And the young man who had spoken so well earlier said through the opening in the floor: ‘Could the high priest in Jerusalem accomplish that too, with a thousand oxen, ten thousand donkeys and a hundred thousand sheep?!’
This comical question raised a great laugh even among the Pharisees. Nevertheless, a scribe spoke up and said through the opening in the floor to the witty speaker above: ‘My dear fellow, do not venture too far! For the high priest’s arms encompass the whole earth, and whoever falls beneath the high priest’s arms is crushed. For that, the high priest has no need to raise the dead or make people crippled with palsy well; for all such things concern a person’s flesh and not his spirit, and are a matter for physicians, not priests. Do you understand that?!’
The speaker says: ‘Friend, that certainly would be a matter for the priests too, if they could accomplish such a thing. But because they cannot accomplish such a thing for all the treasures of the earth, in the end they must of course confess with a proud expression and say: “That is no matter for the priests, who have only to care for a person’s spirit.” But I think: if a physician can give back spirit and soul to a completely dead girl who died of the malignant fever before our eyes—thus of an affliction of which no one has ever died only halfway—surely that must also be a tremendously powerful spiritual care?!
‘When God created Adam purely from clay, the creation was merely material, and there was nothing spiritual present except God Himself.
‘But when God afterwards breathed a living soul into the still dead form, and a thinking spirit into that soul, that was no material work, but surely a supremely spiritual work of God?! And if this miracle physician Jesus of Nazareth performed the same thing on the ruler’s little daughter here before our eyes, surely that too must be a very spiritual work and care?!’
The scribe says: ‘That is a matter you do not understand, so you should be silent!’
The young man says: ‘If I were still a Jew, I would indeed be silent; but since I am no longer a Jew, but an honest Greek and a follower of the glorious teaching of Socrates, I do not see why I should be silent before the Jewish priests, whose present teaching, stupid beyond all measure, I unfortunately know only too well?’
The scribe says: ‘And what, you heathen, do you find stupid in the ancient, purely divine teaching of the Jews? Are Moses and all the prophets perhaps too little exalted for you, and do you find their teaching stupid?!’
The young man says: ‘No, I regard Moses and all the prophets, who said about you what I am now saying to you, as supremely and purely divine sages! But your ordinances, of which Moses and all the other prophets never dreamed, I consider utterly and excessively stupid!
‘How do you serve God?! You burn manure, excrement and filth on the altar consecrated to God, while you yourselves devour the fat oxen, calves and wethers and sacrifice them to your belly, which never wants to be full. You have rejected what is divinely pure in your teaching, and whoever among you now dares to teach what is pure, you do to him what you have done to all your prophets!
‘How long has it been since the days when you murdered Zacharias in the temple?
‘At Bethabara his son John preached the truth and exhorted you unscrupulous evildoers in God’s sanctuary to repentance and a return to Moses and his purest teaching. What did you do with him?! Where did he end up?! He disappeared; as far as I know, he was taken away at night by wicked bailiffs!
‘Now here in Nazareth Jesus has been raised up by God as a prophet and performs deeds possible only to the almighty gods, and now you watch him with the eyes of Argus. Woe to him if, like me, he should dare utter a word against you and your most filthy teaching, created by you yourselves and not by Moses; and you will immediately accuse him of the highest crime of blasphemy, and in gratitude for his raising your dead and straightening your cripples, stone him or even bind him to the cross!
‘For your business is to rule and, while doing so, to fatten your belly in the greatest luxury! Whoever wishes to curtail you in this and turn you back to Moses is your enemy, and you have means enough to remove him from your path!
‘I despise all of you like a rotten, stinking carcass because you are in fact the greatest enemies of God and all His people, and will remain so from now on! I am a heathen, and here in the man Jesus I recognize the purest power of God, in such fullness as the whole earth has never experienced before!
‘It is not His flesh that performs such unheard-of deeds, but His almighty, purest Spirit of God, who must dwell in Him in all fullness!
‘Look, that is what I recognize as a heathen whom you declare blind! What, then, do you recognize in Jesus, who merely by the word alone, without any medicine, raises your dead and makes our cripples leap like young deer?!
‘But I ask you blind men: who must He be whom it costs only a willing word, and storm and wind fall silent, the dead rise and the lame begin to leap as though they had been transformed into the nature of deer?!’
By this truly very truthful and bold speech, he had so mightily angered every one of the Pharisees and scribes that they would have torn him apart in rage and fury if they could easily have laid hold of him. But that was neither possible nor advisable before the great crowd of people, for all the people cheered this young man who finally had the courage to rub the full truth, quite bluntly, under the noses of the excessively pompous Pharisees and scribes!