Now we continue with the Lefāfa Ṣedeḳ! Please refer to post 1 if haven’t already. Section three starts “In the Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, One God” and follows with a prayer concerning the carry of the deceased. It is as follows: DEKÂS BATRÔN KÛGÛYÂ, GÂNÔN, KÂWES KÎREL This …
Category Archives: christianapocrypha
Lefāfa Ṣedeḳ: Book of Life (1 of 3)
This post (part 1 of 3) is about the “Lefāfa Ṣedeḳ: Book of Life”, also known as the “Bandlet of Righteousness” with the subtitle “An Ethiopic Book of the Dead.” The book of the dead subtitle is definitely a play on the Egyptian Book of the Dead, but is this a similar style text? Actually, …
The Virgin Mary’s Vision of Hell
Here lately I have been going down the rabbit hole of Ethiopic Christianity, particularly the apocrypha texts from that tradition. It has been a fascinating journey and I am only getting started. I am working on a blog entry about the “Lefāfa Ṣedeḳ” but in the meantime, I wanted to post about this text that …
Christ’s descent into Hell
Holy week passed earlier this month and with this post, I wanted to reference the Saturday between crucifixion and resurrection, that being the “Harrowing of Hell”. I always thought of the idea of Jesus going to Hell on a “rescue” mission to save souls was quite intriguing. So where does one go to read about …
The Nativity of Jesus – Expanded Edition
With it being near the time of Christmas, I thought it’d be interesting to see how the story of the Nativity of Jesus plays out in apocrypha texts versus the canonical storyline. Below are the two canonical sources, the first being from the Gospel of Matthew (ESV translation): The Birth of Jesus Christ Now the …
Salome
Last month I posted a blog about Mary Magdalene, which included included a conversation between her and Salome from the Pistis Sophia (Link: https://culminationofwisdom.org/2022/07/20/the-feast-day-of-mary-magdalene-july-22/ ), and it got me thinking, we don’t hear much about Salome! (and no, I am not referring to the Salome in the John the Baptist beheading story) In the canonical …
The Book of Mary’s Repose (3 of 3)
And now the conclusion of the Liber Requiei. The man who’s arms were cut off, wept to the apostles and begged them not to give him such torment. Peter informs him that he can not heal the wounds but rather the man would need to believe in Jesus. Peter orders the bier to be put …
The Book of Mary’s Repose (2 of 3)
And the story continues….. After Jesus ascended back into the heavens, Mary returned home. Entering the house, it began to tremble on the account of the glory of the book that Jesus had given her. She wrapped up the book and said various prayers over it. Her prayers eventually lead back to her son, who …
The Book of Mary’s Repose (1 of 3)
I have read some oddball apocrypha texts but this may be one of the strangest. Being quite fond of the Theotokos, I’ve been tracking down some apocrypha relating to her as of late. While watching the below video, it mentioned a text that included Gnostic elements! I have time stamped the video, so check it …
Culmination of Wisdom 