Page:Apocryphal Gospels and Other Documents Relating to the History of Christ.djvu/443

Rh race hath always been seditious, and ye have been opposed to them that have been for you. The Jews answered, Who are for us? Pilate saith to them, Your God who snatched you from the hard servitude of the Egyptians, and led you out of Egypt through the sea, as by dry land, and fed you in the desert with manna and quails, and brought forth water from the rock for you and gave you drink, and gave a law unto you: and amid all these things ye provoked your God, and sought for you a molten calf as your God. And ye did anger your God, and he meant to slay you; and Moses prayed for you that ye might not die. And now ye say that I hate the king.

And rising from the tribunal he sought to go out. But the Jews cried and said to him, We know that Cæsar and not Jesus is king. For the magi also offered him gifts as a king, and when Herod heard from the magi that a king was born, he wished to slay him. But this becoming known, Joseph, his father, took him and his mother, and they fled into Egypt; and on hearing it, Herod slew all the infants of the Jews born in Bethlehem.

Pilate was afraid when he heard these words: and when silence was made among the people, who were shouting, Pilate said, Is this he whom Herod sought after? They say to him, It is he. And Pilate took water and washed his hands before the people,