5
11, 18, 22, 33, 47, 55).
20
On another occasion an angel told Ezra to do good deeds while he still
could in this life, not waiting until the end when his opportunity would be gone (Questions of
Ezra 11-13).
21
IV. NEW TESTAMENT APOCRYPHA
The New Testament Apocrypha is a collection of miscellaneous writings, many of them
with genres similar to those of the New Testament: gospel (e.g. Gospel of Thomas), apostolic
history (e.g. Acts of John), apostolic letter (e.g. Letter of Peter to Philip), and apocalypse (e.g.
Apocalypse of Peter). Dates for this literature extend from the second century to the medieval
period. With one exception none of these writings was ever recognized as canonical by any early
Christian leader or church. Although not Scripture and of pseudonymous authorship, these
writings are nevertheless of historical interest in documenting the thought of various segments of
the church at various times.
This literature often conveys a traditionalist view of the eternal conscious punishment of
the deceased unredeemed wicked.
A. Apocalypse of Peter
Written in the mid-second century and very popular in the early church, the Apocalypse
of Peter pictured the risen Christ as addressing His disciples on the Mount of Olives.
22
Reproducing the contents of a visionary Tour of Hell, much of this Apocalypse attributes to
Christ a series of prophecies concerning what the unredeemed wicked will suffer in Hell.
23
Like
the standard visionary tours of Hell, these prophetic pictures were often grotesque, grisly, and
even gruesome. The author defended the punishments to be received by the damned as justly
deserved, which he pictured them as admitting.
24
He anticipated that the righteous will witness
the sufferings of the wicked in Hell, an early expression of an idea that is periodically found in
the literature on this topic.
For each sin the author pictured what he considered to be an appropriate punishment,
usually involving intense physical pain or other unpleasantness. A sample passage will indicate
the style and some of the content of the sufferings of the damned in Hell:
Then will men and women come to the place prepared for them. By their tongues
with which they have blasphemed the way of righteousness will they be hung up. There is
spread out for them unquenchable fire.. . .
And again two women: they are hung up by their neck and by their hair and are
cast into the pit. These are they who plaited their hair, not to create beauty, but to turn to
fornication, and that they might ensnare the souls of men to destruction. And the men
who lay with them in fornication are hung by their thighs in that burning place, and they
say to one another, ,,We did not know that we would come into everlasting torture.
And the murderers and those who have made common cause with them are cast
into the fire, in a place full of venomous beasts, and they are tormented without rest, as
they feel their pains, and their worms are as numerous as a dark cloud.. . . place of eternal
judgment.