On th Reproof of Women

On the Reproof of Women — Narsai A discourse of forty-seven [chapters]. On the reproof of the daughters of Eve and on the snares and the deceits of the doers. Eve, the fountain of life, from whom the serpent drew life for the man; she turned the sweetness of her pleasantness into a possession of death. The rib that was a help for Adam alone became a bow in the hands of the Evil One against Adam. The life that was in her, that command which the Life placed in her, she changed into the name of bestiality for mortality. Flesh from my flesh, she called even Adam to bestiality, and her will dragged his will without equality. "Woman," it is said, because she is called by everyone by the name of equality, and she confirmed the error of man by her freedom. With Adam she entered the Garden in the beginning, and with him she received the command of life concerning the tree. That command which the Creator placed was full of life, and by her audacity she made it a cause of death. The cause of death and the companion of evil she became from the beginning, and from her members snares and traps were sought. No equality was seen in her from the start, and bitterness boiled up her thoughts and gave birth to her heart. The crown of shamelessness she hid in her face in a seemly place, and she was not ashamed to speak with the All-Eater. Like a harlot she stood in the Garden naked, and when the Evil One saw her, he ran to her sight and rejoiced with her.

In her open senses, the slanderer crept near her, and his seed reached as far as the soul and settled in it. Through hearing, the bride of the king was deceived, she who was betrothed to Adam, and before her wedding day arrived, she tasted the evil. The evil one, the deceiver, made her soul taste from the tree, and she did not wish to preserve the true order of separation. Evil desire made her soul cheap, and without shame she stretched out her hands to the tree. She mounted the tree with the deceiver deceitfully, and she did not reveal to Adam the secret of his wickedness until she had eaten. Above her husband, the wanton one sought to be exalted; because of that she ate and also gave to her husband, and he ate. To her error, her will submitted, more than to Adam, and she was the queen who first ate the fruit. She listened to his counsel from the beginning until now, and her heart did not separate from the habit of his deceits. Evil companionship was with her, with the one who kills the soul, and she did not flee from him to be saved until the end. With him she was eager to be deceived by deceits, and her nature did not strike to participate in beauties. Without satiety she loved the love of the destroyer, and without order her heart runs after his pursuit. In every form of his, her mind hunts for his habit, and in every cause of eagerness, the desire of her soul is inflamed.

The evil will loved her soul more than Adam, and his seed he made to enter her womb without satiety. In sin, the murderer mingled with the bride, and his partnership is not to be sought, for it is the inheritance of death. The desire of the flesh corrupted her mind by day and night, and the demand of vileness overturned her thoughts. The vile thought of vileness cast her down every hour, and she did not receive the life-giving breath of spiritual life. Wholly and entirely she became vileness, and there is no place in her for holiness to dwell. Evil dwelt in her and rules her firmly, and it gives no place for truth to enter on her side. There is no profit for anyone who would hide himself in her dwelling, for evil wearies and destroys him for his labor. A beautiful dwelling she made of herself, at first she set up everything, and her deception is that she adorns her own beauty with deceits. Her appearance was wondrous and she was delicate until she sinned, and after she sinned, she gave birth from herself to the wakeful and the sick. At her beauty the peaks of the height were amazed when they were created, and when she was corrupted, they turned and were astonished at her deceptions. The spiritual ones saw the vileness of the soul and fled from her, and they did not wish to remain in their kinship with the race. Because of her, they abandoned the life of association with the sick, and they withdrew and settled on the faces of the height, without looking upon her.

Vain toil he counted the labor of the causes, and they did not wish to serve the hidden desire. How often the evil of the hirelings was sought out, they were mingled in the venom of wrath against the people. How often they remembered Eve who plucked the fruit, the city of her iniquity was filled with fruits and seeds. How often her daughters in her own impudence were likened, their concerns were more taken up than their service. How often from day to day the evil that came from them grew, the burden of them was carried beyond measure. How often the Creator was afflicted by their doings, they prepared the banquet of the people manfully. How often in the idols of the ordinances demons were corrupted, and neither rain nor dew was poured out. In great mourning they sat over the evils, and they hoped that either it would be destroyed or renewed. The pangs of pains struck her parturition, and they destroyed the birth of death or sickness. The Creator saw the harshness of their pain, who sees all, and he sent his sign and he sought them from the weariness. He sent his sign towards the daughter of Eve who brought in death, and in her evil was formed and he filled her with mortal life.

He made life bitter by the cunning of the child of the woman, and by his living he denied death from humanity. For the sake of the cause of the demon, he formed in him an image that renews the demon, so that the watchers and humanity might be troubled by him with his greatness. In him all the earthly and heavenly ones are troubled, and by the pleasure of his body he corrupted the creatures that were submerged. From the time that death sought to destroy humanity, it sought the poison of life that revives the dead. From the daughter of humanity death began its destruction, and from the daughter of humanity life began its renewal. Where sin is abundant, the son is far from order; there the hour of righteousness is not to be found. Where the devourer sowed the poison of his entire venom, there the splendor of the ear of grain of life revives humanity. By Eve the destroyer of the race of humanity corrupted the dead, and by the daughter of humanity the mercies of the spirit are justified. She clothed the garment of leaves that are destroyed, and she covered the stole of glory that is not destroyed. Over her madness the sign full of shame grieved, and he cast the garment into her members and covered her hair. The garment of the woman his desire put on willfully, and he renewed in his hands the creation that destroys the passing of the commandment. Behold the goods of the good one who created the creation by grace, who renewed for us the son, and troubled for us the son, and concealed for us the son.

He therefore warms the conduct of life with her gift, and sees if there is any likeness of her lovers in the service of the soul. He sought out their labors in the furnace of the test of separation, and behold, the tyranny of how many injustices is revealed. The labors of Eve he sought out first, as a separator, and her assistance he purifies with words as with a furnace. Into the furnace of words he enters the limbs of Eve, and instead of a net, he smelts the limbs in the fire of their utterances. Words he unites in their actions without law, and he kindles a forest that conceals in the desire of their members. Their actions are millstones that grind on the path of words, and they become grinding-stones that speak with them instead of grief. That grief is a counsel that is much beyond order, so that it reveals the filth of their forms to the beholders. The filth that is known is hidden in the shame of their members, and if it is revealed, there is no separator that is not disturbed. The wicked one, full of the depths of their thoughts, and if it is examined before the beholders, it is known from him. The lightness, the beast of the two, dwells within them, and if he who strikes escapes from her, even the beasts. The sister of the hole wears their thought, and is insolent in it, and if he who is justified strips the posts in the likeness of Eve. In anger, the stirred-up ones stir up wrath, and who can restrain the stone of their battles?

To the shame of the lovers, to the disgrace of the adulterers, to the reproach of the fornicators, to the contempt of the wanton women. And what profit is there for a man to be caught in their net? In the furnace of the test of separation, he sought out their labors, and behold, the tyrant of the soul, which is silent and still, is conquered. In the house, their quarrel; in the market, their disturbance; in the church, their shame; and in the nights, their wings spread forth, seeking a place to flee. Their speech is deceitful, their gaze is cheap, their hearing is false, and what is sufficient to be recounted concerning their blemishes? Their complexion is shameless, their conversation is bold, their encounter is sinful, and they do not care for the sufferings of those who love them. Their clothing is cheap, their laughter is contemptible, their gait is foolish, and even the earth is too heavy to bear them. Crowns are mixed, faces are hidden, nets are spread, and there is no place to flee for one who seeks to escape their traps. They sell themselves for a price, they hunt for movements, they bind with bonds, and how can one be saved from all their snares? They lead the chaste astray, they corrupt the upright, they cause the righteous to stumble, and woe to the one who falls into the meshes of their disturbances. The pure are troubled, the innocent are defiled, the simple are corrupted, and what can one do who wishes to live in purity? Their quarrel is strong, their weapon is mighty, their force is harsh, and woe to the righteous from the snares that are set for him.

The furnace of desire seeks out the dross of the heart. The master of the furnaces is ashamed of the furnace that does not consume its fuel. It is a furnace of hunger, a furnace of thirst that eats and drinks, and the more it eats, the more it is inflamed and seeks food. It is a vessel of two desires of the body that dwells within it, and like food the body seeks the food of its own body. The serpent seeks more the seeking of this food, and in the insatiability of its desire it rages without satiety. It makes war if the desire of its soul is not filled, and in its insatiable lust it seeks its own destruction. It makes a harsh war against them every day through its vessel, and like armed warriors they array themselves against them in their disturbances. Like archers they cast against them night and day, and they shoot arrows, sharpened words from their tongues. Their mouths are sharper than a two-edged sword, and their blows penetrate to the soul and are not to be restrained. Not so many are slain by the sword as are slain by them, and not so great is the harm from wild beasts as their harm. Their harm is worse than poisonous serpents, and their wounds are more difficult to heal than their bites. They destroy the soul and place blemishes on the body, and the wounds from them are not healed except by the spirit. David testifies how difficult is the blow of their wounds, for the wound of the man who married her pursued him until her death.

The furnace of desire seeks out the dross of the heart. The master of the furnaces is ashamed of the furnace that does not consume its fuel. It is a furnace of hunger, a furnace of thirst that eats and drinks, and the more it consumes, the more it burns. The furnace of the belly is a fire that is never quenched; it is a fire that burns the bones and dries up the marrow. The great fire of the furnace fell from the fire of the passions; it cried out and wailed every day from its sickness. It was extinguished and all its coals were quenched; it was a fire that burned, and behold, it is now a smoke from the heat of its pain. And if it be that of David, the spirit of his repentance showed how much it can accomplish before her wiles. If a seer of mysteries saw and confessed, he would close all the eyes of his soul from her sights. If it be that of Joab, who terrified the peoples, he fled from her voice and stopped his ears, lest he be terrified by the sound of her disturbance. Behold, what the daughter of Eve did to the son of Adam; let everyone beware of encountering him, lest she encounter him. Behold, what the weak old woman did to the mighty man; a man says to his companion, "Beware of Eve." From the daughter of Eve, let everyone fear, and especially the chaste, lest their thoughts be cast down in the likeness of David. She is a piece of flesh; how much if she is from the body? And her truth is not true; how much if she is pure? Do not trust the confession of her words without proof, for behold, there is no chaste one who listens to her disturbances without being cast down. Wickedness full and falsehood dwell within her, and there is no trust in her trust, not even a little.

The furnace of desire seeks out the dross of the heart. The master of the furnaces is ashamed of the furnace that does not consume its fuel. It is a furnace of hunger, a furnace of thirst that eats and drinks, and the moan of its pains is heard. The furnace of desire knows the bitterness of its dross, and its conversation distinguishes the purity of the dross. The furnace of desire sees the dross, and the whole of her heart is empty. Her agitation stirs the dross, and the bonds of her senses are taken. Severe pains issue from her like beasts, and they mock us with their snares like hunters. And when the whole of nature is good, the dead make pains known, in a manner more than they show the power of their actions. In her, she is disturbed to contend with freedom, and her nature cannot stand before their assaults. Quickly she is cast down before the thorns of the pains of the body, and there is no power in her to resist the curb of the agitations. She is played upon by agitations more than men, and upon her the curb of violent pains is fixed. To her, the severe tortures of marriage are yoked, and the desire of the flesh is kindled in her lightly. The pains of the body overcome her hunt with a little thing, and she herself is a witness, how she is humiliated in their battles. Her guilt cries out, "Battle against her coverings!" and as with a finger she shows the wars that silence her. She is easily cast down to contend with her companions, upon this one who is guilty and makes us guilty by her guilt. By love of money she is held fast without satiety; by love of glory she is bound without measure.

The furnace of the flesh is the poor one that has no fuel, and in its bellows it is caught without a wind. The dross is turned in it like a millstone, and the molten lead is poured in it like a lion. Madness is poured upon it like water, and deceit is hidden in it like a mountain of lead. It knows how to deceive, and there is no deceiver who deceives more than it, and it bears false witness against its neighbor unjustly. Ahab deceived and did not know the courses of deceit, until from it he learned to pour out the cups of blood. It is very thirsty, and there are no thirsty ones who thirst more than it, and it is very hungry, and its voracity is not to be measured. It is very cunning in concealing its doings, and it is very foolish in the matter of the covenant of the soul. Only the one who wears it is wise in his heart and his form, and even the demons are troubled, for they have passed over her cups. She taught the head of their ranks how to err, and she opened the door of his thought and corrupted his seed. From her the young learn evil deeds and how to stink, and through her they are armed like a weapon against the truth. Her weapon is worn in the battle against Joseph, and in her limbs she held a generation with his purity. By the hand of the flesh she clothed the spirit in a bodily garment, and she redeemed the hand of the flesh and the spirit from the flesh.

The furnace of the flesh is the poor one that has no fuel, and in its bellows it is caught without a wind. The dross is turned in it like a millstone, and the molten lead is poured in it like a lion. Madness is poured up like a furnace of coals, and it fell with the stone, and it extinguished its flames in the members of his body, and it did not suffice for its burning. Like a lioness, the madwoman cried out against the holy one, and her contemptible claws did not cut into the pure body. In the likeness of a bear, the rage of a destructive bear, and it did not move the heart of the ascetic, the sound of her roaring. Her cheeks alone snatched from him the morsels, and to his limbs did not reach the snare of her poverty. In the likeness of a hunter, a swift snare and he passed into her trap, and she sharpened her fangs to draw from her the prey of her body. Not indeed does the serpent accuse the ears of the beast, for her deeds cry out against her that she is a beast. Not indeed did I call her by the name of the remembrance of speech, her contemptibility made her to be compared to a beast of the field. And if you say against my words that I am lying, that these things that I have spoken about her wickedness are not true, say, O serpent, if there is in you power to speak, and I will accept the interpretation of your words if they are true. Is Moses true or not true concerning your mind? Is it truth that he wrote, or a history of falsehood? He wrote the horn that your sister made with the son of Jacob, and he related how her shame bound the mind.

into him, and all the books cry out against your wickedness, and they rebuke your wantonness in many ways. The great sun lowers his glory in the dust of his hair, and he humbles his manhood at the hands of the uncircumcised. Not by the blow of a staff is the strength of his might brought down before his pursuers, nor by the casting of a spear is the light of his eyes and his arms dimmed. It is not your filth that has defiled the sanctity of his chastity, and your filthy ones have made sport of the soul over his purity. It is not your wantonness that has kindled him in the furnace of lust, and he becomes a moment in the time when demons call to demons and fire. A thousand men slew a man with a mad bone, and a dislocated rib of his skull, and he fell and could not rise. He loosened the lion and broke the chains and cast them away, and a loose thread bowed him down and cast him down like a madman. Hear, O men; be silent, O righteous; marvel, O wise, that the deeds of the mighty woman did in generations of generations. She bound Joseph, she bowed Samson, she persecuted David, and behold the lamentation of their afflictions in the books of the Spirit. And if the strong and the mighty of strength fell in her battles, how can the weak stand before her wiles? Evil are her wiles, and she strikes many a man to the ground, and no evil is like her wickedness, however evil it may be.

The evil one strikes man secretly, so that he may be cut off, and she who has no end strikes down every man, good and evil alike. Through her he makes evil even the one who is evil, when he makes evil, and you were not able to make many evil except her. Through her she made you evil from the beginning, when she made you evil, and in the garments of her wantonness she wrapped the bitterness of her poison. She armed him with the weapon of iniquity against the people, and behold, she destroyed you by her vileness as with a sword. Oh, from where shall I show? I will declare your race to the sons of her house, that she is with the people and her love is bound with your murderer. Evil companionship is greatly beloved over her thought, and through the door of his decrees her heart knocks night and day. From him the pregnant woman and the mother ask for a hidden fetus, and to him it is fitting that he should bring forth the fruits of the womb. Upon the trust of the firm one, her trust is set, broken, and it is not fitting that she should be overturned from the beginning. Oh, how many blind ones are there from the confusion of separation! And she does not discern how to distinguish the foul from the fair. Oh, woe to you! Why do you not judge as a separator? And why have you not placed a true boundary before your thought? Why do you call a woman good, falsely, and why do you ask for help for your life from your murderer? How can one who is full of stumblings help? And how can the folly of man be healed by the goodness of man?

The erring one shows the error of his wickedness, and emptily he is adorned in him with an empty adornment. The lover of error pursues that erring one after the straying, and it is her custom to be mad in the error of the streets. The mad lover, and to the vanity of the forms of her eyes, and if a man examines her madness, he can find it within her mind. Through doors and markets the desirer stands contemptibly, and to listen to the sound of falsehood her ears are inclined. With wanton desire and frivolity her heart is agitated, not that she may be pleasing, but that she may ensnare a man by her beauty. To vanity she appoints herself, a foolish helper of the soul, so that through desire she may hunt the hunt of the streets. To hunt a man, desire spreads over her limbs, and like a net she casts a man with the desire of her face. Like a hunter she conceals her trap within her limbs, and the desire of her face is like a bait above the net. He teaches her to hide nets in the sensations of the body, and he shows her to spread snares with the wink of her eyes. He strikes in her a dark hole of contemptibility, and he fixes the shameless one, a bold one, before her parents. An evil thought burns before her, that she may be stained by it, and the sinner greatly in all her senses inclines toward shamelessness.

She errs in the lightness of her senses and the movements of her soul, and like a hungry one her heart yearns for pure food. In the desire of the flesh her heart burns passionately, and she eats continually yet her soul's desire is never filled. It is abundant, and the more she eats, the more it increases, and when she has eaten well, she denies that she has eaten. To the silent one, the daughter of the shameless one, who has plucked the fruit and mounted the high places of the serpent, she has led me astray. The custom of her mother accompanies her through all generations, and she loves him as the erring one loves the erring one. Above the man she is eager that she be like her mother, and if she could, she would wish that the man be like her. She seeks to seize the authority of men wantonly, and to overturn the true order of creation. In her wantonness, the chosen herald Paul saw, and he shut the door in her face so that she would not rule. The woman was silent to learn from the teacher, and she did not stand wantonly in the order of men. By the force of his word, Paul bound her wantonness, and when it is good, she is not freed from her insolence. Even from the desire of lightness, she restrains and hinders herself, and she who acts contrary to his word does so with great desire. Now she has added her desire greatly beyond the order, so that she may be in all things a subverter of the order of the beautiful ones.

And if she were able to read in the books of the spirit, she would be foolish to the decree of the judgments concerning her transgressions. And if she were able to understand, even in me, she would have revealed her blemishes, and she would have been like Jezebel in her daughters. And if she were able to know whether I am a man or a weak man, she would not be satisfied with the arrows of slander that she shoots. And if there is one who would show her the weight of my person, she would stone him with stones of contempt as if to a demon. Even now she draws the sword against my words and cuts them off as if to the head of a sinner who is guilty. Go away from me, woman; you are not a man, nor a son of men, for you have erred in me like a man who is not a man. Do not shoot at me arrows of slander as is your custom, and do not let the locks of your hair be entangled with my words. Not with evil have I revealed the hidden things of your lies, nor with envy have I spread your blemishes before the eyes of beholders. I have seen you, that you are a woman who lies in falsehoods, and I have turned my thoughts away from you, for I have heard a voice of iniquity. Iniquity I have seen lying upon your members, and I have desired that the waters of my words might flow over your impurity. In the severe pain of worthlessness I have seen your pollutions, and I have spoken words like medicines that you might be healed.

The desire of the flesh has seized you like fire, and by my words I wished to extinguish the blaze of your faults. I saw the sword of your speech when it was destroying the ranks of man, and the remainder that was left for the people to consume was small. I saw the gaze of your eyes when it was setting snares for the body, and I restrained man from being caught in your traps. I saw the beauty of your face spread out in the form of nets, and I raised my voice so that the hunter might hear and flee from you. I saw your evil error when it runs on sea and dry land, and I commanded that it be consumed without the laborer being wearied by its running. I saw your bodily harm when it disturbs the good and the evil, and I thought that perhaps the remainder that was left might be consumed a little. Because of you, priests and kings have fallen in battle, and behold, they are being destroyed, and there is no end to their wars. In the censer against you, I greatly marveled at how strong it is, and because of this I called you the cause of all evils. Not by the chain of nature is evil bound in you, but your will is what sins and causes sin as it pleases. It is your will that leads you wherever it desires, and not by the rope of my inheritance from man in the hunt for evils. Your own good and evil, all that is hidden in you, and you rule over both of them as a free woman.

Your freedom is to do good and to do evil. If it is so, you have no place to be corrected. It is easy for you to know how to go in the way of repentance, and it is easy for you to repay your faults with the tears of the soul. Come, if you wish, after the counsel of the king of man for you, and cease from error, and walk in the way of the judge of man for you. I will guide, I will go before your will, if you desire, and I will bring you to the harbor of peace that has no end. Hear, if you wish, the story of the order of the daughters of your kind, who were strong in pains and were not shaken before trials. Form for yourself an image of their conduct within your thoughts, and by their purity wipe away the filth from your thoughts. Look at flesh and bone and be ashamed, as a judge, that you bear the pains of the barrenness of the body without end. Be alive like a mirror to the eyes of your soul, and by its humility quench humility on the day of trial. From the kind of woman who are these chaste ones, or daughter of man, walk in the path of their humility and cease from sin. And when I say that from the race of woman are the pure ones, behold, from you is the woman who bore life to man. From the daughter of your kind, seek for yourself life without end; do not die after you have lived in the life that is from you.

Have mercy on your soul, which is the vessel of the life of the Spirit. Do not defile it with the filth of the life of the flesh by means of your adornments. Leave aside the vanities of the empty things that have grown old before you, and clothe your soul with the good thought of the word of life. Flee from the errors of lots and omens and the teaching of demons, and imprint upon your heart the three names of the name of the Trinity. Fix for yourself the name of the Trinity as a foundation before your mind, and thus you will learn to speak well with purity. Let your mouth be sealed with silence in place of all words, and in a threefold manner render thanksgiving to the Creator of all.