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 26 -
The Jewess' excuse.
The young girl now thought for a while as to what she should say in reply; since she felt completely exposed.
2
Her mother who was more composed tried to help her out of her embarrassment and said to her daughter: "O, why are you considering so fearfully and full of embarrassment about what to say? Did anyone ever see the old God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob? Nobody knows anything else about Him, except what he has read about Him in the scriptures written by many people or what he has heard from the priests. But the priests who know the old God best, and are supposed to follow His commandments most thoroughly, do exactly the opposite and provide with their actions proof to every thinking person, that the old God of the Jews exists only in the imagination just as the gods of the heathens, who also have never been seen by any person of our time. But this God we see, hear His wise speeches and marvel at His extraordinary deeds which are only possible for an almighty God. What should prevent us any further from recognising Him as the only true God and give to Him alone all honour?!"
3
Said the daughter: "Yes, yes, mother, everything would be quite alright, if we, with the greatest surety, could state that Moses and the prophets never existed and all writings by Moses were nothing else than fiction from the continuously same Pharisees. Since this cannot be completely verified and because as is generally known, there are many things in Moses and the prophets which are extraordinarily good and true, and which always posed, according to my knowledge, a problem for the Pharisees which they, as is generally known, always ignored, we can not that easily assume that the complete holy scriptures has been compiled by the successive Pharisees with all kinds of fictional names, but was apparently written by people who were inspired by God, and therefore this is also the word of God, despite those inspired people having never seen God! And therefore it is always a truly very risky matter, to immediately recognise and worship a person as a God based on his speeches and surely highly miraculous deeds.
4
In my first surprise I have done the same and have in the great blindness of my heart never given it the slightest consideration, according to which I almost worshipped two gods. But the marvellous man immediately showed me the right way, by making me clearly understand, that he is not a God, but only a great, by God inspired prophet, - and anything else is superfluous.
5
Don't we know that the prophet Elias will come before the coming of the great Messiah?! And I'm not that easily mistaken - as you, mother, know -, and therefore I say that this exceedingly marvellous man is the returned prophet Elijah and this very lovely youth is his disciple Elisha. But from now on we truly do not have to wait too long anymore for the great Messiah to arrive!
6
This is my view, and since this otherwise so marvellous, wise and miracle performing man thinks that I am a reed in my believe, I will show him the most stubborn opposite of his opinion. Just as not everything in the world that shines and looks like gold, is gold, I will show here that not everything is weak, even if it looks weak.
7
There is only one God; but there can be many prophets, of which I count this marvellous man apparently as one of them. And as such I believe that I have given to you and this otherwise marvellous man upon his question to me, surely the best answer. His remark to me regarding the God Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was very good, and by it I felt very much admonished and for such admonition and all the other blessings I have to thank him to the highest degree; but if he is the promised Messiah, that has yet to be seen! O, I'm everything else than a weak reed!"
8
Here the mother cautioned her daughter, that she should not be so vain and stubborn.
9
Said the daughter: "I'm not stubborn and to a much lesser degree vain; but I take note of the directive of this marvellous man and great master and thank him wholeheartedly for all the extraordinary blessings we have received from him. What can I and what can we all do more than that? But I will also not be stubborn in recognising this marvellous master as the true Messiah and Saviour of the people; since every great and under circumstances also every small prophet is in a certain way a Messiah, because he brought the light of truth about life back to the people who had sunk into the night of life, and to lift them again out of the mud of sensuousness to a more pure spiritual and truthful life. And this man full of magnificence and full of true divine power and might, is doing the same as I have noticed, and is therefore certainly also a true Messiah of the people, who want to be taught by him.
10
With my opinion of him it is impossible to be completely wrong; since my opinion is only based on what I myself had heard and seen from him. The matter might be completely different - what we can not know -, but is impossible for us to be wrong, if we only accept what we can accept based on what we have heard and seen. May the spirit, the power and mercy of God lead him on and on for the blessing of all mankind!"
11
Said the mother: "My dear daughter, I would love you a lot more, if you were a little less dreadfully bright! For two years the old rabbi filled your head with all the things that a person on this earth can possibly know, and after that you knew everything better than us, your parents, and thereby you became sometimes quite intolerable, and I notice it now, that you are getting close to becoming repulsive for even this great master! Therefore I regard it now as advisable, that we ask him for forgiveness and then return to our places!"
12
At this point I said: "O, there is no need for that; so far I haven't had the chance to speak with the daughter Helias, since only you as her mother conversed with her! Now let also Me converse with the beautiful Helias, so that she, as an intelligent maiden can, for herself and also for many others with whom she will get in contact, learn in the fullest truth with whom she is dealing with in Me as a Person; since until now she doesn't know anything and you as her mother even less! Therefore, Mother, speak only when I ask you to speak!"
13
Thereupon the mother kept quiet, but begged Me to allow her to stay close to Me, which I allowed her to do.