The

Great Gospel

of

John

Volume 3

Jakob Lorber

Editor's note: The Bible references in brackets are not in the original writings, but added for easier reference.

- Chapter 1 -

The oracle of Delphi

1 [Julius:] "Among the Greeks and the Romans there were always men who, even if they were not Jews and had not been educated in their schools of prophets, nonetheless had a divine inspiration and recognized it as such.

2 Once when Croesus, king of the Lydians, wanted to wage a war against the Persians, it mattered very much to him to find out in advance whether the war would turn out favorably or unfavorably for him. But who would shed light on this for him? He thought to himself for a while, and said: 'There is any number of oracles; no doubt one of them will surely be able to tell me the truth! But who will decide for me afterwards which oracle has told the truth? Ha!' he thought to himself again, and said: 'I will sound out the oracles beforehand and then we shall see which oracle is useful!'

3 After this he took a lamb and a tortoise, cut both of them into small pieces, put them together into an iron pot, covered it with an iron lid and then put this mixture on the fire until it boiled. But beforehand he sent explorers to Delphi, to Aba in the land of the Phokers, to the old Dodona, to Amphiaraos and Trophonios, to consult the oracle on the one hundredth day after the departure from Sardis about what was bothering him at that moment; for during this time he was cooking his lamb and his tortoise in the aforementioned way.

4 Most of the oracles gave such complicated answers that probably no-one could ever make head or tail of them; but the oracle at Delphi said, as usual, in hexameters:

5 'See, I count the sand, I know the distances of the sea

I hear even the mute, and I hearken to the silent themselves

Now a smell penetrates my senses just as if / tortoise mixed with lamb cooked in ore

ore is underneath, ore is the covering above.'

6 After this test he asked the oracle of Delphi whether he should do battle against the Persians, but received the well-known answer that, if he went across the Halys, a great kingdom would be brought down! He asked the oracle a third time whether his reign would be long. And the Pythia answered:

7 'If a mule one day has dominion as king over the Medes

then, tender-footed Lydian, fly away to the stony Hermos!

Do not hesitate, neither fear the disgrace of cowardly haste!'

8 According to the oracle's own interpretation, which it gave after the capture of Croesus, the mule was to be understood as Cyrus, his victor, because he was begotten of a distinguished Mede, a daughter of Astyages, and of a Persian father who was subservient to her.

9 The very same Croesus also once asked the oracle if his son, who was mute, could not get better, and received the answer:

10 'Lydian, although a great ruler, yet of a foolish heart

do not long to hear in your palace the besought

voice of your speaking son! Trust will avail you better!

Know this, he will speak first on the unluckiest day!'

11 And you see! On the day when Sardis was conquered, a furious Persian went for Croesus to knock him to the ground. At this the fear and dread loosened the son"s tongue, and the son spoke: 'Man, do not kill Croesus!' That was the first word by the mute son and in the future he could always speak his whole life long.

12 You see, this oracle was, as remarked earlier, no temple of wisdom from the Jewish school of prophets! But who could dispute the existence of some divine inspiration after the veritable examples cited?!"

- Chapter 2 -

On the appearance of higher beings

1 "In the same way we Romans are familiar with enough historical traditions to know, for example, that Socrates, Plato, Aristides and a lot of other wise men always had a guardian spirit with them who taught them and constantly gave them wise teachings and in emergencies sound advice according to the capability of their heart; and whichever of them did not follow the advice surely had also to face the terrible consequences.

2 Now however, if we know this, partly from history and partly from our own personal experience, then such a figure, as has appeared to you here, cannot seem so inadmissible. In brief, we know from the numerous traditions and from the experience of the present, that higher beings come down to us people not at all as rarely as some think, and they reveal themselves to us in numerous ways and give us information one moment about this, the next about that; but now if this is so, then our angel is certainly not such an unusual appearance as one would consider him to be at first glance.

3 But that such a perfect spirit possesses powers incomprehensible for our mind and therefore can carry out very rare miracles for us, I find nothing extraordinary in that.

4 I once had the opportunity to see people from Rear Egypt, and to talk to them through an interpreter. They were complete naked and didn't even cover their private parts. They considered us Romans to be higher, heavenly beings and wondered greatly about the great and most magnificent buildings of Rome, about the beautiful clothes and our shining splendor; they considered everything that they saw, which had been made by the hands of men, to be works of the gods which they considered us to be, and asked me if we also constantly ruled over the sun and the stars, as well as the moon, and directed everything according to our whim, or whether there were other gods to do this.

5 Of course we corrected them, and before a year was past they knew very well that we were also only people, and they learned very many things from us, finally clothed themselves and experienced great joy when they had learned to make cloth themselves and to make all sorts of clothes out of it, male and female. After a few years they returned to their homeland again, equipped with all possible knowledge and there they have surely founded schools and in such a way brought a little light to their natural wilderness.

6 So, if we in our still very great spiritual ignorance see a perfect spirit working, then we certainly must wonder to the greatest degree how such a thing is possible; but when our spirit becomes just as perfect then we will also surely be able to do higher things and we will not wonder as we do now if a spirit splits a stone into all its elements with the power we have seen.

7 But that we are capable of an unlimited perfection in our spiritual parts is proved to us by a thousand examples; and at this table sit people who were allowed to be quite close to the angel and yet one was allowed to be considerably superior to the angel, as you have heard before about the doctor from Nazareth.

8 So from now on throw yourselves mainly into the greatest possible education of your spirit, and you will then be able to dissolve not only a stone but even a whole mountain into its primary elements!"

9 At this Julius turned to the angel and said: "And you, Raphael, tell me if I have said even one false or untrue word in my rather long-winded speech?!"

- Chapter 3 -

On the destiny and evolution of man

1 The angel says: "Not at all. Things happen exactly as you have just very masterfully explained. Therefore if the thirty brothers live diligently according to what they will hear very soon from these brothers of ours, they will soon become our brothers in all things.

2 God gives to no angel and to no person, who is basically a prospective angel, more than a complete individual life and the capabilities in this life to mould it by themselves to be as close as possible to the greatest divinity in all things. If a newly-created angel, or likewise a person, knows the sure path on which he can always reach complete God-likeness, but he does not want to walk along it, well, then he has finally only himself to blame if he from then on remains in a death-like God-unlikeness.

3 Certainly, a perfect spirit may well never reach God in the most endless completion in all eternity; but that does him no harm; for one can still set everything in motion - of course, constantly in the system determined by God - for whatever he may want. In the end one can also call forth from oneself, like God, independent beings and give them an eternal, free existence, and can then have great joy and blessing with such beings, just as an earthly father with his own children - and that is divinity to the extreme!

4 I myself have already created several worlds with small suns and completely populated them with my own beings. And all these worlds are often better equipped with everything than this earth of yours. Everything reproduces itself just as here, and the spirits there are capable of complete perfection just as here. And why shouldn't they be? For in the end every spirit is from God, just as the seeds of the future plant have been already reproduced millions of times from out of the original seed.

5 And since you as descendants of Satan still carry the Spirit of God in you, then how much more the descendants of our Divine Creator!

6 And see, you too can achieve all this if you will walk along the paths that are shown to you! But whoever of you does not want to walk along it, will finally have only himself to blame if he remains in his death-like non-divinity for unthinkably long times.

7 Therefore, none of you love the world and his own flesh more than his spirit! If each one concerns himself above all only with that which belongs to the spirit, then he will soon receive that which belongs to the spirit, namely, complete similarity to God!

8 But whoever always concerns himself more with that of the world and of the flesh, he has only himself to blame for the fact that he remains in deathly darkness.

9 All life can pass into a continuously everlastingly more complete life if it makes the effort to proceed along the road of the established divine order. But if life comes to a standstill, particularly at the beginning of the great path of life, well, then it will naturally go no further, and instead stops and in the end withers away like a stalk in winter once it has been freed of ita fruit according to the order of God.

10 Therefore be as active as you can for the spirit! Do not rue any step forward! For there every deed and every step is constantly accompanied by the highest blessing from God.

11 Do not believe that I as an angel am already so perfect that I can now slip into complete inactivity! I now gain through this presence an endless amount and will in the future be able to work even more perfectly for my own highest creations. But if I as a pure and perfect spirit can still gain so invaluably much, then how much more will you, who are so far behind me in perfection!

12 Therefore thank the Lord our God that He has led you into this holy, most merciful opportunity, in which you can do more for your spirit in one hour than in ten thousand years of your own worldly teaching!

13 See, such great moments of mercy are only offered to this world by God very rarely; therefore everyone who has the great fortune to be the witness of such an opportunity should use it with all his strength for his spirit.

14 If God sends or awakens a prophet somewhere, then everyone should crowd around him and listen to him speak the word of God for his greatest well-being; for God awakens such men only once in hundreds of years in the great depth of the true wisdom of heaven.

15 But very great prophets, through whom God informs the people of the earth of very many and great things, are sent to the people of this earth at most every thousand to two thousand years, on the one hand in order to show them in the greatest and most elaborate ways the further new paths of God towards even higher perfection, and on the other hand to turn them away from the many false paths that they have made themselves and to turn them onto the one right path.

16 For see, in God's great creation everything moves continually forwards like time on the earth which also never stands still! The spirits clearly always make great progress. But because in the kingdom of the pure spirits such great progress occurs continually, the eternal beings on the heavenly bodies must not be left behind so that they do not come to stand too far from the kingdom of the spirits.

17 After the appearance of such great prophets things go well for the people by their own doing, if not in general, then at least in specific areas. But when a great advance is again made in the spirit world, then it is no longer done with the somewhat shrouded light of a former great prophet; a new one is awakened and sent, and mankind follows once again, if at first only in exceptions, according to the great advance of the spirit world.

18 But then humanity in a few centuries becomes more resourceful and finally brings to light things about which the older generations had never dreamed.

19 But when humanity has reached a sort of culmination after about twelve to fifteen centuries, then it would become lethargic and would stop, as is permitted on this earth by God so that there should always be every conceivable level of education. Thus the more enlightened people should learn that, without revelations from time to time, humanity would remain at the same point for thousands of years and does not take a single step forward, as you can see with today's Indians and Rear Indians.

20 The Lord allows such things so that people who get there at some time can convince themselves that the situation is exactly as I have told you before. But you will finally educate these people in your descendants; for the Lord never awakens any great prophet for nations which are on a lower level of spiritual education; instead He lets them, that is the uneducated people, follow suit through the main nations of the earth which have been educated through revelations, for which the Lord has His own endlessly wise reasons.

21 But people on the first level before God on a heavenly body should always recognize such a high calling most deeply and with gratitude and then act diligently accordingly; otherwise it is their own fault if they in the end sink below the Rear Indians, who we would call Sinesians, and finally become as completely stupid as the animals! Tell me now, you thirty brothers, if you have understood all that clearly!"

- Chapter 4 -

Directive of the Lord with regard to the robbers

1 One of the young Pharisees says: "Great, eminent, powerful spirit! Much, yes, but by no means everything! But we all thank you fervently for this; for with the great key of heaven you have truly opened up secrets about which we did not have even the slightest idea before. From now on we will all make every conceivable effort to proceed on the right track in life; only we would like to know it better. For today though we have already had more than enough; for we need time before our spiritual stomach digests it. On the morrow we will be more receptive to higher and deeper things than could be the case today

2 But now we would simply like to hear the seemingly very wise man - who is resting at the side of the high governor and talking very secretly with him - speak some words of wisdom; for he, even if he is no angel, seems to be superior to you all - for his manner and his certain stoic composure during your angel"s speech reveal deep and great things!"

3 Julius says: "You are correct; but it is not as easy as you think to make the man speak. Whenever He wants, He often speaks a lot, and every word is like a whole creation full of wisdom; but when He does not want to, no-one can easily move Him to it. But try it yourself, speak to Him and He will surely give you some kind of answer!"

4 The young Pharisee says: "No, my courage fails me; for he could give an answer that would be enough for a life-time! Therefore we will let it be for today with our probably very inopportune inquisitiveness!"

5 Julius says: "That is probably best! Tomorrow is another day; maybe then there will be a better and easier opportunity to move Him to words than today. But maybe He will yet say something today and you can then listen to Him easily and openly."

6 At this our young Pharisees are at ease and wait for an opportunity to listen to Me.

7 But soon after this, a guard comes from the sea, where the familiar criminals are being held, saying to Julius: "Lord and master! We cannot bear the five murderers any longer; for they say such frightening things and make such terrible gestures that all the soldiers are horrified and some of them can hardly be kept under control so that they do not suddenly lay hands on the criminals because of the most terrible and most brazen blasphemies. For they say: 'We would rather die than patiently listen to such evil and brazen blasphemy any longer!'"

8 Julius asks Me: "Lord, what shall we do?"

9 I say: "There are still five hours until morning, and the five criminals must bear up till then! They cannot and must not be neglected one minute! But if the guards cannot bear the foul language, they should draw back so that they cannot hear them; for not one of the criminals will break through and loose his strong bands. I give My word on this! The seven political prisoners create no meaningful problem anyway and are quiet; they can be put with the guards and things will go easily for them in the morning. But the murderers will give us all enough problems. So let it be so; for only through great torment can the soul of the evil murderers be made freer and freer from the flesh of Satan and his very evil spirits, a release without which any salvation can be thought of!

10 At these words of Mine the guard leaves and carries out My advice.

- Chapter 5 -

Threat of the Pharisees by Julius

1 But during this exchange the young Pharisee had heard something about the salvation of the five murderers, which struck him greatly, and he therefore immediately asked the captain in embarrassment: "Great master! Is that, in the end, really the famous savior from Nazareth, or a first envoy of his? For we have heard that he takes disciples and then, so they say, when they understand something he sends them to all places so that they should call students for his new teaching, which seems very successful. If that was the savior of Nazareth, then we would be in a nice pickle!"

2 Julius says, holding himself rather seriously and looking sharply into the eyes of the young Pharisee: "Why then? Why should it put you in a pickle if that Man is possibly the famous Savior of Nazareth? Truly this question seems to me a little suspicious on your part! Give me now a correct explanation for your embarrassment, otherwise things will not go well for you!"

3 This rather severe counter question of Julius' filled the young people with a great amount of fear, and the otherwise talkative young Pharisee now became very embarrassed and didn't immediately know what he should say in answer to the rather severe Julius.

4 But Julius said: "If you can and you want to admit the truth, then you don't even need to think about how and what you should say. But if you simply want to placate me with allegedly true phrases, then you have falsely estimated me; for I know only too well an old wives' tale from the pure truth. But I will tell you something now: Make sure that I do not find you out! It still seems to me that one should not trust you at all; for you yourselves, it seems to me, have already been smeared with all Satan's ointments once and for all. Whoever trusts your words easily makes a crude traitor out of himself. Everything that you have said here can be nothing but a pure mask in relation to your heart. But woe betide you; for there will be no more talk of tolerating you where I myself keep the sharpest watch! Now speak the fullest truth, or it will be worse for you than for those five murderers who are tied to strong stakes on the banks of the sea! So no hesitating, out with the complete truth!"

5 At this demand by Julius for an answer, the thirty become pale with fear and tremble; for although they had basically the most serious desire to get away from the temple, they were still concerned about white-washing their reputations in the temple too, if necessary. For the young Pharisees knew how to craftily save their reputations everywhere in emergencies. If they ever came back to the temple and were accused of having left the temple time and again, then they had a lot of appropriate reasons at the ready to explain that they had only gone against the temple in pretense.

6 For this reason I said right from the beginning that one should not trust them too much; for such human souls constantly resemble the tamed wild animals which one must never fully trust, because the savagery likes to return as soon as there is an opportunity.

7 When, after a short while of anxious silence, Julius began to get more intense in his inquiring, I said to him: "Friend, allow them to collect themselves and then speak! Because they cannot fob us off with lies, even if they wanted to. For firstly I am here, and I cannot be lied to, and secondly Raphael is here, who also cannot be lied to. What good would any lie do for the thirty anxious ones against us who firstly cannot be lied to and secondly hold all the power and strength in our hands?!"

8 Julius says: "I see well that You, oh Lord, are completely right again this time as always, and so I will wait for the answer from these thirty with all patience. But I would like to add that I want to finally find out what I should do, if there is no answer for too long!"

9 Immediately at this the young Pharisee with some courage opens his mouth again and says: "You have exasperatingly obstinately demanded from us the answer to your question. But we asked you first in the friendliest way, if a little excitedly, about the eminent man there, who he is, whether he isn't the famous savior of Nazareth, and we said that if he was, it would put us in a fine pickle. This surprised you; you immediately felt distrust towards us and straight away wanted to hear from us the reason with the most threatening seriousness in the world. It is easily understandable that we became anxious at that, since we have already experienced your strictness.

10 But now that we have found a defender of our embarrassment in this great man, who we actually secretly feared the most, because the thought constantly arose in us that he was perhaps the savior of Nazareth, we can speak easily; for now we have no more fear and can now speak freely and openly.

11 That we had to have a well-founded fear of the savior of Nazareth lies quite simply in the fact that we basically stand here as his persecutors from the temple, even if we never were in our hearts; we have had to make some fictitious decrees against him in front of the world, which could not have been pleasant for him at all, even if they were unable to do him any harm.

12 But we have now experienced some small tests here and noticed that things would not go well for a persecutor of the savior. And so we asked you too, when we had heard of the healing of the five murderers tomorrow, whether he was not in the end the famous savior from Nazareth himself.

13 If he was definitely that, then there would surely be nothing left for us to do in the end except to throw ourselves in the dirt before him and to beg him for forgiveness for everything which we were forced by the temple to do against him. And you see, that is the pickle in which we would have found ourselves, if he was seriously the savior from Nazareth! But since we have now seen the noble heart of this man, he can freely be the savior from Nazareth and we will not be in any pickle on his account any longer! There you now have the truest answer that you so threateningly demanded from us; but now give us the correct answer to our question!"

14 Julius says: "Well then, you should know that it is He, to whom all nature and all powers of heaven are submissive. He is the famous Savior from Nazareth! The maiden testified about Him earlier and the angel obeyed His sign, when he gave you the test of his power; but since you now know that, tell me what you will do and want to do now!"

- Chapter 6 -

Exchange of opinions between the Pharisees and Julius about Jesus

1 The young Pharisee and all the others with him say: "Then praised be God in the highest, that He has given man such power which can be the salvation of the weak mortal! It is written in the prophets that God will send the people of Israel a Messiah. Well, what is that, if we should recognize him as such? A Messiah according to the promises is not allowed to be born in Galilee and to come from there; but that is just a prophet's language which one basically, as far as the spirit is concerned, does not fully understand! We have never really seen why no prophet or any other great man should come from Galilee; since the Galileans can't do anything about the fact that they are Galileans. But that is how it is written! Whoever wants to believe it, believes it; but whoever does not want to believe it should forget it - and we belong to the latter for the most part, so that it therefore doesn't confuse us in the least to accept this savior from Nazareth as a Messiah in the best shape and form.

2 But in a certain way it is a somewhat highly extraordinary special thing and a great question how this man came to such extraordinarily high and divine characteristics! For as far as we have found out from our research about him and his background, he is the son of a carpenter who always, until his thirtieth year, stayed at home and did carpentry with his father and some other brothers, sometimes here, sometimes there, and nobody has ever discovered anything extraordinary about him; he has never been seen reading or writing or counting, also his behavior with other people seems to have been very taciturn and nothing less than intellectual!

3 Yes, we were told in Nazareth itself that his father and his mother had often quarreled with him because, for one, they could not easily bring him to the synagogue, and then he never wanted to read aloud and had little or no respect for the Sabbath. His favorite thing was nature and a mute observance of the things of the earth.

4 Also fishing was supposed to be one of his favorite activities and he always fished with good success, thus the fishermen were glad to have him with them.

5 In brief, what we could ever find out about him, all pointed towards the fact that firstly he had never been to school anywhere and secondly it was well-known that he had always been a person from whom only a very low level of any education emerged.

6 But all of a sudden he awoke and showed such wisdom that one could say with the greatest conviction that the world had never borne a wiser man.

7 Well, we have found out that, and naturally a lot more, from the truest sources, we now find him here and are convincing ourselves that he is a very unusually extraordinary man; and it cannot therefore be held against us if we ask: how did he come to such unheard-of characteristics which no person ever possessed before him and certainly will never possess again?"

8 Julius says: "But who knows the goal and the measure of God's Spirit, how much it wants to unite with the spirit of a person?! Can it not happen that the all-powerful Spirit of God in all its fullness of power unites with a human spirit and then acts and works as a pure man can naturally never act or work, because he is not a god?!

9 But where God Himself speaks, acts and works through the infinitely strengthened spirit of a rarely suitable person, naturally nothing but wonder upon wonder must appear for us weak mortals. Word and deed are one - we can't imitate the one nor the other; for we are only humans according to body and limited spirit. He, however, is only in the body a person like us; but in the spirit He is a God in the highest degree and possesses the whole infinity!"

10 But since - that is, according to our Roman theosophical concepts - the recognized pure divine is to be most highly honored and worshiped, however and wherever it appears, it is also clear here that we must act quite differently to the way in which we act among ourselves with a person through whom the whole fullness of the all-powerful Spirit of God works visibly and tangibly - that will probably be very enlightening for you!?

11 And from that you can see why we high-ranking Romans give Him, from the depths of our hearts, the highest possible adoration, love and respect and why we recognize and praise Him completely as the Lord of the whole world. Tell me if that doesn't seem to you to be necessary and extremely enlightening!"

12 The young Pharisee says: "Oh yes, definitely; for in many ways we like your theosophy very much and in the circumstances it is quite appropriate. Only, naturally, according to the actual teachings of Moses, that would not be quite so good and dubious to accept; for there it is said most clearly and expressly: 'I alone am the Lord, and you shall have no other gods besides Me!'

13 Says Julius: That's right; but one must also understand Moses not only according to the wording, but rather according to the true spirit, and one will then soon and easily find that Moses with his sharp teaching cannot actually find any contradiction here, so I establish the principle that man can find one or another expression - but always one and the same Spirit of God, who had talked to Moses - should always recognize and highly worship as such, too, for whatever reason the Egyptians, Greeks and we Romans, albeit in the end through a kind of blind superstition somewhat too largely, demonstrated divine worship to all men and creatures, in whom they discovered some special unusual power and effect.

14 Well, but then we thought: For the pure everything is pure! If the somewhat superstitious humankind, through their honoring of the divine with all sorts of images, simply does nothing bad - which unfortunately the constantly growing domineering and greed of the priests often leads them too - to pacify the incensed gods with cruel human sacrifices, one cannot even count their somewhat pious superstition as a crude spiritual crime; for in my opinion it is better in the end for a man to believe something which still has a good reason, than to believe finally nothing and brand oneself as an animal which has neither a correct superstition nor any at all.

15 A person who will not and cannot accept any beliefs can also never achieve any true education of his mind. For whoever wants to build a house must look around for the necessary construction material beforehand. But how will anyone construct even the very simplest fisherman's hut without any materials? If there is no system to the material at the beginning, this can still come along later if only there is some material there at all; but where there is a complete lack of material, all the system is useless.

16 Thus I say to you that in the end even a superstition is of more use to a person than no beliefs at all; for in the end even straw is better than nothing at all! You can still make something out of straw; on the other hand, out of nothing can only ever be made nothing. For this reason the Romans often allowed your nation the very darkest superstition because we still see some use in it for the people.

17 But the people from the temple themselves are an abomination to us, because we know very well that they do not believe anything and therefore make the nation believe that the most absurd things are highly divine, instead of the truth and impose even the most unbearable punishments on these people, who, as a result of their natural enlightenment, despite all moral forcing, finally still cannot believe that beauty is ugliness, that the sun shines black rather than white, and that blood flows in the river Kidron! I consider this to be a most shameful malice, but not at all any sort of superstition of a person!

18 Yes, if one has some ability and a good opportunity to bring some light to the blind people, then that is certainly of inestimable value; but as long as one is not in this position, one should leave the people to their pious opinion! For if one cannot give the nation anything better, then at least one should leave them what they have!"

- Chapter 7 -

The Pharisee's admission of the coercion of faith in the temple

1 The Pharisee says: "Everything that you say, great lord, is so clearly good and true that we can say nothing other than that every person of only a little spirit obviously gains more for his head and for his heart through spending an hour with you than if he listened for a hundred years to the stupidities of the temple, where nothing sinks in except an empty torrent of words.

2 Truly there is a lot spoken and even more is blared out; but that is all as if one says to someone: 'Friend, wash my hands and feet, but be very sure that you don't make me wet in the slightest! And in our lessons which are held in the temple it is expressly demanded that one listens to them with all respect and does what is demanded. But why, and what understanding lies in the teaching, no-one is allowed to ask - for these are supposed to be the secrets of God, about which no-one but the high priests are allowed to know details and then only under the strictest pledge of secrecy.

3 What use to a person is such a teaching when he can probably hear, and must hear the words but he cannot understand even a single syllable?! It would clearly be just as good to never hear a word of it at all!

4 By God, if one looks at the matter of God's teachings to man in the right light, then one comes across things which could make every stomach turn over! For even if people are often not as foolish and obscure in their other actions and decisions as a moonless, heavily cloudy autumn night, then they are certainly a hundred times more so in their teaching about God! Either they often believe enough to make a dog sick - not to mention an honest person - or they believe nothing at all.

5 Oh lord and commander, you cannot believe how often I felt bad when I had to preach something to the people as good and true, when I was convinced beforehand that it was a total lie. I often could have strangled myself from sheer annoyance. But what good did it do? Once the ox is in the yoke, he has to pull - whether it's easy or hard - otherwise there are blows to the extreme! I have often thought to myself in the middle of preaching and asked myself: 'But who is the more pitiful ox, I, the preacher, or he to whom I am preaching?' And I could never fend off the thought that I myself was always the greater and in general the perforce foolish ox! For my listener, if he was an intelligent person could laugh himself silly at me afterwards and make fun of me to his friends; but I was not allowed to do that, at least in the temple, under pain of punishment by accursed water.

6 Therefore high lord, I say: Hence away from us all now everything that is purely the devil's in all seriousness! From now on we will be very intelligent people and eternally no longer the slaves of human foolishness; for it is something terrible to be a servant to the foolishness of man! From now on weapons and true good sense! Everything else belongs between the horns of the old scapegoat which one must kill and burn with the fire of righteous anger. But now about something else!

7 Do you know, great lord, what this good man of God would desire if he took us to be his disciples only for a short time of a number of days? For in even the shortest time there must be exceptionally much to learn from him! Do you think that we could ask him about it without fear?"

8 Julius says: "Certainly, but I know very well that He never accepts any sort of material payment, instead only the purely spiritual! Oh, He never has any money on Him and nevertheless never owes anyone anything! Whoever does something for His sake, He repays him in another way a thousand times; for His word and His will are worth more than the whole world. You don't need to know any more than that and you can now do whatever you want!"

9 The young Pharisee says: "Quite good and right, and many thanks to you, great lord, for this enlightenment of our mind; for now I know very well what we will all do and in a certain way what we must do! Only now will we turn seriously to him and whatever he says, we will do!"

- Chapter 8 -

The conditions of the Lord when accepting the disciples

1 After such words the young Pharisee rises and comes over to Me and says: "Lord, master and unequaled savior. Who I and my 29 brothers are, you certainly know very well, and exactly who you are we have also heard from the great master Julius; so we don't need much introduction. But since we have heard that you take disciples at times, so we would like - even if it is only for a short while, if it cannot be for longer - to be your disciples!"

2 I say: "That would be fine, but you see: The birds have their nests and the foxes their dens; but I have nowhere to lay my head!

3 Whoever wants to be or become my disciple must take a heavy burden onto his back and follow Me like that! Earthly advantages for my disciples there are none; on the contrary, in My name and for the sake of My love, they have to leave their earthly advantages and property not only for a time, but for ever; even wives and children must not hinder them if they want to become true disciples of the Kingdom of God.

4 They are not allowed to have money or other worldly treasures, not even two tunics, no shoes unless necessary, sacks to fill or a stick or hiking staff to defend themselves against a possible enemy.

5 They are not allowed to have anything on earth but alone the hidden secret of the Kingdom of God. If you can bring yourself to accept this, then you can be My disciples!

6 Every one of My disciples must also be full of love, gentleness and patience towards every man, just as I am. He must bless his worst enemy just as much as his best friend, and must, when the opportunity arises, do good to him who has done him harm beforehand, and pray for those who persecute him.

7 Anger and revenge must be far from the heart of anyone who wants to be My disciple; he must not complain about the bitter events on this earth or even begin to grumble about it in annoyance.

8 He must flee all the pleasures of sensual life like the plague, but summon up everything to create a new spirit in his heart through My living word and finally, for eternity, live on completely in this spirit, in the fullness of all spiritual power.

9 Think about these conditions and tell Me if you agree to them, and whether you want to bind yourself to all of them!"

10 The young Pharisees began to scratch behind their ears at My presentation, and no-one knew what he should say in return. The young Pharisee however who normally talks with Julius but who is now standing beside me says after a while, half jokingly: "Dear, good and unsurpassable master! The conditions set us may be good in themselves in consideration of the achievement of even one of your extraordinary, divine characteristics; but there will surely be few who can accept them and live by them! And in general such a demand can never have any value; for if every man finally wanted to become your disciple, then the earth would soon look as it did after the second or third of Moses' days of creation, namely barren, void and empty! Do you know, you will find very few proselytes on this path! A few yes, who obey this so-called contemplative life and already in a certain way want to achieve on Eearth what they will first achieve in the afterlife, will probably be able to accept this; but all people? Oh God, what is the world coming to?

11 The old teaching of Moses is still the most exhaustive and in every aspect of the creation the most serviceable for the physical and moral sphere of every man! There one can be a respected man before God and before the world just like David, which is extremely necessary for the maintenance of order on earth. If you make all people equal, you will soon convince yourself of where humanity will come to very soon! A few should be in possession of the secret of the Kingdom of God on earth; but for all people this is as if either sheer equal-ranking commanders found themselves in an army, or sheer common, rough fighters without any knowledge of the waging of war, that is, without a leader. Truly, in the end even a few well-led old women would be a match for such an army!

12 I for my own self nonetheless want to become your disciple, even if you had asked even more difficult conditions; but whether all my comrades can accept this, that is a very meaningful question! For you see, the temple truly demands very much, but you demand everything - and to that, friend, very few will agree!"

- Chapter 9 -

The advantages of renunciation

1 I say: "But that matters not; I force no one! Whoever wants to follow Me, he should follow; but whoever does not want to and cannot, he should stay at home!

2 But in these days the Kingdom of God suffers violence; and those who do not seize hold of it with violence, they will not possess it.(Matt. 11:12)

3 But in view of My rather difficult conditions that I have set you I say: If you have an old and tattered tunic, in which it is an embarrassment to walk amongst people, and a person comes to you with a new, good tunic and says to you: Friend, take off your old tunic and destroy it, because it cannot be used any more in future, and I will give you here a new one instead of it which will last for all time because it is woven from a material which no storm can ever destroy! Will you be an fool at such a request and keep the old, rotten tattered tunic?

4 Further you know as well as your companions that this earthly schooling and time of testing lasts only an extremely short time and after it the endless eternity begins. Do you really know how and whether you will have any sort of afterlife following the death of this body? I alone am in the position to give you and any man the eternal, most perfect life of an angel in return for this short and pitiful life.

5 Will you really have some doubt to accept my offer, when I am the only one who can prepare for you eternal life and give it to you as yours? Truly, I ask very little - and in return give very much!

6 Do you think then, the earth would be barren and empty if with time all people accepted the demands of My teaching, as will happen one day? Oh, you short-sighted Pharisee!

7 Here, look at my angel! He alone has so much power and strength from Me, that he, if I wanted, could destroy in one moment, as he destroyed the stone earlier, this whole earth, the great sun, the moon and all the other visible stars in comparison with whose size this whole earth can hardly be called a grain of sand. But if you believe that the cultivation of the earth depends only on people, then you are severely mistaken!

8 I will give you a piece of land, but set My curse on it beforehand, and you may work in it as you will and it will never even bring you thorns to feed the worms! The sower may well lay the seed in the tilled ground; but My angels must work at the sowing and so bless the field, otherwise it will eternally bear no fruit for you! Do you understand that?

9 But if the head workers of the earth are also my angels, then they can take on the sowing in emergencies as they do in parts of the earth which no man"s foot has yet touched.

10 But because the people suffer from an old curse and want to work themselves with all power for their own bodies, well, My angels can have the time off!"

- Chapter 10 -

Needs and their evil

1 "Haven't you read about the former eden of the earth where the first human was created? This eden was a large garden and was planted with the best fruits of the whole earth; and yet the hand of a person could not possibly have worked it before this! Thus the first people had no houses or towns; they had only extremely few needs which were easy to satisfy, but they remained healthy with it, always reached a ripe old age and therefore had a lot of time to devote themselves to their inner education of the soul and remained almost always in a visible conjunction with the powers of heaven.

2 But through the inspiration of Satan, a certain Cain built his son Hanoch a city of the same name; and thereby laid the foundation stone for all the evil things on earth.

3 I tell you: Man needs very little for life on this earth; but the haughtiness, the lethargy, the arrogance, the greed and domineering of man need indescribably much and nonetheless can never be satisfied!

4 The worries of man are mostly fed on this, and people then quite naturally have no more time to concern themselves with what they should concern themselves with because God placed them on this world for that reason only.

5 From Adam until Noah the children of the mountains never waged a war, because they had only very few needs and no-one wanted to be anything more than his brother, and the parents asserted themselves in the most respectable way before their children, because they always remained their children's teachers and advisors.

6 But in the lowlands, where the people, who were blind in their hearts and their minds, began to decorate their teachers and leaders and advisors with too much splendor, anointed their heads, decorated them with crowns and gave them all power and sway for the sake of appearance, there it was the end of the life with few and small needs!

7 Splendor has a great stomach which can never be filled. The earth in a small surface area could no longer bring forth enough food out of the ground and the people of splendor, who were hard to satisfy, began to spread themselves out over the ground, called the occupied land their full property, ensured splendor on it and thereby awoke jealousy and envy and through this also resentment, quarrels, discord and war and the stronger in the end became entitled to the law and ruler over the weaker, forced them to work for him and to be subservient in all things. The rebellious were castigated and even threatened into unconditional obedience on pain of death!

8 And see, all that was the consequence of the external cultivation of the earth, of the love of splendor and of the arrogance stemming from it!

9 But if I now, coming in My spirit from heaven, want to lead you back to the happy condition of the original man and show you the long lost path to the Kingdom of God, how can you say that the conditions I set to become My disciples are too hard and too unfeasible in general!

10 I tell you: The yoke that I lay on your neck is soft, and the burden that I offer you to carry is as light as a feather in comparison with that which you carry day by day.

11 How far into the whole world reach your worries! Day and night you have no rest and no repose; and that is all for the sake of the world and so that you will not be held back at the cost of the often bloody sweating of your weak brothers and sisters!

12 With such worries, how should any time be found for the soul, to do anything for the awakening of the Spirit of God in you?

13 Yes, your souls and the souls of millions of people no longer even know that they are the carriers of the Spirit of God, not to mention that they could and should do something beneficial for becoming free and independent. For your love of splendor and comfortable life the poor and weak humanity is driven by you too strongly to bloody, endless drudgery and therefore cannot do anything to liberate their spirit and so you are dead along with you subordinates and are truly children of Satan and will not hear My word, which earnestly and truly leads you to life. Instead you defend your word, from which eternal death for you and all your subordinates must necessarily follow!"

- Chapter 11 -

On the reason for the flood

1 "They even accuse God and say: How could God let a flood come over the earth to drown all life and how could He destroy the Sodomites and the Gomorrites!?" Oh, nothing easier than that! For why let bustling and prim lumps of flesh crawl around the earth any longer, whose souls have strayed so far from the old order of God that even the last trace of self-awareness in them is gone out of pure concern for the flesh?

2 Can there be an even thicker incarnation of the human soul than that in which the soul has not only come into being from the divine spirit in its every representation, but which also in the end loses itself so much that it begins to deny its own being quite seriously and can no longer be convinced that it exists?

3 Yes, when that situation occurs with the people of the world then man has completely stopped being human; he is then only an instinctively reasoning animal and above all incapable of any further education of the soul and the spirit. Thus, such a body must be killed and decay along with the too intensively incarnated soul, so that, maybe after many millennia, a soul which has become free of all incarnation can enter the path to its self-education and independence, either on this earth or on another.

4 That there are here, however, often people who no longer know anything about their own soul for pure concern about the world and their flesh, you can recognize partly in yourself, partly in the Sadducees and to a great part in all people; for no-one knows any longer who and what the soul is! One talks about it and says: 'by my soul' and 'in my soul'; but if you ask someone: Friend, who and what is the soul? The person questioned stands there like an ox on a mountainside not knowing what to say!

5 But once a soul does not recognize itself any longer and, in the end, even quite forgets what and who it is, then everything ends! And there is nothing left for God to do except the old process of destroying the people physically again on the face of the earth, sometimes to a large degree, sometimes to a lesser degree, depending on the situation of the people: whether they still know something about their soul and spirit or nothing at all.

6 Such pure worldly and fleshly people may look very beautiful and sumptuous, particularly the female sex; the easily understandable reason lies in the constant greater conjunction of the soul with the body. But such people also become weak through this and are very susceptible to all serious physical effects. Their bodies become sick easily and the slightest wind of a plague brings inevitable death, while people who have a free soul and a free spirit in it can let all the poisons of the earth come over them and it will not harm them in the least; for a free soul and the freest spirit in it, have power and means in abundance to face every enemy in the most effective way, while a soul gagged everywhere by its cursed flesh resembles a small tied-up giant, who, in the end, cannot even defend himself against a fly and has to allow an insensible dwarf with a knife to slowly but painfully remove his head from his body."

- Chapter 12 -

Suggestions for the mission

1 "Remember this! If you come to a place where there are very beautifully-formed and dressed-up people of both sexes, it is best to move on; for there is no business for the Kingdom of God, because there at least half of Sodom and Gomorrah are in force! The punishment of God is never far from such a place; for such flesh-linked souls, which for the greatest part have laid all their conscience in the grave of their bodies, are too bound up through and through. And if their beautiful flesh is touched even only very slightly by the evil, rough and still very uneducated natural spirits of the air, such bound up souls can muster no defense and succumb along with their flesh, which is much more susceptible and thin-skinned than the flesh of the body of a free soul.

2 Go and grab a tender town maid firmly by the arm or any other body part and she will cry with pain; if you go out to the country however to a farmer who besides his work also takes care for his children's souls and his own, there you can grab the hand of the man and those of his children as firmly as you want and shake it and he will let out no great cry of pain or fear!

3 You probably think that such insensitivity comes from heavy work and the hardening through it?! Oh no, I tell you; instead the hardiness is only a consequence of the soul freed from the flesh through self-denial, by which then the correct toughness of the flesh also comes into being.

4 But wherever all concern for the tenderness of the flesh exists and even some schools exist in which the body can be made as tender as possible through all sorts of gymnastics and as smooth through all sorts of ointments and oils, there is no free soul any longer; and if only a slight wind of poison comes over such terribly weak bodies, then death reaps its harvest.

5 Then people complain and moan and one half-believing person after the other opens his mouth and says: But what sort of pleasure can God have that He tries to kill the people with all sorts of torture?! Either there is no God, or God is too exalted and no longer cares for the creatures of the earth, or God is hungry for sacrifices and incense, one has to satisfy Him with rich sacrifices, magical words and incense! Or God has become angry and is taking His revenge now on the harmless weak humanity; one has to do penance in full and cast at least twelve sacrificial goats in the Jordan each year!

6 But then no-one thinks that all this suffering, all sickness, all wars, all price increases, hunger and plague, come from the fact that people do everything only for their bodies instead of for their souls and their spirit, according to God's order!

7 Yes, they preach the fear of God to dead souls, in Whom the preacher, dead in soul himself, no longer believes. Because he only believes in what he gets for preaching and what honor and what reputation a well-studied position as preacher could bring. And so one blind leads the other and a dead man wants to make another dead man alive. The first preaches for his body, and the other obeys the teaching for the sake of his body. But what sort of advantage can there be for an extremely sick soul?

8 I am a Savior; 'How' - the dead and the blind people are asking - 'can this be possible?' And I tell you that I do not heal the flesh of people, but instead wherever some soul is still left mixed with the flesh I make the soul free and awaken, as far as possible, the spirit buried in the soul. This immediately strengthens the soul which becomes free, and it is then an easy thing to set the correct order to the afflictions of the flesh in one moment.

9 That is what one calls a miracle healing, while it is only the most ordinary and natural healing of the flesh in the world! What someone has, that he can give - what he does not have, he cannot give!

10 Whoever has a living soul according to the order of God and a free spirit in it, he can make his brother's soul free if it is not too embedded in the flesh, and this helps the sick fleshly body. If the doctor of souls himself has a very sick soul, which is more dead than alive, how could he give someone else's soul what he is lacking himself?! Think about this!

11 I have now shown you the conditions for becoming my disciples, and the ills of the world down to its truest and deepest foundation. Now do what you want! I neither take you to be My disciples nor do I refuse you to become such. If you want to become M disciples you must first make your souls free and strong, otherwise the discipleship of M teaching will do you no good!"

- Chapter 13 -

Noah and the ark

1 After this speech everyone opens wide their eyes and says to themselves: I am guilty! And at this the young Pharisee does not know what he should say to Me. Also Cyrenius and Julius now make rather thoughtful faces and even Ebahl and Jarah begin to think about her female beauty!

2 And Cyrenius says after a moment of deep consideration: "Lord and Master, I have spent some days and nights with You here and there and have seen many wonders performed by You and heard You speak clearly, but nothing has made me think as much as this speech! For according to Your remarks now we are not at all in a better position than Sodom and Gomorrah in the days of Abraham. And all our cares, actions and dealings are quite in optima forma for Satan. Friend, that is a very hard lecture! Unfortunately for no price one cannot conceal that You have given us the bare truth here; but how can we now take the standpoint from where we can willingly turn our backs on the world and then turn to the cultivation of the soul and the spirit for all time?"

3 I say: "Friend, nothing easier than this! You remain what and who you are, and stand before whom you have been placed before; but not for your reputation, but instead for the various uses to other people!

4 For see, when the flood came in the days of Noah over the face of the earth, which basically was inhabited by spoiled people, the flood killed everything in the world except for Noah and his family and the animals which Noah took in cages - all but the fish in the water, of course.

5 But how did Noah and his family remain alive high above the death-bringing water of the great flood? You see, he was in a secure tub which the great flood had to carry obediently on its back and could never penetrate the boat, where it could have become dangerous to the life of Noah!

6 This deadly flood of Noah's continues to spiritually cover the face of this earth; and I say to you that this spiritual and continual flood of Noah's is no less dangerous for the lives of the people of this world than the former natural flood in the days of Noah.

7 But how can one protect oneself from drowning in the spiritual flood? I say to you: What Noah did physically, that you should do spiritually, and then one is protected forever from drowning in the great and continual spiritual flood!

8 In other words: Give the world what is of the world according to God's order - but give above all to God what is God's!

9 'Noah's ark' is the correct humility and love of a person towards ones neighbor and towards God.

10 Whoever is very humble and full of the pure, unselfish love towards God the Father and towards all people and always actively strives to serve other people as far as possible in the order of God, he floats away quite safely and protected over the flood of world sins that otherwise easily brings death; and at the end of this earthly path of life, when the flood subsides for him and runs away into its dark depths, there his ark will find welcome rest on the great Ararat of the most living Kingdom of God and will become an eternal house for those whom it carries.”

- Chapter 14 -

How earthly treasures should be regarded and used

1 "Look at me! Must I now not associate with the world? I eat and drink, and the world serves Me as once the flood served Noah's box! Well, may it rage violently under the strong walls of My box - but it can never engulf it!

2 You are not to blame that a Roman empire has come into being. But now it is here, and you cannot destroy it! The kingdom, however, has good laws which serve well for the maintenance of order and the humility of the people. If you are considering becoming a lord who is above the law and therefore can wear a crown, then you are on the wrong path for yourself, if not in comparison with the people who have to obey the law once it has been sanctioned with all its advantages and disadvantages. But if you put yourself beneath the law and consider yourself simply as the leader decided by the state and by necessity, then you are at the correct point of view, building for yourself, out of the spiritual material of the law, an ark which has to carry you over the stormy flood of the sins of the world!

3 If, in addition, you observe the basic conditions of My teaching which are in actuality very easy and go along well with your laws, then you are doing enough for your soul and for your spirit. But if I tell you that is enough, then name Me someone else who could tell you that it is not enough!"

4 Cyrenius says: "But consider, oh Lord, the splendor and the luxury in which I must live for the sake of the state, and consider what You have just said about the splendor and the luxury of the world!"

5 Say I: "Do you love in your heart the splendor and the luxury of the world?"

6 Cyrenius answers: "Oh, not in the least; it is all quite an ordeal for me!"

7 I say: "Well, how does this forced splendor and luxury confuse you? No glory and no decoration can be a detriment for the soul and the spirit if your heart does not love it! But if your heart longs for something material and would be nothing without it, then it can be just as harmful for the soul and the spirit as the heaviest crown of pure gold and of the most valuable gemstones.

8 Thus everything depends on the state of the heart; for otherwise ridiculously the sun, moon and all the stars would have to be counted as sins to the people of this earth because they shine and glisten very magnificently and because man certainly has joy in it. So you, My dear Cyrenius, can take great joy in your glory before the people, but no vain or foolish joy, for through that your soul is spoiled and finally killed!

9 Even Solomon was allowed and even ordered to dress with such splendor as no king before him ever wore and no king after him will ever wear. As long as he had no foolish, vain joy in this, instead a correct one founded in wisdom, the joy was uplifting for his soul and his spirit. But when he became vain, as a consequence of the great glitter and this haughtiness had taken control of him, then he sank before God in all things and all better people and fell into all sins of the luxurious world and his works and deeds became acts of foolishness for the better people and true abhorrence in the face of God.

10 I tell you and all the others that it is good and even useful for a person if he imitates the splendor of heaven on this earth in his soul and spirit and lifts up his mood in the correct way; for it is more worthy of praise to build than to destroy. But only mature people in terms of soul and spirit should do such a thing, so that the immature will see what one can do as a mature person.

11 But whoever builds a palace in his own honor and for his own reputation and loves himself for his splendor, commits a great sin against his soul and against the divine spirit in him and spoils himself and all his descendants, who consider themselves from their birth to be better than other people.

12 But if the hearts of the inhabitants of the palaces are spoiled through the splendor of the palaces and thereby become full of arrogance and full of contempt towards the people who cannot inhabit a palace, then it is better to turn the palace immediately into a scrapheap.

13 So it is also not against the divine order to build a city in which people live together in peace and harmony like a family in one house live, work and deal and in all things support each other more easily than if they live hours away from each other. But if there is arrogance, luxury, splendor, envy, hate, persecution and even manslaughter, and indulgence, fornication and lethargy, then such a city should be turned into a heap of scrap and decay, otherwise it becomes a field for all sorts of arch evils which with time will poison the whole earth through and through like the pre-flood Hanoch and the after-flood Babylon and the great city Nineveh! How great were these cities once, and now a few pitiful huts stand in their place! But where Hanoch once stood, there is now a lake, like in the place of Sodom and Gomorrah and the ten smaller towns in the area of the two larger ones, each of which was larger than today's Jerusalem, which is also not as large as it was in the time of David.

14 What happened to these towns will also happen to Jerusalem, and these are the people who will see the pain of destruction and will enjoy it! For as I said, it is better to have no beautiful cities but more fully alive souls than a city in which the people's souls have been completely destroyed for all eternity!

15 So you, dear Cyrenius, may have everything valuable and wonderfully beautiful that the earth carries on its wide ground, and you can delight in them, praising and worshiping God. But never set your heart on it; for all these splendors of the earth must one day disappear if you exchange the temporal with the eternal! For everything material is basically nothing but what I clearly told you in a previous conversation. Tell Me, are you satisfied and have you understood this in the way it must be understood before God and all the world?"

- Chapter 15 -

On the right way to the goal of perfection of human beings

1 Cyrenius says: "Yes, now I am in the clear again; nothing is of use at all! As there is a law for every blade of grass by which it can develop, so there is only one accommodated psycho-moralistic law in the whole existence of mankind under which man can achieve his complete unbound freest independence, or there is only one unchangeable way on which one can reach his true and eternal goal; on every other one of the numerous paths of freedom on which people can morally go along the great, one true goal determined by God can never be achieved!

2 But that the way showed to us by You, oh Lord, is the only correct and true one, I accept that now very clearly and purely, as clearly as the sun shines on the brightest midday. I also see that every person, low or high, can change to the right path quite easily if he only has the desire to do so; but I also see that no person would have been able to find this way on his own in the fullness of truth and corresponding with all conditions of life. That sort of thing must be revealed by the Spirit of God to the people who have the right understanding.

3 But if the path is now clearly signposted, in my opinion, it will still be rarely taken; for the material equipment of the world has too strong a barrier on this single true and correct path, and many who walk along this path will encounter it and turn back, particularly if they do not notice within a short time some wonderful success of their effort, which does not happen so quickly to people who were tightly coupled to the world beforehand, as one might first think.

4 I hope to achieve the great goal through Your special mercy; but I am only one, and the great Roman state has many millions. How and when will all these, who are people just as we are, arrive at this way?!"

5 At this the young Pharisee says: "Greatest lord! That was my thought too! We can now walk the path to salvation quite calmly and happily; but how so the many millions who do not have the opportunity to go to the source and discuss their doubts with the greatest master of life?"

6 I say: "That has also been taken care of! For after Me the gate to heaven remains open and what we are discussing now will still be heard after a thousand years and written down as if it was happening before the eyes of those who will walk the earth almost two thousand years after us; and wherever there is a doubt one can receive advice from heaven. For as a consequence every man will have to be taught by God and whoever is not taught by God will not enter the enlightened kingdom of truth."

- Chapter 16 -

Of the Ascension of Jesus

1  "But I say to you that it will nonetheless be constantly difficult to remain with the purest naked truth; for the world wisdom which in several places will become very acute will not understand how I can be the same person spiritually who once gave Moses the law on Sinai under thunder and lightning and dictated to him the five books and who supports and rules all eternity with His wisdom, power, and strength! Even many of you who are all witnesses of everything that happens here and what has happened in other places do not realize that I am one with the Father in heaven. What will the great wise men of the world say to that when such evidence reaches their ears from a thousand mouths?!

2 Therefore only the simple-minded are informed, and not the wise of the world, for what is great for the world is an abomination before God!

3 The plain and simple person who still has as pure a heart as possible has obviously a freer soul and a freer spirit in the soul and understands more easily and quickly what belongs to the spirit; but a worldly wise man, whose soul is nailed up with sheer material knowledge and no longer has a divine spirit, will certainly not understand what you, for the most part, easily understood and understand in the correct depth. Nonetheless you still do not understand everything, but after My ascension you will understand it completely!"

4 Here Cyrenius immediately asks: "What sort of ascension do you mean? Will you ascend to the king of all kings on earth and be crowned?"

5 I say: "That's right, but not to a king of the world and also not with a crown of gold! Don't I have the power to take for Myself a kingdom on earth which would reach over all the ends of the earth? Who could stop Me?

6 Is the essence of all things not in the hand of My Father, who is in Me as I am in Him and likewise the life of all people? How many breaths could you take without the will of My Spirit, which alone enlivens and maintains everything?!

7 What was the use to the people in the time of Noah all their power and fine warfare? You see, My spirit let the flood come over all the kings and their people and they were all buried!

8 What good was all his great army to the powerful Pharaoh  My spirit allowed the Israelites to cross the Red Sea without getting wet and the following army of the Pharaoh drowned!

9 So if I wanted to be a king of this earth, what power could ever stop me?

10 But such a thing is far from Me and from everyone who wants to follow me; quite another ascension and coronation awaits Me, about which you will first find out details when it happens. I have already given you some hints right at the beginning of our meeting; so if you remember you will be able to imagine the rest!"

11 Cyrenius says: "But Lord, I now know who and what You are, and what You can do - but I still don't understand basically why You flee from Herod and from those of the temple when You have so much power?

12 I say: "Friend, you could have saved yourself this question! Firstly, because I already explained it to you more than enough in Nazareth, and secondly you should finally have understood from My speeches that I did not come to this world to make the dead more dead than they already are, but to bring others to life everywhere; thus, from now on, nobody should be sentenced. For I am now here to take on all the judgment that has been made over this earth, and all people should find salvation from eternal death through My taking of the judgment.

13 So I am not here to beat, instead to heal every possible wound of humanity which is beset by a thousand evils, and not to fustigate it even more.

14 Do you think that I flee out of fear of My persecutors? Oh, if that is what you believe, you are greatly mistaken! Look at the many serious criminals! Truly, according to Moses and your law they have deserved death a thousand times over; and yet I do not allow that to happen now, that they should be killed, instead they should receive the mercy of heaven. If they make use of the mercy then they will also have a place in My kingdom; but if they fall by the wayside with time, they will have themselves to blame if the curse and strength of the law kills them! For look, the law lasts forever, mercy comes only from time to time to help the people in distress; but when the mercy is not respected, one has to fall back again on the law."

- Chapter 17 -

About the power of the Lord's will and the freedom of the human soul

1 "Look, you are the bearer of the whole law, of all power and all strength of Rome for the whole of Asia and a part of Africa, and nonetheless it depends on My will to execute the criminals or to let them go, and you cannot do anything against My will.

2 So I could coerce by My will all the people of the world to do good things; but that would also be a judgment which would turn a free man into a machine.

3 But you are not a machine because you see that what you do through My word is completely within the order of God; and if you don't understand something, then you ask and act according to your understanding, and then there is no coercion from outside, but from inside, which is within the system of free life.

4 For if My will coerces you, then you are a bound slave, but if your own will moves you, then you are a free man; for your will now wants what your mind, as the light of your soul, recognizes as true and good! But it would be different with the world if it was forced to act according to My will; it would not recognize what is good and true and their actions would then be like that of an animal and even worse. For the animal stands on such a level that a force which is implanted in its nature cannot do any further moral damage to its soul, because the soul of an animal cannot have anything to do with a free moral code; but the soul of a free person would suffer great damage through an inner mechanical force, because such an animalistic side would go quite against its free moral nature.

5 Now, My dear Cyrenius, from this I hope you can see more than clearly why I keep away from those who persecute me as if I were fleeing, and go out of their way wherever and however possible, not to protect Me from their anger, but to keep them, who are also My blind and foolish children, from the eternal perdition.

6 But if I see that some people who persecute Me nevertheless have a better nature and can recognize the correct spiritual light and pure goodness, I do not flee from them - instead I let them come to me where they can be taught to recognize their night and their judgment and finally become people according to the order of God. You have just seen a living example in the thirty young but active persecutors of My feared person. Certainly I would not have had them brought here if I had not found their hearts to be suitable for Me when they were still far away.

7 The powers of nature were certainly forced by My will to bring them here; but their soul was not affected in any way through this. Now that they are here, they will be taught, their mind will become lighter, and they will then freely choose what is beneficial for their souls.

8 You see, it is now almost the time for the sun to send its rays out over the horizon and still it has not occurred to any of you to make any noise about a need to sleep! Why not? You see, because this is how I want it today! But that is no coercion of the soul, only a material need which must serve the soul longer than usual. I used such coercion on you and Myself mainly for the sake of the thirty, and none of you will be able to say that you are sleepy or tired. But for our vigilance we have saved thirty brothers twice over: physically and spiritually. Our effort and our vigilance are rewarded many times over and in the future will be rewarded even more; such an external coercion does no damage to any soul. But if I had forcibly dragged their souls into the light, they would have been nothing more than machines, and none of their actions would have had any more value than the action of a machine or a tool.

9 What use, for example, is a hatchet that chops well and a saw that cuts well? That is only useful to a person who has a free and knowledgeable awareness and knows how to tell the difference between what is of service, good and useful. Or what use is light to a blind man or a running track to the lame? It is only useful to someone who has a correct awareness of himself, the need, the use and the application.

10 The same applies to the spiritual light. The holy freedom of will of the people can and must not be touched by anyone; instead the light must be set in an open place where it can be noticed by everyone. Whoever wants to use it can do it without impediment; but whoever does not want to use it, he can leave it alone just as the light of the sun which brightens the day. But whoever wants to use it, may use it for work; but who wants to be lazy despite all the bright daylight of the sun, may do so and it does not damage the world at all. For the light does not compel any soul with free will to any action.

11 I have power enough to turn your cognition around and to make your free will into a bound beast of burden, and the beast will go around humbly as My omnipotence decides; but in itself it will be dead. But if I teach you and show you and give you the correct light, then you will be free and can accept the light or leave it. Do you understand that, My dear Cyrenius?"

12 He (Cyrenius) says: "Yes, now I understand that too and now I believe that I see the reason why You, oh Lord, have chosen the level of lowliness to teach all people about their true destiny and how they can achieve it. But in order that one should take on a more intensive belief and a clearer insight and conviction, You do all sorts of deeds which give Your words more weight and a more intensive light. And so everything happens through You for the true salvation of man in the greatest order, and Your behavior and conduct seem to me as if You had already decided this from eternity. Maybe I am mistaken in this, though I find that very hard to believe."

13 I say: "No, no, you are not mistaken in the least; for God's order must be eternal! If it was not eternal it would not be an order or a truth; for a truth must always be a truth and must therefore have been planned for eternity. But now something quite different!"

- Chapter 18 -

The recording of the speeches of the Lord

1 "See to it, Mark, now that the dawn begins to color the mountain peaks, that we get some breakfast; for we do not want to approach the five criminals with empty stomachs! They will be a problem for us until they are saved! But once they are saved they must have salt, bread and wine to strengthen them, for they will be very weak after the healing. But salt, bread and wine will give them the strength they need!"

2 Mark says: "Lord, it will all be done!" At this he immediately orders his wife and children to check the kitchen so that everything would be ready at the right time. Immediately his wife, the two sons and four daughters hurry into the kitchen and get busy; some of My disciples also offer their service to clean fish, which as fishermen, they can do well.

3 Matthew and John are still reading over what they wrote down from My speech in the night, but make the casual discovery that despite their otherwise very industrious scribbling they have nonetheless left great gaps.

4 John asks Me if I could tell them the rest. But at My sign Raphael gets to it and fills in everything in a moment. And when the two go through their notes once again they cannot find any holes, and everything is in the best order.

5 Simon Judah also looks through the notes and finds that as far as he can remember there is nothing missing from all the speeches and teaching that happened in the night. The healing of the thirty is also mentioned in detail and the disciples are very joyful with this.

6 Cyrenius also mentions the desire to receive a copy if he made a good payment for the man who would write it down for him!

7 At this Judas Iscariot is at his side and offers Cyrenius his services.

8 But I forbid Judas such selfish dirt and say to Cyrenius: "Look at Raphael over there. Just give him some writing implements and he will be finished very soon!"

9 Cyrenius calls for his servants, immediately gets them to bring a large quantity of clean parchment rolls and gives them to Raphael, who hardly touches them and then says to Cyrenius, handing him back the rolls: "Your wish is already fulfilled; you can now compare the rolls with those of the two disciples and see if anything is missing!"

10 Cyrenius examines the rolls and finds them completely written and of course wonders because, in all his wisdom, he cannot understand such speed.

11 But now the thirty Pharisees and Levites look at the rolls and the certain speaker who is called Hebram says: "Yes, what I have now seen and read is word for word the same as what has been discussed here; but how it is possible for the angel to write down several rolls correctly and legibly in the same moment is none of our business, and I don't want to waste time thinking about it because I am already convinced that nothing will come of it. For us mortals will only understand the immortals when we become fully immortal ourselves, and we will only fully understand the performances of the spirits when we ourselves become pure spirits; but our fleshly selves will never be capable of this.

12 That's why it is better not to think about such things! There are simply things and occurrences in the natural world which a mortal will never fully understand. And if he, the foolish person, begins to think about it, soon he will become crazy! It will surely be clear to the spirits in heaven, and it can become clearer to us with time, but if we wanted to achieve clear insight now, we would have to become confused! Thus I am glad to see wonders; but it doesn't occur to me to think about it any further. And if one seriously understood something of it, one could still not imitate it; and if one cannot, then insight is not at all useful!"

13 Cyrenius says: "You are probably right in a certain material way, but I am not concerned with imitating anything; but since there is an immortal spirit in me, I would like to see the spiritual things concerning my spirit with more than just tightly bound eyes, and it bothers me in every part of my being to learn so a little from out of the mouth of the wise man amongst us about the reason for this rapid writing by the angel! I want to see the mouth of a wise man moving, for our talk means nothing more than threshing empty straw. We say nothing intelligent, while a wise man's mouth gives us something to think about."

14 Hebram says, somewhat witty: "That is certain, but our surprise is due to the fact that in the end we understand the speech of the wise man just as little as the wonder itself without any enlightening speech of a wise man! For in order to understand wisdom, one must be more or less wise oneself. One cannot understand wisdom with pure understanding, no matter how healthy; one picks up a little, but not everything by any means. The Song of Solomon, who was a wise man, is more or less the easiest thing for human understanding. If you read it, you think that you understand it, but if you begin to consider it in depth, you soon arrive at the vexed conviction that you haven't understood anything at all! A little test should justify my conviction!"

- Chapter 19 -

The Song of Solomon

1 (Hebram) "In the fourth chapter Solomon says: 'Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair; thou hast doves' eyes within thy locks: thy hair is as a flock of goats that appear from mount Gilead. Thy teeth are like a flock of sheep that are even shorn, which came up from the washing; whereof every one bear twins, and none is barren among them. Thy lips are like a thread of scarlet, and thy speech is comely: thy temples are like a piece of a pomegranate within thy locks. Thy neck is like the tower of David built for an armory, whereon there hang a thousand bucklers, all shields of mighty men. Thy two breasts are like two young roes that are twins, which feed among the lilies. Until the daybreak, and the shadows flee away, I will get me to the mountain of myrrh, and to the hill of frankincense. Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee. Come with me from Lebanon, my spouse, with me from Lebanon: look from the top of Amana, from the top of Shiner and Hermon, from the lions' dens, from the mountains of the leopards. Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse; thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy neck. How fair are thy breasts, my sister, my spouse! How much better are thy breasts than wine! And the smell of thine ointments than all spices! Thy lips, oh my spouse, drop as the honeycomb: honey and milk are under thy tongue; and the smell of thy garments is like the smell of Lebanon. A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed. Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits; camphor, with spikenard, spikenard and saffron; calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense; myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices: A fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon. Awake, oh north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out.'

2 You see, great Cyrenius, that is how the fourth chapter goes approximately word for word in the Song of Solomon, who was a wise man; and I will give you all the treasures of the world if you with your healthy human mind are able to decipher even one sentence!

3 Who is the sister mentioned again and again, the dear bride who, if she looks how Solomon describes with praise, would be a picture of horror for all people, in comparison with whom a Medusa would seem to be Venus?! In brief, this is the greatest nonsense for the mind of man; what sort of corresponding sense lies in it no mind can understand, only wisdom! Whoever has wisdom will understand it, but whoever does not have it does not read such things, and if he has read it he should not think long over it; for the more he thinks it over, the less he will understand. I have learned by heart the whole Song of Solomon to understand it better - but in vain; gradually I have seen more clearly that I am an ox on the mountain.

4 Therefore appeal rather to the clear understanding of our companions instead of their certainly large wisdom! For if they explain to you the fast writing of our angel from their wisdom, you will understand as much as you understand from the fourth chapter of the Song of Solomon; if someone explains it through their healthy mind, assuming that it is possible, well, you will understand as much as something purely spiritual can be understood. In my opinion one will not make any great progress!"

5 Cyrenius says: "I see that you are no stupid person; for many have said that we should take the thickest nonsense of Solomon - materially understood - word for word. For that is the greatest nonsense that ever came to my ears! But despite this, this sheer nonsense begins to worry me more than the quick writing of the angel. What did this famous Croesus want to say to the Jews? Was that seriously a declaration of love to some Jewish maid who truly must have looked especially beautiful according to his description? Or is something else to be understood? But what - what is another question! Is there a key to it? If there is one, our Lord and Master will surely know best! Thus rather to the smith than to the apprentice!"

6 Hebram says: "I am of the same opinion, and so do it! I would be more curious about this than about my future life after the grave."

7 At this Cyrenius turns to me and says: "Lord, did you hear the certain fourth chapter of the Song of Solomon? Tell me, is there some good sense or is it what it seems, namely sheer nonsense?!"

8 I say: "My friend, there is good sense there, if very profound! Solomon wrote it down as the spirit dictated to him, but he basically did not understand it any better than you now. For the word of wisdom was truly given but not the full understanding. Much seemed Scythic, for what he wrote was told in corresponding images for the time.

9 The solution and the key is He who now speaks to you. But the word, a word of eternal love since eternity, which is the purest love of God to you people, is the most beautiful bride, the true sister of man and his dear girlfriend! Read the song with this key and you will understand it and find the truest meaning! Do you now understand something of Solomon's wisdom?"

10 Cyrenius says, looking at Hebram: "Do you sense, young Solomonist, from where the wind blows? These are quite different sounds to those sung in the temple of Jerusalem! Briefly, now I have the key, Solomon will be studied at home from word to word!"

11 Hebram says: "The key seems true and completely correct; but not everything can be opened with it! We see the stars too, and the Master has occasionally given us keys in his speeches - the angel made a very meaningful mention of it as well; but what else do we know about it? Explain to me now what the bright morning star is which today shone so brightly in the morning? And you see, as little as you can explain to me the morning star from the key given by the angel, just as little will you be able to see behind the whole wisdom of Solomon with the key of the mysterious master! There are many images, the key to which only the true spirit carries; but I don't doubt in the least at this moment that the key which the master gave you in general is the right one, and I will try to decipher something myself with it."

12 At this Cyrenius asks Me: "Lord, what should I think about Hebram's speech?"

13 I say: "He speaks well and truly; and thus, you already know what to think. But now leave it, for look, breakfast is ready! Our limbs need strength, and we want to be strong and then go out to the criminals; for they will soon be ready for healing!" At this a lot of fish and bread and wine were brought to the table.

- Chapter 20 -

On the guests' eating at the morning meal

1 When the young Pharisees and Levites see the table so richly covered with the best-prepared fish, bread and wine, Hebram says: "Well, the disciples of the Master from Nazareth don't live so poorly at all! Now we see no reason to hold back from being firstly Roman soldiers and then at the same time his disciples in body and soul! How often in the temple have we had to fast for the greater honor of Jehovah, and here they don't fast, although today, on the eve of the Sabbath, strict fasting is prescribed by the Jews! And nonetheless no dishonor will be made against God, otherwise the mouth of our lord and master would not have ordered such a thing in his divine spirit! Briefly, whatever He says and wants we will also now always do, whether it is easy or hard for us! For the spirit which makes the sun rise on the Sabbath just as on a working day and gives no holiday to the winds, is certainly greater than the foolish spirit of the temple who once ordered three pre- and three post-Sabbath holidays for the correct sanctification of the Sabbath. But since the week has only seven days including the Sabbath the question arose, when should we work at all in these circumstances? The blind lawgiver saw his stupidity and was dealt with accordingly afterwards. Peace to his ashes!

2 Briefly, the correct Spirit of God shines out of our new lord and master on all sides, and therefore we want to and we will be his disciples by death and by life and by murder and fire; but we have turned our backs away from the temple forever! Amen. Therefore let it be so, and it will be so! We have fasted enough and achieved nothing through it; but on our travels we have neglected the foolish, exaggerated fasting, we ate and drank even on the eve of the Sabbath and on the day of the new moon, in this new, humanly sensible way we have now reached the highest point that a person can reach. Therefore be of good spirit! We already have the prophesied Messiah, and the temple will probably not see Him for a long time yet and if they do see Him, they will surely not recognize Him. But we have Him and recognize Him and therefore we rejoice and say: Hosanna to Him whom we have found! To Him alone be all our respect and love!"

3 Julius says, That is right, I agree and I add: holy and blessed be all people who are of a good will!"

4 Cyrenius says: "Yes, indeed, salvation to all the world and mercy from above, and highly praised be the name of our Savior, who is called Jesus! Let in future all the nations of earth, all angels of heaven, all spirits under and above the earth bow their knee!"

5 The angel, Jarah, Josoe, Ebahl and all the disciples say a loud "Amen!"

6 After this Amen I say: "And now, my friends and brothers, we want to eat and drink; for the time for the healing of the five nears!" At this everyone reaches for the fish, the bread, and in the end for the wine.

7 And so the breakfast was taken in a short time, visibly with the greatest appetite in the world; for the fish were prepared so tastily that the good taste encouraged us to eat more than usual. Also My Jarah reached forward valiantly and Raphael no less, which surprised the young Levites and Pharisees so much that they began to ask one another how the angel, who of course must be a purest spirit, was consuming the fish and the bread and the wine with a burning hunger and how his disciple began to eat with gusto, not at all ashamed to keep pace with her heavenly master.

8 But Hebram said to his companions: "How can such a thing surprise you? The good angel, who with great ease tackled the thirty-pound stone in his tender fingers, can surely tackle the soft fish, the bread and the wine even more easily! But that his dear disciple almost catches up to him in eating as much as she can, that is due to her healthy growth; for the girl seems to be hardly fifteen springs in her appearance but is as strong as a maiden of twenty summers, and that comes from good nutrition. Cyrenius' foster-son, who sits between the big eater and the angel, has much desire to eat; but the girl and the angel put him to shame! But it is a shame for the girl that she eats so much! She is otherwise very beautiful in figure and speaks with much enthusiasm, but eating a lot takes away from her charm. Our Master also eats and drinks with enthusiasm. But that is no surprise for such great spirits; every one that I have got to know was always a great eater and drinker! In any case, not so much is being consumed here, with the exception of the angel, who has truly put away as much as all of us together! It is strange that a pure spirit should eat material meals as much as we do! I would like to know if he passes all things through himself in the natural way, or does he take everything up into his being?"

9 Julius, sitting near Hebram and not missing these exchanges, says: "What stupid things you gossip about because you don't understand the nature of things! Look, Raphael is a spirit whom you cannot see in his original form; but in order for him to manifest himself as a person with permission of the Lord amongst us people, he must hide his purely spiritual being with a type of light material coat and needs for this much of the lighter material which he processes in his being to be able to appear to us visibly. There is no talk of secretion of meals in his innards since he only rarely takes things into his being, and then in his mouth. And see, that's how things are! So don't talk about such stupid things!

10 But the reason why dear Jarah, a wise daughter of the inn-keeper Ebahl in Genezareth, who is resting just beyond the angel, is eating more this morning than usual is the Lord has surely recommended her to do so because of the healing of the five severe criminals, which will certainly be memorable because He, Who has already brought back the dead, has specially prepared Himself for this, which to my knowledge He has never done before, and told us yesterday that it would be a difficult healing and must be prepared for very efficiently and purposefully if it is to succeed! For this reason, most likely, He is eating more this morning than on any other day. Do you understand now?"

11 Hebram says: "Praise God, yes, dear friend and patron! Only light in and about an appears, and the miraculous thing about it becomes something quite natural in the end! Thus, if we in the future wonder too much over a miraculous appearance, such wonder will be good for our foolishness! For only the stupid can wonder about something that it doesn't understand; true wisdom never dreams of such a wonder because the whole run of things is known. But the thirty of us are still too foolish and there must be a lot to wonder about from our Master, Savior and, in all rights, our prophesied Messiah! But now He is making motions to me to stand up and go, and we will therefore begin to get ready!"

12 I say: "Yes, it is now time; so let's rise and go out to the beach where the five are being kept for us!"

13 As I say this, everyone rises from the long sitting and hurries out with Me onto the beach.

- Chapter 21 -

The healing of the five possessed murderer robbers

1 When we arrive at the five, they raise a horrible cry and roar and begin to curse everything that comes near to them.

2 But I finally allow the soldiers, Julius and Cyrenius to stand back and say to the few soldiers: "Untie them now; for nothing can be done with them in such a state!"

3 But the soldiers remark that this is not a good idea, since the five would be too strong and angry; if they were let free worse would be feared than letting twenty tigers free amongst people!

4 I now order them, saying: "I command you to do quickly what I order you; not fulfilling My demand could soon land you in a great misfortune!"

5 After such a threat of Mine the soldiers finally do for the moment what I ordered, but with great care.

6 When the five are free they run towards Me, fall on their faces and cry: "Oh, You almighty son of David, since You have already saved us so far, save us from eternal ruin! We do not fear death of the body, but eternal ruin! For in this night we had, as well as all our terrible bodily torment, also the sight of the torment of the dammed spirits in hell! And we beg You to torment us for our crimes with every thinkable evil for a hundred years in our poor bodies on this earth - only spare us the too terrible eternal torments and agonies of hell which are indescribably dreadful!"

7 That was the language of the true souls of these five in a moment of peace from the devil possessing their body who had to show their hell also in its worst nakedness; but immediately the bad in the bodies of the five come forwards and spoke in a thousand voices out of the mouths of the five: "What do you want here, you mosquito-tamer? Do you really want to enter a war with us all-powerful gods? Just try it, and you will fight for the last time! Step back, you wretched one, otherwise we will tear you into the tiniest pieces of dust and give you to the wind!"

8 I say to this: "With what right have you been plaguing these five people for years? Who gave you permission? Know that this is your last hour! The mosquito-tamer orders you now to leave these five people for ever and to go immediately to your deepest hell!"

9 The devils roar and say in a terrible howl: "If your power can force us, then let us rather go into the white ants of Africa; for it is better to be with them than in our hell!"

10 "No," I say: "I have no mercy in my heart for you and yours, because you have had none for those you have killed despite their most desperate pleading; thus now without any mercy or pity, out with you!"

11 At my powerful command the evil spirits come out and pull the five down to the ground.

12 But I say: "Retreat, you miserable ones! Off to hell with you, and there you will receive your reward!"

13 But the spirits still stay and ask for grace and mercy; for their evil was innate.

14 I say: "But it is in you to be good, for you have knowledge of good and evil; but your arrogant will is evil and unrestrained and therefore there can be no mercy and no pity! You yourself want to suffer and to be tortured, so suffer and be tortured eternally! For My order lasts eternally and is unchanging, as you well know. But you also know what you have to do to profit from the eternal order; because you use it for your detriment however, so enjoy the damage too, and away out of my sight!"

15 At this there is a powerful bang, smoke and fire come out of the earth and a crevice swallows up the sordid vermin. For the spirits that had been driven out showed themselves to the witnesses as jet-black snakes which now were consumed by the flaming crack in the earth, which frightened those present so much that they began to tremble.

16 But I now turn to Mark, who stands ready with bread, wine and salt, and say to him: "Give to the five some wine now, then some bread and salt!"

17 Now the sons of Mark lift the five from the earth and pour some wine into their open mouths. Then they come quickly to consciousness and did not know what had happened to them.

18 But I said to them: "Now take some bread with salt and then some more wine, and you will come back to strength and full consciousness!"

19 At this they take bread and salt and, as ordered, after a short while some more wine, and in a few moments they raise themselves, but naturally they still look very bad, pale and thin.

20 And Cyrenius asks Me quite timidly what should now be done with the five, whether they should be set free or whether they should be looked after in some sort of care house.

21 I say: "Leave these cares for today, tomorrow will show what should be done in future! If they are well looked after by us today then they will look better. But now we must rest here a while and you, Mark, have them bring some more oil! The tightly bound chains and cords have covered their skin with wounds and boils; these should be rubbed with oil and wine so that they heal soon!"

22 Mark now brings some oil and his sons rub in an ointment which suits the five very well; for they admit at this treatment that it feels very good and one after the other tries to stand, which takes considerable effort at first, but gradually improves.

23 When the five who were saved are much better after an hour, they begin to ask where they are and what had happened to them.

24 And Mark, who naturally is nearest with his sons says to them: "You were very ill and were brought here as such yesterday afternoon; but here is the famous Savior from Nazareth who brings help to all people, no matter what illness they have, and this Savior has now helped you. You will get to know Him later."

- Chapter 22 -

Speeches of despair of the possessed

1 One of the five says: "Yes, yes, it is beginning to become clear to me! It seems as if I had a bad dream and out of this dream I remember something, as if I was once caught by a band of robbers and murderers, and another four with me. We were brought to a dark hole and given over to devils. They worked on our exterior at first, to make us like them. But since we resisted very much, the devils seized our bodies. We lost consciousness and a devilish longing and insistence overpowered our hearts and we were as good as lost to ourselves. What we might then have done in such a terrible condition is completely unknown to us; but I can remember only that we were recently arrested by Roman soldiers. But what happened after that is unknown at least to me, and I don't know how I got here or why! We must have been heavily abused, for we are so full of wounds and boils, which don't hurt us however. Oh God, it must have been very bad for us!?"

2 A second one says: "Do you know what we were before? Look, we actually belonged to the temple and were sent as apostles to the Samaritans to win them back again for Jerusalem. But we were taught by a better person among the Samaritans and then returned and wanted to make converts for Gorazim in Judea; then we were taken by these certain devils on the border, who put a spell on us so that we no longer knew who and what we were and what had actually happened to us. But how we got here, I have no idea! Yes, yes, we have to thank the temple for what has happened to us! It knows how to make people as unhappy as possible; one knows no example of the temple ever making anyone happy! Only the highest people and the high Pharisees and the oldest scribes are the happy ones in the temple, but the others are the poor slaves and hungry traders of the temple!"

3 A third says: "Yes, now I can remember how we were plagued with fasting and other penances in the temple! Oh God, we can thank our parents for all our misfortune! It says in the law of Moses: Honor thy father and thy mother, so that you may live long and fruitfully on earth!'' We had honored our parents always through obedience to what they demanded from us; we became templars according to their will although we never belonged to the tribe of Levi. But that didn't matter, for one can become anything with money; but a lot of money is needed! By becoming templars we became unhappier day by day through all sorts of exercises and tests until we were ordered to Samaria as apostles and enchanted by evil magicians! But what happened, and what we did, how we came to this strange area across this lake and who treated us so badly, I don't know a thing. Only dimly I can remember that, when we didn't want to become robbers and murderers, we were given over to a terrible and dubious company by these evil magicians, through whose evil treatment we soon lost consciousness and didn't regain it again until just now! But what will happen to us now? Should we go back to the temple or should we do something else? I would rather die; for this evil world has lost everything that could make life on this earth worth living for me! Who can guarantee that we won't end up in the hands of devils again? Who will save us from their claws?"

4 The fourth and the fifth say: "We completely agree! Just a good, quick death, and then eternally no more life! Oh how good is nothingness compared with an existence such as we have had! Simply just stop being! But stop totally! For our experience has made existence unbearable! Why do we have to exist at all? We never uttered a desire to exist in our pre-birth inexistence! Or can any wise creator ever have the desire to see terribly unhappy beings walk around under his all-divine power? But what can we powerless worms do?

5 Every animal is better off than man who believes he is the Lord of Creation! You Romans can well fight lions with your sharp swords, and tigers, leopards and hyenas must flee from the loud clinking of your shields and lances; but if any of the terrible demons attack you, what have you got against these invisible enemies? You probably know little about them, although a saying from Delphi often had more power than a whole army! But we have such a secret power and strength and had no weapons to offer you! We were supposed to become devils, and since we did not want to, the terrible demons took all our consciousness, the body received a mechanical life and these machines were used for God knows what! The pitiful appearance of our skin is proof that it was used for nothing good! Thus give us only death; but complete death! No false death after the grave!"

6 The first says again: "Yes, if that were possible, he who would give us such a death with all certainty would truly do the greatest good deed! For why should we martyr ourselves any longer on this most miserable world! We definitely do not want to be devils for the greater curse of mankind. But whoever will not be that in one way or another has always the most accursed, pitiful existence on this world of dirt! Nothing can be done with this world! One hides oneself from people who are now pure slaves of Satan! What use is that?! The devils soon find their hiding place and they cannot resist. If he follows them he is then of the devil; if he doesn't follow willingly then they do the most terrible things to him and he is still the devil's!

7 Go on, let us leave such an accursed world and such an accursed existence! It is too bad for even the worst devil, not to mention for a harmless, innocent human soul! A god above all the stars can well laugh; but the poor, powerlessly created man must suffer, cry, curse and despair! Where is then the healer who gave us this miserable knowledge that we are free people? Truly, he should never rely on our thanks; for he only gave us over to a new misery! And for such a charitable deed we will never be thankful, assuming that we should enjoy such an accursed life! But if he can give us with certainty the eternal complete death we will be extremely thankful!

8 Who are you, splendid Romans? Things go better for you in this world than for us! You look good! Yes, yes, whoever knows how to serve Satan in magnificence and other splendor has it good! Whoever does not want to be bothered by devils must become a devil himself, and then he has rest from the devils! Be God's servant, oh, the most absurd thing! Desire God's help and love God with all our power! Oh beautiful words and yet not an ounce of truth in them! We were God's servants in body and soul and shouted like the birds since our childhood: Lord God Zebaoth, help us and all people who have a good will! And look at us, how the God Zebaoth has helped us! You have power, namely the devil in your hands and can now do with us what you will, but we ask this much, treat us more humanely than the other devils who tormented us all at once! But if you want to make us into devils again, then make at least whole devils instead of half ones! We will see then if we survive better as whole devils than as forced half ones!"

- Chapter 23 -

The strange state of the soul of the healed possessed

1 Cyrenius says: "Lord, that is a language the likes of which I have never heard before! It is evil and unfortunately still true in many parts. What is to be done with these people? Truly, everyone is staring; even Jarah no longer seems to know what she should make of it and I have seen the angel crying a few times! That seems very strange to me! So tell me what I should do!"

2 I say: "Look, I have told you before that they would give us trouble. But that doesn't matter now - some of the demons that were driven out have remained in their hearts like a shadow and they must get this all out of their system; only then can they be fully helped, and no sooner. We must also remain here for a while and then with the brightening of day their souls will become a little more harmonious. You will hear some things yet, but it hurts basically neither you nor anyone else. For their souls are not mean souls and belong to the better worlds; therefore we must also have much patience with them! When they increase their awareness then you can look forward to a real fight! But now give them more bread and wine; for they now will become very hungry and thirsty!"

3 Mark hands them bread and wine with great friendliness and says: "Drink, brothers, and eat as much of this good bread as you want! For from now on things will never be bad for you on this earth, although it is truly no paradise!"

4 The five say: "You seem to be a good devil; for otherwise you would not give us, who are basically not of your nature, such an excellent wine and extremely tasty bread in such quantities! We cannot replace it for you, but neither shall you have ingratitude! Look, you good devil, it seems to us that we can talk a little with you. If there were only people on this earth it wouldn't be so bad to live on this ground, but for every five people there are a thousand devils, and everything becomes purely of the devil in time! The few people are controlled too much by the devils and can never take a free breath!

5 You see, all control goes from one devil to the other, and he lives through spilled human blood mixed with the blood of poor and good devils, as you are, and that is called the reign of God?! Yes, a reign, but not of his love, but of his anger! Why a god is angry - no-one knows! Some animals are the only happy creatures on this earth, but the rather rare human is the beast of burden of all the evil on this world of dirt! He cannot run fast enough to take flight from the evils like a gazelle! His hands are as fragile as wax, he is naked and nature has not given him any weapons like a bee or an ant to defend himself against an enemy. If you see a herd of tigers, all of them are tigers, and if you see a pride of lions, all of them are lions; they are all of the same nature, and these beasts live well among one another. But if you see a group of people, not everything that looks like a person is a person, instead they are mostly devils! And therefore quarrels, discord and war are always amongst them! Everything in the devil is terrible and there is only the plan for good in a person which can be very easily destroyed under so many devils and the person becomes at least a half devil, or he has to bear what we have borne! But there are different devils among the devils of this infamous world, big and small; but all are easy to recognize because they want to live as comfortably as possible without any work or stretching their strength. They want to be the first and be honored; they know how to take other people's possessions, clothe themselves magnificently and persecute unto death those who did not greet them humbly!

6 In brief, tell me, good devil, what you want, only those like you rule the world and the rare people hide in deep slavery and cannot help themselves, and according to the Scriptures these are the people of God?! Truly, if God looks after these children as he looked after us five people, for example, and the fate of the poor children of God consists of serving the devils in their deepest baseness, then we give thanks for such a childhood of God!"

7 Mark, who doesn't exactly like the title 'good devil', says: "It is probably true that the children of God on this world have often much to bear; but what awaits them after the grave? What an incalculable fullness of constantly growing and multiplying holiness! If a child of God thinks that over, then he can put up with this short life which a test of humility."

8 The speaker of the five says again: "Who gives you a guarantee for that? Do you think it is the Scriptures? Get away with this gaurentee! Look, and say who they are who give people the beautiful writings and are honored as servants of God! Look, they are the worst devils of all!

9 God Himself should come down in the form of a human and show them all their nameless disgracefulness and make them repent. Truly, if He doesn't stand against them with all his might, it is much worse than for the two angels in Sodom when Lot made the decision to leave these places with his family because he was being judged!

10 But if the givers of the prophecies of God are only too easily recognizable as the worst devils, and that is incontestable - so tell us, you good old but somewhat blind devil, what a person, or respectively a child of God, has to expect from such prophecies in the end! I tell you, thanks to our diverse experiences, which we have sadly had to live through, nothing, nothing at all!

11 There is either no God, and everything that exists is a work of the raw power of nature which through all eternity has created everything that there is, or there is some sort of highest Godly Being which orders the great earth, the sun, the moon and the stars but which is too big and eminent to concern itself with us lice of the earth. The whole Scripture comes from people and there is actually more bad than good in it. And what is good, no devil and no man observes; only the bad is pushed onto the necks of the people by the devils!

12 'Thou shalt not kill!' God allegedly said to Moses; but the same God allowed David to wage war against the Philistines and the Ammonites and to destroy everything down to mouse, woman and child! A nice life that is, and a special consequence! Would an all-powerful God not have enough power to rid the earth of his hated nations? Why had a person, fully against the command given to Moses, to be ordered to move and kill not only one but many hundred thousands, because they were not decent before God according to the opinion of a seer; what sort of reason the seer had, and also the kings who were ordered by God to annihilate whole nations from the face of the earth, only the seer and the kings may know!

13 I believe that a God of love should never send evil dogs against people that He wants to educate in love, when He Himself has the means to drive out the annoying and renegade devils in human form. That is a truly strange God! On the one hand love and patience and humility, but on the other hand hate, persecution, war and destruction! Truly, whoever understands such a business must have more sense than the average person!"

- Chapter 24 -

On the distinction between souls by clairvoyants

1 But our Mark, who is already losing patience, says once more: "I truly don't know what I should make of this. I cannot object much, but I cannot fully agree either. There is probably something right in your complaint, but you seem to be more negative in your unhappy excitement than the situation really is. But if you consider even me to be a devil, then tell me whether finally this whole company consists of devils!"

2 The speaker of the five says: "Oh not at all! For see this man” (pointing at Me) “beside you; he is a very perfect person, a true son of God! But it won't be long before the devils will beat him! Behind him there is a young man and a maiden who are also from above, but they will be persecuted enough if they don't want to become devils. Then I see some poor people who seem to be fishermen; everyone else, including you and your whole house are quite good devils on the way to becoming people, which will need some effort still. Do you know now what you are?"

3 Mark says: "But tell me, since you are talking, how you can know all this so accurately; for see I see around me only people of lesser, higher and highest perfection; but devils I do not see amongst them. On what do you base your claim?"

4 The speaker of the five says: "On what I see; the bodies are the same it is true, but the souls show a great difference! The difference lies in the color and form; the souls of those I described are white as freshly blown snow on high mountains and have a wonderful form which in many ways looks more human than the exterior appearance of the body; but your souls have a darker color than your body and look much less human than your body, instead there are clear traces of some kind of animal form!

5 But I discover in your animal souls a very small light which has a complete human form; maybe if it grows within you it will stretch out over your animal soul like a skin turning it into a purely human form! However I cannot describe it in more detail and you can get advice from the perfect people."

6 Mark says further: "But tell me how it is that you can see all that and I cannot."

7 The questioned man says: "In my great suffering in which hearing and seeing often failed, the eye of my soul opened, and with this I can now see the souls of other people and perceive the difference between people and people, between children of God and children of the world, or - which is the same - between angels and devils!

8 But worldly devils can become angels - yet it costs much effort and self-denial; but also angels can become devils. That requires even greater effort and is almost impossible, because a powerful might of independence is in the angels' souls. Hell tried to gain us five. So far their worst attempts have failed; but how it will be in future we don't know, only God who made us knows, but He cares little or not at all about us so that we have come to the opinion that there is either no longer a God or the God which exists cannot and will not care about us!"

- Chapter 25 -

The seer's philosophy of nature

1 (The seer:) There is certainly an order on the earth and some kind of equilibrium from which one can soon be convinced that there must be a highest wise God who has created things as they are now to be seen and understood; but on the other hand one often notices again an unlimited disorder and immeasurable capriciousness so that one had to say to oneself in the end: Yes, there is finally no God!

2 Just take the changeability of the weather! Where is there any sort of order or any sort of equilibrium to be discovered? Look at the various trees standing among one another in a wood, or the grass in the field; further the very uneven size of the mountains, the seas, the rivers, the streams, the brooks and the springs! There is no equilibrium or order, at least not for our understanding. The sea, according to situation, makes greater or lesser waves for its uneven banks. Only man can make a dam here and there; nothing ever happens through the highest wise God.

3 So man just creates a sort of ordered garden and orders the vines and the fields, and he recognizes only the noble fruits and cuts them away from the ignoble ones, cares for them and makes them useful. But where is there a garden of any order on the whole earth which God has laid Himself, where an ordered river? The plates of the earth lie so chaotically that one can only see the blindest power of pure fate; terribly little is seen of any all-powerful divine wisdom and you can do what you want or think whatever you can and want, and it never happens that they say to us: 'Look, there is a quite competent order of God!'

4 Yes, everything taken individually would obviously have very meaningful traces of some original divine power and ordered wisdom; but if one then observes the occasional muddle of the created things - as it seems to me: God has either become tired of order and either takes little or no care of all the creation at all, as it seems to some, or he doesn't exist at all. Instead the accidentally created somethings, after eternities in the endlessness of space, form themselves gradually - according to their natural laws created through their accidental existence - into things of some weight, gradually expand, in time become worlds, suns and moons; the worlds then develop in themselves, depending on their size and weight, new laws which then become the basis for new creations.

5 The more varied yet necessary things gradually became and more and more developed on a heavenly body the things gradually became, the more different if smaller things had necessarily to follow. The finally very diverse things on the worlds and the immense multiplication of the worlds caused laws and effects, from which the first traces of a sensitive life began to proceed; once just one spark of life is formed from the previous necessities, a second had to follow, and over time billions who created new laws among themselves, which are the cause for the development of a more perfect life. And if life has developed into a highest life force through the laws found within itself, then the deeply intelligent life power, conscious of itself and its surroundings, begins to organize the previously mute nature and to make it subservient!

6 But if everything came into existence in this quite natural way, then certainly there are only life forces under highly different degrees from the smallest mosquito to that perfection of life which the more instructed man calls the divine. On this way a good, but also in contrast an evil divinity may well have developed over unthinkably long eras. Once the two divinities have developed, they must exist as counter powers until most probably the evil power, according to our moral conceptions, is taken up by the more powerful good to make ordered contrasts, out of which marriage, after an unthinkably long time, everything that is still mute, unconscious and dead will cross over to a full life with free will and free consciousness!

7 But in these times everything is as disordered as in a true muddled war and seems to be due to this: the now good and highest life power that we call God is not yet in the desired order, instead in a continuing war of subjugation with the bad life power that we call Satan; for the evil power would not fight at once so that there is no reason to wage war.

8 Satan must however have a mute pleasure in good and therefore wants to place the whole positive life force beneath him; but exactly through this striving he always takes more of the positive into himself and thereby makes his evil better without wanting to. But thereby more order comes into his being, more consciousness and correct insight, and he can finally do nothing else but to totally give in because he cannot prevent through his nature and his drive that he would not constantly be defeated.

9 He will always remain an opposite to the pure good after his full conquering, but an ordered one, like salt is a contrast to pure sweet oil; but if the oil tree did not have enough salt in the correct order in its roots, in the trunk, in branches, twigs and leaves, its fruit would never give a sweet oil!

10 I am losing myself now somewhat in explanations which certainly cannot be understood by you in the way they deserve to be understood. But that doesn't really matter; for it is not like me to want to deceive you with untruthful teaching, instead just as a hypothesis, to which a soul is led through many and unbearable sufferings in which it receives no relied despite all pleading with God.

11 The soul or the actual primitive intelligent power of life becomes brighter through great suffering and pain of the body; it sees and hears everything that lies far from the eyes and ears of a natural human, and you mustn't wonder at it when I make mention of several celestial bodies. For my soul has seen it better and more clearly than you have ever seen this earth or will ever see in this life, and therefore I can inform you with good reason about everything which it has seen in endless space! But now an end to everything, and tell us what we should do now! For we cannot possibly remain here!"

12 Mark says: "Only for a little while, until the savior, who has healed you here before our eyes, commands it!"

- Chapter 26 -

Speech about the conflict in nature

1 The speaker says: "Which of the many spectators surrounding us is it then to whom we should bring our thanks? For we cannot offer him anything else in this situation!"

2 Mark says: "He has forbidden us for the sake of your salvation to reveal Him before the right time and so we are still silent before you; but the right time will come today in which you can get to know Him with a glad heart and through Him some of your mistakes!"

3 The speaker says: "Friend, the gladness of our hearts has had its eternal way on this earth! For souls like ours can never be glad because of the great suffering we have been through on this stupid world! Perhaps in another more perfect state of life; but never in these small crumpled bodies!"

4 Cyrenius, now standing quite near, says: "Look, I am the supreme governor of Rome in all Asia and a part of Africa, as well as in Greece! I have now got to know you and found that you are no disreputable people. I will take you into my care and nothing will happen to you and a suitable occupation will be found for your spiritual powers.

5 But you must finally let yourselves be treated a little, so that you don't see us Romans across the board as devils, even of a better sort or call us good devils like my old honest Mark! We are people just as much as you. That you have been led into great temptations by some unknown reason of the Divine resolution and thereby in great suffering, whereby your souls have been enlightened, as it seems to me, we, as for you supposed devils, have little or no responsibility at all; but you have to thank us for your healing and particularly one of us, who is a so to say almighty Savior, and you probably see that we have not acted devilishly towards you at all!?

6 Therefore you must, as I said, let yourselves be treated along with your basically not totally wrong opinion, and soon you will be of a glad heart again."

7 The speaker, rising from the ground with new strength, says: "Friend, look at the ground of this earth; you see nothing but good and uplifting things for your mind. The plants and the grass refresh your eyes, and the soft waves of the sea lighten your breast; for you don't see how under all these great things countless potential devils lift their death-bringing heads and push forward!

8 You probably see the beautiful waves of the sea, but you don't see the death-bringing monsters under the playing waves! You see life on all sides, but we see nothing but death and an incessant persecution of all good and noble life. You see nothing but friendship, and against your few enemies that you see, you have enough power to keep them harmless; on the other hand we see nothing but sheer, mostly unconquerable enemies!

9 Oh Friend, with such unmistakable vision it is difficult to be of a glad heart! Take away this sad ability or give us a correct explanation of everything that we see and we will make you happy and cheerful!

10 After unthinkably long times when a soul has fought and fought there must be a better fate; but where is the ironclad certainty? Which unheard-of battles and storms will the poor soul have to withstand until then? Will it proceed victorious or will it perish forever? What certainty do you have for all that?

11 You see, we see things and relationships that you have no idea about; but we never see anything about the certainty of a blessed condition after the death of the body - only a constant watching, worrying and fighting! We'll tell you how we see it.

12 Every life is an ongoing battle with death, just as every movement is a constant battle with quietness. Quietness itself however fights movement because the constant tendency towards movement exists within it.

13 But in the end who will win? Quietness, which constantly seeks movement, or movement, which constantly seeks quietness?

14 Since your original seed of life you have done nothing but fight until this moment and will in the future constantly fight anew; and as long as you fight you will have a life, but no other than a constantly fighting one which is equipped only with sparse moments of holiness! When in this eternal fight will a true battle-free and conquering holiness come into being?

15 Thus it is easy to say, be of glad mind and cheerful heart; but the soul asks like you Romans: Cur, quomodo, quando et quibus auxiliia? [Why, how, when and whereby will we be given help] Have you understood us even a little?"

- Chapter 27 -

Mathael on the inner life of Cyrenius

1 Here Cyrenius, pressing the speaker's hand, opens his eyes wide and says to Me, "Lord, he has a very unusual way of looking at life! One basically cannot disagree with him; it is truly an unfortunately naked truth on the whole as well as in detail! But what do You say to that?"

2 I say: "Why are you surprised? I told you beforehand that these five would give us a tough time! Oh just listen to them and you will then understand Me much easier and deeper!"

3 Cyrenius says again to the speaker of the five, who was called Mathael: "But could you also say so convincingly that it is more probable that God existed before your heavenly bodies, which I still cannot imagine? Look, I don't know of any nation on the earth that does not accept, honor and worship a god full of insight and power; and you prove now the opposite. You see, that fills my heart with great fear, so provide us with the counter-evidence, I, the supreme governor, beg you!"

4 Mathael says: "Weak infant of the earth, I feel sorry for you! You have, however, as I see in my soul, understood some words of power, life and truth and you have seen with your eyes what God's word may do, and still cannot understand in your heart the profoundness of some thoughts!

5 Yes, yes, friend, see, you still love life too strongly and are stuck in the middle of it; but from this point of view it is hardest to recognize.

6 Friend, one must have totally lost life, that is, the earthly life, and only then one recognizes life!

7 Take a pot and fill it with water; the water will sit calmly in the pot and you will not recognize the spirits of steam in the peaceful water - if you stir the water actively and set it in motion spirits of the steam will still not show, but if you put it over fire, it will soon begin to simmer and in simmering the powerful spirits of steam will begin to rise over the water's bubbling hot surface, and the spirits still resting in the water will now recognize the powerful steam-spirits which were resting quite peacefully in the cold water beforehand, first looking at themselves and then looking at the hot water with many thousand eyes, and they realize that they were once completely one and the same with the cold water.

8 Thus, while boiling, the water recognizes that there were strange spirits in it and still are down to the last drop; yes, yes, the simmering water recognizes that it is spirit and power at the same time, but in its cold state it could not recognize or understand itself.

9 Do you see an appropriate picture here? Your life is now only pure, but quite calm, cold water in the pot of your body. Your pot can be moved in all directions but you will not recognize your life source; on the contrary, the more the water is moved in its cold state, as is the case for all great people of the world, the less the water in the fast-moving human pot recognizes itself and its surroundings; for a moving water surface no longer shows a pure image, but a torn one.

10 But if your water pot of life goes to the true fire of love, great mortification and all suffering and pain - oh, then it begins to boil violently in the pot and thereby the released spirits of steam soon recognize themselves, their previous cold state, the spiritual soul and the fragile pot, and the water in the pot will look at the spirits with a thousand eyes and recognize that it was not a lazy carrier but that they were one and the same! But the pot, friend, understand, the released spirits will not recognize the pot as one of them, but only as a necessary outer vessel that afterwards is broken into pieces and thrown onto the street. Have you now a taste of what I wanted to say?"

11 Cyrenius says: "It seems that I understand your image more or less, that is, in the comparative application to our soul's life; but the deeper things you wanted to disclose I have no idea about! Do you mean to say that there had to be a God before the existence of all things?"

12 Mathael says: "Of course, but you can have no idea of this because you yourself have not even begun to steam!"

- Chapter 28 -

Mathael's speech about God

1 (Mathael:) "Look, what you call 'God', I call the living water; but the water does not recognize the life in it. But when it is brought to the boil through the powerful love which equals the heavy pressure against the centre of its being, the spirit of life rises in its freedom over the once resting water, and you see here the Spirit of God floating over the waters, as Moses describes. And the spirit recognizes itself and the water, and knows that it has been the same as the water since eternity; and this eternal recognition is understood under the phrase 'Let there be light!'

2 But your spirit, friend, will also float over your boiling water of life, then you will also begin to recognize your life and the life of God in you.

3 You see, all existence must begin to be, it must have a beginning, otherwise it can never exist! If a self-recognizing life never had a beginning it would never be there; but because it began it has been there for a long time, as we are also here because we once have begun to be what we now are.

4 But we were here before this existence, like the undeveloped cold spirits in the cold, still water; and the highest life power in God has a double existence, firstly a mute existence and next an inner active beginning free seeing through and through itself!

5 Thus Moses says: 'In the beginning God created heaven and earth, and the earth was void and empty and dark in its depths.' Who or what is then the heaven and what or who is the earth? Do you mean this earth which now bears you, or the heaven which gives you air and light? Oh, how far you would be from the truth! Where was this earth then, and this heaven?

6 You see, it is only dimly pointed to, how the eternal life-power of God in its existence began to investigate and to recognize! And there 'heaven' represents the self-recognizing wisdom of its Self; but in the loving concentration of its centre, which is meant by earth, it was still dark and void and empty, without a deeper recognition of the own Self.

7 But the centre became hotter and hotter, the more the outer self-consciousness began to press on it. And the centre became red hot and out of the boiling life water emerged the steam (spirit), floated now freely over the water of the mute and calm eternal being and recognizing itself through and through; and this recognition is then the light which, as Moses says, God lets become right after the creation of heaven and earth.

8 Only from then on God like a spoken word becomes the 'Word' Himself, and this word 'Let there be light' is a free will which becomes aware of itself thoroughly: a being in the being, a word in the word, an all now in everything!

9 And only from then on the original source of all life begins to emerge, having discovered itself most thoroughly from out of the free will. Now do you have an idea yet?"

- Chapter 29 -

Cyrenius' speech about his wisdom and Mathael's response to it

1 Cyrenius says: "Oh yes, now I have a very good idea, and that is all the easier since I have heard just in this night a very similar explanation of Moses' story of creation. The matter will be like this; but it is too wise for me and I do not want to exert myself to understand something in depth. The thing must be easy for me if it is to be useful; if it goes too deep and too wise then that is the end of my understanding!

2 In short, what I said was: you will be looked after by me and you will have every opportunity to probe into your wisdom and to bring humanity onto the correct path - although I openly admit that probing too deep in the being of life in general is rather disadvantageous than advantageous.

3 Just look at yourselves and ask yourselves if all your truly extraordinary knowledge and wisdom makes you happy! Yes, the human spirit can probe into endless depths of wisdom and in the end bring forth wonderful things; but only the person who is simple can be happy, and who is devoted to God in all things and keeps his commandments. But if God wants to give him wisdom like Solomon, he should gratefully accept it and use it with a cheerful mind. But if the wisdom given to man makes the person only unhappy, then I would rather foolishness through which the human heart is made cheerful.

4 I live only once and now know that I will live eternally, and the way to the achievement of a happy eternal life is known to me; what more should I want?!

5 If you share my opinion, you will be happy on this earth; but with your deepest quest for wisdom you will hardly feel the value and the luck to be a human being!

6 Thus follow my advice, even if it doesn't stem from the chamber of deepest wisdom; but it comes from a friendly and surely not loveless heart, and even before God that has a high value! Why should it be of no value to you?

7 Wisdom is not what gives us life, but love; if we remain with love, we will not lack life and its happy perception! You see, that is my wisdom, and I would like to claim that it is more useful to the life of a person than all of your deep wisdom!"

8 Mathael says: "Oh yes, oh yes, you are quite right! See, as long as the water in the pot does not get to the fire, it has a good and calm existence; but if it then comes to the fire things look quite different. It must be disturbed sometime!

9 Whatever you want to become, you must have the necessary knowledge for. If you want to be a general, you must have all the knowledge for such a position, otherwise you will be a poor general; if you want to be an apothecary and healer, you must have the necessary knowledge for that!

10 Now, you want to have eternal life. However, if you don't want to investigate and recognize life itself, how will that be possible?

11 You see, if I wanted to take a wife but I fled every opportunity to get together with a maiden; I truly don't know how I and a woman would ever come together!

12 But in the end you want an eternal life but you're afraid of the small effort to investigate this earthly temporal life a little deeper and to ask about its roots!

13 Yes, you dear friend, if eternal life depended only on a god giving it to me like you give me a piece of bread, then your life philosophies would be much preferable to ours; but the preparation and achievement of eternal life is given to us alone!

14 We have to do and act and must truly go through water with our water of life and through fire with our love fire of life; only then our water of life on the fire of the inner love towards God, towards our neighbor and finally to ourselves, begins to simmer and boil, and we are only then aware that there is an indestructible life force in us which from the first moment on begins to recognize itself as such and seizes the correct means and uses it, to hold onto it for eternity!

15 So, for the time being, forget about a so-called comfortable life, which is similar to a sweet sleep; instead one has to work and fight and investigate without rest or repose!

16 Only when one has won a full victory over the life which longs to sleep and die can we speak of any blessing.

17 You appear to us as a person who desires to sleep longer in the morning, whose friends start to wake him, which at first greatly annoys him; only when he wakes up with a certain effort, he sees the benefit of being fully awake and rejoices in his light and free life.

18 We are in the right with our wisdom - but you are not at all! Only when you awake will you also see how completely right we are."

- Chapter 30 -

Jesus draws Cyrenius' attention to to the speech of Mathael

1 Cyrenius says to Me, "Lord and Master, what do You say to that? What is to be made of it? Does Mathael speak the full truth? You can best judge something like this: give us a few words on this!"

2 I say: "Didn't I tell you before that you should listen to them? If I saw that they would say something false, I would certainly not have recommended listening to them. So listen further to Mathael! He has a sharp but good wind of knowledge; with such wind, even over a choppy sea, one moves faster than with the best rowers!

3 Just listen a little more, for until now he has spoken rather restrained. When he warms up he will give you some quite different arguments!"

4 Cyrenius says: "I thank you in advance! We are already there, considered devils! What else should he be capable of making us? Is it not praiseworthy of me that I want to look after these five poor devils in their earthly future, and for that they give us a harder time than You have ever given us!

5 Oh, I cannot listen to this Mathael any longer; his opinion about life may well be right, but it doesn't fit in with earthly relationships and no man can do anything for his body with it!

6 Yes, people like the prophets and the old priests had all the time to care just for eternal life; for others looked after their bodily needs, who finally did not care whether there is an eternal life of the soul or not! They simply received laws which they had to observe without ever hearing the actual reason why and what they should achieve through it.

7 For millions that had to be enough, with or without hope of any eternal life, but for us this should not be enough anymore?

8 But if this is not enough for us any longer, then every man who has a spark of true love for others in his heart asks: Who in the end saves the millions of poor devils, since they are condemned to eternal death despite keeping some external laws? If they are a work of some accident, then the teaching might be right, but if all people are a work of the highest wise and good God, which can be seen from their highly wise mindset, there must be a different and more practical way for them and all people to achieve eternal life; and if there is none, then all life is the most despicable thing that human reason can recognize as despicable and abhorrent!

9 For if an eternal life is only for those who achieve it at the cost of thousands of other people who must work for such an eternal hero so that he can simply concoct eternal life in himself - then I myself demand not even the least bit of an eternal life and a full, eternal death is more preferable! That is now my opinion.

10 Your teachings, Lord and Master, are pleasant to me, dear and worthy; for an all-powerful helper is on my side when I am weak - according to the teachings of Mathael I have no-one but myself. I alone can give or take eternal life from me and some god has nothing to do with it except to look on with annoyed or benevolent eyes as some poor devil works his way out of the claws of death and so climbs up to eternal life on the inhospitable ways full of thorns, cliffs and poisonous vermin!

11 No, no, that cannot be; you are fools with all your teaching about eternal life! Yes, if I can think about a giver of eternal life, who, like You, oh Lord, can give an earthly eternal life if he wants to, then I will do everything so that he would give me eternal life. But if I should gather it from all kinds of wise prophets then I need eternally nothing from an eternal life. So speaks and spoke Cyrenius, Rome's supreme governor over Coelesyria and over all the lands of Asia, Africa and a large part of Greece!"

12 I say: "Friend, this time you have really offered nothing in your empty speeches. What the five were, you know – why, you hopefully also know now!

13 But I have completely cleaned them and have lit the only true, unmistakable light of life in them and thereby blocked the path on which the terrible guests, once driven out, could visit them again.

14 These five are now fully pure and look into the finest fibers of all life as it was originally created and now tell everyone openly what in the old days only few were given; how can you possibly bear them ill will?!

15 For look, what they say is the same as what I have told you, only they tell it with somewhat more naked truth.

16 First recognize the true value of what they say and grieve if it is possible; but now, since what they say seems a little too uncomfortable for you, you are obviously wrong to become morose. Let Mathael speak on, and it will be shown whether what he says is practical or not, and whether it contradicts My teaching!"

- Chapter 31 -

Mathael speaks about the path to the goal of true life

1 Cyrenius says: "Alright, I am going to listen, but I shall be a sharp judge!

2 So tell me, wise Mathael: if life occurs as you have already pointedly reasoned, what have millions to face who know nothing about all this, and the many millions who will, in the future, be born on the earth after us and will also never hear a syllable; what happens to their eternal life?"

3 Mathael says: "Quite good! They all had a doctrine which was enough to keep the imagination of the soul alive too. In such an imagination the soul in time settles and finally lives in it like in a dream, and can live for thousands of years in such a dream.

4 But that is not a real eternal life by far; such souls have to survive great battles and tests in the so-called spirit world, if they want to enter the true eternal life, for the battle is there as I casually mentioned before.

5 But whoever goes here along this path achieves admittedly, with no little effort and with true wise seriousness of life the eternal life in all truth, clarity and full solidity in a few years already here, which he otherwise would only achieve after hundreds or even many thousands of years according to the sleepy nature of the soul, if it is possible at all. If something goes wrong, a spoiled soul here or there can enjoy a highly miserable dream life for eons and eons in which it in no way ever reaches any notion or perception of anything true or real outside of its own existence besides itself and its highly pitiful figment of its own imagination. Nevertheless it makes the bitterest discoveries that it is surrounded by nothing but enemies, against whom it cannot defend itself because it can see them just as little as a completely blind person can see anything in this world, and cannot see where the enemy is coming from or where else a danger is lurking!

6 You see, a completely blind person, despite all his blindness, is not in the end fully without light; for the fantasy of his soul is in itself a light, and the blind man sees things which illuminate themselves like the things of the natural world present themselves, but they have no substance, neither does their light. One minute it is bright, the next it is dull again and often it disappears completely so that such a blind man is perfectly without light or being for a time.

7 And look, it is similar for a soul in its full seclusion; it has light one moment, the next, night again. But neither the light nor the darkness of the soul has any truth; instead only a temporal glimmer of what the soul takes up from the external world without its own knowledge or desire, just as a drop of dew hanging on a piece of grass takes on the image of the sun. The drop is now well lit, but it has no knowledge of where the light in its being came from.

8 What I am saying here in the name of my four brothers is a matter of our experience which was linked to great suffering and separated from the real, truly free, independent life.

9 You have here a suffering and constrained life and an independent and therefore free Godly life before you; whether you want the one or the other depends on your will alone; but this is how things are, and no god can give you any other valid existence.

10 Look, now I will tell you something else. My soul, which is now crossing over to a constantly clearer vision, sees and already recognizes the savior who through the power of His free Godly life freed it just recently from a large number of invisible enemies of the higher, free life; look, there is more in Him than in the whole visible realm of creation.

11 He, as the self-aware focus of all being and all life since eternity, now wants to reconfirm His life, and thereby the life of all people, even more through His life; but He will only achieve this through unheard-of self-denial. He will forego this present life of His in order to enter the eternal magnificence of all life for Himself and thereby also for all people. Only then will all creation in a certain way take on another face and another inner order; but nonetheless the phrase will remain: Each one must take the burden of external misery onto his own shoulders and follow Me! Do you understand this now?"

12 Cyrenius says, still a little moodily: "Yes, certainly, I understand you well and cannot avoid agreeing that you have spoken the truth; but nonetheless such conditions for life are hard to listen to!"

- Chapter 32 -

About the unity of eternal life

1 Mathael says: "These conditions for life are certainly not as pleasant to listen to as the fables of a spring fantasy, in which life flutters around like the birds of the air or the butterflies and golden mayflies which dart from flower to flower and savor the sweet dew from the blooming cups; but such a lustful life can only be called a temporal day to day life which, firstly, is hardly aware of itself and secondly is actually no life at all. What use is such a temporal butterfly-life to man? Think about the length of this life! Seventy, eighty or ninety years are a good age, the body becomes very weak and helpless; it is only a somewhat evil breath of wind and that's it!

2 But I ask: What will follow? Who can give you a certain answer, if you have not mobilized everything during your whole earthly life so that your whole being becomes a living answer within you before this evil breath of air comes?! If you have found this holy answer inside yourself, you will certainly no longer ask anyone with fear: What will follow, once this short life has come to an end?

3 That is why it is important not to leave the water of his life in the coolness that is comfortable for his body, but instead go to the fire to make it boil and rise in mighty steam and create a new life, otherwise everything else is in vain; and my words may seem to you very unpleasant, but the truth remains eternally the truth - and only through the truth can one achieve true and full freedom of life, without which no true eternal life is possible!"

4 Cyrenius now says in a much softer voice: "Yes, yes, my dear friend Mathael, I now see well that you are in possession of the fullest truth in all relationships of life, and basically nothing can be objected to! You are fully on the home ground of life, but people like us are still far from it!

5 One only can long for you to package your life doctrine into a certain system with which one could teach the children, so that they could achieve in this way more easily what must be very difficult to achieve for an adult man!"

6 Mathael says: "What you desire has already happened in part, and more will still happen! Look, the great and mighty savior who healed us has already taken every precaution in this respect. We five now know the way too, but it would still be a difficult task to bring everything together as general education in some sort of ordered system; but for people like you we could even do this if required, for it is not completely impossible for a person who is on the way to the truth in all things - for the actual free life is the same, whether it is in God, in an angel or in a person.

7 But, naturally, even in a perfect free life there are still powerful differences; for a life which has only recently begun to recognize itself can obviously not be as powerful as a life which recognized the fullness and depth of clear truth eternities ago. Such a life is now a lord of infinity and all heavenly bodies are subject to the power of this life along with everything that they carry.

8 Friend, we will probably never reach that ourselves; but in union with this life we will in the end be able to do, like from ourselves, what the great eternal life of God is capable of for itself. There are also certain perfected life forces which obviously are the first after the eternal power of God.

9 These powers are much higher than our still so free and independent life forces; we call them 'angels' (messengers). They are special representatives of the general godly life force; but we can resemble them if we become one with the general life force of God.

10 Yet you will not endure as much as we have endured to possess what we possess now, and you will also possess what we possess; for the souls from this earth, being on home ground, have it so much easier than those who were placed here from a more perfect world.

11 But as it has been decided in the basic life of God for all eternities that this little earth should be the place of His mercies and that in a certain way like the whole infinity will have to join this new order, if it wants to have common part in the endless bliss of the unified life of God; so one must give in, whatever the cost!

12 Truly, if we hadn't found an end to our suffering, which we began gradually to fear, a perfect death would be endlessly more desirable than a few more days of a life, tormented above all description and we would have been able to immediately go to all God"s blessing!

13 But, as we are seeing it more and more clear, the great savior has put an end to our suffering before the said time and we are beginning to be happier and happier and now see that the great Spirit of God in all seriousness wants to make this earth into a place for His mercy and He will do this - but unfortunately also into a stage of great persecution, arrogance, pomp and the greatest possible enmity of everything which is spiritually pure, good and true!"

- Chapter 33 -

A prophecy of Mathael

1  "Oh, friend, it will yet become so terrible on this earth that even Satan will not dare to visit communities of men in whatever form; but there will be other people among them who see more being blind and hear more being deaf than we with the most open eyes and ears.

2 There will come a time when men will measure the live power of steam in water in degrees and will harness it like the Arabians do their steeds and will use it for all kinds of incredibly difficult work; also the heaviest wagons will be driven by the hidden forces in water and will move as fast as a flying arrow.

3 They will also use the force of water before great ships and they will drive the ships faster than a storm wind over the water's waves - yes in the end they will even defy the storms and drive through it without suffering any injury of significance; only cliffs and sandbanks will bring danger and harm.

4 But soon after this time, life for man will be very bad on the earth; for the earth will become infertile, heavy price increases, wars and famines will appear, and the light of faith in the eternal truth will disappear in many places, and the fire of love will dim and cool, and the last fiery judgment will come over the earth!

5 Good for those who have then not erased the water of life in themselves for earthly gain; for when such a great fire of judgment comes from the heavens, they will not be touched, for their own water of life will protect them.

6 Only then will the true peace of life and the same order of God reach out their hands to one another forever, and discord and discontentment will no longer be among those who live on the purified earth in the company of the angel of God. If our brittle and fragile bodies do not, then our seeing and understanding souls will bear witness all the more of everything that I have revealed to you now.

7 You see, I would not have told you; but I felt a pull in the heart of my soul, or better said, of my being. And this pull comes from where our healing has come! Do you now understand me better?"

8 Cyrenius says: "Oh, now we are in the best order with and among one another; now I hope to learn much from you and I have made a positive find in you! My opinion is the same; for your earthly need should be looked after by me, but you will bear the worry for the needs of my soul and of my large house.

9 Certainly this is a poor reward for the great thing that you will do for me and my house; but who can help it if one meets the giver of a high and eternally lasting gift on this earth with nothing better to give in return?! Are you satisfied with this?"

10 Mathael says: "Oh, how can you ask? Where we can serve someone and be useful, we are more than fully satisfied! For one may never underestimate an earthly gift if it comes with a truly good heart for the sake of good and true; for through the giver and the reason for the gift it gains a fully spiritual value and so equals a spiritual gift.

11 For where the material supports the spiritual as the spiritual supports the material, in the end everything becomes spiritual and receives the richest blessing from God in full.

12 But wherever the supposed-to-be spiritual is only given for the sake of the material, as in the temple in Jerusalem and the material only for the spiritual and also the hoped-for material, then everything in the end is material and has not even a low spiritual value and can never have blessed consequences from God!

13 So be quite unconcerned about whether your material gift is too insignificant for our spiritual gift brought to you; for it will become spiritual through the giver and through the true reason for giving, and the blessing from above will be richly spiritual and also material; for the spirit is also a lord over all material which is basically nothing other than a judged, highly captive spirit, and must always blindly obey the freest life Spirit of God, from whose endless power comes the judgment of all material, and He alone can reanimate them however and whenever He wants!"

14 Cyrenius says: "Oh, exquisite and superb! Now I do not want you to leave my house for any kingdom on earth! We will hopefully get on better and be indispensable for each other! But now all praise and all our love to the one Lord that He had mercy on you and led you to me; for without Him we would all be as good as lost forever!"

15 At this the five say: "Amen, He alone is worth all honor, all praise and all love not only of this earth, but also from all infinity! For He alone is the one who creates infinity anew! Endlessly holy is His name!"

- Chapter 34 -

The five healed men want to have Jesus identified

1 At this Mathael said again: "He is amongst us, but there are two who look very similar so that it is hard for the outward senses to decide which actually He is. I think that it is he who spoke many times with Cyrenius. But it could also be the other; for both faces emanate a certain degree of wisdom! This man we have already heard, and his word was great, clever and serious, but this person could speak just as well; but the other has not said anything yet, perhaps because he does not want to be recognized before the right time. Which of us has the courage to speak to the silent one?"

2 This silent one was Jacob major, who looked physically very similar to Me and also wore the same clothes as I tended to wear.

3 At Mathael's order the other four finally rose from the ground and discussed which of them the silent one was and how he could be addressed. In the end all five lost courage and Mathael turned to the friendly Cyrenius and secretly asked him if the silent one was not the eminent powerful savior, or if it was actually Me; for they wanted to know for sure so that they would not incorrectly give someone the honor!

4 Cyrenius says: "I have still not received any precise order from Him to describe Him to you; He looks above all at the heart of a person. But your hearts are now certainly in the best order of the world, and nothing else is needed at the moment; but if it is His will and when it is right for your healing, He will make Himself known to you. But I think rather that will not escape your eminent wisdom who is the true and powerful one if you observe us carefully over the course of this day."

5 At this the five were satisfied and now began to look around the area, and asked each other where they were. They already knew that they were close to the Sea of Galilee; but they could not tell in which part.

6 Then Cyrenius says to them, because he has listened the most, "You are now in the area of the town of Caesarea-Philippi and are on the land of the old Roman soldier Mark who gave you wine, bread and salt from his stores. He is not here at the moment because he has to prepare something in his house for this afternoon; but when he returns you will get to know him better in your present brighter condition; for when he gave you bread, wine and salt, you were more on the other side than this side and have certainly noticed very little of his really honorable personality."

7 Mathael says: "True, true, you are quite right! Truly the inner clear condition has remained which we had at the beginning of our awakening; only everything looked much more terrible and quite especially gloomy. But now everything has taken on a more friendly appearance and the whole area has become much brighter and friendlier, we have also become friendlier, brighter and more cheerful, although we cannot neglect our inner true opinions.

8 The truth, friend, remains eternally the truth! But this world is very changeable and also its children, everything from today to tomorrow. One cannot rely on anyone; for today someone is our friend, and tomorrow he is either no longer or some doubt has put an evil reputation about you in his ear, and he has stopped being one's friend and will be a sharp judge of you in secret!

9 And so there is no constancy on this world, neither in things nor among people! Yet the Lord will navigate everything for the best for man!"

- Chapter 35 -

Jesus, the hero in the battle against death

1 A second of the five says: "Yes, brothers, our hopes are based on this alone! He Himself will have to face a powerful battle with the power of death; but we no longer doubt in the certain victory! For He knows the swoon of death and knows all its limits and also knows that the only power which death still has is only a bound urge to live; and this single power cannot go against him, but only for Him and with Him into battle against it, to prevent to render itself unconscious and therefore fully dead!

2 The fighting life which He is Himself, must remain in eternal advantage against the power of death because the actual perfect death of every power and it is a pebble in the powerful hand of a slinger who can do whatever he wants with it.

3 But if there is power in death or in the physically animated flesh of man, it is also a life, if on a very low level; but this life will not wage war with true life for fear of its own destruction, instead it will hang on to life and fight against the power of death, just as a fatally ill flesh grabs onto its cup of health with greed and brings it to its mouth to live a little longer and to be taken up in the end by the same.

4 If life has found itself, as in our savior who we have not yet personally recognized, since it is perfectly divine and there cannot be another power besides him which could succeed because there can be no other power besides this!

5 We know what this earth is, what the sun, moon and countless stars are; they are mostly incredibly great celestial bodies, some even indescribably greater than this earth of ours. They are probably dead, depending on their great body; but the power of the life of God nevertheless enters all the countless bodies in one necessary movement, and that is not simple, but very varied.

6 What can all these countless giants do against the immediate urgent power of free godly life? Nothing! Like a dust from a storm they will be driven by the power of the life of God in immeasurably great paths and all uncountable many can never resist the freest power of life, as little as the myriads of grains of dust can resist the storm which lifts them from a desert heath driving them into the wind in great distances!

7 Thus He will win and has actually won a long time ago! But for the sake of people, so that they have part of the victory of life against death in them, a new and final battle will be waged!

8 And so I see then over the whole infinity with eternally shining words, and the words say: (listen!) "He, the life itself from eternity, has fully vanquished death with the weapons of death itself; and death must destroy itself so that all life will be free through Him alone, the fighter of eternity! Therefore all holiness be to You alone, You eternally great One!"

9 These words shocked all those present so that they threw themselves on the ground and exclaimed with all power: "Yes, yes, yes, to You alone, You eternally great One, all bliss be with You!"

10 Through this act the five finally recognized Me and Mathael, in tears of thanks, finally said with the greatest emotion: "So You - You - are the eternally great One! Oh, what a sight for us dead, to see the only living One!" At this he was silent, sunk, like all the others present, into deep contemplation.

- Chapter 36 -

The Lord's speech about the true veneration for God

1 But I said to all those still lying on the ground before Me, "Get up, friends and brothers! Your honor is justified for it concerns Him who is in Me, the holy Father of eternity! But He is always in Me, as I, and all of you are in Him, and you should therefore lie in the dust before Me in highest reverence. But that would certainly not be pleasant for you or for Me, and neither you nor I would gain anything from it.

2 You see, it is enough for ever that you believe in Me, love Me as one of your best brothers and friends, and act according to My words; more than that is nothing, since I did not come to this world to be given idolatrous divine honor from man, like Mercury or Apollo - instead I came to make healthy all those sick in body and soul, and to show the people the correct path to eternal life! That is all I demand of you; everything above this is vain, foolish, and idolatrous and leads to nothing.

3 It is certainly true that man should worship God, his Creator, without ceasing, since God is holy and worthy of all worship; but God in Himself is a spirit and can therefore only be worshiped in the spirit and in truth.

4 What does that mean, to pray to God in the spirit and in truth? You see, it means this: believe in one true God, love Him with all your power above all things and keep His easy commandments.

5 Whoever does that, prays firstly without ceasing and secondly he prays to God in the spirit and in all truth; for without deeds every prayer is an utter lie which does not honor God as the eternal truth, instead dishonors Him!

6 So stand up as free people, as My brothers, as My friends, do not further perform any idolatry before Me and do not betray Me before the correct time; for that would hurt the world more than it would do good!"

7 After My words they all rise again from the ground and Mathael says: "Yes, truly, only a god speak full of the highest wisdom and love! Oh, how differently I think and feel now from how I thought and felt before! Oh Lord, only do not leave this favor unheard: Never allow our souls to go through such a test as that from which Your love, mercy and power has just freed us!"

8 I say: "Remain in Me by hearing My word, keep it and live by it, and My power and My love will be in you and will protect you from all temptation!

9 But My disciples have already recorded the most necessary things that people need most; read it, understand it and do accordingly, and you don't need anything else before My raising!"

10 But I turn to Cyrenius and say: "Friend, here we are at an end, and we want to now go to the others and see how heavily they have sinned against the laws of Rome. But take care - it will not be easy to talk to them; for they are tough customers! But let"s go there now!"

- Chapter 37 -

Julius' concerns about interrogating the other criminals

1 At this Cyrenius asks: "Lord, what should happen now to these five? Look, they are more than half naked! Should I clothe them? I have clothes with me; but they are official clothes which no-one but Rome's officials may wear. Therefore they cannot be used. I also have Roman servants' tunics; but these five seem to me too eminent for such tunics, with their tangible high wisdom; what should we do here?"

2 I say: "A tunic has no other significance than that it covers the nakedness of the body, whether it is an official tunic or a servant's tunic; it is of no matter whether you cover the five with an official tunic or a servant's tunic. A servant's tunic seems better to me than an official one, so give them the servant's tunics; for in an official's tunic they will be the joke of the world due to the tunic and they are too good for that, although actually no-one in the world is good! In time they will have to suffer enough ridicule in my name and I don't want them to be ridiculed before time."

3 When Cyrenius hears this, he immediately sends several servants to fetch the best servants' tunics. In a few moments the tunics are brought and Cyrenius has them distributed among the five.

4 But the five say to him with gratitude: "The great One among us will reward you! For in our torn rags we were hardly able to hide our private parts from the world; so our most friendly thanks to you for this!"

5 After this the five take off their old rags behind a bush and then appear as good-looking Roman court servants. When they come up to us quite satisfied, we turn to the other political criminals who were already awaiting us with great longing.

6 When we get to them, they immediately fall on their faces in the earth and beg for mercy. There are actually eight of them; but there are some more that had just travelled with them and thus were arrested along with them.

7 Here I say to Julius: "Friend, it is your business to listen to them and then to bring them to responsibility in the correct way!"

8 When Julius hears this he says: "Lord, although such business would not cause me any headaches, nonetheless I'm beginning to get a bit dizzy with this. You here, an angel here, Cyrenius here, Your extraordinarily wise disciples here, the thirty young Pharisees and Levites also here - and now the five here; and I don't even want to mention the wise Jarah! And Lord, the five, oh, the five! And I should listen to these political prisoners standing in front of us in front of all these? Oh that will not be easy! The best of the whole thing is just that I don't really know ex fundamento [basically – the editor] why they were captured and brought here in chains! The whole thing consists in them being envoys of the temple and must have spread evil rumors about Rome under temple orders. But there is no witness here! How can we bring them to confess?"

9 Mathael, standing behind Julius says: "Don't be afraid! What concerns the witnesses, we five are here, but not to their disadvantage, instead only to their advantage. You see, we ourselves witnessed and heard how these had to take on the order so they could avoid drinking the accursed water; for we know them all the better, at least externally, since we were sent to the Samaritans almost at the same time as them. As innocent as we five are in everything that happened to us, these must be just as innocent. Now you know enough and you can now begin your examination in all peace and do not have to be embarrassed by our inner wisdom."

- Chapter 38 -

Julius interrogates the criminals

1 As Julius heard this from Mathael, his heart became easier and he turned immediately to the political criminals still lying on the earth, saying: "Stand up without fear and hesitation; for men like you must be able to look naked death in the face without fear and trembling! For us Romans are not tigers and not leopards, but people who rather seek to lessen the misfortune of people than to spread it! But this should be said to you: we do not tend to punish criminals as hard as we punish a lie! Death is placed on those who bear false witness and an unashamed lie! Therefore give me truth to every one of my questions and I, as God's judge, will try to save you from evils if you come to me with proven truth, than to bring damage to you! Thus stand now and speak openly to me!"

2 At Julius' words the political criminals rise from the ground with a miserable appearance and I say secretly in the Roman tongue: "Free them first from their bonds; for the bound hands and feet have also a bound tongue!"

3 At My words Julius commanded the soldiers to take off the shackles from the bound men.

4 This happened immediately and when the total of twelve stood quite free of all shackles: Julius asked them: "Who are you, where were you born?"

5 One of them said in the name of the others: "Lord, we have no document with us! But if you will believe my words we are accursed templars through the temple as well as through the terribly pious sense of our foolish parents are children of Jerusalem. The law of Moses, as far as the relationship of the children towards their parents is concerned, should as a consequence of the pure human sense go through a change, so that through coincidence and contact with truly wise people sensible children should not remain subservient to their parents; for many children of spiritual and physical misfortune come from indescribably foolish, proud parents smeared with all bad ointments!

6 Truly, no high and wise God could have given this law to Moses for poor humanity! Truly, this law, without exception, is too bad for the animal kingdom, not to mention for the kingdom of man! Through the strict obedience of this foolish law, the giver of which was hardly God, instead Moses alone or some follower of Moses, we now stand as criminals before you, id est before the judge over life and death! A very pleasant reward for our constantly faithful obedience to our more than foolish elders! At this very pleasant reward either the honorable cross or the lowest ship's service in eternal chains will follow! For if we must give the full truth about our freely triply forced action, no god will save us from the most merciless strictness of your law! And yet it says in Moses' law: 'Honor your father and mother that it may go well for you and your days may be long on the earth!' Lovely! Here we are now! How good it is for us poor devils, anyone can see, and how long we have yet to live depends on you alone! The divine calling to the fourth commandment of God has been so beautifully fulfilled that truly all devils are laughing at us and in the end they will piss on us!"

7 Julius says: "But my dears, that is irrelevant, instead you have only to answer what is asked!"

8 Suetal (so the speaker was called) answered at this in the name of the twelve: "Lord, if certain death sits on your neck, everything is relevant! We cannot possibly deny that we are obvious criminals against Rome, and what follows you will hopefully not be able to dispute; for you wear your sharp sword and have the law and power - things against which the poor worm in the dust can do nothing!

9 But because the lords of Rome by strength of their laws are still more human than the black lords in the temple, according to whose whistle even the dear Lord God must dance, we think to present you strict, but still somewhat more human lords not only our crime anti romam [against Rome – the editor] but also the reason for it; perhaps you will act more humanly with us poor devils, for we are no longer people since the time that we exchanged the devil's water for the contract against you Romans."

10 Julius now asks: "Why did you have to drink the accursed devil's water? How have you made yourselves punishable by the temple and its laws?"

11 Suetal says: "Quite the reverse, when we made ourselves punishable against you! We were betrayed as secret friends of you Romans, and thus the devil's water was threatened! But as young people to escape the devil's water we had to become your enemies and our foolish elders had to pay a heavy fee of several hundred pounds of silver to the temple and deliver a thousand fat sacrificial goats, of which probably none has tried to swim in the Jordan, instead they have, like Joseph, travelled under good cover to Egypt for a hefty sum of silver, where they have been eaten.

12 There you have the reason which prepared the devil's water for us in the temple and your enmity on the way to receiving the pardon of the temple! The difference is this: If we had taken the devil's water we would have gone to father Abraham long ago; but since we found mercy in the temple we will probably only now have to pay the dear father Abraham an eternal visit. Soon we will hear from your fine mouth the familiar I lictor [go, executioner – the editor] and we will have reaped the forbidden fruit for the exact observance of the fourth commandment of God under the title: 'Good and long life on earth!' If we should really go to the cross, we ask you to put this title above our crosses."

13 Julius says, inwardly quite cheerful, but outwardly playing the strict judge, "You push, as it seems to me, all guilt onto the fourth commandment of Moses; but I notice that you either really or possibly superficially don't understand this commandment or don't want to understand. For it says in the law that one should honor ones parents, but not that one should obey them in everything like a dictator; for if I become, as a child and then as a man, an experienced and wise person, I will see that a correct love to my still living parents is the actual correct honor which God ordered through Moses.

14 Thus if some weak parents demand something from their children whereby they and their children could be disadvantaged, it is the duty of the children to show their parents as clearly as possible the danger of their desire with all love and patience and the parents will surely stop; but if they continue, disobedience out of true love for the parents is truly no sin, neither before the highest wise God nor before all logically thinking people.

15 In addition even Moses himself added an explanation concerning the obedience of children towards their parents in his theocratic scriptures, a clear explanation in which children have to obey their parents in everything which does not contradict the law!

16 With that the law of Moses is more than justified, and the guilt lies, if it is as you have told me, either truly in the foolishness of your elders and in the misunderstanding of the law by the them, as well as your misunderstanding of the divine law through Moses!

17 Or the guilt can lie in your thickest mischievousness which will certainly come to light here. For you see, you have shown your sharpness not very carefully through your humorous apology and seem to possess many evil jokes; and we Romans never accept apologies of such Proteuses ["shape changer", an old man of the sea in Greek mythology who could change into different forms - editor] as the complete truth! Therefore you will have to bring me more serious and more truthful looking apologies, otherwise you cannot expect any good judgement from me!"

- Chapter 39 -

Suetal's speech about the temple and the Savior from Nazareth

1 This very appropriate counter-enlightenment took the listeners aback, and Suetal didn't know what he should answer. After a while however he said quite seriously: "You are quite right, but we are no less right! You see, if you always tell a child from the cradle onwards that two nuts and two nuts make five, this child will believe you and repeat what you said, and it will be difficult in the end to set the mature youth free from this craziness. Who explained the law of Moses to us before now, in the way you did? What was there to do but to take the law as it had been explained to us since the cradle?! Our elders never understood it better and the whole temple probably does not understand it either, or it does not want to understand it. From where should we have gotten a correct understanding? As prospective templars we never got to see the whole of Moses, because that is only permitted for the elders and the scribes! And now tell us from where we should have gotten the correct understanding of the law! Who should have explained it correctly, like you did?"

2 At this Julius says: "But one should be able to accept that people, once they are servants in the temple in the clothes of priests, understand the teachings of God at least as well as a heathen does! To me the religion of every people has always been very important because one can get to know a people in all their doing and not doing right down to the basics; and so I believe with some justification, that every individual person in a nation must endeavor to get to know the religion of his fathers as exactly as possible, because such a religion alone can be the guideline of social interaction! In addition you are no longer disciples, but men, from whom it can be expected that they - even as priests - should understand their religion at least as well as I, who am a stranger! Now tell me, what is taught in your schools?"

3 Suetal says: "We learn to read, write and count, finally we learn also all sorts of foreign languages and then a certain excerpt from the great Scriptures, in which above all we are urgently demanded to accept everything that the temple wants and teaches as coming perfectly from God. But if so, then it begs the question from where we should take a deeper insight into our religion! It's easy for you; for you are a lord full of power and sway from all sides. You can go into a main synagogue and just demand. Every leader will surely allow you insight into everything - and woe to him who withholds something from you! He knows well that you will then order a search through everything, and what he can expect if you found something hidden! Oh, you see, a leader of the synagogue knows that well and will therefore show you everything and disclose everything, just as the high priest of Jerusalem must show the high and mighty strangers every day the holiest of holies, where he himself may only enter twice: which the nation believes; but should the like of us try to fulfill such a desire and the devil"s water would soon be at hand!

4 Some temple servants, the so-called most secret, certainly know how the inner sanctum looks; but they are firstly very well served and secondly threatened with a hundred death sentences for the slightest betrayal, so they know how to keep their mouth shut. Now we ask more intensively from where the true light should come to our highly mysterious religion!

5 If everything happens as we have told you, you as judge and human can have no other judgment than a completely just one!

6 You already know what our crimes consist of; you can hopefully take quite clearly from this what guilt we bear, what we have told you about ourselves without fear or withholding. If you know something further about us, then forgive us, and we will inform you without fear; for whoever can die courageously, knows how to speak courageously!"

7 Julius says quite relaxed: "I have no intention of putting further mistrust in your speech, since I am too convinced that things occur in the temple as you have said, and I therefore set you free from guilt; for whoever falls from the roof and through his fall injures a child playing beneath the roof cannot bear any guilt, and in this way our hearing is at an end, and you are declared free of guilt and punishment in this respect.

8 But there is another catch! I will ask you another question about it; it will much depend on the answer to that question whether I will be your friend or foe - and so listen carefully!

9 You will surely have heard in this time that in Nazareth a certain Jesus, a son of a carpenter there, is supposed to go around as a healer and do great, unheard-of things as deeds before the eyes of every man and spread a new religion! If you have any knowledge, so give it to me openly, for it means a lot to me!"

10 Suetal says: "We have certainly heard something whispered from afar, but we know hardly a hundredth part of what you probably know for a long time. Firstly we were always more in the southern areas occupied with fulfilling our good order and only came to this region of Galilee a few days ago and were soon seized and therefore can know quite terribly little about your certain healer. But his reputation has spread to Damascus and Babylon, that is quite certain; but what sort of person he is, what he does and how he heals the sick, we know nothing about that and are highly curious to find out more details! Yes, if there is still a God somewhere, He can no longer watch the terrible activity of the temple and has to send the people a savior!

11 We say to you: whatever a person in his great depravity, in his most satanic fantasy can think up, is put into action inside the thick walls of the temple. Uncountable acts of vice are committed upon mankind there and with such an indifferent cheekiness that you cannot imagine! The high lords of the temple seem to value the people as one values an idle sparrow. I don't want to say a word about the most superficial transgression of all of God's laws; but new atrocities are invented and committed which the good Moses never dreamt of, for otherwise he would have placed on them a hundred deaths and ten hells as punishment! But the healing of the people, on that we don't waste any more time!

12 One would certainly do mankind a great service if, once at night, the temple could be destroyed along with its inhabitants with one blow. Therefore man has long been in need of a savior; but he should free humanity, not us Jews from you Romans - for you also belong to our saviors - but from the pure hellish dracoarchy [dragon reign – the editor] of the temple! Then, Lord, the poor humanity will jump for joy that they have been freed from their worst enemy!

13 Friend, can there be a cheekier thought than that God the all-mighty put a most evil worm of dust over all people and over all the other creatures, so that now this worm can go unpunished according to his most evil will with God Himself and with all people and with all creation?! No, no, lord! There is either no God, or God lets such devils do their worst as in the days of Noah and Lot! Oh great, holy God, where are You, where are You tarrying? Truly, what the temple does now exceeds all human imagination! Outwardly it shows the same comforting and helping face as in the days of Solomon, but inwardly it has become the hell of hells! But it is better not to speak of it any longer and we will be silent and wait to hear more from you about the healer of Nazareth!"

- Chapter 40 -

Why the accused came to Galilee

1 At this Julius says: "As far as the evilness of the temple is concerned, we Romans have already been taught that you cannot tell us anything more new or surprising; and so the time of punishment will be soon, of this you can be quite sure.

2 But that we have not brought the temple to reckoning, it happens for the sake of the foolish and simple nation which still considers the temple to be a sanctuary and seeks salvation in it. If we attack the temple now, the whole nation, with few exceptions, would be against us; but if at least the majority of the people soon become aware what the temple consists of, then our work will be easy to put an end to the temple. For this purpose the new pure teaching of truth by the great savior of Nazareth will be decisive, even if it is spread only among few people; for this doctrine is as pure as the sun on the brightest midday and is easily understood by everyone who has a good heart. Naturally, where the human heart is destroyed completely, this lesson will not be accepted, no matter how divinely pure it is! But the Romans will then use a sword to give a law such as the world has never known; for God's arm will be with the Romans - that is to calm you down!

3 But now about something else! You have already mentioned that your terrible state of affairs against Rome drove you more into the south of the Jewish lands and that you only recently came here to the area of Galilee. I ask you then what success you have had with your instigations against Rome and what moved you to cross over to Galilee?"

4 Suetal says: "Lord, in the south we only ate and drank and didn't dare mention a word against Rome since we found most people to be well disposed to Rome! But we did send out very significant news about the loose business of the temple, wherever it was possible; but we have just recently sparks flew during our anti-temple rather than anti-Rome activities in an arch-temple place. They began to search for us, and there was nothing left to do but run away quickly.

5 In a cloak and dagger operation we moved across Samaria and came over the mountains after many days to this land. Then we soon met people who either did not complain about the pressure from Rome for a good reason, or they did it just to trick us blind gawks; briefly, telling the difference was not in our powers. We agreed superficially with their song and occasionally commented propter formam. But before three days had passed, we were suddenly stopped and captured by Roman soldiers and another four or five of these who we were agreeing with. And we were beaten up and brought here. And now you have everything that you can have from us, and can make proper judgment on us."

6 Julius says: "My first judgment remains, according to which you are declared completely free; but there is now the matter of something else, and that lies in the question: What will you do now? You cannot return to the temple, you can hardly go back to Jerusalem to your old ways; there it would not be best for you! What are you thinking of doing now?"

7 Suetal says: "Lord, this is a very sore point! Give us some time to think it over!"

8 But Mathael, standing nearby, says to Suetal: "Listen to me, I want to give you some advice, and if you follow it things will not go badly for you!"

9 Suetal says: "Are you not one of the five who were brought here with us?" (Mathael answers in the positive.)

10 If so, how can you, as a certainly temporarily evil fool, give us advice in this extremely difficult situation?! For you five were brought here in heaviest chains as evil and dangerous fools, or maniacs. Who healed you? For you now speak quite clearly and must have been healed! On the ship you only roared, once like a bull, then like a lion, and then again like a wolf; and when you spoke words with the most shrieking voice of the world, it consisted of blasphemy, curse and imprecation! Briefly, you are the same whether you now wear a Roman tunic and I cannot wonder enough how you came to such clarity; someone out of this large company must have healed you! But who? Where is such a wonder healer?

11 But wait! Now something comes to mind! The lord who listened to us asked us about a healer of Nazareth; he wanted to know whether and what we had learned about this man. We said as much as we knew from hearsay.

12 We asked for more details about such a rare man, but we received no answer as we would have liked; you yourself lead us on the track now! That you and your companions were healed, there is no longer any doubt; but there also seems to be no doubt that the healer of Nazareth, casually mentioned by high Roman lords is here! He must be here; for no mortal on earth could have healed you! Tell us if our question is correct; only then do we want to accept your advice about our future!"

- Chapter 41 -

Mathael's story of his fate and healing

1 Mathael says: "You see, brothers, we were templars and had to share the same fate, only you went south and we had to go east. But we fell into the hands of a band of devils personified and our bodies thereby became the dwelling of many devils; but there is a healer here, probably the greatest that the world has ever borne, and He has healed us without any reward simply through His powerful word which rules over all life.

2 He is here! The very same, of Whom the Roman governor Julius made mention to you in his question; but the time is not yet right for us to enter into a closer acquaintance with Him. He himself will decide when you should get to know Him better! So do not ask any further and hear what I have to say to you!

3 It's true that you are still children of this world, but you can join the true, free and living childhood of God, if you want. These masters of Rome will gladly give you the means to do this. The master who questioned you will certainly not hesitate for a moment to set you on the right path, and now it is even easier since the supreme governor, Cyrenius of Sidon, is also present here.

4 You see, there behind you are another thirty templars! They already belong to the foreign legion and are now Romans through and through. If you become the same, you are helped for all time and for all eternity! But in Jerusalem there is no longer any happiness for us; for you know the nature of the temple, and hopefully that of all Jerusalem too, as well as the accursed water! What person can ever have the desire to revisit the main nest of all devils and sins? If you want to die, then go back to Jerusalem; but if you want to live and to find eternal life, become Romans according to the body and become true Jews according to Moses in the soul! Do you understand this?"

5 Suetal says: "Yes, yes, yes, we understand that; but only it is unspeakably strange that you have now come to such an enormous clarity! Now I recognize you as my temple colleague and know that you were a competent speaker and that you quite boldly told the truth several times into the face of the high priests, and the consequence of that was that you - and another four like you, I believe - had to move to Samaria! Yes, yes, it is you, and we are all glad to see you here again quite healthy and pure! Your advice, friend, is probably quite good in itself; but the polytheism of the Romans..."

6 Mathael interrupts Suetal: “...is still a thousand times better than the very most dubious monotheism and actual full idolatry of the temple! Tell me, which priest in the temple still believes in a god? I'll tell you: their stomach and their salaciousness is now the true god of the temple! They serve death, sin and every devil! You can have the commandments of Moses for just a few pieces of silver, as you like them, but they do not give in an inch in their rules about gluttony and satisfying their lust! They no longer have a life and yet they present themselves as lords of life and want to be highly honored!

7 They no longer have any idea about what life is; none of them understand a jot of the Scriptures anymore, and they understand the prophets as much as you understand the end of the world. They have all lost all their soul's life a long time ago and that's why they care so diligently for the life of their mothbag. How could they then show the eternal life of the soul from out of their most complete death, and give it to others?

8 Life must be most profoundly understood in the battle of life against life and death and in such a realization must constantly receive more and more active strength, if it is supposed to exist as a true life; but how can a dead person show you what life, which has not been recognized by him, is in and around himself?! I'll tell you: eternal death has been dwelling in the temple for a long time now; but eternal life is truly dwelling right here! And you see, the Romans understand it and become full of life, while the temple will never understand it because it is already dead for eternity. What is better: the polytheism of the Romans or the monotheism of the temple?!"

9 After these words by Mathael the twelve cannot wonder enough about Mathael's highly correct opinions and his decisive wisdom.

10 Next Suetal says to Julius apologetically, "High lord, forgive us for making you wait so long for an answer; but you heard Mathael's wise words yourself, didn't you, and we became too inspired by them and couldn't yet give you the desired answer. But if you will have a little more patience with us, we will certainly give you a very solid answer!"

11 Julius says: "Do not leave Mathael out, for he understands more than I do or many thousands of others like me! Whenever he speaks I want to be silent for a thousand years and listen to him! So if you just discuss it with him, he will be able to give you the best advice!"

12 Suetal says: "Yes, he has already given us advice, and it now depends only on you to take us into the foreign legion!"

13 Julius says: "Very good! That is already as good as done; but nonetheless the wise Mathael will be in the very best position to give some very wise teaching!"

14 Suetal says: "Yes, we feel that, although such a characteristic now seems to us even less comprehensible than the air! How he came to such wisdom is purely inexplicable! The wonderful healing from his madness is understandable; but where he gained wisdom - understand that, he who can!"

- Chapter 42 -

Soul and spirit

1 Mathael, who has clearly heard these words, says: "Make your soul as free as possible from all ties to the world, and then you will soon understand very easily from where a soul can quickly achieve the greatest wisdom! But as long as the soul lies yet firmly buried in the old heap of the decay of death, which is your body, there can be no discussion and no comprehension of any special divine wisdom!

2 There, a few steps in front of us, you can see a tree stump which seems to be firmly stuck in the earth. Go there and sit on it, and I give you my word that you will not move it from the spot even after many years; only when it becomes rotten and totally brittle will you fall to the earth along with it. But if you cannot separate yourself then from your favorite seat, you will then certainly decay along with it in the end; for everything that is dead must first be completely destroyed, if it is to cross over to any sphere of life again. But if you go down to the water, get onto a boat, untie it, raise the sail and take hold of the rudder, you will no longer remain on one spot, but instead you will soon reach a new land in which you will learn many new things and enrich the treasure chamber of experience. You see, as long as you look after your flesh and your sweet and comfortable life, you will sit on that stump and cannot move on; but if you completely give up the overwhelming worry about your flesh, and only concern yourself with what affects the life of the soul and its spirit, you board the ship of life and will soon move on. Do you understand this image?"

3 Suetal says: "What did you just say about a spirit in the soul? Is the soul not what one calls the spirit?!"

4 Mathael says: "Yes, friend, if you don't know yet that a spirit of all life lives in every soul, you can certainly not understand from where my little bit of wisdom comes! You know, it is still difficult to talk to you; for with your open ears you hear nothing and likewise with your open eyes you see nothing!

5 The soul is only a receptacle of life from God, but by no means life itself; for if it was life itself, which ox of a prophet could ever pretend to know anything about the achievement of eternal life, or on the other hand about a possible eternal death? But since the soul can only achieve eternal life on the path of true divine virtue, as can be proven by very many examples, it cannot possibly be life itself, instead only a vessel to hold life.

6 What one calls the Spirit of God and actual life is only a little spark in the centre of the soul. This little spark must be nourished with spiritual food, which is the pure word of God. Through this food, the little spark becomes larger and more powerful in the soul, finally it even takes on the human form of the soul, fills the soul once and for all and in the end it transforms the whole soul into its being; then the soul itself becomes complete life, which recognizes itself as such in all depth of depths.

7 When life fully recognizes itself in this way and becomes quite clearly aware of it, it recognizes the truth in its foundations; but as long as that is not the desired case, there can be no talk of wisdom!

8 True wisdom is the light of the spirit in the eye of the soul; but if a soul still asks what the spirit is in it - where should the light of the spirit and of all life come from into its otherwise completely blind eye?"

9 Suetal says: "I beg you, friend, stop talking like this and pause for a moment until I become more receptive to this; for I see very well now that I am still much too stupid and blind for this! But we all want to take as active a note of your present instruction as possible! For I now see that you are completely correct; but to understand your deepest wisdom quite thoroughly requires great preparation which was completely impossible for us until now! But as I said, we want to become very strong disciples for you!"

- Chapter 43 -

On life and death

1 Mathael says: "An honestly good intention is as much as the job half done; but man must not rely on a good intention alone for too long, instead he must put it into action as soon as possible, otherwise the intention cools off with time, loses its vigor and in the end becomes too weak and powerless to perform a good deed.

2 You see, as long as the water in the pot is boiling, one can boil various fruits soft and transform them into dishes which are easy to digest; but when the water in the pot becomes lukewarm and in the end quite cold, softening of fruit is no longer possible!

3 That"s why the will of a person is the same as boiling water in a pot. Love for God and for all good things in the life from God is the correct fire which brings the water of life in the pot to an active boil; but the fruit which should be cooked soft are those deeds and actions which we accept as good and true but which we have not yet put into action, for which reason we must put them into the water now while the water is boiling powerfully, otherwise they remain rough and indigestible and are therefore of no use for life.

4 Whatever one wants one must do, otherwise the will remains constantly a lie in comparison with life, and in all eternity the lie will not become the truth!

5 But life is truth, and the lie is death; so seek the truth in all things, it is life, and flee from the lie in and around you, for it is the real death!

6 Or what do you have if you imagine that you own something? You see, it is nothing but the nothingness of your imagination! And what is that? You see, it is nothing, and this 'nothing' is the real death!

7 But if you want to build and you don't have any materials or any builders, how will this house look that you want to build? You see, it will never take form! But the material is the actions and deeds of a living will, but the builders are the powerful will; these then construct a correct house from your good will and this house is your true life in God which will be eternally indestructible. But with only a little effort no house is built , and least of all the house of life; thus, be active in all fullness of the power given to us, otherwise it must go badly with the building.

8 When Noah built the ark, he is said to have begun his commanded work very slackly in the beginning. When his adversaries noticed this, they constantly destroyed by night what he had built during the day. Only after many years did he begin to work on the ark day and night and placed guards there; only then did the construction proceed towards its completion with swift steps and offered protection in the time of the flood, as we know, to those who were inside and kept them from an otherwise certain demise.

9 I tell you that we are basically all Noahs. The world with its lies and deceptions and all the temptations that come from this is the perpetual flood. In order not to be consumed we must most diligently build the commanded ark; this ark is the consolidation of the life of our soul for the maintenance and final complete education of the life of the Spirit of God in the soul.

10 When the flood of enticing world temptations then finally sinks into the depths of emptiness, the life of God will come out in all strength in and around the soul and will begin a new work in the pure and new sphere of life in the most unrestricted freedom without any hostile highwayman and thereby bless, in and with God, the whole infinity from eternity to eternity! Do you understand this image?"

- Chapter 44 -

The Lord cares for the prisoners

1 Suetal is quite silent in wonderment and asks Julius, "Lord, it is incomprehensible where this man has received his wisdom! I know him very well from the temple where he was not known for any wisdom! When we were brought here on a ship from Genezareth, he was seized by the most evil frenzy and had no human appearance. Now hardly twenty-four hours have passed since the time of madness and the man stands in a field of wisdom which Solomon in all his depths of wisdom probably never even dreamed about! Do tell us what has happened to him! How did he get to such light?"

2 Julius says: "Don't you know then that all things are possible through God? Just observe actively what he has told you and then you will find out yourself how a person in a short time can achieve such wisdom! Ex trunco non fit mercurius: so the Roman saying goes; a tree stump is immobile, and no action is noticeable, while in the metaphorical polytheism of the Romans no god has as much to do as Mercury. By Mercury, a correct busy activity is understood and by a stump, the greatest inactivity possible, and therefore Mercury cannot come into being from out of a stump. Thus it says in the words of wisdom, hurry to be active to achieve true wisdom, otherwise there is no known way to it. It cannot be learned like any other science, but can only be gained in and from itself through the true activity according to the teachings of wisdom.

3 Thus if you want to find out exactly how Mathael has achieved such wisdom which amazes you so much, you yourselves must first reach the same path of activity towards wisdom, otherwise all your questions are in vain and every answer to your questions is in vain."

4 Suetal says: "That is all quite good and correct; but where is the right path very recognizably signposted?"

5 Julius says: It is not yet midday, and there is still ample time until evening; you will yet hear and learn some more things and the path will be made quite clear to you. But now consider what you have heard and everything that follows will become quite clear and lucid for you. But now you are declared free and completely exempt of punishment, only never let yourselves be tempted to go against us again, for then it would be much worse for you than now!"

6 After these words Julius comes a few steps back to us, namely to Me and to Cyrenius, and asks Me whether the trial and the judgment was quite in order.

7 And I say: "Is your heart satisfied? That is, the innermost voice of love in your heart? What does it say?"

8 Julius says: "The greatest satisfaction reigns and at the same time a worry about setting these people on the correct path in life!"

9 I say: "Well, if that is so, then everything is quite right and in the best order, and the best goal will be reached for these people, but naturally they will still have to face some small tests. It is good that you are taking them into the foreign legion; but you must let them have an adequate opportunity to progress along the recognized path of salvation. But if you want to distribute the five, with Mathael at the head, among the legion, they will give you all good service in My name and in a short time they will have a good effect on their [the legion's] innermost wisdom. But for the moment they must not remain in Galilee; for not much time will pass before the temple gets wind of the fact that forty-seven members have gone missing, and Herod will start a hunt for them; but if they are not found anywhere in Galilee, the seekers will then return again without having achieved anything and they will consider the forty-seven to have had an accident somewhere and lost and will no longer worry about them in the future. And so you Romans remain in the clear, and the forty-seven because of you, and you will have been helped without any white lie being necessary!"

10 Cyrenius asks: "But will they be safe in Tyre and Sidon? For there are only very few Jews there."

11 I say: "Oh yes, they are safer there than anywhere in Galilee, but they would be even safer somewhere either in Africa or in a city on Pontus Euxinus [Black Sea area]."

12 Cyrenius says: "Very good, I will find out about some suitable place for them where they can remain safely unchallenged by the Jews and if these seekers should manage to reach them, well then, we already have the means to drive them away!"

13 Julius says: "I am truly sorry, particularly for the five; for it is truly amazing in what a depth of wisdom they find themselves, and one could reach one"s true goal in life much faster through them than in the way one decides for oneself."

14 I say: "Friend, I alone am the only signpost, way and goal! Who gave the five what they have? Look, I alone! But if I can drag wisdom of the wise out of these five terribly possessed madmen in a short time, then I will certainly be in a position to do the same with you who are not a terribly possessed madman!

15 For I alone am the truth, the way and the life! If you have Me, how can the five be of more service to you?! Yes, they should and will give many and good services to humanity through Me and only in My name; but you do not need them, especially as in the little town of Genezareth there lives a certain Ebahl, a Jarah and even a Raphael! Where else on this earth is there another place which is better equipped from a spiritual point of view?

16 Didn't you hear Suetal's question, who wanted to learn how and through whom the five achieved deepest wisdom so quickly? You see, you know it well, but for them, namely the five, it is still a puzzle, but certainly not for you! Now if you know what the five do not know, how can you consider the five to be almost as wise as Me?"

17 Julius, somewhat shocked, says: "Lord, because I was foolish, that is the reason; but now everything is in the best order again, and I have now the greatest joy in Your order for the sake of the forty-seven people, and everything will be obeyed immediately! But You, oh Lord, must forgive my little stupidity with God's mercy!"

18 I say: "I cannot forgive you for anything; but if you are at peace again in and with yourself, then everything is in order for Me, and so all your sins are forgiven.

19 But now go and have bread, wine and salt brought to the twelve, for they also have hardly eaten more than a mosquito in the last two days! Until now My will alone has kept them strengthened; but since the opportunity is there now, they should naturally also be strengthened with food and drink now, and so let it be so!"

- Chapter 45 -

Report of the healing of a paralytic on the blessed meadow

1 When Julius hears such things from Me, he quickly makes his way first to our host, Mark, who, along with his household, is very busy with the preparation of a good midday meal, and brings him My order. And Mark immediately hurries to the food store which was now never emptying, and takes a very large loaf of bread, a beaker of salt and has both his sons fetch two big jugs of wine; and all this is brought to the twelve as fast as possible.

2 When they first spot the bread and the wine, a powerful hunger seizes them, and Julius says to them, as he notices their hunger: "I know that you are hungry; but if you want to remain healthy, do not eat too quickly now, instead give yourselves time, and everything will be well for you!"

3 The twelve say: "Yes, yes, good lord, we will pace ourselves moderately!" But nonetheless they are finished with a great loaf of bread in a few moments, likewise with the wine and salt, and want to eat some more.

4 But Julius says: "Friends, that is enough for an appetizer; soon the great midday meal will come, after which you will not leave hungry."

5 Suetal says: "Yes, yes, very good, that is enough for our needs; we will satisfy ourselves at the midday meal! But lord and most noble friend, we have nothing with which we can recompense the host!"

6 Julius says: "You are now citizens of Rome and no longer need to worry about who will pay the bill for you! For a Roman never remains in debt to anyone and the host has been rewarded already for many years in advance; we can run up a bill here for a whole year and he will still be at an advantage. So don't worry now about who will pay the bill in the end!"

7 The twelve say: "Brother, that is a different language than that of our temple, where one gets almost nothing to eat, but must fast and pray all the more; but the high priests fast and pray little and consume every day a quantity of alms and sacrifices for the greater honor of Jehovah, while the young templars can fast pro populo [for the people – the editor] until the very bones in their limbs begin to rumble! Oh, why didn't we become Romans long ago?! Everything is here: wisdom, goodness, rights, and strictness where necessary, and there seems to be no lack of bread and wine! We want to be totally and utterly Romans in soul and body! Long live Rome and all its authorities!"

8 Julius says: "Very well, my new friends! Your reasoning is good, although understandably there is still much self-love there; that alone will hopefully be lost with time. But today you will yet see and hear very unusual things; they will be a light to you! Yet do not ask much, instead let listening and seeing be your job, the explanation will come of itself!"

9 The twelve are made curious through this, and they now ask one another what the high Roman might have meant by saying that on this day they would hear and see many extraordinary things from which they would be able to learn, and that all that would explain itself in a certain way! What would that be?

10 The talkative Suetal says: "Well, what does it mean? Have you never heard of the Olympic Games of the Romans? They will probably put on such a thing here; but we will now be able to take part ourselves as Romans, and will perhaps see and hear some things which will be good for us. It must be that and certainly nothing else."

11 Another of the twelve says: "I hardly believe that. You eight don't know what I know; for you have been here since midday and know little about what happened recently to the Galileans. You know that I and another three from the mountain area of Genezareth were taken along with you for participation in your attempts at instigation and brought here. Barely three days before your arrival in our mountains, unheard-of things happened in Genezareth; the miraculous healer from Nazareth previously mentioned by the Roman governor came there and simply through his divinely all-powerful word he healed all the sick from whatever evil had taken hold of them!

12 I myself have a brother who is now at home and has taken on the inheritance. He was drawn up into a lump by gout, he could neither lie down nor sit, and naturally there could never be any talk of standing. We put him in a hanging basket which was filled with straw. Often he cried for days on end, plagued by the most atrocious pains, at which he would then usually fall into such a total unconsciousness that he fully resembled a dead man. Everything imaginable had been tried to make him well again, even the water of the pond of Shiloh - but everything in vain.

13 When we received the news in our mountains that the famous healer of Nazareth was staying in Genezareth and healing all the sick, I brought my totally fragile brother with my servants and mules to Genezareth with the most unspeakable effort. There, having arrived after so many hardships, it was said that the healer had undertaken a journey up a mountain and no-one knew when and whether he would ever come back again. I stood there now like a column beside my lamenting brother, began to cry myself through sadness and begged God fervently to put an end to the bitterest sufferings of my brother, because I was not to have the luck to meet the miraculous healer again. I made an oath to give him all my rights to possession as the first-born and to serve him my whole life long if he could be healed.

14 Now see, soon after this, servants from the great guesthouse came to me in the alley and said that the healer concerned had healed each and many such cripples in a moment so that they then looked as if nothing had ever been wrong with them! But this healer was with his disciples, with the lord of the house and with others from the house and the village on the high mountain which no mortal had ever ascended because of the steepness being too great. He would return, but when, they didn't know, but that was not the matter; this healer had blessed a pasture and I was allowed to lay my brother in faith on this blessed pasture and things would be better for him.

15 I immediately asked after the blessed pasture. The servants showed it to me and immediately I carried my poor brother onto the said pasture and laid him on the grass of this pasture. And you see, in the moment that the sick brother touched the ground of the pasture he began to stretch quite enjoyably. All pain was blown away as if by the wind and in a few moments my brother was as healthy as I! Before one saw only skin and bones on him, and I assure you, he stood there beside me so completely well nourished that even today I cannot wonder enough about such an unheard-of transformation!

16 But I kept my oath and gave my now very happy and pious brother everything and gladly did for him all the jobs of the least of my former servants, although the good and most thankful brother always kept me away from it.

17 But I had hardly been a servant to my brother, whom you have seen and spoken to, for more than a few days, when you came to us and were the actual reason that I and another three servants of my brother find ourselves here, luckily as innocents.

18 But with this I just wanted to draw your attention to the most wonderful, famous healer of Nazareth, about whom you have already heard here and there according to your own admission!

19 Now see, to judge by the question of the captain of Genezareth, who I know very well, it seems to me - which clearly proceeds from the healing of the five madmen - that this miraculous healer of Nazareth is here right now and at work.

20 By speaking of what we should see and hear, the governor certainly wanted to draw our attention to some deeds and speeches which are to be expected on the part of the most wonderful healer, and by no means to Rome's Olympic Games which would certainly seem very ragged to us, and from which we certainly cannot take any particular wisdom, and of which the captain himself seems to be no particular friend! What do you think in this respect?"

- Chapter 46 -

Suetal reports about the influence of the miracle worker

1 Suetal says: "You are probably quite right! Things will certainly turn out in this way, and I am now beginning to burn with curiosity about getting to know this most famous of all healers personally. I didn't want to say too much to the good captain before when he asked us about this unusual man; but you can believe me; even all of Samaria and all of Sychar is full of him! In Sychar one considers him directly to be a person through whom the whole fullness of the divine spirit is working! And that, allow me, will hopefully be nothing small!

2 And in the temple! The great priests study day and night how they could rid the world of such a healer. But if such powers are at hand for him and the visible friendship of the first Roman authorities, all templars can sweat themselves into countless drops of blood and they will in the end do less against him than a mosquito against an elephant!

3 It was said that he has once been to the temple - sometime in the spring - and cleaned it with ropes and whips of all the money-changers and dove-sellers. And all that happened barely a quarter year after this healer began to be reputed!

4 Oh, in the whole of Judea they tell the strangest things about him! The ordinary people who are hidden in the darkness of the temple believe that he works such things through Beelzebub, whom one names the most supreme devil; the betters consider him to be a great prophet; Greeks and Romans consider him a magician.

5 The Sycharites honor him already as a god, which is also the case among some Greeks and Romans! And I wouldn't like to bet much that these Romans also consider him to be that; for among them the old non exsistit vir magnus sine afflatu divino [No great man is without divine touch – the editor] is still believed very strongly, at least it is good that they don't seem to be enemies of great ingenious people and that they constantly support the ingenious with advice and deeds, which also seems to be undeniably the case here.

6 But he should not come to Jerusalem too often and carry out a purification of the temple, if he is not equipped with more than extraordinary human powers! For there he could come into difficulties; he may be a great prophet or magician, but he cannot protect himself for much longer against all the hellish intrigue and incessant persecution plans and in the end he will fall to them as a contemptible sacrifice.

7 In brief, whoever comes against the temple from heaven without lightning, thunder and rain of sulphur, has little or no effect against the temple!"

8 The previous speaker from the mountains near Genezareth says: "The temple will not be able to do much against him! For if they have not accused him and arrested him for the driving out of the temple, it will be difficult to do it a second time; for his will must already be completely filled with a truly divine power! But wherever that is the case, every human power must as good as stop!"

9 Suetal says: "Friend, you don't fully understand! You see, when he purified the temple at Easter from those mentioned, the temple gained at such an opportunity several hundred pounds of pure silver and gold; oh, he could morally clear out the temple every day and the greats of the temple will put no nameable obstacles in his way! But if he just once attacks the temple itself and its unspeakable deceptions, we will see how things go for him! Truly, I would not like to be in his shoes then!

10 How long ago is it now that they quickly put an end to the famous prophet John, who, for a time, preached baptism and repentance in the Jordan, where even the power of Herod took him into his protection! The temple slid unnoticed behind the terrible mother of the beautiful Herodias and Herod became in the end the murderer of his famous ward. The temple has ten times a hundred thousand means to persecute a person who seems dangerous to it, and very rarely does something go wrong for the temple.

11 The secret machinations of the temple go so far that even the Romans have a certain respect for them; true, much has been betrayed, but what use is all that if one can never get close to these people?!"

- Chapter 47 -

Mathael's and Suetal's speeches about rebukes

1 Here Mathael, who had listened to this conversation from a short distance, steps up to the twelve and says: "You are truly still strongly men of the earth, but namely you, Suetal, with your seven colleagues, you still have no idea about what is happening here!

2 The Savior of Nazareth is here, yes, He is here - but who He is, you have absolutely no notion, and therefore you speak annoyingly foolish things about Him and His works!

3 The correct person according to the correct order should not speak, however, except the truth alone; if he doesn't know it he should be silent, seek and investigate. And when he has found the truth, then he should speak! For whoever speaks and has not yet recognized the truth, lies, even if he accidentally speaks the truth!

4 But a lie should never pass the lips of a true person; for through the lie the soul bears witness of itself of the fact that it is still walking in death and not in life!

5 Whoever delights in a lie does not recognize the value of life at all; for life and truth are one! Only the truth makes your soul free and opens to it the infinity of God in essence, being and acting.

6 But if you think and speak as I just heard, you give clear proof of yourself that your soul is living only in a pig-sty instead of in the great temple of all light and all truth!

7 Why make considerations if one is completely devoid of all reasons? Didn't captain Julius of Genezareth tell you very wisely everything that you will yet see and hear today, and that you should not even ask so much about it, but should take it in into the love of your heart and act accordingly, and the explanation will come of itself! And look, the captain spoke correctly and truly!

8 So leave superfluous talk without any basis of truth, pay good attention to everything, and believe it in your heart, and so you will soon gain more by this than if you were to lie to one another for many years in the mistaken belief that you have spoken the truth!

9 Asking is certainly better than explaining something about which one has no basis oneself; but if you ask, you must know who you are asking and what you are asking for, otherwise every question is just as much nonsense as a false answer from out of the air.

10 For I must have in myself, through experience, the full conviction that the person I ask can give the truth in answer; and finally I must have first reckoned exactly with myself that what I am asking someone is no nonsense, otherwise I betray, through my question, either my great foolishness or my hidden evil! Remember this rule for life, and you will stand on the face of this earth at least as modest people!"

11 Suetal says, somewhat indignantly: "But dear friend Mathael, you are giving us here in a certain way a rebuke and we have not seen anyone giving you an order to do so! Your advice is probably good and very true, but a certain friendliness is lacking in it, and it does not make the same impression at all on us that it would certainly have made if it had been shared with more friendliness. We will follow it because we see the full truth in it; but nonetheless we still believe that the truth remains no less the truth even if it comes to us in friendly clothing!

12 Look, two and another two make four! That is a truth and certainly remains such even if it is pronounced in a friendly manner!? Or is it all the same if I am leading a blind man, whether I hold him tightly so that it hurts him or whether I lead the poor man on to the good path with a soft hold? I consider holding him softly when leading a blind man to be more preferable; for if I hold him too painfully tightly, he will try to get out of my hands and who knows whether he will not fall in that moment and severely injure himself, while escaping my too strongly pressing hands!? But if I have held him gently and led him, we will reach the goal quite cheerfully and gladly. Am I right or not?"

13 Mathael says: "Oh yes, when the circumstances permit it; but if you spot a blind man on the edge of some precipice and you also see that you can save him with a powerful grip and a pull, will you then firstly advise yourself how strongly or how tenderly and softly you will touch him?"

14 Suetal says: "Yes, were we then so spiritually close to a destructive precipice?"

15 Mathael says: "Quite certainly, otherwise I would not have attacked you so strongly! For you see, everything that leads to a lie and thereby is a lie itself, even if it is still very unapparent for the external person, is a precipice towards death for the soul!

16 A tender, quite unapparent lie is much more dangerous for the soul than one which is as big as a fist and tangible for the hands! For a fist-sized lie will certainly not prompt you to any action; but a very tender and unapparent one will prompt you to act as a truth does and brings you quite easily to the edge of all destruction. But only he whose inner eye of the soul has been developed can see this! So you do not need to be indignant that I grabbed you somewhat more tightly; for a tender lie was creeping around amongst you like a poisonous adder, which I and my four brothers noticed very clearly, and you may now seek the reason for my somewhat rough handling. Do you understand that?"

17 Suetal says: "Yes, if it is so, your somewhat rough manner with us certainly takes on another face, and I cannot refute anything more. Naturally we do not see our spiritual state and must believe you that it is so; but we recognize that you stand on very firm ground and therefore believe your words. But about what should we twelve talk? Being quite silent is very desperately boring, you know, and there is still another significant snag in the truth."

18 Mathael says: "Friend, if you had to go through a dense mountain forest on a very dark night and you knew that this forest was rich in steep, wide gaping slopes and precipices, would it not be better for you to stop and wait for the light of day, than to follow some sort of false light and to fall with it down a precipice? It is not desirable to spend the night in a mountain forest, but it is certainly incomparably better than to continue on a terrain on which your next step could bring certain death! What do you think of that?"

19 Suetal says: "Do you know, there is no point in speaking to you any more, for you are always correct, and one cannot deny anything you say; and so we will follow your advice instead, and you will then certainly have nothing more to say against us."

- Chapter 48 -

Mathael's speech on law and love

1 Mathael says: "Oh, one more thing, and this thing is of considerable significance!

2 If it costs you an effort and you are not doing it particularly out of love, then leave it be and do instead what you want to do out of love; for what a person does not do totally out of love has little value for his life, for love is truth of the actual element of life, it is the original life itself.

3 Accordingly, whatever seizes love is seized by life and passes over into life; but whatever remains untouched by love and whatever a person does simply because he either fears terrible consequences or because his little piece of arrogance wants it, in order to appear to others to be a wise man, does not turn into life, instead only into death, because it was seized only by the element of death instead of by the element of life!

4 I tell you, every law, no matter how wise, does not bear life, but death, if a person does not observe it out of love - and the wisest advice resembles a seed which, instead of falling in the good earth, fell on rocks, where it withers and finally cannot possibly bring forth fruit.

5 I tell you also, because I see that it is so: everything in a person is dead except for their love! So let your love reign in fullness over your whole being and feel love in every fiber of your being, and so you will have the victory over death in you, and what was dead in you has been transformed into indestructible life through your love; for love which feels itself and recognizes itself from out of such a feeling is life itself, and whatever passes over to it also turns into life!

6 Following my advice very exactly would be of little use to you if you only observed it for the sake of its truth and because you feared some sort of bad consequence if you didn't observe it; but such observance would not be of any use to your souls. Ah, it is something quite different when love and truth seize one another and work together; then love constantly creates a newer and more perfect life from the light and in the light of truth up to full divinity!

7 The love or the Spirit of God in a person is an image of God right from the beginning; but to achieve fully active, living similarity with God it must first lift itself up on the path which I have now shown you. Do you understand this?"

8 Suetal, now looking very cheerful, says: "By God the Almighty! You are truly one of the greatest prophets; for so truly, so clearly and so wisely has no prophet yet spoken to his people! You have truly more perfect life in your little finger than we have all together in our whole body or actually in all our souls together. Yes, yes, it is so, brothers! Truly a divine breath speaks through Mathael and we can never thank God enough that He has brought us together, one might say, so wonderfully! Oh, but if your wisdom is so decidedly greater than ours, how great must be that of the Healer of Nazareth who is yet unknown to us?!"

9 Mathael says: "What glistens so wonderfully brightly in a drop of dew hanging on a blade of grass?

10 You see, it is the image of the sun which shimmers so wonderfully brightly on the clear drop! But the image of the sun does not only shimmer, but it acts too! In the centre of the drop the light of the image of the sun condenses, the drop in its centre turns into a great warmth of life, in this warmth of life it turns into the element of life in the end and enlivens the little plant which is fighting with death; but the image in the drop is by no means the sun itself, but only a representation of the same, equipped with a little part of the same power and effect which is natural to the real, great sun itself!

11 And see, there is also such a difference between me and the Healer of Nazareth! He is the sun of life itself, and in me just as in a drop of dew the small image of the eternally true, great sun rules wonderfully brightly, out of which countless myriads of such drops as us suck their holy food of life. Do you understand that?"

12 Suetal says: "Oh God, that is a great and holy language! Friend, you are already more than a drop, you are a whole sea! Oh, we will never get so far; it is too movingly great, holy and eminent! But in such circumstances and in very divine circumstances we as very crude sinners do not dare to remain here; for this place begins to become holier and holier!"

13 The other eleven also begin to speak very humbly and also want to move away from there; but Julius does not allow this to happen.

14 But Suetal says: "Lord, once when Moses went to the burning thorn bush on the mountain to find out what was happening, a clear voice spoke from out of the flames: Moses, remove your shoes from your feet; for the place on which you are standing is holy ground! Here according to the tangibly clear statement is what Moses encountered on the mountain; therefore this place is holy and we sinners are not worthy to set foot on it!"

- Chapter 49 -

Explanation of the outer occurrences with Moses

1 Mathael, standing nearby, says at the demand by Julius, who didn't know how to respond to Suetal with anything special: "Who told you then whether you are worthy to set foot on this place, or whether you are not worthy? In which book of wisdom is it written then that any sick man is not worthy of his doctor? You know, such an assumption from you comes from the lamb's wisdom of the temple which allows to be burned on the fire the hands of he who reaches with an unordained hand for the threshold which leads to the holiest of holies! But if the high Pharisees secretly lead the foreigners there every day for a good payment and show them everything and explain cleverly, the hands of the foreigners will certainly not be burnt on the fire!

2 What did God actually want to say to Moses in that he called to him to take off his shoes?

3 You see, God said to Moses: Take off your material and sensual elements, cleave from yourself the old flesh-Adam through your will and stand as a purely spiritual person before Me, otherwise you cannot understand My voice and I cannot make you the leader of My people!

4 But what does the ascension of the mountain imply?

5 You see, Moses was fleeing from the persecution of Pharaoh because of the murder of a high official of the king, an official who was as good as a son to the king.

6 Moses also meant a lot to Pharaoh, so that it was still very doubtful whether he would not someday receive the reign over Egypt like Joseph and so would lift up his people.

7 God showed him such ambition in the desert through the ascension of the mountain, whose peak, however, he was not allowed to reach; for he was prevented by the burning bush.

8 And further it was said according to our linguistic understanding: You will become the savior of My people, but not in the way you believe, but as I, your God and your Lord, will describe to you!

9 You shall not become king of Egypt and make My people, who I have raised in humility before Me, sensual, self-loving and haughty, instead, the people must leave this land and move into the desert with you! I will give the people laws and I Myself will be the Lord and Leader of these people; and if they prove themselves true to Me, I will give them the land of Salem, in whose streams flow milk and honey!

10 You see, with such sense in the picture language of that time God did not want to say to Moses that he should really take off his footwear, but the old Adam or the greed of an externally sensual person, which fulfills the same function to an actual man of life as the shoes to the foot of a person which are the lowest, most outer, last and most dispensable clothing.

11 But the place which God calls holy is only a humble state of the soul, without which in respect of eternal love, which is the truest fire of the element of life, it cannot exist.

12 But the thorn bush which is burning there is a sign that the way of a prophet will be a very thorny one; but his great love for God and for his brothers, which shows itself in flames over and through the whole thorn bush, will scorch the thorns of the bush and in the end will consume the whole thorn bush and make a thornless path.

13 You see, that is the sense of what you mentioned before! But if it is unmistakably so, how can you then consider any earthly place to be more or less holy?

14 If you also fully take off your worldly shoes and humble yourselves in all aspects of life, you will also stand here as worthy as all the rest of us; for we as people are all quite equal here before God and the One who is here, and no-one has an advantage over the others!"

15 When Suetal hears such a speech from Mathael, he says: "Yes, once one is filled with such an abundance of all wisdom, one can then easily be without fear; for a seeing person can easily move forwards, but a blind man must constantly feel beforehand whether his next step will be a safe one, and despite all care and faithfully investigating caution, one nonetheless always collides with something. But if one has a guide such as you are, dear brother Mathael, even as a blind man one can still move forward! Oh, now we will remain and are exceptionally excited about getting to know what you have given such a great witness of, for tangible, clear reasons!"

16 Julius says, with a friendly grip of Mathael's hand: "Eternal thanks to the Lord, who has powerfully healed you and your four brothers! I have learned so much from you, and it was only so clear and easy to understand, and I notice that it is beginning to dawn in my soul; and if that continues I hope to walk in your footsteps very soon!"

17 Mathael says: "It cannot be otherwise! For there is only one God, one life, one light, one love and only one eternal truth; our present life on earth is the path to it. We have proceeded out of love and out of light through the will of the eternal love in God in order to become an independent love and an independent light; we can do it, we must do it!

18 But how? You see, high brother, alone through love for God and through its never-resting able activity! For our love for God is the love of God itself in us and directs our soul to the constantly rising activity of the true, eternal life, which is in itself the fullest truth and the brightest light. If accordingly it begins to dawn in a human soul, then it is already very near to the eternal goal of life and can impossibly do anything other than to achieve the goal of eternal life, which is all in all what the completed life in all freedom and in the fullest independence can ever achieve eternally!

19 Therefore be glad and cheerful, high brother, soon your soul will also get to see what mine now sees in ever clearer light! In the full day of your soul you will understand the greatness of Him whom you with some shyness still call the "Healer of Nazareth".

20 As a person He is probably the same as you or I - but His Spirit! It penetrates eternal infinity with His power and His light! Have you, high brother, understood me well?"

21 Julius says, quite moved to tears, "Yes, dear brother, you really stand much higher than I; truly, I could just squeeze you to death out of love, and I can now no longer look at the Healer Jesus of Nazareth without tears of love, and I understand only now the great love of the maiden who can actually no longer be led from His side!"

22 Suetal says: "Praise the Lord, now he will no longer be difficult to recognize for us! We must only see at whose side this certain maiden walks; and it will be he!" And so they paid attention.

- Chapter 50 -

The twelve doubt about the person of the Healer

1 But now at My bidding Jarah walked with Raphael and with Josoe and discussed with both of them Mathael's wisdom which had so suddenly appeared, and so the twelve were doubly unsure which of the two men surrounding the maiden was I. But at the same time they thought of Me as being a man, and with Jarah there were only two boys of about 12-14, according to appearances, and so the twelve could not put the parts of the story together. And one of them says to Suetal: "Friend, you have rejoiced in our name a little too soon this time! The maiden, who is probably a young daughter of the great innkeeper Ebahl from Genezareth, because we highlanders from the area have often seen her in the inn if we had something to do in the area, is walking between two boys, probably sons of the supreme governor. These boys, either one or the other, will not be the Healer of Nazareth. But that now begs the question: Which is it? I tell you, brother, with our wisdom we will not work it out at all; so for the moment silence is undeniably our best means!"

2 Suetal says: "I now completely agree with you; but here the high lord Julius actually had us fooled a little, which we actually deserved. By the way; why do we have to open our mouths all the time! Silence, hearing and seeing is truly the best, and in a certain way the beginning of all wisdom!" After these words the twelve are silent, and their souls are full of all sorts of thoughts.

3 Now I go to them and ask Suetal: "I have heard everything of your earlier conversations because I have very keen ears; but since you have already spoken much about the certain Healer of Nazareth amongst yourselves with wise Mathael and captain Julius, but through it all your whole face has remained constantly covered, I would like to learn quite openly from you who you actually consider him to be in your soul. Only speak openly without shyness; for I guarantee you that nothing evil will happen to you because of it! For I know the Savior too well for him to let harm come to you, if you give Me unashamedly as one of his nearest and best friends your innermost insight!"

4 Suetal says, scratching himself a little behind the ears: "You seem to be a Greek by your clothing, but to judge by your hair and your beard, you are a Jew. It is true, the Romans say not too favorably about the Greeks: Graeca fides, nulla fides [Greek trust is no trust – the editor]; but your face seems to be much too honest for that, and as a man of certainly some wisdom you will surely see that people like us cannot behave quite so thoughtlessly at such an extraordinary appearance!

5 Everything, which even the wisdom of Mathael gave us to understand about the Healer, we accepted immediately as the complete truth, is for people like us no little thing and our judgments about him will likewise be very inadequate; until now we have only ever heard him speak, and the four highlanders from the area of Genezareth have felt extraordinary power and might from him, but they too have not yet seen him or spoken with him.

6 We ourselves have experienced the extraordinary healing of the five evil madmen, and we were told about it here; but even there we were also not eye-witnesses, but only the healed themselves gave us the certainly tangibly clear and true account, as well as the tale by the captain and by the healed themselves.

7 The extraordinary facts on the one hand and the clear judgments and explanations particularly on the part of wise Mathael could not fail to awaken in us an image of this Healer, which at least for our earthly understanding, without any higher wisdom, reaches into the realm of pure divinity!

8 But whether we as people without science or wisdom are finally on the correct path with our image, our thoughts and ideas! But who can and will present it at least for us, blind to science and wisdom, so that through it either the one or the other becomes as clear as the midday sun?

9 You see, the science of man has already progressed very far in our times, and no-one has yet set limits to the wisdom of man, and so a person in Nazareth can very well, supported by particular spiritual abilities, have found some sort of stone of wisdom about which the world has never thought until now! He can therefore do incredible things, beside which we must stand like oxen on a hillside; he can move mountains and freeze the sea in summer, yes, he can wake the dead and make thousands pass away through his will, those are all things which were made to happen by people long before him!

10 In Egypt this sort of thing is not unheard-of; here with us such a thing is somewhat rarer, particularly because all conjuring is strictly forbidden to us Jews, and so in the end every extraordinary occurrence which is made to happen by a person, even through perhaps quite natural means, is damned as conjuring and the conjurer, if he is a Jew, is stoned or even burnt alive, as a foreigner he is exiled far beyond the border; he would only have to pay a significant ransom to the temple and he would be allowed to perform his art and his conjuring secretly to the Greeks and Romans alone. We see nothing of it in Jerusalem; but as an apostle of the temple traveling to a foreign land for the conversion of foreigners to Judaism, one got to see things which were supposed to remain inexplicable to people like us.

11 So now the famous Healer of Nazareth likewise performs all unheard-of things, also concerning the healing of all sorts of sick people, yes, he is even supposed to be able to wake the dead! But I say this, that all that is no valid proof by a long way of any sort of particular divine nature in him and gives no uncontestable evidence.

12 For people like us, performing wonders in word and deed is no great art for those who are capable; for it is easy to preach to the blind about colors, but the seeing does not need much of a sermon in any case, since he can distinguish between the colors even without any sermon.

13 By the way, the Nazarene Healer could be a very good and extraordinary prophet as well, anointed in all seriousness by the Spirit of God - like Moses, Joshua, Samuel and Elijah - and may carry out his works through the pure divine spirit in him, which we consider to be more likely since he is a Jew and as such certainly could never have had the opportunity to visit the most secret school either of the Essenes or of the Egyptians.

14 If such a thing was provable on him, it would then not be too difficult to guess from where he received all his secret knowledge; for the Essenes wake dead children in their dozens, of which I have convinced myself completely! And God knows what sorts of illnesses they are able to heal!

15 From this, you, as a Greek who seems to understand correctly, will be able to judge for which reason we are penetrated to our insides by all manner of thoughts for and against, despite all the extraordinary things that we have heard here.

16 To accept everything as the truth would be just as crazy as to reject everything right from the beginning; waiting, hearing, seeing and testing everything exactly is all one can do, and we will then see whether we should go with the pro or the contra; for we never buy doves in a sack, since it could then happen that we would be sold vultures instead of doves! Tell us now whether we are right or not!"

- Chapter 51 -

Concerns about the account of the Divinity of the Nazarene

1 I say: "In one way, yes, but in another way not at all! Yes, if the Essenes can wake the dead like the Nazarene then you are right in every respect. But there is a real Essene among the disciples of the Nazarene. He was sent out either to fully win the Nazarene for their great institute of illusions or at least to entice out of Him the secret of how He heals his sick and wakes his dead.

2 But when he soon convinced himself that everything was accomplished by the Nazarene openly in front of everyone's eyes and without any artificial tricking devices, simply with the old words 'Let it be', he left his fraudulent Essenism, revealed all the tricks and became a true disciple of the Nazarene himself. He is standing there under a tree quite alone; go over and discuss it with him!"

3 Another of the eight answers, "Friend, there is no need for us to do that; for I know Essenism down to its basics. It is splendid and praiseworthy, but basically a deceit, and the Nazarene has never gone to that distressing school! But I am for the Egyptians; for the Nazarene must have great friends among the Romans and through them one can get to Egypt!"

4 I say to the second speaker, who was called Ribar: "How did you uncover the secrets of the Essenes? For as I have heard, such a thing is hardly possible without danger of death!"

5 Ribar answers: "Friend, with much money and a certain amount of all sorts of smartness you can get anywhere. Naturally one must not be born yesterday, so that behind what one is shown, one also sees the other things that are not shown! But obviously a considerable amount of a particularly cunning sharpness is also required; and so I would like to check out the good healer of Nazareth just once and I set my word on it that he will not fool me.

6 But if he really has what is said about him and what the really very wise Mathael demonstrated, well, we will know to value him like Mathael! Only one thing confuses me, and that is that he takes disciples. I say, if his business is purely divine, no disciple will ever be able to imitate him even if he studied in his school for a full eternity. But if the business is human, then the disciples are quite understandable; for what one person does, another person can also do if he has the knowledge and the adequate means. But if the business is, as I said, purely divine, imitation will eternally be impossible! For the whole omnipotence and wisdom of God is needed for that!"

7 I say: "My friend Ribar, you do not speak bad at all, but you are basically wrong; for a God can certainly also pull some special ones out of the numbers of people and educate them, as He educated Henoch, Moses and many other prophets so that they then become teachers of humanity and announcers of the divine will to the people on this earth. With this exception you seem to be on the wrong path and will not be able to get the better of the Healer of Nazareth!

8 With cunning you will encounter a very powerful and invincible opponent in the Nazarene! I know Him and know that a human cannot get the better of Him; for in a thousand things it is difficult to reply to even one!"

9 Ribar says: "It all depends on a test! I have often heard such antiphonies and preludes, but in the end it all came down to a saying of the Romans: Si tacuisses, philosophus mansisses [Had you remained silent, you would have remained a philosopher – the editor]. And so the before never mattered to me, only the post festum [afterward the feast – the editor]. I never anticipate and never pass judgment on what I have not tried myself; but if I have tried something once, then I rarely make a bad judgment, instead I almost always hit the nail on the head. Are you perhaps one of his disciples?"

10 I say: "Not exactly, but still one of his foremost friends and I know him the best!" At this exchange, several people can hardly restrain a hidden smile, and no-one misses even a word.

- Chapter 52 -

Suetal's and Ribar's dialogue about testing Raphael's ability to perform miracles

1 After a short while Ribar says again:  "I would like to at least experience from a disciple everything that he has learned at the side of the miraculous healer!"

2 I say: "Oh, that can happen very easily! It is true that it is already time for the midday meal, and the innkeeper will soon be ready with it; but there"s just enough time for a little disciple's test, and a disciple shall come here and show you, as a strict examiner, everything that he can do already! Do you want this?"

3 Ribar says: "Certainly, for without a test a judgment cannot be made about anyone!"

4 Here I call Raphael, who is basically and strictly also one of My disciples, even if he is a spirit now clothed in light material. He has hardly been called, and Raphael is standing in lightning quickness before Ribar and says: "What sort of a test are you demanding from a disciple of the Lord?" Ribar thinks about this question and tries to think up something which would be completely impossible for a person, something that no man could possibly do.

5 I say to this, "Well, I think that the affair has somewhat taken your sharpness to task!?"

6 Ribar says: "Oh, you just leave things alone! festina lente [haste makes waste – the editor] say the Romans! Hostis cum patientia nostra victus [victory comes with patience – the editor]! I will give the disciple a difficult task which will test his mettle!”

7 Then Ribar bends down to the earth, lifts a stone from the ground which is several pounds in weight and says to Raphael, smiling: "Dear disciple of the divine Master, who is supposed to perform things that could only be possible to God alone! If you have learned something all-powerful from him, then make this stone into good, sweet bread!"

8 Raphael says: "Test whether the stone is still a stone!"

9 Ribar tests this and says: "Yes, of course!"

10 Raphael says: "Try it again now!"

11 Ribar tries it again, breaks the stone apart and realizes that the stone has really become bread. Such a miracle in his hands takes him aback quite violently, yes, he was visibly seized by a significant fear and now didn't know what he should say to this.

12 But Raphael says to him: "Try it too; for the eye is easier to deceive than the tongue! Give it to your friends to try as well, so that we have witnesses of this transformation to say that it is true!"

13 Ribar tastes the miracle bread, somewhat carefully at first; but since the taste pleases him, he bites deeply into one half and gives the other half to his companions to taste. Everyone finds the bread tremendously tasty, sweet and of an inviting smell.

14 But I then ask Ribar: "Well, dear friend, let Me hear your judgment; what do you say to this deed carried out by a disciple?"

15 Ribar says to Suetal: "Brother, you speak now, you are somewhat cleverer than I! This goes too far over my level of understanding!"

16 Suetal says: "There are very many such people as you in the world who like to be insolent in the beginning; but if something then happens which reaches far above their understanding, they stand there like a wife caught having an affair! What else can be said now except for this: Mathael was right in every syllable with which he certainly bore the truest witness of the great Master!

17 If his disciples are capable of performing such things, what must the divine Master then be capable of doing?!"

18 Ribar says: "That is all true, and none of us can deny it; but in the temple one also says and teaches as a decided truth, that certain special magicians are supposed to be able to perform extremely rare things through the power of Beelzebub which is at their disposal. Even the Romans say: In doctrina aliena cauti, felices [happy he who is careful with a foreign teaching – the editor] and sapientia non incipit cum odio deorum [Wisdom does not start with hating the gods – the editor]!

19 Suetal says: "Stop your stupid Latin sayings and you can stay away from me eternally with your donkeyish Beelzebub! Didn't you hear the divinely wise Mathael speaking earlier and weren't you easily able to see that the teaching of the great Master leads every person to God through the truth, love and deed? Well, in addition the great Master is supposed to serve his listeners with all lies and all deception? The blind donkey that you always were, was that bread a lie or was it true bread?

20 If Beelzebub had done it for you, which he would never be able to do, you would now have a stone in your stomach instead of the best bread; but because it is real bread as if coming from heaven, you now feel, as I feel, the truly divine taste of the best effect in your whole body, as I do in mine!

21 Where in the whole Scriptures have you ever read that Satan ever succeeded in performing a miracle like this one? Look at the miracles of Beelzebub in the temple! What are they? Nothing but a despicable and well-known deception in order to rob the men who are as blind as you of their gold and silver and then to use it for other harmful purposes!

22 You see, those are the miracles of Satan and as such are extremely easy to recognize!

23 But here there is no possible deception, but alone the easily recognizable all-powerful will of Jehovah! How then can you still ask whether such a thing would not also be possible through Satan's power?! Where then has Satan ever been able to prove that he has any true power?"

24 Ribar says, very moved: "Well, didn't he win on Sinai when he fought with Michael for three days over the body of Moses?"

25 Suetal says: "Yes, he won the dirt of Moses! A beautiful victory! What else do you know?"

26 Ribar says: "Well, is the temptation of Adam and Eve nothing?"

27 Suetal says: "Can one call it a miracle like this one?! If a voluptuous maid shows you all her fleshly appeal and invites you with very lustful eyes, is it then a miracle if you sink into her beautiful white arms out of sheer carnal lust? Such miracles like Adam and Eve's unfortunately happen only too often nowadays, but they always belong to the lowest and crudest nature, and there is really no trace of a miracle there, except a miracle from the very beginnings of creation! Do you know of another such miracle of Satan?"

28 Ribar says: "It is difficult to talk to you! But what are the familiar miracles of the images of Babel and Nineveh? Were they not performed by Satan?"

29 Suetal says: "For blind donkeys like you, yes, but not for seeing people, for they knew that the stomach of the famous idol of Babel which had been made glowing white with fire in the night could very easily consume in its very natural glow the sacrifices thrown through the wide throat into its belly. You can perform such miracles every day with the help of a good fire and you don't need any Satan in the least! I myself will bring you a number of all sorts of miracles of Satan by means of the concession of some bought servants, without needing Satan's help at all; for the evil and profit-seeking will of Satan in any bad person is more than enough for this.

30 Satan can never do anything - except to destroy some flesh which anyway has no value, and he can then take his extremely foul payment; but he can never perform a miracle for the soul and spirit because his very being is the densest judged matter! Yes, through Satan you can become even more material than you already are, but you will never become spiritual for even a moment through him! And now speak on, if any other miracles of Satan occur to you!"

31 Ribar says, quite crushed: "If everything is like that, then I certainly don't know of any more miracles of Satan and I want to recognize this purest miracle, which the young and very physical disciple of the great Master has performed. But you could have spoken more kindly with me and I would still have understood you!"

32 Suetal says: "You are probably right, but you already know that I always become incensed when a person, particularly one of some education, comes with the old fairy-tale about Beelzebub as if the people of the world are not Beelzebub's already! But particularly at such a purely divine occasion! Truly, each time I could jump out of my own skin in anger!"

33 Ribar says: "Well, well, everything is alright again! In medio beati (the middle way is the right one – the editor) say the Romans, never too heated and never too tepid, is the core of wisdom and all intelligence. The truth is understood in the end, brother, even without a donkey and dirt!"

34 Suetal says: "Yes, certainly; but in justified earnestness one has difficulty weighing up the words with which one corrects someone else when he begins to show very foolish thoughts! But now that you are beginning to see the truth somewhat clearer, you will not easily get to hear similar expressions from me again!"

35 At this I say: "Well, are you alright?"

36 Both say: "Completely!"

- Chapter 53 -

The basics of the teaching of Jesus

1 I say to Ribar: "But now what about your judgment about what you have just seen?"

2 Ribar says: "I have just explained myself to Suetal and I now recognize that most wise Mathael is quite right in all things. The test has been done and nothing further is now needed! I no longer simply believe, instead I have seen it with my own eyes, and now I would like to get to know the great Master myself!"

3 Suetal says: "Yes, I would like that too, if it could be so easy, although I no longer insist upon it quite so much; for what I have now seen is enough for me for my whole life! He cannot be more than God, but according to what has happened, he cannot be much less either! And that is enough for me; I would only like to hear something about his new teaching!"

4 I say: "Mathael has also already given you several essential points about that; anyway his teaching can be very briefly summarized in that one should love God above everything and love one's neighbor as oneself.

5 But of course, to love God above everything also means to recognize God and His revealed will and then act accordingly out of true inner love to the recognized God, and for God's sake, to behave towards every other person as every reasonable person behaves towards himself; naturally we are speaking here about the pure love, as unselfish as possible, both towards God as well as towards every neighbor.

6 As everything good wants to be loved purely because it is good and therefore true, God also wants to be loved because He alone is highly good and highly true!

7 But your neighbor must likewise be loved because he is the reflection of God, just as you are, and just like you, he carries a divine spirit in himself.

8 You see, that is the actual core of his teaching and it is easy to observe, yes, very much easier than the thousand laws of the temple which are mostly filled with the exploitation of its servants.

9 Through the most exact observance as is possible of this new teaching, the spirit bound within a person will become freer and freer, it grows and finally penetrates the whole person and pulls into its life everything that is a life of God and therefore must last eternally, and in the highest possible holiness as well!

10 But every person who is, in a certain way, reborn in his spirit will never see death, neither feel or taste it, and the freedom from his flesh will be the greatest bliss to him.

11 For the spirit of a person, fully one with his soul, resembles a person in prison, through whose narrow light hole he can look out onto the beautiful surface of the earth and see how free people cheer themselves with all sorts of useful occupations, while he must still languish in prison. But how glad he will be if the prison keeper comes, opens the door, frees him from all shackles and says to him: Friend, you are free from every further punishment, go now and enjoy full freedom!

12 So the spirit of a person resembles the fruit of an embryonic bird in the egg; once it has become mature through incubation inside the hard shell binding its free life, it breaks through the shell and enjoys its free life.

13 But man can only achieve such things through the exact and honest observance of the teaching which the Healer of Nazareth announces to the people.

14 But now man, if he is reborn in the spirit more and more, also receives other perfections, which simple, natural, fleshly people cannot imagine.

15 The spirit is a power in itself, like the divine one; whatever such a perfected spirit in a person wants, that will happen and must happen because there can be no other power and might in the whole of God's infinity except for the life force of the spirit!

16 For the true life is alone the Lord and Creator, Governor, Lawgiver and Guide of all creatures, and everything must therefore be led by the power of the eternal single living spirit.

17 You have now seen the disciple's test of this, and so you can believe Me for the moment that that is how it is. But the insight about the How, Whereby and Why will only come to you when you have achieved freedom for your innermost spiritual life.

18 But Mathael has already shown you enough what insight an even half reborn spirit can achieve, and so you now have tangible proof in your hands for everything and therefore with great care you can arrange your life accordingly. Are you satisfied with this explanation?"

19 Suetal says: "Friend, much more satisfied than with the explanation by the quite annoyingly wise Mathael! What you have now said to me is just as wise as everything that I heard from the mouth of Mathael and in a certain respect it is even wiser; but in front of Mathael one becomes anxious and afraid, because one doesn't really see any in or out. But now with very simple words you have at least made the issue so clear that I cannot think of anything clearer; I now know exactly what I have to do and what I must necessarily achieve, and so I am fully satisfied since I have no further questions."

- Chapter 54 -

A second miracle in accordance with Ribar's desire

1 I say: "Good then; but tell me now quite openly whether you wouldn't like to be personally introduced to the great Master of Nazareth! If you want, I can lead Him to you."

2 Suetal says: "Honestly speaking, this man hiding the fullness of the divine spirit in himself is too endlessly high for people like us in each and every thing, and I am decidedly afraid even to see him from afar, not to mention to come into his near presence! Thus I prefer not to get to know him personally. You see, I am ashamed now even to be in the presence of this young disciple of his, and honestly speaking, I wouldn't even mind if he returned to his companions again. He passed the test, and that is enough! Anyway, he wouldn't let himself be put through a second one, and it would be unnecessary; because for whomever one test does not provide adequate conviction, another thousand miracles will not be enough for him. And so I would prefer if he went back to his companions, we cannot reward him for it, because we do not possess anything but ourselves. So tell him, dearest friend, that he may return to the society of his equals!"

3 I say: "Ah, why then?! He is free and can go whenever he wants; and he will go when he has nothing more to do here! You are now fully satisfied, but not all of your companions are, even Ribar is not, who agrees with you in everything. He is still chewing over the first miracle and still cannot come to terms with it. Therefore, because there is still time, we will ask him to do another sign!"

4 Suetal says: "That would be fine, and I myself would like to see something of him; but that only begs the question whether that would also suit the holy, great Master; for the masters do not like to see their disciples producing too much."

5 I say: "Don't worry about that; for I will take responsibility for all that Myself and will know how to be answerable when the time is right, if I could be held to account for it. But nevertheless we must ask Ribar and the others in which fashion they want to see a sign, otherwise one of them could soon say that we prepared the sign a long time in advance and had organized ourselves quite exactly; but if they decide the sign themselves, there can be no trace of an earlier decision. Do you agree with that or not?"

6 Suetal says: "That is thought and spoken as wisely as Solomon, and one must agree with it!"

7 I say: "Well then, we shall ask Ribar! Tell us, Ribar, what the next signs performed by the disciple should consist of!"

8 Ribar says: "Friend, if he wants to perform another, then he should make this stone that I am now holding in my hand into one of the noblest fish which live in this sea!"

9 I say to Raphael pro forma, "Will you be able to solve this task?"

10 Raphael says: "We will try; but the asker should firstly stand firm, otherwise the fish will throw him to the ground. The most noble fish in these waters are big and strong, so that a man cannot overcome them; thus if Ribar stands very firm, an eighty pound fish will immediately take the place of his now barely ten pound stone."

11 Ribar says: "Oh, don't you worry about that! I am a little bit of a Samson and have already mastered hundred pound fish! In any case, I am now standing quite obediently firmly."

12 At this Raphael says: "Let it be, what you have demanded!" Raphael had hardly uttered these words, when a good eighty pound noble fish in the hands of Ribar, to the shock and incredible amazement of all present, made such a hefty thrust, that Ribar actually fell on his back and the fish flapped quite violently up and down. The witnesses fled from all sides, and even Ribar, who had quickly picked himself up again from the ground, showed no more desire to touch the great fish. But Mark's son was also nearby; he came quickly with a strong, small hand net, threw it over the yet strongly flapping fish, bound it up and carried it to a tub full of water.

13 When the fish found itself in its natural element, it naturally became quiet, and everyone now came to the tub and watched, with wonder, the great fish, and Ribar said: "Now I and all my empty wisdom are completely defeated and I now believe everything that I have heard about this great Master! Here all human wisdom ends and the majesty of God reveals itself in an only too tangibly true way! Mathael was right with every one of his words, and the friend as well, whose goodness we have to thank for the two never-before-seen miracles. So great God, and eternally praised be His great Name, that He has given the people of this world such power! We are highly unworthy to see such pure miracles of God with our sinful eyes, but since God has made us worthy of Himself, let His great name be eternally praised!"

- Chapter 55 -

On the difference between Raphael's miracles and those of the magicians

1 Suetal says: "Amen! That is also my word! For no mortal eye has ever before seen such a thing! The magicians in the days of Pharaoh threw sticks which became snakes; but we were not around then! And if we had been there, we would probably have seen quite the same artificial trick that we once saw in Damascus, where a Persian conjurer threw bread crumbs onto an area of drifting sand spread out wide before him, and when the crumbs, once they had been well thrown, buried themselves in the sand so that one could not see it any more - which naturally happened in just a moment - a rat or a mouse soon rose out of the sand and ran away! This conjurer pretended that he would change the bread crumbs thrown on the sand into rats and mice but I inspected the sand afterwards and found the bread crumbs quite untouched; but I also found only too visible traces of how the conjurer, without any witnesses, had kept a certain quantity of rats and mice in the sand by laying certain favorite nibbles in little holes made by him in several places, with which the rats and mice placed there remained quite quiet and comfortable until the cleverly thrown bread crumbs caused them to jump out of the holes and run away.

2 The foolish people showed the Persian magician an almost godly honor and filled sacks full of all sorts of valuable things; and when I wanted to convince some of the somewhat wiser ones of it, they called me a sinner and I had a very limited time to get away from them. I became convinced thereby that firstly magicians are quite fine old fellows, who through their knowledge and experience in the wide field of nature know how to make use of the foolishness of the many other people who live like cattle, and secondly that correctly indoctrinated foolish people can never be fully corrected even with the best will of a wise friend of humanity.

3 And in this way probably all the celebrated miracles of the priests and magicians in all Egypt and Persia will look the same, and the miraculous deeds of the Essenes will have no other appearance.

4 But these two miracles which the disciple of the great Master performed, and the wonderful healings that we have heard about which were performed by the great healer are so purely superior to all the magical deceptions, like a sun with its bright and purest light is superior to every low and deceptive swamp light. With these two miracles, as I said, every human wisdom finds its decisive end; no thinking or testing is of any further use, the omnipotence of God is working there, for whom, of course, nothing can be impossible.

5 But for us the teaching remains that we should follow all the more actively what the great healer teaches because through him, as it now begins to seem to me, an old prophecy of Jehovah will come into fulfillment perhaps even in this day of ours."

6 I say to Suetal, still not being personally recognized by the twelve: "Are you of the same opinion with some conviction?"

7 Suetal says: "Friend, my opinion is now becoming surety, at least in me! For look, I have a quite simple but sure reason to accept it! God is too endlessly good and wise to awake a man so powerfully and fill him with all His all-powerful spirit simply so that he can then heal several sick people in the flesh and make bread and fish out of stones. God certainly has another higher purpose unknown to us as yet for such a person who stands far above Moses and all the other prophets like a sun, entirely alone! Because for the very inferior purposes, to work all sorts of miracles before the eyes of curious and miracle-seeking, blind people, God, as I said, did not put such a man of God on this earth! I would like to discover in him the great Messiah of the Jews as announced by almost all the patriarchs and prophets and I am, dear friend, almost fully convinced of this!

8 However if it is not him, then I really wouldn't know for whom we should still wait, who could do even greater things and things more worthy of God! What opinion do you have, dear friend, assuming that you as a Greek are familiar with the Scriptures of the Jews?!"

9 I say: "Yes, I have exactly the same opinion as you; for I am very familiar with the Scriptures of the Jews. But now I would like to learn from your companions what they say to our quite well-founded opinion! Ribar is more or less a speaker for the other ten companions. We will ask him about it and see what sort of an opinion he will give. You ask him!"

10 Suetal says: "He should begin right away; for now he will hopefully have seen enough of his fish!"

- Chapter 56 -

Suetal's and Ribar's opinion about Jesus

1 At this Suetal turns to Ribar, plucking him at his tunic and saying: "Hey, Ribar, there is an extremely important question and issue, namely for us Jews; perhaps you can give us this not unimportant information, since you are, as far as I know, better than a lay Jew in the Scriptures. Look, we are familiar with all the great prophecies - let's say - beginning with Adam up to our days; according to these prophecies which were not simply grabbed out of the air we expect a Messiah who should free the Jews in particular as the old people of God from all the physical and spiritual evils! Well, we have seen the works of the famous healer with our own eyes and we have heard even more with our very own ears from the near presence of eye-witnesses and ear-witnesses about everything that he does and has done. I ask you whether God Himself, coming down to the earth from His highest heaven, would do more, and more wonderful things than the healer of Nazareth does! The answer to this question can only be "No"!

2 Approximately three weeks ago we were shown a house which belongs to a healer - I think with the name Joab - or maybe different - as something extraordinary, that the Nazarene had created from a positive heap of a ruin only through his will alone.

3 We were also told about a merchant near to Sichar, whose house was expanded and highly decorated in the same way.

4 The stories of healings from Genezareth are familiar to us all. We have all seen the healed brother of our companion from the mountains in the area of Genezareth ourselves and spoke to him; now we have as good as seen the extraordinary healing of the five madmen who accompanied us yesterday. The incomprehensible wisdom of Mathael, who with his companions is now discussing something with captain Julius and another high Roman, is more than a secure guarantee!

5 Now there are two more miracles carried out by a - let's say - disciple. The question: Does this not justifiably lead us to the acceptance that the great healer of Nazareth is the predicted Messiah? What do you think?"

6 Ribar says: "Yes, yes, you may be completely right! You know, I went around quite secretly with this thought, as a pregnant woman with her fruit. But that is a doubly thorny issue, both for the temple as well as for the Romans, for whom such a genuine Messiah of the Jews, as he is called, comes at a very inopportune time. But with very good reasons the temple reckons the arrival of the Messiah to be at least a couple of thousand years in the future, according to the calculations of the kabbala; they, now that things are going so well for them, do not need a Messiah at all. But the Romans must obviously prefer it if he was on their side and not on the side of the Jews!

7 So I am clearly of this opinion: One believes in silence whatever one wants in respect of the prophecies; but one no longer speaks out loud about ones beliefs any more clearly than what is already clearly evident! Now one must have very significant troubles with this belief. In general you are not on the wrong track with your opinion as well as with your reasons, but quite on the right path according to my feelings and my thoughts; but dearest friends, remain with us for now for the sake of our salvation!

8 But you, brother Suetal! Observe with some attention the young, miraculous disciple! What might he have in mind? Firstly he never goes back to his company, and secondly he looks at us always so smiling. As if we were a pair of very foolish fools. What is wrong with him? Just look, now he is turning around and positively laughing behind his hands! If the youth was not so terribly almighty, I would take him to task; but absolutely nothing can be done with such a person; for it would only be a joke for him to turn the likes of us into a very comfortable donkey, and then where would we be?"

9 Raphael says, turning around and laughing even more, and at the same time with, My permission, placing a quite healthy donkey beside Ribar: "You see, just like a real one is standing beside you now!"

10 Ribar looks around, greatly frightened and says after a while of ever more terrible amazement: "Oh, oh, oh, what is this then?! Where did this well-fed donkey suddenly come from?"

11 Raphael says: "From the same place that the fish came from! But now I am asking you, for which reason do I embarrass you? Have I ever done you any sort of harm?"

12 Ribar says: "Dearest and at the same time most beautiful young friend! Look, you are too all-powerful for us and you look a little like a scamp; so we have a singular respect for you and we become quite terribly fearful and afraid in your presence! But because you are already here and do not want to go back to your companions, come closer and describe to us at least what the great divine master of Nazareth looks like; for our souls are never satisfied hearing about the incomprehensible miracles that you have performed before us! If you, and that is not at all to be doubted, know how to speak as well as you perform purely divine miracles, open your beautiful mouth and speak, describing his outer appearance!"

13 Raphael says: "If I could, I would be glad to do it; but I may not, despite all my omnipotent power which I have from the eternal Master of all things, to give the game away before the right time.

14 It annoyed you all, and in particular you, because I was forced to smile at you. I assure you that there was no so-called roguishness in it; for there are often situations among mortal people, particularly among those who are still walking in the twilight, when a spirit enlightened through and through, as I am, cannot hold back a smile. For me, for example, I am always prompted to smile when some very wise and correct-thinking people are standing together in a forest and in the end cannot see and recognize the forest for all the trees! Yes, friends, when such a thing happens I have to laugh, and I can do nothing about it!"

15 Ribar says, opening his eyes wide: "Are we standing in a forest and do not recognize the forest for all the trees?"

16 Raphael says: "Not materially, but spiritually yes, and that's why I have to laugh. Tell me why you fear acquaintanceship with the great Master of Nazareth so much?"

17 This time Suetal says: "You see, dear, wise disciple of the great master, we have already spoken quite openly with this friend here who called you over, for which reason we prefer not to meet him personally, and our certainly not bad wish should be kept!

18 You already are much too high for us poor sinners, and it is becoming quite terribly uncomfortable for us in your presence; for we cannot possibly have the slightest idea about your wisdom and knowledge, and so we feel very strange in your presence. But what is a disciple in comparison with his master? But if you as the youngest disciple of the great master can already perform such unheard-of miracles, what must the Master be able to do?! But we already feel very terribly uncomfortable in your presence; how uncomfortable would we feel in the presence of the great master?! We would not be able to bear it! So for the moment let's not make the personal acquaintance of the great Master.

19 Only his teaching can be of use to us, the basics of which we have already heard from your friend here; for the moment we are quite happy with it. If we ever become more perfect than we are now through the most exact observation possible of this divinely pure teaching, we will then certainly have enough holiness to make the acquaintance of the great master personally. But give the donkey conjured up here to the innkeeper for us; for we have nothing else that we could pay him in return for what he has given us!"

20 Raphael says: "Well, then give him the quite healthy beast of burden and the fish; for both the animals were created for him!"

- Chapter 57 -

The Lord promises both to call their attention to the healer

1 But now Mark comes to tell us that the midday meal is ready and that we should go to the table.

2 Suetal says to Mark: "Listen, my good old friend! You see, we twelve are totally poor and have nothing with which we could pay our bill; but look, this young disciple of the great master of Nazareth, who is staying somewhere in your house, has conjured up for us through his miracle powers one of the most noble fish of surely almost one hundred pounds and afterwards this donkey! Take these two animals into your possession instead of our unpaid debt; for what should we do with the donkey and the fish? We have already found out what they say symbolically to us as a reprimand! For a fish and a donkey, as far as we know, were never used as symbols of wisdom, rather always as symbols of stupidity! Therefore be so good and take both the animals which are certainly worth something, instead of our unpaid debt!"

3 Mark says: "I will gladly do that, although you do not owe me anything; for everything that you have consumed here and that you will consume in the future, has already been paid more than a hundred times over! But now just look around for a table; for the midday meals will be brought along immediately!"

4 Suetal says: "Friend, tell us who has so magnanimously paid the bill for us in advance, so that we can give him our owed thanks!"

5 Mark says: "I am not allowed to say that; so just content yourself with what I have said to you now!" With these words Mark moves away at My secret wink, takes the donkey at the same time and gives it to one of his sons to look after it for the time being.

6 After Mark has gone, Suetal says to Me: "Friend, is the old man not a wonderful person?! You see, there are very few such honest people to meet in this world! But who do you think might have paid the bill so superhumanly magnanimously for us?"

7 I say: "Who else, but the great Master of Nazareth?! For he never demands anything for free. Whoever does something for him is repaid ten-fold, and whoever does ten things for him is repaid one hundred-fold!"

8 Suetal says: "Yes, but we have neither done one thing nor ten things for him, and nevertheless he has already paid a thousand for us!"

9 I say: "But this Master is also all-knowing and therefore knows that you will yet do something for Him, and thus He pays you for it in advance!"

10 Suetal says: "We will allow this and will be prepared to repay such goodness of his with our diligence and great enthusiasm, if we will only find out what service he wants from us!"

11 I say: "Yes, you see, in the end it will be necessary to enter into a closer acquaintanceship with Him! In the end He might even take you to be his disciples?!"

12 Suetal says to Ribar: "That would be something! In the end we might also soon be able to bring about something like this fine young person here!? Truly, under such circumstances I would like now, if it is easily possible, to make his personal acquaintance!"

13 Ribar says: "Me too, and actually all of us as well! But the first meeting will probably be much more terrible than my former meeting with the desperate fish."

14 Suetal says: "Who knows? The apprentice often hammers much harder on the anvil than the master, in order to show that he also knows how to use a hammer. If there is a suitable opportunity during the midday meal, perhaps this good Greek friend of ours could draw our attention to him through a hint!?"

15 I say: "Oh yes, I can easily do this favor for you; but when you have recognized Him, you must behave very calmly and not make a fuss, for He doesn't like that! He looks only at the heart and is completely contented when a correct, living homage is paid to him quite silently in it!"

16 Suetal says: "Oh, we can do that, and it is also much more intelligent and wise; therefore, dearest friend, just be so good and draw our attention to him at a suitable opportunity during the midday meal!"

17 I say: "Very well, very well; that will happen! But now the dishes have already been placed on the tables; so let us go there and occupy the nearest one! You see, there under the great lime tree there are two tables! I must take My place at the long table for the sake of the high Romans; but you sit right at the next table and then we will be able to converse with each other quite easily!"

18 "Yes, yes," says Suetal: "that is the best thing to do! But I am now truly extremely eager to get to know the great man, the true Messiah of the Jews, personally for the first time."

19 I say: "Very good, but now let's go to the tables!" I go forward and the twelve follow Me; and Raphael walks beside Suetal, which makes him feel uncomfortable, so that he asks him whether he wouldn't be willing to sit at their table.

20 And Raphael agrees to this with the greatest friendliness in the world, which doesn't suit Suetal too well however, because he still has an immensely great respect for the omnipotence of the angel. But because Raphael speaks in such a friendly way with him, he gradually begins to become fonder of him and the presence of the latter doesn't disturb him nearly as much anymore.

- Chapter 58 -

Raphael as an avid eater of fish

1 People are now coming from all sides to the tables, which through the hard work of old Mark and his two sons, also trained in carpentry, have increased by four; for Mark had quite a store of boards of oak wood because of building his fishing boats, and in a moment Raphael increased them significantly for him with My permission, and so it was easy for Mark to set up a quantity of dinner tables along with benches in his orchard.

2 Raphael sits down between Suetal and Ribar. But at My table, however, at which we had sat in the same order as the day before, Mathael and his four companions were also allowed and they had to sit between Julius and Cyrenius. On My right sat Jarah again, beside her Josoe, then Ebahl and after Ebahl My disciples, respectively the apostles.

3 At the other tables of course were those who were in Cyrenius' and Julius' entourage; and the thirty young Pharisees under the leadership of their speaker, Hebram, had a long table behind My back, so that they could see My table and the twelve at the small table.

4 A suitable amount of the best-prepared fish was brought out everywhere, and there was no lack of the best bread and wine. We began to eat, and the twelve could not praise the fish enough and tucked in heartily; but Raphael consumed the most. He more or less swallowed one fish after the other, which began to surprise Suetal very much, and he didn't know what he should make of it.

5 But as Raphael lifted the last fish from the dish and laid it on his board, began to divide it into pieces and then began to push one piece after the other into his mouth with a certain haste, this was too much for Suetal and Ribar, and Suetal said to Raphael quite courteously: "Oh, dear, finest young friend, what sort of an enormous stomach must you have then that you have room in it for such a quantity of fish and so much bread?! There were certainly almost twenty fish in our large bowl; we have only eaten twelve, and you have tackled the eight largest all on your own! Such a young man and so much food?! That cannot possibly be healthy! Well, it's fine by me, and God bless you for it! Does it belong to the teaching of the great master then, that one should eat so much to achieve wisdom and omnipotence?"

6 Raphael says, laughing: "Of course not! But if I like it and it is there, why should I not eat as much as I like?! Look at the temple in Jerusalem, how many of all sorts of sacrifices are consumed daily in the name of God! Could one not ask more justifiably and say: But Jehovah is a true glutton; every day He consumes a quantity of oxen, cows, calves, sheep, lambs, hens and doves and fish and goats and many great loaves of bread and many gulps of wine and after all this powerful consumption He still has a greed for gold, silver, pearls and all sorts of valuable stones!?

7 Have you ever asked whether God is really such a glutton?! No, you have never done that; for you knew that only the servants of God are the gluttons! What are my eight fish in comparison with the hundred oxen, cows, and calves and so on?! If the servants of God in the temple can have the unpunished right to consume such an enormous amount in the name of God, why should I fast then, when I am surely more of a servant of God than the gluttons in the temple?!"

8 Suetal says: "Yes, yes, you are quite right; I was only very surprised how you, as a very tender youth, have overtaken us by far in eating and took no consideration at all of us and whether we might also have liked some of the good fish!"

9 Raphael says: "Have you even experienced the servants of God in the temple taking any consideration of whether those sacrificing have something left to eat at home? They take their sacrifices and their tithes without any consideration of whether those sacrificing might die of hunger in the next hour! And you see, they want to be servants of God, and that is what they are in the eyes of the blind nation! But you have never taken these servants of God to one side even quite secretly in your home and asked them: why are you taking so much care of my health when I have actually proven that I am a genuine servant of God?!"

10 Ribar says: "Friend Suetal, it doesn't seem good to exchange words with him! The youth sounds like Mathael and could tell us our whole life's story to our faces just like that!"

11 Raphael says: "You don't need to speak so quietly, otherwise I have difficulty understanding you, and clearly Suetal even more so!"

12 Ribar says: "Yes, yes, I just spoke too loudly!"

13 Raphael: "And you didn't want to be understood by me! You see, I hear and see your thoughts; how should I not hear your words then?! Look, that animal that I placed beside you earlier has so many similarities with you! But I tell you, if you do not first become as humble as that grey animal, you will never find the tiny door to true wisdom!"

14 Ribar says: "But tell me, friend, why did you embarrass me so much in front of so many people!?"

15 Raphael says: "I have just told you clearly that you are still so blind in your souls that you cannot see the wood for all the trees. And as blind as you were, you are still so blind now, that"s why you ate too few fish! But if you want more fish, just say so, and there will surely be abundantly more in the sea!"

- Chapter 59 -

Good and bad qualities when reprimanding

1 A third one from the party of twelve, who was called Bael, says: "Friends, let me say something for once! True, I normally speak little and prefer to hear something wise quite silently; but in all your speech very little wisdom has been seen until now. The young disciple is right in all seriousness when he makes fun of you very heartily; for I say to you too that you don't see the forest for the trees. Consider who we are and who the great party is; then thank God that we are still alive! We are pitiful, weak and quite worthless worms of the earth, and this party consists of rulers before whom the whole earth trembles; and we worms dare to exchange words with them in the most foolish way!? Why were you embarrassed, friend Suetal, that this high, miraculous and truly omnipotence youth just consumed eight fish before our eyes?! Are we not being fed for free then, and didn't we eat enough? I believe: Since we have now been satisfied more than enough, what more can we want? If the nature of this youth is so created so that he has to eat more than we starved rogues of the temple in order to be satisfied, we have no right to cast a critical eye on this! For firstly he didn't eat from our bag, and secondly it was extremely unseemly on your part to call him to account in this way! I beg you, become more astute! All the elements obey this disciple, and you speak to him as if he was your equal. Oh you truly foolish donkeys! He deserves all our honor more than the prophets of old, for the sake of the Spirit of God which moves through him, and you treat him like an equal of yours! When you have to enter the temple before the high priest, you shake in sheer awe; here there is a million times more than a thousand high priests on one spot, and you behave like a couple of the very greatest idiots! Tut, tut, you should be ashamed! Be silent, listen and learn something; only then speak to people who are less wise than you! But leave the divine disciple in peace; otherwise I will have to become rough with you in the name of all the other brothers who sit here at this table!"

2 Raphael says: "You spoke well, it is true, dear Bael, but such crude reprimands are never in order because they do not have love in the background, but a hidden arrogance. For when you reprimand your brothers so roughly, you burn with anger, become infuriated and you talk yourself into a rage and then you cannot do anything good; for grapes and figs do not grow from thorns and thistles, and no grass appears on a burnt patch for a long time.

3 If you want to lead your brothers, you must not grab them so tightly at the arm like a lion its prey, but as a mother hen leads her chick, so you should do with your brothers; then you will be accepted by God because you acted according to the order from heaven.

4 First always test the power and strength of love, what it can do, and how far it extends! If it should be shown that in its softness little or nothing is achieved, only then cover the love with the clothing of full seriousness and thus lead your brother in deepest love, holding him tightly until you have brought him onto the correct path! Once he is standing on it, then uncover your love and the brother will eternally remain your heavenly friend full of thanks! And that is better because it is in God's order for eternity."

5 Bael opens his eyes wide at this reprimand, and Suetal and Ribar press Raphael's hands in sheer joy; for they were well pleased to have found a representative of their human rights in this supposed young disciple.

6 But the young disciple says to them: "Friends, gratitude for a good service is good if it has a good reason; but if the reason is not fully good, yes, actually more bad than good, then all the rich gratitude is not a jot better than the reason itself!"

7 At this comment by Raphael, Suetal and Ribar open their eyes wide, and Suetal asks Raphael: "But, dearest young friend, do tell us what you mean!? It seems to us that you are not at all satisfied with our gratitude!"

8 Raphael says: "You see, according to the order of God everything in a person must be in God"s full order. Pure love as the basis for all life just as in God, so also in a person, must shine out of every action. You are now grateful to me for reprimanding Bael, because his reprimand directed at you was not based on reasons of love, but of anger, which is a child of rage and revenge. Bael had clearly injured your pride and you were burning with anger in your hearts about it and you were cultivating the desire that Bael would be given a very rough reprimand for it. And you see, such a wish is the youngest child of the thirst for revenge which belongs only in hell! But now I forestalled your desire and showed him clearly the wickedness of his reprimand, and you both took joy in this and were thankful to me for it.

9 But your joy did not stem from the fact that I had brought brother Bael onto the correct path of the order of God, but because I dealt him a heavy blow on your behalf and in your opinion, whereby your thirst for revenge was slaked a little and you have another reason to reproach him in order to often slake your thirst for revenge. And you see, because your gratitude was based on such a reason, which is bad because there was no love in it, the gratitude itself cannot be good!

10 Oh, but if your gratitude is the fruit of a genuine heavenly joy that a somewhat confused brother has been put back on the correct path, then it is also a fruit of the order of heaven, which is called love, and is for this reason good.

11 If you want to be true children of God, as you have been called, any reason must never prompt you to commit an act which is not based in all its parts on pure love; there can be no trace of anger, a thirst for revenge or even the slightest gloating in your hearts, for that belongs in hell and not in heaven.

12 You see, if in your house a brother lay down severely ill in his body and was in great danger of death through the illness, whereby you could lose a dear brother, causing great sadness, you would surely offer everything in order to help your brother from his suffering and to save him from the danger of death! What a joy would you have if your brother became better from hour to hour through your effort!

13 But if you feel such a joy over the physical improvement of your brother in yourself - how much more will you, as children of one and the same Father in heaven, rejoice when a spiritually sick brother who is standing on the way to possible eternal destruction is healed again and given eternal life? Do you agree or not?"

- Chapter 60 -

Suetal shows himself to be a chatterbox

1 Suetal says: "Friend, no person of this world speaks as you do! You must be a higher being from God's heaven! Are you actually the great healer of Nazareth himself?"

2 Raphael says: "Oh, not at all! I am eternally unworthy to even untie His shoelace! I am quite high up according to the spirit, but now according to this likewise earthly body I am only what and who you have gotten to know me as!"

3 Suetal says: "But now, since we, like many other guests, have already eaten, I would like to get to know the heavenly master in order to show him my deepest honor!"

4 Raphael says: "I have not yet been empowered to do that; when the right time comes, you and your brothers will recognize Him! But look, there are still some impure things in your hearts! You must recognize that and avoid it as such and get rid of the fact that you, as a consequence and from the moment on when you recognize the dishonest part, never again do it in any opportunity; then you will be suitable to recognize the great Master completely!

5 But now pay attention everyone! The Friend with whom you spoke earlier will now, judging by His looks, make a speech; for I have noticed that the supreme governor Cyrenius, sitting beside Him, has just asked him something - and look, when the great people speak, the little ones must be silent and listen when such a thing is allowed! Therefore we will now be silent and let our great neighbor speak for once!"

6 Suetal asks Raphael once more: "Could you, dearest young friend, not tell me, who is the good friend who wants to speak now?"

7 Raphael says: "No, not now, for now we must be silent and listen! For when he begins to speak about something seriously, it is always of the greatest interest to listen to him! So from now on, until he has said everything, no more loud word at our table!"

8 Suetal and all the others make do with this and wait with impatience for the beginning of My speech. But I couldn't begin My speech sooner until Cyrenius had finished with his very weighty questions about marriage, adultery, divorce and sleeping with a virgin who was still single.

9 Suetal asks after a few minutes of silent waiting: "Well, when will he begin then?"

10 Raphael says: "But you blind and deaf person, don't you see then that Cyrenius has not finished asking his question!? Or can one begin to speak and answer a question before the question has been fully asked?! Be patient, the answer will follow shortly!"

11 Suetal is satisfied with this decision for the moment, but Cyrenius extends his question through all sorts of side-comments, and I cannot get to answering. Cyrenius speaks quite quietly for the sake of Jarah, who is sitting nearby, so that our neighbors naturally understand very little of the question and begin to get bored, because they cannot hear a loud word from any side; for with the Romans it was a major tradition that thousands would be silent if a high person made a motion to signify to the others that he wanted to speak.

12 Now several minutes pass again, and I am still not speaking; Suetal says to Raphael: "My friend, both men speak so quietly to each other! We will not benefit much from this perhaps very wise conversation and we could begin to speak about something amongst us, which would even be desired by our neighbors! For if such great lords speak silently between themselves they make the surrounding little people understand that they don't want to be heard! We are therefore wrong if we are completely silent and thereby lay our bad manners before them; thus we should talk about something!"

13 Raphael says: "Look, look, what a sharp one you are! - Look over there, a second serving of well-prepared fish and bread are coming to this table, and several beakers full of the best wine, because you have all been left hungry because of my significant appetite!"

14 Suetal says: "God be praised therefore; for I, at least, have some emptiness in my stomach! The fish which I consumed earlier was not one of the larger ones, and there was actually no significant abundance of bread at our table, and so such a second helping is only too welcome."

15 Now Mark had come to our table with the desired second helping and said: "Forgive me, dear friends! This table was much less richly served than the others earlier, and so I have let another helping be prepared from my large store. God the Lord bless it for all of you!"

16 At this everyone except the angel reach hungrily for the dish and consume with haste the very well prepared fish, they don't spare the bread either and start on the wine. It doesn't last long and the table is fully freed of its new load.

17 When they have cleared the table without the help of the angel, Suetal says: "All praise alone to God the Lord and the only good Father of angels and people! Now I am as satisfied as I have not been in the last half year! Now I can be silent and wait with all patience for the promised speech by the wise Greek, who probably is a secret advisor of the high governor of Coelesyria and respectively the governor of all Asia. But the speech by our young friend makes us wait a long time!

18 The governor is not finished with his certainly very complicated question and the other cannot give him an answer sooner before the governor is finished with his certainly very important question! That will last still another long time! Also the thirty young Pharisees and Levites are perking up their ears! But it'll be a long time before the speech!

19 I like the young girl quite well; but she seems to be head over heels in love with the Greek! She never turns an eye away from him and seems to read all sorts of things in his eyes; she has no eye for the young son of the Governor, although he sits beside her officially clothed and, as it seems, is beginning to get bored! Oho, now another four pretty maids are coming out of the house! That must be the daughters of the innkeeper! What will they do now?!"

20 Raphael says: "I think that you, friend, are a gas-bag and cannot be quiet at all! Don't you see then that the house maids are coming to collect the empty dishes in order to clean them for the evening?! Are you then of such a limited spirit that you don't see this at first sight? Truly, you will not be like Mathael for a long time yet!

21 Try once more to see if you can be silent and think just in silence; for a certain inner rest is necessary to awake the spirit, without which this very important act of life can never become fulfilled reality!"

- Chapter 61 -

Raphael's teaching about reflection in one's own heart

1 Raphael: "Look, let's take the inside of a house. Everything has long been in the greatest disorder; its rooms are full of dirt and all sorts of feculence. But the lord of the house always has something to do outside and therefore never takes time to clean the inside of his house; but since he has to take rest during the night and breathe the impure air, he becomes ill and weak and hence it will be difficult for him to clean his house and recover in the bad air.

2 And you see, your heart is likewise a house for the soul and above all for the spirit! But if you are always active on the outside, when will you clean your house of life so that your spirit will thrive in the good air of your soul?

3 So for the thriving of the soul and the spirit, whatever you do, external rest is essential!"

4 Suetal says: "But Mathael said that life is a battle and one cannot achieve it in the comfortable rest of the flesh; Mathael speaks differently from you, and you now speak differently from him! Who of you is right?!"

5 Raphael says: "I and Mathael! Life is certainly a battle, but not an exclusively external one, but a quite powerful inner one against the outside! The external person must in the end be completely conquered by the internal, otherwise the inner person dies along with the external! Let the inner person put a bridle on your fleshly tongue, so that it will rest and let the inner tongue of thoughts of the soul become active and recognize how misty and unclear things are in your house of life!

6 Do not concern yourself with all the external appearances of nothing; for little depends on whether one understands their reason or not! But in the true celebration of the Sabbath recognize the true reason for the inner life of the soul and the spirit; everything should matter a lot to you and to every person!

7 What use is it to you, if you know so well and feel that you exist and you live, but you don't know in the next moment whether you will still exist and feel that you are?! What use is all knowledge and such high sciences if you don't recognize your own life and know nothing about it's foundation!

8 But if you want to recognize your innermost being, you must direct you sense above all towards your insides, just as your eyes must turn to where you want to discover something; how will you see the sunrise if your eyes are turned towards the west?! Do you not see, you, who were a rabbi yourself, that you are as blind in your own sphere of life as an embryo in its mother's womb?!"

9 Suetal says: "Yes, yes, yes, I see that very well and we will all now be silent like a statue of stone!"

- Chapter 62 -

Risa's worldly wisdom

1 At this it becomes silent at the table, but the thirty young Pharisees and Levites become annoyed with one another because their speaker, Hebram, has also ordered silence. Particularly annoyed is a certain Risa, whose parents possess a lot of property which he would inherit after their death as their lone heir. He prickles when Hebram reminds him that he should rather consider the wise words of Mathael and in particular those of the healer of Nazareth in peace and silence than to whet his mouth about his futile inheritance.

2 But Risa makes the dirty counter comment to Hebram, saying: "The poor devils in the end constantly become pious and reach all wisdom because they know that they don't have much to expect from the world; and the great people and the rich also sometimes become pious and wise so that they can lead the violent poor devils easily back to gentleness and patience and in the future humbly accept their very pressing poverty!

3 The rich man goes to the synagogue and prays in the face of the poor man in order to make him believe how pious one must be to be so blessed by God; and the poor man prays just as much, firstly, in order to be blessed by God, and secondly, so that the rich man sees and therefore gives him alms. What is the difference between the two? There is no difference! For the rich man deceives the poor man and the poor man as much as possible the rich man, in order to receive something from him. But no-one deceives me, not even a miracle-worker; for the miracle-workers know very well for whom and why they perform their supposed miracles! If they are very great masters of their art, they are positively honored as higher beings and thus become rich and powerful!

4 Briefly, it is easy to be a painter for the blind; you paint a bear for them and say: Look, that is an attractive virgin! And they believe you. But if someone performed a miracle before me, he would nevertheless not deceive the eagle-eyed Risa and would deserve and receive no alms!

5 Everything in the world is deception; whoever can do it most skillfully is always the highest up! But whoever is somewhat less skilled in his deceptions will never make great progress on the bumpy road to happiness!

6 Happy is only he who right from the beginning is the rich owner of all sorts of goods and of the greatest possible perspicacity so that a bear cannot be painted before him instead of a tender virgin! That is my healthy opinion of the world and all its relationships without being befogged by any poor cunning devil! So it has always been and so it will always remain!

7 But don't even talk to me about an eternal life after death! For what follows, every grave as well as every tree in a forest that has fallen through old age, shows us. Whatever comes out of the earth, becomes earth again and otherwise there is nothing - except the pious imagination on behalf of the poor devils that are willingly supported by the rich!"

8 Hebram, as already mentioned, is very appalled at such comments and says to Risa: "So for you Moses and all the great and small prophets are nothing more than either real or invented deceivers of the blind humanity and the present healer of Nazareth means not a lot more to you?!"

9 Risa says: "If not an evil deceiver, then at least a better sort of deceiver; for everyone knows very well how to present to the blind people, if not a bear, then at least an ape instead of people, and an X instead of a U!

10 As far as the healer of Nazareth is concerned, however, he certainly became very familiar with the secret powers through study; he can now use them; and we look, as the uninitiated, like an ox at the new gate and don't know what is going on!

11 But his teaching is good; for if all people had such a religion and followed it, in the end it would have to be good for all people! But who will announce such a religion to all the people on the wide earth? And if that was somehow done, I ask: which unconquerable troubles and hindrances would such a job encounter?!

12 For in all things people are more accessible than in the area of their diverse religions and faiths!

13 The average person is everywhere much more animal than human. He lacks every higher intelligence and he will not lift himself from out of his thousand-year reasoning despite all its tangible duplicity and sweet foolishness; but the more intelligent person will think: It's good to live according to the old foolishness, why have something new of which we have no experience as to how it should be accepted, and how to live by it? Therefore such enlightenments are suitable only for individual places and should be kept as secretive as possible so that they should keep the value which makes at least a few people happy from the wider world; once such a thing goes into the general public, it loses its value, soon becomes laughable and then no-one pays any attention to it any longer. Whatever a - let's say - person can effect, thousands then copy him once they have been only a little initiated in the business!

14 And so, I think, this otherwise good master from Nazareth will also soon leave his mark, particularly when he has taught his secret sciences to other people, as we have just seen with the young, fine person who has already achieved a masterful capability in miraculous works!

15 But if a disciple already performs such unheard-of things, what remains then for the master to do?! If the disciples can be obediently silent, then at least a profitable institute can be created if it isn't spoiled by the rulers of the world; for these willingly support such institutes, which are quite suitable due to their extraordinary effect, to hold the nation in control through great prophecies in the other life to come, consisting usually of reward or endless punishment.

16 But as soon as such secret knowledge comes to a nation and the truth is told, then it is over! Finally everything is criticized and mocked, no person thinks anything of it any longer and every previously inspiring noble value is irrevocably lost, and people devise something even more extraordinary but usually cannot find anything more as long as they remain bright. Only after centuries, when some old, sweet foolishness has set in again, can any adventurous smart fellow subjugate some small nation for several centuries if he sells himself cleverly. But if he presents himself even a little stupid, he will soon have to see how he can escape with his skin intact.

17 You see, I am truly no prophet - as there has probably never ever been before - but I dare to claim now that the temple with its formidable fleecing will hardly remain another century, despite all its supposed care! For once such an institution becomes too profit-seeking, it betrays itself, loses its halo and that's the end of it! But two thousand years seem to be the longest term that a doctrine can last; then it falls back into obscurity, and one can only get to see individual bits of it in some chronicle or other.

18 Only the art that the old Phoenicians are supposed to have invented, and which was much expanded by the Egyptians and the Greeks, can never pass away because it contains truths which are very reasonable for everyone, most useful and therefore they are indestructible.

19 But every other religious doctrine which demands all sorts of sacrifices from the people and, if one has picked it up, offers no other advantage than that it makes quite a few sick people healthy again and in emergencies can perform other little miracles, cannot last! For in the first place it does not rest on any mathematically provable basis, and in the second place it never remains, even with the best insurance on behalf of its founder, as simple and pure as it was when created by its founder.

20 Usually one begins with all sorts of explanations because every founder of a religion is more or less a subscriber of old mysticism and fills up his otherwise often very wise religion with all sorts of incomprehensible mystical scraps which he probably has not even understood himself at first and which his followers can understand even less. Then gradually a religion becomes wider and wider, the old mysticism in it becomes more and more mystical, great halls are built and all sorts of ceremonies are performed with an awfully serious face in order to make the old holiness of a once very simple religion all the more obvious and vivid. But that is all of no good, for in time the eyes of the people are opened through all sorts of appearances from the realms of nature and healthy reason, and then all the old religion is as good as finished; for the pieces that still remain here and there can never be joined again into a complete whole. You see, that is my opinion which I nonetheless do not want to and will not force upon anyone."

- Chapter 63 -

Hebram's speech points out Risa's error

1 Hebram says: "Friend, many times already I have heard the matter presented in the way you have now quite sensibly presented it; but it does not apply here, for over there is sitting more than a usual magician who is well-versed in all Persian and Egyptian conjuring!

2 Just think about Mathael"s speech and the deeds, teachings and speeches of the great Master himself, and it must be clear to you that you are on the wrong track despite all your seemingly very healthy reason!

3 I also know a little about magic and know the various methods of Persian and Egyptian magic; but to carry out everything that has already been carried out here, and all the teachings that we have already heard here, point clearly to a higher origin than we are capable of imagining at present.

4 That disciple over there with the twelve transformed a stone into dust on the table before our very eyes, put the dust back together into the previous stone and finally made it vanish. And as he then made bread out of the stone, then the fish which we can still see, and in the end produced a complete donkey in optima forma, friend, those are appearances of quite another sort to those few empty and meaningless little miracles by a few Persian magicians whom we saw in Damascus! Whoever there could only count a little more than 'one plus one' was easily in a position to grab the deception with his hands and make an explanation in optima forma; but who can create another explanation to that which Mathael gave us about the sole power and strength of the basic life in and from God?!

5 Therefore you are acting very wrongly here if you put what is here into the familiar category of tiresome deception, as you are very wrongly doing right now, when you put Moses and all the other prophets into the same category; for Mathael has shown us amply what is hiding behind the great liberator of our nation from the hard yoke of the Egyptians.

6 Moses was such an extraordinary spiritual leading light before God and before people that until these times the earth has nothing greater to show. But here, friend, He sits in human form, before Whose most holy countenance the great Moses hid his face; thus it is extremely unwise of you to speak about Him as if about an ordinary person!

7 Count the guests who are fed here three times a day with the best and most noble fish which have no bones, with bread, wine and all sorts of fruit, with honey, milk, cheese and butter! But at the same time consider that our host is basically a poor person, rather than rich! His ground is three yokes large, has only a few fields and these are, as we can see, very stony. The fishery is still the best; but what can it do for so many guests? We must be about four hundred men in all now, and everyone is completely satisfied. Add to this the many beasts of burden of the Romans and Greeks, and none suffer any need. But if you go into the larder of our host, you will find it stuffed full of all sorts of fruits and with a mass of the very best bread, and the deep cellar in the cliff is so full of wine that we would never finish it in a year even if we tried hard! But if you then ask the truly honest and truth-loving host how he came to all this, he will answer you with nothing more than: Only through wonder upon wonder on the part of the great Healer of Nazareth!

8 But if this is so, who can dare to claim that this is all a deception which the powerful people of the earth have cooked up in order to thereby deceive the blind and foolish crowd and to make them more submissive and eligible to pay dues?! I tell you: There is more here than the understanding of the wise men of the earth will ever comprehend; here God"s power prevails, as it already prevailed now and then on the earth and will still prevail in the future! If even your healthy reason does not understand that, it is nonetheless just as I have told you now; but go there and assure yourself of everything, and then say whether we are dealing with natural things!"

9 Risa says: "Yes, yes, if it is so, then certainly I am obliged to retract many of my claims, and I do not want to deny Moses and the other prophets their divine value; but this one thing remains true, that in the end no teaching in its purity, even if it was of a very divine origin, lasts even a few centuries!

10 Moses was still on the mountain and heard there the orders of Jehovah, and the people in the valley danced around a golden calf; but what a quite different face Moses" teaching received when King Saul stepped into the place of the judges, and how different again everything began to look under David, and how it changed under Solomon and his followers?!

11 Constantly something pure and divine fell by the wayside and was replaced by worldly human statutes, so that effectively only the names have come down to us, otherwise the whole of Moses has almost totally disappeared; only what gives the temple servants a certain divine halo has been kept. They have kept the penitential function in order to be able to torture the poor people from a certain divinely authorized bossiness; but the actual divinity has been eradicated long ago; no one cares for grey and hairy penitential robes for the sake of the ten commandments of God any more. Adultery among people who are very rich is still accepted because such people must buy themselves off from getting stoned with a lot of money. They then only receive a so called accursed water to drink which does not make their stomachs burst; for such sinners can still be well used many times for the many needs of the temple! But if the high servants of the temple commit adultery, no-one pays any attention; only if a poor devil commits adultery at some point, he will then certainly be stoned quite pertinently.

12 But now we read with what an unheard-of effort of divine power and strength the ten commandments were given by God to the people under thunder and lightning which makes the ends of the earth quake, and how such a divine seriousness of fear was repeated many times throughout several centuries. How often has the nation been warned by God according to the Scriptures of the great and lesser prophets! However, what use was all that for this time? We know how things now stand, and I don't need to tell you anymore! Truly, if there is any sort of hell, it cannot look any worse!

13 But if his supposedly purely divine revelations only bring such fruits to sorry show, as we now see it among the Pharisees; I then ask every man with a healthy brain whether it will be difficult in the end to give up all beliefs in whatever natural divine revelation and providence!?

14 What you have said here about the great Savior is all correct and true, and his teaching may also be crowned with better success than all the religions until now; but I would like to be a witness after only half a century with my present consciousness and see what a face then this new religion will have in general, assuming that its actual observance is obeyed like all the previous ones by the free will of the people!

15 Only one leader at the head in the beginning, and in a thousand years it will seethe with such leaders who will not forget their stomachs during reading of this pure religion! Tell me whether I am so much on the wrong path with my opinion as you just said!"

- Chapter 64 -

The divine order and our understanding of the world

1 Hebram says: "Yes and no! In this purely earthly human way you are correct, in my opinion, but according to the purely divine you are very wrong and are therefore still on the false path; for God's plans look different to ours. You see, if we had placed the stars in the firmament we would also have placed them there more regularly; but God, the single All-mighty, placed them there as spooky little lights! Why so?

2 Look at the grass of the field, how weeds are mixed among it! Why is there no order in which our symmetrical sense could take some kind of mathematical pleasure?! Wherever you may turn your senses, you see much more chaos than any symmetrical order in all creation! And nonetheless the Creator must also understand symmetry; for the most tangible all-convincing proof of this lies in our human form. If the good Creator is capable of observing the highest symmetry in one way, but on the other hand seems not to take the least consideration for it, there must certainly be a very unknown reason to us worms of the dust from which the Creator observes on the one hand the highest symmetry and on the other hand the very direct opposite! But why is one year then not like the next, why is one day not like the next?

3 You see, if you look at the thing like this, the so-called symmetrical healthy human reason must find some things with which it could find fault with the obedient sharpness of its fake light; but then comes the great Master Himself and says: Trickster, you can judge only as far as your effort goes, but no further!

4 But as we see that there in the great Creation of God a seemingly highest, purely chaotic disorder is connected to the highest order, likewise it seems to me it is also connected to the various revelations of God to the humans of this earth. He as the sole creator knew best what was the most suitable in the various time periods and for the various peoples for their spiritual development.

5 But with time from certainly very wise reasons He also lets a once given religion likewise fade away, as on the face of the earth countless weeds and flowers fade; but the seed which develops out of the flower like the pure, living truth, does not fade away, but remains living on and on.

6 But if we see that the Creator, with time, lets all the beautiful exteriors decay for a time and in the end uses all care for the development of the inner life with all the living things that are known to us, can we wonder if we see this happen with the revelations?

7 Without an earthly word no pure religion can reach us; but the external word is already materially there and in the end must fall away when the innermost pure spirit has developed. And so in the external religions the external splendor necessarily transforms over time always into something more unpleasant; but in the background the purest spiritual strength and truth of an earlier revelation by God to man develops more and more. Is that not so, friend Risa?"

8 Risa says: "Brother Hebram, I marvel at you! By God, you have now changed my whole way of thinking with your truly wise speech, for which I truly owe you thanks! It is truly as you have told me; I may think as I like, I find the issue constantly more clear! In brief, you have been victorious over my reason in every way! I owe you very many thanks."

- Chapter 65 -

The Lord gives tips for living to beginners

1 Here I turn around and say to Hebram: "Well, well, you have already made great progress in wisdom, as you all have; truly, one can take great joy in such disciples and they will soon be able to be used as good workers in God's vineyard! But I want to draw all your attentions to one thing, and it consists of this:

2 You now resemble the spring flowers which majestically raise their heads in the spring quickly over the dead earth. If no frosts come straight away, such active flowers are then quite happy; but if a few days of shivering frost follow some warm days, as usually happens in the spring, such early flowers let their beautifully adorned heads hang and often wither completely.

3 I tell you: A person often sees a truth clearly; but if dull clouds, heavy with all sorts of testing storms, often begin to lift over the mind of a person, it becomes duller and duller in the person's heart, and it no longer sees some things that beforehand were so clearly illuminated for his soul.

4 Therefore keep in yourselves what you have now experienced and lift your already decorated heads only over the ground of the earth of your external humanity when the testing frosts are over; truly, then your knowledge can no longer be destroyed by any evil white frost!

5 But everything takes time until it becomes sound and durable; also with the science of man. In a good situation some things are quickly learned and understood as well - but other apparitions are just as quickly forgotten again! So understand everything that you hear with your mind more than with your brain, and then it will remain!

6 When you look at a flower, you surely take great joy in its beautiful shape; but what use is such a joy, which is necessarily as transitory as the flower which awoke such joy in you?! The strength of the flower must be deposited in the depths of the vase in which the living seed is tended and cared for, however, and so your external joy must also wither away and its strength must descend into the deepest ground where the eternal life of the spirit is tended and cared for; then a joy about its true inner beauty will be created, which lasts eternally in the spirit, where no hoarfrost can harm it.

7 But now pay good attention; for I will now illuminate a little more each piece about which Cyrenius desires nearer enlightenment!"

8 But at this I turn to Jarah and Josoe and say to them: "And you, My very dearest little children, can now go into the kitchen to the daughters of our Mark for a little while, they will be able to tell you some things that they have experienced during their cooking over the last several days, which will do you good to hear; for what I will now say to the guests is like bread that is as hard as stone, and you need very strong and well-formed teeth to be able to chew such a hard piece of bread so that it does not irritate the very sensitive stomach of the soul and cause it pain and damage. Later, when the teeth of your mind become stronger, such things will also be shared with you!"

9 Jarah does not like to leave her seat, but Josoe says to her: "Come, dear Jarah, just come with me cheerfully! For whatever the Lord wants, we must always do it with a joyful heart; you understand such a thing even better than I, so get up now from your seat and come with me according to the will of the Lord!"

10 At this Jarah gets up and goes with Josoe into Mark's house, where they are very friendly by his daughters, according to the tradition of the house, and one word soon follows the other, and the children amuse themselves quite comfortably and instructing each other mutually almost until evening.

11 But I turn now to Cyrenius and say: "Well, dearest friend, you can notice what I will give you as an explanatory answer to your quite drawn-out question; you should then stick to it and everyone that hears it!"

12 Here Suetal wanted to whisper yet another cheerful remark about the fact that I would finally begin to speak; but Raphael motioned to him seriously to be silent, and he was silent then, and I began to speak further:

- Chapter 66 -

The Lord's speech on the role of the genders

1 "You see, the conception of a person is a peculiar thing! In order to produce a correct and healthy fruit, two mature people, namely a man and a woman, must have a correct kinship of souls between one another, without which they will achieve with difficulty or often even not at all a fruit through the familiar act of reproduction.

2 Now if a man and a woman are of a similar nature in their hearts and in their souls, they should then take part in this act of reproduction, wedded and according to the order that is easy to find in nature, in order to achieve a living fruit in their image; more than is necessary for this goes against the order of God and of nature and therefore is an evil and a sin, which is not much better than those of Sodom and Gomorrah!

3 If a man has a lot of semen, well, he should put them in another field, according to the decent way of the old fathers and patriarchs, and he will not sin. But if he goes out secretly in order to satisfy his desire with maids who sell themselves and in this way to enjoy himself without the creation of a fruit, he commits quite certainly a crudely sodomite sin against the divine order and against the order of nature!

4 Only a young, fertile man, if he is seized too much by the sex appeal of a girl so that he is hardly master over his own senses, can sleep with a virgin, with or without conception; but after the act he must then do what Moses decreed for this case. And if a fruit is conceived from such a conception of need, he must provide the virgin ten to one hundredfold of what he would owe according to Moses if no fruit had been conceived; for a virgin brings such a person a great sacrifice of life and death! If a man can marry such a virgin, he should not fail to do so; for as I said, she has brought him a great sacrifice and freed him of a numbing burden.

5 But as a consequence such a fertile man should take a proper wife immediately and if need be also a concubine, with the permission of the legal wife, so that no discord or discontentment arises; but if such a man can abstain, he will be partake in a higher spiritual mercy in his inner life sooner than another person.

6 But how one should take a legal wife, this has already been decreed by Moses according to the order from heaven, and must remain in the future until the end of the world.

7 But you will easily see from what has already been said what fornication means and why it has been forbidden by Moses as a great sin; for everything has been decreed by God according to the divine order. Whoever remains in such an order will also reap the fruits of the blessings from above; but whoever acts against such an order will reap the fruit of the curse.

8 If any fiery passionate man cannot succeed in any natural quenching of the fire that tortures him, no matter what he does, I advise him to bath diligently in cold water and to pray whole-heartedly for the lessening of this torment, and this torment will be soon taken away from him; but any other way to quench it comes from evil and creates evil, but the evil is a sin and creates more sins.

9 At the same time all parents should be very concerned with not presenting their adult children with the dangers of attraction! For a flammable material can easily catch fire; but once the flames attack from all sides, the fire can often no longer be stopped, and there is no flame that does not claim a victim! When it is put out the damage that it has caused is soon seen.

10 Therefore particularly the virgins should be well dressed but never dressed to attract, and the young men should not give in to idleness; for idleness is always the producer of all vices and sins.

11 But whoever has taken a proper wife is bound to her until death, and Moses" letter of separation does not cancel out adultery before the order of God, if such a man then married another wife; but if the divorced wife marries, she also commits adultery. In brief, whoever marries again after a divorce is an adulterer, but whoever does not marry is not an adulterer.

12 But if the marriage is spiritually broken by him who sees a woman who is already married and harbors in his heart the plan to lead her to adultery through all sorts of tricks, even if the act is not actually carried out.

13 But if you see the attraction of your neighbor"s wife and let yourself be affected, you have committed adultery; for in this way you have made your neighbor"s wife into a whore and have whored yourself. And it is a great and crude sin before God and before mankind, even if you have produced fruit with the other wife. But naturally the evil is much greater if you have casually whored with your neighbor"s wife for the sake of blind and mute lust. Such sinners will only with difficulty partake in heaven."

- Chapter 67 -

Exceptions in cases of sexuality

1 "But if your neighbor"s wife, for example, cannot conceive any fruit from her lawful husband but she has a great longing for the awakening of a fruit within her and desires you, contact her husband! If he agrees, you can comply with such a desire without sin. If the woman becomes pregnant and after the pregnancy she again has a desire and her man agrees, you may once again show the woman your kindness, if you are single. But if you yourself are the husband of a fertile woman, you should not deprive your strength of your wife; for Moses allows you in this case to take one or more concubines as necessary besides a legal wife, particularly if the woman is infertile, but always with the permission of the legal wife. But if she becomes very sad about it, then it is time to get rid of the concubines, just as Abraham sent away Hagar, whom he had taken because of the long infertility of his wife, Sarah.

2 But if a woman has run away from her right husband into a foreign land to someone as a single woman concealing that she is already a man"s wife, then he who takes her to be his wife has no sin, even if he finds out afterwards that she is already a man"s wife, but secretly left him because of his harshness and infertility; for when he took the foreigner to be his wife he didn't know that she was already a man"s wife, and when he discovered this she was already his wife, from whom he now cannot be separated, without committing adultery, by anything but death.

3 But in such situations there have happened often very cruel cases. The new husband, if he was under the law of Moses, then tried to rid himself from the foreign wife if she became annoying by secretly going to her first husband and betraying the unfaithful and adulterous wife. The consequence was that such a wife was then stoned and both men could legally court again. That should no longer happen!

4 And I say to you: In this case a single man should not marry a foreigner before he has investigated all her previous circumstances! If he hasn't found out anything and he feels very attracted to the foreign wife, he should then take her to be his wife; and if he discovers later only accidentally the previous circumstances, he should not be a traitor to his wife, but should keep her in the good faith that he took her. But the wife can atone for her previous sin through great faithfulness towards her new spouse; for God is no unjust judge and knows how to weigh up the weaknesses of the human flesh and to take account of them. But a man who beats his wife to death is worse than an adulterous wife!

5 But assume two neighbors, one of whom could not engender a fruit in his wife because in his youth he had weakened his fertility too much through poor care, while the other neighbor, judging by his many healthy children, possesses a very powerful fertility in that he has lived everywhere and always in the best order and in his youth was kept in good chastity. What would be if the infertile neighbor went to the fertile neighbor and asked him to conceive a fruit in his wife with his great fertility in his place, and if the fertile neighbor did this out of true love for his otherwise good and trusting neighbor without having even the slightest thought of committing lecherousness with his neighbor"s wife, which would be very sinful? You see, that would be neither a sin nor even less adultery, but such an act would be even a praise-worthy secret service of love under mutual silent agreement; secretly because apart from the mentioned people no-one should learn anything about the marriage of the infertile neighbor, so that no-one will be annoyed about it."

- Chapter 68 -

On sinful sexual intercourse

1 "But if a single or an already married man gets randy with a voluptuous wife of his neighbor without his knowledge, this is a shameful whoring. Such a wife is then genuinely a whore and the randy men who whore with her are then the genuine whores who as such will never enter God"s Kingdom because such a shameful whoring consumes all the good senses in their soul and kills every spiritual element.

2 But such whoring is also no better than genuine adultery, yes, even often much worse than adultery. For in adultery such circumstances can hide in the background which alleviate the crime of this sin very much and deserve to be considered by a judge; but in whoring any alleviating circumstances can never be taken into consideration; for the stinking lecherousness is involved and deserves no usual natural consideration before the court.

3 A wife who lets herself be led to this without any provable need is bad and does not deserve the least consideration; for the weakness does not excuse her here, since each wife can achieve a sufficient strengthening through correct trust in God. But even worse is a wife who entices men herself into her wooing net in order to be lecherous with him in her husband"s absence!

4 But just as criminally shameful is a man of single status, and even worse if he is married, if he attracts women to him, has sex with them in secret and then pays them at the end of this whoring; for such a man firstly leads the women to shameful unfaithfulness and secondly makes them almost fully infertile, and thus destroys her like an evil storm destroys the fields, so that a seed can never more be planted and be of any use.

5 In quite a similar category a single man can also be placed alongside a married man, if he lets single maidens (girls) come to him so that he can commit sexual acts with them for some payment; and every girl who sells herself is as much a whore as any married woman who sells herself for money or other gifts.

6 The maidens should only be diligent and hard-working and then they will never need to say that need has prompted them to do it; for every honest man is fond of an industrious and hard-working maiden and will not let them suffer want. But if some employer is a mean and hard person, well, leave him and his service and seek another; it will not be difficult at all for an industrious and hard-working maiden to find a good service where she will certainly suffer no want!

7 At worst, however, will be those who make an active effort to induce to lewdness such hard working but immature maidens or even girls through all sorts of presents. Truly, such men, whether single or married, resemble rapacious wolves in sheep"s clothing and will reap their benefits!

8 But whoever drags a maiden or a young girl to him with violence should be judged here already! Violence may consist of whatever it likes, whether strength of hands or in enticement through very valuable presents, it makes no difference in the crime. Also the strength of speech or the use of magically numbing means, through which the female sex seemingly willingly gives herself to the randy will of the man, does not alleviate this sin at all, even if a fruit is conceived through this whoring; for such a conception is against the will of both parts and therefore does not contribute at all to the mitigation of the crime.

9 But the very most shameful whoring consists of the violation of boys and of the sullying of other limbs and parts of the female body, as are ordained by God[for that purpose of procreation], or even in the violation of animals; such violators are to be completely eradicated from all human societies for ever.

10 But in the sentence upon such crimes it should always be taken into consideration to which level of education such a whore or such a prostitute belongs; likewise it should be seen whether the randy person is not possessed by some evil spirit which drives him to do such things. In the first case the community should ensure that such a weak-minded person is brought to a place of correction in which he should be disciplined like a spoilt child until he has become another person; for once a person has conquered over the animal nature of his flesh and his understanding has become clear, he will begin to lead a purer life and will not lightly sink back into his old animal nature. In the second case, in obsession, such a whorer should also be put behind lock and bar; for such people should be removed from free human society because of the great offences.

11 Once they are in good safe-keeping, they should be healed through fasting and prayers should be said over them in My name. Once they have been healed and it shows that they have become free of their impure obsession, they then can be fully set free again."

- Chapter 69 -

Improvement measures for sexually self-indulgent people

1 Cyrenius says: "Lord, would natural means not also be possibly useful for the second case where there is not yet any spiritually strong person, about whose power of words and will such terrible spirits which possess the body of a person must bow, at least in so far as such a person could then be freed through the power of words and will of a spiritually not yet very strong person from his evil?"

2 I say: "The first natural means from the field of nature is fasting. If one gives such a person every day just about half a pound of rye bread and with it only a jug of water, in between one can give him every other day a little aloe juice, mixed according to the creation of the nature of the obsessed person with one to two drops of Henbane juice [Hyoscyamus niger, Translator] such natural assistants will be of good effect; but such things alone will not help him fully without prayer and without the laying on of hands in My name.

3 Above all the judge in such cases must constantly consider in his heart that he has before him in the criminal only a strongly confused person and no full devil.

4 But if the person is stubborn in his debauchery, but is neither uneducated nor obsessed, one can proceed quite sharply with his castigation.

5 If such a person improves and begins to abhor his sins with a good insight, then he should be treated with more love; but if such a person does not improve at all and obviously hangs on to his dissipation with pleasure - which such a lecherous buck can never mask - then he can, if he is otherwise a man of some education, either be thrust out from the community into some distant, barren land, where the great want will bring him to his senses; and if he improves, things should go better for him - if not, the desert land will consume him.

6 But if there is a person of little education and neither punishment nor fasting have any success, he can be castrated by a knowledgeable doctor, and his soul can be saved in this way. But there are some people who have maimed themselves for the sake of the Kingdom of God. So there can be some - but only in the mentioned case - who are maimed for this by the community, for in this case it is better to come into the Kingdom of God maimed than to go to hell whole! Now you will surely know how all of this which comes from the desires of the flesh should be treated in court! Only I add, that in the future it should only be judged according to how you have just heard from Me, for all time in similar court cases.

7 Moses ordered stoning and death by fire for such crimes; but the like should only be applied in extraordinary situations to the most obdurate sinners for the sake of dissuading others. I do not refute Moses, however, but I recommend to you only to proceed in all things in mildness until a too great turpitude demands extreme strictness.

8 As judges be gentle and just through true love for others, and you will one day find a tender and gentle court also; for with whichever means you measure, with the same means will you also be measured in return.

9 If you are merciful, you will also find mercy; but if you are strict and unforgiving in your courts and judgments, you will also find the strictest and most unmerciful judge one day.

10 Consider in such courts that the soul and the spirit of a person are very willing and obedient; but the flesh is and remains weak, and there is no-one who can boast of the strength of his flesh.

11 For now those who are reborn in the spirit in the true sense cannot yet exist; for people will only achieve true and full rebirth of the spirit when the Son of Man has completed in him the change in all fullness.

12 Keep these and act accordingly!"

- Chapter 70 -

Instances of lawful divorce

1 Cyrenius says: "All my thanks to You for this; for now I am quite enlightened in an affair which constantly gives me much to deal with in order to hold a correct court in such cases, and I believe that there can now hardly be a case which could bring me into doubt whether I should judge this way or that way. Only one thing crops up as a very concerning question, and it is this: Is there then absolutely no case in which one could completely dissolve a once completed marriage so that the separated parties could marry another person without making themselves guilty of the fatal sin of open adultery?"

2 I say: "Oh, yes, of course there can be such cases, for example: A man had a wife who otherwise was very well equipped with all female attraction; but at the exposure it was shown that the wife was a hermaphrodite. In this case such dissolution of the completed marriage would be put into action if it was demanded; but naturally if there are no prosecutors then there is also no judge on earth. A law should be made for this case in which such a marriage should not be made at all, and the party who knew well that he is not suitable for a maritable conjunction would be considered a deceiver to responsibility and damages. But whatever is said here is applicable for the female party as well if the male party was no complete man. If the wife leaves him and marries another, she does not commit adultery.

3 But there can also be among the men such people who either have castrated themselves because of the Kingdom of God or such who already in their youth were castrated for some worldly reason, as there are also such castrated people in the mother"s womb; all the named are fully unsuitable for marriage, and their full unsuitability decides the full dissolution of the marriage from the beginning.

4 Or one or the other married party could have such a body handicap with which the other party cannot possibly live, then the marriage would have to be completely dissolved - but only in the case that one party had not been able to find out anything about the affliction before the marriage; but if he knew about the handicap and nonetheless entered into marriage, the marriage is valid and cannot be dissolved! Such afflictions however, which allow a full dissolution of an already consecrated marriage, are: hidden possession of one or both parties, likewise a periodical madness, a covert leprosy of an evil kind, cancer boils, lice, an incurable consumption, epilepsy, full bluntness of at least two senses, gout and a pestilence-like bodily or breath smell.

5 If the healthy party had no information before the marriage that his other party was burdened with one of the just named afflictions, after a consecrated marriage he can immediately achieve full valid dissolution again and he must be allowed to do this! For in these cases the healthy part has been deceived and the deception dissolves every contract and therefore also that of marriage.

6 But if such spouses do not want to be divorced according to the will of the healthy party, the marriage must be considered valid and can later not be separated; for your saying is valid: VOLENTI NON FIT INIURIA!

7 Except for these cases, however, there are almost truly no others which could be accepted as the reason for a valid divorce.

8 In all other unsuccessful cases of marriage the marriage partners must have patience with each other until death; for if the young marriage partners had been happy with the honey of marriage, they must then be satisfied with the gall of the marriage.

9 The honey of marriage however is the worst part of it; only with the gallic parts does the marriage begin the golden seriousness of life. But this must occur everywhere; for if this did not come, things would be bad for the seed for heaven.

10 In often bitter seriousness of life the spiritual seed begins to activate and to develop, which would be stuck in the constant honey life like a fly which falls into the honey pot with all greed and loses its life from the too great sweetness of the honey. Are you now fully in the clear?"

- Chapter 71 -

Behavioral tips for married couples and judges

1 Cyrenius says: "Yes, Lord and Master from above! But there is something else, and just a little word about it, and everything which concerns marriage is then exhausted.

2 You see, if any man, who otherwise keeps a good order in everything, had a wife who was of a very fleshly sensual nature - as there are unfortunately very many such never satisfied wives. Such a randy woman demands even very often the satisfaction and calming of their flesh from their man in the day. The man says to the wife openly: You have received and now need for the time that was decided by God rest, so that you in your blessed condition do not draw any damage and any unnecessary suffering to yourself through the useless satisfaction of your flesh.

3 The sensual wife however does not want to hear or know anything about such a good lesson and demands with impetuousness that her husband fulfil her demands. If the husband fulfils his wife"s will, he does the same with obvious lack of decency and in this way commits a sin against the divine order according to your words, but if he holds her back he sins against his wife"s will and prompts her to all sorts of unnatural satisfactions or to adultery and whoring with other men.

4 On the other hand there are also types of randy bucks of men who will not give their poor demure wives any rest often even few hours before birth. There are often loud complaints; but what should a wise judge do for a correct valid claim before God and before all the better world?

5 If the normal man or the demure wife demands a divorce because of the order and the Kingdom of God, should it be given or not?"

6 I say: "Yes, according to demand a divorce can be given to one or the other party, however not completely, but nonetheless more than a separation, instead also from the mutual responsibility to care and from right to inheritance, two things which dissolve in a lesser reason for divorce only when one party distances himself completely from the other party for more than three years without any consistent reason and has no longer taken care of the party left behind, but has acted according to its own pleasure.

7 But with divorce which should follow at the demand of the good party in your mentioned case, every further usual natural claim for rights dissolves also at the same time.

8 But it can be plainly seen that the divorce is only to be given when it is demanded by the good party and the bad party agrees to it; if the latter does not agree and promises to improve, divorce is not to be given to the good party, instead a simple remark should be made and he will be recommended to have patience.

9 But if in this case the divorced spouses want to get together again in good consideration, they need no new marriage bond, but according to the will of both parties the old bond comes into full strength and a casual divorce demanded for the second time can not divide them any longer, except a separation in emergency situations.

10 But if a man has a very desiring wife and keeps his wife"s demand with soberness of his heart, his power permitting, he does not commit too great a sin against the order of God; for such a nature of a woman resembles a dry ground which the gardener must water in the hot summer time often, if he wants to keep his plants. But if then comes the damp autumn, every ground will have dampness in abundance, but the sober man should work on his wife industriously and educate her spiritually and she will bring him good fruit.

11 But patience is constantly better than the very best right.

12 However a demure wife has more right to desire a divorce because of the too great lasciviousness of her husband than a man because of the great lasciviousness of his wife; for the once blessed [pregnant] wife needs rest for the time which God has decided in the nature of the woman. No time has been decided for the man however, and therefore he needs less rest of his nature than the blessed woman; thus a blessed wife rather than a sober man is to be listened to in court.

13 With a man it can still be seen what sort of life he led before the marriage, whether a riotous youth hasn't made him sober and incompetent through much sinning. But with a woman who desires much, this question is almost not to be considered. For if she already as a girl threw herself into an indecent life for the sake of gain, her nature is already very blunted and if she should become the proper wife of a man, his desire will seem very icy; but if a woman as a virgin has been held very chaste with her hot blood, afterwards the certainly punishable reason is not to be sought in her virginity, instead in the nature of the wife, for which reason in this case the court hardly needs to be considered.

14 But against the power of nature every such wise judgmental saying is useless and if the corresponding means were to be used for a hot-blooded wife in the field of nature and a corresponding teaching of the heart of the wife, it might be better for them. You see, in this case this is how we should act. But if you have another concern, let us hear it!"

- Chapter 72 -

On testing the engaged couple

1 Cyrenius says: "You have just mentioned something about natural means; what might that consist of?"

2 I say: "Of the natural temperance of life! A hot blood is constantly more destructive in nature than a cool one; thus hot-blooded people are also more gluttonous than the cool-blooded and have an ever-growing desire for much and good-tasting meals and drinks.

3 But if such people keep moderation or are kept in moderation, in that one explains to them with a friendly heart why one is doing it for them and recommends moderation and greater leanness of food, the blood will soon pulse cooler and the sensual drive will begin to lose much of its power without the least disadvantage for the rest of the health of the body and the soul.

4 But if a very desiring wife even through longer observation of the golden moderation of nature has not received any noticeable reversal, she should take at waning moon in the evening the water of cooked Senna leaves [Senna alexandrina] with some aloe juice, about four tablespoons full, but not every day, just every third or fourth day and it will thus begin to look better for the heated nature of the wife.

5 But should this all as well as the observed good teaching bear little or no fruit, then at the demand of the husband the earlier discussed separation procedure from bed and board can be started.

6 But in any case the sober wife plagued by the randy man should be listened to ten times more - especially if she finds herself in blessed circumstances - than a man plagued by his randy wife; for a sober man has besides moral means also a number of natural disciplinary means with which he can cool his wife"s heated blood and it will not damage the hot-blooded wife if the man shows a little seriousness from his good will sometimes. Only such a person must never act from a background of grief or anger but always from the background of true love for the neighbor, otherwise he will be of no use for anything and will only cause damage.

7 But that is all in all what concerns marriage and the sins in all directions, and the world should be decided accordingly in all places.

8 There should be a legal order created by the State that marriages once consecrated should be maintained morally as much as possible, and that people who are afflicted with physical and spiritual illnesses should not be allowed to marry; for out of such marriages a fully blessed fruit can never emerge.

9 However, even with those free of affliction a test should be carried to show whether the young bridegroom and the young bride are suitable for one another.

10 If an authorized, wise examiner then finds some unpleasant facts, he should hold back the approval of full marriage and discuss the grave consequences vividly with those who want to marry, and point out to them that the valid permission for a full consecration of marriage cannot be given as long as the problems remain.

11 Also an official registrar should make those eager to get married perfectly clear about the seriousness of a consecrated marriage and the heavenly high purpose of such.

12 If it turns out thereby that those who want to marry begin to behave more and more soberly, get rid of their worldly knots so that they want to legally bind themselves only because of mutual human value, only then should such an authorized person issue the permission for a valid marriage. He should enter the oath of faithfulness in a book to show the insolubility of marriage with addition of the year and day of the marriage consecration and should constantly remain in the knowledge of the following marital circumstances - as they develop, whether positive or negative.

13 Such wise proxies for the conducting of marriages should therefore not be foreign to a community, but only locals who know the people, whether young or old, as well as they know themselves; thus the many unsuccessful marriages will thereby be prevented and there will be much blessing on such a purified community.

14 Thus it would be good to place a matrimonial court in every larger community which would constantly watch over all the affairs of marriage. Of course such a court would have to be of the highest unimpeachable character and at the head there should be a man such as Mathael.

15 This man should also observe the marriage conjunctions, so that a young man under twenty four and a maiden of less than twenty should never join in marriage. For this time is at least necessary for the full maturity for a good and in the spirit held marriage. For spouses who are too young spoil themselves through mutual sensual enjoyment, soon become disgusting to one another and the crisis is at hand.

16 Therefore all true happiness of marriage should in the future depend on the discussed marital judge; in whichever community a very wise high judge carries out his important duties things will soon be most blessed.

17 Such a high judge will then also keep an eye on the upbringing and the good discipline of the children in the community entrusted to him, and hold them in his heart and will know how to prevent all annoyances with the corresponding means; he will know how to punish the rebellious and praise and reward the diligent for all their goodness and truth, in that he will draw their attention to the blessings of their housekeeping.

18 But there he should not, as was already the case here and there, set certain awards because such external motives are not at all suitable for the spiritual education of a community; for there the members strive for good only because of the material award, but not just because of the good which alone should decide everything for a person.

19 It hardly needs to be mentioned afterwards that finally - apart from the fact that such marriages are held purely in the order of God and their fruit can rejoice in the blessing from above - also for such great nation and its anointed leader the greatest moral and physical advantages must emerge; for if a nation wants to have good servants, it must begin to educate them when they are still in the cradle, otherwise they will become wild and will be a torment for their parents instead of comfort and support in their old age.

20 But if the marriages are kept in good order, also children in good order will stem from such marriages, and such orderly children become orderly citizens, and such will then become complete citizens of the Kingdom of God in their hearts; and thus everything is fulfilled that the divine order can ever demand from the people of this earth! Is this now clear and plausible?"

- Chapter 73 -

Raphael records the Lord's speech on sexuality

1 Cyrenius says: "Yes, Lord and Master in Your spirit of eternity! Now I have no further questions to ask in this area. Only it would be very desirable that everything would be written down word by word; for this forms the basis for a complete and best constitution."

2 I say: "Look, Raphael will do it for you; so have writing materials brought to him!"

3 At this Cyrenius immediately orders his servants to bring writing materials, and they go and right away bring a large number of clean rolls of parchment as well as some copper plates for engraving. When these were brought, I call Raphael and he quickly proceeds to our table and asks Cyrenius how he would prefer to have it written, whether on parchment or on the copper plates.

4 Cyrenius says: "Things would probably be better for use on parchment, but on copper plates they could be kept better and more durably for the later descendants; but once I have the things on the parchment, I will then get a copy made on the copper plates."

5 Raphael says: "Do you know what, since it costs me no more or less effort and work whether I now write the thing once or twice, so I will write on the rolls and the plates at the same time!"

6 The twelve at the adjoining table raise their eye-brows and are now very curious to look and see how the young disciple will write with both hands at the same time.

7 Suetal says especially to Ribar, "Well, I am very curious about this double writing! The great master of Nazareth must be a competent teacher then; for I have never encountered such a great writing before. But until he has written down everything that the truly wise Greek - who certainly is also an older disciple of the Nazarene - has just said, the sun will have rather set!"

8 Ribar says: "That depends very much how quickly he is capable of writing! Perhaps he has some sort of magical advantage in writing about which we know just as little as we know about how he carried out the miracle earlier. But we have seen it and also felt it, but how and through what he carried it out we have certainly no idea! Thus we should never place in doubt any accepted fact beforehand with these people who before our eyes have achieved such great things until we have been taught by the failure of some accepted deed of another person!"

9 Suetal says: "Yes, yes, I have the same opinion, but it is just that one says something at all!"

10 Ribar says: "Brother, it is much better to be silent from now on and alone to watch and listen! Look, the boy is setting out the rolls and the plates! So now pay good attention; for he will now certainly begin to write immediately!"

11 Suetal now stands up and observes exactly how the supposed young disciple will write; but as he begins to watch more sharply, he discovers that all the rolls as well as the plates are all already fully written on. Extremely amazed about this, he calls out loudly, "No, there is no miracle above this one! We were waiting for the disciple to begin his double writing and look, he is already finished with everything! Ah, that is once completely far above all human understanding, and nothing similar has ever been heard of!"

12 At this exclamation by Suetal, all the twelve now stand up, look for the open rolls and for the small written plates, and everyone convinces themselves that both the rolls as well as the plates have been fully written with a good, pure and legible script and ask themselves quite silently: How can such a thing be possible?"

13 But Raphael notices well such amazement of his table companions and says to Suetal, "Look, that"s what the eight fish have done that I consumed and which you were jealous of me for; one must collect strength if one wants to complete a deed well! Or do you here think something different?"

14 Suetal says: "Dearest and most wonderful friend, you enjoy teasing me a little; but that doesn't matter anymore, for I see that you possess an enormous dose of the divine omnipotence and one cannot argue with you! But the eight fish have certainly not given you such power; instead alone the great divine Master of Nazareth has given it to you! So make sure that we get to see him soon! For now our heart gives us no more rest; we must see and speak to Him! - For now also we would like to see and speak to Him!"

15 Raphael says: "Be patient just a little longer, until I have ordered these writings here, then we will go and see where the great Master is hiding from the blind and the deaf!" With these words the twelve are satisfied and demand now nothing further for the moment.

16 But Raphael now puts the rolls together in a good order and gives them along with the plates to the likewise no little amazed Cyrenius, who begins to look through them immediately and cannot wonder enough at their correctness.

- Chapter 74 -

Suetal's impatience and curiosity to see the Lord

1 But while Cyrenius with great joy looks through his scrolls only as fleetingly as possible and also constantly makes one honoring face after the other, I say to Raphael that he should now free Jarah and Josoe again of their present, short banishment and should now bring them to the table. The ready servant of heaven does this now very quickly and as Jarah arrives, she says a little worried: "But, oh Lord, You My eternal only love, that was a very terribly long conversation which I was not allowed to hear any of! I really thought that it would never end before night! But to You alone all praise, it is now all over, and I have You again!"

2 But the angel in this time turned again to the twelve, of whom Suetal is the first to wonder greatly about Jarah and says: "But listen, my beautiful young disciple, what has the girl, counting hardly fourteen springs, to do with the wise Greek? She seems to be head over heels in love with the good man!? When you came in, I thought you would put the Master of Masters in our sight; but you brought this maiden in love! That means to be disappointed in one's hope! Is she also a miracle-working disciple of the great Master, and has she now received some sort of education in the house in a hidden chamber? Truly, appearances constantly pop up with you from which one becomes more stupid rather then wiser, the more one thinks very maturely about it. On the one hand miraculous deeds of the very most unheard-of sort, on the other hand appearances of quite usual human sort; so tell me how an honest person of our kind should take this thing, as I now seriously do not understand why the great master, who earlier wanted to kind of impose himself on us through the wise Greek, when we actually, as is true, didn't want to see him, will now not let himself be seen at all! What have we done then that we must do without his sight so long, or will we in the end not get to see him at all?"

3 Raphael says: "Yes, my friends, if you are so blind that on the brightest midday you don't even see the sun, then you cannot be helped! If such a person is too stupid, there is no use saying to him: Look, it is this or that! He will still not believe it; for an awakened understanding is required for belief, which in emergencies copes even on its own. But wherever the understanding of a person is still too joined to the thickest material, no hint can be of any use in anything, instead such a person must first bang his head ten times and only then he will begin to think about it why he beat his head bloody! And so it must pass! Until you become clever from out of your own damage, no God will make you clever!

4 What do you want then from the great Master of Nazareth? If something is lacking that He could help you with, or do you just want to see from pure curiosity, like the foolish people press forward to gawk at a dancing bear? Truly, the Healer is not there to be gawked at by foolish and educated people out of sheer curiosity! Truly, if your heart cannot find Him in the number here, your educated high understanding will find even less - I put my word on it!

5 Humble yourselves first in your hearts, otherwise you will not get to see the holy great Master; for His being is filled with the fullness of the Spirit of God even physically!

6 He is a lord over heaven and earth, and before His name every knee shall bow in heaven, on earth and under the earth; for His Name is holy, above holy!"

7 At these quite sharp words the angel rises, leaves the table of the twelve and takes a places again at our table, where Cyrenius thanks him again most friendly in My name for the extraordinary favor; for in the writings everything was kept, word by word, as he had asked Me and as I had answered his questions.

- Chapter 75 -

Suetal talks with Ribar about Raphael's behavior

1 But the twelve don't like Raphael's speech and so they begin to think of means how they could quite secretly recommend returning to Jerusalem, even if empty-handed; "For," says Suetal: "we have not yet undertaken anything punishable against the temple. What violence had to do with us, we can't do anything about that; but all the templars cannot investigate our innermost thoughts eternally, and so we must be taken back into the temple again and we will certainly rise in their favor if we tell them all the extraordinary things that we have encountered on our most dangerous wanderings! The high priests will listen to us with the most open ears in the world and will become benevolent to us and our luck is secured. We will then perhaps be sent out again into foreign lands; but such a thing will no longer embarrass us for we are fine old fellows and we now know exactly what we have to do and for whom we have to work on the nation!

2 But here in this strange society of conjurers or gods it can no longer be withstood! They always speak of love, as such was to be taken from the truly wise speech of the Greek; but if one asks such a miracle-worker about something, he always gives you only an evasive answer and becomes as coarse as a stubble-field! Well, he should begin to talk to me about humility, gentleness and love and then he'll get one on his head so that he will no longer be capable of answering me anything!

3 Whoever reminds his brother of humility must first be humble himself, otherwise he should first give himself an lengthy sermon on humility before he reminds his brother of humility! There the person should look once at the young miracle-worker, how rude he became with all of us in the end! How does his miracle act affect us, and what use should it be to us if we cannot imitate him?! Does he need to be so rude to us then?

4 The fact that I have made my totally non insinuating remark about the young girl after what every person here can see with their own eyes cannot offend a person who is even a little wise; for what I noticed is at least for the likes of us a quite normal human sight and is devoid of any prophetic stroke. I only touched upon the contrast that has surely occurred to all of us, in that here on the one hand it is obvious from the deeds that miracles are happening; but as far as the decent sphere of life is concerned, no normal human eye can see anything but something quite normal and natural - and my very innocent remark broke the mould of humility and gentleness so much that he firstly scolded us very harshly and secondly turned his back on us so that he avoided any retort on our behalf! Truly, such behavior belongs clearly in a madhouse, but not among people of some education and least of all in the company of sheer preachers of love, humility and gentleness! Therefore I truly do not want to be in this company for long; for there is not s more fatal being among men than he whose depths one cannot see and also cannot know how one should act with him and how far one should trust him! Truly I would not like to give these masters even the most foolish disciple for all the world! Am I right or not? What do you think about that, brother Ribar? What do you think - should we go or still remain since we are now free and from now on can enter the foreign legion or go home?!"

5 At this Ribar answers, saying: "I think that we should nonetheless still remain; for we have basically been a little chided by no old bearded man, but by the yet firmly beardless miracle youth - probably because of your pushiness about the great Master and wanting to see him!

6 My opinion is this: The youth has surely still been forbidden for whatever reason not to betray the master before the correct time; but now you have been nosing around and he has slipped out of your snare in that he turned his back on us all because you approached him too forcefully. My opinion therefore is this: that we should stay a little longer and see whether we might not still make acquaintance with the great master!

7 Certainly we feel quite particularly good here, where on the one hand we are really almost among gods, but on the other hand it all seems quite naturally human! There is of course no talk of fasting on the Sabbath; for most of those present are Romans and Greeks. One also sees little praying; but what is said often abounds with wisdom greater than Solomon's. In short, things are quite strangely mixed here; we are among people who seem to be called by God to bring heaven and earth closer together, in order to prepare in time another field for the education of the people of this earth in their spirit and with the necessary material strength! Therefore I cannot bear the youth any bad will despite all his rudeness; for such a person who shakes us up is not at all bad, because we reach insight much faster than with a hundred modest lessons."

8 Suetal asks somewhat thoughtfully: "How do you mean and understand that?"

9 Ribar says: "You shall hear that now from me quite openly!"

- Chapter 76 -

Ribar's premonition of the presence of the Lord

1 "You see, the boy in my opinion didn't call us deaf, blind and foolish quite without reason; also the donkey which he had earlier placed at our side said to us, through the deed, basically the same thing!

2 See, it seems to me more and more and now in particular, that exactly this very relaxed looking Greek is the great Nazarene! I have always kept my eye on him and so much has occurred to me about him that I wouldn't like to doubt a minute longer that it is he! Everyone turns their eye, ear and heart to him; the powerful and otherwise so relentlessly proud governor actually worships him; the youth does everything at his least hint and call, and his speech is clear and full of wisdom! Besides, I noticed how he gave the governor also natural medicine against the too great lust of the young wives; you see, only a healer can do this! In addition, his teaching, which he lectured to us, must be written down as fast as possible, and in the most wonderful way in the world! If you hold all that so nicely along side each other and you yourself will find that I am not totally wrong, and the youth neither when he called us deaf, blind and dumb! What do you think about that, and what do you all think in this respect?"

3 Suetal says: "You know, you are not totally wrong; for a little light is beginning to go on in my head! But if that is the case, then the youth really did us no wrong; for we were seriously so blind that we would not have seen the forest for all the trees! But now wait, I will keep a sharp eye on the Greek from now on, and it should soon be seen how far you are correct!"

4 From then on Suetal observes Me with great attention and besides that also the behavior of all the guests, and after a while he says to Ribar: "Brother, you might well be correct; he must unmistakably be it! For from all faces it shines clearly forth that they honor him certainly as the representative of the whole great society and not even the governor dares to do anything without his agreement! This supposed Greek must be simply an inner and wisest friend of the great master, as he presented himself to us, and thus would one give him the greatest attention!? If he had not firstly presented himself to us as an intimate friend of the great master, I would have greeted him as the great master a long time ago! But it would then have been very strange of us if we had accepted the honest man as something different to that which he said himself; for that cannot be accepted from the man so penetrated by the Spirit of God, that he, before us, quite harmless Jews, should hide or not!?"

5 Ribar says: "I see it somewhat differently, for through the fact that he presented himself to us as the great master's closest friend, he did not tell us an untruth at all if he was the actual master himself; for you see, everyone knows themselves best and therefore is one's own closest and best friend! Now if someone in a certain good mood says such a thing about themselves, there is no trace of untruth; in addition such a wise man can certainly have some hidden reason why he doesn't reveal himself immediately to some people and we will later find this out. Just look at the wise Mathael, how he is always almost moved to tears whenever he looks at the Greek! Brother, that has certainly its good and very significant reasons!

6 The great love, which the otherwise extremely spiritual looking maiden, shows to the Greek, seems to me to speak more for than against my claim. For just look at the truly super-heavenly beauty of our young miracle worker! I think that the thousand times a thousand women and maidens who are in this place must fall head over heels in love with him!? And yet the maiden hardly pays any attention to him, although he as a youth is truly a thousand times more beautiful than the maid; but she would like to practically step inside the heart of the Greek! I tell you, brother, it is not that! This maid must therefore have another reason why she is so in love with the Greek; with more exact observation it seems to me as if the maid was only in love with the divinity in him and doesn't pay any attention to his body! Just watch her eyes shining more from a certain awe than from some sort of sensual love and you will easily notice that there is no trace of any sensual love in the maid!"

7 Suetal says: "Brother, you truly do not bear your name in vain; for a fisherman must have a sharp eye! Already a hundred things occur to me which I had not noticed before; they all point to your claim. But now something occurs to me about our youth! He has been sent a few times by the great master into the house; but I didn't see him going, instead - he was there! His walk is like his writing: wherever he wants to be, he is already there! Brother, that doesn't seem right to me! If he didn't only ever do what the supposed Greek ordered, I would consider him to be the master; but since he only ever does what he is called to do by the supposed Greek, one can only consider him to be a servant and not a lord! But it is truly extremely strange how far this young person has come in the certain purely divine magic!"

8 Ribar says: "What you have now remarked about the youth occurred to me earlier; but I have, you know, noticed silently something very strange when he was consuming his eight fish, that he actually didn't consume any fish with his mouth as we do; he brought the fish up to his mouth - and that was it! The fish disappeared along with its skin and bones, likewise he consumed the bread and the wine; everything disappeared in the moment he brought it up to his lips! It was very uncomfortable for me at his side! Truly, unnoticed I looked under the table at his feet a few times; but these were always so pure and heavenly beautiful as I have never seen in my life before with a virgin, not to mention a youth! That calmed me again and I could have, if I hadn't been ashamed, looked at his wonderfully attractive beautiful feet with the blessed desire for an eternity! Truly, if an angel now came from heaven, he could impossibly stand on more beautiful feet!"

9 Suetal says: "You see, that is something that I have not noticed; but to judge by his otherwise wondrous beauty, one would have to begin to judge that he is a higher spiritual being - for his form and his special miracles seem to be almost screaming proof of it! But here we meet again the situation that he was presented to us as only a youngest disciple of the great master who has come so far in divine magic, which of course says as much as: If this youngest already achieves so much, what will the older disciples then be able to do?! At such a natural acceptance the thought that the boy is a higher being falls away; for if he was that, the present great master would have lied to us openly, and that cannot be imagined from such a man! What do you think?"

10 Ribar says: "Yes, it seems to be that way; but it seems in this sphere that before our eyes the old veil of Isis has not yet been lifted! But if the great master actually was what Mathael said about him earlier, then even an angel from heaven could be his disciple! Am I right or not?"

- Chapter 77 -

How God reveals Himself

1 Suetal says: "Yes, yes, the thing is coming together! Only the expression 'youngest' has a problem; for an angel, who has lived for half an eternity, could impossibly be a youngest disciple in comparison with the people of this earth!? If an angel was certainly rather familiar with heavenly magic before the sun shone in the firmament?! What do you think about that?"

2 Ribar says: "That is certainly a significant point on which I can get stuck; but nonetheless something else occurs to me: You see, the master can have pointed to that in that he presented the boy to us as the youngest of his disciples, just for this moment, for the reason that this boy, clothed in an earthly shell, has perhaps only been in the company of people for a number of days!"

3 Suetal says: "Yes, if that was possible, then you would certainly be correct again; but you know, accepting such a thing is really a little far-fetched! Either that or Moses; for both cannot exist alongside each other in such circumstances!"

4 Ribar says: "I don't see that at all! An angel, as is still told from mouth to mouth nowadays, could certainly be Tobias' leader for seven years; why should this one not be able to bear a number of days on the earth?! This earth is just as much a work of God as he is himself!"

5 Suetal says: "Yes, yes, if you are telling the truth and Mathael is also irrefutably correct then this youth can, worldly speaking, certainly be the youngest disciple of the eternally great master! The form and his deeds obviously proclaim a higher being from heaven; if this being says himself that he is the youngest disciple of the great master of Nazareth, this master must obviously be a Lord over all heaven according to His Spirit. But if that is true, then the great question arises, what can we do in the face of the physical very Highest and Almighty and what will we do! For that would truly be no small thing!"

6 Ribar says: "True; but could we do it differently if things were as they now seem to me doubtless to be? You see, the Deity is free and does what It wants, and the mortals cannot put any limits on It! If It had come to us as a judge, we would surely be in a bad position; but It came as a most gentle benefactor to us mortals in order to bring us nearer to It from out of the old love preached by father Enoch, and in such circumstances It is not frightful. But as it seems to me, It gives us to understand only love alone in Its genuineness, because love was certainly the single motive for Its coming here. But It cannot be recognized with understanding and with all our highly-praised reason.

7 And look, some things are becoming clearer to me! The supposed Greek came to us earlier in such a friendly way and asked us whether we wanted to make the acquaintance of the great master of Nazareth; but we spoke definitively against this with a sort of fear and countered him with all sorts of empty logical reasons. We feared the master because the disciple had already shown us how damned weak our reasons were.

8 Until now we still calculated with our reason and got very little out of it; and we have the admonition which the wise youth gave us, when his patience was running out, to thank for the quite strong speculation which is beginning to become louder and louder now in our mind. For, as I am now beginning to notice clearly, he had strongly suggested before the master's long speech that this Greek must be the Master and no-one else! But our truly pig reason had always pulled the wool over our eyes and so we couldn't see the forest for the trees.

9 Now that due to the admonition we have some love for the Greek, a few layers of scales seem to have fallen from the eyes of our soul and we now begin to make some conjectures. And I now believe that we should throw our reason overboard into the sea and follow only the feelings of our hearts, and so we will surely reach our goal faster than through our reason which was only lent to man as using a spoon for the pot when cooking a meal, namely to stir the food. But once the food in the pot is cooked, the spoon is no longer needed! What is your opinion now?"

10 Suetal says, opening his eyes wide: "Friend, I see well that you have settled on the Greek more and more. It is the same case with me, and I share your opinion completely; but I do not agree, at the moment, with throwing away reason. For if we lay aside a feeling that is bubbling inside us, what do we still have in us over the animals of the forest, which have no reason and thus must follow their instinct?

11 You see, man is often overcome by all sorts of feelings; if he followed his feelings with no discretion and without seeking the advice of his purer reason, where would he end up! Therefore in my opinion it is necessary above all to purify the reason as much as possible. For only led through enlightened reason can our better feelings become a true blessing to us.

12 The feelings of a person are like a many-armed octopus in the sea who always stretches out his many arms towards food; but there is no intelligence at all in this animal.

13 Now if a person sets his reason aside, he would obviously resemble such an animal; for the simple raw feeling of a human is more food- and enjoyment-seeking than any other animal. Only educated and purified reason rules and orders the feelings of a person, cuts out the bad ones, then keeps only the good and pure ones and, in this way, makes a true person out of the fake person.

14 Therefore you must not want to throw divine reason overboard; for without reason any donkey and any ox can rule over us!”

15 The other ten agree completely with Suetal and all share his opinion; but Ribar shrugs his shoulders thoughtfully and Suetal says: "Well, you surely cannot have anything to say against that?! For my statement stands before God and all the world as firmly as Mount Sinai on which Moses received the commandments for a nation powerfully endowed with reason!"

- Chapter 78 -

Reason and emotion

1 After a while Ribar says: "Friend, there are still some counter statements to be found against what you have just said! But because you are still a very strong hero of reason, you would nonetheless know what to respond to them again. I don't want in any way to disagree with you in this area, and the human education must proceed as you have just said. This education must constantly be a necessary forerunner for the later higher education of the spirit; but it should not be an ultimate education and it can never become that even with every most refined improvement.

2 For as reason was given us as an original regulator of our feelings for the greatest possible refining, then something correspondingly similar must lie in the thereby mature feelings like in a ripe fruit on the tree. But so that the fruit can reach maturity, the light of the sun along with its warmth was necessary, and likewise now and then a fertilizing rain. But once the fruit has become ripe, one will take it from the tree and keep it well in a good pantry, so that it will become even riper and tastier; but if you leave the ripe fruit hanging on the tree it will not gain any more from this, instead it will totally spoil!

3 And so it is certainly the case with the feelings of a person. Once they have reached the certain maturity, they must then leave the care for the external reason and be brought to a higher life's maturity out of themselves, otherwise the whole initial maturity of the feelings was purely in vain. For this reason I told you that we, since we cannot achieve anything more with reason, should throw just this external reason overboard and from now on devote ourselves to our mature feelings for further life leadership!"

4 Suetal says: "Brother, a divine breath must enter you from somewhere! For I know you; that is not your language! You are already transforming into Mathael's wisdom! Yes, look, I cannot refute anything you say; for I feel through and through that you are seriously completely correct and stand in truth! I am still not that far, but I feel that I am now progressing."

5 But now the other ten also say that they are beginning to feel the same.

6 After these conversations Raphael returns to the twelve again, claps them in applause on the shoulders and say: "So, that is correct, friends; I like you much more like this than before with your mangy reason, and I can now tell you that you are completely on the right path!"

7 After these words of Raphael, Ribar stands up, hugs Raphael with all the strength of his love, presses him to his heart and says with great emotion: "Oh, you heaven and you, my heavenly one! Why could I not love you earlier with all the glow of my life!?" For since Ribar saw the foot and the hand and the eyes of the angel more closely, he immediately fell doubly in love with him.

8 But Raphael says: "Friend, love is certainly better than no love; but it is not suitable however in the area of the soul and its innermost life. You love me for my form which is now my natural exterior; but love is actually the innermost of a person and should never depend on something external; for the innermost thereby becomes the external and thus the image of hell. Thereby the divine order of life is turned around, the spirit of the soul which is love is turned to the outside and it must thus waste away as a premature baby must waste away which is driven out of its mother's womb before time by a violent push from the outside.

9 My external form must not fascinate you, but only the truth which you take from my mouth. This will remain with you and make you free of everything and truly happy in your soul; but my present external form serves you only as proof so that you see how beautifully the full love is paired with love in its purity! Do you understand this?"

10 Ribar, standing back from his powerful hug, says: "I understand very well; but at the sight of you our reason truly becomes a mountainous burden!"

11 At this Suetal says to Raphael: "That has always been an old evil with my friend Ribar. He cannot bear a beautiful form, whether male or female, without becoming passionate; but it is all the same to me. I also like a beautiful figure clearly better than an ugly one but I never become passionate about it! So up until this time every very beautiful woman and girl has had rest from me!"

12 Raphael says: "But such a thing is not due to your merit, but to your nature! For a blind man can have no merit in that he is not attracted by some sort of beauty of the world, and it is no virtue to the deaf if his ear is not laid on the ear horn. But people of this sort are much more difficult to awake in their soul than those whose mood in the beginning of the spiritual development, is more open than any other.

13 You see, with Ribar the spiritual, even if not purified, is already poured out through his flesh, since everything externally beautiful must have clearly a spiritually more complete reason in it; and so a certain external falling in love with a beautiful object, is a mute but nonetheless mutual spiritual recognition and warming. Only it must be entrusted to a good leadership, through which it will be lead back to the real reason for life, which is no difficult job since the actual spirit of life, which proclaims itself through love, is the real intelligent being in a person and thereby easily perceives and actively understands its nature and order."

- Chapter 79 -

Reason for the diversity of human talents

1 "The so-called external falling in love with a beautiful object is thus in itself not a sin, but it can become a sin - that means a mistake in the order of life - if it constantly depends more and more on the external form, where it then naturally becomes more difficult to separate such a spirit from the beautiful exterior and lead it back to the place of its order.

2 In such cases the Lord allows all sorts of painful admonitions and even scourging, through which a confused spirit returns with time to the old order and leaves everything external, returns the nobility to its order and thus truly enlivens.

3 It is therefore a great difference between people of your sort and people of Ribar"s sort. What you might seek for years in order to receive it, a person such as Ribar can achieve it in a few days, yes often in a few hours if he gets the right leading and seriously wants it himself. Do you understand this?"

4 Suetal, seeming somewhat gloomy, says: "Yes, I understand it well, but on the other hand I don't see the reason why the Creator puts a person into the world so mature and spiritually receptive and another again as thick as a piece of wood!"

5 The angel says: "Yes, my dear, if you begin to ask such things we will not be finished for a long time; for your spirit is still stuck too deeply under the skin of your flesh, while Ribar's spirit has already risen much higher than his skin and it is thus easy to talk to him. You could just as well ask why God has created so many stones on the earth and why not sheer soft fruitful earth, why so much water, above whose wide area no fields and vineyard can be planted, why so much thorns and so many types of thistle which truly grow no grapes and no figs. But I tell you that everything is extremely necessary and that one could not exist without the other; but to show you all the wise reasons for it would need briefly and superficially a time period of many thousand years, while everything endlessly much an awakened and mature spirit can acquire in a few moments if it is interested in it. But since a perfect spirit has quite higher and better things before it in life than to investigate the ground of the stones, the water, the thorns and the thistles, he leaves such things to the wisest care of the Lord of infinity."

6 Suetal says: "If that is so, then it is not my fault if I am stupider than Ribar who as far as I know, despite his open spirit, has still not brought the divine wisdom into himself!"

7 Raphael says: "People like you must have a sharp understanding so that their much stupider soul has a path to their spirit which is certainly much longer and bumpier than that which the spirits of love have to walk on; for a spirit of love obviously has as the element of life what the blunt spirit, per longum et latum [via long and wide – the editor], with correct use of their sharp external sense, can achieve.

8 You see what effort it would cost you to reach love! But Ribar is full of love. This needs only to be a little regulated and ordered and it is then quite finished; but you must come to love through your boring reason in order to possess it without which it is impossible to regulate and order! Do you understand that?"

9 Suetal says: "If so, then God is unjust and very biased!"

10 The angel says: "In a certain way of course, but naturally only seen from the angle of the short-sighted human understanding; but if you are building a house, why do you build a foundation using the biggest, heaviest and hardest stones?

11 What have these stones ever done to you before that you push them firstly into the darkest trench and lay all the burden on their backs? Don't you have any mercy then with the poor stones? What pressure must the stones under the enormous burden of a mountain bear?

12 Or don't the roots of a tree deserve your mercy that they constantly must hide in the dark depths of decay of the earth while the branches of the tree are proudly resplendent in the ether of air and the all-enlivening light?

13 You see, are those not sheer cases of 'unjustness' in the lowest layers of created nature?! How could such a wise God, as the Creator, act against all healthy understanding indifferently and unfeelingly?

14 Likewise even your feet could complain about your hands and say: 'Why are we, who are just as much flesh and blood as you, dammed to carry you while you without effort can move around in the free air so cheerfully?'

15 And so a number of other limbs could also raise a very justified sounding complaint against the head; but who would not immediately see the foolishness of such a complaint?

16 You see, in the same way the Lord has given talent to the people of this earth, some with greater and some with lesser, but to no-one is the gate in the great temple closed completely, but the way is given to everyone, and therefore no-one can complain and say: Lord, why didn't You give me the talents too, which my brothers can rejoice in exceedingly?! For then the Lord would say to him: Do you feel a lack, go to you brother and he will help you out! If I had given every person the same, none would have a lack in comparison with another; the brother would never need his brother! How would then the enlivening love for others be awakened and strengthened in a person?

17 What would a person be without love for his neighbor, and how would he find the true love to God without it, without which an eternal life of the soul cannot be thought of?!

18 You see, in order that a person can serve others and thereby achieve their love, he must however be able to do something that another cannot do so easily because he is lacking in appropriate talents; thereby a person will become a need for the other and through mutual needed service the love is first awoken and through the good of such mutual service constantly more and more strengthened.

19 In the strength of the love for another, however, lies the innermost revelation of pure divine love and in this the eternal life.

20 But if you now can claim in yourself that nothing can attract you to any love, neither a beautiful figure nor any other excellent good act, then I would like to hear from you through which third unknown means love can be awakened in a person's heart and what can strengthen it until the power of revelation of the divine, purest love in the heart!?

21 But wherever this is not revealed in word or deed, then the eternal life of the soul after death of the body looks very gloomy and overcast!

22 Briefly, if in your hearts there is any doubt about the further existence of the soul after the death of the body, the revelation of life has not been successful; but whatever a person does not have, he doubts constantly that he will ever have it, if he wants to have it. But if you have found eternal life of the soul through the revelation of the pure divine love in your heart like a lost penny, then you will never have any doubt about the full possession of what you in all truth and reality possess!

23 But such a thing can only be achieved through love for your neighbor; and therefore Ribar is much closer than you to the true goal of life, who has enlightened your brain with the natural light of this world but your heart is allowed to stagger around without fire or light like a wild animal in the darkest denseness of the swamp forests of Europe!

24 Therefore I advise you to pay attention to what I have said to you, otherwise your mind will become hollow and the golden fruit on your tree of life will be eaten by worms long before maturity; and the worms mean doubt which at the end will eat through your whole skull, and your fruit of life will become a stinking carcass which will serve as contemptible food for the birds of prey! Have you understood me?!"

- Chapter 80 -

A rational person searches for love

1 Suetal says: "Well understood, but I would almost prefer not to have understood it! How can I then urge myself to love if I from my nature am almost incapable of it? I know only one approval of my understanding in appearance and acts; but love in my heart is foreign to me! Do tell me then what will happen to a person - or how will he recognize that love has become awake in his heart? There must be some sort of sign of realization in the life of a person, otherwise all the love is in vain, for he can perhaps possess it in all its fullness, but not know that such a pull in his life is called love. How has he been helped and served by all this love!?"

2 Raphael says: "Don't you remember, not so long ago, when you were still a child? What did you feel for your parents then, who loved you very much and looked after you as their darling with all sorts of good deeds?"

3 Suetal says: "That is very long ago; but I can still remember some events when I was really so moved that tears came to my eyes. Is such a childish feeling supposed to be love?"

4 Raphael says: "Yes, yes, that is love; if this is lacking, he has in the end nothing that belongs to life and such a person is then only a machine of his natural brain and hardly knows about the being of his very own soul!

5 The love of children must thus be awoken again in the heart of everyone who is like you, otherwise it is impossible to lead such a simple reasoning person in to the inner kingdom of life.

6 What use is it to you if you understand everything with your reason and may not understand your own life and see how it is and how it forms and educates itself?!

7 What use is it to a gardener to admire in a different garden the luxuriant growth of all sorts of noble plants but to leave his own garden fallow and to let the weeds grow as they wish?! One should cultivate the beds of one's own garden, clean them from weeds, put the correct dung on them and sow them with seeds from noble plants so that at the right time one will rejoice in the luxuriant plants of the own garden! But now nothing more about that; for something new will be now undertaken by the great Master and that means to have heart and head in the right place!"

8 Ribar says: "But tell us, you heavenly one, whether we should not first go up to the master and thank him for all the good that we have received through his great goodness and mercy physically and spiritually for enjoyment!"

9 Raphael says: "He only looks at the heart; if that is in order, then everything is in order. If He finds you mature, then He will call you and give you the measured wisdom, what you have to do in the future.

10 But now you should keep yourselves ready in your hearts and in all your being; for if He does something it is meant not only for us on this place, likewise not for this country or for this whole wide earth, instead it is valid for all infinity and eternity! This is how it is to be understood it in its profoundest depth! Understand and keep it in your heart! For every word from out of the mouth which is put in motion by the eternal Spirit of God and every following act has always the most endless consequences! But now I must leave your company for a time and must follow the will of the great Master."

11 At this the angel left the company of the twelve and went again to Josoe, who now had many a subject to discuss with him; for the much talking on all sides had somewhat confused Josoe and Raphael had now work to do to set his disciple straight.

- Chapter 81 -

The Lord announces a solar eclipse

1 But I said now, "Friends, our physical and spiritual midday meal has lasted almost four hours this time, and therefore it is time for us to rise from the table! We want to look out over the sea to see whether something might happen which is worth the attention of all of us!

2 At the same time I would like to point you to the fact that we will experience a total eclipse of the sun in half an hour. However, none of you need make anything of it; for such an eclipse happens quite naturally!

3 The moon, floating in the West at a distance of 98,000 hours [about 367.500 km] over the earth, will move in a straight line across the sun as a massive, non-transparent body and thereby prevent the light of the sun falling on a part of this earth; the total eclipse will only last a few moments; then the sun will show itself again over the edge of the moon and it will become lighter and lighter on the earth. But during the full eclipse you will get to see the beautiful constellations of winter which one can otherwise never see in summer.

4 I am telling you this in order to take away all foolish fears at such events and to show you the total naturalness of such events; therefore have no fear when the event happens!

5 But at the same time we will discover three merchant vessels on the high seas; these must be brought on shore before the eclipse begins, because otherwise evil superstition will force the sailors to throw the very exceptionally beautiful and virtuous daughter of an honest Greek into the sea along with her father, who is accompanying her.

6 For both of them are traveling to Jerusalem to see the temple and to become familiar with the religion of the Jews at its source, and for this purpose they are bringing with them, on the three ships, great treasures, which afterwards would fall into the thieving hands of the terrible Greek sailors as a good booty.

7 Therefore there is no time to lose; for the planets proceed unstoppably along their path according to their law. If one checked them on their course, great damage would be caused for the earth, which a thousand years would not wear away; but if the three ships are brought with a somewhat miraculous speed to shore, no-one will suffer any damage and instead, a very great natural and spiritual gain will be shown for many of the poor of this area. Thus quickly now, get to work!"

8 Everyone hurries to the shore and places themselves along it in a continuous line. But I also have difficulties in this: for Cyrenius with his entourage, My twelve disciples and some who have been accompanying us for a long time - around sixty in number - the thirty young Pharisees and Levites among their spokesmen Hebram and Risa, the five with wise Mathael and the twelve with Suetal, Ribar and Bael press themselves towards Me and everyone wants, as much as is possible, to be very near to Me, while Ebahl with Jarah and Raphael with Josoe are in any case firmly beside Me and Jarah will not even let go of My tunic. Old Mark with his wife and children wants also to be very near to Me now, and so the lack of space in which I now find Myself is explicable. But Raphael soon puts everything into the best order, since in a moment he distributes the guests on the shore to comfortable places, but I board a ship with Cyrenius and old Mark and sail up and down close to the shore in the face of all the many guests, with which the guests and also My disciples quite agree.

9 But now the moon is drawing pretty close to the sun, and I call Raphael, saying: "You know what' s got to be done, so tarry no longer!"

10 And Raphael says, really for the sake of the guests: "Lord, all at once, or over some time?"

11 I say: "After twelve moments, all at once!"

12 But the three ships are so far off that one could hardly notice them; it must have been around four hours' journey as the crow flies.

- Chapter 82 -

Raphael as a pilot rescues embattled Greeks

1 Cyrenius strained his eyes in vain; he could not perceive any part of a ship. It was just as bad for Mark; but other very sharp-sighted people noticed the ships like three little flies moving across the sea and said: "Lord! With a favorable wind it will take them a good two hours to get to this shore!"

2 I say: "Don't worry about that; My sailor will have the ship on shore at the right time!"

3 The thirty young Pharisees ask: "Where and who is the person for whom such a thing is possible?"

4 I say: "You know the young mentor of Cyrenius' adopted son; that is he!"

5 The thirty ask fearfully, "Where then is a ship ready for him?"

6 Raphael now says: "I have no need of one!" and disappears. Everyone is shocked, believing that the youth has jumped into the water and that he will now aim for the ships in the water as fast as a fish. For many did not yet know that Raphael was actually an angel and therefore a quite pure spirit; many considered him to be Josoe's mentor, while he was only a mentor of Jarah's. But since he was spending more time here with Josoe than with Jarah, he was thought of by many here as the young mentor of Josoe.

7 But before the inquirers looked around, Raphael was already at the shoreline with the three quite large ships and was standing on board the ship in which the pious Greek was, full of amazement and terror, with his even more pious daughter; for in the first place the incomprehensible swift landing on a, for him, unknown coast seemed to him like a dream, and in the second place he didn't know what he should make of the young sailor and could not account for this wonderful event; for the transformation happened too fast and surprised him too much.

8 The sailors were also standing like columns by their oars and didn't dare put their oars into the water again. After a short while of deepest amazement and wonder the Greek asked the youth in deepest respect, saying: "Who are you, powerful being? Who called you to bring us so quickly to a good shore and for which reasons?"

9 Raphael says: "Don't ask instead look at the sun which will now soon lose its light for a few moments! If you were at sea, the ship's servants' evil superstition would have thrown you and your daughter overboard and then divided the treasure that you brought along with you; but our great, divine Master saw such things in advance and thus sent me to your swiftest rescue. You are now in the most complete safety, but nonetheless unpleasant things will yet happen to you, and therefore I must remain in the ship with you during the dark catastrophe, otherwise you would still have to face much hardship with the rough ship's servants."

10 The Greek now looks round at the sun and notices to his and his daughter's terror that there is only a very narrow edge left of the sun, rises from his seat and thunders a curse up to the evil dragon that is now threatening to totally consume the sun.

11 It was the pious custom of some heathens from Asia Minor to send up a pile of the worst curses to the terrible dragon on the occasion of a solar eclipse, so that he would be afraid and spit out the consumed sun again and then it would shine out again. But the old man was not yet finished with his pious curses when the sun was completely hidden by the moon.

12 Then a sudden wild howling went up among the ship's servants, but also among the Roman soldiers on the shore, and the ship's servants, almost rioting through fear, fell upon the Greek and wanted to throw him into the sea along with his daughter and with Raphael; for they blamed the three for the most terrible scourging by the gods, and wanted to pacify them in this way. But Raphael lifted all the ship's servants out of the ships and set them on the land; but he threw the worst one into the sea who, as a good swimmer, had work to do to reach the land, very exhausted, quite far from the ships.

- Chapter 83 -

Consequences of the solar eclipse

1 During this catastrophe the sun broke forth again from behind the moon on the other side, and the old cheerfulness entered the souls of everyone present again; during the total eclipse alone Cyrenius and also Julius remained completely calm beside Me.

2 Even My disciples became somewhat uneasy, and Jarah and Josoe hastily jumped into My ship touching the shore and trembled with fear; but their fear was nonetheless more a consequence of the wild howling of the ship's servants than of the darkness. For Jarah and Josoe knew very well the reason for the eclipse of the sun, but they were not prepared for the wildest howling and therefore jumped into My ship in great fear and pressed themselves against Me as close as possible. But in the meantime Cyrenius and Julius delighted in the beautiful constellations of winter which they had never before seen in summer.

3 Gradually it became brighter, and the old cheerful spirits returned to the unsettled souls of the people, and the ship's servants returned to their three ships and begged the youth for forgiveness for being so hostile to him previously.

4 They also begged the Greeks for forgiveness, and he (the Greek) said: "What someone's faith tells him to do, he should do, if he finds no wiser counter reason in himself; but your faith should be brighter as a result, and you will then see that the high gods do not demand any human sacrifice from us, in that they themselves have countless means in their hands to take people from this earth in their hundreds of thousands as they desire."

5 The ship's servants are satisfied with this lecture on the part of our Greek and swear that at similar events in the future they will be and remain fully mindful of his wise lecture. At this the ship's boys ask the Greek whether he will now continue his journey or whether he is thinking of staying here.

6 But the Greek says: "Don't you see this powerful youth among us?! He has shown me goodness and saved me from your blind angry faith; I owe him my life and the life of my only, very dearest daughter. He alone is now my commander and whatever he says, I will do; but without his word and his will I am not going to travel an inch further, even in ten years!

7 In addition, a good inner voice says to me that I have found more in this barren place than in all of Jerusalem. Therefore I will remain here. I will now speak with the inn-keeper of this place to see whether I can stay here. If such a thing is possible, I will then immediately leave my beasts of burden here on the shore and then all the treasure that I brought with me, and you can then sail off in your ships again."

8 However, during this conversation I, Cyrenius, Julius, Mark, the old inn-keeper and Jarah and Josoe also come onto the ship in which the Greek was, and Mark speaks to him immediately and says: "Friend! You see that an honest landlord never has a lack of guests. You see, I am the inn-keeper of this place and give accommodation in my little hut and under my tents to all the dear guests that you see here; but for you there is also still room if you want to stay!"

9 The Greek says amiably: "Friend, I just need an area of thirty steps in length and ten in width, and I will immediately have my three good and sumptuous tents set up by the servants I brought with me, and I will then already be provided for; for I bring meals and drinks in great quantities with me and I possess much gold and silver in order to buy some more if what I brought with me should run out. So I also possess feed for my beasts of burden and in this way I am best equipped for everything possible; I only have no place to accommodate all this, and so I will rent it from you for a time. What do you demand for the discussed area from day to day?"

10 Mark says quite amiably,: "I know well that you Greeks always keep exact accounts; but it is not usual for us Romans and better Jews. You can remain here as long as you wish, and nothing will be demanded from you except your true and honest friendship; but if you want to do something for some poor person who has lost his way and found himself here, that will be left to your discretion without any bill. Therefore have your things unpacked and make yourselves as comfortable as in your house in your town; for as long as you are here not only the piece of land you demanded but also my entire not so very small premises are at your disposal, and my tables will be laid for you also! Tell me whether you are satisfied with this!"

11 The Greek says: "Yes, friend, when you speak like that, you shame me and I am in great embarrassment if I cannot reward your great, highest selfless friendship in some way, and I hardly dare to make use of your truest generosity!"

12 Mark says: "Friend, your friendship will surely be more valuable than all the great treasures of the earth which you bring with you, which I do not need since I now possess perhaps even greater things than you; but certainly they are less material than spiritual!"

13 The Greek says: "So you have already had for a long time what I and my daughter here have been vainly seeking in all the corners of the earth?"

14 Mark says: "What the whole earth and all the stars and the sun and the moon cannot give you, neither the temple nor any oracle, you will find here in this place. Thus unpack right away, for you are now already in the right place!"

15 The Greek now immediately orders his fourteen servants to get to work.

- Chapter 84 -

Gods and human beings

1 But I say to the Greek, "Listen, My friend! Your fourteen servants may well be very industrious and skillful people; but since you have many things with you, it will surely take your fourteen people quite a long time to put everything in good order.

2 Look, this supposed youth is one of My many servants and in one moment he can do more than all your fourteen servants in a full hundred years; thus your servants should rest this time and this only servant of Mine, who is present here, will put all your things in order in a moment, according to your usual custom, like your fourteen servants would hardly do in three days!

3 If you want, I will order him to do this!"

4 The Greek says: "Friend, if such a thing is possible on earth, then I beg you to do it! For in any case my servants are already extremely tired from the journey and would therefore need a lot of time for the unpacking and setting up!"

5 I say to Raphael: "Show what is possible for a pure spirit in the fastest moment!"

6 At this Raphael makes a low bow and says: "Lord, You have commanded and see, everything is already in the best order!"

7 Next I say to the Greek: "Well, friend, stand up and look around to see whether the work has been completed according to your liking!"

8 Here the Greek rises, claps his hands three times over his head and says, extremely amazed: "Yes, by all the gods! What is that then?! The boy never left us, did he, and all my tents have already been set up in the best way, and everything seems to already be in the best order! No, no, no! This cannot be a natural thing! Now I must go into the tents and see how good the order is inside!"

9 At this he leaves the ship and heads, led by us and his daughter, into his tents and finds to his great wonder that absolutely everything is in the best order.

10 But now it is too much for him. As if seized by a sort of dizzying wonder, he (the Greek) says after a while of his never-ending amazement: "Either I am among the arch magicians of Egypt or among nothing but gods; for what I have experienced here is unheard-of and has never occurred in human memory! And you, friend, (turning to Me) seem to be the master among the many here, or Zeus himself!? Flesh has not conceived you, neither this youth; you must have been created from out of the spirit of eternity! Oh gods, gods, what strength must lie within you, that you are capable of achieving such things, and what a pitiful thing is the poor man, the blind worm in the dust, in comparison with you?! You can do everything, but the mortal worm in the dust of his nothingness can do nothing! Friend, you, who are a god and to whom everything is at your disposal, what can I as a mortal do for you, immortal God? What should I give you, who rules over the whole earth, over sun, moon and all the stars?"

11 I say: "Friend, you have much natural light, and judge what has happened, the miracle, as it seems to you, with tact, but you must not place people too low under the comprehension of your gods; for I say to you: all the gods that you know and worship are actually nothing in comparison with one person who is filled with the true Spirit of God.

12 You see, these many people that you see here, are mostly just as powerful as this youth here, and yet they are only people of flesh and blood!

13 Touch Me, and you will see that I also consist of flesh and blood in the external apparent body; but this flesh and blood is filled with the Spirit of God, Who alone is all-mighty, and whom all must obey in the power of His will.

14 And see, we act here simply out of the strength of the Spirit of God, Who is within us, Who thinks within us and wants what His all-seeing and all-feeling highest wisdom considers to be necessary and good.

15 Well, for now truly only I possess this characteristic to the greatest degree and am therefore a master in it; but I can also enable every person who is of some good will.

16 But naturally a person who has an evil, adverse will can never be given such an ability; for firstly one must be fully familiar in the holy order of the Spirit of God before the gift of the power of the eternal Spirit of God is given, and this cannot consist of anything other than that the pure person is penetrated right to his soul by the Spirit of God. The soul that has been penetrated by the Spirit of God now only wants what the Spirit of God wants; but whatever He wants must happen, because He alone is the eternal strength and power in the whole of infinity!

17 For everything that exists, lives and thinks in endless space is this eternal spirit in the order created by Him of decided and unchangeably maintained thoughts, according to the spiritually living component, and the idea formulated from out of it, which is, however, according to the nature of its being, likewise capable of transformation into the independent spiritual.

18 You see, friend, that's how things are, touched upon briefly! You are a good thinker and will soon understand much; but for now let this be enough for you!

19 But I will give you, as a companion, a certain Mathael, a man full of wisdom - you will learn much from him and will understand Me afterwards much better than now!"

20 The Greek, full of amazement at My wisdom, is quite satisfied with this and greatly desires to see the man.

21 But I immediately call Mathael and say: "There, dear friend, is a somewhat dilapidated house; you are a good carpenter and will know what needs to be improved there!"

22 Mathael says: "Lord, with Your help the house will become good and solid!"

- Chapter 85 -

Mathael is assigned as teacher to Ouran

1 After this act Ouran (that was the name of the Greek, and his daughter was called Helena) was silent and began to gather himself, in order to be able to exchange words as a man of some life experience with Mathael, who had been introduced to him and who, with a few words, already gave people to understand that he was a man of higher wisdom, and to observe at every opportunity the sapienti pauca [the wise need little – editor] in order not to appear as a man lacking in all better knowledge. When Ouran had recovered a little and had come to correct composure, he asked Mathael after quite a long pause whether the latter wanted to accompany him on his world travels and what he would demand for it in return.

2 Mathael says, pointing at Me: "Look over there, that is a Savior for body, soul and spirit! Hardly twelve hours have passed since I was still a most pitiful being on this earth. My innards were so possessed by the very most evil spirits that my whole being became an earthly devil. I was the terror of the whole area among a horde of the worst street robbers, for all my limbs had to serve the devils; but my soul was paralyzed and didn't know what was happening to its poor body. Friend, you can see from that how pitiful I was! But who could help me?! I was the greatest terror for anyone who came near me; you would have found it easier to manage ten hungry tigers than me alone. Only a cohort of the most daring Roman soldiers could become master of me and my companions; bound and tied like a barrel I was brought here with my four worst companions to be sentenced to death.

3 But over there you see the great healing master, who came from heaven to us pitiful worms of this hard and devilish earth in order to heal also us physical devils through word and deed; He healed me and my companions and for such a healing He did not demand anything at all from the five of us, instead He did even greater good deeds for us physically and particularly spiritually!

4 Now this divine Savior of mine called me for the first time to a service for which you have now asked me, what compensation I would ask from you. Oh friend, before I have paid my due to this great One, I cannot possibly demand anything from you; for I serve thereby only Him who called me and not you!

5 But I will always remain in all eternity a greatest debtor and only through my service can I reduce my great debt in some way. Thus you, friend, will never be indebted to me for a service done to you - except for your true friendship and brotherly love!

6 For I have received it for free, and for the same price I will give it to you! Gold, silver and jewels you will not receive from me; but what I have should be given freely to you as well, as I have received it. Thus spare me in future from any similar questions!"

7 Ouran says: "Friend, you are one of the noblest people that I have ever encountered! Therefore you must become the wise leader of me and my daughter and remain such throughout my life!

8 I will, it is true, never ask you again, as you wish: 'What do you ask in return?' but that you shall never suffer any want with me as a friend and a genuine brother, you will surely accept that from me?!"

9 Mathael says: "There is still the question whether you will accept something, or everything, or even nothing at all from me! For my gifts, as I have already experienced a little, do not taste as sweet to the senses of your palate as a wine sweetened with pure honey in the way that the Greeks enjoy it now and then, but instead often bitterer than gall and the fresh juice of an old aloe! And sweet-loving palates do not often enjoy this! Thus we want to see first how our mutual talents can be exchanged!"

10 I say in the middle of this: "You know what, since we now have another full hour of sun and the evening will also be very pleasant, let's take a walk together up Mark's hill; there we can get to know each other a little better! Let your servants guard your tents for the moment, however, for you will only see them again and make use of them after midnight!"

11 Ouran says: "There are many and great valuables in them! But I believe that this area is safe!"

12 I say: "Friend, when you were in the greatest danger an hour ago and you were close to losing your life and everything, who saved you then?"

13 At this Ouran paused; only after a while he says: "Yes, yes, great master! You are right, I am only a little stuck in my old habit and now I see the full foolishness of my fear; it will not happen for a second time, and I will go right away now without any further hesitation with you wherever you want!"

- Chapter 86 -

Helena, the noble daughter of the wise Greek

1 At this the daughter Helena steps up to Me somewhat shyly and asks: "Lord, you incomprehensibly great master and savior! Oh, do not hold it against my old father; for you see, I as his daughter have known him my whole life long and can bear the truest witness that he is a good, gentle and very accommodating man, and I cannot ever remember him putting himself before someone else, even if he had the right on his side and the other person was rather wrong than truly in the right. He has never fought with anyone or become annoyed about a wrong done to him and grumbled about it! But the high gods never let him sink because of it, and the blessed goddess of happiness was always best disposed towards him.

2 Thus you also, who seem to be a little bit of a god yourself, will not take such an out-spoken care by my father as something which offends your highness! If you are nonetheless so hard, then take my life as penance for my father whom I love above all else!"

3 I say to everyone standing around: "Have you ever seen such an example of the love of a child in all of Israel? Truly! She may well be a heathen, but she puts all of Israel to shame, which received the commandment from Moses to obey, honor and love father and mother!"

4 They all say: "No, Lord and Master! Such a thing has never been heard of in Israel!"

5 I say to Helena: "Do not be afraid, My daughter, for I have known your father for a long time and you as well; and if I didn't know him and you, you would both have been buried in this evil sea!"

6 Helena, says: "But you extremely wise, powerful and nonetheless friendly Master! How can you have known me and my father for a long time? We have hardly known you for an hour?!"

7 I say: "Oh Helena, look over there, the sea and all the earth; look, those are already very old things, and nonetheless I was there before all that!"

8 At this Helena starts and asks me most reverently: "In the end are you the highest Zeus himself?"

9 I say: "Dearest dove, do not worry your heart with empty things! I am not Zeus, because in truth there has never been a Zeus. But I am the truth and the life; those who believe in Me will never see, feel or taste death in all eternity! Do you know now who and what I am?"

10 Helena says: "But if you alone are the cold truth and the pure life from it, how does it happen then that I am beginning to feel strong love towards you?"

11 I say: "Dove! That should only be revealed to you on the mountain! But now let's go, before the sun goes down!"

12 We then leave the truly regal tents of splendor and make our way up the mountain which we soon climb because of its insignificant height.

13 When we were at the summit, Cyrenius noticed how magnificent and beautiful the whole extended area looked, and that he could now observe such magnificence for hours without becoming in the least bit tired. It was only a shame that the day lasted too short a time.

14 After a while Simon Judas came to Me and said: "Lord, today You could truly say to the sun like Joshua: Be still, sun! So that the children here could enjoy the magnificence of the evening for longer and would praise highly He who made it!"

15 Cyrenius says: "Oh Simon, you old true fisherman and now disciple of our great Master and Lord, that was a good thought of yours, and it would be very much easier for our Lord to do this than it was for Joshua, for well-known reasons!" Then Cyrenius also turned to Me in this matter, and Jarah supported such a request.

- Chapter 87 -

The false sun

1 But I say: "You are truly still very inexperienced children and ask for something that is not at all allowed to occur in the way that you understand it and mean it; for you see, the sun does not go down, but always stands still over the earth! Truly the sun also makes great movement, but that affects the earth as little as a speck of dust on your tunic cares for your movement from one place to another.

2 But what gives you the day and the night is the earth moving in a very rapid revolution around its own axis; for I have explained to you at times that the earth is a great ball and turns from evening to morning and therefore one part constantly turns after another towards the sun. Thus there is always morning in some place on the whole earth, at the same time in an earlier place it is midday, at the same time in a place lying even further towards the east it is evening and ever more to the east it is midnight, and these four named points push unstoppably forwards, so that within 24 hours on any place on the earth it is morning once, midday once, evening once and midnight once. This is an order in which, with the danger of a complete destruction of all that exists on earth, as far as movement is concerned, must never be changed by a hair's breadth!

3 For should I now let the sun in full truth shine for another hour over this area, I would have to hinder the whole earth in its revolution for a moment - which is so large in the great circle of its circumference that a few moments would already cover a distance from here to Jerusalem. Thereby all the free bodies, however, which are not too securely connected to the earth, would get such a hefty push that not only all living things like people and animals, along with all their houses and huts and palaces for hours around would be thrown towards the east with the greatest strength, but also such a push would also drive the sea out of its depth over the mountains, and the mountains would fly over each other like starlings!

4 For these very natural reasons I have now given you, I cannot listen to your plea; but I can, as in the days of Joshua, set up a false sun for a few hours which will shine just as much as the genuine natural one. But this sun will then naturally disappear again after a few hours, because it will only be a pure mirage.

5 Therefore now pay good attention all of you! When the true sun goes down, the false one will rise in the west and then will remain shining for a full two hours over the horizon.

6 But even for the appearance of this discussed false sun no extraterrestrial means come into use, but instead very natural ones, although animated and brought forth through extraordinary powers from the sphere of heaven through My innermost will. Do you understand what has been said at least a little?"

7 Cyrenius says: "I, at least, understand it completely; for still I possess the wonderful pomelo from Ostracine! Lord, you understand me!? But whether all the others present here will understand it, I would almost doubt!?"

8 I say: "That doesn't matter! Whoever doesn't understand that, will understand it later; for the salvation of the human soul does not depend on it at all. People who know the earth very well in time get too much desire to travel the whole earth in all areas - which anyway will not remain - and thus pull their souls too much to the outside; these become very material and profit-seeking.

9 Thus somewhat less knowledge about the nature of the material earth, but more knowledge of one's self is better.

10 For whoever knows his inner self fully, will also soon enough reach knowledge not only of the whole earth, but of all the planets in the endless creation materially and spiritually, of which the latter is alone of significance and of the greatest importance, but the simple outer knowledge of the nature of this earth will not lead the way to immortality for any soul.

11 But now pay attention; immediately the natural sun will go below the horizon and the false sun will step into its place in a moment!"

- Chapter 88 -

The Greeks' fear of the Savior

1 Now everyone directs their eyes to the natural sun which already has sunk half its disc behind the mountains; but in the moment of sinking the false sun rises with an equally strong light for this area and also for the nearby bordering lands and areas. Naturally such a light does not reach the stars, thus some of the guests present could discover several stars of greatest size, particularly towards the east, since the firmament remained somewhat dark, because the light of the false sun could only weakly reach the far-off lands in the east, and wondered much about it.

2 Now Ouran also came to Me with his daughter, Helena, in great respect and said in a voice somewhat trembling with sheer reverence: "If I am not deceived by what is around me, and I myself am no deceiver, then You are a God over the gods, the spirits and all people, all animals, all lands, all seas, all lakes, all rivers, streams and springs, and everything that is in them and lives! Even the winds seem to be subservient to You, the lightning and the frightfully rumbling thunder; also the sun, the moon and all the stars take note of Your will!

3 But if You, although formed like a person as I am, can do such things alone through Your word and Your all-powerful will, I ask then all the wise men of the world what more could You still have to be the first and most perfect God of gods!?

4 I, Ouran, a small prince from the area of the great Pontus, recognize You; and if Zeus himself and Apollo came here and said a laughable 'No', I would call even them the greatest stupidity!

5 And now you, my dear daughter Helena, come nearer and look at the God of gods. Look at what a mortal eye has never seen before!

6 You see, a most holy temple has been built among us Greeks and also in other nations to a highest, unknown god, but will never be opened! We called this unknown god meanwhile the unknowable Fatum [fate, destiny], before whom even the great Zeus according to our religion is shaking like a leaf in a storm.

7 And you see, this frightful god now stands before us and has just ordered Apollo to stop the cart holding the sun according to the wish of this revered, venerable Roman who probably is also a small prince of some happy province!

8 And see, daughter, Apollo does not move any further until he has received the secret sign from the highest, unknown god, whom simply the servants of the temple in Jerusalem are supposed to know well - but which could also just as well be very untrue; for if they do not recognize this One as the only true One, they are on the worst path in the world!"

9 The beautiful Helena says: "They will perhaps know something better about Him, but certainly only in symbolic pictures; I would bet a lot that they do not consider this miracle worker to be whom you consider him to be, and what He in all probability seems to be! There is only one thing that I do not understand very well, that my heart is constantly filled with more and more true, serious love for Him; and yet every person is supposed to only fear and honor a god and bring him sacrifices!

10 You know how strictly our priests who have to serve Apollo forbade me love towards a god; for such a love is firstly too unholy for a god like Apollo, and secondly, if it became too intense and attracted a high god, one would soon awake the jealousy of the goddesses and then inevitably get the severe fate of Europa, Dido, Daphne, Euridice and Proserpine eternally around one's neck - and that would be truly something highly terrible.

11 After the truly wise teaching of our Apollo priest I have now succeeded in my soul, as you know, so that I would not be any less terrified by the possible appearance of the most beautiful god than by the most terrible head of Medusa, Gorgon, or Megera!

12 Therefore in such circumstances there can no longer be any talk of love towards a god! And see, I admit it to you openly, that despite all my inner battles and despite the most frightful images that I call to my memory because of the awakened love to a god, I love this God constantly more and more! Yes, out of love for Him I would go to the bitterest death if He would only grant me one friendly glance!

13 Oh heaven of heavens! How unspeakably worthy is He of love despite his seriousness! Oh, the gods have not done well in that they have forbidden us people to love them!"

14 Ouran says: "Yes, my daughter! The gods are highly wise and know what they have to grant the people! We must first make ourselves so pure through our life on this earth that there is no spot to be found any longer on our soul even at the harshest court of the three most merciless judges Aeakus, Minos and Rhadamanthys; if we are declared fully pure before the eyes and ears of all the gods, only then will the eternal Elysium be granted to us as the greatest of all benedictions - to be allowed to love the high gods at least in secret!

15 But here in the world in impure flesh you must take care above all not to fall in love with this most high and most serious God! For that would truly be the most terrifying thing of all terrifying things! If you really feel a sort of love for Him already, it would be best for us to distance ourselves as fast as ever possible from this place!"

16 Helena says: "But that will no longer be of any help to me; for I have Him already in my heart and cannot bring Him out again! But just look at that yet very tender girl who seems also to love Him very much and yet seemingly nothing bad is happening to her!"

17 Ouran says: "Love, do you know then whether that is not some sort of goddess? You would have to fear not so much Him, but her! Who knows then whether she is not at least ten times a Juno?!"

18 Helena says quite gloomily and with tears in her eyes: "Yes, yes, you could well be right! Oh, how happy are the gods and how unhappy are the people in contrast! A heart that is not allowed to love is probably the most unhappy thing that a person in the world can call unhappy! If my eye annoys me, I can blur it; if a hand annoys me, I can have it cut off, the same with a foot, and if my whole tender and white skin annoys me I can have it purged with whips and then smear myself with dirt; but what can one do with a heart if it begins to annoy me? If one has a pressure in the stomach, Aesculapius recommends the juice of aloe and it will then be better in the stomach; but against the pressure in the heart there are no means recommended as far as I know!

19 But now something occurs to me. Look, this God is also a Savior of all saviors! If we ask him, he would perhaps help me?! For He helped us when we could not possibly have asked Him since we did not know Him; so He should help me now that we know Him and if we ask Him and are certainly ready to bring Him any sacrifice He demands!?"

20 Ouran says: "You see, that was a good idea of yours, and perhaps it will bear good fruit for us! But since the highest God Himself has given us wise Mathael for our education, we can turn to God only through him. Mathael himself seems to be at least a very powerful half-main god, just like this youth whom I, you know Helena, consider to be the god Mercury in secret but nonetheless unmistakably."

21 Helena says: "Yes, yes, yes, that will be correct, and the boy is Mercury! But now something else occurs to me! In the end we are already dead on the earth, have passed the severe judgment, have drunk the waters of oblivion and thereby lost our memories that we lived on the earth and perhaps only died recently?! Perhaps we are still in Elysium but the gods don't want to reveal this to us and let us recognize it through all sorts of situations!?

22 Just look at the indescribable majesty of this area! Can - I ask - Elysium be any more majestic?! A sun goes down and another rises in its place, and also the stars are not lacking in the majestic eternal east! If so, father, then my love is truly nothing bad anymore!"

23 Ouran says: "Child! There is a lot to be said for this remark of yours, although I would not like to subscribe to it as the full truth! In brief, Mathael was not given to us for no reason, he will give us the correct explanation!

24 If we are already in Elysium, then we are new-comers and do not know anything in this world by a long shot; but the leader Mathael will soon correct us! Now it looks very like Elysium here in any case; yet previously, during the whole eclipse of the sun, it did not look like Elysium, but rather a little like Orcus. But now, yes; just as I heard it, this Elysium-magnificence can only last a bare two hours more - and then, we cannot know it, but perhaps it will look very tellurian!? But in short, we have Mathael - he will give us the most correct and true information about it! But you speak to him, Helena; for I don't have enough courage for that! You women always succeed better than us men!

25 It is true, he is deep in conversation with the old prince now, and the God is also speaking to a Roman captain! As I said, I don't have the courage at the moment, and someone might hold it against me in the end; but you are a female, no-one will take any little pushiness for something evil - so you try your luck first!"

26 Helena says: "Now I am also becoming somewhat anxious, and I don't know how I should tackle the issue cleverly; but give me a little time, then the thing will go well!"

27 Ouran says: "Hurry slowly!" is an old saying by the oracle of Dodona, whose discoverer is supposed to have been wise Plotin who apparently lived before Homer; thus you can always give yourself time!

28 Whatever a person does, he should do it cleverly and at the same time constantly think which consequences could come from it; one should thus avoid every hurried step and one will easily avoid a pitfall! Slowly, but surely is always better than to jump with courageous haste over a deep ditch whose width you have underestimated beforehand and therefore you fall into its depths! Oh, old Ouran is also clever and wise in his own way and has never had to regret a step before; perhaps the good genii will protect him even in the future!"

- Chapter 89 -

Mathael's participation and enlightenment

1 After this clever heathen conversation both are silent, Ouran and Helena, and wait for courage that at least Helena should possess for the intended speech with Mathael about speaking to Me on their behalf; but the longer both wait, the more concerns enter their minds, and these hinder the courage that should come, instead of enlivening it and strengthening it. Both notice the magnificence of the evening, it is true, but constantly with some fear; for the fabulous light of the false sun, the foreign little-cultivated place, the extraordinary deeds and My presence give both their minds no peace in which they can enjoy the rest of the evening.

2 When Mathael notices such things, he goes up to Ouran and says: "Friend, you are not cheerful and your most beautiful daughter looks somewhat ill! Tell me whether something is wrong!"

3 Ouran says quite secretly to Helena: "He's got us! Only be clever now, right, true and just, otherwise we are making a very easy step towards the place where Cerberus guards and the merciless Pluto reigns! Speak little and slowly, consider every word, otherwise we are lost!"

4 Here Mathael claps Ouran, who has become very afraid, on the shoulder and says: "But friend, why are you silent then? Before you were able to speak quite courageously to me!? What has gone through your mind then all at once?"

5 After a while of trembling Ouran says: "Ah, ah, ahahah - that was a murderous blow! There - is - nothing wrong with me, to be honest, but I and this, my daughter, as it has suddenly become clear to us, as mortal wretches have reached you immortal gods and, as it seems, to the veritable Olympus, as a main residence of the eternal immortal gods!

6 Things are happening too inhumanly wonderfully! The too great holiness of this place fills us with fear and terror, and all the more so since my daughter is beginning to fill her heart with love for the great God of gods, as she says and complains.

7 According to our Greek laws of the gods, such a love is one of the worst crimes against the unlimited holiness of the gods, particularly against the unknown very highest god of all gods! My poor daughter, however, cannot defend herself any longer against such a love! She doesn't want to, and her heart says a relentless: you must!

8 The poor, honest girl entrusted me with such things and I have therefore made the decision to ask the great god through you in all his mercy to free the heart of my poor daughter from such a love; for such a love does not come from her will, but certainly only from a foreign circumstance totally unknown to us! Would you, as certainly a supreme half-god, like to show us such mercy? Would you like to ask the great god for the healing of my daughter's heart which has become sick, and to offer me at the same time as a sacrifice for such mercy?"

9 That brings our Mathael to a benevolent sympathetic smile for the first time since his recovery, and he says then to Ouran: "You are a genuine pagan and as pure as possible! You seek truth and a correct light across half the world; and when you find it, you can't recognize it out of sheer pagan foolishness!

10 I tell you that I pity you very much and regret your short-sightedness right from the heart; but I hope that there will soon be an end to your old stupidity!

11 Look, what your daughter feels in her heart as love for our great, most holy Master is the only and true sign of life of the own divine spark of spirit in her soul! If this spark becomes a flame in her breast, only then will she fully recognize the single, true, eternal divinity of Him who now has created and animated this spark in her otherwise purest heart.

12 I tell you, love is the only union through which God pulls His creations to be children to His all-powerful fatherly heart and then, in the end, makes them equal - and you, most blind heathen, now ask to be freed from this highest divine mercy which God Himself pours into your hearts in His great mercy for the development of your inner life!?

13 Leave your old foolishness and become a person for whom it is possible to receive life in one's self and from the strength given to him by God, to truly recognize oneself and God, and thereby enter true, eternal happiness!"

- Chapter 90 -

Origin and explanation of the Greek names of gods

1 "But so that you learn where your gods come from and how they are in themselves nothing at all, I tell you in the name of the Lord who is among us here, that they are now nothing but names which do nothing for you; but earlier they were the descriptive expressions of the characteristics of the One, only true God whose spirit now reigns in all fullness in this Master who now stands before you.

2 Ceus is the description which in the days of the original fathers always stood before a given law which always stemmed from the flowing Spirit of God in the minds of the fathers and meant as much as: The father wants it. For through Ce, also Ze, was represented the expression of firm, unchangeable will and through -us, or rather -uoz or -uoza, the expression of the constantly creating and all-ruling father in heaven.

3 Likewise the expression 'Jupiter', or Je-u-pitar, through which the old fathers represented to the children a corresponding vessel for love and wisdom from God; for Je-u-pitar means as much as: The U, a sign which represents the outer line of an open heart, is the true container of the drink of life; for pit means to drink, pitaz is a drinker, and pitar, also pitara, a holy drinking vessel, and pitza, also piutza, a general drinking cup.

4 But as your Ceuz or Jeupitar is nothing for you but an empty name, because the knowledge of the meaning of this original expression has been lost to you, likewise and often actually even less meaningful, and therefore also even less-existent are the empty names of all your other gods and goddesses.

5 For example your Venuz or Avrodite, who is a goddess of female beauty, meant according to the very depictive expressions of the old fathers a very beautiful female person, but not to her spiritual advantage; for even the old people had been taught by experience that a very beautiful woman, with rare exceptions, is usually very stupid and does not hide any wealth of knowledge in her, because she is vain and constantly occupied with wondering at her own beauty and thus finds little time to achieve other useful knowledge. Thus the old fathers name such a female beauty a true Ve nuz, also Ve niz, which means: 'She does not know' or 'She knows nothing!'

6 The expression a v rodite means almost the same. If there was anywhere O V rodite, it expressed giving birth to pure, divine wisdom, and slou rodit, giving birth to human wisdom; but a v rodit means giving birth to the earthly foolishness, and Avrodite then means as much as some beautiful, groomed woman, who is always a bearer of stupidity because she is mostly stupid herself.

7 The old fathers always represented under V the sign of a vessel. If a holy O, which described the imitation of the roundness of the sun and correspondingly also God in His original light, stood before the V, the V stood for the taking up of the light of wisdom according to the O representing God; but if an A, through which the old fathers described everything that was purely and vainly earthly, stood before the V, this sign of a container represented taking up void earthly foolishness. But rodit means to bear, and A V rodit means to give birth to foolishness.

8 Tell me whether the actual being of your gods is not beginning to dawn upon you!"

9 The faces of Ouran and Helena now begin to cheer up a lot, and Helena is no longer afraid because of her love for Me.

10 Ouran then says to Mathael: "Friend! Your wisdom is great! For what you have now told me in a few words, all the schools of Egypt, Greece and Persia would never have done in a hundred years! You have now wiped out all the gods of Egypt, Greece and Persia with one sweep, down to one unknown God, who I have, however, found here, as it is now becoming clearer and clearer to me, and hopefully I will find more and more. In short, you are now a man whom one cannot repay with any gold! Firstly I thank you as a person and a friend from my whole heart - everything else will follow." Helena also thanks Mathael for such a wise instruction.

- Chapter 91 -

Mathael as destroyer of the walls of the pagan temple

1 But Mathael then comes to Me again and asks Me whether he did right with his voluntary explanation of the names of the pagan gods - whether such a thing did not happen too early.

2 I say: "Oh, not at all! You have succeeded here in fullest truth, and you now have really achieved more to extinguish the dark paganism with a few words than some wise teachers in many years! For whoever wants to raise a person sensibly and wisely must first get rid of all the old stupidity from out of him. If the person has become an empty but thereby pure container, then one has a light, very usable container to fill with all sorts of wisdom from the heavens; that will now also be the case with these two.

3 I say to you, very soon these two will now easily become two people in whom My heart will have more joy than in ten thousand Jews who consider themselves very just according to Moses, but who are as people further from My heart than those who will only be born on the earth in a thousand years.

4 And I further say to you: If you should ever take a wife on this earth, it should be Helena! But far be it from Me to induce you to do it, instead your own heart will inform you and then you will follow it.

5 But now go over there and be friendly; the old man, who otherwise is a knowledgeable person, as well as his truly marvelous doubly beautiful daughter, will now demand from you some more explanations about the names of old. You are now a guide, and it will be easy for you to give the most convincing answer to each question by both of them.

6 At the same time, such a conversation of yours will also make a good impression on the Romans, and thereby the first battering rams will be laid at the many temples of the pagans; and greater effects will be brought to pass in paganism in many decades, even if always with some effort, than such as could otherwise be achieved in a millennium.

7 It always remains a difficult thing to preach about light at night; but once the day has arrived, then almost any teaching about the light of day is in any case dispensable; for the day then gives the light of itself. But the old man will come to you with very weighty questions, and thus it is given to you to answer also with very weighty answers. Go now in My Name and do your job well!

8 We will all take a very attentive part in your negotiations; that even those standing far off should understand you, that will be taken care of by Me!

9 I will now let the false sun shine for some hours, which will draw many people out of the town into the open air, partly out of wonder and partly out of fear at such a never-ending day. But soon you will have done much with the two.

10 But after I have extinguished the false sun we will then all take a good evening meal here on the summit, at which then quite a lot will be dealt with and discussed. Now you know for the moment everything that is of use; everything further will be given to you later on!"

11 Mathael thanks Me for this command - and secretly also for the command regarding the beautiful Helena, who already at first glance had surprised him very much in his heart, so that he secretly whispered to himself in his heart: By all the heavens - such a most beautiful female figure has never been seen before in Israel!

12 All the Romans, not even excepting Cyrenius, had also cast their eyes on the beautiful Greek, and it cost them much effort to look anywhere else than only at the beautiful Helena, whose body seemed to be formed out of a purest ether of light and thus had now almost more attraction than the whole wonderful fake sun.

13 Mathael pulled himself together particularly now; yet what he felt in secret, no-one noticed but Me.

- Chapter 92 -

How the beauty of the children of God differs from the beauty of the children of the world

1 He (Mathael) went up to Ouran and to the most beautiful Helena with a very serious step and asked both of them whether they had already now thought very maturely about the explanations he had given.

2 At this Helena says with the friendliest face: "But look, one says that I am also a beautiful girl, yes, I have often been called a second Venus; do you think that this name is meaningful for me according to your explanation? Do tell me, you dear, wise friend!"

3 This question made our Mathael a little embarrassed at first, because he discovered right at the first glance that Helena's heart was a little insulted; but he soon composed himself and said: "Dearest sister in God! What I said to you was only appropriate for the children of the world; but the true children of God can be as beautiful in outer appearance as they like, but they are nonetheless wise in their hearts.

4 With these people external beauty is only a sign of their inner spiritual beauty; but with children of the world it is a deceptive whitewash over the graves which then, when they are whitewashed, look very beautiful and inviting, but on the inside they are full of decay and disgusting smells.

5 But you are seeking God - therefore you are also a child of God. But the children of the world seek only the world and are therefore also its children. They flee from the divine and seek only the honor and the respect of the world.

6 If they call the world great, magnificent and beautiful, their bliss is complete; but if one begins to talk to them about divine things they know nothing, and in order to hide their shame, they clothe themselves in all sorts of trumpery of the world, with haughtiness and with arrogance and persecute with anger, hatred and scorn all the wisdom that is poured by God into the hearts of the children of God.

7 There is therefore a great difference between the beauty of the children of God and the children of the world. The first is, as I said, a sign of the inner beauty of the soul, and the second is a whitewash of the grave, and this is represented by Venuz - but not you, since you seek God and have already found Him; therefore you must not relate my earlier Venus explanation to yourself at all. Have you understood me well?"

8 Helena says: "Oh yes, but that I am a child of God seems to me somewhat daring! We are certainly all creations of one and the same God; but there can be no talk of the certainly most endless superiority of the true children of God in us, who as coarse and clumsy material people are visibly filled with all sorts of weaknesses and countless imperfections leading from this! You, dearest and otherwise wisest friend, have certainly gone a little too far!"

9 Mathael says: "Oh, not at all; for you see, what I have said to you I have received from the great One! But what He taught me is and remains eternal truth!

10 You see, if you have a dove that can fly well; to prevent her to fly away from you immediately, and so that she becomes tame and trusting, you clip her wings. Then the dove can no longer fly up and away like a butterfly, but instead must remain with you and let herself be tamed.

11 Tell me whether the dove in the time that her wings have been clipped is less of a dove than before, when her wings had not yet been clipped! Will the wings of the dear dove not grow again in a short time? Yes, soon the dove will have her wings again and will be able to fly as well as before; but she will be tamed and will like to remain with you. And if she makes a flight from time to time, you will only need to call her and she will hear you in the high air and make a swift flight to you and let herself be caressed by you.

12 Certainly the children of God in this world have also some weaknesses which prevent them very much from rising up to God their Father; the holy Father has only allowed these weaknesses to come to His children for the length of their life on this world for the same reason that you made your dove unable to fly.

13 But the children should recognize their Father in such weaknesses, they should become gentle and humble and ask their Father for the right strength and invigoration; and He will then give these to them if it is the correct time for them.

14 But despite the weaknesses that are even in the children of God, they are no less His children than the dove is and remains a dove even when her wings are clipped for a while because of taming. Do you understand that now, most blessed Helena?"

- Chapter 93 -

Two kinds of love for the Lord

1 Helena says: "Yes, yes, albeit with some horror, but the issue begins to become clearer to me, and I hope that I will see it even more clearly in time. But tell us, dear friend, how this now happens that I now love your great One even more strongly, but my heart is free of pain!? For since I now know from you that such a love is no burden, but only a virtue above everything else necessary to every person in the face of God, the now much stronger love no longer causes me any pain in my heart, and all trepidation in my breast is as if blown away! Oh, tell me where such a thing can find its reason!"

2 Mathael says: "But dearest, that is as clear as day! Previously you had a consuming fear because your heart embraced a god with love, which according to your foolish religion, was presented as extremely damnable. But now you have learned to see your old stupidity tangibly and you have recognized the will of God at its source and now see that such a love must be the first and greatest virtue of every person; and so it is quite easily comprehensible why your love no longer causes you any pain in your heart, but necessarily only the sheerest opposite! Don't you understand such a thing on your own?"

3 Helena says: "Oh, yes, now I understand it well; but without your explanation the thing would not have become fully clear to me for a long time! Ah, now I am in order!"

4 Mathael says: "Well, if you are now in order, you will then not need to learn much more; the just growth of love in your heart will give you the missing parts. But now enjoy also the magnificence of this day that the Lord gives us in abundance from His endless love, wisdom and power; for after us thousands of idle years will pass again and the people will never again see the magnificence of such a day!"

5 Ouran says: "There, noble friend, you have spoken very truly; such an extension of the day in the evening is wonderful beyond all measure and extremely memorable! Such a thing would stand out less in the morning, in that people in the Pontus area have often noticed that not rarely one, two or three suns rose one after the other before the true sun and thereby created a significant prematurity of the morning. Such a morning apparition was also very interesting and strange, but not as much by far as this extension of the evening now through the pause in the firmament of a sun that is quite identical to and equally bright as the natural one. Yes, yes, such a thing, as far as I know, has never been experienced and will only be experienced again with great difficulty!

6 But the actual strangest thing about this apparition is nonetheless the visible stars in the east; and yet these in a way divinely artificial stars seem no weaker than the natural ones. Tell me, dear friend, are they seriously natural stars or are they also just false stars!? It is certainly already time that the stars should take to the firmament; but why only in the east alone, and why not in the whole sky?"

7 Mathael says: "Friend! That has actually been touched upon once today, but you will have missed it and so I want to explain it to you as well as I have understood it."

- Chapter 94 -

Mathael talks about the movement of the stars

1 "You see, this sun presently shining in the sky is in a straight line hardly as far away from us as a good rider could cover in half a day; but the real sun is so far from the earth in a straight line that, if it were possible, a good rider could hardly cover in ten thousand years this extremely long extended line even if he rode day and night without rest. How far do the beams of the natural sun reach and what an immeasurable space they fill, and how short in comparison are the beams of this false sun! They reach to the east only weakly, which one can make out very well from the greater darkness of the east, and the air is not as brightly illuminated as with the natural sun. The bright illumination of the air far surrounding this earth means that we can never see a star during daytime.

2 If the light of the sun was not as strong, we would also see at least the great stars in the daytime; but as a consequence of the too strong and too immeasurably far-reaching sunlight, seeing even the greatest stars by day is not possible. Do you understand that a little?"

3 Ouran says: "Yes, certainly, I understand now about half, but there can be no talk of me understanding the whole thing; for I have constantly known the least about the stars and their movements. So I can never bring together how it happens that soon after the setting of the sun a quantity of familiar stars come into view across the whole firmament. But afterwards still more come from the east, and those that were already there go down again in the west; but some remain in winter and in summer with small changes to their position in the firmament. It is particularly the case with the stars that adorn the northern sky; but the beautiful stars of the middle sky are very changeable and one sees different ones each season. Then there are also certain planets which never remain faithful to the otherwise well-known and constant constellations, but move from one firm constellation to another.

4 The moon also seems to have no order to its rising and setting; one moment it goes direct north and then the next, directly south again. Well, friend, since you certainly understand somewhat more than I and my daughter, explain to us this riddle of the sky!"

5 Mathael says: "You know, in order to make that all so completely understandable to you, the time would run short here and you would obviously not have the patience to listen to me until the end, Thus let us postpone such a discussion for a more appropriate time; but I can at least tell you something small for your consolation and so listen to me very attentively!

6 You see, the stars, the sun and the moon do not rise and set, but only the earth, which is no circular flat area but only a very great ball of several thousand hours circumference, turns around its middle axis in approximately 25 hours according to our sand clock measuring system, as the Lord Himself has explained previously. Through this turning everything that you asked me about comes to pass. There you have a very brief summary of the explanation.

7 Stars that you constantly see as firm constellations stand as suns themselves so endlessly far from the earth, according to the explanation of the Lord Himself and according to my highly personal opinion given to me, that we cannot notice either the size of their distance and just as little their movement. Only in many millennia does a fixed star let any change be noticed; but many hundred years do not show any difference in the position of the fixed stars.

8 But those stars that constantly change their place stand much closer to this earth, but are only smaller planets and not a sun, move around our sun and therefore their movement can be noticed. That is the most important things; everything else you shall find out from me at another opportunity soon! Are you satisfied with that?"

9 Ouran says: "I am satisfied in any case, but I have become such an old tree that is difficult to bend, and therefore you must always have a little consideration.

10 You see, from the earliest childhood to my now quite advanced old age I lived quite honestly and conscientiously in the old foolishness and found that one never heard anything better than what one believed, with sometimes quite notable confirmations of it; but here one encounters everything quite new, and everything old must be thrown overboard into the sea of the fullest nothingness - and that is quite difficult for me.

11 Now if I then hear a completely new religion, never dreamed-of previously, it constantly costs me then a certain effort, until the nothingness of the old man and the truth of the new became fully clear; you have to therefore have some patience, particularly with me. Gradually I will become a very reasonable disciple for you despite my very advanced age.

12 With my daughter you will have  a much lesser effort to make; for this girl has an easy talent for picking things up. But it can still be done with me too, only naturally with somewhat slower steps; I will never catch a deer again, but I can still keep up with a quite modest ox.

13 Yes, the stars, the stars, dear friend, the stars, the sun and the highest changeable moon! Those are quite unusual things, and, in addition, our earth as well; whoever knows all about it very well would stand at the extreme heights of human wisdom! But until one brings all the impenetrable secrets and mysteries into daylight, particularly for the likes of us, oh friend, the good moon will have to climb over the horizon many times in its slow course! I feel that what I have heard from you now are complete truths; but they still lie so individually and unconnected in my head like the first building blocks of a new great palace that should be built. Every stone is good in itself, that is, a truth as solid as rock; but how these first foundation stones are later joined by a building master to make the base of the palace, that, friend, is still very far off for me, and I believe that this will be no easy piece of work for you!"

- Chapter 95 -

On the process of education in ancient Egypt

1 Mathael, with a very cheerful mood, since the very appropriate remark by the old man had really struck a chord with him, says: "Dearest friend Ouran! You have now spoken as a person from out of your natural side truly so wisely and as truly as possible, and it was dealing with the comprehension of new, previously never existent truths exactly as you have spoken about it. But on the other hand I must make the following counter remark: You see, in Egypt and exactly in the old schools of this kingdom, there was a most curious way of bringing up those children who belonged to the priests" class, which was basically not bad at all.

2 The new-born children were immediately put in underground, very spacious chambers into which the light of day could never penetrate. They were well looked after there and never saw any other light than the artificial light of some well constructed naphtha lamp, of which the Egyptians were known to be inimitably great masters. In such underground chambers the person had to remain until his twentieth year and received education from the beautiful upper or actually outside world which he had never seen however.

3 He created images in his fantasy of it as much as was possible; but he could not possibly make any true picture of the far expanse of the areas, and of the great light, namely of the sun, of the moon and of the countless stars, as well as from the strength of its light and its warmth.

4 Such a very cheerful disciple of the underground dark school rooms therefore had only sheer pieces of truths about the upper world and its relationships in his head, but he could not, despite all his industriousness and all his attentiveness, as one says, piece it all together.

5 Those were then also sheer individual solid and truthful building blocks whose joining together into a great palace was still significantly far off and naturally purely impossible in the underground chambers.

6 But if then such a disciple of the underworld had reached the demanded level of education according to the judgment of his teachers, it was shown to him that he would soon and directly through the mercy of God, reach the illuminated upper world in whose light he would experience and learn more in a moment than in many hours in the dark underworld.

7 The disciple of the underworld looked forward to this very much, of course, although he would actually have to die in a very curious way first. Death consisted of a very deep sleep, while the disciple was brought into a magnificent palace of the upper world.

8 What wide eyes of amazement did the disciple make when he woke from his sleep for the first time and found himself in the divine light of the sun! How did he seem to himself in white clothes which were trimmed with red and blue stripes! How must the friendly, just as beautifully dressed people of both sexes seem to him! How did the well prepared new dishes taste to him! But what must his soul first feel when he came out from the friendly people into the open air, walked through the magnificent gardens there and breathed in their ambrosian smells, when he saw before him, for the first time, the whole of nature in concrete fullness, lit by the sun, before his above all human comprehension blissfully drunk eyes!

9 You see, from this picture that you can further imagine yourself in your own fantasy, you see your own present level of understanding as far as all the new truths are concerned that were revealed to you here!

10 What you now hear in the dark chambers in which your soul still exists, is only pieces and cannot be something whole and completed; but if your spirit is awakened in your soul through true love towards God the Lord, and from this love also a love for your neighbor, then you will look into the brightest light of life in your spirit and see all that in its fullest connections, and there you will see an immeasurable sea of light full of the highest truth, where you now are hardly capable of seeing an individual drop.

11 Our first and most preferable task will therefore be this: to make the spirit in the soul free and to bring the soul into its light; once we have achieved that, friend, then we will no longer need to collect little drops, but we will immediately have to do with the immeasurable seas full of the highest light of wisdom from God.

12 Then, friend, you will certainly no longer ask me about the relationships of the moon, our earth, the sun and all the stars; for all that will become clearer to you - even at one glance - than the sun on the brightest midday.

13 But another school will begin for us about which you cannot have any idea yet. Tell me friend, whether you have understood this image a little! How did you like it?"

- Chapter 96 -

Helena's considerations about the wisdom of mankind

1 Ouran says: "You know, dearest friend, I liked that all very much, and this must happen to us people; and if it was not so and if it had to happen otherwise, you would not have come to your wisdom!

2 You have certainly been raised before very much in the dark underworld of your flesh, and then you died in your soul for your flesh and are now in the palace of light of your spirit and have gone on a pleasure stroll in its truly elysian garden. The previous individual little drops have become a sea for you; but for me that is still a long way off. And I therefore do not understand the sense of each of your individual speeches, but the great connection will only occur to me when my soul leaves the dark catacombs of the flesh and is led into the palace of light of its spirit and into its gardens, whose ambrosian smelling fruits mature in the light and in the warmth of the eternal sun of life.

3 You see, I am beginning to feel a certain sweet conception in me about how it can be and how it certainly will be; but there is no time period for the dear When, and one does not even have a symbol inside through which one would learn only many days later when the poor soul will be led out of the dark catacombs!

4 But what can a person do? Nothing except bow in all patience to the will of this all-powerful leader who has awakened your soul, without having shown it to your flesh beforehand, in the palace of light of your powerful spirit.

5 But now I would like to hear from my Helena how she liked the image and what sort of reflections she has made about all that!"

6 Helena immediately says: "Oh, the best in the world! The image was magnificent and very appropriate, and if the old Egyptians had such institutes of up-bringing, they were certainly not foolish people, as their great works in this area bear a very vocal witness. But only it would have been much better had they spread such wise schools for the whole population; for I cannot imagine that it can lie in the plan of the great creator, that a part of humanity, and namely the greatest part, should remain stupid and totally blind all their lives. But in the world it is so that for every wise man there are always more than ten thousand stupid and blind people; it is always so. But why must it be that way, that is naturally another and certainly very difficult question to answer.

7 We have now gathered certainly around four hundred people on this wide-topped hill, but there will hardly be fifty among us who are wise; all the others can hardly only be more or less disciples of wisdom! The Roman soldiers and the countless servants of the governor will not be counted among the very last disciples!

8 From here one sees very well to the near town, and the eye discovers masses of people who are staring at the magnificently shining false sun which constantly remains on one and the same place, and they certainly do not know what they should make of such an appearance. There is certainly no wise man among these masses of people, although perhaps some of them imagine that they are, which is actually worse than if he thought in the correct humility of his heart that he was the very stupidest among all his companions. How must such an appearance seem to such people!? How will they now ask each other, and say: What is that?! What does that mean?! What sort of consequences will there be?!

9 But who will answer all these questions of yours? They came out of their houses foolish and blind, and they will return even more stupid and blind! Does that have to be, do these masses have to remain stupid and blind then?!

10 The people present here, if not exactly disciples, have at least knowledge that this is not the real, but only a false sun created by the now familiar power of the great master, and make very cheerful and happy faces at such an apparition, as one can easily see. They understand the apparition as little as I do; but they know that it is a consequence of the wonderful power of will of the great Master known to them. And if He extinguishes this great light after an hour, no-one will make anything of it; for everyone will know who has extinguished this light.

11 But when the other people, who know nothing about what is happening here, see this sun suddenly extinguish after an hour on the spot where it is now, they will be seized by great terror, fear and a despairing anxiety, and everyone will quite certainly have the belief that the gods are extremely offended and will destroy the earth in the most terrible way!

12 Therefore it would even be necessary for the calming of the people that envoys should be sent out from here who will announce what will happen to the excited minds, and that this is only a false sun. What do you think then, good, dear friend?"

- Chapter 97 -

On the right time for and effect of instructing the people

1 Mathael says: "Oh dearest! That would be now very inappropriate; later yes, but now in the moment of highest excitement such an action would be as if one would, in the spiritual sphere of life, pour boiling hot oil on cold water. Everything would go up in bright flames!

2 But several days after this appearance the people can be used quite positively for something higher in this wide area; naturally not everyone, but the greater part certainly.

3 The appearance will hit the Jewish priests hard. Firstly the total natural eclipse of the sun will have affected them a lot; for these people take everything that is material and have even less of an idea about an inner spiritual sense since they do not even understand the corresponding imagery in which Moses and a lot of other seers and wise men have written in their days.

4 It was written by a prophet who was called Daniel, a speech about a certain abomination of destruction, and they speak about the eclipse of the sun and about many other terrible things which all have just a profound spiritual meaning.

5 But since, as remarked earlier, the Jewish priests have become quite material in this time and therefore they understand the Scriptures only quite materially, every eclipse of the sun puts them in a more than panicked shock because of the supposed downfall of the material world. While the old wise man only understands the much desired downfall of the traditional material world in the hearts of people, they mean the downfall of the physical material world and therefore always have a quite terrible fear whenever a solar eclipse occurs!

6 If then after a short hour this sun is extinguished very suddenly, a great fear will befall them; for they will not get to see the moon today, since it has already gone down. But the great fear will cause in their eyes an event of the type which happens to drunkards, since they see the stars swirling around their heads as a result of their confusion. This occurrence will bring them to the thought that the stars are falling from the sky, according to the prophecy, and the day of fear will have arrived for many blind fools. You will hear afterwards how at the sudden extinguishing of this false sun of ours the masses will begin to howl terribly before the city, but it does not harm them in the slightest, for they will become softer and gentler and thereby more receptive to the pure truth.

7 The pure day of tomorrow will bring them to a more restful sense again, and much can be done with them! For tomorrow they will come to the sea in hordes and see whether the sea water has not become blood, and at this opportunity many a sane word can be spoken to many.

8 And our holy Lord and Master has allowed this occurrence because of this city, which is not in the best light! Whatever He does has, all the time, an endless many-sided good purpose, only whatever people do without him counts for nothing and is useful for nothing."

- Chapter 98 -

Ouran's thoughts while aware of the presence of the Lord

1 After these words by Mathael, Ouran says: "I must admit to you openly however, my now ever more worthy friend, that a sort of fear is created at the thought of the sudden extinguishing of this sun; for I see the whole impotence of a person against the unlimited omnipotence of Him who is in our midst but basically is too holy and endlessly eminent for the likes of us, who know His being, to draw near to Him! Or that I would dare to talk to Him in a very intimate tone like to you or to another person!

2 It is quite a peculiar thought and it puts my teeth on edge: He is all in all and we are all perfectly nothing in comparison with Him!

3 Certainly that comforts the likes of us again that He in Himself is the highest and purest love and therefore has the greatest patience, care and mercy with us pitiful, mortal people.

4 But He is God after all, and unchangeable for eternity and completely immortal, and the whole infinity in its existence hangs like a drop of dew on a loose ear of grass on His will; a lightest counter breath of His mouth could destroy the whole infinity, as only a quite light breath blows the very light dew drop from the tip of a blade of grass.

5 You know, when one considers such things with a sober mind quite calmly in oneself, one cannot possibly get away from this thought: There is and remains a certain something in the visible proximity of the Almighty which on the one hand one could calls the highest bliss; but on the other hand one would rather stand far off from Him. To honor Him from a certain distance would be a great pleasure for soul and spirit and would certainly build up a person very much, but here nearby one can only do that secretly in one's heart.

6 So I would like to speak to Him now. I am longing powerfully to do this, but one cannot gather courage because of His too endless size of spirit, although He looks, in His appearance, like a very undemanding and fully comfortable person! The certain, purely divinely almighty type remains all the same, and one sees it in His eyes, on a hair and on his brow that heaven and earth must bow before His will, beams of light positively come out of His eyes, and His brow orders into existence that which never existed before.

7 Yes, friend, that is a crushing sight, to see the Creator of the worlds and heaven in the body of a simple and fully undemanding person before one's very eyes! Truly, there is no longer any talk of any joke! But it is so, and to the Lord alone be all praise, that it is now so, for without Him we would be in a very desperately bad situation under today's circumstances!"

8 Mathael says: "Certainly that, I and you in particular; for the wicked would have strangled me, and the eclipse of the sun would have consumed you! But now let us pay attention; for from now on the false sun will not last too long, and at this sudden extinguishing of this quite rare sun the spectacle will be over!"

9 Then all become quiet and look at the false sun.

- Chapter 99 -

The extinguishing of the false sun and its impact

1 Some moments before the extinguishing I say loudly to everyone: "Prepare yourselves for the extinguishing, and you, Mark, light now all the oil lamps and tar torches first, otherwise the sudden strong darkness following this strong light would affect your eyes harmfully and painfully!"

2 Mark and his servants now hurry to light the lamps of all sorts, and Cyrenius and Julius order the soldiers to light brushwood, and when everything is burning as it should, I say loudly: "Extinguish, you false light of the air, and rest to you active spirits!"

3 After My call the false sun suddenly disappears, an extremely strong darkness covered in a moment the whole area, and one clearly heard the great howl of fear from the town lying quite nearby.

4 The people saw of course many lights on the mountain on which we were sitting quite comfortably, but none of the thousands summoned up the courage to set even a foot further; for the Jews in their great fear saw the stars fall from the sky in seriousness and several lie on our mountain; but the heathens thought that Pluto had stolen the sun, through his fury, from Apollo, who had perhaps looked at some female beauty, and now another war of the gods would descend on the earth.

5 But a war of the gods was no desirable appearance on the earth according to the myths of the pagans, because the war that had happened once already was so frightening, in which the enormous gods of the underworld had thrown whole burning mountains with great strength against Olympus, at which of course Zeus naturally did not miss the chance to throw a suitable counter gift of countless lightning bolts and hail the size of mountains and thereby had conquered the evil powers of the Underworld.

6 Since from the town the false sun apparently was above the mountain on which we were standing, but after the extinguishing the mountain seemed to glow with lights and bonfires, the pagans thought that the sun had been hidden by the Furies in this very mountain and the princes of the Underworld had now set up watch with burning Orcus torches, and woe betide him who would draw near to this mountain, which, on all sides, had really several deep caves and grottoes, to one of which Mark's house was built, and, as was known, served Mark as a very spacious cellar and other storage rooms.

7 So the Jews went out of fear of being hit or burnt by stars falling off the mountain, and the pagans moved out of fear of the Furies not to the mountain and moved gradually back to their houses when their eyes had adjusted to the darkness. Some soon fell asleep, but others remained awake the whole night out of fear and terror of the expectation of terrible things which should come over the face of the earth according to Daniel's prophecies, and the pagans waited for the first bolt of lightning and rolls of thunder from Zeus and for the terrible noise of the world that Apollo would begin against the robber Pluto.

8 In short, in the whole quite significant town there was confusion which would not have put the once great Babylon to shame. But things were very comfortable for us on the mountain; for we had the well prepared evening meal brought to us on the mountain. Raphael ensured in a moment that all the tables came to stand on the mountain and also the food, without any effort by Mark and his family, who had had enough to do beforehand with the preparation of the meal. Also the Roman soldiers got enough to eat and were soon very happy.

- Chapter 100 -

Man's great heritage and calling

1 When we had taken the evening meal, Ouran, who had also eaten on the summit, came to Me and said: "Lord, for the size and eminence that no mortal tongue knows the name which You are worthy of, how should I, a pitiful worm of the dust, thank You for the eternally invaluable treasures that Your divine graciousness here has provided for me, and how should I praise, honor and respect You, You eternal most eminent one!?

2 Oh Lord, what are we mortals then, that You pay attention to us?! What can we do then in order to please You?"

3 I say: "Come on, friend, and now do not cause such a powerful stir! For look, you are what you are, a person with a mortal body, it is true, but in which lives an immortal soul with an even more immortal spirit from God; and I am also a person in whom a divine immortal soul and the Spirit of God lives in His fullness, as far as is necessary for this earth, and that is the Father in heaven, whose son I am and whose children you also are.

4 But you were all blind and still are in many ways; but I came into the world seeing, in order to show the Father to you all and to make you see as I do.

5 I have received the fullness of life from the Father, and can also give life to everybody who wants life; for the Father decreed Me, before the world was created, that in Me all fullness of life would live and through Me all people should live. And I am this decree in respect of My soul; in the spirit I am one with Him who made Me.

6 You see, I am the way, the truth and the life! Those who believe in Me will never see death, neither feel it nor taste it, even if they could die more than once in the body; but those who will not believe in Me, they will die, even if they had life a thousand times over!

7 For every person has a body, and it must die one day- My body will also not be spared this; but the soul will only become freer, brighter and more alive after the laying off of the body, and will be fully One with Him who created them before the world for the salvation of everyone who will believe in the Son of Man and keep His commandments.

8 So think properly, and keep the easy commandments which are given to you, then you do not need anything more; for I did not come to take reputation and honor from people! It is enough that the One praises Me who is above everything in heaven and on earth; but if someone will honor, praise and worship Me, he should love Me in deed through his works and keep My commandments and his reward in heaven will be great.

9 Be now cheerful, do not overestimate Me, and do not underestimate yourself too much, then you will walk along the correct path and will gradually get to know Me and yourself more perfectly.

10 For now stay with Mathael, who together with your daughter will bring you along the correct path forward! But if you and Helena have a particular request, just come to Me and I will listen to you any time; but you must leave aside the great homage.

11 For see, we must only speak and act towards one another as people, friends and brothers, for every person has a divine spirit in him, without whom he would have no life, and such a spirit is no less divine than the primordial divine itself.

12 Thus be a correct disciple of Mathael and you will be able to be a very efficient apostle of Mine in your own land! Did you understand Me?"

13 Ouran says: "Yes, Lord, I understand You, but I only now completely recognized what I and my daughter had been told about the true God. Before I had never dared to think about it!" Then the Greek was silent; for his feelings got the better of him, and he cried out of love for Me.

14 But I took his hand gently and asked him, saying: "What did it consist of, what Mathael said about God?"

15 Ouran sobbed again, but nonetheless said, looking reverently into My eyes: "Oh, that God is the purest love in Himself! Oh you most holy One, let me die in this my love for You!"

16 "No", I said: "You should not do that for a long time yet; for you shall become an effective tool for Me on this earth! And when the time of the flesh has passed for you in this world, you will not die, but will be awakened by Me in your flesh. Thus be comforted; for you have found the correct path!

17 Whoever seeks as long as you have been seeking, will find; whoever asks as you do, will be given, and whoever knocks on the right door, as you now have just knocked, to him it will be opened. But now go over to Mathael and tell him everything that I have just told you!"

18 Ouran now cried even more from sheer love and highest living gratitude to Me, hurried back to Mathael and told him, still sobbing for a long time, how I had accepted him, how good I was to him and everything that I had told him.

19 But Mathael and Helena were so moved themselves by the very solemn tale by old Ouran that neither could hold back tears; and Mathael said after Ouran's account: "That is the alone incomprehensible thing about the incomprehensible, that He, as the highest divine Being in His spirit, talks and acts with us people as if He were not the Lord of infinity, but a person like us, like a best friend to the best most intimate friend, yes, as a true brother to brother; in short, He lets himself be played with, and yet every look, every movement of His hands, every step of His feet and every so insignificant sounding word from His mouth is a deepest lesson in wisdom. His deeds bear witness of His incontestable divinity, and everything that He does is already planned as if from eternity for the achievement of the best purposes. Oh you will soon see, hear and experience much!"

- Chapter 101 -

Helena's opinion about the apostles

1 Helena, also still sobbing from love for Me, says: "But tell me who then are the twelve very respectable men who say almost nothing but nonetheless are constantly around Him! They must be very wise men! One looks just like Him, another is still a disciple, but always listens to Him the most enthusiastically, and writes some things down on a slate. Who are they then?"

2 Mathael says: "As far as I know they are His oldest disciples and are all except one very wise and powerful men over their flesh and over nature! But one seems to be a mischievous rogue! Truly, I would never like to count him among my friends; it seems to be an premature birth of a poor devil in human flesh! The Lord will know why He puts up with him! Devils are also creations of His power and hang on the whim of His will. Therefore we are not to ask Him why His love practices such wonders even before the eyes of a devil! But he is a strange being! I would like to sound him out, in order to see of what spirit he is! But let's forget that! It is enough that the One knows him! But I would like to exchange some words with the others at a good opportunity; they must be very deeply initiated!"

3 Helena says: "Yes, of course, they must be very wise men and already at the beginning must have laid bare much talent for wisdom, otherwise He would not have accepted them to be His disciples! I would also not be disinclined to exchange a few words with them about certain matters; but it will not be so easy to get close to them in any good way! What do you think, dear friend Mathael?"

4 Mathael shrugs his shoulders and says: "God the Lord has fully awakened me, it is true, and my spirit is one with me; I know therefore myself and God in as far as I am permitted, to recognise such things from the basics of all depths of life in the human heart, to read like in an open book and to recognise its innermost laws of life, that can only be done by the One alone, and the one to whom He wants to reveal it.

5 Ah, for a pure person of the world, whose innermost life is still completely lifeless and locked fully dead, and whose whole thinking and wanting comes from his brain and from his external senses, one can decide very exactly how and what he thinks, feels and wants. But it is not so for people who think, feel and want now from a fully awakened spirit from the innermost foundation of life; for such people then carry infinite things in themselves, and that can only be recognized by God in the depth of truth.

6 Therefore one cannot start a conversation with such men as with a quite usual everyday person. If it was necessary for us, the Lord would certainly order it and allow it; but if it is not necessary, then we can consider it advisable to do without such a pleasure. But most blessed Helena, how do you like the stars that are now sparkling so magnificently in the firmament?"

7 Helena says: "The stars have always extremely interested me since my earliest childhood, and I remembered a lot of the so-called constellations. Those of the zodiac were shown to me first as the most important. I learned to recognise them completely in the course of a year, and afterwards also the other wonderful constellations and even the individual large stars. I know all the stars by name, I know where they are and when they come up and go down in every month; but what use is all that!? The more I concentrated on these magnificent lights of the heaven, the more hard questions there were for my mind, for which no mortal has ever found a satisfying answer. Since I could not bring anything out of the dear stars, their names bothered me even more, which are naturally ages old.

8 Who discovered first the zodiac and gave the twelve pictures their names? Why did they receive exactly these names that we know, and why no others of a particular type and sort? What has a lion to do with a virgin, a crab with the twins, a scorpion with a balance scales, an ibex with an archer? How do a bull and a ram get into the firmament, how a fisherman with the fish?

9 It is very strange that in the animal world there are also four human images and the image of an object. If you can give me some reason for this you will make me very obliged to you!"

10 Mathael says: "Oh, most blessed Helena, nothing easier than this! Just have a little patience during my explanation and the issue will become quite clear to you!"

- Chapter 102 -

Mathael explains the names of the first three signs of the zodiac

1 "The discoverers of the zodiac were obviously the native residents of Egypt, who for one reached a much higher age than we do, secondly had always a most pure sky and could observe the stars much more easily and constantly than us, with our often thickly clouded sky, and thirdly most people slept the whole hot day through. Only in the evenings did they go out into the open and completed their work in the cool of night. There they had constantly the constellations in sight, soon noticed the unchangeable figures and gave them names which corresponded with some natural event occurring at a particular time or with a duty of the land.

2 Multiple observances of the zodiac led the watchers soon to the belief that the zodiac is a great circle, which is divided into twelve almost equal parts. In each of these parts there is an individual constellation.

3 Even the oldest peoples considered the stars of this earth to be further away than the sun and the moon and therefore they let the sun along with the moon move on a path inside the great zodiac.

4 But the zodiac also moved in a way that the sun, which circles the earth every day, stopped in another sign after thirty days due to the great movement of the zodiac. But that the moon always came into another sign every couple of days, they explained from its slower daily course around the earth, by which it never comes to the same place at the same time like the sun - therefore they often called the moon the 'tardy star'.

5 But there were some wise men who claimed exactly the opposite of the moon; yet the teaching of the tardiness of the moon prevailed.

6 You see, that's how the zodiac was created, and now you should also soon learn how the twelve constellations got their peculiar names!

7 In the season of the shortest days, which especially in Egypt, is always accompanied by rain, (and with this easy to remember time of thirty days, one always let a new year begin) according to the calculations of the elders the sun was situated exactly under the constellation that is known to us as Aquarius; therefore the constellation was first given the form of a shepherd when he comes with his water bucket to the trough created to give the domestic animals something to drink and pours the whole bucket into the drinking trough. The elders called such a person the water sprite (Uodan) and secondly they named the constellation thus and thirdly also this time. Later the vain fantasy of people soon made a god out of this good image and gave him divine honor, because it was seen to revive the withered nature. See, most blessed Helena, thus the familiar first constellation received its name and the first thirty days of rain. Let's go to the second sign that is called Pisces!"

8 When Mathael began to explain this second sign, Simon Judas said to the other disciples, "Mathael's explanations are becoming very informative, we should listen to them more closely!"

9 I say: "Go there and listen; for Mathael is one of the top chroniclers of this age!"

10 At this all the disciples pressed towards Mathael, which at the beginning made Mathael a little embarrassed; but Simon Judah said to him: "Dear friend, just carry on! For we only came closer to you to learn something very useful from you!"

11 Mathael says, very modestly: "For you, my dear very wise friends my wisdom must be a little weak; for you are already older disciples of the Lord, and I have hardly been with you for sixteen hours!"

12 Simon Judah says: "Do not let that confuse you; for you have already passed tests through which we have been placed somewhat in the background. But everything comes from the Lord. What he often gives one person in a year, He can give to another person in a day. Therefore just continue with your explanation of the zodiac!"

13 Mathael says: "With your great patience and under your likewise great care I will immediately continue; and so listen to me further, you most blessed daughter of the Pontus!

14 After thirty days the heavy rain in Egypt usually comes to an end, and in the heavily swollen Nile there are always a great quantity of fish to be found, as well as in the side streams, which have to be caught at this time, of which a great part is eaten immediately, an even greater part is salted and fried in the air which at this time blows very strongly in Egypt and is stored for the whole year.

15 This action with the fish is ordered in the mentioned land by nature and must be handled before the Nile sinks too much and the many significant side streams dry up, whereby a great mass of fish must rot and thereby poison the air with the most evil smells.

16 What is still tradition today in Egypt was a necessity for the oldest wise inhabitants of this blessed great land. But since such time was used for fishing by the inhabitants of this land right from the beginning and the sun came to stop at the start of this fishing season in a new constellation, this constellation was called the sign of the fish and the time was also called thus, and it was named Ribar, also Ribuze.

17 But since the people at this time very easily suffered from fever, partly because of the enjoyment of very fatty fish, and partly as a consequence of the air filled with many impure smells, this time was later called the fever time, and the vain fantasies of the people made from this time soon a goddess and showed her for the prevention of this stomach sickness another type of divine reverence - Now you have the whole natural and true story of the naming of the second zodiac sign, and so we progress to the third!

18 This sign is called the ram. After the fishing period the original inhabitants turned their worries to the sheep. The males became active and it was time to shear the sheep, their wool was taken from them. This whole task lasted a good thirty days. Naturally in the meantime one had some other daily tasks, but the previously mentioned was the main job for this time described and because the sun came to stop again under another sign, this sign was called the ram (Kostron).

19 Later on as one has the most storms in this period, where everything was in battle, one element against another and the heat against the cold or rather the coolness of this land, this period was dedicated to battle, for whose occurrence the human fantasy soon saw a picture which was soon given a divine honor and made it into another main god in the later times of war. If we split up the name 'Mars' and we get the original mar iza, also maor iza. What does that mean? Nothing else but: warm the sea.

20 In the above mentioned two signs the sea cools down, which the coastal inhabitants must have noticed well; but through the greater strength of the sun, through the battle of the warm air from the south with the cold northern air, then through the volcanoes that usually awoke in this period and the veins under the sea the sea became warmer and warmer. And because this was seen as a consequence of the storms occurring in this period, the expression maor izat means as much as 'to fight', and this period was, as shown, represented in images as a harnessed fighter who was later made into a god. There you have the third sign of the sky now, and you can easily see what is behind your god of war, Mars."

- Chapter 103 -

Explanation of the fourth to sixth signs of the zodiac.

1 "Let's move on now to the fourth sign! Again we see an animal, namely a very courageous bull. After looking after the sheep the old shepherding tribes tended, above all, to the cattle. In this time the cows were mostly beginning to mate and the strong were divided from the weak and the main concern was for good breeding.

2 The bull, which the Egyptians valued above all, yes, even it was given the place as a scribe because he formed different figures in loose sand through his blowing, was represented standing almost on two back legs. So what was more natural than that the constellation, under which the sun entered this period and in addition the external circumference lines suggested the form of a bull, was called taurus?

3 Even the Roman taurus originates from this and through time was only shortened from the original T a our sat, or Ti a our sat, which means: Time (sat) of the bull = stand on the back legs.

4 Later this period was also called Aprilis, namely by the Romans, which however in the Egyptian tongue means nothing other than: A (the bull) uperi (open) liz or lizu (the face), also: Bull, open the gate! Of the open pasture. It hardly needs to be mentioned that in time the old bull was made into a god by the Egyptians. So we have now the creation of the fourth zodiac sign before us faithful to nature and true, and we want to see how the fifth sign was created under the name and form of the twins as Castor and Pollux!

5 This will be very easy to understand, if we think that the old shepherding nation of Egypt had a lot care and effort throughout the year tending to the cattle behind their backs. After this time the heads of the community came together and chose one or two knowledgeable and possibly most intelligent evaluators and at the same time judges for this period, who had to look around and check whether all former effort was carried out uniformly well and beneficently. According to the position, an inquirer was named. Ka I e stor? was the question and, translated, meant: 'What has he done?' Then followed the serious admonition with the demanded sentence: Po luxe men!, also Poluzce men! - 'Give me light on the matter, an explanation!'

6 This is how the later 'twins' came into being; but basically the twins were only two sentences, namely the interrogative sentence and then the challenge sentence. If two such messengers were sent out to the congregations in response to such inquiries, one had to ask the interrogative sentence and the other the exhortative sentence, naturally not only in word but in deed.

7 But since around such a time of inquiry and checking the sun entered the familiar two-star constellation, they were called 'twins' and in the Roman tongue Gemini or also Castor and Pollux, which naturally later were also worshiped as gods through the vain fantasy of the people.

8 We now have the fifth zodiac sign explained just like the previous signs faithfully and truthfully; but now we come to the sixth sign, and there we suddenly see the 'crab'! How did it come to the great starry zodiac? I tell you, quite easily and naturally just like the previous ones!

9 You see, in this period of time the day lasts longest; then it begins to become shorter in length, and the elders compared this returning length of the day with the movement of a crab. But at the same time it was the sixth period of thirty days, in which the dew in this country became very strong at night, particularly near to the river. At such a time the crabs climbed out of their marshy holes at night and paid the nearby grassy and dewy meadows a very refreshing and nutritional visit. The old inhabitants of the land on the Nile noticed this very easily and at the beginning made an effort to drive the uninvited guests out of the fat meadows, which particularly for the first inhabitants of this land was no easy job, since in this time the quantity of these great mud insects went into countlessness. At first they encountered them with burning torches, collected them in piles and burned them, which did nothing to the large numbers, however. In burning however there was always a very good and very inviting smell, and the elders soon thought that the animals were perhaps good to eat, but nonetheless no-one wanted to begin this sampling of the roast.

10 Later they were boiled in great pots and the soup seemed very tasty; but no-one wanted to dare. They were given to the pigs that had already been raised by the elders, and these gorged themselves on them and became very fat, which was a very welcome discovery to the Egyptians, for they used much fat from the animals, as well as the skin and the intestines; but they did not enjoy the meat and used it for the additional food for the pigs.

11 But when in time lazy people began to degenerate and to sin against old and wise laws which had come from the pre-flood religious leader Enoch, soon huge prisons were built and the criminals were placed inside. These were fed with boiled crabs and alternately with salted and roasted pork and only a little bread. But they noticed that the criminals thrived on this food and later on, in a bad year, the free people also tried the terrible-seeming prison food and found that it tasted better than their old traditional food. This realization was then soon the cause that the enormous quantity of the great and fat Nile crabs soon decreased very much, since they were hunted too much.

12 Later the Greeks and Romans also ate this mud insect and thrived on it; only the Jews even today do not eat it, although Moses did not exactly forbid it.

13 But from all of that it can be more than tangibly seen that the old Egyptians could not choose any better image for the sign of this sixth period of thirty days than this animal that gave them so much work to do in this time period. This picture also lets us think that it received a type of divine honor. Greeks and Romans later dedicated this time period to the goddess Juno and named the time thus in her honor.

14 But now there is the question how this goddess was actually invented and how she received her divine personality. The wise men have different opinions which are basically not badly founded. But the real reason is nonetheless that which was hatched in time just as with the personalities of Castor and Pollux.

15 Around the time of the crabs it became too hot for manual activities, and one therefore devoted this time to spiritual investigation in great shady temples, of which then several were built by the original inhabitants of this land.

16 A main question at the beginning of all spiritual investigation was whether the pure divinity could also be sought in any material association.

17 As all questions by the wise men were only very short, but needed a very long answer, thus it was the same with this weighty question. They said: Je (un) o? translated: 'Is a separated divinity, if put next to each other, a whole divinity?'

18 You ask: How could then these simple letters mean this pronounced sentence? You shall learn the very natural reason right now! The U, for the old Egyptians, was represented by means of an open semicircle with extended ends, and meant in this way a receptacle for everything divine that comes from above to the people on earth. It goes without saying that the wise elders understood by this mainly a spiritual gift of light for the soul of a person.

19 The N was represented by a similar semicircle but turned to face downward, and described dead matter, in itself completely spiritless and lightless. The round roofs of some houses and particularly the temple, therefore had the form of an up-turned semi-circle and showed that, in such places, the divine was joined with the material, creates a temporal life and reveals itself to the people at times. From this was created the old, important question: Je o?, because the O represented the full divinity in its purity.

20 The answer to this old weighty question then meant that all created matter relates to God almost as a wife to her husband and lord. God continuously created, in and through mater, His myriads of children of all types. He continued to fertilize matter with His divine spiritual influence, and matter then continued to give birth to the innumerable children who were born into it. That was certainly a very eminent thought which the old wise men had placed as an answer to the familiar, weighty question!

21 In time, particularly for the later descendants who were lusting after the senses, there was no longer any idea about the old Egyptian wisdom, and the question Je un o and the defined femininity of all material was made into a personal goddess and she was given the name at first Jeu no, then simply Juno, and she was married to the likewise non-existent god Zeus.

22 The old wise men then considered from wise and very natural reasons the material to be hard, unbending, unsubmissive and thought that one could only gain anything from it through great hard work and great effort. The old imperfections discovered by the old wise men in matter were foisted by later descendants to the god wife Juno, with whom Zeus constantly was lacking. Do you now understand your goddess Juno?"

23 Helena says: "I beg you, my very dearest Mathael, just continue; I could listen to you without interruption for days! Your explanation is not as pictorial and decorated as that of Homer, but it is wise and true, and that is of a thousand times more value and more attractive than all the magical flowery adornment of the great folk singers! Therefore just continue uninterrupted in your tale!"

24 Mathael says: "Are you telling me what I want to hear!? For look, the truth wants to be understood, but never flattered! But I know that you are not flattering me, only the truth, which does not come from me but from God, and so I can continue."

- Chapter 104 -

The seventh, eighth and ninth signs of the zodiac

1 "Listen then! After the crab we see the lion in the great zodiac. How does this wild beast then come among the signs of the sky? Likewise just as naturally as everything else that we have got to know up to now!

2 After the crab hunt, which lasts its thirty days and sometimes also an extra one or two - because the month of the crab (June) and not the month of the fish (February) was decided as the month of balancing out by the old Egyptians - another calamity began which created a lot of cares and worry for the elders. Around this time the lions usually give birth and are there, full of hunger, concentrating most on the hunt and move far and wide over the deserts, the mountains and the valleys into areas where they scent some fat herds.

3 Since the fatherland of the lions is actually hot Africa, and Asia Minor is also often conquered by these kings of the animals, it is therefore understandable that it was not difficult for them to press forward to middle and lower Egypt and there cause devastation among the peacefully grazing herds. Just as a great cold drives the wolves into areas occupied by people, so the great heat of Julius drives the lions into the somewhat cooler northern fields where there is a good prey.

4 But in this month, in upper Egypt, the heat is the strongest and most unbearable and therefore often drives the lions north to the Mediterranean where it is obviously cooler than in the area of the glowing hot sandy desert. In short, at the beginning of this period the inhabitants of Egypt constantly receive visits from these feared guests and must defend themselves quite efficiently against them in order to keep them from their herds. And since the sun at this time enters a constellation that just like that of the bull represents more or less the form of a furious lion, the elders called this heavenly body a lion, and in Egypt this time was also called the name 'lion' (Le oh wa), Le, 'the evil one' or 'the descendant of evil one', in contrast to El, 'the good one' or 'the son of good one', O, 'the sun of God', wa, also wai, 'flees'; Le o wai therefore means: 'The evil one flees the sun'.

5 The Romans named their hero Julius Caesar in honor just a few decades ago this time period with his name, because he knew how to fight as cunningly and bravely as a lion. There you have the seventh heavenly or zodiac sign which also became idolized in a way by the later descendants.

6 But after the lion we see a 'virgin' follow; that seems not to suit what has happened before?! Oh yes, it suits it completely and quite naturally! With the conquering of the time of the lions, the main worries of the year were now in a way finished, and one turned here to a greater cheerfulness and put on festivals, which particularly served to give presents to the good and demurely pure virgins, in order to encourage them to further demureness; it was also tradition in this period to celebrate marriages. Only a virgin found to be pure could be taken as a wife; one who had not kept her virginity, however, was excluded from marriage and could only in the very best case become a concubine of some man who already had one or more proper wives - otherwise the only thing left for her was the despicable and low status of slave. And so this time had a very weighty importance, and because around this time another very nice constellation of the zodiac came to stop over the sun, it was called the 'virgin' . But only several years ago did the vain Romans give this period the name of the Caesar, in the honor of Caesar Augustus. And so you know now also, dear Helena, how a virgin came after the lion in the stars. But now let's move on!

7 We have now seen how a virgin also came among the constellations of the zodiac; but now something enters that we will soon see. We see a balance scales, as the grocers and pharmacists use for weighing their specimens and medicines. How did this instrument for testing weight come among the stars then? I tell you: Very easily and again just as naturally as all the earlier ones!

8 You see, after the time of the virgins" test and the marriages, by which this previous time was mostly characterized, came the time of the testing of the most harvest, of the grain - which the oldest inhabitants of this land had farmed, of course alongside the cattle - of the fruits, the figs, the dates, the oil, the pomegranates, the oranges and more of the same.

9 Every community had its elders as representatives and leaders of all business and likewise a priest who had only to occupy himself with the spiritual and to teach the people on certain days and to prophecy at important events. It does not need to be mentioned that the status of priest soon much increased, and this status did not have much to do with coarse, physical work, except with new attempts and improvements in every possible respect.

10 It was also the priests who investigated the metals of the earth, collected them and made them suitable for use. But for all the many technical things they needed as well many henchmen and well trained artisans who all had no time to devote themselves to farming and cattle-breeding, and thus such people had to be supported by the community. But how should that be measured, that every member of the community should give a corresponding part of his harvest to the priests and their helpers?

11 The tithe was decided, and every member of the community had to give the tenth part of all their harvest to the priests. But how was the tithe measured? Quite simply: with the scale! There were larger and smaller scales available for use in the way just mentioned. Every community owned several such scales, and before the eyes of the community council all harvests were exactly measured by filling both scale pans completely; the filled pans were emptied out nine times into the box of the community member, but the tenth time into the box of the priests. The high priest was, at the same time, the protector of the whole tribe or the shepherd with the expression Vara on ('he protects' or 'he is the shepherd'). In later times the Varaons became the genuine kings of the land under whose dominion the priests also stood.

12 But now we see from this historically true representation that the period of time just after that of the virgin was attributed mainly for the weighing of the harvests for the tithe-giving to the priesthood; and because at exactly this time the sun once again entered a new sign, this sign was therefore called in the zodiac 'the scales'. That will be clear to anyone who is even a little familiar with the traditions and habits of the ancient Egyptians.

13 It hardly needs to be mentioned that in the time of the scales all sorts of corresponding meanings were laid aside and it was used also as a symbol of the divine as well as the worldly justice, yes, that it is still worshiped in a way by some yet undeveloped peoples, as the Indians do to the plough here and there. On the one hand the fantasy of people and on the other hand the constantly growing profit-seeking of the ever increasing priests and teachers idolized in time whatever seemed time-honored and useful for all humanity.

14 In this way we have now seen how a human tool came into the great zodiac, and we therefore also want to see further how the highly unsightly insect 'the scorpion' came to the great zodiac!"

- Chapter 105 -

Explanation of the last three signs of the zodiac

1 "After the period of the scales came a pretty lethargic period. The herds devoted themselves more and more to rest, that is, they grazed, but they did no longer skipped around the pastures as boldly as in the spring; the fruit trees as well no longer showed such activity as was the case in spring; the fields lay fallow, and so the people had also a certain rest from work. They would certainly have embraced doing nothing for much longer if the Lord of heaven and earth had not urged them on in this lazy time with an extremely annoying insect whose home is mainly Egypt.

2 The scorpions began at the beginning of this period to show themselves everywhere and increased their number, until the middle of this otherwise lazy period, like flies in a dining hall. The sting of this insect is known to be not only very painful, but also very dangerous if one does not have the correct antidote to hand immediately after the sting.

3 But since the old Egyptians must have learned only too well both the danger as well as the annoyance of this little animal, it was also not difficult to think of a means through which they could become at least in some ways master over this being. All sorts of deterrents were tried; but they all together helped little, until they finally came upon the bark of a Nile plant, cooked it, and with its steam at least freed the rooms from this spiky scrounger. Also they dampened the bark of the mentioned bush, spread it on the floor and laid it in the beds, keeping the spiky vermin away killing it at the same time.

4 After this method to drive away and kill the insect, they called the insect itself, which of course had previously no name, scoro (= bark) pi or pie (= drinks) on (= he).

5 With this name the descendants were made aware as if by a recipe, through which means one could counteract this pest most effectively. Even nowadays we receive from Egypt, from Arabia and Persia a powder through which one can destroy not only the scorpion but also almost every very annoying insect without the least damage to human health; and this powder is made alongside other ingredients mainly from that ground bark. And now back to the main issue!

6 At the first appearance of the scorpions in this lazy time the sun entered a new constellation in the great circle and it was called after the annoying insect that was spreading most in this period and annoyed cattle and people. This sign has until now been given the least divine reverence, except that it is always honored as a very effective old recipe against this annoying insect.

7 The lazy period ended with the destruction of the scorpions, as well as the thunder storms that often occur in Egypt in this period, for which the Egyptians always had a great respect; for they said: 'The shot from Zeus is always faster and more accurate than the pitiful shots of people!'

8 Around the time after the scorpion, all sorts of wild animals began to come down to the valleys from the mountains, among them all types of rapacious animals, although not of the very worst type.

9 This appearance forced people, and namely the men, to span their bows and set off on the hunt. Rabbits, hares, gazelles, small bears, badgers, foxes, panthers, a number of vultures and eagles, also crocodiles and the hippopotamus (Hippopotamus, old Egyptian: Je pa opata moz = the horse of the Nile begins to exercise its strength), began to move, and thus there was no time to be lost for the hunt; there was also a very significant prize for the killing of as many crocodiles as possible.

10 It doesn't belong here to say how all sorts of hunts were carried out, instead it is enough just to know that in Egypt around this time there were all sorts of hunts, and we know everything that we need to know.

11 Around this hunting period the sun entered a new constellation again in the great zodiac, and it was called 'the archer', because this time provided the most work for the archer. The archer was given in time a sort of divine honor, but not too much, except for Apollo, who was also honored as a god of hunting.

12 We are then finished with the archer and now come to Capricorn, actually the strangest of the signs in the whole zodiac! You see, an ibex, the inhabitant of the highest clifftops, shimmers in the southernmost parts of the great cycle! How did this inhabitant of the high mountains then get into the great zodiac? I tell you, just like all the others, in a very natural way!

13 In this last period of the year all the wild animals search the valleys in order to find whatever food its nature demands.

14 The ibex was something too valuable for the Egyptians for them to let it enjoy its cheeky visit to the valley just like that! In short, all sorts of watches were set up as soon as the time began to draw near, in which this animal was discovered in earlier times more often grazing on the lonely fields and jumping around. As soon as one was noticed, after the signal was received everything that had legs was on his feet.

15 But it was no easy piece of work to catch such an ibex, and there were some ibex periods when no ibex were caught; but if several were caught in a good period, it was a positive triumph for the whole of Egypt! For everything about this ibex was a most wonderful medicine, and with just a little, one could heal every illness, and the horns were the first and most valuable decoration for the king of Egypt himself, more than gold and jewels. Indeed, in ancient times, the value of a Varaon was valued according to the number of ibex horns, which even the chief priests later carried, gold-plated, with them as a sign of their high wisdom and supreme power.

16 But since the ibex has such a high reputation for the Egyptians, as you can convince yourself even today in this country, it is more than understandable that the old Egyptians dedicated this period of time, in which they had a visit from the ibex, to the valuable animal, and then called it after the animal, as well as the constellation in which the sun entered in this period of time.

17 And now we have looked at all the twelve signs of the great zodiac in this way, and have found nowhere anything else but something very natural, and besides we have also seen how and in which way all the many pagan gods were created, and that there is nothing behind them but the very natural that we have just seen.

18 And so it will hopefully never be difficult in future to recognise the true God alone in the correct and truest light. Never has any fabricated divinity done anything of all the wonders that have been ascribed to it, and the few wise-seeming words that are supposed to have been said to the people by gods have been shoved into the mouths of the non-existent gods by the old wise men for the sake of greater weight.

19 But here are deeds to be seen and words to be heard which before have never been experienced in reality - and there we have finally reached the place where we can recognise the true God in completion. Helena and you too, old Ouran, tell us whether this explanation of mine about the zodiac was enlightening or not!"

- Chapter 106 -

Helena asks about the school of Mathael

1 Helena says: "Oh, you very dearest Mathael! Nothing has ever been made as clear and lucid to me on this earth through pure words! As a consequence of your living way of describing I was quite actively present myself in all the deeds and action in ancient Egypt and saw the greatest truth rain down before my very eyes.

2 But only tell me one more thing now: in which way or in which school did you discover all this so efficiently! For by all heavens, such a thing cannot be produced just like that, like some ears of wheat from out of a sack! So how did you learn all this so fundamentally?"

3 Mathael says: "Oh, Helena! Yesterday I was several thousand times blinder and unknowledgable than one of your stupidest servants and in addition was so ill that only God alone could heal me from such a never heard of sickness; such a healing would not have been possible for any human art!

4 But after I was healed I received not only all my bodily strength again in almost a moment, but the Lord of heaven and earth awoke, among others, my spirit in my very gloomy soul. And look, this spirit teaches me now everything in its basics that ever were and are and some other things that will be!

5 You see, that is all a pure gift of mercy from the Lord, whom alone you and I owe all praise, honor, thanks and love, and I have never learned such a thing in any ordinary school!

6 The Lord alone is my everything, my school and all my wisdom; what I know and can, I know and can only through the Lord!

7 And I tell you: He who does not know about something from there, be it whatever it may, knows nothing at all; for all his knowledge is a vain, fully void and useless piece of work!

8 Therefore be diligent in the single school of the Lord, who now in all His divine fullness moves among us physically, and you will never need another school in all eternity! Do you understand that, most blessed Helena?"

9 Helena says: "Oh yes, I understand you well; but how can a weak mortal person, for example I and my father, get into the school of the Lord?"

10 Mathael says, quite excited: "Oh Helena! You most blessed of the whole great Pontus, how did you get to such a blind and stupid question? You must forgive me if I give you a very harsh answer to your question which you have not considered in the least! You and your father are already in such a school; how possibly can you ask how and when you will get into such a school? Yes, don't you see at all how the Lord has worked such greats signs for your sake?!"

11 Helena says, somewhat embarrassed: "But I beg you, dearest Mathael, do not hold it against me! I now see my foolishness very well and will never come to you again with such a question; but you just have patience with us and always consider that Rome was not built in a day! Gradually everything can be achieved! If my father is old, so I am still young. And see, I am no girl that is hard to direct; all my teachers confirmed that, and my father knows it too! Oh, I will certainly not put you to shame, dearest Mathael; but only sometimes a little more patience would do no harm! I beg you for this!"

12 Mathael, quite affected by the great gentleness of Helena, says: "Oh, most blessedly gentle Helena, never again will you have to ask me for patience! I never mean it unkindly when I sometimes look a little serious, and through a more serious word I only want to bring someone quicker to their goal than can happen with very mild words. But I see that you are gentler in your being than the tamest dove, and so there is no further need to wake you with serious sounding words."

13 Helena says: "Nonetheless therefore have no consideration for me! If you can bring me further with serious words, just be as serious as the great Pontus when its mountain-high waves enter into a violent battle with the hurricane; if you can bring me and my father just as far with gentle words and lessons in the same time, that would be much preferred. But now about something else! Yet another very short question, and I will then have time enough to think!

14 Tell me now who has named all the many other constellations and for what reasons!"

- Chapter 107 -

The zodiac in general

1 Mathael says: "Oh my very dearest Helena! Your question is really very short; but a complete answer would demand from me more than a full year! Therefore we will postpone this answering of this short question of yours to a later opportunity and for now just say that the names of all the constellations have quite the same origin as the twelve great zodiac signs, which Greek sounding name of this cycle is quite wrongly named the Animal Cycle, because people and things also occur in it, of course only in name.

2 According to the old Egyptian tongue, the syllable Zo or Za means 'for', dia or diaia, 'work' and kos, 'a part', also the 'separation'; and Za diaia kos (also kose) means when well translated: 'Division for work'.

3 You see now that the thing can never be different in the beginning, and so my explanation to you of the Zadia-kos must be completely correct! For in the beginning the elders divided the great cycle according to the periodic events in their work; but the later descendants decided afterwards their work according to the already divided cycle; for every constellation that occurred advised the Egyptians in advance with which work they had to occupy themselves in the next period. And in this way the naming of the cycle was also quite correct - but only not in the false sense of the Greeks and Romans.

4 But the way that the elders named this cycle and its images correctly, they also named many, even if not all the other constellations, and also were the first discoverers of the planets known to you apart from the sun and the moon, which are basically, at least for our earth, not at all planets, in that the sun does not go round the earth, but the other planets along with the earth go around the great sun in different spaces of time, under which we are not to understand the seemingly daily orbital time which stems from the turning of the earth itself around its own axis, but that which the earth makes in a year, which Venus and the rarely seen Mercury make in an even shorter time; but Mars, Jupiter and Saturn need a longer time for their orbit than the earth.

5 But the moon in any case belongs to the earth and moves with it once in a year around the sun, while, as a constant companion of our earth, it moves in addition every 27 to 28 days once around the earth at a distance of one hundred thousand hours away.

6 Alone, those are things that you cannot understand; but if the Spirit of God is awake in your soul, then you will recognise that and many other things without any external, clumsy teaching.

7 Therefore there is above all only one thing lacking, and that is: to recognise oneself and God and love Him above all else, everything else then comes of its own accord.

8 In any case we both have spoken more than enough, and it will be very good if we now rest a little, so that the other friends who are much wiser than us can also make a few good remarks about us.

9 One must never speak too much about one thing, but instead let others speak and listen to them; for no person on the whole earth is so wise that he cannot sometimes learn something from a less wise person, not to mention from someone more wise - than oneself! And so you, very dearest Helena, will forgive me if I do not speak myself for some time, but instead I will listen to the others - naturally assuming that they want to say something."

10 Then Helena says: "Oh, very good, very good! Now just rest a little; for you have now spoken for a few hours without a break.

11 Perhaps at this opportunity someone will tell us something more about the great Master who is now among us and yet hardly lets us know that He is who He is!"

- Chapter 108 -

Opinions about the spreading of the new teaching

1 At this Simon Judah says: "I marvel at Mathael's truly great wisdom and the knowledge hidden in it about antiquity! Yes, such wisdom is lacking in this age too just as much as the deep recognition of the truths of life coming out of the mouth of God! Truly, we could talk the ear off of a nation which has already been wasting away in the very most absurd dirt of the most dubious superstition for more than a thousand years! In that case one word just as a hundred thousand of the most beautiful words is purely in vain; it does not recognise its own foolishness and blindness, and even less so the most beautiful and purest truth preached to it.

2 What else should one do there with such a nation? Work miracles? A nation only becomes more foolish and superstitious thereby! Punish it? Oh, such a nation is in any case punished enough!

3 But if one seeks the more accessible ones of the nation and preaches to them in the way our Mathael does against paganism, in one hundred years at most with the mercy of God there will be no more pagan temples!

4 Judge, brothers, whether I have spoken correctly or not! A simple mind of a child is worth more than the understanding of all those who understand on this earth; but here understanding is also fully appropriate. What is your opinion, dear brothers?"

5 Everyone, except Judas, says: "We totally agree with that, and we cannot refute anything!"

6 Now Judas steps forward and says: "No, no, some things can be refuted!"

7 Simon says: "What then? Speak! I truly don't know of anything here that could be refuted!"

8 Judas says: "If you conquer those who are powerful, you will then be able to speak very effectively to the weaker ones even without this knowledge!"

9 Mathael says, looking at Judas somewhat excitedly: "Aha, you want to announce the message of freedom from heaven to the poor in spirit and the earthly goods with whip and sword! Indeed, you are a very strange person! You seem to me also to be otherwise a being from the underworld, thus this opinion of yours which would truly do no injustice to any devil! You are an exceptionally rare devil!

10 But do tell me how you could have smuggled yourself into this otherwise purely heavenly company!

11 But I say to you: If you as a devil want to speak to people and act, you must wrap yourself better in sheep"s clothing, so that one doesn't see the rapacious wolf among them at the first glance!

12 Make sure that you get out of my view, otherwise I could be tempted to make disclosures about you that you perhaps now would not be in the best mood to hear; for my spirit knows you now inside and out!"

13 When Judas hears such things from Mathael, he raises his eyebrows and says: "You are mistaken in me, Mathael; for I also belong to the number of chosen ones, I have already fulfilled errands in the name of the lord and I was carried through the air just like my brothers a number of weeks ago by the angels!"

14 Mathael says: "Oh, I know all that, and nonetheless I do not retract one syllable of the words I have just said! You sure do belong among the twelve, but my spirit says to me: There is a devil among them! - and look, you are the devil!

15 With this proof that my spirit gave about you, you can be satisfied for the moment. But if you want more, it can be attended to; for I am just about to discover quite a big room full of ugly proofs against you, and you will not have to do much to get them all in your face! For you are also a thief! Do you understand me?!"

16 When Judas heard such thunderous words from the wise Mathael, a powerful shudder ran through him and he drew very modestly back and in going back he received some quiet kicks from Thomas as well, with the words: "Did hell prick you once again?! Just carry on like that, and you will hear more than just now! You poor soul, you"ll never be a match for Mathael, whom the Lord has so wonderfully healed in body, soul and spirit!

17 See, even the angel of the Lord does not dare to draw near to him, and you want to contradict him in something that he has said from out of his deepest wisdom which has never been seen since Moses?!

18 Do you not then see the foolishness emanating from your fundamentally asinine heart as it screams throughout all the heavens? Can you not remain silent so that you can listen and continue to learn?!

19 All the wisdom of all the heavens and all the earth is here in one place together, we are sitting here together in the centre of the divine heart, words and deeds go past us that even amaze the angels, and you with your truly terrible cravings as the greatest donkey among us, cannot resist pulling not only discussions but also counter views from your puddle of stupidity into the present divine daylight! Oh you top blockhead!"

20 Judas says, quite sulkily: "Hey, leave me alone! If I am such a donkey then that affects me and not you! And if Mathael has now beaten me so much, I bet you anything you want that this divine teaching, as pure as it is, will not be proclaimed to the poor heathen with gentle words of peace, but with sword and all kinds of deadly projectiles!

21 No-one will be asked whether he has understood it, instead he will be forced to swear on the new belief! And if with time he leaves the never understood belief, he will be declared guilty of the most harmful perjury and at best burnt alive!

22 And if at the spreading of this divine religion one does not ensure above all that the authorities are won over, then I would truly not like to count the numbers of blood witnesses who will bleed under the sword of the great heathen rulers, even if I am a devil! No matter whether it is divine! The devil is also divine! In time even the purest and most eminent divinity is also devilish!

23 For example, if we just look at the most divine religion of Moses, what is it in the temple of the once heavenly wise Solomon?! Therefore I say as Mathael's devil and also as a donkey: Mathael is correct, and I recognise his wisdom as well you do, but as much as Mathael is correct, I am correct too!

24 I tell you, this religion of peace from heaven will spread the greatest dissatisfaction across the whole surface of the earth in a very short time and will put nations among eachother in the greatest, irreparable disharmony, discontent and war!

25 You will probably not experience this so much in your body; but your spirit will be a certain witness of everything that I have just said to you, and you will only then agree that the devil and thief Judas, also prophesied truth! Now I ask you whether you have understood me well!?"

- Chapter 109 -

Judas' character

1 Thomas says: "You now think that you have made a great prediction and we would not have learnt it without you?! Despite all the highest wisdom you have heard now in more than half a year, you are still a poor, foolish twit!

2 At what time did light and darkness not oppose each other as enemies? When have life and death ever gone walking together hand in hand? When have the furious hunger and full satisfaction reached a hand towards one another in the peace of paradise? Fool! It goes without saying: If the highest and clearest light penetrates the thickest darkness of the earth from heaven, it will not happen without counteraction!

3 Look at the immeasurable ice fields of the enormous Ararat! They do not melt at the least warmth, as the wise Egyptians decide according to color and thickness of the ice and snow; but just let the heat of summer from Ethiopia reach such ice fields, and soon all the ice will become water! But woe to the valleys, which then are flooded by this water!

4 And look, whatever would be materially unavoidable, will certainly remain even less spiritually in the future!

5 But if we begin to preach the gospel of God with a sword in our hand, we will awake the sword of the world against us all the sooner; if we begin it with the weapon of peace, which is called love, we will also find peace many times over.

6 It goes without saying that such a gift from heaven will see war and all sorts of battles over time, as long as the material world remains due to the divine order what it always was, still is and will be and remain, and this needs no prophecy; but due to the fact that paganism will be shown to be basically laughable and foolish in its fullest emptiness to people of any more mature insight in the way and manner of Mathael, at least the too powerful and destructive counter-battles will not be called against us in all-devastating intensity!

7 If you have appreciated even a little of what I have just shown you, the fullest nonsense of the prophecy that you made to me must seem to shine like the midday sun into the eyes of a man fast asleep!"

8 Judas says: "Yes, yes, you are truly always wise Thomas, and everything that I say must be foolish! I should think about things well before I put them into words - and look there, I just opened my mouth and everybody attacks me because of the foolishness I speak, like the lion a lamb! Yes, one must want to explode in anger like a puffed-up bullfrog! From now on I will not say another syllable, but will be as quiet as a log, then you will have nothing to disagree with!"

9 Thomas says: "Yes, do it, then you will be a wise man!"

10 Here Mathael calls Thomas and says to him: "I thank you in the name of good things that you have given brother Judas such a modest pointer. For it did not hurt him in the least, and perhaps what he sees as an insult to his mind will be useful to him in the next world; for there is still no trace of any inner wisdom and there will probably never be any in his life.

11 But leave him for now; for his soul is not from above, and his spirit is too small and too weak to soften his worldly soul and to animate it like yours!"

12 Here I step up and say to Mathael: "Truly, there are few tools like you, and I must therefore give you My praise! Just you continue, and you will be an apostle for another whom I will awake only later from among My enemies, an efficient fore-runner among the heathens! And now I will give you the fullest assurance that you and your four brothers will never fall back into your illness that was so hard to bear! But you will have to distribute your four brothers and show them the fully correct path.

13 We will from now on remain a few more days here, and tomorrow as the Sabbath some things will happen where you can give Me good help; for you are one who does not fear the world or death, and therefore you are a very efficient tool for Me.

14 But now lead Me to Helena; for she has an extra-large secret longing for Me, and so we want to visit her and strengthen her!"

15 Mathael says: "Oh Lord, what an endless mercy for me! You, my Creator, let me lead You to her who is as much Your creation as I am! But the maiden is pure and full of good will; she certainly knows nothing about sin and therefore it is worth the effort to strengthen such a heart through which later a thousand times a thousand can be strengthened!"

- Chapter 110 -

The search for God

1 After these words I, Mathael and our Jarah, who does not move from My side, turn to Helena and to her father Ouran.

2 When Helena sees Me coming towards her, she bursts into a flood of tears of joy and says after a while: "I already doubted that this grace would be granted to me to see You, the Lord of my life, beside me and to speak to You! But now everything is very good! For You, whom my heart and my mind has only got to know here so endlessly wonderfully, have come to me Yourself! Oh, now rejoice loudly, you my otherwise so poor heart; for He whose spirit has counted the beats of your pulse from the cradle to the grave, stands before you and brings a holy strength in which death will taste sweeter than honey!"

3 Then she becomes quiet again and I say to her: "Helena! Hearts that love like yours have eternally no death to fear and will never taste it, neither sweet nor bitter!

4 For see, I Myself am the life and the resurrection, and those who believe in Me and love Me as you do, will never see death in all eternity, neither feel it, nor taste it!

5 Truly your heavy body will one day be taken from you, but it will not affect you painfully or knowledgeably, instead in one moment you will be transformed from your heavy, captive life into the brightest life of your soul through My Spirit of love which is in you and grows until full similarity with My eternal spirit! Do you now understand this, dearest Helena?”

6 But Helena cannot produce a single word from sheer emotion and now weeps with the loudest sobbing of her heart. It lasts a long time, and Helena is still so moved in her being by the joy that I came to her, that her tongue is constantly paralysed anew with tears of joy, as soon as she wants to give me further words of thanks.

7 But I say again to her: "My dearest daughter, do not try to speak; for this language of your heart is much more preferable to Me than any chosen by your mouth!

8 For you see, on the earth there are some, and in future there will be more, who will say to Me: Lord, Lord! And I will answer them and say: Why are you calling, strangers?! I don't know you and I have never known you! For you have always been children of the prince of lies, of arrogance, of evil, of night and of all darkness! Therefore, out of My sight, you constant doers of evil! And I tell you that among them there will be much howling and gnashing of teeth!

9 They will seek their god in endless, never reachable distances and depths and will not find him, because they it beneath them to seek Me in their vicinity, namely in their hearts!

10 Truly, whoever does not seek God as you have sought Him, will not find Him, not even in all eternity!

11 God is in Himself the highest, endless, most powerful love and therefore can only be found through love!

12 In the beginning love drove you to it, although you imagined to sin by loving Me; and look, you found Me. I came to you more than half the way, just as your father Ouran. But likewise everyone that wants to find Me should seek Me, and they will find Me as you have found Me.

13 But those who seek Me with their arrogant intellect will never find Me in all eternity!

14 For whoever seeks Me with reason, resemble a man who bought a house about which he had heard that there was a great treasure hidden under its walls. When the house became his, he began to dig in it one moment here, the next moment there; but he didn't make any proper effort, only dug a shallow hole and thus did not find the treasure which was buried deeply. Then he thought: Aha, I know what I will do; I will begin to dig around the house from the outside and will certainly find the trail of the buried treasure much faster!

15 And so he began to dig outside the house, and of course did not find the treasure because it had been buried deep in the middle of his house, and the further he dug new ditches away from the house for the sake of the treasure, the less he found the treasure for whose sake he had bought the whole house. For whoever seeks something there where it is not and can never be, can also impossibly find what he is seeking.

16 Whoever wants to catch fish, must reach into the water with a net, for no fish swim in the air. Whoever wants to dig for gold must not seek it with a net in the sea, but in the depths of the mountains.

17 You cannot see with the ears and hear with your eyes. Every sense has its own goal and therefore has been determined for a certain purpose.

18 Likewise the heart of a person who is closely connected to God has the sole goal of seeking God and also finding Him and then taking a new, indestructible life from out of this God once found. But whoever seeks God with his other senses can find Him just as little as a man who binds his eyes can find and see the sun with his ears or nose.

19 The correct and living sense of the heart is love, however. Whoever therefore awakens the innermost sense of life and begins to seek God with it, must certainly find Him just as well as a person who, if he is not fully blind, must find the sun with his eye and see its light.

20 But whoever wants to hear a wise word must not stop up his ears and try to hear with an eye; for the eye certainly sees the light and all the illuminated forms, but the more spiritual form of the word cannot be seen, instead only heard with the ear. Do you understand all that?"

- Chapter 111 -

Union with the Lord

1 Helena finally says, who had recovered a little from her too great joy of her heart: "Oh yes, I have understood all that; for your words have all the light, strength and life and emit from Your holy mouth as brightly and clearly as the purest source of the pasture of a high mountain, lit by the morning sun. But what should I do in order to calm my heart only a little more!? Lord, kill me if I rejoice; but my love for You surpasses now all my borders of life! Oh just allow me to touch Your hand!"

2 I say: "Oh, do that in any case! Whatever your heart orders from out of its depths, do it, and it will never be a mistake; you can be fully assured of that!"

3 At this Helena took hold of My left hand and pressed it with all her strength to her heart, cried again from sheer joy and said, sobbing: "Oh how happy must they be who can always be around You, oh Lord! Oh if only I could also always be around you!"

4 I say: "Whoever is with Me in their hearts, I am always with them, and he is always with Me, and there lies the most important thing! For what use is it to someone who is all the time around Me personally, but his heart is nonetheless far from Me and rather depends on the mad world?! Truly, he is nonetheless more distant from Me than everything that you can only think as being the furthest away from Me!

5 But whoever is as near to Me in their hearts as you are, My dearest Helena, always remains right beside Me, even if it seems externally that a many thousand times greater space separates him from Me than what separates us now from the last and smallest star, that your eye only glimpses for moments only as shimmering down out of limitless space.

6 Yes, I tell you, whoever loves Me and actively believes that I am the One whose descent the fathers awaited, he is also fully one with Me, as I, as you feel Me here, am fully one with My Father in heaven! For love joins everything; God and creation becomes one through it, and no space can ever separate what the true and pure love from the deepest depths of heaven has joined.

7 Through your love you will also constantly be the very closest to Me, even if for a short time in this world space separates you from My person; but one day, there in My kingdom of the purest spirit and of the fullest truth, you will never again be separated from Me! Have you, My dearest Helena, now understood even a little of what has been said?"

8 Helena says: "How can I not!? For in me it is now as light and bright as if a sun had risen in me, and it seems to me therefore as if it was clearly understandable what You, oh Lord, say to me, and my heart understands Your deepest sense.

9 But now another highly important question comes from a not yet enlightened corner of my heart, and this is: How will you ever be able to thank Him who has showered you with such an effusive mercy? The very powerful love cannot count as thanks; for it is itself, as is the whole life, a present of mercy from You! What a sacrifice and what worthy gift can I give you, my Creator, in return as Your creation, as the most deserved thanks for such invaluable mercies? You see, oh Lord, it is still dark in my heart despite all this sunlight, and I cannot find an answer to such a highly important question! Oh Lord, wouldn't You like to help my heart out of embarrassment through a merciful word?"

- Chapter 112 -

How to thank God

1 I say: "Oh, dear Helena! What should you sacrifice from the world for Me that is not Mine already, and that I hadn't already given you before the beginning of the world?!

2 You see, that would be a very vain demand from Me then and would be in complete contradiction to Me and My eternal order!

3 You see, love does everything! Whoever loves Me above all else, also brings Me the greatest sacrifice and the very most pleasant thanks; for he sacrifices for Me the whole world.

4 But besides the love for Me there is another love, namely the love for the neighbor. The poor in spirit - and in the temporarily necessary earthly goods - are the true neighbors; whatever someone does to them in My name, he does to Me.

5 Whoever takes in a poor person in My name, takes Me in, and he will be rewarded on the youngest day; and whoever takes in a wise man for the sake of their wisdom, will also reap the reward of a wise man; and whoever gives a thirsty man even a beaker of fresh water, will be rewarded with wine in My kingdom.

6 But if you do good deeds to the poor, do such a thing in secret with all friendliness and do not show it to the world; for the Father in heaven sees it, and the gift of a friendly giver will be pleasing to Him, and He will reward the giver a hundred times.

7 But whoever wants only to flaunt themselves before the world with his good deeds, has also already taken his worldly rewards and in the future has nothing more to expect.

8 You see, in this consists the only manner of sacrifice and thanks that is pleasing to Me, and apart from this there is no other; for all the burnt offerings and other types of sacrifice are an evil smell before the nostrils of God, and all lip-service is an abomination before God, with which the hearts are far from the true love for God and the neighboring poor brothers!

9 For whom can the senseless bawling in the temple be of any use, if the thousand poor and hungry brothers outside the temple are not considered?!

10 Go and strengthen first the needy, feed the hungry, quench the thirsty, clothe the naked, comfort the sad, free the imprisoned and preach the gospel to the poor in spirit, then you will do endlessly better than to blare day and night in the temples with your lips, while your hearts were cold and unreceptive to your poor brothers!

11 Look at the air, the earth, the sea; look at the moon, the sun, the stars; look at the flowers of the field and the trees, and observe the birds in the air, the fish in the water and all the animals on the dry land; look at the high mountains and all the clouds and the winds - you see, all that proclaims loudly the honor of God, yet God, unlike man, never looks at all this full of conceit, but instead only at the human heart that recognizes and loves Him, the only true, good, holy Father. How should He then like a twisted heart or a vain ceremony with all sorts of lip-service, behind which lies nothing but the greatest selfishness, pride, lust for power, all sorts of whoring, falsehood and deceit?!

12 Therefore you now know that firstly God does not need to accept the honor from blaring people; for the whole infinity is full of His honor.

13 But what kind of honor can foolish, blind man give to God then, since he himself has no more than that which he received beforehand from God through the mercy of being a man?! Or can this give God any glory if men sacrifice an ox for Him but at the same time they hold on to their sinful hearts and after the completed sacrifice they are ten times worse than they were before the sacrifice?!

14 Oh, I take no honor from the people; for there is the Father in heaven who honors Me more than enough! But if the people keep My commandments and love Me above all else, then they honor Me and My Father thereby, and I and the Father are completely one.

15 If it is so, as it is according to the fullest and most eternal truth, he who does the will of God cannot dishonor Me, as Moses and all the other prophets have announced, and as I announce it Myself to you all.

16 Do you now understand how we have to thank God and praise Him for all the goodness we have received?"

- Chapter 113 -

The future of the pure teaching of God

1 Helena says, moved through and through by the truth of this lesson of Mine: "Oh Lord, every one of Your holy words has been met with the best response in my heart, and it strikes a chord in my soul: That is the purest and most divine truth!

2 But such a lesson can only be given to the people by a God; for no human sense suffices! Yes, now I know much and know most exactly what I have to do in the future!

3 Oh, how magnificent it is to learn the will of the only true God and to act accordingly with all the power of life; but how bitter it is to act where the human arrogance gives laws claiming: This is God"s will!

4 I always thought that a true God can have only one perfectly true will which can never stand eternally in contradiction with itself, as the human laws, of which one often totally lifts the other out of its foundation; if you keep it, you fall into punishment because of an earlier sanctioned law, and if you don't keep it, the new law punishes you! I ask: How then can a person exist and live?!

5 Let's take our old laws of the gods! According to the mouths of the priests: If you make a sacrifice to Pluto, you anger Zeus, and if you make a sacrifice to Zeus, you anger Pluto; but if you make a sacrifice to their priests, who are the only ones who know how to appease the anger of the gods, then you do well! For they alone are the effective intermediaries between the gods and the people. The priests have then often taken all the sacrifices for themselves and in addition let themselves be given an almost divine reverence by the poor, blind people that were bled dry by them, and the people had to tremble in fear. Oh, this purest teaching can and will no longer allow this!"

6 I say: "Don't let that worry you! But in the end everything that comes purely from above, whether spiritual or material, is all the same; as soon as it touches the ground of the earth it becomes defiled and impure.

7 Look at a raindrop! No diamond could be purer than such a raindrop; but as soon as it touches the ground of the earth the purity is gone!

8 Go up a mountain, and you will not be able to wonder enough at the purity of the air; but look down into the valley and you will see a great difference between the purity above and below!

9 How pure do the snowflakes fall from the clouds! Look at the previously so splendidly white snow after two moons and you will find it already very significantly dirty!

10 Look at the wind when it blows from the heights down into the valleys, how much it is bothered by the annoying dust, and even the sun and the moon and the stars lose much of their shine when they draw near to the horizon; yes, even the beams of light of the midday sun often become too easily and too much dimmed by the dusts of the earth so that in the end the whole sun, despite its very brightest light, cannot be seen, so much so that one could say with some sureness: Look, it is here or there!

11 And so it goes constantly with all the spiritual gifts from the heavens; No matter how pure they may be in the beginning, as time goes by they become as tarnished as all I have just shown you through the dirty worldly interests.

12 And so it will be the same with this My very purest teaching; no iota will remain un-criticized and untouched!

13 The temple that I am now building up will be likewise destroyed, just as the Romans will destroy the temple in Jerusalem in not too far a time, where no stone will remain on another!

14 But this temple of Mine I will rebuild, but the one of stone in Jerusalem never more! But don't you worry about all that; for I know about everything and why it must happen!

15 For you see, no-one pays any attention to the daylight and heat in summer; but when the night comes, then the light becomes valuable and one only learns to value the heat in the cold of winter.

16 And it is likewise with the spiritual light and with the spiritual warmth. Whoever walks around in freedom, hardly pays attention to the freedom, but when he is languishing captive in prison, oh, then he knows what a great thing freedom is!

17 And now see, My very dearest Helena, that's why troubles of everything pure are also allowed so that a person can learn the value of the pure light in a time of greatest troubles!

18 If then the pure light becomes visible in the great night, soon everything that lives and breathes moves towards the light, as in winter the lovelessness of man soon begins to huddle around a warm heart, just as the shivering poor from the cold of winter around a fire place.

19 But I say all that to you only, and to a few others. Keep this for yourself and do not tell it further; for My religion does not consist of this! I have only told it to you, dearest Helena, for your own comfort; but it should not concern a third person at all! All the necessary external is ensured by Me, and it is enough for every person if he cares only for the purification of his heart; if this is in order, all the external things will then be in order too. Have you now understood all this, My Helena?"

20 Helena says: "Oh yes, Lord! It is unfortunately not very cheering to learn such a thing in advance; but nevertheless everything has its good and very wise reasons, and You certainly ensure only the spiritual best for people, and therefore it must happen as You, oh Lord, have revealed to me in Your endless merciful condescension! Your will be done in all time just as in all eternity!"

21 After these words Helena fell into a veritable love trance while continuing to press My hand firmly to her chest, which almost began to hurt My Jarah, because during the conversation with Helena I had said almost nothing to her; but the pain soon subsided again when I gave her a friendly look.

- Chapter 114 -

Information about the awakening in the spirit

1 But after a short while Jarah, come to herself again through My friendly glance, and says: "Lord, my only love! Was I not somewhat insulting to You, a little too impertinent with my seeming jealousy because of this magnificent Helena? And if I was, forgive me, my only love!"

2 I say: "Be calm, My daughter! If even an evil person cannot be insulted by love, how is it possible in My case? If you loved Me less, you would not be afraid that My love for you could become weaker if I also seize this Helena with all My love; but because you really love Me above all else, such a fear transformed you for some moments and that happened to you simply for the reason that you, for a few moments, lost from the eyes of your soul who I actually am. But now that you have become clear again in this and now know well who I am, Helena does not bother you any longer.

3 Look at the sun in the sky, how it shines on the flowers of the field! Tell Me: Would it not be foolish of any flower if it became angry with the sun because it also gave its neighbor the same amount of light?

4 Look at the great stars, of which it was granted to you to see some nearby and in their nature! Look, all these - and endlessly much more that no fleshly eye will ever see - exists and live out of My love! But if My love for these endlessly many and great boarders is enough for eternities of eternities, how can you, My dearest little daughter, ever fear that you would be lacking in My love because of Helena?! Do you now see the vanity of your fear, that lasted a few moments, that you could be lacking in My love?"

5 Jarah says: "Yes, Lord, my love, my life, I will be a very good friend to Helena from now on and will make some of her virtues my own. Ah, if only my older sisters were the same as Helena, what a joy that would be for me! But they are very worldly-minded, and one cannot speak to them much about spiritual things; the daughters of old Mark are much more useful than my sisters! If there were only a means to make my sisters more spiritual!"

6 I say: "Leave that, and when you go home you will find your sisters more receptive to spiritual things than they were before! In addition Raphael is on your side and with him you will be able to bring your brothers and sisters around.

7 In any case this does not work as fast for more worldly-minded people as you imagine. Often much time and patience is needed in order to purify a soul from all ashes.

8 But before such a total purification can be successful, there is not much to be done with the basically spiritual; for to occupy the mind with this means to build a house on the sand.

9 The heart must seize the issue; but if this is still full of material things, the purely spiritual cannot find any starting point! Therefore you must above all ensure that your sisters" hearts are fully free of everything that is material, then you will have an easy task with your sisters who you are now worried about; but I praise your concern and tell you that it will not last much longer! My very dearest Jarah, have you now understood that well and clearly?"

10 Jarah says: "Oh yes, as far as a girl of fourteen years can understand such a spiritual thing! There may yet be endless depths hidden behind what You have just said to me that my mind will not yet understand; but I believe I have understood what can be understood in the moment of the life on earth, and You, oh Lord, will certainly not let anything damage the understanding of my heart. But our dearest Helena has now fallen deeply asleep, and I will not be able to speak much to her!"

11 I say: "That doesn't matter; for we have enough people around us with whom we can discuss very well, if we absolutely have to speak to someone! But soon something will happen that will take all our attention and there will then be little time again for empty speech!"

12 Jarah asks quickly: "Oh Lord, what will happen then?"

13 I say: "Look, you don't need to know that in advance; when it happens you will learn it soon enough!"

14 Now Ouran, relaxing opposite Me with Mathael on a grassy bank, asks Me: "Lord, will some sort of apparent danger threaten us?"

15 I say: "Hardly us, but the other people who are not with Me on this hill! Just turn your eyes to  Caesarea-Philippi, and you will soon discover what is going to happen!"

- Chapter 115 -

Consequences of the natural disasters in Caesarea-Philippi

1 The Caesareans were in great fear about the expectation of the terrible things that in their opinion would come to pass on the earth. The Jews were expecting Daniel"s judgment and the pagans expected the war of the gods, and the general people were indignant that their leaders were refused any further obedience and began themselves to destroy whatever they came across; in short, in a few hours there was the greatest anarchy in the city, which was mostly the fault of the stupid priests.

2 For there were among them several instructed in Egyptian wisdom and experience who did not make much out of the false sun that had suddenly disappeared, because they had heard from old Egyptian sagas that such phenomena had already taken place many times without any damage to the earth; and some Jewish Pharisees thought to themselves that some sort of second Joshua had arisen and had ordered the sun to shine for longer because of some sort of important action!

3 A certain sect of the Jews also had the belief that the sun, as an eternal reminder, remained longer in the sky, every hundred years on the day of the complete victory over Jericho without any further evil influence on the earth; these Pharisees therefore had almost no fear at all of the event that took place.

4 Many oriental magicians, who because of their journey were also in the city said that the sun always, whenever it was completely darkened in the day, shone longer in the evening afterwards, in order to replace the damages done to the earth that it had caused by its day-time darkening. These had therefore no fear of the event that had occurred, but they all wanted to make use of the event in that they drove a very hellish fear into the people.

5 After the extinguishing of the sun the people seized every means of atonement that the priests recommended; but that was all too little for the bottomless greed of the priests, for the people did not give everything that they possessed that was expensive or valuable.

6 But an old, venerable Greek, who was also an efficient nature-wise man, noticed such dirty tricks, quickly took some more sober people to his house and briefly explained to them, as well as was possible, the very natural and completely non-harmful possibility of such an appearance - but besides this he drew their attention to the unscrupulous tricks by the priests with the comment: “You see, if there was something to fear from the strange occurrence that has taken place, the crafty priests would not run around the alleys so actively with their sacks and blackmail all sorts of unheard-of sacrifices! If then after several hours the sun goes up again just as usual, these deceivers of mankind will run through the alleys again and demand sacrifices of thanks from the people! Go and tell the poor, betrayed nation that the old, wise Greek tells them so!”

7 Now, this old, Greek nature-wise man had a good reputation among the general people and his statement went like wildfire among the people. Barely within an hour after this, the latest decree was turned around and the priests had to give all the sacrifices back again and then head for the hills as fast as possible; for the people became more and more bitter and there was no anointed servant of the gods who was safe of his life any longer.

8 I saw all this in advance, of course, and made Ouran aware of it in the moment just a few seconds later that we began to discover the unmistakable traces of the people's rebellion against the priesthood - although there were still many who were waiting outside the city for terrible things in great fear.

9 Soon after My announcement we noticed how at once several buildings began to catch fire and a great howling began to penetrate even up to our ears.

10 Here Cyrenius hurried to Me with Julius, and asked Me worriedly what was happening to the city; for the whole story seemed to them very much like a civil rebellion! But I told him and Julius very quickly the whole contents of the matter, as I had just disclosed it.

11 When Cyrenius and Julius heard such a thing, they became quite calm again and simply asked Me whether there would be any other bad consequences to face.

12 And I said: "Not in the least for you, but for the priests who live there; for now the clever ordinary people are appeasing the gods with burnt offerings in that they are burning the houses of the priests and the temples of the gods! And don't tell me you have pity for these priests, for this too evil nest of vipers must be extirpated! The false sun had a good light; for it showed the blind people the turpitude of its servants of the gods, a

nd these now are receiving their well-deserved reward!"

- Chapter 116 -

Mark's joy over the chastisement of the priests

1 Here Helena awoke again from her most gentle and blessed slumber of love and was quite shocked when she noticed the heavy activity among the people on the mountain and at the same time the city in flames. But Jarah took her immediately by the hand and explained to her the whole event, at which Helena quickly calmed down again and said: "A good hour ago just before the quick disappearance of the false sun it seemed to my mind that this city stood before such an unavoidable fate; and look, it is the realization of my somewhat hazy foreboding before my eyes and ears! You, Lord, have certainly predicted such a thing with the false sun and now the actual reason comes to show why You let it shine!"

2 I say: "Yes, yes, My dear little child, things may well have been so! A light that I placed in the firmament has always a number of good purposes and not only because of the light, which is actually only a very subordinate side-effect.

3 Look at the light of the sun! The light in itself would be something extremely little; but just observe all the free and captive creations on the earth according to their external nature, and you will discover the effects of the light and the warmth of the sun, of which no natural wise man on the earth has ever dreamed! All effects of the sunlight!

4 This earth has so many and various miraculous effects of the sunlight, that in many thousand years you would not be able to survey them with your fleshly eyes and even less count them!

5 But around this sun, whose light calls forth such great miracles on this earth, circle many other and greater planets, on which the same light calls forth very new and on this earth unimaginable wonders, and on every planet lit by this sun quite new and not occurring on any other planet! And look, everything is the reason and effect of one and the same light!

6 And so you can assume very certainly that I also did not let the false sun shine simply because of some longer light! What do you think of that, My most beloved daughter?"

7 Helena says: "Oh Lord, You great One, You only holy One, every human opinion stops here for all eternity! For You are too endlessly great and wise, and who can fathom the depths of Your omnipotence?!

8 It is certainly something endlessly great that I can love You above all else and can be blessed in such love, which my heart is eternally not fully worth! But to want to investigate your holy divine inscrutable Being further, that I would consider the greatest madness of a human heart! That, oh Lord, is my opinion!

9 Truly, You are to be loved above all else, and that I consider to be the greatest blessing; but You are not to be investigated by any spirit in eternity!"

10 After these words by the beautiful Helena, still drunk with her great love for Me, old Mark comes and says: "Lord, I suppose the many and beautiful fish that I gave the priesthood as a tithe will be nicely boiled and roasted as well on the fire!? You know, oh Lord, that I am hospitable from all my heart towards everybody as far as I am able. Truly, I always had perhaps more joy as donor, if I could provide someone with something, than the recipient; but the tithe for the Pharisees has annoyed me right to the soul! And as I notice, most of the Jewish priests' houses are in flames! That is a good repayment for these unscrupulous idlers and deceivers! I prefer that to if someone had given me ten of the most beautiful houses in the city! I have truly never been a gloater; but this time - forgive me, oh Lord - I am totally so!

11 For to give to someone who is in need is a blessing for a good human heart, and to give a worker the deserved wage and more is the holy duty of a person. And to pay the measured lawful taxes to a sovereign is also the holy duty of every honest citizen; for the sovereign has great worries and expenses for the order and security in his land, and the subordinates are obliged through love for the neighbor to do everything gladly that the regent sees as healing and demands from the subordinates.

12 There may of course be selfish tyrants who fully bleed the nation dry, but after a tyrant there is usually a good regent and soon the nation recovers again.

13 But the priesthood remains the same; it tyrannizes like a vampire the nation for thousands of years, taxes it often in an unheard-of shameful way and gives the nation nothing in return but the greatest deception, and that in every possible direction! Yes, an honorable person must praise God the Lord if He ever lets a judgment come over these seven-fold haters and fraudsters of the people! And so it is like balm to my heart if I see the beautiful houses and synagogues particularly of the Jewish Pharisees covered by the most beautiful flames and, in addition, on the day before the Sabbath! Tomorrow is the Sabbath, and the boys are not allowed to gather or do anything else; oh, these old, never-satisfied villains have deserved this beautiful lesson for a long time!"

14 I say: "But do you know that the illumination of the city is meant precisely for the Pharisees and also the pagan priests?"

15 "Oh," says Mark: "I was just down at the house and have ordered something for tomorrow for the poor who are probably going to visit me tomorrow, and there came three young Greeks to whom I had bread and wine given, and they told me in passing what is now happening to the city; and I would have paid them a great pearl for every word, such a joy I had at this! The false sun brought this beautiful effect to pass!"

16 I say: "But tomorrow you will nonetheless have to pay for your joy; for many of the Pharisees will come to your table."

17 Mark: "Very willingly, for this joy I will feed the lads for eight days, perhaps one or other of them will become a human being - with You, oh Lord, all things are possible!"

- Chapter 117 -

Reprimanding glee

1 After these and other casual descriptions on Mark's behalf and by several who had heard old Mark, Helena notices an extraordinarily bright white flame shoot high so that the whole area is brightly lit by it; Cyrenius also notices this flame rise from the centre of the city, and the flame became constantly brighter and larger and higher.

2 Now, by night every light has the deceptive characteristic that it seems always to come closer to people who are not familiar with the tenet of vision, the bigger and brighter it becomes at the very distance it remains. Proof is that little children often reach with their hands for the full moon. They believe it to be very close because of its brightness, and dogs bark at it for the same reason.

3 So it also seemed to Helena here, that the flame becoming ever greater and brighter was coming closer to us, and she therefore asked Me to forbid the evil flame from coming close to us and causing us damage.

4 There I said: "Don't be so childish! The approach of the flames is only a very normal optical illusion; however, the brightness of the flame has the following reason: The fire has penetrated into the pantry of the great palace of the leading Jewish Pharisee. In this were kept around one hundred tithes of the purest and best oil in sealed barrels, also several barrels of the purest naphtha for lighting the palace, and besides there was also a large store of butter, milk and honey. These all caught fire and now burn so beautiful and bright, and at this opportunity, as you, old Mark, secretly wished before, your tithe of fish will also be as beautifully roasted; for in the great food store there was already a great number lying ready for tomorrow. What do you say about that now, Mark?"

5 Mark says: "Lord, You who can see into my heart as purely and well as into the great store room of the high Pharisee, You know that I was neither then nor now a gleeful person. I was very strict in my service as soldier, yet I have never done harm to anyone by my own will except he whom the law had previously damned - about which I could naturally do nothing. Yet I have never felt a certain joy at it, if the harshness of the law swallowed someone up. So also here I have no real heart-felt joy at the accident itself, and that my beautiful and good fish now will just be fried for the spirits of the air, but that now these old tormentors of mankind finally get a lesson from all sides, gives me real joy!

6 For the consumption of the treasures through fire is the least; but the total belief in their religion consumed along with it is the actual irreplaceable damage that is done to them, but it is a very great use for the deceived people. For they will now have a very open ear and heart for taking in the pure divine truth and that is what makes me so happy. And perhaps it is possible that the unhappy priesthood, if they are not too nailed in their heads and hearts, will become more accessible for the truth than they were when they were rich. I think that tomorrow's day will let us experience some thought-provoking tests! Tell me, Lord, whether I am right or whether such a joy of mine is damned before Your eyes!"

7 I say: "Oh, not at all; for if I had not had the same reason to let this happen, at which you really rejoice, you would not have seen the false sun and this scene of fire would not have happened. But first you had a malicious joy in your heart because you were cross towards the Pharisees because of the heartless and unscrupulous tithe. And look, that was actually what I reprimanded you a little beforehand and therefore you will feed several burnt-out priests tomorrow, but it will not do you any harm either!

8 You see, a correct and perfect person must be perfect in all his feeling, thinking and acting, otherwise he is not suitable for God's Kingdom of Heaven!

9 We see for example a very coarse, mischievous transgressor of the law of good human order, a real scum of all civility, in short, a fellow who can just as well be a brother of Satan. For a long time man has been practicing his very coarsest malice without being punished; for one cannot arrest him, because his genuine satanic cleverness protects him from it. How many people wish nothing more than that the villain would meet the punishing arm of the law soon!

10 Finally the court was able to get hold of the brash sinner, to hold him to account and to condemn him to his long-deserved strictest and most humiliating punishment! Now old and young rejoice, the villain has been sentenced to his long-deserved punishment. Yes, among them are the very worthy, those whom it pains to have no legal authority in this sentencing, those who would themselves serve as executioners of this despised criminal, and smite him mercilessly to their hearts' content!

11 But now let us ask ourselves with a pure heart, but also with an equally pure mind whether such joy is suitable for a perfect person! And a pure heart and a pure mind would surely answer: I am certainly pleased that the people who have been troubled by this villain for years are finally released from this evil and can now live quite peacefully; but I would rejoice even more and greater if the villain recognized his wickedness, regretted it, and then improved himself, changed himself to a valuable person and so according to possibility strive to repair the damage caused!

12 Tell me which pleases you better: the joy over the punishment or the one which is combined with a pure and truly humanitarian wish?"

13 Mark says: "Then there is no other choice; for the second is fitting

for people, and the first is in my opinion still very rough, selfish and brutish!"

- Chapter 118 -

Mathael becomes viceroy

1 Ouran says: "I have never heard such supreme humanitarian thoughts before! I am a person myself and ruler over many hundred thousand people, and they say from far and wide that my subordinates are the happiest on the Pontus; but nonetheless I had to let the law remain as it came to me from Rome with only a few changes for which I, as a ruling sovereign, received permission from Rome. But even the softened laws seemed very harsh to me!

2 How little consideration is given to the nature of people, and to what extent is not considered at all whether a law is possible to be kept for some people, according to his nature and characteristics! How silly it would be to claim that a shoe would fit all feet and how even more silly would be a law which would ignore characteristics and traits.

3 But after You, oh Lord and Master, have now pronounced the laws of life, every person can direct himself accordingly, no matter what nature or characteristics he has, and can observe such a very human-friendly law very easily! If I now get home again things will soon look very different in my land!

4 Mathael and his four companions, who now are completely dressed as Romans, will receive Greek official clothing from me and help me to direct my little state in the best way; and Mathael I now name as my first advisor and since I have no son, also to viceroy."

5 Here Cyrenius steps up and says: "And I as the Roman governor over all of Asia and a part of Africa, equipped with all powers from the hand of Caesar Augustus who was my brother, and now also from his son, confirm this most superb choice! You, Ouran, could not have found anyone more worthy in the whole world! DIXI [I have spoken – the editor]! - Cyrenius."

6 At this I say: "And I confirm him too, for he has already had My anointment in the spirit for a long time; but you, Ouran, can already anoint him with the nard oil before the people and before all the personalities of your kingdom, so that they know who they are dealing with and what they owe him. He will protect the kingdom from attacks by the Scythians better than a whole army of the choicest soldiers. I will give him in addition an extraordinary power when he begins to take on this position; he does not need to for now, and his wisdom is enough for him!"

7 Ouran says: "Lord, would it then not be time and not possible to convert the very dangerous Scythians to the better recognition of Your being? It is a pity for the otherwise so magnificent breed of people that they find themselves in a most uneducated situation. One sees among them such magnificently formed people as otherwise nowhere else on the earth; but their spirit is a complete nothingness.

8 It is often amazing when such a majestic shape of a man or a more than paradisiacal beautiful maid comes forward and both often know no language, but often just grunt like pigs, which certainly they neither understand nor anyone else. I don't want to have these Scythians under me for some desire of territorial conquest, but in order to educate them. Could such a thing not happen without a sword?"

9 I say: "In that Mathael"s companions will do you good service, and your desire will be fulfilled many times over; but all Scythians you will not bring under your scepter, for their realm has an extremely great spread. But those living around the Pontus you can have for your own and educate them according to your discretion."

10 Ouran says: "Lord, eternal thanks to You in my name and the name of all the people who will be awakened in the spirit through Your teaching! Truly, there will never be lack in my effort and my persistent will; just give me Your mercy therefore !"

11 Cyrenius says: "And I say to you that you can call your own property whatever becomes yours from the Scythians! If you want to hand it over to Rome secretly then you shall be let free of ten consecutive years of taxes for all your land, and your offspring shall have full right of inheritance; and in future after thirty years your land will not be given to the highest bidder. Tomorrow you will receive the confirmation of everything that I have told you written on parchment for eternal times into your hands. Only a strange, foreign enemy could take it from you with violence; but from Rome it remains yours for all times."

12 I say to Cyrenius, "Give it to him today in writing; for tomorrow is the Sabbath and we do not want to harm the poor in spirit!"

13 Cyrenius says: "Lord! How can I now write the confirmation at midnight? But tomorrow I will do it before sunrise, and that will not cause an annoyance to anyone!"

14 I say: "Look there, My Raphael is already finished with it; here take these documents and read them to see whether they correspond fully to your will!"

15 Cyrenius takes the documents, sets up a torch and reads them, finds them true word for word and then says: "If this was the first, it would amaze me endlessly; but I have already several pieces of proof from Raphael, and so it doesn't amaze me any more for such a thing is just as possible for him as it is for any person to penetrate with his eyes to the furthest star. Well, since the documents are finished, my Ouran should take them into his possession immediately."

16 Here Cyrenius in a moment gives Ouran the documents with the words: "Take them as proof for you and your offspring, and make sure you win the people for the Kingdom of God, the kingdom of love, for the kingdom of eternal truth, which has come to us mortals in Jesus, the Lord from Nazareth, so wonderfully from the heavens! We are in Him and we live in Him now and shall live eternally."

- Chapter 119 -

Helena becomes Mathael's spouse

1 Ouran thanks Me and Cyrenius very heartily and also Helena, who however adds the question saying "But my father doesn't have any male descendants! Who will follow him in the government?"

2 I say: "But My very dearest Helena, haven't I given you then a most wise descendant whom your father has named as viceroy? Do you not approve of him?"

3 Helena says, almost crying with joy: "Well, do we ever?! But I had to ask to be quite sure of Your alone holy will! Lord, forgive me, if I have offended You by this question!"

4 I say: "Just take it easy, for no person can ever insult Me and least of all you! But because you have now asked Me for something that you could have known very well without this question, so I ask you now for something that I also possibly know before your answer!

5 Look at Mathael! He has now been named by your father as viceroy and as such confirmed by Cyrenius and Me. He is still a young man of barely twenty-eight years; would you like to take him for a husband?"

6 Here Helena casts her eyes down a little modestly and says after a while: "But Lord, truly nothing is safe before You, be it ever so well hidden in the heart. You looked into my heart and found there that I am exceedingly fond of Mathael; and you have now revealed me before I really wanted to be revealed. But since my heart has now been revealed, I can answer Your holy question with nothing but a perfectly true Yes. I certainly love Mathael very much; but it is a different question whether he will love me."

7 I say to Mathael: "From now on, friend, you can now speak on quite comfortably!"

8 Mathael says: "Oh lord, You very most eminent one! You are never greater in my heart than when you speak with us so humanly! Whether I could love this pure virgin, who is totally devoted to You in her whole being, in such an intensive way as I love You, oh Lord!? But she is the magnificent daughter of a king whereas I am the poor son of a commoner, not exactly from Jerusalem but from the vicinity of this great city of one hundred gates and more than ten times a hundred thousand people, where I and my family not even belong. There, there is the snag."

9 I say: "Well - so what? Who was David from birth? Who was then Saul? Who has anointed them kings of Israel?

10 But if I now do to you what I once did to both of them, how should you not be of equal birth as Helena? Do you then think that I don't possess enough power to set you in a moment on Caesar's throne in Rome?

11 You know the power and strength of the angel Raphael, here present for our service, and at the moment a thousand legions of such angels are at My disposal - who will want to engage battle with them?! For Raphael is enough to turn this whole earth to dust in an instant, not to mention dethroning a Caesar in Rome and setting another quite happily on the throne. But nothing of this kind happens although I do not lack the power to do so, for I know why I leave also the present emperors on the throne at Rome. But likewise I have also the most unlimited power to give you whatever I want, and to make you whatever I want; who will dispute us?!

12 Behold, God's power goes further than the power of an earthly king! Or does the life of a king not lie just as much in My hand as that of a beggar? The slightest breath of will of My Spirit, and the whole creation is no longer in existence! Therefore, friend, do not be concerned! What I say is said for all eternity, and for what I choose a person, that is what he is and remains unchallenged and sacrosanct; for I alone am the Lord and do everything according to My highest own love and wisdom, and no-one can say to Me effectively: 'Lord, why are You doing this and that?' Yes, whoever asks Me in the love of his heart, I will give his heart an educational answer; but whoever wanted to disagree with Me will receive no answer, only a judgment! Therefore be calm; if I make you a king, you are then truly a king, and whoever does battle against you will be crushed! Thus take Helena's hand and look, she is and remains your dear wife!"

13 Here Ouran rises and says, filled with the highest gratitude: "Oh Lord, Almighty of eternity, how can I, as a poor, sinning person, ever show myself thankful to You in even the smallest way worthy of You? You fill me with the highest grace and good deeds! What a great and long-lasting worry You have taken from my heart!

14 How hard it is for a feeling father to choose a man for his only dear daughter about whom one could claim in advance with a certain certainty that he is fully suitable for his daughter and that she will be happy with him! What sorts of sacrifices have parents often laid in the Hymen temples for the good of their married daughter and thought that they would reach a happy marriage thereby; but the sacrifices were only too often in vain! The marriages were nonetheless unhappy, and the married daughter only too soon became a true slave instead of a friend and most faithful companion of her husband.

15 But here comes true, what I heard from the elders, that the true marriages are made in the heavens by the gods. Of course it goes without saying that the mistaken expression 'gods' should be left out; for once one has found the one and only true God then the false gods cease to exist.

16 This marriage is therefore determined and tied by You, oh Lord, Yourself, and I can now wait in the calmest hope that it will also not escape Your blessing, which certainly must be earned through the exact observance of Your holy will, otherwise it will not be given.

17 Helena, my beloved daughter, would you have thought when we set off on our far journey with the intention of seeking the true wisdom and the unknown god and then to bring all that back to our nation and thereby make them as happy as possible, that we both would be made so unspeakably happy here on this deserted, void and highly unpleasant place?

18 Do you see daughter, how the teaching I often told you: 'Whoever wants to find everything should seek nothing but God alone!' has been most magnificently fulfilled here! You sighed as we left our city with the secret intention in our hearts not to return until we had found the truth and the single true god, and you said longingly: 'Father, then we will probably never get to see this city again and this beautiful land of ours!' And I said to you: 'Be calm of heart, my daughter, we are not going out to rob and not to threaten our neighbor with war, but we are going to seek the highest happiness for us and for our land! No god and no power in the world can call our plan bad!' Then you became calmer and we set off on our journey courageously. But at that moment I ask you whether you ever had the slightest idea of everything effusively good and happy that we have found here!"

- Chapter 120 -

Helena's gratitude and good intentions

1 Helena says: "Oh father, which mortal could ever have had even the slightest idea about this! In addition we were still in our better thinking too deep dug into our paganism and were not capable of any pure idea, in order to imagine even the slightest possibility of everything that we have received from the single mercy of God the Lord here directly from Him Himself!

2 But now and forever we can do nothing for Him except to continuously love Him above all. And our brothers and sisters who are our subordinates we want to love them like our own life, so that we can announce to them faithfully and truly the Name of the most eminent and holy only true God and give them carefully such a state of mind, through which they can become people pleasing to God the Lord on the path of true love and humility. And Mathael, now my dearest husband, will offer us with his brothers, his strong arm and his powerful wisest heart and, and so our well-being in the name of the Lord will also be his and his well-being will be the well-being of all our many subordinates.

3 That is everything that I can profess as faithful and true before God the All-holy in the most grateful depths of my now very contrite heart. Oh Lord, be always clement and merciful to me, a poor sinner before You; for You alone know best how much I can bear the earthly burden of life! I do not want to go through this life without a burden and I will carry it with the power that You give me, oh Lord; but do not tempt me beyond that, Lord!"

4 I say: "My yoke is gentle and My burden is light; but sometimes a little additional weight does not bring you any lasting damage, instead only a great use for soul and spirit.

5 Your husband Mathael will tell you at the right time what burden he had to carry in order to get rid of everything that was of the world, so that his heart could grow to such strength. What he has now, no power and no eternity can ever take away from him; but what you now have taken in from the outside resembles a seed sown very recently in the earth and that must pass many a test before it becomes a true, blessed, mature fruit.

6 Therefore do not shy away from the multiple burdens that will meet you here and there on this earthly path of life; for I will send it to you for the strengthening of your soul and your spirit!

7 If then now and then something comes over you, then think that it is I who lets such a strengthening occur! For the more I love a person, the more he will be tested by Me. For everyone should become equally perfect to Me; for that, however, there much self-denial, patience, gentleness and the fullest submission to My will will be needed.

8 But whoever moves entirely in My will, will also become perfect in his spirit, as I am perfect, because such a spirit becomes fully one with Me - tell Me now whether you have understood all this clearly and well!"

9 Helena says: "Oh yes, as far as it is possible for a mortal person to see the word of God in his temporal, deep limitations!"

10 I say: "Well that's good then, and we now want to relax a little after the work we have done! Whoever would like to sleep a little, sleep; but whoever wants to stay awake with Me and pray, should stay awake and pray!"

11 Then many called: "Lord, we want to watch with You and pray!"

12 I say: "Then do as you wish! But we've got to prepare ourselves for tomorrow; for it will be a hot day. (Turning to Cyrenius:) Tomorrow your brother Cornelius and the captain Faustus will come here to see what has happened in this area; for they do not suppose that you are here and even less that I am staying here. But nonetheless it must be ensured that they find accommodation here with their entourage. This time there will be no accommodation to be found in the city, for the fire will cause damage to the town, because with this burning of the temple and synagogue, other buildings and civil houses have been destroyed with them. Tomorrow we must have our wits about us, and it is therefore necessary that everyone prepares themselves well. But whoever is sleepy should sleep; but I must watch and pray!"

13 With these words I left the party and went onwards up the mountain in order to be alone and to join the eternal Spirit of My Father more deeply with My whole being.

- Chapter 121 -

About Jesus' nature

1 But many who were on the mountain and had heard this order of Mine began to wonder; Helena and Ouran also wondered a little and immediately asked with many others, saying: "Strange! Now He is going to pray and to prepare Himself for tomorrow! Whom can He invoke, and to whom can He pray? Is He then despite His deepest wisdom perhaps not the supreme Divinity? He is not going to pray to Himself, is He!? And if He did, one could very well ask: What's the use of that? Strange! He goes to pray and prepare Himself for tomorrow as if He as the highest Divinity has not been very well prepared since the beginning of eternity! Strange, strange! Hm, hm, hm; what is that supposed to mean!? Before He spoke as only a true God alone can speak! It depends on the slightest breath of His will whether the world exists or not, and now He is going to pray Himself, bids us to sleep and rest or to pray as well and prepare ourselves for the morrow! Well, if He Himself goes to pray to some Divinity known certainly only to Him, who should we pray to then? To Him, or the Divinity that is completely unknown to us to whom He is praying?! No, that is even more than what one could dream in a most silly dream!"

2 Here Mathael suddenly gets up, somewhat worked up, and says in a loud voice so that many can hear it: "Why are you judging here like the blind about colors?! Oh, you blind, all of you that are here, with the exception of the angel Raphael and you, His old disciples, who are also very blind and thus foolish!

3 Doesn't He wear flesh and blood on this earth, just like all of us, out of which His soul developed like ours in order to be capable of entering into a full bond with the eternal, divine spirit?

4 Only the Spirit in Him is God, everything else is human, as we are humans. When He prays, then that means in other words: He lets His being be completely penetrated by His eternal Spirit of God, from which all other spirits come, just as the small image of the sun in a drop of dew originates from the real sun.

5 According to His Spirit He is the real sun, but we and all spirits are only living images of this eternal original primal sun, God. Do you now understand what it means if He says that He is praying?"

6 Jarah and Helena understood it first; but the others could still not fully align themselves, because they were still putting soul and spirit together in the same basket! But then Mathael began to teach them properly, and many then caught on. But everyone praised the truly deepest wisdom of the intrepid Mathael, and Helena grabbed Mathael's hand, pressed it to her bosom and said: "Yes, my very most magnificent and God-given husband, if your wisdom constantly progresses so magnificently, then I would like to know how strong I will love you in the end! If you had not come to all our aid with your wisdom, in the end we would have begun to doubt the divinity of the great Master, apart from all the never-heard-of most wonderful deeds performed by Him before our eyes. But now everything is in the best order again, and we all now know very well to whom we should pray and call on in fullest trust!"

7 Cyrenius says: "As much as I am happy to see you, my dear friend and brother Mathael, positioned as well as possible, I would have been even happier to have you constantly at my side! For there is no-one among us, with the exception of the angel - who is now talking to Suetal - who is as entirely enlightened in all things as you! How blessed is a nation whose regent you will be and actually you are already in your character! But nonetheless we will see each other often; for either I will come to you or you will come to me!"

8 Mathael seizes old and venerable Cyrenius' hands and says: "Most noble Cyrenius, we will work hand in hand, and let it be our principle to make the nation as wise and happy as possible in the Name of the Lord! It is true, we will constantly direct our attention mainly to the spiritual well-being of the nation entrusted to us by God for leadership, but also in the natural respect no-one should have to complain about any pressing need, particularly if he is spiritually in good order.

9 In the great Roman empire such a people's leadership would no doubt have a lot of difficulties to battle; but in a small country it is very easy to implement, and happy little states then usually become a mirror in which the great ones check to see whether they have any dirt on their faces or whether their hair is in order.

10 A mirror is usually only as large as the palm of a hand, and yet a person, if he wants, can look gradually from the head to the tip of a toe; thus, a small land can easily become a mirror for a very great kingdom. But if a small land wanted to take a great kingdom as their model, it would thereby very much decline and all its subjects would fall into the greatest ruin! Thus we would rather be a small mirror than a giant looking at ourselves in it! Am I right or not, high Cyrenius?"

11 Cyrenius says: "I would only like to know him who would say you are wrong! You are always correct; for out of you speak forth the awakened Spirit of God.

12 But just look at the city! The fire seems to be stronger and stronger. In the end will this important city burn down? Our Raphael could surely help there if he was worried about it!?"

- Chapter 122 -

On the angels' nature

1 Jarah says: "Oh, he surely could! If he receives a sign from the Lord in a way that is certainly invisible to us - otherwise he does nothing! He has been given to me as a teacher and protector; but if I say something to him that he should do this or that for me, that's when he does the least! And if I would like to learn something from him, not only does he say nothing, but he asks me then immediately about it and I am supposed to tell him just what I want to learn from him. Therefore it is a shame to waste words. I am truly very fond of him, but I would be a thousand times fonder of him - if he was only a little more obedient! He is always extremely friendly, it is true, but one cannot ask him for anything; for everything is a wasted effort."

2 Mathael says: "I wanted to see whether he could not be moved to at least protect some of the civil houses from the flames! I will call him over and see whether the most blessed Jarah is correct about everything!"

3 At this Mathael calls Raphael and says to him "Friend, look at the city! It seems to me that now even some poor huts are on fire; if it is so, couldn't you prevent this?"

4 The angel says: "In any case, if I were permitted to; but my will is now entirely the Lord's, and I can only want what He alone wants. If the Lord wants it, you cannot imagine a fast enough moment and I will be finished with extinguishing the fire! But without the will of the Lord I can do it just as little as you; for I have not carried out all the miracles I performed, but only the will of the Lord through me.

5 We angels are in our being nothing but the emanations of the divine will, or we are the will of the Lord personified and cannot do anything of ourselves, because we actually cannot be thought of as existing and living as independent beings devoid of the pure divine will, as you cannot think of any effective image of the sun in truth in a mirror before your eyes, if beforehand, a beam of the true sun does not fall on the surface of the mirror.

6 But in order to understand my being even better, I will draw your attention to a type of concave mirror or burning glass, which the famous mechanic Archimedes from antiquity invented quite by accident. These mirrors have the very natural characteristic of concentrating a number of sunbeams falling on its surface into a point at a certain distance. These sunbeams, concentrated into a point, then have both in light as well as in heat an often greater power than the simple beam, as the focus, having in its greatest concentration hardly two thumbs' width in diameter, is taken from a square of the mirror's surface, which is often a man's height in diameter.

7 Such a focus then has certainly more than a thousand times greater strength, both in lighting as well as burning, than the natural simple beam of sunlight, but is unthinkable without the sun.

8 It, namely the mirror, only joins the beams of the sun into one powerful and fast acting focus; but without the sun it is devoid of every strength and effect and possesses only the characteristic of intensifying the beams of the sun when they fall on its surface; but without the sun the effect of the focus is nothing.

9 Thus we angels, as I said, are in ourselves only the focus to take in and intensify the divine will, and where we then act, we act through the focus of the divine will intensified in us, and you can then see nothing but wonder upon wonder. Do you understand that?"

10 Mathael says: "Oh, I now understand that very well, only I didn't know that Archimedes was the inventor of concave mirrors; for these were originally accredited to a certain Hamerod and then the famous Thales, who also is supposed to have created a lightning machine!"

11 Raphael says: "Quite right, but Archimedes was a wood-turner and discovered both the existence of the very useful concave mirror, the lightning generating cylinders and plates, as well as mainly the levering machines through a successful use of his own invented and well calculated screw, after which invention he said: 'Give me a solid point outside the earth and I will unhinge it for you!'

12 But from all this you can conclude that out of myself I cannot comply with your well meant wish. But if the Lord designates me for it, then everything will be promptly done. Therefore just turn to the Lord!"

13 Jarah says: "You cannot concern the Lord now; for He recommended us to rest or pray if we stay awake. And we should do that; for what He says has its reasons. What does it bother us if the whole city burns down?! The Lord has His reasons why He lets this happen to the city, and the reason can be highly good and full of divine love and mercy. If we now want to change something, we would not make the situation any better, but only obviously worse; at the right time the Lord will do His will without our contribution. There is and remains nothing to be done about my Raphael; for without the will of the Lord he is an empty skin."

- Chapter 123 -

The wisdom of Jarah

1 Mathael says: "Oh, you little Jarah, you! Look, I would not have sought this wisdom in your flesh, by heaven! Very good, my dearest Genezarethan; but now I would like to hear from you how you actually pray!"

2 Jarah says: "I put myself with all my thoughts and feelings in the deepest depths of my heart, where the love for God dwells. Thereby this holy love is nourished, as if you lay a good, dry and very easily inflammable log on quiet embers that no longer flame up.

3 The wood will soon wake the quiet embers so that they begin to drive very small flames over themselves; these little flames will then soon seize the log and then the whole thing will transform into the brightest flames, and then it will become extremely light and completely warm in the heart. It is only then that the thereby awakened godlike Spirit in the heart speaks:

4 "Oh, You, my holy Father in heaven! Hallowed be Your name! Let Your fatherly love come to us poor sinners full of death and night! Your single, holy will be done here on this, Your earth, as in all Your heavens! If we have sinned against Your eternal, holy order, forgive us our madness and have patience and leniency with us, as we will also have patience and leniency with those who have sinned against us! Do not allow us to be tempted in our fleshly weakness above our strength by the world and by the devil, but deliver us through Your great mercy, love and compassion from the thousand evils through which our love for You, oh holy, great, dear Father, could be dimmed and weakened! But when we hunger and thirst, spiritually and physically, then give us, good, dear Father, according to Your holy discretion, what we need daily! Alone to You all my love, all honor and all praise eternally, eternally!

5 You see, that is how I pray, but which praying before God obviously only counts for something if beforehand the love for God in the very depths of the heart has crossed over into the light and bright flames in the prescribed way through the union of all thoughts and feelings in the divine centre of the heart; if this prelude is missing, every prayer with simple words, no matter how beautiful they are, is an abomination before God and will not be accepted and listened to.

6 For God in Himself is a spirit and therefore must be prayed to in the spirit of love and in the most flaming bright light of truth. Do you understand now what the fullest truth about prayer means according to my mind and according to my understanding?"

7 Mathael says: "Oh, you most blessed girl! Who would then ever have sought such a depth of wisdom in you!? Truly, I could still very well be your disciple, and I am not in the least bit ashamed to admit such a thing here before everyone loudly and openly! Yes, only now I understand your unconquerable similarity to the Lord and vice versa, as the Romans say! You also seem to have been awakened by the Lord very recently, like me?!"

8 Jarah says: "Whoever loves the Lord God above all else, will soon and easily be awakened; but whoever seeks Him with the reason in order to love Him, once he has found Him very firmly with the reason, has then taken on a great and vain task, with which he can never reach the desired goal on this world. Therefore you have quickly reached the intense light of mercy from God; for in the heart of your soul there always must have been a strong flame, although you were occupied in your body for a time by the worst spirits of hell!"

9 Mathael says: "Yes, divine child, there you must be very right! I loved God from my childhood above all, therefore my parents had me devoted to the temple, where my flesh was only turned into a true machine of hell, but my soul nonetheless remained as it had been since the original beginning of its existence. But no more word about this; for I do not like to remember it. And now tell me, my most beloved Helena, how this wise girl has pleased you! Is it not amazing how wise this child is?

10 Helena says: "Where are and who are her parents then?"

11 Mathael says: "Well, well, that is all common knowledge now, and you have already seen and spoken to her father Ebahl, the inn-keeper from Genezareth, also present here, in the evening in your three huts down below! Have you forgotten already? Rather tell me how you like the extremely pithy wisdom of this girl, and whether you do not feel the living desire along with me to be just as wise as her, this very dearest, blessed little one! Truly, I know a lot - but this child knows more! I see her in my mind, how her chaste bosom hides things about which we have not even the slightest idea. But she seems not to have a very special esteem for Raphael! How do you like all this, my most blessed spouse Helena?"

12 Helena says, very wistfully instead of cheerfully and happily: "Oh my Mathael, poor Helena will never get that far! It seems as if the heart of the Almighty is directly within the heart of this maiden; for that is an experience in the sphere of the innermost life of God in a person, as one can only take from the mouth of the Creator! Then it is certainly understandable why she does not have a great opinion of the angel; for she must be as close to the true wisdom as he is, as one eye resembles the other. It cannot be doubted that the angel possesses an endless power and strength from the Lord; but I would doubt whether he is stronger than this maiden in the true wisdom in love for the Lord.

13 I would like to enter into some conversation with her, if I didn't have so much respect for her wisdom! For the likes of us can only let out a foolish word to the girl and then you would receive a reprimand from her mouth so that one would not dare one's whole life long to let another word pass over the lips.

14 If the girl was poor, I would give her all my treasure that I have with me; but she seems by her quite expensive clothes to be a child of well-off parents, and a present from me would certainly not find a good response, particularly with her enormous depth of wisdom, which in any case despises all the worldly splendor even more than we do, and particularly I, who am not capable of giving her even the smallest drop of wisdom!

15 I am indescribably fond of the girl; but nevertheless in her vicinity I become positively fearful and afraid.

16 But for the information, how we should pray to God, I nonetheless owe her great thanks; but how will I be able to present this child with deserved thanks?"

17 Jarah, who in the meantime was discussing something with Raphael, says: "Most graceful, high queen, love me as I love you - anything else is unnecessary! You know in any case what I think of all the treasures of the world and you have just spoken very wisely; and if it really depended on us greeting each other with mutual coarse material treasures, I could certainly offer you more than you me. But what is all the splendor of the world in comparison with only a smallest spark of the true, living love for God in our hearts!? My friend, we must keep this jewel faithfully, protect it and look after it in our hearts, so that it does not become estranged to us! If we possess that in ever greater splendor, in purity as well as in the intensity of life, then we possess more than what all heaven can understand! Do you understand that?"

- Chapter 124 -

Helena on the power of the priests

1 Helena says: "What you have just said so truly, I have understood very well; only one thing I don't understand is how you became so wise!"

2 Jarah says: "Don't let that concern you; for that is a thing of the Lord, who gives the people different gifts of favor according to their capabilities and sows among them like a sower the wheat on a tilled field. Where the seed falls on good soil, it soon and easily bears much fruit. I think that your heart is also a good field!?"

3 Helena says: "It should be; but I lived too long in blind paganism that still chimes in me like a badly tuned tone on a wind lyre! I surely know the truth now, and it has now become my life; but consider my great nation at home that still firmly depends on paganism and on its tin gods! What effort will it cost us now to give the nation another light and to take away their superstition! If the Lord's all-powerful will does not support us, we will achieve little or nothing!"

4 Jarah says: "But you along with your father were heathen, and it did not cost too much effort and work to bring you to the pure truth!"

5 Helena says: "Truly, I cannot compete with your wisdom in purely spiritual things; but in this world there are also very different issues, and mostly in conjunction with the diverse religions of the people who are much harder to remove than the mistakes of a heresy.

6 First you have to deal with the priesthood who has set up a teaching about gods where they make the most and at the same time can survive well. But the temple needs a lot of equipment and always employs a number of artists and craftsmen and other servants and laborers. All these people live from the temple and lose their earnings and their bread with the loss of the temple. Can you imagine the trouble they would cause!?

7 If one could give these people some other income, things would go much better and easier. But where in a not too large kingdom can a source for jobs be found for thousands, and from where the food for so many people!? For several years we would probably not be at a loss, but for many years?! Which source to use and still remain fair and honest!?

8 Besides, the priesthood possesses the greatest faith among the people and enjoys the highest reputation; the evil priests must only say to the people that the gods have cursed us and we will then see how we can escape this land with a safe skin. You see, friend, those are things which force us to ponder much! As I said, only miraculous help from the Lord can give us advice!

9 Here in this Jewish kingdom it will be difficult to spread this purest light from the heavens, because the old religion of Moses is already too much peppered with such falsehood and deceit with which the priests have become too rich and now live too well. At the same time the priests know how to deal with the rulers and make themselves indispensable to them in all political considerations.

10 The rulers usually give them then too much freedom and privileges with which the priests then win over the blind people for themselves through all sorts of illusions and the rulers at the end of the evil game must put on a good face if they do not want to be lost. In such circumstances it is difficult to become lord of a people. One must be very satisfied in the end that one can and may play at being a lord, even if one is no longer such in reality.

11 Believe me, the actual lords of the people and the peoples have been the priesthood for a long time, and the emperors, the kings and princes are simply their secretly very morose dogs-bodies, and many want to make things better and get rid of all the obese and well-fed servants of the gods, if they could! But they cannot, and least of all in a humane way; and look, if I now think about it, my hair neatly stands on end! Do you see this difficulty?"

12 Jarah says: "Certainly, and I also know that not everything that glistens is gold; but in addition the fact also has to be considered that for us people many things are not possible that are very possible for God and with His help!

13 Thus just do as much as you can and leave the rest to the Lord, then everything will reach its desired, proper goal!

14 Then you have Mathael who is equipped with much wisdom, strength and power from the Lord, and his almost as wise and powerful companions; they all will in time achieve something, and so you can now relax!

15 And when Mathael begins his teaching in your country, as he has done with you, it will not be difficult for him to win over even the priesthood whom he can then give a new position; and they will know how to bring the rest to the people. But as far as the artists and manual workers are concerned, they will be also of use for other things for the converted priesthood!

16 But if you, dearest friend, now want to throw over on your return everything old, even if mistaken, certainly it would be understandable why such an effort and such work would be badly rewarded.

17 The correct wisdom from God must know how to create the correct means everywhere; if it doesn't know, then it is by no means a correct wisdom from God. What it does with one person, it does with thousands, only naturally more time and patience is demanded than with one person; but everything can happen in time and with the suitable means. Rome was not built in a day, and you cannot empty a well with one bucket. And so it is everywhere; the good will, the time and the correct means can move mountains and dry up a sea!

18 Nothing is impossible for God; where He helps spiritually and naturally, everything is possible! Therefore be comforted, and trust firmly in the Lord, and then it will go much better than you now imagine! Tell me, dear Mathael, whether I am right or not!"

- Chapter 125 -

Ouran shows how unfounded Helena's fear is

1 Mathael says: "In any case, who will want to underestimate it; but my dearest spouse imagines the matter to be much too enormous! Yes, it will certainly not be easy work - but by no means like the Augean stables which Hercules, the giant, was supposed to have cleaned in a set short time! I am not afraid and think that things will go quite easily with the help of the Lord!"

2 Helena says: "I hope so too; but I know my people and all the traditional institutions of the land and I tell you that among them, that is, among the people of my kingdom it is very difficult to be and remain a normal human being!

3 To fight some mistakes of people is easy, but it is a huge task to battle the fanaticism of the diamond hard superstition, which the priesthood knows to activate through all sorts of false wonders.

4 One would only be capable of effecting enormous counter-miracles. But that begs the question whether anything is gained with the people! One would only drive them from one superstition to another, if they are not given the correct light to distinguish a genuine wonder from a false wonder; but how can one do that if one knows the substance of the false wonders too little?!

5 But the old priests who have already performed so many false miracles before the eyes of their people for the authentication of their deceptions, will never recant! For if they do that, all the people will descend upon them and rip them to pieces; for an entire, great people can never be instructed as fast as an individual person.

6 The old priesthood must be looked after quite differently, and the nation must be prepared immediately for such a massive change, and we will be lucky if after ten years we will have managed to talk with the people about spiritual matters!

7 Do you know, my very dearest husband Mathael, I do not doubt for an instant your great wisdom, neither the necessary extraordinary help of the Lord; but I know all the massive difficulties that will face us, and it will then be very likely that we will have to seek foreign lands again!

8 This religion is divinely pure and magnificent, and endlessly blissful in addition; but the world is too much in disorder, and in my opinion it will always be a very difficult job to preach to the devils in Orcus God's gospel of peace!"

9 Mathael says: "Oh, certainly it will not be an easy job; but we will have an even greater joy when we are successful with the Lord's help! But we must succeed, even if the whole world should fall into ruin! For I am a very peculiar person; what I undertake, must be carried out! And now let's talk about something different!"

10 Ouran says: "You are very correct when you turn your conversation to something else! I have had a small but very refreshing nap in the meantime and in my dream I have seen wonderful things, but here and there I have overheard a bit of your discourse and I tell you that the little one is quite right, and you, my son Mathael, are also right; but the fear of my good daughter if not totally unfounded, is still somewhat too vain!

11 I know my people as well as I know myself! For the most part they are traders, they get to know all sorts of nations and alongside that their traditions, habits and religions. In the middle of the land there are certainly communities that still hang on to their oracles; but on the coasts you could buy their whole religion for a few coins. The priesthood has had a most evil reputation with most of them for a long time, and the philosophy has replaced the actual religion.

12 In Taurien over whose southern side I also command, polytheism is already over with, to which the Roman poet Ovid staying there through his Metamorphoses - through which he made a mockery of religion in an honest and poetic way - made no little contribution. Plato, Socrates and Aristotle are now the gods of today, and with them this religion will take root easily; for these three wise men preach also only one true God and totally reject polytheism as the real thing and observe it as only comparative to features of the one and only true God.

13 We ourselves had hardly ever travelled to this land of the Jews, had we not heard that in the temple in Jerusalem the only true God is almost visibly present, whom particularly Plato describes in his Symposion, and how one can unite spiritually with this one true God! My nation is not unaware of this, and something honest can surely be built on it!

14 I would naturally have let myself be initiated in everything in Jerusalem, and had I found something satisfactory, I would have then brought it from there to my people. But that we came here, directly to the smith instead of to the apprentice - which now is no longer doubtful after everything that we have experienced, heard and seen - is probably a freer and more extraordinary act of mercy by the Lord God for our earnest good will, about which we do not and never will claim to be worthy. But we will have an easier job to do at home because we can be completely prepared for every situation with the divine help that has been tested here.

15 We have, my most beloved daughter, not sought nearly as much as we have found. If we had only found a little more than in Plato's Symposium, we would have gone home again endlessly satisfied. But what now, when we have found something of which Plato in his Symposium never dreamed?! Now we will return home with great cheer and will announce it loudly to the nation what we have experienced, heard and seen on our search! I must tell you that I am now really looking forward to it with my whole heart!

16 I therefore do not understand how you, Helena, could get into such a fear about it!

17 I cannot dispute that you have some justification; but it is not suitable for our land, but perhaps rather for Judaism, which, now that I know it somewhat better, is full of deceit, full of domination and full of evil will. There the fear would have a more appropriate grounding than with my true lambs of people! What do you think, my most beloved and honored son, Mathael?"

18 Mathael says: "I quite agree; for in the temple in Jerusalem things are really monstrous, and it would be very daring to appear there with this teaching! In the temple, where once Jehovah's Spirit was visibly present in the holy of holies, rules everything that can be named bad and evil, there is no trace left of anything divine in reality, instead only empty names! And the priests are wolves and hyenas in sheep's clothing. If one day we are alone, I will tell you quite a bit more about it, since I was a templar myself! But for now let's leave it; for here there is something better to talk about than the now fully godless temple of Jerusalem!

19 I must now turn to my dearest Jarah; for she hides in her breast secrets about which we all never had any idea. So Jarah, tell us something about your experiences!"

- Chapter 126 -

Jarah recounts her experiences about the stars

1 Jarah says: "Oh, very willingly - but you would hardly believe me! You, dear Mathael, know a lot about the stars; but I perhaps even more, which is certainly not to my credit, but instead a pure extraordinary favor from the Lord. Wait, I will ask you something! If you can give me a satisfactory answer, then you understand as much as I do; but if you hold back with an answer, only then will I be free to tell you some things that I know. What do you consider the small stars in the firmament to be?"

2 Mathael says: "My very dearest Jarah, this is a somewhat strange question! As far as the sun, the moon and other planets are concerned, I could perhaps give you a not unsatisfactory answer; but the eye of my soul has not yet penetrated to the fixed stars. I suppose that they are also far-off worlds, as the Lord once suggested; but how they were actually created, and what their nature and composition is, that I naturally cannot tell you and I would like therefore to ask you, if you want to give me some instruction about it!"

3 Jarah says: "Dear Mathael, if you cannot believe that I have travelled to some of these stars in my flesh and blood, then my telling is almost completely useless! But if you can believe it, I can then tell you something about it!"

4 Mathael says: "My very dearest child, faith is truly put to an extremely difficult test there, because the physical possibility for this is unthinkable. In spirit, in a type of ecstasy of your soul such a thing is possible, and I want to believe what you will tell me all about the far-off fixed stars; but when you say to me: in flesh and blood, there, dearest, I cannot believe the first thing, and the tale, perhaps quite true and correct in itself, loses much of its effective truth, as even the intention must seem purely impossible."

5 Jarah says: "Why should it be impossible then that I have been on some of these stars in complete flesh and blood? Are not all things possible for God?"

6 Mathael says: "Oh, in any case, for God nothing is impossible; but God has placed everything in a certain order, and this order is a law that He Himself observes most conscientiously and also must observe, otherwise the whole creation would no longer exist in the next moment. The Lord performs many miracles here, but nonetheless for the exact observer everything is constantly within His eternal, holy order.

7 When we wished that evening to have the day extended, He did not let the earth or seemingly the real sun stand still - which in His own highest words would be against His order - and if He did such a thing, all life on the earth would be in the highest danger of death. Whatever would not be destroyed by the too enormously powerful throw, would then all the more certainly find death in the waves flooding all the land.

8 You see, as I now know the earth and the regions of the air, I know that at a height of only ten hours above us no being can exist any longer, just as no fish can live out of water, although a fish could still be kept alive out of the water for longer than a person ten hours' distance above the face of the earth. Now think about the endless distance from this earth to the next fixed star!

9 Even the distance of the sun from us, which my free soul can measure exactly, is something frightening; an arrow once shot would have to travel for more than fifty years at an even speed before it would arrive at the sun. But now according to the feelings of my soul, which are certainly not fully reliable, the next fixed star is ten times a hundred thousand times more distant from us than the sun, so the flight of a fired arrow would take more than a million times fifty years! But if a person could move as fast as a fired arrow, the air rushing against him would rip him apart in an instant; but what would happen to him first if he, namely a person, cut through the terrible space in a few moments?! What would happen then to his flesh and blood?!

10 You see, the laws of nature are also given by God and can only be canceled by nature itself; but as long as nature remains, the unchangeable law of nature also remains. There can be no exceptions; for such a little exception would have to bring forth an unpredictable disruption to the whole nature of things, which all hang together like links of a chain. But it only takes one link to break and the whole chain is devoid of its binding effect! There you now have my reasons why it is not easily possible for me at the moment to believe that you seriously travelled to certain fixed stars in flesh and blood.

11 Truly very much is possible for God that I cannot see now despite all my wisdom; but your claim, my dearest Jarah, does go a little too far into the extraordinary, and I cannot accept it as true before you have clearly shown me in an understandable way the reasons for its possibility, which are in accord with the divine order decided since eternity.

12 But you don't have to be indignant about it, for nevertheless I do not fully deny it; only I cannot accept this as instructively true for the reasons I have just given you, which I have not pulled out of the air. Perhaps you have convincingly true proof, however, which I cannot know! If you do, then let me hear them, and I will then no longer doubt whatever you want to say to me!"

13 Jarah says: "Yes, yes, you are seriously a very wise and unusually clever man; but you do not see everything by a long shot! You see, if there was something that could be done with Raphael, he could bring me some natural objects here in a moment, which I took from these stars to this earth as a souvenir and as proof that I was really there; but you can't do anything with him, and therefore I cannot deliver you such tangible proof. It is true, as a simple person of nature you could still doubt their genuineness; but your soul, filled with the divine spirit, would then at least easily recognize that the pieces of souvenirs that I brought with me do not belong to this earth. For there is a splendor and value in them, in comparison with which everything that the earth has of value is simple carrion. That would be an imperial piece of immeasurable value! But let's leave that now; it is beginning to dawn in the east! The Sabbath is approaching, and it is important to prepare ourselves for this day of the Lord!"

14 Mathael says: "You are completely correct; but will we therefore not get to hear further proof today concerning your physical travel through several fixed stars!?"

15 Jarah says: "How can we do that? Your counter evidence is too solid and too well-founded in the existent, unchangeable divine order, and I cannot give you any other proof of my true visit to the fixed stars than this, that for God all things that still seem so impossible to the human mind are nonetheless possible.

16 Did you count and measure the time in which the Lord had Ouran's ships brought from the middle of the sea to the shore by my Raphael? Who's hair was even touched by such a very fast transfer? How much time did Raphael need to set up Ouran's great tents and all the possessions he had brought with him, which were in part very fragile, on the shore in the best order?

17 Didn't you notice Raphael's fast writing?! Doesn't that contrast with the natural laws, even only a little strictly speaking, and yet you saw it happen before your very eyes?! Can you then claim according to your own rationale that such a thing is impossible?!

18 You see, I can tell you, because I, as no other mortal on this earth, have experienced physically that in the most endless space there are such enormously large suns which, if they were hollow, would have a greater space inside them than this whole heaven that you see here up to the fixed stars of first, second and third distance! These enormous suns, around which whole solar systems with their countless many central suns and planetary suns, move around an even more endlessly great central sun for the sake of sustenance, and the movement is so fast that you would not be able to even catch them with the speed of thought!

19 From here to every fixed star of first, second, third and even fourth distance the flight would hardly last seven moments, and we, with our sun and our planetary sun - which makes exactly the same fast orbit as the previously mentioned and described central sun of the solar system - make quite completely the same movement, and that is certain according to natural laws and all higher accounts! Do you feel anything of it, or is some planet mistaken, or we ourselves, if we now, in one instant, fly through such an immeasurable distance of endless creation?

20 But if such enormous heavenly bodies can hurry on with such an unthinkable speed without damaging their essence, how much easier is it, if the Lord wills it, for a body such as mine!?

21 Do you now have a somewhat better grasp of the possibility that I in my body actually travelled to some of the nearest fixed stars?"

22 Mathael says: "Oh, child, a whole heaven of wisdom is in you, and I am only beginning now to believe the possibility of what you have just said in the strangest way! But now don't speak any more about it, for our souls are not yet extended enough to understand such great things; for that I myself need several years more, as open as my soul is now."

- Chapter 127 -

Conversations about the unusual incidents

1 At this Mathael is silent in quiet contemplation of what Jarah said, and Helena and Ouran observe Jarah quite silently, seized by the deepest amazement; Jarah, however, is watching the still fiercely burning city and waiting with great longing for My return. It is now fully silent on the mountain, only in Mark's house it is lively for the announced foreign guests, namely for Cornelius and Faustus, and the morning becomes brighter and brighter.

2 Thus it was quite calm on the mountain for around a good hour, except, as already mentioned, that in Mark's house things were very active because of the new guests announced, but also because of the new arrivals who were certainly to be expected from the wrecked city.

3 But during the quiet towards the morning several fell asleep. Even Cyrenius, Julius, the boy Josoe and several high state officials present here with Cyrenius fell asleep; but the thirty young Pharisees who were watching the fire in the city most attentively, remained awake and discussed the happenings and what was heard, likewise the twelve with Suetal, Ribar and Bael.

4 Mathael, Helena, Jarah, Ouran and at Mathael's side his four companions, Rob, Boz, Micha and Zahr also remained awake and were full of great thoughts; but they were all silent and thought about everything that Jarah had said to them, and they did not dare to ask her about anything else. But Jarah also considered whether she had not said too much to these people at once.

5 Only after a long while, as the horizon already began to redden, the otherwise very taciturn Rob opened his mouth and said: "Dear friends, I still cannot find any peace in myself with all my thinking. Everything here is truly so extraordinarily strange that it always seems as if one is dreaming, and one can do whatever one wants, but one can never accustom oneself to everything that has been seen and heard so that one feels at home in this knowledge! And this ever-growing feeling of foreignness is still the most natural thing that a thinker's thoughts can occupy themselves with. Everything is nothing but wonder upon wonder of the most colossal sort!

6 You, brother Mathael, have here become king of a great land, and we, your consuls! The great, holy Master only has to look out over the wide earth and it shakes like a child before the whip! Then in addition the young head magician comes from heaven and performs things before which our hair stands up like mountains! Now this maiden comes as well and again tells things that could make one crazy without any effort whatsoever! Tell me whether it is possible to come to terms with these things in some way!

7 But where has He been for so long? It must be a good three hours ago that He left us, and still He has not returned!"

8 A second of Mathael's four companions, who is called Boz and was also no talkative person, says: "What you feel, I feel also, and I cannot begin to feel at home here for everything in the world! Everything that happens seems to me as unexpected as possible, and in its own way it is always so eccentrically great that one cannot imagine anything greater. Every deed, every word and every tale beats everything that the human ear has heard before and that the eye has seen so much into the dirt that nothing remains, including Moses and all his miracles, but dust.

9 There is not the slightest doubt that through the most remarkably good and great Master, who, born in Nazareth, is in his body a son of the carpenter there, the complete fullness of the divine spirit is working. But which mortal can feel at home beside such immensity? If He speaks, it is not He who is speaking, but the eternal Spirit of God in Him, and if He acts, then I would like to hear from a great wise man what God can do more than He! He is completely God in word and deed, His will commands most actively the whole of infinity, and yet He walks as a simple man before and among us and eats and drinks like we do!

10 Where are all the sayings of wisdom of Solomon, who said at the dedication of the temple: 'Lord, I truly know that heaven and earth cannot encompass You - where all creation ended, You are still eternally and infinitely powerful - but nonetheless we have built You, oh Lord, a house, in order to meet with pure and repentant hearts, in order to thank You, oh Lord, for all Your favors and blessings and to tell You in hardship of our affliction and our misery.' (1 Kings 8: 12 on.)

11 Even if that is not word for word what is written there, it is nonetheless the brief sense of what the wise builder of the temple said in great, wise words at the dedication of such; would he also have spoken in this way, if he had seen and spoke with Him and got to know our Master, born in Nazareth, as we have?

12 For His personality the temple is still several thousand times too large, and the all-powerful will of our Master that rules everywhere is not the Master, God Himself, but only an incomprehensible strength of one and the same Master whom we can see, hear and speak to and nonetheless thereby get to know His personal extent as well as we know our own. How does He do that, that His will reigns over all infinity and eternity and His eye and His ear are fully present for everyone? You see, those are all things that no spirit can fully understand, and the consequence is that one cannot feel at home in it!

13 Yes, if the spiritually great divine Master was a Samson or Goliath, things would be somewhat more familiar, for one could say: an all-powerful spirit must also have a corresponding body; but our Master is rather smaller than big, as far as His person is concerned, and yet His spirit plays with infinity as a boy with an apple! That is the incomprehensible thing, and all wise men with their teachings about the being of God suffer here the very most violent shipwreck; but although we have been taught differently here, we nevertheless cannot now feel immediately at home!

14 In short, I am now actually dreaming much more than feeling fully awake and at home. My soul now sees a lot, yes, I can see the whole formation of the world, my gaze penetrates right down to the deepest depths; I see the moon as a very sad, miserable, small world, designated for even smaller and more pitiful people and other creations; I see Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and in addition other similar planets, big and small. Saturn looks strangely wonderful; it is much greater than our earth and floats in the exact middle of an enormous ring, above which, let's say, seven moons, greater than ours, buzz around like bees around their hive; I also see the wonderful, widespread realms of the great sun; but with all this I feel not nearly as foreign here as in the strangest vicinity of the Creator of all the countless worlds and its wonders!

15 Perhaps you others feel more at home, since you perhaps do not perceive this thing as calmly and deeply as I and brother Rob; but if one begins to observe the issue correctly with calm and in the greatest depth possible, compared with everything that one has ever seen or heard in the world or read in the old books, then one begins to feel even more strange. Yes, one becomes so absorbed in the end in one's own existence that it seems like a very perceptible nothingness! Tell me whether I am right or not!"

16 Micha then says: "You are both correct, and I also have the same feeling, but I feel very much blessed nonetheless."

17 Rob and Boz say: "Yes, there is no talk of that! It blesses us also very much and above; but that does not cancel out the feeling of complete foreignness in this issue! God is and remains God, and we can think and feel however we want, but we will never fill in the rift!"

- Chapter 128 -

Micha's notion of wordly wisdom concerning the incidents

1 Micha says: "It is not even necessary! Let's be glad that we are what we are, and that we finally have before us physically in all the most endless sphere of effect what the elders strove for in vain but always got totally lost in thin air!

2 Observe Moses and all the prophets, then take the wise men of Egypt and Greece on top, summarize their enormously mystical spiritual ideas about God's being, and you still have not even a grain of sand of that which we have here tangibly physically before us in fullness!

3 Moses, the greatest prophet, wanted to see God on Mount Sinai, but he received from the flaming cloud an answer with a voice of thunder that made the earth tremble: No-one can see God and live! But we now see the same God, speak to Him, are happy witnesses of His wisdom and omnipotence and still live very well and very comfortably! If the good Moses sometimes felt somewhat strange on the mountain, particularly when a thousand times a thousand of the most powerfully cracking bolts of lightning played around his head at the same time, then that is very understandable; but if we here speak of a particular eeriness in the presence of the so very good and most pleasant God, then we fully deserve the harshest mocking!

4 Didn't our fore-fathers enthuse about a holy Father in heaven, but nonetheless could never gain any understanding of Him!? We now have the same Holy Father in all most tangible truth before us on this earth, which is now the heaven of all heavens, and we feel not at home!

5 It is true that one must feel quite unaccustomed and different here than a child at home with his vain toys; but for that we are now also in a very curious school of life! When a child goes to school for the first time, he will certainly not feel as at home as with his toys in his parents' house; but when he goes to school for a year, then he will also feel as at home there as with his toys at home.

6 But how He, our God, Master, Lord and Father nonetheless penetrates everything with His all-powerful will in the whole of infinity from the greatest to the smallest thing and is most clearly aware of all His endless and countless creations from the greatest to the smallest, that, brother, is none of our business, and there is certainly nothing for us but to know and see that things are so, and must be so, otherwise all things would obviously instantly have to lose their objective existence.

7 We must just have patience! Today we know this much, tomorrow we will obviously know more, and in a year we should know much more than now at the beginning of our spiritual development, in which we nonetheless stand much higher than Moses and all the great and famous prophets before us, who with their most holy visions can hardly have guessed spiritually and then written down with highly mystical words and signs what we now can touch with our hands without any mysticism. If we just consider that actively, we will immediately feel a lot more at home than Saul once felt among the prophets!"

8 The others say: "Yes, yes, you are completely correct, and we all feel much more at home already! What a person's reasonable word is capable of doing!"

9 Zahr, who until now had still been silent, but otherwise always full of cheerfulness in his mind, says: "It is laughable what foolish things the cleverest men often say! Micha, the weakest among us, has nonetheless brought to light the very cleverest opinion! How could one feel here in the least strange and eerie? Quite the opposite! We are now in exactly the right spot! We are with God, our eternal Creator and Father. We began with Him and have now turned back again as far as possible; what are we talking about feeling uncomfortable for? We have only just come home! No, what strange opinions brothers Rob and Boz have! What do you say to that, Mathael?"

- Chapter 129 -

Mathael gives clarifications regarding the memorable incidents

1 Mathael says: "You are correct, but these two also; this thing is highly personal! You and Micha are from the same bright star in your souls; those two are children of this earth, but with the same right to the Lord's love and mercy as you! Your souls were already closer to the spiritual at the very beginning than the souls of Rob and Boz, and there is therefore nothing to be amazed about if they, finding themselves here in such nearness to the very purest spirit, feel stranger and more uncomfortable than we, who right at the very beginning stood closer to the spiritual than they. They will gradually begin to feel more comfortable and now they feel much more at home already; but one day cannot give what a year can. After a year they will feel and speak quite differently than now, when their spirit becomes more and more at one with their souls. Do you understand such wisdom?"

2 Zahr says: "Oh, I now understand that very well; for my soul has become very bright through the great suffering that we have withstood, and I now understand everything easily. Only I cannot quite handle optima forma [in the proper way – the editor] the maiden with her traveling around the fixed stars, although I believe the child and, in a certain way, must believe her. But the 'how' is another thing!

3 Well, we are now in a certain way in the centre of the very highest, divine force; why should things not happen in such vicinity to the very highest God that otherwise never come to pass in the whole of infinity?!"

4 Mathael says: "With your constantly cheerful mood you often bring things to light which say more than a whole Solomon's temple full of the most appropriate wisdom! Our Micha has just made a very useful speech as well, and we can be grateful to him for it. And so you, brother Zahr, have also represented the possibility of this girl's physical journey to several fixed stars in such a way that I can no longer doubt the possibility. It is really classically true; we only have to think where we actually are, and the possibility for everything lies clearly before our eyes, ears, hands and feet!

5 But the remark that one of you made, that one can imagine the endless power of the divine Spirit more easily in a physical giant than in the smaller human form of the Lord, is certainly something for the simple sensual perception, because something colossal always makes a more powerful impression on the human senses than something small; but for the purely spiritual understanding it is nonetheless sheer nonsense. For the divine power needs no material form in order to become more or less effective according to the extent of the material quantity, but the material itself is basically just an expression witnessing the spiritual power of the divine will, for which it is all the same to call a whole world or a grain of sand into being. What is a physical giant good for? The divine will needs only an eternally unchanging base from which to be effective in endless rays everywhere in the endless space of the worlds and being in the same strength and power, and to hold this holy, eternally unchanging all-powerful base truly no giant body is needed.

6 True, the Egyptians have often presented almost everything that is in any way concerned with the divinity in terrifying giant forms, in order to fool the lower classes who they wanted to keep in the dark; they were supposed to fear the divinity in terror and quake and before the words of the priests to tremble in all remorse like leaves before the storm! But have these giant god figures made the people better? Oh no, in time the nation got used to the terrible figures and thought nothing more of the Sphinx' head rearing thirty men's hights over the ground and wondered more at the patience of some old sculptor who chiseled a head out of a rock of granite.

7 Therefore let us be cheerful that the Lord Himself has now visited us in the fullest and most unveiled truth as a very simple person, not characterized by anything particular, and is teaching us in the simplest way in the world to recognize everything about our destiny, ourselves and Him in the fullest truth! This is all we need, and we can seek counsel for eternity about everything else."

8 Zahr says: "I thank you, brother, that is very true and good! We have now mutually set ourselves up to bear good fruit in the name of the Lord and Master, and things have become beautifully light. But as I notice, everyone except us has now fallen asleep before the dawn - and I must admit that I do not feel the slightest trace of any tiredness in me, and you must all be quite wide awake as well!"

9 Everyone says: "Quite perfect! We have never felt so strengthened before!"

- Chapter 130 -

The missions and sufferings of the angels

1 Here Raphael steps up and says: "I am not sleeping either, and yet you said that everyone except for you is now sleeping!"

2 Zahr says: "Friend, the fact that you are not asleep and that you can never sleep at all will be clear to any person who knows you as well as we do! Therefore you might well have saved yourself such a remark. You see, dear angel, it is quite enough that we people here are sometimes somewhat stupid, and we need no support on your behalf to become even more stupid than we are in nature; but you can truly instruct us very magnificently in many things as a consequence of your immense and immeasurable wisdom and experience, which is older than the world itself!"

3 Raphael says: "Who am I then that I am not supposed to have any sleep?"

4 Zahr says: "But I beg you, my heavenly friend, don't speak to us and ask us so pompously! You are an angel of the Lord from heaven, here equipped with a light body by the Lord out of necessity! You can throw off this body in more than lightning quickness and destroy it!

5 You are quite a different being, according to the body, to us still mortal people of this earth. You were never born - except for the Lord God you have never had any other mother and father, out of whose body you were produced like us. You only know an immeasurable holiness since the most unthinkable times; you only know the names of pain, suffering and sadness and the bitter regret, but not from your own personal experience and therefore you cannot talk to people in the fullest truth about earthly human things; you can only talk to us about spiritual things that we will accept from you very thankfully, for you must be fully at home in them; but you cannot talk about physical things because you have never had to complain in a body!"

6 Raphael says: "Look, look, all the things you know! Even if I have never been inside a body, I nonetheless know better what a body is and what every fiber in it does than you could ever learn in a thousand years with all your industriousness!

7 Are we angels not those who have to care for everything that concerns the being of a person from his creation to his departure from this earth?!

8 Are we not those who purify your souls through the suffering and pain worked in your flesh making them capable of receiving the Spirit of God, and we are not supposed to know then what are your diverse sufferings and pains?! What do you think then in your mind if you can make me such a reproach!?

9 Believe me that we angels are also capable of pain and suffering! And I tell you that we often bear more pain and suffering than you, since we have to experience only too often how the stubborn people crush all our great efforts with scorn and mockery under their dirtiest feet and constantly turn their backs on us.

10 Friend, if you had as much patience with a person over whom all power would be granted if you constantly showered him with the greatest good deeds, but the person despised you extremely for all that and didn't want to hear or know anything about you and only constantly directed all his thoughts and striving to getting rid of you as his greatest benefactor and friend, possibly even to harm you for all your cares and efforts for his salvation, to destroy your good reputation and name, and to make you into the craftiest traitor!? Tell me, if you were only like Cyrenius, what would you do with such a person! Would you have the patience to treat such a villain right until the end with all patience and measure and tenderness?"

11 Zahr says, raising his eyebrows at these words by the angel: "No friend! I would never have such patience in my life! Even without power I would have no patience, not to mention with power!"

12 Raphael says: "You see, and I have so much unaccountable power and strength that I quite alone could destroy and quite annihilate in the fastest instant this whole earth, the moon, the sun and all the stars that are visible to your eye which are sheer enormous great space bodies, with everything that they carry; and yet I have always such a patience with the unchanging people of this earth through my own free will!

13 But all that would be nothing, and would be an evil that is easy to bear; but consider now the continuing very most willful behavior of Satanas and their angels, who, as very powerful spiritual beings, constantly go around with the 'laudable' plan to destroy not only us, but God as well and to take away all His power!

14 Such a thing can never happen, of course! But enough, the indestructible evil plan is there and they do not stop trying to carry it out, constantly suffer the greatest pain and agony for it, which they cause themselves through their most evil desire; but that nevertheless never totally puts them off their evil forever.

15 You see, we see all this and have the power not only to tame them in the most sensitive way but also to destroy them completely forever, and that all without responsibility before the Lord God!

16 And nonetheless we treat them as our fallen brothers with all patience and consideration and direct things strictly so that their free will is never limited by us in any way, but is and remains always free, only we always prevent with all care the effect of such things. Friend, what would you do in such circumstances?"

17 Zahr says: "There I would thrash around like a bear and would see whether such spiritual beasts would not show me obedience, particularly if I possessed your power and strength without accountability!"

18 Raphael says: "But don't you see now that an angel of God is not such a light thing as you had imagined, and that I also see a little of the actual humanity, and recognize it and can therefore talk to you about it?!"

19 Zahr says: "Oh yes, I see that very well now; but only tell me now whether you have to be here, or is it also your free will?"

20 Raphael says: "Oh yes, I could just as well leave you according to my own freest will; but I want to stay with you, because such a thing pleases the Lord. But pleasing the Lord is also my own will, and even God Himself can do nothing against that, for therein consists the maintenance of all creation, about which you with all the countless stars cannot see even the eonth part (Remark by Jakob Lorber: One eon is one decillion squared), not to mention the endless entirety and the being itself! But now the sun is close to rising and the Lord is coming back; therefore we should be fully attentive again for every sign of His!"

- Chapter 131 -

All human unease is dispelled by Raphael

1 Zahr says: "Shouldn't we wake the sleepers then?"

2 Raphael says: "They will wake up soon enough when the Lord is fully with us again!"

3 Jarah jumps up most hurriedly and asks with a passionately loving force: "From where, where is He coming from, the love of all love!? My eyes still don't see anything!"

4 Raphael says smiling: "It doesn't matter; if your heart just sees Him, your eyes will soon catch up! He will be here at the full sunrise!"

5 Helena, who has also remained awake, says: "Jarah, let's hurry towards Him! Oh, what bliss it is to meet Him!"

6 Jarah says: "Yes, yes, friend, you come along too! Oh, what a joy that will be if we see Him from some distance coming towards us!"

7 Next both hurry like the wind towards the wood in the west and soon disappear in it.

8 Ouran, who was also awake, looked after the two and said, when they disappeared in the wood,:"In the end they go astray? The mountain rises quite sharply over there, as it seems, towards the south, and must be several hours away!? They will run on in their haste and the Master might come from another side and they will seek Him and in the end not find Him!"

9 Raphael says: "Worry about something else! These two will get lost just as little as I would or could get lost. Where the heart is once in such a very strongest light because of love, going astray in anything is henceforth purely impossible! They will certainly get deep into the forest; but they will find the Master!"

10 With this Ouran calms down, directs his glance once again towards the still fiercely burning and also very strongly smoking city and discovers with his far-seeing, sharp eyes a number of groups setting off in all directions. He also sees whole processions coming towards our mountain and says: "Well, health to everyone! If they all come to us, where will we get enough bread for that many people? These will eat old Mark along with his household completely out of house and home!"

11 Raphael says: "Worry about something else! The whole earth and all creatures on it certainly need very much of everything in every moment, and the Lord nonetheless satisfies the whole earth itself and all the beings on it! But what is the earth in comparison with the sun, which is more than ten times a hundred thousand times larger than this earth and constantly needs an immeasurable amount of food to maintain its powerful light and to maintain the countless creatures on its wide pastures of light; and the Lord cares for them as much as for you, noble friend!

12 But now think about the eternally immeasurable space of creation full of suns and earths of even greater size than this earth and its illuminating sun! All of them are constantly most richly equipped by one and the same Lord with everything that they need for their existence. Nowhere is there a lack, but everywhere there is the greatest abundance! But if it is so and it is eternally impossible in any other way, how can you then worry from where we will get enough bread for so many, who are now on their way to us here from the city?"

13 Ouran says: "Yes, yes, you are quite correct! I am no wise man, and I often forget for moments where I am now; but now I am quite in order again!"

14 Hebram, who has also remained awake among his thirty companions, comes over and says: "But that will cause great confusion today as the strict Sabbath! If this fire had happened on a working day, we could support those who were burnt out and come to us for advice and deeds, but as it is, it will be a difficult task today even for the great Master!"

15 Raphael says: "You also, worry about something else! Have you ever seen the sun celebrating the Sabbath, or the moon, or the stars, or the wind, the rain, or the growth of the plants and several other things? But why do these creations not celebrate the Sabbath? Because the very most active will of the Lord never celebrates a Sabbath, whose Lord He is!

16 Or how can you imagine an annoying law that God has ordered for the people only for their salvation for as long as it seems to Him to be advisable?!

17 But if God neglects the Sabbath and its celebration, what are you then trying to achieve with your foolish Sabbath? Wouldn't you like to dispute the Sabbath with me? Should I also bless the Sabbath through useless, purposeless and senseless idleness? Oh, wait, exactly today as a Sabbath I will make such a storm that your hearing and sight will disappear for months!"

18 Hebram says: "Oh, you celestial friend, you don't have to take my question badly! Just always think that we are people and even with the best will possible we still always fall into old habits in extraordinary circumstances, like a pig in a poke! But you, oh powerful servant and angel of God, protect us all in the future from this; for we are all sheer weak and very fragile people!"

19 Raphael says: "Go over to your brothers and calm them; for they all are floating in the same foolish worries about the Sabbath with which you came here! Show them the great foolishness of their worries! They are now gradually awakening." Hebram goes and does with good success what Raphael ordered.

20 When this is in order, Ebahl from Genezareth wakes up and immediately asks Ouran about his Jarah, but the latter informs him about what has happened and how Jarah and Helena went to seek the Lord in the forest.

21 Ebahl says: "Oh, oh, they should not have done that! The wood will probably already be populated with all sorts of guests from Caesarea! How easily might something happen to them that could affect them most unpleasantly!"

22 Raphael says: "You worry about something else as well! Both of them reached the right place a long time ago and will soon be here again. The Lord is coming at the full sunrise and both of them will not be far behind him!"

23 Ouran says: "How long do we have until the full sunrise?"

24 Raphael says: "About another short half hour!"

- Chapter 132 -

The difficulty of converting priests

1 With this everyone is satisfied and it is peaceful once again on the outlier, which is separated by a small saddle from the higher range stretching towards the south; but below at the sea it is becoming very lively, for several parties from the city have arrived at Mark's home and naturally lament in very vivid colors about their distress and their undeserved misfortune.

2 Mark's kitchen is very active, and both sons prepare several field ovens with Mark in order to prepare the considerable number of meals for so many guests.

3 Some of those who arrived from Caesarea head for the mountain, because they have already seen people on it from far off. But when they see Romans, they immediately pull back again; for they believe that the latter are keeping a sharp watch here in order to round up those fleeing and to direct them back to the still burning city to help put it out, which would have been very particularly inappropriate for the arch-Jews on this, the Sabbath. For in Caesarea lived some arch-Jews who, without being exactly Pharisees, took Moses' laws very terribly seriously. And this was a new moon Sabbath, which was always treated more strictly than a usual one! Therefore they were, after the disastrous events of the previous evening, as if newly refreshed with ashes on their shorn heads and with torn clothes, much stricter than on any other Sabbath of the new moon. It would therefore have been highly fatal for these highly strict Sabbathists if they had been sent back by these Romans who did not respect the Sabbath, to put out the flames; therefore they did not stay long on the mountain at the sight of the Romans, although these were still asleep, and as already mentioned, returned again straight away.

4 Raphael smiled and said to Mathael: "Did you see them, the strict Sabbathists? They quickly cleared off at the sight of the Romans! But rejoice, they will yet give us a lot of trouble today!"

5 Mathael says: "Friend, with love, wisdom and patience and particularly with the help of the Lord everything can be done! Blind in heart, naked in understanding - they are stuck in their foolishness like an old rusted nail in a beam, the poor people! Well, perhaps we can heal them all!"

6 Raphael says: "Friend, as long as a person is foolish, things are easier; but if arrogance, domination and pleasure-seeking joins foolishness in a firm bond, then improvement is difficult and most difficult of all with the priesthood of the high-ranking sort and type!

7 Just take whatever position of a human you like, for example a general or some other high ranking imperial servant! As long as he stands in his office, he will make use of the respect and honor awarded to him, and it is acknowledged; but with time he can become unsuitable for his position and then he is put into retirement, and he is de facto [in fact – the editor] nothing any longer and no longer worries about his earlier, arduous position! The high priest however retains his reputation until the grave, and after his death the surviving priests have a temple-like monument set up to their own honor and exaltation and give him a divine reverence! The priesthood therefore knows how to keep the position untouchable for long periods and to protect it in all thinkable situations.

8 Just go up to such a die-hard priest, with whom you can easily notice how much he is in the wrong and stuck in lies, you will achieve nothing with him! He keeps his position high above that of an emperor, because he thinks himself to be a representative of God on earth; he therefore will not exchange his position with any other in the world.

9 If you want to buy his position with much gold and silver, he will say to you: I have enough gold and silver; but my position is worth more than all the treasures of this world; for I am an official of God and no official of a worldly prince, and my position remains in eternity! After such a retort you then no longer hold the reins and you have to dance to the tune of the confirmed high priest! Therefore I believe that there is not much that can be done here with these arch-Jews! In addition your sense is quite perfectly worthy of God; everything is possible for the Lord God, however, what often seems impossible for us angels and you people."

10 Mathael says: "I thank you for these words; but now the sun is rising and we must keep ourselves ready for the arrival of the Lord!"

11 Raphael says: "You are quite right, for the Lord is the true sun of all suns! If He rises in a person's heart, then it is the day of days for that person. Can you already see Him coming from the wood, since you are looking there so studied?"

12 Mathael says: "The sun is already over the horizon; but there is nothing to be discovered of the Lord and of the two who hurried to meet Him. It seems to me, taking things quite accurately according to your statement, that you have miscalculated a little, even with your heavenly prophecy! The rising of the sun and the return of the Lord do not coincide at all! Look, the sun is already standing high above the horizon and there is still no trace of the Lord! Now tell me how I should interpret your prophecy to us!"

13 Raphael says: "But you must also direct your eyes over there to where He is coming from, and not over there from where He is not coming! Look around, and you will then immediately convince yourself that I have not made any false prophecy!"

- Chapter 133 -

About the right search for God

1 Mathael, Ouran, Ebahl and Mathael's four companions all look around quickly and see Me coming up the hill with old Mark and hurry towards Me.

2 When they reach Me, they all greet Me in the friendliest way and thank Me for coming back; but since they do not see Jarah and Helena with Me, they become afraid, and Ebahl, extremely concerned about his daughter, asks Me somewhat anxiously whether both girls had not come to Me in the forest, since they had hurried towards Me after Raphael's words in the morning. And since they were now not with Me, they must still be seeking Me in the forest; I should therefore send Raphael after them so that he would bring them back again to the company unharmed!"

3 I say: "Why are you worried about these who are seeking Me? Do you think then that I can only protect someone from dangers if I am physically near to them? When you, Ouran, were in great danger, who told Me then that I should look for you and save you? Don't I know where both of them are and where they are seeking Me? Just leave them and they will come back again!

4 Both of them have found Me in their hearts, which is easy for everyone. But whoever goes to seek Me physically, although he knows that I can only be sought inwardly, must learn this lesson, for example here that a simple external seeking and meeting Me does not put them in a position to come nearer to Me, but instead only to lose Me more and more! You can bear that in mind on this Sabbath morning! In any case both found my track and will now soon be here."

5 Ebahl says: "Well, if that is all, then everything is in order again! They would otherwise have certainly stayed with us if Raphael had not brought them so quickly to a decision through his words! The good boy sees everything nearby, even if it is still far away, and one can easily be taken in by him! He will never advise you against it easily, even if in the end it was something bad; for in that way he wants to bring someone to the right path through bitter experience. And so he did not advise these two earlier against going to meet You, but instead only spurred them on, and therefore they are now sitting somewhere tired and do not know how they got there! Well, my Jarah deserves it; since she knows Raphael's ways and means and knows what she has to do! She was taken in by him once, and that is quite healthy; but he can rejoice when she returns, then he will receive a very particular lecture and will once again wonder at Jarah's eloquence!"

6 Right at this moment Raphael comes past, who in the meantime had wakened the sleepers, and Ebahl said to him: "You have once again been the cause of a somewhat unfortunate undertaking by Jarah, and with her also Helena! I have to honestly admit to you that the ways and means that you deal with the people entrusted to you and lead them does not please me at all! If a disciple of yours wants to do something that is not quite in order, you must distract him from it through word and deed, but not, still advising him in some way, let him commit the sin and finally keep him from a future sin only through the evil consequences of the path of personal experience! That may well be very good and purposeful for spirits of your sort, but for people such a thing is never suitable as far as I can see!"

7 Raphael says: "You are a thoroughly honest and just Jew; but as far as the secret path of the Lord is concerned you are as foolish as a fish! Do you really think that what I do, I do of myself?! I am a finger of the Lord and do what the Lord's Spirit urges me to do! If you had more insight, you would see that very well; but I know how far your insight stretches in such things, and therefore I ignore such weaknesses of yours. You can see that the two were not lost at all in that they are now coming towards us quite healthily and preserved over the mountain from Mark's hut, accompanied by a daughter of Mark's, who brings us the news that the breakfast is ready for us!"

8 Ebahl says: "Yes, but how did both of them get down there without being seen by us!?"

9 Raphael says: "Didn't the Lord say before that they had found His tracks?"

10 Ebahl says: "Well, well, I am quiet again; because they are here again at least for me everything is good again!"

- Chapter 134 -

Reason for the destruction of Caesarea-Philippi

1 After this conversation Mark announces that the breakfast stands at the ready and all the tables are already laid with food and drink. Then we head down from the mountain and towards the tables which, in the morning, are found in the same old order, and none are missing.

2 Here Ouran says to Helena: "When you were down below, did you see whether our tents are still up and in order? And have our servants got enough to eat and drink - and are our beasts of burden all cared for?"

3 Mathael says to Ouran: "Friend and father-in-law, in the presence of the Lord every worry is in vain! Now think about nothing other than the Lord; for He thinks for us and for the whole of infinity!"

4 When we headed down from the mountain towards the tables after this remark by Mathael to Ouran, Cyrenius asked Me on the way: "Lord, should I order a division of my soldiers to put out the fires in the city? For if we do not bring any help to the city, by tonight it will be a glowing pile of embers!"

5 I say: "Dear friend, if I wanted that, I would have sent My Raphael there long ago, and the fire in the city would have been extinguished in a moment; but I want this city, which is bad for both God and the emperor, to be humbled, and therefore I am allowing everything to be destroyed by fire except the homes of the poor and sober. But everything else shall be turned to ash! In the future better people shall settle here and the offspring of our old Mark shall rule over this city and area with a just scepter, with the emperor's permission, and it will remain their inheritance from child to child and from grandchild to grandchild; but if they forget about God, then the same thing will happen to them as has happened to the inhabitants of this city.

6 If the fire had happened to this city of whoring on a working day, it would have been put out long ago; but on the Sabbath, and particularly on the first Sabbath of a new moon, no arch-Jew moves even the tip of his little finger in fear of being soiled before God.

7 The conscience of the arch-Jews is very sensitive in this respect; but the neglect of good deeds does not disturb their conscience in the least, neither does material and spiritual adultery and all sorts of fraud.

8 They are even of the opinion that a sin against the commandment of God on a working day is hardly a sin, and one could purify oneself again before the evening; but on the Sabbath one would have to remain impure until the evening, during which time the prince of night would begin to rule. And then it would be easily possible that an envoy of Satan might come, meet someone unclean and in this way take possession of this unclean soul!

9 Sin harms people only at night, and then only until midnight, because in this time Satan is allowed to go on the hunt. By day he has no power, and one can then sin as one wants and it doesn't matter; only one should bear in mind that one should purify oneself before the going down of the sun according to the method prescribed by Moses, and one then has nothing to fear in the night from the sins committed by day.

10 These blind people do nothing for the sake of God, even if they have committed very many sins against His commandments during the day! The only thing that matters is that they do not fall prey to Satan; and because such a thing can happen most easily on a Sabbath, when they are not allowed to kill a goat, a lamb or a calf, yes, they cannot even wash themselves seven times, they take care as far as possible to keep themselves pure during the Sabbath, so that the devil cannot take control of them once the sun has gone down!

11 You now have the reason why these sinister characters in all things prefer to let their houses become ash on the Sabbath than to move a hand and extinguish the fire. Therefore a Roman general, who will not be unfamiliar to such coarse and irremovable foolishness of this people, will one day have an easy game to drive this race apart with one blow if it becomes rebellious, particularly on a winter's Sabbath, and to transform their great city into a heap of rubble.

12 But now let us have breakfast, otherwise a number of not very pleasant visitors will come upon us, whom we will have a job getting rid of in some good way!"

13 At this everyone moved to the tables, and the excellent breakfast was consumed with great zeal this time, and there was no-one who did not give old Mark the fullest praise. Also Ouran and Helena remarked that they had never before eaten such well-prepared fish and such tasty bread. Mark however directed all praise to Me and said: "That is the salt and the best spices of all food, of all drink and of all things; to Him alone bring your just praise!"

14 But there was not one among the guests who had not understood what Mark had said, and everyone praised Me silently in their hearts. But Mathael said loudly: "Yes, yes, old Mark, where the Lord is the chef of all life and All in all, one can live incomparably well; for there spirit, soul and body must receive the best food! You have done very well, in that you directed the praise that you were given back to the Lord; but for this reason your name will not die in the hearts of those people who got to know you as a friend of the Lord!"

15 Mark thanks Me therefore that I had paid his house such an effusively great honor; then he thanks Mathael too for his good words and declares himself to be fully unworthy of everything.

- Chapter 135 -

Cyrenius and the delegation of the arch-Pharisees from the burnt down Caesarea

1 After the breakfast is consumed, Cyrenius and Julius ask Me what is to be done now.

2 I say (to Cyrenius): "Wait here a little and there will soon be something to do! Look at the coast! There, like lazy cloud formations, sneak several arch-Pharisees with their arch-disciples. They already know that you are staying here for reasons that are unknown to them. They suppose that you are inspecting the areas on the Sea of Galilee, but are nonetheless holding a sort of camp here. Ouran's splendorous tents confirm them in their hazy opinions. They are now paying attention to see whether you will come over the sea in a ship or perhaps out of a tent. Then they want to entrust you with a plea for compensation, since they believe that the heathens have set their homes on fire.

3 But they will soon and easily learn that you are already here, and we will have them round our necks. Then you can already imagine what a job they will give us to do! I tell you all that only so that I will not be revealed before time! They must first be properly driven into a state, only then will the fear of fears be announced through My revelation. But you will soon find out what effort and debating we will have to sustain with this adulterous lot!

4 Mathael and Raphael will do good service for us; but until the middle of the day we will hardly get rid of them. Therefore let us now be quiet for a short time, and you collect yourself; for you now know what will happen to you!"

5 At this everything becomes quiet, only the soldiers and the servants hurry about the mountain somewhat loudly.

6 After a while Mathael asks Me whether he is allowed to speak to the arch-villains quite without any retention.

7 I say: "Certainly; but you will have to gather yourself exceptionally! I do not believe that it will be easy to deal with these armed heroes of the night; for these are armed to the teeth for every case!" Thus Mathael also began to gather himself.

8 But My disciples also asked Me how they would have to behave in this situation.

9 I say: "You have neither to speak nor to do anything; observe the whole thing as mute witnesses, and if any of the Pharisees ask you something, direct them to Cyrenius and admit that this is none of your business, and they will leave you in peace. I Myself will do the same at the beginning." With this decision the disciples were also satisfied, and we waited for the annoying arrivals in peace.

10 After a short half hour those waiting for Cyrenius on the seashore got the news from a Jew from the city who knew Cyrenius and who had passed by us, that Cyrenius was in the garden of the old soldier. At this news all the arch-Pharisees and the other arch-Jews turned around and headed very quickly over to us.

11 When Mathael saw them coming towards him, he said: "Well, my high friend Cyrenius, gather yourself; now the storm will begin! I am very curious to learn what these lads will bring out!"

12 Cyrenius says: "I am no less curious, although I openly admit that I am least fond of dealing with these people; for if you show them even half the little finger they immediately want the whole hand, and that is not possible, of course, because there are other people who are really poor and therefore really need other people to take care of them."

13 At that the petitioners had already arrived, of course with the leader of the synagogue at their head. He recognized the supreme governor immediately and spoke to him thus: "High-ranking, enlightened and all-authorized Lord Supreme Governor of Coelesyria, yes, of all the Jewish lands, of the rest of Asia Minor and Major and of a part of Africa! It will not be unknown to you what an unheard-of misfortune happened this night to us, the inhabitants of the city Caesarea-Philippi, ever devoted to God and to the emperor. If we had even the smallest guilt to measure, we could now curse our negligence and cry deeply and further bear with patience what God the Almighty has let happen to us; but we have not given the slightest cause for this misfortune, as far as we know, but instead the evilness of some mischievous heathens did it to us! Therefore we are then actually here to beg for a corresponding compensation from you!

14 You will certainly let such a thing come to us by law and fee all the sooner since we are firstly full subjects of Rome like the mischievous heathens, but secondly we, as priests and servants of the only true God, are capable of turning the people towards the emperor more in our balance for Rome than many thousand swords and lances. But if we are ever anti-Rome, then our tongues achieve more in a few hours than a hundred thousand soldiers in one year. Here one hand washes the other!

15 Fulfill our plea, take away our temporary begging stick and let our destroyed buildings, our teaching and prayer houses be built again at the expense of the State, and you will find, in the name of the emperor, no ungrateful support, yes, if there is no other way, we oblige ourselves also to pay back to the State such an advance after twenty years with interest. Consider, high supreme governor, our plea and grant it to us! It will be of disadvantage neither to you nor to the emperor; for we know who and what we are, and what we can do! If we are the emperor's friends, he will rule his empire easily; but if we are enemies of the emperor in our closed minds, crown and scepter will soon become an extremely heavy burden to him! Therefore consider our present affliction, consider out pleas as a clever man and act according to your discretion!"

16 Cyrenius says, hardly concealing his inner bitter anger: "Before I say either yes or no, I will first have everything checked most accurately, how and for what reason the city and your houses were set on fire. Whether you are quite so innocent, I could hardly know; for I have just this very night heard from someone how, as a result of yesterday's total solar eclipse and later still more as a result of the sudden disappearance of the evening after-sun, you have actually begun to harass the people because of the forthcoming and now to take place judgment of God, which was foretold by one of your prophets. On your part, the priests of the Greeks did not neglect to exploit the strange occurrence of nature to their own favor. Both of your priestly groups have misused the known natural occurrence in order to force the people to the most unheard-of sacrifices because of protection from effective prayers that attain God's will. The people who have been made deaf and blind since childhood did everything in their power that it could do in order to escape the latest judgment announced by you.

17 Luckily there was an intelligent and experienced man there who called some of the better people from the people whom he knew and then explained the appearance that took place in all peace and calmness with perfectly natural reasons and as something he had often seen. But he also was clever to draw their attention to support his explanation that the priests, if there were some truth in their statement, certainly would refrain from blackmailing the people from huge sacrifices for a few remaining moments of existence on this world full of lies and deception! The never-satisfied greedy and heartless priests knew as well as he did that there was nothing in the whole affair but at most a natural change of weather the following day. They knew the people's superstition and sinned at this opportunity in the most scandalous way!

18 You see, such a thing was told to me in the night by a very most faithful witness! Well, what was the consequence of this wise and very timely lesson? The several with few words well-educated people hurried at this to the desperate nation and screamed at the top of their voices:'Comfort, comfort, comfort upon comfort! Listen to us calmly for your best!' Then they instructed the nation in a very easy to understand way. The nation, seeing such a thing, was seized by anger and fury against you and prepared then a little bit from Daniel's Day of Judgment for you. Since I see only too well now from this faithful evidence, that actually it was not the mischievousness of the heathens, but only you yourselves, that in this night the otherwise beautiful and significant city becomes ash for the reason of justified anger of the population about your deceptive sense, then you will hopefully see very well that I not only cannot listen to your very cheeky plea, but that I on the contrary as Vice-regent here for the best of my emperor and for the best of the people will hold you to the strictest responsibility and to the full replacement of damage to the people, which I will collect most exactly, and judge - assuming that everything happened as I heard this night from a believable witness! What have you to put forth against this? Speak if you have something that you can say against this!"

19 Already during Cyrenius' tale the black petitioners changed their colors like chameleons, and one noticed easily their inner anger glowing out of their genuine wolf's eyes; and when they should now justify themselves, they could hardly pronounce a word for sheer anger.

20 Cyrenius waited a little while, and since no-one else wanted to speak he became worked up at the grimaces of anger by the petitioners and said in somber seriousness according to the tradition of showing the fullest mercilessness of a genuine Roman: "Speak soon, otherwise I will be forced to take your furious silence as a full admission of what you are accused of and in addition to immediately pronounce your well-deserved judgment without any further consideration and to commit you to the execution of this judgment! Speak, for you know that we Romans never joke!"

21 Finally the leader says: "Lord, the slander is too great! One cannot gather oneself so quickly and speak in return, but instead it is required to collect oneself and think how such slander is possible, and to consider the most powerful means to beat it into the dust of nothingness. Who can prove to us that we forced the people to make sacrifices?! We preached what we felt and feared ourselves! Who can prove to us that we acted differently to how we had to feel according to the prophecy?! Were the signs not there?! Or does history not show us a quantity of examples where God's patience came to an end and suddenly a most terrible judgment came over the people?! But we have also examples in the largest quantity where God allowed His great mercy and compassion to come to the improved people, despite a determined and unavoidably pronounced judgment, if the people turned back to the true repentance and regret.

22 But if your wise man who instructed the few against us was of such an honest character, why did he then not come to us and show us what he showed to those few unhappy people who are always against us? Only a person who does not know our eminent religion and has no idea about the word of God through the mouth of a prophet and of the effect of such in a time of signs in the heavens, can act so shamefully evilly slanderously against us! And a supreme governor of Rome believes such a person rather us!? They will tell us: If such a wise man had come to you and had taught you as he taught the desperate people, you would not have listened to him and would have judged him or stoned him! But who can claim such a thing about us before he has tested us!? Only after the deed do we tend to judge and condemn, but before the deed, according to appearance and some evil supposition? Never! Our religion speaks for our behavior; but who can step up and prove to us that we believe differently and act differently?! Malevolent slander or an evil supposition proves nothing for us, and your witness may well have told you whatever he wanted, but we declare his claim to be nothing until he can prove to us that we truly acted differently to what we believed ourselves and that we would have let the wise man go who incited the people against us with his wisdom, if he had come to us!

23 We actively shared the fear of the people; and if the people brought us masses of sacrifices to atone for their sins in the belief that they would appease God in this way, should we not have accepted the sacrifices?! Where is the opposite written?!

24 Noble governor, consider that you are here dealing with true arch-servants of God and not with templars of the new kind who unfortunately understand only too well how to sway with the wind! We know that well, and the temple is therefore not disposed to us; but unfortunately few of us stick to the old faith, to which night flies, who whisper falsely judged things in your ear, will not part with! We have today certainly a magnificent day of the Lord, and there is nowhere a trace of a divine judgment except that our city has fallen victim to the flames - but not through God's judgment, but through the unfortunately dubious evilness of some constantly hostile pagans. Would it have been that impossible for God to treat this area like He treated Sodom and Gomorrah? If such a thing were impossible for God, who can step up here and say that after the previous signs it could not have happened?! We don't want to say that God has protected this area from His threatened judgment because of our many prayers and sighs; God can have done it because of some pious person fully unknown to us, because both our prayers and the prayers of the pious have reached the foot of His throne. But who can prove against our religion and against our convictions that it is not so, but fully completely different?! I have now spoken in the name of my people and you, high lord, judge now a just judgment before God and all people!"

- Chapter 136 -

Mark's accusation against the high Pharisee

1 Naturally Cyrenius was not prepared for this retort and now didn't know what sort of objection he should make to the high priest. Therefore he called Mathael and said to him in a low voice, "Now you speak on; for I have reached the end of my wisdom! For these people are much craftier than I imagined at first!"

2 Mathael says: "High friend! It will truly become more difficult for us; for to prove to them what they would have done if the circumstances had so happened is a difficult thing. And if they had secretly had the evilest intention, which I do not want to dispute, then even the attempt to execute it is in vain. Where then is the single fully punishable execution of the evil intention that they truly have but also could not have? But what sorts of thoughts can form in a person's mind if he is attacked from all sides?!

3 If the heart beats stormily, no person can bear too easily a purification of his quickly changing thoughts which run in and out of each other like heavy storm clouds; and if in time the storm is laid in the heart, the person now calm rarely remembers any longer everything that happened in the storm of his passions. There may have been much damnable among it; but which God, I even say, will want to set himself up as a judge?! If they are really arch-believing people and have shared the fear of the people for one and the same reason, which we must accept as long as we cannot prove the opposite like a god, their plea must be granted to them, assuming that the granting of such a plea in extraordinary cases, as this one is, is ordered by the Caesar! We here can only make a judgment on what lies open before us, as long as we are not able to make anything stick against them; our thoughts however can never serve as proof, and even if we question the whole city we will not know any more than we know now."

4 Mathael had only whispered these words to Cyrenius in a low voice, and Cyrenius, scratching behind his ears, said to Me: "And what do You say to that?"

5 I say: "My time is not yet here, therefore act now with each other just you two and with them; but take old Mark along too who knows them along with his two sons better than you! Ebahl from Genezareth also knows them, and Julius knows them more or less. Have them called over, and you will soon hear another language!"

6 Cyrenius immediately sends for Julius, who in the meantime had gone up the mountain to see to the soldiers, in order to observe the still very powerful fire. Both of them came quickly, as well as old Mark. When all those called were present, Cyrenius read out the petition of the arch-Pharisees and the high Pharisee's speech, as well as what the high Pharisee brought forth as undeniable evidence.

7 When Mark heard such things, he wondered much about the enormous cheek of the high Pharisee and said to him: "You now so extra-honest and highly pious seeming high Pharisee! You came now as good as called by me and desired against all my long expectation in my great net! Think back just about three years, what an effort you made to bring me to your belief! You dispensed me of the somewhat annoying and also painful circumcision of an old person. If I signed myself and my entire household over to your belief that was perfectly enough! You even promised me a number of advantages in doings and dealings when I answered you in return that I have a conscience and do not like to exchange the religion of my fathers for another one whose basic creeds I know much too little and about which I do not know which new responsibilities can arise for me. I told you then quite openly that I was not fully against changing my somewhat clumsy religion for a better one, only I must first be initiated into the entire essence of the new religion to be taken on.

8 You said however that that was not necessary in your religion; for every religion was in any case nothing more than the cradle philosophy of children and must also be kept for the sake of the children. Once a man has his educated intellect however, he no longer needs the cradle philosophy of the children anymore and sticks to it only for the sake of the children; he himself however would be called an idiot if he seriously saw something in it! But a man like I could also judge whether it was not smarter to admit a religion outwardly which sets the least obstacles in the way of my doings and dealings.

9 I agreed to this and committed myself and my entire household to your religion. But soon afterwards my eyes were opened wide when I soon was condemned to all sorts of annoying taxes and I then saw even better what a despicable exchange I had made by accepting your religion.

10 I had to give you a tithe of everything and the first of all fruits. Very often I feared complaints from the Roman officials, but I did nothing; for I was always pulled up and told: Volenti non fit iniuria! [There is no injustice for he who agreed – the editor] Why did you let yourself be caught as an old intelligent Roman? Repent now for your unconsidered foolishness!

11 But if I came to you and told you of my misery, you would not listen to me and always said in your great arrogance: 'Thus is it written!' And I could withdraw again with a sad and frustrated face and mind without having achieved anything.

12 If I wanted to know your Scriptures in more detail, I was told: 'We are the Scriptures and the living word of God! Thus no-one has to ask further for anything, but instead everyone should do what we teach and demand! No-one needs anything further!'

13 You see, you old, evil oracle of the Jews from Caesarea-Philippi, those are your words and your behavior! And you now suddenly want to whitewash your reputation?! I swear to you by everything that is holy to me that you will not move from this spot before you make well again at least for me all the highly unjust damage! The worthy supreme governor can lift the cross onto your back on my behalf and there will be no injustice done to you! Do you understand, you old, bad oracle?!"

14 Cyrenius says: "Ah, that's how things are?! Well, well, now we have something! Well, you wise high lord of dubious oppressors of the people, what do have to say against that?"

15 The high Pharisee says: "Do you know Moses entirely and all the prophets enlightened by God?"

16 Cyrenius says: "I know Moses quite well, but I only know the prophets by name."

17 The high Pharisee says: "Very well; then go and learn firstly all my bitter responsibilities by heart and punish me if you can prove that I did not follow them all! If you want to read - we have the Scriptures with us here as the only goods that we can carry with us today on this high day of the Lord, if there is a danger that it could be destroyed!"

- Chapter 137 -

Negotiation with the Pharisees

1 Mathael says secretly to Cyrenius: "That is another difficult task which we are too weak to solve! Mark did his thing very well; but what can we do if we cannot prove any neglect of duty from what they say? Let's listen to Ebahl and Julius now! But what they will say will not be of much use to us either; for the old fellow is too sure of himself and is capable of completely justifying every very shameful act from the Scriptures. What can be done then against this?"

2 Cyrenius says: "Alright, then I in my complete power will damn every piece of scripture that goes against the healthy sense of a person and we will have him then in chains!"

3 Mathael says: "That cannot be done, because he can then say: Healthy human sense however, also demands that a law is given and sanctioned before someone can be judged by it. What will you have then to say against that? One must collect oneself quite unusually carefully in order to be able to do anything against these lads from a human point of view! Now Cornelius, Faustus, Kisjonah from Kis and a certain Philopold from the same area should be here soon; they will certainly be of great help! I am looking forward to their arrival very much!"

4 After a measured while of consideration about what has been said both on the part of the high Pharisee as well as about the somewhat more secret remarks by Mathael and about his joy about the announced arrival of Cornelius and his entourage, Cyrenius orders Ebahl to say something tenable about the arch-Pharisee.

5 And Ebahl rises and says: "High friend! Foxes and your proteuses [fickle, easily changeable people – the editor] are hard to catch; the foxes, because they always have two ways out, and the proteuses because they can change into anything, even into the elements themselves. Therefore my opinion is this: Since after what has been said about these people by the most true and faithful witnesses whom you know as well as I, you can have no doubt at all whether things are so or not, on the other hand however as a worldly judge you can only come to a judgment of the world which can convince your eyes and ears, my advice is thus the following: Let these annoying proteuses go without the least granting of what they want, and without damning them to any punishment by a judgment! Thereby you have done enough for the inner spiritual truth and the senses of the world! That would be my opinion!

6 I could tell you hundreds of facts about the many deceptions and the unscrupulous oppression of the people, which I have experienced at some occasions with these wannabe servants of God; but what good would that do for you? They will certainly find a hole through which they can slip into freedom! They cover themselves very carefully against every potential outer damaging wind with the cloak of Moses and with the coat of Aaron and the prophets, and no wind however cold can cause them even a sniff!

7 But everything that can be done to external understanding from the Scriptures of the prophets, we know very well; for they are fit for everything, as long as one does not know their inner spiritual sense, and that is the main hiding place for these people. Therefore nothing much else can be done except what I have advised you."

8 Cyrenius says: "Yes, yes, you are quite right, I recognize that completely in its depths; but nonetheless I believe that one could counter these people perhaps with somewhat provable criminals where they then could certainly no longer get away!"

9 Ebahl says: "Oh dear, with anything but that; for these lads know every jot of the Roman law and know how to get around the law better than any lawyer, so that no Satan can touch them. They will have committed such crimes either personally or participating in a group. Before God they will certainly not be able to hide; but we cannot touch them if we want to deal with them legally! Perhaps Kisjonah, Cornelius, Faustus or the Greek Philopold? But among us, except for the Lord and the angel Raphael, no-one can touch them!"

10 Cyrenius shakes his head and says: "I could nonetheless have them guarded as suspicious people; perhaps such seriousness would then be a little sobering for their minds!?"

11 Ebahl says: "Try it; but I put my word on it that you will not be able to withdraw the guards from the high Pharisee after the first protests fast enough! We have not a clue for the outside world about any causa criminis [cause of crime – the editor]. There are no prosecutors, and therefore there can be no judge! The quiet statement of the Lord cannot be seen as a complaint for two reasons. Firstly there is a lack of any worldly supervision, and secondly the Lord Himself would only be half a witness before the world; for at least for now one could not consider His divinity, neither His prophecy, legally applicable ante forum romanum! [Before the Roman court – the editor] We know exactly where we stand with them; but the dry Roman law does not know our Lord and Master at all and thereby neither His statement from His wisdom, and yet now, despite all your innermost conviction about this person, you can only judge from what you can discover from the people as proof of guilt. And a prosecutor is needed, and only then come the witnesses under oath! Or is the statement by a prophet or an oracle valid for something if neither belongs to your religion?"

12 Cyrenius says: "Yes, in extraordinary circumstances, particularly when the prophet has proven himself first before a proper court as worthy of complete belief! If the court bears no concern against him, he can serve as complete proof like a statement of a tested oracle! For only the judge has the right to accept the validity of a witness or not, and to decide whether he is admissible or not!"

13 Says Ebahl: "Good, but what if the prophet can be used neither as a prosecutor nor as a witness? How can you force him to it?! As a witness rather; but as a prosecutor - never! Here we certainly have one; but how will you force this great one and the angel Raphael to appear either as a prosecutor or witness?"

14 Cyrenius says: "Certainly no force can achieve anything! Let's wait; for those announced will not be waited for long! It seems to me as if I saw oars at quite a distance on the sea!"

15 Mathael says: "I have been noticing that since half an hour; but they seem to remain at the same spot! Well, how is the trial going? Are you still at the same point?":

16 Cyrenius says: "Not an inch further! You were right, and Ebahl was right, and I see that we with all our authority in worldly things can achieve little or nothing, and the arrivals will most probably not help much either."

- Chapter 138 -

Cyrenius gives order to send for witnesses against the Pharisees from Caesarea

1 "But just now something occurs to me! I will immediately send a messenger to the district governor who will have to send me all sorts of prosecutors and witnesses from the city. They will have something to say about these foxes and we will then soon corner them!"

2 Mathael says: "The thought has something in it! At least in that way you can put them under guard. But that must be put into action quickly!"

3 Cyrenius immediately has two riders come past and explains to them what he wants from the district governor. They instantly hurry off towards the city.

4 But when the arch-Pharisees, murmuring among one another, notice this, the high Pharisee steps up to Cyrenius again and says: "Lord and ruler, why do you allow the riders to go to the city? Did you send them there on our behalf? Do you want to destroy our legal claims which have even been sanctioned by your law? Lord, that will be difficult; for we have the law and God on our side! You only would have to give new laws which can be of as little use for the moment as the old ones; for the effect of a new law can never be retroactive!"

5 Cyrenius says somewhat annoyed: "You speak when you are spoken to! I know your request and your responsibility too! It now depends on me alone. I must seek advice with my official people whether you are worthy of the emperor's granting of your petition!

6 If you are found to be worthy after the strictest test, your demand will be granted; but if you are found to be unworthy, not only any granting is canceled but a punishment will follow for the cheekiness that you have undertaken by desiring mercy from the State to cover your sins as punishable people! Pay good attention! A supreme governor of Rome judges quite differently to you! He never judges according to favors and the external appearance of the person, but always without difference of status according to laws and rights.

7 Thus be very careful how you stand with your conscience in secret before God and before people! For a much stricter account is demanded from you as so-called servants of God - although God needs no servants since His omnipotence and all-wisdom, His all-presence and all-knowledge already serve Him best throughout eternity - and from you as teachers of the people than from the uneducated people who often hardly knows a few laws in need and even then has no idea which spirit they hide inside themselves.

8 But you know the law and the spirit and must recognize it and must be indoctrinated in all truth. Therefore you will also see why you are dealt with on my part much more strictly for the sake of the people than with a private person! For either you must be as pure as the sun, or you have never been worthy of your office! Therefore you do not have to worry about what I do either to accuse or excuse you! But go and put your petition on parchment and then hand it over so that I have more proof in my hands either for or against you!"

9 The high Pharisee says: "High lord and ruler! Today is a new moon Sabbath on which every activity is forbidden. On this holy day man has to occupy himself while his body is resting alone in spirit with God; we are only allowed to speak, but we cannot write until sunset. But after sunset we want to give you our petition in writing."

10 Cyrenius asks: "Did Moses give you the law about this particular observance of the new moon Sabbath?"

11 The high Pharisee says: "Not Moses exactly, but his follower, through whose mouth the Spirit of God often spoke like through Moses' sacred mouth."

12 Cyrenius says: "About that I would like to raise a strong doubt! For the divine spirit looks out of the pure laws and orders of Moses in a tangible way; but as far as your new moon celebration is concerned nothing is to be seen except the deepest superstition and a whole ship's cargo full of coarse human stupidity. What is the new moon? You don't know it, but we know and must therefore laugh about your new moon celebration most heartily. And our wise men who understand a lot are amazed at how it is possible that in the nearest neighborhood of the Greeks, Romans and Egyptians there can be such idiots and crudest sinister characters who don't even know what the moon is and what the new moon is! But do tell me what you imagine the moon to be!"

13 The high Pharisee says: "Rather you tell us what you, high lord and ruler, think of the moon, then we also want to say to you what we think about the moon!"

- Chapter 139 -

On the nature of the earth and the moon

1 Cyrenius says "So listen! The moon is a planet about fifty times smaller than our earth, and accompanies the earth constantly on its great path around the sun; while the earth covers the great way once in 365 days, the near moon has circled it almost thirteen times.

2 With these orbits the moon necessarily has to go through various positions. Since it is just as much a dark planet as our earth, it is also illuminated by the great sun like the earth is. If the earth stands nearby between the sun and the moon, we see the moon quite illuminated, and that is the full moon; but if in approximately fourteen days the moon stops between the sun and the earth as a result of its swift movement, and we get to see only very little of its illuminated surface thereby, it is a new moon.

3 But if the moon somehow coincidentally moves exactly between the sun and the earth, as was the case yesterday, it covers the sun and prevents its light from reaching a certain part of our earth, that means on the spot which makes a direct line from through the moon to the sun, and then a very natural solar eclipse occurs; but that part of the earth which is not exactly in the direct line does not get to see such an eclipse, namely those who are on the opposite side of the earth to us. For this earth on which we live is just as much a ball as the sun and the moon and only has a day and a night through the fact that it turns once around its axis within twenty-four hours, in which time it gradually pushes all its countries and seas from the North Pole to the South Pole underneath the sun and lets them be warmed.

4 That is alone the secretly well-calculated and clearly understood truth of which the layman of course knows nothing, because he is lacking in the necessary background knowledge for such insight and teachers such as you also must lack this; for what one has not got oneself, one cannot give to others. And if you had it, you would not give it to any layman, because the layman brings you more foolishness than the best wisdom! I have now shown you clearly what the new moon is; but now you show me too what you think the new moon is!"

5 The leader says: "High lord and master, we already learned in secret ways what you have now told us, and I for one am for this; but just look at Moses' story of creation, and no trace can be discovered of all that you have now told me and what was not unknown to me for the last twenty years.

6 But we sit before the people, out of necessity of course, as the first main confessor and announcer of Moses' religion, which contradicts this quite understandably true opinion, on Moses and Aaron's chair. What else can we do except to keep the better conviction for ourselves in secret, but nonetheless tell the people what we received from Moses!?

7 But today one of us should just try to announce another religion to the people other than Moses' in whatever respect, and I swear to you that he will be stoned!

8 Certainly some people say: what Moses said has quite a different meaning, and it says something quite different to what can be seen in the dead letters. I also admit that quite freely; but how could we tell this to the great nation, whom not we, but our fore-fathers made foolish, without damage?! Firstly the spiritual sense is so deeply hidden that one cannot find it clearly oneself, and secondly there is the question of how one should teach a darkest, foolish, highly superstitious nation, for whom all elements of higher knowledge are more foreign than the North Pole, when one quite honestly doesn't have a clear idea oneself!

9 Thus there is nothing more reasonable than to leave the people their old belief and as the representative of the old religion and laws to observe most strictly the religion and laws at least in the face of the people; but if one is alone without foolish witnesses, then one should do and believe what one always recognizes as true! If you act differently, you will see this beautiful land only too soon in its worst rebellion! Now you can speak again and prove to me that I said something false in my speech!"

- Chapter 140 -

A messenger's report of the revolt in Caesarea

1 Cyrenius is amazed about the high Pharisee's wisdom and says to Mathael: "Friend, it is very difficult to talk to him! For you just get everything thrown back at you! He is filled with all sorts of knowledge in secret, and how splendidly he knows how to justify his situation! Ah, that has never been seen before! One cannot finally be angry with him! But now at least those from the city must be almost here, and then we'll see what they will bring to light."

2 Mathael says smiling: "Nothing at all, I tell you that; for these arch--- are too slippery and find loopholes everywhere to escape through! In short, in order to trap these people in some way we need more than just human strength and human knowledge! I trust myself to heal hundreds of Greeks and Romans in a day from their foolishness; for whatever I say will be new to them, and they will even accept it with grateful curiosity. But there is nothing new that one can give these people; they are mostly indoctrinated in all knowledge and know how to represent their cause in such a crafty way that it is difficult to contradict them.

3 Therefore I also think that the Lord Himself drew back a little because He already saw in advance that it is not easy to deal and talk with the zealots! And so I also believe that the prosecutors and witnesses from the city will also achieve as little as we."

4 Cyrenius says: "Well, then there is a very notable hearing for the moment which under such circumstances does probably not occur twice on earth! If only the vice-governor would appear soon!"

5 At this a messenger arrives out of breath and says to the whole company, without paying attention to where Cyrenius was: "Friends, hurry up and get out of here; for a terrible revolt has broken out! Everyone is looking for the rascals who fled, the arch-Jews and Pharisees, and the Romans and Greeks are butchering everyone that even half looks like a Jew! I am a poor Greek, today I put a Jewish tunic over my naked body out of necessity, and I barely escaped with my life!"

6 Cyrenius says: "Boy, I am the supreme governor! Explain yourself more exactly! How and why did a revolt break out?"

7 The messenger says somewhat embarrassed about the unexpected presence of the supreme governor: "High and almighty lord! Things are as simple as this: When the sun or some other light apparition illuminated the evening yesterday a few hours longer than is usually the case, and afterwards suddenly disappeared from the firmament - a rare but not unknown event on this great and wide earth - the Jewish priests, who saw this thing certainly just as much as we did out of the basis of human experience and human knowledge, began, instead of offering the people of their religion the complete truth, to announce this event to the blind, superstitious people as an enormous judgment by God from their mystical books of the prophets. Thereby a fearful howling went up among the foolish Jews; their priests, as supposed friends and servants of God, were now sworn to convince God, for every sacrifice demanded, to mercifully remove His punishing justice.

8 When the smart Jews heard such support only too clearly and truly, they answered in the priestly mystical pathos: If you want to have God's severest judgment on the world turned away from you, you must now bring all the gold, silver, jewels and pearls that you possess as a sacrifice, as well as your best fattened oxen, the cows that are richest in milk and the fattest calves, so that we can then sacrifice them to God in a worthy fashion!

9 The Jewish rogues of priests had hardly said this when a positive cloudburst of sacrifices appeared! Our not so stupid priest also saw this and sought to persuade their people through a lucky shot to give generous sacrifices. They also found something from the old religion which served them well for the purpose of sacrifices. They let the good Apollo fall for a new Daphne and pay her a dirty visit. His enemy, Mr. Pluto, immediately noticed this and swiped the sun; and Gaia, Apollo and his new beauty now found themselves in a terrible pickle! Every Greek and Roman could see that a most terrible war of the gods would occur from this! Perhaps, if powerful Zeus was targeted with sacrifices and pleas, he could avoid this most dangerous situation! This invention brought much gain to our priests, but not nearly as much as what the Jewish priests were brought by their judgment by God, announced to their sheep.

10 A very wise Greek having heart and head in the right place taught some sober thinkers and these taught the oppressed Greeks and Romans about the natural event, as far as was only possible in the great confusion, and showed then very nicely tangibly the crafty profit-seeking priest casts, who might well lose the desire to demand and take sacrifices if only one true word hung on their ominous announcements. They should compare both announcements, namely the positively conjured up Jewish one and the Greek and Roman one, with one another, and they would then soon see that both could not be real! For either what the Jewish priests had said or what the Greeks had said must have happened! But the gods would not be so foolish and cook up a separate benefit to every individual nation when they otherwise usually distribute their gifts from heaven among all believers and nonbelievers alike!

11 Such instruction and similar things brought the people to their senses. Those who were known to be better Jews were also given similar instructions; but it was a futile attempt. These calves of God on the contrary gave threats and accused the paganism of being the cause of the evil occurrence!

12 Such things soon led to assaults and the Greeks and Romans inflamed a final judgment over the heads of the foolish Jews and demanded from the priests the return of the sacrifices which had been blackmailed from them in need in the most unjust way. When this was not granted, they came with force to the Jewish priests who well did escape the violence and took to their heels through the smoke of the city burning in all the Jewish corners.

13 The wise Roman city governor however had made important extensive investigations on the Jewish arch-villains of priests and then showed the people how they alone were the reason for such an imminent catastrophe. Then the revolt rose on the part of the Jews and became a very dreadful business; for the Jews are being massacred indiscriminately now, and in the city there is almost more blood than milk and wine.

14 As it seems to me, the Jewish priests who escaped are standing over there under the great Cypress tree! Well, good-day, things will go badly for them if they do not take to their heels immediately, which I will certainly not advise the villains to do! I will knock a few down with this spear which was thrown at me when I was fleeing here in the belief that I am a Jew, but which luckily did not hit me! The two riders met me at the city gates and will have a job trying to reach the governor! Lord, lord, now you know everything; and what I said to you is the pure and naked truth, for which I would pay you with my life!"

15 Cyrenius says: "I am very grateful for his news; you did things very well! But now remain here, and if you are hungry and thirsty, take bread and wine! I will send a few cohorts to the city in the meantime to put down the uprising; then you will serve me as a good witness against those Jewish priests!"

16 The messenger takes this request willingly, since he was already very hungry and thirsty; and Cyrenius only made a sign to Julius and he already knew what had to happen there, since he had listened to the whole announcement by the messenger himself.

- Chapter 141 -

Messenger Herme talks about his experience in town.

1 When Julius has carried out the will of Cyrenius and both cohorts leave, the two riders sent out previously come back and report the same things that the messenger had said. At the same time they report on behalf of the town governor the very most obedient assurance that he, as soon as the storm has died down even a little, will hurry out and give the high, high master the most accurate and conscious report about everything. Cyrenius rewards both riders and orders them to take some rest, and they salute Cyrenius and head back to their companions. But Cyrenius turns again to the messenger and asks him who has actually sent him out as a messenger.

2 The messenger says, now somewhat more courageously than before: "Lord, lord! Necessity! I myself, a citizen of the city, since the fire finally made no distinction between the Jewish houses and ours, have lost all my belongings and am now a beggar. I took this coat, which now covers my body through need, from the body of a Jew, beaten to death, and threw it over my shoulders, otherwise I would be naked like my wife and my three already quite grown-up daughters, who are now behind the hut of old Mark, all four of them with a great linen cloth.

3 But I released a call to flee for all the Jews of the city who are present here so that they would flee and I could recognize them more easily, in order to take revenge on these main villains with this sharp spike to my heart's desire. But if they flee, they can only escape by sea; otherwise patrols have been sent out from the city on behalf of the governor, and these would capture the rogues, when things will truly not go well for them!

4 Lord, lord! I am a Greek and I know a little about waging war; but now it is good, these rogues will never get past us! In any case it would not hurt if a few patrols were placed on the shoreline; for otherwise the fellows could quickly take possession of a boat and sail off with it."

5 Cyrenius says: "Don't worry about that; it has already been best seen to!"

6 Now Cyrenius turns to Mathael and says: "Well, what do you say to this news now by the messenger?! I will nevertheless wait for the town governor and am curious to hear what these arch--- will say against this."

7 Mathael says: "You will not gain much through it; for you still know all the thousand holes much too little through which they could reach the most beautiful freedom. But you are much better than you were before!

8 But now above all we must ensure that the messenger's wife and children are looked after! Helena, you must have a few day clothes with you, even if they are only shirts, so that for the moment they can be protected from nakedness!"

9 Helena immediately calls one of her servants and orders her to carry out the order. Straight away the servant goes into one of Ouran's tents and brings four good shirts and four expensive Greek lady's skirts. When she comes to Helena with them, the latter says: "Have the messenger lead you to his wife and daughters, dress them and bring them here to this table!"

10 Tears of gratitude come to the messenger's eyes at Helena's goodness, and with a cheerful heart he leads the servant to where his crying wife and his three sad daughters are waiting. But when he says to them, who are still wrapped in the linen cloth and crying: “Do not cry any more, my dearests; for look, we have found a most powerful savior! The supreme governor Cyrenius is here, and probably his daughter has sent you finer and more expensive dresses than you have ever seen!” The wife and daughters jump forward in joy and get dressed quickly. But the messenger folds up the linen cloth and puts it under his Jewish tunic. Then he leads them all to Helena and they cover their dresses with tears of warmest thanks.

11 Helena lets the four women take a seat at her side and immediately serves them with bread and wine; for the four women were also very hungry and thirsty already. Helena and Ouran chatted to the four and they told them about the Pharisee's pressure on their believers. Then Cyrenius says to the messenger: "Friend, I spoke to you rather harshly right at the beginning with the somewhat disrespectful name 'boy'; but since I now know you better I regret having been disrespectful to you in such a way for even a moment. For this you shall now be given clothes of honor by me!"

12 At this Cyrenius ordered his servants to immediately bring forth a Roman robe of honor, consisting of the finest pleated shirt from Byssus, reaching to the knee, then a toga which was trimmed with gold braid and was woven and finished in Indian silk in the most beautiful blue color and the noblest Roman footwear and a finest Egyptian turban with an adornment of feathers and jewelry which consisted of a valuable emerald. In addition our Cyrenius had six finest undershirts and a hundred pounds of silver brought to the messenger. The messenger was, of course, beside himself with joy, and hardly knew how he should begin to thank Cyrenius for all these good deeds.

13 But Cyrenius himself smiled with joy and said to the messenger, who was called Herme: "Go into the house of my Mark, wash, dress yourself and come back as a noble Roman; then it will just be time to bring the Pharisees here to a main hearing! For this time they will not escape me, I swear it! And you, my noble friend Herme, will perform a good service for me!"

14 Herme says: "It is my will, and I have never lacked in knowledge of war! But these people are too cunning for the Furies, not to mention for us on the way to a proper court case! If one wants to catch these people, one must only listen to what very reliable witnesses say about them; for as one listens to them, one becomes confused, in the end considers them innocent and agrees to their desire. Therefore my opinion would be to catch these rogues and throw them into the sea for the fish to eat, so that no cock will ever crow for them again! Then one has done enough justice for everyone! If tigers, hyenas and wolves settle in an area and the people thereby come to great fear and harm, should one first have a proper questioning for these beasts?! No, I say! Their harmfulness is too well-known; therefore away with them if they begin to become too dangerous to human society! Lord, lord! These people are proteuses who cannot be caught! The more we make an effort to catch them on the political path, the more we will be caught ourselves by them! I know them, even if I am a Greek! But now, merciful lord, permit me another question!"

15 Cyrenius says: "What is it then? Speak!"

- Chapter 142 -

Further examination by Cyrenius

1 Herme says: "Lord, lord, over there ten feet from this table stands with a young girl a man of a wonderfully friendly and also highly wise appearance; a very sweet and warmhearted young girl is talking to him, and if he says something, she shows an indescribable happiness! Who is this very dear man then? How noble is this person's form in such a wonderfully magnificent figure! Almost all eyes are directed at him! Judging by his clothes he is a Galilean! Can you tell me something about this man? Oh gods, the more I observe the man, the more I become positively in love with him! I don't hold it against my wife and my three daughters that they almost cannot divert their eyes from him! I would bet my life on it that this man is a good, honest and wise person! But who, who, who and what is he? Tell me about him, lord, lord, and we will then immediately begin to work on the main villains! Oh, they will not escape from us in any case; only we must not take their statements into consideration at all!"

2 Cyrenius says: "Friend Herme, as far as that man is concerned, I will tell you for the moment only that He is as good as a god among us people! He is for the moment only a doctor from Nazareth - but what a doctor! This earth has never borne anyone similar! You will learn everything else later! But now let's get down to business and in the future do not say to me: Lord, lord any longer, but friend and brother!”

3 Herme says: "Very good, I know how to respect every order and I would like to die of thanks for this in the very highest reverence and love for you! But now tell me first, high friend, who is that so beautiful youth near the doctor? Is that his son and the girl his daughter?"

4 Cyrenius says: "Yes, yes, friend, you have already judged correctly, but now down to business!"

5 After these words Cyrenius has the head Pharisee come close again and asks him whether he knows the messenger.

6 The first one says: "Who does not know the famous singer and zither player? We have often taken great enjoyment from his songs! It is only an eternal shame that he cannot be moved over to the religion of our fathers; truly he would be superior to our great David! He is an extremely honest, trustworthy and sensitive person; only he is not disposed to us, which we willingly overlook however, since we cannot demand that he should understand our often very severely inhuman-seeming statutes in their spirit!"

7 Cyrenius says: "This Herme, however is your harshest critic and has now confirmed to me only too directly for the second time what a most believable witness said about you previously! You now stand before me as a very shameful and mean criminal, but you still have the most despicable cheek to demand from me compensation for the fact that you have become the most depraved and wily arsonists through your own highly evil greed! What do you say to that?"

8 The head Pharisee says quite relaxed: "As far as Herme is concerned, we have absolutely no quarrel with him; for we have long known that a person who does not possess even a very little knowledge or other about a thing cannot judge differently than how the thing seems to his limited understanding. Who could ever be filled with wrath against a person who falls from the roof and thereby kills a person sitting under the roof? If the good singer Herme now wants to be our enemy, so be it; but we will nonetheless never become his enemies! Basically everything that he has said about us is true. But there is supposed to be a dangerous point in the sea in Europe near Sicily which is call Scylla and Charybdis; whoever sails through the Scylla without misfortune is swallowed up in the Charybdis! But we tonight also floated in a true moral Scylla and Charybdis and we ask you now: What should we actually have done that would have been fully justifiable to you Romans?"

9 Cyrenius says: "But if you know what the matter was in yesterday's occurrence, why didn't you explain to your flock the true content through which all the minds would have been calmed?! Why do you lie to the people and create a reason for the greatest ruin and confusion and present rebellion against yourselves?! Why do you blackmail the most unheard-of and very most tyrannical sacrifices from the people since you know what the appearance was and that it hides no trace of the prophecy of Daniel?!

10 Give me information about it and justify such unheard-of behavior on your part against the poor and blind people made foolish and superstitious!"

11 The head says: "I have just informed you about your Scylla and Charybdis; however, you seem not to have understood the issue! You see, when the sun yesterday brightened the evening unusually long as in Joshua's days, it struck many of our most eminent believers. They came to me in the synagogue, asked me about it and also informed me that all the Jews were filled with much consternation about it. I spoke to them as well as I could right from the first visit and explained the occurrence as something very natural at the time of the approach to the time of equal hours of day and night. They went, but could not calm the people; for they said that they had seen stars falling in the sky in the east and immediately pointed those calming them to Daniel's prophecy. At the same time the people became threatening if such a thing was being kept a secret from them! But after a time the sun or the light appearance suddenly disappeared and to our terror it became as black as pitch. But now attempts to calm them were futile! Now it had to be the end of the world; a word on our part against this would have instantly meant our end!

12 You see, that was our Scylla. We were therefore obliged by such circumstances to preach Daniel fully and to demand the severest atonement in accordance with the gravity of the situation in order to keep at least some hope among the people of God's care in the people's minds! But we saw very well that we would end up in the Charybdis in today's pure harmony; but if one has to choose between two evils, one rather chooses the first and rather lesser seeming evil than the second which must immediately bring our downfall. We therefore acted according to the circumstances that had arisen without our asking correctly and justly, because it was impossible to act differently. How can you then, as a just Roman, want to judge us for that? Explain that to us!"

13 Cyrenius says: "Yes, yes, that may well be true; but the question remains, what did you do with all the sacrifices you took?! For the end of the world, for which you demanded and took the sacrifices as prevention, did not come today, as we can see! Would you ever have given them back to the poor people?"

14 The high Pharisee says: "High master! That is truly a strange and superfluous question! It goes without saying that it had to happen with all cleverness and care for the sake of the blindness of the people; but now just ask the question to the fire, which consumed all the sacrifices and all our stores, what it will do now!

15 Because of our sermon, demanded through circumstances and necessity, of Daniel's prophecy it was not necessary to burn our houses and synagogues, which happened to us because of your wise companions in faith out of wrath against us. We came therefore, not because of us, but to ask for our people, in that we have now become beggars without our own guilt. How might or how can you now judge us, instead of helping us, and even want to punish us?! Consider the whole situation, the reason and the facts and you must be in the greatest darkness if you then consider us guilty!"

- Chapter 143 -

Judgment of the high Pharisee about the Savior

1 Cyrenius says: "Let that be far from me; but what is and must be important to me is that I would only like to make you into better and true people! You can truly cover your inner being with external well-considered clever words, and here all the more easily because the circumstances have formed themselves to your benefit in a certain way and none of us can claim with provable sureness what you would have done with the taken sacrifices if the fire had not occurred for example. But now I will tell you something else and ask you whether you would also have said what you told me with the purest and calmest conscience to the all-knowing prophet Elijah or an angel of God who can put you through the acid test?

2 It is veritably true, by my imperial word of honor, which is true and powerful, I tell you: there are numerous wise men here in my company - not of my faith, but of yours - to whom the most secret human thoughts are as bright and clear as a most publicly performed deed! If they would test you, would you respond to them with as clear a conscience as me, since you know well that I am lacking in all-knowledge, if not in understanding and astuteness?! I have tested these people harshly and have found that you have to take them seriously! In this way I will test you too. If things happen in the way that you told me, then you will be granted everything and even more than what you asked for; but if the mentioned wise man says something else about you, then the brother of the great emperor and uncle of the ruler sitting on the throne will know well what he will do!"

3 The leader says: "How can you give us the assurance that these wise men mentioned are our friends and not our enemies, and whether they will not abuse their wisdom against us? For we are Pharisees and are hated as such in Galilee because we stick firmly to the statutes and only preach Moses and the prophets while almost all of Galilee adheres in secret to the Egyptian and Greek philosophy. If your wise men are Galileans, they will not use their wisdom to our benefit, and we are defending ourselves therefore in advance against all hostile Galilean wise men!

4 In addition it is also written that a prophet can never come from Galilee because the Galileans as Jewish heretics are too far removed from the old wisdom of Moses! But if there are wise men from Judea, then we want to hear them!"

5 Cyrenius says: "The wise men that I mentioned are so placed in my belief and in my heart that every word from their mouth comes as good as purely from heaven, although I don't really see whether something that should be true should come directly out of heaven; for every truth remains as much truth on the earth as under the wings of light from heaven! For a pear and another pear must be as much two pears in heaven as on earth - if not, then heaven is a lie!

6 Another question for you, amongst other things! You have just mentioned the Galilean wise man, and from that I take it that you perhaps have another reason than Greek philosophy! A man is supposed to appear in Galilee who performs great things of the most wonderful fashion, teach the people a new religion, supposedly from heaven, and confirm it through never heard-of miracles! Tell me whether you have not yet heard of this person, and what you think of him!"

7 Mathael remarks secretly: "Now you have got them in the right place! Now they will immediately begin to change their colors and words!"

8 The leader then answers: "Have then the deceptions of a very evilly reputed quack, for whom the carpenter's axe has become too heavy, and who would rather seek progress in sweet idleness than in any solid work, reached our ears? Look, you want to condemn us as legal priests at any price, as we have understood only too well from your words and manners; but such a Galilean, such a leader of the people with the help of some learned oriental conjuring tricks has a passport from you, can do whatever he wants and his word must have greater weight before you than ours, for whose truth understanding, better reason and a human feeling in the legal order speaks loudly! I know the Galilean that you mean, and with this I have already said everything!"

9 Cyrenius says, quite excited by this statement: "Very good; you have now given me your opinion about a man which could never have been more to your disadvantage! But this time you have at least spoken the truth in that you are showing your innermost as it is. I know this Galilean of yours only too well and know all about him; but I now know you all perfectly too and know now all about you! I will deliver to you the most certainly undeniable proof that I do not accept everyone immediately as what they seem until I have tested them right down to their last atom!

10 Here before you stands the present king of Pontus. Yesterday morning he stood before me as a small bound criminal and would have easily be damned to the cross; but I checked everything exactly, found all his innocence and made him into what he is now as a very wise man!

11 I am stricter than every other judge, but I am full of justice against everyone. If harm comes to someone during the necessary examination, and I found him innocent, then I know how to turn his misery into joy and happiness as much as is in my power, which your new king can do for you.

12 But I tested this Nazarene worse than everyone else and found that he is such a perfect person, the like of which has never been on the earth before him nor ever will be after him. But he is filled with the true Spirit of God and penetrated right through and acts and speaks only out of endless, never measurable strength and power. Thus I have got to know the Nazarene and now I am glowing with the highest reverence and love for him, although he is an arch-Jew in the tuest sense of the word.

13 Oh, we Romans also know how to respect Judaism when it is as it should be according to Moses and all the prophets: full of spirit, power, love, truth and wisdom; but Judaism as it is now observed is for us spirit- and truth-loving Romans a torment of the fullest destruction in the holy place as your prophet Daniel did announce in advance! Now you have my proof about the so deeply despised Nazarene. What can you say against that?"

- Chapter 144 -

The Pharisees judge their leader and Jesus

1 Here all the arch-Pharisees raise their eyebrows and one quietly makes the remark: "Well, our astute leader has succeeded once again! What a prime camel! Now we can see how we will lift us out of this puddle! Could this camel of a leader not have praised the Nazarene to the face of the powerful master? Then the whole story might have had a different face?! The camel must have seen things as well as Cyrenius that he has been won over completely for the Nazarene and yet he pulls away from the supreme governor's darling as if he were really, God knows how strongly, convinced of his shamefulness, and had never seen, spoken to or tested him! Ah, we could do without this cow of a leader! He is to be deposed! For if he carries on speaking we will end up on the cross today! There's no joking with the supreme governor!"

2 After this remark the others say to him secretly: "Go over and ask the supreme governor for a word; but the ass of a leader must not speak one word more! Perhaps we will still get away with it! And you shall become our leader if you can get us out of this pickle!"

3 The speaker says: "Good, I will try it - even without wanting to become a leader!"

4 At this he steps out of the crowd before Cyrenius and asks to be allowed to speak too.

5 Cyrenius says: "I am still waiting for a second judgment about the Nazarene on the part of the leader!"

6 The speaker, also a Pharisee without parallel, says: "High master, he has finished already; his cleverness has suffered a mighty blow, and therefore he is as silent as a camel in the desert! He slipped up and entangled himself in the net and no longer knows how to get free. The good Nazarene probably gave him an invisible slap in the face and then his mouth dropped open and now does exactly what he has always done!

7 You, high master, must have convinced yourself a long time ago that this leader of ours is a great ox! If I or another one of us had been allowed to give the introduction, the trial would have been over long ago; therefore listen, high master, no longer to him, but let me speak!"

8 Cyrenius says: "Good, then speak! We want to see what you will bring to light!"

9 The speaker carries on: "High master! As far as the accusation that we were the actual cause of the fire is concerned, what the leader said to you can only be valid at a pinch, although I must admit to you openly that we are not as white as snow and innocent despite the very prickly circumstances as our leader was trying to whitewash; for the demand of total sacrifices was his command. Whether it was necessary for the establishment of order and calm to strip the poor believers of everything down to their shirts if they would not have given it freely is another question! So it is very difficult to answer the question about the return of sacrifices taken from the people! One would have lent them money and things for significant interest; but with the return which the leader explained as a matter of course there would have been a problem! It made us highly indignant when we had to listen to our camel of a leader chattering away so brainlessly; however we could not say anything against him because only the high Pharisee may speak on a high Sabbath. But Satan can happily take our leader even on a Sabbath for this foolish speech, for which we all might easily be taken to the cross!

10 I am now speaking quite openly about what is in my and other's hearts. If our camel of a leader had a particular love for such exaltation, he should just let it happen to his wicked person! We will not drown in tears over him; but we do not care for the moment for such a particular Roman decoration!

11 Now, what concerns this Nazarene whom you, high master, told us about, we cannot possibly for Jehovah's sake from quite natural reasons say anything for or against; for we have only heard from some distance some things being whispered. Some things sounded very praise-worthy, then others, probably stemming from his enemies, were certainly very adventurous, though not bad at all. He is supposed to have really completely brought the dead back to life again! Well, we didn't see that and we only heard about it; but if one thinks about what that means, to bring the dead back to life, then it is very pardonable, I believe, if one doubts it for highly tangible, natural reasons! I do not want to question the possibility, but instead only to represent the great difficulty and that more than only the most educated and perfected physical and spiritual life forces of a person are demanded.

12 Truly one says about the prophet Elijah that he once embodied a heap of dead bones and animated it; but we were not there. This is also only a saga from mouth to mouth and it is not written in any book, not even in the apocryphal part of the Scriptures! How difficult is faith for a thinking person!

13 The Essenes also woke the dead for money, and normally for a lot of money; but we have already seen behind this secret and we know how things are.

14 But since you now bear such a valid witness of the Nazarene, and that as a highly educated man enriched with all experience, who deserves all faith above a thousand other wise men, then I and all these colleagues of mine cannot help giving all due justice to the Nazarene.

15 That is now my answer to your question, high master. It is as pure as can be, and things happen the way I have now told you faithfully. These people all stand here as witnesses right down to our leader, and you, high master, give us mercy!"

16 Cyrenius says: "Obviously I am more satisfied with your statement than with that of the high Pharisee, who wants to be a very crafty fox and avoid my net as long as possible; but since I extended the net, he still got caught up nonetheless and now stands as a cunning, bad liar. However a true regret and full, faithful admission can make everything good again; for he belongs to those people who are secret friends of all sorts of lies and deception, but nonetheless want to stand before the people with a high and very most honorable reputation. They want the reputation of a prophet; but they want to act like a thieving and nomadic Scythian!

17 Therefore a true regret, full of changes in life, improvement and open admission of the true content can make everything good again; for I did not come here in order to hold the strictest court within my power over sinners of any kind, but to help them onto the correct path in life. But they must not put any obstacles in my path of highly benevolent efforts! How can one as such a wise-seeming man, not to mention as a supreme priest, lie so infamously?!

18 My leader, just speak and say the full truth; for your colleagues have not said everything that corresponds with the complete full truth! They want to save their skins at the cost of yours, and I do not praise that at all! I know what I know, in its foundations, and you can lie as you wish and can, but it won't help you; for you cannot possibly deceive me! Now speak the truth!"

- Chapter 145 -

Cyrenius' gravely serious speech

1 Here the leader is meditating and is very unsure whether he should step into the daylight with the truth or not. Only after quite a while he says: "High master! Many dogs are the death of a hare! I am convincing myself more and more that now the witnesses are gathering against my word like mushrooms after the rain. What else do I want to do with what you want to know and also claim to know, to oppose evidence from my conviction ?! Yes, I may not say anything against my conviction, and 'No' is useless to me! Therefore accept your witness and I will make no further effort to remove any just or unjust accusations on the part of the many witnesses! If you find me guilty, well fine, you have all the power to punish me as you wish; I have no power as a totally poor person to place against you!"

2 Cyrenius says: "It is written in your books: Woe to him who attacks one anointed by God! Therefore I also know, as long as it is possible, to respect your law.

3 Saul, your first anointed king, was at the end a doer of all evil, and David, as the second anointed by Samuel to king of Israel, had Saul often in his power and could have destroyed him; but the Spirit of God spoke from David's heart: Woe to you if you attack the head of My anointed one!

4 And behold, although I am a Roman and a heathen respectively, I also hear the same voice of the spirit which says: You can try My anointed ones and if they have slipped from the recognizable path, then lead them back to the correct way through advice and deed; but woe to you if you try to judge any one of them!

5 If the arch-angel Michael did not dare to judge Satan himself for the lost three day fight, but instead gave him over to the Lord's judgment, how should I dare in the face of God to judge you; but I want to investigate you, show you the great deeds devoid of all conscience and all love against your brothers and then set you on the correct path in life! But since you know that I only want this, why do you not speak openly with me?"

6 The leader says: "If you in any case know everything, then I truly don't see why you demand now another open admission from me! I saw you before very moved by my certainly very open confession, because I was not able to give the same valid evidence about the familiar Nazarene as you were, who have already made his acquaintance; and so I will just stop giving you any more open confessions! I have already told you everything and you said it yourself, that you know everything; why should we waste more empty words?!

7 What I know about the Nazarene is not in my field and I could not tell you anything but what I have heard myself from others! Now that I heard another witness from you, I am now thinking differently about him! Or should I do something else?! Who can prescribe to me to say something good about a person if only evil and no good things have come to my ears about him before? But since only now the best information about the Nazarene has come to me, I can now bear as good witness as you, and I think now as you do about the Nazarene. Is that now not good enough for you yet?"

8 Cyrenius says: "Yes, that would be correct if your heart spoke as your mouth does; but your heart, if one could hear it, speaks another language! For your Pharisee-hood is only too familiar to me! I know certainly that you like the Essenes do not actually believe, but for your material benefit you want to make the people believe everything that comes into your heads so that they will pay you interest.

9 Now if a man comes who has an inner true light from God, and shows the people who stumble around in night and darkness the correct and light way of life, where it cannot be avoided that your old deceptions become common knowledge, you will become angry with such a prophet of light from God and seek him in every possible way to destroy him; for this is an old shameful reputation of yours, that you, with the exception of Elijah and Samuel, killed all the prophets sent to you by God throwing stones at them and thereby preached to the people that you have done a good service for God.

10 Only after a hundred years you accepted the prophet - but never for your sake, but only because you could use his sayings to terrify the people very well - and have painted and adorned his grave, whether genuine or not, that was all the same!

11 You see, that was always your way of acting, that is only too familiar to me! If things happen this way according to the truth, how can I possibly give your words even the least faith?! Tell me whether things have ever happened differently to you concerning the truth! Do you believe in your heart even a jot of what you preached to the people?"

12 NB.: That Cyrenius could speak in this way came from the fact that I had laid the words in his heart and mouth; so what he said then was as good as spoken by Me, but in Cyrenius' individual way.

- Chapter 146 -

The character of the high Pharisee

1 After a while of deep contemplation the high Pharisee says: "But how can you prove to me before the whole world that I think differently in my heart to how I speak with my mouth and that I don't believe what I am teaching the nation?! If my ancestors attacked the prophets, what I cannot and will not deny, which guilt can then be given to me for the fact that I have always honored all the holy seers of God to the highest degree?! If thousands of my colleagues in any case have no belief in what they teach, where is the proof that I should not believe such a thing?!"

2 Cyrenius says: "The tangible proof lays in the fact that you, to judge by your speech, are much too clever a man to be able to accept the greatest nonsense as a truth that comes from God! You understand the high art of mathematics, and mathematicians do not so easily mistake a fly for an elephant, which you will never be able to deny in any retort!"

3 The high Pharisee says: "But where is the nonsense then that I could impossibly believe as a mathematician?!"

4 Cyrenius says: "Do you believe in your heart, for example, in the wonderful fertilizing effect of the temple dung that you, as far as I know, have promoted so highly in the rule for all these years?! Do you believe in the healing effect of the regular new moon?! Do you really believe that Jehovah still lives in the newly-created ark of the covenant, like He lived in the old one of Moses, now long rejected?! Do you believe in the correspondence of the naphtha flame on your shelf with that strange holy column of fire or smoke over the ark of the covenant which illuminated Moses out of Egypt?! Do you really believe that it is of more use to the people to make sacrifices in the temple than to love their parents according to God's commandments and to be obedient to them in all things?!

5 Tell me openly whether you believe your religion besides a thousand similar statutes completely devoid of human sense! For if you really believe in it - which seems impossible to me - then you are seriously more foolish than a camel and are more suitable for anything other than a teacher of the people; but if you don't believe it and nonetheless you teach the poor people with murder, fire and sword such an evil nonsense which you as a man of otherwise much knowledge and science can never believe, then you are a very most despicable deceiver of the people and deserve, for political reasons, to be eternally in a prison as a criminal than to be a teacher of the people!

6 You see, that is obviously the end of your Scylla and Charybdis! I will decorate you with an imperial medal of honor if you can bring me any middle road as an excuse!"

7 At this the high Pharisee begins to scratch himself quite actively behind the ears and now no longer knows what to say.

8 Herme, the singer, or previously the messenger from Caesarea-Philippi, says to Cyrenius: "High ruler! Only now one is quite sewn in and cannot find the way out of this weave! Oh, that happens perfectly just to this brute against everything good and true! If I didn't know him as well as I do, then I could even pity him, for I feel sorry for such an evil sinner if he comes into great embarrassment; but I could see this fellow burn alive and it would even be a pleasure for me! It is not the time and the place here to speak of what this high Pharisee has said confidentially; but you can be sure that there is not one good hair on all his body!

9 Many will be sentenced to crucifixion by your laws who are much better people than this most unscrupulous rogue over there! I am no judge and therefore I have no-one to sentence; but I nonetheless have a great joy that this lad has become so entangled!"

10 Mathael says smiling, "But we still must pay very good attention that he does not tear the net and in the end laugh into all our faces! Until now he remained on the fence with his language; but if he is once driven into a corner, Cyrenius, you will soon see how he begins to parry! I only now know him fully, although I knew him from the temple! You see, it is he who thirty years ago laid hands on the high priest Zachariah and murdered him between the sacrificial altar and the holiest of holies separated by a curtain!(Matt. 23:35) But now nothing further about that!"

11 Herme says full of joy: "Oh, I know a lot of such facts about him; but they are not strictly provable enough and so there is little or nothing that can be done!"

12 Cyrenius says, quite amazed at Mathael's statement, "Ah, what are you telling me now?! So this fellow extinguished the light of life of that high priest, according to every person's witness a highly pious and wise man? Well it is good that I now have a hint about it; I will sort everything else out then!"

13 Here Cyrenius gave captain Julius a sign to set up patrols so that none of the arch-Pharisees could get away from him.

14 Julius immediately gave the secret order, and what Cyrenius had commanded happened immediately; but the high Pharisee nonetheless noticed something of it and asked Cyrenius: "For who is all this movement?"

15 Cyrenius answers: "Neither you nor any of your companions have the right to inquire after this; for Cyrenius does not answer monsters such as yourself any longer! For you are not only a most pitiful deceiver of the people, but also a spiritual and physical murderer of the people. I am now waiting for the report by the governor from the city and for the arrival of Cornelius, Faustus and Jonah from Kis; then I will tell you why I have had the guards set up now!"

16 The leader says: "Good, but then I will tell you only then why I am actually here!"

17 At this the leader takes a roll of parchment out of his tunic, shows it to Cyrenius and says: "Do you know this ensign and this signature?!"

18 At this Cyrenius starts, saying: "That is the emperor's seal and his signature! What does that have to do with this?"

19 The leader says: "If it is necessary, you shall get to know the content! I therefore advise you to hold back from every further investigation against me, otherwise this roll will present very significant trouble for you! I still honor you as an honest man; but mark me well, do not take things too far, otherwise I could make very unpleasant use of this roll which you have to respect as highly as anyone else!

20 Truly, I would not have taken this fearful weapon out of my tunic pocket if you had not forced me to; but you began to step on me like a worm and it is therefore the right time to show you that you are not the only lord in this sovereign territory by any means! I now think that it would be better to withdraw the guards because otherwise I could be forced to place mine beside yours despite the Sabbath!

21 Right, does my now very altered language embarrass you a little?! But you truly cannot be helped; for yours also embarrassed me somewhat! Briefly, I know you now, and you now know me! Now do what seems clever and good to you, and I will do the same! Have you understood me well?!"

22 At these words the high Pharisee turns his back on Cyrenius like a ruler, moves to the shore of the sea with his colleagues and behaves there as if he were a man who was granted great power in an emergency by the emperor; but Cyrenius finds himself now in great embarrassment and now does not know what he should do.

23 Now Mathael says: "Do you see, dearest, how such a fellow is best equipped with everything which is necessary for his safety, physically and morally, and like a fortress?! Therefore it is highly difficult and actually completely fruitless to act as judge, because these people - the Lord knows in which illicit ways - knew how to create the very highest secret privileges, against which it is now extremely difficult to act!"

24 Cyrenius says: "But do tell me, dear, wise Mathael, how this human hydra possibly came upon a document of safety from the hand of the emperor without my knowledge and permission?! Yes, nothing else can be done except to put on a good face at this evil game! I am very curious to see what the Lord will have to say to this!"

25 Mathael says: "He will now not like to give a true speech and answer; for He has already known in advance why He gave you this club as a test, and seems to have paid very little attention to the whole affair!"

26 Cyrenius says: "But we must now ask for advice!"

27 Mathael says: "In any case; there is now the greatest necessity for this!"

- Chapter 147 -

The falsified document

1 On the shore however the high Pharisee says to his colleagues, "You have done your job well; for the appearance supposedly against me was at just the right time at which I gave you the sign through my silence! Now they are trapped and no longer know what to do! If only the three announced people would not come, who could make life a little difficult for us! Or if they even brought the famous Nazarene with them! Yes, if so, then we are completely written off! There nothing would help us anymore!

2 Therefore my opinion is this: we should now strive to get away by water early and to turn towards Jerusalem linea recta [in a straight line – the editor]; for once the officials have arrived, it will be too late for us! Cyrenius has withdrawn the guards, we have no obstacle! If we therefore move along the shoreline on the sea several miles upwards, we will meet the vessel of a Greek fisherman on which we can bring ourselves to safety!"

3 The previous speaker says: "But the people's guard from the city! How will we escape them? For they will spy on us from behind the bushes and once they have us, we are lost!"

4 The high Pharisee says: "That is certainly a very desperate story! How would it be then if we were to demand quite cheekily a safe escort from Cyrenius?! He cannot and must not deny it to us because of the imperial document! Go, speaker, and do that!"

5 The speaker does it; but Cyrenius has sought advice from Me beforehand, and naturally I told him everything that the Pharisees had said and decided on the shore, and Cyrenius now knew what was going on and what he had to do for the moment.

6 When the speaker made his demand as cheekily and domineeringly as possible to Cyrenius, Cyrenius said: "My friend, the certain document did shock me beforehand; for I did not know that it is false! But since I have now seen things in a different light, I am no longer shocked and will not follow the demand of your high Pharisee!

7 In any case, go there and tell your high Pharisee that he should deliver to me the familiar document immediately, otherwise it will be taken from him with violence; but should he make the effort to destroy the document, he can consider his crucifixion to be prepared for today! Go there and tell him that!"

8 The speaker now makes a deep bow and goes away with great trembling in his whole body. As he nears the high Pharisee, he says stuttering in great fear: "We are - lost! The accursed, false document - was - the straw - that broke - the camel's - back! - If not - today - then certainly tomorrow - to the cross! - Hand over immediately without vacillation or hesitation the accursed document to the supreme governor, otherwise you will hang today on the cross! - A devil must have betrayed you! - Cyrenius knows everything!"

9 When the sinister party along with their leader hear this, they and he all feel quite ill, and the high Pharisee takes the document, gives it to the speaker and says: "There, take it, and take it over there; we are lost, for with that our last hope is gone!"

10 The speaker does that, brings the document to Cyrenius and says: "High ruler, here is the document! We are all great and coarse criminals and appeal now alone to your human heart!"

11 Cyrenius takes the document, reads it through and says after a while: "Look, how nice and clever! Tell me now nothing other than at what opportunity the high Pharisee came upon this charta alba! [Blank document with signature only]!"

12 The speaker says: "High lord, I know much; but that I really don't know! As high Pharisee he brought it with him from Jerusalem; but who gave it to him there I do not know!"

13 Cyrenius says: "But do you know for certain that he brought this document with him right from Jerusalem?"

14 The speaker says: "He showed it to us all and told us and then gave us such power. That is everything that I know; none of us know any more!"

15 Cyrenius asks further: "How did he act then, as a person?"

16 The speaker answers: "I know nothing bad about him; he always represented his office strictly and according to the Jewish spirit. That he in addition often carried out his business in a not very merciful way is well-known; yet I hardly knew that he was ever too hard against someone. He may perhaps have something on his conscience from before, which he certainly never revealed to us; but since he took office here we know nothing, except that yesterday he demanded the sacrifices somewhat too harshly at the wondrous occurrence. However, it was the people who were the greatest cause!"

17 Cyrenius asks further: "Has the high Pharisee often made false use of this document?"

18 The speaker answers: "Until today we have never noticed anything of that."

19 Cyrenius asks: "Is that all the purest truth that you have now informed me?"

20 The speaker says: "High lord, I would rather die if there is even a grain of untruth in it!"

21 Cyrenius says: "Good then! Go there and tell the high Pharisee that I now want to speak to him and that he should therefore appear before me; for I want to see what can be done for your well-being in this matter!"

22 This time the speaker approaches the high Pharisee with more courage and less anguish and tells him this. The high Pharisee considers for a while and then says: "Well now, what else do we want to do here except to put on a friendly face to the evil game?! It is always better to lose only something than everything!"

- Chapter 148 -

The confession of the high Pharisee

1 With this the high Pharisee goes over to Cyrenius and says: "Here before you now stands a powerless person. This man imagined for a time that he as a person of this earth could make use of every right that people of this earth use; but he miscalculated, as a mathematician himself, and came to the conviction that the high ones do not want to have any other high people among them! Therefore from now on I will be the very lowest; perhaps I will be more pleasant to the high people thereby!"

2 Cyrenius says: "You will do well to do that! But just tell me now one thing, for what reason you showed yourself to be different before me than how you are! I offered you my hand like a friend, and you rejected it! What did you actually want to achieve through that?"

3 The high Pharisee says: "Think about the high status of a person! Besides this there is always a secret letter of arrogance which is called: Honor and power to the authorities! With this one very easily begins to sin; but once one has begun to sin, one becomes blind and deaf and sins more and more. Unfortunately one then finally comes so high to the point where it is said: Only up to here and then not a step further! I have now arrived at this point and will be very glad to find myself as soon as possible very deep at the bottom! I am already seventy-eight and have little more to expect! From now on, if you will grant me the rest of my lifetime, I will occupy myself only with the purely divine!"

4 Cyrenius say: "Go then - over there near to Mark's house you will find bread and wine! Strengthen yourself with it, and then we will settle the affair before those announced arrive!"

5 The high Pharisee now makes a cheerful face, thanks Cyrenius and goes quickly to the laid table. The old man was already very hungry and thirsty, and this was extremely desired.

6 But while the old fellow strengthens himself, I go to Cyrenius and say to him: "That is correct; you have lead things very well. The testimony that you gave the Nazarene was also quite in the best order; but to fully disclose Me to these people would still be too early. Once things have been carried out in order, as has happened so far, it will even be possible to win over these people entirely for us; but hastiness could ruin the whole thing.

7 I will now place Raphael at your disposal. He will do whatever you say to him; but be careful with a miracle! Do not do anything about the rebuilding of the city which is still glowing here and there, although the angel would certainly be in a position to rebuild the whole city in an instant. For I want this place to remain in a humbled position for a while, and finally Mark and his children shall be the ones through whom the place will be improved. But he can do everything else - but nevertheless always with a certain safe caution!"

8 Cyrenius asks: "Lord, what will You do in the meantime?"

9 I say: "I will remain near you and act like a stranger, as until now. But if towards midday you see a ship coming, go down to the shore and receive the arrivals in My name; but tell them that they should also not make Me known for these people's sake before time, so that the thing with the Pharisees will not be spoiled. But have the singer and messenger Herme come to My disciples; they will give him the appropriate instruction for our affairs. But I will discuss with Ouran the future state of his country and likewise with Mathael and with his wife. Now you know what you have to do!"

10 Cyrenius says: "Certainly, my Lord and my God; but how will I know that these some fifty arch-Jews are ready for you?"

11 I say: "You will learn that at the right time after the midday meal which we will take today an hour later. Therefore do not worry, and do everything else well and in accordance with My eternal, divine order!"

12 Cyrenius was highly satisfied with this order and full of joy that I was satisfied with his handling of the Pharisees; but I now immediately called Raphael and placed him at the disposal of Cyrenius' will.

13 Raphael came quickly and said: "I stand here to serve God, you and all people who have a good will, in the power and strength and in the name of the Lord. But be careful what you order, for I will carry everything out!"

14 Cyrenius says: "Friend from heaven! If I acted according to my understanding, nothing but one crazy thing after another would come out. I have only the Lord alone to thank that I succeeded with the extremely crafty Pharisees; for He gave me words and the correct sense in my heart. Therefore what I deserve equals nothing. Thus I hope and believe that it will continue right to the goal! Under such auspices, friend, we can certainly dare together to carry out the work that has been begun with the Pharisees according to the will of the Lord! What do you think, my friend from heaven?"

15 Raphael says: "Ah, that is something quite different; with this reasoning a sin in this situation is unthinkable! And so we will then begin the work again with the united divine strength that is in us!"

16 In the meantime the high Pharisee Stahar had strengthened himself, came back to Cyrenius again and thanked him from his heart for such a good deed done to them.

- Chapter 149 -

The high Pharisee Stahar makes known his notions of faith

1 Cyrenius pushed away the thanks, saying: "Friend! The Lord of heaven and earth is alone due all thanks and all praise; but you will now give me for my education as a person most highly indoctrinated in all Judaism and as a perfect scribe the explanation of what meaning you attach to the notion of 'angel'. What are the angels of God actually, and how do they serve God and mankind?"

2 Stahar says: "High ruler, that is a very prickly question, especially since it has not yet been completely proven that angels really exist! The Scriptures mention them at certain moments; but it never mentions even a syllable about what and who the angels actually are, and how and in what way they serve God and mankind!

3 According to the Dahahlmud [Talmud - the editor] we understand them to be only the powers emitted by the divine being in the form of bundles of flames, which move in the most unthinkable speed of thought in all directions from the eternal, uncharted centre of God, approximately like the beams of light which are emitted by the sun. That seems to me to be the most acceptable; but whether that is the correct and truest definition is another question, about which a mortal person will probably not be in the position to give a true answer.

4 According to the Scriptures the angels have often been seen to serve people on the earth as youths of incredible beauty! Well, for deep thinkers that is a piece of deep belief; I and all my colleagues have at least never got to see something similar! It could be so! But it could just as well be an old, lyrical way of speech, through which one personified the spiritually effective powers for the sake of greater symbolization, giving them a full, youthfully active, powerful form of a most beautiful youth; for a female angel has never been mentioned in verse - probably because the enthusiastic poet never assumed that great strength would be in a perfect and attractive virgin like in a full and healthy young man.

5 You see, high master, thus the opinions according to pure reason are very different! Something real seems to exist everywhere in this issue; but what is actually true cannot be measured by us people. The best thing is to leave the people with their imagination because one cannot offer anything better in return! But that is now everything that I can give you in answer to your very important question; for I cannot come to you with what one tells the people!"

6 Cyrenius says: "So you do not fully believe in the possibility of a physical personal appearance of an angel?"

7 Stahar says: "Not only not fully, but not at all; for I have never had the honor and the luck to see such a thing even in dreams, not to mention in reality. Just as well all my colleagues, with whom I have had an open discussion on this topic, could not tell me anything different to what I have already experienced.

8 I do not want to deny the ultimate possibility, except for myself alone; but it is certain that such an angelic spirit can present itself to our senses much less as something formal without a natural medium, than the ray of light can manifest itself as such, where it finds no retroactive medium at all.

9 The beam of sunlight cuts through the air much easier than it touches the ground of the earth. But in the air, as a too weak medium, it cannot become grass; but on the ground of the earth it can change itself like a Proteus into anything if he finds the appropriate method in the material world.

10 And so I think that one can discover a certain order in the great nature of all things, but one never sees anything be created where no suitable cause led the way, and where no suitable medium would effectively be in the foreground, since one never discovers any leap no matter how carefully one observes nature, I am then also against all so-called miracles and against the formal personal appearance of a spirit under whatever name - be it an angel or a devil, a god or its opposite.

11 Yes, a higher spirit can manifest itself, but never as anything other than flesh and blood; above that is either a fantasy of a spiritual person or a complete lie!

12 Unfortunately we, who recognized the truth a long time ago, have to be mystically looking and acting spreaders and maintainers of the lie and the deepest superstition! We have to make pious faces where we could explode in anger over the great foolishness! But there is Moses, there are the prophets - sheer domineering people who had to destroy the people first with all sorts of natural spooks so that they can then crown them as their all time leaders and give them the right to tyrannize them with everything that is called 'evil'!

13 But once a people has been talked round and blinded by many miracles into the deepest foundations of life, then just give such a nation light, but a true light, and it will fall upon you like a tiger and tear you to pieces!

14 Therefore it is better if one leaves a very foolish people to its old, foolish belief and renews and enlivens it through false miracles, rather than trying to enlighten such a people because a very foolish people in general can no longer be enlightened!

15 There was once a time for me in which I attacked every person, who obviously made an effort to make the already very foolish humanity even more foolish with a miracle, like a tiger full of fury and anger for his shameful undertaking and even killed him if possible; but in time I came to the conviction after many sublime attempts that the foolish people cannot be enlightened, and found also that I was very wrong to wage war against any person who sought to strengthen the people in its old superstition in an effective way through artificial miracles.

16 I think I have now been honest about myself. You will hopefully see without anger that I of course had to take a stand against the people! But that I always thought differently, my inner, better conviction speaks for me, which I would never have been able to show if it was not at hand in myself! But now I don't care about people who perform miracles; only they should not wage war against awakened people like me through professional jealousy, but instead they should join us, and we will all make a good living.

17 For one must never let the unenlightened humans notice that there is actually nothing behind us, but instead through artificial miracles one must keep them in their opinion and their blind faith that unfathomable secrets are behind us which only a priest, filled with the Spirit of God, and a prophet awakened by God can understand completely.

18 It is enough that only a few see that all religions about some divine being are nothing but - just between us - vain, old fables, which have a basis in human imagination and otherwise nowhere else."

- Chapter 150 -

Raphael and Stahar

1 Cyrenius says: "I am not of your opinion at all; for I believe strongly that there is a God who has created all the spiritual and material world out of His own highest complete power, and thus out of Himself, only in a somewhat longer period of time, of course, than that given by Moses, who is either badly or not understood at all. But there are men here who understand Moses better than you!

2 I also believe in an eternal life of all people who actually fulfill the commandments of God with a good will, I also believe perfectly in the formal personality of all spirits and also the angels of God, I believe firmly in a real revelation of God through the mouth of the prophets and I even believe in a divine-human personality!

3 And I believe all this not simply from hear-say, but instead from my innermost and most living conviction, and it therefore disconcerts me very much that you believe nothing of all that!

4 What would you say then if I said to you quite seriously: Look, this charming young man here is just one of those angels of God that you never believed in and can prove himself to you as such at any time through deeds? What would you be able to say to me in return?"

5 Stahar says: "High lord, I cannot say anything to that except: You are now pleased to go easy on me before all people! This charming boy is surely only a promising son of yours, and you will not have omitted to teach him from his earliest childhood in all possible arts and sciences, and therefore it would all have been for nothing if he did not now possess certain capabilities that the likes of us have never dreamed of.

6 If I were such a gullible ox, you could certainly pull the wool over my eyes; but as it is it would be difficult to do. For I know what I know, and it will be the same case for you - only you seem to want to put me to a new test again here."

7 Cyrenius says: "Well, if you consider it so, then put him to the test in the name of the Lord God, and it will be shown whether I have told you the truth or not!"

8 Stahar says: "Good, if you grant that, I will immediately lift your triple Moses cloth from your face so that you can see clearly what your angel really is! Come over here then, my blessed young angel!"

9 Raphael steps up to Stahar and says: "What do you want me to do, you unbeliever?"

10 Stahar says: "Look, in this sea there are a large quantity of fish; could you fetch out of the depths one of the best and present it to me on a plate already cooked and very well prepared?"

11 Stahar had hardly said this when Raphael held out to him the desired fish on a large plate and then invited him to now consume the fish.

12 When Stahar saw such a thing he became terribly embarrassed and didn't know what he should say to this unexplainable occurrence.

13 Raphael however invited Cyrenius as well to try the fish, which has been very well prepared. The fish was cut into pieces. Cyrenius immediately took a large piece, ate it and praised greatly the good taste. At this Stahar also tried a piece, ate it, and found Cyrenius' praise justified, and finally other guests took portions of the fish and found it to be extremely tasty.

14 When the fish had been consumed in this way, Stahar turned humbly to Raphael and said: "Are you really an angel of the Lord, or are you only a young, extraordinary magician from Europe or Africa or from the great Asia? The deed is truly incomprehensible and wondrous like never before; but there are also conjuring tricks and great magicians among the people, through whom a layman can very easily be confused. Therefore tell me truly whether you are possibly an angel of the Lord - or perhaps really a magician?!"

15 Raphael says: "What use is my yes or no for you?! The doubter needs tangible evidence! Test me and recognize yourself whether what I do can be done by any magician!"

16 Stahar says: "Yes, yes, it would be good to test you if one only knew with what - hm - yes, nothing occurs to me that I could test you with, blessed boy, and in addition the realization of this first test demanded by me so laughably, is already so extraordinary that something even less impossible cannot even be thought of! Judging by your endlessly charming figure I would much rather believe that you are seriously an angel of God than a magician! Only you seem to really have a body, and that seems to be no spirit. Let me just touch you to see whether you have bones!"

17 The angel lets Stahar feel him, and Stahar finds everything about Raphael appropriate and compact; he shrugs his shoulders violently and says: "Hmm, hmm, everything abounds in completely, desperately voluptuous fullness of flesh; it doesn't look very spiritual at all! The deed, yes, nothing can be said against that; but the whole desperately beautiful, full, voluptuous body surpassing by far all virgins, this magnificent arm, compact and of such high-quality. Yes, nothing looks similar to a spirit! One could, to be quite honest - apart from the fact that one is already an old dullard, and apart from the fact that you belong to the male gender - even with the greatest ease fall terribly in love and become as sensual as at all possible! And look, there is nothing that one can call purely and heavenly spiritual with full right! It had to then be so that you - like young Tobias, who was supported by an angel, secretly invisible to us mortals - that is, that from your birth on, like Samuel, you were an extremely pious lad! If that was not the case, you could stand in secret conjunction just as well with the 'evil one', which I certainly suppose less, since you otherwise have such a heavenly pious and beautiful appearance, and because I, if I admit it openly, never really believed firmly in the "Evil One". Even my complete faith in God suffered, all the more then in His opposite!

18 Therefore despite my external strictness I am no zealot, but instead a sensible naturalist and therefore cannot accept any occurrence spiritually as long as it cannot be explained naturally!

19 Your deed carried out now allows no natural explanation for my understanding; but I have also never imagined that I understood everything that comes to light in the great field of nature. Therefore your miracles can have no natural base which will be well-known to you and perhaps to others. You will rather not tell it to me; alone that is all right, for in nature some things happen that in itself is a miracle whose reason we cannot see. Should we view it then as a full miracle?!"

- Chapter 151 -

Stahar's experience with Indian magicians

1 "Look, blessed youth, proficient in magic! About three years ago some Orientals came to this city, from rear India as they said, where there are supposed to be such high mountains that their peaks almost touch the moon when it moves past. Well, that may be; but the foreigners exaggerate everything in order to attract a lot of attention, and likewise the height of their mountains!

2 Let's leave that; for it is no matter whether their mountains should be several cubits lower! These extremely strange-looking rear Indians asked me for permission to be allowed to carry out their true miracles before the people for a moderate payment.

3 But I said to them through a translator: Before I had convinced myself in private, as they say, what their miracles consisted of and whether it was advisable to perform them to the blind people, despite the fact that I myself am a great friend of everything extraordinary, I could not give them the permission to produce miracles, no matter how innocent, before all the people!

4 The miracle workers were all the more satisfied with this decision of mine when I assured him of a good fee for their production simply before me and a few reasonable colleagues.

5 They went to the accommodation they had rented in the city and came back after an hour with all sorts of magical items that I had never seen before; there were staffs, rocks, strange-looking metals and large and small variously formed containers, of which none were of a form familiar to me.

6 I asked their leader what he needed them all for, and he said: Actually for nothing; but there must be something familiar near him, otherwise he would not be able to carry out a demanded miracle as well and as safely. He then asked me what I wanted to see or know from him.

7 I said: 'Good, if I only need to demand, you will not make any great steps with your magic!' I asked him whether he could tell me what I was thinking then. I thought about Rome and the name of the emperor. He then laid both his hands on my chest cavity and told me my thoughts. You can easily imagine that that amazed me no less than your deed now!

8 Next I set a jug of water before him and said: 'Turn this water into wine for me!' He went over, made a few hand movements over the jug and over the water and then said: 'Try it, lord, see how you like the wine!' I tasted the water immediately and you see, it was totally wine! With this I actually was even more amazed.

9 Then he took a clay bowl that was completely empty, and poured the rest of the wine into it, supposedly to strengthen himself on the long journey home soon. But when I observed the container afterwards, which otherwise looked very empty, but didn't even find it wet, not to mention something in it; but it truly smelled strongly of wine, and the magician remarked that he preferred to take the wine with him in a dry and spiritual condition in case of spillage.

10 I asked him whether he could now bring back the liquid, drinkable wine, immediately or ever, from out of this smell of wine. He then asked me and my three colleagues whether we wanted to drink. We said yes to this, and he took the visibly empty container, which was visibly smaller than my water jug, and then poured so much wine into my jug that the wine began to overflow!

11 Yes, young, blessed friend, our hairs then began to stand on end; for that went much too far over our horizon of wisdom! I didn't know what I should say to that! We then drank the very good wine very thirstily, and - another miracle - the jug never became perceptibly emptier!

12 When, very enthused by the wine, we marveled more and more, the magician said: 'But my lords, wine without bread is not good at all! Do you see several rocks here; how would it be if I turned them into bread?' I said: 'Do that!' Next he swept his hand over the rocks and then said: 'Take a knife and slice the bread!' I did it and you see, it was bread, good, tasty bread!

13 I then said: 'But friend, if you are capable of such things, I would then like to know now why you need payment for your exceptional art?' The magician said: 'Simply for the novelty's sake and to have means to survive in places where one cannot and may not perform miracles.'

14 I was satisfied with this answer, supplied the magicians with two pounds of silver, which he took gratefully, but because of the too great extraordinariness could not give him the permission to display his arts openly before the blind people; for the people had given him an almost divine reverence, particularly the Greeks and several Romans.

15 He said to me that he was capable of a great quantity of all sorts of miracles which were even more notable than what he had already done! But I had truly no particular desire any longer to demand and look at anything more. What had happened had already made my head spin, and I was very glad to see these rear Indians leaving our city; for they would have made the people quite rebellious.

16 I asked the magician at the end whether he could explain just one of his skills to me for money and good words. He waved this away, not quite dryly, but demanded so much money for it that I began to shudder, and I then left the artist with an easier mind.

17 Look, my very most blessed boy! The magician from rear India was certainly also as little an angel of Jehovah as I am, and had nonetheless performed amazing deeds; why should you therefore be an angel with your very heavenly beautiful body, because you are also capable of performing extraordinary things for my coarse human understanding?!

18 You must give me more purely spiritual proof of your divine angelship, otherwise I cannot accept you as an angel of God, and even if you performed a hundred greater miracles for me than that of the fish that we have just eaten! And I think that no truly sober, reasonable person will be able to raise any objections to my highly reasonable request!"

- Chapter 152 -

Stahar relates the assassination of the high priest Zachariah

1 Raphael says: "The point is now only whether you spoke the truth or not! I can certainly say to you that you, simply to test my spirituality further, have now lied quite atrociously and stinkingly in your unbound imagination, and that of all you have told now, not a syllable is true!

2 The imaginary magician is supposed to have guessed your thoughts; and I have now guessed that you have lied to us all! And there the lie about the magicians has now become truth for you!

3 The false magician turned water into wine, according to your lie; look, I can in fact also show you that! Look, there is an empty jug; let's fill it with water! (The jug was filled with water.) Look, it is standing here full of water! I have not touched the jug, and yet the water has become the best wine! Taste it and see whether you like it!"

4 Stahar tastes the water and now seriously finds that it has become the best wine.

5 The angel speaks on: "But the magician then made the wine disappear in another jug; and look, I am not touching the jug, and yet now there is not a drop of wine left in it! (The jug was empty and dry.) But the fictitious magician then made wine again out of the smell; and look, this jug no longer smells of wine, and nevertheless I want it to be full of the best wine again! Look, the jug is full!

6 But you have no bread to go with the wine and may not drink the pure wine easily! Your magician needed several stones in order to change them into bread; I need nothing but my will - and look, already a quantity of bread is lying before you! Try it, and see whether it tastes better than your fictitious bread!

7 You then gave your magician two fictitious pounds of silver; and I will create two hundred pounds of real, quality silver out of the air as a good payment for your lie! Tell me whether you are now satisfied with that!"

8 Stahar raises his eyebrows at this and says after a while, "No, that cannot possibly happen with natural means and powers! Obviously something more than an unfathomable natural force is working here! There is an almighty divine will behind it, and you, young man, are either a real, personified angel, or you are one of the greatest prophets of God like Samuel or like Elijah!

9 Yes, now I believe that you are a messenger of God from the heavens to us poor, sinning people, in order to set us who have turned far away from the right path back onto it again!

10 It is true, great, blessed messenger of the Lord, that my story which I just told you about the rear Indian magician was as good as fabricated by me - but nonetheless only after the pattern that was once told to me by someone else. I only told it in order to test you further, but I found that you can truly look into our hearts and minds, and that for your will even the most impossible thing is child's play.

11 And I also now firmly believe that you are a complete messenger of God, despite your beautiful body, and I now have a great joy in my heart that I have also experienced what is written there in the Book, that the pious fathers also experienced such things now and then in the old days!"

12 The angel says: "But it is not for the first time that you experienced something that the old fathers experienced! Thirty years ago you experienced something similar in the temple, at which the high priest then fell, mainly by your hands, between the altar and the holy of holies! Why did you not believe then in the obvious miracle, and why did you even become cruel to a high priest?!"

13 Stahar says: "Dearest, almighty messenger of the Lord, do not remind me about a time in which I certainly saw the light of the world only through a curse, and about a deed which I deeply regretted a thousand times afterwards! But it was almost impossible to do otherwise for my soul and to my knowledge!

14 I had already secretly got acquainted with the philosophy of the Greeks again and again, and I knew why I had become a human being. Plato and Socrates, as well as Aristotle, were a thousand times dearer to me than all my dubious and highly mystical prophets whom I even today do not yet understand and will never understand, because they actually cannot be understood, but particularly the Songs of Solomon, which rather resemble that of a lunatic than a wise man. I had felt a proper anger against everything that disagreed even a little with the pure reason of Euclides, by whose works I actually became a mathematician.

15 My almighty, heavenly friend! If someone says to me: 2 and 2 are 4, and that the day has light and the night has darkness, then he has spoken the complete truth, and I will press him to my heart as a friend. But if someone comes and claims fixedly to my face that 2 and 2 are 5, and that the day is dark and the night is light, I would beat such an ox to death with one blow; for such a mental murderer seems much worse to me than any thief or mugger or murderer!

16 And you see, so it was then in the temple! They had already begun to claim the most absurd things, and even placed punishments on it if anyone undertook to express the least remark against a wise saying by Solomon, no matter how dubious and foolish!

17 That high priest was a real follower of Solomon and stuck strictly to the most mystical wisdom; he even began to sing the praises of a brightest light that was coming to the world. This would now illuminate all the darkness of the night so powerfully that even the darkest holes under the earth would shine brighter than the sun on the brightest midday; but the day of the world would become the darkest night, and the darkness of the day would become so great that men and animals would die from it. The light of the night was already in the world and was already illuminating the darkness of the night, so that even those born blind could see like a seeing person on the brightest day!

18 What I have now said is just a little introduction, which of course is a greatest lie from the alpha to the omega, since until today, over a full thirty years I have never noticed any night light apart from the full moon - except yesterday's extended evening light, which could just as well have not occurred, whereby much misfortune would have been avoided. No-one was allowed to ask him what was to be understood by this, and nonetheless he demanded the fullest faith.

19 I could bear this in Jehovah's name - for a little more nonsense on the top of much nonsense matters little, because one can still think purely and truthfully for oneself - but then all at once he began to say: 7 now becomes 1, and 666 becomes 111, and 777 and 1/2 and 1/3 and 1/4. Whoever can count should now count differently; for the old way is now judged and damned!

20 Such nonsense created the greatest worry, fear and anger for me and several scholars of Euclid; we conspired and put an end to the insulting foolishness through a number of well-aimed stones!

21 But we did not gain much by this; for the successors of the murdered man were a hundred times worse. Then the likes of us could no longer remain in the temple; I reflected, pretended to be a big hypocrite, and as a result of that I was soon placed here as a leader with all the rights of a High Priest. But here I let nothing pass me by and outwardly I played the role of a strict believer; but inwardly I was very good and full of good things. There you now have the reason why Zachariah was killed! What do you now say to that?"

- Chapter 153 -

Raphael gives explanations on the prophecies of the Messiah

1 Raphael says: "But that had a tangibly spiritual sense and not a material one! It concerned the Messiah who was coming to the world at that time, about whom all the prophets prophesied, yes even Adam and Enoch, as well as Kenan in his enthusiasm!

2 The time has now come in which all prophesies have come into fulfillment! Zachariah prophesied as the last prophet in a spiritual way about the successful arrival of the Promised One, and you killed his flesh for this and thereby sealed another faithful bargain with hell, which Cain had first opened for the blind, foolish and evil humanity in his fight with the pious Abel.

3 But it cannot be held too much against the too blind and too foolish people if they commit sins of all sorts of cruelties in their blindness, and therefore all the less because you have again and again very seriously regretted such a heinous deed, which will be counted in your favor; but now begs the question what you would do if you stood before the face of the Messiah who has walked and taught among the Jews on this world for thirty years, and what your fifty colleagues would do! Would you give Him the deserved honor and recognize Him in your heart as what He is?"

4 Stahar says: "My almighty friend, we could bang our neck and legs against a brick wall trying to answer that question! Who is the very mystically promised Messiah? Where is He? What does He want and what does He teach? Before one knows that, one cannot give any certain answer, for Jehovah's sake!"

5 Raphael says: "He is what David sang about Him, when he said: "Lift up your heads, Oh you gates; lift them up, you ancient doors that the king of glory may come in!? Who is the King of glory? It is Jehovah Zebaoth!? (Psalm 24: 9-10) You see, he gives such a proof of the Messiah who is now holy, holy, holy in this world as physically as we are!

6 But if David now says such clear things about Him, your questions are answered, and you now know what to make of the Messiah; but now I demand a clear answer to the question I set you!"

7 Stahar says: "If so, which I in my subjective field would not want to doubt, I ask however: What do we do with Moses then, who said, quite categorically, clearly: 'No man can see Jehovah and still retain his life.'? At the same time we find in Moses a positive interdiction on the part of Jehovah for the great seer, according to which no-one shall ever represent God in any image, no matter how eminent! But you say that the Messiah, according to what David said, is walking around as a person in corpore [physically – the editor]!? What happens then to the interdiction of God according to Moses?! One of them must be thrown away, either Moses or your Messiah, for both Moses and David cannot possibly be correct!"

8 Raphael says: "Neither Moses nor David! For both announce to the people the right, the good and the true! Moses did not say in his promise of Jehovah that He could not appear among the people as a person; he only forbade a graven image to be made of God, somewhat like the golden calf. Thus Jehovah also said to Moses that no-one could see Him as God or spirit and live; immediately afterwards however Jehovah nonetheless said to Moses: Look there - but remain behind the rock! And Moses saw Jehovah's back.

9 But what does that mean? You see, Jehovah's back, which Moses saw, represents the humanly physical form of how He will be visible to man as the most perfect person! If that is so, how can one reject Moses if one accepts David's evidence?

10 You have set aside the old ark of the covenant for thirty years because the column of fire and the cloud of smoke had disappeared from the old one, and you set a new, very material one in the place of the old! But such a thing is also, without you understanding it, proof for this time and means that Jehovah no longer floats majestically as a single spirit over all matter, as once over the waters of the night, but instead He Himself left such a place in which He could make Himself known as Creator and Father to the other children through the awakened seer only with difficulty and uncertainty. He therefore stepped into the flesh of a person and now teaches the people Himself and confers with His children!

11 Don't you see here a new ark of the covenant, of which the dead new one in the temple is a warning symbol? But the spiritual life of Jehovah, which previously floated over the old ark, was laid by Jehovah Himself into the God-man thirty years ago, and He is now here in the world and personally teaches the people to recognize Him!

12 If things happen in this way, can you then still say: one must reject either Moses or David in order to accept that?

13 It is also written: But in those days the heavens will be wide open and the angels will go up and down to the people of good will, and they will bear witness of the eternal, personified word that is God Himself! That is now happening right before your eyes and ears! How can you then ask anything further?! Or do you still consider me to be only a human being?"

14 Stahar says, now much contemplating the angel's words: "Hm, now I feel very strange! It is quite true, and the truth shines out of every word from your heavenly mouth. I am now converted; but there is the issue of my colleagues, that they will also be converted, and then there is the issue of where we can meet the great Messiah in order to hear Him ourselves!"

15 Raphael says: "Go and tell your brothers, so that they may also believe and become blessed; then come and learn where you will see and speak to the Holiest One!"

16 Stahar now immediately goes to his colleagues, who are still in the dark.

- Chapter 154 -

Stahar converts his colleagues

1 Stahar's colleagues however are for the most part spread along the shore, but several were going around in the courtyard. But Stahar called them all to the shore and said to them when they were all together: "Friends! Have you heard that youth speaking and seen him acting?"

2 The colleagues say: "Some things, but not everything; for it seemed to us to be too well arranged by the governor, in order to pull us into his web, and we thought: The further away, the better! We have anyway lost everything that we had - we are beggars! The city is still burning! What should we do? The Romans know who we are to the people; without our favor, which is hard to achieve, their rule in Africa will cost them dearly! Oh, a Roman such as Cyrenius, who has at his disposal the richest means of all the three continents, can do everything!

3 Just give me a lot of gold and silver and I will also become a miracle-worker, perhaps not in the way of that young conjurer - but I will perform miracles of the most amazing type!"

4 Stahar says: "Friend, you are crazy if you speak like that and don't even know how to tell the difference between a genuine and a false miracle! I have already offered every objection and contradiction that comes with good reason, but I failed shamefully with all my contradictions when the boy began to read my most secret thoughts! Only then I recognized my old, great mistake and now I come to you to tell you what I have seen and heard!

5 The boy is unmistakably an angel of God, and he bore witness that the promised Messiah is already in the world and makes the blind see and the deaf hear and understand, and that it is even possible that we will get to see and speak to Him here.

6 I now believe everything, and all of you will also believe it! For I am certainly not one to accept and believe everything; I have to be thoroughly convinced of something in detail before I accept it; but once I have the conviction, then it remains as solid as granite, and no-one can take it away from me again!

7 But since things are so, you can believe me without any further consideration! For all of you together are not capable of bringing any greater doubts to this issue than I did; but all my objections were belied! And since I finally began to accept the case of the Messiah as well as I accept that 1 and 1 is 2, then you can also fully believe me now!"

8 The colleagues say: "Everything is correct; but there is now only the matter of what we should believe from you!"

9 Stahar says: "Are you deaf then?! Didn't I tell you that that youth is an angel of God in all truth, that the Messiah is in the world, and that we will soon see Him and speak to Him?! That and nothing else is what you have to believe!"

10 The colleagues say: "Very good! If you believe it and are even mathematically convinced of this, then we cannot doubt it; but with such new, previously unheard-of events one must always consider that often the bet swimmers drown first, the most daring climbers fall from the mountain and the so-called firm believers in the end begin to have all sorts of doubts before someone who did not understand something incomprehensible very quickly and therefore placed no great faith in it!

11 You have never believed things lightly, as we know, and as such we accept your word as true; but some reserved care never hurts! For we know from the Scriptures how some miracle-working prophets became quite simple, weak people towards the end of their lives! The consequence only shows what sort of spirit the prophet had. That should also be taken into consideration here."

12 Stahar says: "I take responsibility for all that. Truly I know that we are not allowed to approach the temple with this, but we will know how to protect ourselves! On the outside we remain - only a little more reasonably, however - what we were, and pay the determined tribute; but in our insides things must become quite powerfully different, and in time we want to introduce the people into something better as well.

13 If you now share my opinion and my belief, let us now go over to where the governor and the boy are; there we shall be given more light!"

14 The colleagues agree and go over to Cyrenius, and when they arrive, Stahar says: "Here we are now, and stand one and all at your disposal; whatever you want, we will do and be, and no-one will ever go against you! But may the dear, all-powerful messenger of God strengthen these, my brothers, in their belief in everything that I myself found difficult to believe!"

15 Cyrenius says: "Look now, we Romans are not as strict judges as you have long thought; but we want strict justice and full truth! Whoever is satisfied with that is our friend, receives the right to Roman citizenship, and no court except the court of Rome can ever pass judgment on him.

16 The first thing that I will do for your well-being is that I will give each of you a Roman letter of citizenship! You are fifty in number along with your leader; you shall immediately be served with these! Once you have it, then we will see everything that can be done for you!"

17 At this Cyrenius ordered his servants to bring fifty rolls of parchment. The servants went to Cyrenius' bags and quickly brought the demanded rolls. Once these were on the table, Stahar asked Cyrenius: "High lord, we will surely have to give you all our names?"

18 Cyrenius says, pointing at the angel: "Look, he is my swift scribe, he has already known for some time what he has to do and he also knows your names; he will complete the letters in your presence!" At this Cyrenius requests Raphael to do this.

19 Here Raphael quickly stepped up to the table on which the fifty rolls were lying, spread them as well as was possible on the table, then took a pen which was filled with black ink, moved across the rolls with lightning quickness and then said to Cyrenius: "Here, friend, are the demanded letters in the Roman, Greek and Jewish language; now pass them out among those concerned!"

20 When Cyrenius now began to distribute the letters, horror seized all the fifty. For this miracle was too great and powerful for the fifty, and, trembling, they all began to see that they were in the presence of God. They thanked Cyrenius for such double mercy; but no-one dared to speak or to ask anything.

- Chapter 155 -

Hebram's speech about the 'New Light' of eternity

1 But the thirty young Pharisees present also saw this and among them Hebram and Risa, and had great joy that Cyrenius had succeeded in transforming the fifty stubborn ones for the good work as well.

2 Hebram now stepped up to the head, Stahar, and said: "Look, we thirty are here as we were sent by the temple into the lands in order to bring heathens to the temple; a sour business! Compared to the temple Jews the heathens are approximately two hundred years ahead in their education; and now we should make the seeing blind and put them under the temple's accursed water!? We can't do that, and we can't do anything else! That is what our understanding heart tells us, and we therefore have all become Romans, and our evidence against the temple will bring light for many people. But we have received another great, holy testimony here which gives a brighter light than a thousand suns at once, and that is a light from eternity which even before the creation of the world illuminated the angels who were the living flames of the eternal flame in God, which is called love.

3 We found this original light of all light, this eternal love here; and you have also found it for the most part and you will find much more yet.

4 But it gives us an extremely great joy that you here have also found what we have found. Certainly it has cost you your external, good existence; the fire has consumed all your goods and still licks around it; like us, you lost everything! But it is once and for all the will of God: we people, if we truly want to draw near to God and to carry the serious desire and will in our hearts to be cared for by God in everything, we must first completely turn our backs to the world out of great love and out of the strongest trust in the almighty Father, and lose every worldly thing that was dear to us in the world, down to the last atom; for only then is God prepared to accept us, deserted and despised by the world, as His children and to care for us totally, when we will then be truly cared for in all eternity.

5 Once we have been cared for by God, we then see clearly how very badly we were cared for by the world!

6 What use to a person are all the treasures of the earth which he cannot take with him when he has to leave this earth forever?! Will he be able to take them with him? But God's treasures, which He created spiritually for soul and spirit, we take these with us into the great beyond, and they will be all in all: food, drink, accommodation and clothing and the complete, eternal life full of clarity, full of light and full of the highest bliss!

7 Therefore do not be sorry for all you have lost from yesterday up to now; for the Lord has already cared for you before you recognized Him as you do now. Sacrifice your love to Him willingly; for He will reward you a thousand times in the spirit for what you have lost in the material world!"

8 Stahar says: "I thank you in the name of all these faithful colleagues and brothers of mine for this very appropriate comfort, and look there on the table at the big and solid lump of silver that the angel conjured out of the air! With that we are already more or less compensated for our loss; but I and all of us now place very little value on this compensation. For what we were, we will never become again, since the wise governor will have a very different disposition with us all, as I secretly suppose. So much will certainly be done for us that we don't starve and can clothe our body in need; we don't care about anything else any longer! We will also leave this two hundred pounds' weight of silver here for the inn-keeper Mark, partly as a deserved payment for the food and for the drink that he had brought to us and will bring to us in future.

9 There is only one thing that we would like to learn, and that is whether the long promised Messiah, already present in the world, is staying anywhere here in the vicinity of this place! To see Him and perhaps to hear a word from Him would be a treasure of all treasures!

10 Just between us: We have a small suspicion about someone about whom we have already heard some incredible things, which no longer seems incredible to us after we have seen the angel's deeds!

11 Well, this person, actually God Himself clothed as a human, seems to us to be that Nazarene called Jesus, about whom such highly wonderful rumors have spread from place to place among the people that we became very embarrassed before the people when we were attacked by them for an illumination of what they saw with their own eyes and heard with their own ears.

12 The governor asked me a very awkward question, the answering of which was very embarrassing! And so I suppose now nothing else except that this wonderful Jesus of Nazareth is unmistakably the Messiah confirmed by the angel as now being present in the world; and this Messiah is perhaps even here among the many present, but will not let us recognize Him out of surely very highly wise reasons before we are somewhat worthy of it, as has been the case until now!

13 I therefore believe, and say quite openly before you all: If things happen thus, we will turn our backs to the temple and its worthless holiness forever and join the Messiah of the Jews with every fiber of our being! What do you think?"

14 The others say: "Certainly we have nothing to object to here! Whatever you do as our leader, we will do too; for we know the essence of the temple and know that there is no holiness in its walls any longer, because there is no truth, no love and no loyalty to be found in it, but instead only domineeringness, arrogance, anger, revenge, lies of all sorts, food and gluttony and all sorts of incest and whoring and adultery! Those are now the elements of the essence of the temple! What salvation can be expected from such an institution? Curse and ruin, yes, we can only desire this much; but there can no longer be any talk of salvation!

15 We have now considered things very maturely during your speech and now will turn our backs on the temple forever, and that with complete justification; for we have not gullibly accepted something new. We have tested everything very intensively beforehand; even the greatest miracle could not turn us like the wind turns a leaf in the air.

16 But now that we have convinced ourselves fully of the full truth, we cannot do anything other than to accept the truth, as it came from heaven, as what it is - and all the more so since time, circumstance and the sovereignty of Rome are more suitable for us than we could ever have expected!

17 We are now looking forward very much to seeing the Messiah, most certainly from Nazareth! Is it not he in the large group who is wearing a pink-colored tunic and over that a Greek Merino cloak of light blue color, and truly has the most beautiful hair that we have ever seen on a man?!"

18 Stahar says: "Yes, you may not be quite incorrect; for I have been very keen for a long time! I also saw how both the angel as well as Cyrenius constantly looked towards Him during their speech and acts and asked at the same time whether everything that they said and did was correct!

19 Also all the others show him a certain hidden reverence which did not escape my eye! If that is not an imperial prince from Rome, then I would like to swear that this person is the Messiah, and no other!"

20 The others say: "Ah that is no Roman with such beautiful, blond hair! But what could happen to us if we were to go to him and ask him about this and that?!"

21 Stahar says: "We would rather turn to the angel first, or to the supreme governor; we are Roman citizens and have a full right to this."

- Chapter 156 -

A Pharisee talks about the responsibility of man

1 At this everyone moves over to Cyrenius very cheerfully and asks him what should be done in these circumstances.

2 And Cyrenius says: "It is more fitting that you should wait a little longer, but draw nearer to Him internally in your hearts, and then He will come to you Himself and will tell you Himself who He is and what you have to do! Nonetheless, for the moment I can tell you that you are on the right track! For you have already been able to tell from our presence that the great man of God must be staying here! For we would not have stayed here almost three days for the sake of something less!

3 Thus He is here, you can now be fully assured of that; but draw near to Him firstly in your hearts, and seize a serious desire to thoroughly turn away from all your old habits and sins, and then He will soon come to you Himself and give you the divine instruction of what you will have to do for the future!

4 But He is truly the one you yourselves were thinking that He was! Observe Him and consider: That is Jehovah Himself as a man among the people! This is the One who created heaven and earth and everything that is in and upon it!

5 I tell you: He is the eternal original cause of all being and all life! In the never to be fathomed power of His will resides the whole infinity; all the angels' power is only a slight breath from His mouth, and all light shines forth from Him!

6 In brief, consider that this is truly the same person that gave Moses on Sinai the commandments for the people of Israel; but this people have forgotten Him and once again fallen into all vices! And He has now come to establish His people once again and to make them free from all evils of the soul.

7 He wears therefore a beautiful pink tunic to show how much He still loves His people. But with the loose, blue coat He shows that He has also come to us heathens in order to turn us into His children as well! The coat covers the whole world and all the heathens belong there too.

8 Now just consider everything that I have now said to you, and it will only too soon begin to manifest itself that I have not told you any untruth!"

9 Stahar and all his colleagues express their great thanks for such an unexpected explanation on the part of Cyrenius and withdraw in reverence.

10 Having reached the seashore at a leisurely pace, Stahar says to his companions: "But it is strange; I feel very strangely happy at the almost open explanation by Cyrenius about the Messiah! A certain feeling of being cared for has overcome me, as if nothing in the least can be taken away from us all in this world any longer! At the same time however I feel a highly strange shyness and fear before the Lord of eternity; for we can now no longer deny, after everything that we have seen and heard, that He is truly what Cyrenius described Him to us to be! A conversation with Him will create in us a very strange sensation! Our otherwise very active tongue will certainly fail us!"

11 A very courageous one among of the fifty says: "Yes, yes, you have spoken very correctly and truly; but nonetheless I think: We cannot help the fact that we are humans, because we certainly did not place ourselves in this world! Neither can we help our circumstances in life, through which we became what we were; our elders, our up-bringing and the needs of every shape and form which were awakened through it have made us this.

12 If we had been children of poor country folk, we would certainly have also been what our parents were; but it pleased God to give us to very respected and rich parents. They had us brought up in the temple and then totally dedicated to the temple. We cannot possibly do anything about that! The will of the Almighty certainly had something to do with the fact that we became what we were!

13 That we then allowed ourselves certain things that were not quite in order according to the commandments was certainly our problem; but I always think: If your parents had brought you up to be a fisherman who had to earn his hard living, then some things must not happen which a well cared-for person would have been allowed because the well-fed flesh and blood urged one on! Thus our crimes against the law are in part a consequence of the circumstances in which we were placed from birth and up-bringing.

14 If the great Messiah comes to us now, I could speak to Him in a way quite without fear and particular shyness; for I can be no less than I am, and He certainly no more than He is from eternity to eternity!

15 Tell me quite openly: Can a tree help the fact that he is moved quite violently back and forth by a storm?! Or can the sea help the fact that angry winds churn up the flat surface or make one wave engulf another as a predator devours its prey?! Or can the weak reed prevent being bent in all directions by the waves?!

16 We are no original force and depend on all sorts of secret forces acting upon us. What is the use of a good and serious will never to fall, if a bridge over which you have to cross has become fragile without you knowing and collapses at the moment when you are quite harmlessly strolling over it?! What is life, what support does it have, on which we can build with security?! Who knows the foundations of thought and desire?! Life is created by animals and men in one and the same way through the animalistic mute cohabitation, almost devoid of all serious thought! Neither the animal nor the person has a spark of consciousness of how through sensually mute cohabitation a living organism is formed, whose simple materially technical part has been put together so highly skillfully that a great wise man would have to study for a thousand years in order to see and recognize all the individual components and their connections even superficially! But then he would only have the machine before him; but where then is the principle of life itself, how does it function in the machine, and how does it make use of all the countless individual parts?!

17 We know, of course, that we now exist, that we live and think and desire, we also become aware of the most various excitements and driving forces in us; but how are they created in us, who calls them out of sleep, and where do they go to when we have satisfied them with what they forced us to do?

18 You see, these are important considerations, through which by every god at least four fifths of our lifetime could be excused according to pure reason, and I fear therefore no spirit and no god! I have never committed evil to anyone, except that now and then I as a man took pleasure in a voluptuous maiden; and my nature is to blame for that! Why did the voluptuousness of a maiden have to attract me so much? Did I myself place such an overwhelming desire in my being? I know nothing about it! Who then gave me the feeling of love that is hard to satisfy? Who is the creator of thirst and hunger in me? Why must I eat and drink? You see, those are all higher forces in us which we cannot counteract with any law! We can certainly deny ourselves to a certain degree, but after that not an inch more! If things are so, what pure reason and wisdom can be capable of dragging me before a court for the sake of my status and my actions? Not a human one - all the less a very highest and brightly divine one! Why should I then have a highly silly fear of a god?"

19 Stahar says: "But it is written that man should fear God, in that God is almighty and man is highly powerless, who can never stand against God with his power!"

20 The speaker says: "Quite right! He should fear God; but that is only said to moral people - but not to complete people in all their functions of life! But even this fear is actually only a fear through love, which should be a similar leading ball of string in life to the free will of demure people as the loving fear of a child to his parents. But let God give you a commandment which forbids breathing or digestion or the pulse or growing old, the growing of hair and nails or smelling and tasting and feeling desire and pain! What anyway wise god could do that?! Where do we have the yardstick against which we could exactly measure where man has taken his positively determined viewpoint in all his thoughts, desires and actions in his moral absoluteness free of all necessary functions of life?

21 Who knows the threads with which the natural life with the purely spiritual and free life are connected, and to what extent it can move completely independently from the threads?! Yes, you can really see that every man is free in a certain way - he can go where he wants, he can stand or sit, he can look with his eyes in every direction - but all that presupposes a necessity which comes from the limited natural life!

22 It begs the question where the actual free moral viewpoint of a person between the necessary natural life and the free, spiritual being in a person is placed! As long

- Chapter 157 -

Floran philosophizes about God

1 Stahar says: "Friend, I know that you are a great wise man of the world, and that one finds it hard to contradict you; but the strange deeds of the angel cannot possibly have escaped you! Was he performing these for our natural life or only for our spirit?"

2 The speaker says: "We saw it with our own eyes; did they see it in Jerusalem as well? No! Because they did not see it with the living eyes and therefore cannot believe it if they are told about it, should they be informed. Can we then as reasonable people be angry with them or even damn them to all sorts of punishments?!

3 The necessity of faith has only just been shown to us through our senses; without our eyes we were as much confused as those in Jerusalem. Tell me where the actual demure stance begins! Wipe the eyes and wipe away the necessary vision, and then determine for me the absolute moral viewpoint!"

4 Stahar says: "Friend, I see well that we will not easily become equals! Such things must be clarified to us by a higher spirit! I now see the angel coming towards us; you must speak to him, and I would be very curious to learn how you will settle the issue between you!"

5 The constantly sober speaker says: "Dear friend! The angel does not bother me a jot more than you do, and I will speak to him as with you, and will give him even less than you in that he is a holy spirit and rejoices in every perfection, while we must still crawl on the hard and dirty ground of this earth as worms in the dust of nothingness! There is only one truth, and that applies to an angel just as well as to the dirtiest rogue in the world!"

6 With these words the angel was beside him and said: "Floran, you do not fear me then at all?"

7 The speaker says: "If you know my name, you will also already know the reasons in me why I can have no fear before God, neither before you, even if you performed a thousand of the greatest miracles! I can even think of a thousand miracles, but not carry them out; what difference does it make?! If I could perform them, then yours would not seem miraculous anymore! Or should I then be sad if I cannot shine like the midday sun or fly around like a bird in the air?! I am satisfied with what I know, what I am and what I can do, and I do not need anything more at least for this world!

8 But what I know, am and can, is a gift from God for me personally, for which I am grateful to the Creator; I do not need anything more and I do not envy anyone who has more!

9 Should I fear you then because you are infinitely more powerful than I? Oh, not at all! If you were more foolish than I, you would have either no power or it would be crude, and I would be able to meet it with my pure reason just as well as the power of the storm; but you are much wiser than I and that gives me the confidence that you will do me no harm, particularly as I have never been able to do you any harm nor have I wanted to. And if you wanted to have a joke at my expense, I would not be angry with you, but I would also not praise you as a lion of wisdom, of whose seriousness one says that he is no beginner. But God is endlessly wiser and more powerful than you, thus I fear Him even less than you."

10 The angel says: "But don't you know that God can destroy you for eternity, or that He can set an eternal highest scourge on you if you do not respect Him?! And in this way should God not be feared?!"

11 Floran says: "Without intruding on your wisdom even the littlest bit, I must admit honestly that this question of yours - speaking straight - did no particular heavenly justice to your wisdom! To doubt that God can destroy me as the most all-powerful being would be an even greater madness than your strongly silly reminder of my subjective and objective nothingness. What will happen then if I become nothing again as I was an eternal nothing before this existence?! The nothing is nothing, needs nothing and has eternally nothing to care for! Thus forget the eternal destruction of my nothingness, and I will give you the assurance that I as pure nothingness will never call you before a court! But should it please a god, the certainly very wisest being, to persecute me for eternity and to torture me, his wisdom is not far off; for such a longing would hardly appear for a tiger of a tyrant.

12 But history can show us no example that ever any tyrant was a wise man; and what could you and your God answer me if I prove to you that you were highly unwise instead of highly wise?! But no-one can claim that about God who has made only one glance into the highly wise decision of any creation! God is therefore highly wise and certainly highly good.

13 Equipped with such very most perfect characteristics, He can impossibly have created any creature in all the whole eternity for eternal torture! Ah, through all sorts of bitter and painful experiences to purify a being, here or in the afterlife that is something quite different; for man is a work of God that has to perfect itself according to the wisest order of God in the demure sphere in order to become what was determined by the Creator!

14 But the Creator only allows such short-lasting painful moments of betterment to occur and does not create them himself in order to torment a person for some time for His pleasure for a mistake, but only to lead him back to the sober recognition of the order and thereby ease his self-fulfillment. But as a dictatorial punishment I can eternally never see such a purely divine safety precaution out of which only love and a highest good will shines!

15 Therefore you cannot insult God any worse than if you present him to me as an eternal tyrant! I think that you will have understood me!

16 I can only love God above all else and worship Him as the most holy best and wisest being; but fear Him - never!"

17 At this the angel clapped Floran on the shoulder and says smiling: "You did that well, and do not believe that I wanted to enter any sort of battle of words with you; for you are right, as I am also right! I wanted only to offer you the opportunity through my somewhat shallow questions to express your opinions before your brothers more than was the case before, and I say to you that you are now mature enough to meet the Lord! Therefore follow me - I myself will lead you to Him!"

18 Floran says: "So it is fully true that the old prophecy has been fulfilled here?"

19 The angel says: "Yes! The fullest truth, of which I am certainly a most audible witness from heaven; now therefore follow me alone!"

- Chapter 158 -

On humility and arrogance

1 Floran says: "Why not Stahar, our leader, and my other brothers then? Are they any less people than I am? Go there alone! If my brothers are not worthy to be introduced to the Lord of eternity, then I am even less worthy because as far as I know they are better than I!

2 Remember this, angel - if you can remember anything - that I am an enemy of every preference towards my person! Yes, I want to rejoice in the preference of my brothers, but I want to be always the least among them! I truly love the people; but what one loves, one gives willingly every preference and advantage and is nonetheless quite blissful! Ask all my brothers whether I have ever thought or acted differently! And I should now let myself be chosen first in the faces of my brothers for the first time in my life?! No and eternally no! A thousand legions of such powerful spirits as you, and ten almigty Jehovahs will never change my mind as long as my thoughts and will are left free!

3 You see, my almighty friend, that is a rule which no enticing, even by a thousand open heavens, and no fear of just as many open hells will make me break!

4 Now go alone to the Lord! I will never more follow with a free will! And I am amazed that you, as an all-knowing spirit have not seen through my diamond-solid mindset beforehand when you made this suggestion! I stick firmly to my statement! You can carry my body there, it is true, since you possess power and strength to the extreme; but you will never change my heart unless it is possible for you to take my mind and set another one in instead! But then you have not changed my present self at all, but instead you have only destroyed it and placed another in this fragile machine instead!"

5 The angel says with a friendly expression: "But dear friend and brother, who told you then that I prefer you at all by bringing you to the Lord first as the most mature according to His will? Have you ever seen all the fruit on a tree becoming ripe at the same time, and who would ever reasonably consider preferring a pear which has ripened first simply because it became ripe first?! One enjoys it earlier than those that ripen later - but with us in heaven there is no talk of preferring it more than the later ones! Then Moses must also be more preferable to the Lord Himself now because he was called almost a thousand years before Him! Oh, that gives you no advantage - on the contrary! Who is to be preferred here: he who breaks the way, or the army leader and his entourage who stepped on this path and led his army on further?

6 You see, friend, you have not worked that out too well! I truly know the quite rigid sense of your heart, but I only put it to an external test, but also found in the background of your otherwise most sensible heart a hidden peck of arrogance which had made the correct humility into a preference of your person above the others, so that in a certain way you might seem unique and unsurpassable and no-one equals you in this sphere! And in the end this is the question: who is the more arrogant of the two: he who wants to be the last and lowest of all people or the first and highest!

7 Don't you know the Greek story of king Alexander of Macedonia and the certain most unsightly man Diogenes? You see, for years he lived in a barrel on a sandy bank which he had made his home!

8 One day the great hero and king visited this eccentric, who certainly was the only one of his kind. Alexander placed himself before the barrel; he liked this stoic and he asked him: What do you want me to do for you? And Diogenes answered imploringly: That you move away from the side on which the benevolent rays of the sun warm me!

9 The great hero however liked this stoic indifference; but nonetheless he said: If I was not already Alexander I would prefer to be Diogenes!

10 But what was Alexander saying with this? You see, this is the meaning: The whole world pays me homage; but what a battle has it cost me! This man enjoys an almost all-surpassing view of the world and makes himself immortal - and all this immortal reputation cost him only an old barrel!

11 Don't you think that there was no particular difference between the arrogance of Alexander and of Diogenes?! On the contrary Diogenes was in his way even more arrogant than Alexander!

12 It is quite right to want to be the last out of true love and humility; but correct love and humility does not exclude the obedience to the almighty Lord of heaven and earth. Thus if you have the right mind, do only what the Lord wants and everything will then be correct; for the Lord knows best why He wants something!"

13 Floran finally says: "Yes, I will follow you now because you have convinced me in a friendly way that I was clearly incorrect in my mind." And Floran followed the angel, who brought him to Me.

- Chapter 159 -

Floran before the Lord

1 When both come up to Me, the angel says, bowing to the earth before Me: "Lord, here is a ripe apple! His flesh is like that of all people; but in the spirit He is strong and full of unspoilt power. Thus to You alone be all praise and honor from eternity to eternity!"

2 I say: "Good, My Raphael, such fruits are pleasing to Me and very valuable! He is one of Moses and Aaron's kind, it is true; but he has also appropriated the teachings of Plato, Socrates, Pythagoras and Aristotle and is therefore no wind-vane that is blown this way and that, but a solid cedar from Lebanon which knows how to spite the storms! It stands calmly and quietly; but when the storms beat against it, it does not bend! But I will let this tree be until Jerusalem is re-built; it shall give Me roof and gable in My house!

3 Tell Me now, Floran: Are you joyful to see Me?"

4 Floran says: "Lord of life! Who cannot be joyful to see You?! But I am a sinful person and Your holiness says to me: Get away from Me! And look, that is what gives me no joy! I would like to stand before You worthy of You and without sin; but it is impossible, for I have sinned, therefore I am a sinner and I am ashamed before Your holiness. That gives me no joyful heart, but a bitter regret; but this is not suitable to cheer a heart. And yet I am man enough and have understanding which shows me an apology for my sins before You and also shows that I am a person consisting of very many elements, who reaches his completion when the many elements have been dissolved through sinful ferment like a young wine in a skin and has become a pure, tasty wine for everyone.

5 You are the Lord and man is the fruit of Your eternal fight for eternity, nothing but a battle with victory and defeat, in order to one day rise to a new life like a Phoenix out of the ashes of the fire that destroyed it, which becomes one in itself but outwardly remains and must remain an eternal battle!

6 Lord, therefore do not forgive my sin, for it was necessary to call me to the battle to become a new person; but forgive the shame of my frequent defeat and I will rejoice in You, oh Lord!"

7 I say to the disciples: "You see here a person in whose soul there is no wrong! I have loved this person for a long time!"

8 Simon Judah says: "Lord, he seems to be a second Mathael!"

9 I say: "Do you think that one can only be a wise man in the way that Mathael is wise? Look, this Floran is exactly the opposite of Mathael, and nonetheless he is just as wise as Mathael! Mathael has the knowledge of the things of nature and of the tongues of the elders; but Floran knows all religions and all worldly wisdom and cleverness of the elders. And therefore it is more difficult to speak to him than to Mathael; but as he now has been won for us, he will stand as an instrument against all false belief that is among the people of this earth and will battle with much talent and good success without the addition of miracles. And that is better for the children of this earth, so that they do not hold even tighter to the captive court in the soul! For children from above the miracles are a mercy - but not for the children of this world.

10 Since you know in your hearts who I am, you can remain free in your soul if you see Me doing God's work on this earth; but not so the children of the world; for they are forced and captured and have no free thoughts any longer and even less a free mind.

11 But if Floran teaches them with his worldly cleverness, they are placed in a certain light which will brighten the steps in the temple of their hearts enough; once they are there, they have been totally won for all eternity! But you all together are not as clever as Floran alone!"

12 But Floran did not hear that, since I had only spoken to the disciples in their hearts; he asked Me therefore what he should do.

13 And I said: "Go over to your brothers and tell them that I shall also come to them soon!"

14 Floran says nothing at this, but simply makes a bow and hurries to his brothers.

- Chapter 160 -

Floran talks with Stahar and his people about the Lord

1 When he finds himself among his people again after a few steps, Stahar immediately asks him, "Well, how are things? Are we on the right track?"

2 Floran says: "Completely! There is no doubt any longer! He is a person like we are, it is true; but there is something in His being that can only be felt, but not described with words. If He speaks, it sounds as if every word is valid for all eternity! One notices in His words quite clearly that with the words: Let it be so! a world of miracles could be called forth in an instant!

3 He cannot hide His divinity, and if I had come to Him instead of all previous preparations, I would have said to Him on the spot: You are no usual person, in Your breast must live a fullness of the divine spirit!

4 But the wisest preparation was also good so that we could see very easily and clearly with whom we are dealing. He will soon come, He promised me. But when He is here, you will be convinced that I am right!

5 But now I am beginning to comprehend who did the whistle blowing about our behavior in the city to Cyrenius, which was certainly not very praise-worthy - that is, our behavior; but now everything has changed! The situation, about which our Messiah-Jehovah will have had surely a very significant foresight - if yesterday's second sun was not all His doing - has freed us from the old yoke of stupidity with one blow, about which we can all be extremely joyful; for what annoying and insulting madness will the empty temple create for the people in the future, for whose realization we will have to lend a hand again! But now they should just come to us! We will certainly hold our Roman citizenship before their faces so that hearing and seeing will pass away in the best way!

6 We now have the Messiah and an angel from heaven on our side, firstly and most importantly, who seems to be much more powerful than he that lead the young Tobias; and secondly, in the world, we have the supreme governor of all Asia and a part of Africa on our side, who is an uncle of the ruling emperor in Rome. All hell should break loose in Jerusalem and we would still be able to master it in the same way as the angered lion can become lord of any sly fox! What do you say to all that?"

7 Stahar says: "Just that we will be fine for all eternity! Now I fear no-one any longer! To fight for God is good and easy; for God's power is a protective wall which no enemy can destroy in eternity! But I would only like to learn something from one of you - if only very generally - what sort of an assignment will we have for the future! Does anyone of you have an appropriate thought? What do you think, Floran?"

8 Floran says: "I don't think about it and I don't consider it worth the effort under the circumstances, only with a fleeting thought to turn in that direction! We are now with God, and therefore we are cared for not only for this time but for all eternity! Thus, brother, you could have spared yourself this question!

9 Now nothing bothers me in this world any longer; for He whom we found here is everything to me above all! Whatever His will desires, will be my future for all ages of ages! For only He knows totally what we are, what we should be, and what we have to do for the future in order to be what He wants us to be. Therefore every vain care on our part is madness; only when He says to us: Do this or that! then the time will come for us to worry whether we will be able to perform His will, to do His holy will becomes our duty. Look, brother Stahar that is my basic opinion!

10 But let's be calm now; for I notice that the Lord and Cyrenius are getting ready to come over to us! We must collect ourselves in our hearts, otherwise you will not bear His presence! Correct, they are coming! Also the angel and a girl are coming with them; the girl must also be an angel!"

11 Stahar says: "Ah, the girl cannot be an angel; for there has never been a female angel, there will never be and there cannot be! For something must be written in some Scriptures! Thus this maiden can only be the daughter of some rich Jew. She is not a Roman, as you can see from her clothes; the boy, whom Cyrenius is leading by the hand, is certainly a Roman or even the youngest son of the old lord. But the maiden - when looking closely at her - must also be terribly wise; for her solid and gentle gaze is undeniable proof of it."

12 Floran says: "Yes, yes, you must be right; but I do not completely agree with your claim that there are no female angels! There will probably be no gender differences between them; but there will certainly be differences in mind in such a way that they relate to each other like a dear husband to his dearest wife on this earth. And look at the angel, tell yourself whether he resembles rather a very most tender girl than any young boy! Put female clothes on him and you have a girl before you non plus ultra [unsurpassable – the editor], as the Romans say! But now enough talk about nothing. They will be here soon!

- Chapter 161 -

Floran's confession before the Lord and testimony about the temple

1 With slow steps we now come to the fifty, who immediately bow to us deeply. I command them to stand upright as men, and they then immediately straighten themselves up completely.

2 And I ask them, saying: "Do you believe that I am He about whom all the prophets have foretold?"

3 They all say: "Lord, none of us doubt it; but since You are He, how can You then ask us about it, since You know our most secret thoughts before we have even begun to think them?"

4 I say: "May none of you be annoyed with Me because of it; for it is not a matter of what I have, of course, known since the beginning of eternity, but instead a matter of your verbalizing! You will not be able to understand Me before your interior has become your exterior!

5 You can certainly see Me with your eyes and hear My voice with your ears; but nonetheless your heart cannot hear or understand Me in the spirit and in all truth! And therefore I ask you questions; and the answer that you give Me has quite a different effect on your whole life than the one that you give to a person tarred with the same brush as you.

6 Therefore I now ask you once again whether you truly believe quite without a doubt that I am He whom Moses and all the other prophets foretold! Tell Me now without fear what you think in your hearts!"

7 Floran says: "Lord, You understand our nature better than we do! Everything happened so suddenly: the second sun yesterday and its sudden disappearance; the result is still smoking and hides the whole area in clouds; our loss - we have still heard nothing about our wives and children! We fled here, were arrested and brought before the judge; and then the angel's miracles and now You Yourself - and all that in eighteen hours! It is truly no joke, and yet one cannot rid oneself of every previous thought at one go!

8 It seems like a dream to me, and surely to all my companions as well! Everything is true and correct, and nothing that happened here can ever be disputed; but so many extraordinary things happened in a short time that one cannot comprehend it all at once. We believe firmly what is and happens here; and we are as sure and certain that You are clearly the Messiah of whom all the prophets foretold as we are quite sure and certain that the old Roman is the supreme governor of all Asia, that is, as far as it has been conquered by the Romans. But we will need a long period of time before we accept that into our lives!

9 One cannot fell a tree with one stroke, and nor can we quite fully understand such a thing in one go; but we will certainly make every effort and strive above all else to value in all depth of correct understanding everything that happened here namely for our sake, and what we experienced! No man can experience more profound or higher things anywhere on this earth!

10 Thus we all believe firmly and without a doubt that You are the prophesied Messiah, despite Your more or less known lowly parentage, as far as earthly possessions are concerned. Your earthly parents are poor, and Your father was a carpenter in Nazareth, as far as we know. We do not know about Your mother's background, and it is therefore all the more extraordinary that the Savior of all mankind as announced even to the first people of this earth could come into this world in such most extraordinary humility and poverty, since in the spirit He must have had all the advantages of a noble birth at His disposal right from eternity.

11 If You had come into the world from the lap of an empress and did such deeds, where would there be a nation on this earth that would not be subservient to You in all things!? But as the very highest and greatest person, yes, even as the only God Himself in human form, to enter this world to such a lowly birth is something which will annoy many people very much! Certainly that does not matter to us any longer, and we are therefore more satisfied; but not all people will think as we do now - by no means the proud Jerusalemites, and least of all the templars! For we know them; they know only one person in the world whom they love and revere - everything else is rubbish - and this person, for every templar without the least exception, is himself! He alone is loved and honored above all by each person, every other, even if he were a god, is extremely despised; only at times an extraordinary external gleam can impress them a little.

12 If You, oh Lord, would come to Jerusalem today and allow it, they would kill Your flesh in the first three days; for the templars recognize no-one - except someone from among themselves. One may well kill the other; but since one is useful to the other to achieve his highly selfish purposes, one mutually tolerates the other under the mask of the most feigned friendship.

13 No-one trusts the other further than he can throw him; but nonetheless each person feigns towards the other an unconditional trust. But if he needs him for any business, his neighbor cannot place enough bond money on him so that he is obliged to act honestly. But even the bond is of no use! If he who is entrusted with a business errand sees himself at an advantage despite the bond placed on him, he will forfeit the bond money and put the much greater advantage nicely into his pocket.

14 There is much that can be said about people there; but since You, oh Lord, will anyway be very familiar with all that, every further word from my mouth would be idle madness, and I tell You therefore that we believe quite firmly in You; for You had to come in order to put an end to all these atrocities for all time."

- Chapter 162 -

The avenues of divine guidance

1 I say: "Listen, My dear Floran, you have humbled yourself before Me much more than I demanded of you; but it doesn't matter, and it was quite right for you to do so!

2 Yes, I will put an end to the atrocities in Jerusalem and in other places, but many must share your conviction! There are still many who in their great blindness still stick firmly to the temple and expect every salvation and all help from its halls; if one were to take these blind people away from the temple now immediately, they would not see it as a great blessing from above, but as a most terrible punishment, and would become most terribly and wildly desperate, which would then have a much worse consequence than the present blindness, no matter how complete. You now are seen as the representatives of the temple and the distributors of the salvation which fills the temple.

3 But what am I trying to say with this? Nothing but this: you should show the people gradually, and, wherever there is a good response, also all in one go what the temple is now, what its servants do and how they are conditioned!

4 But at the same time you should draw their attention to what you have seen and heard here, and then the terrible business of the temple and the temple itself will be buried under the best and most effective order, and in the end it will sink into nothingness and thereby stop being what it is; and in its place will enter the new temple of the Spirit of God, from which a very new Jerusalem will be built in heaven.

5 Certainly you will have to begin this good business as secretively as possible; you can do that all the easier since you are now full Roman citizens and the temple cannot touch you because the sword of Rome is between you and the temple and stands guard.

6 This is therefore a duty which I entrust to you. Guard it and the reward will not be forgotten; you can be fully assured of that! Do you agree to this?"

7 Stahar says: "Lord, will we take up our old post in Caesarea-Philippi again, or should we turn elsewhere?"

8 I say: "You will remain here in Caesarea-Philippi and be under the direction of this host of ours, Mark, to whom Cyrenius and I will give power over this whole area, and to whom it has actually already been given for the most part. The area of Caesarea-Philippi is large and encompasses many hundred thousand people; once they find the light, the light will then spread out of its own accord. But it will be left to your own discretion to put this into practice!"

9 Stahar says: "Lord, that would all be quite good and correct, but now the whole city is a heap of rubble and ash! We have no houses, and our synagogue was one of the first buildings that succumbed to the flames. Where will we sleep?"

10 I say: "Let that be the least of your worries! If I wanted it, a complete world, not to mention such a little town, would stand before you in an instant! In any case Cyrenius will put every means, supported through My mercy, to active use and thereby take care of your accommodation. In addition the high guests expected since this morning will soon arrive here and then much will be determined and decided."

11 Stahar bows deeply and then says quietly as if to Floran: "The Almighty nonetheless speaks like a person, which pleases me very much; but He could put a final end to the temple and to arrogant Jerusalem with just one thought! Why then the extended erosion?"

12 Floran says: "Look, brother that happens because we are both still asses who have no idea at all about the divine order !

13 If you see a very green, unripe and rock-hard fruit hanging on a tree in spring, then you would immediately like to have some almighty! You would like to say effectively: Fiat! [Let it happen – the editor], and all the figs, apples, pears, plums and grapes should become ripe in an instant! But the all-mighty Creator has decided things otherwise, as daily and yearly experience shows. Should we then ask: The Almighty knows the needs of man; why does He then hesitate so much with the ripening of the fruit?

14 Man must also remain a foolish child for years, in order to gradually grow up into a man, while the sparrow is a quite complete sparrow only fourteen days after its birth and knows all about its airy home very well. Yes, most animals already have the most sufficient knowledge about their home right from their birth - and man needs almost twenty years to only begin to know a little about the dear world! He, the lord of nature, must wait the longest in order to be what he has been destined to become! Could one not say: Lord, You Almighty One, why have You not looked after man better, Your favorite - why must a human, of all things, have to wait so long to become a human?!

15 You see, that is how things are in the certainly very incomprehensible order of God, and it will be so also in the measure of His order that we must undermine the temple gradually; for a sudden destruction would put the many blind people, to whom the temple is all-in-all, into the greatest despair - which would be much worse than bearing the deceptions of its crafty servants for a little time longer!

16 You see, I have recognized the Lord's sense a little and I don't understand how that has completely passed you by! I also don't understand how you could ask the Lord about our worldly accommodation! Is it not enough then when He says that we should do this and that?! It has been long known that he who employs me for work will also give me accommodation! If even the selfish people do that, however, how much more will the Lord of heaven and earth do without us having to ask Him!

17 You see, that was very human of you, my dear brother! For through such a question you have obviously brought to the brightest light of day your multi-faceted disbelief, and with rights nothing other can be thought of you than that you still hide a hefty portion of disbelief in yourself, to which you must bid farewell now for all time!"

- Chapter 163 -

Suggestions for the mission work in the vineyard of the Lord

1 I say to Floran: "Friend! Your flesh does not tell you that, but instead the spirit that is within you from above! There is a spirit in Stahar as well, it is true; but it is still dormant and so his flesh speaks more than his spirit. But each man worries above all about what is dearest to him. The dearest thing for someone through whom an animated spirit speaks is his spirit, therefore his care is directed above all towards what concerns his spirit; but he who is more flesh and thinks and desires from the flesh loves the flesh the most and he therefore cares above all about his flesh and pushes the care for his spirit into the background.

2 That's how people and things are in this world; but when our Stahar is of a more animated spirit, he will also take care above all of those things which are of the spirit.

3 You see, that is the correct concern for the spirit, that your heart will be full of love for God and for your neighbor!

4 It is easy to love good and honest people and to get on with them; but to go to the sinners and bring them to the correct path; that is a task which demands much self-denial.

5 For if you walk in the street with a whore and an adulteress, people will point their fingers at you and do things to you which will not honor you before the world; but if you bring the whore and the adulteress back to the correct path, you will be given a great reward from God, and the smallest part of this is of more value than a whole world full of the most shining honor.

6 Whoever brings a lost person back to Me will receive more reward than one who has guarded well a hundred lambs on a safe pasture. For it is a very easy task to keep an honest person honorable and virtuous; but to lift someone who is despised by everyone up to honor again and to make a virtuous hero out of an arch-sinner says significantly more! And only that is seen favorably by Me - but the former is only the work of a lazy fellow!

7 I am the all-highest, if you will accept that, and I seek and take only the despised and lost in the eyes of the world. For the healthy certainly do not need a doctor!

8 If you accordingly want to completely be My true disciples and servants, you must also be what I am in all things.

9 If you see a blind man strolling on the street and also see that the path he is treading is a highly dangerous one particularly for a blind person, will you not immediately take the blind walker by the arm and say to him: Listen, friend, the path that you are now walking is very dangerous; let me lead you so that you do not fall off a precipice! And if he then trusts your word, will you be ashamed to lead a blind man? Certainly none of you all!

10 But a sinner is often much blinder spiritually than the physically blind; therefore who can be ashamed to take a blind man by the arm?!

11 Therefore in the future let no sinner be too great for you so that you are ashamed to be a leader for him!

12 Remember this lesson above all, and consider it in your hearts, and you will begin to see clearly and plainly the light path of life and everything else coming from it!

13 But now ships on the sea are nearing this shore; these are bringing the guests we talked about. They will bring you much light."

- Chapter 164 -

Boats with guests in sight

1 Mark and both his sons notice from the house that ships are arriving; they hurry to the shore as good sailors and look to see whether there is something wrong with the ships.

2 Cyrenius and all the Romans and Greeks also hurry to the shore to see what the three ships are bringing. But these are still quite far away on the sea and are still about an hour's journey from the shore, and all the observers cannot yet make out what is on the three significantly large ships.

3 Cyrenius therefore asks me about it and I say: "Those who we have been awaiting since this morning! They have had to sail against the wind, and the sea was rough; they had to seek a harbor on the other side in order to let the wind run its course, and that is the reason for their delay. It is already a full hour after midday and they would need another full hour to reach here, since they still have to fight a gentle counter-wind with their oars. But it is now up to us to help them, and that will shorten their path and the time by a lot."

4 Cyrenius says: "Lord! Don't You want to send Raphael to them, as You did yesterday for Ouran?"

5 I say: "It is not necessary at all; for there is no danger threatening these people as Ouran was threatened yesterday! Mark and his sons will manage very easily with these three medium-sized vessels, and we will have them here in a short half hour!"

6 Cyrenius says: "But Lord, don't You want to perform any miracle at all today?"

7 I say: "Haven't you read in Moses: 'And on the seventh day the creating Spirit of God rested, and the seventh day therefore became the Sabbath'?! If I now keep the Sabbath a little, then I am doing right, since I have worked industriously for a full six days beforehand! In addition I have now all sorts of servants around Me who now are and can be active in My name and in all power!"

8 Cyrenius says: "Lord that means something special once again; for I cannot understand the sense of Your teaching at all!"

9 I say: "Well, then ask someone and everything will be made clear to you! But I am now taking a short rest not for My sake, but for yours, in order to give you the opportunity to act, and so I am also active in all of you. Don't you understand that then?"

10 Cyrenius says: "Yes, yes, now I understand it! I can also now imagine why!"

11 I say: "There you have no difficult task, since I explained it to you all very clearly this morning! Before the midday meal I will do nothing of My own doing, there will be enough opportunity after the meal to be able to do something; but if I speak, then I am nonetheless doing something before the midday meal.

12 But now Mark must be told to send both his sons towards the ships, but that he himself should see to it that the tables will be well prepared; for the expected guests will arrive very exhausted and hungry and thirsty, likewise their servants and the poor, tired sailors."

13 At this I signal to Mark, and he understood My sign, had both his sons set off powerfully across the sea, and he hurried into the house and put everything into the most active motion.

14 It also became lively in Ouran's tents; for Mathael and his four companions, his young wife Helena and Ouran the king noticed the ships from the tents which they had occupied an hour ago with Herme's family, the familiar messenger from Caesarea-Philippi, in order to change their clothes and to dress Mathael in regal clothes so that he would stand before the arrivals as what he is.

15 Ouran hurries to Me and asks Me in all humility: "Lord, what will the ships bring? Will it be the expected very high guests?"

16 I say: "My friend that was asked very courteously! In our presence there are no high and no low guests, but instead only brothers from A to Z. If I can be called your friend and brother, why should there be high and low among you people? I tell you: The Almighty is alone a justified Lord among you, but you are all brothers among each other and servants of the Lord!

17 Or do you think that the kings are more highly regarded by Me than their lowest servants just because they are kings? Oh, not at all! Only the heart decides; the king must know in his heart why he is a king and the servant, why he is a servant, otherwise king and lowest servant stand before Me on the same level, down at the bottom.

18 So remember this, My dear friend Ouran, that there are no high and no low guests before Me, but only children, brothers and sisters!"

19 Ouran, however, was also quite satisfied with this reprimand bowed deeply and then asked nothing further.

- Chapter 165 -

About the dangers of haughtiness

1 But when he came up to Mathael, he (Ouran) said: "Today one cannot talk to the Lord! I asked Him very modestly whether the high guests that were announced were arriving, but I received such a strict lecture for my words that I will certainly remember them all the better since they were just so harsh and dry! Today the Lord is like another person! Yesterday He was love and kindness itself, but today everyone that comes near Him will receive a very measured lesson! I don't understand it at all!"

2 Mathael says: "But I do! How could it ever occur to me in my dreams to ask the very highest, all-mighty Lord which "high" guests are coming from somewhere or other?! What are we people, and who is He?! And He makes nothing of Himself in our presence, is full of love and humility, and we wanted to speak before Him about some high guests?! That, my very dearest father-in-law, was truly a little too strong, and the Lord could not possibly give you another answer to this question; for if you had asked me the same thing I hardly know whether my answer would not have been even coarser and harsher! But the Lord, as the constantly gentlest person, dispassionately allows a mistake only so that we should recognize that we have erred. Go over there and admit it, and you will immediately receive other words from Him!"

3 Ouran says: "You are completely right again; oh, if I have erred, the mistake must be made good again immediately!"

4 With these words Ouran immediately left his tents again, headed over to Me and said: "Lord, I made a great mistake earlier with my vain question before You! Forgive me; for I did not do it through my own will but - speaking honestly - through my habitual foolishness, as You, oh Lord, will have seen quite accurately!"

5 I say: "My friend; whoever recognizes his mistakes and repents, is forgiven forever, and whoever then turns to Me is doubly forgiven!

6 But whoever recognizes his mistakes, but keeps them in his nature, he is not forgiven, even if he came to Me a hundred times!

7 For I tell you: whoever comes to Me and says: Lord, Lord!, he is not my friend by a long shot, but instead only he who does My will; this will however does not want you to elevate yourselves above other people because of a position!

8 Yes, you should always be faithful to your position, act well and just - but never forget for an instant that those over whom you perform your duty are completely equal to you in birth and are thus your brothers!

9 True love for your neighbor however can be learned through the true love that you have for Me as little children.

10 When it is necessary, make use of your reputation and the honor of your position, but you yourselves be full of humility and love, and your judgment over your brothers and sisters who have gone astray will always be just according to My order!

11 I told you what I have told you only in order to show you My order and My will; for I tell you: whoever does not get rid of every smallest mote of arrogance will in the future not have My kingdom revealed to him in the spirit, and he will not go there before he has removed the very last mote of arrogance from himself!

12 Now go and tell this to everyone who you discover has any trace of arrogance!"

13 After these words Ouran bowed again deeply according to his custom and quickly headed to his people. And Mathael asked him how I took his words.

14 Ouran then says: "The Lord was very merciful to me and showed me the truth and the order and the justice in true humility, and I am as happy again as before."

15 Mathael says: "Yes, father and brother in true humility! Our position is truly an eminent position in comparison with millions of our brothers and sisters - but also a difficult position in the face of the almighty God! One must be very careful that one does not get caught up in the eminence of the high position, where one then becomes very proud and arrogant and considers oneself to be more than a person who has been anointed by God to serve his brothers as best he can and so in a certain way to be a servant of servants.

16 And whoever exalts himself because of our position and standing will be easily humiliated, as we can easily see in the whole line of kings of Judea. But how it was then will remain also until the end of the world! It is very difficult to rejoice in gold and jewels and nonetheless be more humble in the heart than any of one's servants! Only the mercy and great compassion of the Lord can keep a king in the middle of his earthly splendor at the same point in the order of heaven!"

17 Ouran says: "Yes, you are right! But now the three ships are coming very close to the shore; let's go there so that we can greet the arrivals!"

18 Then everyone hurries down to the lower berth.

- Chapter 166 -

Joy of reunion after the arrival of the guests

1 When the arrivals step onto the land and immediately catch sight of Me, they all spread out their arms wide and weep with joy to see Me again.

2 Cornelius also immediately greets his brother Cyrenius and says: "Yes, if you are all here, there will certainly be no other job for me to do than to rejoice head over heels to be blessed to be among you again!"

3 Faustus, Kisjonah and Philopold however cannot yet pronounce a single word; but the servants are also amazed to meet Me again here.

4 Cyrenius asks Cornelius when he had heard about the fate of the city of Caesarea-Philippi.

5 Cornelius says: "I actually didn't hear it from any messenger, instead I only strongly suspected it myself! Yesterday was a spectacular day in every respect: first a full solar eclipse which gave us a complete night for a good thirty moments in the middle of the day; but in the evening when it should actually have been night, it pleased the sun to remain a few hours longer over the horizon, which naturally made an indescribable impression on the Jews, Greeks and Romans.

6 If the present leader of the Pharisees, who is now a great friend of our old Jairus, was not a very wise and sober man, and his neighbor in Nazareth likewise both cities could have been consumed by flames; but the leaders gave very clever speeches to the outwardly anxiously excited people, and they accepted the lesson and for the most part calmed down. I had those who were too worked up brought into custody, instructed them and set them free again this morning.

7 But while I established peace again in Capernaum and Faustus in Nazareth, Faustus soon came to me in Capernaum out of breath; for in Nazareth he discovered a strong glow of fire from this direction and thought that something might have happened in Capernaum. But when he arrived in Capernaum he found everything at peace, nonetheless he came to me and gave me the news of the strong glow of fire. I went with him and with many servants on the most significant hill in the vicinity of Capernaum. We saw the redness increasingly better and stronger from there; but it was impossible for any of us to determine which place the misfortune had befallen. Only this morning, when the sun allowed us to recognize the area without a doubt and I, although from a great distance, recognized from the heavy smoke that it must come from the area around Caesarea-Philippi, I decided to steer in this direction per mare [across the sea – the editor] with Faustus and to find out what had fallen to the flames here.

8 Just as I came down to the sea and wanted to board a ship, our Kisjonah arrived with Philopold and brought me the message that he had unmistakably seen Caesarea-Philippi in flames from a significant height in his mountains.

9 At this news, which the temporary seer Philopold also confirmed, we hurriedly boarded the ship of a friend of Kisjonah and sailed straight here, as well as was possible despite a head-wind. On the way I convinced myself many times on the rough sea that it was Caesarea-Philippi, and was greatly afraid of what would have to be done here.

10 But now here, this unexpected holy meeting with the Lord of all magnificence, with His disciples and with you, my dearest brother! Ah, now all fear has gone! For everything has long been in the best order!

11 But now to You, my all, my greatest friend, my holiest Master of eternity! Oh, my best friend Jesus! Look, now all Your omnipotence is of no use against my too great love for You! You must now let me smother You in an embrace! I have done it many times every day in the spirit; but now I am finally doing it also in physical reality!"

12 With these words Cornelius embraced Me, pressed Me almost painfully to his heart and covered My head with the warmest kisses and tears of the highest joy. After he had satisfied the desire of his noble heart in this way, he gently let Me go again and said, touched through and through: "Lord, Master, God and Creator of infinity, spiritually and materially! Do tell me what good things I should do now! You know my heart!"

13 I said: "You also know My heart! Do what your heart tells you in My name, and you will have then done enough for you and for Me! But since because of the desire in your heart you have done such a powerful thing to Me as no-one has ever done to Me before, I will also do another powerful thing to you on this earth soon after My ascension, as a consequence of which neither you nor any member of your house shall ever see, or feel or taste death in the body!

14 Your display of love has delighted Me right into My innermost being, and you have thereby shown Me something, the likes of which eternity has not yet shown until this moment - except by small children who sooner recognize the Father than adults. But now let Me embrace you in return!"

15 Cornelius, crying with joy, says: "Lord, Master and God, I am eternally unworthy of such endlessly holy mercy!"

16 I say: "Well then, I make you worthy of it; come to Me!"

17 Cornelius came to Me and I embraced him. At this he began to cry loudly and sob, and many thought that something was wrong with him, since he was crying so. But he got control of himself again and said: "Be still! Nothing is wrong with me, instead everything is most right with me, and the joy unleashes these tears."

18 Now Kisjonah steps up to Me asking Me quite sadly: "Lord, are You also considering me and are You not annoyed with me?"

19 I say: "My brother, how can you come to Me with such a question?! You love Me above all else and I love you to the same degree - what more do you want? Don't you know then how I said to you in confidence that we will remain friends and brothers for eternity?! And look, whatever I say remains so for eternity; if you also remain as you are, this will apply to you too! Are you not satisfied with that?"

20 Kisjonah says: "Oh Lord, I am indescribably satisfied with that, and I am truly blessed to hear once again a most holy word from Your holiest mouth!"

21 I say to Kisjonah: "You will hear a lot more! But look at the fifty Pharisees and you will recognize some who were there at the great event which befell you!"

22 Kisjonah, Cornelius and Faustus observe the fifty intently, and Kisjonah, who had a particularly good memory for facts, immediately found eight men who had been with the great transportation across the mountains, and then said: "Well, what are they doing here?! Are they here as prisoners, since they were perhaps caught at another transport or other rogue activities?"

23 I say: "None of that! Yesterday's late sun and the following fire in the city, for which they of course bear the greatest blame, brought them into our hands, but they are now completely ours and are full citizens of Rome.

24 For look, I have been staying here about seven days, and that is simply because of the good fishing spot; here one gets the noblest fish from the natural sea and likewise also the noblest spiritual fish from the spiritual sea! And we have already really reaped a highly remarkable and notable harvest in this time!

25 Just look at the fifty; that is today's catch, and no bad ones among them! Furthermore you see there another group of thirty, all in perfect health - yesterday's catch! Then you see twelve at the table, also very healthy; likewise a catch from yesterday! There by the tents you see another five of the most exquisite type; also from yesterday! Tell Me whether that is not honest work!"

26 Kisjonah says: "Yes, truly; if these have all been won over, then the Kingdom of God on this earth that You have announced has taken a great step forward, and all the more so because they seem to be almost all sheer templars, among whom the older ones are very difficult to transform! Naturally once they have been converted they have a conviction as firm as a rock!

27 But I notice also the upright Ebahl from Genezareth with one of his daughters; does he not belong to those who were captured?"

28 I say: "Certainly; but he already came into our net at the great catch in Genezareth with his whole house, and the girl was one of the noblest little fish among them! You will get to know all that better and will take great joy in her; as far as the purest wisdom of the mind is concerned and also the purity of the heart, very few people here can equal her! I bear this witness of the girl, do you want a better and more believable one?"

29 Kisjonah says: "Oh Lord! Your witness supersedes everything else! But I am looking forward to being able to talk to the girl at all."

30 Faustus asks Me: "But are those king's tents over there!? The old man with the completely regal clothes - also the young man who is now speaking to the young woman! Do they also belong to the captives for the heaven of all love and all light?"

31 I say: "Certainly; that is a king from the Pontus! His kingdom is big, and he has led his people very wisely through mild laws which nonetheless must be extremely strictly followed. He became aware that in order to make a great nation very happy one must first recognize the truth and the only true God oneself. He set off and moved south, since he had heard that such a thing could only be found in Jerusalem. On this journey he came to this inland sea and wanted to cross it in order to reach Jerusalem.

32 But he was in great danger because of yesterday's eclipse, from which I had My angel save him and bring him here, and so he is now here. He and his daughter Helena were the only ones who came here with their small crew of servants.

33 But the young king was formerly also a prospective templar and as a very talented person he had to go out into the world as a missionary. But on the border between Judea and Samaria he and four companions fell into the hands of robbers and were obliged to become possessed by them along with his companions. Sunk into anger and desperation the souls of the five hid under the wings of their spirits, and their bodies were taken fullest and most active possession of by the extremely most stubborn, worst spirits of infernal background. Only the significant power of punishment by the Romans succeeded in capturing the five devils, as the people called them. Only under the strongest cover and thoroughly bound with the heaviest chains could they be brought here the evening before last. According to the strict laws of Rome they expected nothing other than the most humiliating execution in Sidon.

34 But I saw their souls and their spirit, purified their bodies from the terrible spirits of hell, and you can now talk to them in order to convince yourself with whose children you are dealing! But namely Mathael - now the husband of the daughter of the king and now himself a king - is a person before whom every respectable citizen should lift his hat.

35 He is, as far as it was possible so far, fully reborn in the spirit and will be an effective instrument for Me against the heathens of the great north. If you speak to him you will learn yourself what kind of a spirit he is."

36 Cornelius asks: "But Lord, who is that youth then - not Josoe, whom we already know from Nazareth, but the other, who is talking to the girl right now?"

37 I say: "That is the angel about whom I said that he had saved the old king along with his daughter yesterday. He has now been among mortal people almost three weeks, and I have given him particularly to the girl as a teacher; however, he is at the disposal of all who are Mine."

38 Philopold asks: "Who is the inn-keeper here, and what name does he bear?"

39 I say: "He is a Roman veteran, an extremely faithful and truth-loving soul; he has six children in all, two sons and four very dear, dutiful daughters, and likewise a model good wife, who knows no other will than that of her honest husband.

40 Therefore it pleased Me also to take accommodation with this previously very poor family; and you will see how these eight people now will prepare a midday meal for hundreds of people, in which you can take a real joy. Look, the old inn-keeper is already coming towards us in order to announce to us that the midday meal is completely prepared!"

- Chapter 167 -

The prophecies about the incarnation of the Lord

1 Once I had said this, our Mark was also already there and said that the midday meal was ready, and asked whether he should have it brought out; for it was already around the ninth hour of the day (3pm).

2 And I said: "Have it served; for the expected guests are already present, and everything is in the best order!"

3 Cornelius calls old Mark and says: "Well, old brother in arms, don't you recognize me anymore? Don't you remember how you were with me in Illyria and Pannonia? I was then more a boy than a warrior; but since that time 45 years have gone by and I am almost sixty now!"

4 Mark says: "Oh high commander, that is still very fresh in my memory! A lot of seriousness was required to keep those quarrel- and strife-loving people in a bearable order. In the beginning things didn't go too well for us on the Upper Ister (Danube) in the area of Vindobona; but in a few years we had done it and we experienced very happy hours there.

5 The customs and traditions of those Germans were truly somewhat rough for us Romans; but once we gradually managed to give them more open-minded education, things were then quite bearable. The wine they made was truly weak and bitter; but it was drinkable once one was used to it.

6 But not far from the area of Vindobona, upstream on the Ister, where we hunted boar and also, I believe, caught about forty of them, we found a long-bearded German seer and priest who sat on an oak during our boar hunt and watched us fighting with the boars. This man said something in the Roman language and also said to both of us, when we were slaughtering a boar under his oak:

7 Remember this well, both of you brave boys! In Asia, in the land over the waters, something great is waiting for you! You will see something there that no mortal eye has ever seen before! Here reigns only death; as the powerful boar met his end under the sharpness of your lances and swords, so everything meets its end in this land of death! But in Asia life is blooming; whoever is there will never see death!

8 Then he fell silent and when we pressed him further he gave us no more answer, and we went on, looking for more boars. But look, the old man prophesied in full seriousness and we are now experiencing what the old German prophesied!"

9 Cornelius says: "You know, I had almost forgotten that old German! Correct, correct, you are right! We must talk in more detail about that!"

10 Old Mark went to lay the tables with the dishes with the help of Cyrenius and Julius, and Cornelius said to Me: "Lord, what do You say then to the prophesy of the German, which was actually made many years ago in Europe to me and to old Mark, who must be about ten years older than me?"

11 I say: "All the nations who have been scattered across the wide earth have been given a prophesy about Me and My present coming to the people of this earth right from the first man of the earth, and their priests always knew how to beat a certain path to spiritual enlightenment through myths and the inner desire in their hearts and often prophesied in very confusing images which, in the end, even they themselves did not understand.

12 Only in repeated ecstasies of enthusiasm they could some sometimes achieve a clearer sight and then explained their previous visions a little closer.

13 It was the same with the Germans. And this German found himself in a clairvoyant ecstasy on his oak, whose vapor, along w ith the fear of your lances and spears, helped him reach this state - and then he prophesied to you. When he awoke from the prophesying again, he did not remember anything that he had said, and could not give you any further answer to your pressing.

14 You see, that is the essence of such prophesies! If you want to accept it, the witch of Endor was also in a clairvoyant ecstasy in those days when Saul forced her to evoke the spirit of Samuel, although she generally was only connected to the unnatural being of the terrible spirits and therefore prophesied lies and guile and deception.

15 No man is so dead and evil that he would not bring forth a correct prophesy at a certain time; but this is no reason for every prophecy of his to be true, but instead is only true for this one instance.

16 The oracles of Dodona and of Delphi often made very wise prophesies; but after every true one followed a thousand false and untruthful ones.

17 So it cannot be denied that certain clairvoyants and prophets even worked miracles; but at the same time others invented a large number of illusions through the influence of evil spirits and through the worldly understanding awakened by these beings, and they then led whole nations astray for thousands of years, and they lived well and quite carefree until some enlightened seer pointed out and stopped their crafty deeds

18 But that was never easy; for a once mistaken nation does not easily let itself be brought back to the correct path, and their false priests least of all, because their great, worldly advantages are put at risk.

19 You all have the opportunity to convince yourself now how difficult it is even for Me, and yet I speak as no seer has ever spoken before Me, and I do deeds that were never heard of before Me! All heaven stands open, angels come down and serve Me, and bear witness of Me and yet there are even disciples who are now always around Me and see, hear and experience everything, but their belief still resembles a wind vane and a weak pipe which is turned in every direction by the wind, from wherever it comes! Well, I am not even talking about other worldly people here!"

- Chapter 168 -

Guidance of the individuals and the peoples

1 "I could certainly convert all people in an instant through My all-powerful will, of course; but where would that leave the power of sustenance and freedom of their spirit which should be gained on its own?!

3 But it is also just as difficult to prevent such mistakes returning again; for true and false, and good and bad must be presented to the spiritual part of a person for his free investigation, recognition and choice, otherwise he will never be brought to clear thinking.

4 He must find himself in an ongoing battle, otherwise he will fall asleep and his life must constantly have new opportunities to exert itself and thereby maintain itself, strengthen itself and in this way achieve its perfection.

5 If I did not allow mistakes to ever occur among the people, but only truth with its determined and fully necessary effects, people would resemble a very rich and voluptuous glutton, who finally take care of nothing other than dumbly ensuring that his belly receives its fill at the right time!

6 If we only provide what is best for a person's body, you can be completely sure that there will soon be no priests, no king, no soldiers, but also no townspeople, no peasants and no workers or artisans anymore; for why should he work or be active in anything, since he is already supplied anyway in abundance with the best of everything for all his life?!

7 Therefore there must be need and misery among the people, and pain and suffering, so that man does not die in a most inactive lethargy!

8 You now see from that why everything must be just so among the people, so that they are encouraged to take on all sorts of activities; and for this reason it is then just as impossible to prevent mistakes creeping in as it is to get rid of the mistakes at the end.

9 And the constantly bad consequences which follow the mistakes are finally the most useful means to drive out the mistakes and to spread the truth.

10 Man must begin to feel deeply and actively the screaming necessity of truth and seek it fully and seriously through affliction and misery, which stem from lies and from the various forms of deception, just as old Ouran from the Pontus sought it, then man will soon find the truth as Ouran found it, and only then will the truth, which has been sought under all sorts of necessary afflictions be truly useful to man; but if he found it as easily as the eye finds the sun in the bright firmament, it would have all too soon no value for him any longer, and he would chase after a lie, in order to amuse himself, just as the wanderer seeks as much shade as possible during the day; and the denser he finds it, the dearer it is to him.

11 The people of this earth are just as they must be in their foundations in order to finally become a human being; but then all their outer circumstances must come together so that the person, forced by these, will become a true person!

12 But the full, naked truth cannot be given to man in general not even by Me now, but only hidden in parables and images, so that he can work it out from these images by seeking. I only speak to you few without retention; but those you tell it to should also not receive it completely naked, but also a little hidden, so that they will have the opportunity to think freely and act freely. And so that you yourselves do not become lukewarm, I also say to you:

13 I have a lot more to tell you, but you would not be able to bear it yet; but when the spirit of truth comes over you and your children, it will lead you into all truth. And so you will then do the same for this earth in all truth and will then receive the key into your hands to the endless many truths of heaven, through which constantly new and deeper unfolding you will also receive more and more to do in eternity!

14 But now Mark is calling us to the table, and that is also a truth, and we want to follow it!"

- Chapter 169 -

The big group meal at Mark's

1 Cornelius throws himself around My neck again at this speech and says, deeply moved, "Yes, only a God, and never a person, can say such words to the people!"

2 I say: "Yes, quite right and in all order you bear Me a good witness, and it will bring forth the best fruit for you! Your flesh and blood does not give you this, but your spirit, which is of God, just as Mine is, and therefore you are a true friend and brother to Me.

3 But now, since we are in the flesh, under the cover of external need let us follow the call which goes forth from the flesh!"

4 Everyone complies, and we go to the tables on which well-prepared fish of the noblest sort are waiting for us.

5 At the table where I sit down, Cyrenius sits on My right, beside him Cornelius, and opposite us sit Faustus, Kisjonah, Julius and Philopold; on my left sits Jarah, then Raphael, the boy Josoe and then Ebahl. The lower long arm to the left is occupied by My disciples and the upper right arm by the royal family of Ouran with Mathael, Rob, Boz, Micha and Zahr.

6 The fifty Pharisees take another very long table; this runs parallel to My table and is before My eyes, and Stahar and Floran sit right in the middle so that they can see My face.

7 The thirty young Pharisees and Levites occupy a third table, behind Me; their spokesmen Hebram and Risa sit directly behind My back, but with their faces turned towards Me.

8 Beyond the left arm of My table which is beyond My disciples, is a shorter table at right angles with the twelve under their spokesmen Suetal, Ribar and Bael; and at the uppermost arm right behind Ouran there is another small table at which poor Herme, the familiar messenger from Caesarea-Philippi, is sitting with his now stately-clothed wife, three daughters of his own and a fourth adopted daughter. So everyone who belongs to Me is now well looked after.

9 But the servants have their tables more outside and were likewise best cared-for, as well as the several hundred soldiers who had to look after their own accommodation in their camp, as was always the tradition among the Romans.

10 Everyone including us is now occupied with the necessary strengthening of the limbs and the intestines, and everyone praises Me for such an extraordinarily strengthening serving.

11 The fish, the bread, all sorts of good and sweet fruit - like figs, pears, apples, plums and even grapes - cover the tables, and there is no lack of the best wine anywhere; there is not even one person at any table who was not possessed by a healthy desire to eat, and old Mark, both his sons and also a couple of his older daughters hurry here and there and leave no-one lacking!

12 Gradually the wine loosens the tongues, and it becomes louder and louder here and there at the tables. Also at My table all sorts of wonderment is expressed about the food and drink, yes, even My Jarah becomes more lively and cannot praise the sweet grapes enough, especially since it was not yet the season for grapes.

13 My disciples also begin to become very talkative, which was seldom the case. Only Judas Iscariot was silent; for he still had a great fish to tackle, and the significant beaker of wine before him also occupied him too much for him to take the time to enter into a conversation with anyone. Thomas had actually nudged him a few times; but Judas had noticed nothing, and that was good, because otherwise he would have soon brought something improper to light.

14 But on My left side Jarah was paying very good attention to whether an opportunity would arise for her to give this disciple whom she very much disliked a very firm blow; but this time Judas Iscariot could not be torn away from his desire to eat and drink at any price.

15 But when he had finally finished his great fish, he made another motion as if to grab another one, no smaller; but Raphael was somewhat faster and got there before Judas Iscariot. Well - that gave call for a little smirking cheerfulness, and My Jarah could only suppress the outbreak of a loud laugh with difficulty.

16 I asked Jarah what was wrong with her then.

17 And the maiden said: "Oh Lord, my love, how can You ask a person whose innermost is more open to You than the exterior form of a beaker is to us?! Did You, oh Lord, not notice then how the disciple Judas Iscariot had sought out the very greatest, certainly ten-pound-heavy fish for himself and also the largest beaker?! A few large pieces of bread went down into his stomach besides!

18 But now he wanted to take the second-largest fish for himself as well, but my Raphael, noticing the justified annoyance of the other disciples, reached forward before the gluttonous Judas Iscariot and so saved the fish from the eating frenzy of Judas Iscariot. Well, that is the actual reason why I could hardly hold back a laugh!

19 I know very well from Genezareth that one should actually never laugh except alone out of love and friendship; but here things were seriously so amusing that I could hardly hold back a laugh. I think that it is not such a great mistake if one laughs at a very gluttonous greed if he fails with a highly selfish matter; for one can also think that such an act would improve him - and it should then be allowed to smirk a little!"

20 I say: "Sin, My very dearest Jarah, it is not exactly; but if one can avoid it, one has done something better. You see, if one observes such a greedy person with a certain seriousness, he admonishes himself and stops his greedy tendency; but if one laughs at him, he becomes angry and then makes a point of carrying out his tendency towards greed twice as much!

21 Judas Iscariot is greedy, and also a thief on occasion; for whoever constantly seeks to betray his neighbor, and actually betrays him, is a thief.

22 If he sees laughing faces at his selfish action, he believes that they take pleasure in his joke-like trickery, and then carries out his villainy even more intensively; but if he is observed, as I said before, with a certain strictness from all sides at his trickery and at even the first attempt, he will drop his bad habit and save it for another time. For there is not easily a hope of totally improving a greedy person! But it is nonetheless good to prevent him as often as possible from carrying out any selfish action; he gradually loses thereby the terrible courage because of the constantly unsuccessful attempts and leaves the bad things, if not out of contempt, then at least out of anger.

23 Look, My very dearest little daughter, for this reason that I have just shown you it is therefore better not to laugh at anyone for having some planned trickery not succeed!"

- Chapter 170 -

The contradiction between wanting and doing

1 Jarah says: "Yes, Lord, my only love that would be correct in all things and actually best of all if one only had a purely divine teaching at one's side at the same time! But we people are often so blind - and especially in the moments when we should see the sharpest - so that we do not see the wood for all the trees! And it is not a pick better with the true wisdom of life in the important moments of life. There where we need it the most, it fails us; and when we do not need it to a great degree, we are full of higher thoughts and ideas! Therefore it is always a strange thing with us people!

2 Nothing seems to me as good as my own will; but even that cannot finally be boasted of so much, because it is lacking in the full strength of completion. For one often wants something very good but either does not do it, or one does exactly the opposite of the good that one wants. I do not know the reason for that; but I know from personal experience that it is so.

3 Lord, my love! Through Your all-powerful mercy I have been allowed to take a most wonderful look into Your great planetary creations and I now know more in this respect than all the wise men of the earth together. I know what the endless depths of Your heavens hide; but why do I not know myself then?!"

4 I say: "Because you yourself are a much more wonderful being than all the great suns and worlds together! There is a much more wonderful heaven in the heart of a person than the great one there which you see with your eyes.

5 You see, all material is a judgment and an iron necessity! You can look at it from outside and from inside as much as you like, and some pharmacists possess the knowledge of how to divide material up into its original elements. And this rare knowledge is called the knowledge of division, which will be perfected more and more over time.

6 In the same way that you can recognize a stone quite accurately from the outside and from the inside, you can also recognize a whole world! Our Mathael is very familiar with this art; also My disciple Andrew, who also stayed with the Essenes, is a qualified pharmacist, an art which he learnt in Egypt. These two will explain to you the matter of the whole world with much skill and much truth. Truly there is still something inside matter which no scientist will ever find out; but he can recognize the actual elements of which some matter consists, although never the elements in themselves, because they are made of the spiritual and can only be thoroughly recognized by a pure spirit. For something infinite is hidden in the elements!

7 But something even more infinite lies in the human soul and his spirit! That cannot be discovered by any chemical or physical analysis, and I Myself therefore had to come to you people in order to teach you what no man could ever have found out by himself.

8 Therefore you can see that I came out of the heaven of heavens to you for the sake of your observed indecency, and I am teaching you what no-one else could teach you!

9 Now you certainly do not yet understand how you can have something in your will but nonetheless do not act according to your will, but instead you act according to some external motivation which you do not know, and the mute desires of the flesh often decide on an action against the will of the spirit. For the will is not part of the flesh and blood and of the soul, which formed the flesh and blood and then even took the food for its construction out of the same, but instead it is part of love which is My spirit in you, and therefore you are not only My creations, but also My true children and you will one day reign with Me in My kingdom for all eternity.

10 But for that you must be reborn again fully, otherwise such a thing would be impossible!

11 Do you understand this, My dearest little daughter?"

- Chapter 171 -

About rebirth

1 Jarah says: "I understand the necessary information well; but by no means quite thoroughly! I cannot get to grips with the becoming reborn in the spirit, no matter how many times I hear it! How should that be properly understood?"

2 I say: "Now, neither you nor anyone else can fully understand it; for if I discuss earthly things with you, you do not fully understand Me - how could you then completely understand Me if I were to deal in very heavenly things with you?!

3 Yes, I tell you: If I now begin to speak about very heavenly things with you, you would all begin to get annoyed and say: See how the man has become so absurd! He speaks about things that are against all reason and nature! How can one accept this information to be true?!

4 Therefore you will all only fully understand the birth, or rebirth, from the spirit and in the spirit when I as a man and the son of man, am taken from this earth under your very eyes like Elijah!

5 Only then will I scatter My spirit from the heavens full of truth and power over all those who are Mine, whereby only then the full rebirth of the spirit and in the spirit will be made fully possible, and only then will you understand and recognize the rebirth of your spirit.

6 But until then no-one can be fully reborn in the spirit, not anyone, beginning from Adam; not even Moses and all the prophets.

7 But through the works which I have performed before you and all the others, everyone from Adam onwards will take part in the full rebirth of the spirit if they were born into the world and had at least a good will in the life of their body, even if they were not always active accordingly.

8 For there are many others who have the best will to do and carry out something good, but they are lacking in the means and the outer strength and skill, which are as necessary as the eyes are for seeing. Well, in such cases the good will means as much to Me as the deed itself.

9 You see, if, for example, someone fell into the water and you saw it! Now you might well want to help the unlucky person - but you know that you are completely incapable of swimming. If you jumped after the person who had fallen in, you would both be swept away by the water; but if you could swim very well, you would certainly jump after the unlucky person without any further thought and save him. But because you cannot swim, you do not jump after the unlucky person despite the best will in the world, but instead you quickly look for someone who could and would save the person!

10 Look, look, My little daughter, a good will is as much as the completed deed itself; and that is the same in thousands and thousands of cases where the good will alone is accepted instead of the deed.

11 I will give you another example! Look, you had the best will to help a very poor person who came to you, but you had no fortune yourself, and yet you wanted to help the poor person with all your strength! But since you have no fortune yourself, you go to one or another person who has a fortune and beg them with all your power for a good help for your poor person, but you do not receive it because of the hard-heartedness of the rich person and you have to let the poor person move on without support, crying for him and pleading for him to the Lord God.

12 You see, your will is then just as much as the completed deed itself!

13 And there were many such people before us, there are now, and in the future there will be more; they will all participate in the rebirth of their spirit in their soul!

14 If you cannot yet really understand what the actual rebirth of the spirit consists of, like everyone else, well I have shown you the reason as clearly as possible; but if the time will come when you will be reborn in your spirit, only then will you fully see what and why you still cannot see it now! Do you understand the reason now why you still cannot understand Me yet?"

15 Jarah says: "Yes, Lord, my only love! Now I understand it well! But one must understand You, for You illuminate things as purely as the sun in a cloudless sky illuminates the earth at midday!"

16 After these words she thanked Me for the lesson and also promised Me that she would never laugh again at the foolish behavior of another person.

- Chapter 172 -

Cornelius and Jarah

1 But Cornelius was immensely amazed about the wisdom of the girl; also Faustus and Philopold wondered to the same degree, and Cornelius asked Me whether he was allowed to discuss some things with the girl at the table. And I allowed him this. And Cornelius is as joyful about this as the girl and everyone at the table, and I recommend him to ask wise questions.

2 However Cornelius, as soon as he should ask a question to the girl, begins to wonder very much what he should actually ask. For by My command to only ask the girl wise questions, Cornelius understood that the conversation should not be pointless chit-chat, but something purposeful, and he thought a lot what this could be in a company who always had the opportunity to hear the highest things.

3 The longer and stronger he thought about this, the less he found something which seemed to him to be worthy to ask the girl and enter into a mutual discussion with her. He thought of this and that and found nothing which could seem to have any particular value.

4 After quite a while of thinking he (Cornelius) said to Me, "Look, I thought that this would be easier; but the longer and deeper I think, the less I find anything which would be suitable for such a wise child!"

5 I say: "Well, if you find nothing extraordinary, then ask the girl the next best thing!"

6 Cornelius says: "That would be all very correct and good, but there's also a problem with that! For I cannot ask her about something too commonplace, and I would hardly know something better that has not already been discussed here many times!"

7 But the girl, noticing Cornelius' embarrassment, said: "Oh high, dearest friend, if you cannot find a question for me, then allow me to ask you; for I am not easily embarrassed in asking questions - I already have ten questions at the ready!"

8 Cornelius says: "That would certainly be very good, my very dearest little child! But if you ask me a question, then it is already a foregone conclusion that I must answer it; if I were not capable of this - which could very easily be the case, since you seem to me a very thoroughly clever child - what then?"

9 The girl says: "Well, what then?! Then I will answer my own question and you can judge the question and the answer and then can tell me whether I have been mistaken! Oh look, it is also by no means a little thing for me to ask and answer; the Lord, as my eternal only love, worries me the least, because every comparison of His infinite wisdom and our most limited wisdom is in any case useless.

10 Whether we say something more or less foolish, this does not change the relationship between us and the Lord in the least; for we are nothing in ourselves in comparison with the Lord, and that there is something in us of worth for Him, that is He Himself in our hearts through His mercy.

11 But there are some wise men among us, and even at this table, for whom I have all respect; it is not good to reach into the same bowl with such people!

12 I truly know some things which until this moment no-one but I and of course Raphael and the Lord can know, because every experience is lacking in such an unbelievable relationship; but what use is it to me to be at home in the far-off stars, but at the same time to be a stranger on this earth that is our home?! Then I am beaten a hundred and a thousand times over!"

13 Cornelius says: "Who at our table is then so first-rate, before whom you have such a particular respect in a very human way?"

14 Jarah says: "The vice-king over there, who will now rule over the whole Pontus with the old Ouran! His name is Mathael. He could give me some hard tasks to solve! I believe that I would not be in a position to give him a single intelligent answer to one question in a hundred!"

15 Mathael says: "Oh, dear little child, suddenly you are now extremely modest! Since quite a while you cannot be cornered by me; for I know all too well the keenness of your mind! If a Raphael has to summon all his strength, how much more then we! And chief Cornelius does very well in considering what he should speak to you about! For you are like very few of your gender! It is true that I also understand a few things and know some things; but nevertheless I would never like to enter into a contest of wisdom with you, which would also be a vain craziness! But it would always be very dear, valuable and worthy to me to be taught by you."

16 Jarah says: "That's what a poor girl has, if she knows something and no-one dares to speak to her! Therefore it would almost be better for her to know a little less, in order to not appear unpleasant to the wiser friends! But what can I do now?! It is impossible to begin to know less than I know; for I cannot make the light of my heart weaker than it is. But this light gives me in an ever greater measure the love for the Lord, for the holiest Father of the fathers of the fathers of this earth! Yes, if it were possible for me to weaken this one and only love even in the least, then I would immediately become more foolish; but such a thing is impossible for me! And what I know from this light is not mine, but the knowledge of the Lord in my heart, and therefore certainly no-one should be ashamed, just as I should not shame anyone! Therefore you, noblest friend Cornelius, and you, noble Mathael, should also be able to speak to me!"

17 Cornelius says: "Certainly, certainly! But do you know, very dearest Jarah, there is even a problem with that; for it is somewhat difficult to speak to you, as I am already beginning to feel very clearly, because in your heart you really understand the purest truth too much. Oh, you are otherwise infinitely blessed and dear, and one could listen to you all day long; but to ask you a question or to have you ask a question, that is another story. You could be asked quickly, but afterwards comes the answer, and then I will look very inadequate!

18 A little thought has not yet quite left me, and I fear nothing in the world as much as shame, which is certainly not justified; but I cannot do anything about it, for in childhood I was brought up like that, and such an old habit does not disappear as quickly as one would like to believe.

19 But just wait a little longer, something very clever will occur to me; and I will then take great joy in hearing something very wise from you!"

- Chapter 173 -

Cornelius' question to Jarah

1 Jarah is satisfied with that, and Cornelius begins to search his brains; but still he cannot find anything suitable.

2 Finally, after a while something occurs to him, and he asks Jarah about the following, saying: "Well, now I have found something, and so tell me what actually is the sun, and which elements does it consist of, since it pours out over the face of the earth such a very strong light and a hardly believable heat! If you, blessed Jarah, are in a position to tell me something about this, I will reward you regally, if you will accept it!"

3 Jarah says somewhat ironically: "Do you know, high master, in this way one fetches the rotten fish out of a pond and wants to purify it in this way because the rotten fish make the water stink and make it impure and therefore also unhealthy! Understood, lord leader Cornelius?!

4 If you have superfluous treasure, you will find the poor, particularly here in this city which has been destroyed by fire, in a great number, whom you can give your regal support! But I do not need a reward from anyone on this earth; for I have all the love of the Lord, and this is my only and highest reward!

5 Oh yes, I will answer your question, I do not want to remain in debt to you for anything; but therefore I will not let myself be rewarded by you at all - least of all in a worldly fashion! For I consider such a thing to be one of the greatest sins; for first of all I would be taking it away from the truly needy poor, and secondly I would have taken away the opportunity for you to do something truly good, especially since I am not a poor child of the earth in any way, and basically I even possess material treasure which you could not pay for with all your great kingdom, which I actually need just as little as the regal reward which you have just offered me.

6 But do not believe that any sort of arrogance is speaking through me, but instead the quite purest and most harmless truth; for if I possessed even the smallest spark of pride in myself, I would not sit in this place beside the Lord of lords and beside the Master of masters! That, my otherwise very dearest friend Cornelius, was a little bit of a failure!

7 You see, people who possess mercy from the Lord as I do, if through and through undeservedly, must be judged and treated quite differently to the people of nature and the world!

8 You thought that I as a young, barely fourteen year-old girl would be of as vain a nature as the other maidens of the world and would even have the greatest joy in being dressed in regal clothes; alone such vanity is further from me than the smallest star in the firmament that your eye can discover from this earth, and that says a lot! Therefore take your offer of reward back quickly, otherwise I will not answer your question in any case!"

9 Cornelius says: "Well then, because I ended up with such a sharp retort, I will take it back very willingly according to your wish and will then do what you advised me to do; but you must answer my question to you out of friendship!"

10 Next Jarah began to gather herself and said: "You now want to learn from me what the sun is and which elements it consists of, since it pours out such a strong light and such powerful warmth over the earth?

11 Well, I can give you quite fully true information about this; but what good would that do you?! You can well believe me, as a blind man believes someone who tells him that a flower is beautifully red. Will the blind man be able to convince himself that that flower is truly so wonderfully red? That would be very difficult in this life, and in the next life the free soul will certainly worry very little about it; for in any case it will be in a better position to see more in one instant than can be learned here in fifty industrious years of every effort."

12 Cornelius says: "Most blessed girl, there you are quite right! I will never ad personam meam [personally – the editor] be able to convince myself about the things you have told me about the sun, and that the things you have just said are seriously true; but I also know now that you cannot lie to me, because everything that you know you can only know from the Lord. And therefore I can accept everything that you might ever say about the sun as the perfect and undoubted truth!"

13 Jarah says: "Well then, good! I will see whether you begin to shrug your shoulders! And so listen to me!"

- Chapter 174 -

The natural sun

1 You see, the sun is also, just like our earth, an inhabitable and also fully inhabited planet; only it is a thousand times a thousand times larger than this earth of ours, which, as you see, is not small either. But the light that is emitted by that great world is not the inhabited ground of the sun, but instead only the air surrounding it entirely, whose smoothest surface, constantly rubbing firmly against the surrounding ether in all directions, firstly creates an uncountable amount of the strongest flashes of light all at one time, and secondly takes in the light from eons of suns onto this such an enormous reflective surface and then sends it out again in all directions.

2 The earth, as well as many other earths, which we call planets, is illuminated and heated through such a light by this sun of ours. However the heat does not come to the earth along with the light from the sun, but instead it is created on the spot by the light.

3 The light truly comes from far away, but the heat is only created here, and namely through the fact that the certain natural spirits in the air, in the water and in the earth are put into great motion through the light. And exactly this activity creates what we feel as heat, and at an even higher activity by the previously mentioned spirits, as heat, and we call them thus. But as the light can always be increased more and more into infinity, likewise the warmth and the heat can be increased.

4 But, you will ask, who can exist on the sun then? For because the light must be the strongest there, the heat must also be no less! It is not so. Hardly a thousandth of a thousandth part of all the strength of the sun's light can penetrate to the inside of the actual body of the sun, and therefore it is not much brighter and warmer on the surface of the sun than here on our earth, and God's creations can therefore exist and live there just like on this earth. Only there can be no night there, because everything on the sun finds itself in its own indestructible light.

5 The inhabitants of the sun therefore know nothing about night - but they can still see the stars and all the planets circling the sun along with our earth very well during their eternal day. This makes the extremely pure air, reaching 1200 hours out in all directions around the sun, which is truly dulled from time to time by many and very dense clouds, but which also has very cloudless periods and areas where the outer worlds can be very well seen and observed, much better than that of any other planet.

6 The sun rotates around its own axis, but not within almost twenty-five hours like this earth of ours, but instead within twenty-nine days. The inhabitants of the sun can therefore see the whole sky during this period, particularly the inhabitants of the middle belt, which according to my feeling must be the wisest and most beautiful people of the sun. The inhabitants of the other belts correspond more to the various planets.

7 But as far as the inner construction of the enormously large body of the sun is concerned, my feeling tells me that even more planets are hidden inside the other like in a hollow ball and could be separated from each other by distances of two, three and four thousand hours, which is not to be taken as something concrete, because these internal suns often stretch out very far, to shrink back to the normal state then another time. The hollow spaces are either filled with water or with all sorts of air.

8 But why things must be like this, I cannot tell you; for only the Lord and Master of eternity sitting beside me now knows about it. If you want to learn more, you must turn to this One and Only!"

9 Cornelius says: "I thank you, my dearest, very friendliest little child, for the message that you have just given me, which even I with my reason accept in full belief from the alpha to the omega; for I cannot find anything contradictory there. But how far must the sun be from our earth since it appears so small to us despite being such an enormously large world?"

10 Jarah says: "There is no measure for that on this earth; the Egyptians however had such a thing, and the later descendants - but in Europe and not in Asia - will invent this measuring stick again. But I can nonetheless tell you that an arrow which was shot from the earth with all force towards the sun would have to travel almost a full twenty earth years in the least in order to reach the sun!

11 Now you can work it out yourself. Measure the time that a flying arrow needs to travel a thousand human paces; you will find that the arrow at full speed nonetheless needs two instants of time to carry itself across a thousand human paces. But an hour needs 1800 of such double moments; and a day has 24 hours, and a year consists of 365 days, which is well-known to you. If you now know that and can count just a little, you will soon see how far the sun is from the earth! I cannot tell you anymore; for even if I knew it too, I would not have the yardstick and the appropriate number! Imagine 40 times 1000 times 1000 hours of journey, and you have the distance of the earth from the sun more or less accurately!"

12 Cornelius opens his eyes wide and says: "No, I would never have expected that from such a girl; she counts with the greatest numbers in the world like one of us with the small numbers on our fingers! She is far above any Euclides, the greatest mathematician! No, I have never seen such a thing before! Lord, tell me now whether I should accept all this! It seems to me at least that the girl has hit the nail on the head!"

- Chapter 175 -

Development of the heart and mind

1 I say: "This is certainly no gospel; but it is what it is, a truth which you will also benefit from in time in order to heal the people from some superstitions. For people have no more massive superstition in any area than in the field of the light of the starry heavens. But it is not yet the time to let the people come to full conclusions about this; for now it is above all important to form real and true people from out of the present human larvae.

2 However, that can only be achieved when man recognizes firstly himself and then God, and loves Him above all else with all his strength. Once man has become firm in such a belief and is capable of receiving the Holy Spirit from God, he will then become receptive to all other still undiscovered truths and will be capable of understanding them!

3 But if one immediately filled his head with these things, he would not be able to understand it and would rack his brains so much that he would go crazy!

4 Therefore this is the basic principle: Mankind must first become true people before receiving all knowledge, otherwise any sort of knowledge would harm them much more than something pious. For all knowledge occupies only our reason which is in our brains; but the heart, as the basis of life, remains untamed, raw and wild, like that of a predatory animal, and with the help of knowledge practices even more evil than without it; for knowledge is a true light to a godless heart for evil of all type and category!

5 Therefore, My friends and brothers, give the blind firstly the correct light in their hearts, and then let such a light illuminate the reason of the soul, and then all knowledge will be a true blessing to man!

6 It is certainly praise-worthy to know much, because in this way one can give another person good advice; but it is better to love much and truly! For love awakes and animates; but knowledge only satisfies curiosity and then lies down again on the bed to rest!

7 And so knowledge truly helps someone a little for a time, but harms him for the awakening of his spirit; but if it comes forth after some time as a certain side-effect of the light of the spirit, it is then also full with all the warmth of life and animates like the light of the sun which not only illuminates as no other light but also animates, because its light contains the warmth of life and wherever it falls it passes it on and animates and draws out whatever is there even more.

8 Believe Me, the countless wonders that go around there in immeasurable spaces are dormant hidden in everyone's spirit; therefore strive above all that your spirit will be fully awakened, and you will then always see in the greatest clarity what no eye has seen and no sense has felt, and through the other senses you will also be able to feel it most genuinely.

9 Those who truly recognize and love God in Me, the Son of Man, will receive an abundance of blessings in this life, the magnificence of which no human sense has ever felt before this hour! But on the pure path to knowledge a person will never get there! Do you understand this, Cornelius?"

- Chapter 176 -

The fate of the divine teaching

1 Cornelius says: "Yes, Lord, what You say is filled with truth which has never existed before according to the measure of pure human life; for if it had ever been spoken or had ever been here before, certainly some people would have accepted it as what it is and lived by it strictly, and the effect of it would certainly not have fallen by the wayside.

2 But to my much encompassing knowledge it has never been here before, but instead there was quite the opposite among us heathens; and therefore Socrates, Plato, Plotin and Phrygius are to be greatly admired, as well as several great men of Rome, who through sheer heroic efforts and pains against the laws of polytheism, nonetheless managed quite successfully to find the path to You, the one and only true God.

3 Plato found that the one and only true, if unknown, God must be pure love. The more he thought about the unknown God, the warmer it became in his heart; and when he found that this benevolent warmth was growing, and a doctor told him that this was an illness, Plato laughed and said: If that is an illness, then I desire even more of such an illness in my heart; for it makes me feel much better than any highly-valued health!

4 And Plato loved the Unknown One more and more and told how he had seen this God in the highest moments of his love for the unknown God, as if fully united with him, and what an indescribable bliss he had felt at this.

5 The other great wise men tell similar things; their teaching would have been very comforting for people if the familiar servants of God had not stood in the way of spreading it with all manner of abominations.

6 But it was always so, and it will probably continue to be so. The pure truth can never be found and take hold because over time its closest servants themselves, led by highly mean interests, stand in the way. They put it in a labyrinth and then bend the original ever straight and open path into thousands of crooked ways which, surrounded by a gloomy wall, never allow the seeker to find the centre, where the old temple of truth once stood.

7 Lord, one day Your religion will also suffer the same fate, if only one priest will excel himself in it! There must certainly be teachers, but there is surely one rowdy in ten who incites the others only too soon, and then the truth already has a flaw!

8 Moses, the wisest man in Cairo, the adopted son of the Pharaoh's daughter, indoctrinated in everything, wrote the divine truth on marble tablets and ordered by the power of God to announce it to the people and obey it despite all the hardest punishments, to live according to such a religion and to act accordingly; hardly a thousand years have passed since him, and how do things look now for the holy religion of the marble tablets?! There is no trace of it any longer except for the name! Where is the old ark of the covenant, the wonderful, fruit- and life-bearing ark? Where are the original tablets that Moses wrote with his own hand as if for eternity? You see, Moses' followers have destroyed everything, simply because of their evil worldly interests!

9 Therefore I say, without by any means being a prophet: As it always was, it still is and always will be if You, oh Lord, lay Your religion in the hands of men for safe-keeping. In a thousand years things will look very crooked, and people will be allowed to seek the truth in it like Diogenes on the clearest day, but never find it.

10 Ah, the full truth will certainly remain with some individuals; but in general there will be nothing further left than what remains of the children of Abraham in the times of Moses, namely vessels and empty names! Who understands any longer the spirit of Moses' statutes?

11 Therefore I say, and remain by this: Man was always so, and with small differences will always remain so.

12 Something new will always make them curious and excited; but once the people have gotten used to it a little, even the most eminent thing will soon become commonplace, worthless and indifferent to them! If there is something attractive in it still, it must often be refreshed with all sorts of rarities, and some change must always occur, of course not harming the main issue, otherwise humanity begins again, out of sheer boredom and under constant thunder and lightning, to form golden cows again and to dance around them in amusement.

13 Yes, even some priests are to be excused for selling the people, instead of the real goods, the most miserable junk as something purely divine; for if the current of darkness has become too powerful, swimming against it is impossible, and the best-intentioned priest, even if he possesses in secret some correct idea of the truth, must swim with the current nolens seu volens [whether you want it or not – the editor], otherwise he will immediately go under!

14 Lord! As old as the humanity of this earth is, evil was always its faithful companion, which can never be denied; can man ever be healed totally and radically from this old evil? For I see no reason why man should constantly be ruined time and again!"

- Chapter 177 -

The dignity of human free will

1 I say: "Yes, listen, my dearest! That is something of the greatest necessity on the planet where people are designated to become by their own effort true children of God!

2 The least spiritual limitation by Me of the freest will would totally ruin my purpose

3 Therefore here the freest room for development must be provided completely, right down to deep below the worst hell in order to achieve every thinkable burden, as well as up above every heaven in order to achieve the highest virtue, otherwise there is nothing that can be done in order to become the children of God on this earth which was designated for this!

4 And there is the secret reason why even the most wonderful religion will be trodden on like dirt in time!

5 No one will be able to say about My teaching that it demands even something unnatural, unfair and impossible; and yet in time such hardships and impossible-to-carry out additions will set in, which no man will be able to observe in their entirety.

6 One will massacre people in their hundreds and thousands in an exaggerated eagerness, worse than the wildest forest beast, and will believe that they are performing an extremely pleasant service for God.

7 Yes, I Myself will have to let Myself be caught and finally even killed by the people, if they want it, in order to give the people the freest and highest playground for their will; for only through this highest and very most unlimited freedom were people placed on this earth completely in a position to rise to the truest and most perfectly god-like children and gods themselves in all things.

8 For as I Myself am God from eternity to eternity only through My very most unlimited strength of will and power, likewise the children of My love must be it also, eternally!

9 But in order to become that, every spiritual education is needed, which does not yet suit you so well. But just think about it a little and you will find that it cannot be possibly otherwise!

10 Where the highest is to be reached, the lowest must also be available!"

11 Here Cornelius considers a little and says after a while: "Yes, yes, Lord, it is beginning to dawn a little in my heart! I should understand things well; but there are still some clouds and fog, through which my soul still does not yet see the full light. In certain moments however, I notice that it is becoming lighter and then I understand some things, and so I understand now also that it would not be possible for me to raise any doubts against this; but there we cannot speak at all of me being in full clarity and at home in this familiar sphere of wisdom!

12 You, oh Lord, could certainly put an only somewhat powerful light in my heart in this sphere as well!"

13 I say: "I could certainly do that - but then the stronger light would not be yours, but only purely My work and also something alien in you; you would not need to seek then, nor to ask or to knock anywhere.

14 But I want, and must want, every man to progress along the path that I have shown you and to achieve with his own effort and sacrifice what he needs for here and for afterwards, otherwise he will never be able to become fully self-acting and therefore never independent.

15 Full independence however is one of the most necessary prerequisites to receive the highest possible blessing.

16 Look at a very well-placed servant! He has almost everything under his master that his highly prosperous master has; he can enjoy the best dishes and drink the wine from his master's guest table. If his master makes a journey on water or across land, he takes his servant with him, and whatever the master enjoys there, his servant enjoys also. But nonetheless the bliss of both is different.

17 The servant often thinks: I have a good master and he does not demand anything from me that I could call unfair, and I am very well respected and looked after; but if I ever get above myself, he could nevertheless say to me: My boy, I looked on you like my own son and therefore demanded only an easy and minor service from you. But you got above yourself and began to play the master; therefore I can no longer use you as my servant. Therefore leave my house! Then I would have to go and would be a beggar; but my master would remain the lord of his possessions.

18 You see, my good friend, this thought often ruins the servant's bliss! But the master is truly happy - whether he is already very fond of his faithful servant or not, he does not need to fear that he will lose him; for he could easily get hundreds in the place of this one. He remains nonetheless the wealthy master and independent owner of very many goods and immeasurable other treasures. His blessing can therefore not be dulled, while the casual blessing of the servant can come to an end at any moment. And you see, it is the same here!

19 As long as I, as the Lord of all life and all light, must inspire life and light into you all at once, you are only my slaves and servants; for I can provide you with life and light as long as I alone want to. From where will you then get light and life?! Must not the thought alone of the possibility of what I said awake in you a very significant disquietude?!

20 But wherever some anguish, fright or disquietude can be awakened in a soul, there is no possible chance of a perfect blessing!"

- Chapter 178 -

Human aptitude and destiny

1 "It is exactly for this reason that I Myself came to this earth designated for the creation of My true children, in order to free you from the bands of creative necessity and to show you the way to true, independent, eternal freedom of life through word and deed and to pave the way and to smooth it through My example before you all.

2 Only on this path alone will it be possible to enter the immeasurable magnificence of God, My and your Father.

3 For as a man I am a human being like you; but within Me live the original fullness of the divine magnificence of the Father, who is pure love. And it is not I as your fellow man who is now speaking to you, but the word that I say to you is the Word of the Father who is in Me, and whom I know well, but whom you do not know; for if you knew him, it would have been unnecessary to send Me. But exactly because you do not know him and have never known him I came Myself in order to show Him to you and to teach you to know him.

4 But that is the will of the Father, that everyone who believes in Me, the Son of Man, and that I was sent by the Father, should have eternal life and the magnificence of the Father in him, in order to become true children of the Almighty and to remain so for eternity!

5 But in order to achieve this, heaven and hell must come together in this world! There is no victory without a battle! Where the highest thing is to be achieved, the highest activity must be fully undertaken to achieve it; in order to reach one extreme, one must first break away from the opposite extreme.

6 But how could a highest extreme be conceivable without the lowest?! Or can someone among you think of mountains without the valleys between them?! Are the summits of the mountains not measured according to the greatest depth of a valley?! There must therefore be very deep valleys, and whoever lives in the depth of the valley must climb up the mountain, fighting with many obstacles, in order to win the freest and furthest view. But if there were no valleys, there would also be no mountains, and no-one could climb any height with a view which only reaches a little over what is usual.

7 That is only a material parable, it is true, but nonetheless things which are similar and correspond to the infinitely great spiritual truth are hidden in it - for him who can and will think, things will constantly form themselves more significantly.

8 In the sphere of inner life, however, you are called and chosen to reach the highest point - so there must also be something under you, and so you have the most perfectly free will and the power to fight the lowermost things in yourself with the power that God has given you as your own for eternity.

9 You see, My dear friend Cornelius that is how things stand in connection to life in this world, because that is how they must be! And hopefully you will now hardly need to ask any other question!

10 I could lead you in the spirit to another planet where you would see everything in perfection, as you see the concoctions of the animals in an inimitable perfection; but what good is this constantly identical reappearing perfection to them? It only covers their highly puny and monotonous requirements for life; but only an inch further and you will find nothing!

11 Can the children of God really be raised in such circumstances?!

12 But there are infinite things in you people, only it is not developed; therefore a child can do nothing when it comes into the world and is more helpless than the newborn of any species of animal.

13 But exactly because it is so naked, so weak and totally helpless and stands just a little better than an octopus of the sea as a completely empty vessel, it can climb to the highest divine awareness and become capable of all perfection!

14 Therefore pay attention to everything that I have just said to you, and act accordingly, and you will also inevitably achieve what you have been called and chosen to be for all eternity! Tell Me now, friend Cornelius, what you think about this earth now and its people in light and in darkness!"

- Chapter 179 -

Cornelius' memory of Jesus' birth

1 Cornelius considered for a while and finally said full of the greatest wonder: "Lord, Lord, yes, very good, yes! But there is still the fact that if You entered under the roof of my house I could never be worthy of this! For You alone are the One about whom the great king of the Jews, David, whose psalms I read in my youth, prophesied, when he said: 'Lift up your heads, oh gates, and be lifted up, oh ancient doors, that the king of glory may come in! Who is the king of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle!' (Psalm 24: 7-8)

2 As I said, I have known these things since my youth, and strangely: it had to be so that I was a witness of Your birth in Bethlehem and at the same time the one who showed Your earthly parents a way to flee from the cruelest persecution by old Herod.

3 But then I was only twenty-five years old, and I am now a good thirty years older, I have lived through much in this time, seen much and heard and experienced much; but despite everything the strange words of David and Your birth and all the accompanying events float as vividly before my eyes as if I had experienced them firsthand, as one says, only yesterday or the day before. And in the meantime I hear again and again: 'Lift up your heads, oh gates, and be lifted up, oh ancient doors that the king of glory may come in! Who is the king of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle!'

4 And in secret I said this text to myself even before Your birth, and when You, oh Lord, healed my servant and I then had the greatest mercy to meet You, I said this verse to myself in my heart which reveres and loves You above all else! And so I now say and bear witness that You alone are the great, eternal King of Glory, about whom the wise king of the Jews sang in his prophetic spirit! And if You were not that King Zebaoth, how could You say such things about the people of this earth as You have just spoken?!

5 Yes, if Your holy words will only remain firm in the memories of the likes of us! But unfortunately my memory was never my strongest point; however, the main thing, the core, remains in me all the same! But what You have now told us goes far beyond all human understanding, and although I understand more or less what is said, things are nonetheless like a bright dream, and I will at home have a lot to do to explain things to my house as clearly as possible, because my memory cannot retain all the points as well as they came out of Your holiest mouth."

6 I say: "Oh, that can soon be easily helped! You see, we have the angel Raphael; give him a few pages of good leather paper, and he will immediately write down for you this whole speech of Mine, which is of a very powerful meaning!"

7 With the greatest joy in the world Cornelius immediately calls his servants and has them bring about twenty of the best pages of parchment, some ink and a golden writing pen.

8 The angel only touches the paper with the pen which has been dipped in ink, and in an instant all twenty pages are filled to the same degree.

9 Next the angel gives the twenty pages to Cornelius to look through, and Cornelius cannot wonder enough how the angel was possibly able to put it all down on paper so endlessly quickly. For Cornelius had not been witness before when our Raphael had brought proof of his fast writing to light on other occasions, therefore he wondered all the more that this angel was finished so quickly with the writing down of the words I had said, and in addition in Greek and in Latin, and so true to word that there was not a dot missing.

10 But then Kisjonah, Faustus and the mentioned Philopold also became very attentive and full of wonder, and the highly inquisitive Philopold began to ask Raphael about the possibility of writing something down at such enormous speed.

11 But the angel says: "Friend that is very easily possible for the likes of us at any time and with the help of the Lord - but purely impossible to explain to you how. For this is a characteristic which every perfect spirit possesses, not only such writing, but also to complete any great act in an instant. If you want to have a whole long mountain range destroyed or annihilated, or a lake dried out, or sea turned to land, or a whole earth destroyed or the sun, which is a thousand times a thousand times greater, or if you wanted to send me to one of the very furthest stars and demanded at the same time a sign that I had actually been there, that would also happen in the shortest moment that you would not be able to perceive with your senses that I had been even the slightest bit absent. Well, how this happens, and can possibly happen, can only be understood by a pure spirit!

12 Once you are reborn completely in the spirit, you will understand it, see it and make a comparable image; but as long as you have not been reborn in the spirit, you cannot possibly recognize such characteristics of the pure spirits, even if I were to show it to you quite clearly uncovered! But just ask yourself how your thought can be in Rome or in Jerusalem in the shortest instant and back here again! If you can explain that to yourself, my friend Philopold, you will also soon understand my speed."

13 Philopold says: "Yes, yes, you magnificent, wonderful angelic being, the thought is going to and fro, and no-one can measure its speed; but nothing comes of the thought, it is a highly fleeting image. If someone wants to realize his thoughts, he must become very active with his hands, and a long time is needed until the image of the thought becomes visible in reality; but the thought is already a wonderfully completed work for you. You see, that is the very powerful difference between my thoughts and yours!"

- Chapter 180 -

The nature and destiny of angels

1 The angel says: "No difference at all! Just let your spirit first achieve rebirth, and your thoughts will appear in everything which is established in God's order as a completely perfect, divine miracle!

2 Do not believe that it is I who acts in this way and does this, but instead it is the spirit of the Lord who acts, works and does everything, who actually makes and fills my innermost being; for we angels are basically nothing other than focus of the rays of the divine spirit! We are in a certain way the personified, powerfully active will of God; our word is the speech of His mouth and our beauty is a little reflection of His endless magnificence and always immeasurable majesty.

3 But if the Lord God is also infinite in His majesty of wisdom and power, He is nonetheless a limited person in the love of the Father here with and among you. And exactly this love, which makes Him a person before you, also makes us angels into people before you, otherwise we are only light and fire, darting through all the infinite space as great, creative thoughts, filled with the word, the power and the will from eternity to eternity!

4 But you people of the earth are only now receiving the spirit, and even more so the flame of love from the heart of God, as a consequence of which you will become true children of God, and as a result you are unspeakably preferred above us, and we will have to walk along your path in order to become equal to you.

5 As long as we all remain angels as we are now, we are nothing but the arms and fingers of the Lord and stir and move ourselves only to act when we are prompted to do so by the Lord, as you prompt your hands and fingers to act. Everything in us that you can see in me belongs to the Lord; nothing can be called our own -actually all we are is the Lord Himself.

6 But you have been called and designated to become in fullest independence what the Lord is Himself; for to you the Lord will say: 'You must become perfect in everything, even as your Father in heaven is infinitely perfect!'

7 But if such a thing is said by the Lord to you people, you will only then fully see what a great thing you have been called to and designated to do, and what an endless difference there is then between you and us!

8 Now you are certainly embryos in the womb which cannot build any houses with the smallest strength of life that you have been given; but when you are reborn out of the true womb of the spirit, then you will also be able to act as the Lord acts!

9 I will tell you something else which the Lord will say to you Himself if you remain completely active in faith and all love for Him. Look, He will say this: I do great things before you, but you will do even greater things before the whole world!

10 Does the Lord say such things to us? Oh, certainly not, because we are the Lord's will and deed, who will make such a prophecy to you, as the Lord testifies towards himself.

11 But the Lord's endless love, mercy and extremely great compassion will also determine a way for us angelic spirits, on which we will become fully equal to you.

12 The path which the Lord Himself now treads will become the path of all original spirits of all the heavens - but certainly not from one day to the next, but instead gradually in an evenly continuing unfolding of the never-ending eternity, in which we from God move up and down as if in an endlessly great circle without ever touching the outer edge of the circle. But even if something must be waited for a long time, it nonetheless happens in the end because it is kept faithfully and true in the great order of the Lord; whatever finds itself once within this will happen - it really does not depend on the When! Once it has happened, it is there, as if it had been there since eternity.

13 You, dear friend Philopold, were not born a hundred years ago and therefore were not here as you are now here; but doesn't it seem to you as if you had always been here? Only the cold calculation of your reason shows to you that you were not always here; but your feeling and your most living perceptions show you the sheerest opposite.

14 Likewise your cold reason shows you that you will die one day and as what you are you will pass away from this earth forever and eternity; but on the other hand ask your feeling and your perception and both of these will not know, and will not want to know, anything of an act of dying or passing away from this earth.

15 Well, who is right and true - the cold reason or the warm feeling of life? I tell you: Both, the reason and the warm self-perceptive feeling of life! Reason, as the ordered mental library of the soul, will clearly pass away from the soul, as well as the soul itself. Along with the other parts of the body and its limbs, its material capacity to perceive and calculate must also have the perception of passing away within it; but it is different with the feeling of life and with the self-awareness, which, because it comes spiritually from God, has never had a beginning and therefore can also never have an end!

16 For this reason it is also impossible for the soul even in its material form to think of itself as temporary and ending. And so the soul becomes lighter and lighter, and if it is fully one with the Spirit of God living in it, then the feeling of life becomes so clear and powerful that the feeling of temporality in the cold calculation of reason loses every meaning and power.

17 The reason for this is that all the life-force of the spirit of the Lord in the soul also penetrates even the spiritual nerves of the body and takes away every feeling of passing away. This occurs because finally all the actual, ethereal bodily matter of life becomes immortal like the substance of life in the soul.

18 You, my dear Philopold, who are also from above, will now easily see that a spirit can expect everything and that even such a long period of time is actually nothing for him; because one day, according to the order of the Lord, the blessed opportunity will also come to him, and then the question arises which part of eternity is the longer one for him - whether the one he has lived through and acted through, or the one he still has to live through and act through?

19 It is true that I am still what I am, and this make-believe body is not by any means a conceived and born body, flesh and blood filled with a substantial soul; but it is nonetheless a more meaningful approach towards it, and the time of full realization of this mercy will not be too far off, and I will be what you are now!

20 Do not praise me therefore, because you have seen me do miracles; for because I am not yet a being, but my being is just the casual will of the Lord, only the Lord alone should be praised and revered for His miracles, which would have performed even without me endlessly greater things.

21 But it is He who gave the great and holy speech to Cornelius, which I wrote down for him; you already know him from Kane near Kis, and you will know him yet deeper. But now there will soon be something which He will say, pure words of all life."

-

- Chapter 181 -

Philopold's philosophy of creation

1 Philopold then turns to Kisjonah sitting next to him saying: "Have you now finally got a good idea about an angel of God, as I have? You see, this was always my claim as well, that the angels are actually not persons, but only ideas filled with the will of God and are only seen in a particular form when such a thing is decided to be necessary by God. But since God has an eternal number of all sorts of greater and lesser sub-ideas, it is certain that these ideas, if they should be realized in any sort of way, must be filled with the power and strength of the divine, unchanging will, otherwise it could never become an acting or already effective being.

2 All creations which exist either for a time or forever in a designated visible form - for example, like a whole world and everything that it includes and bears, and what it consists of - are ideas emitted from God which are already found in a created being. But in order to bring into existence a being, formless, quite freely acting ideas must be emitted by God which are filled with His will, but only to work and to create forms, but not to be a form oneself in which power and intelligence are united in order to have an effect on the objectively emitted ideas as so divine, that they become a purposeful form in a certain planned order, but instead to be constantly formless and to be appropriately effective for all forms, as the wise Plato claimed about the origin of the human soul.

3 This angel certainly has a form, but this form is actually nothing in itself, because it does not remain; but it is there as it is, nonetheless standing free and independent from itself and the basic idea of God as a great thought, to work for itself, partly with the now separated, own material, and partly with what also constantly flows from God.

4 But the great idea about the actual, true childhood of God seems to me to lie in this. For as long as an idea is identical to the divinity, not isolated, no self-activity and also no independence can be conceived out of it; but only when it has been made equal to all the people of this earth in all things, it can then become what we people are called to be in everything.

5 Tell me, is my opinion correct or not?!"

6 Kisjonah says: "Yes, yes, I find nothing to be wrongly judged! Certainly I am no less than any wise man, but nonetheless I find with my very natural worldly reason that you have spoken very wisely, and I rejoice to have such a wise friend and brother in the Lord. We will have a lot more to speak about at home; but now I am longing, however, for another word from the mouth of the Lord!

7 The angel there certainly announced something; but nothing is happening, and the Lord, as I notice, has fallen asleep a little during our discussion about wisdom, and that then seems to suggest that He will not open His holy mouth soon.

8 The wise girl who gave Cornelius so much to think about has also fallen asleep, also the supreme governor, and as I now notice, several are now dozing at our table; but at the other tables things are very lively! It seems to me that this table has become very sleepy through the discussion of wisdom by the angel and particularly by you!?

9 Do you know, my dearest Philopold, I love to listen to you when you begin to speak about extra-sensory things; but here in the presence of the very most wise you perhaps over-did things! Well, the angel gave us a long speech, but he spoke purely through the Lord, and so it was more or less the same thing as if the Lord had spoken Himself. But then when you began to speak, it was only your opinion, after everything that you had heard from the angel, and that, it seems to me, called forth the sleepiness at our table! Don't you think so yourself?"

10 Philopold says: "Yes, yes, you cannot be too wrong! I am now seriously sorry that I have let myself be led so far away from my reason; but I still cannot undo what has been done, although I still am of the conviction that I have committed no injustice!"

- Chapter 182 -

The reach of mental understanding

1 Here I sit up quite alert again and say with a very friendly face to Philopold: "Oh, by no means!"

2 Your observation about the difference between an angel and a true person of this earth is quite right; it is very accurate how you have summarized things and developed them quite superbly. My gentle dozing was only a consequence of the bodily tiredness; for we have now worked for almost two full nights!

3 But since you are such a true Platonic sage, explain to us now the actual reason for My descent into the flesh of this earth!

4 What I am in the spirit and have been since eternity, you know; but that I also have a body with flesh and blood like any other person, that you see and feel as well as everyone here at this table.

5 Why did I clothe Myself with a mortal shell? Why did the original reason for all existence and life clothe himself in a shell of obvious mortality?! Must it be so, or is this only a whim of the eternal Spirit of God which is in Me and resides and works? If you can uncover these things satisfactorily, you shall receive a token of wisdom from the heavens even in this life!"

6 Philopold says: "Lord, to be honest, I suspect it, and my night of life is beginning to dawn like early morning, obviously through the gift of Your mercy, oh Lord! Yes, I feel the endless greatness of what is to be disclosed; but the words fail me!

7 Things cannot be explained with an eon of earthly wisdom; one would have to have the native language of the spirits, and this would have to be understood by everyone, otherwise one would be speaking to deaf ears.

8 But firstly, where should one find such a language, and secondly how could one give the people the correct understanding?! Look, oh Lord, in my opinion those are very essential things, without which a very high revelation of wisdom is totally and utterly impossible!

9 But nonetheless I feel very acutely the great and blessedly wonderful truth in me; but I also feel the fullest impossibility of clothing this greatest and most blessed of all truth in our pitiful words for the purpose of correct understanding. You, oh Lord, will mercifully see this reason and therefore dispense me with such a very most enormously high and great revelation of wisdom!"

10 I say: "Ah, that is vain, so much is not needed as you think! In the brain, where the soul usually harvests its wisdom, you will certainly find the appropriate words with difficulty; but in the heart it is all the more so, since that is the carrier of the spirit from the heart of God.

11 Seek then, and you will find that even the greatest depth of wisdom can be revealed for everyone with the simplest and shortest words in the world much better than with the high words of Solomon's wisdom! What use is this Song of Songs if you understand it as little at the thousandth reading as at the first?!

12 But Solomon had to write like that because it was not yet the time then to completely reveal the deepest secrets of heaven to the incapable people, who were still completely devoid of the spirit in their hearts, but to give them only hidden pointers in order to make their souls keen for what was to come. But there was no talk of understanding the texts.

13 For Solomon understood just as little of his Song of Songs as you do; for had he understood it, he would not have sinned and would not have become a complete idolater and adulterer a thousand times over.

14 But what he wrote through the Spirit of God, which passed through his soul in certain moments, is nonetheless God's pure word - but not given to be understood with the brain, but with the capable spirit in the heart from God, which has only been placed in the hearts of a few people as exceptions in this time since My descent, so that they will recognize Me and understand Me, for their own sake and for the sake of many other yet spiritless people.

15 But in your heart the mentioned spirit has already been laid like an embryo in the lap of a mother; you only have to look around a little in your own heart and you will find the spirit from God already in you, and this will then lend you words with which you can easily reveal to this table what I have asked you."

16 Philopold says: "Lord! That would all be very correct, and it may well be that I can find the key in my heart; but for You, oh Lord, it would be a very easy thing to reveal this deep secret to us, and we would then be Your very most attentive listeners. But for me it would be something terribly difficult, and in the end I might be completely laughed at, and with reason!"

17 I say: "Oh, not at all, firstly it is within My order that I should be revealed also by you people quite freely, in order to have a purpose in your lives, and secondly things are not at all as difficult as you imagine in your brain.

18 I could very well tell you and others, and you would also understand Me if it was necessary; but your soul would store it just as well as everything else for your brain alone, where it would then be of no use to your soul. For what the soul stores in the palace of its brain, dies and passes away in time along with the brain; what use then can the spirit draw from what has happened and what has stopped existing?!

19 But if you develop such a thing from your heart, it will then remain there for ever in something that is eternal, namely your spirit, and likewise through that forever in your soul; but what the brain seizes, passes away, and nothing is left of all the worldly wisdom in the soul when it one day leaves the body.

20 Therefore you must all take everything to heart and bind it in your heart and reveal it; for what the brain creates is suitable only for the passing life on this world and for the mortal body.

21 Soul and spirit do not need this; they need no earthly clothing, no house, no field and no vineyard. All cares from the recognition of the brain is directed at the covering of the bodily needs which unfortunately have such a high degree among the people that they can never be counted and even less achieved for the largest part of humanity.

22 The earthly intelligence of the brain can therefore never accept and understand something purely spiritual, because it has been given to man only for the necessary care for his body. Such a thing can only be done by the divine spirit in the heart; it must therefore be practiced from early on. Once it has reached some degree of solidity, the correct order in life will have been as good as established; and so just try to unfold what I demand of you, and your spirit will gain a great advantage!"

- Chapter 183 -

The reason for the incarnation of the Lord

1 Philopold says: "In Your holiest name I will try then to see what I can unfold out of myself.

2 I reckon, even an ordinary person must have a reason for any quite ordinary action, otherwise he would not have put his limbs into motion, all the more so can we assume that God, as the only eternal true and pure all-powerful spirit, must have had an extremely cogent reason to squeeze itself into the limited form of flesh and thus, as the Creator of all things, become a fellow creation for His creatures, as we people are.

3 But as only love alone is the powerful incentive for whatever action for us people, likewise love was certainly also the single high motive for encouraging You, oh Lord, as the holy consequence of this, to walk among us and teach us to recognize Your will freely in us, to make it our own and then to act independently to please You, oh Lord.

4 This is how it seems to me in my heart quite naturally and actively: You once in eternity changed Your ideas into truly solid forms. At first the forms were rigid and stiff, as now everything which stands before us seems to be completely lifeless to our senses. From these great and seemingly dead forms You developed from time to time gradually more and softer and more self-aware forms of life with less or more free movement and action. All this is and was only a preparatory school and first test of fully free life in all the fully free people coming afterwards, to whom You, oh Lord, gave the main and fundamental form of Your own fundamental existence.

5 Now man was there, became aware of himself and of his divine freedom, had a great joy in his existence, in his beautiful form and could tell and count the things that were around him.

6 But soon he began to ask after his origin, likewise the things that had been given to serve him; and when You, oh Lord, saw that, You became joyful in Your divine heart, and You gave him the opportunity to feel You more and more and to think.

7 Through the inner silent and secret revelation in the heart of the now free man who was Your equal in everything, Your eternal spirit led him to begin to discover that he, along with everything around him, must be the work of an all-powerful and highly wise and good being. Through such an ever increasing and brightening recognition the new, magnificent man had to be filled not only with the highest respect and honor before the Creator of all things, whom he could feel ever more acutely, but also with a longing love for Him in his heart to see Him just once and speak to Him, in order to recognize with faithfulness that his great idea of the existence of such a high beingand constantly awakening honor and love, was no vain fantasy!

8 This great longing rose and rose higher and higher, and the holy demand for You, oh Lord, in Your spirit, became warmer and warmer in the pure and still unspoiled breast of the first human couple.

9 True, these first people loved each other; but they did not recognize each other and therefore their love for You, oh Lord, united them, and created in them the ever increasing and more determined confidence that there must be a great, holy and all-powerful Creator who had set the people as lords over the whole earth and over all the things, because all other creatures of the earth bowed before their will.

10 When such a longing to get to know You personally had reached its highest culmination, You then were also awakened in Your godly heart and opened the inner eye of the people, created an ethereal human form for a moment and showed Yourself to the people longing for You.

11 Only then did man see the great and holiest truth and the fullest reality of his premonition and had a great joy in You, but also a great fear of You who had given him, along with everything else, his existence.

12 At that time man was as good and pure as a sun; nothing dulled his senses, and what one calls passion was far from his sacred breast.

13 But You, oh Lord, knew well that only the human form was animated by the breath of Your will, and that he was now capable of beginning to work on his own inner formation, in order to achieve free independence.

14 You directed him and showed him the way - one, leading to divine, freest independence, and the other leading to the captive and therefore utterly dependent existence.

15 A commandment was the threatening pointer and the questionable double path itself.

16 But so that the commandment became what it should be for the new people, You had to give man a tempter, so that he would prompt him to disobey the commandment and man would then hold firmly to the commandment through his own firm will and would observe it faithfully.

17 This lasted for a while; but You Yourself saw that man could not finally reach that high level of complete independence which You had pinned out for him through the strict obedience of a commandment.

18 In order to achieve that, man had to be separated from You ever further and deeper; he had to fail and fall and then only begin to pull himself together again in such highest division from You with great effort and under all sorts of temptations and complaints, and then search for You with a humbled and purified heart.

19 When the fallen man had risen again to You by such a painful way out of his profound depth, You came to him again, showed Yourself to him once again in a much more extended form and likewise in a greater educational revelation to the people, and made the great prophecy of what You have now performed before our very eyes, that You too would become a fellow man for man, so that he could stand before You in complete independence for all future times and You would have the greater, more magnificent and certainly more blessed pleasure to face Your children not immediately as a God, Lord and Father spread through all eternity and therefore never to be seen and never to be touched, but instead as a visibly loving Father, whom the children can love, and to lead all the good children personally into Your wonderful heavens.

20 What a blessing could that be for a never-ending God, if He could see His dear children, but they could never see Him as anything but an endless sea of light?! In this way You have prepared the greatest blessing for the people and thereby as the true, only and most loving Father of Your children also for Yourself.

21 For what desire could You have even in the best and most pure of heart of all Your children in the certain knowledge that they will never see or hear You speak in all eternity?!

22 Thus You, oh Lord, have done all this for Your and the people's sake, so that the pure can become happy in You and that You can enjoy the highest bliss and happiness in them!

23 And if now all the angels come down from heaven and can give me another reason for You present fully and even materially formal human existence, I will give up forever my humanity and will stop existing, or I will be an animal forever

24 If You, oh Lord, had no love in You, You would have never called any of Your most magnificent ideas into a visible and formal existence; but since You had a great pleasure in Your godly heart in Your wonderfully magnificent and great ideas and loved them before Your endless wisdom and power had ever called them into externally visible and formally secured beings through Your strength, Your love, which was also becoming more and more fervent and active, forced You to give Your ideas an existence apart from You and therefore also a continuing life.

25 This life, however, is nothing but Your highest, most powerful and purest divine love!

26 All creation breathes out their life and in this love of Yours, yes, their whole being is nothing but Your love, and all forms are also only Your love! Everything we hear, see, perceive, sense, feel and taste are only Your love! Without it a sun would never have lit the earth and warmed its fields!

27 But if only Your love has done all that with Your magnificent original ideas, should it then do nothing for itself in order to achieve in all fullness what originally forced it to prepare a free, independent life for its ideas?!

28 I am now of the opinion that I have spoken the full truth, from which goes forth that You, God of eternity, inevitably had to become in time a person like us, driven by Yourself!

29 And I also believe, as far as is possible for my human wisdom, that I have exhausted the question that You gave me! I beg You, oh Lord, to now speak Your judgment on this quite clearly."

- Chapter 184 -

The language of the heart

1 Everyone is amazed by the deep insight and wisdom of Philopold. Kisjonah looks at him from head to toe and cannot understand how this person otherwise well known for his great experience now suddenly amazes everyone with his deep wisdom, and even Mathael says: "I also have some knowledge - but my spirit has never reached such a depth as this! His spirit or soul must already have been schooled in another, better world!"

2 Jarah also looks at the wise man and can hardly come to terms with his wisdom through sheer amazement.

3 But I say to him: "You see, My dear friend and brother, how well you succeeded and how you have hit the nail on the head with your magnificent answer to the question I placed on your heart!

4 I tell you that you have now revealed the fullest truth in My name to all My disciples, friends and brothers in the most faithful, truest and most easily understandable way, and I do not need to say anything else except: So it is, and so all things have been since eternity!

5 You see, there is more wisdom in this than in the whole Song of Solomon, who understood it just as little as anyone else; for if he had understood it, he would not have fallen into the sins of all sins and been destroyed!

6 Therefore seek wisdom only in your hearts and the correct revelation from Me, then you will understand it easily and keep it for your whole life and forever"

7 Then Peter says: "But Lord, we have been with You now for almost nine months; why do we not understand how to speak from ourselves as this friend from Kane near Kis?"

8 I say: "The Romans have a little saying, and say: ex trunco non statim fit mercurius! [A stump will not turn into Mercury easily – the editor]. And so it is more or less with you, and I Myself want to ask you now and then: How long will I have to put up with you before you understand something in your true foundation of life?

9 Have I not told you repeatedly that you should not begin to create thoughts in your heads, but only in your hearts, in order to reach a fullness of wisdom which would truly make you free in life? Why don't you do that then and why do you remain with material things which have nothing and can give nothing?! Do what I teach you, and then you will also speak as Philopold does in true wisdom!"

10 Peter says: "Lord! We have tried that often; but the thoughts in our hearts just don't work. Only sometimes I feel something - not so much true thoughts as more actual words in my heart, and these I cannot really call thoughts, since it seems to me that these are only spoken in the heart after they have been thought in the brain!"

11 I say: "That is a start; practice it and you will soon manage to be capable of the deepest and freest thoughts in your heart!"

12 Peter says: "Thank you, eternally good Master; if it is so, then we will soon progress!"

13 I say: "Yes, yes, but not completely before My return home; but afterwards, yes!"

14 No one at the table understood that and so they asked what I meant by this.

15 But I say: "Do you think then that the Son of Man will remain until the end of this earth in flesh and blood among you people and teach and perform miracles?!

16 Yes, I will truly remain until the end of the earth among the people who are of a good will, comforting, strengthening, animating, teaching and also performing miracles, and I will come to all those who truly love Me and keep My commandments and will reveal Myself to them - but not in this mortal body, but instead in a transfigured and eternally immortal one! Whoever has senses, will understand this!"

17 The disciples say: "Lord, we have senses - but we still cannot understand this!"

18 I say: "I have not made you responsible at all! Every apprentice needs a certain time before he becomes sure of what he has learnt; once he has done that, he is released and is from then on responsible for his own mistakes! Therefore, if you now understand some things, you are without blame; but later it will be different! But now you must collect yourselves! For in just a moment something will happen which will give us a lot to deal with!"

- Chapter 185 -

On the nimbus

1 I had said this out loud so that also the guests at the other tables heard it, and our Stahar, the chief [priest] from Caesarea-Philippi, rose solemnly from his seat, came up to Me and said: "Lord! I heard everything that was said and judged at this most illustrious table, many miraculous, eminent, deeply wise, fully true and in every respect undeniable things; everywhere Your purest divinity shone like a sun on the brightest midday, and all the angels of heaven could not claim otherwise.

2 But nonetheless I always missed something; and that is the certain divinely eminent nimbus which nowadays one sees only too clearly in the temple and particularly in their holy of holies, as soon as one only sets foot in that place!

3 The certain holy mysterious quietness, the sacred aroma of sacrifices - here quite absent - constantly make a thoroughly earth-shattering effect on the people, and certainly to their pious people! What an unspeakable gap between God and man!

4 How low does a man feel in comparison with the fearfully eternal, divine majesty, yes, how does he sink back to nothing and feels in his full nothingness the great divine All-in-all and his purest nothingness, which is highly healing for the humility of the human heart which likes to puff itself up in pride!

5 In a nutshell, in my unmeasured opinion man should not feel so at home in the presence of his God, his Creator, as if he was sitting with a bowl of lentils and was consuming them quite comfortably!

6 Thus there is no lofty nimbus here! We are sitting as sheer friends and even brothers among one another, and whoever says something speaks enormously truly and wisely, but also quite without the certain ancient, very prophetic nimbus; once he has said everything, he is finished - but unfortunately we are almost as well finished with the particular most high respect , which man should constantly have before God!

7 We are feeling so comfortable in Your presence, and even the magnificently uplifting Sabbath in the heart of a person, otherwise spent in respectful rest, makes no better impression on our mood than any other very usual workday, and now something is supposed to happen which will certainly cheer us as ordinarily on the New Moon Sabbath as only something quite usual, most commonplace can do!

8 Could Your omnipotence not be used so that at least the remaining two hours of this Sabbath day rest, will not be made too similar to a working day and destroy every divine nimbus?"

9 I say: "You can't teach an old dog new tricks, and have you never heard people say: A dog always returns to what he has thrown up, and the pigs always return to the puddles in which they have made themselves unclean!?

10 What's all this about your empty and fully godless, eminently scenting temple nimbus?! Whose eyes of the soul have ever been opened and who has been taught the ways of life?!

11 Did I create man for the nimbus or only for the all-rejoicing love?!

12 Tyrants and violent oppressors of their fellow men tend to surround themselves with your nimbus, throw sand in the eyes of all the seeing people and choke the poor and the weak, simply to raise your eminent aura of fear around them - and you call that good and even serviceable for the human soul?! Oh you old blind fool!

13 What good would I be to you then if I was an all-consuming fire among you?! Would that ever increase your love and your trust to Me?! Or is it possible to love someone who instantly threatens to strangle you as the most powerful with eyes glowing in anger, if you only make the slightest mistake?!

14 Do you and your dubious temple know better than I why God created the people and how God and man behave mutually?!

15 What is that then that you call a nimbus? Look, it is the actual, very worst and most poisonous smell from the very lowest hell with which Satan surrounds his similar, faithful servants so that they stand in a terrible reputation in order to thereby lead many human souls into the kingdom of Satan with little effort!

16 But it is written that everything which appears before the world surrounded by this nimbus is an abomination before God!

17 Have you ever seen two people who truly love one another act arrogantly as if surrounded by a nimbus and then hardly deign to give the other a friendly look and even less a tender word?!

18 Or have you then seen a truly tender and passionate young bride meet her groom with the greatest possible nimbus of arrogance and the groom meets her with an even greater one?! Do you really think that that can become a married couple? Yes, it can certainly become one according to the power of the law for this world, but never for heaven! For where there is no love, there is also no heaven!

19 I tell you: That is the curse of hell and no light, no path, no truth, no love and therefore also no free life, but instead only an eternal judgment which suppresses those who cursed themselves and holds them in the tightest check!

20 It actually seems less divine and worthy of God here to you because you do not actually get to taste anything of hell and of its despicableness!

21 Look what the blind humanity can achieve! They have a point of belief that they are doing God a just and pleasing service with hell! They could not have gone any further in their blindness, stupidity and evilness!

22 If it seems to you to be so edifying and worthy of God in hell, then go there again and serve God there with your eminent education and be happy in your nimbus!"

23 At these words Stahar falls on his knees before Me and begs Me for forgiveness, saying: "Lord, forgive me, a foolish old, blind idiot, and I thank You for this justified correction; only now am I fully healed!

24 You see, I was thus brought up and lulled into thinking this way, and the impressions in the cradle are very hard to be removed from the mind! But now it is as if a new sun has risen in me, and I now see the whole despicableness and the total perversion of the temple service; now come what may, I will remain as firm as a granite cliff in the sea in this new teaching which is most worthy of God from Your holy mouth."

25 I say: "Stand up, brother! Go and tell your brothers what you have heard; for they also are stuck in their foolish nimbus to over their heads! Explain to them what the nimbus is and explain to them who I am, also without such a nimbus, and what I really want!"

26 After these words Stahar rises, bows deeply before Me, hurries to his brothers and begins to talk very energetically, and it soon becomes very loud at that table at which it was previously very quiet, and Stahar has a job with his brothers who are somewhat animated by wine.

27 But Floran, his spokesman, supports him and so things are soon evened out.

28 Philopold however says to Cyrenius: "Great master! It is extremely strange how some people cannot see the wood for the trees!"

29 Cyrenius says: "Habit is a powerful support for all foolishness. In Europe there is a nation where everything is decided with beating and scourge: for every little crime there is the stick, the scourge or a firm whip in the most painful fashion. My brother Caesar Augustus wanted to do away with it; he placed educators there who actively worked against it, and even had men and women brought to Rome so that they could learn the blessing of humaneness; and look, these people became very homesick for their own land where they certainly in every month were beaten black and blue!

30 But once a material hell becomes such a habit for a man that he longs for it when he does not find any more in a humanitarian people, how much more then the spiritual hell which gives man so many mundane advantages!

31 I however was not surprised by Stahar's comment. This person had been very well physically for many years in his nimbus, and now wanted to say a few words about it, in order to always be in favor. But now it is good so, and let his nimbus rest!"

- Chapter 186 -

Preparations for the imminent storm.

1 In the meantime, however, Herme, the messenger and singer from Caesarea-Philippi, went up the mountain to see how things were going with the burnt out city, and found it still in powerful flames here and there; but at the same time he also discovered that a very violent storm was beginning to form at a very rapid pace in the direction of the city and in his opinion it would not be long before it would begin.

2 He now came back down from the mountain as a meteorological prophet and said to old Mark, "Dear neighbor, there are so many guests here, and it will hardly be half an hour before we will all be standing under the most violent storm! Have you roof enough to protect us from all sorts of adversity? For with such a storm it is not safe to stand in the open! I don't mean to say too much about wind and rain; but hail and lightning are really a little too uncomfortable to be borne out in the open! If you have too little roof, then we should make provisions!"

3 Mark says: "As long as the One who is here says nothing and orders nothing, there is certainly no danger! This One is our very best and most reliable everything. If he wants provisions to be made, however, then they will be made in an instant! Therefore, my friend and neighbor, be unconcerned; everything will be sorted out in the best way!"

4 I call both of them and say to Mark: "The storm that will soon be over us will give us a lot of adversity! Therefore some roofs as in Herme's opinion would be good; but the material is quite lacking! Where can one find it in such a great hurry?"

5 Mark says: "Lord, as long as You are with us and among us, I say, as I said before to friend Herme: You are our very best all-in-all, and we need no better and more durable!"

6 These words by old Mark are now repeated by many by-standers loudly and full of trust, and I say: "Let it be so then! But if a strong hailstorm would come, accompanied by lightning and cloudburst?"

7 Everyone says: "Lord, let in addition an unheard-of earthquake shake all the mountains and let the stars fall from heaven, we will still laugh heartily in Your presence, for what can harm us if Your all-powerful hand protects us?!"

8 I say: "You must also speak like this in the storm and in the danger in your hearts and not only with your mouths as you speak now, then My protection will serve you through your faith and through your living trust; but if you begin to fail in the danger, then My protection will not do you any particular good!"

9 Everyone says: "Oh, Lord, who will be swayed in their faith and trust in You?! But we nonetheless take possession of Your love above all and Your all-powerful will; for if You, oh Lord, hold back Your will, we will be in a very bad situation despite all our faith and trust! But You are extremely good and just, and You will not want to harm our trust!"

10 I say: "Oh, by no means! You should get to know on this very evening the power and magnificence of God! But in addition this storm must come for the sake of the burning city, otherwise it will burn for another few days. It will last for about three hours, as you have never experienced before, and nevertheless it will bring more use than harm.

11 But nonetheless let us go now out on the sea; for there our presence will be most necessary! You will also be able to see the angry elements the easiest, and the magnificence of God will be more illuminating to you there than under a roof!"

12 At these words everyone now hurries out onto the calm sea. But one can already see the black clouds moving closer and also over the eastern and southern mountains massive clouds are building up, and everyone now realizes that this will be a massive storm; over the sea however a number of storm birds are immediately showing up.

13 Ouran therefore begins to look after his beautiful and expensive tents, he comes to Me and asks Me to take under My protection his traveling treasure; for at the sight of such a giant storm the tents might well be blown away!

14 I say: "Didn't I tell you then how the magnificence of God will be revealed here the most clearly? How can you still be concerned with your pitiful tents, as if any salvation of the world lay within them?! Look, the tents are large and very spacious; when the storm stands above us with all its force, let the female guests go in, and also those males who might take too great fright! For the storm will be no joke by any means; but nothing will happen to your beautiful tents, except that they will get a bit wet!"

15 Ouran says: "I thank You for this prophecy, which has now as good as come true. My tents, which certainly do not let in a single drop of water even at the heaviest rainstorm, are now all at the disposal of those who want to use them. I myself will, however, remain outside with you, oh Lord."

16 I say: "Aren't you afraid of the hail?"

17 Ouran says: "I have already shared my opinion with all the others and now I say once more with the wise saying of the Romans: si fractus illabatur orbis, impavidum ferient ruinae!" [Even if the world collapsed the intrepid will top the ruins - the editor]

18 I say: "Very well; but now the surrounding storm clouds are beginning to shake their damp hands, and it will therefore soon get going! Also on the sea crashing waves can be seen here and there, and it is therefore time for the frightened to go into the dry!"

19 Fish are jumping out of the water in order to catch the low-flying mosquitoes; likewise a constantly growing number of seagulls and storm petrels are frolicking over the surface of the water and helping the fish to reduce the number of mosquitoes. The water becomes very rough in places, and in the high air the clouds are becoming ever denser and more colorful. In the west the thunder rolls incessantly, and the hurricanes out at sea begin their frightful and booming battle.

- Chapter 187 -

The storm

1 As the preliminary noise of the fast approaching storm becomes ever stronger and more threatening and almost a complete darkness begins to spread over the sea and over the whole area, the more fearful begin to head into Ouran's tents, and no longer have any joy in remaining outside with Me. The disciples also begin to release all sorts of worries among one another; not one of the fifty Pharisees remains in the open air when they see several pound-weight balls of hail fall on the ground before them.

2 Ebahl commands Jarah to head into one of Ouran's tents with him; but she is not to be moved from the spot, and says: "Who can then be so afraid in the presence of the Lord?! Should such a storm be able to do more than the love, omnipotence and highest power of the Lord?"

3 Ebahl says: "By no means; but at the falling of pound-weight hailstones there is nonetheless a little fear, particularly when the clouds shake them out in very dense masses. Such a ball of ice as just fell beside me could very easily shatter a head!

4 I believe that not one, even at the heaviest fall, will touch or injure me or my little daughter; but nonetheless the old fear comes undesired to a man such as I am. But now I will not fear; for I cannot let myself be put to shame by my Jarah!"

5 Now it really begins to hail somewhat more heavily. Balls the size of two fists fall with great strength on the ground, the sea begins to drive waves as high as a house, one flash of lightning follows the other, and the rain begins to fall in streams along with the dense hail.

6 Here Hebram and Risa and the thirty boys also become flighty and try to save themselves under the table; but Suetal, Ribar and Bael, the first of the twelve former criminals, remain, and My disciples also remain right down to Judas Iscariot. The Roman soldiers seek protection in the house and in Mark's fishing huts and under the cliffs.

7 But right next to Me are Cyrenius, Cornelius, Faustus, Julius, Philopold, Kisjonah, Ebahl and Jarah, Raphael and Josoe, then eleven disciples, old Mark with his two sons and also Mathael with Ouran, Rob, Boz, Micha and Zahr.

8 But Helena, now Mathael's wife, likewise fled with the wife and the daughters of Herme into the tents; but Herme remained with Me.

9 But when we stood on the shore of the sea, no-one was touched by any hailstones or rain, no matter how close they fell; also the spot where we were standing remained completely dry. Lightning flashed before and behind us in the earth and bothered nothing but our ears with their loud crash. But now a hurricane began with all force to churn up the sea, and at the same time waves like little mountains rose and created quite a frightening sight for human eyes.

10 Then Mark said: "Lord! I have now become an old man and have seen and enjoyed storms in Calabria and Sicily; but such a genuine Noah's storm has never happened to me before! Lord, this hail is destroying the region for many years! And the terrible streams of water are washing all the good earth into the sea! That will give the poor people quite a business! And this story will not stop, but instead it is becoming heavier and denser! Those over there under the table will drown if they don't stand up! The tables do not protect them any more anyway, since they have been hit many times! Lord, how much longer will the storm last?"

11 I say: "It has not yet even properly begun, and you want to end it already?! When it strikes around, then you will see its strength! In any case, don't worry about this storm! If it was not necessary, it would give way at a sign from Me; but it is necessary for the maintenance of the earth, as the eyes are necessary for you to see. Therefore let's allow it to storm itself out!

12 But on the other hand the certain friends of the nimbus must really taste something of a true nimbus which happened to me! Look over there at how they peep out from the openings in the tent and cannot understand how we are capable of standing so well protected in the open air! But they nonetheless have no courage to come out; oh, how tiny their faith is!"

13 Mark says: "That's all right; but what will the poor people live on? For You see that the never-ending hail is destroying everything and the floods are carrying all the earth into the sea! And thousands of people and animals are being hit, and those that escape with their lives will later succumb to starvation! That is really a little too harsh and too heavy a punishment, carried out with the very heaviest whip in the world!"

- Chapter 188 -

The judgment concerning the region of Caesarea-Philippi

1 I say: "Do you know, My dear Mark, everyone speaks as he understands things, and you are now speaking as you understand things! I tell you: The Lord sweeps rarely; but when he sweeps, he sweeps everything out!

2 Do you know this wide region? Yes, you know it, and you know that it as one of the most fruitful ones will be possessed only by the most arrogant rich Greeks; but the poor Jews must work for the rich Greek dogs with the sweat of their brow for a token payment and they must bring all the fruit to the store houses of the Greeks. They then run a very profitable trade in all the parts of the world, and our Jews must beg in winter and catch fish if they want to live!

3 Look, the Jews can always do that and the sea will always remains full of fish!

4 Has a Jew then ever received a piece of bread from a Greek when he was hungry? Oh no, he had to travel across the sea and beg there for a piece of bread from his fellow Jews! There is My Kisjonah and My Ebahl! Ask them, and they will tell you how thousands of poor Jews from this area received their bread for winter alone from them!

5 I have watched this outrageous horseplay for a long time in great patience; but now I have had enough, and I want to castigate these extortionate dogs, devoid of all faithfulness, so that they will be left forever dumbfounded.

6 Look at your garden and your little field; neither water nor hail is doing any damage there; but then just look at the other areas, and you will find such destruction as has never happened anywhere else!

7 With this punishment the Greek extortionate dogs will be driven out of this land. For on the bare stones they will harvest no wheat, no corn, no barley, no maize, no lentils and no beans any longer; therefore they will leave the desert land and move to Europe.

8 Exactly for this reason I mainly allowed almost the whole city to be turned into a heap of ash and rubble; for where man can find no accommodation and no building ground, he soon leaves the empty and void cities and moves on.

9 But for the poor Jews there will be more than enough building ground around the sea, and the city will be rebuilt for the true Jews - but in a purer and better style than what has been the case so far! This is still a very young city, and it has been a city for barely seventy years, since before it there was only a quite insignificant settlement in its place; but from now on it will no longer be called a city, but it will be and shall remain only a fishing village. The splendor of the Greeks must disappear; but the magnificence of heaven shall be revealed here, as such is now happening and progressing. Do you, old Mark, now agree with My housekeeping?"

10 Mark says: "Yes, if that is so, then allow, oh Lord, the lightning to strike ten times harder! That is really the purest truth! Nothing more could be said to these rich Greeks, and there was no talk of loving one's neighbor any longer. Whatever one wanted to have from them had to be paid most richly in silver and gold; but if they bought something from us, one always had to take other items in exchange. Oh, therefore it is now very good, and I have a great joy in this heavy storm! Oh, now it can become at least ten times heavier!"

11 I say: "Don't worry, the appropriate measure will be taken!"

12 Cyrenius says: "You mean therefore that this area should remain quite deserted?"

13 I say: "Not exactly; but the rich Greeks must leave this area; I tell you that this storm will drive away at least a thousand of the wealthiest families in the area; for I have seen this long in advance! But they will still remain Rome's subordinates."

14 Cyrenius says: "Is it not good then for an area or for a whole country if it has very rich inhabitants?"

15 I say: "Oh yes, if they are like My friends Kisjonah and Ebahl; for then they are true fathers of the people for all the poor inhabitants of the land, and every land can be very proud to have very many such fathers of the people.

16 But these rich Greeks are true blood-suckers of the country and think that the poor Jews should be very happy that they can share their meals with the Greeks' pigs in return for their heavy work! For Me those are no longer people, but pure devils full of hardness, and I have no sympathy and no compassion for their miserable, arrogant flesh! They should now follow the storm which will have died down in an hour, only lay their much gold and silver on the bare stones and sow the seeds on it, and we will see whether even a straw will sprout up!

17 And look, in this way I have now destroyed a number of evil flies with one blow; the lying priests must seek other pastures, and now even the usurious Greeks will do the same! Their palaces lie in rubble, and their great fields, gardens and pastures have been fully washed away. If they look around their ground after the storm and convince themselves that every future effort is a vain exertion, they will begin to pack up and mostly head towards Europe; but then I have more than enough means at My disposal to make this area flourish again as much as possible in a short time."

18 But now the storm is on the wane, and although the hail has stopped, the rain is now falling in such sheets from the clouds that the water immediately collects on the flat ground as high as half a man and then flows away with the most terrible bluster, so that even the sea begins to perceive the violent river, which is certainly no little thing. Houses, huts, trees and thousands of other things stream towards the sea. The sea also gets to taste a number of animals, as hens, birds of all sorts which the hail has struck, pigs in a huge number, donkeys, cows, oxen, sheep, goats and hares and deer - and the vast number of fish which this sea hides will perk up much from this, then become very fruitful and multiply, and that will be a good supplement for the poor Jews, who in any case cannot lose anything here because they possessed little or nothing. The few wealthy ones had already become quite hard and unfeeling in their minds like the Greeks, and it does not harm their soul at all that they now have to rely on fish and begging along with the others.

19 When it now began to rain so heavily, everyone got up who had previously sought shelter under the tables, head to Me quite soaked through and could not help being amazed when they saw Me and everyone that had remained outside with Me quite dry, as well as the somewhat higher places, so that not even a drop of water was hanging on a blade of grass.

20 Hebram asked Me, after he had pushed his way forward to Me: "Lord, how is that possible that this place and you all have remained dry under this unheard-of downpour, while we are as soaked through as if we had fallen into the sea, and we are freezing now as if in winter, but here on this spot it is so pleasantly warm as it was this morning?! Lord, how can that happen then?"

21 I say: "It happens exactly as it should! I can truly give you no other answer to your question! For you should now know and even actively perceive, after everything that you have heard and seen, who and what is here! And if you understood that in your soul, how could you then ask Me such a question?!

22 The morning was very good; but the evening seems to have brought an evening to your soul again! Oh, you frightfully blind humans! You are enlightened for a moment; but the light does not remain, because it was not created by yourself, and in a few moments the night takes the place again of the morning of your soul!"

23 Hebram says: "Lord, what is it then that You wanted to say to me and my twenty-nine brothers?"

24 I say: "Nothing except that you and your brothers are sheer blind fish in muddy water! Tell Me what drove you under the tables and benches in My presence!"

25 The soaked people answer: "Lord, a very natural fear and shyness remaining from our childhood of such enormous storms!

26 In our blind fear we did not think about where and with Whom we were; now we see our foolishness very well, and we also see how blind we all were, and how much we failed before Your holiest face. We can do nothing else now except to beg You, oh Lord, with all the truest and most living contrition of our hearts for forgiveness! Lord, forgive us our great foolishness!"

27 I say: "I have forgiven you long ago and I have never opened a book of punishment for anyone for the sake of foolishness; for every fool has only himself to blame if he comes to harm. But another time, since you will not have Me with you as now, think in the correct living belief in My name, and it will protect you better than any weak and fragile board!"

28 The thirty are satisfied with this correction and beg to be allowed to remain on the dry spots.

29 I say: "Well, that goes without saying! Remain and dry off; for the rain will last another good half hour!"

30 The thirty become very happy about this and remain and dry themselves and take great joy in getting dust-dry under the cloudburst rain.

- Chapter 189 -

The afflicted ship on the deep sea

1 I however call the angel and say to him loudly for the sake of the guests and the disciples, "On the sea a quite large decked ship with twenty people of both sexes, not counting the eight sailors, are suffering great affliction. The ship stopped at the beginning of the storm at the harbor on the other side not far from Genezareth; but when the storm turned around more strongly than before, it tore the ship, ready to sail off, from the shore and drove it with the greatest strength into the open sea. The sailors and the travelers worked with the greatest effort and exhausted almost all their strength in order to save themselves from going down. Well, they are in danger of being consumed by the sea; therefore go and save them - but not in a way that they will not understand, instead loosen a boat and steer it as a clever pilot to help the afflicted ship and bring it here, because the ship in any case wanted to steer towards Caesarea-Philippi!"

2 After these words of Mine the angel leaves our party in an instant, loosens a boat - which was full of water; but Raphael soon had every drop of water overboard - and sailed towards the heavy hurricane like an arrow and reached the afflicted ship in a few moments.

3 When the afflicted see the pilot, they fall on their knees, thank God and say: "Oh, this is no ordinary pilot! That is a true angel, whom God has sent to our rescue at our pleading! He will certainly save us all!"

4 But Raphael asks them pro forma: "Where do you want to go in this storm?"

5 The afflicted say: "We wanted to go to Caesarea-Philippi, but only after the storm; but the too strong storm tore the ship from the shore and drove us here with all force. We do not know where we are, for the heavy rain does not allow us to see a familiar shore on any side. Have we still far to go to where we want to be?"

6 Raphael says: "Not with this wind; but since the rain and the storm will certainly last another half hour and you will only now come into the high waves where you would have been lost without any helpers, I came as the most experienced and courageous pilot to bring you and your ship to full safety. Do you have much water in the ship?"

7 The sailors say: "Pretty much!"

8 But after a few more moments the water which had penetrated their ship has disappeared to the last drop, and the sailors say to the friendly sailor: "But this is extremely strange! Look, noble young sailor, we were mistaken before; no drop of water has penetrated our well-covered ship! We certainly thought that we had discovered some water in our ship; but it may have been a mistake as a consequence of our justified fear, for now we cannot find a single drop of water, which seriously looks somewhat wonderful. Yes, yes, it is all a miracle what the Lord decides; but this is really something strange that not a drop of water has entered our ship despite all the eons of rain and your open boat is hardly damp at all!"

9 At this the travelers say to the sailors, "Do not speak in vain! This is all tangibly the mercy of God, for which we have to bring Him a first most and very tasty sacrifice in thanks, and the young courageous sailor is a sailor from heaven! For just look at how the rain is still pouring down in the heaviest streams and all around the waves are rising like mountains; but our ship, like his boat, is floating so calmly as if the sea was as calm as glass, and the rain is falling neither on our ship nor in his boat! Also the lightning sizzles and crashes around us like lively mayflies, and none of the glowing and crashing death-bringers touches us! Look, that is a mercy, yes, a highly undeserved mercy from above!"

10 The sailors say to the travelers "Truly, truly, you are all correct; that is a miracle that is a true mercy from above! We are saved! Look, we can already see a shore very close! A number of people are standing on the shore despite the enormous rain, and look, many, yes, they are all waving to us in a friendly welcome! Oh God and Lord! How great and magnificent are You even in a storm to those who have always honored and praised You faithfully, and have always brought You the prescribed sacrifices with joy! Eternal honor alone to Your holiest name!"

11 After these words they steer slowly towards the port, and I secretly order now the storm to cease and to stop completely.

12 And everything soon ends, and everything becomes still, as if a storm had never happened. The ship comes to shore easily, and the travelers are taken ashore.

13 When the travelers come onto the land, they cannot help being amazed at everything that they encounter there.

14 The storm and the rain have quite calmed down, the surface of the sea is beautifully calm and the sky is free of clouds; only very light woolly clouds decorate the blue background here and there in the rosy light of the sky. For the sun is already behind the mountains and has left the earth, where we were, only a very magnificent evening twilight as a farewell gift.

15 The place where the travelers come ashore is totally dry, all the guests here with Me look very cheerful and friendly, and our old Mark welcomes them in a very friendly fashion, asks them also immediately whether they will not take some refreshment and food, since this journey in the storm has certainly tired them out very much.

16 In short, all that has such a positive effect on the travelers that for sheer amazement they can hardly hear and see what is going on around them.

- Chapter 190 -

The Jewish merchants from Persia

1 After a while of the greatest amazement, one of the travelers says: "Where then is our pilot, so that we can ask him about our great debt? It is certainly no joke to face such a danger in order to save a ship full of travelers!"

2 But the sailors come to the travelers and ask them whether they should wait here for a night and a day before the return journey, or whether they should now travel home on the calm sea to the port on the other side which was still a good 5-6 hours distance from here as the crow flies.

3 But the travelers inform the sailors to wait for them until they have completed their business with  Caesarea-Philippi.

4 Mark hears this and says to the travelers: "Dear friends! You can really save yourself the trip to the city; for there is nothing further or more of the whole city than a few huts of poor Jews and a number of burnt-out and terrible ruins! It sadly but justifiably succumbed to the flames all last night and today, and it was impossible for anyone to become master of the flames!

5 If you have something to sort out, you must do it now and here, since the highest political and spiritual authorities are now staying here with me!"

6 The travelers make quite amazed, concerned faces at this news and say: "Friend, if so, then there will be quite terribly little for us to do here, despite the present very highest lords over the world and the spirit! For we had significant trade agreements with the Greek merchants of this city, and they have taken much from us, but still owe us the whole last delivery! How will we get our money?

7 We are good artisans in the working of silk and camel hair, we have also delivered the finest sheep's wool in all colors and floral material for all sorts of temple clothing, and the last delivery had a value of ten thousand pounds of silver; for we are Jews, it is true, obligated to Jerusalem, but we live in Persia, have our great factories there and were constantly good and honest.

8 We kept the law of Moses more strictly and accurately in our land than all the Jews in Jerusalem and always brought rich sacrifices to the temple; we maintained a synagogue which was not much inferior to the temple in Jerusalem in everything that concerns greatness and splendor!

9 We are good and very benevolent people to all the poor who are of Moses' religion, and have always kept the best up-bringing and order, as is known! Why has Jehovah then treated us so harshly?!

10 You see, we really would give half of the ten thousand pounds to the temple if we could get our justified money; yes, in addition we also would give another five thousand pounds to the very poor brothers in faith of this region, if we could only receive from the heathens all the money for the trade and the accounts!"

11 Mark says: "Yes, my dear guests and friends, despite your very respectable pledges, it will be very difficult for you! But speak to the supreme governor Cyrenius, who is now here with another three great Roman rulers! He can perhaps do something."

12 The travelers say: "Where is he, that we may go over and bring him in all subordination our affliction? Perhaps something wonderful will happen there?! For our rescue by the young sailor was obviously a miracle, and no small one at that! But our sailor has now lost himself somewhere and does not come into sight so that we can give him the fee for our rescue!"

13 Mark says: "Over there on the little hill by the sea, where the supreme governor and the other great people are, is the sailor also among them. You can head over there quite without embarrassment and decide everything with one another.

14 But there is also a certain person there who is covered in a sky-blue coat and wears under it an unsewn, rose-red tunic, and over his shoulders flow very rich blond locks; if you can win Him over, then you can really speak about the greatest happiness! For He is capable of everything, and in a way nothing is impossible for Him! But in your situation it will be somewhat difficult to speak to him!"

15 The travelers ask: "What and who is he then? Is he perhaps even someone imperial from Rome, or perhaps a king of a great kingdom?"

16 Mark says: "Neither the one nor the other; but just go over there, and you will perhaps discover who hides under the blue coat!"

- Chapter 191 -

The travelers' two delegates in conversation with the Lord

1 With this our Mark leaves the travelers and heads into the house, in order to see to the evening meal. But the travelers now discuss among themselves whether they should all go to the hill, or whether they should just elect a few from their midst. But they soon agree to elect only two of the wisest from their midst. The vote is done, and both immediately head for the hill.

2 When they reach us, they bow deeply before us, and the first person they bow to is the pilot they have now found again, to whom they immediately address their debt in a most friendly manner.

3 But the pilot asserts saying: "I am just a servant of my Lord, from whom I have everything I need; therefore I cannot accept a reward from anyone because it's only owed to my Lord!"

4 The representatives ask the pilot: "Where and who then is your happy lord?"

5 Raphael points with his right hand to Me and says: "It is He, there, go to Him and ask Him, and He will tell you what you owe Him!"

6 Both bow before the angel and then immediately head towards Me. Once they have reached Me, they fall down on their faces according to Persian custom and, lying on the ground, they say: "Lord, whose shining face we do not dare to look at! You sent Your extremely skilled and daring pilot to us in our greatest need, without whom we obviously would have been lost! But we are not poor people who would not have to reward such a service with a fee. We are very rich people and do not demand from anyone a service for free, all the less so this inestimable one. What do we owe for our rescue from the greatest life threatening peril?"

7 I say: "Firstly that you rise as men and, as is our custom, stand up straight before us; for we are no vain and highly arrogant great ones of the slave kingdom of Persia. Thereafter we want to speak among ourselves a little about this rescue fee!"

8 At these words of Mine both rise and ask Me gratefully to decide their fee for the rescue.

9 But I say: "I know where you come from and why you came here, I know that you are rich in gold, silver and jewels as few Jews are in all great Jerusalem; I know that you would pay as much for your rescue as you are owed by the Greek merchants in this now devastated city and therefore have to demand, and which you will hardly ever receive!

10 Therefore the reward which I could ask from you, especially since you are Persians and our members, could justifiably run as massively high as your certain loss from these Greek merchants, now seeking shelter in the forest huts; but what would you gain through it? You would take it up there and then lay it down again here! Then you would return home again the way you came!

11 But I do not charge anything for the rescue, and I even give you the assurance that your stay here, even the journey here and back again through Genezareth, from where you came by ship, shall not cost you a single stater! (For this was one of Ebahl's ships, and they were also his sailors.) Are you satisfied with that?"

12 Both the representatives say: "Lord, you are still full of the blooming strength of youth, but at the same time you also seem to be full of genuine wisdom of Solomon and you are this in all truth - what you have now pronounced as the price for our rescue, we already wanted to give the half of this to the temple in Jerusalem and the other half to the poor Jews of this area, if the merchants of this places wanted to pay us the not insignificant sum.

13 But since they have had such a harsh fate, this loss no longer matters to us at all, and we are prepared to help them with a sum of money twice as large, and without repayment or taxes, but to also give you besides the decided ten thousand pounds as reward for our rescue with the friendliest hearts in the world! For you see, Lord of this area, we are very rich; we could not bring all our earthly treasures here on a hundred thousand camels, even if each carried a burden of four thousand pounds. (A Persian pound was equal 5 to 6 Lot today: J. Lorber.) [with one lot equaling 17.5 grams the Persian pound is between 88 and 100 grams or about 0.1 kg] In addition we possess much land and many and great herds. Therefore this is as little as nothing to us; just demand from us whatever you want, and we will only rejoice to have acted according to your will and pronouncement! For we still have ten times as much in the cities of Judea! We will give you then gold immediately or else the most assured directives.

14 Whatever is more pleasing to you, oh Lord of this area that we will do; for we were never greedy and mean! We know, of course, that wealth finds itself in the hand of the Almighty, who can give it to a man overnight and take it away again the next minute! We are only the guardians of His possessions; the single Lord over it is the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob!

15 You can already see with what sort of people you are dealing; therefore just command, and we will act according to your certainly very wise dictum!"

16 I say: "What I have said to you once remains so! For I know you and all your circumstances, and you do enough if you follow My demand; but if you truly want to do more for the poor, no-one will lay an obstacle in your path. But there is something more to be had here that is of endlessly greater value than all your almost immeasurable treasures! But more about that later!"

17 Both the representatives say: "You seem to be a very strange wise man! The treasures of this earth cannot move you; also you seem to be no particular friend of a perhaps exaggerated benevolence! Mental treasures surely are worth more to you than all the gold of the earth! You are completely correct in every such respect; for the treasures of the spirit last eternally, while the earthly ones last for every man only until the grave, and then it is over for him who is taken away from this world!

18 Yes, you wise Lord, give us the treasures of wisdom - they will be dearer to us than all our gold, our jewels and heavy masses of silver! But now we want to go and report all this truly and accurately to our brothers!"

19 I say: "Yes, yes, go, tell all this to your brothers, and come again with your brothers; for you are only twenty in all, without the sailors, and easily have space here!"

20 "Certainly!" say the cheerful representatives: "We do have space; but there is only the question of whether you have the goodness to share with us some wisdom. For at home in Persia genuine wisdom is becoming ever rarer, and in its place the conjuring of the pagan priests becomes ever more wide-spread and will certainly put an end even to the wisdom of all the Jews living there - particularly if the domineering and greedy priests and idolaters receive power from the king, which is very much to be feared, since they pester the king above all measure and nag him day and night.

21 We have kept ahead of them so far through our great wealth; but these evil people also know how to procure immeasurable treasures, and exploit the wasteful king at every opportunity. And so it will surely happen that they will end the tolerance of the otherwise soft-hearted king. But more about that later; now we must inform the longing brothers about everything that we have heard here!" With these words they bow and hurry back to their brothers. Once there, they faithfully report everything that they heard and now discuss some matters with their male and female companions.

- Chapter 192 -

On the blessing and curse of wealth

1 But Cyrenius says to Me, "Lord and Master, truly, I have never met such generously-minded and kind people in all seriousness; I must give these people protection against the attacks by the idolaters - no matter what it costs! The Persian king is also only a vassal of Rome and is subordinate to me; oh, a stop should soon be put to the work of these vile creatures! Also You, oh Lord, should give these people a particular mercy; for they seem to me to be fully deserving of it!"

2 I say: "In any case, otherwise I would not have had them rescued from certain drowning by My angel; for where I perform something miraculous, there is certainly a very good reason. And here there is no lack of reason!

3 A great earthly wealth in the hands of such people is a true blessing from the heavens for a whole land; if such people also possess a higher wisdom, they can perform miracles for the true good of humanity.

4 But a great wealth in the hands of a greedy person or a usurer is a curse from hell for a whole kingdom; for he seeks only to seize everything for himself at the cost of all people! No misery moves him, neither affliction, nor the tears of poor, deserted widows and orphans. Thousands can be on the brink of starvation before the cold face of a usurer, but he will nonetheless never give anyone a piece of bread to satiate him!

5 Therefore I also tell you that the whores and adulterers and thieves and savage murderers will enter the kingdom of God one day, but the soul of a greedy person and a usurer never; for it cannot be corrected and therefore becomes the matter out of which the devils will build their deepest hell!

6 A usurer is a true machine of hell, constructed for the ruin of all man, and as such it will remain for eternity the full property of hell!

7 Put a king's crown on the head of a usurer, give him a scepter and sword and a powerful army in addition, and there you have placed a Satan as tyrannical regent over the poor people who will not spare his subordinates the last drop of blood! He will rather strangle everyone than let them out of paying a single stater! Therefore let every greedy man and every usurer be cursed by Me!

8 But such people who have become extremely rich through the industriousness of their hands under the influence of mercy from heaven are a good and noble fruit of this earth. They are constant collectors for the weak and poor, they always build new houses for the homeless and weave clothes for the naked brothers and sisters. Therefore their reward will be great; for they carry the most beautiful and highest heaven already within themselves on this earth!

9 When their soul will one day leave their body, heaven will unfold from their hearts and place it in the centre, just as the rising sun spreads out its own light and revels then in the great centre of the all-animating and creating light emitted by it!

10 But other good human souls will only be blessed like the planets which rejoice in the warming and animating beams of the sun, but which still have a dark side however!

11 Yes, My dear Cyrenius! To be rich on this earth and only use as much for yourself as one really needs for the maintenance of oneself, that is, to be sparse towards oneself, in order to be all the more generous towards the poor, this, this is the greatest divinity even in the flesh on this earth! But the greater this genuine and only true divinity exists in a person, the more blessings and mercy constantly flow to him from the heavens!

12 It is just the same for such a person as for the sun! The more it lets its light flow out over the earth, the brighter it shines in itself; but if it become more sparing with its sharing of the light in winter, even if only seemingly, then it is also in itself of a poorer and weaker light, even if only seemingly so!

13 Whoever gives much with love and joy, to him will also be given much!

14 For if you place a strong light in the centre of a room, it will also shine back again from all the walls towards the middle of the light and will seize the strong light with a powerful aureole, and thereby the original light will become even more magnificent, powerful and effective; but if you only place a weakly flickering lamp in the centre of a great room, the weakly-lit walls will only give back an extremely small light, and the glory of the original light will look very poor!

15 Therefore you, abundantly equipped with the goods of this earth, be generous, just as the sun in the sky is generous with its light, you will be the same and will reap just as the sun does!

16 For you cannot sow a good seed in good earth without it bringing you a harvest a hundred times greater. But good deeds of a good heart are truly the best seeds, and the poor humanity is the best earth; never let it lie barren, but sow this earth lavishly and it will always bring you a hundred times greater harvest here and a thousand times greater harvest in the beyond, for which I stand here as firm warrantor!"

- Chapter 193 -

The essential nature of humans

1 "Certainly, one might well say here and there and also judge: Yes, yes, it is good to preach about the virtue of generosity and to present greed as a most despicable vice; but who could actually help the fact that the overwhelming tendency towards wasteful generosity has a strong motive in one person, while for another it is the very sheerest greed?! For both people it is the same thing, an external appearance of their inner love, from which a blessed feeling awakes of its own accord which he then, like every other, keeps for himself. But the first man only becomes sad if he does not possess such abundance that he cannot make his poor neighbors happy, and the second becomes sad when he does not receive as much as he wishes - or even loses! That being so, everything lies in the nature of the person from his origin, and then basically there can be neither a vice nor a true virtue. For the greedy person generosity is a vice - and for the generous greed is just as much so. Can water help the fact that it must be of a softer and more flexible nature, and who can damn a stone because of its hardness?! The water must be what it is, and likewise the stone.

2 On the one hand, this is certainly true; it is the nature of the generous to be generous and the nature of avarice is the exact opposite. But the matter stands thus: Every human is born as a child with the impulse for selfishness and avarice, and such a soul always has within it the coarsest material animal element, which applies particularly to those souls that are not from above but only from this earth. However, also the souls coming from the stars to this earth are not quite free of this element.

3 If man is brought up in this animalistic element, he transforms it more and more into his own life's ground, i.e. into his love. But because this is so animal-like, man remains a wild animal and has nothing human about him but the miserable form, the loosened tongue and due to the orderly construction of his brain a good capacity for cognition which, however, is more and more activated into base activity by the animal element. It can, therefore, recognize as good and conducive to bliss only that which the purely animalistic elements want.

4 Therefore, if someone wishes to maintain that in the real meaning of truth there is no virtue and thus, no vice and that it is wrong to condemn avarice as opposed to generosity, let him be referred to this My explanation; let him consider and ponder it well.

5 But if a gardener plants two fruit trees in his garden and cares for them as he should, it will surely be of no matter to him if only one of the trees bears fruit, but the other, being of the same kind and standing in the same earth, nourished by the same rain and dew, the same air and the same light, does not bear any fruit, yes, not even a satisfactory canopy to provide shade? The insightful gardener will say then: That is an undutiful, ill tree which consumes all the juices that come to it; we will see whether it cannot be helped! Then the gardener will try all the means he knows and if all these means do not help in the end, he will cut down the unfruitful, ruined tree and plant another one in its place.

6 A miserly and selfish man, therefore, is a spoiled man, within and through himself, and cannot bear any fruit of life because he consumes all life within him.

7 On the other hand a generous person is already in the correct order of life because he bears abundant fruit outwardly.

8 But a tree cannot help the fact that it bears fruit or not; for it does not form the fruit itself, but the spirits rising in its organism from the just richness of nature form them through its power and through the highly simple and therefore also very limited intelligence. But man stands on a point through which the unlimited intelligence of his soul begins to form and to transform itself into a tree bearing the richest abundance of fruit of life.

9 If he does that, for which he has all the means, only then will he become a true person in the true, eternal order of God; but if he does not do that, he remains an animal which has no life in itself and therefore also cannot bring any life to his neighbor through good and kind deeds.

10 But therefore the present rescued Persian Jews are already very well-ordered people, and it is now an easy thing to lead them to higher wisdom; for if a lamp is so full of oil that it begins to overflow, and has a well-placed and powerful wick for the life in itself, one only needs to light the fuse and immediately the whole lamp becomes full of light and illuminates well and brightly everything around it in a wide circle!

11 And these Persian Jews along with their wives whom some have bought along with them, are already such well-filled lamps; it will not take much more to make them all full of light!"

12 At this Cyrenius says: "Lord, that is once again a highly important lesson and should be written down and remain until the end of the world!"

13 I say: "You are right to be concerned, and I have therefore ensured that the most important things have been written down on your rolls. But every such document is only as useful for life as a dead guide to a hiker on the many roads and mazes of this world. But what can help everyone and give him wisdom, power and life, will be written down in every man's heart, and in such an indestructible way that these scriptures of eternal correct life and its multifaceted circumstances will be read aloud in the human heart at every action which contradicts the divine order, and the soul will long to return to its original, divine order!

14 If man follows this inner voice, he is instantly on the right road. However, if he does not heed it but acts in accordance with the raging passion of his flesh, he will only have to blame himself if he is swallowed up by the judgment taking place within him. But I can see our Persians are approaching; we will, therefore, await them joyfully."

- Chapter 194 -

The Persians' opinions about the Lord

1 But while I was explaining to Cyrenius generosity and greed, the Persians were discussing amongst one another who I could be. Some considered Me to be a prophet; others considered Me to be a wise man who was familiar with all the schools of Egypt, Greece and Jerusalem; a few even thought that I was a Roman prince, know all the circumstances of the great empire and therefore possess a great state wisdom. One had to therefore be very careful before Me; for otherwise the proud Roman Cyrenius, as supreme governor of all Asia, would not act so humbly before Me! But one of the two representatives said: "Let things be as they are; he is in any case a higher person, and we can learn something from him, and that is what we all need the most at this time!"

2 Everyone finally agreed with this and came up to Me on the hill, although it was already beginning to get quite dark.

3 But at the same time old Mark also came over and asked Me about the evening meal and the tables which had been destroyed by the hail and the ground which was still very damp, and what should now be done.

4 But I showed him the Persians and said: "Look, a great and very tasty dish for Me; these must still be consumed by My love before the evening meal! Until then you will find time for a physical meal, in order to prepare it and put the tables in order; for only some of them are broken and these will be repaired at the right time. But light the lamps soon so that the people do not walk in darkness!" At this Mark headed back cheerfully and put everything in motion.

5 The Persians came to Me, however, bowed again to the ground as was their custom, but nevertheless straightened up again afterwards and did not remain lying on their faces.

6 One of the previous two representatives took the word and said: "Lord, and surely great friend of people who are of a good will, look, here we are! You know our circumstances and the reason which drew us to this area. We see it as a miraculous act from above and say like Job: Lord, to You be everything, heaven and earth, air and water! You give and take away, when and how You desire; You can give a beggar crown and scepter and bend the king's head down into the dust of nothingness! Therefore it does not pain us; for the man who always carries the almighty God's will in his heart never is sad, except when he has sinned before the face of God. Therefore we are also not sad about our significant loss; for if God's will had not been acting on this seemingly sad occasion, we would now, as is otherwise the case every year, have certainly come to our money without any reduction. But obviously the will of God was in the game, and we gladly sacrifice this trifle - and would gladly like to bring greater sacrifices if the Almighty demanded it from us; for He alone is Lord, we are only His slaves who serve and obey Him always.

7 We love and fear God alone and have therefore no fear of people; if the Lord of heaven and earth has harmed us somehow before the people, He has certainly had the best reason for doing so! For man commits a sin before God only too easily and carelessly which always brings a great prejudice for the soul; but then the Lord comes with the good rod and helps the person back onto the correct path!

8 You, dear Lord and friend, can see from this that we are people who have not forgotten God at all. You may perhaps be a very wise heathen and be very familiar with the powers of nature; but we know only one almighty, and that is only in the Lord God. We will accept no other teaching!

9 If you want to teach us some true wisdom, do not forget that we are unchanging firm adherents to the divine teaching of Moses! Nothing contradictory will be accepted by us, no matter how wise it would sound and be! For we all would prefer to be fools before the wise world than sinners before God!"

10 I say: "It is just right so, and you are on the best path! But even in Moses, as particularly in the prophets, there are things which might still be quite unclear to you. And I want to elucidate these for you so that you yourselves and your brothers, wives and children realize what period we have now!

11 When Elijah lay hidden in a mountain cave, the Spirit told him to stay in the cave until Jehovah Himself would pass by. And Elijah drew close to the exit and listened. Suddenly a violent storm passed which made the whole mountain shake. Then Elijah thought it may have been Jehovah Who had passed by. But the spirit answered: 'In the storm Jehovah was not.'

12 Then Elijah listened again, and behold, soon after a powerful fire passed in front of the cave! It burned and crackled so powerfully, and the outer walls glazed before the power of the heat. Then Elijah thought that this was Jehovah! But the spirit spoke again and said: Neither in this fire was Jehovah!

13 Then the great prophet considered: So neither in the storm nor in the all-powerfulness of the fire is Jehovah present in the primal essence of His love!

14 When he was seriously pondering over it, a very gentle and soft rustling went past his cave, and again the spirit spoke, saying: 'Behold, Elijah, in this soft and gentle rustling Jehovah went past and let this be the promised token, namely, that you can now walk freely and leave this cave, hidden in which you had to wait for deliverance.'

15 Then Elijah stepped out of the cave cheerfully into the great open air and the path to his great home stood free of danger and open. (1 Kings 19: 9-15)

16 If you know the Scriptures so well, then explain this strange parable to Me!"

- Chapter 195 -

Explanation of a scripture by the Lord

1 At this question of Mine and the previous revelation everyone opened wide their eyes and did not know what to answer. For the more they thought about it, the more confused their understanding and their mind became.

2 One of the two deputies made a remark after a while, saying: "High, wise friend! You seem to me to be very experienced in the Scriptures, although you are perhaps a Roman or a Greek. The highly mystical picture of the prophet Elijah that you described to us was extremely correct; but it has never been understood by anyone before now. It would be truly strange that a heathen should shed light on it to us Jews. But we ask you for it nonetheless; for I have already had some dubious points from the prophet Isaiah explained to me by a wise heathen from the east and had the most justified reason to be amazed about his deep wisdom. But here this seems to me to be a similar case. Therefore we all that are here ask you to explain this parable to us according to your opinion!"

3 I say: "Well then, so be it! But above all I must correct your mistake, that I am a heathen, for I am no heathen, but from My birth a Jew like you; now truly I am everything with everyone in order to win everyone for the Kingdom of Light, for the Kingdom of eternal truth! Whoever has ears, hear this, and whoever has eyes, see this now!

4 Elijah represents the pure soul of man, and the cave in which he was hiding the world and actually the flesh and the blood of man. The spirit speaking to Elijah, or to the human soul, is the Spirit of God with which the soul is to be united but cannot be as yet because Jehovah has not yet passed by the flesh- or world-cave.

5 The passing storm describes the time from old Adam until Noah, the fire - the time from Noah until these days.

6 But the time of the soft breeze before the cave of the prophet is now upon us, which will give every soul which has a good will the full redemption in the spirit and in all truth, and, nota bene, you also find yourselves now at the point of receiving the freedom of Elijah!

7 The ship which brought you here was also like a prophet's cave. It was at first at the mercy of the great force of the storm, and you were in great distress and fear; and when the storm drove you out to the bottomless sea, a thousand fold fire crackled around your small, frail world of rotting boards. But Jehovah was not in the fire, although He brought you with His arm (an angel) deliverance and preservation.

8 But now you are in the place where after the storm and fire the soft rustling goes past you. Who could possibly be in this soft rustling before you and close to you?"

9 Here the Persians are amazed beyond measure, and the representative says: "Strange, strange! This very picture is surprisingly like that ancient one of the prophet Elijah. Also our rescue was miraculous and that by no means in a small measure, and now on this hill I truly sense physically and morally that strange, mysterious rustling, of which the spirit said to the prophet that Jehovah had gone past in the same. What do you think, all my brothers and sisters? What do you think of this matter?"

10 The others say as if with one voice, "It seems just as miraculous to us as to you; but we will not reach the light on our own! Let this wise man speak to you and to us all!"

11 The deputy says: "Yes, that would certainly be the best thing to do; but one cannot immediately demand this or that in this place where Rome's highest rulers are staying and kings and princes, but instead we must first beg for the merciful permission to ask for something that we would like!"

12 I interrupt, "Friend that is not needed here at all! This is certainly a custom in Persia, but it shall always be far from us! Before God, My friend, a foolishly demeaning humility of the human soul is as much craziness as any other which occurs in paganism - all the more so a too great humility of a person before simply another person. Such a too bootlicking expression of humility of a person before another person only makes them both worse; the former, because he only feigns such humility and thereby pulls his neighbor to even greater arrogance, and the latter because he thereby really becomes more arrogant!

13 That humility which comes from pure love is a correct and true humility; for it observes and loves in its neighbor a brother as a brother, but makes neither itself nor the neighbor into a god, before whom one should fall on ones knees and worship.

14 Whatever you want or would like, demand it as a person from a person and as brother from your brother; but no person should crawl in the dust before another!

15 What God never demands from a person, all the less should a person demand it from his fellow man! That is also a correct wisdom in the fullest order of God; therefore observe it and act accordingly, and you will be pleasing before God and before man!

16 But now about something else again! So that you can understand the gentle breeze before the prophet's cave a little deeper as corresponding with this time, I will now give you another question, since you are still in a manner of speaking solid Jews."

- Chapter 196 -

The Lord's question about the Messiah

1 "What do you think then about the promised Messiah, who according to the prophecy of all prophets should come right at this time to free the Jews? Do you, as intelligent people, seriously think something of it, or do you, like many others, think nothing of these too mystical prophecies for the human understanding?"

2 The representative says: "My eminent friend! That is an extremely prickly issue! To think nothing of it would be too presumptuous for a genuine Jew, but to consider it seriously is also a very daring move; for one can thereby open the door wide to the most dubious superstition and prepare for its freest entry!

3 Whether it is preferable to have no faith at all before the most dubious superstition, or vice versa, I leave that gladly up to a wiser man than I. But so much says my ever sober reason: that zero faith at all in a dubious superstition seems to be significantly preferable.

4 For no belief at all, in my opinion, equals a new-born child or an empty, barren field, in which nothing has yet been sown. The child can become a fully wise man through a good up-bringing, and in the barren field every type of noble fruit can be sown; but if the field has become overgrown with all sorts of weeds and a grown-up child has been taught all sorts of foolish things, then the wise education is either impossible or certainly extremely difficult. And how difficult it is to clear a field of weeds, every honest farmer knows that who has ever had to clear his land of weeds and then keep it clear! Well, eminent friend that is more or less our sober opinion.

5 We say neither yes nor no as far as the promised Messiah is concerned; but if some correct wise man, knowledgeable in the Scriptures, wants to enlighten things for us, he will oblige himself to us as Jews and people. If you know something solid about this, then tell us; there will be no end to our gratefulness for it!"

6 "Quite correctly judged!", I say to the representative: "No belief is better by far than a dubious superstition; but it nonetheless still has some bad growths which in the end, once they have been completely hardened, are just as difficult to heal as a field full of weeds is hard to clear.

7 But the field full of weeds at least shows that its ground is a good one, otherwise no weeds would grow there; this is not shown by a completely barren field however.

8 You know, if the so-called mathematically determined world reason has seized a rock-solid position in a person, then to accept a sublime faith in something purely spiritual - no matter how eminent - is very difficult! Such a person of reason wants to have proven everything in the end mathematically. He will not take any notice of things that he cannot see and measure.

9 Now judge yourselves whether things are easy with such a person as far as the adoption of purely spiritual things are concerned!"

10 The representative says: "Certainly, eminent and most wise friend! But then one can claim with significant confidence that there are few such people, and one shouldn't count one's chickens before they are hatched! Such educated people are nonetheless much more accessible for the truth in the end than all the black heroes of dark superstition, particularly where this has become a lucrative belief! Thus nothing can be done with it, and it seeks to persecute with fire and sword everything that could compromise it in any way. We are experiencing such a thing from our priesthood, for whom no means are too bad to protect their black deceptions from persecution!

11 But I do not want to make the claim as if the priests had any faith in what they force others to believe on pain of death and burning; for their motive is bread, the best bread, and much gold, silver and jewels. But the extremely dim humanity nevertheless believes it, and often with the greatest and cruelest fanaticism!

12 Well, even the firmest person of reason is enormously further and further advanced towards holiness than such a crazy man of superstition! He is at least a friend of a truth, even if it is a highly stereotypical one, while the very superstitious humanity fends off any sort of truth and prefers to think that a tree trunk is a monkey, rather than see what it really is.

13 But a friend of the truth is in some reasonable way always accessible, while it is very difficult to think of even apparently approaching with reason the deeply superstitious people with any sort of truth.

14 It is well-known that it is difficult to bring determined mathematical people to the true belief; but once such a person has accepted something, even if only as a hypothesis, he will hold onto it with iron grip and sacrifice everything in order to prove it as the solid truth even in a mathematical way.

15 Would a dark superstitious person do that?! For him feces and genuine gold is the same thing; and I still maintain firmly that no belief at all is much better than a belief such as we, for example, have at home!

16 But as we have heard, even the temple priesthood in Jerusalem is not much better than our Persian. The wonderful Ark of the Covenant should have had its proven way a long time ago; for we know only too well when and where a new one has been created instead of the old one - of course not in Jerusalem, but instead with us', nicely deep in Persian lands, so that it would not be betrayed. But that was not much good to them; for they had to pay the Persian artists in the end ten times more for their silence than the whole ark was worth, and the artists still told the locals and the Jews afterwards. Therefore, eminent friend, we remain true to Moses teaching, although there are some things that in the natural course of things are sheer nonsense; however no-one knows how to give a healthy interpretation, and so no one complains further about it. But as far as the law and morals are concerned, it is unsurpassably good and wise, and no-one can dream up something wiser or better even in the brightest daydream!

17 We call this part of the Scriptures the only divine part; as far as everything else is concerned, it does not affect us at all, namely the prophetic part which no man can understand.

18 The image of Elijah that you explained is truly very appropriate and lovely in relation to the promised Messiah, who most probably can only be accepted spiritually - but what the other prophets foretell about it is highly mystical, and needs a strong explanation and an even stronger faith, which is fortunately no longer to be found with us!

19 It is positively praise-worthy for us that we have little or no faith at all in such extravagant things; but in its place we believe all the more intensively in one true God, who spoke most truthfully to the children of this earth through Moses!

20 But we owe much of our convincingly firm belief in God to Plato, whose writings we read and follow. Moses is practical and shows the way of life with sharply marked lines; but Plato is thoroughly spirit, soul and shows the soul to the soul and the spirit to the spirit. And taking all that together: Moses, Plato, Socrates and several prophets, understood in the right light: that is what we call the actual Messiah who will come from above, from where all light comes, to the earth and to the people who are of a good will.

21 Well, eminent and wise friend, I have now revealed to you who we are, what we think and what we feel; it is now up to you, if you know something better, to make us familiar with it too, if you will! What do you think, for example, about the opinion of prophets and the promised Messiah?"

- Chapter 197 -

The Persians' difficulties in converting

1 I say: "Have you never heard then in your land how thirty years ago in Bethlehem, the old city of David, the king of the Jews was born to a virgin in a stable?

2 Three wise men from your oriental lands saw a star and asked their spirit what this unfamiliar star meant. And the spirit called them to follow the star; it would lead them to the new-born king of the Jews, who will establish a kingdom on earth which will eternally have no end.

3 The wise men took gold, frankincense and myrrh, mounted their pack animals with a great and shining entourage and followed the star, which did not rest until the birthplace of the new-born had been reached. There the three asked after the new-born and came to Herod, who also could give them no information, but instead sent them back to Bethlehem again, where the wonderful star was resting, and urged an industrious investigation with the plea to report back to him immediately so that he could come and pay the new-born his respects.

4 When the wise men then found the new-born and brought him their sacrifices, a spirit from heaven immediately warned them not to announce their discovery to Herod, at which they then took another road back to their land.

5 Tell Me whether and what you have heard about this!"

6 The representative says: "Yes, yes, you remind us of something which made everyone talk from Persia right to India; for the three wise men, as there are many on the border with India, made much noise about the event, so that such things even came before the king, who however did not think much of it, because he knows the wise men, who always tend to make a mountain out of a mole-hill! Such things never make a particular impression on us, just as in higher places all the miracles of conjuring have lost all their particular and extraordinary value, because people of better places already have knowledge of all the miracles of conjuring. One still looks at well-chosen and successful conjuring tricks if one is in a good mood, and then laughs in addition when some droll things happen - but, as we said, such conjuring is quite without value to us.

7 Only pure truth proven with figures is valid for us; all other miraculous enthusiasm lost their value for us a long time ago, and we, quite frankly, think nothing more of them! There may be very true things hidden here and there; but these are so hidden in all mysticism that no human reason can bring them into the undeceiving daylight, and you, eminent friend, will see yourself that it is more sensible to direct all your senses towards the pure truth than to pay homage to such great poetic fancy!"

8 Here Cyrenius says to Me silently: "Lord, as it seems to me, nothing can be done with these very valuable people for our cause; they are too deep in their truth of numbers and decide against everything that we tend to call religion! Likewise they seem to be positive enemies of any performed miracle, which is always used by You in extreme circumstances as the most undeniable proof of full divinity.

9 You will hardly be able to get close to them with a miracle, in order not to make them completely unwilling, and other proof as explanations of the texts in the prophet Isaiah and in David and Solomon which make reference to You will do nothing for them, because the prophets have a bad reputation for them; and so I seriously do not know any other option! For with the means of numbers it cannot be proven that You are the actual Messiah, and otherwise they seem to be quite inaccessible!"

10 I say to Cyrenius to one side: "Just let things be, that is My concern! If we have corrected Mathael and the leader Floran, we will also be able to correct these people. But the most persistent was the leader Stahar, and he is now in the best order - these honest people will be brought to the correct order all the more easily and sooner!"

11 Cyrenius says: "I do not doubt that all things are possible for You alone; but for my still very human understanding things are not at all so easy to fulfill."

12 I say: "In any case, but therefore not completely impossible; one must only give them the opportunity first to express themselves completely. Only afterwards, when they are finished with the expression of their innermost thoughts and are at an end, a new fruit can be laid in the purified garden of their hearts!"

13 While I exchanged these few words with Cyrenius, the Persians whispered to each other secretly and our spokesman, who was called Shabbi, said to his companions: "It seems to me more and more as if we were standing on glowing coals! The story of the Messiah must be very common here. The fine-nosed Romans have surely heard something about it and are now probably investigating every corner of the Jewish kingdom in order to get hold of that man who here on earth should establish an eternally indestructible and also unconquerable kingdom, to the obvious disadvantage of the world rulers. Therefore we must be terribly clever here in order not to get trapped by the Romans!

14 The man who has just spoken quite secretly to the supreme governor is obviously a very fine examiner of Rome, anointed with all ointment! If we only believed even a little in the coming Messiah we would be as good as sacrificed! Therefore we must remain with the stereotype of mathematicians, listen more than we speak, and if something is mentioned again about the Messiah, we know what we have to say for common appearance for the sake of our earthly salvation! We already know for ourselves what we as Jews have to think about the prophets; but we do not need to place that before the nose of this supposed hero! The judge and examiner has gone through our Scriptures from A to Z through all our scribes and could catch us out; but we are also clever and wise, and he will not succeed, despite the fact that we were saved by this wonderful man from certain drowning. Therefore let's just stick to our mathematics and we will escape quite safely with our skins! But the least comment against it could throw us into great misery!"

15 The others all agree with Shabbi, and promise him to behave all the same and not betray a single syllable of everything that they believed concerning the Messiah.

16 But now I step among them again and say to the representative: "But Shabbi, why do you think so badly in your hearts against Me and against the harmless Romans?!

17 Do you think then that it has escaped Me what you have just decided secretly with your companions? I tell you: not a syllable was hidden from Me! For the One Who saw and knew when you were in great danger, otherwise He could not have let any help come to you, now sees the depths of your hearts! Since He means well and quite honestly with you, however, why will you not trust Him?"

18 Shabbi says: "You are truly very clever and wise; but what good will your wisdom do for us? But we are nobody's fool either, and we believe that we can see through you! The highest Romans at your side - not far from here Roman soldiers are camped, probably in order to seize someone somewhere if one gave a message through all sorts of clever questions and speeches!? But you do not need to seek that with us; for you will never find anything!"

19 Cyrenius now says to Me again to the side: "Ah that is so strange with these people! Now even a unique type of disguise comes to light! Who would have sought such things with these people?! But now they are really nailed up and barricaded, and so that they cannot be tackled from any angle! What shall we do now with these people?! They have a fixed, totally false idea of us, which unfortunately has penetrated them so much that we actually cannot meet them. That leaves only the question, what can we do with them?"

20 I say: "There will be a lot that we can do; now they stand much closer to their goal than before! Secretly they have always had this caution since the beginning, because they saw you Romans here! For terrible stories have spread for some time now among them: In the Jewish lands the Messiah has really appeared in all seriousness and is doing great things, but the Romans have heard about it and are now persecuting the Messiah in the cruelest way; for they have not only attacked the Messiah sharply, but also anyone who shows even a trace of a belief in a coming or already arrived Messiah. And look, that is the whole reason for their pretence, which we will soon cope with!"

- Chapter 198 -

Shabbi's warning speech

1 Cyrenius now realizes how things stand with the Persians; but he does not understand how such a satanic denigration by the Romans could have crept in among the Persian Jews, and who could have spread such a hideous seed there.

2 I say: "Has the temple not been aware of My actions for nine months?! Go and find out! All the negative and false reports about Me, about My deeds and also about you Romans originate there, since they know that you are not against Me! John the Baptist would still be alive if the temple had not known how to hide behind the mother of beautiful Herodias!

3 Everything starts from the temple and its arms reach far across the face of the earth; but they will soon be cut short! You see, that's the present situation and you will now hopefully see that it is now somewhat difficult to deal with these people, but nonetheless not in vain! And they must be brought into the correct light, otherwise it would seriously be very bad for Me, My teaching and for you!

4 You?ll now also begin to understand the reason why I saved these Persians from drowning on the sea. I would have sent no angel to rescue them simply for the sake of the maintenance of their physical life; but since the correct enlightenment about Myself and about My task is of great importance to these people, because they exert a great influence on their great land and on their numerous people, I had to save their lives, because we would have no effective means without them to free the Persians from their delusion."

5 Cyrenius says: "All praise to You alone, oh Lord; now everything is good again, and I am now completely clear about everything! Deal with them immediately; for I now see very well that success of the best type can and must be expected!"

6 But while I corrected Cyrenius to one side, the Persians were thinking quite differently, and our Shabbi said to his companions: "Look how both great men discuss quite secretively there in what a new, crafty way they can catch us out! For until now they have got nothing out of us; but now they must attack us ten times harder! Until now they have just been testing us with small weapons, now they will most probably begin with the battering ram; and if we do not stick together firmly, we will be broken like a light oar! Therefore everyone be on their best guard! For these people should never get our deepest belief out of us like a bucket of water out of any cistern! The questioner wanted to drive fear into me before when he claimed that he knew all our innermost thoughts exactly, and likewise that he had seen and recognized our need on the water. But I thought secretly to myself: Oho, you crafty fox! You want to come out of this hole?! Oh, by no means, my cunning friend! But he quickly saw that he could not catch me with this net, therefore he immediately went to the supreme governor and now has certainly discussed with him which trap should now be laid for us in order to definitely catch us; but we will not be caught in any trap! But we must stand on guard like cranes in their marsh - otherwise we are lost!"

7 One of them says: "How does he know your name then? He could not have learned it from us!"

8 Shabbi says: "That is truly a little strange, but it must not lead us astray; for the ways and means that such people who are up to every trick possess in order to know and learn some very secret things from other people are countless. One must not let oneself be wrapped around anyone's little finger!

9 Only God is all-knowing - and a person only when he is called by the Spirit of God to reveal things to other people which a normal human brain could never have found out. However, such a person animated by God comes only rarely to this terrible, selfish world - and never among the darkest heathens who are full of selfish lust for power.

10 But these people who are connected with the whole world and all its wise men are quite thoroughly cunning foxes and know very well how to entice secrets out of the people! Goodness, strictness, generosity, patience, even indoctrination in their secrets in order to awake the fullest trust in the person being examined and to loosen his tongue, and such tricks are used in necessity in a great quantity, in order to get behind the often even most hidden secrets of the people. But once these heathens who are devoid of every merciful feeling are in proven possession of any secrets going against their domineering plans, then woe betide those who have betrayed themselves to them! They are clever and evil and can only be kept in check through an enormous counter-craftiness! They can truly slip in behind great secrets in all sorts of hidden ways - but never into the secrets of the heart if the person being examined knows how to cover his tracks carefully!

11 Friends, we now stand here before the most merciless judges! The real and most hated topic by the heathens is the Messiah, who has now appeared in earnest, as we have heard by the most reliable assurances from all sides. He is supposed to have hidden somewhere in Galilee until His right, well-reckoned time would come. The heathens therefore are hunting Him, and the belief in the possibility of the appearance of the great Savior of the Jews from the hard and sharp tiger claws of the heathens is certainly death-bringing! You now know what kind of ground carries us here, and will also therefore know what is to be done!"

- Chapter 199 -

Dialogue between the two delegates

1 The other says: "You are truly always carefulness itself, and carefulness is the mother of wisdom; but here you seem not to be using it in the right place! For we also have a little knowledge of human nature, and the longer we observe the examiner, the more every thought that something bad could be hidden behind him dwindles! I, your fellow representative, perked up my ears a little earlier and heard some things from the secret discussion of the examiner with Cyrenius, and this consisted only of a little worry over the possibility of healing us from our delusion! It seems we were indirectly quite falsely informed about the Messiah and the Romans by the temple in a most malicious way, and have therefore a blind fear now before them and hide our very correct and good faith!

2 When we arrived here, we had some opportunity to observe the Romans who are everywhere, and we could, despite all our very clever questions, never learn anything from which we could take it that the Romans were seriously so cruel; on the contrary one always and quite freely and cheerfully spoke the best opinion in the world. You however, always said: If they were cruel in this case, they would know how to hide it from the eyes of the world in order not to create unrest among the people before the time! But I do not share this opinion; for every man belongs to some sort of family, and these must then notice his absence and finally begin to investigate where the valuable family member has gone to! But until now there has been no trace of this, and so I believe here that this otherwise very praise-worthy carefulness goes a little too far, particularly towards the very open and faithful-looking examiner!

3 But I now notice something else here, and it is something quite extraordinary, and I am very amazed that such a thing could have escaped your sharp eye completely!"

4 Shabbi says: "Well, what then?! I should have noticed something too; for otherwise things do not easily escape my eyes, and my feeling is as fine as morning dew. I should wonder that you have discovered something that had escaped my eye!"

5 The second representative, whose name was Jurah, says: "Nonetheless! Don't you remember what the examiner wanted to hint at when he explained to us the story of Elijah in the cave so beautifully tangibly - as if referring to himself?"

6 Shabbi says: "And what did he mean to say by that?"

7 Jurah says: "Nothing other than that he himself is the promised Messiah, before whose power all the rulers of the earth have to bow! Look, I have found out what has escaped your great caution! My very keen ear also heard how the supreme governor called your examiner his "Lord" just a moment ago! Something unheard-of from a top Roman general! And look, those are all things from which one should not lightly run away because of exaggerated caution! But what then if this strange man was possibly the prophesied Messiah?!"

8 Shabbi says: "Well, he would then be only extremely satisfied with my well-founded care; for my caution comes from the fact that I want to protect the holiness of our religion from the drivel of the heathens! There may be something in your perception; but we must not accept something without the sharpest secret test - unless we are obliged to do it through the most tangible proof. For nonetheless everything that you have perceived could still be a fine mask, and we would then be in the place that I fear! Therefore just one step at a time, my friend! Man always accepts such things, however true they may be, early enough; for a too hurried acceptance could bring one into great embarrassment!"

- Chapter 200 -

On premature trust

1 Now I come once again to the Persians and say, turning mainly to Shabbi: "Well, what have you decided in the meantime? Do you still consider Me to be a cunning fox who is only attempting to deliver you all into the merciless hands of the present world leader for punishment because of the Messiah of the Jews, feared by the Romans? Do I seriously resemble such a despicable traitor?"

2 A little embarrassed, Shabbi says: "Good, eminent friend! The face is truly mostly a mirror of the soul - but not always! I knew a man whose appearance perfectly resembled the very gentlest and most loyal angel as one healthy eye resembles the other, and yet it was only a natural mask, since the man in question was a complete satan in optima forma in his soul! This person was even a minion of court thanks to his beautiful and gentle figure and was as enlightened in all thinkable arts and sciences as a most beautiful spring morning; but his soul was blacker and darker than the thickest pagan Styx! Woe betides those who approached him in friendship! Everyone was lost! The female population ran after him as if possessed, although he liked any woman who drew near to him as much as a sacrificial animal, as certainly as a raindrop that the cloud can no longer carry falls on the earth! But he was constantly the most innocent, gentlest and purest person! Everywhere there were only unforeseen circumstances; but it was remarkable that the unhappy circumstances never affected his own person. He always managed to save his own skin; only those who drew near to him got to taste the heaviest burden of life and death from the evil circumstances! Oh, he was the most faithful servant for his king, but for every subordinate he was a quite miraculous devil!

3 In the regal city a rich Greek, who however let himself be converted to our religion, had a young, beautiful and enormously sweet wife, who was as faithfully devoted to her husband as this right hand of mine is to my body and my will. But it was not long before the cheeky Satan heard news about the beautiful woman and immediately set up a way to be noticed by the beautiful woman. As things would have it, the Greek ended up in a terrible argument with a real Persian in birth and tradition because of a refused repayment of a very significant and justified debt that the Persian had run up with the Greek. The Persian had his like-thinking compatriots as his judges, and so our Greek could not prove his rights over the faithless and promise-breaking Persian. Then the wife, who knew well that this good-looking courtier had often his eyes upon her, said: How about if we could find protection from the king for our good rights through this good-looking courtier? The Greek said: Yes, I know that he has often looked at you with his lustful eyes, and a word from you or from me might do a lot, even if nothing hid behind it but a totally blind hope as reward; but one hears nothing positive about this beautiful courtier! Yes, it would even be better to be his enemy than his friend! Whoever has entered into friendly terms with him came right into a great misfortune! The loss of our demand seems to me therefore a smaller evil between the two, and we would do better to bring the first and smaller one as a sacrifice to the Lord our God.

4 The beautiful young wife agreed to this. But a short time later our courtier showed up in the shop of our Greek himself in order to buy something; for our Greek is a jewel trader and sets jewels in gold and silver. He acted very friendly and tenderly and filled the Greek with trust, although the wife noticed very well that she involuntarily became quite afraid of this very dear and otherwise highly splendid and extremely generous person; for it had never happened to her that a person immediately paid the first mentioned price for a jewel without trying to knock down the price. Something else was behind this!

5 The Greek, very good in such things, said: Ah, this person must simply have a large number of enviers because of his beauty and modesty and because of his luck at court, who seek to make him out to be a terrible being and suspicious at court; he speaks so soberly and as wisely as a prophet! Truly, there can be nothing terrible behind this person! Not long after our courtier came back to the Greek and bought a large diamond set in gold, for his turban, which the king had given him. The price of the diamond was a hundred pounds of gold, which the courtier also wanted to pay immediately; for he always had a great entourage which had to carry the necessary treasure. But the Greek said to him: Most beautiful, wise and very eminent friend, help me with the cash that N. N. owes me - and this valuable jewel will be yours free! Your word means everything to the great king; I will be thankful to you!

6 The courtier said then: Tomorrow your good right will in fact be done; but nevertheless take the gold for this jewel! But since I am doing you a great service without any interest, I demand only a little service from you in return. In seven days I am putting on a great celebration for the king's birthday in the great paradise garden, and I invite you to this celebration, and you should turn up with your wife in very decorative clothing; I will introduce you to the king and bring you and your wife to the king's table where you and your wife can then ask a number of graces!

7 This seemed very good to the Greek, since he had long been the court jeweler. Yet his wife commented: We cannot change things anymore; but very little good will come of it, neither for you and even less for me! This person has evil intentions for me; and it could happen to you that you will be sacrificed at my side! The best thing would be to pack everything up and flee like the wind from here, before the unfortunate seventh day will arrive!

8 But the Greek said: Dear wife, caution is good, but to raise too great mistrust against people who have never given you any tangible reason to do so and about whom one knows nothing than what evil tongues have created and spread about them - something which can happen even to an honest man - is just as unwise as condemnable carelessness! The tender wife accepted this very reasonable correction. The following day the indebted Persian had to pay the Greek the last Stater.

9 The calamitous seventh day came like an iron fate, and everyone headed to the king's paradise, dressed most festively. Everything was flame and light, from all sides gold and jewels shone brighter than the brightest stars in the night sky, and music and song floated through the thick leafy alleys of the great garden. But both did not have to wait long before they were discovered by the courtier and immediately led to the king in the great garden temple and received most friendly by the same. In the middle of the great columned temple tables and silk cushions had been brought in a large number and of unspeakable splendor, and on the tables were great gold plates full of the best dishes, and in great crystal beakers tasty wine flickered and also a number of other spiced drinks.

10 Our Greek had to take his place at a table beside the great king's table; but his beautiful wife was immediately drawn to the king's table. For a time they ate and drank quite comfortably. But our Greek began to feel very unwell; for he got a drink that was mixed with poison, and had to be carried to his house. But the wife was brought to the king's chambers and had to allow everything to be done to her there until they had had enough of her. The Greek did not die from the poison, it is true, but he remains a paralyzed person to this day; and you can easily imagine how the poor wife looked when she returned home only after seven days!

11 That was the fruit of a too hurried trust towards a person whose exterior lent everyone every trust, while his heart was inhabited by a whole horde of the worst devils. But both people who experienced this not long ago are sitting somewhat to the side because of their weakness and can confirm what I have just said! Friend, if one has experienced such things, then one truly knows why one is careful!"

- Chapter 201 -

The difference between the Lord and the magicians

1 I say: "Go, and lead both of them to Me!" Shabbi goes and brings both of them to Me.

2 I ask them whether they would wish to become fully healthy and strong again.

3 Both say: "Yes, Lord, if this is possible! But the strange poison has made me quite paralyzed in all my limbs, and I can only move myself forwards with great effort; and look at this poor, withered flower of a wife - she is ruined in her body for all her life! Oh, Jehovah, why did such a terrible thing have to happen to us?!"

4 I say: "I want you to be as healthy and cheerful and look as you did when you got married!"

5 When I had said this, something like a flame rushed through both of them, and they were immediately as healthy and strong as if nothing had ever been wrong with them, and their bodies looked the same and even more blossoming than on their wedding day. They were extremely amazed, for such a thing had never been experienced before in Persia.

6 Shabbi also begins to raise his eyebrows more and more, and almost cannot believe his senses; but Jurah nudges him and says to him somewhat secretly: "Hey, I think that we are in exactly the right place, and we cannot be too far from the person that you are trying so carefully to deny! I tell you, it is He - or in all eternity no-one else! Now judge according to your senses!"

7 Shabbi says: "Yes, you must have almost hit the nail on the head! This sudden healing of both simply through his word; that is more than what all human wisdom can comprehend! Now our rescue also seems somewhat clearer to me. A person in whose will such a power exists that even crude matter must obey, must stand higher than all other people of the earth; a fullness of divine power must live in him, and his soul must be the living print of the divine will - or it is the godhead itself! Perhaps I went too far in my caution, but I cannot possibly have sinned by it; for I wanted to protect the divine, which could be an abomination to the heathens, and I didn't want to let it be poisoned by them, which would have done no good for either us or the most eminent religion!

8 But as it seems here, the heathens are not as bitter at all as they were portrayed to us in Persia. It can hardly be accepted that the endlessly proud supreme governor Cyrenius should not know what was behind this miracle-worker?! But if he knows it, and calls him a lord, he will then have the very best reason for it! For all the weapons of Rome must be too few and too weak against such a will!

9 That was no conjuring and no miraculous healing in the way of our magicians and priests, who persuade completely healthy people with the means of money and other advantageous promises to pretend to be deaf, lame and blind, to make a pilgrimage to an idol in a dirty temple and then at a decided sign to become seeing, hearing and upright as a tree. In this way a number of feeble-minded people will be persuaded and then if real lame, blind and deaf people come and beg and sacrifice, it will nonetheless be no better for anyone. For always they say: Your faith is too weak, and your petty sacrifice will not please God! Yes, you know that our magicians even bring the dead children of rich parents back to life, but we have known for a long time how, and we also know that such children awakened from death are not their blood relatives. This man here will also certainly be able to call at least the seemingly dead people back into life!"

10 I step up to them and say: "Yes, He can do that without sacrifices, oil and herbal juices! Look down to the beach; the two sons of our innkeeper have just pulled three drowned people out of the water, man and two girls.

11 He is a poor father with his two daughters, a poor Jew. His wife saved her own life thanks to a tree which was floating in the water; but her husband and both the daughters, who all hurried to help their mother as she was in the greatest danger, were washed out to sea by the ever increasing current and drowned in the undulant tides. But the sea's tide threw them ashore completely dead, and the strong sons of our inn-keeper found them now lying dead and have just brought them to land just below us here.

12 But I also want the unfortunate wife to be here too, who is still to be found clinging to the tree, crying, trembling and calling for help.

13 For this I will use My pilot again; then you shall see the glory of God and believe in Him who has saved you all!" Here I call Raphael and give him simply a sign which he understands, and in barely a minute's time he brings to Me on the hill the lamenting wife, who at first cannot be comforted at all.

14 But I touch the woman and say: "Now be calm, woman, and believe and trust; for through God all things are possible!"

15 Then the woman becomes calmer, but says: "I know well that all things are possible for God; but I also know that I as a sinner am not worthy of the mercy of God! Oh, what a purest heart must a person have in order to be worthy of the very least mercy from God! But this door to mercy has long been closed to me. God will surely take little notice of me now in my affliction, since I took too little notice of Him in my happiness. But God already showed me a great mercy when He chastised me!"

16 I say: "How would it be then, if I gave you back your husband and both your daughters?!"

17 The woman says: "Only God will be able to give them back to me on Judgment Day; for they lie buried in the flood and are dead! You could certainly give me the dead, if they have been pulled out of the sea by Mark's sons - but living, never again; for they must already have been completely dead for several hours!"

18 Then I say to the angel: "Bring the three corpses here!" And the angel immediately brings the three to the hill and lays them at My feet.

19 The woman immediately recognizes in the corpses her husband and her two daughters and also immediately begins to weep bitterly.

20 But I say: "Woman, be calm; for you can see that they are just sleeping here!"

21 The woman says: "Yes, they sleep the eternal sleep, from which a person has never awoken!"

22 I say: "Woman, you are wrong; there is no eternal sleep as you mean, since you have no complete belief in a life after death! But I will wake these three so that you and many others will become stronger in faith and trust in the living name of God."

23 Then I say loudly to the corpses: "Rise and stand up from your deathly sleep!"

24 Immediately the three corpses began to stir, and soon they stood up in great amazement. They looked around them with wide, bright eyes; for they did not know what had happened to them and where they were now.

25 But I now say to the woman: "Go and explain to them where they are now, and what has happened to them! When you have composed yourselves again and recognized each other, we will speak in more detail about it!"

26 But the woman falls before Me to the ground and for amazement cannot pronounce a single word. Only after a while the woman was able to fully stand up and began to laud and praise Me to a great degree; for she was gradually convincing herself more and more that her husband and both her daughters were alive and looked quite healthy and happy.

27 But I turned her attention again to the risen, so she could talk to them and explain that she was the rescued wife of the man and the true mother of both the girls. Then the woman went to the risen people with hurried steps; for if someone was healed by Me or raised from the dead, I would move away from the healed or risen person for reasons known only to Me.

28 Reaching the risen, she immediately identified herself and was immediately recognized by the risen with the greatest and most cheerful amazement and greeted in the warmest way.

29 But I forbade the wife to betray Me as the Saviour and re-awakener to the risen, who were now in full consciousness again, because such a thing was not suitable for a newly awakened life; only after she would receive a sign from Me could she give Me away - something that the woman observed although her husband begged her most imploringly to show him the miracle-working benefactor.

- Chapter 202 -

The effects of the Lord's deeds on the Persian Jews

1 This event, however, made the right impression on our Persians. Now this was the last straw and our Shabbi looked first at Me, then at the risen, felt their pulses and asked them diligently whether they had really been dead, and whether they could not remember something about what had happened to them!

2 But the man said: "Ask this stone, and he will be in the same position to give you an answer as I am! I now know only that a powerful current of water pulled me with it to the sea and then made me so unconscious and then dead that I do not know anything from this moment on what happened to me. I only remember this - but only in the soul - that I quite sadly found myself with my daughters soon after the drowning in the deadly tides on a great meadow and did not know why I was actually so sad. But soon a light cloud came upon us from all sides and I felt so blissful in this light! But we saw no-one except for ourselves, and a sweet sleep came over us in this bliss of ours, and we awoke from that sleep here. Now you know everything that I can tell you - judge for yourselves!

3 There is surely as little doubt that I was dead as that I am now alive! For if you step into the depths of the sea, remain there more than two full hours under the water, and I guarantee you that you will be completely dead in the body after this!"

4 Shabbi says: "Yes, yes, you were completely dead, and the miracle-worker raised you again, simply through his almighty word! No, no, the earth has never experienced such a thing before! But what now?!"

5 Jurah now calls Shabbi and says to him: "Well, friend Shabbi, what do you say now to this event?"

6 Shabbi says: "What should, or what can one say to this?! Jehovah's power is working here and nothing else! For that goes too endlessly far over every horizon of human experience and no knowledge has ever scaled this terrible height. Now I am becoming really confused!"

7 I say to Shabbi: "Well friend, how do things look now for the story of the Messiah which the famous wise men from the orient made known in your lands thirty years ago? Do you still consider it to be a fairy tale of astrologers?

8 For behold, that person who was born then to a tender virgin in a sheep pen in Bethlehem and to whom the three wise men, who you call kings of the stars, brought gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh is Me - then a new-born child and now a fully-grown man! How do you like the strange coincidence of circumstances, and how do things look to you?

9 There are two other very living witnesses here of the fact that I am certainly the same; one is the captain Cornelius, the youngest brother of Caesar Augustus, and the other is the supreme governor Cyrenius, who led and assisted My flight to Egypt and who is an older brother of Caesar Augustus! Now that you know these things, tell Me now what you think about the Messiah whom the three astronomer kings announced to you! Is there something in it, or is there nothing in it?"

10 Shabbi says: "Yes, now there is everything in it; but then it certainly seemed like a star-king fairytale! For one must only know our kings of the stars, and one will quite easily understand how they know how to use every new appearance in the sky to their advantage. Firstly they are completely familiar with all the scriptures of their own land and of other lands. They know the Jewish prophets as well as the Indian ones; they know the Sen scrit and Sen ta veista of the Persians, Gebers and Burmese as well as they know our books; they also know the schools of the heathens and their books. Secondly however, no star exists in the sky that they do not know and was not named by them a long time ago.

11 If any star unknown to them appears, for example a comet, well, it is used for all sorts of prophetic interpretations; if the inhabitants do not believe the interpretation, it is taken abroad and will find a place there where the story creates a stir. We enlightened ones know that all too well, and thus the reason is given why at the time the announcement of the prophesied and new-born Messiah of the Jews made no particular impression on us. It was to the material advantage of the star-kings, who announced it to us when returning home with terribly great pomp. They took things very seriously; but we have an old saying: He who often exaggerates and lies is not believed, even if he speaks the truth!"

12 Who would ever have dreamed then that the star-kings could actually finally have discovered something true?!

13 Now the story has become something quite different, and You in Your wisdom will not count our unbelief in those days as a sin, would You?!

- Chapter 203 -

The benefit of activity and the evil consequences of idleness

1 I say: "Not quite; but it is also true that the trades people of this world only too often go beyond and disregard all spiritual things a little too easily, which was also the case with you - Am I right or not?"

2 Shabbi says: "Yes, eminent friend full of divine power, it is probably true that worldly trade and the treasures of this earth, their gain and just use gives one a lot to think and to worry about, but one can then easily make all sorts of useful experiences and awakens some dozing spirits in people to all sorts of useful things through well-used wealth, gives man a useful occupation and removes him thereby from lethargy, which normally is the father of all vices and sins.

3 Just look at the priesthood of almost every nation! As long as these people had to work and win their bread like every other person in the sweat of their brow, they were also the best friends of truth and discovered and calculated many things which with good reason still amaze us today. They brought harmony to human thought and established schools for the true education of the human spirit and the recognition of themselves. In those days such priests found the way to God and led their fellow men to the same realization full of the spirit and seriously good will.

4 But when the people later recognized the great benevolence of the beautiful and most eminent efforts of the old and true priests more and more and saw their extremely great use, they took all the heavy work of the priests, whom they respected and loved above all else, onto themselves, brought in their tithes and decided that the priests only had to care and work for the human spirit. But then the priesthood soon became lethargic, began to philosophize, walled up the bright truth in dark catacombs and began to feed the gullible people of that time with all sorts of fairy tales and fables; and so the lethargy of the priests became the clear reason for the decay of even the most eminent and divine doctrine by the great and true priest, Moses.

5 Just read Moses and the prophets and compare the present activities of the descendants of Moses and Aaron in Jerusalem, and one will soon and easily find out that they neither believe in Moses and even less in a god. For if they believed in Moses and in the God that he announced to them, they would not be the most shameful liars and deceivers of the nation which they serve physically and spiritually! But that is all a necessary consequence of blasphemous idleness! And so I think that the just wealth in the hands of wise, benevolent and active people is more of a divine temple for the needy people than Solomon's one in Jerusalem!

6 Certainly we trading people do not have much time to devote to all sorts of mystical poetry of the privileged idlers and to complain about how much truth is in it; but we teach the nation to flee idleness and to become true, useful people! So I believe that in this way we are making good our little mistake which you pointed out, that we often hurry up and away from some spiritual things quite frivolously! For I for my part think: It is better to do good by action than to write the most beautiful lessons about it - but to never practice it oneself.

7 What use is our, oh so deep brooding and driveling however? A mortal will never see behind the true wisdom of God, no, not even lift its outermost veil!

8 But if such a thing is useful for man, God's mercy will awaken another Moses who is a true Messiah, as you now seem to be. He will then certainly lead us in the true wisdom of God, and we will surely accept it as a genuine gift from heaven at any price willingly and gratefully and also be active according to it, because we traders are always good friends of all useful activity for mankind and only use our great earthly wealth to occupy man, who constantly tends towards lethargy and idleness in their nature, with all sorts of good activities for their benefit and for that of others.

9 Tell me, eminent friend, filled with the Spirit of God, whether our opinion is good, useful and therefore true, or whether you can give us an even better one in your wisdom!"

- Chapter 204 -

The nature of true revelation

1 I say: "Oh, not at all! Goodness and truth are the same, whether a man discovers it by active searching or whether it is revealed to him directly by God; for finding the truth oneself is also a revelation from above, but an indirect one, and the means for it was active searching.

2 Through such research the soul frees itself from the rough bond of matter and awakens thereby for moments the divine spirit in itself, or it comes more into the living centre of its heart, to there God's light and compassion flows constantly and ceaselessly and likewise creates for the soul life and spiritual growth, as the sun fills the furrows of the earth with light and warmth and thereby awakes, maintains and encourages the life and flourishing of the plants until a free, independent and fully ripe fruit is created from the plant, whose own life is no longer dependent on the plant, but persists on itself.

3 When the soul comes into the mentioned living centre of the heart in true, lively moments, it has also reached the revelation of the Spirit of God in every human heart and can do nothing else but find the eternally unchanged truth from God in itself. And that is an indirect revelation and differs from the direct revelation only in that God, at the occasion of great darkness of nations, awakens suitable people without their own initiative and leads their soul into the centre of life in order to create eye-opening light again for the other blind people.

4 And there is another difference between the indirect and direct revelation, and this consists of this: The indirect revelation gives the seeker only a correct light on a matter which he particularly wants to understand. It is like a lamp with which one can illuminate a dark room quite brightly; but the direct one is like the sun on the brightest midday, whose powerful light illuminates the whole world in all its great and little trenches, so also the direct revelation.

5 This one (the direct revelation compared to the sun) is not only valid for the people to whom it is given, but for all people, and immediately for the nation to which the prophet belongs; but because there are genuine and true prophets called by God, we can also easily imagine that there will also be false ones, and for the following reasons which are easy to understand:

6 A true prophet must come to a sort of esteem among his fellow people; for his prophecies and also his deeds as proof of the divinity of his awakening must create a certain respect among the ordinary everyday person - whether he likes the prophecies or not, and whether they correspond with his earthly interests or not.

7 A prophet, however, grows among people of better sense without his will into an unreachable giant and can never escape the certain pious respect and reverence, no matter how humble he is and must be otherwise.

8 Now, other worldly people see that, whose reason is often very inventive; for there has never been a lack of snake-like cleverness among the children of the world. These worldly people also want a reputation and an easily visible earthly gain.

9 They begin to study and often invent things with the help of Satan and make seemingly wise statements so that the lay people do not know how to distinguish in the end between what is true and genuine and what is false and evil.

10 But how can one nevertheless tell a false prophet from a genuine one? Quite easily: by their fruit!

11 For one cannot gather grapes and figs from thorns and thistles!

12 The genuine prophet will never and impossibly be selfish, and any arrogance will be foreign to him. He will probably gratefully accept whatever good and noble hearts give him; but he will never demand fees of anyone because he knows that this is an abomination to God, and because God can keep His servants very well!

13 But the false prophet will allow himself to be paid for every step and deed and for every so-called divine act for the simulated and lied good of humanity. The false prophet will thunder on about the judgment of God and even judge in the name of God with fire and sword; but the genuine prophet will judge no-one, but only advise the sinner to repent and will make no difference between large and small and between respected and non-respected people. For only God means anything to him and God's word - everything else is a vain madness for him.

14 There will never be a contradiction in the true prophet's speech; but bring speech of the false prophet into the light and it will be crawling with contradictions. No-one can ever offend the true prophet, he will bear everything like a lamb, whatever the world may do to him; he will only rise up in fiery anger against lies and arrogance and beat them down.

15 The false prophet is constantly a deadly enemy of every truth and every better progress in thought and in deed; no-one but he should know anything or have any experience so that everyone is always and in all things forced to seek expensive advice from him for money.

16 The false prophet thinks only about himself; God and His order are annoying and laughable things in which he has not even the smallest spark of faith, therefore he can make a god out of wood and stone with the lightest conscience in the world, however he likes. That such a god can easily work wonders for the thoroughly blind people through the hands of the false prophet, will be very easily understood!"

17 Shabbi says: "Oh, eminent friend, I know, and all of us know, how the false fellows present themselves and how they perform miracles; for me they are beasts and no longer people! For I find in the world no greater shame than if such a spiritual deceiver of the people demands that his unknowing brothers believe something which he laughs about, and personally hardly understands how humans can be so terribly stupid as to accept such a terrible nonsense as pure gold.

18 Oh, eminent friend, what you have said just now, I know very well! But I could not tell the difference between an indirect and direct revelation; but I am glad that what the will of a person has found and discovered through his active investigation is finally also a revelation from above. Naturally not every person can be a prophet for all the people; but if the indirect prophet has found and discovered something very useful in a specifically personal sphere, even if only for the purpose of physical advantage, with time this will also come into use for the benefit of a whole nation, and then the indirect exceptional prophet can be and become a general one!

19 Let's take the certainly pre-flood invention of the plough! This invaluably useful agricultural tool was certainly invented by an active and thinking person on the way of indirect revelation. His name has not been written down through history, it is true, but what an incalculable use his invention has brought to humanity! And so there are a large number of such generally useful inventions of hundreds of tools and implements which have an infinite value. But their inventors were certainly very active, modest and undemanding people, otherwise the scribes would certainly have written down their names just like the names of those who ruled over the people and in general brought them very little use.

20 I am of the opinion that those people are the greatest benefactors of a nation, who they taught to think according to the truth and enriched them with useful inventions!

21 The use of the general, purely spiritual prophets is still very much up in the air these days. They certainly rebuked wild afflictions of the nation and tamed the terrible mischievous wrong-doers. They mostly announced God and His rule and His desire and His intentions in strongly shrouded words; but the people did not understand them in the clearest sense and therefore still did what they wanted according to their worldly desires and let God and His eminent prophets be good men.

22 This way the obscure paganism was created and with it, all imaginable variations of darkest superstition, but the plough remained plough and the saw a saw, and the axe an axe - and the heathen, just as the arch-Jew, make equal use of such useful inventions!

23 In the end there is the big question of what sort of genuine prophet finally has a more general value for humanity!

24 People think very much, it is true, and understand quite a few things, but to understand a Daniel, or an Isaiah, or a Jeremiah, or even a Song of Solomon - human thought is of no use - it is all in vain! Only God or some spirit of an angel can understand it, or a prophet specially awakened to this purpose. Only these three types of spirits can possibly understand this; for every other spirit it is purely impossible. But now begs the question what a high wisdom is good for if no mortal can understand it!?"

- Chapter 205 -

On the powerlessness of humans

1 I say: "Friend, look up at the stars! Do you know them and do you understand what they are and why they exist? Should they therefore not exist because no man has been able to understand them so far? Do you understand what the sun and the moon are? Should they therefore not exist because you do not understand them?!

2 Do you understand the wind, the lightning, the thunder, the rain, the frost, the snow, the ice? Should all that not exist because you and all other people do not understand such things?!

3 Do you understand the thousand species of animals, their forms and their characteristics? Do you understand the world of plants and their forms? Do you know what light and what heat is?!

4 Should all that not exist because you and all other people cannot understand it?!

5 Do you understand life, then, and how you can see, hear, feel, taste and smell? Should man not see, hear, feel, taste and smell because he cannot understand all that?!

6 But since there are so many things in this material world which humanity can never fully understand - go and think now a little and then give Me your opinion!"

7 Shabbi says: "Lord and Master full of divine power! I do not need to think it over much, I have already understood everything that you wanted to say to me with this. You wanted to direct me and show me that in investigating the spheres of higher wisdom things are just the same as in the sphere of material creation. We people understand actually nothing of this except the outermost image and what we can perceive with our coarsest material senses and what we can distinguish in the form, the colour, the smell and the taste of created things. Oh, how little and actually nothing man understands and knows, and yet he considers himself to be well-versed in wisdom and is proud of his miserable bit of knowledge! And what is that which he knows? Nothing, but absolutely nothing!

8 Oh, how blind and foolish are all people! They cannot even manage to see that they are nothing and cannot see or understand that they are nothing and do not see anything. The grass grows, and the seeing and feeling man rejoices in it; but what is involved to create grass and make it grow and in the same way to maintain it always - which mortal can see this?!

9 Adam, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses and Elijah were certainly the wisest men that the earth has ever borne; they had much of the light of God in them. But how the grass springs up, grows, brings seed, and how the circumstances come together in the seed so that an eternally large number and variety of the same type of grass can come forth - all the named fathers of wisdom had certainly never dreamed about!

10 But we do not even know how the very simplest moss grows and multiplies, and how the little worm writhes in the dust, what can we say then about the elements and about the distant stars?! But since we people know nothing, we know and understand even less who and what the stars are, why and from what they were made!

11 And behold, great and eminent master, you wanted to direct me, by pointing out my complete lack of knowledge, and say: God, the very wisest, places much before the eyes of man and before all his external senses and through these at the same time before the senses of the soul in order to force man to think. But the explanation must be sought by man himself; for if God gave it to him, man would become very idle and in the end would become quite inactive and lazy above all.

12 For what a person has once taken in and understood, his lazy nature has no benefit in any longer, it is amply filled with general experience and needs therefore no new proof any longer. And so surely man would act the same way in the purely spiritual sphere, if he understood as clear as daylight what the great prophets had written from God in the books of wisdom. He would soon go to sleep and in the end not think about anything any more; what should a man think about, if he already understands everything?!

13 God knows therefore very well how He has to maintain the people so that they think, want and finally must be very active; it is the same in all things - beware of idleness!

14 I now see very well that the story of the Messiah and all things concerning him would not have made by far the active impression on me if I had understood a minimum of all the appropriate texts from Isaiah. I would have at most laughed at the three star-kings if they had come to me with their mystical tirades of wisdom; and it would have been no better for anyone else who had come to me in the same respect!

15 But since everything has remained for me in a dim belief, I now feel an all the greater blessing because what was so hard and dubious to believe has now spread itself before my eyes so clearly and I now see before me Him for whom all the Jews including me have been waiting for so longingly! Lord and Master, have I understood you or not?"

- Chapter 206 -

Shabbi recognizes the Lord

1 "Exactly, exactly!", I say, and give him the following question: "Well, dear friend, since you seem to be a very intelligent person in every way before the eyes and ears of man and you judge many things quite correctly and sharply, so tell Me according to your best conviction what you imagine by the Messiah that I am now supposed to be! What purpose then has the present appearance of the Messiah actually?!"

2 Shabbi says: "Yes, most eminent friend, that is a quite strangely captious question, that is, not according to my previous, quite mistaken opinion, as if you wanted to entice from me through incomprehensible miracles and the cleverest questions some sign of enmity towards Romans, but instead purely in respect to the mystical personality of the Messiah himself, about whom Isaiah says highly strange things, which no man can make head nor tail of. For at one moment the Messiah is the son of a king, then a strong and powerful hero, then the son of God, then the son of a virgin! Isaiah says once (Isaiah. 25: 6-9):

3 On this mountain the Lord of hosts will provide for all peoples a feast of rich food and choice wines, of fat, of marrow, of wine without yeasts. On this mountain He will take away the veil that veils all peoples, the web that is woven over all gentiles. He will destroy death forever. The Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces; the reproach of his people he will remove from the whole earth; for the Lord has spoken. On that day it will be said: 'Behold our God, to Whom we looked to save us! This is the Lord for Whom we looked; let us rejoice and be glad that He has saved us!'

4 Behold, most eminent lord and master, those are the very distinctive words of the prophet; but what should one actually make of them? Who and where is the mountain on which the Lord will prepare for us a quite special looking feast of rich food and choice wines, fat, marrow, and again of yeastless wine? Whoever will taste this food must have a very healthy stomach!

5 This meal cannot have a natural sense, only a spiritual one; but who can find this out? What mountain is this, which the strange fat meal? If you ask me, it's actually a hoax at the cost of mankind! The Lord, that is, according to my understanding of the Messiah, will remove the veil that covers the peoples here on this mountain and take the cover from the face of the gentiles. That would be understandable; but the mountain, the mountain, where is that then, and what is it?

6 That He can swallow up death and will also do it, and take away the dishonor to his nation in all countries, even in our Persia, that is at least clear to me now because I have seen how You called the dead back to life.

7 But then Isaiah on the mountain has the happy people call: That is our God, that is the Lord! Is that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob? If so, then You are therefore the same One who gave the law to Moses on Sinai; who thundered there: I alone am your God and your Lord, you shall have no other Gods besides Me!

8 If Isaiah was with Moses' laws, he could not possibly have allowed another God to appear in the Messiah; but since Isaiah explicitly lets Him appear as God, You must then be the same God who, on Sinai, spoke to Moses!

9 What can You say to me now as a consequence of the statements of the prophets if I now fall before You and begin to worship You loudly as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob?!

- Chapter 207 -

On the true worship of God

1 I say: "If you believed in the fullest sense actively and had an inner conviction, I could certainly tell you nothing if You began to worship Me as your God in a fitting manner; but since you lack some full spiritual conviction, and least of all in your soul, you would idolise Me just as much as if you showed idolatry to any other human being or a carved image.

2 Whoever wants to worship God truly and fruitfully, must first recognize God most actively in his heart, he must first have God in the spirit and in all truth in the recognition and in the love, only then can he give Him the honor and fully worship Him; without that man would commit an abominable idolatry even with the true God!

3 How can a man worship the only true God in a dignified and effective manner if he has never before recognized Him as to be adored except from hearsay?! What difference will there then be between the worship of the only true God and that of an idol?!

4 True worship of the only true God consists of love for Him and love for our fellow man. But who can love God if he has never recognized Him?

5 Or can a young man ever burn with love for a virgin that he has never seen or recognized? And if he should imagine that there is one somewhere and if he begins to love her powerfully who in reality does not exist at all, then he is a fool and therefore indulges in self-love to the highest degree, and that is an abomination before God.

6 All idolatry is therefore the greatest madness of mankind and a terrible blindness. For in the end the strict idolaters think themselves to be gods and have incense spread around them and have themselves worshiped as gods - and this is Satan's triumph in the human heart! But woe betides those imagined self-worshipers in their utter delusion! Their fate will one day be very sad; for such arrogance is a worm that never dies, and a fire that never goes out!

7 I tell you: It is Satan's delight, to get the blind people as far as possible away from the order of God through the arrogance planted in them; but if they one day become disciples of his school, he will repudiate them and use them for his lowest and most abominable services, in which they have to remain for eternity according to his most evil will!

8 Satan, as Prince of Darkness, allows man to be exalted to gods here only to degrade them to become one day his lowest most horrible creatures.

9 But God demands here a wise and humble heart in order to lift man even higher and to give him greater bliss.

10 Such power will, of course, be taken from Satan and the people will be able to act fully independently and free according to their will; thereby the good will shine all the more, and those who are themselves evil will end up in even worse and lower parts of hell; for their evilness will not be recorded on Satan's ledger but on their very own, and they will be dealt with all the more harshly by Satan and his servants.

11 It is, therefore, every man's foremost duty, in all humility of his heart to seek God in spirit and in truth, and only after he has found Him to worship God also in spirit and in truth.

12 But the main prayer should consist of the humble heart remaining humble and loving one's neighbor more than oneself, but God above all as the one true Father of all people and angels!

13 But no one can love God in his dark flesh while at the same time hating his brother; for how could someone possibly love God, Whom he does not see, while not loving his brother, whom he sees?

14 But it is by no means enough to say: I love my neighbor and am very friendly to him! The true and only valid love before God must consist of deeds when the neighbor needs them, spiritually or physically. This love is the wonderful key to the light from God in one's own heart.

15 I tell you and your companions: Had you not found that golden key and accepted it in your heart, you would never have found the way here. But the significance of you and your companions' coming here, although it happened through a mighty storm in outward life, you are now beginning to suspect, - but you will presently be led into the true light. Once you have recognized Me fully, you will also understand whether I deserve to be worshiped or not."

- Chapter 208 -

The Persians' reverence before the holiness of the Lord

1 At these words of Mine the Persians become very contemplative, and while I turned to the three who had been raised from the dead and had them physically looked after, Jurah says to his companions: "Friends! He gives a very strange speech which sounds even more wonderful than his deeds which can be seen, although they are of a type about which we have never seen anything similar. But one miracle always looks like another, and the inexperienced person in this area is blind and does not look where he should see the best and brightest! The healing of our jeweler is certainly extremely surprising, but perhaps it is not impossible that it can be performed in a natural way. We certainly do not know how such a thing would be possible, but we know from experience how the Indians heal the bite of the most poisonous snake without herbs and juice and oil. He has healed these two without herbs, juice and oil too, how, we do not know and neither can we know!

2 The three who were drowned have truly been brought back to life again, but it still leaves much to be proved whether they were really completely dead, or whether they were not pretending to be drowned! In brief, the deeds do not prove everything by any means! But his powerful word proves more in my opinion than both the miracles, for no mortal tongue speaks so infinitely wisely and eternally true! Just think, Shabbi, about the explanation of the only true worship of God, and you will see what an all-encompassing wisdom lays in it, that proves to me something enormous, yes, even something that I hardly dare to say!"

3 Quite surprised, Shabbi asks: "Well, what is it then that you hardly dare to say?"

4 Jurah says: "Just deliberate it yourself, and you can name me anything if you do not soon come to the same conclusion!" Here Shabbi begins to think deeply and nonetheless does not know very well what he should actually make of the question of Jurah.

5 After a while Shabbi says to Jurah: "I would like to say something to you and I believe that a very unusual thing will come to light, but it is and remains very daring! Just think, if now almost without a doubt this is the Messiah, then he is not only the very simple person according to Isaiah who has spoken to us here, but instead also God according to His soul, the Only True One of eternity! But if it is so, what then with us? How will we weak people stand before Him, the Almightiest? What will we do next, where will we go?"

6 Jurah says: "Yes, that is my worry too and now my greatest concern! I suspect that something will come to the brightest light here, only I do not understand the high heathen; for they seem to hang on his every word as on their own lives!"

7 Shabbi says: "Did you hear what is written in Isaiah: 'And He will take away the cloak that covers the gentiles.'? That means: He has already revealed himself to these first heathens! They already know what He is and are therefore disposed towards him with reverence. They will soon have the fullest conviction that He, as the Almighty of eternity, can scatter them for eternity with one breath, like loose chaff, and therefore they have the most endless respect for Him, and as it seems to me, they have already been won over by Him and the good Jews are free! That is my opinion!

8 And then later it also says in the prophet: 'And the Lord will wipe tears away from all faces and will remove the disgrace of His people from all the earth!'? That means: certainly us too, who are in Persia; only we will now obviously not be the first for whom He will do this, but nonetheless our turn will come, and this seems to be the moment in which He has thought about the Jews in other lands. He made a start with us to dry our tears and to remove our disgrace! As far as our worldly situation is concerned we are exceptionally in such a good situation that we do not have any cause to cry tears of need in foreign lands, and we suffer no disgrace; but thousands of our brothers and sisters live there who suffer great need nonetheless. They are often cruelly despised by the heathens and looked down on by everyone; but we are in the position to help them all and to dry their tears in His name from their faces and to remove their long-lasting disgrace! Therefore the Lord seems to us, who now obviously is here, to have saved us on this modest mountain, in order to use us as His tools among those who live in foreign lands. That is my opinion in all things. And now speak, my friend!"

9 Jurah says: "Yes, you have hit the nail on the head in my opinion! Things will be exactly in that way! But since now quite certainly everything must be this way, the great and significant question comes again: How will we draw near to Him, since we are stuck in over our heads in sin? And yet it is written: No-one may draw near to God who has a sin in him! We will be many times over unclean! Where will we be able to purify ourselves? Where is he who will take a suitable sacrifice from us that will clean us from our sins before God?!"

- Chapter 209 -

On prayer

1 Now I step up to them again and say: "I Myself; and just as I could say to the dead: 'Awake from death and live!' just as effectively and validly I can say to you: 'Be pure, and all your sins are forgiven!' and you are now pure and without sin before Me. Do you now believe this?"

2 Jurah and Shabbi say: "Lord, we believe it! For according to Your eternally most holy advice things happened for the healing of all Jews and heathens, so let us poor sinners find mercy and Your mildness and compassion before You! Oh Lord, be with us and from now on with the spirit of all those who have been awoken to eternal life through You, now, as in all eternity of eternity! But now, Lord, since we have recognized You and now are devoted to You in our hearts in the fullest love, let us give air to our hearts and worship You most fervently and in the full contrition of our mind!"

3 I say: "My dear friends and brothers that cannot be! You have read what My spirit spoke through the mouth of the prophet when he said: 'This nation honors Me with their lips; but its heart is far from Me' And I Myself repeat it to you: Every kind of pure lip prayer is an abomination before Me!

4 Be truly reasonable and have a decent heart, do good deeds to everyone who needs your help! Yes, even do good to your enemies, and bless those who curse you! In this way you will resemble Me, for I let My sun shine on the good and the bad, and My worst enemies are daily covered with good deeds from My all-powerful hand; but My whip is only used on extreme evil doers. Yes, I say to you: You are all children of My heart and brothers of My soul. Therefore, if you pray, do not pray like the heathens and the Pharisees with their lips, using words formed by the fleshly tongue, but instead pray as I have told you, in the spirit and in truth, through living works and deeds of love towards your neighbor, then every word in My name will be a true prayer that I will always and without a doubt hear; but the sigh of lips I will never hear! Do you understand well what I have just said?"

5 Shabbi says: "Oh Lord, You are so different to what we imagined! Who should not be able to love You above all else, who has once recognized You?! You are Yourself love and the greatest gentleness, and how endlessly far from every night and darkness is Your most holy teaching, and how easily understandable is every word from Your mouth! Yes, only now do we fully believe that You are truly the expected Messiah, and there is no other besides You!"

6 I say: "All right, all right, My dear friends! I knew you and led you on the road to Me as was shown to the prophet Elijah. In the mighty storm was My will, in the fire My power; but in the gentle rustling I am Myself. And thus, in order to come to Me, you had to go through a very mighty storm and through water and fire. But now you are with Me, having found Me, for Whom you have looked for such a long time. Difficult as I am to find by many a human being, yet once I have been found it is many times more difficult to lose Me! Those who have seized Me in their hearts will also be seized by Me; however, he who has seized Me can indeed let go of Me again, but I shall never let go of him again. For My love does not last only for a while but forever, and who has received it into his heart can never be separated from Me. For My love keeps a tight rein on him forever, so that he can never go completely astray from Me. And so it will be also with you. You will certainly be placed in situations and worldly circumstances where you will find it somewhat difficult to bear witness to My name and remain steadfast in the faith - for before long things will happen, because they have to happen, which will cause you to become faint-hearted where I am concerned. but I will strengthen you again at the right moment and fully enlighten you in the little chambers of your heart. Then you will never come into temptation for the sake of My name, but henceforth you will remain in My love and My power.

7 But now something else. You will return to Persia. When you are there again shortly, preach faithfully, without adding anything, of what you have encountered here and all that has happened to you here for the salvation of all men on earth. In this way you also become workers in My vineyard. Preach it also to your king so that he will know what to do!" He should give up dark paganism and should never listen to the deceiving words of the magicians who call themselves the priests of God and are basically the servants and slaves of hell. He should also drive the terrible apostles from Jerusalem out of the land, who cross the lands and seas in order to make Jews of the heathens; and once they have made any heathen into a Jew, he is then many times more a servant of hell than he was as a heathen. Besides such remarks the terrible apostles of Jerusalem also sow bad rumours like that about the cruelty of the Romans, which you openly confessed to us, that you acted so terribly careful towards Me out of fear of the Romans!

8 Therefore in order to counter all this evil I called you out of your land before many thousands of thousands, in order to lay this easy duty on your shoulders, as you possess the fullest power and means to complete it in abundance! Your reward will not be little in My eternal kingdom one day.

9 You now know what you have to do in My name, and besides also in the name of the Romans who are being very shamefully slandered there; do not lack in good will, industriousness and action, and I will also let nothing lack for you!

10 But now I see Mark coming out. He will invite us to an evening meal that today will happen a few hours later than normally; but the storm is to blame for that. The hail has damaged many benches slightly; these had to be repaired again. But now everything is in the best order again, and the food has been very well and richly prepared, and so we will now tuck in again after another great work!"

- Chapter 210 -

Jarah's future

1 Now our old inn-keeper Mark came and said to Me, "Lord and Master, the evening meal is prepared; if it suits You, I will have it set out on the repaired tables immediately!?"

2 I say: "Do that, for today even I am already quite hungry and I am looking forward to a good fish, a good piece of bread and a pure and good wine!

3 But both your sons should have a look at the sea by the beach! Some corpses are floating in the sea; they are some poor Jews with their wives and children. I do not want them or anyone else to find death while I am here. The sea is calm as glass, and the stars are shining particularly brightly today. Your sons will easily achieve this task, and all the more so because they can be supported by the sailors of Kisjonah's, Ebahl of Genezareth and by Cornelius? sailors. About nine people are floating at most an hour and a half away from the shore, they should be brought here; but they must then be laid face down on a sloping ground and stay there until the morning! I will only raise them tomorrow!"

4 Mark asks: "Lord, why not today then, why only tomorrow?"

5 I say: "Friend Mark, do not worry! I know why the grass that will color the pastures green next year has not grown this year! Therefore do not worry about this, for I understand the order much better than you, My dearest Mark! Go now and ensure that everything is brought into order which can be done!"

6 Mark goes, and immediately has the dishes brought to the tables, and also tells his sons their task, who immediately board a big boat and ask the other previously mentioned sailors for their help.

7 But we leave our spot and head for our tables which had been occupied in the familiar order; the three risen people with the woman, however, go to Mark's house, where they receive food, drink and a good bed for the night - and that is all according to My will, in order to strengthen them for the morning.

8 When we get to the tables, the inhabitants of Ouran's tents begin to come out into the daylight and to look around for the tables designated for them.

9 Here Jarah plucks My clothing and says: "Lord, my constantly greater love, look over there, where the brave fighters for Your kingdom now begin to creep out into the open air, driven by hunger from their hiding places! Truly, there are very few spirits there apart from Mathael! Oh, it was so comical to see how the sight of the first pound-weight ball of hail that fell drove the fifty Pharisees with great haste into the great tents!

10 They knew as well as I that You are the most certain protector against every adversity, nevertheless they became poor in faith and very hesitant and sought material protection. Now they are obviously ashamed that they did this, and do not really dare, as it seems to me, to come before Your eyes, oh Lord! Well, Mathael would have stayed with his companions; but he had to follow his young, very beautiful royal wife. So he can be forgiven, in my opinion, but the weak trust and small faith was the fault of the others, and I cannot therefore respect them very much."

11 I say: "You are quite right, My little daughter; but let's leave them who are still weak in one thing or another - time and multiple experiences will make them stronger in everything! Just think how much you have experienced at My side, and you can therefore easily possess more courage; but these have experienced much less, and therefore their fear was greater than their trust. But in the future they will also be more trusting. Do you understand that?"

12 Jarah says: "Yes, I understand that for sure, but I also know how everyone in Genezareth experienced just as much as I did, and yet at the beginning no-one but I dared to walk on the water with You, not even Your disciples! Where then lay the lesser trust?"

13 I say: "Again in your greater experience; for My angel carried you visibly in his hands, and you had experiences that no person until now has ever made. And in addition you had certainly the greatest and most powerful love for Me, in which the greatest trust also reigns.

14 Therefore do not wonder too much why your trust in Me is stronger than that of other people, for your great love gives you this!

15 But, as I already hinted to you in Genezareth, in several years you will have to face many temptations with which you will have to fight, despite the great trust in Me. But through the power and strength of My name you will defeat all temptations and will from then on walk freely in My light.

16 For what a person wants to have freely for himself from Me, he must fight for it with his own strength! You, My dearest little daughter, have not yet fought any fight yourself, and the actual time and the true opportunity was not there; that will only happen for every man when My work is completed on this earth.

17 I am only the sower and I lay the good grain in the living field of your hearts. The seed will only sprout there, and then become capable of producing the most blessed fruit; only then will you have to care for the fruit yourself on your own soil with some effort and self-denial! Truly he who brings the fruit that I sowed in his heart purely and richly into the barns of My spirit that I built within him, will be blessed! Truly, he will never feel hunger or thirst!

18 Therefore what you, My dearest Jarah, have now, is only the seed laid by Me in your heart. After several years it will be there as a field of waving corn and faced with all sorts of storms; but then you must powerfully and trustingly protect the waving field from the threatening storms through the self-denying love for Me, so that it does not come to destructive ruin and destroy the magnificent field of corn that I Myself have sown! For once a disastrous storm comes across such a field, it is almost impossible to hold it back.

19 You will still remember several weeks ago how I established a garden for you in Genezareth and filled it with all sorts of useful plants!? The plants grow well and very luxuriantly; but the little garden and the plants must be cared for, the weeds wherever they shoot up must be taken out, and if it is very hot and dry, the watering-can cannot be neglected.

20 And behold, I have also laid such a garden in your heart and have filled it richly with all sorts of useful growths; the waiting and further care of this garden is your job alone. If you pay all attention and all industriousness to the care of this little garden, you will soon be able to harvest it richly! Do you understand this image well?"

21 Jarah says: "Yes, Lord, my only love, I understand it completely, but I could become sad about it because I still have to withstand some storms before the harvest! But I hope and believe that You will not let Your poor maid be destroyed if she calls out to You for help in her affliction; for You have heard my pleading and listened when I did not see and recognize You as I do now!"

22 I say: "Everyone that recognizes Me and calls Me in their heart and trusts in the power of My name will never come to damage and shame in all eternity; you can be fully assured of that! But now we must sit down at the tables and eat what has been placed on them!"

- Chapter 211 -

Exegesis of the fourth commandment

1 Then we all head quickly to the tables and consume our meal. This time there was no talking during the meal; but after the wine had been enjoyed, it began to get very lively in the company. Beside the table at which I was sitting with Cyrenius, Cornelius, Faustus and Julius, with My disciples, with Ebahl, Jarah, Kisjonah, Philopold, with Ouran, Helena, Mathael and his companions, with the angel Raphael and the boy Josoe, a new table had been set up for our Persians; all the other guests that we already knew sat at tables which had been specially set up for them, according to how they, as we knew, belonged together in society.

2 But everyone wondered at the pleasantly warm evening after such a terrible storm; and in particular they wondered at the complete dryness of the ground where only a few hours before the water had been a few shoes high. Ouran asked Me what we would do about accommodation for the night for so many people. He was willing to take in as many as his tents would hold, but since we were dealing with the accommodation of several hundred, his tents would not be enough by far!

3 I said: "Friend! Adam and his first descendants had neither tents nor huts nor houses comfortable for anything; the ground of the earth and a shady tree was their all, and they spent very many nights under the open sky and were healthy and strong. They did not have even a cover for their body; a wreath of fig leaves to cover their private parts was their entire clothing, and they all reached an age of several hundred years! But now people have discovered all sorts of comforts of life and have created many hundred thousands of paradises for a lost earthly one, and behold, now reaching the age of a hundred has become a miracle!

4 Look, the effeminacy of man is to blame, who distance themselves from the nature of this world, which has the designation in all things to bear the people and to feed them and to keep them strong and healthy!

5 Therefore, My Ouran, do not worry about shelter for all these many guests; the good and healthy ground will accommodate them all very well! Whoever is overcome by sleep can rest very well on a pillow of stone; if the stone beneath his head annoys him, then the person is no longer tired and or too much in need of rest, and then he can stand up again and go to work!

6 Soft beds make people soft and take away the necessary strength of their limbs, and a too long sleep weakens the soul and the muscles of the body. The nature of a person is like an infant whom nothing feeds as well as the mother's breast; and those children who received food from the breast of the strong mother for a long time - assuming that she is as healthy and unspoiled as Eve - become as strong as giants and the battle with a lion will not tire them out.

7 To the same extent the nature of this earth is a true mother's breast for man, if they do not distance themselves from it through all sorts of unnecessary softeners. But once the people have distanced themselves from this great mother's breast and isolated themselves from her strong influence, then if they ever have to come to a breast that is rich in milk, they act in the same way as a grown man if he has to drink the milk from a mother. He is so disgusted he could throw up. What strengthened him as a child and fed him in the best way makes him sick and nauseous as an adult who has long grown away from his mother's breast.

8 Now, man cannot always drink on his mother's breast to get strength and life for his muscles; but he should never distance himself too much from the breast of Mother earth if he wants to become healthy, strong and old in the body.

9 Moses said: 'Honor your father and mother, that your days may be long and healthy on the earth!' With this Moses not only described the biological father and mother, but just as well the earth and its constant life-giving power. Man should not turn his back on this, but instead keep it in high respect, and he will receive every blessing for that which Moses physically prophesied. The respect for the physical father and mother is good and necessary when the circumstances are according and seemly; but if what Moses prophesied is the word of God, then it must also have a general and uninterrupted effect like the sunlight!

10 But if Moses' prophecy is only limited to the fact that only those who respect their parents have to maintain a long life and health on the earth, then things obviously look very bad for those who have often lost this in the cradle and were then brought up by strangers! How should they respect their true parents whom they have never known?!

11 Many children are often found on paths and streets; cruel mothers have conceived them in their lust and thrown them out somewhere soon after their birth. Such foundlings are often taken in by some warm-hearted and compassionate person and looked after; they then owe all their love and respect to these people. Moses says nothing about such adoptive parents, instead only about really true parents!

12 But now the well-brought up foundling cannot possibly honor his true parents, because he firstly does not know them at all, and even if he did, he would secondly truly have no obligation before God or before all people to respect them, who conceived him through sinful lust and who, when he was born, immediately gave him over to death. But because such a person then according to Moses cannot possibly love and respect his true parents, would he then have no claim on Moses' prophecy? Oh, would this then be very pretty indeed and would it be terrible as the word of God!

13 And then there are parents who bring their children up in all things that can only be called bad. Already in the cradle they plant a genuine satanic arrogance in them and teach them to be hard and insensitive to everyone; such tiger parents teach their children at an early age to be cheeky, liars and deceivers! Should Moses really have meant his commandment for such children who respect their vicious parents with all badness and evil because the parents want this from their children?

14 What do the children of thieves, robbers and murderers really owe their parents? They can only naturally honor their parents if they are the same as their parents to a very great degree and do what their parents always do, like: through theft, robbery and murder of foreign travelers! Can Moses' promise really apply effectively to such children as well?

15 The only somewhat clear worldly reason must tell you that such a promise along with the law of Moses would be a scandal of the first category for all divine wisdom! How can God, the highly wise, give a law as a consequence of which even an angel in a fleshly body would have to owe love and all honor to parents who incarnated from the lowest hell?!

16 You see that Moses' law, seen from this point of view, would be the greatest and craziest nonsense!

17 So on the one hand it is clear and proven that everything that Moses said and decided is the pure word of God and therefore can eternally hide no nonsense in itself; but on the other hand, if one examines and observes Moses' law in the old familiar and foolish way, as it has been examined and observed so far, it must be the most obvious nonsense before the judge's seat of all better human reason!

18 Wherein lies the reason then that the law of Moses, as it has been observed so far, must be nonsense despite the purely divine origin? It lies in the powerful misunderstanding of what Moses showed mainly with this law, the general parents of the great nature, namely the earth, as the created world for the human race as father, and its lap, from which countless children of all types and sort are born, as the true mother! These original parents should constantly be honored and obeyed by man, and his back should never be turned to them in an effeminate way. Only then he will receive a long life in a healthy body and also a true well-being.

19 A diligent person can also learn from these old parents the most goodness, greatness and truth, and build a great ladder on which the original father Jacob saw the angels of heaven climbing up and down. Whoever seriously researches nature will force many blessings to come into the light for himself and for his brothers for their well-being.

20 Therefore, My dear Ouran, do not be afraid if you have to spend a night in the lap of your old physical mother - nothing bad will happen to you!"

- Chapter 212 -

The Pharisaic reading of the fourth commandment

1 Ouran is now quite contented and says that he has never heard anything as truly and practically wise, and he will also follow this advice very carefully. But most of all our Persians are amazed.

2 Jurah says: "Yes, that is a light from above; for no mortal has ever discovered that! So I would like to have all ten commandments explained to me! Things are so close and so clear, and we have never been able to reveal them with all our sharpness of reason! But I must ask something nonetheless!"

3 Shabbi says: "I truly do not know about which point there could still be any more question!?"

4 Jurah says: "Don't you know then that as far as the obligations of the children towards their parents are concerned, there has long been a new law, according to which a son or a daughter would do better to lay a sacrifice in the temple than to honor his father and mother?! This new law does not replace the old, it is true, but it represents a better means to achieve the prophecy of Moses than Moses' law itself. But I would like to speak to the primary law-giver himself, since the extraordinary circumstances have now come together so wonderfully, and learn what the Lord says to such a new law!

5 On the one hand, if a child has very bad and corrupt parents, this law seems to me to be correct; but if a child who is frivolous in nature has very good and worthy parents, who deserve all respect, love and honor from their children before God and all people, then this law, which seems very greedy like the temple, is not correct at all. The whole law has a strongly human smell, and there is very little divinity in it; but there again is another law which says: 'Those who sit on the chairs of Moses and Aaron, those you should always listen to and do what they command!'

6 But this law is a real camel on which the Pharisees have already brought many false and bad wares disguised as genuine to the temple, and the nation must buy it for the very high price of their moral freedom as completely genuine. That is a bad thing, and such a law which only gives certain people the privileges seems to me like a hellish hole through which Satan always has an entrance to holiness; for these privileged holy people overstrain themselves, are surrounded in the beginning quite piously with a cover of a holy nimbus of a prophet, but then later they become seriously domineering and super-tyrannical, arrogant and extremely proud - but still sit on the chairs of Moses and Aaron! But I think, brother - you know, just between us - here Satan might as well take possession of these holy chairs! And such true representatives of Satan on the chairs of Moses and Aaron have introduced many evil human statutes replacing the divine, and we have to taste them because the camel-like law of hell orders us to listen to them who sit on the holy chairs and to do what they command.

7 Yes, the law in itself would be quite in order if one had the assurance that only the most worthy followers of Aaron and Moses would be preaching on the holy chairs; but what a true dragon nation has sat on the chairs and thrown the most indignant laws into the eyes of the seeing people like rough sand so that the largest part would go blind! And such laws, transcending all craziness, exists then for the greatest torture for humanity, and no-one trusts themselves any longer to shake off this yoke. Then in the end pure reason begs the question whether God knows anything about it, or whether there is a god at all who can see such an abomination in his sanctuary!

8 Well, such a revelation from Him would certainly be in the best position to show us the purest and truest content, and I would like to now ask Him a question right away! What do you think, should I risk it or not?"

- Chapter 213 -

The Lord explains the law of the Pharisees

1 I immediately answer instead of Shabbi and say: "Listen, My friend Jurah, your question is just and of great importance; you do not need to repeat it to Me for I know anyway what is bothering you!

2 You see, it is true that there is a commandment, but only since the time of the judges, where it is commanded from the mouth of a seer to listen to those who sit on the chairs of Moses and Aaron and to do what they order from the spirit of the Lord; but only if their works are good. If their works are bad, they should be pushed off the chairs by the most worthy descendants of Levi.

3 But those on the mentioned chairs knew very well how to disguise their deeds. Instead of the worthy descendants of Aaron and Moses only vicious wolves sat and are still sitting on the holy chairs and as such they have distributed laws among the people as divine will, before which the world even must shudder!

4 But think back to how often I have let these false descendants of Moses and Aaron be chastised through the mouth of the holy prophets, and how often I have tamed them with the sharpest rod! But what good did it do? Things became better for a time; but soon after they became worse than before, until it has now become so bad that it can never get any worse. They have filled the barrel with every vice, and only a few drops more and it will immediately begin to overflow and will destroy them all like Noah's flood; of that you can be fully assured!

5 But like many, the law of sacrifices in the temple has also replaced Moses' law concerning the obligations of children towards their parents. In the beginning it had a quite good and fair appearance  and concerned only those children whose parents - as was often the case - were true throw-backs of humanity. But these strangely often had very good and honest children, who devotionally saw and knew the cardinal sins of their biological parents very well. The demands which their evil parents placed on them made their hairs stand on end; but in the misunderstood law of Moses it was written that they should honor their parents above all through obedience!

6 For such reasons, at the time when the temple was still good, such unhappy children asked in the temple what they should do, and said: It is in any case true that Moses commanded from God to obey the parents and to respect them highly and to honor them all one's life, so that one would live long and things would go well on earth; but Moses also commanded not to kill, not to steal, to speak no untruths, to commit no indecent acts with virgins and even less to covet the neighbor's wife. But their terrible parents now demand such things from them! What should they do now in order not to sin against Moses' commandments??

7 Then the high priest, filled with the Spirit of God, spoke: Leave these parents of yours, sacrifice a gift instead of the bad obedience, and pray to God, and it will be better for you and also through the mercy from above for your undutiful parents!

8 And then it happened that such children left their wicked parents, brought a sacrifice to the temple for themselves and for their terrible parents and then sought to enter service with good people in order to lead a life pleasing to God.

9 So far and in this much the law was entirely of divine origin. But with time the vicious wolves who sat in sheep's clothing on the chairs of Moses and Aaron generalized this law, and then even the undutiful children of quite good and honest parents could buy themselves free of obedience towards their parents through sacrifices, in order to then be able to sin quite freely and without a conscience!

10 In this way the double commandment of God was also twice suppressed and in its place a purely hellishly human statute was set which naturally must be an abomination before God because it is quite against His order; for only a somewhat pure-thinking person must see at first glance that such a statute can never be divine, but only of a hellish and satanic origin! In any case, this all shall soon have an end, and then there will not be much more to strive against.

11 Otherwise it is surely in order that a weak man lets himself be led by a strong man! But parents are always stronger than their children; and it is therefore quite in order that the children let themselves be led by their parents; but if the weak man notices that the strong man wants to throw him off a deadly precipice, the weak man would do well to get away from the strong man and find for himself a safe place.

12 Incidentally only he is entirely fulfilling the law of Moses, who behaves as I showed the old king Ouran perfectly clear earlier. Did you understand that now?"

- Chapter 214 -

What is unchastity?

1 Says Jurah, "Well yes, here is light, love and the highest truth concentrated together in one spot! Yes, Lord and Master of eternity, I would truly like to have a little light shed on the whole of Moses' law that way, and then we could live and move quite unchangingly firmly in Your eternal order! Then afterwards Satan would certainly no longer find any hole through which he could sneak into Your brightly-lit kingdom like a wolf in sheep's clothing and make human statutes out of Your holiest commandments!"

2 I say: "My friend, the hour has not yet arrived in which the dark prince of the world will be judged; but it is very close! But when he will be judged, there will nonetheless only too be soon people who will behave even worse with My purest laws than Satan himself. Light will always have to fight darkness on this earth!"

3 Jurah says: "Lord, but why? If all people would only recognize the light as I do now, Satan and all his malice will be eternally put out of work on this earth! It will have to be certain and unchangeable through all time that our children and children of our children will then be brought up in the same light with the best conscience and will remain in it until the end of the world, just as it can be accepted certainly and unchangeably that two units of the same type and another two units of the same type will always make four units of the same type for all time! No man on the whole earth doubts that, because it is an irrevocable and tangible truth. Your illumination of the ten commandments of Moses makes the same into a mathematical principle. But if so, to whom would it then remotely occur to call into question such truth?!

4 But as no-one could doubt that any longer, he would have to also act as a consequence of such a clearly recognized truth, otherwise he would have to appear as the sheerest idiot or he would hear this said about him from every sensible person's mouth!

5 But of course, if the holiest and most important truths for us people are constantly given in a certain puzzling cloak and man can often interpret what he likes, then there are certainly a huge number of liars, through whom Satan and his terrible entourage can keep his totally free movement in the company of people.

6 Therefore give us, most eminent Lord and Master, the truth clearly and openly, so that in future any approach by Satan towards man will be barred by the strong wall of the most unchangeable truth.

7 I want to mention as an example just that law of Moses, through which he forbids unchastity as a sin. What actually is unchastity then? Does this only consist of sleeping with a woman with an unwashed body and then not washing again after the act? Or does it mean the desirous lasciviousness and sleeping with a woman, a virgin, a whore, a concubine or a young widow?

8 Does blind fornication belong in this category, or even the mute, sodomite sin, or even if one has something with the very desirous wife of another husband? Should one, in order to be fully chaste, totally suppress this most powerful of all natural impulses? But if that is so, then the marriage is bed certainly nothing other than a workplace for unchastity which is accepted in society; for who can guarantee us that the man does not sleep with his lush wife more often than is necessary to create a fruit?!

9 I have seen and known people who one could call true people of gold as far as goodness, love, patience, kindness and compassion is concerned; but in the vexed question of chastity they were and remain weak. They did everything, it is true, to become stronger in this area, but it was not in their nature, not even when the natural, full impotence fell on them; a lush virgin still made the same lustful impression on them.

10 And on the other hand I have seen and known people who remained as cold as a stone at the greatest female beauty, true examples of chastity, but otherwise in their lives they were insensitive to everything! Nothing moved them! Affliction and misery of the poor were laughable things for them, tears of suffering were tricks to wake sympathy; a woman was contemptible to them and very easy to do without, something which had no other purpose in the world than a field for the sowing of any kind of grain. They found marriage to be one of the most laughable institutions in human society. In their opinion all healthy women should be locked up in a great building and let strong men well capable of producing heirs sleep with them so that only beautiful, healthy and strong people would be created; but the ugly and weak women should be weeded out or used for the lowest jobs like cattle and work until they perish! Those are facts that I have experienced!

11 Now I ask whether people who are weak in chastity do not have a very great advantage over the ice-cold heathens of chastity in the eyes of every man! As far as I am concerned, they do! Well, I do not know how things stand for You, most eminent Lord and Master, and nor can I know. In order to come into a sort of order in these points which are forbidden by Moses as a consequence, in order not to be in the constant fear of having sinned before God with such an act, and if the act is always a sin, then You, oh Lord and Master, will certainly know some medicine against it through which one can drive out the desire and the pressure like a cold! For there is nothing more miserable for an honest person than to be dragged by the hair to sin from a certain side; nature forces the flesh with an irresistible power, and if one falls through the free air as a normal body, then one has also committed a deadly sin! That is then a little too strict, particularly for a person who for the sake of God has carried his head and heart always in the right place as far as possible. Therefore, Lord and Master, I would like to have a clear explanation about this from You! For that seems to me to be at least one of the prickliest points!"

- Chapter 215 -

The sin against chastity

1 I say: "If the life of a person is no flirting joke, but instead a very holy earnest, the act of creation can also be no flirtation, but also only a very sacred seriousness. Understand the reason, and you will soon within you clearly comprehend all of it.

2 The pleasant sensations of the act itself should not be the motive for the action, but alone that a human being is conceived!

3 If you grasp this, you will soon find that the pleasant sensations are only accompaniments which facilitate the begetting of man in the nature of the flesh. If you are urged on by the main reason, then go and act and you will commit no sin. But there are nevertheless some points to be properly considered.

4 This act must not happen outside the sphere of true love for one's neighbor; but a main reason for true love for one's neighbor is this: Do to your neighbors what you would have them do unto you!

5 Well, suppose you had a blossoming daughter who is a joy to your fatherly heart. You will care for nothing more than for the true happiness of your most beloved daughter. Your daughter may be mature and, therefore, capable of conception, but how would you feel if an otherwise healthy man came, driven by the urge to beget a child with a virgin, and by force begot a fruit with your daughter?

6 You see, that would fill you with a fearful rage against such an offender, and you would never again let him out of your sight without the sharpest possible chastisement!

7 And nonetheless this person would have committed no sin against decency because he was seriously urged not to sow his seed outside a good vessel, whereby a possibility of conceiving a person would be cut off. But the act is nonetheless sinful, on the other hand, because true neighborly love was grossly violated!

8 Imagine that a serious desire meets you abroad, you met a woman there on a field, and you persuaded her through money and words to give in to your desire, and the woman agreed, you would have not committed a sin against decency, nor adultery, even if the person was the proper wife of a man. But if you had thought about what great and highly dismal embarrassment and prosecutions the woman would suffer if her husband said to her: Woman, speak truly, who laid this seed in you, since I have not touched you since this or that time? You see that you have destroyed the domestic peace between the married couple; that is a crude sin against love for one's neighbor! For you should have been able to save yourself for a more decent opportunity even if your desire was serious and not mere lustful passion.

9 You can see from this that a man, at such an otherwise very correct act not contradicting true chastity, must consider all other human side circumstances, if he does not want to sin against some law.

10 But a man can commit unchastity as well with his wife as with a whore and even worse. For with a whore there is nothing left to ruin, because everything has already been ruined anyway; but a wife can become overexcited and thereby run into a passionate desire, whereby she then can become a much greater whore than a single woman.

11 Whoever lies with a single woman sins against chastity because his act only served - and had to serve - the gratification of mere lust but not the begetting of a human being, as pure reason must tell him that one does not sow wheat on the highways.

12 Beside the sin against chastity, the one who lies with a whore violates his and the whore's human nature because he thereby easily does great damage to his nature and hardens the blind whore, making her more incorrigible, which again is a sin against the neighborly love.

13 But whoever lies with a woman who has been made a whore sins in the same way twofold and fourfold if he is himself a husband, because thereby he also commits adultery.

14 As you are a pure-thinking man, I think now that this little is enough for you, all the more so since a man like you anyway knows what is befitting for a man who is decent in every respect."

15 Jurah says: "Yes, Lord and Master, now everything is clear to me, and I also know now where the many bad species of unchastity must lead! Yes, now everything is clear! In all things there is only one truth valid before God, which is founded in the eternal order - everything less, more and besides is of evil!"

16 I say: "Yes, that's how it is and how it will also eternally remain. But now the sailors that were sent out are coming back with their dead people, My servant (Raphael) must now go there and help them to lay the corpses in the correct way, otherwise their healing tomorrow will be made more difficult!"

17 Raphael quickly hurries over and establishes everywhere the best order. The sailors however only then head to their evening meal.

- Chapter 216 -

The Pharisees' dispute about the divinity of the Lord

1 With all this which had befallen and happened after this Sabbath meal, the day's work could be seen as over; but one never rests in heaven from doing good, just as hell never rests from doing evil, and so for this Sabbath something very special had been held back and had to be actively ended before midnight.

2 An argument had developed between the fifty Pharisees, at whose head were the leader Stahar and the speaker who was now well known to us, Floran. These half-baked people had thought up all sorts of doubts in one of Ouran's tents during the storm and the present laying out of the corpses confirmed some of their doubtful opinions about Me and My deeds. Only among them the opinion was shared that the better part accepted very celebratory that I was an extraordinary prophet, something like Elijah - but a darker part thought that despite all great study of the scriptures I was only a scholar from the catacombs of Egypt and had learnt wisdom and genuine magic in the temples of Korak (Carnac). I was therefore so well accepted by the Romans, for among the Romans the genuine magicians were revered more than the gods, for the Romans considered such magicians to be the fingers of the god Zeus, who works among the people and is very disposed to the great people! But the Romans were very clever people and knew that the Jews were not to be trusted until they had become Romans, body and soul. Such a thing could be ensured most easily if one worked the Jews, who were the most miracle-seeking, through such an arch-magician from the school at Korak, but so that the Jews also found their Moses and their prophets in it. And that had happened now, and with the most visible success in the world; for whoever did not convert through words and miracles, several cohorts of Roman soldiers constantly stood at the ready to frighten him into conversion. Therefore at every opportunity the temple in Jerusalem was incriminated with all power; one would raise only the bad things, but the good things would be left unnoticed and never mentioned with even one syllable, while it was of course well-known how much good the temple was untiringly performing!

3 Stahar and Floran, who certainly had more than the others a better conviction about Me and the Romans, truly made a great effort to dissuade their colleagues from such opinions; but they did not manage much, although they presented Me with all force as a prophet in the category of Elijah.

4 The opponents said: "Look over there, how medically workmanlike the nine drowned people are laid with their heads facing out and their faces to the ground! Why then that?! A God is all-powerful enough to animate the drowned people without such preparations; but where such genuinely artificial provisions must be made, in order to possibly bring the drowned back to life, pure miracle-working has a significant problem! Also the three drowned who were previously risen from the dead had to be brought into a room so that the cold night air would not harm them and they would then have a better and fresher appearance the next morning! We know that business very well now!"

5 But Floran asked them about their judgment of Raphael, who had then performed the most unbelievable miracles. Certainly, a few stopped and did not know what they should answer.

6 But nonetheless a main opponent said: “Friend, we know actually nothing; but that is certainly to be accepted that there are very many secret and undiscovered powers in nature about which none of us had ever dreamed. These have made themselves familiar with it in Egypt and understand how to restrain the secret natural powers in a way that is totally unknown to us, so that such suppression of the mute nature must obviously seem to us lay-people to be the purest miracle. If this young person showed us the reason and the tangible advantages and means, we would also be able to perform miracles. Oh the people can perform very curious things and make the whole of nature subservient; but they nonetheless cannot make something out of nothing, only God alone can do that! And that is the great difference between the might of God and the power of miracles of some enlightened people.

7 Let that young man only create a new earth with everything that is, lives and breathes on it, and he would certainly become short of breath at such a task! Yes, manipulating the already existent nature is certainly no particular skill for those who understand it; but to create a world out of nothing, or even a piece of grass without seeds, or even a person - but out of nothing at all! - then it will soon be shown how far the omnipotence of such people reaches!"

8 Floran says: "Yes, friend, I would not like to bet a large piece of gold on it that both these people, if it really has to be, would not be capable of creating a world out of nothing; I would truly not like to take a chance!"

9 Stahar says: "Nor would I; for both have done immense things already! At the same time such a great wisdom speaks in both of them in all matters, through which all my knowledge and all my experiences are completely beaten down; but where a great wisdom lies visible, God's Spirit is working there for whom no thing is impossible.

10 If we look back at everything that was possible for Elijah and for Moses, we will also be able to understand thereby how both of them could always put their incomprehensible miracles through the same all-powerful spirit into action!

11 Well, what is it then?! If we know that only for the all-powerful Spirit of God things are possible which are impossible to all men, then the same Spirit of God is very easily active which once called the earth into existence out of nothing and later performed the most wonderful things through Moses and Elijah!

12 Moreover I must mention something here, and I ask you: Where, apart from in the circles of the children of Israel, did a people ever exist which would have been deeper in wisdom and in its power than we, as true descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob?! Who could not have found the true wisdom and power in the house of Jacob, where else would he have found it?! Truly I know also something about the secret school of Egypt and know what was taught there! Yes, this school in Korak came into the fore-court at the most; but never into the holy of holies, the center!

13 But to both of these men the holy of holies, the innermost place, which can be seen at the first glance seems to be as familiar as the inner of a parlor to a housewife. One can immediately see on the cheerful face of a housewife who takes care of everything domestic that the parlor is well stocked; and that one can also see very well with these two however, just by observing their faces a little and one sees how they are full of the most cheerful and unworried peace and totally without concern!

14 Whoever is equipped with such wisdom and power and can look at the world with such a truly divine calm, and who frets for the greatest storm just as little as the first winter which the father of fathers Adam experienced, he is in the holy of holies, a Lord himself and the freest arbiter! He needs no school of wisdom in Korak because the Spirit of God has laid a better one through His Self into the heart! That is my opinion and now also my firm belief; and that this belief of mine is good, I can recognize in the fact that I also begin to feel a very divine and free rest in it, which I have never previously felt or sensed.

15 As your former leader I cannot order you to believe such things, truly, because they can never be commanded; but I can nonetheless tell you that things are like that, and you with your Egyptian school are walking in the darkest catacombs without a guideline!"

16 At the words by Stahar, the speaker now says to the opponents, who have now got smaller in number by a few heads: "Yes, yes, dear friend, you have spoken very appropriately and correctly, but our objection is only against the laying out of the nine drowned people according to a doctor's demands; for the doctors as well as the experienced boats-men lay out the drowned in this way, and it often happens that they already come back to life because of this, for the water comes out of their lungs through this positioning, and if every little spark of life has not yet been extinguished in the heart, then life returns; for the soul is supposed to remain in the body of the drowned for another three days, therefore in this way, which rests on age-old experience, the reanimation of the drowned is even possible if they have lain in the water for two full days. Well, if the true Spirit of God lives in this Elijah of a prophet, why does he need this medical preparation?!

17 According to legend, when Elijah animated a whole pile of dead bones and clothed them in flesh, he did not need any medical preparation, but instead his word and his will were enough. Deeds were previously performed by this Elijah as well alone through the power of the word; why now such actions with the nine drowned people, as if he had become devoid of the power of the divine spirit in Him?!

18 You see, friend, if you make a tiny dirty spot on an already thoroughly dirty cloth, it will not stand out to any sharp-seeing eye; but on a perfectly purely white cloth even a dark spot will bother you! And it is the same with this great prophet in whose heart the fullness of the divine spirit is supposed to live; every little thing bothers it that does not correspond to the great most eminent expressions and with the very highest worth of the divine Spirit. If he had only not done that, I would have been able to consider him to be Jehovah himself, for his previous speech and deeds were quite of a divine type, but through this manipulation of the nine drowned people he has wiped away the whole previous divine nimbus, and I cannot fully accept it now and never more!"

19 Stahar says once again: "Friend, if that bothers you so, then I wonder very much how in the end the belief in Jehovah has not embarrassed you, if you have observed the slow growth of the plants, animals and people often enough! Why does the almighty Spirit of Jehovah need to do such annoying things?! For what does He need the trees at all, the bushes and plants, in order to let various types of fruit gradually become ripe on them?! If He only wanted it, they would fall from the clouds to the earth already ripe! Why does He need a field on earth?! The Spirit of God could prefer to let the purest and ripest grain rain from the heavens, and even better still, the best and most tasty bread! Why the procreation of animals and people?! Why must a man be first born fully helpless and as weak as a fly?! He could fall to the earth already strong, wise and equipped with everything!

20 Don't you think that such a thing would be much cleverer and worthier for the omnipotence of the divine Spirit than the familiar path of drudgery, as a consequence of which a starving child often must observe a tree for weeks until the fruit becomes ripe on its boughs?! What joy would a couple concerned about the well-being of their children have, if they already came into the world with all the wisdom of Samuel?! Yet they must be born with much pain, and then it needs at least twelve years until a child has managed to become capable of higher education, and then it has to use hard work until it comes of age so that it receives the demanded firmness in some skill or knowledge. Do you think this is appropriate according to the highest wisdom of the divine Spirit?!

21 But if with all this the endless divine wisdom does not suffer, how can you now criticize this prophet if he lays the nine corpses according to the doctor's order?! Speak now, my friend!"

22 The adversary, who was called Murel, says: "Yes, yes, friend Stahar, you are right, and I now see the nothingness of my previous remark! But despite all that, there is still something in what I have just said, and that is the delay of God which seems to me very correct in many things, but in many other things not at all! Yes, in some ways even more things could be slower in action, as for example in destructive lightning and the too short days in winter; also the full moon should keep its full light longer than just a few days! If the lightning did not shoot with such a cruel speed, one could avoid it, and it would then be less damaging; also the storm winds could blow in slower gusts, whereby much damage could be avoided! One finds in creation mostly an enormous power of God, which harms the animated nature, but where in my judgment a longer, often too long wait has no advantage, there can be almost no talk of progress.

23 Well, every man knows from personal experience that this is so. But why must it be that way, and why must I then not recognize it as good, if it is good, and besides become impatient and annoyed? Why does it often rain when according to the recognition of all farmers the sunshine would be the greatest advantage, and why does the sun often shine for months without any rain? Yes, friend, you see, those are very important questions; but who can answer them for me?"

24 Stahar says: "There, the great Master! Go to Him and I bet He will shed a correct light on it for you. For your questions are too much for me, yes, so much that I could almost call them foolish; but not because they are really foolish, but instead because they seem foolish to my lack of understanding."

25 Murel says: "Oh, you are a refined customer and are much wiser than I and you bear such a witness to my question!? How should I step before the very wisest One with this?!"

26 Stahar says: "Well then, if you see that, do not ask for the reason of such things and apparitions which God's wisdom has decided since eternity! We people understand very endlessly little, yes, we actually understand nothing at all; for all our understanding is against the divine wisdom hardly a speck of sunlight, and he would like to have the justification from God, why He ordered this and that?! We have not even come up to the first line of the alpha and already we ask about the omega! Oh, how blind and foolish we must still be!

27 In the school at Korak in Egypt among the blind heathens such a thing can certainly be normal; but among the children of Israel who are supposed to see, such questions should certainly not come up. For if the blind do not recognize themselves, then we should recognize that our recognition has achieved the highest possible peak of wisdom if we have reached the opinion that all our knowledge and recognition is sheer nothingness in comparison with only a spark of divine wisdom!

28 Certainly, the pondering spirit of man sees well in the area of the most wonderful creations of God some things that he cannot approve too much in the limitation of his understanding; but then he thinks back to his childhood in which his wise parents often withheld certain subjects that would have certainly done him as an inexperienced and frivolous child great harm if he had known about it! If God's love and compassion now withholds some things from us immature and inexperienced children which, if we knew about them, would certainly bring us to some great and unforeseeable damage, then we can only praise and worship God for it! For if we become capable of a greater wisdom, it will surely not be withheld from us by God!"

- Chapter 217 -

Cyrenius' and the Lord's discussion about Murel, Stahar and the disciples

1 Here Cyrenius says to Me, who had listened very attentively to this rather noisy discussion, "Lord and Master, our leader Stahar has proven himself! I would not have expected such wisdom in him! He silenced his adversaries very easily, and it should be most wondered at that he defeated Murel; for I have known him as a first class speaker and consider him to be a person who has made the greatest experience on the dear earth in all places and ends and therefore knows how to say much, and what he says always has a solid basis. I know him because he constantly came to me as a representative when the Jewish priesthood had a particular concern. He always knew how to clothe his petition in a way that one could never completely refuse it. And therefore I am all the more surprised that Stahar has now fully defeated this Murel.

2 I am sure You, oh Lord, also just laid some little word on his tongue; for otherwise Murel would have been the obvious victor! Murel also had a point. His suppositions were not entirely built on sand; but Stahar countered him and showed him things that naturally stand on much firmer soil.

3 Actually I must admit that there are men among the Jews, even in this most degenerate time, the like of whom cannot be found anywhere else in the world, and I can therefore no longer be their enemy. But I must in any case give Stahar back a position in which he should have a very fruitful sphere according to his wisdom; for he is now completely on Your side!"

4 I say: "Yes, he is, and I have known for a long time that he would achieve this - but Murel will be even more important; for Murel's spirit is one of great firmness, and very many good useful experiences form the basis of his soul, with whose help he can differentiate very well between all the true things from the false and all the good from evil. This Murel we must awake even more and show him the only true order of the divine spirit, and he will then be able to show it to the others with immense eloquence."

5 Cyrenius says: "But what surprises me very much about Your actual disciples here is that they are there as if they were not here at all! They only listen and always open wide their eyes in attention, but there is no talking and speaking among them! Why do they behave so passively then?"

6 I say: "Because all of them but one already knows very well what they have to do! Whoever is silent and listens, collects continually; but whoever speaks himself, scatters and never comes to real abundance. But if My disciples, who were already with Me at the beginning, have once collected very much, then they will also speak, and the salvation will then be announced through them to the nations of the earth. There are extremely wise men among them, although they mostly are poor fishermen.

7 But now back to our Murel again! He will still give us a lot to deal with, but after that he will cross over to a really huge strength of spirit out of his own self-development."

8 Cyrenius says: "I am looking forward to this task very extraordinarily much; for I always have great joy when some blind men can see again and the mute can speak."

- Chapter 218 -

Murel's experiences on his journeys

1 While Cyrenius is making such remarks, Murel joins us, greets Me and says: "Lord and Master, before, only two spoke for everyone, it was Stahar and Floran; I was silent, it is true, since I agreed with some things completely - but then there were other things with which I did not agree or see. Stahar has now given me a big insight, and I now see much better than I saw before; but there are nonetheless some things which I still do not see clearly enough! And since I now think quite differently about You than I thought before, I would like to receive some light from You as well.

2 I was a Pharisee, just like my colleagues, it is true, in as far as Pharisanism bore my refined notions and insight, and I know that you are no particular friend of these prophets of the night! But there are also among this class of people some who have not yet quite lost all the better spirit, and I have always counted myself one of them, and under this auspice I then also dared to come to you and to ask you - not as a Pharisee hated by you, but instead only as a very simple person enriched by some experiences - about some things that not only I, but also every man needs to know.

3 But there is now a certain pre-question, and this consists of this: I am a sinful person and you are a saint of God; will you dignify me with a satisfactory answer?"

4 I say: "Whoever recognizes his sins as sins and actually abhors them and loves God above everything else and his neighbors as himself, is no longer a sinner before Me!

5 But to love God above everything means to keep His commandments and not want to live outside the order of God; if this is the case for you, then speak, and I will listen to you and answer you!"

6 Murel says: "Then friend, fare you well; for we will have very few words to exchange with one another! What use is it to recognize my sins and to abhor them as much as possible?! One evil hour of temptation comes along and one falls back to the same place a thousand times over where one has fallen a thousand times before!

7 One keeps the commandments of God constantly with a good will; but the deed is often simply too difficult.

8 I also always loved my neighbor, if he was no blackguard or rascal; but if they were the latter, then I obviously did not love him and was certainly not his friend. If they become honest people, then I will also love and respect them again, but otherwise not easily! You now know from my own mouth which spirit's child I am. If you will or can dignify me with an answer, then show me such a thing unashamedly; but if you cannot, just say so, and I will also be satisfied with that!

9 Arrogance and willfulness are quite foreign to my mind; but in any case there is also no fear in me, because I am no particular friend of any life. So much lies on this life as on the last plank of Noah's ark. The non-existence would be much more preferable to me than this shabby existence!

10 Why did I have to come into being at all and now continue? Have I ever been able to ask a god for a creation and an existence?! I was created without my own will, I now continue to exist without my will and must have all sorts of laws and other adversities placed on me, for which I have nothing but a dubious promise, according to which there should be a less miserable life with an eternal existence after this miserable life. In order to be able to take part in this, I should here defeat this life with all the strong temptations and stand there after the laws purer than the sun at midday, a condition which cannot be fulfilled, except if one had just as divine a nature as you, most respectable friend!

11 But why all of that?! Away with this life; for one needs neither a bad, temporal and even less perhaps in the best case scenario a somewhat better eternal life! The complete nothingness is the truest bliss in itself!

12 Ah, if I had certain prospects of an eternal, perfect life, then things would be quite different! One would know how and why one must do something in this life so that the following eternal life would be all the better equipped with the highest confidence expected; but it is never the case!

13 Wherever one goes, in whichever school one is initiated, everywhere one finds a blind faith in the society of a fully unfounded hope rather than a clear opinion. And so the people have made commandments everywhere for the, let's say, possible realisation out of the hope springing from the faith they have, with which they and their fellow men torture themselves in the often most unbearable way for nothing and again nothing.

14 I travelled over all of Egypt and sought a clear conviction for life on the other side! What did I find after all these tortures of initiation? Nothing - except an artificially created brighter dream, and they taught me how to analyze the dreams and give them a mystical and prophetical interpretation which usually was suitable for all occurrences!

15 If I were a weak-minded dreamer like many others, such things would have a particularly great impression on me and I would believe the foolishness very actively; but as it is, I saw the foundation of all things immediately, despite all the illusions, recognized the deception in myself and the master of the high school as the trained and willing deceivers who do not believe even a syllable of what they teach others.

16 These people are still the most intelligent; the others who nonetheless believe something, are naturally significantly more foolish and no longer recognize the bright truth which rests on countless identical experiences: "Man, you are living only from today to tomorrow!

17 I paid the demanded school at Korak and initiation fees and left there with the clearest conviction that I had paid the heavy tax in vain - that is in comparison with what I actually wanted to achieve.

18 On my way I found a person who joined my caravan, who had been in Persia and even with the Old Believers (Burmese), about whom he told me miraculous things. We agreed after three days to travel to the famous old believers via Persia. Our journey there, coupled with numerous dangers and obstacles, lasted five whole weeks. There we found a terribly strict-living nation of penitents, who otherwise were very hospitable and really took us in with much love. Certainly I had difficulties with the language; but my leader mastered it, became my interpreter and could put me in contact with the famous old believers, who are supposed to descend directly from Noah. In a short time I had learned so much of their language that I could talk with these good people. My inquiry was of course above all about finding out what their conviction about the afterlife was.

19 The answer was: Only their highest, immortal priest knew this, who could talk to God constantly and could see also the other world and everyone who had crossed over. But this priest was never accessible for any mortal! No one was allowed to near his residence, except once a year, but only up to half an hour away from the great cliff on which he showed himself on the Sabbath morning at the rise of the sun to the mortals for a few moments. But they all had to believe and hope, if they keep the martially unbearable laws; but if any of them sinned, he had to do atonement which would make even Satan shiver!

20 Several such atoners were shown to me, the sight of which made me leave my senses! What happens in the schools of Egypt more seemingly - only to awake fear and terror - even worse happens there in naked reality! And why do these people, these most foolish animals, do all this? Simply for the sake of hope of a better future life!

21 They force themselves into a false hope so firmly that they even consider these evil deceptions of their poor souls in the end to be the most undeceiving truth!

22 Unfortunately the priests contribute here everything, because such a deception of the people always gives them a respectable life. The people are foolish in abundance and therefore allow such a deception to happen to them. But this has not been the case with me for a long time; I want either certainty or a releasing death!

23 I left the old believers after a torture-filled year and went home with a Persian caravan, that is, to Jerusalem, and soon became a Levite and then a Pharisee (Varizaer = protector, shepherd) in the temple and soon after I came here, where I have now been in the service as a Jewish priest for eleven years.

24 I have certainly not made the people more foolish than they already were, neither through words nor deeds, but I have also not made them any wiser; for I thought to myself: whoever is happy in his foolishness should be left alone! For one gives him nothing better even with the most proven truth! - I have now shown you how I actually think and what my intentions are.

25 If the laws made by man, which are hard to keep, decide about a person whether he is innocent or a criminal, then I am obviously a sinner before your legally purest being and can and may not argue with your holiness.

26 If the law made by man was not before you or before me, but instead man alone, as he is in his nature, then you can just as well argue with me as I with you, despite your divinity, which is actually none of my business! But therefore expect neither thanks from me nor any honor - even if you were Jehovah Himself; for then I am his work and see no reason at all why I should fear you or love you or honor you!

27 Ah, if I had been able to ask you for an existence, then the circumstances would be quite different, even if I were a friend of life; but I have become an enemy of life because I found the poor, honest humanity constantly lingering under the most miserable pressure from all sorts of foolish and empty laws. Only people who understood right from the very beginning how to oppress their fellow man are happy, because they know how to lift themselves above every law.

28 These people pulled the wool over the eyes of their poor fellow men through all sorts of prophesies about the afterlife, so that they themselves could lead a good life here all the more freely. I know these things and know what I have to think and expect from a future afterlife. Therefore I also have no fear - neither of the all-powerful God, nor even less of any great and powerful world ruler.

29 I do not fear God because He must obviously be too wise a being for it to be truly a pleasure to torture a poor worm in the dirt that He, if He was tired of it, could destroy a thousand times over with the slightest breath of His mouth. As a highly wise being God cannot reasonably demand any honor or worship and also no love from me, because, without me asking or demanding it, He brought me into this miserable existence, which teaches me to hope for a happiness in the afterlife through the mouth of domineering and profit-seeking people, and I am supposed to consider this teaching as sheer truth, while thousands upon thousands of experiences on all sides tangibly show me the most complete opposite and the great nature shout loudly out of every grave: Man, your whole life lasts only from today to tomorrow!

30 You can see that there is nothing that can be done for me with the old reputed faith and with its comforting companion of dear hope, nothing at all! Therefore give me the truth that will feel alive in me like this existence of mine and I will be able to do without every faith as well as every empty hope!

31 Wise and powerful man of Jehovah do not give us any long and shiny teeth that afterwards do not get anything to bite! I would not have harried you so much, wise friend, if I had not taken from your previous speech and teaching that the truth lives in you and you are also one who means honesty with the poor humanity.

32 However, should You have a different reason, then leave me with the truth which I have learned hard and bitter through a thousand findings.”

- Chapter 219 -

Where to look for the truth

1 I say: "Friend, if you have lost something and you then seek it in a foreign place where you have lost nothing, and stop there however if you do not find the lost item and you wonder why you after such long searching and all industriousness and much sacrifice nonetheless have found nothing - even if you are a clever and sober man, in this case you would truly not be one!

2 Behold, right at the beginning of your recognition you found Moses and all the prophets quite empty, spiritless and truthless, you considered them to be something like a vain work of man, you had never even taken the time to look into the spirit of the Scriptures, you preferred to waste time and money in order to seek the truth where it never was to be found!

3 So you found yourself deceived everywhere and found nothing but lies, hypocrisy and thickest deception. Your many experiences were therefore also necessarily bitter and were no good to you up until this day, except that they made you even hate life and took away all your love and respect and honor for God.

4 But if you had sought the truth only in the right place, you would have certainly found it long ago, just as many before you found it!

5 Believe Me, the truth does not demand any belief in the way that you call belief, also no empty, insubstantial hope, but instead it creates in the innermost life a confidence as bright as the sun, and allows no tiny doubt about the coming life! The fullest and most tangible conviction lives in your spirit, if it becomes awake through the love for God and for your neighbor!

6 But of course neither in the heathen school in Korak in Egypt, and even less among the old fools in India can such a thing be found!

7 That all lies much closer to man and is for every industrious seeker very easy to achieve; but he must seek it there where it can be found - otherwise every effort and work is in vain! One never harvests grapes and figs from thorns and thistles, and the corn does not grow in puddles and quagmires.

8 You also said that you owe God neither love nor fear nor even thanks, in that you have never asked Him to give you existence! If your spirit were already awake, it would certainly have shown you what you owe God, the Father of all people. Your flesh and your blood know truly just as little of it as your tunic knows when you are hungry.

9 Here at this table however you will find a certain Philopold from Kane in Samaria. He thought just like you several weeks ago, and his words resembled yours too. Discuss with him, and you will come into some light; but then I would like to give you the right light, and it will then be seen whether God is worth any true and faithful love from you or not! But there opposite Me sits the man with whom you should talk! Go over and follow My advice; he will certainly do you more good than the school at Korak!"

10 Murel now heads towards Philopold, going round the long table, and says: "The master has now sent me to you in order to have some light shed on something by you that worries me very much. Tell me therefore something good and true!"

11 Philopold says: "Friend, I have heard everything that you have said before us all in the face of the Lord! I recognized that I once did not think and speak much differently; but the reason lay in me myself. I also sought where I had never lost anything; but where I had lost something, I did not seek there and therefore found nothing either. Only when this Lord and Master from above and from eternity came to us, my eyes were opened! I realized who I am and why and I also realized what man is at all, and why he is there! And now, friend, everything is light in me, and no dubious doubt shadows my brightly-lit being any longer! Therefore it will certainly soon be the same with you!"

- Chapter 220 -

On the decline of Egyptian and Indian wisdom

1 Here Murel asks Philopold to give him a satisfactory explanation. At this Philopold says: "My friend and my dear brother! You have experienced much and you came even to the Indians and to the countries that lie very far beyond the Ganges, right to the mountains on which no mortal has set foot, and you went so far into Egypt to where the Nile rages and roars over the cliffs. The old cliff temple of Ja bu sim bil was not unknown to you, and you heard the columns of Mem'n'on sound one morning. You observed the old hieroglyphs and you sought to decode the even older horn writings.

2 The teachers from Korak should have explained everything to you since you wanted to pay them abundantly for it; but they nonetheless did not do it, because they could not do it. For the wise men and educated people of Egypt of today are not a shade of those who were the founders of such schools and temples in the days of the old Varaons. They care for the old wisdom even less than the scribes and Pharisees in Jerusalem, and the Burmese are even worse off. They have gone over to such ascetics, that it is a shame for humanity, and what is this ascetics other than an unlimited arrogance on the one hand and for that reason an unlimited foolishness on the other!?

3 The people once possessed also the true wisdom, as father Noah possessed it; but in time, as the families had grown to one nation that obviously had to have more needs than a small family, the physical powers of people were taken too much into demand for anyone to be able to occupy himself with inner wisdom alone.

4 The peoples elected from among them the wisest, gave them the holy business and obliged them to ensure that the recognition of God was always kept upright and the inner wisdom did not get lost, but instead that it remained among them and their children.

5 At the same time the people took the right of the representatives and keepers and guardians of wisdom to command laws according to wisdom, for the sanction of which the whole nation from the first to the last stands as guarantor and executor, and so that the sinners against such holy laws should be most severely chastised.

6 At the beginning of such an institution things went quite well and had a beneficial effect. But later on the priesthood expanded and needed much for their physical upkeep. Then soon new laws and commandments came out under the mystical title of coming from God. Things began to swarm with fines and atonements and all sorts of miracle-like deceptions, and also the methods of relief were not forgotten; whoever wanted to be freed from the fines at the transfer of some supposed divine law, had to pay a barely affordable ransom. The poor people of course had to forget about the atonement, and take the martial example. That things there are even worse today is obvious!

7 And look, friend, there you went to find the truth and the deepest wisdom!? It is understandable that you could not possibly find it there, just as that you had to become a proper enemy of life; but that it did not occur to you to investigate the scriptures yourself as a priest and person educated in the scriptures, whether and how much truth and wisdom was hidden there, and whether one could reach an inner outlook on life according to the rules of the old school of prophets, that is a little incomprehensible to me!

8 I was certainly not much better off than with the recognition of the truth, and my wisdom consisted mostly of Greek philosophy, although I considered the divine scriptures of the Jews higher - but I was lacking in the basic principles, therefore this magnificent tree could not bear fruit with me."

- Chapter 221 -

On the past life of the individual

1 "When the priceless chance to meet this divine Master was given to me a number of weeks ago, immediately all the dull clouds disappeared and the sun of divine life shone in my soul! I finally recognized in this holy light my being and the being of God; only then I finally saw what I owe God, the only Holy Father, He who has always been the purest love through all eternity.

2 I recognized myself entirely and realized that I had entered into a very strange contract with the divine spirit in order to become the child of God before my birth on this earth, which alone in all infinity has the designation to bear the children of God for the conception and raising according to the eternal order of God's love.

3 Look up, all the countless stars are worlds very much greater and more magnificent than this earth, and on each of these worlds you can find people who completely resemble us in form, and you can find great wisdom everywhere among them, and they also do not fully lack love; but they come into the world, almost like the animals of this earth, already complete and do not need to learn everything that they want to know and should know right from the beginning. The language is one and the same almost everywhere, and there are very distinct limits to its understanding; but everywhere the recognition reaches the highest Spirit of God, a recognition which is more a guessing than recognition.

4 In short, you can find people on all the countless planets who are almost fully the same as the better heathens of this earth, only with the difference that the people on the planets basically do not invent anything new; but what is there is in the highest perfection possible, while the heathens can always invent something new and therefore the way to an endless, ever progressing completion is not and in no way limited.

5 But on the great worlds there are also wise men here and there who from time to time meet with higher spirits and learn about the deeper recognition of God. Then it happens from time to time that here and there the desire appears in a more enlightened person to also become a child of God!

6 For on all the worlds the wise men know, through the higher spirits which are revealed to them, that there is one world in the wide creation on which the people are the children of God, and that a soul, once it has become loose of its body in its world, can enter that happy world  anew but in a very rough physical body. But from that moment on, when someone seriously expresses the desire, everything is explained to him/her in great detail what he/she will have to experience on this world.

7 For one, all memory of the previous good status will be removed from the soul in a way so that it will, in the new world, born into the physical world by a woman with an imperfect body, in an almost unconscious, lowest animal like situation where is not even in a position to give the very least account of its new existence. Only gradually, after about a year, a new consciousness begins to develop out of the images, events and perceptions that have been acquired through the senses; memory and the fresh recall of perceptions are then the only pointers and helpers on the new path of this earthly life. There no higher spirits are sent by God to lead the child to a higher and deeper recognition, but instead the parents must strive with their own personal experiences to bring the child onto a better path. The child must then learn a lot, must begin to decide itself, must seek and beg, must bear fear, hunger, thirst, all sorts of pain and lack, must let itself be humiliated to the very last point of life, and in the end of such a life then a painful and serious illness usually comes to take the life of the flesh person.

8 Once the person has fulfilled all the demanded and prescribed conditions for life, if he has loved God above all else and his neighbor more than himself- even if he had persecuted him like the worst enemy - then he has activated the light of the Spirit of God laid in the heart of his soul and awoken it in order to grow.

9 Only from then on does God grow in man, penetrates the soul, makes it equal, and so the previous natural person has become a child of God from out of the deepest mud of nothingness who can rejoice in such a perfected condition of all those perfections which are in God Himself.

10 Look, friend Murel, as I have just informed you now, as generally and as short as possible, in this way will it be presented to a person in a world of stars; and if he then demands it completely and dead seriously, he will become free of the light body in a second and, just as quickly, unconsciously brought to conception on this earth, and there such a man already stands before you like you and I.

11 Knowing this now, do you know whether we, before we came to this earth, had not made a voluntary contract with the Lord God?

12 But God keeps the word unchanged from His eternal order, nothing can change His sense; but whether we also have done the same according to the law that He Himself gave for all people through Moses and through the original fathers of this earth and also wrote in the heart of every person, that is another question!

13 We will certainly observe it from now on, which I do not doubt; but it is not thanks to our effort but alone to the mercy of God. Tell me now whether you are satisfied with my little wisdom!"

- Chapter 222 -

Philopold's otherworldly experience

1 Murel says: "Listen, friend Philopold, you have disclosed things for me which no person had an idea about before! Those are all wonders upon wonders; but tell me in complete seriousness whether that is not perhaps one of your fantasies? For it seems so strange and extraordinary like any of the first fables of heathen belief.

2 But it can also be completely true, which I am not in a position to judge, since my knowledge of the stars is certainly my weakest point! But whoever could imagine that the stars, these little sparks of light in heaven, are worlds, and greater even than our earth, which no man has ever seen the whole of?!

3 I beg you, confirm this for me; for you have awoken in me a too powerful desire to learn more now about this highly memorable matter! One cannot find any trace of this in Moses, yes not even a hint; for there is not even a syllable in his Creation story. Actually no one can make head or tail of his Genesis and what he wanted to say in it!"

4 Philopold says: "Friend! Whoever understands Moses correctly can find even that in it; but there it takes more than what one has put into his memory in the most direct sense! But whoever ever loved God above all else, the Spirit of God would have given him the right light on the matter and he would then know that Moses' Genesis is not so much the actual creation of worlds, but actually above all just the spiritual up-bringing and education of the entire human being and his free will, going in and beyond the divine order. Whoever understands that and sees it, also then sees the other, because it can be found on the path of the most unmistakable analogy, what I could show you most tangibly myself. But for that the time today would be too short.

5 But I have something else, which was given into my hands from above as undeniable proof through the wonderful mercy of the Lord, who is truly here in our midst even in the flesh, as all the prophets announced quite faithfully.

6 In those days as now a spirit of an angel dressed with an ethereal body is among us, that is as the Lord visited us in Kane from Kis. This angel loosened the bandages from the eyes of my soul at the behest of the Lord, and immediately afterwards the full consciousness of my previous, or better, my other-world being returned into my whole being.

7 Immediately I recognized the magnificent great world in which I had lived and acted before this existence on this earth in the flesh; yes, I even saw my parents and dear brothers and sisters who were still living and acting there in the flesh, and the angel even fetched me some of my own utensils here to this earth which I immediately recognized as the undeniable genuine gadgets.

8 When such an enormous spiritual light was lit for me, I saw then very well everything that I owed God the Lord and now even the most loving Father!

9 Only then I understood the value of my life and also that of all humans and now I can never enough commend, love and praise the Lord God and all my fellow men.

10 But prior to this miraculous act I was an enemy of life like you were, but I am already now convinced that you will soon be and think like I now think and am,

11 The greatest, most reliable witness among them is the Lord Himself, however, who sent you to me so that you would learn from me whether a person then should owe the Lord God neither praise nor love, in your opinion!"

- Chapter 223 -

The natural order of the worlds

1 Murel says: "I thank you, my deeply awakened friend and brother Philopold! You have now given me such a revelation about which probably even Solomon in his highest wisdom never dreamed! The issue is so extremely extraordinary that every thinker would have to doubt it right from the start, because not even a spark of an idea exists in our external human intellect; but nonetheless I cannot have even the smallest doubt any longer. For if things were not founded on your sober personal experience, you could not possibly have told it to me, because such a thing, as long as the earth carries the people, could never have been thought up by a person and you could also never have thought of it if you had not been led by the clearest experience. For such a thing is not pulled out of thin air; it is a very highest, most wonderful revelation from above, and I accept it as obviously true as if I had experienced it myself.

2 But tell me now a little bit about the worlds of the stars; for I still cannot imagine how these tiny lights can be worlds!"

3 Philopold says: "Yes, dear friend, that will be a little difficult because you still have no understanding about this earthly world of ours and have no idea how it all looks and how it placed in comparison to the other worlds! I have to tell you therefore how this earth looks and how it is placed and you will then be able to have a better idea about the other worlds."

4 Here Philopold described to Murel the whole earth, like a genuine Professor of Geography, and gave him proof based on events and experiences that Murel had certainly made on his long journeys. He showed him also the reasons deriving, through which the night and day on the earth always had to change regularly one after the other, and besides he explained to him the moon, its nature, distance and designation, as well as the other planets which belong to the sun.

5 When he had come to an end with these explanations, illuminated as clearly and bright as possible, only then he moved on to the fixed stars and continued:

6 "You have now learned about the existence of our earth, the moon, the sun and the other planets around it as perfectly as is possible in such a short period of time, and you can no longer have any doubt about the 'thus, and in no other way'; and I can only say to you that all the greater and smaller spots of light in the sky are also nothing other than pure, extremely large sun-worlds, some of which are hardly believably larger than this sun of ours, about whose size you almost became dizzy.

7 But that they seem so small to us is a consequence of their distance from here. If you can imagine the great distance of our sun from the earth four times a hundred thousand times greater, then you have the actual distance of the next fixed star from our sun. And from this you can easily see the reason why they seem so small to our physical eyes, since even our sun, which is so large, in order to encompass a thousand times a thousand of our earth's quite easily in itself, seems to us hardly as large as the palm of our hands.

8 Other fixed stars, which we also see, are so unspeakably far away from us that we do not even have numbers to describe their distance. If you have now understood all that, it will be very clear to you how the little spots of light can very well be enormously large worlds, even if they don't appear to the human eye to be what they are! Have you understood all this?"

- Chapter 224 -

Murel's speech of praise and gratitude

1 Says Murel: "Friend, I am now relieved and fully in the clear about everything that was previously unclear to me; but I also see now that a person without an extraordinary support from God would never in all eternity have managed anything! Who can make such a clear look into the endlessly great house accommodation of God except a spirit from heaven?! Only the Spirit of God can see through such matters and then reveal them to us people who are at least of a good will. But if the people wanted to discover something with their mind without a revelation from above, they would certainly never discover anything from eternity to eternity except something foolish and banal; but God the Lord and our Father of all cares for His children and allows good things to come to them from heaven if they thirst after it!

2 Oh, therefore now all praise and my love to Him, the only truly good and holy greatest benefactor of mankind! How eminent and great is the bright thought which like a sun is rising out of the darkness of night in my heart!

3 We people on this earth are all brothers and sisters, and the holy, good Father leads us through His all-powerful and wisest disposition towards the most eminent holy goal!

4 Oh, brother Philopold, what a never-repayable service you have done for me! How can I, or how should I repay you?! Friend, if I from now on had to live as long as Methuselah and all temples and catacombs of the earthly-human wisdom were at my disposal, in the end I would know hardly as much about all the truths you have now revealed to me as I knew about them when you began to reveal the miracles to me! Now hardly an hour has gone, and I now stand illuminated like Moses on Sinai, when the flames of the light of God flickered high above his head and he was literally penetrated through and through with body and soul by the divine wisdom!

5 Oh, how good I feel now in this holy and true light of God! Yes, but how should I begin to praise and worship Him who first awoke you forcefully so that you were now in the position to awaken me so very powerfully and brightly?! Is it ever possible for a human tongue to pronounce words that would be worthy of Him?! No, no, never! Here every mortal tongue must fall silent when the living Word starts to blaze in the most powerful flames of the newly-awakened love to God, the Holy Father!

6 Oh, how endlessly great and eminent are You, holy Master, above us now! Who understands You entirely?! Not us people, and neither eternity!

7 Since You, holy Master, know about such things about which only He can know who created them, then I say: if You, holiest Father, are clothed in the flesh before us, then my heart recognizes You nonetheless! You are quite the same who gave Your chosen people the holy commandments of life through Moses on Sinai and always spoke to the people through the mouth of the holy prophets! You are the prophesied one and now fulfill the great Word of God of Your eternal fatherly love to Your now still weak and immature children. Oh let us soon become manly and strong, and out of our hearts and out of our immortal mouth a praise shall be brought to You, the like of which heaven has never brought to You, oh holiest Father!

8 Oh earth, you are small as a world in comparison with the great worlds there above which rotate in their endlessly great and wide orbits in the immeasurable creation - but how great you are now in comparison with all those above, since you alone now carry Him whom they all cannot grasp!

9 Oh, all you brothers, why do you still tarry to rise and praise him above all, since you must now know as well as I who is before you?! And should you perhaps not fully know, than I tell you all: Here is He, the Lord, the Father of eternity; heaven and earth are filled to overflowing with His great and eternal magnificence! Praise Him, praise Him with me, and help, you who have already been made powerful in His great mercy and compassion!"

10 At this I say to Murel: "It is enough, it is perfectly enough, My dearest friend Murel! I knew you for a long time and knew well what was hidden in you. Because you have understood so much in such a short time, you will also understand even more!

11 But now come here to Me and drink out of the cup from which I have drunk, a purest wine; afterwards you will realize quite different things to that which was just revealed to you by friend Philopold! So come to Me!"

12 Murel says: "Oh, you call of calls, you voice of voices, you word of words, for the first time recognized and understood by my stupidity! Who can resist You if he has recognized You in his heart?! Oh, how eminent, holy, great and lovely, and how so very familiar You sound out of the holy mouth of the Father to the weak children who have been so long exiled from Your heart! How many thousand upon thousand blessings flood to me with a breath from the mouth of Him who once thundered out the 'Be'! into endless space, at which it then began to rain and to move through all the endless spaces which eternity cannot conceive and will never conceive!

13 Tremble and shake now everything in me which ever lent me power for a sinful deed; but you, my new-born heart, rejoice and jubilate! For behold, your creator, your God and Father has called you; therefore follow the call of this voice which breathed life into your fibers!

14 Oh voice of the father, what a pleasant sound you are to the ear of the childish love in the heart of a child awoken from a deadly sleep!"

- Chapter 225 -

Fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah

1 After these truly meaningful words Murel approached Me and sobbed and wept with joy. When he came to Me, he said loudly to Stahar and Floran, "Come here too, and open your eyes which are still very dim! You may have gone further than I in the fore-court of the temple and have taken me with you as a friend to where you were already; but here there is more than your fore-court, this is the true holy of holies!"

2 I say: "Be what it may; take the beaker and drink! For you have now spoken much and are therefore quite dry in your throat. Therefore wet your breast with the wine of truth and love, so that you will become strong and a useful tool for Me to fight against night and its consequences!

3 Behold, the night has been transformed into the brightest day here, it is true; but all around us the deepest night floats over the souls of the people and it will take more and stronger light in order to drive away the darkness of night; and you shall serve Me as a strong torch!"

4 At this Murel takes the beaker with a joyful heart which was full, and empties it down to the last drop. Full of astonishment at the extraordinary quality of the wine he says quite enthusiastically, "Oh you most magnificent of wines that I have ever drunk! You were truly never pressed from the grapes of this earth and were never matured in a skin, but instead you were created for the Lord of magnificence of all heaven from heaven itself! Oh tell me how we have deserved that You dignify us with such an incomprehensibly great mercy and love?!"

5 I say: "The reason is the powerful bond between the Father and His children, and again like a bond between bride and groom!

6 I in My eternal Spirit am your Father of eternity; but in this flesh of Mine I am nonetheless like a bridegroom, and you are all like My dear bride - through the fact that you accept My word and My teaching and believe it actively in your hearts that I am the One, the promised One who should come in order to free all people from the old sin that is a creation from hell, and to open to them the way to eternal life and to the true childhood of God.

7 Truly I tell you: Whoever believes in Me and keeps My word in deed, he is like a bride of heaven in Me and I in him as a true groom of eternal life. But whoever is in Me and I in him, he will never see, feel or taste death in the future!

8 Whoever believes in Me and loves Me and thereby keeps My easy commandment of pure love, it is he who recognizes Me also in the fullest light of his heart as the Father! And to him I will Myself come always and will reveal Myself to him, and he will be taught and led by Me in the future, and I will lend his will the power that all elements should obey him in cases of real need!

9 In the real world My people will not celebrate any shining triumphs; for all people of this earth are not casually My children, but instead children of the prince of lies, night and darkness. These do not love My light and will not love those who bring My light to them; but My followers should not resent them, for the triumph in My kingdom is reserved for them!

10 I tell you that you will have to put up with some persecution and despising from the real world from time to time for My name's sake; but it will then be the complete opposite in My kingdom, of which you can be completely assured, and your willpower will also be covered with great shame on this side, and you will frolic in secret for the sake of My name! For you know who I am and what I can give you all; the world, the terrible adversary of light and of My love, does not know it and will also never get to know it!

11 But you know it, and here on this spot it is coming into fulfillment what the prophet Isaiah prophesied: 'On this mountain the Lord Zebaoth will provide for all peoples a feast of rich food and pure wines, of fat, of marrow, rich food and wine without yeasts. And on this mountain He will remove the veil that covers all peoples, the blanket that covers all heathens; He will destroy death forever. The Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces; The dishonor of His people He will remove from the whole earth; for the Lord has said so. On that day and on this mountain the peoples will exclaim 'Behold this is our God, for Whom we are waiting!' and He alone will help us all. Yes here truly is the Lord for Whom we are waiting so that we rejoice and be happy in His salvation! The hand of the Lord rests on this mountain!'

12 But Moab (Jerusalem and its evil ways) will be trodden down as straw is trodden down in the dung. He will stretch forth his hands among them as a swimmer extends his hands to swim; He will bring low their pomp as his hands (angels) sweep over them. The high-walled fortress (self-love and arrogance) He will bend, and strike it down level with the earth, into the very dust (greatest humiliation).' (Is. 25: 6-12)

13 Behold, what Isaiah prophesied on this spot, on this mountain at the sea, when he came to Galilee that is now coming true before your very eyes! Count all the nations that are represented here, and the thick veil will be taken from everyone's eyes, and to everyone a purest wine without yeast will be given, and whoever drinks it and takes up its spirit into his soul, will have taken eternal life into himself, and will be the same for everyone that is here and that enjoys My word as the purest wine from heaven, and who will get to drink it in the future and will consume it like you in great mouthfuls, their death will also be consumed by Me and they will never more feel or taste death!

14 Yes, this wisdom is a fat meal, that I have prepared in your nation here on earth - yes, you are fed and satisfied here with the meat of deepest wisdom and eternal truth.

15 But now go over there if there is no lack of just and great provision, to the whole world to the lost brothers and sisters and to all the widows and orphans and dry their tears from their faces, and give them richly to drink from this purest wine that I have given you to drink here in abundance!

16 But the time when you should do such a thing will be shown to you all through My Spirit in you. If you then act in My name truly and faithfully, My Spirit, My being, will always and eternally be with you all.

17 From now on you will not have to think what you should say in My name; for at the right time it will be laid in your heart and in your mouth.

18 The spirit of this wine, which I gave you to drink, will never volatilize from your souls; for it is called eternal truth. Therefore falsehood will never be able to seize a place within you, for in this wine lies eternal truth. The falsehood is death, ruin and an eternal judgment; but the truth itself is life, and I am this Myself in you, and I am in all eternity the truth, the light, the path and the life itself!

19 Whoever therefore has Me in their heart, has everything; for apart from Me there is eternally no other truth or life! Tell Me now, Murel, above all, if this is all plausible and clear to you!"

- Chapter 226 -

The Lord's promise

1 Says Murel: "Oh Lord! How could that not be clear to me?! For the wine that I received to drink was likewise without yeast like this doctrine of Yours; and I now say to You too that I have completely understood Isaiah this time, for the first time in my life! This spiritual wine had no yeast for me any longer and certainly neither for all those who have taken part in this rich spiritual meal; and from the wine of the prophet which has been fully refined through You, oh Lord, I have now recognized You, oh Lord, quite clearly as well and I now understand how I belong to those who call on this mountain: You, oh Lord, are our God for whom we have been longing, and You now truly help us, and therefore we are helped for eternity! But Moab has also been thoroughly thrashed; it now lies there like empty straw and like the dirt that the worms and flies have gnawed away. Oh, what an unspeakable joy that is for my poor soul which has thirsted after truth for so long, but here was richly repaid for all the efforts that were a burden for the discovery of the purest truth!

2 Yes, Lord, You alone are our God and Lord, and besides You there is eternally no other! To You alone therefore be all our love in eternity! And also to you, dear brother Philopold, my everlasting thanks; for you first opened my eyes so that I could see what I otherwise was seeking in vain in all the places and ends of the earth!

3 But now a great request to You, oh Lord, from us all! Since You have let Yourself be found by us, so never leave us, Your children, again, lest our descendants will have to seek You for another thousand years without being able to say: Oh Lord, we have found You again! Oh Lord, we have found You again!' This we all most urgently ask of You, oh Lord."

4 "In My Word, which is My Spirit and My love, I shall from now on remain with the men of good will until the end of the world. You can all be assured of this.

5 But not ever in this My physical body composed of matter, which I shall finally transfigure in accordance with eternal decree!

6 For I have through this body taken upon Myself all judgment and death, and this body must for three days be given over to death so that from now on your souls will have eternal life.

7 For this My body is the representative of your souls. It must give up its life so that your souls may live, and this given up life will be to the benefit of your souls forever.

8 But on the third day also this My body will resume life, wholly transfigured, and the abundance of My eternal Spirit will then penetrate you and lead you into all truth.

9 Only in this truth will you, like My body, be transformed in your hearts and your souls, and you will yourselves take freely and independently the eternal life from the abundance of My Spirit. Only then will you become, be and remain truly God's children forever.

10 But now you are all only being prepared for it. Listen to My voice and hear My word!

11 Nobody will ever come to Me in My kingdom unless he is drawn by the Spirit out of Me. But who is the Spirit? This is the Father of eternity Who will draw you to Me.

12 This Spirit has no name, but His essence is love. If you have this, you have also the Spirit, - and if you have the Spirit, you have also Me; for I, the Father and the Spirit are One.

13 Therefore strive for love for God and for your neighbor, particularly to those closest neighbors who are poor and need physical and spiritual help, and you will awake with this love the love for God, particularly if you do not look at the world and its slack judgment; for whoever of you is ashamed of his poor brothers and sisters for the sake of the world and will flee from them in order to seem to have a respectable reputation, he will not be recognized or accepted by Me!

14 In short, I say to you: Whoever is ashamed of My poor brothers and sisters for the sake of the wicked world, of him I also shall be ashamed!

15 But whoever will recognize My spirit also in the poor, I will also recognize him eternally as My child! Let that be told to all of you! But now we want to take a three-hour strengthening rest in this place!"\

- Chapter 227 -

The nature of the Lord and humankind

1 My disciples were probably the first to fall asleep, the Romans were also tired; everyone made a pillow of their arm, lent on the table and slept as if on the softest bed. But our Murel and Philopold did not go to sleep, but instead they withdrew a little and discussed the whole night everything that had happened.

2 Our Mathael also joined the two and said:I cannot possibly sleep now after all I have experienced and seen here in the last two days. Just think, three days ago I was still possessed by a legion of devils and was, although certainly unknowingly, the most feared bandit!

3 Wherever I was suspected of being, no caravan would dare to cross the path, and whoever fell into my hands, certainly did not continue his bleak journey unhurt! And now I am the son-in-law of king Ouran and co-regent of the great land on the Pontus up to the kingdom of the Scythians! The kingdom reaches from the Pontus to the Caspian Sea over a great mountain range. Is that not a wonder above all wonders?! Yes, things happen here that no man anywhere else on earth can understand!

4 But there is now a great question to be asked, and this consists quite simply of this: Will people understand it and keep it pure, the people who either live very far away from here, or who will live very far away from now according to time? For even if the religion is so pure and true, one will probably consider it to be the expression of a great prophet - but to accept that God Himself in the flesh and blood of a person taught this, that will be a heavy and shaky doctrine, especially since He is supposedly the natural son of a certain Mary, who later became the wife of a carpenter called Joseph! Well, such things have been known manifold among the people, and it is therefore difficult to give the nation the certain human feeling concerning the Lord, although there is no longer any doubt in us.

5 We are completely convinced that there is nothing in Him which resembles us natural human beings except for His external form alone; body, soul and spirit is God! For one can say: In Him is the fullness of the Godhead in physical form! For He only needs to desire something and it happens in an instant.

6 The greatest and most tangible proof for His divinity, however, lies in His words and in the angel who constantly stands in His service and who commits deeds before the eyes of all those present that are less explicable for a mortal than Philopold's explanation of the world of stars.

7 In short, for us, who see, it is the holiest extraordinariness in broad daylight; for we have the screaming proof in greatest abundance!

8 But this will not be able to happen everywhere or always that way. But I already noticed here that some people still have difficulty, despite all the screaming proof, to see the divine being of the Lord and to understand; and I also saw that the clarifying word always works more wonders concerning the realization of the Lord and His purely divine majesty than the greatest miracle. The reason seems to lie in the fact that we are already so used to the ever puzzling real or artificial miracles in these days that they actually demand no particular amazement any longer.

9 In particular in the last circa sixty years since the Romans became our masters the land has simply been swarming with magicians and miracle-workers! The person who is inexperienced in secret magic now throws a true and an artificial miracle quite easily together in the same cooking pot, makes no distinction between true and false - and nor can he, because he is lacking in all the elements needed to recognize it. So it happens very easily that a miracle can never have the same effect as a clear word.

10 In brief, one obviously has a greater effect through the correct awakening of human understanding than through any sort of miracle!"

- Chapter 228 -

The future of Jesus' teachings

1 "Yes, for us the extraordinary deeds are already a very powerful proof, because we now possess enough awakened understanding to differentiate all that is wrong from what is true at first sight!

2 For the conjuring tricks of the magicians have been known to us for a long time, and nothing brings much new to light; but these deeds here demand more than simply a magician from Egypt or from Persia, these demand God's limitless creative power and a never-ending depth of wisdom, they demand the original and basic priority of the divine spirit, Whose willpower keeps all the spirits and all the worlds in check like a good horseman reigns in his team of horses who more or less pulls and forces his otherwise unruly animals to act according to his will.

3 So the fullest primary divinity is visible, while it can never be visible with the magicians, because it never is and never was there. But we can also accept that our forefathers must have performed many miracles through the divine power in them; for without the true miracles the false ones would never have appeared.

4 But now we have once again seen quite perfectly true miracles before our very eyes; but I do not want to be a bad prophet, saying that in several centuries there will be more false miracles in the name of the Lord than true ones!

5 It is true that it is all in the hands of the Lord; but the following can be fully accepted as certain. First, that the Lord will not always remain physically visible on this earth among the people and will not stand at the service of the people as at the founding of a new religion with bodily advice and physical deeds; and secondly, He will also give the people more free will than previously before this ever most memorable epoch, which makes even this earth never pass away and must one day set it in the central point of the heavens.

6 For a world which He has once treaded with His own feet must remain for eternal times at least in a transfigured form. But if the people remain in possession of their free will and if they are born into this world always so unknowingly and almost without any intelligence so that their later realizations depend alone on the original external lessons, then we cannot think anything other than that the darkening will come again and the domineering people greedy for a good life will make a ten times greater paganism out of this new purely divine religion which will concede nothing to the one of India!

7 We will not experience it in our bodies, but as inhabitants of an illuminated spiritual world that it as yet unknown to us we will experience it all the more surely! It will still be swarming with deception, lies, haughtiness, egoism, selfishness, fear of the world, criticism, pretense, hypocrisy, persecution, judgment, revenge and cruelties of all shape and size!

8 The Lord Himself said that everything must be allowed for the sake of free choice and true education of every individual, without which no one can become a true child of God and can also never enter the eternal magnificence of the Father!

9 But if the Lord Himself gives us such a prognosis, what should we think other than that it will be exactly as I have now just said?! The best protective means against it is and still remains a clear language with mathematical certainty. For mathematical proof cannot be eroded by the passing of time, it is the same for Indians as it is for the Persians and Arabs, Greeks, Romans and Jews!"

- Chapter 229 -

Concerns about the mission

1 Murel says: "High, wise friend! This teaching has more, as far as clarity is concerned in my opinion, than anything based on firm mathematics and thereby leaves no doubt. Therefore I am also of the opinion that this doctrine will never be able to be falsified!"

2 Mathael says: "It would be desirable; but nonetheless it will not be the case! However, so very mathematically firm it does not stand because of its purely spiritual nature as you imagine! Just think what it cost you before you began to get just an idea about the truth resting within, and before you came fully into the clear!

3 You were very prepared and enriched through much knowledge and experience, your intellect was like sublimated, and yet you did not understand Moses and Isaiah; it needed some words before it finally began to be light and bright in your heart!

4 But now think about the people who neither have any higher knowledge nor experience, and an apostle of the new doctrine announces to them this truest gospel out of the light of the heavens! How will such people accept such an announcement?!

5 Therefore I think that we should mainly ask the Lord to show us how we should teach the word of life with understandable speech actively convincingly, awaking a new life for those who will listen to us! For I deem that to be the most necessary and henceforth the only fruitful one for the prized matter!"

6 Philopold says: "High friend, dressed in the robe kings are adorned with! You have spoken very well and correctly; but the Lord Himself just made the prediction that we should not have to consider what we will say in His name, it will be laid in our hearts and minds at the right time! If that is certainly and unmistakably the case, then I do not know for which reason we then should ask the Lord again!

7 But I am of the opinion that we as future spreaders of this doctrine should not go without any miracle-working power; for against the raw powers of people only miracles can achieve anything. The person who is two thirds an animal must first be brought to stop and think through a miracle, before one can say anything about God and about the eternal designation of man to him.

8 With people of only some education a wise word would be enough without miracles in the best case, but in comparison with raw force there is nothing without miracles! All these half and totally savage nations have mostly become half-animals through their rulers and priests and through their false miracles. But they do not understand the word; but a true miracle which must be stronger than a false one, gets them to begin to hold on to the stronger forces, and once one has them won over, one can then start an appropriate school.

9 That is my opinion, and I also claim that one will always achieve more with a miraculous deed, even with very enlightened people, if it is truly genuine, and one will reach the goal faster than with any refined speech! For even the enlightened person lives in a certain rationale that is false because it is in fact a rationale, and such rationale cannot easily be removed from the soul with mere words!

10 Let us look at ourselves and ask what tore us out of our justifications! We cannot hide it! It was the works that showed us who He is that performed them!

11 And so I believe that above all we should ask the Lord for the power to perform a miracle in emergencies!"

- Chapter 230 -

The invalidity of all concerns regarding the mission

1 Murel says: "Dear friends, without wanting to step on someone's toes in the least or to say that your wishes were not founded in the divine order, I make only quite simply without any unnecessary words the remark that we should take advice purely for the turning of a single hair, while the Lord has already ensured everything certainly for a long time!

2 There will certainly be darkening about our spiritual sun with time, just as often the dark clouds dim our beloved sun to such an extent on bright days that one firstly has not even a trace of which part of the sky hides the sun, and secondly on top of this it becomes so dark that one must light a lamp at midday in order to be able to see something. But the clouds bear then a fruitful rain and on the next sunny day the fragrant meadows laugh and abound with the blessings from heaven.

3 And so I also believe that the highest love and wisdom from the Lord about our spiritual earth will often also allow dull and dark clouds to come over the holy face of the sun of our spirit at the brightest midday of human cognition, in order to make the people all the more thirsty for light. In the loss of light we first realize how great and invaluable the value of the true light of life really is.

4 The people then soon begin to ask anxiously: Where is the light of life? They sigh and cry, and tears, as the rain from the spiritual clouds, fall on the furrows of the heavy heart and animate once more the roots of the holy word in the soul that have been atrophied here and there, and we live anew then with the roots and with the newly-strengthened sight we soon see the sun of life again in our newly lit heart and rejoice then to extremes at the new light, which we had to do without for a time in all quarrel and strife.

5 I say to you: The Lord knows very well what will come on our natural and spiritual earth, and why!

6 Therefore our consultation seems to me at least purely in vain. We will certainly receive word and power from Him, if He deems us to be suitable for His purposes; but we cannot prescribe to Him, through our foolish opinions, what He should give us above all and what He should do!

7 For if we did not know who He is, then we could certainly negotiate with Him like a man of our stature; but since we all know only too well who He is, then that is no longer possible! For in accepting that we are either very foolish or that we now think ourselves to be wiser than Him in the end! Consider that well and tell me whether I have judged well at the foundation of all foundations!"

8 Mathael says: "There is no longer any question of whether you alone are completely right! But my opinion actually only came from the fact that I realized by myself what was necessary there in order to help humanity to remain with the light of life. But I also realized at the same time that both of you, and particularly friend Murel, have judged much brighter than I. In any case I think that none of us are lacking in good will, and the Lord Himself will do the best! But now, friends, about something else!"

- Chapter 231 -

On the Lord's death and the future of his disciples

1 (Mathael:) "How will this story be accepted in Jerusalem? We know the night of the temple, their unlimited domineeringness and greed and the hidden enmity against the Romans. If the Lord now would move towards Jerusalem for once - which was to be expected from some of His previous words - what a face would the temple and the domineering and luxury-greedy Herod make at it?!

2 I believe that this will have a quite terrible agitation of every type and sort as the most unavoidable consequence in Jerusalem! Then it will either be: let fire rain from heaven or flee from the city of all ruin in order not to be insulted in the most infamous way! But the one will be of as very little use as the other! For where Satan has once built his nest, no doves can be hatched any more, just as any hens in the holes of snakes. One can do whatever one wants, but Satan will remain Satan as long as the last grain of sand of this earth remains. What do you think?"

3 Philopold says: "That, high friend, seems to be a little too high above our horizon of understanding! Everything will be possible to the all-mighty and all-wise Spirit of God, and therefore also the taming of Jerusalem!? Look at the proud city of Caesarea-Philippi! Where and what is it now, the proud people that began to pave their streets with gold and jewels?! You will find a pitiful heap of rubble! Do you think the Lord would not also let such a thing happen soon to the whoring city of Jerusalem?

4 I tell you: in a hundred years one will surely not know the place where the proud Jerusalem once stood! So let us leave Murel's opinion; for the Lord will know best what is to be done!

5 Nothing should worry us now, than for us to remain in the light of the Lord; everything else He will decide alone and decree in the best way! Do you both share my opinion?"

6 Mathael says: "Everything is as Murel and Philopold have just said; but I now know something else that you both probably do not know, and I know it from the mouth of the Lord Himself, and because I know it, I also speak to you as I did.

7 The Lord as a human being will go to Jerusalem at a certain time, and will teach there and perform great signs. The temple will be greatly impaired through this, and will become extremely furious and attempt to seize the Lord and kill Him - an action of the temple which they already have the greatest desire for. And listen! The Lord will let Himself be seized by the temple and be killed physically! Those are His very words.

8 But He will only remain seemingly dead for three days, of course only as far as his body is concerned, and then He will rise again and destroy all night and its power. He will only then give all His apostles the right power and equip them with ill all strength of His Spirit, His wisdom and love.

9 His twelve old disciples, who are and have been witnesses of everything, He will certainly send out into the whole world, in order to announce His holy gospel.

10 But what will happen to us from then on? As we were not witnesses from the beginning, will He give us any of His mercy? Well, that will certainly happen! But what will happen to us then? Both of you have it easier and can somehow laugh at it; but I must leave, perhaps tomorrow or the day after, far from here in the cold areas of the Pontus and will have to lead and rule the crude peoples there and in the future no longer be a witness of everything that will be taught and done by the Lord! Who will tell me then about it, and who will say to me whether my leading of the people will be fully corresponding to the divine will?"

- Chapter 232 -

Conscience and the influence of the angels

1 Here Raphael, who of course was also not asleep, stepped up to the three and said to Mathael: "Do you think that we countless angelic spirits, and here particularly I, are only at the Lord's service on this hill?

2 Look, as is now visible before your eyes, we are standing constantly at the ready for the high service of the Lord and carry His will from one infinity to another, and be assured that we will find you quite certainly in your Pontus lands and will give you knowledge of everything you need to know according to the order of God! Happen what may, you, if you keep a firm will, will be given knowledge about everything that you need in an instant, and in the meantime you need nothing else.

3 But if you as king went over to the usual ruler's arrogance and turned away from the Lord in this way and also from us, then surely you would learn nothing more about the kingdom of God and His immeasurable mercy!

4 Thus, if you concern yourself with nothing other than remaining in the mercy and full love of the Lord, everything else will come to you of its own accord!

5 If you had been able to convince yourself of everything that the Lord will perform personally on this earth in the future and you would then nonetheless let yourself be enticed in some way by the world, everything that you have seen and heard would then be of no use to you as if you had seen and heard nothing at all! But if you continue to remain in the mercy and love of the Lord in that you do not let yourself be deceived by the world, but instead you love the Lord above all else from now on and your neighbors all as yourself, then you will nonetheless be initiated in everything that the Lord will ever do, even if you were in the furthest and strangest world - in as far as that is demanded for the salvation of your soul. For not everything that the Lord wants and commands in the whole of eternity is necessary for the salvation of your soul!

6 Behold, the Lord gives orders for something on each of the countless worlds that has to happen; but such a thing is suitable only for one world, for which it has been designated and that is not suitable for the salvation of your soul at all! The Lord has also got some things to order for the maintenance of this earth which do not affect you at all; but what He orders for the salvation of the human soul will not be withheld from you! Are you satisfied with that or not?"

7 Mathael says: "My noble friend from God's heavens! I am fully satisfied with that and need nothing more than just this thing that I am admonished by you if I go astray in the least from the Lord and from His order through some circumstances! For a push at the right time is worth more than a whole world of the greatest treasures!"

8 Says Raphael: "This too would always happen without you demanding it. For look, every person has a spiritual organ in his heart, which always remains open to us angels and to God and is completely accessible! This organ always represents the simple concepts of good - bad, true - untrue, right - wrong.

9 If you in future do good, true and right, the agreeing and good part of the organ will be touched by us, and in you the rewarding feeling will be created that you have done and spoken well and correctly.

10 But if you have ever acted or spoken wrongly, the opposite of the organ will be touched by us, and a fear will seize you and tell you that you have stepped out of the divine order. And this organ is called in the moral speech quite simply the conscience.

11 You can rely faithfully on this voice, it will never deceive you! It had only to be that someone let this organ be dulled so that in the end does not even perceive a too material touch of ours; then it would be as good as lost with the spiritual part of the human! But that will certainly never be the case with you, because you have already made too great progress in the mercy and love of the Lord and the Lord has formed you quite new and organized you along with your companions. Your soul is truly still the old one in which the love of the Lord began to rule as His spirit very powerfully, but your old, bad flesh has been changed by the Lord so that it does not press your soul.

12 You would merely have to be firmly determined to apostatize from the Lord, then your flesh would become brutish as was once that of Esau, who against his father's will took more pleasure in hunting for wild animals than in the tending of his father's tame herds. But also such brutalization is with you impossible because your soul is already too mightily and all over penetrated by the Spirit of God's love.

13 Within a short time your love for the Lord will through the exercise of neighborly love change into the concentrated essence and form and become fully united with the soul. Then you will be reborn in spirit and in truth and enter into the spiritual marriage with the primal love in God and thereby also become united with it.

14 Thereby God's love for you will also become substantial and take form, and you will then always be able to behold God and speak to Him. And the Lord, as He is now physically visible and perceptible to your heart, will be and remain forever your guide and teacher. And it will indeed be no longer possible for you to turn away from the Lord in your heart and cognition, for you will then, as a true son of the eternal Father, in your volition and cognition be completely at one with Him. - Do you understand that?"

15 Says Mathael: "Yes, indeed I do understand it and my mind is at rest about everything."

- Chapter 233 -

The meteor

1 But while Mathael wanted to say something more, a big and very bright meteor flew quite low and caused its own very audible whistling in the air through the fast flight; for it was only about eight hundred fathoms away. Behind the meteor a long tail was visible which seemingly followed the flying meteor. All three were alarmed at the sight and asked in the greatest hurry the angel what that had been.

2 But the angel, instead of giving the three an answer and explanation straight away, dashed after the meteor and brought it to the three in a few moments as a somewhat plump ball of two and a half fathoms in diameter, placed it on a free spot and then said to the three, "Well, come here then and observe this phenomenon without fear; no-one of you will have a hair bent or singed!"

3 The three rise and near with great modesty the still brightly shining meteor. Near to it they notice a very strong smell of sulphur, and the whole, significant lump looks like brimstone close-up, and bluish-white flames shoot out of the great pores and cause their own hissing sound and slight whistles and crackling noises. Some little flames are still very bright, but others are already dull.

4 Only now Mathael asks the angel again, "Well, what is this then, how and where was it created? It seems to be quite a firm mass and must have a great weight for our human strength. Go, dear heavenly friend, explain this to us a little!"

5 The angel says: "This lump was still part of the sun half an hour ago. Through a great fiery crater, in which things were raging violently, it was thrown out along with many others with an incomprehensibly large force into the great space. It was directed towards this earth quite by chance. With more than lightning speed it flew through the ether and reached the atmosphere of this earth already behind the continent of Europe, which at the beginning it only stroked the surface of. When it at the next moment however sank deeper and found a great resistance in the constantly denser atmosphere of this earth, its speed of flight was greatly reduced; until it came to this region, it was covering only twenty hours' journey in four moments. When I caught up with it, it was nonetheless almost over all of Asia and would have fallen into the great sea in ten instants; but the Lord wanted you to also receive an explanation and didn't want you to immediately believe that an evil spirit was flying over the earth in order to cause harm to you and your fellow man. Now you have the evil spirit before you and can learn from it that this is a very natural occurrence between the great objects of space."

6 Murel says: "But how did it happen then that it shone so brightly in the air, and here it is becoming duller and duller in its shine?"

7 Raphael says: "The strong light is caused by the abnormally fast flight through the air; it rubs powerfully against the particles of the air and presses them very strongly, because they cannot get out of its way fast enough. But the air, as it is here, catches fire, when it is too strongly pressed or pushed; and because the air on the whole path of such a meteor catches fire immediately, then also at the position of such a meteor it is always bright as lightning. Finally, as behind the fast flying meteor a vacuum is created, whose walls are still fiery excited, one sees behind the meteor also always a decreasingly glowing tail which in itself is only an apparition and no reality.

8 Just feel this mass, how glowing hot it is still, and you will convince yourself very easily and completely what I have just explained to you! I can give you another proof in quite a natural way, because such an experiment is possible for me. I will take one of these stones and throw it through the air with lightning speed. The spirits that serve me will bring it back here again after a few moments. Then you will see for yourself how this only several pounds heavy stone immediately will glow just as bright as this meteor shone before."

9 Here Raphael threw the stone with the most terrible force into the air and the spirits at his service drove it for a few moments with more than lightning speed in a circle only a few fathoms high in the air. Besides a strongly whistling noise the stone shone so bright that the whole area round about was lit up as on the brightest day and the three actually saw only a circle shining as bright as the sun because the motion of the stone was too fast for a human eye to perceive its progress.

10 After a few moments the stone, still glowing extremely, was laid on the ground again by the serving spirits quite peacefully before the three amazed observers, and Raphael said:There you have the fast and very easily performed experiment before you now; do you find a difference between the artificial and that natural meteor?"

11 Mathael says: "No, quite the same occurrence; only the volume was of course different! But a question nonetheless rises in me, and that consists of this: that it is certainly possible for you, who already had given us some tests of your indescribable skill and power, to throw a stone with the most unbelievable force and speed so that the air also begins to burn by the enormous speed of the stone and the stone itself must soon start to glow - you are in addition one of the most powerful angelic spirits, who could play with whole worlds as we play with hazelnuts and even throw a sun in one moment in such a depth of the endless creation that a bolt of lightning would have to travel for a hundred thousand times a hundred thousand years in order to reach it! For such an experiment you have certainly been given the strength and power by God that is incomprehensible for us; but how can the sun as a simple natural body develop such a power out of itself?"

- Chapter 234 -

The nature of matter.

1 Raphael says: "Oh, do you think that there are no ministering spirits in the sun? I tell you and also you two others: neither in the sun, nor on this earth does anything happen without a ministering spirit; for everything that you see and touch is basically all spirit. The crudest matter even is spirit, soul - but only in judgment. If you insult the spirits that rest in the deepest judgment too much through flight, push and pressure, they will soon let their strength and power be felt!

2 Look, the air is certainly something very soft and very tender; but if it is brought out of its balance by a too powerful push or pressure and disturbed too much in its rest, it rips the thickest and strongest tree trunks out at the roots, makes the earth quake, lights a thousand bolts of lightning and becomes the most fearful element!

3 But who rages so fiercely through the air then? The spirits and souls under judgment resting in it and actually composing it!

4 If you beat with two stones very heftily against one another, the spirits trapped in them will soon let themselves be seen and the whole mass of stone, no matter how hard it may be, will be destroyed into the tiniest little pieces of dust, at which opportunity there will be no lack of fiery appearances!

5 Take water and set it under the greatest possible pressure! First you will produce a lump of ice, which will destroy the strongest container holding it; you could put the ice under even greater pressure and it will suddenly dissolve in fiery steam and destroy with the most terrible noise and crackling everything trying to contain it!

6 As long as the spirits and nature souls confined in the appearance of the matter are not offended, they rest peacefully as if dead and let much be made out of them; but once they are woken out of their ordered rest too much, woe betide those who are nearby!

7 It is quite easy to recognize the presence of spirits in matter. Whenever they are coerced into an extraordinary activity, you will observe a glow which varies with the strength and intensity of their spiritual activity. The stronger the glow, the more forcible is the activity of the spirits aroused in a certain matter.

8 The sun's fiercest light, therefore, is proof of how active the sun's air spirits are, particularly on its surface.

9 From the intensity of the sun's light you can form a vague idea of the violence with which such a lump is ejected by the sun during its great eruptions, when the spirits of its matter are aroused to the greatest agitation and activity.

10 Yes, I assure you: In the womb of the great sun there are not seldom eruptions that manifest a force which would play around with lumps the size of this earth just as easily as on this earth the wind plays with chaff. And, thus, you will find it all the more comprehensible how and with what ease this lump out of the sun came down to this earth."

11 Murel says: "But if undoubtedly so, then this lump is in the end of immeasurable worth and one should bring it to a museum as something extraordinary for eternal memory!"

12 Raphael says: "Then you would have to put the whole earth in a museum; for the whole earth is just as much from there as this lump is!"

13 Murel says: "If that is so, what is then to be considered of the story of creation by Moses?"

14 Raphael says: "In this respect you should turn to friend Mathael! He knows this topic in and out; Philopold also has very significant knowledge of this!"

- Chapter 235 -

The meaning of the Mosaic history of creation. Mathael's supernatural experience.

1 Now Murel asks Mathael the same, and he says: "What Moses says about the creation has actually nothing to do with the creation of the world, but instead only with the formation of man from the cradle until his perfection; thus also the foundation of the church of God on earth up to these times and henceforth up to the end of the world, is hinted at.

2 By 'heaven and earth' we are to understand the new earthly human right from his birth onwards. The 'heaven' describes his inner, hidden, spiritual capabilities, and the empty and void 'earth' describes the newly-created man, who is hardly aware of his own existence - the first stage of a human.

3 With time the child reaches self-awareness and begins to dream and to think. That is the 'Let there be light' in the human, so that he knows that he exists - the second stage.

4 And so it goes through all the other days of creation until the rest of the completion of man! Tell me whether you are beginning to understand any of that!"

5 Murel says quite amazed about the biblical wisdom of Mathael, "No, high friend, this wisdom I would never have sought! Ah, in this way that I now recognize to be the only correct one, I would like to have the whole Scriptures explained to me! Yes, there is a lot there until the human soul has reached this depth of wisdom! But how did you get to it all?"

6 Mathael says: "My friend Murel, there is no question of that any longer in this spot where we are now! The Lord among us - here an angel from heaven who was a sure witness of all material creation! I myself was already a scribe from my youth in the temple, from which reason I was sent as an apostle to the Samaritans; but before I could yet speak a word with the Samaritans, Jehovah thwarted my plans: I ended up among terrible bandits and had to become a terrible bandit myself in order to survive.

7 But since I saw myself as left alone so powerfully by God, without being able to find a reason for it myself, it annoyed me very much. I became an unbeliever in the beginning, all the Scriptures became for me the work of man; but I was soon taught otherwise through a strange occurrence.

8 A man full of bitter seriousness came to me one night as I kept watch alone before the horrid den of thieves. I instantly went through him with my sword. But he said: make no effort with your pitiful weapon; for no mortal's weapon ever kills an immortal spirit! I am the spirit of Abraham and I ask you why you want to leave God and persecute His name!

9 I, Mathael, said then, full of anger: Why did God persecute me first, since I was sent in His name to the Samaritans in order to win them all for the temple!? My intention was honest and fair before God and before all men, because it was honest and fair in my thoughts. God has since the beginning of my existence given me only my conscience as judge, and I lived justly before this inner strict judge. I myself did not send myself to the Samaritans, but instead the high priest as the representative of Aaron and Moses.

10 Was it unjust that I was sent to the Samaritans, then God's wisdom would not have needed to chastise me, but only he who sent me; but since they seized me, the innocent one, I am from this moment on an enemy of Jehovah, whose apostle you seem to be to me!

11 Then the spirit spoke, looking even more bitter: Do you know the power and anger of God? How will you, powerless worm of the dust, defy the all-powerful God?! Can His power then not seize you and destroy you in a pitiful way as if you had never been there?!

12 I said:It can certainly do that; for I can only eternally curse such an existence as I now have! If I no longer exist then my just anger and fierceness against it has an eternal end!

13 The bitter, serious spirit said however: You cannot order God to destroy you! He can torture you, eternally, with the most terrible pain and anguish, and it would then be seen how long you would offer defiance to the all-mighty power of God!

14 Then I said full of glowing anger: God can do that if it gives Him a particular pleasure to torture a creature simply in order to show it His omnipotence! But I swear to you, you bitter serious spirit, that God will eternally never bend my mind with all the tortures He can think up, even a thousand times more powerful than He is!

15 With goodness, tenderness and provable justice He can do everything with me, He can make me a lamb of lambs; but with His anger to a devil of devils! Until now the omnipotence of God has only given me a tormented life, for which I will never thank Him; perhaps it will occur to Him to be more merciful to me and to make good to me what He broke in me in an almighty caprice, and then I will also be thankful! But, as things now stand, I am Jehovah's most decided enemy! For in His name I moved from Jerusalem to Samaria very seriously in order to announce His honor and praise there; but for that He let me be seized and overwhelmed by devils!

16 It may well be that my sending there was not pleasant and pleasing to Him! But when He could show the false prophet Bileam through his donkey, why not me and my companions through this donkey of ours, which carried us and all our baggage?! Why did He deliver us to the devils in their claws?!

17 Give me an answer, or out of my mouth a curse will hit you, the like of which has never been spoken over the face of this earth! Then the spirit disappeared and I fell to the earth unconscious!"

- Chapter 236 -

The incomprehensibility of stern guidance. Communion with the Lord in the heart.

1 (Mathael:) "From this point in time onwards I lost the clear self-awareness, and as much as I can remember now, my body was taken into the active possession of the most evil spirits, and I became a terror to the whole area! My flesh was not pierced by any lance or spear, and the thickest shackles fled from my hands like chaff! The fight with one or a thousand people was all the same to me; those who took hold of me were very evilly dealt with and many were killed! Yet my soul knew nothing of this.

2 Due to God's will we five were recently captured by the Romans and brought here the day before yesterday. Here the Lord freed us from our great torment. My soul became the only fully intelligent inhabitant of my flesh again, and Moses was in it as before. But the Lord enlightened all the wrong paths that my heart had taken - and listen! - I only now understood Moses and the prophets!

3 If Abraham's spirit now came to me, I would certainly speak quite a different language with him than about five years ago! I cannot give you the exact time but certainly several years have passed. Now you know how I came to understand the Scriptures!

4 It is true that I wish no-one to take my path in order to understand Moses, because there is now an easier one; but because you, Murel, have asked me how I came to understand the books of Moses, so I had to show you my sad way, and you can now imagine the rest yourself quite easily!

5 The other and infinitely easier one is now the mercy of the Lord which can give you in a few moments, what I have achieved on the thorniest path.

6 But here stands the angel of the Lord, ask him, and he will show you how very truly I have now disclosed to you the fate of myself and my four companions! What do you say now to all that?"

7 Murel says: "Oh, friend Mathael, you have borne a terrible amount and had a courage which is to be sought in the world! You were a devil, it is true, and yet your heart was not ruined, since it demanded truth, justice and love, and because it demanded that, it received also what it had demanded; for the Lord does not let any decent heart be destroyed!

8 But why did the Lord take you to task so harshly?! For I cannot imagine then at all that the one and only reason for such a rebuke was due to being sent to Samaria to convert the Samaritans to the Jewish faith! Something else must have been behind it all!"

9 Mathael says: "Certainly, but I know nothing about it even today, and honestly speaking - I didn't have any desire about it; but now I would really like to have a little light about it! Our Raphael could certainly shed light on it for us if he was in a good mood!?"

10 Raphael says: "It never depends on me or my mood, but instead only on the will of the Lord; for my existence is nothing but the pure will of the Lord! Turn to the Lord in your heart and your request will certainly be fulfilled!"

11 Mathael says: "That would all be fine if the Lord was not sleeping; but He is now asleep, and it would certainly be very inappropriate to wake Him for this!"

12 Raphael says: "You too are still a little weak! His body truly sleeps now a little; but His soul and His eternal holy spirit never rest! What would happen to the whole of creation if the Lord forgot about it for even one moment?! It would be the end of everything in a split second. No sun, no moon, no star in all the whole eternal infinity and no earth that bears you would exist any longer, nor any angel or man would be able to maintain themselves on their own!

13 Everything that is, is permanently maintained by the all-powerful, eternally same and unchanging will of the Lord, without which no existence is imaginable.

14 If things are so and cannot possibly be otherwise, how can it occur to you to think that He could ever sleep and thereby in sleep not be conscious, which the infinite creation needs in every moment of its being.

15 The Lord knows most exactly what you are now thinking and what you want. Since I know it, the Lord must have known it long before, because otherwise I could not possibly know it! For everything that we angels know and realize, we know and realize only through the Lord. But now I know about all your tests and hard trials; who other but the Lord alone could reveal it to me? Not you, or the mouth and mind of another spirit, because I could not hear such things without the mind and will of the Lord!

16 But as I now understand, realize and know everything alone through the Lord, so can you also - but certainly only in as far as you are capable of it in your heart!

17 Therefore ask the Lord in your heart, and we will see whether an answer is laid in your heart!"

- Chapter 237 -

Reasons for the difficult guidance of Mathael.

1 Here Mathael placed the aforementioned question in his heart on Me, and I immediately laid the following answer quite openly in his heart, which he immediately spoke loudly to the three: "The Lord was with the Samaritans who had separated themselves from the poisoned teachings of Jerusalem and had turned back to the pure teachings of Moses and Aaron. You, Mathael, however, were a well-experienced, powerful speaker and had an unbending sense in what you had heard. The Lord knew it and saw that you would have caused Him great damage among the pure, believing Samaritans if you had come into didactic contact with them. Therefore the Lord let you and your companions come among the most infamous highwaymen, knowing well that you would not get free of them before your stiff sense had been made quite soft and bendable. As long as you were a fellow robber in full consciousness among the other robbers, your sense did not want to bend at all, on the contrary you had created a very crafty plan and have brought the about fifty robbers along with their wives and children to a point where they developed sympathy for the basically false doctrine of Jerusalem, because they found in it even assurance and a sure asylum for their thievery.

2 When you had come so far with them as to attack Samaria the next day as the leader of fifty-five apostles (including yourself) for the well-being of Jerusalem and yourselves and to carry out the teaching of Jerusalem with the most merciless strictness and to make every opponent face the sharpness of your sword, then the Lord allowed you to be admonished by the old spirit of Abraham.

3 But since this appearance also could not change your mind, only then did the Lord allow your soul to be hidden in the flesh, but for this your body was taken captive by many devils. Since then you terrorized the area along with your companions!

4 Even your fifty robber apostles fled from the area and became decent people, and because they saw very well what terrible things had happened to you and your four companions - because of the vicious conversion plan of the Samaritans - they also gave up every intention to convert the Samaritans for Jerusalem.

5 And so the Lord had made a very effective and healing blow through your highly disordered calculation and let you remain shackled in the courts of hell until a guidable sense had taken hold in your soul.

6 But the Lord also knew where your soul came from, and how and why it was so rigid, and therefore He let such bitterest things happen to it, because it could never have been corrected in any other way.

7 In a far distance there is another earth (world) among the planets that circle this sun, which until now hardly any astronomer's eye has seen. On this earth there are very hard-headed people who cannot be distracted from a plan or intention that they have once made until it is realized. Even some of there souls are placed on this earth in the flesh for the achievement of the childhood of God and they keep very much of their stubbornness of thought.

8 But you are in a certain way such a foreigner on this earth, as according to your soul you come from that world and were therefore so strong-minded and unyielding in your intentions.

9 In order to make your soul flexible and to form your other-worldly nature of your soul so that it was receptive to the correct and freest truth from God, in order to be able to enter the divine love and through it into the fully true childhood of God, this way was the only true and effective one.

10 You had to obtain a certain maturity in the hell of spirits and souls of this world, just like the souls of the children of this world, you had to go through the narrowest gate in order to be able to rise to the higher region of life as an ennobled lifeblood. You now stand as such before God, the Lord of all life."

- Chapter 238 -

The inner Word. The reason for the incarnation of the Lord

1 When Mathael had spoken the answer that had been laid in his heart before the three, he himself was amazed at such truth in himself and the inner speech that had never been felt so clearly before.

2 But Raphael said to Mathael: "Do you now see how awake the Lord is, even if He now sleeps in the body, and how you now heard the speech of the Lord clearly and distinctly in your heart and then spoke them out loud with your fleshly mouth!? You see, in this same way we also hear the Lord's word and will alive and actively in us, and in such a way that we are then also entirely His word and His will! But if we are that, we are also as His word and His will the completed deed itself, therefore word, will and deed all in one! Do you understand that, friend Mathael, now purely and clearly?"

3 Says Mathael: "Although one is aware inside of a certain reassuring belief and imagines one can now easily understand everything, immediately something else crops up of which one has never dreamed before. I can see from all this that there is such an immeasurable abundance and depth in divine wisdom that no spirit will ever be able to grasp it fully. We will therefore always have an abundance of new things to learn and understand! And that is quite good.

4 Truly, I would not at all be pleased if I knew everything now as clearly as the Lord Himself. If in the whole of infinity there were to be nothing unknown to me, I should soon become bored with life. Yet there is such an endless number of densely veiled things with which we could never finish in eternity, and I must now frankly admit that I would not regard God's bliss as enviable if we, as His created beings and children, would see everything as clearly as He Himself, and His eternal and infinite total wisdom must turn into the most horrible boredom if He had to use it merely for Himself.

5 But He filled the endless space therefore with countless works which correspond to His endless wisdom and power, and created thinking beings also endowed with much wisdom. These, constantly moved by such a depth of wisdom and power from God, investigate and wonder at the same time the divine depth of wisdom and power of the Creator, and at every revelation they are brought to further amazement and worship and to the most intensive love!

6 Well, this alone must be for God the real bliss. For Him, as the Creator and Father of angels, worlds, men and children, this alone must be the greatest delight, namely, to give ever more bliss to all those who more and more recognize and love Him and His words!

7 In order to prepare an all the greater holiness for us people of the earth, for you angels of all heaven and for all creatures of the whole infinity, He came Himself as a person to this earth in order to reveal Himself as a person Himself with flesh and blood like a human to the others. Friend, being or angel of eternity, or person as I am, the Lord does not do it just for our sake, but for His sake as well; for over time He would be bored to death if in His omniscience then had to acknowledge that He as an extremely formless, eternal, if also most complete intelligence could never be seen by His created beings and even less spoken to and thus would have to remain unrecognized!

8 Would it not be utterly sad for an earthly father who had for instance twenty very lovely children, but all blind and deaf, to whom the most loving father could never speak a word and show himself as a man? Just imagine such a relationship: An exceedingly well-to-do father with twenty children of both sexes and of a very handsome appearance, but all deaf and blind. Question: Would not such a father spend enormous sums so that his otherwise lovable children might become able to hear and see? How sad will he be when he finds out that there is no remedy in the whole world to give hearing and sight to his children!

9 Well, we humans are seeing and hearing for one another, it is true, and have great pleasure in one another - sometimes even more than is necessary - so that we even can forget the creator; but the holy good Creator, the very wisest Father, would have to do without this holiest pleasure forevermore to be ever recognized, heard and seen by His children! That would not suit at all an eternal Father full of the highest and purest love for His children!

10 In Him is certainly the greater longing to see us, His children, in the state that makes us capable according to His order to see Him, to love Him personally, and to confide in Him without fear for our existence - than to see in us His children who have no understanding of the primal essence of the eternal Father.

11 Therefore, my claim is not too far-fetched when I say: the Lord has not only for our sake, but also for His own, put on flesh and blood and thus come down to this earth to us, His certainly still very uncouth children. He had been planning for eternities what He would do; yet we are now witnessing the realization of the eternally great plan. - Tell me, Raphael, whether I have judged rightly or wrongly!"

- Chapter 239 -

The thought of God's boredom

1 Raphael says: "Not you, friend, made this judgment, the Lord Himself laid this judgment in your heart, and therefore it must be right!"

2 Says also Murel: "Everything that is heard here is wholly unlike this world. And yet, pure human reason cannot object to it. Our boredom if we should suddenly become wise and omniscient like God and, on the other hand, God's boredom in the after all imaginable situation, where He would never be perceived, felt, heard and seen by His created beings, children and even angels. These truly are two opinions and possibilities every deep thinker must necessarily respect. Certainly, no templar has ever dreamt of it; yet it is true. No matter how I now think and reason, I cannot find any objection to it, although the expression 'God's boredom' sounds somewhat peculiar. But no matter how I look at it, it remains true, and very true at that. I just remember another very fitting example for this new truth which I have to tell you!"

3 Says Mathael: "Brother, out with it at once! For we can only expect something real, good and for this matter useful to come from a mind enriched by so many experiences!"

4 Says hereupon Murel: "Not actually because of that, but so that you should see how I have understood all this. I imagine a man endowed with all wisdom and all alone on God's earth. He would certainly try to communicate with other people, provided they were there. He searches all over the earth to its remotest corners, without finding a living and thinking being. His great wisdom becomes a burden to him, for whatever he does and creates is recognized and admired by no one. How would such a man feel after a greater length of time? Must he not despair? Would not the most horrible boredom consume him?

5 How indescribably good he must feel to come, finally, upon an ever so humble maid or a coarsest servant. With what indescribable love would he cling to such a find.

6 Oh, there it becomes obvious what one man means to another and what bliss there is in doing good to the neighbor.

7 What a terrible fate would it be for a lonely man not to be able to find another man on the whole earth to whom he could do good! For that reason love is a purely heavenly life element because it must make men utterly unhappy not to be able to actively communicate with others!

8 What benefit would the moving tone of his voice have for a singer, what the use sound of a well-tuned harp if he had forever to listen to it alone?! When a lone bird in the woods hops from tree to tree, through certain plaintive sounds searching for his like but not finding it, it becomes frightened and soon stops singing, becomes sad and soon leaves the forest which to it is deserted and empty.

9 Even the animal has enough love to evidently long for its like, how much more, then, a human being endowed with deep feeling, mind and reasoning power! What good would be to him all the great capabilities and talents if he could thereby benefit only himself?

10 Following my observation I can quite reasonably assume - that is, according to our human concepts - that the Lord God would certainly in the end become terribly bored, although he had the whole of infinity full of wondrous worlds without, however, a being which recognized and loved the One Who created it out of His love, and had a great delight in the countless wondrous works of His wisdom, power and strength. But in order to be recognized and loved, the Creator must come to meet the created being, and the Father the child, and reveal Himself to it in such a manner as to make it possible for the created being, and especially for the child, to recognize the Father as such.

11 If this condition is not met, God has created angels and human beings and everything that exists in vain. He would forever remain alone and His ever so beautiful creatures would know as much of Him as the grass knows of the one who cuts it and dries it into hay.

12 Yet God has always in the most suitable ways clearly revealed Himself to His created beings who, endowed with all reason and intelligence, are striving for the true freedom of life, and has prepared them for this His coming. With this coming all that was promised has been fulfilled: The beings behold Him in the flesh and blood just as themselves; He walks among them like a man and as Father of eternity teaches them to recognize their great and eternal destiny.

13 In this way everything is now in the best order, and it now depends solely on us people to apply the recommended measures painstakingly so that the great twofold goal is reached, namely: The child has recognized its eternal, true Father, looks at Him exalted with loving eyes and is delighted in Him beyond measure; and the Father also is delighted beyond measure because He is no longer alone but in the brightest light among His children who recognize and praise Him, love Him above all and again and again marvel at His wondrous works which they highly admire, praising His infinite power and wisdom. And that must mean, for both the creator and the created being, an abundance of bliss. And that must then be filled with bliss for the creator and for the creation! Have I judged that wrongly or correctly?"

- Chapter 240 -

Raphael's question regarding the mission

1 Raphael says: "Quite perfectly, so it is and not otherwise! But you did not create that out of your flesh and blood, but instead out of the spirit of the word of the Lord. But it is enough that you now know such a thing! But what you now know in this sphere, keep with you! For in order to understand that, it takes souls like yours; for the others it is enough that they recognize God and love Him as Father above all else. But if you ever find truly great souls, however, you can then announce what we have just been talking about for the last two hours. But now, dear friends, something else!

2 You will often have the opportunity on your ways and paths as workers at the kingdom of God that your disciples will ask you urgently and say: Your teaching is truly very eminent, beautiful and touching; but the prophecy that you made to us has still not come into any fulfillment. We should hear the voice of the Father in us, yes, it was even prophesied that we would see and speak to the Father; but we have so far not experienced any of that. If your teaching contains the truth, then your prophecies that you made to us must also be true. We observe everything, and still we feel nothing of the fulfillment of a prophecy made to us! Give us reason and answer, and tell us faithfully and openly why your prophecies to us do not and never want to come true! What will you say to them in this case?"

3 Here all three raise their eyebrows and Murel says: "Friend, if we make prophesies at the most faithful word of the Lord and our disciples follow the teaching in deeds, the Lord may then naturally not leave us in the lurch, because otherwise it would obviously be cleverer not to publicize the teaching than to incite the people against it!

4 And I would even like to make the honest claim here that similar divine neglect was always a very significant reason for the fall of religions! For the prophesies made were for some hidden reason either not fully and very often not at all put into fulfillment for the believers. Now the teachers had to seize artificial means in order to not be mistreated by the nation! That soon turned the nation's sense towards the outside and there was then no longer anything spiritual that could be done with a nation that had once been deceived.

5 The Lord should no longer do that to all His people who spread His teaching; He should no longer leave them in the lurch and particularly in moments when His prophesies have established as certainly true as the main proof of the truth and divinity; for I at least would rather be a meanest sweeper than a viciously tortured Jeremiah! And it would be nothing for the existence if one could be of use to someone; but there can eternally be no talk of any use, if one only becomes a nuisance to humanity!"

6 Raphael says: "But, dear friend, you are getting away from what I actually asked you in your enthusiasm! The Lord will always and forever do what He promised for His people; but it only depends on whether you know the exact conditions according to which the Lord lets the prophesies be fulfilled!

7 For it can often depend on a detail with a person, for whose sake a prophesy, once made, does not come into fulfillment; then you must know exactly as true teachers what the disciple is lacking, for which reason he cannot become a master. And look, that pertains to the question I asked you before!"

- Chapter 241 -

God's kingdom in the human heart

1 (Raphael:) "But since I see that you cannot answer the question that I gave you in any case, I will then answer it myself in a way that is comprehensible for your awakened understanding. But you must remember well my answer and write it deeply in your hearts, for much lies on it, yes, finally everything, so that you know the circumstances most accurately which are necessary for the full childhood of God because it must be necessary for the unchanging divine order.

2 You know that every person must form and transform himself according to the recognized divine order, quite independently from the omnipotence of the divine will in order to become in this way a free child of God.

3 The recommended powerful and thereby most effective means for this is love for God and to the same degree the love for your neighbor, be he a man or a woman, young or old, it's all the same.

4 As a partner of love stands true humility, tenderness and patience, because the true love cannot exist without these three attributes and is no true and pure love.

5 But how can man experience in himself that he resides in the pure love quite faithfully according to the divine order?

6 Let man put himself to the test whether he is urged in his heart to give with a glad heart and abundantly, completely forgetting himself, when seeing a poor brother or a poor sister or when these come to him for help. If he feels this within but, of course, in earnest and in full truth, he is already mature and ready to be a true child of God, and the made promises awaiting such a prepared child of God begin to become a reality and show up wonderfully in word and deed, and you will thereby as teachers appear justified before your disciples.

7 But those disciples for whom the prophesy will not come true will direct themselves accordingly and have only themselves to blame if the prophesies made to them still do not come into sight; for they have not yet opened their heart enough to the poor fellow man.

8 The love for God and the willing following of His recognized will are the proper element of the heavens in a human heart. They are the chambers and rooms of divine spirit in every human heart; the love for one's neighbor however is the door into this holy room.

9 This door must be opened so that the fullness of God's life can move into such a room, and humility, tenderness and patience are the three wide opened windows through which the holy chamber of God in a human heart is illuminated most brightly by the most powerful light from heaven and warmed with all the fullness of life from heaven.

10 Everything therefore depends on the free and cheerfully generous love for a neighbor; the highest possible self-denial is the revelation of the prophesy itself. There you now have the correct answer to the most important question of life. Think about it and act accordingly, and you will be justified before one another, before your brothers and before God! For what the Lord does now himself, people will also have to do this in order to become similar to Him and in this way His children. Have you understood all this?"

- Chapter 242 -

True spiritual life

1 When Raphael had finished his speech through Me, the three were massively amazed, and Mathael said: "We understood these truly vivid holy words well and also for the first time completely what David wanted to say when he spoke in his divine Psalms: 'Lift up your heads, oh gates, and be lifted up, oh ancient doors, that the king of glory may come in!' But the living fulfillment! Oh, where is this written then?! What is needed in order to carry that out in life!?

2 One certainly gives a poor man something and one is then not sorry for the small change which one had given to a needy person; but reason rather than any feeling of love for one's neighbor drove this action! Oh God, how far is the person from the goal through his reason and through his cold judgment devoid of all love! Whoever gives something to a poor man with true love for a brother and neighbor and then also has a correct humble joy in having done one's best for the brothers and sisters in the name of Jehovah, and constantly has the desire in himself to do even more good and to make all his poor brothers and sisters as happy as possible through all friendliness, advice, word and friendly deed, yes, how immeasurably high stands the soul and spirit of such a person before the Lord God! But where do we still stand with our hard hearts and small gifts of reason?!

3 Oh friend from heaven! You have cleared things up for us with your question and answer! Now we know very clearly where we stand and what we are! Lord! Awake our hearts and light them in the true and living love for our neighbor, otherwise Your whole purely divine teaching of life is nothing but a vain, moral, aesthetic game of words without power or effect!

4 Now I see also my whole way of life until this point in time; it was basically a misguided one, and I could therefore never reach a goal!

5 Only now I begin to recognize the actual true path, and I now know what the prophecies and their fulfillment consists of. I now know what I am lacking and what will be lacking for those who will not see the prophesies fulfilled despite accepting the divine teaching, and how they will be brought to the correct path; but besides I also see that I will still have to do a lot for myself in order to come into the fullest order!

6 Truly we have a great advance in the area of faith, because the Lord Himself is walking among us here, teaching us through word and deed - so the whole of heaven also stands wide open to us, and God's angels are teaching us the wisdom of the heavens and the eternal order of life from God; but the formation of the heart is nonetheless left totally up to us alone! But we will manage it with the help of the Lord!

7 Knowledge is something else and so is feeling. One can achieve knowledge through the driest effort and worldly cleverness through experiences; but there is more to true feeling than just much learning and experience!

8 Much knowledge makes the human heart not feel and not always desire correctly, and the experiences can make us clever in bad ways as well as good; only a correct feeling animates everything and organizes everything and gives peace and blessing. Therefore we should look above all at a person's heart at the initial formation of a person into a true person!

9 If the heart has not been worked over at the beginning, but instead only the reason, the heart will become hard and arrogant soon after the demands of the reason! But once the heart is arrogant, it then takes with difficulty a formation of feeling; then proper tests of fire must come, consisting of all sorts of misery and affliction, and the heart must feel all sorts of pressure so that it will become soft, gentle and feeling like kneaded wax for the affliction and for the misery of crying fellow people!

10 We thank you and through you the Lord for this very most important teaching, through which I only now know very clearly what I will have to do for all the future, for myself as well as for all those who will receive the most magnificent and purest light from God through me."

- Chapter 243 -

On the main obstacles to fulfillment of the promises

1 Raphael says: "I deserve neither thanks nor honour, but only the Lord!

2 But it is good that you have understood that in the true depth of life! You will be able to meet anyone at any time with these means who will come to you and say: Friend, I have well understood and believed what you taught me, but until this moment there has been no sign of the promised effects! What else should I do? I have left my good old religion of my father in which I often found all comfort, the best advice and the necessary help in all sorts of afflictions, and this new religion leaves me along with my neighbor as orphans; no plea is ever heard and no dubious doubt is illuminated! Where then is your magnificent God about whom you promised all happiness and other wonderful things?!

3 But you will then be able to answer him easily: Friend, the religion is not to blame, but your lack of understanding! You have truly accepted the teaching in your reason, and you have also tried to act strictly according to it and were waiting for the fulfillment of the prophecy which would bring you advantages; but you did the good deeds only for the sake of the advantages and not just for the good! You were only active from your reason, but never from your heart! This remained hard and cold like before the conception of the purely divine teaching, thus you achieved neither the deed nor the fulfillment of the prophecy through the dead and blind faith!

4 Wake your heart now! Do everything that you do out of the true reason for life! Love God for His own sake above all and likewise your neighbor!

5 Do good for the sake of good out of the foundation of life and do not ask for the fulfillment of the prophecy based on your faith or your deed whether it will come or not! For the prophecy is a consequence of the fact that you believe actively in your heart, feel and become active out of the most living love. But if you were like a person, as you have thought and acted until now, who ploughed in a dream and sowed and wanted then in woken situation to reap, but found neither field nor sowed fruit.

6 The knowledge of human understanding, faith and action is a vain dream and has no use for life. Man must take everything to his heart in which the life is living; whatever he lays in the heart will bloom and bear the promised fruit.

7 Whoever does not know or does not want to know how to manage his life and is selfish also through his faith and through his thoughts, will never achieve the fulfillment of the promise; for that is the fruit of the activity of the heart!

8 If you will respond to him who asks you about the not yet fulfilled promise in this way, then you will be left in peace and he will beginto desire to become truly active in his heart.

9 If he does this, it will soon begin to be shown with him that the promise of God's teaching is no vain empty promise; if he carries on however to only follow his own reasoning and to act accordingly, then he will only have himself to blame if he never reaches any fulfillment of the prophecy made for the whole of his earthly life - and also on the other side with great difficulty! Tell me whether you understand all this so well out of the base of life!"

10 Finally Philopold says for once: "Oh friend from the heavens! Who could not understand that! Whoever lives only in the heart as you do, and thinks and feels, he understands all the circumstances of life of the heart very easily and clearly; but whoever only lives, thinks and feels in his brain, for him are the circumstances of life as good as nothing. We have now discussed this issue very tangibly clearly, and as I see, it is beginning to dawn in the east and the morning star already stands significantly high. Therefore I believe that we should now move on to something else!"

- Chapter 244 -

The free will of an angel

1 Murel says: "Yes, yes, that would be splendid, good and beautiful if one only knew to what! How would it be then if the dear friend from the heavens told us something about the Morning star? For if we become teachers of the living work of God, we can never know too much about everything possible! For we will have to deal with all sorts of spirits who will ask about all sorts of things. We will not be in a position to give them a satisfactory illumination, so they will flee, mock and despise us; but if we can give them a satisfactory answer about everything, then they will also listen to us in other things and accept our gospel! What would you, Philopold, give someone as an answer if he asked you what the Morning star is?"

2 Philopold says: "Friend! Then I would point out to him that he will experience everything from himself and from his inner perceptions, if he directs his life according to the religion of salvation from heaven; but if he does not do that, then all my explanations would be of no use at all because he could not become convinced of all this. Blind faith is no good for anyone, for one day it is here, the next a stronger faith takes over, and he believes the stronger one by its word, certainly with no more use for his life than the one that he believed as the day before.

3 Man must therefore be led so that he perceives the being of the near and the distant things in himself, becomes aware of it and then looks at them from the living light of such an inner consciousness. If he has managed that which is no impossibility, he then no longer needs our teaching!

4 In my opinion we are doing enough if we show the people the fully correct and clear way in life, everything else will then come of its own accord, as also our heavenly friend has marvelously shown that one only needs to lay the right fruit in a field, and it will bear and ripen then of its own accord. But for us and our strengthening the heavenly messenger can open our eyes just as well for the sight of the Morning star as he once opened the eyes of old Tobias through the gall of a fish; for he seems to me to be the same Raphael that once led the young Tobias!"

5 Mathael says: "But you can also be absolutely right! The names are the same, and so is wisdom, and so our heavenly friend is a true eye doctor and can shed some light on the Morning star if he wants and is allowed to! As everything for him depends very strictly on the will of the Lord; he himself has no will of his own, even if we have a perfectly own and most free will."

6 Raphael now remarks: "You have spoken very well, but my will is not quite as un-free as you understand it! I am also a receptacle and not just a purest beam of divine will. I feel very well what I want, and then what the Lord wants.

7 But I perceive the Lord's will more easily, distinctly and quickly than you people, and I instantly and completely surrender my will to the will of the Lord. Therefore, I can just as well be regarded as a pure emanation of the divine will; but I have nevertheless a wholly free will and could, just like a man, act contrary to the Lord's will. Yet this cannot possibly happen because I possess such a high degree of wisdom so as to be able, as a spontaneous light out of the divine primal light, to recognize only too well the eternal, immutable justice of the divine will as the greatest value of life of all men, angels and worlds. So I quite spontaneously fulfill only the well-recognized divine will, at all times wholly surrendering my own to the divine will.

8 If you, therefore, want me to unveil the Morning star, which is called 'Venus' by the heathens, I can indeed do this out of my will, provided the Lord's will is not opposed to it; but if that should be the case, I would indeed not give you enlightenment. Therefore, what I say I speak of my own cognition and wisdom which can certainly be none other than the divine because I am always penetrated only by the divine will which prompts me to action and speech. If you, therefore, wish to know the Morning star as it is in its nature and reality, I shall do you the favor and show it to you." Say all three: “Do that, loveliest friend from the heavens!"

- Chapter 245 -

On Venus

1 Here Raphael laid his hands on each person on the forehead and breast at the same time, and at the same moment the three found themselves with the eye of their soul on the planet Venus and looked well at its ground, creatures and order, even heard the people there speaking, and that was all in a collection to honor the Great Spirit of all spirits. And what was spoken there was: 'You people of this beautiful earth which the Great Spirit created according to His eye, we have gathered here in order to bring this Great Spirit our praise and our honor! Highly powerful and wise is the Great Spirit however; therefore we can only honor Him in that we show Him in every action towards Him that we are wise in ourselves. The true wisdom however consists in the greatest order possible; the highest degree of this order however is symmetry. If we observe ourselves as the culmination point of all creation! What a balance in the formation of our limbs! How much does one eye resemble the other, one ear the other, one hand the other, one foot the other! Let us look at our figure! Who can say that between us there is not the highest physiological similarity? If there was not a difference in our characters and temperaments, we would not be able to distinguish ourselves from one another!

2 We see from this as from many things that the wisdom of the Great Spirit must have the greatest pleasure in the most perfect symmetry, and so we want to observe the strictest symmetry then in everything that we do and make! No-one should build his house even a hair's width higher than his neighbor, give it no other form and do not set it a hair outside or inside the straightest line; for such a thing would displease the Great Spirit, and He would not bless such a disorderly house.

3 So we notice in all creatures that the round shape is the favorite for the Great Spirit; for the more perfect a creature is, the more it is distinguished by the roundness of its form. Therefore we should also give a rounding to everything that we do; for the Great Spirit has a very particular pleasure therein and must have it, because we, as beings created according to His measure and gifted with His sense, have also the greatest pleasure in rounded things. It is therefore a commandment to round off everything that we make very obediently. Whoever brings into being something angular and even spiky without need and just permission attracts the displeasure and anger of the Great Spirit to himself!

4 Therefore we further see that the beautiful white color, here and there a little reddened, must unmistakably be the very most pleasant color to the Great Spirit, because He gave us such a color as His preferred creatures. So we must particularly observe this color in our clothes above all, and choose and must not let ourselves be led astray to perhaps put any other color on our clothes, for also this would be unpleasant for the Great Spirit!

5 Also we should only make use of the straight line where it is needed, as also the Great Spirit likewise makes use of a straight line only where it is unavoidably necessary! Everywhere else we notice rounded shapes, and it is therefore necessary in order to be similar and perfect to the Great Spirit in all things to strictly observe this measure and this form too.

6 But we know that we can only achieve everything most exactly through the perfected art of counting and skilled measuring. So it is again everyone's strictest duty to strive for this art and knowledge above all; for without this the person would have to appear in just one day a thousand times ugly and despicable to the Great Spirit! For the great spirit sees everything and measures in one moment everything; wherever He meets a neglect in such a pleasing order to Him alone, He withdraws His eye and with it His blessing too, without which we cannot do anything!

7 But if we are in the fullest order in these main issues, then it goes without saying that we must also be in order in our thoughts and desires; for the outer perfect symmetry in all things must necessarily have the innermost of the soul as a consequence, which the Great Spirit sees above all of course.

8 How soon would arrogance and the most pernicious contempt of one man for another creep in, and poverty, misery and destitution; only by the strictest observance of proportion in all things will such arrogance always be kept away from us, and so we all live happily, since no one can imagine that he is more excellent than his neighbor.

9 Where the Great Spirit Himself has ordered imbalance as necessary, it will do us no harm, but instead only good. So we cannot all be all of the same age. It is a mistake, it is true, in the strict order; but it is fully leveled out by the Great Spirit in that the old age, rich in knowledge and experiences, makes youth just as rich as it is itself!

10 And so there are several more similar imbalances in the equality of the commands of the Great Spirit; but they serve us only as our teaching, so that there are also imbalances besides the highest order which however are not blessed because they are allowed, but only because we can recognize the bad in them all the more easily. No one should walk around with torn clothes, but instead patch up the hole immediately with the same cloth, if he cannot get any new clothing!

11 But it has been noticed among many that they, if they have to make a long journey, use a stick or staff to help them. That is something improper and should be avoided! Whoever already uses a stick because of his age, should immediately take two equal sticks, one in each hand for the sake of balance, in order not to appear ugly before the Great Spirit!'

12 It was also remarked that some give their garden a different layout and organize it differently to what is ordered among the beautiful gardens of the very order-loving neighbors. 'The Great Spirit has no pleasure in this, and envy and jealousy could develop between you, which would be something quite terrible before the Great Spirit! Therefore ensure that there is the same order in your gardens and on your fields! If gardens and fields stand so beautifully, the eye of the Great Spirit finds great pleasure in this and the blessing comes with the pleasure.

13 Also observe such an order in your houses, so that if one neighbor enters the house of another it will not seem strange to him there, but instead it will be as homely as his own house! The Great Spirit sees that also with the greatest pleasure; for you are all one family before the Great Spirit and should never estrange yourselves from one another.

14 If then someone came to us from the end of the world, it must then seem to him completely as if he was in his full home and in his own house! Such a thing is well looked upon by the Great Spirit, and His blessing remains not by the wayside.

15 Some have begun to build by the great water strange looking buildings which disfigure the area; but the Great Spirit has no pleasure in that. But what the Great Spirit does not like, we should also take no pleasure in!

16 Look after the tame domestic animals and treat them well; for they are also works of the Great Spirit and are designated to be of use to you. They are living tools for our use and we must therefore keep them in all honor.

17 So no-one should destroy even the smallest little plant without need, for such a thing would be a lack of thanks towards the Great Spirit for which we would not be able to count on any blessing. But the paths should be kept pure and you should never let grass grow on it so that it will not be crushed underfoot and destroyed in its growth! Do everything most exactly and you will never have need among you!

18 Observe my words as the will revealed to me for you of the very wisest and almighty Great Spirit, and act in strict accordance with it, and you will be happy here. And on the other side you will be blessed in that world about which the souls of those who have left us tell us that they are extremely beautiful and magnificent, and in which we often will get to see face to face the great spirit and His light servants.

19 As a conclusion I must still tell you something however which a bright spirit told me a long time ago and again now, and this time much more certainly than the previous time. You see at night the shining great star which is accompanied by a smaller one. The beautiful bright Kapra (this is what the people of Venus call this earth) you know only too well; but you all do not know what Kapra is. I also did not know it previously. But the spirit told it to me and showed me in a dream-like state Kapra as a just as large world and earth as the one that bears us.

20 The small star always accompanying Kapra is likewise an earth, but significantly smaller than Kapra itself. This little earth is very barren and half of it completely void of living beings.

21 But the spirit showed me a person on that great Kapra and said: 'Look, this is the Lord! In Him lives the fullness of the eternal, Great Spirit. From now on this Spirit will be in the most perfect human form accessible to all of His intelligent created beings like one person to another. The people of Kapra however are mostly like His children, and a great, divine power is given to them all when they, these children, fulfill the will of the man of all men; but those who do not fulfill His will remain foolish and weak and are not accepted as His children, but instead they remain animals like the souls of animals until they have made the will of the Great Spirit, which lives in this person, fully their own!'

22 We people should therefore always have a particular respect for the beautiful, bright Kapra! We should also love the Great Spirit who now lives as the most perfect person on that Kapra as a woman here loves a man and as a child loves the father and mother, then we would also become able to see and speak to the Great Spirit one day as a person - which would very much increase our bliss that we expect; yes, the spirit that revealed this to me even said that it will not be impossible for some from our earth to be made equal to the children of Kapra.

23 Since you now have experienced such a thing through your ever truest teacher and leader, then believe it, and in your minds pay attention to that star so that the beams of blessing and of mercy of light may flow richly to us!"

- Chapter 246 -

The benefits of the order of Venus

1 As such a thing was announced to the community on planet Venus by the teacher and leader, the three were awoken again by Raphael. But in the meantime it had become fairly light and only less than an hour was left before sunrise, Mathael wondered greatly about what he had now seen in a highly vivid dream. He recounted the dream, and both Murel and Philopold were even more amazed because they had seen and heard exactly the same thing that Mathael had told about his dream.

2 But Raphael said: “Well, how did you like it on the Morning star?"

3 Mathael says: "Yes, if that was unmistakably the Morning star, which I no longer doubt at all, then I liked it very much, and the people with their teaching and strict observance of symmetry are not at all stupid and must behave morally very high; for in such circumstances a sin is a sheer impossibility! But at such circumstances of life would be unbearably boring for me; eternal monotony and no progress that is life like an amphibian! A snail and a Venus person have obviously one and the same need; whatever goes beyond, affects neither of them. No, friend Raphael, the Morning star shines very beautifully and can be seen from this earth of ours enormously magnificently; but as a world with its people and other creatures I do not like it at all!

4 It is probably true that at such a constitution among the people of that world a war could never break out, since there can be no talk of even a sin; but nonetheless a true sinner on this earth is much more preferable to me than such a Venus person with all his pure decency! Such pure decency can also have no value because besides it no spiritual perfection can take place; for if a person could become of a more perfect spirit, he would have to totally despair at the symmetrical behavior and actions of the whole humanity of the Morning Star, because the inner drive would push him forward but he would have to remain standing on one spot like a tree!

5 A spiritually perfected person on Venus would resemble a tree that could think and desire, but nonetheless with its roots must remain firmly attached to the ground!

6 Tell us, dear friend, do the Venus people have no spirit then, no love, no free will and no desire?! They must be able to think and count because their teacher recommended mathematics above all in the most careful way; but if they can master that, then some spiritual progress must also be conceivable!?"

7 The angel says: "In any case - but they do not want any outwardly appearing progress, but only an inner one; for they say and recognize that an outer visible progress is an obstacle to the inner progress of the spirit. One should make everything external as stereotypical and ordered as possible, organize it according to the needs of the body - but should go no step further, for every advance in the outer and material realm would be a step backwards in the spiritual, inner one.

8 Among people who cultivate the external too much, conscienceless barbarism reigns inside. Equipped with an inner silent spiritual progress, a nation has never enticed any envious neighbor to war; but if a nation has placed its inner size of spirit through easily performable external deeds into daylight, it also immediately awakes the jealousy of the neighboring nation, and war is then on your doorstep! But if that is and can never be the case with these Venus people, are they then worse than the people of this earth?

9 There the human has no external advantage at all, neither in its build nor in its clothing and accommodation; therefore everything there is only valued according to its inner worth. As a consequence of the same external formation all people have exactly the same build which is made even more similar through the always similar clothing than it basically is.

10 People who are not consumed by all sorts of passions will externally look very similar, like a brother and sister. But the more the so-called external form of a person is different, the more this is a sign of inner absent-mindedness as well, because every inner has organized itself according to the outer endeavor which can never become similar however, because the never satiated greed, envy, jealousy, arrogance, pride, haughtiness and domineering of a person sticks to it.

11 If you are wearing a green coat, your neighbor a blue one and a third a red one, you will soon run into quarrel and strife because of the preference of one or other color; but if all three of you have a coat formed in the same way from one and the same color it will never occur to you in your wildest dreams to begin a silly, meaningless quarrel among one another about the greater or lesser value of the colors and forms, and you will have time to talk about better things and issues.

12 You have seen the full similarity of all the people that you saw and their physiognomy on Venus. One man looked as similar to another as one eye the other, likewise a girl and a woman; everywhere one and the same form, but in itself highly beautiful and perfect. That is also very good.

13 On this earth the difference in forms, according to the extent of the imagined greater or lesser beauty, causes not rarely the reason for quarrel, love, hate, despising or an exaggerated external preference and tendency, but there is no trace of all that on planet Venus. The people love each other only according to the extent of wisdom; the more someone knows how to tell of the goodness, power and wisdom of the Great Spirit, and the gentler and humbler he becomes, the greater the value and the greater the respect he has from his community! Tell me whether that is not also a highly wise organization on behalf of the Lord!"

14 Mathael says: "Of course, and I would like such an order to exist on our earth! But now the Lord is getting up and all the people with Him! Now we should keep our eyes and ears open, for there will surely be something that must soon be done! The nine who drowned?!"