A scribe says: ‘Friend, you venture far in telling us such things, for the betrayal of which the temple has decreed death!? But your good fortune is that you have performed so great a deed for our ruler; otherwise things might not go very well for you. For we are bound to the temple by a mighty oath!’
I say: ‘Which you can break whenever you wish; for you swore the oath not to God, but to the temple, which is made by human hands, and God no longer dwells in it!
‘But where God does not dwell, there dwells the old prince of lies and all evil, and you can break your oath to this prince and present lord of the temple without fear!
‘If you were willing to break your most worthless oath to the temple, you would please God the Lord, and He would give you what He has given Me from the beginning of the world, which you now marvel at without understanding how I perform works that, according to your own statement, are possible only to God alone! But if you fear the temple more than God, whom you do not know, then you remain attached to the temple all the same and are therefore an abomination before God!
‘But if you do not believe this on My plain words, then at least believe Me for the sake of the works that I perform before you for your good, and of which you yourselves say that they are possible only to God!’
The scribe says: ‘How can you know God better than we do, when you have not studied Scripture?!’
I say: ‘You certainly know the dead letter; but God is not in it, and so you cannot know God from Scripture either, for Scripture only shows you the way to God, and even that only if you walk unwaveringly along that way.
‘What use is it to you even if you know the road to Rome, but never set foot on it to reach Rome and see the king’s great city there? But what person familiar with the road can say that he knows Rome because the road there is known to him, when he had never set foot upon it for even a span in length and distance! In the same way, what use is your knowledge of Scripture, which is a way to God, if you have never taken a step upon it?
‘But I nevertheless know the whole of Scripture just as you do, and have always acted according to the laws of God contained in it. Through this I am in the fullest acquaintance with God, and can therefore tell you from the first primordial source itself that none of you or your kind has ever known God, nor will ever know Him along your evil ways; for you are all deniers of God.
‘You yourselves do not wish to know God, while you barricade the way with death and destruction against those who would still like to walk the right way! Therefore, one day in the other life you will receive all the more condemnation! For all those whom you have persecuted and still continually persecute will be your eternal judges!’
When I had proclaimed this to the Pharisees and scribes, a mighty shout of approval arises among the people, and they want to lay hands on the Pharisees and scribes. But I prevent this and go through the small sea gate to the sea with the disciples and all the Pharisees and scribes; and since several ships are standing ready here, they are immediately boarded, and with a moderate, useful wind we sail quickly away from the shore, so that the great crowd of people could not reach us.