The Forgotten Gospels and Epistles of the Original New Testament. Various

being a widower with children, before his marriage with the Virgin. It seems material to remark, that the legends of the latter ages affirm the virginity of Joseph, notwithstanding Epiphanius, Hilary, Chrysostom, Cyril, Euthymius, Thephylact, Occumenius, and indeed all the Latin Fathers till Ambrose, and the Greek Fathers afterwards, maintain the opinions of Joseph's age and family, founded upon their belief in the authenticity of this book. It is supposed to have been originally composed in Hebrew. Postellus brought the MS. of this Gospel from the Levant, translated it into Latin, and sent it to Oporimus, a printer at Basil, where Bibliander, a Protestant Divine, and the Professor of Divinity at Zurich, caused it to be printed in 1552. Postellus asserts that it was publicly read as canonical in the eastern churches they making no doubt that James was the author of it. It is, nevertheless, considered apocryphal by some of the most learned divines in the Protestant and Catholic churches.]

1 In imitation of the forty days and nights fast of Moses, recorded Exod. xxiv. 11. xxxiv. 28. Deut. ix. 9; of Elijah, 1 Kings, xix. 8; and Christ's, Matt. iv. 2.

2 Gen. xxi. 2.

3 Luke ii. 26.

      The First Gospel of the Infancy of Jesus Christ

       Table of Contents

      CHAP. I.

      1 Caiphas relates that Jesus, when in his cradle, informed his mother that he was the Son of God. 5 Joseph and Mary going to Bethlehem to be taxed, Mary's time of bringing forth arrives, and she goes into a cave. 8 Joseph fetches in a Hebrew woman. The cave filled with great lights. 11 The infant born, 17 and cures the woman. 19 Arrival of the shepherds.

      THE following accounts we found in the book of Joseph the high-priest, called by some Caiphas:

      ² He relates, that Jesus spake even when he was in the cradle, and said to his mother:

      ³ Mary, I am Jesus the Son of God, that word, which thou didst bring forth according to the declaration of the angel Gabriel to thee, and my father hath sent me for the salvation of the world.

      ⁴ ¶ In the three hundred and ninth year of the era of Alexander, Augustus published a decree that all persons should go to be taxed in their own country.

      ⁵ Joseph therefore arose, and with Mary his spouse he went to Jerusalem, and then came to Bethlehem, that he and his family might be taxed in the city of his fathers.

⁶ And when they came by the cave, Mary confessed to Joseph that her time of bringing forth was come, and she could not go on to the city, and said, Let us go into this cave.1

      ² At that time the sun was very near going down.

      ⁸ But Joseph hastened away, that he might fetch her a midwife; and when he saw an old Hebrew woman who was of Jerusalem, he said to her, Pray come hither, good woman, and go into that cave, and you will there see a woman just ready to bring forth.

      ⁹ It was after sunset, when the old woman and Joseph with her reached the cave, and they both went into it.

      ¹⁰ And behold, it was all filled with lights, greater than the light of lamps and candles, and greater than the light of the sun itself.

      ¹¹ The infant was then wrapped up in swaddling clothes, and sucking the breasts of his mother St. Mary.

      ¹² When they both saw this light, they were surprised; the old woman asked St. Mary, Art thou the mother of this child?

      ¹³ St. Mary replied, She was.

      ¹⁴ On which the old woman said, Thou art very different from all other women.

      ¹⁵ St. Mary answered, As there is not any child like to my son, so neither is there any woman like to his mother.

      ¹⁶ The old woman answered, and said, O my Lady, I am come hither that I may obtain an everlasting reward.

      ¹⁷ Then our Lady St. Mary said to her, Lay thine hands upon the infant, which, when she had done, she became whole.

      ¹⁸ And as she was going forth, she said, From henceforth, all the days of my life, I will attend upon and be a servant of this infant.

      ¹⁹ After this, when the shepherds came, and had made a fire, and they were exceedingly rejoiceing, the heavenly host appeared to them, praising and adoring the supreme God.

      ²⁰ And as the shepherds were engaged in the same employment, the cave at that time seemed like a glorious temple, because both the tongues of angels and men united to adore and magnify God, on account of the birth of the Lord Christ.

      ²¹ But when the old Hebrew woman saw all these evident miracles, she gave praises to God, and said, I thank thee, O God, thou God of Israel, for that mine eyes have seen the birth of the Saviour of the world.

      CHAP. II.

      1 The child circumcised in the cave, 2 and the old woman preserving his foreskin or navel-string in a box of spikenard, Mary afterwards annoints Christ with it. 5 Christ brought to the temple; 6 He shines, 7 and angels stand around him adoring. 8 Simeon praises Christ.

      AND when the time of his circumcision was come: namely, the eighth day, on which the law commanded the child to be circumcised; they circumcised him in the cave.

      2 And the old Hebrew woman took the foreskin (others say she took the navel-string), and preserved it in an alabaster-box of old oil of spikenard.

      3 And she had a son who was a druggist, to whom she said, Take heed thou sell not this alabaster- box of spikenard-ointment, although thou shouldst be offered three hundred pence for it.

      4 Now this is that alabaster- box which Mary the sinner procured, and poured forth the ointment out of it upon the head and the feet of our Lord Jesus Christ, and wiped them off with the hairs of her head.

      5 Then after ten days they brought him to Jerusalem, and on the fortieth day from his birth they presented him in the temple before the Lord, making the proper offerings for him, according to the requirement of the law of Moses: namely, that every male which opens the womb shall be called holy unto God.

      6 At that time old Simeon saw him shining as a pillar of light, when St. Mary the Virgin, his mother, carried him in her arms, and was filled with the greatest pleasure at the sight.

      7 And the angels stood around him, adoring him, as a king's guards stand around him.

      8 Then Simeon going near to St. Mary, and stretching forth his hands towards her, said to the Lord Christ, Now, O My Lord, thy servant shall depart in peace, according to thy word;

      9 For mine eyes have seen thy mercy, which thou hast prepared for the salvation of all nations; a light to all people, and the glory of thy people Israel.

      10 Hannah the prophetess was also present, and drawing near, she gave praises to God, and celebrated the happiness of Mary.

      CHAP. III.

      1 The wise men visit Christ. Mary gives them one of his swaddling clothes. 3 An angel appears to them in the form of a star. 4 They return and make a fire, and worship the swaddling cloth, and put it in the fire where it remains unconsumed.

      AND it came to pass, when the Lord Jesus was born at Bethlehem, a city of Judaea, in the time of Herod the King;--the wise men came from the East to Jerusalem, according to the prophecy of Zoradascht,[Zoroaster] and brought with them offerings: namely, gold, frankincense, and myrrh, and worshipped him, and offered to