1 And that same night Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and went to the country of Syria , arriving at a city called Sahaprau. And Jesus was then five years and three months old. And as he entered through the gate of the city, where there were statues of gods, the demons, seeing Jesus passing by, cried out and said: A child is coming, the son of a king, of a great monarch, and he is going to upset our city and expel us from our mansion. Be on your guard, lest he come near us and cause us to perish. Let us flee from it to another distant place, and hide in some desert, or in caves and in the dens of the rocks. Upon hearing this, the chief priests and the servants of the idols gathered in their temple and exclaimed: What voice has raised that cry that terrifies us? And, at the same instant, the statues of the false gods broke and fell to the ground in pieces.
2 After entering the city, Jesus found a shelter there. And Jesus wandered through all the places in the town. And he came to a place where the children were gathered, and he sat down by the water, near the fountains. And, collecting dust, he threw it into the water. And, when the children went there to drink, they saw the water turned into corrupted blood. And, tormented by thirst, they cried bitterly. But Jesus took a jug, put it in the fountain, filled it with water, and gave them a drink. However, having drawn water again from the fountain, he poured it on them and everyone’s clothes were stained with blood. And the children started crying again. But Jesus called them kindly, and, laying his hand on them, he said to them: Do not cry, because there is no longer any blood tincture on your clothes. And the children were filled with joy, seeing the miracle performed by Jesus.
3 Another day, Jesus went to meet the children, in the place where they were gathered, and proposed to them: Let us go to any distant place and there we will hunt birds. They said: Yes. And they marched to a famous spot, located on the plain, where they remained the entire day, but they were not able to hunt any birds. It was a summer day, and the suffocating heat of the atmosphere made them extremely uncomfortable. Seeing which, Jesus had pity on them, and, stretching out his hand to them, he said to them: Do not be afraid, and get up. We will go to that rock that is before us, and in its shadow we will rest. But when they reached it, they were still unable to withstand the violence of the temperature, and some fell like dead people. And, with labored breath and fixed eyes, they looked at Jesus.
4 But he stood up and stood among them and, with his staff, struck the rock, that a source of abundant and delicious water sprang up, which still exists today, from which everyone drank. And when they had drunk and revived, they worshiped Jesus, who stretched out his hand over the water, and made a profusion of fish appear in it. And he commanded the children to seize them, and they seized him in great numbers. And they gathered firewood, which burned, without anyone setting fire to it. And they roasted the fish, ate them, and were satisfied. Then they caught even more fish and went joyfully to their homes, where, showing the fish from their miraculous catch, they told of the wonders that Jesus had done. And many of the inhabitants of that city believed in him.
5 And, among the companions of Jesus, there were those of a certain age, who, counting on their strength and their vigor, you will arrive at your destination on time. Others, however, younger in age, could not, and, following behind the first, without clothing or shoes, they later arrived home. And one of them, a three-year-old boy, got lost in the plain, found himself out of breath, fell to the ground, and fell asleep. Very late at night he woke up and, opening his eyes, he looked everywhere, and saw no one. Then his spirit failed, and he burst into bitter tears. And he wandered at random during the entire night and, losing his way, he left the region. And he spent three days away from her, without any of the children knowing what had happened to him. Then, hunger, thirst and the burning of the sun’s rays separated his soul from his body.
6 And the parents of the little one questioned the children, saying to them: Where is our little son, who followed you? What happened to him? The children answered: We don’t know. The parents said: How do you not know, since he followed you? The children said: We know he followed us, but then we couldn’t find out his whereabouts. The parents said: At what time did you see that he was still with you? The children said: Until noon, we all saw it. But, when the heat of the sun began to bother us, and we fled, we lost sight of him. And, when Jesus gathered us together, and gave us water taken from the rock to drink, we no longer saw him in that place and we assumed that he had returned home.
7 Then the boy’s parents went to the city judge and told him the whole story. And the judge ordered the children to appear before him and asked them: Tell me the truth, my children, what happened to the little one? And they answered: O judge, hear us! Yesterday morning, while we were together, by mutual agreement, to go play, Jesus, Joseph’s son, arrived in the company of other children and we warned them that we were preparing to leave for a distant place. And, since that child did not want to return from him, we left him there, and we left. The judge said: When you gathered together at the same place, did any of you see it? And they said: Yes, and he was with us all day, until noon. But, when the heat of the sun began to bother us, we dispersed from the site and lost sight of it.
8 But the judge sternly ordered: Go in search of him, and bring him to me dead or alive. And they searched all around the city, without being able to find him. And this is what they told the judge upon his return. And he said: What idea has been put into your heads? Do you think that you will be able to escape punishment by cunning? No, in my days. Tell me, then: What was the purpose of your expedition? Who invited her to her nursery, and took him with her? The children observed: Nobody invited him, nor did I take him, and he himself went on his own. But the judge replied: You do not tell the truth and I will make you all perish.
9 He immediately ordered them to be stripped naked and whipped with rods of green wood. And, when they saw themselves stripped of their clothes, the children consulted among themselves, asking themselves: What should we do, since we are all conscious of being innocent, and our protests of guiltlessness are not believed? One of them said: Why, on the basis of such an unjust assumption, should we be sentenced to death? And they said to him: And what do you think of doing? He said: Do you know Jesus, the son of old Joseph? He was with us, he was in front of us, he took us with him, and he, therefore, is the one who put us in this mortal danger. But his companions objected: And what harm did he do to us? When we were dying of thirst, under a stifling heat, he was the one who quenched it for us, drawing water from the rock, and he who gave us fish to eat, and then we were able to return in time. to our houses. But the boy with the opposite opinion said: And we, what crime have we committed, to be sentenced to death? The children said: You know too well that we will not speak ill of him. The boy objected: But we, I repeat, what crime punishable by death can we accuse ourselves of? No! Let us go to the judge, and lay the whole accusation upon him, since he is unknown and a stranger in our city. And furthermore, don’t you understand that, because of him, we are under the threat of this anguish and these torments? If he is convicted, we will be acquitted. They all cried out together: Take upon yourself the responsibility of his blood. And the judge, seeing that they did not respond, ordered the executioners to inflict the punishment of whipping. And, when the first blows began to fall on his back, the child enemy of Jesus said to the judge: Why do you condemn us, despite our innocence? And the judge replied: If you are innocent, appoint him who is worthy of death. The children said: The son of an old foreigner took that child with him, and we don’t know what he did to him. The judge asked them: Why haven’t you told me about him before? And the children responded: We believed that it would have been a mistake to act like that, because he is very poor, and he is reduced to begging.
10 And the judge ordered that Jesus be brought to him, but he was not found. Then they arrested Joseph, by force, and made him appear before the court. And the judge questioned him: Where are you from, old man, and where are you going? Joseph answered: I am from a distant region, and I travel through this country as an exiled foreigner. The judge added: Where is your son? José replied: What do you want it for? The judge said: Your son has gone to play, taking all the children of the city with him, and one of them has not returned. Tell me, then, where your son is, and what has become of him. Joseph said: As for that, I don’t know. The judge said: You will not escape from my hands with such excuses, unless you bring me the child, dead or alive. Joseph said: I am old, and how can I go and come all day long without getting tired? The judge said: Maybe you will find it right away anywhere. Joseph said: Oh judge, order these children to follow me in this search, because perhaps they know where the little one is! The judge said: Yes, I will, but the child’s parents will also follow you. At these words from the judge, Joseph greeted him deeply and went very sad to his house to tell Mary what had happened. And both of them were extremely grieved.
11 And, very early the next day, Joseph, preceding the child Jesus, walked about twelve miles outside of the city, and both found the child on the plain, who had succumbed to the burning of the sun’s rays, as if he had been burned by fire. His body was blackened, his clothes greasy, and his joints were disjointed. Having seen this, they returned to the city, and reported the fact to the child’s parents. And when they went to the place indicated to them, and saw the state in which his son was, they cried out and hit her chest with stones. And, weeping, they wrapped the deceased in a cloth, lifted him up, and led him to the gate of the city. And all the inhabitants of the city welcomed him with great mourning and pitied him for the catastrophe that had befallen him. And, after an hour, the parents said to the judge: We will not take him to the grave, until you have made that old man’s son perish in the torture and condemned his father and mother to cruel torments and death. And the judge said: You are right.
12 Then he ordered Jesus to appear before the court and asked him: Why have you provoked such a disastrous incident, and attracted this disgrace on our city? And Jesus answered: O judge, do not commit this act of iniquity, which it is lawful for no one to declare or know. The judge said: What should I do, then, between two contrary rights? Jesus said: If you act loyally, your judgments will be just. Where not, you will incur a very serious sin. The judge said: Don’t answer me like that, to teach me a lesson in front of everyone. I do not act in bad faith, but in justice. Jesus said: If you proceeded sincerely, you would have made your information carefully beforehand according to the testimonies, and then you would have judged according to the laws. The judge said: How can I make careful information about your particular statement that you are innocent? Who then has caused such a sad case? Jesus said: You received the testimony of those who accuse me of a slanderous thing, and you do not believe in the truth of my words. But very soon you will be confused. The judge said: Do what you want.
13 And Jesus, standing in front of the dead man, cried with a loud voice: Moni, son of Sahuri, rise on your feet , open your eyes, and tell what was the cause of your death. And the boy sat up immediately. And his parents and his acquaintances cried out and pressed him against his heart, saying to him: My son, who has restored you to life? And did he say: Little Jesus, the old man’s son. And the judge, the priests of the idols, and all the multitude of the people fell down before Jesus, and questioned the child, saying to him, My son, who has caused your loss?
14 And the child replied: No one, because they are all innocent. Do not condemn him, he is not responsible for my death. I had lost my way and, due to hunger and thirst, my soul fainted. As for what happened to me next, all I know is that you see me and I see you. And Jesus exclaimed: Wicked judge, why did you want to condemn me to the last punishment unjustly? And the judge, confused, did not know what to answer. And the child remained alive for about three days, until the moment when, amazed to the point of stupefaction, all the inhabitants of the city could see him. And again Jesus commanded the child: Sleep now, and rest. And, at the same moment, the boy fell asleep again. And, after having spoken and acted as he did, Jesus disappeared from the sight of all who had witnessed his words and actions.