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ANCIENT SOURCES ABOUT PAUL: Extracanonical              RelSt 436
"The Last of the Last" -- Epistle of the Apostles 31+33   R.Kraft
[adapted from M.R.James; see also Hennecke-Schneemelcher]

30(41) [The resurrected Jesus is speaking:
He exorts his Apostles to preach to the 12 tribes and
to the gentiles, to all the land of Israel....]
And to the others also I will give my power,
that they may teach the remainder of the peoples.

31(42) And behold, a man will meet you,
whose name is Saul, which translates as Paul.
He is a Jew, circumcised according to the law.
And he will receive my voice from heaven
with fear and terror and trembling. 
And his eyes will be blinded, and will be healed 
by your hands with spittle (or, by the sign of the cross).
Do to him all that I have done to you. 
Deliver it to the other. 

And at the same time that man will open his eyes
and praise the Lord, namely, my father who is in heaven. 
He will obtain power among the people
and will preach and instruct. 
And many who hear him will obtain glory and be redeemed. 
But afterwards, men will be angered with him and
will deliver him into the hands of his enemies,
and he will bear witness before mortal kings
and his end will be that he will turn to me, 
although he persecuted me. 
He will preach and teach and abide with the elect
as a chosen vessel and a wall that will not be 
overthrown; the last of the last will become a preacher
to the gentiles, made perfect by the will of my father.
Just as you learned from the scripture that your 
fathers the prophets spoke of me, 
so is it indeed fulfilled in me.
  
And he said to us:
You also should thus be guides to them, on all things
that I said to you and that you write concerning me,
that I am the word of the father and that the father is in me. 
Such also shall you be to that man, as is fitting for you. 
Instruct him and bring to his mind that which is spoken of me 
in the scripture and is fulfilled, 
and thereafter he will become the salvation of the gentiles. 

32(43) [The Apostles ask whether the inheritance will be
the same for them and for the gentiles? After some cryptic
replies, Jesus gives an essentially affirmative answer.]

33(44) And we asked him again:
When will we meet with that man, and when will you 
depart to your father and our God and Lord?




He answered and said to us:
That man will come out of the land of Cilicia to
Damascus in Syria, to root up the church that you
must found there. 
It is I that speak through you,
but he will come quickly. 
And he will become strong in the faith 
that the word of the prophet may be fulfilled 
that says: 

Behold, out of Syria will I begin to call together
a new Jerusalem, 
and I will subdue Sion to myself and it will be taken, 
and the place that is childless will be called 
the son and daughter of my father, and my bride. 
For so has it pleased him who sent me.

But that man will I turn back, that he does not
complete his wicked desire, and the praise of my
father will be perfected in him, and after I have
gone home and dwell with my father, I will speak to him
from heaven, and all things shall be accomplished that
I have told you before concerning him.
   
34(45) [Questions about the apocalyptic end signs....]

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