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and when I was freed from my bonds, He gives me His divine hand, He raises me from the mire, He embraces me completely, He falls upon my neck—Woe is me, how will I bear these things?—and kisses me often. And me, completely enfeebled and having lost my strength—Alas for me, how shall I describe these things?—He lifts me upon His shoulders—O love, O goodness!—and leads me out of Hades, from that place and the gloom, and brings me into another, whether a world or an atmosphere, I cannot say at all. This I know, that a light both carries me and holds me together and brings me into a great light, (247) whose great divine wonder not even angels have the power to express or tell to one another at all, as I think. And when I arrived there He shows me other things again, things in the light, I tell you, or rather things from the light, He gives me to understand the strange re-creation, by which He Himself re-created me and freed me from corruption and wholly liberated me from death in my perception and granted me immortal life and separated me from the corruptible world and all things of the world and clothed me in an immaterial and light-like garment, likewise shoes and a ring and a crown

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καί δεσμῶν ἀπαλλαγέντος, δίδωσί μοι χεῖρα θείαν, ἀνιστᾷ με τοῦ βορβόρου, ὅλος περιπλέκεταί με, ἐπιπίπτει τῷ τραχήλῳ Οἴμοι, πῶς ὑποίσω ταῦτα; καί καταφιλεῖ συχνῶς με. Ἐκλυθέντα δέ με ὅλον καί ἰσχύν ἀποβαλόντα Φεῦ μοι, πῶς χαράξω ταῦτα; αἴρει με ἐπί τῶν ὤμων ὤ ἀγάπη, ὤ χρηστότης! - καί ἐξάγει με τοῦ ᾅδου, τοῦ τε χώρου καί τοῦ ζόφου καί εἰσάγει με εἰς ἄλλον εἴτε κόσμον ἤ ἀέρα, ὅλως ἐξειπεῖν οὐκ ἔχω. Τοῦτο οἶδα, ὅτι φῶς με καί βαστάζει καί συνέχει καί πρός φῶς εἰσάγει μέγα, (247) οὗ τό μέγα θεῖον θαῦμα οὐδέ ἄγγελοι ἐκφράσαι ἤ εἰπεῖν ἐξισχύσουσιν ἀλλήλοις κἄν ὅλως, ὥς γε δοκῶ. Γενομένῳ μοι δ᾿ ἐκεῖσε ἄλλα μοι δεικνύει πάλιν, τά ἐν τῷ φωτί, σοί λέγω, μᾶλλον τά ἐκ τοῦ φωτός δέ, τήν ἀνάπλασιν τήν ξένην δίδωσι κατανοεῖν μοι, ἥν αὐτός ἀνέπλασέ με καί φθορᾶς ἀπήλλαξέ με καί θανάτου ἐν αἰσθήσει ὅλον ἠλευθέρωσέ με καί ζωήν ἀθάνατόν μοι ἐδωρήσατο καί κόσμου τοῦ φθαρτοῦ καί τῶν τοῦ κόσμου πάντων ἀπεχώρισέ με καί στολήν ἐνέδυσέ με ἄϋλον φωτοειδῆ τε, ὑποδήματα ὡσαύτως καί δακτύλιον καί στέφος