Israel

W⁹ine and strong drink I drank not, and flesh entered not into my mouth, and I tasted not pleasant food, mourning over my sin, for it was great. And it shall not so be done in Israel.

A⁹nd the angel said to me, Marvel not at these, for thou shalt see four other heavens brighter than these, and without comparison, when thou shalt have ascended thither: because thou shalt stand near the Lord, and shalt be His minister, and shall declare His mysteries to men, and shalt proclaim concerning Him who shall redeem Israel; and by thee and Judah shall the Lord appear among men, saving in them every race of men; and of the portion of the Lord shall be thy life, and He shall be thy field and vineyard, fruits, gold, silver.

I² took counsel with my father, and with Reuben my brother, that he should bid the sons of Hamor that they should be circumcised; for I was jealous because of the abomination which they had wrought in Israel.

F²or our father Israel shall be pure from the ungodliness of the chief priests who shall lay their hands upon the Saviour of the world.

A⁴nd Abraham, the father of my father, blessed me that I should be king in Israel, and Isaac further blessed me in like manner.

T⁵hem therefore obey, and walk in the simplicity of your father; for unto Gad hath it been given to destroy the temptations that are coming upon Israel.

B⁸ut the God of Jacob our father gave him not over into my hands that I should find him alone, nor suffered me to work this iniquity, that two tribes should be destroyed in Israel.

A⁸nd I saw, for I was there, and behold a holy writing appeared to us saying: Assyrians, Medes, Persians, Elamites, Gelachæans, Chaldeans, Syrians, shall possess in captivity the twelve tribes of Israel.

A⁴nd the God of my fathers delivered him from my hands, that I should not work iniquity in Israel.

A¹nd thus Potiphar the chief cook of Pharaoh entrusted to me his house, and I struggled against a shameless woman, urging me to transgress with her; but the God of Israel my father guarded me from the burning flame.

A⁵nd all Israel bewailed him, and all Egypt, with a great lamentation.

A³nd in the ninety-first year of the departure of the children of Israel from Egypt, they and their brethren brought up the bones of their fathers secretly in a place which is called Canaan; and they buried them in Hebron, by the feet of their fathers.

N⁶ow the eyes of [Leah], the first woman whom Jacob took to wife, were hateful, whilst the eyes of Rachel were beautiful, and her countenance was radiant. A covering (i.e. veil) was laid over the face of the first Covenant, so that the children of Israel might not see the beauty thereof; as for the second Covenant, it is wholly light.

N¹ow there are certain doctors who trace the genealogies of the Tribes from the death of Jacob, and who mix them together, but they do not do this in the light of knowledge. They set in the midst two genealogies, one of the “Tribes,” and the other of the “Children of Israel”. Now fix thine attention on these generations, and how they became mixed together.

N¹ow the succession of the children of Israel is this: Levi, and Amram, and Moses, and Joshua, the son of Nón, and Caleb, the son of Yofanna (Jephunneh) These were born in Egypt. And when Moses was born he was cast into the river, and Shipór, the Egyptian woman, the daughter of Pharaoh, took him up, and he lived in the house of Pharaoh for forty years.

A¹nd Joshua, the son of Non, was the governor of the children of Israel for twenty-seven years. And after the death of Joshua, the son of Non, Kishan, the Wicked (Chushanrishathayim), was lord over the people for eighty years. And ‘Athnail (Othniel), the son of Kenaz, the brother of Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, was lord over Israel for forty years.

A¹nd Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, reigned after him. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when [he began] to reign, and he polluted Jerusalem with fornication, and the altars of devils, and the stink of heathendom; and the kingdom of Israel was rent in twain. And in the fifth year of his kingdom Shishak, the king of Egypt, went up against Jerusalem.

A²nd Ahaz sent to the king of Assyria the gold and silver [which were in] the house of the Lord, [and in his days] the children of Israel were carried off into captivity. And the king sent for the men who had come from Babel, so that they might dwell in the land instead of the children of Israel, because they could kill the lions. And the king of Assyria sent to them Ori the priest, and he taught them the laws. And Ahaz died and Hezekiah his son reigned after him.

A¹nd Cyrus took to wife the daughter of Salathiel, the sister of Zerubbabel, and he took her to wife according to the law of the Persians, and made her [his] queen. And she entreated Cyrus to bring about the return of the children of Israel [to Jerusalem]. And inasmuch as Zerubbabel was her brother, she was very insistent about the return [to Jerusalem] of those who had been led away into captivity.

N¹ow the genealogy of the tribes (or, families) was lost by the scribes, and they were unable to show either whence the heads of families took [their] wives, or whence they came. I, however, possess the knowledge of the correct genealogy, and will show the truth to everyman. When the children of Israel went up from Babylon— Zerubbabel begot Abiud by Malkath, the daughter of Ezra the scribe.

T⁷hus did they think—that they would find in the land of Israel a royal palace, and couches of gold with cushions laid upon them, and the king and the son of the king arrayed in purple, and awestruck soldiers and companies of royal troops, and the nobles of the kingdom paying him honour by presenting gifts, and tables laid out with meats fit for the king, and vessels of drink standing in rows, and. men servants and women servants serving in fear.

“³Truly, his son will reign over Israel.” For he had heard of what had been said unto Zacharias by the angel, when he announced to him concerning [the birth of] John. And Herod sent to Zacharias [and commanded him] to bring John, and Zacharias said, “I am a priest, and I minister in the Temple of the Lord; I do not know where the Child and his mother are.” And because of these words Zacharias was slain between the bench (or, steps) and the altar. Now, Elizabeth had taken John and gone forth into the desert.

T²²hese three gifts which the generations and families of the children of Israel had enjoyed for [many] years were taken from them in one day; and they were stripped of all three of them, and became aliens to them, that is to say, prophecy by the Cross, priesthood by the rending of the tunic [of Christ], and royalty by the crown of thorns.

A⁴nd because he saw with the eye of the Spirit, and the way of the Dispensation of Christ had appeared to him, he took the stone which had travelled about with the children of Israel in the desert and placed it at the door of the tomb, and therefore he was not buried in it. And when Joseph, and Nicodemus, and Cleophas had buried Christ, they laid that stone before the door of the building of the tomb. And the high priests, and men of the house of Pilate, went out and set seals on the grave and on the stone.

A⁵nd as for the kingship over Israel, after the death of Jesse David reigned in righteousness, and in integrity, and in graciousness.

A¹¹nd after he slept there appeared unto King Solomon [in a dream] a brilliant sun, and it came down from heaven and shed exceedingly great splendour over Israel. And when it had tarried there for a time it suddenly withdrew itself, and it flew away to the country of Ethiopia, and it shone there with exceedingly great brightness for ever, for it willed to dwell there.

A⁴nd having arrayed him in glorious apparel which bewitched the eyes, he seated him upon his throne, that he might be equal in rank to himself. And he said unto the nobles and officers of Israel, " O ye who treat me with contumely among yourselves and say that I have no son, look ye, this is my son, the fruit that hath gone forth from my body, whom God, the Lord of Israel, hath given me, when I expected it not."

"¹ And hear ye, Israel, that which God commandeth you to keep; He saith, ' I am the Lord thy God Who hath brought thee out of the land of Egypt and out of the house of bondage. There shall be no other gods besides Me, and thou shalt not make any god that is graven, and no god that is like what is in the heavens above, or in the earth beneath, or in the water which is under the earth.

Z²ion). And the old men wailed, and the children cried out, and the widows wept, and the virgins lamented, because the sons of their nobles, the mighty men of Israel, had risen up to depart. But the city did not weep for them alone, but because the majesty of the city had been carried off with them.

A⁵nd they asked the priests of the gods, the diviners of Egypt, the reason why our gods had fallen down, and they said unto us, ' The Tabernacle of the God of Israel, which came down from heaven, is with them, and will abide in their country for ever.'

B²ut we worship none else than the Holy God of Israel and our Lady, the holy and heavenly Zion, the Tabernacle of the Law of God, whom He hath given us to worship, us and our seed after us." And she answered and said unto him, " Thy son hath carried away thy Lady Zion, thy son whom thou hast begotten, who springeth from an alien people into which God hath not commanded you to marry, that is to say, from an Ethiopian woman, who is not of thy colour, and is not akin to thy country, and who is, moreover, black."

B²ut the sheep which have already brought forth young for the first time leave to the owner of the sheep." And all those who heard the judgment which he pronounced marvelled, and Baltasar said, " Verily, this judgment is a judgment of the people of the God of Israel.

A³nd she caused all this glorious news to be spread abroad, and she made a herald to go round about in all the country that was subject unto her, ordering the people to meet her son and more particularly the heavenly Zion, the Tabernacle of the God of Israel.

A⁸nd thy wisdom so far exceedeth that of Solomon that thou hast been able to draw hither the mighty men of Israel, and the Tabernacle of the Law of God, with the ropes of thine understanding, and thou hast overthrown the house of their idols, and destroyed their images, and thou hast cleansed what was unclean among thy people, for thou hast driven away from them that which God hateth.

A¹nd Moses spake these words unto them, and they brought a rod into each of the houses of their fathers which they had chosen for purity, and there were twelve rods. And Moses wrote upon their rods the names of their fathers: on the rod of Aaron was written the name of Levi, and on the rod of Karmin was written the name of Judah, and on the rod of Adonyas was written the name of Reuben, and on the rod of every man of all the houses of Israel was written in like manner the name of his father.

A⁵nd 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.

A⁴nd Manasseh turned aside his heart to serve Beliar; for the angel of lawlessness, who is the ruler of this world, is Beliar, whose name is Matanbûchis. And he delighted in Jerusalem because of Manasseh, and he made him strong in apostatizing (Israel) and in the lawlessness which were spread abroad in Jerusalem.

B⁷ut they prophesy falsely against Israel and Judah.

A³nd when Isaiah began to speak the words of faith and truth with King Hezekiah all the princes of Israel were seated and the eunuchs and the councillors of the king. And there were there forty prophets and sons of the prophets: they had come from the villages and from the mountains and the plains when they had heard that Isaiah was coming from Galgala to Hezekiah.

S²²howed me a book, but not as a book of this world and he opened it, and the book was written, but not as a book of this world. And he gave (it) to me and I read it, and lo! the deeds of the children of Israel were written therein, and the deeds of those whom I know (not), my son Josab.

A¹⁸nd when He had grown up He worked great signs and wonders in the land of Israel and of Jerusalem.