Forbidden Gospels and Epistles, Complete

CHAPTER IX.

1 The Jews an­gry with Nicode­mus: 5 and with, Joseph of Ari­math­aea, 7 whom they im­prison.

WHEN the un­just Jews heard that Joseph had begged and buried the body of Je­sus, they sought af­ter Nicode­mus, and those fif­teen men who had tes­ti­fied be­fore the gov­er­nor, that Je­sus was not born through for­ni­ca­tion, and oth­er good per­sons who had shown any good ac­tions to­wards him.

2 But when they all con­cealed them­selves through fear of the Jews, Nicode­mus alone showed him­self to them, and said, How can such per­sons as these en­ter in­to the syn­agogue?

3 The Jews an­swered him, But how durst thou en­ter in­to the syn­agogue, who wast a con­fed­er­ate with Christ? Let thy lot be along with him in the oth­er world.

4 Nicode­mus an­swered, Amen; so may it be, that I may have my lot with him in his king­dom.

5 In like man­ner Joseph, when he came to the Jews, said to them, Why are ye an­gry with me for de­sir­ing the body of Je­sus of Pi­late? Be­hold, I have put him in my tomb, and wrapped him up in clean linen, and put a stone at the door of the sepul­chre:

6 I have act­ed right­ly to­wards him; but ye have act­ed un­just­ly against that just per­son, in cru­ci­fy­ing him, giv­ing him vine­gar to drink, crown­ing him with thorns, tear­ing his body with whips, and pray­ing down the guilt of his blood up­on you.

7 The Jews at the hear­ing of this were dis­qui­et­ed and trou­bled; and they seized Joseph, and com­mand­ed him to be put in cus­tody be­fore the Sab­bath, and kept there till the Sab­bath was over.

8 And they said to him, Make con­fes­sion; for at this time it is not law­ful to do thee any harm, till the first day of the week come. But we know that thou wilt not be thought wor­thy of a buri­al; but we will give thy flesh to the birds of the air, and the beasts of the earth.

9 Joseph an­swered, That speech is like the speech of proud Go­liath, who re­proached the liv­ing God in speak­ing against David. But ye scribes and doc­tors know that God saith by the prophet, Vengeance is mine, and I will re­pay to you evil equal to that which ye have threat­ened to me.

10 The God whom you have hanged up­on the cross, is able to de­liv­er me out of your hands. All your wicked­ness will re­turn up­on you.

11 For the gov­er­nor, when he washed his hands, said, I am clear from the blood of this just per­son. But ye an­swered and cried out, His blood be up­on us and our chil­dren. Ac­cord­ing as ye have said, may ye per­ish for ev­er.

12 The el­ders of the Jews hear­ing these words, were ex­ceed­ing­ly en­raged; and seiz­ing Joseph, they put him in­to a cham­ber where there was no win­dow; they fas­tened the door, and put a seal up­on the lock;

13 And An­nas and Ca­iaphas placed a guard up­on it, and took coun­sel with the priests and Levites, that they should all meet af­ter the Sab­bath, and they con­trived to what death they should put Joseph.

14 When they had done this, the rulers, An­nas and Ca­iaphas, or­dered Joseph to be brought forth.

(In this place there is a por­tion of the Gospel lost or omit­ted. which can­not be sup­plied. It may, nev­er­the­less, be sur­mised from the oc­cur­rence re­lat­ed in the next chap­ter, that the or­der of An­nas and Ca­iaphas were ren­dered un­nec­es­sary by Joseph’s mirac­ulous es­cape, and which was an­nounced to an as­sem­bly of peo­ple.)