Chapter 161

¹ When these things had been so spoken, the prophet, wishing to inquire more precisely what kind of things would be after the resurrection, answered him and said: “Lord, what shall be the last of these things?” And he said: “Come, Daniel, for these words are shut up and sealed until the end of the time, until many are chosen and made white and tried by fire; and the lawless shall act lawlessly, and the discerning shall understand. And you, come and rest; for there are yet days until the fulfillment of the consummation, and you shall rise to your lot at the consummation of the days.”

² For since a man cannot now recount the things that God has prepared for the saints—for neither has his eye seen, nor has his ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, things into which even angels long to look—thus he said to him: “These words are shut up until the end of the time, until many are chosen and made white and tried by fire.”

³ And who are those being chosen but those found worthy of the kingdom?

⁴ And who are those being made white but those who believe in the word of truth, that they may be made white through it, and casting off the filth of their sins may put on the pure and translucent Holy Spirit from heaven, so that, the Bridegroom being present, they may immediately enter in together with him?

⁵ And who are those being tried by fire but those who pass through fire and water by the spiritual washing of regeneration, and who do the will of God through the firing of many trials and afflictions?

⁶ “And the lawless shall act lawlessly, and the discerning shall understand”: those who through free will act lawlessly, and through it again some who understand and are well-pleasing.