Page:Apocryphal Gospels and Other Documents Relating to the History of Christ.djvu/361

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THE GOSPEL OF NICODEMUS.
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drink from a rock, and gave you a law; and amid all these things, ye provoked your God to anger, and sought after a molten calf: and angered your God, and he sought to slay you, and Moses made supplication for you, and ye died not.[1] And now ye exclaim against me, that I hate the king.

And he rose from the judgment seat and sought to go out. And the Jews cried out, saying, We know that Cæsar is king and not Jesus. For the Magi also offered gifts to him as to a king. And when Herod heard from the Magi that a king was born, he sought to put him to death. But when his father Joseph knew it he took him and his mother, and they fled into Egypt. And when Herod heard it, he destroyed the Hebrew children that were born in Bethlehem.

And when Pilate heard these words he was afraid. And Pilate caused the multitudes to keep silence, for they cried out; and he said, So this is he whom Herod sought? The Jews said, Yea, this is he. And Pilate took water, and washed his hands before the sun, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just man: see ye to it. The Jews cried out again, His blood be upon us, and upon our children.

Then Pilate commanded the curtain of the judgment seat where he sat to be drawn, and said to

  1. Pilate's knowledge of the Old Testament has much increased since he asked about 'Hosanna' etc., earlier in the book!