CHAPTER 127

When the Saviour had said this, Mary Magdalene answered and said: "My Lord, will then the souls which shall be led into that region, be led through these twelve doors of the dungeons, every one according to the judgment of which it is deserving?"

What souls pass into the dragon, and how.The Saviour answered and said unto Mary: "No soul at all will be led into the dragon through these doors. But the soul[s] of the blasphemers and of those who are in the doctrines of error and of all who teach doctrines of error, and of those who have intercourse with males, and of those stained and impious men and of atheists and murderers and adulterers and sorcerers,--all such souls then, if while still in life they do not repent but |323. remain persistently in their sin, and all the souls which have stayed behind without, that is those which have had the number of the circuits which are appointed them in the sphere, without having repented,--well, at their last circuit will those souls, they and all the souls of which I have just told you, be led out of [?] the jaws of the tail of the dragon into the dungeons of the outer darkness. And when those souls of the doors of the dungeons.

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have been led into the outer darkness into the jaws of his tail, he turneth his tail into his own mouth and shutteth them in. Thus will the souls be led into the outer darkness.

The nature of the names of the dragon."And the dragon of the outer darkness hath twelve authentic names on his doors, a name on every one of the doors of the dungeons. And these twelve names are different one from another; but the twelve are one in the other, so that he who speaketh one name, speaketh all. These then will I tell you at the expansion of the universe. Thus then is fashioned the outer darkness,--that is the dragon."

When then the Saviour had said this, Mary answered and said |324. unto the Saviour: "My Lord, are then the chastisements of that dragon far more terrible compared with all the chastisements of the judgments?"

Of the severity of the chastisements of the dragon.The Saviour answered and said unto Mary: "Not only are they more painful compared with all the chastisements of the judgments, but all the souls which are led into that region, will be frozen up [?] in the violent cold and the hail and exceedingly violent fire which is in that region, but also at the dissolution of the world, that is at the ascension of the universe, those souls will perish through the violent cold and the exceedingly violent fire and be non-existent for ever."

Mary answered and said: "Woe unto the souls of sinners! Now, therefore, my Lord, is the fire in the world of mankind fiercer, or the fire in Amente?"

Of the degrees of the fires of the chastisements.The Saviour answered and said unto Mary: "Amēn, I say unto thee: The fire in Amente is nine times fiercer than the fire in mankind.

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"And the fire in the chastisements of the great chaos is nine times more violent than that in Amente.

"And the fire in the chastisements of the rulers who [are] on the way of the midst, is nine times more violent than the fire of the chastisements in the great chaos.

"And the fire |325. in the dragon of the outer darkness and in all the chastisements in him is seventy times more violent than the fire in all the chastisements and in all the judgments of the rulers who [are] on the way of the midst."

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