Forbidden Gospels and Epistles, Complete

CHAPTER I.

1 Caiphas re­lates that Je­sus, when in his cra­dle, in­formed his moth­er that he was the Son of God. 5 Joseph and Mary go­ing to Beth­le­hem to be taxed, Mary’s time of bring­ing forth ar­rives, and she goes in­to a cave. 8 Joseph fetch­es in a He­brew wom­an. The cave filled with great lights. 11 The in­fant born, 17 and cures the wom­an. 19 Ar­rival of the shep­herds.

THE fol­low­ing ac­counts we found in the book of Joseph the high-​priest, called by some Caiphas:

2 He re­lates, that Je­sus spake even when he was in the cra­dle, and said to his moth­er:

3 Mary, I am Je­sus the Son of God, that word, which thou didst bring forth ac­cord­ing to the dec­la­ra­tion of the an­gel Gabriel to thee, and my fa­ther hath sent me for the sal­va­tion of the world.

4 In the three hun­dred and ninth year of the era of Alexan­der, Au­gus­tus pub­lished a de­cree that all per­sons should go to be taxed in their own coun­try.

5 Joseph there­fore arose, and with Mary his spouse he went to Jerusalem, and then came to Beth­le­hem, that he and his fam­ily might be taxed in the city of his fa­thers.

6 And when they came by the cave, Mary con­fessed to Joseph that her time of bring­ing forth was come, and she could not go on to the city, and said, Let us go in­to this cave.

7 At that time the sun was very near go­ing down.

8 But Joseph has­tened away, that he might fetch her a mid­wife; and when he saw an old He­brew wom­an who was of Jerusalem, he said to her, Pray come hith­er, good wom­an, and go in­to that cave, and you will there see a wom­an just ready to bring forth.

9 It was af­ter sun­set, when the old wom­an and Joseph with her reached the cave, and they both went in­to it.

10 And be­hold, it was all filled with lights, greater than the light of lamps and can­dles, and greater than the light of the sun it­self.

11 The in­fant was then wrapped up in swad­dling clothes, and suck­ing the breasts of his moth­er St. Mary.

12 When they both saw this light, they were sur­prised; the old wom­an asked St. Mary, Art thou the moth­er of this child?

13 St. Mary replied, She was.

14 On which the old wom­an said, Thou art very dif­fer­ent from all oth­er wom­en.

15 St. Mary an­swered, As there is not any child like to my son, so nei­ther is there any wom­an like to his moth­er.

16 The old wom­an an­swered, and said, O my La­dy, I am come hith­er that I may ob­tain an ev­er­last­ing re­ward.

17 Then our La­dy St. Mary said to her, Lay thine hands up­on the in­fant, which, when she had done, she be­came whole.

18 And as she was go­ing forth, she said, From hence­forth, all the days of my life, I will at­tend up­on and be a ser­vant of this in­fant.

19 Af­ter this, when the shep­herds came, and had made a fire, and they were ex­ceed­ing­ly re­joi­ce­ing, the heav­en­ly host ap­peared to them, prais­ing and ador­ing the supreme God.

20 And as the shep­herds were en­gaged in the same em­ploy­ment, the cave at that time seemed like a glo­ri­ous tem­ple, be­cause both the tongues of an­gels and men unit­ed to adore and mag­ni­fy God, on ac­count of the birth of the Lord Christ.

21 But when the old He­brew wom­an saw all these ev­ident mir­acles, she gave prais­es to God, and said, I thank thee, O God, thou God of Is­rael, for that mine eyes have seen the birth of the Saviour of the world.

CHAP. II.

1 The child cir­cum­cised in the cave, 2 and the old wom­an pre­serv­ing his fore­skin or navel-​string in a box of spike­nard, Mary af­ter­wards an­noints Christ with it. 5 Christ brought to the tem­ple; 6 He shines, 7 and an­gels stand around him ador­ing. 8 Sime­on prais­es Christ.

AND when the time of his cir­cum­ci­sion was come: name­ly, the eighth day, on which the law com­mand­ed the child to be cir­cum­cised; they cir­cum­cised him in the cave.

2 And the old He­brew wom­an took the fore­skin (oth­ers say she took the navel-​string), and pre­served it in an al­abaster-​box of old oil of spike­nard.

3 And she had a son who was a drug­gist, to whom she said, Take heed thou sell not this al­abaster- box of spike­nard-​oint­ment, al­though thou shouldst be of­fered three hun­dred pence for it.

4 Now this is that al­abaster- box which Mary the sin­ner pro­cured, and poured forth the oint­ment out of it up­on the head and the feet of our Lord Je­sus Christ, and wiped them off with the hairs of her head.

5 Then af­ter ten days they brought him to Jerusalem, and on the for­ti­eth day from his birth they pre­sent­ed him in the tem­ple be­fore the Lord, mak­ing the prop­er of­fer­ings for him, ac­cord­ing to the re­quire­ment of the law of Moses: name­ly, that ev­ery male which opens the womb shall be called holy un­to God.

6 At that time old Sime­on saw him shin­ing as a pil­lar of light, when St. Mary the Vir­gin, his moth­er, car­ried him in her arms, and was filled with the great­est plea­sure at the sight.

7 And the an­gels stood around him, ador­ing him, as a king’s guards stand around him.

8 Then Sime­on go­ing near to St. Mary, and stretch­ing forth his hands to­wards her, said to the Lord Christ, Now, O My Lord, thy ser­vant shall de­part in peace, ac­cord­ing to thy word;

9 For mine eyes have seen thy mer­cy, which thou hast pre­pared for the sal­va­tion of all na­tions; a light to all peo­ple, and the glo­ry of thy peo­ple Is­rael.

10 Han­nah the prophet­ess was al­so present, and draw­ing near, she gave prais­es to God, and cel­ebrat­ed the hap­pi­ness of Mary.