The high priest says, ‘Yes, yes, I grant that You are right in this too, and for the present I will not and cannot dispute whether, how, or what spiritual content lies hidden within the teaching images You have set forth. But You must still grant me this: if, for example, I gave someone a teaching that I wished him, as my disciple, to understand and practice, I would necessarily have to present the teaching in such a way that my disciple understood it in its true spirit. Once I know that my disciple has fully grasped my teaching according to the spirit of its inner truth, I can then with full right require him to become a doer of my teaching.
‘But if I give someone a teaching in images that are in themselves impossible to follow, and the disciple then asks me, “What is this supposed to mean? How am I to take my own life in order to gain life? How am I to kill myself so that, as a dead person, I may then receive from death a new, indeed an eternal life?”, then I shall say to him, “Look, friend, you must understand and take this in such and such a way! For look, between the teaching image given to you and the truth contained in it, there is this and that spiritual correspondence; but you must not order your life according to the outward image!”
‘You see, Master, then the disciple will understand, and, as already noted, I can then rightfully require him to act according to the spirit of the truth of my teaching. But can I, without being a fool, also require him to turn my harsh teaching image into a deed? And if I seriously demanded this of my disciple, then before all thinking people I would surely appear like someone carrying water in a tightly closed pitcher. A thirsty person would come to him to be given a drink, but the water carrier would hand him the closed pitcher and say, “Here is the pitcher; drink!” The other would try to drink but find no opening, and would ask the carrier, “How can I drink from this? The pitcher is closed on every side!” But the carrier would say to him, “If you are blind and cannot find the opening, then swallow the whole pitcher, and in this way you will swallow the water too!”
‘Tell me, otherwise dear and wise Master, what would the thirsty person have to say to such a water carrier? I think the thirsty person would surely have every right here to call such a water carrier a fool!
‘But I do not mean to call You a fool outright because of this. Yet if You say that we cannot see and grasp the spirit of Your teaching because of our spiritual blindness and deafness, then Your teaching is still like the water in the closed pitcher that the thirsty person is seriously supposed to swallow together with the water! A demand that only a prophet escaped from a madhouse could make! Take the matter as You will: as long as You do not add a sufficient explanation to Your teaching, which contains much that is good and true in some of its individual statements, I and many clearer thinkers stand by this judgment. For You will never see us immediately begin to chop off hands and feet and tear out eyes for the sake of Your teaching! We shall also work as before and earn our bread by the sweat of our faces, and whoever treacherously lays hands on us will not escape just chastisement!
‘Likewise, we shall not give the thief who steals our coat a cloak for free as well, but shall seize the thief and throw him into prison, where he is to be allowed sufficient time to repent of his evil deed and improve his life. If You are a wise man who has truly come forth from God, then You too must be imbued with the sacred necessity of upholding the Mosaic law that God Himself proclaimed to the Israelites in the wilderness amid lightning and thunder! But do You intend to break the law with Your teaching? Then You can see how You will get along with Jehovah in doing so!’
I say, ‘But I am of the opinion that the lawgiver is free to leave the law in place and fulfill it himself according to spirit and truth, or also to abolish it altogether under certain conditions!’
The high priest says, ‘That sounds very strange coming from Your mouth now! This morning I would have honored such a word from Your mouth, for then I truly had a strong impression that You were indeed the Promised One! But after this teaching You have now addressed to us, in my eyes You have become a madman who takes pleasure in serving us his fixed ideas as the wisdom of the promised Messiah. Therefore You would do better now to explain Your harsh teaching, which without sufficient explanation surely no person can ever grasp and act upon!’
I say, ‘Then say what so greatly confuses you in My teaching, and I shall resolve it for you.’
The high priest says, ‘I have certainly told You several times already. But so that You may see that I am truly very fair and moderate, I now tell You that I accept all the other points of Your teaching as good and wise precepts for action; but I cannot possibly accept tearing out eyes and chopping off hands and feet! Just consider Yourself whether it is even possible to tear out one’s own eye! Will someone who chops off his own hand or foot not immediately bleed to death? And when he is dead, what fruits of improvement will he then be able to produce?
‘You see, that is the impractical point of Your teaching, which can never possibly be followed in a reasonable way. And if fools really were ever found who carried out such a teaching on themselves, they would certainly become no better because of it. For if someone survived it, he would not praise God for the misery into which such a supposedly divine teaching would have plunged him. But if he dies, which is the safest assumption, then I ask with David, “Lord, who will praise You in death, and who will glorify You in the grave?” So explain at least this point to us more clearly. We will accept everything else as a teaching of humanity, admittedly carried to the utmost extreme.’
I say, ‘Very well; your request is fair, and I tell you: of all the priests since Samuel, you are the wisest, for you have a good heart and do not fundamentally reject My teaching, but only wish to have it illuminated. Therefore I shall give you light as well. But light is to come to you not from My mouth, but from the mouth of one of My disciples. Turn therefore to one of My disciples, so that it may become clear to you from this that My teaching has already become clear to people even without My explanation.’