51.
And turning round, I saw other just ones coming from afar, and I asked the angel: Sir, who are those? And he answered me: These are Elias and Eliseus. 1 And they saluted me: and I said to them: Who are ye? And one of them answered and said: I am Elias, the prophet of God; I am Elias who prayed, and because of my word, the heaven did not rain for three years and six months, on account of the unrighteousness of men. God is just and true, who doeth the will of his servants: for the angels often besought the Lord for rain, and he said: Be patient till my servant Elias shall pray and petition for this and I will send rain on the earth. 2
The End of the Vision of Saint Paul.
Elias and Eliseus. Latin and Syriac. The Greek has Enoch and Elijah. ↩
The Latin version here breaks off abruptly, as does also the Greek. In the Syriac as translated by the Rev. J. Perkins, D.D. (cf. Journal of Sacred Literature, N. S., vi., 1865, p. 399), the narrative runs as follows: "And often the angels asked that he would give them rain, and he gave not, until I called upon him again; then he gave unto them. But blessed art thou, O Paul, that thy generation, and those thou teachest, are the sons of the Kingdom. And know thou, O Paul, that every man who believes through thee hath a great blessing, and a blessing is reserved for him." Then he departed from me. And the angel who was with me led me forth, and said unto me: "Lo, unto thee is given this mystery and revelation; as thou pleasest, make it known unto the sons of men." And I, Paul, returned unto myself, and I knew all that I had seen; and in life I had not rest that I might reveal this mystery, but I wrote it and deposited it under the ground and the foundation of a certain faithful man with whom I used to be, in Tarsus, a city of Cilicia. And when I was released from this life of time and stood before my Lord, thus said He unto me: "Paul, have we shown all these things unto thee, that thou shouldst deposit them under the foundation of a house? Then send, and disclose, concerning this Revelation that men may read it, and turn to the way of truth, that they also may not come to these bitter torments." Then follows the story of the discovery of the Revelation at Tarsus in the reign of Theodosius as given at the beginning of the Greek and Latin versions. ↩
