16 However Zacharias was murdered in the entrance of the temple said altar, and about the part.i.tion;
17 But the children of Israel knew not when he want killed.
18 Then at the hour of salutation the priests went into the temple but Zacharias did not according to custom, meet them and bless them.
19 Yet they still continued waiting for him to salute them;
20 And when they found he did not in a long time come, one of them ventured into the holy place where the altar was, and he saw blood lying upon the ground congealed:
21 When, behold, a voice from heaven said, Zacharias is murdered, and his blood shall not be wiped away, until the revenger of his blood come.
22 But when he heard this, he was afraid; and went forth and told the priests what he had seen and heard; and they all went in, and saw the fact.
23 Then the roofs of the temple howled, and were rent from the top to the bottom:
24 And they could not find the body, but only blood made hard like stone.
25 And they went away, and told the people, that Zacharias was murdered, and all the tribes of Israel heard thereof, and mourned for him, and lamented three days:
26 Then the priests took council together concerning a person to succeed him.
27 And Simeon and the other priests cast lots, and the lot fell upon Simeon.
28 For he had been a.s.sured by the Holy Spirit, that he should not die, till he had seen Christ come in the flesh.
(I James wrote this History in Jerusalem: and when the disturbance was I retired into a desert place, until the death of Herod, and the disturbances ceased at Jerusalem. That which remains is, that I glorify G.o.d that he hath given me such wisdom to write unto you who are spiritual, and who love G.o.d: to whom (be ascribed) glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.)
THE PROTEVANGELION.
Note on the death of Zacharias in Chap. 16.
There is a story both in the Jerusalem and Babylonish Talmud very similar to this. It is cited by Dr. Lightfoot, Talmud, Hierosol, in Taanith, fol.
69; and Talmud. Babyl. in Sanhedr., fol. 96. "O Rabbi Jochanan said, Eighty thousand priests were slain for the blood of Zacharias. Rabbi Judas asked Rabbi Achan, Where did they kill Zacharias? Was it in the woman"s court, or in the court of Israel? He answered, Neither in the court of Israel, nor in the court of women, but in the court of the priests; and they did not treat his blood in the same manner as they were wont to treat the blood of a ram or young goat. For of these it is written, He shall pour out his blood, and cover it with dust. But it is written here, The blood is in the midst of her: she set it upon the top of a rock; she poured it not upon the ground. (Ezek. xxiv. 7.) But why was this? That it might cause fury to come up to take vengeance: I have set his blood upon the top of a rock, that it should not be covered.
They committed seven evils that day: they murdered a priest, a prophet, and a king; they shed the blood of the innocent; they polluted the court: that day was the Sabbath: and the day of expiation. When therefore Nebuzaradan came there (viz. to Jerusalem,) he saw his blood bubbling, and said to them, What meaneth this? They answered, It is the blood of calves, lambs, and rams, which we have offered upon the altar. He commanded then, that they should bring calves, and lambs, and rams, and said I will try whether this be their blood: accordingly they brought and slew them, but the blood of Zacharias still bubbled, but the blood of these did not bubble. Then he said, Declare to me the truth of this matter, or else I will comb your flesh with iron combs. Then said they to him, He was a priest, prophet, and judge, who prophesied to Israel all these calamities which we have suffered from you; but we arose against him, and slew him. Then, said he, I will appease him; then he took the rabbis and slew them upon his (viz. Zacharias"s) blood, and he was not yet appeased. Next he took the young boys from the schools, and slew them upon his blood; and yet it bubbled. Then he brought the young priests and slew them in the same place, and yet it still bubbled. So he slew at length ninety-four thousand persons upon his blood, and it did not as yet cease bubbling; then he drew near to it, and said, O Zacharias, Zacharias, thou halt occasioned the death of the chief of thy countrymen, shall I slay them all? then the blood ceased, and did bubble no more."
REFERENCES TO THE PROTEVANGELION.
[This Gospel is ascribed to James. The allusions to it in the ancient Fathers are frequent, and their expressions indicate that it had obtained a very general credit in the Christian world. The controversies founded upon it chiefly relate to the age of Joseph at the birth of Christ, and to his being a widower with children, before his marriage with the Virgin. It seems material to remark, that the legends of the latter ages affirm the virginity of Joseph, notwithstanding Epiphanius, Hilary, Chrysostom, Cyril, Euthymius, Thephylaet, Occ.u.menius, and indeed all the Latin Fathers till Ambrose, and the Greek Fathers afterwards, maintain the opinions of Joseph"s age and family, founded upon their belief in the authenticity of this book. It is supposed to have been originally composed in Hebrew. Postellus brought the MS. of this Gospel from the Levant, translated it into Latin, and sent it to Oporimus, a printer at Basil, where Bibliander, a Protestant Divine, and the Professor of Divinity at Zurich, caused it to be printed in 1552.
Postellus a.s.serts that it was publicly read as canonical in the eastern churches they making no doubt that James was the author, of it. It is, nevertheless considered apocryphal by some of the most learned divines in the Protestant and Catholic churches.]
THE FIRST GOSPEL OF THE INFANCY OF JESUS CHRIST.
CHAPTER I.
1 Caiphas relates that Jesus, when in his cradle, informed his mother that he was the Son of G.o.d.
5 Joseph and Mary going to Bethlehem to be taxed, Mary"s time of bringing forth arrives, and she goes into a cave.
8 Joseph fetches in a Hebrew woman. The cave filled with great lights.
11 The infant born, 17 and cures the woman.
19 Arrival of the shepherds.
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 G.o.d, 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.
5 Joseph therefore arose, and with Mary his spouse he went to Jerusalem, and then came to Bethlehem, that he and his family might be taxed in the city of his fathers.
6 And when they came by the cave, Mary confessed to Joseph that her time of bringing forth was come, and she could not go on to the city, and said, Let us go into this cave.
7 At that time the sun was very near going down.
8 But Joseph hastened away, that he might fetch her a midwife; and when he saw an old Hebrew woman who was of Jerusalem, he said to her, Pray come hither, good woman, and go into that cave, and you will there see a woman just ready to bring forth.
9 It was after sunset, when the old woman and Joseph with her reached the cave, and they both went into it.
10 And behold, it was all filled with lights, greater than the light of lamps and candles, and greater than the light of the sun itself.
11 The infant was then wrapped up in swaddling clothes, and sucking the b.r.e.a.s.t.s of his mother St.
Mary.
12 When they both saw this light, they were surprised; the old woman asked St. Mary, Art thou the mother of this child?
13 St. Mary replied, She was.
14 On which the old woman said, Thou art very different from all other women.
15 St. Mary answered, As there is not any child like to my son, so neither is there any woman like to his mother.
16 The old woman answered, and said, O my Lady, I am come hither that I may obtain an everlasting reward.
17 Then our Lady St. Mary said to her, Lay thine hands upon the infant, which, when she had done, she became whole.
18 And as she was going forth, she said, From henceforth, all the days of my life, I will attend upon and be a servant of this infant.