Investiture of the Archangel Michael

It is an Old Nubian-language text, purportedly written by John the Apostle, which describes the importance of Michael, an archangel, in Christianity, as well as the role of Satan in several biblical events.

[3] The Investiture of the Archangel Michael is a Coptic-language apocryphal writing; while it is unknown when it was first written, there are manuscripts and translations into the Sahidic and Fayumic dialects from the ninth century, though there are earlier (seventh-century, as in the case of John of Parallos's Contra Libros Haereticorum) attestations of its existence.

[A][4] The most complete manuscript of the text is dated between 892 and 893, and it includes the Investiture of Gabriel the Archangel.

[1] It describes the fall of Satan and his replacement by Michael; the creation of the seven archangels (including Satan, known as Saklataboth) and their purposes (to worship God); Satan causing the beheading of John the Baptist; John the Baptist's age at death, varying between 31 and 34 between manuscripts; and the theological importance of reverence for Michael.

[5] Though there are several similarities between the Investiture of the Archangel Michael and the Coptic Apocalypse of Paul, particularly a shared cosmological belief system and shared physical description of hell, their theological understandings of heaven and hell are dissimilar.