NEUOFFENBARUNGDeutscher Text · Volume contents
In the first degree of hell
[1] You say: Best friend, we follow the couple as they go forth before us already for quite a while, still just as blind and silent as this night and look, there still is nothing to be seen of the morning red behind the mountains of which the woman spoke. Where is it then? Would the woman really have lied to her husband? I tell you: Have a bit more patience, then you will see the praise-worthy morning red soon enough. Take notice of our pair, how the wife is becoming ever more joyful, the man, in contrast, becomes more sorrowful and somber.
[2] You ask: Why? The answer is obvious: She is getting closer to the element from where her love originates; therefore, she becomes happier. But with him, the opposite is true. He is getting closer to an element not related to him, he is not drawn by his love, but is dragged along by the love for his wife.
[3] It goes with him almost like the lover in the old tale about the love for the beautiful Sirene. As long as the lover would observe the enchanting Sirene, he was elated. To be embraced by such a beloved seemed to him to be the pinnacle of all happiness. When he did approach his beloved and when she took him into her soft arms, dragging him down in embrace into her element, the initial fantastic enchantment vanished and a great fright and fear of death enveloped him.
[4] Look, this is exactly the case here. The man notices that it is gradually getting darker. Such an increasingly impenetrable night is not his element, but the wife feels more and more satisfied the darker it becomes because the most complete darkness is the element of her love and therefore also of her life. But now you can also hear a muffled noise, almost like that of a great, distant waterfall.
[5] You ask what it means? I tell you: Nothing other than that we have come rather close to the bordering river which we already came to know with our visit to the northern region. Let us go there courageously, then we will reach the riverside quickly. You again ask about the first mentioned morning red behind the mountains, which is still not in sight. Have a bit more patience. When we would have reached the bank of the river, which is already quite close as you can gather from that growing noise, you will probably be able to see the morning red in the distance behind the mountains. Pay attention and watch the ground, for, in just a few steps, we will reach the riverbank.
[6] Stop now; we reached our goal and look, there beside the river, there far away on the background, you can see a very strong, red glow, looking like a distant great fire. Now, pay attention again to our couple's conversation. She says: Well, my dear husband, what do you say, was I right or not? Look at that beautiful morning red and here is the broad river. What shall we do now to get to the shining region? Look, we cannot cross the river, but we can indeed walk along the bank of the river. It becomes increasingly lighter as you can see with your own eyes and in times we shall certainly reach that glowing region.
[7] The man says My dear, appreciated wife, it seems as if something is amiss with this light. Regarding the red glow, it does not seem to have any relationship with true morning red. In my eyes, it does not look like a glow coming from the sun, but much more like that of a burning city behind the mountains. If there is, in fact, a burning city I do doubt, but that something is burning, is certainly beyond suspicion. I, therefore, want to go with you until we get a proper view of the fire, but I will go no further. For one cannot know where it comes from and therefore it is always sensible to stay far away, for one should preferably stay out of the environment he does not know and which is not related to his nature.
[8] She says: No, but now you are speaking utter nonsense! Only now does one see how dumb you really are; but where does this come from? I tell you, only and just because you have taken very little care upon earth to explain the effects of the primordial powers of nature, making you now incapable to explain these phenomena. Secondly, you are here only for a very short time yet and you have had a way too little opportunity to observe such phenomena and to let you be educated about it by the sages of this region. But look, there are two men walking along the riverbank, approaching us. Let us go to meet them; I am convinced that you would have much profit in engaging in a conversation with them. The man says: Yes, dear wife, I've always been a great friend of men in possession of much knowledge. Why would I not be?
[9] But now I tell you: Pay good attention. The man greets the biggest and most imposing one very courteously. He stiffly bows and asks the woman's husband: Who has shown you, night rabble, the way from the darkness to the domain of the light?
[10] The man says: Very respectable friend, I have only arrived here in the deep night a few days ago, but my wife has been here already for about six years. She knew nothing of these light domains; I also knew nothing, but only feel a great yearning towards light, so much so that nothing else remains for me than to let me, being a most inexperienced person, be led here by my more experienced wife. You would therefore not, my respectable friend, regard it as a transgression? If anyone has acted wrongly in this, then it could obviously only have been my wife.
[11] The stranger says: And you dare acknowledge this here is a man? Truly, you do not seem to be something significant, for men who need the leading of their women is in our view on the same level than apes. Then the stranger turns to the woman and says to her: Has it really been you, my most amiable, lovely lady? She says: Oh, respectable friend, I indeed must acknowledge to my shame that he, my otherwise truly loving husband, would probably prefer to moss and dry grass in the thickest darkness out of pure dumb and insignificant love for the to you well-known Jewish philosopher, than to walk the way of the light as it was suggested not only by me but also by the exceptionally wise, to you well-known scholar, who calls himself Melanchthon.
[12] The stranger says: O very estimable, loveable lady, I truly have sincere compassion with you, but on the other hand, I also admire your strength, inherent power with which you are so untiringly busy to bring such an awkward man in the right way. Most loving, most worthy lady, do not blame me if I would, in this shining, increasingly brighter time, jump out of my skin of annoyance about that old Christian-Judean philosophy. Yes, it seems to me even more dumb and stupid than when one would resolve to stay true to terribly old-fashioned dress, while the whole world around him have long ago seen the benefits of the new clothing and have accepted it unconditionally.
[13] Now the stranger turns to the husband, and say to him: Is this indeed true, what your truly wise wife has said about you?
[14] Look, the man is a bit disheveled and does not immediately know what to answer this man who seems very learned to him. He does not want to let go of Christ and it seems not advisable to say something about Him in the presence of this man who seems to be so mighty and learned.
[15] But the learned stranger again turns himself to him and say: Yes, my best friend, if this is so with you, then you get the food without cost. Do you understand me? The man says: No, I do not know what you mean. The stranger says: It does not surprise me anymore. Regarding the ‘without payment’, it was already the custom with the old wise Romans and Greeks that one should always give free food to the crazy and the foolish. Even in this time, men give to men like you the honorable diploma of foolishness without cost, by which you could easily be taken up in a well- provided madhouse. This should not be unknown to you, for, as far as I know, you were indeed on top of management and state affairs. Do you understand what I mean?
[16] The man says: Alas, I must understand it, but I am also at liberty to pose a question to you. Who gives you, with all your erudition, the right to treat me so crassly while I, in fact, approached you with particular courtesy, like on earth an utterly haughty schoolmaster would do to a dumb, miserable student? The stranger says: Listen, best friend, that I have treated you only somewhat gruffly was only a special discernment from my side, which you can assign to your sound wife. I would have treated such a dumb Christian simpleton otherwise differently and such a treatment would probably have eternally bereaved you of your longing after a bright region. But when you shall be open to reason, take your wife’s side and give me the assurance that you repent of your old worldly stupidity which caused you to come into this darkness, then I will bring you into – take note, only because of your wife – the neighborhood of that shining place, to a place of instruction where you, if you are not slow of understanding, come to a better insight.
[17] The man says dumbfounded and humbly: Best, esteemed friend, if this is so, then I ask you to take me there. On earth, I have as a student always belonged among the best and I will certainly not be the worst in your school.
[18] The stranger says: Good, I will accept you, but think to consider that you must leave the school immediately in the case of bad results and be sent back to your original night. But should you be an outstanding student, then your deserved acknowledgment would not be withheld from you. Yet, regarding your old Christian-Judean philosophy, I do recommend beforehand that you would not speak of it much there in the high school, for it will result in you being chased out right away. Such is an adverse sign, for fanatics are not suitable for the study of serious, higher sciences; only sober and controlled thinking can be applied there.
[19] The wife now sinks to her knees before the erudite and thank him anew with the most flattering words for such an exceptional favor. The erudite answers her: Yes, yes, my esteemed, beloved lady, you are one in a thousand, yes millions of inhabitants of this nightly region to which he owes this. Follow me, therefore!
[20] Look, the wife grabs her husband’s arm, go after the erudite and says to him while walking: Well, what do you say now? I indeed realize now that relationships here functions in a much different manner than you would have dreamt of on earth. The man says: Dear wife, this is so, but if these relationships are good and useful, only the future will show. Said among us, this whole debacle still seems rather suspicious to me; but time will tell what will become of this.
[21] In a text of the honorable apostle Paul is written: Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. This I will do also here, but deep in my heart, I do think that there is not much or nothing good to be expected of this strange trial. The increasing intensifying light which seems to me as if one is still approaching a burning city seems to me to be nothing good. But as said, it is all subject to proof. Look a bit further down the river; there, more to the background, it almost seems to become glowing and it seems as if the waves are dissolving in a glowing haze. It seems as if we are approaching a sea of fire which upsets this river.
[22] The wife says: Yes, my dear husband, here is the source where to get to know the working powers in the depths of their being and it indeed gives a bit greater light as when a miserable student on earth must study a Roman writer by poor lamp-light.
[23] Look, here is a boat moored at the riverbank. The boatman says: If you would follow me towards your greatest fortune, step into the boat with which we shall sail downstream to the exalted regions of the light.
[24] The wife steps very quickly into the boat, but the man hesitantly scratches himself behind the ears and do not know what he should do. But not to stay behind alone, and again for the sake of decency, he steps into the boat. The boat gets untied, and we see how it shoots downstream like an arrow from a bow. But now we will also quickly go, for we are as quick as the vehicle and can be even faster if needs be.
[25] We have reached the boat. Look how the water down there is glowing with increasing intensity till there where the river flows into a broad cleft in the mountain. Let us therefore quickly gain advantage till beyond the mountain and wait for our boat at the outflow of the river. Do not be afraid, for also here, we are untouchable; all the horrors you will see there, will not influence us.
[26] Look, we are there already. You are having a great fright because you see the river as a broad, glowing waterfall, thundering down into a deep, endless sea of flames and you ask what it means.
[27] I tell you: this is the first mentioned ‘high school’ where our poor husband would get to know the fundamental working of the primordial powers, or better said: This is the first degree of hell!
[28] Now look at the river again; our boat is just coming closer. The man stands upright, wringing his hands, wanting to jump from the boat, but the wife throws her arms around him, holds onto him and look, the boat with the four of them plunges over the edge, right into the high school!
[29] You ask: do we also need to go down there? I indeed told you beforehand that you need to see the whole progression until the end, otherwise you would only know half of the bondage of such double love of a heart. Do not be afraid of these flames, for it is only but a manifestation of the hellish. At arrival, it will already look much different again. Follow me then without fear.