The Great Gospel of John
Volume 4
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
Jesus near Caesarea Philippi (cont.)
- Chapter 13 -
The Templars' attempt on the life of John the Baptist.
1
(Zinka:) "But Johannes said to him: 'Do not have anything to do with Herodias and her mother; since the old woman is a snake and the youth an adder! Besides, you know the will of the almighty God of Abraham, Isaacs and Jacob and knows His order, in which He from the very beginning of all creatures, gave the man only one wife. Fertility or no fertility of a woman who has been matrimonially connected to a man, does not give you the right to take on a concubine; but if you endure in all patience, it is easy possible for God to still awake a living fruit in the lap of your wife in her old age! Read the story of the patriarchs, and you will find, that patience and surrender had brought for them even in their old age the most plentiful blessing!
2
Therefore, do not have anything to do with Herodias and under no circumstances accept a divorce letter from the temple; since God never prescribed a divorce letter! Moses has done this out of himself as a human being, for the sake of the manifold hard heartedness of the people; but he did not do the right thing, and God the Lord was not very pleased by such institution, this you can be very certain of! Therefore keep to your wife and do not allow Herodias coming near you! Give Zinka (namely me) the authority, and he will know what to do that the adder will not come into your house anymore! If you follow this advice, you will stay within the friendship of Jehovah, but if not, you will go under and become an enemy of Jehovah!'
3
Herodes took this to heart and decided to keep away from Herodias. But the old snake and the young adder did everything possible to deceive Herodes. They knew when he went out and where he was going, and Herodias knew to cross his path, always as charming as possible made up and dressed. He did not do anything with her, nevertheless, in his heart it started to glow more, to such an extend that he in the end himself searched for opportunities, to meet with the beautiful Herodias as much as possible.
4
When it finally started to get closer to his day, Herodias applied all means that she could come to the great feast. In the mean time also the temple clerics enquired with Herodias, what progress she made with Herodes. And she couldn't tell them anything else, that despite all her tricks and evil manoeuvring she was still on the same old spot; who or what was the problem, she couldn't tell, although she only too clearly can see, that it pleases Herodes to see her and he secretly more and more tries to meet with her.
5
When the temple cleric heard this, he said quite openly to the two: 'This is nobody else's doing than this water- and baptismal prophet in whom Herodes started to believe! He himself arrested him at the Jordan, in order to protect him against us; but this will be no use to him! The water-prophet must and shall fall! He is for you and for us the most dangerous man! If it can't be done earlier, it will happen on the day of Herodes! Try to destroy the prophet at all cost, and you will be able to wind Herodes around your finger!'
6
With that the two women had more than enough clarification to understand the reason why their efforts failed. They both discussed it with each other how they could destroy Johannes, and the youth told me her secret and promised me a lot of gold and silver, if I could find a good way to kill Johannes. I of course did not consent, but in time I pretended to go accord with their plans; but I only did this to understand with certainty what their evil Satan's plans were, which were cooked up by the two women and the temple knights against the poor Johannes.
7
Herodes scratched himself behind the ears and said to me: 'This is how things stand, as I see it for a couple of days know; but what can one do? The best might still be, that we isolate Johannes even more from open visits, and only allow his most well known disciples to come to him but show every foreigner the door. Because it easily can happen that an assassin bought by the two women or by the temple, pushes a knife into the heart of our Johannes, and the temple would have achieved their goal. Since you can believe me, also the women are influenced by the temple! In order to save Johannes, I will allow the two women, namely Herodias, admission, therefore go and tell Herodias that from now on she can and may visit me!'
8
As the servant I was forced to obey, although I only too clearly could see that with this help, Johannes was helped in a bad way. From then on Herodias came nearly daily into the house of Herodes and knew like nobody else how to obtain his growing inclination towards her. Only too soon the black temple clerics learned about it, and they continuously lay in the ears of the two women, in exchange for a lot of gold to use every opportunity to persuade Herodes, to kill Johannes, who turned so many people away from the temple. The old woman swore by the temple, to make this a reality: she will not rest until the water prophet has fallen! The youth also knew how to prevent Herodes from visiting Johannes and to obtain new advice from him. I as a servant did not dared to remind Herodes about the words of Johannes, since I only knew him too well, what brute he becomes, when his soul is passionately seized by something.
9
And so the evil matter dragged on until the day of Herodes; only a few days before the day of Herodes, something must have happened between him and Herodias, otherwise she would not have stayed away for a few days. But those few days made Herodes' hart even more excited for the beautiful Herodias, and the triumph which she was going to celebrate over Herodes on his day, was an even greater surety."