The Great Gospel of John
Volume 7
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
The Lord on the Mount of Olives. (cont.) Gospel of John, Chapter 8
- Chapter 11 -
The judgment of Agricola.
When the senior cleric heard such judgement over him from the mouth of this honest, poor father, he burst into tears and said: "O great God, how good are your true children and how terribly evil are we as a true snake brood from hell! O God, punish me according to my most evil merits!"
2
Said Agrikola: "If they, who had the actual right, did not judge you, I will also not judge you; therefore let the judge come here to strictly forbid you and everyone else in the temple to ever impose the death sentence on anybody; - otherwise you and the whole temple will not be exempted from prosecution. But those bloodhounds and henchmen will be punished with one hundred lashes each for their voluntary mischievousness towards this poor man, so that also they can feel what such inhuman devilment does to a poor man. The soldiers can immediately take them to prison and serve the lashes. So be it!"
3
These now began to cry and plead.
4
Said Agrikola: "Didn't this poor man beg you not to mistreat him, - and you just ignored his pleading, whereas you were only instructed to guard him? Hence, since you did something for which you had not even an ostensible right, not one single lash will be remitted, to the contrary, the tormentors will be instructed that each lash be exercised with the greatest intent. Let's carry on; because for you no mercy exists from God and much less from me!"
5
The soldiers surrounded the fifteen temple servants and drove them away.
6
But the temple senior asked the Roman with trembling reverence, saying: "Eminent and mighty Master! What should I actually settle with this judge?"
7
Said Agrikola: "This I have already indicated to you; but if you do not understand, then I will repeat it for you: You are going to accompany the judge to the courthouse and there you will receive from him well defined instructions, how the temple in all future shall behave regarding the penalties of Moses! Every transgression of such instructions will be most severely punished by Rome! With such written instructions from Pilatus under my command, you will go to the temple and make them known!"
8
Said the senior cleric: "But what shall I tell Pilatus, if he questions me about you?"
9
Said Agrikola: "He will not do this, since I visited him a few days ago, he knows me well and is well informed why I'm travelling through our countries in the name of the Emperor. But know, you also can go!"
10
The judge and the senior cleric bowed deeply before Agrikola, and the judge admonished the senior cleric to follow him.
11
But the senior cleric said: "I just want to put one last question to the envoy of the Emperor!"
12
Said the judge: "Then ask quickly; we judges do not have a lot of time these days!"
13
Hereupon the senior cleric turned once again to Agrikola and said: "Mighty Envoy of the Emperor! See, I'm very rich and I'm disgusted by my treasures! Since I have inflicted such terrible wrongdoing on this family, I want to completely distance myself from all my treasures and pass it on to them, to pay for my wrongdoing as much as possible. May this judge draw up a transfer document and give it together with all my treasures to the poor family, so that nobody can question them from where they have received it?"
14
Said Agrikola: "You will still find a great number of poor families, where you can practice the works of long overdue neighbourly love; however, this poor family has been already looked after in the best possible way. And with that you can go! Subsequently do the right thing and fear God, and you will not experience such a meeting again! So be it!"
15
Both of them bowed again and left.
16
We returned with the rescued family to our group, who full of curiosity waited to learn about everything that had happened. Because they were so far away from us, they were able to see but not to hear anything about what had happened. Also our slave trader Hibram and his colleagues pushed themselves to the fore, to hear what had happened.
17
But I said to Lazarus: "Friend, above all it is now important to provide these four with food to build up their physical strength, - everything else we will discuss above; since they have not eaten for two days. The elderly couple was very ill but has been healed. This otherwise strong, young man who has been badly ill-treated, is actually he who should have been stoned, and this charming maiden is his sister and both are children of these poor but honest parents. And now you know with whom you are dealing!"
18
Said also Agrikola: "As long as I will be staying here, everything they eat, will be added to my bill, and I also wish that they receive the best treatment at my table! Thereafter I take them anyway with me to Rome. I will also add all the slaves to my account and in future will do everything to look after their proper development on a natural and spiritual level.
19
Says Lazarus: "Friend, some of them I would like to keep with me; you see, I do not have a wife nor children and would like to adopt a few as children!"
20
Said Agrikola: "You are free to do this; it will be my pleasure to leave you as many as you like!"
21
With that Lazarus was quite content and we started to walk up the mountain and very quickly reached the top.