The Apocryphal New Testament (1924)/Passion Gospels/Other Appendixes to the Acts of Pilate
OTHER APPENDIXES TO THE ACTS OF PILATE
Under this heading may be noticed the various forms of Reports of Pilate to the Emperor, and other Letters attributed to him: of his death, of the Vengeance of the Saviour, and also the Greek writing called the Story of Joseph of Arimathaea.
It is probable that some sort of Report of Pilate to Tiberius was concocted very early. Tertullian states it as a fact that Pilate reported all the events of the Passion to Tiberius, and that the Emperor tried, without success, to induce the Senate to declare Jesus a God.[1] What the source of this story was is unknown, but it is a very obvious one to invent. The texts of the apocryphal Reports which we have are all late, but in some of the Greek ones there are faint similarities to the Gospel of Peter.
Tischendorf prints a short
LETTER OF PILATE TO TIBERIUS
which cannot be traced further back than the fifteenth century. It is written in rather elegant Latin, evidently, I think, by an Italian of the early Renaissance. The tenor of it is this:
'Jesus Christ of whom I recently wrote to you has been executed against my will. So pious and austere a man has never been seen, nor will be again. But there was a wonderful unanimity in the request of the Jews and their leader that he should be crucified, though their own prophets, and the Sibyls, testified against them, and signs appeared at his death which the philosophers said threatened the collapse of the whole world. His disciples who still live do not belie their master's teaching, but are active in good works. Had I not feared a general rising, the man might have been yet alive.' He ends, feebly excusing his conduct. Date, the 5th of the Kalends of April.
REPORT OF PILATE (ANAPHORA).
There are two Greek texts of this which do not differ in essentials. In some manuscripts one form is appended to the Acts of Pilate. It is a late document, and not of much interest in its present form: but, as has been said, it contains faint reminders of the Gospel of Peter, and may be based on a briefer document of early date. After the address it begins:
'I have received a communication, O most mighty, which oppresses me with fear and trembling.'
He goes on to say that in Jerusalem, a city of his province, the Jews delivered him a man named Jesus, charging him with much that they could not substantiate, and in particular with violating the sabbath. The miracles are then described with some rhetorical ornament, particularly in the case of Lazarus. Jesus was delivered to him by Herod, Archelaus, Philip, Annas, Caiaphas, and all the people.
At his crucifixion the sun was darkened; the stars appeared, and in all the world people lighted lamps from the sixth hour till evening ; the moon appeared like blood, and the stars and Orion lamented at the sin of the Jews. (The other recension says that Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the twelve patriarchs, and Moses and Job, who were seen by the Jews, and many others 'whom I, too, saw', appeared in the body and thus lamented.)
On the first day of the week, at the third hour of night, there was a great light: the sun shone with unwonted brightness, men in shining garments appeared in the air and cried out to the souls in Hades to come up, and proclaimed the resurrection of Jesus.
The light continued all night. Many Jews disappeared in the chasms which the earthquake had caused: and all the synagogues except one fell down.
Under the stress of the consternation caused by all these portents Pilate writes to Caesar.
To this is appended in one recension the 'Delivering up, Paradosis, of Pilate'.
On receipt of the letter there was great astonishment at Rome, and Caesar in wrath ordered Pilate to be brought to him as a prisoner.
On hearing of his arrival Caesar took his seat 'in the temple of the gods before all the senate, and with all his army and all the multitude of his power', and said to Pilate: How didst thou dare, thou, most impious, to do such a thing, when thou hadst seen such signs concerning that man? by thy wicked daring thou hast destroyed the whole world.
Pilate threw the blame on the Jews, on Herod, Archelaus, Philip, Annas, and Caiaphas (see the Anaphora). Caesar. Why didst thou yield to them? Pilate. The nation is rebellious and disobedient. Caesar. Thou oughtest to have kept him safe and sent him to me, and not have yielded and crucified one who had done all those mighty works of which thou spakest in thy report. It is plain that he was the Christ, the king of the Jews.
When Caesar named Christ, all the images of the gods fell down and became as dust. There was great consternation: Caesar remanded Pilate to prison.
Next day he sat in the Capitol with all the senate, and a dialogue similar to the last took place. After it Caesar wrote to Licianus, the chief governor of the East, bidding him enslave all the nation of the Jews, and make them few in number for their wickedness. This Licianus did.
Caesar then commanded a ruler named Albius to behead Pilate. He was led forth to death, and prayed: Number me not among the wicked Hebrews. Remember not evil against me or against thy servant Procla which standeth here, whom thou didst make to prophesy that thou must be nailed to the cross. But pardon us and number us among thy righteous ones.
A voice from heaven came, saying: All the generations and the families of the Gentiles shall call thee blessed, because in thy days were fulfilled all these things which were spoken by the prophets concerning me; and thou also shalt appear as my witness (or martyr) at my second coming, when I shall judge the twelve tribes of Israel and them that have not confessed my name.
The prefect cut off Pilate's head, and an angel of the Lord received it: whom when Procla his wife saw, she was filled with joy, and straightway gave up the ghost and was buried with her husband.
This extraordinarily favourable view of Pilate is characteristic of the East. From the same workshop as the Report and the Paradosis come two letters—of Pilate to Herod, and Herod to Pilate—which exist in Greek and in Syriac (the latter in a manuscript of the sixth or seventh century). There is some divergence between the two versions.
THE LETTER OF PILATE TO HEROD
It was no good thing which I did at your persuasion when I crucified Jesus. I ascertained from the centurion and the soldiers that he rose again, and I sent to Galilee and learned that he was preaching there to above five hundred believers.
My wife Procla took Longinus, the believing centurion, and ten (or twelve) soldiers (who had kept the sepulchre), and went forth and found him 'sitting in a tilled field' teaching a multitude. He saw them, addressed them, and spoke of his victory over death and hell. Procla and the rest returned and told me. I was in great distress, and put on a mourning garment and went with her and fifty soldiers to Galilee. We found Jesus: and as we approached him there was a sound in heaven and thunder, and the earth trembled and gave forth a sweet odour. We fell on our faces and the Lord came and raised us up, and I saw on him the scars of the passion, and he laid his hands on my shoulders, saying: All generations and families shall call thee blessed (see above), because in thy days the Son of Man died and rose again.
THE LETTER OF HEROD TO PILATE
It is in no small sorrow—according to the divine Scriptures—(i. e. as I might have anticipated from the teaching of Scripture) that I write to you.
My dear daughter Herodias was playing upon the water (i. e. the ice) and fell in up to her neck. And her mother caught at her head to save her, and it was cut off, and the water
swept her body away. My wife is sitting with the head on her knees, weeping, and all the house is full of sorrow.
I am in great distress of mind at the death of Jesus, and reflecting on my sins in killing John Baptist and massacring the Innocents. 'Since, then, you are able to see the man Jesus again, strive for me and intercede for me: for to you Gentiles the kingdom is given, according to the prophets and Christ.'
Lesbonax my son is in the last stages of a decline. I am afflicted with dropsy, and worms are coming out of my mouth. My wife's left eye is blinded through weeping. Righteous are the judgements of God, because we mocked at the eye of the righteous. Vengeance will come on the Jews and the priests, and the Gentiles will inherit the kingdom, and the children of light be cast out.
And, Pilate, since we are of one age, bury my family honourably: it is better for us to be buried by you than by the priests, who are doomed to speedy destruction. Farewell. I have sent you my wife's earrings and my own signet ring. I am already beginning to receive judgement in this world, but I fear the judgement hereafter much more. This is temporary, that is everlasting.
If the Eastern Christians—or at least those of Egypt and Syria—regarded Pilate as a saint and martyr, those of the West thought of him only as a criminal. The biography of him which is given in the Golden Legend (cap. 53, on the Passion) is of too late a date to be reproduced here; but the legends of his death are older. In summarizing them we will begin with one of the few Greek writings which takes the Western, the unfavourable, view of Pilate. It is assuredly not early in date: it has points of connexion with the B recension (Greek) of the Acts of Pilate. It is the
LETTER OF TIBERIUS TO PILATE
This was delivered to Pilate by means of the messenger Raab (cf. Rachaab in Recension B, p. 116), who was sent with 2,000 soldiers to bring him to Rome.
Since you have given a violent and iniquitous sentence of death against Jesus of Nazareth, showing no pity, and having received gifts to condemn him, and with your tongue have expressed sympathy (a reference to the Anaphora), but in your heart have delivered him up, you shall be brought home a prisoner to answer for yourself.
I have been exceedingly distressed at the reports that have reached me: a woman, a disciple of Jesus, has been here, called Mary Magdalene,[2] out of whom he is said to have cast seven devils, and has told of all his wonderful cures. How could you permit him to be crucified? If you did not receive him as a God, you
might at least have honoured him as a physician. Your own deceitful writing to me has condemned you.
As you unjustly sentenced him, I shall justly sentence you, and your accomplices as well.
Pilate, Archelaus, Philip, Annas, and Caiaphas were arrested.
Rachaab and the soldiers slew all the Jewish males, defiled the women, and brought the leaders to Rome. On the way Caiaphas died in Crete: the earth would not receive his body, and he was covered with a cairn of stones.
It was the old law that if a condemned criminal saw the face of the emperor he was spared: so Tiberius would not see Pilate, but shut him up in a cave.
Annas was sewed into a fresh bull's-hide, which, contracting as it dried, squeezed him to death. The other chiefs of the Jews were beheaded: Archelaus and Philip were crucified.
One day the emperor went out to hunt, and chased a hind to the door of Pilate's prison. Pilate looked out, trying to see the emperor's face, but at that moment the emperor shot an arrow at the hind, which went in at the window and killed Pilate.
The same tale is told in a Greek life of Mary Magdalene, which I have transcribed from a manuscript at Holkham, and which is evidently under strong Western influence, since it tells the story of her mission to Marseilles and of a miracle wrought on a prince there, which is a very favourite subject with French mediaeval artists.
THE DEATH OF PILATE
The Latin legend of Pilate's death hardly ranks as an apocryphal book. It is printed by Tischendorf from a Milan manuscript of the fourteenth century—the illustrated manuscript mentioned above (p. 66) under the heading of Infancy Gospels, facsimiled under the title of Canonical Histories and Apocryphal Legends. It is also found in the Golden Legend, cap. 53, as the conclusion of the fabulous life of Pilate, and is there said to be taken from 'a certain history, though an apocryphal one'. This life is found separate—usually in company with a similar life of Judas Iscariot—in manuscripts of an earlier date than the Golden Legend; but the whole composition is thoroughly mediaeval and has nothing antique about it.
The story is this:
The Emperor Tiberius, being sorely diseased, heard that there was a wonderful physician in Jerusalem, named Jesus, who healed all sicknesses. He sent an officer of his named Volusianus to Pilate to bid him send the physician to him. Pilate was terrified, knowing that Jesus had been crucified (and begged for fourteen days delay, Golden Legend). On the way back to his inn, Volusianus met a matron called Veronica and asked her about Jesus. She told him the truth, to his great grief, and, to console him added that when our Lord was away teaching she had
desired to have a picture of him always by her, and went to carry a linen cloth to a painter for that purpose. Jesus met her, and on hearing what she wished, took the cloth from her and imprinted the features of his face upon it. This cloth, she said, will cure your lord: I cannot sell it, but I will go with you to him.
Volusianus and Veronica returned to Rome, and Tiberius, when the likeness was to be brought to him, spread the path with silken cloths. He was instantly healed by looking at the likeness.
Pilate was arrested and brought before the emperor at Rome. Now he was wearing the seamless tunic of Jesus. When he came before the emperor, he, who had been raging against him before, became quite mild. He sent Pilate away and immediately his rage returned. This happened again. Then, either by divine inspiration or on the suggestion of some Christian, he had him stripped of the tunic, sent him back to prison, and shortly after sentenced him to die by the basest of deaths. On hearing this, Pilate killed himself with his own knife. Caesar had a millstone tied to his neck and threw him into the Tiber. The demons gathered in crowds, and storms disturbed the place so that all were in great fear. The corpse was taken out of the river and carried off to Vienne (via Gehennae) on the Rhone, with the same result. Thence it was taken to be buried in the territory of Lausanne; but disturbances continued there till the inhabitants dug it up and threw it into a well surrounded by mountains, where diabolical manifestations are still said to occur.
The last class of these legends is somewhat older. We have it in several forms in Latin and also in an old Anglo-Saxon version. It has something in common with the Death of Pilate, and it merges into the romances of the Destruction of Jerusalem which were very popular in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The oldest form is that called the Healing of Tiberius (Cura sanitatis Tiberii), which goes back in manuscripts to the eighth century.
This runs as follows: Tiberius was sorely diseased. He heard from a Jew named Thomas of the miracles of Jesus, and sent a great officer, Volusianus, to bring him from Jerusalem. The voyage took a year and three months. Pilate and the Jews were much frightened. Pilate had to be persuaded by one of his soldiers that it was the crucified Jesus who was meant: the evidence for the resurrection was confirmed by Joseph of Arimathaea and others. Pilate, imprisoned meanwhile, was made to avow his guilt publicly.
A young man named Marcius now informed Volusian that a woman of Tyre, Veronica (who is also called Basilla, say some early copies), possessed the likeness of Jesus, who had cured her issue of blood three years before. Denying it at first, she at last produced it under compulsion. Volusian adored it, and threatened with punishment all who had taken part in Jesus' death. He then set off for Rome with Veronica and Pilate, and reached it in a short time. Tiberius inquired why Pilate had not been executed. Volusian said he did not wish to anticipate the emperor's judgement. Tiberius banished Pilate, without seeing him, to Ameria in Tuscany. Volusian then brought Veronica and the likeness to Tiberius, who adored it and was healed. He gave money to Veronica, and made a precious shrine for the likeness, was baptized, and died after some years in peace.[3]
The next development of the legend is thought to originate in Aquitaine. The manuscripts go back to the tenth century, and the Anglo-Saxon version is not later than the eleventh. The name of this is
THE VENGEANCE OR AVENGING OF THE SAVIOUR,
and a brief summary of it shall be given.
There was a king Titus (or Tyrus) under Tiberius, in Aquitaine, in a city of Libia called Burgidalla (Bordeaux). He had a cancer in his right nostril and his face was eaten away up to his eye.
There was also a Jew named Nathan, son of Naum, whom the Jews had sent to Tiberius to bear a treaty to him. Tiberius, too, was ill of fever and ulcers and had nine kinds of leprosy. Nathan's ship was driven ashore at Titus's city. Nathan was sent for and told his story. Titus asked if he knew any one who could cure him. Nathan said: If you had been in Jerusalem lately there was a prophet called Emanuel (the miracles are enumerated, and the Passion, descent into hell, and resurrection described). Titus said: Woe to you, Tiberius, in whose realm such things are done. I would have slain these Jews with my own hand for destroying my Lord. At this word the wound fell from his face and he was healed, and so were all the sick who were there. Titus cried out, confessing his belief in Christ, and made Nathan baptize him (and instead of Tyrus he was called Titus, which in our tongue means Pious, Anglo-Saxon).
Then he sent for Vespasian to come with all his forces, and he came with 5,000 men, and said: What do you want me for? 'To destroy the enemies of Jesus.' So they sailed off to Jerusalem. Archelaus in terror gave his kingdom to his son, and stabbed himself. The son allied himself with other kings and fortified Jerusalem, which was besieged seven years, till the inhabitants had to eat earth. At last they took counsel to surrender, and gave the keys to Titus and Vespasian. Some were slain, some crucified head downwards, or pierced with lances, sold, cast lots upon, and divided into four parts, and the rest sold at thirty for a penny.
Then they made search for the likeness of Jesus and found Veronica, who had it. Pilate they delivered to four quaternions of soldiers. (Veronica was the woman healed of the issue of blood. She abode with Titus and Vespasian till the emperor's kinsman Velosian came.)
A message was sent by Titus to Tiberius to send Velosian. He told him to go to Jerusalem and bring some one to heal him, to whom he might promise half the kingdom.
Velosian arrived after a year and seven days, and first found Joseph and Nicodemus. Joseph told of the burial, of his imprisonment, and his deliverance by Jesus.
Then Veronica came and told of her healing. Velosian arraigned and imprisoned Pilate (put him in an iron cage, Anglo-Saxon). He then examined Veronica, who denied that she had the likeness. He threatened her with torture; at last she confessed that she had it in (or on) a linen cloth and adored it every day. She produced it. Velosian adored it, took it, put it in a gold cloth and locked it in a box, and embarked for Rome. Veronica left all she had and insisted on coming with him. They sailed up the Tiber to Rome, after a year's journey.
Tiberius heard of their arrival and summoned Velosian, who told him all the story at length, including the destruction of the Jews. Then Tiberius asked for the likeness. It was brought, and he adored it, and his flesh was cleansed and he prayed. Then he asked if there were any there who had seen Christ and knew how to baptize. And Nathan was brought, and baptized him, and he blessed God, and was instructed in all the articles of the Christian faith.
Another form of the legend is given in the Golden Legend,[4] and incorporated, with pictures, in the Milan manuscript referred to before.
This begins by telling how Pilate sent a messenger, Albanus, to Caesar to excuse himself for the condemnation of Jesus. Albanus was driven ashore in Galicia and brought to Vespasian, who derived his name from the fact that from his childhood he had been troubled with a wasps' nest in his nose. Vespasian said to Albanus: You come from the land of the wise; you must cure me. Albanus said: I am not skilled in medicine. Vespasian: You must cure me or die. Albanus: There was a man who could have cured you with a word; he cast out devils, and raised the dead. He was Jesus of Nazareth, whom the Jews killed for envy. If you believed in him you would recover. Vespasian: I do firmly believe that he is the Son of God and that he can cure me. And immediately the wasps fell from his nose and he was healed. Vespasian then vowed to go to Tiberius and get forces wherewith to destroy the city and nation of the Jews. And after some years spent in gathering an army he besieged Jerusalem. The Christians, warned by the Holy Ghost, had fled to Pella.
Then there is a meeting between the historian Josephus and Vespasian; the latter’s elevation to the empire is prophesied and takes place. Then we have the story of Titus falling ill from joy at his father's triumph, and being cured by having a slave whom he hated set next him at table. This was contrived by Josephus. Thereafter the famine in Jerusalem, and the incident of the woman Mary eating her child. Then the city is taken and the Jews are sold thirty for a penny.
Then the discovery of an old man built up in a very massive wall, who is Joseph of Arimathaea. Delivered by Jesus, as the Gospel of Nicodemus tells, he had been imprisoned again by the Jews because he continued to preach the gospel, and had been miraculously sustained ever since with light and food from heaven.
The very last of these late fictions which shall be noticed here is the
STORY OF JOSEPH OF ARIMATHAEA
which we have in Greek only. The earliest manuscript used by Tischendorf is said to be of the twelfth century.
I. 1 I, Joseph of Arimathaea, who begged the body of the Lord Jesus from Pilate, was imprisoned by the Jews on that account. These are the people who provoked their lawgiver Moses, and failing to recognize their God crucified his Son.
Seven days before the passion of Christ, two condemned robbers were sent from Jericho to Pilate, whose crimes were these.
2 The first, Gestas, used to strip and murder wayfarers, hang up women by the feet and cut off their breasts, drink the blood of babes: he knew not God nor obeyed any law, but was violent from the beginning.
The other, Demas, was a Galilaean who kept an inn; he despoiled the rich but did good to the poor, even burying them, like Tobit. He had committed robberies on the Jews, for he stole (plundered) the law itself at Jerusalem, and stripped the daughter of Caiaphas, who was a priestess of the sanctuary, and he took away even the mystic deposit of Solomon which had been deposited in the (holy) place.
3 Jesus also was taken at even on the third day before the passover. But Caiaphas and the multitude of the Jews had no passover but were in great grief because of the robbery of the sanctuary by the thief. And they sent for Judas Iscariot who was brother's son to Caiaphas, and had been persuaded by
the Jews to become a disciple of Jesus, not to follow his teachings, but to betray him. They paid him a didrachm of gold daily; and as one of Jesus' disciples, called John, says, he had been two years with Jesus.
4 On the third day before Jesus was taken, Judas said to the Jews: Let us assemble a council and say that it was not the robber who took away the law, but Jesus. Nicodemus, who had the keys of the sanctuary, said No: for he was a truthful man. But Sarra, Caiaphas' daughter, cried out that Jesus said in public, 'I can destroy the temple' (&c.). All the Jews said: We believe you. For they held her as a prophetess. So Jesus was taken.
II. 1 On the morrow, being Wednesday, at the ninth hour, they brought him into Caiaphas' hall, and Annas and Caiaphas asked him: Why didst thou take away the law? He was silent. Why wouldst thou destroy the temple of Solomon? He was silent.
2 In the evening the multitude sought the daughter of Caiaphas, to burn her with fire, because the law was stolen and they could not keep the passover. But she said: Wait a little, my children, and let us destroy Jesus, and the law will be found and the feast kept. Then Annas and Caiaphas privily gave gold to Judas and said: Say as you said before, that it was Jesus who stole the law. Judas agreed, but said: The people must not know that you have told me this: and you must let Jesus go, and I will persuade them. So they fraudulently let Jesus go.
3 At dawn of the Thursday Judas went into the sanctuary and said to all the people: What will ye give me if I deliver to you the destroyer of the law and robber of the prophets? They said: Thirty silver pieces of gold (!). But they did not know that it was Jesus of whom he spoke, for many thought him to be the Son of God. And Judas received the thirty pieces.
4 At the fourth and fifth hours he went out and found Jesus walking in the street. Towards evening he obtained a guard of soldiers. As they went, Judas said: Whomsoever I shall kiss, take him: he it is that stole the law and the prophets. He came to Jesus and kissed him, saying: Hail, Rabbi. They took Jesus to Caiaphas and examined him. 'Why didst thou do this?' but he answered nothing. Nicodemus and I left the seat of the pestilent, and would not consent to perish in the council of sinners.
Ill. 1 They did many evil things to Jesus that night, and on the dawn of Friday delivered him to Pilate. He was condemned and crucified with the two robbers, Gestas on the left, Demas on the right.
2 He on the left cried out to Jesus: See what evils I have wrought on the earth; and had I known thou wert the king, I would have killed thee too. Why callest thou thyself Son of God and canst not help thyself in the hour of need? or how canst thou succour any other that prayeth? if thou be the Christ, come down from the cross that I may believe thee. But now I behold thee, not as a man but as a wild beast caught and perishing along with me. And much else he spake against Jesus, blaspheming and gnashing his teeth upon him: for he was caught in the snare of the devil.
3 But Demas, on the right, seeing the divine grace of Jesus, began to cry out thus: I know thee, Jesus Christ, that thou art the Son of God. I see thee, Christ, worshipped by ten thousand times ten thousand angels; forgive my sins that I have committed: make not the stars to enter into judgement with me, or the moon, when thou judgest all the world: for in the night did I work my evil plans: stir not up the sun that now is darkened for thy sake to tell the evil of my heart: for I can give thee no gift for remission of sins. Already death cometh on me for my sins, but pardon belongeth unto thee: save me, Lord of all things, from thy terrible judgement: give not power unto the enemy to swallow me up and be inheritor of my soul, as of his that hangeth on the left; for I see how the devil taketh his soul rejoicing, and his flesh vanisheth away. Neither command me to depart into the lot of the Jews, for I see Moses and the patriarchs weeping sore, and the devil exulting over them. Therefore before my spirit departeth, command O Lord that my sins be blotted out, and remember me the sinner in thy kingdom when thou sittest on the great throne of the Most High and shalt judge the twelve tribes of Israel: for thou hast prepared great punishment for thy world for thy sake.
4 And when the thief had so said, Jesus saith unto him: Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Demas, that to-day thou shalt be with me in paradise: but the sons of the kingdom, the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and Moses shall be cast out into the outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. But thou only shalt dwell in paradise until my second coming, when I shall judge them that have not confessed my name. And he said to the thief: Go and say unto the cherubim and the powers that turn about the flaming sword, that keep the garden since Adam the first-created was in paradise and transgressed and kept not my commandments and I cast him out thence—but none of the former men shall see paradise until I come the second time to judge the quick and dead—And he wrote thus: Jesus Christ the Son of God that came down from the heights of heaven, that proceeded out of the bosom of the invisible Father without separation, and came down into the world to be incarnate and to be nailed to the cross, that I might save Adam whom I formed: unto my powers the archangels, that keep the doors of paradise, the servants of my Father: I will and command that he that is crucified with me [enter in,] receive remission of his sins for my sake, and being clothed with an incorruptible body enter in to paradise, and that he dwell there where no man else is ever able to dwell.
And when this was said, Jesus gave up the ghost on Friday at the ninth hour. And there was darkness over all the land and a great earthquake, so that the sanctuary fell, and the pinnacle of the temple.
IV. 1 And I, Joseph, begged the body and laid it in my new tomb. The body of Demas was not found: that of Gestas was in appearance like that of a dragon.
The Jews imprisoned me on the evening of the sabbath.
2 When it was evening on the first day of the week, at the fifth hour of the night, Jesus came to me with the thief on the right hand. There was great light; the house was raised up by the four corners and I went forth: and I perceived Jesus first, and then the thief bringing a letter to him, and as we journeyed to Galilee there was a very great light, and a sweet fragrance came from the thief.
3 Jesus sat down in a certain place and read as follows: The cherubim and the six-winged that are commanded by thy Godhead to keep the garden of paradise make known to thee this. by the hand of the robber that by thy dispensation was crucified with thee. When we saw the mark of the nails on the robber that was crucified with thee and the light of the letters of thy Godhead, the fire was quenched, being unable to bear the light of the mark, and we were in great fear and crouched down. For we heard that the maker of heaven and earth and all creation had come to dwell in the lower parts of the earth for the sake of Adam the first-created. For we beheld the spotless cross, with the robber flashing with light and shining with seven times the light of the sun, and trembling came on us, when we heard the crashing of them beneath the earth, and with a great voice the ministers of Hades said with us: Holy, Holy, Holy, is he that was in the highest in the beginning: and the powers sent up a cry, saying, Lord, thou hast been manifested in heaven and upon earth, giving joy unto the worlds (ages) and saving thine own creation from death.
V. 1 And as I went with Jesus and the robber to Galilee, the form of Jesus was changed and he became wholly light, and angels ministered to him and he conversed with them. I stayed with him three days, and none of the disciples were there.
2 In the midst of the days of unleavened bread his disciple John came, and the robber disappeared. John asked who it was, but Jesus did not answer. John said: Lord, I know that thou hast loved me from the beginning: why dost thou not reveal this man to me? Jesus said: Seekest thou to know hidden things? art thou wholly without understanding? perceivest thou not the fragrance of paradise filling the place? knowest thou not who it was? The thief that was on the cross is become heir of paradise: verily, verily, I say unto you, that it is his alone until the great day come. John said: Make me worthy to see him.
3 Then suddenly the thief appeared and John fell to the earth: for he was now like a king in great might, clad with the cross. And a voice of a multitude was heard: Thou art come into the place of paradise prepared for thee: we are appointed to serve thee by him that sent thee until the great day. After that both the thief and I, Joseph, vanished, and I was found in my own house, and I saw Jesus no more.
All this I saw and have written, that all might believe on Jesus and no longer serve Moses' law, but believe in the signs and wonders of Christ; and believing obtain eternal life and be found in the kingdom of heaven.
For His is glory, might, praise, and majesty, world without end. Amen.
There is a certain amount of inventiveness in this: none of the picturesque detail, however, can be called antique, and several phrases betray the influence of the same workshop that produced the Letters of Herod to Pilate. The ignorance of Jewish customs which it betrays is colossal.
- ↑ A letter of Tiberius to Abgar of Edessa, quoted by Moses of Chorene (History of Armenia, II, ch. 38) gives exactly the same account of the proceedings in the Senate, and mentions the report of Pilate.
- ↑ Cf. Recension B of the Acts of Pilate.
- ↑ An appendix or continuation tells how, in Nero's days, Simon Magus came to Rome and claimed to be the risen Son of God. How Pilate was sent for, and his letter to Claudius read; how Pilate returned into exile at Ameria, and soon died; and of Nero's evil end.
- ↑ Cap. 67, of St. James the Less.