Forbidden Gospels and Epistles, Complete

CHAPTER XVI.

1 Herod en­raged, or­ders the in­fants in Beth­le­hem to be slain. 2 Mary puts her in­fant in an ox-​manger. 3 Eliz­abeth flees with her son John to the moun­tains. 6 A moun­tain mirac­ulous­ly di­vides and re­ceives them. 9 Herod in­censed at the es­cape of John, caus­es Zacharias to be mur­dered at the al­tar. 23 The roofs of the tem­ple rent, the body mirac­ulous­ly con­veyed, and the blood pet­ri­fied. 25 Is­rael mourns for him. 27 Sime­on cho­sen his suc­ces­sor by lot.

THEN Herod per­ceiv­ing that he was mocked by the wise men, and be­ing very an­gry, com­mand­ed cer­tain men to go and to kill all the chil­dren that were in Beth­le­hem, from two years old and un­der.

2 But Mary hear­ing that the chil­dren were to be, killed, be­ing un­der much fear, took the child, and wrapped him up in swad­dling clothes, and laid him in an ox- manger, be­cause there was no room for them in the inn.

3 Eliz­abeth al­so, hear­ing that her son John was about to be searched for; took him and went up un­to the moun­tains, and looked around for a place to hide him;

4 And there was no se­cret place to be found.

5 Then she groaned with­in her­self, and said, O moun­tain of the Lord, re­ceive the moth­er with the child.

6 For Eliz­abeth could not climb up,

7 And in­stant­ly the moun­tain was di­vid­ed and re­ceived them.

8 And there ap­peared to them an an­gel of the Lord to pre­serve them.

9 But Herod made search af­ter John, and sent ser­vants to Zacharias, when he was (min­is­ter­ing) at the al­tar, and said un­to him, Were hast thou hid thy son?

10 He replied, to them, I am a min­is­ter of God, and a ser­vant at the al­tar: how should I know where my son is?

11 So the ser­vants went back, and told Herod the whole; at which he was in­censed, and said, Is not this son of his like to be king of Is­rael?

12 He sent there­fore again his ser­vants to Zacharias, say­ing, Tell us the truth, where is thy son, for you know that your life is in my hand.

13 So the ser­vants went and told him all this:

14 But Zacharias replied to them, I am a mar­tyr for God, and if ye skied my blood, the Lord will re­ceive my soul.

15 Be­sides know that ye shed in­no­cent blood.

16 How­ev­er Zacharias was mur­dered in the en­trance of the tem­ple said al­tar, and about the par­ti­tion;

17 But the chil­dren of Is­rael knew not when he want killed.

18 Then at the hour of salu­ta­tion the pnests went in­to the tem­ple but Zacharias did not ac­cord­ing to cus­tom, meet them and bless them.

19 Yet they still con­tin­ued wait­ing for him to salute them;

20 And when they found he did not in a long time come, one of them ven­tured in­to the holy place where the al­tar was, and he saw blood ly­ing up­on the ground con­gealed:

21 When, be­hold, a voice from heav­en said, Zacharias is mur­dered, and his blood shall not be wiped away, un­til the re­venger of his blood come.

22 But when he heard this, he was afraid; and went forth and told the priests what he had seen and heard; and they all went in, and saw the fact.

23 Then the roofs of the tem­ple howled, and were rent from the top to the bot­tom:

24 And they could not find the body, but on­ly blood made hard like stone.

25 And they went away, and told the peo­ple, that Zacharias was mur­dered, and all the tribes of Is­rael heard there­of, and mourned for him, and lament­ed three days:

26 Then the priests took coun­cil to­geth­er con­cern­ing a per­son to suc­ceed him.

27 And Sime­on and the oth­er priests cast lots, and the lot fell up­on Sime­on.

28 For he had been as­sured by the Holy Spir­it, that he should not die, till he had seen Christ come in the flesh.

(I James wrote this His­to­ry in Jerusalem: and when the dis­tur­bance was I re­tired in­to a desert place, un­til the death of Herod, and the dis­tur­bances ceased at Jerusalem. That which re­mains is, that I glo­ri­fy God that he hath giv­en me such wis­dom to write un­to you who are spir­itu­al, and who love God: to whom (be as­cribed) glo­ry and do­min­ion for ev­er and ev­er. Amen.)

THE PRO­TE­VAN­GE­LION. Note on the death of Zacharias in, Chap. 16.

There is a sto­ry both in the Jerusalem and Baby­lonish Tal­mud very sim­ilar to this. It is cit­ed by Dr. Light­foot, Tal­mud, Hi­erosol, in Taanith, fol. 69; and Tal­mud. Babyl. in San­hedr., fol. 96. “O Rab­bi Jochanan said, Eighty thou­sand priests were slain for the blood of Zacharias. Rab­bi Ju­das asked Rab­bi Achan, Where did they kill Zacharias? Was it in the wom­an’s court, or in the court of Is­rael? He an­swered, Nei­ther in the court of Is­rael, nor in the court of wom­en, but in the court of the priests; and they did not treat his blood in the same man­ner as they were wont to treat the blood of a ram or young goat. For of these it is writ­ten, He shall pour out his blood, and cov­er it with dust. But it is writ­ten here, The blood is in the midst of her: she set it up­on the top of a rock; she poured it not up­on the ground. (Ezek. xxiv. 7.) But why was this? That it might cause fury to come up to take vengeance: I have set his blood up­on the top of a rock, that it should not be cov­ered. They com­mit­ted sev­en evils that day: they mur­dered a priest, a prophet, and a king; they shed the blood of the in­no­cent they pol­lut­ed the court: that day was the Sab­bath: and the day of ex­pi­ation. When there­fore Neb­uzaradan came there (viz. to Jerusalem,) he saw his blood bub­bling, and said to them, What meaneth this? They an­swered, It is the blood of calves, lambs, and rams, which we have of­fered up­on the al­tar. He com­mand­ed then, that they should bring calves, and lambs, and rams, and said I will try whether this be their blood: ac­cord­ing­ly they brought and slew them, but the blood of Zacharias still bub­bled, but the blood of these did not bub­ble. Then he said, De­clare to me the truth of this mat­ter, or else I will comb your flesh with iron combs. Then said they to him, He was a priest, prophet, and judge, who proph­esied to Is­rael all these calami­ties which we have suf­fered from you; but we arose against him, and slew him. Then, said he, I will ap­pease him then he took the rab­bins and slew them up­on his (viz. Zacharias’s) blood, and he was not yet ap­peased. Next he took the young boys from the schools, and slew them up­on his blood; and yet it bub­bled. Then he brought the young priests and slew them in the-​same place, and yet it still bub­bled. So he slew at length nine­ty-​four thou­sand per­sons up­on his blood, and it did not as yet cease bub­bling, then he drew near to it, and said, O Zacharias, Zacharias, thou halt oc­ca­sioned the death of the chief of thy coun­try­men, shall I slay them all? then the blood ceased, and did bub­ble no more.”

REF­ER­ENCES TO THE PRO­TE­VAN­GE­LION.

[This Gospel is as­cribed to James. The al­lu­sions to it in the an­cient Fa­thers are fre­quent, and their ex­pres­sions in­di­cate that it had ob­tained a very gen­er­al cred­it in the Chris­tian world. The con­tro­ver­sies found­ed up­on it chiefly re­late to the age of Joseph at the birth of Christ, and to his be­ing a wid­ow­er with chil­dren, be­fore his mar­riage with the Vir­gin. It seems ma­te­ri­al to re­mark, that the leg­ends of the lat­ter ages af­firm the vir­gin­ity of Joseph, notwith­stand­ing Epipha­nius, Hi­lary, Chrysos­tom, Cyril, Eu­thymius, The­phy­laet, Oc­cu­me­nius, and in­deed all the Latin Fa­thers till Am­brose, and the Greek Fa­thers af­ter­wards, main­tain the opin­ions of Joseph’s age and fam­ily, found­ed up­on their be­lief in the au­then­tic­ity of this book. It is sup­posed to have been orig­inal­ly com­posed in He­brew. Postel­lus brought the MS. of this Gospel from the Lev­ant, trans­lat­ed it in­to Latin, and sent it to Oporimus, a print­er at Basil, where Bib­lian­der, a Protes­tant Di­vine, and the Pro­fes­sor of Di­vin­ity at Zurich, caused it to be print­ed in 1552. Postel­lus as­serts that it was pub­licly read as canon­ical in the east­ern church­es they mak­ing no doubt that James was the au­thor, of it. It is, nev­er­the­less con­sid­ered apoc­ryphal by some of the most learned di­vines in the Protes­tant and Catholic church­es.]

THE FIRST GOSPEL OF THE IN­FAN­CY OF JE­SUS CHRIST.