9.15.7.1 They only had the conviction of Jewish tradition to support their statements
– whilst my mind had been imbued with the true knowledge
of existence itself during my illumined experiences in the desert.
9.15.8 I had been given understanding of the universality and creative
GOODWILL of the Father which enabled me to perceive and do things
which no Chief Priest or Pharisee or Sadducee or scribe could ever do.
I could, with confidence, put my hands upon a crippled man
and raise him up to wholeness again.
9.15.9.1 Who could measure this knowledge
against the ridiculous traditional laws of the Priests?
9.15.10 The Priests and Pharisees and all the rest of the religious hocus-pocus
knew that none of them could do such things – and for this reason,
they hated me for challenging their authority, they loathed me
for my strength in the face of their opposition, and they reviled me for drawing crowds of people when a healing was done which no one could deny.
9.15.10.1 There it was, done in the open, for all to see –
an act of love which the Priests averred only God could do
and therefore I must be a child of Satan! Furthermore,
they did not see the healing as an act of love but rather
as an inexplicable blasphemous usurpation of the role of God
– they accused me of showing off my magical powers
but could not tell me how I came by such magical powers,
therefore they decided I must be a son of Beelzebub.
who read these words – as it was so very clear to me at that time in Palestine –
that the whole hierarchy of Judaism was composed of self-centred,
self-important, mixed up men who lived only by rules and laws.
9.16.1 When challenged to use their minds, their brains, they could not cope
but fell into highly emotional spasms of vitriolic outrage.
9.16.2 Was it any wonder that, when brought before their council,
I held my peace and refused to communicate with such obtuse minds?
I lived amongst the ordinary men and women who had been taught
to fear Jehovah in a very real way; who were obsessed with paying
for burnt sacrifices to ward off punishment for their sins.
9.17.1 I was raised, indoctrinated in the fear of Jehovah – but I had been born
to bring the Jews out of their long slumber of myth and fallacies –
to set them free of a burdensome history of wars and bloodshed,
brawling and arguments, of demanding a head for the loss of an eye,
of hidden and secret sinning which counted for nothing
if a man was not found out.