It takes about four and a half hours to read the four gospels. That’s it. Until recently, you could read all we knew of Jesus’ life in the time it took to watch two movies.
Thankfully, in the 1940s Jesus gave us the rest of the story. That story is The Gospel as Revealed to Me (previously titled The Poem of the Man God), written by Maria Valtorta from visions and dictations given to her by Jesus to share with His children–us.
This 4000+ page, 10-volume work does not detract from the Master’s story as written in the gospels. It enriches it. Many of the stories in The Gospel as Revealed to Me are the same as those in the gospels, only in much greater detail. But also included are many teachings, healings, miracles, and moments in Jesus’ life that are not found in the gospels–ones he so graciously decided to share with us in the past century.
Here are just five of those details that you would not know about Jesus from the Bible alone.
1. The Sermon on the Mount lasted for five mornings.
The version we are given in the Gospel of Matthew is three chapters long–a few pages. The full sermon as given to us in Valtorta’s work is more than 50 pages. In it, Jesus explains the Beatitudes this way:
“Let us not say: ‘Woe to me if I do not do that’ trembling with fear of sinning, of
not being able not to sin. But let us say: ‘How glad I will be if I do that!’ and with the impulse of a supernatural joy, full of happiness, let us rush towards these beatitudes, brought about by compliance with the Law, as roses sprout from a thorny bush.”
“How happy I will be if I am poor in spirit, because mine shall be the Kingdom of Heaven!
“How happy I will be if I am gentle because I shall have the earth for my heritage!”
“How happy I will be if I mourn without rebelling, because I will be comforted!”
…and so on. He then expounds upon each Beatitude, giving us a richer explanation than any theologian could imagine.
2. Jesus saved an orphan and gave him to Peter and his wife.
The child, whose name was Jabez (whom Mother Mary later renamed Marjiam), was orphaned in a landslide. He became a great disciple of the Master, traveled with him and the apostles, and eventually became an adopted son to Peter, who had no biological children.
Jesus said, “He will be the son of my dawning Church. He will belong to everybody and to nobody. He will be ‘our’ child. He will follow us when distances will allow him to, or he will come to us and the shepherds will be his guardians, as in every child they love their Child Jesus.
3. Jesus did hundreds of healings.
In many gospel stories, Jesus gives sight to the blind, makes the lame walk, heals wounds instantaneously, and raises people from the dead. All the miraculous accounts in the four gospels are present in The Gospel as Revealed to Me, in rich detail. But it also reveals many miracles not found in the Bible, such as Jesus healing hundreds of people at once with his word or, as in this story, giving eyes to a boy who never had any.
“Why are you weeping, woman?”
“Because my son is blind, Master!”
“And you would like him to be able to see. Can you believe?”
“I do believe, Master. I was told that You have opened eyes which were closed. But my boy was born with dried eyes. Look at him, Jesus. There is nothing under his eyelids…”
Jesus raises towards Himself the little face prematurely serious and looks closer, lifting the eyelids with His thumbs. There are empty spaces under them. He resumes speaking holding with His hand the little face raised towards Himself.
“Why have you come then, woman?”
“Because… I know that it is more difficult for my boy… but if it is true that You are the Expected One, You can do it. Your Father created the worlds… Could You not make two eyes for my child?”
4. Jesus was hated in Bethlehem.
In another story that was not included in the original four gospels, Jesus returns to Bethlehem, the town of his birth. The town was devastated by the Slaughter of the Innocents that occurred just after Jesus was born. Herod, threatened by the birth of a new king, had commanded that all baby boys under the age of 2 in Bethlehem be killed. When Jesus returns as a man and preaches in the square, he is rejected as the cause of the people’s misery.
They all shout: “Our children, our husbands, our fathers! Let Him give them back, if He exists!”
Jesus waves His arms imposing silence. “Brethren of My land: I would like to give you back your children, in their flesh. But I tell you: be good, be resigned, forgive, hope, rejoice in hope and exult in one certainty: you will soon have your children, angels in Heaven, because the Messiah is about to open the gates of Heaven, and if you are just, death will be a new Life and a new Love…”
“Ah! Are You the Messiah? In the name of God, tell us.”
Jesus lowers His arms in so sweet and kind a gesture as if He were embracing them all, and He says, “Yes, I am.”
“Go away! Go away! It’s Your fault, then!”
5. Jesus appeared to 500 believers before his Ascension.
In The Gospel as Revealed to Me, Jesus appears on Mount Tabor after the Crucifixion. He gives guidance to those who will establish his Church upon the earth and promises his continual love for humanity.
“I solemnly tell you: I am about to go back to My Father. But the earth will not lose My presence. I shall be watchful and friendly, Master and Doctor, where bodies or souls, sinners or saints, will need Me or will be elected by Me to transmit My words to other people. Because, and this also is true, mankind will be in need of a continuous act of love from Me because it is so hard to bend, so easy to waver, ready to forget, eager to descend instead of ascending…”
These and hundreds of other vignettes from the life of our Lord are included in The Gospel as Revealed to Me, the first unabridged version of Maria Valtorta on Audio in English, read by Father Peter Bowes. Dive into the deeper story, and begin to receive all that the Master wanted to give us.
