The Forbidden Gospels and Epistles Part 16

12 What hast thou done to me, O thou son of Mary? Thou hast injured both me and my neighbours; they all desired their cloths of a proper colour; but thou hast come and spoiled them all.

13 The Lord Jesus replied, I will change the colour of every cloth to what colour thou desirest.

14 And then he presently began to take the cloths out of the furnace, and they were all dyed of those same colours which the dyer desired.

15 And when the Jews saw this surprising miracle, they praised G.o.d.

CHAP. XVI.

1 Christ miraculously widens or contracts the gates, milk pails, sieves, or boxes, not properly made by Joseph, 4 he not being skilful at his carpenter's trade.

5 The King of Jerusalem gives Joseph an order for a throne.

6 Joseph works on it for two years in the king's palace, and makes it two spans too short. The king being angry with him, 10 Jesus comforts him, 13 commands him to pull one side of the throne, while he pulls the other, and brings it to its proper dimensions.

14 Whereupon the bystanders praise G.o.d.

AND Joseph, wheresoever he went in the city, took the Lord Jesus with him, where he was sent for to work to make gates, or milk-pails, or sieves, or boxes; the Lord Jesus was with him, wheresoever he went.

2 And as often as Joseph had anything in his work, to make longer, or shorter, or wider, or narrower, the Lord Jesus would stretch his hand towards it.

3 And presently it became as Joseph would have it:

4 So that he had no need to finish anything with his own hands, for he was not very skilful at his carpenter's trade.

5 On a certain time the King of Jerusalem sent for him, and said, I would have thee make me a throne of the same dimensions with that place in which I commonly sit.

6 Joseph obeyed, and forthwith began the work, and continued two years in the king's palace before he finished it.

7 And when he came to fix it in its place, he found it wanted two spans on each side of the appointed measure.

8 Which when the king saw, he was very angry with Joseph;

9 And Joseph afraid of the king's anger, went to bed without his supper, taking not any thing to eat.

10 Then the Lord Jesus asked him, What he was afraid of?

11 Joseph replied, Because I have lost my labour in the work which I have been about these two years.

12 Jesus said to him, Fear not, neither be cast down;

13 Do thou lay hold on one side of the throne, and I will the other, and we will bring it to its just dimensions.

14 And when Joseph had done as the Lord Jesus said, and each of them had with strength drawn his side, the throne obeyed, and was brought to the proper dimensions of the place:

15 Which miracle when they who stood by saw, they were astonished, and praised G.o.d.

16 The throne was made of the same wood which was in being in Solomon's time, namely, wood adorned with various shapes, and figures.

CHAP. XVII.

1 Jesus plays with boys at hide and seek.

3 Some women put his playfellows in a furnace, 7 where they are transformed by Jesus into kids.

10 Jesus calls them to go and play, and they are restored to their former shape.

ON another day the Lord Jesus going out into the street, and seeing some boys who were met to play, joined himself to their company.

2 But when they saw him, they hid themselves, and left him to seek for them;

3 The Lord Jesus came to the gate of a certain house, and asked some women who were standing there, Where the boys were gone?

4 And when they answered, That there was no one there; the Lord Jesus said, Who are those whom ye see in the furnace?

5 They answered, They were kids of three years old.

6 Then Jesus cried out aloud, and said, Come out hither, O ye kids, to your shepherd;

7 And presently the boys came forth like kids, and leaped about him; which when the women saw, they were exceedingly amazed, and trembled,

8 Then they immediately wors.h.i.+pped, the Lord Jesus, and beseeched him, saying, O our Lord Jesus, son of Mary, thou art truly that good shepherd of Israel! have mercy on thy handmaids, who stand before thee, who do not doubt, but that thou, O Lord, art come to save, and not to destroy.

9 After that, when the Lord Jesus said, the children of Israel are like Ethiopians among the people; the women said, Thou, Lord, knowest all things, nor is any thing concealed from thee: but now we entreat thee, and beseech of thy mercy, that thou wouldest restore those boys to their former state.

10 Then Jesus said, Come hither, O boys, that we may go and play; and immediately, in the presence of these women, the kids were changed, and returned into the shape of boys.

CHAPTER XVIII.

1 Jesus becomes the king of his playfellows, and they crown him with flowers; 4 miraculously causes a serpent who had bitten Simon the Canaanite, then a boy, to suck out all the poison again; 16 the serpent bursts, and Christ restores the boy to health.

IN the month Adar Jesus gathered together the boys, and ranked them as though he had been a king.

2 For they spread their garments on the ground for him to sit on; and having made a crown of flowers, put it upon his head, and stood on his right and left as the guards of a king.

3 And if any one happened to pa.s.s by, they took him by force, and said, Come hither, and wors.h.i.+p the king, that you may have a prosperous journey.

4 In the mean time, while these things were doing, there came certain men, carrying a boy upon a couch;

5 For this boy having gone with his companions to the mountain to gather wood, and having found there a partridge's nest, and put his hand in to take out the eggs, was stung by a poisonous serpent, which leaped out of the nest; so that he was forced to cry out for the help of his companions; who, when they came, found him lying upon the earth like a dead person.

6 After which his neighbours came and carried him back into the city.

7 But when they came to the place where the Lord Jesus, was sitting like a king, and the other boys stood around him like his ministers, the boys made haste to meet him, who was bitten by the serpent, and said to his neighbours, Come and pay your respects to the king;

8 But when, by reason of their sorrow, they refused to come, the boys drew them, and forced them against their wills to come.