This eBook was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net>
Additional proofing was done by Curtis A. Weyant
THE
SUPPRESSED
GOSPELS AND EPISTLES
OF THE ORIGINAL
NEW TESTAMENT
OF
JESUS THE CHRIST
AND OTHER PORTIONS OF THE ANCIENT HOLY SCRIPTURES.
NOW EXTANT, ATTRIBUTED TO
HIS APOSTLES, AND THEIR DISCIPLES,
AND VENERATED BY THE PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES DURING
THE FIRST FOUR CENTURIES,
BUT SINCE, AFTER VIOLENT DISPUTATIONS
FORBIDDEN BY THE
BISHOPS OF THE NICENE COUNCIL,
IN THE REIGN OF THE EMPEROR CONSTANTINE
AND OMITTED FROM THE CATHOLICS AND PROTESTANT
EDITIONS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT, BY ITS COMPILERS
TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL TONGUES, WITH HISTORICAL
REFERENCES TO THEIR AUTHENTICITY,
BY
ARCHBISHOP WAKE
AND OTHER
LEARNED DIVINES
THE FIRST GOSPEL OF
THE INFANCY OF JESUS CHRIST.
CHAPTER 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.
7 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.