Testament: Ethiopian Orthodox Canon

1 The First Parable. When the congregation of the righteous shall appear, And sinners shall be judged for their sins, And shall be driven from the face of the earth:

2 And when the Righteous One shall appear before the eyes of the righteous, Whose elect works hang upon the Lord of Spirits, And light shall appear to the righteous and the elect who dwell on the earth, Where then will be the dwelling of the sinners, And where the resting-place of those who have denied the Lord of Spirits? It had been good for them if they had not been born.

3 When the secrets of the righteous shall be revealed and the sinners judged, And the godless driven from the presence of the righteous and elect,

4 From that time those that possess the earth shall no longer be powerful and exalted: And they shall not be able to behold the face of the holy, For the Lord of Spirits has caused His light to appear On the face of the holy, righteous, and elect.

5 Then shall the kings and the mighty perish And be given into the hands of the righteous and holy.

6 And thenceforward none shall seek for themselves mercy from the Lord of Spirits For their life is at an end.

1 And from thence I went to the south to the ends of the earth, and saw there three open portals of the heaven: and thence there come dew, rain, and wind.

2 And from thence I went to the east to the ends of the heaven, and saw here the three eastern portals of heaven open and small portals above them.

3 Through each of these small portals pass the stars of heaven and run their course to the west on the path which is shown to them.

4 And as often as I saw I blessed always the Lord of Glory, and I continued to bless the Lord of Glory who has wrought great and glorious wonders, to show the greatness of His work to the angels and to spirits and to men, that they might praise His work and all His creation: that they might see the work of His might and praise the great work of His hands and bless Him for ever.

1 The second vision which he saw, the vision of wisdom–which Enoch the son of Jared, the son of Mahalalel, the son of Cainan, the son of Enos, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, saw.

2 And this is the beginning of the words of wisdom which I lifted up my voice to speak and say to those which dwell on earth: Hear, ye men of old time, and see, ye that come after, the words of the Holy One which I will speak before the Lord of Spirits.

3 It were better to declare (them only) to the men of old time, but even from those that come after we will not withhold the beginning of wisdom.

4 Till the present day such wisdom has never been given by the Lord of Spirits as I have received according to my insight, according to the good pleasure of the Lord of Spirits by whom the lot of eternal life has been given to me.

5 Now three parables were imparted to me, and I lifted up my voice and recounted them to those that dwell on the earth.

1 And from thence I went towards the west to the ends of the earth, and saw there three portals of the heaven open such as I had seen in the east, the same number of portals, and the same number of outlets.

1 And from thence I went towards the north to the ends of the earth, and there I saw a great and glorious device at the ends of the whole earth.

2 And here I saw three portals of heaven open in the heaven: through each of them proceed north winds: when they blow there is cold, hail, frost, snow, dew, and rain.

3 And out of one portal they blow for good: but when they blow through the other two portals, it is with violence and affliction on the earth, and they blow with violence.

1 And after these fragrant odours, as I looked towards the north over the mountains I saw seven mountains full of choice nard and fragrant trees and cinnamon and pepper.

2 And thence I went over the summits of all these mountains, far towards the east of the earth, and passed above the Erythraean sea and went far from it, and passed over the angel Zotiel.

3 And I came to the Garden of Righteousness, and saw beyond those trees many large trees growing there and of goodly fragrance, large, very beautiful and glorious, and the tree of wisdom whereof they eat and know great wisdom.

4 That tree is in height like the fir, and its leaves are like those of the Carob tree: and its fruit is like the clusters of the vine, very beautiful: and the fragrance of the tree penetrates afar.

5 Then I said: 'How beautiful is the tree, and how attractive is its look!'

6 Then Raphael the holy angel, who was with me, answered me and said: 'This is the tree of wisdom, of which thy father old in years and thy aged mother, who were before thee, have eaten, and they learnt wisdom and their eyes were opened, and they knew that they were naked and they were driven out of the garden.'

1 And from thence I went to the ends of the earth and saw there great beasts, and each differed from the other; and I saw birds also differing in appearance and beauty and voice, the one differing from the other.

2 And to the east of those beasts I saw the ends of the earth whereon the heaven rests, and the portals of the heaven open.

3 And I saw how the stars of heaven come forth, and I counted the portals out of which they proceed, and wrote down all their outlets, of each individual star by itself, according to their number and their names, their courses and their positions, and their times and their months, as Uriel the holy angel who was with me showed me.

4 He showed all things to me and wrote them down for me: also their names he wrote for me, and their laws and their companies.

1 And I saw other mountains, and amongst them were groves of trees, and there flowed forth from them nectar, which is named sarara and galbanum.

2 And beyond these mountains I saw another mountain to the east of the ends of the earth, whereon were aloe trees, and all the trees were full of stacte, being like almond-trees.

3 And when one burnt it, it smelt sweeter than any fragrant odour.

1 And beyond these, I went afar to the east, and I saw another place, a valley full of water.

2 And therein there was a tree, the colour of fragrant trees such as the mastic.

3 And on the sides of those valleys I saw fragrant cinnamon. And beyond these I proceeded to the east.

1 And thence I went to another place in the desert, and approached to the east of this mountain range.

2 And there I saw aromatic trees exhaling the fragrance of frankincense and myrrh, and the trees also were similar to the almond tree.