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Thus all the Prophets and many of the early Fathers prophesied concerning His Ascension and His Second Coming to judge the living and the dead.
And DAVID said concerning His Resurrection, "He hath gone up into the heights. Thou hast made captive captivity, and hast given grace to the children of men." And he also said, Having gone forth, I will come back, and I will return from the abyss of the sea." And again he said, "Sing ye unto God Who hath gone up into the heavens, the heavens which are opposite the morning."
Thus AMOS the Prophet prophesied and said, "The Messiah, Who made the time of the morning, hath come and is exalted from the earth into the heights: and His Name is God Who ruleth all things."
Thus prophesied DAVID the Prophet and said, "Thou art exalted, O Lord, by Thy might, and we will praise and hymn Thy strength."
Thus prophesied ZECHARIAH the Prophet and said, "His foot standeth on the Mount of Olives to the east of JERUSALEM. And He rideth upon the Cherubim, and He flieth upon the wing of the winds."
Thus DAVID said, "Open ye the gates of the princes, and let the doors which were from the creation be opened, and the King of glory shall come! Who is this King of glory? God, the mighty and strong One, God, the mighty One in battle." And he also made known and said, "Open ye the gates of princes, and let the doors which were from the creation be opened, and the King of glory shall come! Who is this King of glory? The Lord God of Hosts is this King."
And again concerning His coming—He shall judge the living and the dead—He to Whom belongeth glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Thus ZECHARIAH the Prophet prophesied and said, "That day the Lord my God shall come, and all His saints with Him."
Thus DAVID the Prophet prophesied and said, "God spake once, and this according [to what] I have heard: Compassion belongeth unto God. And Thine, O Lord, is the power, for Thou wilt reward every man according to his work."
Thus spake DANIEL the Prophet and said, "I saw in my vision by night, and behold, there came [one] like unto the Son of man to the Ancient of Days, and there were given unto him dominion, and glory, and sovereignty, and all the nations and peoples and countries shall serve Him, and His dominion shall have no end for ever and ever. Amen."
And all the Prophets prophesied, and nothing that hath happened hath been without the prophecy of the Prophets. And they have declared everything that hath happened, and what shall happen, what hath been done and what shall be done, and that which belongeth to the times of old and that which belongeth to the latter days up to His Second Coming. And this they have done not only by what they have prophesied and declared, but together with their prophecies they have given manifestations of Him in their bodies. And there was a famine in the land of CANAAN, and our father ABRAHAM went down to EGYPT, and came back with much riches and honour without blemish. And in like manner our Redeemer went down and delivered the Church, the Assembly of the Nations, and He went up [again], having gotten honour and praise.
ISAAC commanded his father, saying, "Bind me"; and he was offered up as a sacrifice, though he did not die, being redeemed by the ram which came down from heaven. And in like manner the Son of God was obedient to His Father even unto death. And He was bound with the love of men, and He was nailed [to the Cross] and was pierced, and the Son of God became our ransom, and His Godhead suffered not.
Thus JACOB his son departed to the land of LÂBÂ (LABAN), the country of his mother's brother, with his staff only, and there he made many cattle, and acquired beasts both clean and unclean, and he begot twelve sons, and he revealed baptism, and returned to his own country where he received a blessing from ISAAC his father. And in like manner our Lord CHRIST came down from heaven, the Word of Godhead by Itself; and the staff of JACOB wherewith he pastured his sheep is our Lady MARY our salvation. And moreover, the staff signifieth the wood of the Cross whereby, being crucified upon it, He redeemed His flock and took possession of us from among the JEWS, and the heathen, and the GENTILES. And He chose for Himself Twelve Apostles, and they made the people believe in all the earth and in every country, and He went up to heaven to His Father.
Thus MOSES departed to the country of MIDIAN, and there he held converse with God, Who made him to learn and to know the belief in the resurrection from the dead of his fathers ABRAHAM, ISAAC, and JACOB. And by means of his staff (or, rod) He endowed him with the power to perform miracles; and he begot two sons. And this showeth clearly that we shall be saved by the Trinity. As the mouth of God proclaimed, "I am the God of ABRAHAM"—this of the Father—"and the God of ISAAC"—this of the Son—"and the God of JACOB"—when He saith this it is of the Holy Ghost indicating the Trinity clearly and plainly. "I am not the God of the dead, but the God of the living," for they all are alive with God; and by this the Resurrection of the dead is to be understood.
JONAH was swallowed up and cast into the belly of the great fish; and our Redeemer went down into the heart of the earth, and rose again the third day. And DANIEL was cast into the pit of the lions, and [the king and the lords] sealed it with their seals; and he rose up therefrom without the lions devouring him. And similarly our Lord was cast into the grave, and the JEWS sealed it with their seals, imagining that they were sealing up the rising of the sun so that it should not shine. O ye foolish, wicked, blasphemous, blind, and weak-minded men, would ye assert that the Spirit of Life should not appear and come forth? And the JEWS were put to shame, and He went forth to illumine us who have believed upon Him.
JOSEPH was sold by the hand of his brethren, and our Lord was sold by the hand of JUDAH. And JOSEPH where he was sold delivered his brethren from the famine, and CHRIST hath delivered us who believed upon Him and hath made us His heirs and His brethren. And as JOSEPH gave an inheritance unto his kinsfolk in the land of GÊSHAM (GOSHEN), so shall [CHRIST] give unto His righteous ones a habitation, an everlasting inheritance.
And moreover, in order that ye may know, and understand, and be certain about the resurrection of the dead, I will give you a sign, which ye shall understand by the guidance of His word. When ABRAHAM had come unto the land of [his] inheritance he bought first of all a tomb wherein to gather together the dead bodies of his kinsfolk, and his children, and his wife, so that he might join them in the resurrection; and there he buried his wife SARAH and he himself was buried. For he was a prophet, and he knew that he would be raised up with his kin. And ISAAC and REBEKAH his wife were also buried there. And it remained their possession from the time when JACOB went down to the land of EGYPT with seventy-seven souls, because of the famine and because JOSEPH his son [was there], until their number became six hundred thousand marching men who were equipped for war, without [reckoning] women and children. And JACOB died in EGYPT at a good old age, and he said unto JOSEPH his son, "I adjure thee by the life of my father and by my God, Who is the renewer of my life, that thou bury me not in this country, but in the tomb of my fathers, so that my death may be with them and my life subsequently with them." Know then by this similitude of the word. And JOSEPH his son carried ISRAEL and buried him by the grave of his fathers, for he reverenced the oath which JACOB had made him to swear.
And again, when JACOB fell sick in EGYPT he called his brethren and his children, and made them to swear that they would not leave his bones in the land of EGYPT, and said, "When God maketh you to return take ye my bones with you and mingle them in the grave of my fathers."
And the Archbishops (or, Patriarchs) answered and said unto GREGORY, the Worker of Wonders, "Behold now, we know well, and thou hast made us to understand that the Kings of ETHIOPIA have become glorious and great through ZION. And the Kings of RÔMÊ also have become great because of the nails [of the Cross] that HELENA made into a bridle, which hath become the vanquisher of the enemy for the King of RÔMÊ. And the chariot belongeth to the King of ETHIOPIA, and it hath vanquished his enemy. And tell us also how long the vanquisher of the enemy shall remain with the King of RÔMÊ, and the chariot containing ZION with the King of ETHIOPIA. Tell us, for God hath revealed unto thee what hath been, and what shall be, vision and prophecy, like MOSES and ELIJAH."
And GREGORY answered and said unto them, "I will reveal unto you concerning the King of RÔMÊ when he shall transgress and shall provoke God to wrath in the faith. This faith which we have ordered and laid down shall a king transgress who shall come in RÔMÊ, and there shall be associated with him a certain archbishop, and they shall change and pervert the word of the Twelve Apostles, and they shall cast it aside in the desire of their heart[s], and they shall teach what they wish, and they shall turn the Scriptures to suit their own nature, even as the Apostle saith, 'They have behaved themselves like [the people of] SODOM and GOMORRAH.' And our Lord said unto His disciples in the Gospel, 'Guard ye yourselves against those who shall come unto you in the apparel of sheep, and who are inwardly wolves that tear.' And when they have destroyed the faith the vanquisher of the enemy shall be taken away from them, and there shall be none of those who have changed our faith who shall sit upon the throne of PETER, and the bowels of their Archbishops shall be emptied out if they have taken their seat upon it in perverted faith. For the Angel of God hath been commanded to protect the throne of PETER in RÔMÊ. And God shall take away the vanquisher of the enemy from the king who shall not guard the faith, and the PERSIANS shall make war upon him and defeat him, and it seemeth to me that his name is MARCION the Apostate. And the King of PERSIA, whose name is HARÊNÊWÔS (IRENAEUS) shall conquer (?) him, and the king shall carry him away, together with his horse, and by the Will of God the horse on which is the vanquisher of the enemy shall be stirred up, and shall go into the sea and perish therein. But the nails shall shine there in the sea until CHRIST shall come again in great glory upon a cloud of heaven, together with power.
"Now this hath God showed me in the pit. And as concerning the King of ETHIOPIA, and ZION, the Bride of heaven, and her chariot whereby they move, I will declare unto you that which my God hath revealed unto me and hath made me to understand. [ETHIOPIA] shall continue in the orthodox faith until the coming of our Lord, and she shall in no way turn aside from the word of the Apostles, and it shall be so even as we have ordered until the end of the world.
And one answered and said unto the Worker of Wonders (i.e., GREGORY), "Now when SAMÂLYÂL cometh, who is the False Christ (ANTICHRIST), will the faith of the people of ETHIOPIA be destroyed by his attack?" And GREGORY answered and said, "Assuredly not. Hath not DAVID prophesied saying, 'ETHIOPIA shall make her hands come to God?' And this that he saith meaneth that the ETHIOPIANS will neither pervert nor change this our faith and what we have ordered, and the faith of those who were before us, the teachers of the Law of the Apostles."
And the Tabernacle of the Law of God, the Holy ZION, shall remain here until that day when our Lord shall dwell on Mount ZION; and ZION shall come and shall appear unto all prepared, with three seals—even as MOSES gave her—as it saith in the Old Law and in the New, "At the testimony of two or three [witnesses] everything shall stand." And then, saith ISAIAH the Prophet, "The dead shall be raised up, and those who are in the graves shall live, for the dew which [cometh] from Thee is their life." And when the dead are raised up, His mercy whereby He watereth the earth shall cease; they shall stand up before Him with the works which they have done. And ENOCH and ELIAS shall come, being alive, so that they may testify, and MOSES and AARON from the dead shall live with everyone. And they shall open the things that fetter her (i.e., ZION), and they shall make to be seen the JEWS, the crucifiers, and they shall punish them and chide them because of all that they have done in perverting the Word of God. And the JEWS shall see what He wrote for them with His hand—the Words of His Commandment, and the manna wherewith He fed them without toil [on their part], and the measure thereof; the GÔMÔR, and the spiritual ZION, which came down for their salvation, and the rod of AARON, which blossomed after the manner of MARY.
And He shall answer and say unto them, "Why did ye deny Me, and entreat Me evilly and crucify Me, [seeing that] I did all this for you, and that by My coming down [from heaven] I delivered you from SATAN and from the slavery of SATAN, and that I came for your sakes? Look ye and see how ye pierced Me with nails and thrust the spear through Me." And the Twelve Apostles shall be raised up, and they shall pass judgement upon them, and shall say unto them, "We would have made you hear, but ye would not hear the prophecy of the Prophets and the preaching of us the Apostles." And the JEWS shall weep and repent when it shall be useless to do so, and they shall pass into everlasting punishment; and with the Devil, their father who had directed them, and his demons who had led them astray, and with the wicked they shall be shut in.
And those who have believed and who have been baptized in the Holy Trinity, and have received His Body and His Blood, shall become His servants with their whole heart, for "there is no one who can hate His Body altogether." The Body of CHRIST crieth out in our Body, and He hath compassion because of His Body and Blood, for they have become His sons and His brethren. And if there be some who have sinned they shall be judged in the fire according to the quantity of their sins; he whose burden of sin is light his punishment shall be light, and he whose burden of sin is heavy, exceedingly great shall his punishment be. One day with God is as a period of ten thousand years; some there shall be who shall be punished for a day; and some for half a day, and some for three hours of a day, and some for one hour of a day; and some there shall be who shall be tested and who shall be absolved from their transgressions.
And the Archbishops answered and said unto GREGORY, the Worker of Wonders, "Behold now, thou hast told us concerning the vanquisher of the enemy of RÔMÊ, and now [tell us] of the chariot of ETHIOPIA and whether it shall remain henceforward, to the Coming of CHRIST, as thou hast told us concerning ZION, and concerning the faith of the people of ETHIOPIA, and likewise if their chariot shall remain." And GREGORY said unto them, "It shall assuredly not disappear. And again, hearken ye unto me and I will declare this unto you: A few JEWS shall lift up their heads against our faith in NÂGRÂN and in ARMENIA in the days after this, and this God will do by His Will so that He may destroy them, for ARMENIA is a territory of RÔMÊ and NÂGRÂN is a territory of ETHIOPIA."
And the King of RÔMÊ, and the King of ETHIOPIA, and the Archbishop of ALEXANDRIA—now the men of RÔMÊ were orthodox—were informed that they were to destroy them. And they were to rise up to fight, to make war upon the enemies of God, the JEWS, and to destroy them, the King of RÔMÊ ’ÊNYÂ, and the King of ETHIOPIA PIN?AS (PHINEHAS); and they were to lay waste their lands, and to build churches there, and they were to cut to pieces JEWS at the end of this Cycle in twelve cycles of the moon. Then the kingdom of the JEWS shall be made an end of and the Kingdom of CHRIST shall be constituted until the advent of the False Messiah. And those two kings, JUSTINUS the King of RÔMÊ and KÂLÊB the King of ETHIOPIA, met together in JERUSALEM. And their Archbishop was to make ready offerings and they were to make offerings, and they were to establish the Faith in love, and they were to give each other gifts and the salutation of peace, and they were to divide between them the earth from the half of JERUSALEM, even as we have already said at the beginning of this book. And for love's sake they were to have jointly the royal title [of King of ETHIOPIA]. They were to be mingled with DAVID and SOLOMON their fathers. The one whom in faith they chose by lot to be named from the Kings of RÔMÊ was to be called "King of ETHIOPIA", and the King of RÔMÊ likewise was to bear the name of "King of ETHIOPIA", and he was to have part in the lot whereby he should be named with DAVID and SOLOMON their fathers, after the manner of the Four Evangelists. And the fourth the one whom they were to choose each in his own country. . .
And thus after they had become united in a common bond, and had established the right faith they were to determine that the JEWS were no longer to live, and each of them was to leave his son there; and the King of ETHIOPIA was to leave there his firstborn son whose name was ISRAEL, and was to return to his own country in joy. And when he came to his royal house, he was to give abundant thanks unto God, and to offer up his body as an offering of praise to his God. And God shall accept him gladly, for he shall not defile his body after he hath returned, but he shall go into a monastery in purity of heart. And he shall make king his youngest son, whose name is GABRA MAS?AL, and he himself shall shut himself up [in a monastery]. And when one hath told this to the King of NÂGRÂN, the son of KÂLÊB, he shall come in order to reign over ZION, and GABRA MAS?AL shall make his armies to rise up, and he shall journey in a chariot, and they shall meet together at the narrow end of the Sea of LÎBÂ, and shall fight together. And on the same night the two of them shall pray from sunset until the dawn, when the fight waxeth strong upon them. And when they have cried out to Him with tears God will look upon the prayer of both of them, and the penitent prayer of their father, and will say, "This one is the elder and he hath stood up to perform the will of his father, and that one, the younger, hath loved his father, and hath prayed to God [for him]." And God will say to GABRA MAS?AL, "Choose thou between the chariot and ZION," and He will cause him to take ZION, and he shall reign openly upon the throne of his father. And God will make ISRAEL to choose the chariot, and he shall reign secretly and he shall not be visible, and He will send him to all those who have transgressed the commandment of God. And no one shall build houses, and they shall live in tents, and none shall suffer fatigue in labouring, and none shall suffer thirst on the journey. And their days shall be double of those of [ordinary] men, and they shall use bows and arrows, and shall shoot at and pierce him that God hateth.
Thus hath God made for the King of ETHIOPIA more glory, and grace, and majesty than for all the other kings of the earth because of the greatness of ZION, the Tabernacle of the Law of God, the heavenly ZION. And may God make us to perform His spiritual good pleasure, and deliver us from His wrath, and make us to share His kingdom. Amen.
And they answered and said unto him, "Verily, thou hast spoken well, for thus was it revealed unto thee by the help of the Holy Spirit. Thou hast told us everything which hath taken place, and thou art in agreement with the book of DAMÔTÎYÔS (DOMITIUS) of RÔMÊ. And thou hast prophesied also what shall happen to the two cities, the brides of CHRIST, the Churches NESTÂSYÂ and ’AR?ÂDYÂ, and MÂRÊNÂ, and ETHIOPIA, the great cities of God, wherein pure sacrifices and offerings shall be offered up at all times.
May God show us His grace! The blessing of all the saints and martyrs [be with us] for ever and ever! Amen. CHRIST is our King, and in CHRIST is our life for ever and ever. Amen. And Amen."
In the Arabic text it is said: "We have turned [this book] into Arabic from a Coptic manuscript [belonging to] the throne of MARK the Evangelist, the teacher, the Father of us all. We have translated it in the four hundred and ninth year of mercy in the country of ETHIOPIA, in the days of GABRA MAS?AL the king, who is called LÂLÎBALÂ, in the days of Abbâ GEORGE, the good bishop. And God neglected to have it translated and interpreted into the speech of ABYSSINIA. And when I had pondered this—Why did not ’ABAL?EZ and ABALFAROG who edited (or, copied) the book translate it? I said this: It went out in the days of ZÂGUÂ, and they did not translate it because this book says: Those who reign not being ISRAELITES are transgressors of the Law. Had they been of the kingdom of ISRAEL they would have edited (or, translated) it. And it was found in NÂZRÊT."
"And pray ye for me, your servant ISAAC the poor man. And chide ye me not because of the incorrectness of the speech of the tongue. For I have toiled much for the glory of the country of ETHIOPIA, and for the going forth of the heavenly ZION, and for the glory of the King of ETHIOPIA. And I consulted the upright and God-loving governor YÂ?EBÎKA ’EGZÎ’E, and he approved and said unto me, 'Work.' And I worked, God helping me, and He did not requite me according to my sins. And pray ye for your servant ISAAC, and for those who toiled with me in the going out (i.e., production) of this book, for we were in sore tribulation, I, and YAMHARANA-’AB, and ?EZBA-KRESTÔS, and ANDREW, and PHILIP, and MA?ÂRÎ-’AB. May God have mercy upon them, and may He write their names in the Book of Life in the kingdom of heaven, with those of all the saints and martyrs for ever and ever! Amen."