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crucified, for His name hath destroyed all the gods? Pilate said, And verily His records are true; for even I myself was convinced by His works that He was greater than all the gods whom we venerate. And Cæsar said, For what cause, then, didst thou perpetrate against Him such daring and doing, not being ignorant of Him, or assuredly designing some mischief to my government? And Pilate said, I did it because of the transgression and sedition of the lawless and ungodly Jews.

And Cæsar was filled with anger, and held a council with all his senate and officers, and ordered a decree to be written against the Jews, thus:

To Licianus who holdest the first place in the East Country: Greeting.

I have been informed of the audacity perpetrated very recently by the Jews inhabiting Jerusalem and the cities round about, and their lawless doing, how they compelled Pilate to crucify a certain god called Jesus, through which great transgression of theirs the world was darkened and drawn into ruin. Determine therefore, with a body of soldiers, to go to them there at once and proclaim their subjection to bondage by this decree. By obeying and proceeding against them, and scattering them abroad in all nations, enslave them, and by driving their nation from all Judea as soon as possible show, wherever this hath not yet appeared, that they are full of evil.

And when this decree came into the East Country, Licianus obeyed, through fear of the decree, and laid waste all the nation of the Jews, and caused those that were left in Judea to go into slavery with them that were scattered among the Gentiles, that it might be known by Cæsar that these things had been done by Licianus against the Jews in the East Country, and to please him.

And again Cæsar resolved to have Pilate questioned, and commanded a captain, Albius by name, to cut off Pilate's head, saying, As he laid hands upon the just man, that is called Christ, he also shall fall in like manner, and find no deliverance.

And when Pilate came to the place he prayed in silence, saying, O Lord, destroy not me with the wicked Hebrews, for I should not have laid hands upon thee, but for the nation of lawless Jews, because they provoked sedition against me: but thou knowest that I did it in ignorance. Destroy me not, therefore, for this my sin, nor be mindful of the evil that is in me, O Lord, and in thy servant Procla who standeth with me in this the hour of my death, whom thou taughtest to prophesy that thou must be nailed to the cross. Do not punish her too in my sin, but forgive us, and number us in the portion of thy just ones. And behold, when Pilate had finished his prayer, there came a voice from heaven, saying, All generations and the families of the Gentiles shall call thee blessed, because under thee were fulfilled all these things that were spoken by the prophets concerning me; and thou thyself must appear as my witness at my second coming, when I shall judge the twelve tribes of Israel, and them that have not confessed my name. And the Prefect cut off the head of Pilate, and behold an angel of the Lord received it. And when his wife Procla saw the angel coming and received his head, she also, being filled with joy, forthwith gave up the ghost, and was buried with her husband.

THE END

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The worth and spirit of the various apocryphal and pseudepigraphal writings may be further gathered from the following works:

B. PICK, “The Extra-canonical Life of Christ" (New York, 1903).
J. E. THOMPSON, "Books which Influenced Our Lord" (Edinburgh,
1891).

H. J. WICKS, “The Doctrine of God in the Jewish Apocrypha" (Lon-
don, 1915).

G. H. Box, "The Ezra Apocalypse" (London, 1912).
W. J. DEANE, "Pseudepigrapha" (Edinburgh, 1891).

The texts themselves, usually with full discussions of them, have been translated into English as follows:

R. H. CHARLES, "Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old
Testament" (Oxford, 1913), 2 vols.

E. C. BISSELL, "The Apocrypha of the Old Testament" (New
York, 1880).

W. B. STEVENSON, "Wisdom and the Jewish Apocryphal Writings"
(London, 1903).

E. A. W. BUDGE, "Coptic Apocrypha" (London, 1913).

M. D. GIBSON, "Apocrypha Arabica" (London, 1901).

E. A. W. BUDGE, "History of the Blessed Virgin" (London, 1899).

B. H. COOPER, "The Apocryphal Gospels" (London, 7th ed., 1910).
R. A. WESTCOTT, "Gospel of Nicodemus" (London, 1915).

See also the

"Ante-Nicene Christian Library."

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