Apocalypse of Sedrach

Apocalypse of Sedrach

The word of the holy and blessed Sedrach concerning love, repentance, the faithful, and the coming of the Lord.

Beloved ones, let nothing be preferred before sincere love. In many things we stumble every day, by night, and at every hour. Therefore let us seek love, for love covers a multitude of sins. What gain is there, my children, if we possess all things and lack the love that saves?

Blessed is true love, the giver of good things. Blessed is the one who has received true faith and sincere love, for the Master said that no love is greater than this: that a person lays down his life for his friend.

Then a voice came invisibly into the ears of Sedrach, saying, Come here, Sedrach, for you desire to speak with God and to ask Him to reveal what you long to know.

Sedrach said, What is this, lord?

The voice answered, I was sent to lift you up into heaven.

Sedrach said, I desired to speak mouth to mouth with God, but I am not worthy to enter heaven.

Then the one who spoke stretched out his wings, took him up, and brought him into heaven, even to the flame. He set him as high as the third heaven, and there stood the flame of the divinity.

The Lord said to him, Welcome, my beloved Sedrach. What complaint do you have against God who created you, that you said, I desire to speak face to face with God?

Sedrach said, Truly, a son has a complaint with his father. My Lord, why did You make the earth?

The Lord said, For the sake of the human one.

Sedrach said, And why did You make the sea? Why did You scatter every good thing upon the earth?

The Lord said, For the sake of the human one.

Sedrach said, If You made these things for the human one, why will You destroy him?

The Lord said, The human one is My work and the creature of My hands. I discipline him as I know to be good.

Sedrach said, Chastisement and fire are Your discipline, and they are bitter, my Lord. It would have been better for the human one not to have been born. Why then did You make him, my Lord? Why did You weary Your undefiled hands to create him, if You did not intend to show him mercy?

God said to him, I made Adam as the first creature and placed him in Paradise, in the midst of the tree of life. I said to him, Eat from all the fruits, but be watchful concerning the tree of life; if you eat from it, you shall die the death. But he transgressed My commandment, and being deceived by the devil, he ate from the tree.

Sedrach said, My Lord, Adam was deceived under Your will. You commanded Your angels to draw near to Adam, yet the first among the angels transgressed Your command and did not draw near to him. You cast him out because he transgressed and refused to approach the work of Your hands. If You loved the human one, why did You not destroy the devil, the worker of unrighteousness?

Who is able to fight an invisible spirit? Like smoke he enters the hearts of human beings and teaches them every sin. He fights against You, the immortal God; what then can the wretched human one do against him? Have mercy, Lord, and bring the chastisements to an end. If not, count me also with the sinners. If You will not show mercy to sinners, where are Your mercies? Where is Your compassion, Lord?

God said to him, Know this: I ordered all things to be subject to the human one. I gave him understanding and made him heir of heaven and earth. I subjected all things to him, and every living creature flees before his face. But after receiving what was Mine, he became estranged, adulterous, and sinful.

Tell me: what father, after giving his son his portion, when the son takes the substance, leaves the father, goes away, becomes a stranger, and serves another, does not darken his heart? Does not the father take back his substance and remove him from his glory because he deserted him? So I, the wonderful and jealous God, gave the human one everything, yet having received these things he became adulterous and sinful.

Sedrach said, Lord, You created the human one. You knew what sort of mind he had and what sort of knowledge we possess, yet You make this a reason for chastisement. Cast him out then; shall I alone not fill the heavenly places? But if this is not to be, save the human one also, Lord. The wretched human one fell under Your will.

[Text uncertain] The Lord answered concerning Adam, his wife, the sun, and the brightness given to them; the passage is damaged in sense and cannot be restored securely.

Sedrach said, What profit is there in beauty if it passes away into the earth? How did You say, Lord, You shall not repay evil for evil? The word of Your divinity does not lie. Why then do You retaliate against the human one? Or do You not, in this, render evil for evil?

Among four-footed animals I know none so stubborn and unreasonable as the mule, yet when we wish, we strike it with the bridle. You have angels. Send them out to guard human beings; when a person inclines toward sin, let them take hold of his foot and keep him from going where he wills.

God said to him, If I seize him by the foot, he will say, You gave me no joy in the world. But because I loved him, I left him to his own will. Therefore I sent My righteous angels to guard him night and day.

Sedrach said, I know, Lord, that among all Your creatures You have loved the human one most; among four-footed creatures, the sheep; among trees, the olive; among fruits, the vine; among winged creatures, the bee; among rivers, the Jordan; among cities, Jerusalem. And the human one also loves all these, my Lord.

God said to Sedrach, I will ask you one thing. If you answer Me, then I may rightly help you, though you have tested your Creator.

Sedrach said, Speak.

The Lord God said, Since I made all things, tell Me how many human beings have been born, how many have died, how many are yet to die, and how many hairs they have. Tell Me, Sedrach: since heaven and earth were created, how many trees have grown in the world, how many have fallen, how many are yet to fall, how many are yet to arise, and how many leaves they have.

Tell Me, Sedrach: since I made the sea, how many waves have risen, how many have fallen, how many are yet to rise, and how many winds blow along the edge of the sea? Tell Me, Sedrach: from the creation of the world and the ages, when the air rained, how many drops fell upon the world, and how many are yet to fall?

Sedrach said, You alone know all these things, Lord. You alone understand them. Only this I ask: deliver the human one from chastisement, and I shall not be separated from our race.

Then God said to His only begotten Son, Go, take the soul of My beloved Sedrach and place it in Paradise.

The only begotten Son said to Sedrach, Give Me the deposit which our Father placed in the womb of your mother, in the holy tabernacle of your body, from your childhood.

Sedrach said, I will not give You my soul.

God said to him, Why then was I sent here, if you plead against Me? My Father commanded Me not to take your soul by force. Therefore give Me your greatly desired soul.

Sedrach said to God, From where will You take my soul, and from which member?

God said to him, Do you not know that it is placed in the midst of your lungs and your heart, and is dispersed through all your members? It is brought up through the throat, the gullet, and the mouth. At the hour appointed for it to come forth, it is gathered from the ends of the nails and from all the members. There is a great necessity for it to be separated from the body and parted from the heart.

When Sedrach heard these things and considered the memory of death, he was greatly astonished. Sedrach said to God, Lord, give me a little respite, that I may weep, for I have heard that tears are powerful and that much healing comes to the lowly body of Your creature.

Then, weeping and lamenting, he began to say: O marvelous head, adorned from heaven; O radiant one, like the sun shining upon heaven and earth; O hairs known from Teman; O eyes from Bosor; O ears from thunder; O tongue like a trumpet; O brain, a small creation; O head, strength of the whole body.

O friendly and beautiful body, beloved by all, now you must fall into the earth and be forgotten. O hands, gentle and fair-fingered, worn by toil, by which the body was nourished; O hands, most skillful, gathering from every side and preparing houses; O fingers adorned with gold and silver, by which great works were guided; now you must become strangers to the world.

O feet, skillful in walking, self-running, swift and unconquered; O knees joined together, without which the body does not move. The feet run by day and night, with the sun and the moon, gathering food and drink and sustaining the body. O feet, swift and beautiful runners upon the face of the earth, preparing the house with every good thing; O feet that bore the whole body and ran up to the temples, making repentance and calling upon the holy ones; now you are to remain still.

O head, hands, and feet, until now I have guarded you. O soul, what sent you into this humble and wretched body? Now, separated from it, you go upward where the Lord calls you, and the wretched body goes away to judgment.

O well-adorned body, hair clothed like stars; O face anointed with beauty; O light-bearing eyes; O voice like a trumpet; O gentle tongue; O chin fairly adorned; O head raised as heaven; O body adorned; O eyes that once perceived many things; now you shall fall into the earth, and beneath the earth your beauty shall disappear.

Christ said to him, Stop, Sedrach. How long will you weep and groan? Paradise is opened to you. By dying, you shall live.

Sedrach said to Him, Once more I will speak to You, Lord. How long shall I live before I die? Do not disregard my prayer.

The Lord said to him, Speak, Sedrach.

Sedrach said, If a person lives eighty, ninety, or a hundred years, and lives those years in sin, but then turns and lives in repentance, in how many days do You forgive his sins?

God said to him, If he lives a hundred or eighty years, then turns, repents for three years, and bears the fruit of righteousness, and death overtakes him, I will remember none of his sins.

Sedrach said to Him, Three years are a long time, my Lord. Death may overtake him before he completes his repentance. Have mercy, Lord, on Your image. Have compassion, for three years are many.

God said to him, If a person lives a hundred years and remembers his death and confesses before others, after a time I will forgive all his sins.

Sedrach said again, I will again ask for compassion for Your creature. The time is long; death may overtake him and snatch him suddenly.

The Savior said to him, I will ask one word of you, Sedrach, My beloved; then you may ask Me in return. If the person repents for forty days, I will remember none of the sins he committed.

Sedrach said to the archangel Michael, Listen to me, powerful chief. Help me, and be my messenger, that God may have mercy on the world.

Then they fell on their faces and pleaded with the Lord, saying, Lord, teach us how and by what repentance, and by what labor, a person shall be saved.

God said, By repentance, by intercessions, by services of prayer, by streams of tears, and by hot groanings. Do you not know that My prophet David was saved by tears, and that others were saved in one moment?

You know, Sedrach, that there are nations who do not have the law, yet do the works of the law. If they are unbaptized and My divine spirit comes to them, and they turn to My baptism, I also receive them with My righteous ones into Abraham's bosom.

And there are some who have been baptized with My baptism and have shared in My divine portion, yet become rejected in complete rejection and will not repent. I bear with them in much compassion and pity, so that they may repent. But they do the things My divinity hates.

They have not listened to the wise one who asks them, nor to the apostles, nor to My word in the good messages. They grieve My angels. They do not attend to My messenger in the assemblies and services, nor do they stand in My holy churches with fear and trembling. Instead they boast in things that I and My holy angels do not accept.

Sedrach said to God, Lord, You alone are sinless and greatly compassionate. You have compassion and pity for sinners, and Your divinity said, I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

The Lord said to Sedrach, Do you not know that the thief was saved in one moment through repentance? Do you not know that My apostle and evangelist was saved in one moment? [Meaning uncertain] Sinners are not saved while their hearts remain like rotten stone. These are the ones who walk in impious ways and will be destroyed with the lawless one.

Sedrach said, My Lord, You also said, My divine spirit entered the nations who, though they did not have the law, did the things of the law. So too the thief, the apostle, the evangelist, and the rest have already entered Your Kingdom. My Lord, likewise pardon those who have sinned to the end, for life is very toilsome and there is no time for repentance.

The Lord said to Sedrach, I made the human one in three stages. When he is young, I overlook his stumblings because he is young. When he becomes a grown man, I consider his purpose. When he grows old, I watch him until he repents.

Sedrach said, Lord, You know and understand all these things; have sympathy for sinners.

The Lord said to him, Sedrach, My beloved, I promise to have sympathy, and I bring the forty days down to twenty. Whoever remembers your name shall not see the place of chastisement, but shall be with the righteous in a place of refreshment and rest. And if anyone records this wonderful word, his sins shall not be counted against him forever.

Sedrach said, Lord, if anyone brings enlightenment to Your servant, save him from every evil.

Then Sedrach, the servant of the Lord, said, Now take my soul, Lord.

And God took him and placed him in Paradise with all the holy ones.

To Him be glory and power forever and ever. Amen.