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I will simply add on this point that had I been pres- ent when the Canon was settled, I should most heart- ily have voted in Manasses' favor. CHAPTER XXXI The Apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus Compared With the Canonicals. Section i. We turn now to some ancient writings, very similar to those of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John; and because they are extravagant about miracles, etc., they are ingloriously turned down. But nothing is more certain than that for the first one hundred and fifty years after Jesus' death, a great number of persons were engaged in writing histories of His time which they called "Gospels," and in those gospels they tell most marvelous things. Some of those alleg/ed gospels were written before, and some after the canonicals ; but no absolute and un- impeachable date can be fixed for either class. The Acts of Pilate or Gospels of Nicodemus are either copied from Matthew and Luke and others, or Matthew and Luke copy from Nicodemus. To illus- trate : In chapter two, Jesus is brought before Pilate, and Pilate's wife sent to him saying: "Have nothing to do with that just man, for I have suffered much concerning him in a vision this night." Matthew, chapter 2^, verse 19, quotes this word for word, ex- cept that he says Pilate's wife had a dream that day of him. Chapter 2, Acts of Pilate, tells us that Pilate 348 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 349 called Jesus to him and said, "Hast thou heard what they testify against thee?" Matthew (i) copies this: Pilate says, "Hearest thou how many things they wit- ness against thee?" (2) When the Jews were clamor- ing for Jesus' crucifixion, Pilate said unto them : "It is not proper to crucify him; let him be whipped and sent away." Luke, chapter 23, verse 22, makes Pilate say of Jesus : "I have found no cause of death in him ; I will therefore chastise him and let him go." In the Acts of Pilate, ch. 4, Nicodemus appears and entreats Pilate to be merciful, for he says : "Jesus is a man who has done many useful and glorious things, such as no man on earth has done, or can do," and he begs Pilate to dismiss him, and do him no harm. And Nicode- mus adds, "If he is from God, his wonderful works will stand; but if from men, they will come to naught." Section 2. In Acts 5, v. 38 and 39, Luke copies Nicodemus exactly ; or Nicodemus copies Luke. Which one is the copyist ? In chapter 6, Acts of Pilate, another Jew asked to be heard in Jesus' behalf. Pilate permitted him. "I lay for thirty-eight years by the sheep pool, at Jerusalem," said the man, "suffering a great in- firmity. I was expecting a cure from the coming of an angel, who disturbed the water at a certain time. Whoever thereafter first descended into it was made whole of every infirmity." John, chapter 5, verses 2 to 10, says there were five porches at this "sheep (1) Ch. 27, V. 13. (2) Ch. 4, Acts of Pilate. 350 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES pool," and that the halt, the blind, and the withered, lay there waiting for the angel to come and move the waters; that whoever first, after the troubling of the waters, stepped in, was made whole. And John men- tions this man who had lain there thirty-eight years. Nicodemus now tells the rest of this story in one quarter of the space of John. "J^sus finding a man languishing there, said, "Wilt thou be made whole?" The man answered. "Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool." Jesus said unto him, "Rise, take up thy bed and walk," and immediately the man was made whole and took up his bed and walked. Some other Jews, besides Nicodemus, interceded for Jesus. "I was blind," said one, "and he restored me to sight." "I was a leper," said another, "and he cured me by his word only, saying, 'Be thou clean,' and immediately I was cleansed from leprosy." Luke, in chapter 5, verses 12 and 13, tells this same story, but he uses sixty words as against thirty in Nicodemus. The story of the paralytic is told in Acts of Pilate in ninety-three words. Luke tells the same with no im- provements, in two hundred and thirty-two words. The law of accretion in John and Luke, is here plain- ly evident. (3) In mock trial before Pilate, Nicodemus tells us (3) A story always gains on its travels. It took John exactly one hundred and sixty words to tell of this man waiting at the eheep pool. Nicodemus pictures the same story as well or better than John in fifty words less. Tertulian, the African, says: "John Burvived the ordeal of being boiled in oil. ' ' If that be so, it may have unbalanced John's mind Bomewhat. A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 351 (4) that a Pharisee stood forth and declared that a great company of infirm persons came from GaHlee and the coast countries, and that Jesus healed them all. Then others of the Jews cried out, "Even de- mons are subject to him." Nicodemus (5) and Mat- thew (6) say that "Jesus healed one possessed with a devil." The Acts of Pilate (7) tells the story of Jesus "casting out a devil," just after he himself had been driven from Nazareth; and Luke (8) later on, copies Nicodemus almost word for word. (9) After the crucifixion, the Jews, on learning that Joseph of Arimathea had begged and buried the body of Jesus, sought to arrest him and his accomplices; but they all fled except Nicodemus. Joseph soon after returned; whereupon the Jews seized and confined him in a chamber, where there were no windows, and they fastened the door and put a seal upon the lock and placed a guard there. (10) Although he came to Jesus by night (11), Nicode- mus must have been a man of courage and firmness, for we are told that in this exigency he faced the Jews boldly and expostulated with them. (4) Cli. 7. (5) Ch. 8. (6) Ch. 12. (7) Ch. 7. (8) Ch. 4, V. 31 to 36. (9) "Many" had written before Luke, and he ought to have given Nicodemus credit for this incident. (10) Ch. 12, Acts of Pilate; Matt. 27, v. 57 to 59; Luke 23, v. 50 to 53. On the question of priority between Luke and the gospel of Nicodemus, there are many disputants on each side; and the absolute truth will probably never be Hnown. (11) John 3, V. 2. 352 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES Here now appears a miracle something like that in Acts 12, when Peter was released from prison by an angel. When the Jews ordered Joseph to be brought forth (12) from that dark sealed chamber, he could not be found. Yet we are told that the same seal, unbroken, was on the lock. The Jews did not be- lieve the soldiers, and in the altercation which followed, the soldiers said : "You produce Joseph, whom ye put under guard in your own chamber, and we will produce Jesus, whom we guarded in the sepulcher." Nicodemus all this time (13) believed Jesus to be alive, and he sent men into the mountains to search for him. They did not find Jesus, but found Joseph, who returned and related his extraordinary escape. He said Jesus entered that room and set him free. John (14) tells the same kind of a story. Jesus had then gone into Galilee. (12) Actsof Pilate, ch. 13. (13) Ch. 15, Acts of Pilate. (14) Ch. 20, V. 26. CHAPTER XXXII More Apocryphal Miracles. Section i. The second century A. D. was re- plete with writers of Gospels of every grade, and each gospel, canonical and apocryphal, was filled with alleged miracles of the most extraordinary char- acter. An early gospel, written probably about the time of Luke, was the Protevangelium, or book of James. Now, while it is true that the Protevangelium has been branded as apocryphal, it is also true that it has a certificate of genuineness ; for at the conclusion its colophon says : "I, James, wrote this history in Je- rusalem, and when the disturbance was, I retired into a desert place, until the death of Herod, and the disturbance ceased." (i) Moreover, no one of the four canonicals has any colophon, nor can anyone tell when or where they were written. One of the improbable things which James men- tions is that Elizabeth, hearing that her son John was being searched for, took him and fled to the moun- (1) He must mean Herod Antipas; for Herod the Great died the year before or the same year Jesus was born. James mentions the peculiar betrothal of Joseph and Mary. See ch. 5, ante. 353 354 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES tains; and that a friendly mountain opened wide and safely received them. Another is that when Zacha- rias was killed, his blood hardened into stone ; and the roofs of the temples howled and were rent from top to bottom.