1 “Show me more, Sir,” I said. “What else do you want to know?” he said. “Why,” I said, “did the stones come up from the deep, and why were they placed into the building, even though they bore these spirits?” 2 “They had to rise up through water,” he said, “so that they might be made alive; otherwise they could not enter God’s kingdom, unless they had put away the deadness of their former life. 3 So these, too, who had fallen asleep received the seal of the Son of God and entered the kingdom of God. For before a person,” he said, “bears the name of the Son of God, he is dead; but when he receives the seal, he sets aside his deadness and takes up life. 4 The seal is the water; so they go down into the water dead, and come up alive.⁠a This seal was proclaimed to them too, and they used it to enter God’s kingdom.” 5 “Why, Sir,” I said, “did the forty stones also come up with them from the deep, though they already had the seal?” “Because,” he said, “those—namely, the apostles and teachers who preached the name of the Son of God—after they fell asleep in the power and faith of the Son of God, also preached to those who had fallen asleep earlier, and themselves gave them the seal of the preaching.⁠b 6 So they went down with them into the water and came up again. But these others, who had fallen asleep before, went down dead and came up alive; 7 so through them they were made alive and came to know fully the name of the Son of God. That is why they also came up with them and were fitted with them into the building of the tower and were built in with them, though they had not been shaped, for they had fallen asleep in righteousness and great purity, but they did not have this seal. Now you have the interpretation of these things as well.” “I do, Sir,” I said.