Four Books of the Gospels 2.475–3.269

Let the disciple never rise above the lofty heights of his master, nor the slave try to excel his lord. It is enough for the disciple to equal the powers of his master, or for the slave to attain a virtue like his lord's. Let all fear always stay far from your hearts; for everything is brought out, laid bare, from its hiding places. Whatever is commanded you silently in darkness, speak under the bright light of the shining sun. And whatever I say, whispering in your ears, let it be scattered to the peoples from the high roof of the house. Despise the rage of those who will lay your bodies low with the sword: they have no power to send the living mind to death as well. But let the secret places of the heart rather fear him who has all power over body and soul together. Sparrows fetch scarcely a small part of a coin as their price; yet it is not right to believe that one falls into our snares without the Lord's command. What wise man would doubt that in the Lord's heart one man outweighs many thousands of winged creatures? Whoever confesses me before the judges of the earth, I will confess him in the same way before the Father; and likewise before the Father I will deny the one who denies me. I have not come now to send peace upon the lands, but a sword, to sever the son from his father's heart and to sever the sweet daughter from her mother's heart.

If anyone holds his father dearer than love of me, or puts love of me after his mother or his children, he will feel a terrible rejection from our seat. Whoever despises his life for our name will find it flourishing with the glad crop of salvation. Whoever receives you will rejoice that he has received me with kindly service, and likewise that in me he has received the supreme Father, with everlasting life." When he had given these commands to the twelve disciples, just John, from the shadows of his blind prison, ordered men chosen from among his followers to carry these words to Christ and bring back the truth: "Are you the rest for devout souls, which the palace of heaven promised to the lands, shining in our time? Or does it remain for us to hope after this for another salvation?" Christ sent back this message with these words: "The darkness of the blind is changed into the light of day, and the limbs of the weak grow strong with firm strength; livid leprosy is shaken off the scaly body; the sound of the airy voice enters deaf ears. The power of the soul, now free, returns to the body and is given back to life that was lost after the funeral of death; and the shining glory of our coming lies open to its poor, not disdaining them.

Blessed will he be whom error has not deceived." The disciples carried this message back to their master. On this Christ spoke these words to the people: "Why did you wish lately to go into the desert to see a reed stalk shaken by the quivering wind? Why, again, to see one dressed in soft clothing? Those with soft clothing are kept in the houses of kings. He alone was promised long ago, by the judgment of the ancient scripture, to surpass the powers of the prophets. For the reading of the venerable voice speaks of him: See, I send my minister to prepare the roads before your face; and no woman has borne anyone greater in power than our John. But one lesser than he will be higher in the hall of heaven. From his rising the palace of heaven feels force, and fierce violence plunders the kingdom of heaven. The whole law reached its sum at the time of the Baptist, and the end of the prophets is concluded there too. If you wish to know the inner secrets of the swift age, happy Helias took the body of John as his dwelling, Helias whom long ago the likeness of a four-horse chariot with feet of flame, sent in a flashing whirlwind, snatched away. Let him hear this who opens his ears to the words of life.

"Now I give thanks to you, Father, whom the glory of the shining heaven and of the fruitful lands serves, that you have now hidden these things from the proud wise and will the little hearts of infants to grasp them. Now all things of the reigning Father have been handed over to me, and no one will be able to know the Son of the Lord except the Father alone; the Son will see the Father with his mind, or he to whom the same Son opens such things. Let all come here whom the burden of a vast load weighs down; for them my power, by the Father's gift, will be able to restore their former strength with glad rest. Take up the yoke bravely: my burden is light for the just, for it bestows sweet salvation on a humble heart." When he had said this, he passed through the cultivated fields of a heavy harvest, and the company of disciples following him was plucking, in order, the full grain of the ears. That day called for rest by the ancient law, for the sabbath renewed its leisure by the commands of old. See, the Pharisees openly rebuked Christ because the disciples, in reaping, trampled on the commands of the holy law. But then Jesus, the fulfiller of the laws, began to go back over the records of the ancient scripture to them: "Surely you have read that tuneful David once took the consecrated loaves in the temple with his people and relieved his own and his companions' hunger; yet it had been unlawful for anyone to touch those loaves, which only the priest might take by law.

It is written by the just rule of the same law that the priests profane the sabbath in the temple without guilt. Nor is the gathering of your company here less than the power of the temple. If your hearts grasped that God prefers not sacrifices but gentle hearts, your faction would not now so often have condemned holy men who are free of guilt. But now I, ruling of my own accord, will hold every sabbath under the law's authority." Then, after these words, he entered their assembly; soon he saw there at the threshold a young man from whose shoulder hung the useless weight of a withered hand. But then, testing him with deceitful words, they asked whether it is lawful to bring healing to the sick on the sabbath, so that punishment for breaking the law might await him. Christ answered: "If perhaps your little beasts fell into a pit, you would surely pass over the law's rest and lift the cheap beast from the steep depth. How much more, then, ought the care of men to kindle us, raising our minds to good deeds! So come, young man, stretch out your restored right hand." At the word, healed, he stretched out both hands. Then, for these signs, which the reverence of the wondering people could hardly honour with worthy worship, they cried out in fierce councils that he must be ensnared.

Christ, seeing such schemes of the leaders, withdrew; he applied to the various sicknesses of men the healing granted to the peoples by the Father's power. Soon there was brought to him one whom the horrid power of a demon wished to live maimed in tongue and sight, for punishment, and to be food for his own torments. When the blind faction of the Pharisee nation learned that he was healed and strong in sight and voice, they said that Christ had done these things with the help of the demon who, as prince of demons, alone held the powers of wickedness under his rule. But Christ laid bare such hearts and convicted them with truthful words: "If a kingdom, torn apart, gapes in two parts, and its split halves fight against each other, everything will quickly fall, its marrow broken. And if a horrid demon is driven out by a black demon, he is split and fights against himself with hostile power. Who will be able to carry off plunder from men's houses unless the attacker first binds the arms of the guards with knots, so that the plunder may be easily seized? Whoever stands apart and is absent as a soldier from my army will stand as an enemy in the opposing front of battle. Whoever wanders free from gathering my flocks scatters the pastures of my herd along byways.

But whatever error of men there is, beyond all things it can be forgiven; only let the Spirit never be torn by words poured out from an insane mind. If anyone in rage heaps insults on the Son of man, these sins too can be forgiven. But whoever violates the Holy Spirit with the profane rage of words will be burned with fire in punishments that cannot be revoked, now and always. When will the savage brood of the venomous serpent be able to grow gentle with the sweet fruit of speech? For good and sweet things are brought out from just treasures, and evil poisons come out of a death-bearing mouth. By the merits of words punishment will come before the judge; by the merits of words life will be given before the judge. What the Father does, the Son will follow in all things, for the same Father shows the Son all things to be seen, and will then grant greater wonders. For as the Father will restore dead bodies to the bright light of life, so the Son will lead to the light, rising, all the bodies he wills. Nor will the Father, as your judge, inquire into anything; he has given the Son these rights of inquiry through the world, so that like glory may remain to the Son and the Father. For if the Son is refused your honour, with equal wickedness you will despise the Father.

But in whomever the grace of our word fixes faith, soon the gifts of the Father who sent me will lie open to him, and his present constancy will give him eternal life. There is no judgment for him, but he passes far from black death and, full of strength, makes for the threshold of light. The time will come when dead bodies will receive our voice and with the voice will hold life. For as the Father possesses life in himself, so he has given life to the Son and has bidden him to judge, since he came to the lands in the body of man. Nor let it seem wonderful to you that all bodies, at the hearing of the voice, rise from their own tombs, that the souls of the just are joined to a body brought back to life, and that the wretched wicked rise to heavy judgment. Nor does my power alone give me judgment, since all things are commanded by the decision of the Father, who bade me search out justice on the earth. For if I rise as witness for my own name, I shall speak falsely; and since another is held as witness for us, it is always right for me to set such testimony aside. For by the true signs of my works the testimony present in our deeds shines plainer than any light. Granting such things, the Father stays by me as witness, he who sent me to the earth to lay down his commands.

For you have never been able to grasp his voice, nor has he granted you to see his own form. Nor can his word settle in your hearts, since there is no substance of belief in you. Search the reading of the ancient writings, which you think brings everlasting life to all. This reading too bears witness to our gift. Yet you do not dare to come closer to us, lest the grace of true life should reach you. I do not seek the glory of earthly praise. For that I have come in the name of the supreme Father, you reject; but another will come, of a different colour, upheld by his own name, and your nation will follow him. You seek among yourselves the glory of each other's fame, and you avoid seeking the praise of the One alone. Nor would I accuse you before the Father; but there will be an accuser there, whom your hope now celebrates, Moses, whom you have honoured with no faith. For if your error believed his writings, it would believe us too, of whom the writings of Moses speak often." Then these words of the scribes followed in reply: "Undoubted faith will go with these words, if power confirms the wonders with sure signs." Then he said: "A generation polluted with evils seeks signs for itself; but the signs will stand in things to come. For as much time as the prophet spent under the hollow breast of the whale, so long will the offspring of man remain sunk in the deep places of the earth.

The time will come when the race of men, given to weeping over its own deeds, will rise, restored to life. It will condemn this nation with a just charge, because, warned by the voice of the prophet who rose from the bottom of the sea, it fell down in tears and turned the Lord back. Here too things greater than Jonah's warnings are commanded, and the impious nation scorns the light with fierce minds. And the queen of the South will rise to the shores of life. By her example the savage people will be condemned, because she came from the farthest bounds of Libya to hear pious Solomon, devoted to his commanded precepts; now a power greater than Solomon is here, and yet the hearts of the dulled people are blinded. If ever a demon is driven out and flees from a breast, troubled by the holy breath when the body has been cleansed, he roams with poisoned steps through regions where no wave of a spring flows, and, burning, finds no rest in a calm dwelling. Then, thirsting, he seeks again the familiar dwelling of the mind. And if perhaps he sees a heart open to his poisons and a threshold smiling with light adornment, the hostile force gathers seven frenzies like himself, and the serpent enters into the man's insides.

So when this race has fallen away from the true mind, it will lament, bound in chains under everlasting punishments." And while he was giving these words of life to the peoples, his mother with his brothers stood before the doors and asked to speak with him close by, outside. Then he sent back these words in answer to his mother's message: "Here with me sits my mother, with me sit those of my kin. For whoever fulfils the Father's will joins his own body to my blood and is counted under the name of my mother and my family." Jesus, the light of the lands, went out from the temple and sat down on the very edge of sea and land, and countless crowds of people flowed there. But he climbed into a high ship that lay nearest and spoke these words to the people who filled the shore: "See, a sower entrusts seeds to his own field; they fall in different places on the soil and bear the lot of each place according to its strength. For where the trodden part of the road is packed hard underfoot into a solid path, the seeds give bare plunder to the birds of the air. But where rocks are covered with very thin soil, the grain sends up a green shoot; but since there is no moisture in the clods beneath, the threads of the roots dry up as the heat gets in, and soon all the tips of the blades sink to death.

And other seeds meet rough ground; here the strong growth of briars and fierce thorns comes up faster and chokes and kills the crop. But the seeds given to fertile clods bear a fine harvest, whose glad abundance multiplies its growth a hundredfold. Let him hear this who has the ears of his mind open." The disciples, wondering at such words, asked why he closed everything to the people in tangled words. But he, when the people had been sent away, spoke to the believers: "To you, who with firm heart have made your minds strong to grasp the inner things of God, it is granted to stand deep within the entrance of the kingdom; for them, as they deserve, the eyes of the mind are closed. If anyone worthy has, he will receive greater things and overflow; but those who wander without the heavenly gift will lose even whatever they keep as their own. Therefore the grace of our speech touches that people only lightly, covered in obscure windings, so that the saying of Esaias about the people who deserve it may come true: See, the minds of the people are veiled to all things with thick barriers, so that they may not touch the gifts of life with understanding. They stand with closed ears and heavy eyes, lest the guilty people turn and be healed by the good. How blessed now are your ears and eyes!

For many just men of old and holy prophets prayed to see the gifts that shine out for you. Receive then in your minds what the meaning of the seed is: whoever lets my word fall only on the surface of his ears, and his understanding does not receive the precepts with steady vigour, the demon snatches it all from his breast. He is like the hard ground that lays out the shoots of grain as plunder for the swift birds, without fruit. There are others who receive our words with a glad heart, but the grace of the crop they have received is short-lived for them. For if hard constraint presses and confines the mind, at once in fear they betray to death what was entrusted to them. For these the rocky ground grows green with the same shallowness. But the thorny ground answers to those weighed down by a mass of cares, whom the weight of riches presses. So the seeds of our word, pressed down, are burdened, and no fruit follows, killed by the bristling thorns. And likewise the rich fields stand, with equal strength, for those who take in the precepts of bright salvation, which enter the mind as a retentive understanding handles them, and bear a hundredfold crop by the strength of virtue." This he said to the disciples, and to the people he added this as well: "The sublime kingdom of the Thunderer is like a farmer. He sows good seed, entrusting it to his own field; but afterwards a fierce enemy comes stealthily, lying in wait for men's sleep, and sprinkles bitter darnel over it.

But see, when the bristling ear came out on the stalks to bear fruit, the harvest overflowed, stained with darnel. Then the servants, wondering, said to their master: "Did you not sow good seed across the land? Where, then, does the foul darnel come from that burdens your fields? But now, if you order it, we will clean the whole harvest, and the bright wheat will remain when the filth has been picked out." Then the master answered with gentle words: "This is your trick, enemy; but let us allow the grain to grow with the darnel. For at the full time of harvest I will order the darnel to be separated, bound in bundles, and burned with fire; but the reaper will then fill our barns with clean grain from our seed." In the same way, if you open the ears of your heart, the heavenly kingdom is like a very small grain of mustard, which the farmer sows and sets in his own little field. It is believed to be smaller than all the seeds of green plants; but when it has soon grown to its proper greenness, it lifts its top above all the crops of the fields, so that the feathered throng may play in its branches and dwell in its green shade. The heavenly gift is like wholesome leaven, which a woman hides in a great mass of flour. Then the flour, mixed with the moderate warmth of the leaven worked into it, grows together into the body of a single mass." Such things, hidden in perplexing words, he then set before the people, so that the sayings of the prophet of old might agree with the things commanded in the order of the ages: I will deign to open my mouth; the image of varied speech will pour forth and unroll the things hidden since the world began. Then, late, he went home and left the crowds.

The fire-haired sun had poured its rosy radiance over the lands. The disciples asked what the riddle of the darnel and the crop meant; bright Jesus explained it to them: "He who entrusts the best seeds of grain to the soil is the Son of man; take the world under the name of the field, and just men for the pure seed. But the unhappy darnel are men made so by the art of the hidden demon; the enemy will be the demon, a horrid power; the last end of the world stands for the time of harvest. The Father's ministers will come through the fields as reapers, whom the Son of man will order to gather out of the body of his own kingdom the snares and stains of error, and when they are gathered, to burn them together with swift flames. For them there will be gnashing of teeth always and endless weeping; and to the devout, set apart, the golden light of life will come, as the lights of the sun shimmer in the dwellings of heaven." This he taught, and the Saviour returned to his home town. There, setting out to the people, wonderful to say, the laws of righteousness and the healthful commands of life, he taught them, at the same time making known the Father's powers. Then the people of his own town, stirred by heavy envy, pondering the wonders of the gift before them and reckoning over the family of a household they knew, muttered among themselves: "Is not this the son of the craftsman whose name is Joseph?

Is not Mary his mother, and is not the line of his brothers known? Where, then, does he come from, a teacher of the law and minister of such great power, to whom the stain of evils yields, conquered?" So said the people of Nazara; and Jesus answered them: "Wonders are always scorned in their own country, and prophets remain without honour in their native place." Indignant at such things, Christ held back his gifts. Meanwhile report flew to the proud king that a divine power in him was mastering every evil. But Herod thought that John, released from the law of death, now held such great gifts of power. For once the demon, seeing with envious heart that just John was washing away the stain of error in pure waters, and inflamed by the losses of evil, that most savage pest went to King Herod and, easily entering the dwelling of an unjust heart, drove him to heap up impious crimes with fierce deeds. Herod had burned, inflamed with unlawful love, for his brother's marriage bed, which learned John forbade by the law of chastity. But his savagery, knowing nothing of right, put the laws under its feet and enjoyed the abominable marriage, and moreover loaded with chains the very man who forbade the wrong, plunged into the darkness of prison. For the thirsting savagery at first held back from the blood of the just man, restrained by fear, because the great veneration of the people received John as a prophet.

But it happened that on his birthday, when the tyrant Herod was laying out a glad banquet on high tables, since pride delights in being joined to luxury, in the midst of the young men the virgin daughter of the queen, quickening the alternating movements of her sides as she swayed, joined measured dances to her modulated song. Herod himself above all was astonished, struck with wonder at the girl's art; then he swore and promised that every reward lay open to her, whatever the girl should ask. But she, holding to the impious crimes of her horrible mother, pressed for John's head to be torn from his neck and brought on a dish, demanding it as a present gift. Herod, sad, under the weight of the leading men present, yet mindful of the force of his oath, reluctantly ordered the innocent man's head to be brought and given to the girl. She, wicked one (the horror of it!), carried it to her mother for her joy. But the disciples, weeping, buried in the earth the mangled trunk of the body, without a name, and followed Christ. When he learned of the just man's pitiable death, he left the land polluted with innocent blood and hid in the leafy shade of a secluded valley. But the peoples followed the gifts of his immense power. When he saw that crowds of believers had gathered in the remote valley, he took pity on them, drove off the wasting of diseases, and brought many bodies to healing.

And now, in the last light of the setting sun, the disciples urged Christ to send the crowds away, so that each might look for food for himself through the villages. He ordered a meal to be set out for all of them there. The disciples showed him that there was no more food than two fish and five pieces of bread. "This," he said, "is enough." Then at once he ordered the people to recline and to settle their limbs on couches of grass. And looking up to heaven, after praying to the Father, he himself divided the two fish and the five loaves in order and loaded the tables with rich food. And now the people lay satisfied (wonderful to say), and then the servants gathered the leftovers from the tables and filled the folds of twelve baskets with fragments. The number of those who ate was five thousand men, and besides them there was a crowd of mothers and children. Then he ordered the disciples to board the ship and cross the strait while he sent all the men away, each to his home. Then he went up to the heights of the mountain and there, alone, adored the name of the Father. And now all things lay numb in the sleeping night, while the ship furrowed the waves in the middle of the sea, tossed by the opposing blast of a rising wind.

But when, in the fourth watch of the night, the morning star was pressing on the night's course and lifting up its swift rising, he made his way, upheld, over the liquid waves with dry steps (wonderful to see!). And now he was drawing near the ship; but the sailors, astonished and not knowing him, felt their hearts quiver with trembling fear and cried out with confused minds. Then Christ spoke to them in their fear: "Let all fear be gone, and let a living constancy rule the minds of those who believe. See, it is I; know the teacher of your light." Peter, confident, answered him: "If your power truly deigns to visit us, allow me too, at your command, to plant my steps on the liquid waves above the sea." The Lord agreed; soon Peter dared to leave the ship and, leaning on the sea, planted his footsteps on it. But when the wonder of such great things terrified his mind and he saw the threats of the winds growing stronger, little by little the waters that had borne the strong power of faith gave way, melted by doubtful fear. And now Simon, sunk to the middle of his body, cried out: "Snatch me from the dreadful waves, Christ, I am perishing!" At once a right hand was stretched out to meet Peter; his doubting faith was punished with bitter words, and when they had climbed aboard the boat, the contrary winds gave way.

All whom chance had made companions on the boat were amazed and entreated him as the offspring of God present among them. At last the ship had crossed, furrowing the boiling straits, and the heavy anchor had taken hold of the longed-for harbour. The peoples gathered along the shore at a run, carrying the sick, and longed to touch the outermost threads of his garment; and, wonderful to say, by this gift all who believed carried back full health through their limbs. See, Pharisees and deceitful scribes from here and there, trying to catch Christ, brought out deceitful words: "Why does your teaching allow your disciples to fall away from the precepts of the ancients? For they neglect the care of washing their hands and take their food with dirt." He answered: "It is more fitting to ask this: why you all transgress and betray the precepts of God. For God threatens death by a fixed law if anyone hurts his father with a bitter word or strikes his mother with harsh words. You make these void by teaching perverse things. How plainly the prophet's words about you hold good: This people raises me in honour with the tips of its lips, but the secret places of the heart wander far in another direction. Hear, then, all of you, and turn the ears of your heart: whatever is brought into a man will not sprinkle him with shameful filth nor settle in his life or mind.

But what bursts out from the inner places of men's mouths, once uttered, will wretchedly stain the inner mind." The disciples told Christ that the scribes had received his words with hidden laughter in their hearts. He said: "Our Father will throw far away, torn up by the roots, the seeds of plants that he himself did not sow in the plain of his field. If a blind man wanders, having by chance found a blind guide, both will fall together, plunged into the pit." Then Peter asked to have explained what the riddle meant that he had just given to the Pharisees and scribes. Then the sower of eternal life answered: "You too shut out all commands with a hard heart, and the doubt of your mind does not let in the light. For whatever comes into men's mouths from outside passes into the belly and runs on without the mind's knowledge. But what men's mouths bring out, conceived in the inner heart, can pollute the mind with a sprinkling of stain and defile the man with unclean guilt. From the secret of the heart come out harmful counsels of life, murders, the abominable thefts of the marriage bed, frauds, the deceitful error of men as witnesses, and the madness of a rash voice beating against heaven. These are what stain a man, what fill him with filth.

But to take earthly food as the body pleases, with unwashed hands, never pollutes." When he had said this, he went to the most beautiful lands of the Syrians, to Sidon and Tyre; and a woman with loosened hair, pleading with prayers for her daughter who lay sick, threw herself down and in her anxiety did not stop begging Christ, who kept silent, to restore the mind vexed by a savage demon and to let the poor girl at last come to her senses. Then, in answer to the prayers of the disciples following him, he said that he preferred to gather the Father's own sheep, which vain error had scattered far and wide. Then, as she pressed him more often, Jesus said: "No one will ever take bread from his own children and throw it to dogs." Then the woman said: "At least a share of crumbs from the table falls to the dogs, and the masters' dinner is in no way burdened." Then the Lord said: "Let the worthy rewards of salvation come to you, which the strength of such great faith has earned." So the Saviour spoke with heavenly words, and the fruitful power, striking out the demon, filled the girl's mind, which it embraced, with the gifts of health. From there the Saviour returned to the region of Galilee and sat down far off on the height of a lofty mountain. Without delay the peoples came together, bringing with them some deprived of their eyes, and a crowd weak in their legs,

and others without speech, and diseases of a thousand names. Yet he took away the bitter sicknesses of all, and gave them strong health as a venerable gift. Then the peoples together thronged to such great wonders and celebrated praise and thanks to the eternal Father. Christ gathered the disciples on the top of the mountain and spoke to them in private: "Great is my pity for the people, for the third light of the sun is already returning to the lands since they have taken any food; I would not wish to send so great a people away fasting, lest weariness overcome them as they travel long roads." The disciples showed Christ that they had seven loaves and a few small fish as food at hand. Then he ordered the people to lie down on the ground, and broke all there was with his own hands, and had it given to all the people, table by table. The disciples set out the food, and the people were filled to satiety; soon they gathered the fragments of bread and brought back seven baskets heaped full. There were then four thousand of all the people, and no one counted the mothers and children. From there he crossed by ship to the region of the Magedae. See, the Pharisees and the deceitful Sadducees pressed him, testing him, to demand signs from heaven. But Christ, seeing their deceitful hearts, said:

"Whenever the moist night closes the vaulted sky, if a red evening comes forth from starry Olympus, you say: Fair weather will come with the coming day. And when at the rising of the sun the gloomy clouds are mixed with red in a confused light, you say that a crashing rage of winds and fury of storms is coming upon farmers and sailors. Deceivers, you know how to discern the face of the sky, but do you not know how to search out the times of the ages by their signs? But signs will be given you, those that came once from the immense depth of the sea, when the beast held the prophet in the prison of its belly." He said this, and quickly loosing the ship's moorings, he hastened across the straits to reach the lands of Philippi on a swift course, and said to his companions: "Take care to avoid harmful grain and fierce leaven: turn them away from your tables. The Pharisees and deceitful Sadducees mix it into food and deceive under the name of bread. Why has hesitation set your silent minds turning? Ah, how small a faith grows faint with dulled understanding!

Turned aside, you say that you had no room to take loaves on the ship, and that I am ordering you to beware of the snares of grain. I thought you remembered and knew that five loaves filled five thousand of the people for me, and that from so many baskets the superfluous fragments were collected into a heap of food; and again that seven loaves easily filled four thousand who ate, and that you saw seven baskets brought back, again full of leftovers. But I warn you always to beware of the leaven of these men." The disciples, at last following the words of life, saw that it was their teaching that was meant by the name of leaven. Then, when they had arrived over the liquid deep at the famous lands that bear the name of Philip, he called together the council of his disciples and asked who the report of the peoples thought he was. They answered that there was much talk among the people: they had often heard, and many affirmed, that he was just John, who washed the peoples in the river. Some told of words of swift report they had heard, that Helias had come again, whom long ago the fervent power of a swift flame, in the likeness of a four-horse chariot, set among the stars in a heavenly whirlwind. Others said that the prophet Hieremias had appeared.

Then Christ, smiling on them all with a kindly heart, asked what the disciples' opinion was. But steadfast Peter said: "You are the Son of the Holy One, the Christ, who fill the lands with glorious light." Then the Lord answered strong Peter thus: "Peter, you will be blessed, for human blood or the body, a portion of earth, could surely never reveal such things. Only the gifts of the Father can grant so strong a power of faith. You keep the name of Peter with worthy virtue. On this mass, on the strength of this rock, I will set a house that will remain for ever with eternal walls. This house will have a bar that the gates of the underworld cannot overcome, fortified with everlasting strength; and it is my purpose to entrust to you the keys of the heavenly kingdom; and what you leave bound on earth by your decision will remain bound likewise in heaven; and again what your sentence has loosed on earth will be loosed in the same way beneath the seat of heaven. But you, my disciples, refrain from telling everyone that I am the Christ, so that only the worthy may know such things. Now the day will come, pressing on me with swift course, when within the walls of Solyma a headlong madness will in its fury glut the eminent priests with our blood.