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 223 -
Right and wrong observance of the Sabbath.
1
(The Lord:) "As it is with the eating of meat of impure animals, it is exactly the same with the Sabbath. Firstly every day is a day of the Lord, and a right person should do good every day, not only on the Sabbath! And secondly it is only written, that one should holy the day and not carry out unnecessary hard, labourious work; however that one should not carry out good works on a Sabbath, not one syllable is written in Moses!
2
If the prophet says: 'Without need and official admission, you should not perform any hard, labourious work on a Sabbath!', how is it that you say that I desecrate the Sabbath, if I on such a day heal a sick person without remuneration? You yourself give food on a Sabbath to the ox and guide the donkey together with the cow and sheep and goat to the drinking trough! Would you let drown the ox or donkey in the well, if it falls into the well on a Sabbath? However, if you do such to your domestic animals, why should one not help a person on a Sabbath? Is a person not worth more than an animal?!
3
O you blind fools! How far have you distanced yourself from the truth! Yes, about you it is true as it is written: 'See, these people honour Me with their lips; but their hearts are far from Me!'
4
Tel Me: If a person comes to you and says: 'I have a lot of work with my harvest and the time is ripe! If I can use the Sabbath, I will sacrifice three times the tenth, a fattened ox and three fat calves!', you go and write him a concession, so that he can use the letter to recruit workers also on a Sabbath. Isn't that a much greater Sabbath desecration, than helping a sick on a Sabbath?!
5
On a Sabbath one should not break any bread before sundown and also not eat; however if you in your rooms feast and smolder for the whole day - even if it's a Sabbath - and for money also allows it to others, except the poor, because they cannot pay for it, - question: Is that not a sacrilegious sabbatical disgrace?!
6
I ask you further: Why have you declared the 6th and 7th book of Moses as an unauthentic addition and thus also the prophetic appendix and rejected it? It would be a bright shining guiding thread for everybody, which would have shown to him in the most clearest light, what he should do in all possible cases. But instead you are furnished with a Kabbala, which originates from the old-Egyptian Horus. This, just as the old Horus, you do not understand, and Moses and the prophets, for whom you have erected monuments after your fathers have stoned them, you do not want to understand, but you teach the people that they together with you, only have to highly honour and worship these writings, which would then be sufficient. Isn't that more of a Sabbath desecration than Me healing a sick on a Sabbath?!
7
However, I am who I am, also the Lord of the Sabbath! And as such I say: I do not have any joy about the Sabbath as implemented by you, and I do on a Sabbath what I want, just as I - speaks the Lord - let the sun go up and down also on a Sabbath and let flow the rivers, let blow the winds and great storms, and let go the moon and the stars in their designated orbits and let grow the grass and let ripen the sweet juice in the grapes! When however all this stands in My most absolute power, should I then ask you what I should do on a Sabbath?! - Speak now and give a valid and reasonable answer!"