First Peter 3.19

For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:¹⁹By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison;

A fragment on Holy Saturday from the mythic works of the Dragoman Gnostics,

medieval Byzantine Slavic provenance,with connections to the heterodox Khazari Jews.

When Jesus descended into Hell in spirit,

he broke down the doors

and entered in power.

He called out to Adam and Eve

and all their just offspring who had died.

They all came with joy and took refuge in his body,

entering into him through the gates of his shining wounds.

The Descent of Christ into Hell
Andrea Bonaiuti: The Spanish Chapel in S Maria Novella, Florence
1365

And he called out to his heavenly mother,

Shekinah, who had long ago left

Yahweh’s side to share exile with

the fallen creatures.

She came out of the darkness and took his hand

and together they ascended on high,

taking captivity captive.

Jesus stood before the gates of Heaven

in glory, carrying inside him

all the prisoners of Sheol

and the company of heaven rang out with joy.

But when Shekinah came to the threshold of Heaven,

wherein Yahweh awaited her,

she stopped and would not enter in.

She turned around and looked back

and in the depths she saw her other children,

Satan and Sheol,

the first offspring of her union with Yahweh,

the elder brother and sister of the Christ.

They howled with rage

that Christ had entered their kingdom

by trickery, hidden in the flesh of a mere man,

and had despoiled their realm by stealth,

leaving them poor of their subjects

and stealing their mother,

who had comforted them in their long exile.

“I will not enter”, said Shekinah,

“until all my children are reconciled”.

And she became a great pillar of cloud

stretching from earth to the threshold of Heaven.

Lady Sabaoth, the seraph who was her servant,

heard and saw all this

and she returned to the gate of Hell.

She spoke to the elder children of Shekinah

and Yahweh,

she spoke to Satan and to Sheol,

and said,

“What can be given you, O great Aeons of God,

Lord of Light, Queen of Darkness,

to calm your anger, so that you might be reconciled

to Heaven?”

And they spoke to her the words of

a final covenant which would bring peace

to the Aeons.

Sabaoth returned to the gate of Heaven

and in the sight of the Father and the Son,

in the presence of the Mother

and of all the angels,

she spoke the dreadful words of the covenant of peace

which Satan and Sheol had given her.

Earth and heaven were shaken when they heard her words,

thunder rang out and lightning filled the skies

and the veil of the Temple was torn in two.

But the Father gave his consent

and Jesus, too, accepted this covenant.

Shekinah was grieved, but said to Sabaoth,

“Go now to Miriam our daughter

and bring her this word,

for her Amen is the foundation.”

So the archangel Sabaoth went down to Jerusalem

and found Miriam the mother of Jesus.

She was in mourning for the cruel death of her firstborn.

Sabaoth opened herself to Miriam and said,

“Peace, daughter of Zion!

…

Satan said, “We have seen that our brother

the Christ has become a son of Adam and Eve.

And we acknowledge that he is faithful and humble.

But he has invaded our realm by stealth

and by trickery has stolen the souls of humankind

and taken away our mother.

And so we make a covenant with our mother Shekinah

by your message, O Sabaoth.

This is our covenant:

We shall return to the circle of God

at an appointed time

but this shall be the ransom and the sacrifice,

and the peace-offering for us:

in exchange for our mother

we shall have the mother of the Christ;

and for the despoiling of our realm,

Jerusalem and the Holy Temple shall be laid waste;

and for the theft of the race of Eve and Adam from their exile

Israel shall again go into exile out of its land

This shall be the ransom for the peace of Heaven.”

Miriam said to her, “After all that I have borne,

how shall I carry this great sorrow, too?

Sabaoth replied, “The Spirit which overshadowed you

shall overflow. Nothing is impossible with God.”

Miriam was silent a long time and then she said:

“Amen. Let it be done as you say.”

The Seraph Sabaoth bowed low before her on the ground

and did homage to Miriam

and cried out:

“You are greater in honor than the Cherubim,

beyond compare more glorious than the Seraphim!

Virgin, unmastered and untamed,

You have brought forth the Word divine.

O Woman, now truly you give birth to God.

Glory to you!”

and then she left her.

And so a covenant of peace was made

between Heaven and Hell:

as the blood of the Son

had made one the human and the divine

so the blood of the Mother and the People

would make one the divine and the divine.

Jesus arose on the third day, the Firstborn of the Dead,
he returned to his disciples

with peace and forgiveness.

He promised them another Advocate,

she who was to come,

and he departed from them.