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Explanation VI: More explanations of Scriptures
1st April 1864
Regarding these three comments: the whale of the prophet Jonah; the man without a wedding garment at the feast given by Me, and the fleeing youth at the time of My arrest at the Mount of Olives in the garden of Gethsemane (Jonah 2:1; Matt 22:11; Mark 14:51)
The whale of Jonah
[1] Regarding the 'whale', it is natural-historically as well as spiritually correct; for the one as well as the other should be correct, since without this correctness, or without the natural-historical basis, there could be no spiritual meaning.
[2] To understand the natural part, one has to know that in that time, especially in the Mediterranean Sea, a kind of gigantic fish existed, which was called Leviathan, especially the Egyptians. The old Greeks have, at the time of the well-known writer Herodot, called it by the name “Phalos”. This kind of fish, also mentioned in the book of Job, have vanished shortly after the breaking through of the sea (at Gibraltar) and was driven by the mighty sea currents of the Atlantic Ocean to the south where they perished, like other great mainland animals, in the cold waters.
[3] They had immense mouths, which was connected to a just as big stomach through a wide opening – they had no teeth or tongue, but instead, like the contemporary northern whales, a great number of fins, reaching often the length of two to three fathoms [1 fathom – 1.8288 m) when fully grown. These where very useful to this gigantic fish, like the trunk of an elephant. With these they caught their prey and pushed it unharmed into it's big stomach which contained no water, but it sweated a kind of juice which began to digest the loot within a few days and gradually completely decomposed it. This was a kind of mammal – it's young was live-born. It breathed the same as the northern whale of today and had to get to the surface quite often to not suffocate. This gigantic fish was often surrounded by many huge sharks (which also lived in the Mediterranean before, but at the time of the breaking through of the already known “deucalic” land strip, which then formed the current narrow sea strip at Constantinople and the Dardanelles, came into the Mediterranean Sea. This impressive pike began to hunt down the great Phalos, tore off their fins and other minor extremities like the breasts, the gigantic swimming fins which almost looked like a human hand. These extremities served the sharks very well for food and the Phalos fish took flight more and more and became all the more rare in the Mediterranean Sea. In Johah's time only a few hundred of those were left. Jonah, when he was thrown overboard into a very stormy sea was, with My permission, very fortunate to be swallowed by such a Phalos and spend three days in it's stomach. I further allowed that exactly this Phalos, chased by sharks, took refuge in the shallow Asiatic shore and wanted to rid himself at this time of the food in it's stomach. This was a characteristic of this gigantic fish, that they would crawl onto land when they detect danger, or when they visit their young who was raised in the shallow waters – to feed them either with the live food from the stomach or with breast milk. They did not allow their young to venture to the deep waters before they reached a certain size, might and power. At such an event also our Jonah was vomited out by the Phalos into the shallow coast water. He gathered himself quickly and ran for land, to where neither the Phalos or one of it's four little ones could pursue him. (Jonah 2:1)
[4] I now described for you the natural turn of events as it was at that time, yet is no more for a very long time already.
[5] In the museums of old, especially in Alexandria, there where still remnants of the tips of these ancient gigantic fish, but has been destroyed later on by the Saracens, just like they did the books. A few pieces are still to be found in London and in Paris and is regarded to be ribs of either land- or sea animals, but possibly rather from the marine kingdom, since they were usually found in sandy stretches close to the sea. A main rib of a grown Phalos often reached the length of five to seven fathoms and a weight of up to thirty centenar. This gigantic kind of fish have, as said, just like other big terrestrial animals, became and does not exist any more for already three thousand years. One should definitely not confuse the Phalos with the Leviathan, a certain sea animal, which could occasionally be found in the Atlantic Ocean, especially in the region where there previously existed, before the general deluge, a chain of islands between West Africa and the eastern extremity of Brazil. Even today there are vast sand drifts in that region which is often dangerous for smaller ships. This sea animal is absolutely no fish, but a very impressive sea polyp, developing from the muddy substance of the sand banks in the sea, just like the other polyps. They are attached to the sea bottom for so long that they are being brought to the surface through some kind of sea explosion. They then often look like a small drifting island.
[6] We are now done with the very unbelievable whale in the Mediterranean Sea of the Bible. Everything else about this prophet can be read by anyone in the Bible.
The man without a wedding garment
[1] Now we move over to the person without wedding garment at the feast.
[2] I am of course the host and the food of this feast consists of My message. The people of the backstreets and the fences are those who accepted My message and lived according to it and is therefore wearing a spiritual wedding garment.
[3] The one without wedding garment though, having no wedding garment, is to be understood the Jews and Pharisees, who only used My teaching as a smoke screen – that is, not to improve, but to find Me, to formulate a reasoning from it, to prove Me to be a criminal before God and human authorities to take revenge.
[4] But I, the host, have immediately recognised those spies – in other words, I immediately saw their hypocritical Pharisaism to the rotten inner root and have, at every occasion when they tried to creep into the feast, let them be grabbed quickly and threw them into the darkness of their own hearts.
[5] This picture is mainly aimed at the destruction of Jerusalem and the expulsion of the Jews among all the nations of the earth, where they up till this hour, still have no land of their own, no king of their own and also no home. And everywhere, wherever they live, are being persecuted and despised. These Jews therefore represent all those people who have arrived at My feast, but wore no wedding garment. Secondly: also him whom is by way of speaking thrust into the outer darkness where he finds himself still, is him who tries to pretend at times to be a Christian, for to gain acceptance from the Christians for the sake of material gain.
[6] And just as the Jew lives and acts here, so his soul continues to live and act on the other side; therefore the Jews in the hereafter also look accordingly (namely viewed from the sphere of better spirits, i.e.) like pigs constantly burrowing in the mud of the earth. That is why they also form their own association in the hereafter, in which someone else is not easily admitted, and the testimony that Peter gave them applies to the Jews, which is: The pig always returns to it's puddle in which it has rummaged, and a dog to the food devoured by it in too great haste and spit out again; and according to Paul it is true that a tree that has been felled remains lying as it fell; it is then worked out and either burned or used for something else material.
[7] Like this Jew lives and does, likewise will his soul live and act in the hereafter; that is why they look in the hereafter like swine who continuously wallow in the mud of the earth. They form their own peculiar group in the hereafter where no one else is easily allowed and with the Jews the word applies which says: the swine returns to his mud puddle in which he wallowed; and a dog returns to what he gobbled down too hastily and vomited again. According to Paul the word applies of where the tree is hewn, there it will lay where it fell and it will be processed or burnt, or it will be used for another material purpose.
The youth who fled naked and the demolition of Jerusalem by the Romans
[1] Since we now know how to understand the wedding guest at My table, we will still give attention to the youth who fled when I was taken captive in the garden of Gethsemane.
[2] This incident is mentioned only briefly by the evangelist Mark, but could have been omitted without damage since it has barely any moral value.
[3] But to better understand the reality of this fact, one need to know that in My time, a certain group of young people, who despised the Pharisee guild formed a band and they knew how to faithfully imitate their miracles by means of trickery, making the Pharisees look ridiculous. They gained favour with the Romans, who welcomed this and they enjoyed secret protection from them, to make the Pharisees' hypocrisy and miracle-working ridiculous to the Romans and Greeks.
[4] This youth also belonged to such a club and have heard Me speaking in Jerusalem several times; he kept to My teachings and found a serious liking in My deeds. He did not agree with his colleagues, who also tried in many ways to imitate My miracles. He admonished them for it and stressed it upon them that My teachings and deeds was from a completely different spirit than those of the dumb and blind Pharisees. But his colleagues mocked him for it and often told him: If this Galilean wonder-worker did not enjoy special protection from the Romans, he would have avoided the Temple's wrath just as little as they themselves, if the Romans and Greeks did not protect them. The youth listened and took notice of when I would again come to Jerusalem to see what would happen with Me regarding the Temple's sworn revenge against Me. When I, at the time known to you went to Jerusalem and allowed out of Myself to be betrayed and captured to be handed over to the strict judgement, this youth club was present, even though at a distance. When they realised what was going to happen with Me, some went to get the youth who liked Me where he was asleep nearby. They dragged him closer to show him how their prediction and suspicion regarding Me would come to pass. When the youth, who in haste only grabbed a linen cloth from his bed to wrap around his body, saw what was happening to Me and was under the impression that his colleagues would hand him over to the Jews as well, he wrestled himself from them and ran as fast as he could and hid from his colleagues. He thought that they would persecute him, which they did not do, for the sake of their own welfare and would anyway not easily have done.
[5] There you have the actual, easy to grab reason for this phenomenon which the evangelist mentioned – which in fact does not say anything but this youth, partly out of fear for his colleagues, but mainly out of fear for the blown-up vengefulness of the Pharisees, fled for his own welfare. Later, when he heard the news of My resurrection, he again became a staunch follower of My message, but he did not stay in Jerusalem, but went to the Essenes, to whom he gave first hand witness of what has happened to Me.
[6] Therefore, they sent messengers to Jerusalem who had to gather solid knowledge about what happened to me there. They soon heard the news, since Jerusalem was not far from the half- Arabic region of the present Suez and could be reached with a brisk walk, within three days.
[7] When the Essenes received full confirmation of this, they did not tarry one second to convey the message to the Roman chief Cyrenius in Tyre, in which mission our youth also took part.
Cyrenius received the company well and kept the youth to serve among his servants, whom told the old graybeard much of what he saw and heard of Me himself.
[8] This inflamed Cyrenius and later on also his brother Cornelius with the most bitter wrath against all Jewish priesthood, prompting them both to take an oath to do everything possible to avenge this criminal deed against Me with the most relentless means.
[9] Pilate, the ruler in Jerusalem have therefore soon received the consilium abeundi [advice to leave], could not return to Rome, but had to make his abode in the region of the current Naples in a cave not far from the destroyed Pompeii. Even today one can find a hallway hewn chiselled out in rock, with the title: “Home of Pontius Pilate”. In a rather deep cavity chiselled into the rock and found being built in, was multiple writings regarding Me. Today it is in a library in Naples, but it is barely usable, as it was found in a semi-carbonized state.
[10] This was the first revenge of Cyrenius against Pilate. Then followed Caiaphas, who had to leave the office of high priesthood at a specified time to hand it over to someone else, since a high priest could stay in office for only three years. All of Caiaphas' property around Jerusalem was taken from him within a few years and sold to Romans; he had to find refuge at the border of the Arabian desert and there came to the end of his life in a most miserable way.
[11] The other Pharisees was placed under the strict supervision of a new ruler, who did not spare them. It was the more pleasurable to him, since he was of the already known family of Agricola. He also used this name as his signature, even though his name was Antonius.
[12] This new ruler knew how to put obstacles in the way of Herod Antipas, as is proved by that he, in a short timeframe, lured many Romans and Greeks to Palestine, thereby severely limiting Herods' income, till he was forced to spend his final years in a strong castle at the shore of the Mediterranean Sea, not feeling safe in Jerusalem.
[13] The known chief Pelagius – who ruled over several cities in the Auran mountains – was subject to this landowner. Pelagius supported him with all expedients – and even more so Cornelius, who ruled over the whole of Galilee and a great part of Syria, up to Damascus. The two brothers Cyrenius and Cornelius would have given their revenge even freer reign, if I did not personally appeared to them after My resurrection and kept them from it, since I predicted in great detail to them that their plans for Jerusalem would already be fulfilled within forty years and that through the power of the Romans.
[14] Like with these two Romans, I have appeared to many people after My resurrection and kept them from overly strict vengeful thoughts towards the Jews and Pharisees. If I did not do that, there would have been a bloodbath in this land shortly after My crucifixion, the likes of what humanity has never seen.
[15] This particular youth, though, whom I found at Cyrenius, have I blessed and gave him a part in My Spirit and he was a diligent disciple in My Name, went to the Essenes and spread My message from there over a big part of Northern Africa. He was known for his exceptionally loving way of life and have done many signs in My Name. (Mark 14:51-52)
[16] His peculiarity was that he refused to have a personal name. His title was: “Most unworthy servant of the highest Master-God”. At times he also called himself “Servant of the servants”, the same title the old so-called church fathers who moved from Cartago to Rome, took upon themselves and which was partly used also by the later popes – but they never lived it. Mark knew this very well, but did not mention it, but sufficed with only mentioning the youth as he fled.
[17] What you wanted to know more about this youth, Mark has conveyed orally; hence the various oral traditions about this – namely who this youth was, as was mostly told by the Roman church, was the most foolish relation of them all – trying to make him the apostle John. Now you
know the truth and the most important facts regarding this youth. Be content with everything in My Name. Amen.