Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume VIII/Apocrypha of the New Testament/Gospel of Thomas: Latin Form/Chapter 11

by Anonymous

Chapter XI.—How Jesus Made a Short Piece of Wood of the Same Length as a Longer One.

And Jesus reached the age of eight years.  Joseph was a master builder,^[1] and used to make ploughs and ox-yokes.  And one day a rich man said to Joseph:  Master, make me a couch, both useful and beautiful.  And Joseph was in distress, because the wood which he had brought^[2] for the work was too short.  And Jesus said to him:  Do not be annoyed.  Take hold of this piece of wood by one end, and I by the other; I and let us draw it out.  And they did so; and immediately he found it useful for that which he wished.  And He said to Joseph:  Behold, do the work which thou wishest.  And Joseph, seeing what He had done, embraced Him, and said:  Blessed am I, because God hath given me such a son.

Footnotes

1. But probably architector here is equal to τέκτων, a carpenter.
2. Perhaps sectum, cut, is the true reading, and not actum.