Page:The Apocryphal New Testament (1924).djvu/187

 Jesus' address to the apostles, ending 'let us go hence, for Herod seeketh me to kill me'.

They came down from the mountain, and met the devil in the form of a fisherman with attendant demons carrying nets and hooks, &c.: and they cast their nets and hooks on the mount. The apostles questioned Jesus about this: John, Philip, and Andrew, in particular. John was sent to speak to the devil and ask him what he was catching. The devil said: 'It is not a wonder to catch fish in the waters: the wonder is in this desert, to catch fish there.' He cast his nets and caught all manner of fish (really men), some by their eyes, others by their lips, &c.

(Here follows a fragment given only by Lacau, p. 108.) Jesus told John to tell the devil to cast his nets again. He did so, and a great smoke rose up, and the devil's power disappeared. John threw a stone at him and he fled, cursing. Bartholomew then asked to be permitted to see 'him whom thou didst create to laugh at him' (Leviathan), and Jesus said that the sight was almost too terrible for human eyes; but the request was granted. A cloud&mdash;that of the Transfiguration&mdash;appeared in the heaven.

(Here the piece ends.)

And here Revillout would place a few lines which he calls no. 4 bis (p. 189), which paraphrase John vii. 8-11, about Jesus refusing at first to go to the feast, and subsequently going in secret. The only detail worth noting is that (at Jerusalem) Jesus sojourns in the house of Irmeël.

We next have a group of pieces relating to the Passion.

First we place two fragments relating to Judas and his wife.

6. Revillout no. 5, p. 156.

Some speaker tells how Judas used to take his ill-gotten gains home to his wife: sometimes he cheated her of them, and then she mocked him.

She counselled him to betray his Master.

He listened to her as Adam did to Eve, and went and covenanted with the Jews. The prophecy (Zech.) was fulfilled.

He took the money to his wife: he said to her...

7. Lacau, p. 34. Revillout, Suppl. 1, p. 195.

Judas received the thirty pieces.

His wife was foster-mother to the child of Joseph of Arimathaea, which was seven months old. When the money was brought into the house, the child (fell ill or would not stop crying). Joseph was summoned: the child cried out, begging him to take it away 'from this evil beast, for yesterday at the ninth hour they received the price (of blood)'. Joseph took the child away.

Judas went to the priests. They arrested Jesus and took him to Pilate. . . . [sic] He was crowned with thorns and crucified, and said: Father forgive them.