Acherusa

Acherusa is a lake that lies near the city of Christ, according to chapters 22 – 23 of the extracanonical Apocalypse of Paul:

22 [...] And after that he took me out of that place where I saw these things, and lo, a river, and the waters of it were exceedingly white, more than milk, and I said to the angel: What is this? and he said to me: This is the Lake Acherusa where is the city of Christ: but not every man is suffered to enter into that city: for this is the way that leads to God, and if any be a fornicator or ungodly, and turn and repent and bear fruits meet for repentance, first when he comes out of the body he is brought and worships God, and then by the commandment of the Lord he is delivered unto Michael the angel, and he washes him in the Lake Acherusa and so brings him in to the city of Christ with them that have done no sin. And I marveled and blessed the Lord God for all the things which I saw.

23 And the angel answered and said unto me: Follow me and I will bring you into the city of Christ. And he stood by Lake Acherusa, and set me in a golden ship, and angels as it were three thousand sang an hymn before me until I came even unto the city of Christ.

Acherusa is also mentioned in the older, fragmentary work The Apocalypse of Peter, though in Peter it is a field, rather than a lake:

Then will I give unto my chosen and righteous the washing and the salvation for which they have sought me, in the field of Acherusa, which is called Aneslasleja.

The name appears to be derived from the Greek akherousai, which means "marshlike water".

See also

• New Jerusalem