Page:LostApocryphaOfTheOldTestamentMRJames.djvu/119

 and the Exile, No. 5 more clearly to the Romans, No. 6'' certainly to Egypt. What follows is Christian and is only in Rec. ''2.

7. But whereas thou sawest angels descending and ascending upon the ladder, in the last times there will be a man from the Most High, and he shall desire to join the upper with the lower. Of him before his coming shall your sons and your daughters prophesy, and your young men shall see visions of him. For there shall be such signs as these at the time of his coming: a tree felled by the axe shall drop blood (cf. Barnabas xii. 1. above); boys of three months old shall speak rationally (Sibylline Oracles, Testament of the Lord, 4 Esdras); a child in its mother's womb shall proclaim his way (cf. Luke i.); a young man shall be as an old man. And then cometh the expected one, whose path will be perceived by no man. Then will the earth rejoice, because it hath received the glory of heaven. That which was above shall be below. And of thy seed shall grow up a royal root (or the root of a king); and he (it) shall increase and destroy the power of the Evil one, but he himself shall be a saviour of the heathen, and the rest of them that are weary, and a cloud which shadeth the whole world from the heat (Isa. xxxii. 2), for otherwise that which is disordered could not be put in order, if he came not: otherwise that which is below could not be joined to that which is above.

8. Now at his coming will images of brass (al. calves of brass) and stone and all graven things utter their voice for three days long. And they announce to the wise men and let them know what will befall (or is befalling) on earth, and by the star will they know the way to him, when they see him upon earth whom the angels see not above. Then will the Almighty be found in a body on the earth, and encompassed by the arms of a mortal, and he reneweth the state of man and quickeneth (Adam and) Eve that died through the fruit of the tree. Then will the deceit of the godless one be overcome, and all idols fall on their faces, for they will be put to shame by one who is adorned with