The Great Gospel of John
Volume 6
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
The Lord and the Priests of the Temple (John 5)
- Chapter 14 -
Confession of a Jewish priest.
One of the Jews from the priestly class said: "Oh Lord, You are always wonderful, full of love, mercy, justice and wisdom, and whatever You say or even simply think is already irrevocably a deed performed for eternity, and thus it can only be difficult for a man to talk to You! But nonetheless I will yet exchange a few words with You for the sake of the brothers; so have the mercy to listen to me! You see, oh Lord, whoever knows the path well which leads to a certain safe destination, which has been proven to the wanderer that it can and must give the greatest advantage in life, if he only reaches this destination, he will certainly do nothing other than to follow this destination along the well-known path and also certainly reach it; only a very blind fool could take another path out of the purest foolishness and complete ignorance.
2
Well, we now know the way and the destination and thus we can then also easily turn our backs on the whole world and its temptations and follow the true and certain destination of life as true heroes even on this path over thorns and serpents; even against an army of devils would we now fight and unceasingly strive for the goal! Yes, we are all better off now; for we have not only heard, but also seen and felt with all our senses that it is so and eternally cannot be otherwise. But how many of us are there here who received some of Your incomprehensible mercy?!
3
But what happened with the countless many other people who since the days of Adam have live scattered over this earth in immeasurably far-off places in all darkness of the spirit, and still live and will continue to live so? Who will open their eyes and who will redeem their souls? Even we Jews and - let's say - priests as teachers and leaders of the nation indeed have Moses and the prophets; but what good are they to us? Where is the proof that they were really once here? Simply in blind faith alone! For the most conscientious pious people died before our eyes very often a very bitter and ignominious death, and even the most pious soul of the dead has never come back and given us any enlightenment about the afterlife. Everything that we knew about it was only a dim, incomprehensible myth, quite terribly contrasting with the better principles of reason, with which one could only half keep the most uneducated rabble in check.
4
What wonder that we and very many became acquainted with the Greek wise men and then indeed still preach Judaism but lived as epicures ourselves! For man has an inextinguishable drive towards salvation and at least half contentment; in no way or means could we create even the slightest probability of an eternal afterlife and even less any certain and lasting proof. We were healthy and spry people, the world clearly lay before us with all its joys and luxuriance; it is therefore obvious that we did not hesitate to desire it and to take hold of it! For why shouldn't we also prepare salvation for ourselves for our efforts to positively belie and deceive the people with all means in blind faith in God and immortality, since we could not, as I have said, find any proof of the afterlife?!
5
You see, oh Lord, that was our secret teaching, almost very similar to that of the Essenes, although we for well-known reasons had no alliance with them! We also persecuted the Sadducees because of their cynicism, but not for our own sakes, but instead for the sake of the believing people; for if the people had converted to the sect of the Sadducees, then our earthly bliss would soon have come to an end. But now, since we have finally received the most convincing proof of the afterlife through Your pure mercy, all that is earthly has certainly become a true abomination to us! But what will happen with the others who do not have this mercy and will also only ever have it with difficulty?"
6
I said: "You do not have to worry about that! For the meantime worry only about yourselves, all the others will yet be looked after abundantly! Whoever then, like you all, wants it, will be saved as you are; but whoever does not want it will only have himself to blame if he perishes.
7
"Every soul will continue to live in the beyond solely out of its love and out of its faith and thereby according to the full freedom of its will. If its love is pure and good, its life in the beyond will be a good, pure and blissful one. However, if its love is evil and impure, not providing any happiness for a fellowman, its life in the beyond will be impure, bad and without bliss.
8
To deprive a soul of its love and substitute another for it would mean to destroy it and create a totally different soul in its place. This would go against the eternal, divine order, for nothing created by God can ever perish but can only pass into something nobler and better. Therefore, also such lost souls will be looked after in the beyond. But I tell you what I have told you before: Here an hour is worth more than there a thousand years!
9
But no soul is done an injustice; for as long as a soul is allowed to retain its love and desires but is only separated from the others and, unable to do any harm to the good, can do in its appropriate sphere in the spirit world what it desires in accordance with its love for life and its intelligence, it is certainly not wronged, not even seemingly.
10
Just as you have been living up to now, all evil devil souls live in hell, whose terrible fire consists in their evil, insatiable self-love and their lust for power, and you yourselves declare that you had fared quite well in it. In spite of this, day by day the vermin of death kept eating away on you more and more, making your life a sheer misery. What good did your life of luxury do to you?
11
Many will share this fate in the beyond for a long time to come, but it is entirely their own fault. For there they have to suffer the terror of death not only once but many times, which is necessary because without it all these souls would be truly lost forever.
12
You know enough for today, and since it is now almost midnight, let us go into the house now and take our rest there. What the day of tomorrow will bring us, we will see and thus let us go!"
13
Here we all left the hill and headed into the house, where everything had already been best prepared for our rest. But the Jews had their own, large chamber. There they sat around the table and discussed almost all night long what they planned to do in order to free themselves from the Temple. They found the safest means in selling themselves. Then there was also silence among them.