Page:Apocryphal Gospels and Other Documents Relating to the History of Christ.djvu/380

Then Annas and Caiaphas said, Ye have rightly told what is written in the law of Moses, that no man saw the death of Enoch, and no man mentioned the death of Moses. But Jesus gave account to Pilate, and we saw him receiving blows, and spittings in his face; and the soldiers put a crown of thorns upon him, and he was scourged, and received sentence from Pilate, and was crucified on Calvary, and two robbers with him, and they gave him to drink vinegar and gall; and Longinus, the soldier, pierced his side with a spear, and Joseph our honourable father, begged his body; and as he saith, he arose; and as the three teachers say, We saw him taken up to heaven; and Rabbi Levi hath spoken, attesting what was uttered by Rabbi Simeon, and that he said, Behold he is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel, and for a sign to be spoken against.^[1] And all the teachers said to all the people of the Lord, If this is from the Lord, and it is marvellous in your eyes,^[2] ye shall know assuredly, O house of Jacob, that it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree.^[3] And another Scripture teacheth, The gods which made not heaven and earth, shall perish.^[4] If his memorial is unto the year,^[5] which is called Jobel,

1. Luke ii. 34.
2. Ps. cxviii. 23.
3. Deut. xxi. 23; Gal.iii. 13.
4. Jer. x. 11.
5. The Greek text is ἕως τοῦ σώμμου which Dr. Tischendorf confesses he does not understand. It is a barbarous representation of the phrase "until the year of jubilee," which frequently occurs in Lev. xxv. By