The Great Gospel of John
Volume 4
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
Jesus near Caesarea Philippi (cont.)
- Chapter 70 -
Zorel's defense of his character traits.
1
(Zorel:) "From my onwards I had a violent temperament. Instead of damping this by a soft and reasonable upbringing and by education of the mind, I was corrected by punishment of every conceivable manner. My parents were always my biggest torturers! If they had combined mind with a good will, they could have made an angel of Jews of me; but by the thousand punishments I became a tiger! And who carries the guilt for that, that I became a tiger? Firstly, before being conceived and birth, I could not select more wise parents, and secondly, when I was born, I surely was not a Plato or Phrygius and not a sign of a Sokrates and could therefore not give to myself any education! But what should have been done that I would become a better person and not a tiger?
2
I regard you as too wise that you could not find a reasonable answer to this question by yourself. With you Jews there have always been people who have been possessed by evil spirits, as I have just a few weeks ago have seen one at the Gadarenes, and this would one of a better kind; one actually should be your Jewish devil, who holds its dreadful state of affairs during the darkest nights! But the day-devil was worth his money; since whole crowds of people could achieve nothing with him. He carried out deeds that gave all mankind the shivers of the skin and made it wrinkled of fear. If possibly such a said possessed person could be healed, tell me, what ox of a human judge could be so blind and gloomy stupid, that he showed to the cured person all his unheard atrocities which he committed when possessed, and requires from him tearful remorse and betterment?! Could the person help it that he committed such atrocities when possessed?!
3
Tell me, friend full of wisdom: From a big height a heavy rock falls down and kills twenty people who coincidentally were standing underneath it. Why had this to happen? Who is guilty for this calamity? - To this I add the least thinkable possible case, that a mighty magician appears and transforms the rock into a human with all insight and intelligence fitted, in the manner of Deukalion and Pyrrah. As the new person is standing there, a wise and merciful judge comes along and says to this new person: 'Look at that, you despicable! This is your evil work! Why did you fall with as a rock with such might onto these twenty people? Justify yourself, or receive the heaviest punishment for this deed!' What would the new person say to the silly judge? Nothing else than: 'Could I as a heavy and absolutely unconscious boulder help it, that I have been separated by some foreign power from my equals, and secondly for that, that I have been so incredibly heavy, and thirdly that I have called these crushed people to sit here until I fell down and killed them all?!
4
You will hopefully recognise the extremely unreasonable accusation of this new person by a super clever judge, but perhaps also that I, who became a new person from a raw block, cannot be held responsible for all my evil deeds, just like the rock-new-person which I have shown to you just now! If you do not want to be a silly judge, then judge me according to the justice of pure reason and not after your wise seeming mood! Be a person, just as I am also only a person!"