Third Baruch

And taking me, he led me to where heaven is fixed, and where there was a river that no one can cross, nor any strange breath from all that God has established.

And taking me, he led me to the first heaven, and he showed me a very great door. And he said to me, “Let us enter through it.” And we entered as if on wings, as if traveling a journey of thirty days.

And he showed me a plain within heaven. And there were people dwelling in it, whose faces were like oxen, their horns like deer, their feet like goats, and their loins like lambs.

And I, Baruch, asked the angel, “Tell me, I beg you, what is the thickness of the heaven in which we walked, or what its expanse, or what the plain? So that I too may report to the sons of men.”

And the angel, whose name was Phanuel, said to me, “This door which you see is of heaven, and as much as the distance is from the earth to heaven, so much is its thickness; and also as much as is the length of the plain which you saw.”

And again the angel of the powers says to me, “Come, and I will show you greater mysteries.”

And I said, “I beg you, show me who these people are?” And he said to me, “These are those who built the tower of God-defiance; and the Lord displaced them.”