“There, you can see how simple it is to expose your delusion. If I am deceived, then expose me. But if there is no delusion in me, then why not believe me?”
And the Jews began to curse him and said that he was mad.
He said, “I am not mad, I just honor the father and you want to kill me for it. So it seems that you are not my brothers, but are children of some other father. I am not the one to confirm my correctness, it is the truth that speaks for me. And therefore I will repeat to you: whoever comprehends my teaching and lives by it will not see death.”
And the Jews said, “Is it really wrong for us to call you a mad Samaritan? You have exposed yourself. The prophets died, Abraham died, but you say that whoever lives by your teaching will not see death. Abraham died, but you won’t die? What, are you greater than Abraham?”
The Jews were still puzzling over the fact that he was Jesus from Galilee, and the question of whether or not he was an important prophet, so they forgot all that he had told them, that he had said nothing about himself as a person, but that he spoke only of the spirit that was within him.
And Jesus said, “I do not do anything myself. If I had been talking about myself, about how things seem to me, then everything I said would have meant nothing, but what I have been speaking of is the source of all things, which you call God. And you did not and do not know the actual God, but I know him. I cannot say that I do not know him. I would be a liar, just like you, if I said that I do not know him. I know him, I know his will and I fulfill it. Abraham, your father, saw and rejoiced in my knowledge.”
The Jews said, “You are fifty years old,* how could you have lived at the same time as Abraham?”
He said, “Before Abraham existed, the knowledge of goodness existed, this is what I have been telling you about.”
The Jews picked up stones to beat him, but he left them.
And along the road, Jesus saw a man that had been blind from birth.
And his students asked, “Who is to blame that this man is blind from birth. Is it his fault or his parents’, since they did not educate him?”
And Jesus answered, “Neither he nor his parents are to blame, but this is how God operates, creating light where there had been darkness. Wherever my teaching goes, it becomes the light of the world.”
And Jesus revealed his teaching of being the son of God the spirit to the blind man, and when the blind man experienced the teaching, he experienced light. And those that previously knew this man could not recognize him. He was similar to how he had been before, but had now become a different person.
He said, “I am the same, but Jesus revealed to me that I am the son of God, and light opened up to me and I saw what I had never seen before.”
This man was called before the orthodox teachers, and it was the Sabbath. And the orthodox asked him how he had begun to understand all things, when previously he had been blind.
He said, “I do not know how, I just know that now I understand everything.”
They said, “You do not understand this in a godly way because Jesus did this on the Sabbath; moreover, a worldly man cannot enlighten people.”
And they began to argue.
And then they asked the enlightened man, “What do you think of him?”
He said, “I think he is a prophet.”
The Jews could not believe that he had previously been blind, but that now he could see light, so they had called his parents and asked them, “Is this your son, the one who was blind from birth? How is it that he is now enlightened?”
The parents said, “We know that this is our son and that he has been blind since birth. But how it happened that he is now enlightened, we do not know. He is an adult, ask him.”
The orthodox called the man a second time and said, “Pray to our true God, because we know for certain that that man who enlightened you is a worldly man and is not from God.”
And the enlightened one said, “As to the question of whether the man is from God or not, I do not know. I know only one thing: that I did not see the light before and now I see it.”
And the orthodox asked again, “What did he do with you, how did he enlighten you?”
He said, “I already told you, but you do not believe me. If you want to be his students, then I will tell you again.”
And they began to curse him and said, “You may be his student, but we are students of Moses. God himself spoke with Moses. But we do not even know where this one comes from.”
And the man answered and said, “It is amazing that he has enlightened me, but you still don’t know where he comes from. God does not listen to sinners, he listens to those that honor him and do his will. It could never be that a man who is not from God could enlighten a blind man. If he were not from God, he could not do anything.”
And the orthodox became angry and said, “You are completely immersed in delusion, and yet you want to teach us.”
So they threw him out.
And Jesus said, “My teaching is an awakening of life. Whoever believes in my teaching, despite dying mortally, will remain living, and everyone who lives and believes in me will not die.”
And again, for the third time, Jesus taught the people.
He said, “People are devoting themselves to my teaching, and not because I prove it myself. It is impossible to prove the truth. Truth proves everything else. But people devote themselves to my teaching because it is unified and is familiar to people, and it promises life. For the people, my teaching is like the familiar voice of the shepherd is for the sheep, when he comes in at the gate and gathers them in order to take them to pasture. No one believes your teaching because it is foreign to people, and people notice within it your lusts. For the people, your teaching is the same as the appearance of a stranger who does not enter at the gate, but climbs over the fence for the sheep. The sheep do not know him and can sense that he is an outlaw.
“My teaching is the one truth, like the one gate for the sheep. All of your teaching from the law of Moses is a lie. It is all like thieves and outlaws for the sheep. Whoever devotes themselves to my teaching will find true life, just as the sheep will go out and find food if they follow the shepherd. Because a thief only comes intending to steal, plunder and destroy, but the shepherd comes to give life. And only my teaching promises and gives true life.
“There are those shepherds for whom the sheep are their entire lives and who would give those lives for the sheep. These are true shepherds. But there are also hired workers, those that are not too troubled about the sheep, because they are just hired workers and the sheep do not belong to them, those who, if a wolf comes near, drop everything and run, allowing the wolf to destroy the sheep. These are not true shepherds.
“Likewise, there are false teachers, those that have no stake in the lives of people, and there are true ones, those that give their souls for the lives of the people. I am such a teacher. My teaching is to give my life for the people. No one can take it from me, I myself am freely giving it for the people, in order to receive true life. I received this commandment from my father. And just as the father knows me, I know the father, and therefore I lay down my life for the people. And for that, the father loves me, because I am keeping his commandments. And all people, not only those here and now, but all people will understand my voice and they will all gather together as one; all people will be unified and their teaching will be one.”
And the Jews surrounded him and said, “Everything that you say is difficult to understand, and it does not correspond with scripture. Do not torment us, just tell us, simply and directly: are you that Messiah who is supposed to come into the world, according to our scripture?”