Forbidden Gospels and Epistles, Complete

CHAPTER XVI.

1 Christ’s ar­rival at hell-​gates; the con­fu­sion there­upon. 19 He de­scends in­to hell.

AND while Sa­tan and the Prince of hell were dis­cours­ing thus to each oth­er, on a sud­den there was a voice as of thun­der, and the rush­ing of winds, say­ing, Lift up your gates, O ye princes; and be ye lift up, O ev­er­last­ing gates, and the King of Glo­ry shall come in.

2 When the prince of hell heard this, he said to Sa­tan, De­part from me, and be­gone out of my habi­ta­tions; if thou art a pow­er­ful war­rior, fight with the King of Glo­ry. But what hast thou to do with him?

3 And he cast him forth from his habi­ta­tions.

4 And the prince said to his im­pi­ous of­fi­cers, Shut the brass gates of cru­el­ty, and make them fast with iron bars, and fight coura­geous­ly, lest we be tak­en cap­tives.

5 But when all the com­pa­ny of the saints heard this they spake with a loud voice of anger to the prince of hell,

6 Open thy gates, that the King of Glo­ry may come in.

7 And the di­vine prophet David cried out, say­ing, Did not I, when on earth, tru­ly proph­esy and say, O that men would praise the Lord for his good­ness, and for his won­der­ful works to the chil­dren of men!

8 For he hath bro­ken the gates of brass, and cut the bars of iron in sun­der. He hath tak­en them be­cause of their in­iq­ui­ty, and be­cause of their un­righ­teous­ness they are af­flict­ed.

9 Af­ter this, an­oth­er prophet, name­ly, holy Isa­iah, spake in like man­ner to all the saints, Did not I right­ly proph­esy to you when I was alive on earth?

10 The dead men shall live, and they shall rise again who are in their graves, and they shall re­joice who are in the earth; for the dew which is from the Lord, shall bring de­liv­er­ance to them.

11 And I said in an­oth­er place, O grave, where is thy vic­to­ry? O death, where is thy sting?

12 When all the saints heard these things spo­ken by Isa­iah, they said to the prince of hell, Open now thy gates, and take away thine iron bars; for thou wilt now be bound, and have no pow­er.

13 Then was there a great voice, as of the sound of thun­der, say­ing, Lift up your gates, O princes; and be ye lift­ed up, ye gates of hell, and the King of Glo­ry will en­ter in.

14 The prince of hell per­ceiv­ing the same voice re­peat­ed, cried out, as though he had been ig­no­rant, Who is that King of Glo­ry?

15 David replied to the prince of hell, and said, I un­der­stand the words of that voice, be­cause I spake them in his spir­it. And now, as I have be­fore said, I say un­to thee, the Lord strong and pow­er­ful, the Lord mighty in bat­tle: he is the King of Glo­ry, and he is the Lord in heav­en and in earth.

16 He hath looked down to hear the groans of the pris­on­ers, and to set loose those that are ap­point­ed to death.

17 And now, thou filthy and stink­ing prince of hell, open thy gates, that the King of Glo­ry may en­ter in; for he is the Lord of heav­en and earth.

18 While David was say­ing this, the mighty Lord ap­peared in the form of a man, and en­light­ened those places which had ev­er be­fore been in dark­ness.

19 And broke asun­der the fet­ters which be­fore could not be bro­ken; and with his in­vin­ci­ble pow­er vis­it­ed those who sate in the deep dark­ness by in­iq­ui­ty, and the shad­ow of death by sin.