Page:Apocryphal Gospels and Other Documents Relating to the History of Christ.djvu/64

lx the desert. The bride in Solomon's Song says, "I will go up to the palm tree, I will take hold of its boughs," so the palm tree bows down to Mary for her to have its fruit. The Israelites sang, "Spring up, O well!" and the prophet said, "waters shall break out in the wilderness," so a fountain gushes forth in the desert. The prophet said, "the idols of Egypt shall be moved at his presence," so the idols of Egypt fall, and are shattered when Jesus comes thither. Such are the prodigies of the second part, and such their genesis, which, in most instances, the writer himself really indicates. I remark in passing that an amusing story is told by Philostratus, about a lion which was brought to Apollonius of Tyana, when in Egypt, and which Apollonius said inherited the soul of king Amasis (Life, v. 42). I repeat, also, that Athanasius speaks of the downfall of the idols in Egypt (de Incarn. Verbi; and, de Divin. Christi).

The third part of the Pseudo-Matthew was not published by Thilo. It is chiefly borrowed from Pseudo-Thomas, and therefore very little need be said of it here. The variations from the prototype are in this part similar to those which were observed in the first part. Some of the fables or legends almost seem to have been written from memory.