Forbidden Gospels and Epistles, Complete

CHAPTER XI.

1 Nicode­mus coun­sels the Jews. 6 Joseph found. 11 In­vit­ed by the Jews to re­turn. 19 Re­lates the man­ner of his mirac­ulous es­cape.

THEN Nicode­mus arose, and said, Ye say right, O sons of Is­rael; ye have heard what those three men have sworn by the Law of God, who said, We have seen Je­sus speak­ing with his dis­ci­ples up­on mount Olivet, and we saw him as­cend­ing up to heav­en.

2 And the scrip­ture tea­cheth us that the blessed prophet Eli­jah was tak­en up to heav­en, and El­isha be­ing asked by the sons of the prophets, Where is our fa­ther Eli­jah? He said to them, that he is tak­en up to heav­en.

3 And the sons of the prophets said to him, Per­haps the spir­it hath car­ried him in­to one of the moun­tains of Is­rael, there per­haps we shall find him. And they be­sought El­isha, and he walked about with them three days, and they could not find him.

4 And now hear me, O sons of Is­rael, and let us send men in­to the moun­tains of Is­rael, lest per­haps the spir­it hath car­ried away Je­sus, and there per­haps we shall find him, and be sat­is­fied.

5 And the coun­sel of Nicode­mus pleased all the peo­ple; and they sent forth men who sought for Je­sus, but could not find him; and they re­turn­ing, said, We went all about, but could not find Je­sus, but we have found Joseph in his city of Ari­math­aea.

6 The rulers hear­ing this, and all the peo­ple, were glad, and praised the God of Is­rael, be­cause Joseph was found, whom they had shut up in a cham­ber, and could not find.

7 And when they had formed a large as­sem­bly, the chief priests said, By what means shall we bring Joseph to us to speak with him?

8 And tak­ing a piece of pa­per, they wrote to him, and said, Peace be with thee, and all thy fam­ily, We know that we have of­fend­ed against God and thee. Be pleased to give a vis­it to us, your fa­thers, for we were per­fect­ly sur­prised at your es­cape from prison.

9 We know that it was ma­li­cious coun­sel which we took against thee, and that the Lord took care of thee, and the Lord him­self de­liv­ered thee from our de­signs. Peace be un­to thee, Joseph, who art hon­ourable among all the peo­ple.

10 And they chose sev­en of Joseph’s friends, and said to them, When ye come to Joseph, salute him in peace, and give him this let­ter.

11 Ac­cord­ing­ly, when the men came to Joseph, they did salute him in peace, and gave him the let­ter.

12 And when Joseph had read it, he said, Blessed be the Lord God, who didst de­liv­er me from the Is­raelites, that they could not shed my blood. Blessed be God, who hast pro­tect­ed me un­der thy wings.

13 And Joseph kissed them, and took them in­to his house. And on the mor­row, Joseph mount­ed his ass, and went along with them to Jerusalem.

14 And when all the Jews heard these things, they went out to meet him, and cried out, say­ing, Peace at­tend thy com­ing hith­er, fa­ther Joseph.

15 To which he an­swered, Pros­per­ity from the Lord at­tend all the peo­ple.

13 And they all kissed him; and Nicode­mus took him to his house, hav­ing pre­pared a large en­ter­tain­ment.

17 But on the mor­row, be­ing a prepa­ra­tion-​day, An­nas, and Ca­iaphas, and Nicode­mus, said to Joseph, Make con­fes­sion to the God of Is­rael, and an­swer to us all those ques­tions which we shall ask thee;

18 For we have been very much trou­bled, that thou didst bury the body of Je­sus; and that when we had locked thee in a cham­ber, we could not find thee; and we have been afraid ev­er since, till this time of thy ap­pear­ing among us. Tell us there­fore be­fore God, all that came to pass.

19 Then Joseph an­swer­ing, said Ye did in­deed put me un­der con­fine­ment, on the day of prepa­ra­tion, till the morn­ing.

20 But while I was stand­ing at prayer in the mid­dle of the night, the house was sur­round­ed with four an­gels; and I saw Je­sus as the bright­ness of the sun, and fell down up­on the earth for fear.

21 But Je­sus lay­ing hold on my hand, lift­ed me from the ground, and the dew was then sprin­kled up­on me; but he, wip­ing my face, kissed me, and said un­to me, Fear not, Joseph; look up­on me for it is I.

22 Then I looked up­on him, and said, Rab­boni Elias! He an­swered me, I am not Elias, but Je­sus of Nazareth, whose body thou didst bury.

23 I said to him, show me the tomb in which I laid thee.

24 Then Je­sus, tak­ing me by the hand, led me un­to the place where I laid him, and showed me the linen clothes, and nap­kin which I put round his head. Then I knew that it was Je­sus, and wor­shipped him, and said; Blessed be he who cometh in the name of the Lord.

25 Je­sus again tak­ing me by the hand, led me to Ari­math­aea, to my own house, and said to me, Peace be to thee; but go not out of thy house till the for­ti­eth day; but I must go to my dis­ci­ples.