Testament of Our Lord

tr. Cooper and Maclean, 1902

The First Book

The Testament, or Words which our Lord, When He Rose from the Dead, Spake to the Holy Apostles, and which Were Written in Eight Books by Clement of Rome, the Disciple of Peter

It came to pass, after our Lord rose from the dead, and appeared unto us, and was handled¹ by Thomas and Matthew and John, and we were persuaded that our Master² was truly risen from the dead, that falling on our faces we blessed the Father of the new world, God, Who hath saved us by Jesus Christ our Lord; and being held in very great fear, we waited prostrate as babes which speak not.³ But Jesus our Lord, putting His hand on each one of us separately, lifted us up, saying, Why hath your heart thus fallen, and are ye stricken with great astonishment? Know ye not that He who sent Me can do glorious things for the salvation of them that have from the heart believed on Him? Stand not then as [men] astonished, and staring,⁴ neither [be] slothful, but as the children of light,⁵ ask of My Father which is in heaven the Spirit of counsel and might,⁶ and He will fill you with the Holy Ghost and grant you to be with Me for ever.

Notes

Lit.: touched. 1 John i. 1.
Lit.: Teacher.
Lit.: without voice. Copto-arab.: we fell to the ground as dead.
So S. B. understand it (Lagarde, ἐνεοὶ αἰδούμενοι). Or: as astonished ones, fashioned [like statues].
Eph. v. 8; 1 Thess. v. 5; St. Luke xvi. 8; St. John xii. 36.
Isa. xi. 2. Lagarde reads: “of glory and of perfection” (τῆς δόξης καὶ τῆς τελειότητος). This is due to a recent hand in S.