#apokryphen

Wer sich heutzutage mit dem Urchristentum beschäftigt, wird in der Regel sehr schnell die apokryphen Schriften und Evangelien entdecken und ist in der Regel (zurecht) über die Vielfalt “christlichen Denkens” der damaligen Zeit erstaunt. Es ist nachvollziehbar, wenn man dadurch zunächst das Gefühl hat “betrogen worden” zu sein, da im kirchlichen Kontext kein Hinweis auf diese Schriften…

So this comes from a text that is called the Gospel of Nicodemus. It is, as far as I know, I think it’s dated generally to the fourth century, but it comes out of traditions that are certainly older than that. And there’s a portion of the Gospel of Nicodemus that… the best way I can understand how to describe it would be that… There’s all these things that we go through together, for instance, during Holy Week, and this is what’s described in the gospels: Christ’s passion, his suffering, his death, his resurrection. Well, there’s a portion of the Gospel of Nicodemus that’s called the descent into hell, and it’s probably best described as what’s going on down in the underworld while all these other things are happening on earth.

And right before the passage that I’m about to read to you, Hell and Satan are having a conversation. We’ve been talking about a whole bunch of these various gods, so think of this as Mot and Sheol having a conversation, or Satan and Hell—however you want to talk about it; there’s just different names for these beings. And it’s being set up so that Satan is basically saying, “Hell, open up your gates, because I’m bringing Jesus in here. We got him! We finally got him!” The devil thinks he’s finally got him. So they’re having this conversation, and it’s going back and forth, and it picks up right here:

Hell answered and said, “Thou hast told me that it is he that hath taken away dead men from me, for there be many which, while they lived on the earth, have taken dead men from me, yet not by their own power but by prayer to God, and their Almighty God hath taken them from me. Who is this Jesus, which by his own word, without prayer, hath drawn dead men from me? Perchance it is he, which by the word of his command, did restore to life Lazarus, which was four-days-dead and stank and was corrupt, whom I held here dead.”

Satan, the prince of death, answered and said, “It is that same Jesus.”

When Hell heard that, he said unto him, “I abjure thee, by thy strength and mine own, that thou bring him not unto me, for at that time I, when I heard the command of his word, did quake and was overwhelmed with fear, and all my ministries with me were troubled, neither could we keep Lazarus, but he like an eagle shaking himself, leapt forth with all agility and swiftness and departed from us, and the earth also which held the body of Lazarus straightway gave him up alive. Wherefore now I know that that man which was able to do these things is a God strong in command and mighty in manhood, and that he is the Savior of mankind. And if thou bring him unto me, he will set free all that are here shut up in the hard prison and bound in the chain of their sins that cannot be broken, and will bring them unto the life of his godhead forever.”

And as Satan the prince and Hell spoke this together, suddenly there came a voice as of thunder, and a spiritual cry. “Remove, O princes, your gates, and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in!”

When Hell heard that, he said unto Satan the prince, “Depart from me and go out of mine abode! If thou be a mighty man of war, fight thou against the King of glory? But what hast thou to do with him?” And Hell cast Satan forth out of his dwelling. Then said Hell unto his wicked ministers, “Shut ye the hard gates of brass and put on them the bars of iron and withstand stoutly, lest we that hold captivity be taken captive.”

But when all the multitude of the saints heard it, they spake with a voice of rebuking unto Hell, “Open thy gates that the King of glory might come in!” And David cried out, saying, “Did I not, when I was alive upon earth, foretell unto you: Let them give thanks unto the Lord, even his mercies and his wonders unto the children of men, who hath broken the gates of brass and smitten the bars of iron asunder? He hath taken them out of the way of their iniquity!” And thereafter, in like manner, Isaiah said, “Did not I, when I was alive upon earth, foretell unto you: The dead shall arise, and they that are in the tombs shall rise again, and they that are in the earth shall rejoice, for the dew which cometh from the Lord is their healing? And again I said: O Death, where is thy sting? O Hell, where is thy victory?”

When they heard that of Isaiah, all the saints said unto Hell, “Open thy gates. Now shalt thou be overcome and weak and without strength.” And there came a great voice as of thunder, saying, “Remove, O princes, your gates, and be ye lift up, ye doors of Hell, and the King of glory shall come in!”

And when Hell saw that they so cried out twice, he said, as if he knew it not, “Who is this King of glory?”

And David answered Hell and said, “The words of this cry do I know, for by his spirit I prophesied the same, and now I say unto thee that which I said before: The Lord, strong and mighty! The Lord mighty in battle! He is the King of glory! And: The Lord looked down from heaven, that he might hear the groanings of them that are in fetters and deliver the children of them that have been slain! And now, thou most foul and stinking Hell, open thy gates that the King of glory might come in!”

And as David thus spake unto Hell, the Lord of majesty appeared in the form of a man, and lightened the eternal darkness, and breaked the bonds that could not be loosed, and the succor of his everlasting might visited us that sat in the deep darkness of our transgressions and in the shadow of death of our sins.

When Hell and Death and their wicked ministers saw that, they were stricken with fear. They and their cruel officers, at the sight of the brightness of so great light in their own realm, seeing Christ of a sudden in their abode, and they cried out saying, “We are overcome by thee! Who art thou that art sent by the Lord for our confusion? Who art thou that without all damage of corruption and with the signs of thy majesty unblemished dost in wrath condemn our power? Who art thou that art so great and so small, both humble and exalted, both soldier and commander, a marvelous warrior in the shape of a bondsman, and a King of glory, dead and living, whom the cross bears slain upon it? Thou that didst lie dead in the sepulcher hast come down unto us living, and at thy death all creation quaked and all the stars were shaken, and thou hast become free among the dead and dost rout our legions. Who art thou that settest free the prisoners that are held bound by original sin and restores them into their former liberty? Who art thou that sheddest thy divine and bright light upon them that were blinded with the darkness of their sins?”

After this same manner, all the legions of devils were stricken with like fear and cried out all together in the terror of their confusion, saying, “Whence art thou, Jesus, a man so mighty and bright in majesty, so excellent without spot and clean from sin? For that world of earth, which hath been always subject unto us until now, and did pay tribute to our profit, hath never sent unto us a dead man like thee, nor ever dispatched such a gift unto hell. Who, then, art thou that so fearlessly enterest our borders, and not only fearest not our torments but besides essayest to bear away all men out of our bonds? Peradventure, thou art that Jesus of whom Satan, our prince, said that by the death of the cross thou shouldst receive the dominion of the whole world.”