ve
fished directly for the coin? it would be quite as possible for a coin
to transfix itself on a hook, as for a fish, with a piece of money in
its mouth, to swallow a hook). Other miracles recorded in the apocryphal
gospels, of healing and of raising the dead, are identical in spirit
with those told of him in the canonical. We may also remark that, unless
there were some received traditions of miracles worked by Jesus in his
household, there is no reason for the evident expectation of some help
which is said to have been shown by Mary when the guests want wine at
the wedding (John ii. 3-5). That verse 11 states that this was his first
miracle is only one of the many inconsistencies of the gospel stories.
Passing from these gospels of the infancy to those which tell of the
sufferings of Jesus, we shall find in the "Gospel of Nicodemus, or Acts
of Pilate," much that shows their full accordance with the received
writings of the New Testament. This point is so important, as equalising
the canonical and uncanonical gospels, that no excuse is needed for
proving it by somewhat extensive extracts. The gospel opens as follows:
"I, Ananias, a provincial warden, being a disciple of the law, from the
divine Scriptures recognised our Lord Jesus Christ, and came to him by
faith; and was also accounted worthy of holy baptism. Now, when
searching the records of what was wrought in the time of our Lord Jesus
Christ, which the Jews laid up under Pontius Pilate, I found that these
Acts were written in Hebrew, and by the good pleasure of God I
translated them into Greek for the information of all who call on the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ, under the government of our Lord Flavius
Theodosius, the 17th year, and in the 6th consulate of Flavius
Valentinianus, in the 9th indiction." It may here be noted for what it
is worth that Justin Martyr (1st Apology, chap, xxxv.) refers the Romans
to the Acts of Pilate as public documents open to them, which is
testimony far stronger than he gives to any canonical gospel. "In the
15th year of the government of Tiberius Caesar, King of the Romans, and
of Herod, King of Galilee, the 9th year of his reign, on the 8th before
the calends of April, which is the 25th of March; in the consulship of
Rufus and Rubellio; in the 4th year of the 202nd Olympiad, when Joseph
Caiaphas was high priest of the Jews. Whatsoever, after the cross and
passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Saviour God, Nicodemus recorded
and