William Wake

“ CHAPTER III. 1 The wise men visit Christ. Mary gives them one of his swaddling clothes. 3 An angel appears to them in the form of a star. 4 They return and make a fire, and worship the swaddling cloth, and put it in the fire where it remains unconsumed.
AND it came to pass, when the Lord Jesus was born at Bethlehem, a city of Judaea, in the time of Herod the King;—the wise men came from the East to Jerusalem, according to the prophecy of Zoradascht, [Zoroaster] and brought with them offerings: namely, gold, frankincense, and myrrh, and worshipped him, and offered to him their gifts. ”

“ Mary, This your son has no need of any learning.
13 They brought him then to a more learned master, who, when he saw him, said, say Aleph;
14 And when he had sand Aleph, the master bade him pronounce Beth; to which the Lord Jesus replied, Tell me first the meaning of the letter Aleph, and then I will pronounce Beth.
15 But this master, when he did lift up his hand to whip him, had his hand presently withered, and he died.
16 Then said Joseph to St. Mary, Henceforth we will not allow him to go out of the house; for every one who displeases him is killed. ”

“ Mary was grieved at their case, and taking the Lord Jesus, put him upon the back of the mule.
25 And said to her son, O Jesus Christ, restore (or heal) according to thy extraordinary power this mule, and grant him to have again the shape of a man and a rational creature, as he had formerly.
26 This was scarce said by the Lady St. Mary, but the mule immediately passed into a human form, and became a young man without any deformity. ”

“ Mary, as I brought my son to her, when he was in the agonies of death; and he was cure by that water, with which the body of her son Jesus was washed?
10 When the woman heard her say this, she also went, and having procured the same water, washed her son with it, whereupon his body and his eyes were instantly restored to their former state.
11 And when she brought her son to St. Mary, and opened his case to her, she commanded her to give thanks to God for the recovery of her son's health, and tell no one what had happened.
CHAPTER X. 1 Two wives of one man, each have a son sick. ”

“ THE following accounts we found in the book of Joseph the high-priest, called by some Caiphas:
2 He relates, that Jesus spake even when he was in the cradle, and said to his mother:
3 Mary, I am Jesus the Son of God, that word, which thou didst bring forth according to the declaration of the angel Gabriel to thee, and my father hath sent me for the salvation of the world.
4 In the three hundred and ninth year of the era of Alexander, Augustus published a decree that all persons should go to be taxed in their own country. ”

“ CHAPTER III. 1 Astonishes his schoolmaster by his learning.
A CERTAIN schoolmaster named Zaccheaus, standing in a certain place, heard Jesus speaking these things to his father.
2 And he was much surprised, that being a child he should speak such things; and after a few days he came to Joseph, and said,
3 Thou hast a wise and sensible child, send him to me, that he may learn to read.
4 When he sat down to teach the letters to Jesus, he began with the first letter Aleph;
5 But Jesus pronounced the second letter Mpeth (Beth) Cghimel (Gimel) , and said over all the letters to him to the end. ”

“ 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 Cananite, then a boy, to suck out all the poison again; 16 the serpent bursts, and Christ restores the boy to health. ”

“ What do you think that boy will be?
9 When a certain astronomer, who was present, asked the Lord Jesus, Whether he had studied astronomy?
10 The Lord Jesus replied, and told him the number of the spheres and heavenly bodies, as also their triangular, square, and sextile aspect; their progressive and retrograde motion; their size and several prognostications; and other things which the reason of man had never discovered.
11 There was also among them a philosopher well skilled in physic and natural philosophy, who asked the Lord Jesus, Whether he had studied physic? ”

“ There are several stories believed of Christ, proceeding from this Gospel; as that which Mr. Sike relates out of La Brosse's Persic Lexicon, that Christ practised the trade of a dyer, and his working a miracle with the colours; from whence the Persian dyers honour him as their patron, and call a dye-house the shop of Christ. Sir John Chardin mentions Persian legends concerning Christ's dispute with his schoolmaster about his ABC; and his lengthening the cedar-board which Joseph sawed too short. ”

“ THE SECOND, OR ST. THOMAS'S GOSPEL OF THE INFANCY OF JESUS CHRIST. An Account of the ACTIONS and MIRACLES of our Lord and Saviour
JESUS CHRIST in his INFANCY.
CHAPTER I. 2 Jesus miraculously clears the water after rain. 4 Plays with clay sparrows, which he animates on the Sabbath day.
I THOMAS, an Israelite, judged it necessary to make known to our brethren among the Gentiles, the actions and miracles of Christ in his childhood, which our Lord and God Jesus Christ wrought after his birth in Bethlehem in our country, at which I myself, was astonished; the beginning of which was as followeth. ”

“ CHAPTER VI. 1 Mary looks on a woman in whom Satan had taken
up his abode, and she becomes dispossesed.
5 Christ kissed by a bride made dumb by sorcerers,
cures her.
11 Miraculously cures a gentlewoman in whom Satan
had taken up his abode.
16 A leprous girl cured by the water in which he was
washed, and becomes the servant of Joseph and Mary.
20 The leprous son of a prince's wife cured in like manner.
37 Has mother offers large gifts to Mary, and dismisses her. ”

“ Sozomen says, he was told by many, and he credits the relations, of the idols in Egypt falling down on Joseph, and Mary's flight thither with Christ; and of Christ making a well to wash his clothes in a sycamore-tree, from whence balsam afterwards proceeded; which stories are from this Gospel. Chemnitius, out of Stipulensis, who had it from Peter Martyr, Bishop of Alexandria, in the third century, says, that the place in Egypt where Christ was banished is now called Matarea, about ten miles beyond Cairo; that the inhabitants constantly burn a lamp in remembrance of it ”

“ CHAPTER XV. 1 Jesus and other boys play together, and make clay figures of animals. 4 Jesus causes them to walk, 6 also makes clay birds, which he causes to fly, and eat and drink. 7 The children's parents alarmed, and take Jesus for a sorcerer. 8 He goes to a dyer's shop, and throws all the cloths into the furnace, and works a miracle therewith. ”

“ THEN they went into another city where there was a woman possessed with a devil, and in whom Satan, that cursed rebel, had taken up his abode.
2 One night, when she went to fetch water, she could neither endure her clothes on, nor to be in any house; but as often as they tied her with chains or cords, she brake them, and went out into desert places, and sometimes standing where roads crossed, and in church yards, would throw stones at men. ”

“ Mary, and told her the story, to whom she replied, Be quiet, I am concerned lest thou shouldest make this matter known.
9 After this her rival, the other wife, as she was drawing water at the well, and saw Caleb playing by the well, and that no one was near, took him, and threw him into the well.
10 And when some men came to fetch water from the well, they saw the boy sitting on the superficies of the water, and drew him out with ropes, and were exceedingly surprised at the child, and praised God. ”

“ It is natural to suppose that the Infant Redeemer's earliest days were spent in the society of other young children, and it is quite consistent with every sincere Christians faith to believe that He had the power to perform the miracles here ascribed to him otherwise, a limit will be set to His divine attributes, doubts raised against His performance of the miracles related by the four Evangelists, in the authorised version of the Testament, and a denial given of the declaration therein, "With GOD nothing is impossible!" ”

“ CHAPTER IV. 1 Herod intends to put Christ to death. 3 An angel warns Joseph to take the child and his mother into Egypt. 6 Consternation on their arrival. 13 The idols fall down. 15 Mary washes Christ's swaddling clothes, hangs them to dry on a post, and the son of a priest puts one on his head; 16 And being possessed of devils they leave him. ”

“ CHAPTER XIX. 1 James being bitten by a viper, Jesus blows on the wound and cures him. 4 Jesus charged with throwing a boy from the roof of, a house, 10 miraculously raises the dead boy to acquit him; 12 fetches water for his mother, breaks the pitcher and miraculously gathers the water in his mantle and brings it home; 16 makes fish pools on the Sabbath, 20 causes a boy to die who broke them down, 22 another boy runs against him, whom he also causes to die.
ON another day Joseph sent his son James to gather wood, and the Lord Jesus went with him ”

“ CHAPTER VII. 1 A man who could not enjoy his wife, freed from his disorder. 5 A young man who had been bewitched, and turned into a mule miraculously cured by Christ being put on his back, 28 and is married to the girl who had been cured of leprosy. ”

“ CHAP. II. 1 The child circumcised in the cave,
2 and the old woman preserving his foreskin or navel-string in a
box of spikenard, Mary afterwards annoints Christ with it.
5 Christ brought to the temple;
6 He shines,
7 and angels stand around him adoring.
8 Simeon praises Christ.
AND when the time of his circumcision was come: namely, the eighth day, on which the law commanded the child to be circumcised; they circumcised him in the cave.
2 And the old Hebrew woman took the foreskin (others say she took the navel-string) , and preserved it in an alabaster-box of old oil of spikenard. ”

“ 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. ”

“ CHAPTER XXI. [Compare Luke ii. 42, whose meagre account is deficient
of the sublime details here given of the subjects disputed upon.]
1 Disputes learnedly with the doctors in the temple,
7 on law,
9 on astronomy,
12 on physics and metaphysics.
21 Is worshiped by a philosopher,
28 and fetched home by his mother. ”