Page:Apocryphal Gospels and Other Documents Relating to the History of Christ.djvu/506

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APOCRYPHAL GOSPELS.

opinion favorable to the genuineness of this extract, because Photius says Justus did not mention Christ.

By Theodorus, I understand the emperor Tiberius. The question and answer agree in sense with, what is read in the "Anaphora," or Response of Pilate. It is probably from one of the spurious documents, of which this volume contains sufficient examples.

Josephus is of course the Jewish historian.

LETTER OF HEROD TO PILATE THE GOVERNOR.

Herod to Pontius Pilate the Governor of Jerusalem: Peace.

I am in great anxiety. I write these things unto thee, that when thou hast heard them thou mayest be grieved for me. For as my daughter Herodias, who is dear to me, was playing upon a pool of water which had ice upon it, it broke under her, and all her body went down, and her head was cut off and remained on the surface of the ice. And behold, her mother is holding her head upon her knees in her lap, and my whole house is in great sorrow. For I, when I heard of the man Jesus, wished to come to thee, that I might see him alone, and hear his word, whether it was like that of the sons of men.