Lost scriptures: books that did not make it into the New Testament (63 page)

the cares which do not have direct refer

Immediately, the girl fell down dead. O

ence to my personal suffering. And in all

reward worthy and ever pleasing to God,

these I have not lost courage, because

to escape the shamelessness of the flesh

Christ was and still is with me.”9

and to break the pride of the blood! But

Oh, through how much trouble does

this distrustful old man, failing to recogman attain to glory! Besides there is the nise the worth of the heavenly grace, i.e.,

word of the Lord, who says: “Whom I

the divine blessing, besought Peter again

love, he says, I rebuke and chasten”10 that

that his only daughter be raised from the

the righteous man may be tested as gold

dead. And some days later, after she had

in the crucible. What bodily joy can there

been raised, a man who passed himself

be then in the life to come if the word of

off as a believer came into the house of

the Lord runs: “Oh! as a virgin, as a

the old man to stay with him, and seduced

woman, so is the mystery of resurrection

the girl, and the two of them never ap

(which) you have shown to me, you who

peared again.”

in the beginning of the world did institute

For the man who dishonors his own

vain feasts for yourselves and delighted

body makes himself like the godless. And

in the wantonness of the Gentiles and

therefore the dwelling-place of the godbehaved in the same way as those who less cannot be found out, as David says:

take delight therein.” Behold what sort of

“I sought him but he was nowhere to be

young maidens there are among you! But

found,”15 as also in the (mentioned) case

come and ponder over this, that there is

of death those two did not dare (to apone who tries the soul and a last day of pear) any more. Thou oughtest then, O

retribution and persecution.

virgin, to fear the judgment of this law:

Where then art thou now, thou who

“If,” says Moses, “a betrothed virgin is

hast passed the time of thy youth happily

caught unawares with another man, let

with a sinner, the apostle testifying morethe two of them be brought before the over that “neither flesh nor blood will

court of the elders and be condemned to

possess the kingdom of God?”11

death.”16

And again the law runs: “let not a man

These happenings have been recorded

glory in his strength, but rather let him

for us on whom the end of this age has

trust in the Lord,”12 and Jeremiah says:

come. One thing stands fast: should a

“Accursed is he who puts his hope in

virgin who is betrothed to Christ be

man.”13 And in the Psalms it is said: “It

caught unawares with another man, let

is better to trust in the Lord than to rely

them both be committed for final senon men.”14 Why then art thou not afraid to abandon the Lord and to trust in a man

who in the last judgment will not save

9

thee but rather destroy? Consider and

2 Cor 11:23ff. 10Rev 3:19. 111 Cor 15:50. 12Jer 9:

23. 13Jer 17:5. 14Ps 118:8. 15Ps 37:36. 16Deut 22:

take note of the happening about which

23.

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NON-CANONICAL EPISTLES AND RELATED WRITINGS

tence before the court of the elders, i.e.,

(now) be augmented beyond the first

of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, whose

punishment.

charge it is to investigate the case of their

Therefore, beloved, we must combat

children. Then will the fathers disown

the works of the flesh because of the

their own children as evildoers. And ficoming retribution. In order then that ye nally the malefactors will cry amidst the

may escape eternal torment, ye must

torment of their punishment: Hear us, O

struggle, daughters, against flesh and

Lord God, for our father Abraham has

blood so long as a period for that continnot known us, and Isaac and Jacob have ues and a few days still remain wherein

disowned us! Thus then let the children

ye may contend for life. Why should the

conduct themselves that (some day) they

man who hast renounced the flesh be held

may find themselves in the bosom of

fast in its lust? Why, O virgin, thou who

father Abraham. That is to say, that they

has renounced a man, dost thou hug this

may remain praiseworthy in his rememphysical beauty? Why (ascetic) givest brance and be not as the daughters of

thou up to a strange woman (i.e., one

Zion whom the Holy Spirit reproaches

belonging to Christ) the body which was

through Isaiah: “They moved together

not made for that? Why strivest thou

through the streets, dancing with their

against thine own salvation to find death

heads erect. And they engaged themin love? Hear the apostle who says to selves to men in the villages of Jerusalem,

you: “See,” he says, “that ye give not

and heaped up iniquity to the sky, and

place to the flesh through the liberty of

the Lord was angry and delivered them

God.”18 And again: “Fulfill not the lusts

up to king Nebuchadnezzar to slavery for

of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against

seventy years.”17

the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh.

You also are disobedient and undisci

These are opposed to one another.

plined, you who do something even

Therefore, he says, do not what ye would.

worse than the first committed. In the end

Otherwise the Spirit of God is not in

you also will be delivered up to the

you.”19 O inherently false one, to despise

wicked king Nebuchadnezzar, as he says,

the commandments of the holy law and

i.e., to the devil who will fall upon you.

(through) a deceitful marriage to lose in

And as they (the Jews), after they had

secret the life everlasting! O honeyed

spent seventy years in anguish, returned

cheat, to draw on torment in the future!

to their own places of abode, so a period

O unbridled passion for glory, to offend

of seven years is (now) appointed under

against the devotion that has been vowed

Antichrist. But the pain of these seven

to God! O steps that lead astray from the

years presents eternal anguish. And as,

way, that a virgin is fond of the flesh of

after their return to their homeland, they

another! O faith(less) craving, theft of

henceforth experienced much evil, so is

fire, honor entangled in crime! O broken

it also now with (these): after death the

promise, that the mind blazes up for a

soul of each one will be tormented unto

stranger! O pledge of lust, beauty inthe judgment day. And again, after the clined to crime! O alluring symbol of

slaughter of the beast, the first resurrecvice that brings disdain! O seminari da tion will take place; and then will the

faithless souls return to their dwellings;

and according to the increase of their

17The source of this apocryphal quotation cannot be

(earlier) evil-doings will their torment

traced. 18Gal. 5:13. 19Gal. 5:16.

PSEUDO-TITUS

243

membra vicinacio tenebrarum! O con

O flames of lust! The unclean profane

cealed thievery, to give an appearance of

with their lust the temple of God and by

humility and chastity! O gloom of the

Him are condemned to destruction! Oh,

dark deed which plunders the glory of

a contest is entered upon in the stadium,

Christ forever! O fleeting remembrance

and when it has hardly come to grapof holiness which strives after death in pling, the shields fall to the ground! O

the name of beauty! O “silver that has

city captured by enemies and reduced to

been refused,” which according to the

a wilderness!

saying of Isaiah “is not worthy of God!”20

Against this whorish behaviour the

O dishonored Sabbath in which the works

Lord turns through Ezekiel saying:

of the flesh come to light in the last days

“Thou hast built thee thy brothel, thou

and times! O foot, that failest on the way

hast desecrated thy beauty and thy cometo holiness and dost not arrive at a sure liness in every by-way, thou hast become

habitation! O ship burst open by pirates,

an unclean woman, thou who hast heaped

thou that gettest away empty and miserup shamelessness for thyself. Thy disable! O house that is undermined by burgrace in the unchastity which thou hast glars whilst the watchmen sleep and lose

practised with thy lovers will yet come

the costly treasure! O maidenly youth,

to light. And again, As I live, saith the

thou that fallest off miserably from right

Lord, Sodom has not so done as thou

conduct! O enlargement of trust in this

Jerusalem and thy daughters. But the inworld which turns into desolation in eteriquity of Sodom, they sister, is fulfilled.

nity! O consequence of unchastity which

For Samaria has not committed the half

brings down upon itself the malady of

of thy sins. Thou hast multiplied iniquimelancholy! O fountain of sweet poison ties beyond thy sisters in all that thou

which springs up from the flesh as inexhast done. Wherefore be ashamed and tricable entanglement! O wretched house

take thy disgrace upon thy head.”23

founded on sand! O despicable crime of

O how frequently the scourgings and

(this) time, that corruptest not thine own

beatings of God are not spared, and yet

members but those of a stranger! O fleetno one takes to heart the word of the ing enjoyment on a brink of collapse! O

Lord to be concerned about the future

parcel of deceit! O unsleeping ardour for

life! Has not Jerusalem, possessing the

the perdition of the soul! O tower that is

law, sinned more than Sodom and Goin building to be left unfinished! O

morrah, which possessed no law? And

shameful work, thou art the scorn of them

have not the crimes of Jerusalem, whose

that pass by! Why, O virgin, dost thou

sons and daughters have stood under the

not ponder over it and estimate the heavbanner of faith, outweighed those of Saenly charges before laying the foundamaria, which already from the beginning tion? In the beginning thou hast acted too

was worldly-minded?

hastily, and before the house was com

On the unprecedented crime of this

pleted, thou hast already experienced a

new people the apostle says: “One hears

terrible collapse!21 In your case the saycommonly of unchastity among you and ing of the law has been fulfilled, the

prophecy has come to pass: Many a tract

of land, it says, is built upon and soon it

20Isa 1:22 or the Apocryphon of Isaiah. 21Cf. Luke

grows old; temples and cities are built in

14:28ff. 22The source of this apocryphal quotation

cannot be determined. 23Cf. Ezek 16:24, 25, 31, 36,

the land and soon they are abandoned!22

48, 49, 51, 52.

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NON-CANONICAL EPISTLES AND RELATED WRITINGS

indeed of such unchastity as is never met

“Bewail the house which you have pulled

with among the Gentiles, that one lives

on yourselves and endure of yourselves

with his father’s wife. And ye are yet

the punishment of indignation.”28 Does

puffed up, and do not rather mourn, that

the Lord mean perhaps the house or the

such an evil-doer may be removed from

field of this time when he warns us

your midst. I am indeed absent in the

against pressing them together? (No)

body, but in the spirit am among you and

rather it is a matter here of warnings in

already, as if I were present, I have passed

reference to holiness, in which the sepasentence of on the evil-doer: to hand over ration of man and woman is ordered. So

that man to Satan in the name of

the Lord also admonishes us through Jer

Christ.”24

emiah, saying, “It is an excellent thing for

O invention of the devil, sport for those

a man that he bear the yoke in his youth;

about to perish! Oh poison instead of

he will sit alone when his hope is real; he

honey, to take a father’s wife in the same

will keep quiet and have patience.”29 “To

way as any bride dedicated to Christ

bear the yoke” is then to observe God’s

whom in thine heart thou hast craved for!

order. And in conclusion the Lord says: