The Great Gospel of John
Volume 3
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
Jesus near Caesarea Philippi
- Chapter 233 -
The meteor.
But while Mathael wanted to say something more, a big and very bright meteor flew quite low and caused its own very audible whistling in the air through the fast flight; for it was only about eight hundred fathoms away. Behind the meteor a long tail was visible which seemingly followed the flying meteor. All three were alarmed at the sight and asked in the greatest hurry the angel what that had been.
2
But the angel, instead of giving the three an answer and explanation straight away, dashed after the meteor and brought it to the three in a few moments as a somewhat plump ball of two and a half fathoms in diameter, placed it on a free spot and then said to the three, "Well, come here then and observe this phenomenon without fear; no-one of you will have a hair bent or singed!"
3
The three rise and near with great modesty the still brightly shining meteor. Near to it they notice a very strong smell of sulphur, and the whole, significant lump looks like brimstone close up, and bluish-white flames shoot out of the great pores and cause their own hissing sound and slight whistles and crackling noises. Some little flames are still very bright, but others are already dull.
4
Only now Mathael asks the angel again, "Well, what is this then, how and where was it created? It seems to be quite a firm mass and must have a great weight for our human strength. Go, dear, heavenly friend, explain this to us a little!"
5
The angel says, "This lump was still part of the sun half an hour ago. Through a great fiery crater, in which things were vibrating violently, it was thrown out along with many others with an incomprehensibly large force into the great space. It was directed towards this Earth quite by chance. With more than lightning speed it flew through the ether and reached already behind the continent of Europe the atmosphere of this Earth, which at the beginning it only stroked the surface of. When it at the next moment however sank deeper and found a great resistance in the constantly denser atmosphere of this Earth, its speed of flight was greatly reduced; until it came to this region, it was covering only twenty hours? journey in four moments. When I caught up with it, it was nonetheless almost over all of Asia and would have fallen into the great sea in ten instants; but the Lord wanted you to also receive an explanation and didn't want you to immediately believe that an evil spirit was flying over the Earth in order to cause harm to you and your fellow man. Now you have the evil spirit before you and can learn from it that this is a very natural occurrence between the great objects of space."
6
Murel says, "But how did it happen then that it shone so brightly in the air, and here it is becoming duller and duller in its shine?"
7
Raphael says, "The strong light is caused by the abnormally fast flight through the air; it rubs powerfully against the particles of the air and presses them very strongly, because they cannot get out of its way fast enough. But the air, as it is here, catches fire, when it is too strongly pressed or pushed; and because the air on the whole path of such a meteor catches fire immediately, then also at the position of such a meteor it is always bright as lightning. Finally as behind the fast flying meteor a vacuum is created whose walls are still fiery excited, one sees behind the meteor also always a decreasingly glowing tail which in itself is only an apparition and no reality.
8
Just feel this mass, how glowing hot it is still, and you will convince yourself very easily and completely what I have just explained to you! I can give you another proof in quite a natural way, because such an experiment is possible for me. I will take one of these stones and throw it through the air with lightning speed. The spirits that serve me will bring it back here again after a few moments. Then you will see for yourself how this only several pounds heavy stone immediately will glow just as bright as this meteor shone before."
9
Here Raphael threw the stone with the most terrible force into the air and the spirits at his service drove it for a few moments with more than lightning speed in a circle only a few fathoms high in the air. Besides a strongly whistling noise the stone shone as brightly that the whole area round about was lit up as on the brightest day and the three actually saw only a circle shining as bright as the sun because the motion of the stone was too fast for a human eye to perceive its progress.
10
After a few moments the stone was laid on the ground again by the serving spirits quite peacefully before the three amazed observers, still glowing extremely, and Raphael said, "There you have the fast and very easily performed experiment before you now; do you find a difference between the artificial and that natural meteor?"
11
Mathael says, "No, quite the same occurrence; only the volume was of course different! But a question nonetheless rises in me, and that consists of this: that it is certainly possible for you, who already had given us some tests of your indescribable skill and power, to throw a stone with the most unbelievable force and speed so that the air also begins to burn by the enormous speed of the stone and the stone itself must soon start to glow - you are in addition one of the most powerful angelic spirits, who could play with the whole worlds as we play with hazelnuts and even throw a sun in one moment in such a depth of the endless creation that a bolt of lightning would have to travel for a hundred thousand times a hundred thousand years in order to reach it! For such an experiment you have certainly been given by God the strength and power that is incomprehensible for us; but how can the sun as a simple natural body develop such a power out of itself?"