The suppressed Gospels and Epistles of the original New Testament of Jesus the Christ, Complete. William Wake

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      CHAPTER X.

      1 Two wives of one man, each have a son sick.

       2 One of them named Mary, and whose son's name was Caleb,

       presents the Virgin with a handsome carpet, and Caleb is cured;

       but the son of the other wife dies,

       4 which occasions a difference between the women.

       5 The other wife puts Caleb into a hot oven, and he is

       miraculously preserved,

       9 she afterwards throws him into a well,

       and he is again preserved;

       11 his mother appeals to the Virgin against the other wife,

       12 whose downfall the Virgin prophecies,

       13 and who accordingly falls into the well,

       14 therein fulfilling a saying of old.

      THERE were in the same city

       two wives of one man, who

       had each a son sick. One of them

       was called Mary, and her son's

       name was Caleb.

      2 She arose, and taking her son,

       went to the Lady St. Mary, the

       mother of Jesus, and offered her a

       very handsome carpet, saying, O

       my Lady Mary accept this carpet

       of me, and instead of it give me a

       small swaddling cloth.

      3 To this Mary agreed, and

       when the mother of Caleb was

       gone, she made a coat for her son

       of the swaddling cloth, put it on

       him, and his disease was cured;

       but the son of the other wife died.

      4 Hereupon there arose between

       them a difference in doing

       the business of the family by turns,

       each her week;

      5 And when the turn of Mary

       the mother of Caleb came, and she

       was heating the oven to bake

       bread, and went away to fetch the

       meal, she left her son Caleb by the

       oven;

      6 Whom the other wife, her

       rival, seeing to be by himself,

       took and cast him into the oven,

       which was very hot, and then went

       away.

      7 Mary on her return saw her

       son Caleb lying in the middle of

       the oven laughing, and the oven

       quite as cold as though it had not

       been before heated, and knew that

       her rival the other wife had thrown

       him into the fire.

      8 When she took him out, she

       brought him to the Lady St. Mary,

       and told her the story, to whom

       she replied, Be quiet, I am

       concerned lest thou shouldest make

       this matter known.

      9 After this her rival, the other

       wife, as she was drawing water at

       the well, and saw Caleb playing

       by the well, and that no one was

       near, took him, and threw him

       into the well.

      10 And when some men came to

       fetch water from the well, they

       saw the boy sitting on the

       superficies of the water, and

       drew him out with ropes, and were

       exceedingly surprised at the child,

       and praised God.

      11 Then came the mother and

       took him and carried him to the

       Lady St. Mary, lamenting and

       saying, O my Lady, see what my

       rival hath done to my son, and

       how she hath cast him into the

       well, and I do not question but

       one time or other she will be the

       occasion of his death.

      12 St. Mary replied to her, God

       will vindicate your injured cause.

      13 Accordingly a few days after,

       when the other wife came to the

       well to draw water, her foot was

       entangled in the rope, so that she

       fell headlong into the well, and

       they who ran to her assistance

       found her skull broken, and bones

       bruised.

      14 So she came to a bad end,

       and in her was fulfilled that saying

       of the author, They digged a well,

       and made it deep, but fell themselves

       into the pit which they prepared.