The Great Gospel of John
Volume 1
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
New events in Kis
- Chapter 240 -
About the true honouring of the Sabbath. Release of the eleven. Distribution of the cave treasures. Return of the children, and compensation of the robbed.
The following day, a Sabbath, Faustus, although a Roman, asked Me whether the Jewish Sabbath is honoured over here and what is to become of the eleven Pharisees.
2
Say I, 'Dearest friend and brother. Every day that is filled with good deeds is a true Sabbath, and on any day on which one has carried out something decidedly good, one has precisely therewith truly celebrated the Sabbath. Wherefore you should do as much good as possible this Sabbath, and it shall truly not be reckoned to you as sin, except by the evil fools of the world who curse even the wind if it blows on a Sabbath, as well as the rain and the flocks of flying birds. Such fools shall never be honoured by us as models, but only serve us as an instance of loathing. For they curse the good and would like to have their evil praised by all the world.
3
Regarding the eleven, let them also go free, after you will have sized all their treasures. Transmit to the emperor what is his, and notify him of any reason for the delay you wish. But give also to the Temple its due, from the Chorazim cave, notifying also the High Priest on how the treasures were discovered by the said eleven Pharisees several years ago but withheld from the Temple, whose property they basically are. Then the Temple itself shall undertake quite a decent investigation of the eleven.
4
Regarding the treasures in Kisjonah's mountains, share out one third to him, one third to yourself in the name of the Emperor, whilst one third shall be handed out to all the poor who came here on account of the things of which they were robbed; after which all the proceedings shall take their end for all time of times. Use the present day.
5
Baram has good ships and in just a few hours you shall be fully done with the cleaning of the Chorazim cave. Let one party attend to the clearing of Kisjonah's cave, and if you move but moderately, you shall have both treasures here by evening, and have them dispatched to their destinations tomorrow.
6
I could of course move the treasures here in a moment through Archiel, but there are too many people here right now, and such miracle would cause too great a sensation. Hence I refrain therefrom, yet secretly help speed up the work to the extent that instead of taking you three days in the normal course of things, it will be finished in one, namely today. But let you not tarry, but to and fro!
7
Take only one Pharisee to where you go and let the others stay here in custody.
8
Pilah shall remain here, for he is already too good for these things, with which children of God should have as little as possible to do. Hence you need not personally attend to the said locations either, for a commissioner, furnished by you with power of attorney, shall suffice. We ourselves meanwhile shall undertake the distribution here of the distraints and the children to their respective parents.'
9
Who would have been happier with these arrangements than Faustus, this being to his threefold advantage: firstly he stays with Me, secondly with his young wife whom he now loves exceedingly and thirdly he has some leisure for sending the Emperor an informative report, as well as accompanying regulatory and legal documents, written upon good parchment; and can have all the moneys and treasures dispatched to their destinations the next day.
10
Once the two commissioners had departed to pick up the aforementioned treasures, we at once set about the distribution of the distraints and the children who had already mostly located their parents during the night. But there were some whose parents were laid up sick at home, from grief and sadness, wherefore they could not come to Kis to pick up their children and other things.
11
These sick parents then requested their neighbors to receive the children and things on their behalf, if these still existed in accordance with the announcement. At the distribution, this too was kept in sight, and everything accurately found its way to its owner, as well as a sum of a hundred pounds, handed to each party by Kisjonah, as directed by Me, for a portion of the one third of the treasure from the cave on Kisjonah's property, after which all the parties, several hundred of them of course, were discharged from Kis, after some good instruction and exhortations from Faustus to all.
12
Kisjonah had all the trading ships readied, and the entire great throng, residents from Chorazim, Capernaum and Nazareth, were transported therewith back to their homes, the distribution together with their transportation home, taking hardly over seven and a half hours.