Page:Apocryphal Gospels and Other Documents Relating to the History of Christ.djvu/360

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APOCRYPHAL GOSPELS.

CHAPTER IX.

And calling Nicodemus and the twelve men who said that he was not born of fornication, he said to them, What shall I do? for there is a sedition among the people. They said to him, We know not; they will see. Pilate called again all the multitude of the Jews, and said, Ye know that it is a custom with you at the feast of unleavened bread, to deliver up to you a prisoner; I have a condemned prisoner in the gaol, a murderer called Barabbas, and this Jesus who stands before you, in regard to whom I find no fault in him. Which will ye that I deliver to you? And they cry out, Barabbas. Pilate saith, What then shall we do with Jesus, who is called Christ? The Jews say, Let him be crucified. Others said, Thou art not Cæsar's friend, if thou discharge him; for he said that he was the Son of God and a king: thou wishest him to be king therefore, and not Cæsar.

And Pilate was angry, and said to the Jews, Your nation is always seditious, and ye speak against your benefactors. The Jews say, What benefactors? He saith to them, Your God led you out of Egypt from hard bondage, and delivered you through the sea as through dry land, and fed you in the wilderness with manna, and gave you quails, and gave you water to