Writings of Porphyry Ivanov. Parables.
About the Man and the Beast.
There came the first man on the horizon of life. And he saw a cave and entered it; he found that he was comfortable there, got warm and fell asleep. Then came the beast, he saw that the man slept, and killed him.
It came to pass some time. There appeared the second man on the horizon of life. And he saw the cave and the beast in it. The man entered the cave and fought with the beast, and it happened this way: the beast did not kill the man, but took his skull and wrote on: “Deity”. And again there was no more man.
But it came to pass some time after. And there appeared the third man on the horizon of life. He sees the cave and the beast in it.
There are two versions of the ending of this parable.
The first version. And the man set an ambush for the beast.
The second version. The man did not go into the cave, nor contacted with the beast, but passed round the cave and walked an unbeaten path ¹).
¹)As it is known, it was prohibited to spread religion in the Soviet Union, but today it may be said that the first man symbolizes Judaism, the second man — Christianity (where Jesus Christ, peace be upon him, is considered to be divine), and the third man — Islam.