Page:Apocryphal Gospels and Other Documents Relating to the History of Christ.djvu/430

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APOCRYPHAL GOSPELS.

say, We have a law that no one should heal on the sabbath; but he on the sabbath, by evil arts, healeth the lame and the humpbacked, the blind, the paralytic, the leprous, and demoniacs. Pilate saith to them, By what evil arts? They say to him, He is an evil doer, and casteth out demons by Beelzebub, the prince of the demons, and they all are subject to him. Pilate saith to them, It is not for an unclean spirit to cast out demons, but for the god Scolapius.[1]

The Jews said, We pray thy majesty to set him to be examined before thy judgment seat. Pilate called the Jews to him, and said unto them, Tell me how can I, who am a procurator, examine a king? They say unto him, We do not say that he is a king, but he saith that he is. Therefore, Pilate called a messenger, and said to him, Let Jesus be brought with gentleness. And the messenger went out and adored him, when he recognised him, and spread upon the ground the vestment which he carried in his hand, saying, Lord, walk upon this and enter, for the procurator calleth for thee. But the Jews, seeing what the messenger did, cried out against Pilate saying, Why didst thou not cause him to enter by the summons of a herald, and not by a messenger? For when the messenger saw him he adored him, and the vestment which he held in his hand he spread before him on

  1. Literally 'the god of Scolapius,' but 'in deo Scolapii' are to be understood as if in apposition. Thus, for 'Urbs Roma,' 'the city Rome,' we say 'the city of Rome.' Scolapius is of course Æsculapius.