The Great Gospel of John
Volume 3
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
Jesus near Caesarea Philippi
- Chapter 5 -
Threat of the Pharisees by Julius.
But during this exchange the young Pharisee had heard something about the salvation of the five murderers, which struck him greatly, and he therefore immediately asked the captain in embarrassment, "Great master! Is that at the end really the famous savior from Nazareth, or a first envoy of his? For we have heard that he takes disciples and then, so they say, when they understand something he sends them to all places so that they should call students for his new teaching, which seems very successful. If that was the savior of Nazareth, then we would be in a nice pickle!"
2
Julius says, holding himself rather seriously and looking sharply into the eyes of the young Pharisee: "Why then? Why should it put you in a pickle if that man is possibly the famous savior of Nazareth? Truly this question seems to me a little suspicious on your part! Give me now a correct explanation for your embarrassment, otherwise things will not go well for you!"
3
This rather severe counter question of Julius" filled the young people with a great amount of fear, and the otherwise talkative young Pharisee now became very embarrassed and didn't immediately know what he should say in answer to the rather severe Julius.
4
But Julius said "If you can and you want to admit the truth, then you don't even need to think about how and what you should say. But if you simply want to placate me with allegedly true phrases , then you have falsely estimated me; for I know only too well an old wives" tale from the pure truth. But I will tell you something now: Make sure that I do not find you out! It still seems to me that one should not trust you at all; for you yourselves, it seems to me, have already been smeared with all Satan's ointments once and for all. Whoever trusts your words easily makes a crude traitor out of himself. Everything that you have said here can be nothing but a pure mask in relation to your heart. But woe betide you; for there will be no more talk of tolerating you where I myself keep the sharpest watch! Now speak the fullest truth, or it will be worse for you than for those five murderers who are tied to strong stakes on the banks of the sea! So no hesitating, out with the complete truth!"
5
At this demand by Julius for an answer the thirty become pale with fear and tremble; for although they probably had basically the most serious desire to get away from the temple, they were still concerned about white-washing their reputations in the temple too if necessary. For the young Pharisees knew how to craftily save their reputations everywhere in emergencies. If they ever came back to the temple and were accused of having left the temple time and again, then they had a lot of appropriate reasons at the ready to explain that they had only gone against the temple in pretence.
6
For this reason I said right from the beginning that one should not trust them too much; for such human souls constantly resemble the tamed wild animals which one must never fully trust because the savagery likes to return as soon as there is an opportunity.
7
When, after a short while of anxious silence, Julius began to get more intense in his enquiring, I said to him, "Friend, allow them to collect themselves and then speak! Because they cannot fob us off with lies, even if they wanted to. For firstly I am here, and I cannot be lied to, and secondly Raphael is here, who also cannot be lied to. What good would any lie do for the thirty anxious ones against us who firstly cannot be lied to and secondly hold all the power and strength in our hands?!"
8
Julius says, "I see well that You, o Lord, are completely right again this time as always, and so I will wait for the answer from these thirty with all patience. But I would like to add that I want to finally find out what I should do, if there is no answer for too long!"
10
But now that we have found a defender of our embarrassment in this great man who we actually secretly feared the most because the thought constantly arose in us that he was perhaps the savior of Nazareth, we can speak easily; for now we have no more fear and can now speak freely and openly.
11
That we had to have a well-founded fear of the savior of Nazareth lies quite simply in the fact that we basically stand here as his persecutors from the temple, even if we never were in our hearts; we have had to make some fictitious decrees against him in front of the world, which cannot have been pleasant for him at all, even if they were unable to do him any harm.
12
But we have now experienced some small tests here and noticed that things would not go well for a persecutor of the savior. And so we asked you too, when we had heard of the healing of the five murderers tomorrow, whether he was not in the end the famous savior from Nazareth himself.
13
If he was definitely that, then there would surely be nothing left for us to do in the end except to throw ourselves in the dirt before him and to beg him for forgiveness for everything which we were forced by the temple to do against him. And you see, that is the pickle in which we would have found ourselves, if he was seriously the savior from Nazareth! But since we have now seen the noble heart of this man he can freely be the savior from Nazareth and we will not be in any pickle on his account any longer! There you now have the truest answer that you so threateningly demanded from us; but now give us the correct answer to our question!"
14
Julius says, "Well then, you should know then that it is He, to whom all nature and all powers of heaven are submissive. He is the famous savior from Nazareth! The maiden testified about Him earlier and the angel obeyed His sign, when he gave you the test of his power; but since you now know that, tell me what you will and want to do now!"