Page:Apocryphal Gospels and Other Documents Relating to the History of Christ.djvu/417

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THE GOSPEL OF NICODEMUS, (II.)
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shone, and we were all lighted up and saw one another. And immediately our father Abraham was united with the patriarchs and the prophets, and they were together filled with joy, and said to one another, This light is from a great illumination. The prophet Isaiah, who was there, said, This light is from the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, concerning whom I prophesied while I was yet alive, saying, The land of Zebulun, and the land of Nephthalim, the people which sitteth in darkness hath seen a great light.[1]

Then came into the midst another, an ascetic from the desert, and the patriarchs said to him, Who art thou? And he said, I am John, the last of the prophets, who made straight the ways of the Son of God, and preached to the people repentance for remission of sins. And the Son of God came unto me; and when I saw him from afar I said to the people, Behold, the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world.[2] And with my hand I baptised him in the river Jordan, and I saw, also, as it were, a dove, the Holy Spirit coming upon him; and I heard also the voice of God and the Father saying thus, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. And for this cause he sent me also to you, that I might preach how the only begotten Son of God cometh hither, that whoever believeth in him

  1. Is. ix. 1, 2.
  2. Matt. iii. 3, 11; Mark i. 4; John i. 36.