Epistle of the Apostles

Historical printed page 490

490 EPISTLE OF THE APOSTLES he will be sorrowful because he keepeth not Easter with you. And I will send my power in the form of mine angel Gabriel, and the doors of the prison shall open. And he shall come forth and come unto you and keep the night-watch with you until the cock crow. And when ye have accomplished the memorial which is made of me, and the Agape (love-feast), he shall again be cast into prison for a testimony, until he shall come out thence and preach that which I have delivered unto you. And we said unto him: Lord, is it then needful that we should again take the cup and drink? (Lord, didst not thou thyself fulfil the drinking of the Passover? is it then needful that we should accomplish it again? Eth.) He said unto us: Yea, it is needful, until the day when I come again, with them that have been put to death for my sake (come with my wounds, Eih.). 16 Then said we to him: Lord, that which thou hast revealed unto us (revealest, Hth.) is great. Wilt thou come in the power of any creature or in an appearance of any kind? (In what power or form wilt thou come? Hith.) He answered and said unto us: Verily I say unto you, I shall come like the sun when it is risen, and my brightness will be seven times the brightness thereof!! The wings of the clouds shall bear me in brightness, and the sign of the cross shall go before me, and I shall come upon earth to judge the quick and the dead. 17 We said unto him: Lord, after how many years shall this come to pass? He said unto us: When the hundredth part and the twentieth part is fulfilled, between the Pentecost and the feast of unleavened bread, then shall the coming of my Father be (so Copt.: When an hundred and fifty years are past, in the days of the feast of Passover and Pentecost, &c., Eth.: (imperfect word) year is fulfilled, between the unleavened bread - and Pentecost shall be the coming of my Father, Lat.).® We said unto him: Now sayest thou unto us: I will come; and how sayest thou: He that sent me is he that shall come? Then said he to us: I am wholly in the Father and my Father is 'inme.* Then said we to him: Wilt thou indeed forsake us until thy coming? Where can we? find a master? But he answered and said unto us: Know ye not, then, that like as until now I have been here, so also was I there, with him that sent me? And we said to him: Lord, is it then possible that thou shouldest be both here and there? But he answered us: I am wholly in 1 Probably from the Apocalypse of Peter. * Here the Latin fragment resumes, ’ Before the word ‘year’ in Lat. are the letters inta which may be the end of a numeral such as quinquaginta (fifty). It seems likely that in the archetype of the Latin one or more leaves were wanting. ‘ Here Coptic omits several clauses by homoeoteleuton. Ethiopic and Latin are followed. 5 Here Latin ends.