Chapter 8

1Joseph and Mary pass through a country infested by robbers, 3 Titus, a humane thief, offers Dumachus, his comrade, forty groats to let Joseph and Mary pass unmolested. 6 Jesus prophesies that the thieves, Dumachus and Titus, shall be crucified with him, and that Titus shall go before him into Paradise. 10 Christ causes a well to spring from a sycamore tree, and Mary washes his coat in it. 11 A balsam grows there from his sweat: They go to Memphis, where Christ works more miracles. Return to Judæa. 15 being warned, depart for Nazareth . IN their journey from hence they came into a desert country, and were told it was infested with robbers; so Joseph and St. Mary prepared to pass through it in the night.
2And as they were going along, behold they saw two robbers asleep in the road, and with them a great number of robbers, who were their confederates, also asleep.
3The names of these two were Titus and Dumachus; and Titus said to Dumachus, I beseech thee let those persons go along quietly, that our company may not perceive anything of them:
4But Dumachus refusing, Titus again said, I will give thee forty groats, and as a pledge take my girdle, which he gave him he had done speaking, that he might not open his mouth, or make a noise.
5When the Lady St. Mary saw the kindness which this robber did shew them, she said to him, The Lord God will receive thee to his right hand, and grant thee pardon of thy sins.
6Then the Lord Jesus answered, and said to his mother, When thirty years are expired, O mother, the Jews will crucify me at Jerusalem;
7And these two thieves shall be with me at the same time upon the cross, Titus on my right hand, and Dumachus on my left, and from that time Titus shall go before me into paradise:
8And when she had said, God forbid this should be thy lot, O my son, they went on to a city in which were several idols; which, as soon as they came near to it, was turned into hills of sand.
9Hence they went to that sycamore tree, which is now called Matarea;
10And in Matarea the Lord Jesus caused a well to spring forth, in which St. Mary washed his coat;
11And a balsam is produced, or grows, in that country from the sweat which ran down there from the Lord Jesus.
12Thence they proceeded to Memphis, and saw Pharaoh, and abode three years in Egypt.
13And the Lord Jesus did very many miracles in Egypt, which are neither to be found in the Gospel of the Infancy nor in the Gospel of Perfection.
14At the end of three years he returned out of Egypt, and when he came near to Judas, Joseph was afraid to enter;
15For hearing that Herod was dead, and that Archelaus his son reigned in his stead, he was afraid;
16And when he went to Judæa, an angel of God appeared to him, and said, O Joseph, go into the city Nazareth, and abide there.
17It is strange indeed that he, who is the Lord of all countries, should be thus carried backward and forward through so many countries.