Hello everyone. This is Father Andrew.

In 2021, at the end of our Holy Week and Paska episode, which was titled,

The Lord of Spirits Goes to Hell, I read a short excerpt from the Harrowing of Hell section

of a text variously referred to as the Gospel of Nicodemus or the Acts of Pilot.

This text is generally regarded as an apocryphal New Testament text. What does that mean?

It reflects traditions surrounding events of the New Testament that are not actually included in

scripture. So this isn't a text from the Bible, and we don't treat it that way. But one of the

distinctions from the ancient church that we have mentioned many times on the podcast is between

three categories of books, books read in church, books read at home, and books not to be read.

The first category is scripture, books read in church.

The last category, books not to be read, is heretical texts that are harmful to one's salvation.

This text, the Gospel of Nicodemus, is that second category, books to be read at home.

A number of Orthodox liturgical texts make use of this text, giving it an honored place within our tradition of worship.

After I read that excerpt, we received a lot of positive

feedback, as this was many people's first encounter with this amazing piece of writing

that seems to have taken its present form in the 4th or 5th century. Because of that feedback,

I wanted to read for you, the harrowing of hell in its entirety,

as found in the Gospel of Nicodemus.

We begin with St. Joseph of Arimathea speaking to Annas and Caiaphas,

two high priests of the temple during the time of Jesus. And Joseph, and Joseph arose and said unto Annas and Caiaphas,

Truly and of right do ye marvel because ye have heard that Jesus hath been seen alive after death,

and that he hath ascended into heaven. Nevertheless, it is more marvelous that he rose not alone from the dead,

...