Levi H. Dowling - The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ

4. The priest replied, This is our sacrifice for sin. God has commanded us to do these things, and said that in these sacrifices all our sins are blotted out.

5. And Jesus said, Will you be kind enough to tell when God proclaimed that sins are blotted out by sacrifice of any kind?

6. Did not David say that God requires a sacrifice for sin? that it is a sin itself to bring before his face burnt offerings, as offerings for sin? Did not Isaiah say the same?

7. The priest replied, My child you are beside yourself. Do you know more about the laws of God than all the priests of Israel? This is no place for boys to show their wit.

8. But Jesus heeded not his taunts; he went to Hillel, chief of the Sanhedrim, and he said to him,

9. Rabboni, I would like to talk with you; I am disturbed about this service of the pascal feast. I thought the temple was the house of God where love and kindness dwell.

10. Do you not hear the bleating of those lambs, the pleading of those doves that men are killing over there? Do you not smell that awful stench that comes from burning flesh?

11. Can man be kind and just, and still be filled with cruelty?

12. A God that takes delight in sacrifice, in blood and burning flesh, is not my Father-God.

13. I want to find a God of love, and you, my master, you are wise, and surely you can tell me where to find the God of love.

14. But Hillel could not give an answer to the child. His heart was stirred with sympathy. He called the child to him; he laid his hand upon his head and wept.

15. He said, There is a God of love, and you shall come with me; and hand in hand we will go forth and find the God of love.

16. And Jesus said, Why need we go? I thought that God was everywhere. Can we not purify our hearts and drive out cruelty, and every wicked thought, and make within, a temple where the God of love can dwell?

17. The master of the great Sanhedrim felt as though he was himself the child, and that before him stood Rabboni, master of the higher law.

18. He said within himself, This child is surely prophet sent from God.

19. Then Hillel sought the parents of the child, and asked that Jesus might abide with them, and learn the precepts of the law, and all the lessons of the temple priests.

20. His parents gave consent, and Jesus did abide within the holy temple in Jerusalem, and Hillel taught him every day.

21. And every day the master learned from Jesus many lessons of the higher life.

22. The child remained with Hillel in the temple for a year, and then returned unto his home in Nazareth; and there he wrought with Joseph as a carpenter.

Table of Contents

1. Again the great feast in Jerusalem was on, and Joseph, Mary and their son were there. The child was twelve years old.

2. And there were Jews and proselytes from many countries in Jerusalem.

3. And Jesus sat among the priests and doctors in the temple hall.

4. And Jesus opened up a book of prophecy and read:

5. Woe, woe to Ariel, the town where David dwelt! I will dismantle Ariel, and she shall groan and weep:

6. And I will camp against her round about with hostile posts;

7. And I will bring her low and she shall speak out of the earth; with muffled voice like a familiar spirit shall she speak; yea she shall only whisper forth her speech;

8. And foes unnumbered, like the grains of dust, shall come upon her suddenly.

9. The Lord of Hosts will visit her with thunder and with tempest, and with storm; with earthquake, and with devouring flames.

10. Lo, all these people have deserted me. They draw to me with speech, and with their lips they honour me; their hearts are far removed from me; their fear for me is that inspired by man.

11. And I will breath upon my people, Israel; the wisdom of their wise men shall be lost; the understanding of their prudent men shall not be found.

12. My people seek to hide their counsel from the Lord, so that their works may not be seen. They fain would cover up their works with darkness of the night, and say, Who sees us now? Who knows us now?

13. Poor, foolish men! shall that which has been made say of its maker, He is naught, I made myself?

14. Or shall the pot speak out and say to him, who made the pot, You have no skill; you do not know?

15. But this will not for ever be; the time will come when Lebanon will be a fruitful field, and fruitful fields will be transformed to groves.

16. And on that day the deaf will hear the words of God; the blind will read the Book of God's Remembrance.

17. And suffering ones will be relieved, and they will have abundant joy; and every one that needs will be supplied; and it will come to pass that all the foolish will be wise.

18. The people will return and sanctify the Holy One, and in their heart of hearts, lo, they will reverence him.

19. When Jesus had thus read he put aside the book and said, You masters of the law, will you make plain for us the prophet's words?

20. Now, Hillel sat among the masters of the law, and he stood forth and said, Perhaps our young rabboni who has read the word will be interpreter.

21. And Jesus said, The Ariel of the prophet is our own Jerusalem.

22. By selfishness and cruelty this people has become a stench unto the Elohim.

23. The prophet saw these days from far, and of these times he wrote.

24. Our doctors, lawyers, priests and scribes oppress the poor, while they themselves in luxury live.

25. The sacrifices and the offerings of Israel are but abomination unto God. They only sacrifice that God requires is self.

26. Because of this injustice and this cruelty of man to man, the Holy One has spoken of this commonwealth:

27. Lo, I will overturn, yes, I will overturn, it shall be overturned, and it shall be no more until he comes whose right it is and I will give it unto him.

28. In all the world there is one law of right, and he who breaks that law will suffer grief; for God is just. 29. And Israel has gone far astray; has not regarded justice, nor the rights of man, and God demands that Israel shall reform, and turn again to ways of holiness.

30. And if our people will not hear the voice of God, lo, nations from afar will come and sack Jerusalem, and tear our temple down, and take our people captive into foreign lands.

31. But this will not for ever be; though they be scattered far and wide, and wander here and there among the nations of the earth, like sheep that have no shepherd guide.

32. The time will come when God will bring again the captive hosts; for Israel shall return and dwell in peace.

33. And after many years our temple our temple shall be built again, and one whom God will honour, one in whom the pure in heart delights will come and glorify the house of God, and reign in righteousness.

34. When Jesus had thus said, he stepped aside, and all the people were amazed and said, This surely is the Christ.

Table of Contents

1. The great feast of the pasch was ended and the Nazarenes were journeying towards their homes.

2. And they were in Samaria, and Mary said, Where is my son? No one had seen the boy.

3. And Joseph sought among their kindred who were on their way to Galilee; but they had seen him not.

4. Then Joseph, Mary, and a son of Zebedee, returned and sought through all Jerusalem, but they could find him not.

5. And then they went up to the temple courts and asked the guards, Have you seen Jesus, a fair-haired boy, with deep blue eyes, twelve years of age, about these courts?

6. The guards replied, Yes, he is in the temple now disputing with the doctors of the law.

7. And they went in, and found him as the guards had said.

8. And Mary said, Why Jesus, why do you treat your parents thus? Lo, we have sought two days for you. We feared that some great harm had overtaken you.