The Great Gospel of John — Volume I

About the work and this edition

The Great Gospel of John, often referred to as GEJ, is an extensive spiritual work written down by Jakob Lorber in the nineteenth century. At its centre are Jesus, his teachings and his encounters with people. Through conversations and narratives, the work explores questions about God, human life and living by faith.

Lorber understood his writings as words of Jesus Christ received through the “Inner Word”. This personal testimony forms part of the work’s background. GEJ is a work in its own right and should be distinguished from the biblical Gospel of John. It nevertheless draws on that Gospel’s accounts and teachings, developing them through detailed narratives and spiritual explanations.

Readers opening the work for the first time encounter Jesus in conversation with his disciples and with people of different backgrounds and convictions. They ask questions, express doubts, disagree or try to understand what they have heard and what it means for their lives. Many ideas unfold through extended conversations, and their context often becomes clearer over several chapters.

Recurring themes include love of God and neighbour, free will and responsibility, faith and prayer, and a person’s inner development. The work also reflects on creation, the relationship between body, soul and spirit, and life after death. It connects these broad spiritual questions with questions about our own actions: What guides my decisions? How do I treat others? And how does an insight become part of everyday life?

The length of GEJ may seem unfamiliar at first, but there is no need to grasp the whole work at once. Reading in sequence helps us follow the conversations and their connections. It can also be worthwhile to stay with a chapter and return to it later. We invite you to read attentively, allow room for questions and consider what you read in the light of the biblical message.

The Vida en Luz edition

At Vida en Luz, we want to offer a clear way into this work. The arrangement by chapters is intended to make both continuous reading and returning to individual passages easier.

The German edition of 1871 is the primary textual source for our work. The English translation uses the project’s reviewed German text as its bridge to that source. The German editorial preparation also draws on the Lorber-Verlag edition (seventh edition, ©2000) as a comparator, with recorded differences kept in the editorial notes. We aim to make the basis of our work traceable and to treat it with care. Editorial comments remain identifiable and separate from the text of the work.

We also plan an index of subjects and keywords. It is intended to help readers find passages relating to a particular question and discover related ideas elsewhere in the work. Such an index can support reading and offer another way into the text.

Context remains essential. A statement cannot always be understood apart from the question it answers. Each search result should therefore retain access to the complete chapter, so that the surrounding passages can also be read.

A collection that will grow

We are beginning with Volume I and preparing further material gradually. Texts will be added as their preparation and review are completed. The English text prepared so far covers chapters 1.1–1.161; the chapters available to read are listed below. The collection therefore represents part of the work and will grow step by step.

This work takes time. Alongside making the texts available, it involves comparison, checking their presentation and providing reliable ways to find your place within the books. We want the care given to this work to keep pace with the growth of the collection.

In the meantime, we invite you to explore the available chapters at your own pace. Perhaps a longer conversation will stay with you; perhaps there will be one thought you want to return to. Vida en Luz aims to help you find these passages, read them in context and reflect on them.

Vida en Luz — Editorial introduction