Chapter 5.
But one Nicodemus, a Jew, stood before the
governor, and said: I entreat, mercifully allow me to say a few
words. Pilate says to him: Say on. Nicodemus
says: I said to the elders and the priests and the Levites, and
to all the multitude of the Jews, in the synagogue, What have you to
do with this man? This man does many wonders and signs, which
no one of men has done or can do. Let him go, and do not devise
any evil against him: if the signs which he does are of God, they
will stand; but if of men, they will come to nothing. For Moses
also, being sent by God into Egypt, did many signs, which God told him
to do before Pharaoh king of Egypt. And the sorcerers Jamnes and
Mambres were there healing, and they did, they also, the signs which
Moses did, but not all; and the Egyptians deemed them as gods, Jamnes
and Mambres. And since the signs which they did were not of God, they perished, both they and those who believed in them. And now let this man go, for he is not deserving of death.
The Jews say to Nicodemus: Thou hast become
his disciple, and takest his part. Nicodemus says to them: Has the governor also become his disciple, and does he take his part? Has not Cæsar set him over that dignity? And the Jews were raging and gnashing with their teeth against Nicodemus. Pilate says to them: Why do you gnash with your teeth against him, when you are hearing the truth? The Jews say to Nicodemus: Mayst thou receive his truth, and a portion with him! Nicodemus says: Amen, amen, amen; may I receive it, as you have said!