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The Apocryphon Of James

The Apocryphon of James

 

James writes to you. Peace be with you from peace, love from Love, grace from Grace, faith from faith, life from Holy Life! Since you asked me to send you a secret book which was revealed to me and Peter by the Lord, I could neither refuse you nor speak directly to you, but I have written it in Hebrew letters and have sent it to you - and to you alone. But inasmuch as you are a minister of the salvation of the sainbts, endeavour earnestly and take care not to recount this book to the many - this which the Savior did not desire to recount to all of us, his twelve disciples. But blessed are those who will be saved through faith in this discourse.

Now the twelve disciples were sitting all together at the same time , and, remembering what the Savior had said to each of them , whether secretly or openly, they were setting it down in books. And I was writing what was in my books - lo, the Savior appeared, after he had departed from us while we gazed at him. And five hundred and fifty days after he arose from the dead, we said to him : "Have you gone and departed from us" They all answered and said "If you bid, We`ll come" He said , "Truly I say to you, no one ever will enter the Kingdom of Heaven if I bid him, but rather because you yourselves are full. Let me have James and Peter, in order that I may fill them." And when he called these two, he took them aside, and commanded the rest to busy themselves with that which they had been busy with. The Savior said ; " You have received mercy. Do you not desire, then, to be filled And is your heart drunk Do you not desire, then, to be sober Therefore, be ashamed! And now , waking or sleeping, remember that you have seen the Son of Man, and with him you have spoken, and to him you have listened. Woe to those who have seen the Son of Man! Blessed are those who have not seen the Man, and who have not consorted with him, and who have not spoken with him, and who has not listened to anything from him. Yours is life! Know, therefore, that he healed you when you were ill, in order that you might reign. Woe to those who have rested from their illness, because they will relapse again into illness! Blessed are those who have not been ill, and have known rest before they became ill. Yours is the Kingdom of God! Therefore I say to you, become full and leave no place within you empty, since the Coming One >

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