Christian Apocrypha and Early Christian Literature. Transl. By James

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.up tothe knees, and other men up to the navel, others even up to the lips, others moreover up to thehair.And I asked the angel and said: Sir, who are those in the fiery river? And the angelanswered and said to me: They are neither hot nor cold, because they were found neither in thenumber of the just nor in the number of the impious.21 For those spent the time of their life onearth passing some days in prayer, but others in sins and fornications, until their death.And Iasked him and said: Who are these, Sir, immersed up to their knees in fire? He answered and saidto me: These are they who when they have gone out of church throw themselves into strangeconversations to dispute.Those indeed who are immersed up to the navel are those who, whenthey have taken the body and blood of Christ go and fornicate and did not cease from their sinstill they died.Those who are immersed up to the lips are the detractors of each other when theyassemble in the church of God: those up to the eyebrows are those who nod approval ofthemselves and plot spite against their neighbour.2232.And I saw on the north a place of various and diverse punishments full of men and women,23and a river of fire ran down into it.Moreover I observed and I saw pits great in depth, and inthem several souls together, and the depth of that place was as it were three thousand cubits, andI saw them groaning and weeping and saying: Have pity on us, O Lord! and none had pity onthem.And I asked the angel and said: Who are these, Sir? And the angel answered and said untome: These are they who did not hope in the Lord, that they would be able to have him as theirhelper.And I asked and said: Sir, if these souls remain for thirty or forty generations thus oneupon another, if they were sent deeper, the pits I believe would not hold them.And he said tome: The Abyss has no measure, for beyond24 this it stretches down below him who is down in it:and so it is, that if perchance anyone should take a stone and throw it into a very deep well andafter many hours it should reach the bottom, such is the abyss.For when the souls are thrown inthere, they hardly reach the bottom in fifty years.33.I, indeed, when I heard this, wept and groaned over the human race.The angel answered andsaid unto me: Why dost thou weep? Art thou more pitiful than God? For though God is good, He236 237knows also that there are punishments, and He patiently bears with the human race, dismissingeach one to work his own will in the time in which he dwells on the earth.34.I further observed the fiery river and saw there a man being tortured by Tartaruchian angelshaving in their hands an iron with three hooks with which they pierced the bowels of that oldman: and I asked the angel, and said: Sir, who is that old man on whom such torments areimposed? And the angel answered and said to me: He whom you see was a presbyter who did notperform well his ministry: when he had been eating and drinking and committing fornication heoffered the host to the Lord at his holy altar.35.And I saw not far away another old man led on by malign angels running with speed, andthey pushed him into the fire up to his knees, and they struck him with stones and wounded hisface like a storm, and did not allow him to say: Have pity on me! And I asked the angel and hesaid to me: He whom you see was a bishop, and did not perform well his episcopate, who indeedaccepted the great name but did not enter into the witness of him who gave him the name in allhis life, seeing that he did not do just judgment, and did not pity widows and orphans, but now hereceives retribution according to his iniquity and his works.36.And I saw another man in the fiery river up to his knees.Moreover his hands were stretchedout and bloody, and worms proceeded from his mouth and nostrils and he was groaning andweeping, and crying he said: Have pity on me! for I am hurt above the rest who are in thispunishment.And I asked, Sir, who is this? And he said to me: This man whom thou seest, was adeacon who devoured the oblations and committed fornications and did not right in the sight ofGod, for this cause he unceasingly pays this penalty [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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