Page:Apocryphal Gospels and Other Documents Relating to the History of Christ.djvu/356

240 take ye him for blasphemy, and lead him away to your synagogue, and judge him according to your law. The Jews say to Pilate, Our law maintains that if a man sin against a man, he is worthy to receive forty stripes save one; but he that blasphemeth against God, is to be stoned with stones.

Pilate saith to them, Take ye him and be avenged upon him in what manner ye will. The Jews say to Pilate, We wish that he should be crucified. Pilate saith, He doth not deserve to be crucified.

And as the governor looked round at the multitudes of Jews who stood about, he saw many of the Jews weeping, and he said, All the multitude doth not wish him to die. The elders of the Jews said, For this cause all the multitude of us have come, that he may die. Pilate saith to the Jews, Wherefore should he die? The Jews say, Because he said that he was the Son of God and a King.

a certain man named Nicodemus, a Jew, stood before the governor and said, I entreat thee, worshipful one, bid me say a few words. And Pilate said, Speak. Nicodemus saith, I said to the elders and the