His parents said this because they were afraid of the Yehuḏim, for the Yehuḏim had already agreed that if anyone confessed that He was Messiah, he should be put out of the congregation.
“And of whom have you been afraid, or feared, that you have lied and not remembered Me, nor taken it to your heart? Have I not been silent, even from of old, and you have not feared Me?
“Blessed are you when men shall hate you, and when they shall cut you off, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as wicked, for the sake of the Son of Aḏam.
And after this, Yosĕph of Ramathayim, being a taught one of יהושע, but secretly, for fear of the Yehuḏim, asked Pilate that he might take the body of יהושע, and Pilate gave permission. Therefore he came and took the body of יהושע.
When therefore it was evening on that day, day one of the week, and when the doors were shut where the taught ones met, for fear of the Yehuḏim, יהושע came and stood in the midst, and said to them, “Peace to you.”
However, the Yehuḏim did not believe concerning him, that he had been blind and received his sight, till they called the parents of him who had received his sight.
And they heeded his advice, and having called for the emissaries, beating them, they commanded that they should not speak in the Name of יהושע, and let them go.
“But as for the cowardly, and untrustworthy, and abominable, and murderers, and those who whore, and drug sorcerers, and idolaters, and all the false, their part is in the lake which burns with fire and sulphur, which is the second death.”