14 Burning to death was the punishment of those convicted of sacrilege and the practice of magic. It was influced also on slaves for grave offences against their masters.
15 Matarea, or Matariyeh, the site of Heliopolis or On, is a little way to the N.E. of Cairo. Ismail Pasha is said to have presented, on his visit to the Paris Exhibition of 1867, the tree and the ground surrounding it to the Empress of the French. For some interesting particulars about the tree, see a paragraph, by B.H.C. (i.e., Mr. B. Harris Cowper, who has translated the Apocryphal Gospels), in the Leisure Hour for ad November. 1867.
18 Perhaps the correct reading is fornice, archway, and not fornace.
19 [So the Latin: but the Greek word in the Gospels is equivalent to "zealot." See Rev. Vers. in the lists of the Apostles.-R.]
21 Luke ii. 42-47. [A comparison of the two narratives is very suggestive. The Evangelist Luke does not present any such monster of precocity, nor does he adventure into discussions "upon the sciences."-R.]
22 Ps. cx. I: Matt. xxii. 42-45. [The Latin reads: vestigiis pedum tuorum, "the footsepts of thy feet." The original term, "footstool," has evidently been misunderstood by some transcriber.-R.]
23 The scripulum was the twenty-fourth pat of the as. It is likely here put for the motion of a planet during one hour. Pliny, N. H., ii. 10 uses the word to signify an undefined number of degrees, or parts of a degree.
25 Matt. iii. 13-17; Luke iii. 21-23.
1 [The works which precede sought to supplement the evangelical narrative in regard to the early life of our Lord, and Mary His mother: those which follow are also supplementary, but refer to the closing evens.-R.]
2 The 15th year of Tiberius, reckoning fromt he death of Augustus, was a.d. 29, A.U.C. 782, the first year of the 202d Olympiad, in the consulship of C. Fugus Geminus and L. Rubellius Geminus, and the 34th year of Herod Antipas. Other readings are: In the eighteenth year-In the ninteenth year. [Compare the Acts of Pilate in both forms. The variations here correspond with the various theories of the length of our Lord's ministry. The text seems to confuse the statement of Luke (iii. 1) respecting the beginning of the public ministry with the time of our Lord's death.-R.]
3 There is in the MSS. great variation as to these names.
4 Lit., and wishes to do away with it.
5 Compare with this, Lactantius, iv. 17. The Jews brought charges against Jesus, that He did away with the law of God given by Moses; that is, that He did not rest on the Sabbath, etc.
6 Another reading is: We entreat your highness to go into the praetorium, and question him. For Jesus was standing outside with the crowd.
7 Probably the Alexander mentioned in Acts iv. 6.
9 Ps. cxviii. 25: Hosyah na bimromim baruch habba (b'shem) Adonai.
10 Another reading is: Annas and Caiaphas and Joseph, the three false witnesses, began to cry out, etc.