Anonymous Acta Joannis XXI

[XXI] But Aristodemus even so believed not, though the people reproached him: but turned unto John and said: This one thing I lack — if thou in the name of thy God raise up these that have died by this poison, my mind will be cleansed of all doubt When he said that, the people rose against Aristodemus, saying: We will burn thee and thine house if thou goest on to trouble the apostle further with thy words John, therefore, seeing that there was a fierce sedition, asked for silence, and said in the hearing of all: The first of the virtues of God which we ought to imitate is patience, by which we are able to bear with the foolishness of unbelievers Wherefore if Aristodemus is still held by unbelief, let us loose the knots of his unbelief He shall be compelled, even though late, to acknowledge his creator; for I will not cease from this work until a remedy shall bring help to his wounds, and like physicians which have in their hands a sick man needing medicine, so also, if Aristodemus be not yet cured by that which hath now been done, he shall be cured by that which I will now do And he called Aristodemus to him, and gave him his coat, and he himself stood clad only in his mantle And Aristodemus said to him: Wherefore hast thou given me thy coat? John said to him: That thou mayest even so be put to shame and depart from thine unbelief And Aristodemus said: And how shall thy coat make me to depart from unbelief? The apostle answered: Go and cast it upon the bodies of the dead, and thou shalt say thus: The apostle of our Lord Jesus Christ hath sent me that in his name ye may rise again, that all may know that life and death are servants of my Lord Jesus Christ Which when Aristodemus had done, and had seen them rise, he worshipped John, and ran quickly to the proconsul and began to say with a loud voice: Hear me, hear me, thou proconsul; I think thou rememberest that I have often stirred up thy wrath against John and devised many things against him daily, wherefore I fear lest I feel his wrath: for he is a god hidden in the form of a man, and hath drunk poison, and not only continueth whole, but them also which had died by the poison he hath recalled to life by my means, by the touch of his coat, and they have no mark of death upon them Which when the proconsul heard he said: And what wilt thou have me to do? Aristodemus answered: Let us go and fall at his feet and ask pardon, and whatever he commandeth us let us do Then they came together and cast themselves down and besought forgiveness: and he received them and offered prayer and thanksgiving to God, and he ordained them a fast of a week, and when it was fulfilled he baptized them in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and his Almighty Father, and the Holy Ghost the illuminator [And when they were baptized, with all their house and their servants and their kindred, they brake all their idols and built a church in the name of Saint John: wherein he himself was taken up, in manner following:]

Recto

Verso

b.

Or is that outside the law which we are taught, how the very devils (when they ] confessed to Dyrus (read Verus) the deacon as to the coming of John: consider what they said: Many will come to us in the last times to turn us out of our vessels (i. e. the bodies possessed by them), saying that they are pure and clean from women and are not held by desire of them: whom (MS. while) if we desired, we (could) possess them also

Receive therefore in thy heart the admonition of the blessed John, who, when he was bidden to a marriage, came not save for the sake of chastity, and consider what he said: Little children, while yet your flesh is pure and ye have your body untouched and not destroyed, and are not defiled by Satan, the great enemy and shameless (foe) of chastity: know therefore more fully the mystery of the nuptial union: it is the experiment of the serpent, the ignorance of teaching, injury of the seed, the gift of death, . . . (thirty-one (!) clauses follow, many of which are quite corrupt; the last are) the impediment which separateth from the Lord, the beginning of disobedience, the end of life, and death Hearing this, little children, join yourselves together in an inseparable marriage, holy and true, waiting for the one true incomparable bridegroom from heaven, even Christ, the everlasting bridegroom

If, then, the apostle severed a marriage, lest it should be an occasion of sin . . . etc