Ezra descends to Tartarus
1 And the prophet said, “Lord, I shall never cease arguing the case with you.”
2 And God said, “Count the flowers of the earth.
3 If you can count them you also will be able to argue the case with me.”
4 And the prophet said, “Lord, I cannot count them—I bear human flesh—but neither will I stop arguing the case with you.
5 I wish, Lord, to see the lower parts of Tartarus.”
6 And God said, “Go down and see!”
7 And he gave me Michael and Gabriel and thirty-four other angels,
8 and I descended eighty-five steps and they led me down five hundred steps.
The punishment of Herod
9 And I saw a fiery throne and an old man seated on it, and his punishment was merciless.
10 And I said to the angels, “Who is this and what is his sin?”
11 And they said to me, “This is Herod, who was king for a time, and he commanded to kill the infants two years old or under.”
12 And I said, “Woe upon his soul!”
The disobedient and the abyss
13 And again they led me down thirty steps. And I saw boiling fires there, and a multitude of sinners in them.
14 And I heard their voices, but I did not perceive their forms.
15 And they led me down deeper many steps which I was unable to count.
16, And I saw old men there, and fiery axles were revolving upon their ears.
17 And I said, “Who are these and what is their sin?”
18 And they said to me, “These are the eavesdroppers.”
19 And again they led me down five hundred Other steps.
20 And there I saw the unsleeping worm and fire consuming the sinners.
21 And they led me down to the foundation of Apoleia (Destruction) and there I saw the twelvefold blow of the abyss.
22 And they led me away to the south and there I saw a man hanging from his eyelids and the angels were beating him.
23 And I asked, “Who is this and what is his sin?”
24 And Michael the archistrategos said to me, “This man is incestuous; having carried out a small lust, this man was commanded to be hanged.”
The Antichrist
25 And they led me away to the north and I saw a man there restrained with iron bars.
26 And I asked, “Who is this?” And he said to me,
27 “This is the one who says, ‘I am the son of God and he who made stones bread and water wine.’”
28 And the prophet said, “Make known to me what sort of appearance he has and I will inform the race of men lest they believe in him.”
29 And he said to me, “The appearance of his face is as of a wild man. His right eye is like a star rising at dawn and the other is unmoving.
30 His mouth is one cubit, his teeth are a span long,
31 his fingers like scythes, the soles of his feet two span, and on his forehead an inscription ‘Antichrist.’
32 He was exalted up to heaven, he will descend as far
33 as Hades. One time he will be a child, another an old man.”
34 And the prophet said, “Lord, how do you permit the race of men to stray?”
35 And God said, “Hear, my prophet! He becomes a Child and an old man and let no one believe him that he is my beloved son.
36 And after these things a trumpet, and the graves will be opened and the dead will rise up uncorrupted.
37 Then the opponent, having heard the terrible threat, will hide himself in the outer darkness.
38 Then the heaven and the earth and the sea will perish.
39 Then I shall bum the heaven for eighty cubits and the earth for eight hundred cubits.”
40 And the prophet said, “And (in) what did the heaven sin?”
41 And God said, “Since [...] is the evil.”
42 And the prophet said, “Lord, (in) what did the earth sin?”
43 And God said, “Since the opponent having heard my terrible threat will hide (in it), and because of that I shall melt the earth and with it the rebel of the race of men.”