Demonstrations · Part 22

2. Among the Pharisees I clothed myself in hatred, that I might contend with Him, even the Son of Mary. Wrath like a bow rained shafts; boldness railed upon Him; fury rebelled against Him; ingratitude slandered Him; envy and jealousy in their wrath, strove with Him; and blasphemy took up stones. The Healer came in and stood among the sick, and I stirred up the diseased in contention against Him.

3. Because He fell not under reproach, it was in questions that I took refuge. Many times did I stir up occasions, but I saw that my falsehood was rebuked, and my impudence was made known, and my vain babbling was despised. To the windings of contention I betook myself. Everywhere that I disputed with Him, all my labor was as chaff, and the word of truth scattered it on every side.

4. I saw that there is a warrior and a mighty lord, in cunning within man: [and the snake that is without makes it fear.] His lusts within him is coiled continually; his jealousy hisses like a serpent. Deadly desires he begets, and of a fever he is in dread. Command as a drug, is able to quell derision, which smites unto destruction. It is love that avails to break the sting secret and bitter of the tongue.

5. Who is more foolish than men, who rather than for himself cares for his dwelling! The garments that are in his chest he examines daily, and a worm is lurking in his members. The rents that are in his clothes he mends, but a rent is made in his soul. His house is lighted up but his heart is dark. He shuts up his senses but opens his windows. He closes his door and guards his money; his mouth is open and the treasure of his thought is stolen.

6. The fool makes more of his beasts than of himself, for he cares for his possessions rather than for his soul. Good seed he sows in his ground; in his heart he sows tares. His understanding is thrown open and cast down; but at the fences of his vineyard he labours. He chooses and plants vine-plants; while his mind is a vine of the vines of Sodom. He keeps off the wild ass from his sowing; but the wild boar of the wood devours his thoughts.

7. I am a furnace to the sons of men, and in me are tried their counsels. Therefore is it lawful to me to weave deceit. I teach the Chaldean art: by reason of the true things that befall, the false things are believed. In the midst of Egypt I closed men's eyes; I showed insects, men thought they were though they were not. By closing men's eyes I teach the signs of the Zodiac, though they are not in the heavens.

8. By reason of my swiftness I fly and see, and I show beforehand to the soothsayer; they who err concerning me count me a prophet. But sometimes I make bold; and I ask that for an hour, secret things be revealed to me, that true men may be proved by me even as Job, likewise deceivers as Saul. For the one I revealed his sorcery; and for the other I purged his truth and he was praised.

Hymn XLI.

1. The Evil One said, "I fear Him, even Jesus, lest He destroy my arts. For lo! I am thousands of years old, and never have I had repose. I have seen nothing established, that I have turned from and left. There has come One making the unchaste pure: there is sorrow since He has destroyed all that I had built. Many have been my labours and my teachings, that I might cover all creation with all evils. R., Blessed is He Who came and laid bare the wiles of the Crafty One!

2. I matched my speed with the swift, and I outstripped them: I waged war; the tumult of multitudes was armour to me. In the tumult of the people I rejoiced, because it gave me ready room, for grievous is the onslaught of multitudes. By the strength of multitudes I raised a great mountain, a tower I stretched unto heaven. If they waged war with the Height, how much more shall they conquer Him whose warfare is on earth?

3. As time serves and as help offers, I wage war, but cautiously. The people used to hear that God is one; they made for themselves a multitude of gods. And when they saw the Son of God, they made haste to the One God, that as though confessing God they might deny Him, and as though in zeal might flee from Him; so that they in all times perverse shall be found to be without God.

4. Lo! I am ancient of many years, and no infant have I ever rejected. The burden of children have I ofttimes borne, so that from the beginning I might make them acquire habits that are not goodly, that their faults might grow up with them. But there are foolish fathers, who do not crush the seed that I have sown in their sons; and there are some who like good husbandmen, root up faults from the mind of their children.

5. As with a chain I have bound men with sloth, and they sat in idleness. I have drawn away their senses from all good things; their eyes from reading, their mouths from singing praise, their understanding from doctrine. For hurtful and vain fables how eager are they; for empty talk how ready! If the word of life fell among them, they either thrust it from them, or rose and went forth from its presence.

6. How many Satans are there among men! and me even me alone every man curses. For lo! the anger of men--it is a devil that grinds him every day. Demons are like wayfarers, who depart if they are compelled: but against anger though all righteous men adjure, it is not rooted out from its place. Instead of pernicious envy, every one hates a weak and wretched demon.

7. The enchanter is put to shame with the wizard, who every day tames serpents. The viper that is within him is out of his power; for the lust that is within him he tames not. Secret sin like an asp, when it breathes on him he is scorched. Even when he takes the viper through his cunning, delusion smites him secretly. He lulls the snake by his incantations: he wakens against himself mighty wrath by his incantations.

8. I set my stings and I sat and waited: who is long-enduring as I with all? Beside the patient-spirited I sat, and step by step I bewitched him, so that he came unto despair. Him who was ashamed of his transgressions, habits subdued him: little by little I mastered him, till he became under the yoke, till he came in to it and was used to it and did not even wish to go forth.

9. I perceived and saw that the long-enduring is he that can subdue all. At the time when I conquered Adam, he was but one. I left him till he had begotten children, and I sought for myself another task, for idleness is not to my taste. I counted the sands of the sea, that thereby I might make my spirit patient, and might prove my memory whether it would suffice, for the sons of men when they were multiplied. Before they were multiplied, I proved them in many things.

10. The servants of the Evil One disputed with him, and they refuted his words with their rejoinder. "But lo! Elisha brought the dead to life, and conquered death in the upper chamber, and brought to life the widow's son. Lo! now is he in bondage in Sheol." But because the reasoning of the Evil One was very powerful, with their own words he refuted their words. "How has Elisha been overcome? Lo! in Sheol he brought the dead to life by his bones."

11. "If Elisha, who was of small power, was great in might in the midst of Sheol, and if so be he brought one dead to life therein, how many dead then will be raised therein, by the death of Jesus the mighty! Hence even from this consider ye, how much greater therefore is Jesus, than we my comrades. For lo! by His craftiness He deceived you, and ye sufficed not to determine His greatness when ye compared Him to the prophets.

12. "Your consolations are of small power," said the Evil One to them of his company. "For He Who brought Lazarus to life though dead, how can Death suffice against Him? And if Death conquers Him, it is that He wills to be subdued unto him; and if so be He wills to be subdued, fear ye greatly, for He dies not in vain. He has wrought in us great terror, lest when dying He may enter in to raise Adam to life."

13. Death looked forth from within his den, and marvelled when he saw our Lord crucified, and he said "O raiser of the dead to life where art thou! Thou shalt be to me for meat, instead of the sweet Lazarus, whose savour lo! it is still in my mouth. Jairus' daughter shall come and see this Thy cross. The widow's son gazes on Thee. A tree caught Adam for me: blessed be the Cross which has caught for me the Son of David!"

14. Death opened his mouth and said, "Hast Thou not heard, O Son of Mary, how Moses was great and excellent above all? became a God and wrought the works of God? slew the first-born and saved the first-born? turned aside the pestilence from the living? To the mount I went up with Moses, and He Whose glory be blessed gave him to me from hand to hand. For however great the son of Adam becomes, dust he is and to his dust returns, because he is of the ground."

15. Satan came with his servants, that he might see our Lord cast into Sheol, and might rejoice with Death his Counsellor; and he saw Him sorrowful and mourning, because of the dead who at the voice of the Firstborn, lived and came forth thence even from Sheol. The Evil One arose to console Death his kinsman. "Thou hast not destroyed as much as thou wast able. Even as Jesus is in thy midst, to thy hand shall come they that have lived and that live.

16. "Open for us to see Him, yea and mock Him: let us answer and say, Where is Thy power? For lo! three days have passed for Him, and let us say to Him, O Thou of three days, Who didst raise Lazarus, when he had lain four days, raise Thine own self.'" Death opened the gates of Sheol, and there shone from it the splendour of the face of our Lord; and like the men of Sodom they were smitten; they groped and sought the gate of Sheol, which they had lost.

Hymn XLII.

1. The Evil One wailed "Where now, is there a place for me to flee to from the righteous? I stirred up Death to slay the Apostles, that I might be safe from their blows. By their deaths now more exceedingly am I cruelly beaten. The Apostle whom I slew in India is before me in Edessa: he is here wholly and also there. I went there, there was he: here and there I have found him and been grieved." R., Blessed is the might that dwells in the hallowed bones!

2. The bones that merchantmen carried, or was it then that they carried him? For lo! they made gain each of the other. But for me what did they profit me? yea they profited each by each, while to me from both of them there was damage. O that one would show me that bag of Iscariot, for by it I acquired strength! The bag of Thomas has slain me, for the secret strength that dwells in it tortures me.

3. Moses the chosen carried the bones, in faith as for gain. And if he a great prophet believed, that there is benefit in bones, the merchant did well to believe, and did well to call himself merchant. That merchant made gain, and waxed great and reigned. His storehouse has made me very poor: his storehouse has been opened in Edessa, and has enriched the great city with benefit.

4. At this storehouse of treasure I was amazed, for small was its treasure at first; and though no man took from it, poor was the spring of its wealth. But when multitudes have come round it, and plundered it and carried off its riches, according as it is plundered, so much the more does its wealth increase. For a pent-up spring, if one seeks it out, when deeply pierced it flows forth mightily and abounds.

5. It is evident that Elisha was a fountain in a thirsting people: and because they that thirsted sought him not out, his outflow was not great. But when Naaman sought him out, he abounded and poured forth healing. The fountain into the midst of a fountain, he took him and plunged him; for in the river he cleansed the leper. Jesus the Sea of benefits, into Siloam sent the blind man whose eyes were opened.

6. Gehazi, with the staff that brought to life the dead, was unable to raise the child. And how could the famous prophet have been brought up by the sorceress? We were they that mocked Saul, for instead of one demon whom he questioned, two demons came up and mocked him. From the bones of Elisha learn also of the bones of Samuel; for though Elisha's bones brought to life the dead, the sorcerers could not bring up the dead, the living and sacred bones.

7. And though I asked this petition, He who gives all gave it not to me. For though the demons were troubled, by the bones of some priest, or magician or wizard, of Chaldean or soothsayer, yet I was aware that this was but mockery. In two ways I cause men to err: either I make the Apostles to lie, or I make my Apostles like the Apostles.

8. The party of the demons lo! it is spoiled; the party of the devils endures stripes: though there be none that lifts the rod openly, the demons cry out with pain; though there be none that fetters and binds, the spirits hang bound. This silent judgment, which is calm and still, and works not even by questioning, the one power that is all sufficing, lo! it dwells in the bones of this second Elisha.

9. He gave judgment unto His Twelve, that they might judge the twelve Tribes. And if so be that they are to judge the sons of the great Abraham, this is then no great matter, that they shall judge demons now. And unless they make the crucifiers fulfil the judgment that is to be, by our judgment shall they be proved. For worse than we did they cry out, in presence of the Apostles the judges of the tribes.

10. For a wolf was Saul the Apostle, and on the blood of the sheep I reared him; and he waxed strong and became a singular wolf. But nigh to Damascus suddenly, the wolf was changed into a sheep. He said that the Apostles, are to judge Angels; for by the Angels he signified the priest as it is written. If so be then they are thus powerful, woe to the demons from the strokes of their bones!

Hymn LII.

Concerning Satan and Death.

1. I heard Death and Satan, as they disputed, which was the more powerful, among men. R., To Thee be glory, Son of the Shepherd of All, Who deliveredst His flock from the secret wolves that devoured it, the Evil One and Death!--2. Death showed his power, that he conquers all; Satan showed his guile, that he makes all to sin.--3. Death, To thee, O Evil One, none hearkens save he that wills: to me he that wills and he that wills not, even to me they come.--4. Satan, Thine, O Death, is but the force of tyranny: mine are snares and nets of subtlety.--5. D., Hear, O Evil One, that who so is subtle breaks off thy yoke: but none is there that is able to escape my yoke.--6. S., Thou, Death, on him that is sick provest thy might: but I over them that are whole, am exceeding powerful.--7. D., The Evil One prevails not over all those that revile him: but for me he that has cursed me and he that curses me, come into my hands.--8. S., Thou, Death, from God, hast gotten thy might: I alone by none am I helped, when I lead men to sin.--9. D., Thou, O Evil-One, like a weakling: while like a king I exercise my dominion.--10. S., Thou art a fool, O Death, not to know how great am I: who suffice to capture free will, the sovereign power.--11. D., Thou, O Evil One, like a thief, lo! thou goest round: I like a lion break in pieces and fear not.--12. S., To thee, O Death, none does service or worship: to me kings do service of sacrifice as to God.--13. D., On Death there are many that call, as on a kind Power: on thee, O Evil One, none has called or calls.--14. S., Markest thou not this, O Death, how many there are: who in sundry fashions call on me and make oblation?--15. D. Hated is thy name, O Satan, nor canst thou clear it: thy name every one curses, hide thy reproach.--16. S., Thine ear, O Death, has waxed dull, that thou hearest not: how against thee all men groan, conceal thyself.--17. D., My face is shown to the world, for I am guileless: not like thee who without guile canst not abide.--18. S., Thou hast not in aught surpassed me for it is true: that thou art hateful as I to the sons of men.--19. D., Of me all men are afraid as of a lord: but as for thee they hate thee as the Evil One.--20. S., For thee, O Death, they hate thy name, and also thy work: my name they hate but my delights they greatly love.--21. D., To bitterness of teeth is turned, this thy sweetness: penitence of soul cleaves ever unto thy lusts.--22. S., Sheol is hated because in her is no repentance: a pit that swallows and closes on all movements.--23. D., Sheol is a gulf wherein whoso falls shall rise again: sin is hated because it cuts off the hope of man.--24. S., Though I mislike penitents, I give place for repentance: thou cuttest off hope from the sinner who dies in his sin.--25. D., It was of thee that at first his hope was cut off: for he whom thou hast not caused to sin dies happily.--26. Blessed is He who raised against each other those cursed servants: that we might see them as they have seen us and mocked at us.--27. This that we have seen of them is a pledge, my brethren: of what we shall see of them hereafter when we rise again.

Hymn LIII.

1. Come, let us hear how they contend for victory: the guilty ones who never have conquered, nor will conquer.--2. Death said unto the Evil One, In the end the victory is mine: for Death is master of the close, as a conqueror.--3. Satan, This were to be Death indeed, wert thou able: to bring to death a living man, by means of lusts.--4. D., Lo! I who behold the dead, both good and bad: the righteous who despise thee, O Evil One, me they despise not.--5. S., This dying of the body, is sleep for a time: think not, O Death, that thou art Death, who art as a shadow.--6. D., Thee, O Evil One, the just have conquered, yea will conquer: but these that have conquered thee, lo! I conquer.--7. S., Even this that thou bringest to death the just, is not of thyself: because of Adam whom I conquered, they drink this cup.--8. D., Lo! Sheol is full of the men of Sodom, and the Assyrians: and the giants who were in the flood, who is like me?--9. S., These, O Death, all of them, by me were slain: I am he that caused them to sin so that they perished.--10. D., Joseph who conquered thee I conquered, O Satan: in the chamber he conquered thee but I conquered, and cast him into the tomb.--11. S., Moses who conquered thee, O Death, by sprinkling of blood: he conquered thee in Egypt, but at the rock, who conquered him?--12. D., Elijah who feared thee not, O Satan: fled before Jezebel's face, because he feared me.--13. S., Aaron who withstood thee, O Death, with smoke of incense: to him I gave earrings of gold: and he fashioned a calf.--14. D., Thou wentest down to contend with Job, and he conquered thee and came up: but I, after he had conquered thee, then conquered him.--15. S., David who by his sackcloth stayed that pestilence: him on the house-top I conquered, who had conquered Goliath.--16. D., Jehu who destroyed the house of Baal, the temple of the Evil One: was unable to destroy Sheol, the stronghold of my realm.--17. S., Solomon who snatched from thy mouth, a child by his judgment: him in his old age I made a builder of idol-altars.--18. D., Samuel who in respect of gold scorned thee, O Satan: him I conquered, the conqueror, who conquered bribes.--19. S., Samson who in respect of the lion's whelp, scorned thee, O Death: through Delilah, frail vessel, I yoked him to the mill.--20. D., Josiah from his childhood despised thee, Evil One: but me not even in his old age, could he withstand.--21. S., Hezekiah withstood thee, Death, when he overcame the bound of life: I misled him and he neglected the miracle, and showed his treasures.--22. D., John who conquered thee, Evil One, and absolved and baptized: I extinguished that torch, which had disclosed thee.--23. S., Simon overcame thee, when he brought to life that blessed woman: in a woman he overcame thee and by a woman I overcame him and made him deny.--24. S., Apostles and prophets with one voice, curse thee, O Death: "Where is the victory of Death, and the sting of Sheol?"--25. Thy Lord in Sheol thou hast shut up, O cursed servant: God hates thee and also man, hold then thy peace.--26. S., It was the will of Him who gives life to all, that shut him in Sheol: it was thou that called Him to this, when thou madest Adam sin.--27. O comrade of Nabal who in the wilderness reproached his lord: abhorred be thy mouth which said to Him, "Fall down and worship me!"