The Great Gospel of John
Volume 6
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
The Lord on the Mount of Olives (John Chapter 8)
- Chapter 211 -
A bet between Agricola and a Pharisee.
Said one of them who was more believing: "Also in that you are not altogether wrong; but with us Jews there also exist people who have learned something and thus also understand something and therefore also are able to examine and assess a few things. And as such there exists priests who understand a little more than a foreigner might think."
2
Said the Roman: "Ah, I am too of the opinion that you Jews must have learned something! However, what you have learned falls far short to even assess the mind of a Roman, not mentioning the wisdom of this God-man, which is truly unlimited and for which we have the highest reverence.
3
I want to make with you seven a bet for a thousand pounds of gold, that you will not be able to give me on any question a right answer, which only I from the top of my head can give you. If you however cannot do this, with what means do you want to prove to us, that this God-man is not the absolute right and true Messiah? Let the most knowledgeable of you come here, and I also will make a bet with him! As a counter proof I will then ask this God-man the most difficult questions, and I bet even ten-thousand pound of gold that He will answer all of them. However if He would ask me, out of a thousand questions I will not be able to answer Him only one, although I surely understand a thousand times more as the most wise of you."
4
Said one pharisee: "Friend, then you would place your gold on a very risky play; since we are knowledgeable in many things!"
5
Said the Roman: "Good, my gold means nothing to me, since I still have more than a thousand times more which I can bet, than what this bet is worth! However what I say as a patrician of Rome, I stick to it on life and death! Do you understand this? Let me thus ask you! And answer the question correctly and you have won a thousand pounds of gold; however, if you can't do this, you will pay me only a hundred pounds as punishment for your presumption towards us Romans, your masters!"
6
Then the seven asked one another if they should accept this shining bet. One said that this might be very risky since one could not know what the Roman might be asking.
7
But one of the most incredulous of them said: "I think that the heathen will not be able to give me one reasonable question which I will not be able to answer him. I accept the bet; but there must be umpires who must decide whether my answers are good and right."
8
Said he now to the Roman: "If we can have here an expert and impartial decision court, I accept the bet!"
9
Said the Roman: "Good, thus set up one for you! Here are hundreds of people, - they will be able to decide if your answers are true, good and thorough? I already have my umpire."
10
Said the pharisee over-confident: "Good then, ask, - the bet stands!"
11
Now the Roman got up and once more said to the pharisee: "Friend, be not careless! Since I say it once more to you, that you will not be able to answer only one question, and the one-hundred pound gold will not be condoned."
12
Said very proudly the pharisee: "Very well, it stands! I only add the condition that you also must answer the same number of questions to me which I'm going to put to you. Only if you can answer al my questions correctly, you can have the hundred pounds of gold."
13
Said the Roman: "I'm fully content with this condition and as such I will ask you only ten questions. Thus listen to me!
14
Since also we Romans are quite knowledgeable about your prophets, I want a proper explanation about what Jesajas means in the tenth chapter when he says:
15
'Woe the scribes who make unrighteous laws, and afterwards write an unjust judgement, so that they can bend the cases of the poor and exercise power over the good right of the wretched among My people, so that the widows become their robbery and the orphans become their prey! What do you want to do on the day of the great disaster and on the day of the great misfortune, which will come from far away over you? To whom do you want to flee that he could help you? And where will you leave your honour, so that it does not lands among the prisoners and does not fall among the killed? In all this the Lord's rage does not stop and His hand is stretched above you.'
16
This, my friend, would be the first question totally out of your field, so that you cannot say I have ask you anything completely foreign. Give me a valid answer for it!"
17
When the pompous pharisee heard this question and this particular text of the prophet embarrassed him more than death, his tongue came to a total stalemate, and he did not knew what he should answer, since these very texts expressed the horrors of the pharisees very clearly.
18
When the pharisee hesitated with the answer, the Roman said: "Yes, friend, if you are going to answer the remaining nine questions in the same manner, our umpires will have an easy judgement! Are you then not knowledgeable about your scriptures?"
19
Said finally the pharisee: "O, indeed; but to explain this here is not appropriate, but only in the temple, and even there it is better for the people that they do not get to know and understand everything!"
20
Said the Roman: "O, this I fully believe you; for if you had explained this to the already totally plundered people by you, they would have long since burned you like wall lice! Did I as a heathen told you earlier a lie when I openly maintained to your faces that you do not believe in any God at all? Since if you would believe in a God, your most famous prophet would not have given you such an ungodly testimony. I say this to you: The time of your great disaster and misfortune has now come! To where do you want to flee so that somebody might help you?
21
But lets leave it at that! The first question is thus as good as lost. Let us go over to the second question; perhaps it will suit you better!"
22
Said the stubborn pharisee: "But I asked you for a better one!"
23
But the people rejoiced quietly and wanted to hug the Roman.