Support for Christianity
About Isaiah IX (chap. 4, The 3 days Scene) CHAPTER 4 Repeated request of the Jesus-Boy to have His preliminary question answered about Isaiah IX: 5,6. The objection of the acrimonious priest and the vigorous answer of the Boy-Jesus. 1] I said: “Oh yes, this very good explanation of yours I knew long ago, and so you might have spared yourself the trouble of telling Me all that. Therefore I maintain my point, and shall not remove My attention from the virgin Mary. 2] Why did the prophet say (Isaiah IX: 5,6): ‘Unto us a Child is born, a Son is given us, the government shall be upon His shoulder; and He is called Wonderful, Counselor, Strength, Hero, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace; that His government shall be great, and there shall be no end to the Peace on the Throne of David and in His kingdom, that He prepare, complete, and strengthen it with justice and righteousness from now and to eternity! Such will the Zeal of the Lord Zebaoth accomplish! 3] What Child is this and what Son is this Who is given to us? Would not this be, after all, the Boy born in a stable at Bethlehem? For it is also said: ‘At Bethlehem, in a stable, shall be born a King unto the Jews. He will found a new empire of which there shall be no end unto Eternity!’ How do you, Kabbalist, understand all this?” 4] Confused they all looked at each other and said: “Whence has this boy been able to gain such a knowledge of the Scriptures? There are altogether at most very few copies, and of these hardly ten are perfect; and as to these, we know where they are and no layman can get to them. The Samaritans do indeed possess an eleventh, but it is quite false, and contains a number of additions which are purely oriental fiction.” 5] Hereupon an acrimonious speaker asked Me: “Now you tell me what I am going to ask you: Whence, and how long have you gained so perfect a knowledge of the Scriptures and especially of the prophets?”
6] I said: “You have as little right to question Me as I have to ask you how it comes about that you, as a priest, have not made the Scriptures your own, neither in word and much less in deed! Give Me an answer to that for which I ask, and for which you have been paid! All else matters little, or not at all, to you; for it has cost you nothing, neither pain, nor time, not the very least trouble, nor any sacrifice whatever. 7] Moreover it does no special honour to your teaching-office here in Jerusalem, if the obvious learning of a boy from Galilee causes you so much astonishment; for thereby you only show that your boys here stand but little above the animal kingdom in their education!” 8] On this rather strongly direct remark of Mine, the Roman commissioner began to laugh aloud, and Simon also could not refrain from laughing. But the acrimonious speaker stepped aside and sat down quite sullen on a bench in the background. 9] Thereupon a chief of the Synagogue of Bethlehem who was also present in the Temple at the examination of the boys, said: “Well, I see that I shall have to devise means, or else we shall never come to an end with this boy! He has now a purchased right to ask us questions for a whole week; we must answer him whether we like it or not! If he already gives us so much trouble with his first question, we had better prepare ourselves at once for his inquiries and capital questions! 10] Intelligence he has in abundance and natural wit also, and we shall not get the better of him if we do not want what he wants. He just insists on having a true statement of affairs about the birth of a little boy twelve years ago in a cattle shed near Bethlehem, and this I can procure for him, as I was already then, and am still today, the head of the synagogue there.” Discussion of Jesus with the head of synagogue (chap. 5, The 3 days Scene) CHAPTER 5 Speech of the head of the synagogue of Bethlehem, and answer of the Boy-Jesus. The proud old Pharisee makes an unsuccessful attempt to interrupt. 1] Upon this the head of the synagogue turned to Me and said: “Is it not true that you want to hear from us most exactly all the dates and outward circumstances of that memorable birth at Bethlehem?” 2] I said: “Oh, as to that you may just as well save yourself trouble and labor, for none of you know as exactly and truly as I do Myself! After all, I only want to know from you whether, and in what connection, you find that all that took place at that time in Bethlehem is in agreement with the sayings of all the prophets, and especially with the saying of Isaiah. This is the question and nothing else at all, my elders!” 3] The head of the synagogue at Bethlehem replied: “Yes, my dear, gracious boy behold, there you demand of us things which are very difficult or even not possible at all for us to give you! 4] It is true that a kind of connection is undoubtedly to be sought for, and is even to be found with no great difficulty, between the declarations of the prophet Isaiah and that birth, twelve years ago, in a stable at Bethlehem - a place also mentioned by a prophet; but, my dear, how many similar things may have happened since the times of the prophet Isaiah, and yet there is no real sign of an incarnated Emanuel! 5] Judea was, as it were, several times already without a king, and many a young woman has brought forth at Bethlehem in some stable or another a little boy, sometimes indeed although only accidentally - with great ceremony - but the thing in itself was only looked upon as a natural phenomenon. 6] Weak and superstitious people admitted avaricious magicians of India and Persia; and astrologers who have never yet been wanting among us, knew how to make the best of such an opportunity. Versed in the sayings of the prophets, they always took advantage of such special opportunities and announced with serious, prophetical looks to the blind Jews, how now their hoped-for Messiah had undoubtedly been born into the world! 7] But time, the inexorable destroyer of all human works in myth and fiction, ever taught posterity about another and better one. Everything sank into the bottomless depth of an ever greater oblivion, and nothing more has come down to us but an empty legend in the greatest possible confusion. The declarations of the prophets are mystical pictures after which, centuries hence, men will hungrily pursue; but hardly any nation will arrive at a solution on this earth. 8] And see, my fine boy, it is the same with the miraculous birth which took place twelve years ago at Bethlehem, a place only too well known to me and which, just because the prophets proclaimed it so much, is continually overrun by all kinds of magicians and seers and astrologers, waiting in case there should be anything by which they might profit. The birth twelve years ago was a main inundation of their dry fields. 9] The three magicians from Persia received, as I well know, in return for their presents brought to the virgin, a number of sheep calves, cows and oxen from the shepherds, and so had certainly not made their journey in vain. Now however twelve years have passed away since then, and already no one any longer remembers that story. 10] I am not at all surprised that you have again brought forward this story from the fanatical country of Galilee; for Galilee was ever the land of fanaticism, for which reason it was already designated of old, by the elders, as a country out of which no true prophet could ever come forth. 11] With that, my dear youth, I think I have completely answered your preliminary question! It is quite possible that sometime Jehovah will call forth for the now greatly oppressed Jews, some hero or other who will again lift them up to be a free people, but for that there is just now not the slightest prospect according to the natural state of affairs. 12] What would the outward appearance of such a hero have to be, and when must he come to be a match for the super-immense power of Rome? That might perhaps happen once in a thousand years if by chance all the other great world-powers, as well as Rome, should become lax and weak, but so far there does not seem to be any chance of that for a long time to come and the preliminary question upon which you touched manifestly dissolves into air, which is as much as to say: it treats of nothing, and goes therefore into complete nothingness. - Are you now quite clear about your preliminary question?” 13] I said: “Yes, yes, if you measure all that in a worldly way, you may be right; but here only a spiritual measure is to be used, but of this you seem to have no idea at all, and thus, in the end, you have as much as told Me nothing in regard to My preliminary question, with all your speech apparently so full of experience. 14] For when the Messiah shall come, He will found no material kingdom but only a spiritual empire on earth, and of His Kingdom there shall be no end unto Eternity, as is also foretold by the prophet Isaiah concerning the coming Messiah. 15] But what is a spiritual empire on earth? That is no empire with external pomp, but it must manifest itself interiorly in man; a man who shall attain this true Empire of God on earth among men, will be truly living, and will not see death, nor feel nor taste it in Eternity, as prophesied by David, Daniel and Isaiah. 16] If such be the case now with the promised Messiah, and can never be otherwise, how and for what reason should that most remarkable birth at Bethlehem be so entirely without significance? 17] God has marvelously protected that Child from the murderous hands of Herod. He is living today, certainly in great seclusion, and stands as He has to do, with a power over all the elements, such as is possible only for a God. No one can hide from Him; but as He hides Himself from the people, no one will then succeed in finding Him, before He Himself allows Himself to be found of His own free-will. 18] He has never learned how to read or write, and yet there is no writing in the world which He could not read, and He writes in all tongues, and is clever in all the arts that can ever exist in the world, and has a power before which the mountains tremble, and the mightiest cedars bow their heads to the ground; even the sun, the moon, and the stars seem to obey His will! What I say here is no exaggeration, but a completely literal truth. 19] But if it be thus and not otherwise, I really think that it would be worth the trouble, on your side, to inform yourselves more closely about Him, and to look up in the prophets, if the prophecy of Isaiah does not coincide with the parents of the Child who are known - with the Child Himself, with His birth, with His birth place, with the time, with His present dwelling-place and with the numerous signs which He has already given of Himself up to now. 20] This matter, surely not unimportant in itself, ought not to remain so completely unnoticed by you priests, wise men, scribes, and elders of the people, since you still occupy those places among the people of which alone, and with every right, they have to expect the honest proclamation of the arrival of the promised Messiah. I speak now because of My dearly-bought right, and no one may silence Me! Here stands the Roman judge who alone has such a right!” 21] I would not have made that appeal to the judge if, during the course of My speech, an old, very proud Pharisee had not admonished Me to be silent [seeing that] ‘an impudent swine herdsman out of Galilee has no right to an opinion about such matters!’ 22] But the judge who was quite on My side, seriously reprimanded the Pharisee for his coarseness, and commanded him never again to use such vulgar, imperious language in his presence. For My announcement concerning the boy-prodigy living somewhere about Nazareth was more important for the Romans also, than their worn-out and thoroughly thread-bare Jewish rubbish. To the Pharisees he spoke straight to their faces: 23] The Judge “Your doctrine requires a complete reformation, more than any other in the whole world - otherwise it will not last more than fifty years! For as your doctrine of God and your service of God now stand, the bacchanalia of Rome are a real sun in comparison, although as being the veneration of a Higher Divinity they represent a real miscarriage of human intelligence! 24] You, my splendid boy, just go on speaking quite courageously! No harm may be done to you; for within you there seems to be more intelligence than in the whole of this Temple! Therefore continue, my fine boy! Of the mission of the son of Zacharias ans powers of Jesus (chap. 7, The 3 days Scene) CHAPTER 7 The answer of the Boy Jesus to the speech of the High priest. Of the mission of the son of Zacharias, and of the miraculous power of the carpenter’s son. 1] Said the Judge to Me: “Well then, you gracious boy, what do you say to this speech of the High priest which surely has much truth in it?” 2] I said: “What else should I say to it than: Either he is right, and the prophet is a liar and therefore is not right, or the wrong falls back upon the High priest, and the prophet is not right, or the wrong falls back upon the High priest, and the prophet is right in spite of him! But both of them cannot possibly be right, for the High priest declares the exact contrary of what the prophet has foretold about the coming of the Messiah! 3] If the prophet says: ‘Behold a virgin - but no wife - is with child and will have a son whom she will call Emanuel (i.e. ‘God with us’)’, how is it then that the High priest declares that the Messiah shall only come down to men, from heaven to earth, under tremendous signs in the firmament, and with the greatest heavenly pomp and glory like an almighty warrior, and as one who has already been made king over all the peoples of the earth! If this were so, what benefit would it be for weak men who, full of terror in expectation of things to come, would pine away; at least more than half of them would do! 4] In this case I should rather maintain that such an advent of the Messiah would be very inopportune for the lords of the Temple, and they, in the end, would prefer the arrival of the Messiah in that modest, unassuming way even as the prophet Isaiah described. 5] Now the High priest meant that the somewhat strange story of the son of Zacharias - who was throttled by priestly hands between the great altar of sacrifice and the Most Holy Place - is completely done with, and that no one thinks any more about it. 6] But I say that it is anything but done with as these lords believe, and very soon the time will come when the very same John shall break in among them like a mighty flash, and will summon them to a very great tribunal: his words will then be sharper for you than the fiery sharpest arrows. 7] And like the story of the above-mentioned John, even thus, and even as a still worse judgment, will that marvelous Boy of Nazareth come upon you, and will show you His full divine majesty, but surely not to your uplifting but to your fall!” 8] Here the High priest looked with very angry eyes and said: “How do you know that, you foolish-minded boy? Who has been confusing your brain with such things? And who are you then that you boldly tell us such things as these?” 9] I said: “I am who I am, and you have the register whence I came; why then do you still ask who and whence I am? Moreover I have already told you that I have come from Galilee and even also from Nazareth, and therefore know exceedingly well the Boy spoken of and am by no means so stupid as not to distinguish the works of a magician - even if from India - from those of the marvelous boy! 10] Just let one of you make twelve sparrows of clay and then put life into them merely through a word, so that they then fly about and look for their food and continue to have life like the rest! 11] Which of you is able to give back life instantaneously, through His word only, to a boy killed by a fall and quite shattered and restore him completely to bodily health? 12] Which of you can command the lightning that it should go hither and thither and slay a hyena that had robbed a mother of her child and had carried it off into the forest? 13] Which of you can, like that Boy, command a great storm of wind by night to be still, on an occasion wherein several towns and places were menaced with great danger through a numerous horde of robber-murderers, who at night time approached Capernaum in a big ship nearly two hundred men strong and armed to the teeth? 14] The Boy of whom we are speaking, and who happened at the same time to be staying with his father in Capernaum, thus rescued the whole place! For at His word one of the most frightful sea-storms sprang up, drove the boat with the sped of an arrow far away from the shore into the high sea, where the whole boat was destroyed by the force of the mighty waves, and infallibly sank with all the two hundred robber-murderers. 15] These and many such deeds has that Boy already done, ever on behalf of afflicted mankind, and never has any one known Him to have asked any kind of reward from anybody. But that you may know that these are no fictions of Mine, you may call upon the whole of Nazareth and Capernaum as witnesses of their complete truth. 16] But if things are so, is that Child merely some book-taught sorcerer, or does He accomplish all that only through some divine power dwelling within Him? Or will you explain to Me how and with what means the Boy, according to your knowledge and wisdom, brings such things about? 17] You have answered My preliminary question badly; we shall now see what answer you will give to this capital question, and then we can easily come back to the preliminary question and make that into a capital question! But speak quickly, for the day is drawing in, and then we shall surely have to look for an evening meal!” How man can become a living Word (chap. 9, The 3 Days Scene) CHAPTER 9 The promise of the Boy Jesus to the Roman judge, and the High-priest’s wrath about it. How man himself can become the living Word of God and thus God. The refutation of the High-priest by the Boy Jesus with the aid of the People’s Catechism. 1] But I looked most kindly at the Roman judge and said: “You are a heathen surely, but you are just and your heart is good, and truly when now the true Kingdom of God comes to man upon earth, you and your whole house shall be received into it, shall be blessed, and shall never see death Eternally!” 2] Said the judge: “How can you make such a promise?” 3] Said I: “Nothing easier than that! For I told you that I know that wonderful Boy, and that I am His most intimate friend. When I come to Him then I shall not forget you, and He will bless you, and His blessing will not be without a result!” 4] On this the High-priest rose up in wrath and said: “Is then that boy a God that he can bless as if he were a God? Do you not know that only God can bless and His high-priest three times a year? How is it that you say of that boy that he too can bless a man and even his whole house? What kind of teachers must there be with you, that their pupils can talk such nonsense?” 5] I said: “Firstly you yourselves have given us such teachers, and if the pupils talk nonsense, it falls back upon yourselves, and thus one foolish act produces another. But if what I asserted of the wondrous Boy is nonsense, i.e. that He blesses those who are His true friends, why then do you teach that parents should always bless the children and the children their parents? 6] Noah was no God, and yet gave a most fruitful blessing to both his sons who covered his nakedness! Just in the same way old blind Isaac was no God when he blessed Jacob and gave him the surname of ‘Israel’, which means as much as ‘Out of thee shall come forth the people of God’! Was such a blessing perhaps a fruitless one? 7] If however you say and ask in your great temple-pride if that Boy be a God, what can you say to Me if I say to you: Yes, He is, and that evidently with more right then there is written by you: ‘The Lord Jehovah Zebaoth spake to His Gods’! But if thus, in your arrogance, you are Gods, why should that boy, gifted and filled with so many truly divine qualities, be no God even though He is directly descended from David. 8] But whoever hears God’s Word and acts according to it, he has God’s Word living within him, and has become himself, in all his nature, a living Word of God, and is therefore in his spirit from God. But if that is so, who can say that then the whole person has not proceeded from God? But if a man, through his being completely filled with the Spirit of God, has become in his whole being the living Word of God, fully filled with the spirit of God, is he then not a God seeing that what is perfectly divine must everywhere be regarded as God, and all the more in the case of man?” 9] The High-priest said: “What punishable blasphemy have you again uttered now? It is only a silly fool that can talk like that! That is brainless, idle talk, about which a clear thinker must laugh outright!” Thereupon the High-priest himself burst out laughing! 10] But I said: “How is it that you call this nonsense? If it is, then you High-priest, scribes and elders, are yourselves the creators and promulgators of the same, and of this I can at once give the clearest proof!” 11] The High-priest said: “How will you, you impertinent swine herdsman of Galilee, prove that to us?” 12] I said: “Bring Me the People’s Catechism!” 13] The High-priest said: “And what will you do with it?” 14] I: “That you will soon see! In the meantime let the book be brought to Me!” 15] The book was brought and the High-priest said: “ Here it is! Now what are you going to do with it?” 16] I said: That you will see at once!” - I opened the book and asked the Roman judge to read aloud the passage which I pointed out. He did it with evident joy. 17] The Roman judge: “‘Whoever hears God’s Word and does accordingly, has God’s Word living within him, and has become himself in his whole being a living Word of God, and is therefore in spirit from God. But where that is so, who then can say that the whole man is not from God? But if a man, through his being completely filled with the Spirit of God, has become in his whole being the living Word of God, is he then not a God seeing that that which is perfectly divine must everywhere be regarded as God, and all the more in the case of man.”’ 18] Upon that the Roman judge said: “Well, these are to a hair’s breadth the same words, which just now the respected priest declared to you as being the nonsense of a swine herdsman! Well - I note that this matter is beginning to become more and more interesting! I am most curious myself to see what the result of it will be!” What would you do, if I were the Messiah?" (chap. 13, The 3 Days Scene) CHAPTER 13 The continuation of the session. The question of the Boy-Jesus to the Temple-officials: “What would you do, if I were the Messiah in spite of everything?” The cautious answer of Joram, the Talmudist, concerning the Messiah. 1] At this energetic opposition by the Roman judge, all of them with evident reluctance, returned to their places, and for a while remained silent. As no question was put to Me, 2] I stepped among them and said: “Listen, as you no longer deign to put a question to Me, I shall take the liberty of putting a little question to you: Tell Me - but quite openly - what would you do if I were in all seriousness, the promised Messiah on whom the chief discussion has turned?” 3] An older morose chief-Temple-zealot said: “Boy, boy! Take care about the Temple of Jehovah - what you dispute and talk in this holy place! Take care of too great an outrage!” 4] I answered him: “Rather should you and all of you take care that you do not make the House of the Lord into a den of murderers! But in no wise do I desecrate the Temple by asking what you would do, supposing that I really was the promised Messiah, seeing that anyone, without sin or fear, may put such a question to you! And you may just as well give Me a conditional answer, as I have only put to you a conditional question!” 5] Here the old Talmudist and great Kabbalist, call Joram, stood up and said: “With God all things are possible; but we men must be very careful to accept such a promise, important above all else, as being true only when all circumstances, by which the fulfillment of the promise must be accompanied in the manner mentioned, stand quite clearly and evidently before the astonished gaze of every one. 6] Well, my fine lad, as regards your birth, you have in a few verses in Isaiah something that is half-way on your side; but how much else did this prophet prophesy regarding the promised Messiah-to-be, which fits you as little as it does me, although I too am a descendant of David, and also a distant relation of your father Joseph, and I also contributed mostly to the fact that the Temple-pupil Mary became his wife. 7] Now, for more than eleven years I have not seen this worthy couple again, and you yourself, the first-born of Joseph’s second marriage, not at all. Therefore I know of you just as much as I learned yesterday from your own mouth, and from our Levite Barnabas, who is also from Nazareth. 8] Well, your special abilities, which far surpass, according to authentic information, everything that ever was done as an open miracle through never so perfected a power of will and faith, would certainly be of the kind that one would feel obliged to pay special attention to them, as well as to the possessor of them; but it can well be understood that, for a long time yet, there cannot be any talk of what is their exact significance, although I have said, as a clear-thinking man and priest, one cannot leave them unnoticed. 9] In any case, the Messiah will also be a man like us; only His qualities and abilities will be of divine nature. Well, as for your qualities, already now in your childhood, they are of course of the kind that lead us to expect something enormous of your manhood later on; but behold, I am already a very old man, and have had much experience, and already often I too have discovered, in the tenderest youth, rare abilities and qualities that told me; ‘In this or that child, Jehovah had evidently raised up for us again a great prophet!’ However when such children have grown older, all their brilliant qualities vanished completely, as if they had never existed, and the person was just an ordinary one like myself, who only know what I have learned and experienced with great pains and much zeal in the course of many years! 10] With me as well as with innumerable other men the verse of the Scripture has thus been fulfilled: ‘In the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat thy bread!’ And the same will perhaps happen in your case, my loveliest cousin - but perhaps also not - such a thing we men can never decide beforehand as definitely settled. Man indeed thinks many things, but God directs! Now, my dear loveliest young cousin, you may again make your remarks, and I will very gladly answer you!” 11] I said: “I certainly like you best of all your colleagues, and this night you also spoke for Me a good and a clean word to the High-priest, through which his eyes were opened a little about the personality of Satan, so that he at least - and truly for the first time in his life - got an idea of the most important doctrine of correspondences, and by it began to comprehend that deeds like Mine cannot possibly be brought about by the aid of an evil force and power. 12] You will see from this, that not even what you discussed so quietly and secretly with the chief-priest is hidden from Me, and thus you will of course also understand that I know perfectly well what the same chief-priest, who is now very much embarrassed, is thinking. He is in great fear of being betrayed by me in something disagreeable to him; however this fear of his is futile. 13] Yes, if I were to execute My deeds with the help of Beelzebub, the chief-priest would already have been betrayed, and also judged, long ago but as I do all My deeds only through the power and might of God within Me, Who in all eternity wills only the good and never anything bad, the chief-priest need have no fear; as far as I am concerned, not a hair of his shall be hurt! 14] But now we have spent time talking about many very useless things, and have quite left aside the chief subject in its further development.” 15] Here Joram asked: “Then in what will this actually consist? Just speak quite openly, and we shall be just in our judgment, having discovered very much justice also in you.” The testimony of the Boy Jesus about Himself (chap. 14, The 3 Days Scene) CHAPTER 14 The testimony of the Boy Jesus about Himself as being the real “Maher-shalal-has-baz”. Joram’s opinion: To wait and let time decide! Jesus’ hint about the Omnipotence of God, within Himself. Joram’s non-committal answer. 1] I said; “Here I stand before you as the true ‘Maher-shalal-hash-baz[1][1] a name of the son of a prophetess in Isaiah. Yesterday we spoke of the coming Messiah. I Myself was represented to you as such, and according to these texts which are most exactly applicable to Me in the Prophet Isaiah. However the matter was dismissed by you. 2] Yesterday I spoke of Myself as of a second person only, but today I Myself stand before you without the very least fear either of you or of anyone else in the world, seeing that I am only too well aware of the eternally unconquerable strength and power within Myself, which however belong to none other but to Me and to My very Self alone. I now take up again the same theme, and ask, especially of you, Joram, what you think of it! But you too may speak without hesitation or fear, quite freely! Truly also no hair of your head shall suffer!” 3] Joram: “Yes, my very dearest and most lovely cousin (you will not be offended if I call you that now for I am really a quite close relation of your father’s) it is and still remains a very delicate matter to say: ‘You are the Promised One!’ And such a thing would now, under the circumstances, also be too risky as yet, seeing that we already have, any examples of children who too, in their tender youth, showed so many extraordinary talents and abilities, that they frequently caused the greatest astonishment to quite a great crowd: yet in later years they became such ordinary men, that of their youthful talents and abilities no trace could any longer be discovered in them! 4] Now, such, even if not probable, must be supposed by us men as also being possible in your case, and therefore a complete acceptance of it, as if in you were hidden the promised Messiah, would be a little premature and on this point you, being a surprisingly wise boy for your youth, will not disagree with me! But, in my opinion, it will be just as senseless to deny irrefutably that you are the Promised One, considering that in accordance with your Birth, your descent, and your abilities which so far are unequalled, you can just as easily be That One as not! Therefore in my opinion, it will be as well for you as for us, to wait and see what time shall bring us! Now tell me whether I am right or not!” 5] I said: “Speaking according to earthly intelligence, you are evidently right. But there lies in the human heart a still deeper and more brilliant discrimination power! This might well tell you if I am a Boy of the kind, who, in later years will lose all his abilities. If I have power to create and to destroy according to My own discretion, how then should I wish to destroy Myself? 6] I tell you that on My inward Spirit alone the existence of all things depends, therefore I may will what I like, and what I will must be done; such was also told you of Me through the mouths of other witnesses, and not through Mine alone. But if so, how can it be imagined that I could ever lose the qualities and abilities I have manifested to you? But if I cannot do that, what am I then?” 7] Joram said: “Yes, well! This is still only an assumption but as yet no proof! The same that you say of yourself. I could also say of myself: However that being a little too bold, and something which would never in the least be like me, I should be either thoroughly laughed at, or be put under restraint as being mad! Now you are a lively boy at an irresponsible age, and seem to have had a great poetic talent already from your birth, and therefore one only smiles at such outbursts of mother-wit. 8] Well, well, in other ways you are one the dearest of boys! But how can a man ever say of himself ‘Through My inward Spirit all that exists has been created!’ Surely only the eternal and infinite Spirit of GOD who, in His Being, is everywhere present, can do that! You have gone a little too far in your idea of a Messiah. Let us just remain comfortable with our feet on this earth and cultivate it with a right zeal that I may give us sufficient food, then it will be better with us than if we want to make something of ourselves that is impossible and can never be! 9] If the Messiah does sometime come to us, He will do so as a perfect man only, but never as a God! But it is the custom with you half-Greek Jews, and therefore half-heathen, to put a man of special talent at once among the gods. Or that you think and consider yourselves as being such. But that should not be, and it is a great sin against God’s commandment which says: ‘I am the Lord your GOD. Thou shalt have no other Gods but Me.’ But in Galilee this law does not seem to be taken too seriously, otherwise you never have dreamed of thinking of yourself as God! 10] Now, abstain from that in future, and with all your extra-ordinary talents and abilities, remain faithful to the ancient and only GOD; and let the heathen be heathen, and it will go well with you on earth! What is even the great strength of a giant against the united power of thousands of men, and if so, what then about the strength of a boy? If however David says: ‘O Lord, all men are as naught in comparison with Thee’, how can a boy take it into his head to say that he is, in his spirit, GOD, by Whom all things have been created? Do you see now that you have exaggerated to an enormous degree?” 11] Here the chief-priest said: “Well, once again we have had very good instruction coupled with rare moderation! It is right and true, because it is written of the Galileans that no prophet shall arise in their country: Those half-heathens rather like to make themselves into gods! And this boy seems to possess the best natural talent for it. Yes, my dear boy-Messiah, it is not so very easy to throw dust in our eyes by giving us an ‘x’ for a ‘z’! This may do well enough for Nazareth, but it does not go down with us in Jerusalem!” ----------------- [1] Isaiah 8:1-4 The objections to Messiahship of Jesus raised by templars (chap. 15, The 3 Days Scene) CHAPTER 15 All kinds of objections raised by Joram and the chief-priest, against the Messiahship of the Boy Jesus and their refutation. 1] I said: “You have spoken quite well according to your way and perception, as your thoughts and ideas do not reach any further than your breath. But if you were able to think more broadly and deeply, you would also look at Me with quite other eyes, and also judge Me quite differently. But since you already consider what I told you about My inward Spirit as so very scandalous, will you then explain to Me what kind of spirit it was that spoke through the prophets?” 2] Joram said: “That was God’s Spirit, and the same by which all things were created!” 3] I said: “Well, if that Spirit which spoke through the prophets was the Spirit of GOD, whey then should My inward Spirit not be GOD’s Spirit, as I am able to work through It far greater things than all the prophets have ever worked since Enoch? For they were limited to work upon a certain sphere only: but I know no limitation, and do what I will, and what I will must be done! But if so, how can My inward Spirit be another than that which spoke through the prophets?” 4] Joram said: “Just so, just so, that could easily be, if only you were no Galilean! But it is written in the Scriptures, that out of Galilee there ariseth no prophet, and therefore you must agree that we may not and cannot compare your inward spirit with that of the prophets!” 5] I said: “Was I then also born in Galilee? Was not Bethlehem, the old town of David, My birth place? Look it up on your registers and see if it is not so! Or was perhaps Isaiah no real prophet because he also came to Galilee, and prophesied there near the old town of Caesarea Philippi? Behold how blind you are, and how blind you are, and how little your judgment stand the test! 6] The Scripture says of course that no one who is born in Galilee can be awakened to be a prophet: but as neither My foster-father Joseph nor May, the mother of My body are Galileans, even as I Myself, by birth, am not, but have all been as strangers for nine years in Nazareth, how then shall I too not be able to possess, as well as every other prophet, the divine Spirit within Me?” 7] The chief-priest said: “But is it not also written: ‘Behold, I send My angel before thee that he may prepare the way of the Lord, and make plaint he path for His feet?’ and that Elijas would come before Him and prepare mankind thoroughly for the great coming of the Messiah? Is this now the case with You? Were is the Angel of the Lord, and where is Elijah?” 8] I said: For men of your kind, who cannot see the wood for trees, there has surely never been either an angel of the Lord, or His prophet Elijas! However for those who do see, all this happened already twelve years ago! But you have neither seen nor recognised the angel who spoke with Zacharias, nor his son who had so marvelous a birth; for what is not done for you with fire, lightning and crashed of thunder, you do not notice! 9] When Elijah in his rocky cave, was summoned to note how Jehovah would pass before it, a fire first passed before the opening: but Jehovah was not therein. Then there passed a mighty storm: but Jehovah was not therein. Then in the end, a scarcely perceptible rustling passed before the cave: - and behold! In that was Jehovah! 10] And see, it is even with that, that the great prophet of whom mention has been made, announces the present coming of the Messiah! 11] You perhaps expect fire and storm which has already often passed before you; but Jehovah was not in them. Now, the soft rustling passes before you in which is Jehovah of a truth, but this is not noticed by your deaf ears and blind eyes, neither will you note it excerpt at the end of your life, when however it will be too late, and will no longer be of any great profit to you! 12] I think that I spoken somewhat obviously. Now give Me an answer to it according to your Tempe-wisdom!” Discussion between Barnabas and Jesus (chap. 16, The 3 Days Scene) CHAPTER 16 The question of the mocking Barnabas. The censure of the Lord and the counter-question. The embarrassment of Barnabas and his apology. The miracle of the ass’s ears, and the living ass. 1] Barnabas asked leave of the Pharisees to speak with Me as he had got a good idea against Me. He was granted it, and then began to speak to Me thus: 2] “Listen, my dear little godly Messiah from Nazareth in Galilee which however does not imply much! You have now given us a few proofs, owing to which even we, with our stuffed-up ears and our blind-folded eyes, are beginning to see that you are nevertheless the Promised Messiah: but with only this insight, we are standing just like oxen yoked with the cart in front of us! What are we going to do now? Or what ought we to do now? 3] This day is already declining, and in spite of being the Messiah, only tomorrow remains in which you have acquired the right to speak! Therefore I think it might be time for you to make your arrangements as tow hat, from now onwards, seeing that we have recognised you, has to be done with us and with the Temple. Will everything remain as it is, or will it all be newly arranged? You are now the promised Messiah, borne to us on the wind: unfortunately we can no longer dispute that: but what now? Speak and act now, you young divinely-human Messiah - come of course from above!” 4] I said: “It was really not necessary for you to open your mouth so wide about this bad joke of yours, and make it evident that you want something more: but you lack the material and spiritual means thereto; you who resemble Balaam’s ass! But as you have now put the question as to what, from now onwards, shall happen to you and then to the Temple, I really must give you a correct answer. 5] Behold thus it is written: ‘But when the Messiah shall come, He shall not do away with the Law, not with an iota of it - but will fulfill it Himself to the uttermost!’ He will not abolish the Temple and its servants, but will surely chastise its unlawful perversity, and upon such swelled-headed Levites (like you), who think themselves so wise, He will set a mark as a grateful acknowledgment of their bad and unseasonable witticisms! 6] Do you call My personally-directed discussion of the Bible texts folly, even though they irrefutably concern Me? Or else, will you prove to Me that I am not, to a hair’s breadth, the Same of whom all the prophets did prophesy? If however you are seriously unable to do this, how then is it that you attempt to mock Me? Well, just wait - I too will put a question now, to which you will have to give me an answer. If you do not answer the question to my satisfaction, then you will become for Me a veritable heathen Midas.[1][2] 7] Tell Me, you fellow of shallow wit, what does the name ‘Jerusalem’ mean? What is hidden in it? Being a Levite and a Pharisee to be, you must know that from the Books of Moses, and also from the Book of Enoch which Noah saved from the Flood under the title of ‘The Wars of Jehovah’, and I have now the full right to ask the explanation from you: for the correct understanding of this name matters much! Now, you speak!” 8] Here the young Levite began to rub his ears hard, for he had not the faintest notion of the original Hebrew tongue! He therefore asked me for time and patience, and these I granted him. He now slipped away to an old scribe to see if he would be able to tell him. But he did not know it, and sent him to the Kabbalist Joram. This one shrugged his shoulders doubtfully, and after a while said quietly to him: 9] (Joram said:) “Yes, there surely is in the very old books a kind of etymological explanation of it, and the Kabbalah also gives a kind of explanatory reference, but in such mystical theses, that the Song of Solomon is real child’s play in comparison with it! I myself have understood neither the one nor the other, and cannot therefore possibly help you now out of your embarrassment. 10] Besides I must remark to you, that you ought to have spoken to the boy with much more forbearance, because of His most eminent sharpness of intelligence on the one hand, and on the other because of the authority of His high Roman protector; the more so as you are the one who gave us more reliable information about His marvelous nature! 11] Did you then not notice that He knew, word for word, everything we had discussed about Him in all secrecy during the night? I did not say anything about it at the time, but for myself I found therein a formidable sign of the presence of a spirit in this Boy, for whom there evidently exists no difficulty bin testing the hearts and kidneys of men. 12] I therefore advise you to ask pardon of this extraordinary Boy, because of the evident offense given to Him; otherwise I will not be answerable for His not playing you a downright mischievous trick! Go, and follow my advice!” 13] Said Barnabas: “Well, He has of course the right to talk, and He can also stand no joke - therefore one must evidently ask His pardon! But that no one can analyse the name of the city is truly something strange for us officers of the Temple!” 14] Thereupon Barnabas came up to Me, and said with a quite friendly face: “Dearest, most lovely Boy! I have perceived my gross fault committed against you by my truly bad and very untimely joke, and I sincerely ask your pardon with my whole heart: at the same time I would add to it the fervent request that you would explain to us the name ‘Jerusalem’ for not one of us knows how to make anything of it. It certainly is translated by the expression ‘Sacred City’ or ‘City of God’, but how this should be contained in the word ‘Jerusalem’ scarcely one of us knows! 15] Of course it is related that a place existed here under the name of ‘Salem’ where the great and powerful King lived to whom all the princes of the earth then living, had to give the tithes - for King Melchisedic was at that time for all men upon earth at the same time the one and true High-Priest, of His teachings and deeds, as well as of His personality. If you know more of this matter than all of us - and doubtless you do, please kindly tell us about it.” 16] I said: “It is lucky for you that you have acted thus towards Me, or else you would have been marked in a way that you would not have liked! The marks however with which your head would have been adorned now lie at your feet: pick them up and learn buy them that, firstly, I chastise everyone’s wanton mockery, and that, secondly, at the place where there arises a question of the greatest seriousness of life, for all men and for all eternity, one should not use an empty and miserable joke! First, look at the joke which I should have played on you for your bad witticism, only then will I grant you your second request!” 17] Hereupon Barnabas bent down and raised from before his feet two quite natural and perfectly formed donkey’s ears, and was all the more horrified, as there was no trace whatever that they had been cut, for the purpose, from any real donkey. 18] At this, some of the people present, especially our Simon and the Roman judge, burst into loud laughter, and all the Temple officials felt quite strange, and began to ask one another how this was possible by natural means. And they guessed this and that, but could come to no result however remote. 19] Then Barnabas said: “What is the good of all our guessing, the matter is a pure miracle, and nothing else! For if the Boy had provided Himself with them beforehand, He also would have known, in advance that I was going to make a bad joke with Him! And this would evidently be an even greater miracle! 20] The Boy however already gave us a very remarkable proof of this quality of His, when He told me, word for word, our secret discussion in the night and wanted to tell the chief-priest openly, and quite aloud, all his secret thoughts. To him who is able to do one thing, something else should be also possible in the same way, however inconceivable it may seem to us. 21] Behind this Boy there is hidden infallibly something extraordinary! For myself I should be of opinion that, in time, He would make a quite perfect Messiah.” 22] Said the chief-priest: “There you just talk like a blind man about the splendor of colours! How often have Persian magicians surprised with their magic deeds: and thought-reading is nothing new with us! Who does not know the Greek oracles! They were able to guess thoughts so quickly that, in the end, hardly anyone dared to come near them any more. 23] Yes, my dear fellow, on so important a matter, one must look with quite different eyes, and apply tot he phenomena a much deeper test. Only when one has examined everything with the greatest exactitude, can one begin to form a somewhat better opinion, and even then one must be very cautious. However, there can be no question about a complete faith, until all the circumstances and signs have been confirmed in such a way that there is nothing left to be desired. 24] This, my dear Barnabas, for your instruction: fir it is still an old fault of yours that, in spite of all your otherwise very estimable knowledge, you are so very credulous.” 25] Barnabas said: “No! That I never was! For, had I been credulous, I should never have attained to all the various profound knowledge, which can never be attained by credulity. I know how to test a thing and a phenomenon, and can distinguish quite correctly an ‘a’ from an ‘o’; but here all my intelligence comes short, and all my many and various experiences have gone overboard. 26] I know the magical powers of the Persians and of a number of others also: but there is not one of them who could call into existence, out of the pure ether, a pair of perfectly made donkey’s ears; the well made thought-out oracle-sayings of Dodona as well as those of Delphi, are only too well known to me. But among them I never found anything like what this Boy did to me, as well as to Joram, be repeating, word for word, what we had quite secretly discussed among ourselves. 27] I therefore abide by my opinion, already expressed, and say once more quite frankly: There is more hidden behind this Boy than all of us well ever be able to comprehend! I do not want to exactly declare He is infallibly the hoped-for Messiah, because of His extraordinary qualities, but evidently He has more claim to it than any one of us gathered here. 28] But now my dear, lovely, young fellow-countryman, I should still like to hear you explain as you promised, the ‘Jerusalem’ and the ‘Melchisedec’ before it is quite dark.” 29] I said: “ That shall be as you have spoken so well on My behalf: but first of all take the two donkey’s ears at the tips, into your hands, lift them up a little between your fingers, and we shall see if the Persian magicians could do what will follow.” 30] Barnabas did this, and I spoke: “To these ears, let there be also added a living and completely healthy donkey’s body!” 31] Instantaneously there stood among the gathering, a quite perfect and well-formed donkey, with skin and hair! 32] Then all were terrified of My miraculous power, and looked as though they would flee. 33] But the Roman judge and Simon did not allow that, and said: “We must keep to the time, and the Boy-prodigy will still explain the two words.” 34] The Temple-officials sat down again, then looked quite dumb-founded at the newly-created donkey, and none could utter a syllable or express an opinion as to how this could possibly have been done. ------------- [2] Midas was a Phrygian king. Whatever he touched he turned into gold: ass’s ears were bestowed upon him because he preferred Marsayas to Apollo. Miracle of the donkey's disappearance and of the stone (chap. 17, The 3-Days-Scene) CHAPTER 17 The miraculous disappearance of the donkey. The miracle of the stone. The astonishment of the Roman judge at the miraculous power of the Boy Jesus, and the illuminating words of the latter about the coming of the Divine Kingdom. 1] But I said: “To show you what power I own and to take away from you the fear of this unnatural animal, I command that it shall dissolve even as it was called forth.” 2] At the same moment the animal faded away so completely, that not even a smallest hair remained. At that their astonishment was still greater, and they did not know what to say about it. 3] Only the Roman judge who was full of courage, said: “No! Listen! My dearest Boy! Either Zeus or some chief divinity must be living in you! If you wanted to, could you also destroy a natural animal, or indeed the existence of a human being?” 4] I said: “Oh, yes, not only that, but also the whole earth! But My aim which no one has ever yet recognised, is: to maintain everything and to destroy nothing. But so that you may see for yourself that I am not a vain boaster, but can also bring about, what I say, fetch Me a stone, as large and as heavy as you like, and put it upon the table!” 5] At once a stone of more than a hundred pounds in weight, and of very hard composition, was brought and lifted upon the table with great effort. When the stone was lying there, 6] I said over it: “Be thou dissolved, and return again to ether - thy primitive element!” 7] And the stone so completely disappeared that there remained of it not even a tiny mote in a sunbeam. 8] Then the Roman said: “My esteemed friends, this can only be possible to a God, but never to a man of even the greatest powers! I am now convinced that it would be better to live with you, my loveliest Boy, in the best friendship, than in enmity! 9] Of what use would all our numerous legions be to us Romans, against you? For you need only wish, and they would suffer the fate of the stone that was here, and at the moment of your willing it, they would no longer be there, but would be dissolved into air and ether! And therefore I declare that you are infallibly a real Messiah of your people, and that a power that ever enters into conflict with you, will never gain victory!” 10] I said: “Do not you, as a Roman, get any grey hairs over that! For I did not come into this world to make a prince of Myself, and to found a worldly empire for the Jews, but only to bring the Divine Kingdom of GOD to all men who are of good will, and possibly to destroy the empire of Satan, who is death upon earth! Therefore every earthly Empire can easily exist, and that in the best way, if it attract also the Empire of GOD which I shall create upon earth. 11] Therefore every fear of My Divine Power may leave you: for I shall be subject unto you until the transmutation of My Body, when I shall return thither whence I came. But now, at the close of this day, we will throw a little light upon the two words.” 12] Barnabas said quite gladly: “Well, all praise to the Lord! Only the words again now and no more miraculous deeds! They make one feel quite uneasy!” 13] I asked him: “Why uneasy? You have already often gazed at Persian Indian and Egyptian wonders, and you have never shuddered at them, why then just now?” 14] Barnabas said: “Because those are all of them effected in a way which I can understand, but yours are based on nothing else but he power of your Will! And this makes an enormous difference!” 15] I said: “Well then, I must add still another remark, before I pass over to the explanation of the two words.” Boy Jesus testifying about Himself CHAPTER 21 The beginning of the discussion on the third day. Joram’s’ unsuccessful attempt to break off the theme begun. The chief-priest’s objection becoming apparent; he is refuted by the Boy-Jesus. 1] When both of them had also taken their places, then the discussion of the third day began. 2] At the sign from the Roman who had become very well disposed towards me, I came forward as the first, and turning to Joram, I said: “We are now assembled in this conference hall for the third day! The first business that you should show me, as already proposed yesterday, which passages out of the prophet Isaiah would, in your opinion, not fit Me as well as any other which you think might be the Coming Messiah!” 3] Said Joram: “Yes, my loveliest Boy, that would be all right, but the wording of the passages have long slipped my mind, and it would truly embarrass me now to look up the exact text, especially with you who with your gigantic memory, seem to have imprinted in your head, the whole Scripture word for word! Therefore let us drop the matter, and I say: ‘In consequence of all we have seen and heard from you, we will let you pass as the promised Messiah Who has already come! But to look up all the numerous passages in the Scriptures would take up too much time and trouble!” 4] I said: “No, My friend, that will not do: you would like to find a good way of getting rid of Me: for if there be a Messiah or not, is indifferent to you, if only you can live well and collect heaps of gold, silver and all kinds of delightful precious stones for yourselves. But the question now is of the very greatest seriousness: Am I He, or must you still wait for Another? 5] If I am He, the Kingdom of GOD is already come unto you, and you will know from the Scriptures what you have to do, if you are of good will, If however I am not He, according to your opinion and proved so by the prophet - well, then you may persist in your old sins, until death becomes your final fate! But as the looking-up of suitable passages takes you so long, and gives you such trouble, give Me the books and I will save you both time and trouble.” 6] Thereupon the chief-priest said: “Of course you are going to look up all those which fit you best!” 7] I said: “Very well, then you look up for Me those that perhaps fit Me the least!” 8] The chief-priest: “Well! We will oblige you at once - give me the book!” 9] The book was given into the hand of the chief-priest and he began to look about in it with an air of importance, but he could not find anything appropriate, for some time. At last he thought he had found something, for in his face a certain kind of satisfaction was to be seen; but behind it, the chief-priestly haughtiness also began soon to mount higher than the crest of an angry turkey-cock. With a certain kingly expression he put the open book before himself upon the table, and triumphantly he literally bored into the test with his forefinger and spoke: 10] (The chief-priest): “There! Now come along, you young Messiah of Galilee, read that passage, and tell me if that also fits your person!” 11] I said: “How is it that you call upon Me to read the text out of your book? The Spirit that lives in Me knew of it long before it was written down by Isaiah. And you have just opened the very one for My victory over you, where verily I should not have been able to find a better one.” 12] Hereat the chief-priest arose quite angrily and said burning with rage: “What do you say? That you knew about this text even before the prophet wrote it down? I warn you, you Galilean Boy, of too great a Spirit of mischief! You are only twelve years old, and yet you pretend to have known this text before the prophet? Are you mad? 13] If you speak of your soul or your spirit - which is always one and the same - it is surely not possible for it to be older than its body, which, according to the testimony of Moses, had already to be there before the soul could enter into it. 14] Does not Moses say: ‘God formed the first man out of clay, and breathed into him through his nostrils?’ Does it not clearly follow from that, that everyone’s body, being the completed habitation of the soul, must be there prior to the soul itself? For what and where would the soul be without the body? Therefore consider well, you young Galilean, where you are standing, and before whom!” 15] I said: “Apart from the fact that you are a chief-priest here through worldly protection, and not through a higher spiritual vocation, and apart from the fact that we are assembled here, in the old conference-hall of the Temple, I yet tell you quite openly to your face, that you judge about spiritual matters much worse than a blind man does about colours! 16] If GOD breathed a living soul into the completed body of Adam through his nostrils, the soul evidently was in GOD before, and could not have been elsewhere, because GOD is infinite in His Being, and nothing can, strictly speaking, be outside Him. 17] However God Himself being eternal, cannot contain in Himself anything temporal and passing, or just coming into being, but what is within HIM is eternal, like unto Himself, He can only place outside of Himself, so that they can be seen, in order that they may obtain a natural independence; and when He does that, then is this issue from Him an act of creation and for that being who is a thought of GOD, placed as it were in freedom external to HIM, through His Power and Wisdom - there first begins the period (or rather state) of permitted self-activity, for the acquiring of a permanent, independent existence, as it were outside GOD, even although actually within Him. 18] But if that is the case, how should I in My spirit and in God not have been here before the prophet wrote his texts?! 19] Besides that, you are still greatly mistaken if you think that spirit and soul are one and the same thing. Man’s soul is a spiritual product out of matter, because in matter there is only a spirituality under judgment, waiting for its deliverance the pure spirit has however never been under judgment, and every man has his spirit given to him by GOD, which carries out, does, guides all in the man-to-be, but unites itself into a unity only when the soul, from out its own will, has completely passed over into the recognised order of God, and has thus become an entirely pure spirit. 20] But that, with you, this transition has not taken place, you have just shown, through your not having yet conceived an idea of your own spirit, without which you could not live for a moment! 21] But I know My Spirit, and became One with It long ago, and can therefore also command all nature because the Spirit is truly a GOD-Spirit, and throughout Eternity can never be another, as, outside GOD, there can be no spirit that would not be God’s Spirit. Now you, and all of you, reflect a little about that, and make yourselves at home in it, then only shall we pass on to the text supposed not to fit Me! 22] But to you, chief-priest, I give the advice that you keep within the limits of moderation towards Me, or else you may soon have provoked the Power of My Divine Spirit too much against you! What I am able to do, you already experienced yesterday - therefore now you already know what will happen to you if you transgress your limitations. For I have a dearly purchased right to speak in matters of Jehovah, and this was made the first stipulation. It is however bad enough that one must buy from you, a right to speak, measured by hours - from you, pretended servants of Jehovah and still worse would it be, if, after all, one might not make the stipulated use of the purchased right!”
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