The Freethinker's Text Book, Part II. eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 420 pages of information about The Freethinker's Text Book, Part II..

The Freethinker's Text Book, Part II. eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 420 pages of information about The Freethinker's Text Book, Part II..
wilt speak, speak.  And the Jew said, I lay thirty-eight years on my bed in pain and affliction.  And when Jesus came, many demoniacs, and persons suffering various diseases, were healed by him; and some young men had pity on me, and carried me with my bed, and took me to him; and when Jesus saw me, he had compassion, and said the word to me, Take up thy bed, and walk; and I took up my bed and walked.  The Jews said to Pilate, Ask him what day it was when he was healed.  He that was healed said, On the Sabbath.  The Jews said, Did we not tell thee so? that on the Sabbath he healeth and casteth out demons?  And another Jew, starting up, said, I was born blind; I heard a voice, but saw no person; and as Jesus passed by, I cried with a loud voice, Have pity on me, Son of David, and he had pity on me, and placed his hands upon my eyes, and immediately I saw.  And another Jew, leaping up, said, I was a cripple, and he made me straight with a word.  And another said, I was a leper, and he healed me with a word.  And a certain woman cried out from a distance, and said, I had an issue of blood, and I touched the hem of his garment, and my issue of blood, which had been for twelve years, was stayed.  The Jews said, We have a law not to admit a woman to witness.  And others, a multitude, both of men and of women, cried and said, This man is a prophet, and demons are subject unto him.  Pilate said to those who said that demons were subject to him, Why were your teachers not also subject to him?  They say unto Pilate, We know not.  And others said, That he raised up Lazarus from the sepulchre, when he had been dead four days.  And the governor, becoming afraid, said to all the multitude of the Jews, Why will ye shed innocent blood?” The story proceeds much as in the gospels, the names of the malefactors being given; and when Pilate remarks the three hours’ darkness to the Jews, they answer, “An eclipse of the sun has happened in the usual manner” (chap. xi.).  Chap. xiii. gives a full account of the conversation between the Jews and the Roman soldiers alluded to in Matt. xxviii. 11-15.  The remaining chapters relate the proceedings of the Jews after the resurrection, and are of no special interest.  There is a second Gospel of Nicodemus, varying on some points from the one quoted above, which assumes to be “compiled by a Jew, named Aeneas; translated from the Hebrew tongue into the Greek, by Nicodemus, a Roman Toparch.”  Then we find a second part of the Gospel of Nicodemus, or “The Descent of Christ to the Under World,” which relates how Jesus descended into Hades, and how he ordered Satan to be bound, and then he “blessed Adam on the forehead with the sign of the cross; and he did this also to the patriarchs, and the prophets, and martyrs, and forefathers, and took them up, and sprang up out of Hades.”  This story manifestly runs side by side with the tradition in 1.  Pet. iii. 19, 20, wherein it is stated that Jesus “went and preached unto the spirits in prison,” and
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The Freethinker's Text Book, Part II. from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.