Page:Apocryphal Gospels and Other Documents Relating to the History of Christ.djvu/416

300 and Joseph, and Nicodemus, and Gamaliel, and others with them, and went to Arimathea, and found those whom Joseph said. Therefore they offered prayer, and saluted one another. Then they came with them to Jerusalem, and brought them into the synagogue, and shut the doors, and placed in the midst the Old Testament of the Jews, and the chief priests said unto them, We wish you to swear by the God of Israel and Adonai, and thus that ye may tell the truth, how ye arose, and who raised you from the dead.

When the men who had risen heard this, they made upon their faces the sign of the cross, and said to the chief priests, Give us paper and ink and a pen. They brought them therefore; and they sat down and wrote thus —

Jesus Christ, the resurrection and the life of the world, give us grace that we may rehearse thy resurrection, and thy wonderful works which thou didst in Hades. We, therefore, were in Hades with all those who fell asleep from the beginning. Now at the hour of midnight, upon those dark places, there arose as it were the light of the sun, and