Page:Apocryphal Gospels and Other Documents Relating to the History of Christ.djvu/469

Rh thou hast by thy power brought them down. If thou then art powerful, what is that man Jesus, who feareth death and yet resisteth thy power? If he is so powerful in his humanity, I tell thee truly, he is omnipotent in his divinity, and no one can withstand his power, and while he saith that he feareth death, he is intending to seize thee, and it will be woe unto thee through eternal ages.

But Satan the prince of Tartarus said, Why hast thou hesitated and feared to receive that Jesus, my enemy and thine? For I have tempted him, and my ancient Jewish people I have stirred up with jealousy and anger against him; I have sharpened a lance to wound him, I have mingled gall and vinegar to be given him to drink, and I have prepared the wood for his crucifixion, and nails to fasten him, and his death is at hand, that I may lead him to thee subject to thee and to me.

Hades answered and said, Thou hast told me that it is he who took the dead from me. For there are many who are detained by me here, who while they lived on earth took the dead from me, not by their own power, but by divine prayers; and their omnipotent God took them from me. Who is that Jesus, who by his word drew from me the dead, without prayers? Perhaps it is he who made alive by the word of his power Lazarus, that had been four days in corruption and decay, whom I held dead.