Page:Apocryphal Gospels and Other Documents Relating to the History of Christ.djvu/425

Rh because thou hast brought me from the lowest Hades. So also all the prophets and the saints said, We give thee thanks, O Christ, Saviour of the world, because thou hast brought back our life from destruction.

And when they had said these things, the Saviour blessed Adam on the forehead with the sign of the cross; and he did this also to the patriarchs and the prophets, and martyrs and forefathers, and took them and sprang up out of Hades. And as he went, the holy fathers followed him, chanting, and saying, Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord, Alleluia: to him be glory from all the saints.

He went to Paradise, holding the forefather Adam by the hand, and delivered him, and all the righteous, to the archangel Michael. When, therefore, they entered the gate of Paradise, two aged men met them, to whom the holy fathers said, Who are ye, who have not seen death, and have not descended into Hades, but inhabit Paradise in body and soul? One of them answering, said, I am Enoch, who pleased God, and was translated hither by him; and this is Elijah the Tishbite; and we are to live until the end of the world: and then we are to be sent by God to resist Antichrist, and