Forbidden Gospels and Epistles, Complete

CHAPTER I.

1 Christ ac­cused to Pi­late by the Jews of heal­ing on the Sab­bath. 9 Sum­moned be­fore Pi­late by a mes­sen­ger who does him hon­our. 20 Wor­shipped by the stan­dards bow­ing down to him.

AN­NAS and Caiphas, and Sum­mas, and Datam, Gamaliel, Ju­das, Levi, Nepthal­im, Alexan­der, Cyrus, and oth­er Jews, went to Pi­late about Je­sus, ac­cus­ing him with many bad crimes.

2 And said, We are as­sured that Je­sus is the son of Joseph, the car­pen­ter, and born of Mary, and that he de­clares him­self the Son of God, and a king; and not on­ly so, but at­tempts the dis­so­lu­tion of the Sab­bath, and the laws of our fa­thers.

3 Pi­late replied, What is it which he de­clares? and what is it which he at­tempts dis­solv­ing?

4 The Jews told him, We have a law which for­bids do­ing cures on the Sab­bath day; but he cures both the lame and the deaf, those af­flict­ed with the pal­sy, the blind, the lep­ers, and de­mo­ni­acs, on that day, by wicked meth­ods.

5 Pi­late replied, How can he do this by wicked meth­ods? They an­swered He is a con­jur­er, and casts out dev­ils by the prince of the dev­ils; and so all things, be­come sub­ject to him.

6 Then said Pi­late, Cast­ing out dev­ils seems not to be the work of an un­clean spir­it, but to pro­ceed from the pow­er of God.

7 The Jews replied to Pi­late, We en­treat your high­ness to sum­mon him to ap­pear be­fore your tri­bunal, and hear him your­self.

8 Then Pi­late called a mes­sen­ger, and said to him, By what means will Christ be brought hith­er?

9 Then went the mes­sen­ger forth, and know­ing Christ, wor­shipped him; and hav­ing spread the cloak which he had in his hand up­on the ground, he said, Lord, walk up­on this, and go in, for the gov­er­nor calls thee.

10 When the Jews per­ceived what the mes­sen­ger had done, they ex­claimed (against him) to Pi­late, and said, Why did you not give him his sum­mons by a bea­dle, and not by a mes­sen­ger?–For the mes­sen­ger, when he saw him, wor­shipped him, and spread the cloak which he had in his hand up­on the ground be­fore him, and said to him, Lord, the gov­er­nor calls thee.

11 Then Pi­late called the mes­sen­ger, and said, Why hast thou done thus?

12 The mes­sen­ger replied, When thou sen­test me from Jerusalem to Alexan­der, I saw Je­sus sit­ting in a mean fig­ure up­on a she-​ass, and the chil­dren of the He­brews cried out, Hosan­nah, hold­ing boughs of trees in their hands.

13 Oth­ers spread their gar­ments in the way, and said, Save us, thou who art in heav­en; blessed is he who cometh in the name of the Lord.

14 Then the Jews cried out, against the mes­sen­ger, and said, The chil­dren of the He­brews made their ac­cla­ma­tions in the He­brew lan­guage; and how couldst thou, who art a Greek, un­der­stand the He­brew?

15 The mes­sen­ger an­swered them and said, I asked one of the Jews and said, What is this which the chil­dren do cry out in the He­brew lan­guage?

16 And he ex­plained it to me, say­ing, they cry out, Hosan­nah, which be­ing in­ter­pret­ed, is, O Lord, save me; or, O Lord, save.

17 Pi­late then said to them, Why do you your­selves tes­ti­fy to the words spo­ken by the chil­dren, name­ly, by your si­lence? In what has the mes­sen­ger done amiss? And they were silent.

18 Then the gov­er­nor said un­to the mes­sen­ger, Go forth and en­deav­our by any means to bring him in.

19 But the mes­sen­ger went forth and did as be­fore; and said, Lord come in, for the gov­er­nor cal­leth thee.

20 And as Je­sus was go­ing in by the en­signs, who car­ried the stan­dards, the tops of them bowed down and wor­shipped Je­sus.

21 Where­upon the Jews ex­claimed more ve­he­ment­ly against the en­signs.

22 But Pi­late said to the Jews, I know it is not pleas­ing to you that the tops of the stan­dards did of them­selves bow and wor­ship Je­sus; but why do ye ex­claim against the en­signs, as if they had bowed and wor­shipped?

23 They replied to Pi­late, We saw the en­signs them­selves bow­ing and wor­ship­ping Je­sus.

24 Then the gov­er­nor called the en­signs, and said un­to them, Why did you do thus?

25 The en­signs said to Pi­late, We are all Pa­gans and wor­ship the gods in tem­ples; and how should we think any­thing about wor­ship­ping him? We on­ly held the stan­dards in our hands, and they bowed them­selves and wor­shipped him.

26 Then said Pi­late to the rulers of the syn­agogue, Do ye your­selves choose some strong men, and let them hold the stan­dards, and we shall see whether they will then bend of them­selves.

27 So the el­ders of the Jews sought out twelve of the most strong and able old men, and made them hold the stan­dards, and they stood in the pres­ence of the gov­er­nor.

28 Then Pi­late said to the mes­sen­ger, Take Je­sus out, and by some means bring him in again. And Je­sus and the mes­sen­ger went out of the hall.

29 And Pi­late called the en­signs who be­fore had borne the stan­dards, and swore to them, that if they had not borne the stan­dards in that man­ner when Je­sus be­fore en­tered in, he would cut off their heads.

30 Then the gov­er­nor com­mand­ed Je­sus to come in again.

31 And the mes­sen­ger did as he had done be­fore, and very much en­treat­ed Je­sus that he would go up­on his cloak, and walk on it; and he did walk up­on it, and went in.

32 And when Je­sus went in, the stan­dards bowed them­selves as be­fore, and wor­shipped him.