Page:Apocryphal Gospels and Other Documents Relating to the History of Christ.djvu/422

306 watch everything: for if he should enter here, woe will seize us.

On hearing these things, the forefathers all began to reproach him, saying, All-devouring and insatiate, open, that the King of Glory may come in. David the prophet saith, Knowest thou not, O blind one, that when I was living in the world, I predicted this voice, Lift up your gates, O ye rulers? Isaiah said, Through the Holy Spirit, when I foresaw this, I wrote, The dead shall arise, and they that are in the tombs shall be raised, and those who are in the earth shall be glad. And, Where is thy sting, O Death? where is thy victory, O Hades?

The voice, therefore, came again, saying, Lift up the gates. Hades, hearing the voice a second time, answered, as forsooth not knowing, and said, Who is this King of Glory? The angels of the Lord said, The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. And immediately, at this word, the brazen gates were broken, and the iron bars were crushed, and all the dead that were bound were loosed from their bonds, and we with them. And the King of Glory entered as a man, and all the dark places of Hades were lighted up.