Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume VIII/Apocrypha of the New Testament/The Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew/Chapter 41

Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. VIII, Apocrypha of the New Testament, The Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew
Anonymous, translated by Alexander Walker
Chapter 41
160754Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. VIII, Apocrypha of the New Testament, The Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew — Chapter 41Alexander WalkerAnonymous

Chapter 41.

And they went away from Capernaum into the city which is called Bethlehem; and Joseph lived with Mary in his own house, and Jesus with them.  And on a certain day Joseph called to him his first-born son James,[1] and sent him into the vegetable garden to gather vegetables for the purpose of making broth.  And Jesus followed His brother James into the garden; but Joseph and Mary did not know this.  And while James was collecting the vegetables, a viper suddenly came out of a hole and struck his hand,[2] and he began to cry out from excessive pain.  And, becoming exhausted, he said, with a bitter cry:  Alas! alas! an accursed viper has struck my hand.  And Jesus, who was standing opposite to him, at the bitter cry ran up to James, and took hold of his hand; and all that He did was to blow on the hand of James, and cool it:  and immediately James was healed, and the serpent died.  And Joseph and Mary did not know what had been done; but at the cry of James, and the command of Jesus, they ran to the garden, and found the serpent already dead, and James quite cured.


Footnotes edit

  1. According to the tradition preserved by Hegesippus and Tertullian, James and Judas were husbandmen.  See Apost. Const., ch. lxvii.
  2. Comp. Acts xxviii.