Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. Blessed is the one watching and keeping his garments, so that he should not walk naked and they might see his shame."īehold, I come as a thief. Blessed is the one who remains awake and clothed, so that he will not go naked and let his shame be exposed.” (“Behold, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake, keeping his garments on, that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed!”) “Look, I will come as unexpectedly as a thief! Blessed are all who are watching for me, who keep their clothing ready so they will not have to walk around naked and ashamed.” At the same time there are several references in the New Testament to Jesus being a “ransom” for sin and death ( Mark 10:45 and I Timothy 2:6), which we might assume would mean he ransomed himself to the Devil for salvation of people from sin and death, but, of course, Death cannot keep someone who is without sin, and so Christ was released from Hell (this was thought of as God’s trick on the Devil by Rufinus and Aquileia in the 4 th Century, and the idea of it being a trick was perpetuated by Gregory the Great but it was not a favored notion among many early Christian theologians, for it implied that God was petty and had to play tricks).“Look, I come like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake and remains clothed, so as not to go naked and be shamefully exposed.” I suppose the idea amongst early Christians was that while Christ was in Hell he figured he But Satan cannot keep him, for Jesus was without sin, and death could not hold him. Christ is God in the flesh, so upon his death he must enter the realm of the dead, Satan’s rule. The idea at hand here is that the Devil rules the underworld and the dead, for it is by the sin of Adam and Eve that death came into this world, and so through sin and death Satan reigns over the dead regardless of anyone’s righteousness or wickedness. This scene is best known as the “Harrowing of Hell.” After some contention with Satan and his demons Christ takes the righteous, including Adam and David, out of Hell with him and leaves Satan confused and destitute. In Part II of Nicodemus (not originally a part of Nicodemus, but added sometime later) a few of those saved from Hell attest that Christ came down to Hell, commanded the gates to be opened, and Satan and his demons grew fearful. These other non-canonical books became known as the “Apocrypha.” Among the Christian Apocrypha (for there is also Judaic and Christian-Judaic Apocrypha) is The Gospel of Nicodemus (or The Acts of Pilates), which was a very popular work among early Christians (it was not canonized because of its controversial subject matter, and if Revelations is the dividing line of what is acceptable, one can only imagine what The Gospel of Nicodemus holds in store). There were a variety of books floating around, many of which were never canonized into The Bible. In the early years of Christianity there was hardly any consistency between groups of Christians, much less orthodoxy. But Jesus’s promise is that when he returns he will put down the power of Satan and bring the Kingdom of God. The basic notion implied here that since the world is sinful, the Pharisees are corrupt, government officials are wicked, and many are possessed by demons, then this is Satan’s world. Paul also took up this notion that Satan is the Lord of this World in II Corinthians 4:4 (“god of this world”). Satan is referred to in The Gospel of John as being the “ruler of this world” (12:31, 14:30), and that he will be driven out of this world. Even Jesus calls the people of his time an “evil generation” ( Matthew 12:39, 16:4 Luke 11:29). It is abundantly clear that writers of the New Testament regarded their time as an age of evil. It comes and cast down the wicked, and holiness will finally reign supreme. The notion here is that the Kingdom of God (i.e the new eon of righteousness and holiness) will come at an unspecified time and date, but it was presumed two-thousand years ago that it was going to be very soon.
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