The Great Gospel of John
Volume 3
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
Jesus near Caesarea Philippi
- Chapter 220 -
On the decline of Egyptian and Indian wisdom.
Here Murel asks Philopold to give him a satisfactory explanation. At this Philopold says, "My friend and my dear brother! You have experienced much and you came even to the Indians and to the countries that lie very far beyond the Ganges, right to the mountains on which no mortal has set foot, and you went so far into Egypt to where the Nile rages and roars over the cliffs. The old cliff temple of Ja bu sim bil was not unknown to you, and you heard the columns of Mem'n'on sound on a morning. You observed the old hieroglyphs and you sought to decode the even older horn writings.
2
The teachers from Korak should have explained everything to you since you wanted to pay them abundantly for it; but they nonetheless did not do it, because they could not do it. For the wise men and educated people of Egypt of today are not a shade of those who were the founders of such schools and temples in the days of the old Varaons. They care for the old wisdom even less than the scribes and Pharisees in Jerusalem, and the Burmese are even worse off. They have gone over to such ascetics, that it is a shame for humanity, and what is this ascetics other than an unlimited arrogance on the one hand and for that reason an unlimited foolishness on the other!?
3
The people once possessed also the true wisdom, as father Noah possessed it; but in time, as the families had grown to one nation that obviously had to have more needs than a small family, the physical powers of people were taken too much into demand for anyone to be able to occupy himself with inner wisdom alone.
4
The peoples elected from among them the wisest, gave them the holy business and obliged them to ensure that the recognition of God was always kept upright and the inner wisdom did not get lost, but instead that it remained among them and their children.
5
At the same time the people took the right of the representatives and keepers and guardians of wisdom to command laws according to wisdom, for the sanction of which the whole nation from the first to the last stands as guarantor and executor, and so that the sinners against such holy laws should be most severely chastised.
6
At the beginning of such an institution things went quite well and had a beneficial effect. But later on the priesthood expanded and needed much for their physical upkeep. Then soon new laws and commandments came out under the mystical title of coming from God. Things began to swarm with fines and atonements and all sorts of miracle-like deceptions, and also the methods of relief were not forgotten; whoever wanted to be freed from the fines at the transfer of some supposed divine law, had to pay a barely affordable ransom. The poor people of course had to forget about the atonement, and take the martial example. That things there are even worse today is obvious!
7
And look, friend, there you went to find the truth and the deepest wisdom!? It is understandable that you could not possibly find it there, just as that you had to become a proper enemy of life; but that it did not occur to you to investigate the scriptures yourself as a priest and person educated in the scriptures, whether and how much truth and wisdom was hidden there, and whether one could reach an inner outlook on life according to the rules of the old school of prophets, that is a little incomprehensible to me!
8
I was certainly not much better off than with the recognition of the truth, and my wisdom consisted mostly of Greek philosophy, although I considered the divine scriptures of the Jews higher - but I was lacking in the basic principles, therefore this magnificent tree could not bear fruit with me."