IX.
And God said to his only begotten Son: Go, 1 take the soul of Sedrach my beloved, and place it in Paradise. The only begotten Son saith to Sedrach: Give me the trust which our Father deposited in the womb of thy mother in the holy tabernacle of thy body from a child. Sedrach saith: I will not give thee my soul. God saith to him: And wherefore was I sent to come hither, and thou pleadest against me? For I was commanded by my Father not to take thy soul with violence; but if not, (then) give me thy most greatly desired soul.
Cf.Apoc. of Esdras, in Ante-Nicene Lib., vol. xvi., p. 474, and Testament of Abraham, Rec. A., Chaps. vii. and xvi. ↩
