Forbidden Gospels and Epistles, Complete

CHAPTER XVIII.

1 Je­sus be­comes the king of his playfel­lows, and they crown him with flow­ers; 4 mirac­ulous­ly caus­es a ser­pent who had bit­ten Si­mon the Cananite, then a boy, to suck out all the poi­son again; 16 the ser­pent bursts, and Christ re­stores the boy to health.

IN the month Adar Je­sus gath­ered to­geth­er the boys, and ranked them as though he had been a king.

2 For they spread their gar­ments on the ground for him to sit on; and hav­ing made a crown of flow­ers, put it up­on his head, and stood on his right and left as the guards of a king.

3 And if any one hap­pened to pass by, they took him by force, and said, Come hith­er, and wor­ship the king, that you may have a pros­per­ous jour­ney.

4 In the mean time, while these things were do­ing, there came cer­tain men, car­ry­ing a boy up­on a couch;

5 For this boy hav­ing gone with his com­pan­ions to the moun­tain to gath­er wood, and hav­ing found there a par­tridge’s nest, and put his hand in to take out the eggs, was stung by a poi­sonous ser­pent, which leaped out of the nest; so that he was forced to cry out for the help of his com­pan­ions; who, when they came, found him ly­ing up­on the earth like a dead per­son.

6 Af­ter which his neigh­bours came and car­ried him back in­to the city.

7 But when they came to the place where the Lord Je­sus, was sit­ting like a king, and the oth­er boys stood around him like his min­is­ters, the boys made haste to meet him, who was bit­ten by the ser­pent, and said to his neigh­bours, Come and pay your re­spects to the king;

8 But when, by rea­son of their sor­row, they re­fused to come, the boys drew them, and forced them against their wills to come.

9 And when they came to the Lord Je­sus, he in­quired, On what ac­count they car­ried that boy?

10 And when they an­swered that a ser­pent had bit­ten him, the Lord Je­sus said to the boys, Let us go and kill that ser­pent.

11 But when the par­ents of the boy de­sired to be ex­cused, be­cause their son lay at the point of death; the boys made an­swer, and said, Did not ye hear what the king said? Let us go and kill the ser­pent; and will not ye obey him?

12 So they brought the couch back again, whether they would or not.

13 And when they were come to the nest, the Lord Je­sus said to the boys, Is this the ser­pent’s lurk­ing place? They said, It was.

14 Then the Lord Je­sus call­ing the ser­pent, it present­ly came forth and sub­mit­ted to him; to whom he said, Go and suck out all the poi­son which thou hast in­fused in­to that boy:

15 So the ser­pent crept to the boy, and took away all its poi­son again.

16 Then the Lord Je­sus cursed the ser­pent, so that it im­me­di­ate­ly burst asun­der, and died;

17 And he touched the boy with his hand to re­store him to his for­mer health;

18 And when he be­gan to cry, the Lord Je­sus said, Cease cry­ing for here­after thou shale be my dis­ci­ple;

19 And this is that Si­mon the Canaan­ite, who is men­tioned in the Gospel.