Nisibis 38

The sound of his voice was setting a throne for me in Sheol, and a dead man rose up and overturned me from it. Everyone who had been afraid alone came to me, and I came to everyone without fear. A razor and a shaving-knife among the living, peace and quiet among the dead. On a slain man, behold, captivity has entered Sheol. I came to everyone, I was equal. The son of captivity whom I took captive, I took captive her son and he went to Paradise. The persecuted: blessed is he who brings the dead of Sheol to life by his cross. Everyone came to me, I received many, and I came to one, I received alone. How much among the eyes of men who are like me, and her time brings a gift to my uprightness. I came to everyone, I love man, and he who errs against me knows that. Man does not know from my days. How much shame on the faces of kings I did not take. In me is proclaimed equality, that for a slave and his master in Sheol man is equal.

Before God he serves the altar, who has nothing to take in his face. He made another razor, which endured like me, that I might be shaved and wearied; it is turned about and applied to me. Good services that I cast, when my locks are fair, my name is not fair. That thought of mine struck me with his truth. In God he is revealed to me, that when he is good, that one is stained, and he endures. For the old men I spared from all pains, and also for the young men from all sins. Hidden battles I cease in Sheol. In the land of iniquity there is no Sheol; it is Sheol and heaven together, that are withheld from all sins. This earth in the midst, iniquity dwelt in it with deceit. Where is the separator, either to heaven he ascended, or to Sheol he descended? For it is easy for one human over one dead. Everyone runs to show me, but the many dead have lived for me. There is none who enters and shows me over the satan who was thundering. He lamented seven woes, and also he, when the son of Mary trod well, high is his spirit; he was a serpent of the strong and crushed.

He opened for me, and I fell and worshipped before Jesus, this one of Zacchaeus, by his cross. What enters into it through the gate of Sheol instead of John, he proclaimed before him, and I cried out, “Behold, he who raises the dead has arrived!” Your servant now asks, Jesus, because of your body, your form, which hid your divinity, do not be angry, O king’s son, with your treasurer. By your command I opened and took hold, while my wings were few, by your sign that one runs, your servant, to all the chosen. All who were conceived were not firstborn, for the Lord is the firstborn of Sheol. How can the dead find before him that power by which he was conceived? There are others before me, and little ones who were firstborn, for the conception was in the firstborn. How can Ephrem take his firstborn status, and the last-born before him? How much does the Lord and the Son precede in his conception? Behold, John, like a herald, persuades that he is the last, while he is old. For he said, “Behold, a man has come after me, and he has become before me.” For how did he precede him?

the power by which he was proclaiming, for everything that happened because of something was last and also first, for the cause of its end was old, and also first in everything. The cause of Adam was old from the creatures to which he was established, for in Adam he was always looking, the Creator, when he was creating, and Adam, before he existed, was old from the creatures. How then, my Lord, will you make old that your divinity is your humanity, which is from eternity with your begetter? To you is praise, and in your hand is your father from all. To you is glory, that you are the first in your divinity and in your humanity. For also Elijah went up before, and he was not able to go before the sign because of which he ascended, that he might hang his mystery on your truth, and also before him openly mysteries to your truth, before him he was hiddenly. Before him, the creatures to Adam were prior to those because of which he was established. My Lord, make for me that command. Not of your hatred, but of your love. Your love also brings sinners to life. He was a shepherd again, Iscariot, who chose death for himself from Sheol, better than the life of Gehenna. Make for me, then, a command, that of your need, and not the remission of your anger. There is cause for your goodness. This alone remind me, that in it I sinned.