Three days in the Temple.

Download • 577KB

Three days in the Temple

Given to Jakob Lorber

First Edition - 1932

CHAPTER 1

The custom of examining the children at the temple in Jerusalem was  the  habit  and  prescribed custom in the whole kingdom of the Jews that they had to take their children, once these had reached their twelfth year, to Jerusalem where they would be examined in the temple by the elders, the Pharisees and scribes, about everything they had  learned up to this age,  especially about the teaching’s concerning God and the prophets.

Naturally a small tax had to be paid  for  such  an examination, after  which those examined received, if they so wished, a certificate of ability on payment of a second small tax. If the children had done well in every way, they could  also  be received into the schools of the temple with the  prospect  of becoming  later  on, servants of the temple.

If the parents were able to prove that  they were  descended from  the  tribe of Levi, their admission into the schools of the temple was easy; but if this could not be proved, the admission was less easy, and they had,  as it were,  to buy the  right  to belong to the tribe of Levi, and to make a considerable offering to the temple.

Daughters were exempt from this examination unless they, or rather  their parents, wished them also to be examined so that they might be the more pleasing to God. In this case they were well examined by the elder matrons of the temple in a special department, and also received a certificate as to all their capabilities and their knowledge acquired up to that time. Such girls could then become the wives of the priests and Levites.

The examinations of the boys and still more those of the girls were only short. There were some leading questions already permanently settled, which every Jew had known by heart for a long time.

The answers to these well known questions had been instilled into the children only too well, and thus the examiner had scarcely finished his question, when the boy under examination had also finished his answer.

No examinee had more than ten questions put and therefore it can easily be understood that the examination of a boy scarcely lasted more than a minute; if he 

answered quite well and quickly the first questions, he frequently was excused from answering the rest.

The short examination finished, the  boy received  a slip  of paper,  with  which he had to go with his parents to the same tax-counter at which he had previously paid the examination tax, and where, on showing the examination slip, he had again to pay a small tax if he wanted the temple certificate upon the said slip. The children of quite poor parents had to bring them a ‘Signum paupertatis’ (certificate of poverty), otherwise they were not admitted to the examination.

The time for the examination was either at Easter, or at the time of the feast of tabernacles, and generally lasted for some five or six days. But  before  the examinations in the temple began, servants of the temple had been already sent to the roadside inns a few days in advance,  to find  out  how  many  candidates  for examination would be present.

Whoever specially cared to have a ticket in advance could do so for a small tax, as thereby he would be examined sooner; but those who paid no tax had to be the last, generally; no great care was taken about their examination, and usually they received no certificate. These were of course promised to them for a later date, but generally nothing resulted from these promises.

However it sometimes happened that boys  of very  great  intelligence  and much talent, put questions to the examiners, and  asked  them  for  explanations about one thing or another concerning the prophets. On such  occasions  there  were  then angry and ill-humored faces among the examiners; for they seldom knew more of he Scriptures and of the prophets than  nowadays  very  meagerly  paid  teachers.  They knew only as much as they had  to ask;  further than this  the  outlook was  generally very dark.

At those examinations some elders and scribes were always present as a kind of examining board. They however did not examine, but merely listened to the examination only in the above mentioned caddie,  and  if it seemed  worth while, did they begin  to move  themselves; and  at first  they reprimanded such an inquiring lad for his stupid presumption in having dared to put an examiner into an unpleasant position, and for frittering away his time.

If such a boy was not easily intimidated, and persisted in his intention and request, more for pretending before the people than for sake of any deeper truth, he was put  aside for  the time being, and  had  to wait until a certain hour in the evening for an illuminating answer to such critical questions; then  only was  he granted  a special hearing.

When the appointed hour came, such boys  were  always  fetched  from  the place of retreat with a certain amount of displeasure, and had to repeat the questions they had already put; then one of the elders and scribes gave a very mystical answer to the questioner, and one that was as intricate as possible; through it the boy would evidently go away none the wiser, and the people beat  their  breasts  and  admired deeply, stupidly, dumbly, deafly and blindly the unfathomable depths of the Spirit of God  through the mouth of an elder and scribe and finally reprimanded such a boy for his thoughtless impertinence.

CHAPTER 2

But such a real intellectual boy did not  get  discouraged by that, and  said: “Every action in the great world of God is lighted up by the brightest sunlight in the daytime, and even the night is never so dark that one can see nothing;

why must that important doctrine which is meant to show  men  the  way  to true salvation most clearly and most brightly, be given so confusedly that no soul can understand it?”

And the boy who had just raised this objection before the elders was I Myself, and thereby I made them  greatly embarrassed, especially as all  the people present began to agree with Me, and said: “By the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, this boy is extraordinarily clever; he must discuss more with the  elders and  scribes! We will put a considerable sum in the offertory on his behalf.”

A very rich  Israelite from  Bethany (the father of Lazarus, Martha and  Mary, and still living then) stepped forward and paid down for Me an offering of thirty pounds of silver and  some gold, only in order that I might discuss longer with the elders and scribes.

The elders and scribes naturally accepted only too  gladly this  large offering, and therewith I had a good chance of being allowed to enter into a quite exceptional discussion with the elders, and one which, for a good reason, had never taken place previously.

But now  the  first preliminary question and  the  one  already mentioned, was out  of Isaiah, the extremely mystically veiled answer to which now  formed the basis for the following extended discussion which, will soon follow. Whosoever will read it with a good, loving, and pure heart will gain much from it for his soul and spirit.

But before we arrived at the wider discussion, and as I had the heavily paid freedom of speech, I returned to the preliminary question, and began to ask the elders and scribes about the special points of it.

But the preliminary question was taken  from  Isaiah  Chapter 7:14,15,16, and the verses are: “Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign: See, a virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call his name Emanuel. Butter and honey shall He eat, that He may know to refuse the evil and choose the good. For before the child shall learn to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land which you abhor shall be forsaken of both her kings.”

The first part of the question consisted of what was in itself clearly understandable; who the virgin and who her son Emanuel might be, and when this would happen that such a son should be born into the world. The time must already be there, seeing that the land of Jacob had been already bereft of both her kings, and now had the heathen as masters.  Could  it not  be possible that  this  boy born  in a stable twelve years ago at Bethlehem, of the virgin Mary who had been given into the charge of the carpenter Joseph, not has  his  wife  but  as his  foster child, according to the ancient custom of the temple – that this boy for whose sake the wise men of the East had  come that they might greet in him  the promised King of the Jews, and  at whose circumcision in the temple Anna and Simeon had given so great witness – that this boy might be the Emanuel of whom Isaiah had prophesied.

Now, after this most significant question, one of the elders, a thoroughly imperious old man, began to babble most confused nonsense which I have no wish whatever to repeat, because, among other things, he called Me a badly educated boy, seeing that I already knew about the being born of woman.

Only one younger, somewhat more humane looking scribe rose up in protest, and said that such in no way indicated a bad education, as especially in Galilee, the boys  matured earlier than in stunted Jerusalem, where there was  nothing but  luxury and great pampering of the children. On his own responsibility he considered that a better answer could be given Me, for he was of opinion that I was already acquainted with the conditions of human life. Only the other boys should be sent away, then they themselves could talk to Me as men.

But the elder muttered something in his  beard,  and  I then  questioned the more humane looking scribe concerning the story of the Birth in Bethlehem. But this one said, quite away from the point:

(The younger Scribe): “Yes, my dear good boy, that story which happily disappeared absolutely, was at the time much spoken about, and it is really of no use for us today in connection with the mysterious prophecy pictures of Isaiah who only foretold for his own time and in quite dark  pictures. For  the  parents even  fled  – I think, and so I heard, after the well-known murder by Herod of the  children  at Bethlehem (on which  occasion it is certain that  their child whom  the  Eastern sages had greeted as King of the Jews, was slain) – outside of Judea somewhere, and are perhaps no more alive, since nothing more has been heard of their existence.

Of course there may have been something in the matter, for  at the  time it caused much sensation; but  strangely enough, a few  years later, everything sank into the sea of complete oblivion, so that no one  now  any longer breathes a syllable about it, and it is not worth while to say anything more about it. Simeon and Anna were two well-known enthusiasts of the temple who, in the case of many a boy, made their Messianic remarks in a mystical tone, and thereby considerably turned the heads of many weak parents.

When God gave the law to Moses on Sinai, nearly the whole earth trembled, and  the history in the desert lasted nearly forty years, and  almost the whole universe had to acknowledge the omnipotence of Jehovah. All the more will the Messiah, coming into this world, reveal Himself still more with  a shaking  of the  whole universe, for David sang of Him: ‘Open wide the gates, and raise on high the portals of the Universe that the King of Glory may come in! Who is the King of Glory? He is the Lord Zebaoth. He is the King of Glory!

And you, my dear boy, will well understand that, in regard to the Messiah- to-be, nothing will come of the  birth at Bethlehem seeing that this is now  forgotten. Just think how David announced Him, and what would have to be done beforehand if the Great King of Glory were to come out of the  heavens  to the  Jews,  and  also consider that surely several years in advance, all the Jews shall be called by great prophets – like Elijah who, at the time, is to be herald of the Lord of Glory – to set going all that the great King David enjoined, in order to be well  prepared  for  so immense an arrival of God, the All Highest!

Just think all this over, my good boy, and it will then be evident to you that it will be no such slight matter for  the  Lord  Zebaoth  to come  into  the  world. Therefore go away now, and do not inquire further into such matters!”

It was then that I made the remark already mentioned, which caused the rich man of Bethany to pay for  Me the  heavy discussion-tax, in order  to enable Me to make further rejoinders concerning My preliminary question, and  to express Myself still further about the texts of Isaiah touching the Messiah; for he was one of the few who now expected the  King of Glory according to Elijah, no longer in storm or fire, but in the soft murmuring of the wind.

CHAPTER 3

When I thus had got permission to speak, I spoke at once to the elders and scribes who indicated to Me that  I should talk, and  ask  now what ever I liked, and they would dutifully answer Me. I therefore again began with

the question given on the previous day, and asked: “Your words put ever so assuring cannot calm the sea, nor can they command silence to the roaring winds! It is only a blind man who does not remark the signs of the times; and if he is stone deaf, neither can be aware of the most powerful rolling thunder of history, even of this that is the most memorable time of the whole earth.  Whereas  Carmel  and  Sion  bowed  their heads at the coming of the King  of Glory,  and  the  mountain tops  of Horeb  flowed with milk and honey,  you who  should be the first to know about it and should inform the waiting people thereof, you know not one syllable!”

Here all looked amazed, and  looked first at Me and  then at one another and knew not what to answer Me.

After a while one of them said: “Well, speak further of what you know about it!”

I said: “Certainly what I know, I know; but I did not put a question to you in order t enlighten Myself on what  I already know,  but  only that  you  might show Me who is the prophet Isaiah’s ‘virgin with child’, of whom  the  very Son  of the All Highest is to be born! As scribes you ought surely to understand what the prophet meant by the ‘virgin with child’ who shall give birth to the Son designated!

It is quite My opinion that there is something more in that  story  of the Bethlehem birth than you think, and that those parents, the  well  known  carpenter Joseph of Nazareth and the virgin afterwards married to him,  together with  the  son born  at Bethlehem, are  still actually alive; for  they escaped from the later cruelty of the old Herod, through a very wise arrangement of the then Roman captain Cornelius, and are now living quite safely in Nazareth of Galilee.

I, a Boy of twelve years old,  know  this, and  should it to be unknown to you who know about everything, especially as Joseph, being one of the cleverest of carpenters, has so far had  every year  something to do for  Jerusalem, and  you know him quite well, as also his wife who belonged to Jerusalem, and was educated in the temple up to 14 years of age? Is she not  a daughter  of Anna  and  Joachim,  and according to your chronicles, had she not a miraculous birth? Anna was  already advanced in years, and without a miracle there would have been no idea of her having a child.

Well, these parents as well as the new-born boy, lived for about three years safely in Egypt immediately after the flight  from  Bethlehem, in the  neighborhood of the little town of Ostracine,  in the  Old  Egyptian  language  “Austrazhina”  which means as much as to say: “A work of terror”, i.e. a fortress which brought death to all enemies a the time of the Pharaohs. Later  the  more  powerful  enemies  of Ancient Egypt conquered this terror-inspiring place, as also many another, and in our times nothing is left of the former place and  work  of terror but  the old decayed name, to which the Romans gave indeed another interpretation than that of the Old Egyptians.

However all this does not matter, I only mention these things which are well known to Me, in order to point out to you more  clearly the  place  where  the  said parents dwelt for three years. From there they are said to have gone back, obeying a higher secret command, to Nazareth where they now  live completely devoted to the Will of God, as much withdrawn as possible, although many stories are told of the wonderful acts of the boy whom I have the honor of knowing very well. For even the elements obey Him, and the wildest animals of the woods and deserts flee before His gaze, more awesome than that of a thousand hunters. For in this respect He is like a thousand Nimrods! In all  earnestness,  do you really know  nothing about  all  this?! Tell Me quite honestly and truthfully, have you really seriously never heard about all this?”

Another elder, animated by a little better spirit, said: “Yes, of that we have indeed heard something, as also that the carpenter well known to us, and his young wife  Mary lives continually in Nazareth! But  as to whether the  boy prodigy is the same born twelve years ago  in a stable, we do not  know,  and  also doubt very much that he is the same! And how indeed  should  that  boy  be the  Emanuel  of the prophets?”

I said: “Good, but if it is not He, then whence has He the power that He exercises over all the elements? And who is the virgin, and who is the Emanuel?”

Said the rich man from Bethany: “Hearken, the intelligence of this boy is gigantic! It seems to my mind as if he were possibly a young Elijah, whom that boy prodigy from Nazareth has sent before him in order to prepare us all for the existing Emanuel of the prophet! For when have  any of us ever known a boy of twelve – with the exception of Samuel – talk with such wisdom?

Therefore you must begin a more concise and dignified kind of speech with this boy, else we shall  not  get  rid  of him! You will have to begin to explain to him the prophets in a clear way, and yet examine how things go with the virgin Mary – the marvelous daughter of Joachim and Anna, who at the  end  donated  their considerable properties to the Temple when they died – or rather  the  temple- authorities took them by force as donated property, and as compensation  for  the bringing up of the daughter Mary.

What do you really and truly think about that virgin?  If the  word  of the prophet is to be taken, then the exact time mentioned by him is already here, and the marvel about the virgin spoken of, can no longer be denied! If after all there is