The Great Gospel of John
Volume 4
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
Jesus near Caesarea Philippi (cont.)
- Chapter 111 -
On the Mosaic food laws.
Says Cyrenius: "I was surprised myself that your disciples didn't understand this, what I and surely all the others have comprehended quite well! But now, since You, o Lord, are in the mood to explain things which nobody ever had done before You, I also want to know from You, what are the circumstances involved regarding the ban on the enjoyment of impure food and the touching of certain things considered impure! We heathens enjoyed everything and did not became impure according to our teaching! The old Egyptians also ate everything what time and experience presented as enjoyable, and I don't know anything about impurification, - to the contrary I know from history, that Egypt carried very pure and truly great spirits on its land; they also existed with us Romans at all times. Why did the Jews had to forgo all kinds?"
2
Says I: "Because their gender, as received from Adam, was from above and to the biggest part still is today and is destined, that I in their midst could come to the world and in this matter for the salvation of all creatures. You certainly have heard, how by Me the entire matter has been blessed and sanctified, since also I Myself have clothed Myself in matter?! You affirm this in your soul! See, before My coming to this earth, as you know, a curse was more or less lying on the same, - not because God condemned it, but because by self-love, selfishness, haughtiness and imperiousness as a lumped spiritual it became self-condemned!
3
There existed and still exist in matter different degrees and levels between a lot, more, less and nearly no hardness. The harder any matter is, the wilder and more impure it is, since the lumped spiritual in it consists in the same ratio out of even more of the well-known weed.
4
The animals, which right from the beginning of the population of this earth joined the people - like cattle, the sheep, the goat, and among the birds the hen and the dove -, are surely of a purer nature and of a softer character, and their meat was for the people, who came from above, for the purer maintenance of the soul, more accommodating; only, even these animals had to be perfectly healthy and were also not allowed to be slaughtered during the rutting season, since during such time the otherwise pure animals are more impure.
5
In time still other animals joined man - like the horse, the donkey, the camel, the pig, the dog and the cat -, but even right from the beginning more so to the children of this world, while with exception of only the donkey, and later on also the camel, the formerly named animals did not have a close relationship with the Jews, as it is still today the case.
6
Still today, a real Jew has a peculiar fear of a horse, of a dog, is no friend of a cat and does not trust too much a camel. He is antipathetic to tame water birds, and for the whole world he surely has a dislike in turkey and chicken, and it will still take a long time until he becomes a friend of these animals. While a real Jew is immediately terrible disgusted, the Greek as well as the Romans regard it long since as a good tasting and very popular roast.
7
From now on things are of course completely different and will still become very different, once I will have gone home! As a sign of all this I will after My return to the large garden of brother Kornelius, show to one of My disciples, who still is a arch-Jew in all his bones, what food in future can be eaten without any concern.
8
Now I have shown you the reason also of these Mosaic eating statues of the Jews, and you and you all must realize this properly! Therefore it is now time to talk about for which we actually and primarily came to this mountain!"