Chapter 5.

And one Nicodemus, a Jew, stood before the procurator, and said:  I beseech your honour, let me say a few words.  Pilate says:  Say on.  Nicodemus says:  I said to the elders and the priests and Levites, and to all the multitude of the Jews in the synagogue, What do you seek to do with this man?  This man does many miracles and strange things, which no one has done or will do.  Let him go, and do not wish any evil against him.  If the miracles which he does are of God, they will stand; but if man, they will come to nothing.^18221822    Acts v. 38.  For assuredly Moses, being sent by God into Egypt, did many miracles, which the Lord commanded him to do before Pharaoh king of Egypt.  And there were there Jannes and Jambres, servants of Pharaoh, and they also did not a few of the miracles which Moses did; and the Egyptians took them to be gods—this Jannes and this Jambres.^18231823    2 Tim. iii. 8, 9.  But, since the miracles which they did were not of God, both they and those who believed in them were destroyed.  And now release this man, for he is not deserving of death.

The Jews say to Nicodemus:  Thou hast become his disciple, and therefore thou defendest him.  Nicodemus says to them:  Perhaps, too, the procurator has become his disciple, because he defends him.  Has the emperor not appointed him to this place of dignity?  And the Jews were vehemently enraged, and gnashed their teeth against Nicodemus.  Pilate says to them:  Why do you gnash your teeth against him when you hear the truth?  The Jews say to Nicodemus:  Mayst thou receive his truth and his portion.  Nicodemus says:  Amen, amen; may I receive it, as you have said.