THE GOSPEL OF NICODEMUS, FORMERLY CALLED THE ACTS OF PONTIUS PILATE.


The Gospel of NICODEMUS, the disciple, concerning the Sufferings and Resurrection
of our Master and Saviour, JESUS CHRIST.

CHAPTER VI.

1 Pilate dismayed by the turbulence of the Jews,
5 who demand Barabbas to be released, and Christ
to be crucified.
9 Pilate warmly expostulates with them,
20 washes his hands of Christ's blood,
23 and sentences him to be whipped and crucified.

THEN Pilate having called
together Nicodemus, and the
fifteen men who said that Jesus
was not born through fornication,
said to them, What shall I do,
seeing there is like to be a tumult
among the people.

2 They say unto him, We know
not; let them look to it who raise
the tumult.

3 Pilate then called the
multitude again, and said to them,
Ye know that ye have a custom, that
I should release to you one prisoner
at the feast of the passover:

4 I have a noted prisoner, a
murderer, who is called Barabbas,
and Jesus who is called Christ, in
whom I find nothing that deserves
death; which of them, therefore,
have you a mind that I should
release to you?

5 They all cry out, and say,
Release to us Barabbas.

6 Pilate saith to them, What
then shall I do with Jesus who is
called Christ?

7 They all answer, Let him be
crucified.

8 Again they cry out and say to
Pilate, You are not the friend of
Caesar, if you release this man;
for he hath declared that he is the
Son of God, and a king. But are
you inclined that he should be
king, and not Caesar?

9 Then Pilate filled with anger
said to them, Your nation hath
always been seditious, and you are
always against those who have
been serviceable to you.

10 The Jews replied, Who are those
who have been serviceable to us?

11 Pilate answered them, Your
God who delivered you from the
hard bondage of the Egyptians,
and brought you over the Red Sea
as though it had been dry land,
and fed you in the wilderness with
manna and the flesh of quails, and
brought water out of the rock, and
gave you a law from heaven.

12 Ye provoked him all ways,
and desired for yourselves a
molten calf, and worshipped it,
and sacrificed to it, and said,
These are thy Gods, O Israel,
which brought thee out of the
land of Egypt:

13 On account of which your
God was inclined to destroy you;
but Moses interceded for you, and
your God heard him, and forgave
your iniquity.

14 Afterwards ye were enraged
against, and would have killed
your prophets, Moses and Aaron,
when they fled to the tabernacle,
and ye were always murmuring
against God and his prophets.

15 And arising from his
judgment seat, he would have gone
out; but the Jews all cried out,
We acknowledge Caesar to be king,
and not Jesus;

16 Whereas this person, as
soon as he was born, the wise
men came and offered gifts unto
him; which when Herod heard,
he was exceedingly troubled,
and would have killed him:

17 When his father knew this,
he fled with him and his mother
Mary into Egypt. Herod, when
he heard he was born, would have
slain him; and accordingly sent
and slew all the children which
were in Bethlehem, and in all the
coasts thereof, from two years old
and under.

18 When Pilate heard this
account, he was afraid; and
commanding silence among the
people, who made a noise, he said
to Jesus, Art thou therefore a king?

19 All the Jews replied to
Pilate, he is the very person
whom Herod sought to have slain.

20 Then Pilate taking water,
washed his hands before the people
and said, I am innocent of the
blood of this just person; look ye
to it.

21 The Jews answered and said,
His blood be upon us and our
children.

22 Then Pilate commanded Jesus
to be brought before him, and
spake to him in the following
words;

23 Thy own nation hath charged
thee as making thyself a king;
wherefore I, Pilate, sentence thee
to be whipped according to the
laws of former governors; and
that thou be first bound, then
hanged upon a cross in that place
where thou art now a prisoner;
and also two criminals with thee,
whose names are Dimas and Gestas.

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