Forbidden Gospels and Epistles, Complete

CHAPTER IV.

1 Herod in­tends to put Christ to death. 3 An an­gel warns Joseph to take the child and his moth­er in­to Egypt. 6 Con­ster­na­tion on their ar­rival. 13 The idols fall down. 15 Mary wash­es Christ’s swad­dling clothes, hangs them to dry on a post, and the son of a priest puts one on his head; 16 And be­ing pos­sessed of dev­ils they leave him.

NOW Herod per­ceiv­ing that the wise men did de­lay and not re­turn to him, called to­geth­er the priest and wise men, and said, Tell me in what place the Christ should be born.

2 And when they replied, in Beth­le­hem,–a city of Ju­daea, he be­gan to con­trive in his own mind the death of the Lord Je­sus Christ.

3 But an an­gel of the Lord ap­peared to Joseph in his sleep, and said, Arise, take the child and his moth­er, and go in­to Egypt as soon as the cock crows. So he arose, and went.

4 And as he was con­sid­er­ing with him­self about his jour­ney, the morn­ing came up­on him.

5 In the length of the jour­ney the girts of the sad­dle broke.

6 And now he drew near to a great city, in which there was an idol, to which the priests of the oth­er idols and gods of Egypt brought their of­fer­ings and vows.

7 And there was by this idol a priest min­is­ter­ing to it, who, as of­ten as Sa­tan spoke out of that idol, re­lat­ed the things he said to the in­hab­itants of Egypt, and those coun­tries.

8 This priest had a son three years old, who was pos­sessed with a great mul­ti­tude of dev­ils, who ut­tered many strange things and when the dev­ils seized him, walked about naked with his clothes torn, throw­ing stones at those whom he saw.

9 Near to that idol was the inn of the city, in­to which when Joseph and St. Mary were come, and had turned in­to that inn, all the in­hab­itants of the city were as­ton­ished.

10 And all the mag­is­trates and priests of the idols as­sem­bled be­fore that idol, and made in­quiry there, say­ing, What means all this con­ster­na­tion, and dread, which has fall­en up­on all our coun­try?

11 The idol an­swered them, The un­known God is come thith­er, who is tru­ly God; nor is there any one be­sides him, who is wor­thy of di­vine wor­ship for he is tru­ly the Son of God.

12 At the fame of him this coun­try trem­bled, and at his com­ing it is un­der the present com­mo­tion and con­ster­na­tion, and we our­selves are afright­ed by the great­ness of his pow­er.

13 And at the same in­stant this idol fell down, and at his fall all the in­hab­itants of Egypt, be­sides oth­ers ran to­geth­er.

14 But the son of the priest, when his usu­al dis­or­der came up­on him go­ing in­to the inn, found there Joseph and St. Mary, whom all the rest had left be­hind and for­sook.

15 And when the La­dy St. Mary had washed the swad­dling clothes of the Lord Christ, and hanged them out to dry up­on a post, the boy pos­sessed with the dev­il took down one of them, and put it up­on his head.

16 And present­ly the dev­ils be­gan to come out of his mouth, and fly away in the shape of crows and ser­pents.

17 From that time the boy was healed by the pow­er of the Lord Christ and he be­gan to sing prais­es, and give thanks to the Lord who had healed him.

18 When his fa­ther saw him re­stored to his for­mer state of health, he said, My son, what has hap­pened to thee, and by what means wert thou cured?

19 The son an­swered, When the dev­ils seized me, I went in­to the inn, and there found a very hand­some wom­an with a boy, whose swad­dling clothes she had just be­fore washed, and hanged out up­on a post.

20 One of these I took, and put it up­on my head, and im­me­di­ate­ly the dev­ils left me, and fled away.

21 At this the fa­ther ex­ceed­ing­ly re­joiced, and said, My son, per­haps this boy is the son of the liv­ing God, who made the heav­ens and the earth.

22 For as soon as he came amongst us, the idol was bro­ken, and all the gods fell down, and were de­stroyed by a greater pow­er.

23 Then was ful­filled the prophe­cy which saith, Out of Egypt I have called my son.