Hope and Justice VII: the Epistola Apostolorum and other apocryphal texts

 

Hope and Justice VII: the Epistola Apostolorum and other apocryphal texts

In the Apocryphal text, the ‘Epistola Apostolorum’, there is the following exchange between Jesus and his disciple:

 “…Whoso then hath kept my commandments shall be a son of the light, that is, of the Father that is in me. But because of them that corrupt my words am I come down from heaven. I am the word: I became flesh, and I wearied myself (or, suffered) and taught, saying: The heavy laden shall be saved, and they that are gone astray shall go astray for ever. They shall be chastised and tormented in their flesh and in their soul.

And we said unto him: O Lord, verily we are sorrowful for their sake. And he said unto us: Ye do rightly, for the righteous are sorry for the sinners, and pray for them, making prayer unto my Father. Again we said unto him: Lord, is there none that maketh intercession unto thee (so Eth.)? And he said unto us: Yea, and I will hearken unto the prayer of the righteous which they make for them.” (Epistola Apostolorum, 39-40, source: https://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/apostolorum.html  )

While this ancient text doesn’t say what will eventually happen to the sinners, it does present the problem: the just will be concerned with the fate of the sinners. Given that the just will be sorrowful for the dereliction of the wicked, would the final dereliction of the sinners be truly compatible with the blessedness of Heaven?

Also, there is one version of the ‘Gospel of Nicodemus’ that seems to teach universal salvation, via the ‘Harrowing of Hell’, i.e. the descent of Jesus in Hell after his crucifixion (and before the Resurrection). See e.g.: https://afkimel.wordpress.com/2024/11/19/the-harrowing-of-hades-in-the-gospel-of-nicodemus/ Other versions of the same text do not endorse the idea of universal salvation.

There is also this ambiguous statement of the ‘Coptic Apocalypse of Elijah’:

“  26.The sins of each one will stand against him in the place where they were committed, whether those of the day or of the night.
  27.Those who belong to the righteous and ... will see the sinners and those who persecuted them and those who handed them over to death in their torments.
  28.Then the sinners [ in torment ] will see the place of the righteous.
  29.And thus grace will occur.   In those days, that which the righteous will ask for many times will be given to them.” (source: https://www.3-in-1.net/Pseudepigrapha/Apocalypse%20of%20Elijah/The%20Apocalypse%20of%20Elijah.htm )

What does ‘thus grace will occur’ mean? What are the righteous asking? Do their request include some kind of mercy for the sinners?

The Wikipedia page of the ‘Apocalypse of Paul’, another apocryphal text, interestingly has the following section:

“One theological oddity is that the text portrays Christians, the angels, and Paul as more merciful than God. Paul expresses pity for those suffering in Hell, but Jesus rebukes him and says that everyone in Hell truly deserves their punishment. The Archangel Michael says he prays continuously for Christians while they are alive, and weeps for the torments the failed Christians endure after it is too late. The twenty-four elders on thrones (presumably the 12 apostles and the 12 patriarchs) as well as the four beasts described in God's throne room in the Book of Revelation also make intercession for the inhabitants of hell. The Christian friends and family of those in Hell also make prayers for the dead that their suffering might be lessened. In responses to the pleas of Paul (or the Virgin Mary in the Apocalypse of the Virgin), Michael, the elders, and the living Christians on Earth, Jesus agrees to release those in hell from their suffering on the day of his resurrection—presumably every Sunday. Manuscripts include variants of the ending: A Coptic manuscript instead describes it as specifically Easter, albeit with a 50-day period afterward, possibly in addition to the Sunday off; the Greek Apocalypse of the Virgin specifically excludes damned Jews from this mercy; and an Armenian manuscript has all sinners released from hell unconditionally. [6][13][4]” (source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apocalypse_of_Paul#Hell )

I already mentioned the position of ‘intercessory universalism’, the view that the inhabitants of ‘hell’ will be saved via the intercessions of the righteous in some versions of the apocryphal ‘Apocalypse of Peter’ and the ‘Sibilline Oracles’[1].

 

 

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