The Great Gospel of John
Volume 4
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
Jesus near Caesarea Philippi (cont.)
- Chapter 7 -
The disloyal servant of Helena.
But we made a true million catch of the best fish, and on the high seas two completely naked female corpses were found drifting around, who earlier fell into the hands of pirates who robbed them of everything, and afterwards threw them alive into the water. Both, maidens of nineteen and twenty-one years of age, very well formed, were from Kapernaum and daughters of a wealthy house, who wanted to travel to Gadarena, and entrusted themselves to the sea. Their ship and the ship's crew were in order. But in the middle of the lake they bumped into a Greek pirate who took the ship. The crew of four and the two maidens lost their lives. The four crew men were killed before they were thrown into the sea. Towards both maidens the pirates were a little more humane; they took off all their clothes, raped them and only then threw them into the sea. But the perpetrators were even before daybreak today caught by the arm of justice and the court, and those devils will not escape their sharpest punishment.
2
The maidens were, however, firmly tied together with their hair and drifted completely dead on the water. This was very good for the placing- and wine experiment to perhaps revive someone who drowned, as believed by Risa. Therefore both corpses were wrapped in cloths and put into the ship.
3
But there was now a lot of work to do, and Markus did not know how to store all the fish; but I instructed Raphael to help Markus, and very quickly everything was in the best order. But Risa took charge of the reviving effort of the two corpses and laid them in the same manner on the ground as I have done a day before.
4
And Thomas quickly greeted Judas Ischariot and asked him somewhat ironically how his fishing expedition went? Judas Ischariot grumbled something into his thick beard, but did not dared to start a controversial conversation with Thomas; since he remembered that it in fact was Thomas who warned him beforehand, not to go to the city and search for gold, and therefore he did not want Thomas to know how it went! Thus Judas Ischariot kept quiet; but I gave Thomas a sign, that he should no longer pursue the gold seeker, because it would bare only little fruit.
5
However, it came to pass that a servant of Ouran, on the account of Judas Ischariot, reached into the treasure bag of Helena and stole thirty silver groschen. The servant came hurriedly to our table and said: "A thief, a thief! When the high masters were at sea to attend the pleasant fishing expedition and nobody, except for the Roman soldiers who camp around the mountain and are busy exercising, were close by, I had to leave the large tent to relieve myself; at that moment a disciple of the great Prophet, whom you rightly call your master, crept into the tent and stole, before I was back in the tent, from the treasure bag of the princess thirty silver groschen!
6
When I entered the tent, I found him embarrassed in the tent, with his eyes searching the ground, as if he was searching for a lost item; I spoke to him quite gruffly, since he looked suspicious to me, but he was frightened and immediately left the tent. Initially I did not expect any wrongdoing by a disciple of the big prophet; but when I walked up and down in the tent, I noticed the treasure bag of the most elated princess, because it was not in the same order as it was known to me before. For being a confidant, I was familiar with the numeric content of the treasure bag, I took the bag and counted the precious content, and see, - thirty silver groschen were missing! Those thirty delightful silver pieces could impossibly been taken by anyone else, than the previously indicated disciple! Most submissively I want to report this in time, so that in the end no suspicion falls on me who is innocent."
7
Says Helena: "Servant, why do you apologise, even before anybody has cast any suspicion on you?!"
8
Says the guard: "Most merciful princess! I do not apologize, but most dutifully I simply report the theft carried out by the disciple of the great prophet!"
9
Says Helena: "When did you previously searched my treasure bag without my knowledge?!"
10
Says the guard: "Oh, immediately after the elated, most merciful princess left the tent in my care! There were in all 600 groschen; but now there are only 570 - apparently there are 30 groschen missing, which nobody else could have taken than this disciple! Since I'm as guard responsible for the elated treasures, I must know what and how much I have to guard, and as an old, loyal servant I cannot be blamed, if I on time familiarize myself about what and about how much I have to guard! I now have noted the reported missing goods and have most dutifully reported it."
11
Says Helena: "Very well, very well, later we will look into the matter in more detail and find out who the culprit of the evil was, and he will not escape a just punishment! Perhaps it is also a possibility, that you made a mistake when counting the first or the second time, and it would be wrong to accuse the disciple of the divine Master, who entered the tent because maybe he was bored, for what he even had a right to do so, since no rule was given by us, that nobody was allowed to enter the tents! Go back to your post; I shall soon go there myself to investigate everything very thoroughly!"
12
With this answer the guard went away and his first task was, to put the thirty groschen as quick as possible back into the bag, so that the princess was right with her remark, in that he made a counting error. When he was finished with this operation, he became very embarrassed, what he was going to say during the investigation. So he thought that it would be best to go back to the princess, to ask her for forgiveness and thereby show to her, that he made a counting error and that he did a great injustice to the disciple. - Thought and done! After a few minutes he returned and explained it to the princess and at the same time he ask her to let go the promised investigation, since no crime was committed anymore.
13
When doing so, he still looked very embarrassed, since he knew that king Ouran punishes nothing more sharply than a lie and theft. Helena felt pity for the old goblin, who never before proved to be disloyal and she said to him: "Stand up and go your ways! It wasn't nice of you, that you wanted to revenge yourself in such a low manner on the disciple of the Lord, just because you don't like him, but who never did any harm to you, except that, since we are here, you can't stand him! See, this was evil of you, and you deserved to be sharply punished; since now everything is quite clear to me how you have acted!"
14
Here the servant starts to tremble, and Judas Ischariot who listened with great attention to this dialog from a distance, came to the servant and said to him: "Indeed, you have acted bad against me and without any reason; but I forgive you! Yes, I was in the tent, and when I was nearly only a few moments inside, you fiercely confronted me from behind and I went my ways; but there was never any mentioning that the treasures of the tent had been violated! And if you would not have confronted me so fiercely, the treasures which you have been guarding would not have suffered any damage by me. In short, let it be as it may be, - I have forgiven you; but with your masters you must see to it yourself how to get along well!"