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NON-CANONICAL ACTS OF THE APOSTLES
of Rome, is a God born? Is he crucified? Whoever has a master is no God.” And when he spoke, many said, “You are right, Simon.”
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And Peter said, “Cursed be your words against Christ. You spoke in these terms whereas the prophet says of him, ‘Who shall declare his generation?’6 And another prophet says, ‘And we have seen him, and he had no form not beauty.’7 And ‘In the last days a child shall be born of the Holy Spirit; his mother knows not a man and no one claims that he is his father.’ And again he says, ‘She has given birth and has not given birth.’ And again, ‘Is it a very little thing for you to go to battle? Behold, in the womb a virgin shall conceive.’8 And another prophet says in honor of the Fa ther, ‘We neither heard her voice, nor did a midwife come.’9 Another prophet says, ‘He came not out of the womb of a woman but descended from a heavenly place,’ and ‘A stone cut out without hands and has broken all kingdoms,’10 and ‘The stone which the builders rejected has be come the headstone of the corner,’11 and he calls him ‘the tried, precious’ stone.12 And again, the prophet says of him, ‘I saw him come on a cloud like the Son of man.’13 And what more shall I say? Men of Rome, if you knew the prophetical writings I would explain everything to you. It was necessary that through them it should be a mystery and the Kingdom of God be completed. But these things shall be revealed to you afterwards. Now I turn to you, Simon; do one of the signs whereby you deceived them before and I shall frustrate it through my Lord Jesus Christ.” Simon took courage and said, “If the prefect permits.”
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The prefect wished to show his impartiality to both, so that
he might not appear to be acting un justly. And the prefect summoned one of his slaves and spoke to Simon, “Take him and kill him.” To Peter he said, “And you revive him.” And to the peo ple the prefect said, “It is for you to de cide which of these is accepted before God, he who kills, or he who revives.” And Simon whispered something into the ear of the slave and made him speechless, and he died. But when the people began to murmur, one of the widows who had been cared for by Marcellus cried out, “Peter, servant of God, my son also is dead, the only one I had.” The people made room for her, and they brought her to Peter. And she fell down at his feet and said, “I had only one son; by the labor of his hands he provided for me; he lifted me up, he carried me. Now he is dead, who will give me a hand?” Peter said to her, “In the presence of these witnesses go and bring your son, that they may be able to see and believe that he was raised up by the power of God; the other shall see it and perish.” And Peter said to the young men, “We need young men such as shall believe.” And at once thirty young men offered themselves to carry the widow and to fetch her dead son. When the widow had recovered, the young men lifted her up. But she cried and said, “Behold my son, the servant of Christ has sent for you,” and she tore her hair and scratched her face. And the young men who had come examined the nose of the boy to see if he were really dead. When they perceived that he was dead they comforted his mother and said, “If you really believe in the God
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Isa 53:8. 7Isa 53:2. 8Isa 7:14. 9Asc. of Isa 11:13. Dan 2:34. 11Ps 118:22; Mark 12:10. 12Isa 28:16. 13 Dan 7:13. 10