1 The neighboring countries resounded with the prophecies of Issa, and when he entered into
2 And when they saw all the villages welcoming him with joy and listening devoutly to his sermons, they gave orders to arrest him and had him brought before the high priest, where he underwent the following interrogation:
3 "Of what new God cost thou speak? Art thou not aware, unhappy man, that Saint Zoroaster is the only just one admitted to the privilege of communion with the Supreme Being,
4 "Who ordered the angels to put down in writing the word of God for the use of his people, laws that were given to Zoroaster in paradise?
5 "Who then art thou to dare here to blaspheme our God and to sow doubt in the hearts of believers?"
6 And Issa said unto them: "It is not of a new God that I speak but of our Heavenly Father, who has existed since all time and who will still be after the end of all things.
7 "It is of him that I have discoursed to the people, who, like unto innocent children, are not yet capable of comprehending God by the simple strength of their intelligence or of penetrating into his divine and spiritual sublimity.
8 "But even as a babe discovers in the darkness its mother's breast, so even your people, who have been led into error by your erroneous doctrine and your religious ceremonies, have recognized by instinct their Father in the Father of whom I am the prophet.
9 "The Eternal Being has said to your people through the medium of my mouth: 'You shall not worship the sun, for it is but a part of the world which I have created for man.
10 "'The sun rises in order to warm you during your work; it sets to allow you the repose which I myself have appointed.
11 "'It is to me, and to me alone, that you owe all that you possess, all that is to be found about you, above you, and below you."'
12 "But," said the priests, "how could a people live according to the rules of justice if it had no preceptors?"
13 Then Issa answered, "So long as the people had no priests, the natural law governed them, and they preserved the candor of their souls.
14 "Their souls were with God, and to commune with the Father they had recourse to the medium of no idol or animal, nor to the fire, as is practiced here.
15 "You contend that one must worship the sun, the spirit of good and of evil. Well, I say unto you, your doctrine is a false one, the sun acting not spontaneously but according to the will of the invisible Creator who gave it birth
16 "And who has willed it to be the star that should light the day, to warm the labor and the seedtime of man.
17 "The Eternal Spirit is the soul of all that is animate. You commit a great sin in dividing it into a spirit of evil and a spirit of good, for there is no God outside the good,
18 "Who, like unto the father of a family, does but good to his children, forgiving all their faults if they repent them.
19 "The spirit of evil dwells on the earth in the hearts of those men who turn aside the children of God from the strait path.
20 "Wherefore I say unto you, Beware of the day of judgment, for God will inflict a terrible chastisement upon all those who shall have led his children astray from the right path and have filled them with superstitions and prejudices;
21 "Those who have blinded them that see, conveyed contagion to the healthy, and taught the worship of the things that God has subordinated to man for his good and to aid him in his work.
22 "Your doctrine is therefore the fruit of your errors; for desiring to bring near to you the God of truth, you have created for yourselves false gods."
23 After having listened to him, the magi determined to do him no harm. But at night, when all the town lay sleeping, they conducted him outside of the walls and abandoned him on the high road, in the hope that he would soon become a prey to the wild beasts.
24 But, protected by the Lord our God, Saint Issa continued his way unmolested.
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