THE BOYHOOD OF OUR LORD JESUS.
CHAPTER I.
Now the boy Jesus Christ when he was five years old was playing at the ford of streams of water, and he collected and confined the waters, and directed them in channels, and caused them to enter pools, and made them become clear and bright. And he took soft clay out of the moisture, and formed twelve birds. For it was the Sabbath, and there were many boys with him. Now a man of the Jews saw him with the boys when he made these, and told Joseph his father, and provoked him against Jesus, and said to him, On the Sabbath he hath moulded clay and made birds, which is not lawful on the Sabbath. And Joseph went and rebuked him, and said to him, Why dost thou make these on the Sabbath? Then Jesus clapped his hands and made the birds fly away before those that spake,[1] and he said, Go fly away, and remember me ye who live! and the birds went away twittering. Now when the Pharisee saw it he was greatly astonished, and went and told his friends.
CHAPTER II.
Now the son of Annas the scribe also was with Jesus. And he took a stick from a willow tree and
- ↑ Dr. Wright renders 'Before the things which he said,' very reasonably conjecturing that the Syriac text is corrupt.
