The Disciples' Vision

1Another day Jesus came up to them. They said to him, “Master, we have seen you in a dream, because we had great dreams last night.”

2But Jesus said, “Why … hidden yourselves?”

3And they said, “We saw a great house, with a great altar in it, and twelve people—we would say they were priests—and a name. A crowd of people was waiting at the altar until the priests finished receiving the offerings. We kept waiting too.”

4Jesus said, “What were they like?”

5They said, “Some fast for two weeks. Others sacrifice their own children; others sacrifice their wives, praising and humbling themselves among one another. Others sleep with men; others murder; still others commit many sins and do criminal things. And the people standing before the altar invoke your name! In all their sacrificing, they fill the altar with their offerings.” When they said this, they fell silent because they were troubled.

6Jesus said to them, “Why are you troubled? Truly I say to you, all the priests standing before that altar invoke my name. And again, I say to you, my name has been written on this house of the generations of the stars by the human generations. And they have shamefully planted fruitless trees in my name.”

7Jesus said to them, “You are the ones receiving the offerings on the altar you have seen. That is the God you serve, and you are the twelve people you have seen. The animals you saw being brought in for sacrifice are the crowd you lead astray before that altar. Your minister will stand up and use my name in that way, and the generations of the pious will be loyal to him. After him, another person will present those who sleep around, another those who murder children, another those who sleep with men, and those who fast, and the rest of impurity, crime, and error. And those who say, ‘We are equal to the angels’—they are the stars that finish everything. It has been said to the human generations, ‘Look, God has accepted your sacrifice from the hands of priests,’ that is, from the minister of error. But the Lord who commands is the Lord over everything. On the last day, they will be found guilty.”

8Jesus said to them, “Stop sacrificing animals. You have offered them over the altar, over your stars with your angels, where they have already been completed. So let them become … with you, and let them become clear.”

9His disciples said to him, “Cleanse us from our sins, which we have committed through the deceit of the angels.”

10Jesus said to them, “It is not possible …, nor can a fountain quench the fire of the entire inhabited world. Nor can a city’s well satisfy all the generations, except for the great, stable one. A single lamp will not illuminate all the realms, except for the second generation, nor can a baker feed all creation under heaven.”

11And when the disciples heard these things, they said to him, “Master, help us and save us!”

12Jesus said to them, “Stop struggling against me. Each of you has your own star, and … of the stars will … what belongs to it … I was not sent to the corruptible generation, but to the strong and incorruptible generation, because no enemy has ruled over that generation, nor any of the stars. Truly I say to you, the pillar of fire will fall quickly, and that generation will not be moved by the stars.”