The Great Gospel of John
Volume 4
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
Jesus near Caesarea Philippi (cont.)
- Chapter 6 -
The Persians and the Pharisees arguing over the miracle. Judas Iscariot goes to catch goldfish.
While we were discussing at our table this and that, an argument started between the thirty young pharisees and the still present twenty Persians. The Persians considered the awakening of the nine drowned persons as a proper miracle; but the thirty young pharisees in a small way doubted such. Especially Risa, who earlier strengthened Hebram for Me, was the strongest against the same.
2
Hebram said: "Friend Risa, if a person for once is dead by the body, like those nine were dead, you can place him as you like, and the following day likewise and you can put the same wine in his mouth, he will still never come to life again! This is an act of the divine willpower, and the placing and pouring of wine are serving no other purpose, then letting the water run out of the stomach and the lungs by a correct placing, and that by the wine the still unsettled nerves receive a necessary prestrengthening and to provide the palate with an undisgusting taste. But in connection with the later awakening of the dead body, not the placing nor the wine is of any importance. The Lord only allowed this to happen, because He has decided to bring those nine back to life again by His will, and that the souls immediately find an inhabitable and useful body! - Don't you see the logic of it?"
3
Says Risa: "Yes, yes, I can see it and you will be probably right; nevertheless, it still requires effective proof, to convince oneself scientifically, that the placing and the later triple administering of wine on its own, cannot make the body of a completely drowned person alive again! If one is convinced about that, only then does this awakening becomes a perfect miracle! This is my opinion."
4
Said Hebram: "Now then, if you insist and the Lord wants it, it might happen that during the newly arranged fishing trip another corpse is found, and with him you can apply exactly the same placing- and wine-administering experiments to revive him again, however, you will find that you will not achieve any joyful results!"
5
Said the Persians: "We share this opinion! Since what is only possible for the power of the divine will, is not possible for any person who is only a creature himself, - except if the will of God acts with and through a person. This is our opinion, and we do not believe to be on the wrong path with it. - But now all are proceeding to the water, and therefore also we want to mount our vessels; since with this opportunity most likely some sort of miracle will occur, and of that we must be witnesses."
6
Thereupon a general departure to the water takes place, which during this morning is very quite and suited for fishing. This time My disciples, except for Ischariot, work together with the sons of the old Markus and help them to spread and throw out the big nets.
7
But Judas Ischariot entertained himself privately by going all by himself to the completely ruined city, to investigate what was going on; since he earlier had overheard, that the wealthy Greeks wanted to pave some of the streets with gold and silver. But he thought and was under the impression, that the wealthy had already made considerable progress in this regard; he therefore went unseen to the burned down city, to fish for gold, silver and other valuables lying in the open.
8
But this time his dirty tricks did not paid off, - except on his back; since when he was as a stranger discovered to chase after gold and silver in the back streets, he was soon arrested by the guards and suffered a hard beating. Thereupon he of course left the ruins of the old town which was still smoldering despite yesterdays storm; the towns ancient name was 'Vilipia Philippi' and only recently under the emperors of Rome received the additional name 'Caesarea'.
9
When our gold fisher arrived with hurrying steps back at the house of Markus, he of course met no one except the wife and daughters of Markus, with whom he were not able to get far, since they had their hands full with preparing lunch and had therefore no time to pay any attention to him. Besides, they already believed firmly in Me and were therefore not at all in the mood, to answer the somewhat cheeky questions of Judas Ischariot; in addition this disciple was not in their favour, because during the past few days he proved himself to be greedy and intolerable.
10
Since he was not welcomed in the women house of Markus, he left the house and went to the sea to look for us, but could not see us, since we had to steer onto the high seas to make a good catch, because of a fish trail occurring only twice a year according to the direction of the Jordan, coming from the Merom Sea, carrying a lot of fish consisting mainly of the best gold-cod-trout.
11
Since the disciple who stayed behind was very bored and did not know what to do, he went to the tents of Ouran, to investigate if everything has been removed and at the same time using the opportunity to find perhaps a few superfluous gold- or sliver pieces, which were left behind by someone! But also there the world was nailed shut with boards; since Ouran has left in each tent three guards behind, with whom it was not advisable to speak during the absence of their master. With a lot of anger he left the tents and went to look for a shady tree, under which he lay down and fell quite comfortably asleep.
12
But shortly afterwards his sleep was also interrupted, since the flies gave him no rest, - in short, Ischariot was tormented for three full hours and was near desperation. He then saw our ship and his heart felt a little lighter, and he regretted it already quite a lot, that he left My company.