The Great Gospel of John
Volume 6
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
At the Sea of Galilee (John 6)
- Chapter 170 -
The Lord teaches in the temple
When we arrived at the temple, the disciples stayed a little in the background and mingled among people, to listen to their opinion about Me.
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I however, stood in the centre of the temple on an elevated place, while still all kinds of festive ceremonies were in full swing, and called loudly to the people: "Who is thirsty, should come to Me and drink!"
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Some Jews standing close by said: "Where do you have something what we can drink?"
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Thereupon I said: "Who believes in Me, as the scriptures are saying, from his body streams of living water will flow!"
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Thereupon the Jews looked at each other and asked among another, what this means; since they did not know that I only was talking of the spirit, which those who believed in Me should receive. Since - as I have explained already several times - the holy spirit could not be there before My transfiguration, except in Me alone.
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However, many people who heard these words, said among each other: "Truly, this Galilean speaks likes a true prophet and therefore is a perfect, true prophet."
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Again others, who new Me better from My deeds, said: "What prophet, what prophet! He is Christ, the promised Messiah! Since also God cannot do greater things than He does!"
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But some asked and said: "Should Christ according to the scriptures come from Galilea? Doesn't the scriptures say: 'Christ will come from the seed of David and will come from the place Bethlehem were David was!?'
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Then some, who were well informed about My parentage and My birth, said: "Yes, if you require this, it all fits this prophet anyway! Firstly he is a son of Joseph, the well-known carpenter from Nazareth, and Maria, a daughter of Joachim and Anna, and both of them are proven descendants of the tribe David. And secondly, it is common knowledge, that he was born in Bethlehem in a stable during a general population census ordered by emperor Augustus, and was circumcised eight days later by Simeon and received the name Jesus. If so, why do we still doubt that He is Christ?"
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In this way there was a division among the people with regard to who I actually was.
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Some friends of the pharisees were encouraged by the pharisees to seize Me; since the clerics could not endure any longer, that some of the better people started to call Me Christ. Therefore some came to Me to seize Me; however in My proximity they lost their courage and nobody dared to put a hand on Me. In addition to the pharisee friends, also the pharisee's servants were instructed by the pharisees to seize Me and deliver Me to them; but also they came to halt before Me and listened, how I explained to the people the commandments of God and the commandments of love in the same manner as I have explained it quite often at other places, and therefore it is not necessary to repeat the often given explanation here again. The servants however, also saw the large crowd who believed in Me, and therefore did not dared to touch Me.
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When I paused during My teaching, the servants returned empty handed to the pharisees. But when they came back without Me, the pharisees scolded them furiously and said: "Why didn't you seize him and bring him to us? Doesn't you see yourself that he disturbs us in the middle of the marvellous feast and on top of it turns all the people away from us? Why haven't you seized him and brought him to us for a just punishment?"
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And the servants answered: "Listen, never ever has a person spoken so wisely than this Galilean! He truly must be filled by the spirit of God!"
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Then one of the pharisees answered him: "What do we hear from you? Are you then also deceived by him? Does any of the pharisees or senior priest believe in him?! No, - only the stupid people!"
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Said the servants: "We already have told you before, how it stands with the by you cursed people, and we stand by that! If you however are not happy with that, then go yourselves to the people and tell them, that they are cursed because they believe in the Galilean, - then the people will let you know how content they are with your curse! You anyway have decided to curse every dissident, without investigating whether the other faith in some regard might be even better than ours! But we as very common servants find this unfair; since for as long God does not judges and condemns a person, for as long also we mortal people should not preempt Him and thereby signal to the All-wise that we earthworms are wiser than He is. Just once also curse the faith of the Romans - but pretty openly! -, they will tell you what they think about your judgement!"
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Said the pharisees: "Make that you get away from here; since we can see that also you have been deceived!"
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Said the servants: "It is bad enough from you that you do not know how to educate us and the people any better! For you do not expect from us that we should respect your false and bad miracles, since we always were ourselves the tools and secret miracle performers?! However, the miracles were always the only thing that gave respect to the people, while all your anti-Moses sermons and teachings were too stupid and too bad for even the most silly people! You truly should not undertake anything against us, otherwise we will tell the people all about your old and inexpressive miracles, and you can see how you will get along with the people!"
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Here the pharisees became more friendly towards the servants who the left.