Page:Philochristus, Abbott, 1878.djvu/388

380 Now when we had spent much time in questioning and hearing the women, I desired to go down forthwith to the sepulchre, for to see it with mine own eyes; but the women stayed me, and said, "It were better to wait; for Peter and John are already gone down." So I waited, but in sore trouble of mind; for at one time I believed, but at another time I doubted. For as concerning the tomb, it had come into my mind at first, that the servants of the chief priests (whom I had seen in the garden during the night) might haply have broken open the tomb and stolen away the body; but then that seemed now impossible, because of the vision of the angels and the voice; and besides, it was being borne in upon me that Jesus must indeed arise from the dead, for thus should both the words of the prophets be fulfilled, and his own words also; but otherwise they could not be fulfilled. So I waited till John and Peter should return.

But while I was still waiting and marvelling that they tarried so long, there came in certain of the disciples; these were not Galileans, but abode in Jerusalem, and they asked us whether we had seen aught that night. We said, "No." Then said one of them to us, "Last night, in returning from beholding that which came to pass at Golgotha, about two hours after sunset, Miriam, my sister's daughter, saw her father (who hath now been buried these six weeks) risen from the grave and standing wrapped in the grave-clothes near her bed; moreover two other women of mine acquaintance saw the bodies of their little children, fresh and blooming as if they were verily alive; and another, a certain young man named Mattathias (but he is not known to me), is said to have seen his brother, who hath been buried more than a year, standing as if alive, so that he even approached him and called him by name.