Chapter 10.
The sentence to this effect, then, having been
passed by Pilate, the Jews began to strike Jesus, some with rods,
others with their hands, others with their feet; some
also spat in His face. Immediately, therefore, they got ready the
cross, and gave it to Him, and flew to take the road. And thus
going along, bearing also the cross, He came as far as the gate of the
city of Jerusalem. But as He, from the many blows and the weight
of the cross, was unable to walk, the Jews, out of the eager desire
they had to crucify Him as quickly as possible, took the cross from
Him, and gave it to a man that met them, Simon by name, who had also
two sons, Alexander and Rufus. And he was from the city of
Cyrene.1901
They gave the
cross, then, to him, not because they pitied
Jesus, and wished to
lighten Him of the weight, but because they eagerly desired, as has
been said, to put Him to
death more speedily.
Of His disciples, therefore, John followed Him
there. Then he came fleeing to the mother of God,1902
| 1902 Θεοτόκος— a word used several times by Athanasius (died 373), e.g., in
Orat. iii. Contra Arianos, c. 14 and 29. The refusal of
Nestorius to give this epithet to Mary was the commencement, in 428, of
the long struggle between the rival sees of Constantinople and
Alexandria. See Haag, Histoire des Dogmes Chrétiens,
i. 190. The paragraphs about the Θεοτόκος in
this chapter are interpolations. |
and said to her: Where hast
thou been, that thou hast not
come to see what has happened? She answered: What is it
that has happened? John says: Know that the
Jews have laid
hold of my Master, and are taking Him away to crucify Him.
Hearing this, His mother
cried out with a loud voice, saying: My
son, my son, what
evil then hast thou done, that
1903
they are taking thee away to crucify
thee? And she rose up as if
blinded,
1904
and goes along the road weeping. And
women followed
her—
Martha, and
Mary Magdalene, and Salome, and other
virgins. And John also was with her. When, therefore, they
came to the multitude of the
crowd, the mother of
God says to
John: Where is my son? John says: Seest thou Him
bearing the
crown of
thorns, and having His
hands bound? And the
mother of
God, hearing this, and seeing Him,
fainted, and fell
backwards to the ground, and lay a considerable time. And the
women, as many as followed her, stood round her, and wept. And as
soon as she
revived and rose up, she
cried out with a loud voice:
My
Lord, my son, where has the
beauty of thy form sunk? how shall I
endure to see thee suffering such things? And thus saying, she
tore her face with her
nails, and beat her
breast. Where are they
gone, said she, the good
deeds which thou didst in Judæa?
What
evil hast thou done to the
Jews? The
Jews, then, seeing her
thus lamenting and crying, came and drove her from the road; but she
would not
flee, but remained, saying:
Kill me first, ye
lawless
Jews.
Then they got safe to the place called Cranium,
which was paved with stone;1905
and there the
Jews
set up the
cross. Then they stripped
Jesus, and the
soldiers took
His
garments, and divided them among themselves; and they put on Him a
tattered
robe of
scarlet, and
raised Him, and drew Him up on the
cross
at the sixth hour of the day. After this they brought also two
robbers, the one on His right, the other on His left.
Then the mother of God, standing and looking,
cried out with a loud voice, saying: My son! my son! And
Jesus, turning to her, and seeing John near her, and weeping with the
rest of the women, said: Behold thy son! Then He says also
to John: Behold thy mother!1906
And she
wept much, saying: For this I
weep, my son, because thou
sufferest unjustly, because the
lawless Jews have
delivered thee to a
bitter death. Without thee, my son, what will become of me?
How shall I
live without thee? What sort of
life shall I
spend? Where are thy
disciples, who
boasted that they would
die
with thee? Where those
healed by thee? How has no one been
found to help thee? And looking to the
cross, she said:
Bend down, O
cross, that I may embrace and
kiss my son, whom I suckled
at these breasts after a
strange manner, as not having known man.
Bend down, O
cross; I wish to throw my arms round my son. Bend
down, O
cross, that I may bid
farewell to my son like a mother.
The
Jews, hearing these words, came forward, and drove to a distance
both her and the
women and John.
Then Jesus cried out with a loud voice,
saying: Father, let not this sin stand against them; for they
know not what they do.1907
Then He
says: I
thirst. And immediately there
ran one of the
soldiers, and took a sponge, and filled it with
gall and
vinegar mixed,
and put it on a
reed, and gave
Jesus to drink. And having
tasted
it, He would not drink it.
1908
And the
Jews standing and looking on
laughed at Him, and said: If thou
truly sayst that thou art the Son of
God, come down from the
cross, and
immediately, that we may believe in thee. Others said
mocking: Others he
saved, others he
cured, and he
healed the
sick, the paralytic, the
lepers, the demoniacs, the
blind, the
lame,
the dead; and himself he cannot
cure.
1909
In the same manner also, the robber crucified on
His left hand said to Him: If thou art the Son of God, come down
and save both thyself and us. His name was Gistas. And he
that was crucified on the right, Dysmas by name, reproved that robber,
saying: O wretched and miserable man, dost thou not fear
God? We suffer the due punishment of what we have done; but this
man has done no evil at all. And turning to Jesus, he says to
Him: Lord, when Thou shalt reign do not forget me. And He
said to him: To-day, I tell thee truth, I shall have thee in
paradise with me.1910
| 1910 Luke xxiii. 39–43. ms.
C here inserts the early history of the robber Dysmas. [See note
3, p. 426.—R.] |
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