Chapter 3

1Like unto you, these were the Most High JAH's slaves, Abya, Seela, and Fentos, who died and arose, so that you may also arise after your death, and your faces shall shine like the sun in the Kingdom of Heaven.

2And they went with those men and received martyrdom there.

3At that time, they begged, praised, and bowed to JAH. Death did not frighten them, nor did the king's punishment.

4They went towards those youths and were as meek as sheep that have no evil. Yet, they were not afraid. When they arrived towards them, they seized, beat, bound, whipped them, and delivered them to the king and stood them before him.

5The king answered them, saying, "How can you stubborn ones not sacrifice and bow to my idols?"

6The brothers who were cleansed from sin, honoured, chosen, and blessed, and shone like jewels with wondrous value - Seela, Abya, and Fentos - answered him with one word.

7They told the king, who was a plague, "As for us, we will not bow nor sacrifice to defiled idols that have no knowledge or reasoning."

8They again told him, "We will not bow to idols that were silver and gold, that were made by hand, or that were stone and wood, that have no reasoning, soul, or knowledge, and that do not benefit their friends or harm their enemies."

9The king asked them, "Why do you do this? And as you know who insulted you and who wronged you, why do you insult the glorified idols?"

10They answered him, saying, "As they are like a trifle compared to us, we will insult them and will not glorify them."

11The king said to them, "I will punish you like your evil works and will destroy your beautiful faces with whipping, firm tribulation, and fire."

12"Now tell me whether you will give or not give sacrifices to my idols. Otherwise, I will punish you with a sword and whipping."

13They answered him, saying, "As for us, we will not sacrifice nor bow to defiled idols," and the king commanded that they be beaten with a fat stick, whipped with a whip, and splintered until their inner organs were visible.

14After this, they were bound and held in a jailhouse until the king's council decided to punish and kill them.

15They were taken without kindness, bound, and held in a firm imprisonment in a prison house, and they sat there for three nights and three days.

16And after the third day, the king commanded that a proclamation speaker should announce and that counselors, nobles, country elders, and officials should be gathered.

17And at that time, King Tseerutsaydan sat in a square, and he commanded that the honored ones, Seela, 'Abya, and Fentos, be brought before him, being wounded and bound.

18And the king told them, "During these three days that you have sat, have you truly repented and turned away from your former evil ways?"

19And the honored Jah soldiers answered him, saying, "We have not worshiped the idols filled with sin and evil that you have set before us. We will not abandon the laws of JAH."

20And the king, being angry, commanded that they be taken to a high place, their wounds reopened, and their blood flowed on the earth.

21And he commanded that they be burned with a torch lamp and that their flesh be charred, and his servants did as he commanded. But the honored men said to him, "You, who have forgotten JAH's law, speak. Our reward shall be as great as the measure of your punishment."

22And he commanded that bears, tigers, and lions, evil beasts, be sent upon them to eat their flesh with their bones.

23And he commanded those who kept the beasts to release them upon the men, and they did as they were commanded. The honored martyrs' feet were bound, and they were beaten and bound again with tent-stakes.

24And the beasts were flung upon them while they roared, but as they arrived toward the martyrs, they hailed and bowed to them.

25They returned towards their keepers while they roared, and they frightened their keepers. Then they were taken towards the square until they were delivered before the king.

26And seventy-five men from the criminal's army were killed there.

27Many persons panicked, some in anguish and others in fear, until the king quit his throne and fled. The beasts were seized with difficulty and taken to their lodgings.

28Seela, 'Abya, and Fentos, two brothers, came and released the prisoners from their bondage. They told them, "Come, let us flee, lest these skeptics and criminals find us."

29And those martyrs answered their brethren, saying, "It is not fitting that we might flee after we have set up this testimony, as if you had feared. Go fleeing."

30And those little brethren said, "We will stand with you before the king, and if you die, we will die with you."

31And after this, the king was on his lordship balcony and saw that these honored men were released and that all the five brethren stood together. Those chiefs who worked and punished the troops questioned whether they were brethren and told the king. The king was angry and shouted like a wild boar in the wilderness.

32And until the king was counseled by money to punish all the five brethren, he commanded that they might seize and add them to the prison house. They placed them in a prison house, binding them in firm imprisonment without kindness with a hollow stalk.

33And the king Tseerutsaydan said, "These youths who erred wearied me. What should these men reason firmly for? And those who work evil are like those with power and firmness. If I say, 'They will return,' they will make their reasoning evil.

34And I will bring hardship on them like their evil measure. And I will burn their flesh in fire until it is charred ash, and then I will scatter their flesh ash like dust on the mountains."

35And after he spoke this, he waited three days and commanded that those honored men be brought. At the time when those honored men approached him, he commanded that a fire be burned within the great pit oven and that a malice work be added to the flame of the fire, wherein they boiled a cat, the fat and soapberries, sea foam and resin, and sulfur.

36And at the time the fire flamed in the pit, the messengers went to the king and said, "We did what you commanded us. Send the men who will be added."

37And he commanded that they might receive and cast them into the fire pit, and the youths did as the king commanded them. At the time when those honored men entered into the fire, they gave their souls to JAH.

38And when the persons who cast them saw, angels received and took their souls to the Garden where Isaac, Abraham, and Jacob are, where the righteous ones are found.