The Great Gospel of John
Volume 3
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
Jesus near Caesarea Philippi
- Chapter 206 -
Shabbi recognizes the Lord.
1
"Exactly, exactly!", I say, and give him the following question: "Well, dear friend, since you seem to be a very intelligent person in every way before the eyes and ears of man and you judge many things quite correctly and sharply, so tell Me according to your best conviction what you imagine by the Messiah that I am now supposed to be! What purpose then has the present appearance of the Messiah actually?!"
2
Shabbi says, "Yes, most eminent friend, that is a quite strangely captious question, that is, not according to my previous, quite mistaken opinion, as if you wanted to entice from me through incomprehensible miracles and the cleverest questions some sign of enmity towards Romans, but instead purely in respect to the mystical personality of the Messiah himself, about whom Isaiah says highly strange things, which no man can make head nor tail of. For at one moment the Messiah is the son of a king, then a strong and powerful hero, then the son of God, then the son of a virgin! Isaiah says once (Isaiah. 25: 6-9):
3
On this mountain the Lord of hosts will provide for all peoples a feast of rich food and choice wines, of fat, of marrow, of wine without yeasts. On this mountain he will take away the veil that veils all peoples, the web that is woven over all gentiles. He will destroy death forever. The Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces; the reproach of his people he will remove from the whole earth; for the Lord has spoken. On that day it will be said: "Behold our God, to whom we looked to save us! This is the Lord for whom we looked; let us rejoice and be glad that he has saved us!"
4
Behold, most eminent and master, those are the very distinctive words of the prophet; but what should one actually make of them? Who and where is the mountain on which the Lord will prepare for us a quite special looking feast of rich food and choice wines, fat, marrow, and again of yeast less wine? Whoever will taste this food must have a very healthy stomach!
5
This meal cannot have a natural sense, only a spiritual one; but who can find this out? Which mountain is this, which the strange fat meal? If you ask me, it's actually a hoax at the cost of mankind! The Lord, that is, according to my understanding of the Messiah, will remove the veil that covers the peoples here on this mountain and take the cover from the face of the gentiles. That would be understandable; but the mountain, the mountain, where is that then, and what is it?
6
That He can swallow up death and will also do it, and take away the dishonor to his nation in all countries, even in our Persia, that is at least clear to me now because I have seen how You called the dead back to life.
7
But then Isaiah on the mountain has the happy people call: That is our God, that is the Lord! Is that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob? If so, then You are therefore the same One who gave the Law to Moses on Sinai; who thundered there: I alone am your God and your Lord, you shall have no other Gods besides me!
8
If Isaiah was with Moses? laws, he could not possibly have allowed another God appear in the Messiah; but since Isaiah explicitly lets Him appear as God, You must then be the same God who on Sinai spoke to Moses!
9
What can You say to me now as a consequence of the statements of the prophets if I now fall before You and begin to worship You loudly as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob?!