Page:The Apocryphal New Testament (1924).djvu/163

 3 And after that there came one as it were a dweller in the wilderness, and he was inquired of by all: Who art thou? And he answered them and said: I am John, the voice and the prophet of the most High, which came before the face of his advent to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation unto his people, for the remission of their sins. And when I saw him coming unto me, being moved of the Holy Ghost, I said: Behold the Lamb of God, behold him that taketh away the sins of the world. And I baptized him in the river of Jordan, and saw the Holy Ghost descending upon him in the likeness of a dove, and heard a voice out of heaven saying: This is my: beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And now have I come before his face, and come down to declare unto you that he is at hand to visit us, even the dayspring, the Son of God, coming from on high unto us that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. 

2 Then came there unto the midst another out of the wilderness, an anchorite (ascete), and the patriarchs said unto him: Who art thou? and he said: I am John, the end of the prophets, which made straight the ways of the Son of God, and preached repentance unto the people for the remission of sins.

And the Son of God came unto me, and when I saw him afar off I said unto the people: Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world. And with mine hands I baptized him in the river Jordan, and saw as it were a dove, and the Holy Ghost coming upon him, and I heard also the voice of God and the Father thus speaking: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And for this cause sent he me unto you also,

diligence, and by little to make fast the locks and the bars of iron, and to take fast in hand all their instruments, and to utter howlings with dreadful and hideous voice.

1 Then said Satan unto Hell: Make thee ready to receive him whom I shall bring down unto thee. Thereupon did Hell make answer unto Satan thus: This voice was nothing else but the cry of the Son of the most high Father, that the earth and all the places of hell did so quake at it: wherefore I think that I and all my bonds are now wide open. But I adjure thee, O Satan, head of all evil, by thy might and mine own, bring him not unto me, lest when we would take him we be taken captive of him.