The Great Gospel of John
Volume 8
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
The Lord and His adversaries
- Chapter 88 -
Cult and priesthood.
Then the Roman Marcus said: "I am very grateful for your complete frank explanation, and we Romans will soon know what we have to do with such kind of priesthood. When people only dedicate themselves to the priesthood because of the lucrative function and not because of the eternal truth from God, it is time to exterminate such a bad priesthood from the root and to replace it with a better and real priesthood.
2
As a very experienced Roman, this is now how I think, and the Lord Himself gives this in my heart: from now on, no more priesthood, no temple and no Sabbaths, feast days, memorial days and no celebration years and no Olympiads. But every person should strife to become a good teacher for his fellowmen and a real father for his children. The temples should be transformed into charitable institutions for the poor, and the Sabbaths, feast days and other meaningless memorial days should be transformed into days of charity. Then soon, all men will embrace and love each other as true brothers in the Lord.
3
But as long as a person will let himself be called priest with a certain godly esteem and allow himself to be honored and to be paid as such by his fellowmen, as long as they will build temples, keep Sabbaths and other feast days and keep them solemnly with all kind of ceremonies, it will look bad for humanity. Is from God not every day a day of the Lord on which one faithfully professes to love God above all in his heart and to do good to his fellowman, spiritually and physically? I believe now in this opinion, which is free of every prejudice, and I believe that everyone who will think about it, will be of the same opinion which I have expressed now."
4
Then the scribe said: "Concerning this opinion of yours, highly ranked Roman, much can be said according to human reasoning, but we must also consider what God has established through the great prophet Moses, for it is said explicitly: 'You shall work 6 days, but on the 7th day, the Sabbath, you shall rest of all the hard, servile work. You should consecrate this day to God, your Lord, and serve Him only on the manner that has been prescribed to the people by Aaron.'
5
Now when your opinion would be a reality and one would abolish the regulations of Moses, then this will mean as much as to say: the God who spoke to Moses and who speaks now again personally to us through the wonderful Nazarene, contradicts Himself.
6
I am also against a caste-like priesthood, but with every people there must also be elders and rabbis, for not every person has the Spirit and the talent to develop himself to become a true rabbi, and even if now and then a common person should have the Spirit and talent, then he still lacks time and the right means. Therefore, Moses destined the tribe of Levi for the priesthood, and to the other tribes he imposed the tithe to provide for this tribe so that it could consecrate itself entirely for the teaching profession.
7
But I am now also of the opinion that the necessary teachers for the people do not absolutely have to come from the tribe of Levi, because this looks like a caste-system, but every human being who has the Spirit, talent and time should have the right to develop himself in godly matters to become a teacher. But if he then has become a competent teacher, the congregation that he serves should also provide for him, and out of respect and love not allow that he, besides his teaching profession, will have to earn his bread in the sweat of his face with spade and plow.
8
However, concerning your opinion about the temple and the other feast days, except what concerns the Sabbath, I am of the same opinion as you, because Moses did not establish that. But because of the people, it is of course necessary that during one day of the week they would come together on an appropriate place and there would be taught about God and His will, so that they would not fall into complete godliness or dirty idolatry. This is now my opinion, and we would like now that the Lord and Master Himself would also let us hear His opinion about this."