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308 couches, our tongues still harped thereon; and our disputings were so loud that Jesus could not but hear them. Then was he sore displeased that we should thus think of ourselves when he was to depart from us; and he opened his mouth to speak. But he spake not; for it was as if no words could avail to pierce the hardness of our hearts. Howbeit, when supper was ended and I was gone forth from the chamber, then, as it was reported to me by some (but others say that it happened on another evening), he arose from the table, and girded himself as a servant, and would wash the feet of all the disciples; and when they would have resisted, he constrained them; but when he had made an end, he said, "I have given you an example that ye should do as I have done to you."

After this manner therefore that Sabbath ended; but throughout the whole of the Sabbath and all the evening after, yea and on the morrow, and during all the days before his suffering, Jesus, as it now appeareth unto me, was wholly bent upon serving us, and upon helping us, thinking ever of our needs and our weaknesses, and how we should fare without him, and how he could strengthen us so that we might be ready when he suddenly came back to us. For our sakes also, as I judge, he made entry after that public and solemn fashion into Jerusalem, to the intent that no man might hereafter reproach any of us and say, "Thy master was no Messiah; for he dared not show himself as Messiah before the face of the people; neither did he claim allegiance, but only professed himself a servant; nor did he manifest bravery, but hid himself from his enemies even to the last."

For this cause do I in no wise assent to the saying of Xanthias, that the going in of Jesus into Jerusalem was not worthy of him. For, as I judge, he did it for our sakes, and not for his own; yea, and for the sake of the