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Apocrypha of the New Testament
And when Nicodemus had thus spoken, another Hebrew rose up, and said to Pilate: I beg of thee, my lord Pilate, hear me also. Pilate answered: Say what thou wishest. The Hebrew says: I lay sick in bed thirty-eight years; and when he saw me he was grieved, and said to me, Rise, take up thy couch, and go into thine house. And while he was saying the word to me, I rose and walked about. The Hebrews say: Ask him on what day of the week this happened. He says: On Sabbath.[1886] The Jews said: And consequently we say truly, that he does not keep the Sabbath.
Another, again, standing in the midst, said: I was born blind; and as Jesus was going along the road, I cried to him, saying, Have mercy upon me, Lord, thou son of David. And he took clay, and anointed mine eyes; and straightway I received my sight.[1887] Another said: I was crooked; and seeing him, I cried, Have mercy upon me, O Lord. And he took me by the hand, and I was immediately raised.[1888] Another said: I was a leper, and he healed me merely by a word.[1889]
There was found there also a woman named Veronica, and she said: Twelve years I was in an issue of blood, and I only touched the edge of his garment, and directly I was cured.[1890] The Jews say: Our law does not admit the testimony of a woman.[1891]
Other men cried: This man is a prophet, and the demons are afraid of him. Pilate says: And how were the demons not at all thus afraid of your parents also? They say: We do not know. Others, again, said: Lazarus, after having been four days in the tomb, he raised by a single word.[1892] Pilate therefore, hearing of the raising of Lazarus, was afraid, and said to the people: Why do you wish to shed the blood of a just man?
Then he summoned Nicodemus and the twelve God-fearing Jews, and said to them: What do you say that I should do? because the people are in commotion. They say: We do not know: do as thou wilt; but what the people do, they do unjustly, in order to kill him. Pilate again went outside, and said to the people: You know that in the feasts of unleavened bread it is customary that I free on your account one of the criminals kept in custody. I have, then, one malefactor in the prison, a robber named Barabbas. I have also Jesus, who has never done any evil. Which of the two, then, do you wish that I release to you? The people answered: Release to us Barabbas. Pilate says: What then shall I do with Jesus? They say: Let him be crucified.[1893] Again, others of them cried out: If thou release Jesus, thou art no friend of Cæsar,[1894] because he calls himself Son of God, and king. And if thou free him, he becomes a king, and will take Cæsar’s kingdom.
Pilate therefore was enraged, and said: Always has your nation been devilish[1895] and unbelieving; and ever have you been adversaries to your benefactors. The Hebrews say: And who were our benefactors? Pilate says: God, who freed you out of the hand of Pharaoh, and brought you through the Red Sea as upon dry land, and fed you with quails, and gave you water to drink out of the dry rock, and who gave you a law which, denying God you broke; and if Moses had not stood and entreated God, you would have perished by a bitter death. All these, then, you have forgotten. Thus also, even now, you say that I do not at all love Cæsar, but hate him, and wish to plot against his kingdom.
And having thus spoken, Pilate rose up from the throne with anger, wishing to flee from them. The Jews therefore cried out, saying: We wish Cæsar to be king over us, not Jesus, because Jesus received gifts[1896] from the Magi. And Herod also heard this—that there was going to be a king—and wished to put him to death, and for this purpose sent and put to death all the infants that were in Bethlehem. And on this account also his father Joseph and his mother fled from fear of him into Egypt.[1897]
So then Pilate, hearing this, silenced all the people, and said: This, then, is the Jesus whom Herod then sought that he might put him to death? They say to him: Yes. Pilate therefore, having ascertained that he was of the jurisdiction of Herod, as being derived of the race of the Jews, sent Jesus to him. And Herod, seeing Him, rejoiced greatly, because he had been long desiring to see Him, hearing of the miracles which He did. He put on Him, therefore, white garments. Then he began to question Him. But Jesus did not give him an answer. And Herod, wishing to see also some miracle or other done by Jesus, and not seeing it, and also because He did not answer him a single word, sent Him back again to Pilate.[1898] Pilate, seeing this, ordered his officers to bring water. Washing, then, his hands with the water, he said to the people: I am innocent of the blood of this good man. See you to it, that he is unjustly put to death, since neither I have found a fault in him, nor Herod; for because of this he has sent him back again to me. The Jews said: His blood be upon us, and upon our children.[1899]
Then Pilate sat down upon his throne to pass sentence. He gave order, therefore, and Jesus came before him. And they brought a crown of thorns, and put it on His head, and a reed into His right hand.[1900] Then he passed sentence, and said to Him: Thy nation says, and testifies against thee, that thou wishest to be a king. Therefore I decree that they shall beat thee first with a rod forty strokes, as the laws of the kings decree, and that they shall mock thee; and finally, that they shall crucify thee.
The sentence to this effect, then, having been passed by Pilate, the Jews began to strike Jesus, some with rods, others with their hands, others with their feet; some also spat in His face. Immediately, therefore, they got ready the cross, and gave it to Him, and flew to take the road. And thus going along, bearing also the cross, He came as far as the gate of the city of Jerusalem. But as He, from the many blows and the weight of the cross, was unable to walk, the Jews, out of the eager desire they had to crucify Him as quickly as possible, took the cross from Him, and gave it to a man that met them, Simon by name, who had also two sons, Alexander and Rufus. And he was from the city of Cyrene.[1901] They gave the cross, then, to him, not because they pitied Jesus, and wished to lighten Him of the weight, but because they eagerly desired, as has been said, to put Him to death more speedily.
Of His disciples, therefore, John followed Him there. Then he came fleeing to the mother of God,[1902] and said to her: Where hastthou been, that thou hast not come to see what has happened? She answered: What is it that has happened? John says: Know that the Jews have laid hold of my Master, and are taking Him away to crucify Him. Hearing this, His mother cried out with a loud voice, saying: My son, my son, what evil then hast thou done, that[1903] they are taking thee away to crucify thee? And she rose up as if blinded,[1904] and goes along the road weeping. And women followed her—Martha, and Mary Magdalene, and Salome, and other virgins. And John also was with her. When, therefore, they came to the multitude of the crowd, the mother of God says to John: Where is my son? John says: Seest thou Him bearing the crown of thorns, and having His hands bound? And the mother of God, hearing this, and seeing Him, fainted, and fell backwards to the ground, and lay a considerable time. And the women, as many as followed her, stood round her, and wept. And as soon as she revived and rose up, she cried out with a loud voice: My Lord, my son, where has the beauty of thy form sunk? how shall I endure to see thee suffering such things? And thus saying, she tore her face with her nails, and beat her breast. Where are they gone, said she, the good deeds which thou didst in Judæa? What evil hast thou done to the Jews? The Jews, then, seeing her thus lamenting and crying, came and drove her from the road; but she would not flee, but remained, saying: Kill me first, ye lawless Jews.
Then they got safe to the place called Cranium, which was paved with stone;[1905] and there the Jews set up the cross. Then they stripped Jesus, and the soldiers took His garments, and divided them among themselves; and they put on Him a tattered robe of scarlet, and raised Him, and drew Him up on the cross at the sixth hour of the day. After this they brought also two robbers, the one on His right, the other on His left.
Then the mother of God, standing and looking, cried out with a loud voice, saying: My son! my son! And Jesus, turning to her, and seeing John near her, and weeping with the rest of the women, said: Behold thy son! Then He says also to John: Behold thy mother![1906] And she wept much, saying: For this I weep, my son, because thou sufferest unjustly, because the lawless Jews have delivered thee to a bitter death. Without thee, my son, what will become of me? How shall I live without thee? What sort of life shall I spend? Where are thy disciples, who boasted that they would die with thee? Where those healed by thee? How has no one been found to help thee? And looking to the cross, she said: Bend down, O cross, that I may embrace and kiss my son, whom I suckled at these breasts after a strange manner, as not having known man. Bend down, O cross; I wish to throw my arms round my son. Bend down, O cross, that I may bid farewell to my son like a mother. The Jews, hearing these words, came forward, and drove to a distance both her and the women and John.
Then Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying: Father, let not this sin stand against them; for they know not what they do.[1907] Then He says: I thirst. And immediately there ran one of the soldiers, and took a sponge, and filled it with gall and vinegar mixed, and put it on a reed, and gave Jesus to drink. And having tasted it, He would not drink it.[1908] And the Jews standing and looking on laughed at Him, and said: If thou truly sayst that thou art the Son of God, come down from the cross, and immediately, that we may believe in thee. Others said mocking: Others he saved, others he cured, and he healed the sick, the paralytic, the lepers, the demoniacs, the blind, the lame, the dead; and himself he cannot cure.[1909]
In the same manner also, the robber crucified on His left hand said to Him: If thou art the Son of God, come down and save both thyself and us. His name was Gistas. And he that was crucified on the right, Dysmas by name, reproved that robber, saying: O wretched and miserable man, dost thou not fear God? We suffer the due punishment of what we have done; but this man has done no evil at all. And turning to Jesus, he says to Him: Lord, when Thou shalt reign do not forget me. And He said to him: To-day, I tell thee truth, I shall have thee in paradise with me.[1910]
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