Apocalypse of Sedrachのあらすじ

The 7 key ideas

1. Key idea 1 · free to read

   A Greek dialogue that survives in several versions

   The Apocalypse of Sedrach is a short work written in Greek, and its heart is a conversation between one man and God. Its author is unknown. Scholars disagree about its date. Some of its ideas point to the second or third century, while its manuscripts give it a final shape in the early medieval period.

   The word apocalypse comes from the Greek apokalypsis, an unveiling. A seer is carried to heaven and shown what is usually hidden. Here the heavenly scenery is thin. The text cares far more about what is said than about what is seen, and what is said is an argument that is also a prayer.

   The work does not sit neatly in one tradition. The ascent to heaven belongs to Jewish apocalyptic writing. The sayings from the Gospels, the mention of baptism, and the appeal to Christ belong to Christian writing. Many scholars now see the mixture as a meeting place where questions mattered more than labels.

   The text survives in more than one form. One version moves through the ascent, the pleading, a bargain over repentance, glimpses of hell and paradise, and the soul's departure. Another group of sections tells the later part again, with a lament over the body and a closing promise. The core stays steady. A questioning man presses, and God answers with surprising gentleness.

   It stands outside most Bibles because it was never counted among the books gathered into the canons. It lives on because its questions mattered.

2. 2

   Sedrach is lifted to heaven to bring a suit

   One version begins with a short sermon on love.

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3. 3

   Sedrach blames the devil and defends weak humanity

   Sedrach says that chastisement and fire are bitter, and that it would have been better for man never to have been born.

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4. 4

   God answers with a father's grief and a question

   God's first reply is that he ordered all things to be favorable to man.

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5. 5

   Mercy bargains the time of repentance down

   God sends his only-begotten Son to take Sedrach's soul and place it in Paradise.

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6. 6

   Hell and paradise show what is at stake

   Having won his bargain, Sedrach asks God to describe hell.

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7. 7

   The second version adds lament, baptism and a promise

   The second group of sections opens with a lament.

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