appeal now alone to your human heart!"
11
Cyrenius takes the document, reads it through and says after a while, "Look, how nice and clever! Tell me now nothing other than at what opportunity the high Pharisee came upon this CHARTA ALBA!"
12
The speaker says, "High lord, I know much; but that I really don't know! As high Pharisee he brought it with him from Jerusalem; but who gave it to him there I do not know!"
13
Cyrenius says, "But do you know for certain that he brought this document with him right from Jerusalem?"
14
The speaker says, "He showed it to us all and told us and then took us into his power. That is everything that I know; none of us know any more!"
15
Cyrenius asks further, "How did he act then as a person?"
16
The speaker answers, "I know nothing bad about him; he always represented his office strictly and according to the Jewish spirit. That he in addition often carried out his business in a not very merciful way is well-known; yet I hardly knew that he was ever too hard against someone. He may perhaps have something on his conscience from before, which he certainly never revealed to us; but since he took office here we know nothing, except that yesterday he demanded the sacrifices somewhat too harshly at the wondrous occurrence. However, it was the people who were the greatest cause!"
17
Cyrenius asks further, "Has the high Pharisee often made false use of this document?"
18
The speaker answers, "Until today we have never noticed anything of that."
19
Cyrenius asks, "Is that all the purest truth that you have now informed me?"
20
The speaker says, "High lord, I would rather die if there is even a grain of untruth in it!"
21
Cyrenius says, "Good then! Go there and tell the high Pharisee that I now want to speak to him and that he should therefore appear before me; for I want to see what can be done for your well-being in this matter!"
22
This time the speaker approaches the high Pharisee with more courage and less anguish and tells him this. The high Pharisee considers for a while and then says, "Well now, what else do we want to do here except to put on a friendly face to the evil game?! It is always better to lose only something than everything!"