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Chapter 3.
Having therefore done many and dreadful things against
Jesus that night, they gave Him up to Pilate the procurator at the dawn
of the preparation, that he might crucify Him; and for this purpose
they all came together. After a trial, therefore, Pilate the
procurator ordered Him to be nailed to the cross, along with the two
robbers. And they were nailed up along with Jesus, Gestas on the
left, and Demas on the right.
And he that was on the left began to cry out,
saying to Jesus: See how many evil deeds I have done in the
earth; and if I had known that thou wast the king, I should have cut
off thee also. And why dost thou call thyself Son of God, and
canst not help thyself in necessity? how canst thou afford it to
another one praying for help? If thou art the Christ, come down
from the cross, that I may believe in thee. But now I see thee
perishing along with me, not like a man, but like a wild beast.
And many other things he began to say against Jesus, blaspheming and
gnashing his teeth upon Him. For the robber was taken alive in
the snare of the devil.2039
But the robber on the right hand, whose name was
Demas, seeing the Godlike grace of Jesus, thus cried out: I know
Thee, Jesus Christ, that Thou art the Son of God. I see Thee,
Christ, adored by myriads of myriads of angels. Pardon me my sins
which I have done. Do not in my trial make the stars come against
me, or the moon, when Thou shalt judge all the world; because in the
night I have accomplished my wicked purposes. Do not urge the
sun, which is now darkened on account of Thee, to tell the evils of my
heart, for no gift can I give Thee for the remission of my sins.
Already death is coming upon me because of my sins; but Thine is the
propitiation. Deliver me, O Lord of all, from Thy fearful
judgment. Do not give the enemy power to swallow me up, and to
become heir of my soul, as of that of him who is hanging on the left;
for I see how the devil joyfully takes his soul, and his body
disappears. Do not even order me to go away into the portion of
the Jews; for I see Moses and the patriarchs in great weeping, and the
devil rejoicing over them. Before, then, O Lord, my spirit
departs, order my sins to be washed away, and remember me the sinner in
Thy kingdom, when upon the great most lofty throne2040
| 2040 Or, upon the great
throne of the Most High. | thou shalt judge the twelve tribes of
Israel.2041
For Thou
hast prepared great punishment for Thy world on account of
Thyself.
And the robber having thus spoken, Jesus says to
him: Amen, amen; I say to thee, Demas, that to-day thou shalt be
with me in paradise.2042
And the
sons of the kingdom, the children of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and
Moses, shall be cast out into outer darkness; there shall be weeping
and gnashing of teeth.2043
And thou
alone shalt dwell in paradise until my second appearing, when I am to
judge those who do not confess my name. And He said to the
robber: Go away, and tell the cherubim and the powers, that turn
the flaming sword, that guard paradise from the time that Adam, the
first created, was in paradise, and sinned, and kept not my
commandments, and I cast him out thence. And none of the first
shall see paradise until I am to come the second time to judge living
and dead. And He wrote thus: Jesus Christ the Son of God,
who have come down from the heights of the heavens, who have come forth
out of the bosom of the invisible Father without being separated from
Him,2044
and who have come down into the world to
be made flesh, and to be nailed to a cross, in order that I might save
Adam, whom I fashioned,—to my archangelic powers, the gatekeepers
of paradise, to the officers of my Father: I will and order that
he who has been crucified along with me should go in, should receive
remission of sins through me; and that he, having put on an
incorruptible body, should go in to paradise, and dwell where no one
has ever been able to dwell.
And, behold, after He had said this, Jesus gave up the
ghost, on the day of the preparation, at the ninth hour. And
there was darkness over all the earth; and from a great earthquake that
happened, the sanctuary fell down, and the wing of the
temple.
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