Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume VIII/Apocrypha of the New Testament/Christ's Descent into Hell: Latin. First Version/Chapter 12

Chapter 12 (28).

After this, Pilate going into the temple of the Jews, assembled all the chief priests, and learned men, and scribes, and teachers of the law, and went in with them into the sanctuary of the temple, and ordered that all the gates should be shut, and said to them:&#160; We have heard that you have a certain great collection of books in this temple:&#160; therefore I ask you that it be presented before us.&#160; And when four officers brought in that collection of books, adorned with gold and precious gems, Pilate said to all:&#160; I adjure you by the God of your fathers, who ordered you to build this temple in the place of his sanctuary, not to conceal the truth from me.&#160; You all know what is written in that collection of books; but now say whether you have found in the writings that Jesus, whom you have crucified, to be the Son of God that was to come for the salvation of the human race, and in how many revolutions of the seasons he ought to come.&#160; Declare to me whether you crucified him in ignorance of this, or knowing it.

Being thus adjured, Annas and Caiaphas ordered all the others who were with them to go out of the sanctuary; and themselves shut all the gates of the temple and the sanctuary, and said to Pilate:&#160; We have been adjured by thee, O good judge, by the building of this temple, to give thee the truth, and a clear account of this matter.&#160; After we had crucified Jesus, not knowing Him to be the Son of God, thinking that He did miracles by means of some charm, we made a great synagogue in this temple.&#160; And conferring with each other of the signs of the miracles which Jesus had done, we found many witnesses of our nation who said that they had seen Jesus alive after suffering death, and that He had penetrated into the height of heaven.&#160; And we have seen two witnesses, whom Jesus raised up again from the dead, who told us many wonderful things that Jesus did among the dead, which we have in our hands, written out.&#160; And our custom is, every year before our synagogue, to open that holy collection of books, and seek out the testimony of God.&#160; And we have found in the first book of the LXX., where the archangel Michael spoke to the third son of Adam, the first man, of five thousand and five hundred years, in which the Christ, the most beloved Son of God, was to come from the heavens; and upon this we have considered that perhaps He was the God of Israel who said to Moses, Make to thee the ark of the covenant, two cubits and a half in length, one cubit and a half in breadth, one cubit and a half in height.&#160; In these five and a half cubits we have understood and recognised, from the structure of the ark of the old covenant, that in five and a half thousands of years, Jesus Christ was to come in the ark of the body; and we have found Him to be the God of Israel, the Son of God.&#160; Because after His passion, we, the chief priests, wondering at the signs which happened on account of Him, opened this collection of books, searching out all the generations, even to the generation of Joseph, and reckoning that Mary the mother of Christ was of the seed of David; and we have found that from the time that God made the heaven and the earth and the first man, to the deluge, are two thousand two hundred and twelve years; and from the deluge to the building of the tower, five hundred and thirty-one years; and from the building of the tower to Abraham, six hundred and six years; and from Abraham to the arrival of the children of Israel from Egypt, four hundred and seventy years; from the coming of the children of Israel out of Egypt to the building of the temple, five hundred and eleven years; and from the building of the temple to the destruction of the same temple, four hundred and sixty-four years.&#160; Thus far have we found in the book of Esdras.&#160; After searching, we find that from the burning of the temple to the advent of Christ, and His birth, there are six hundred and thirty-six years, which together were five thousand five hundred years, as we have found written in the book that Michael the archangel foretold to Seth the third son of Adam, that in five and a half thousands of years Christ the Son of God would come. &#160; Even until now we have told no one, that there might be no dissension in our synagogues.&#160; And now thou hast adjured us, O good judge, by this holy book of the testimonies of God, and we make it manifest to thee.&#160; And now we adjure thee, by thy life and safety, to make manifest these words to no one in Jerusalem.