(36) And now when this earnest Business was taken in Hand, that the Saviour of the World hung on the Cross, as a Curse, and wrestled with Earth and Hell, he said, / thirst. O that great Thirst! The fierce wrathful Kingdom was weary, as also the Kingdom of this World, they desired Strength; and the Kingdom of Heaven thirsted after our Souls; it was a Thirst of all the three Principles.

(3) It was my cross that the world did not accept, my apparent exaltation, my third baptism in a revealed image. When they had fled from the fire of the seven authorities, and the sun of the powers of the rulers set, darkness overtook them. And the world became poor. After they bound him with many restraints, they nailed him to the cross, and they fastened him with four nails of brass. The veil of his temple he tore with his hands. There was a trembling that overcame the chaos of the earth, for the souls that were in the sleep below were released, and they arose. They walked about boldly, having shed jealousy of ignorance and unlearnedness beside the dead tombs; having put on the new human; having come to know that perfect blessed one of the eternal and incomprehensible father and the infinite light, which is I. When I came to my own and united them with myself, there was no need for many words, for our thought was with their thought. Therefore they knew what I was saying, for we took counsel about the destruction of the rulers. And therefore I did the will of the father, who is I.

“My God, my God, why, lord, have you forsaken me?” He spoke these words on the cross, for he had left that place.

(2) It came to pass then, when Jesus had reached the heaven, after three hours, that all the powers of the heaven fell into agitation, and all were set in motion one against the other, they and all their æons and all their regions and all their orders, and the whole earth was agitated and all they who dwell thereon. And all men who are in the world fell into agitation, and also the disciples, and all thought: Peradventure the world will be rolled up. And all the powers in the heavens ceased not from their agitation, they and the whole world, and all were moved one against the other, from the third hour of the fifteenth day of the moon of Tybi until the ninth hour of the morrow. And all the angels and their archangels and all the powers of the height, all sang praises to the interiors of the interiors, so that the whole world heard their voices, without their ceasing till the ninth hour of the morrow.

(22) And now when the Time came that the Word became Man, then the dear Life came into the Soul again. But when the Strife came, that the fourth Form should be broken, then the outward Body of Christ and we all in the fourth Form were environed with Death, and then all the Forms in Nature stirred, and were all predominant together, whereupon the Person of Christ (in the Garden) did sweat Blood out of his Body, when he cried, Father, if it be possible, take this Cup from me: Thus the outward Man cried out; and the inward said, yet not my Will (understand [my] outward Will) but thy Will be done.

(5) Therefore the Son came down from heaven, and was incarnate of a Virgin, and took upon Him all our bodily weaknesses, except sin and folly, into which Adam had cast us; and out of all His words and works and limbs and nerves, He made a cord, and drew us so skillfully, and so heartily, that the bloody sweat poured from His sacred Body. And when He had drawn men without ceasing for three and thirty years, He saw the beginnings of a movement and the redemption of all things that would follow. Therefore He said, "And I, if I be lifted up on the Cross, will draw all men unto Me." Therefore He was stretched upon the Cross, and laid aside all His glory, and whatever might hinder His drawing men.

(39) When he now had undergone all the Reproach and Sufferings, he said on the Cross, It is finished; while he yet lived in the earthly Body, he said it was finished; understand all that should have remained upon us eternally, and should have sprung up in us, with all the Ignominy in which he stood before Hell and the Kingdom of Heaven, he had all that laid upon him; concerning which Isaiah says, Surely, he bore our Infirmities, and took upon him our Transgressions; yet we held him as one smitten of God, tormented, and afflicted, but he took upon him our Diseases, and all our Miseries were laid upon him, and through his Wounds we are healed; we all went astray like Sheep, every one has looked upon his own Way; and yet we could not help ourselves, but we went as miserable half-slain Sheep, and we must let the Devil (in the Anger of God) do with us what he will; for we bear on us a monstrous Garment, and stand in great Ignominy before Heaven and Hell.

(51) It is clearly shown to us, why the Man Christ must thus suffer himself to be mocked, despised, scourged, crowned [with Thorns,] and crucified; also why he must endure to be cried out upon for one that had a Devil; and why he must be so spoken against by the Wise and Prudent; also why the simple People only hung to him, and but some few of the Honourable and Rich of this World. Though indeed we shall not please every one, yet we speak not our own Words, but we speak (in our Knowledge and Driving in the Spirit) that which is shown us of God: Therefore understand [and consider] it right.

(4) From the ground where the tree was buried there immediately bubbled forth a spring of water, which became known as Bethesda. To it the sick from all Syria came to be healed. The angel of the pool became the guardian of the tree, and it remained undisturbed for many years. Eventually the log floated to the surface and was used as a bridge again, this time between Calvary and Jerusalem; and over it Jesus passed to be crucified. There was no wood on Calvary; so the tree was cut into two parts to serve as the cross upon which the Son of Man was crucified. The cross was set up at the very spot where the skull of Adam had been buried. Later, when the cross was discovered by the Empress Helena, the wood was found to be of four different varieties contained in one tree (representing the elements), and thereafter the cross continued to heal all the sick who were permitted to touch it.

(1) And Jesus said unto them: "Bring me fire and vine branches." They brought them unto him. He laid out the offering, and set down two wine-vessels, one on the right and the other on the left of the offering. He disposed the offering before them, and set a cup of water before the wine-vessel on the right and set a cup of wine before the wine-vessel on the left, and laid loaves according to the number of the disciples in the middle between the cups and set a cup of water behind the loaves.

(58) He suffered himself to be accounted one that had a Devil, and a Sorcerer, Seducer, and Deceiver, as if he would have set up an imperial Crown for himself, as the High-Priests laid to his Charge; he suffered himself to be mocked, scourged, spit upon, and smitten on the Face; he suffered a false Crown of Thorns to be set upon his Head; and as we proceed against one another, and vex one another with Falshood and Malice upon Earth, where the Potent does what he lists, to satisfy his Anger; and as we revile, deride, mock, vilify, and send one another to the Devil, to deprive one another of their Credit and Reputation through Falshood, so must Christ therefore take all this upon him,