Nisibis 41

He raised his voice, the evil one spoke, that the arrow of his eye of Jesus, lest he destroy my courses. For behold, the son of a thousand, the father of the hours, and no one stood for me in idleness. I saw nothing when I shot, and I believed his eye and let him go. He came, bending the flashes. Now he has prevented me, for he has hidden from me everything I sought. Many were my labors with my disciples, that I covered the whole creation with all evils, the crooked one. Blessed is he who came and spread his snares for the crooked one. I restrained my courses with the few, and I passed through the crooked. I was contending, the multitude of the many was a battle for me. In the multitude of the people I rejoiced, that it gave a little space, for the covering of the many is difficult. By the force of the many, the mountain, great, I raised a tower to the heavens from below. If with height they contended, how much more would they conquer the air, which on earth is its contest? With the wolf and with his crookedness, the father of the hours was contending, distinctly. The people heard that God is one, he made for him a multitude of gods. And when he saw the son of God, he ran after one god, so that as he confesses in God, he denies him, and as he errs, he flees from him. That in all times, changes are found, that they are without God. Behold, the son of the yoke, the father of the hours, and upon the begetter, I was not pleased with the standing. It was a mistake of the youths; I took many, of the customs that are not good. I stood crooked from the beginning, that they might increase with them their days. There are, moreover, foolish fathers.

without harming the seed that was sown in their wombs, and like good farmers, they uprooted the plants from the pasture of their children. Instead of chains, in their poverty, they clothed themselves in ashes, and they ceased and sat down. They stripped their feelings from the good, their eyes from reading, their mouths from speech, their minds from teaching, like desolate and idle fables. What are the skilled for empty chatter, the idle? If the word of life falls, or they reject it, or they stand and listen from its side, how many Satans within a human being, and for me alone, I curse every human. For behold, the wrath of the human being is a demon that laughs at him every day. Demons are like guests who rejoice when they are pressed. But concerning wrath, if it stands, all the righteous cannot be uprooted from its place. Instead of a rotten bond, to a mad and weak demon, every human runs, in shame, a threshold with lightning, which subdues every day the serpents, a viper that within him from him rebelled, whose passion within him he does not subdue. Hidden sin like a foundation, when it falls upon him, it is a foundation. When it is good, its side is for the viper.

in his anger he cast down the hidden plants, he made the reptile crawl in his garments, he stirred up great wrath against him in his garments, he placed crosses, and he sat in silence. He made the light of his teaching dim, his thought with all. The hunter of the evil spirit sat down, and step by step he set his snares, so that he might come to cut off the thought, to the place where it turns from sins. The customs subdued him little by little on his head, until he was beneath the yoke, which he bore and passed over, and he did not even wish to go out. I felt and saw that the evil spirit was able to subdue all. By the victory of his offering, Adam was not alone; I left him until the birth, and I sought for myself another work, so that he would not taste in me idleness. I was like the power of the sea, so that my spirit might stir in it and leave my thoughts, if it suffices. For the eyes of the physician, when they were many, until they do not increase among the many, I struck in the eyes, so that his farmers might be pleased, who are with the evil one, and they began his words with changes, for behold, Elisha revived the dead, and he conquered death in the upper room, and he revived the son of the widow. Behold, now he is enslaved in Sheol, for great was the thought of the evil one, much did he loose your words in your words, as if Elisha sinned, for behold, in Sheol he revived the dead by his bones. If Elisha, who was small, his power was great, in the midst of Sheol, for he who revived one dead in it, how many dead does he revive in it? The death of the mighty Jesus was required from it.

how great was Jesus, how great was he! From his companions, who were already in his youth, he led them astray, and you did not suffice to silence them, the greatness of your wrath against the servants, the little ones, you struck. In your silence, the evil one says to the sons of his race: He who raised Lazarus when he was dead, as if death were sufficient for him, or rather, death conquers him. Is it he who wishes to be enslaved, or is it he who wishes to enslave? The power of the one who does not die was increased in vain. The great one did a great deed: when Adam died, he entered to revive him, he drove death from within his tomb, and again he saw the Lord who was crucified, and he said, "O reviver of the dead, where are you? You will be my food instead of the sweet Lazarus, whose taste is still in my mouth." The daughter of Jerusalem will come and see: this crucified one of yours, the son of the widow, looks at you. The wood of his cross is for me, for Adam. Blessed is the cross that is for me, for the son of David. His mouth opened, death said: "Were you not heard, O son of Mary, that Moses grew old and became stronger than all? He was God and made God; I killed with the firstborn and saved with the firstborn. All deaths from life, you ascended the mountain with Moses, and from hand to hand he gave me his blessed honor. How much did the son of Adam strive? He turned the dust to his dust, for from the earth he was. The adversary came with his workers to see the Lord who cast into Sheol, and he rejoiced with death, the son of his king, and his appearance was gloomy and mourning.

Over the dead, by the voice of the tomb, they lived and came forth from the womb of Sheol. The evil one who was hidden stood up to death, to hasten his own, whom you did not destroy as you could have. How great is Jesus within you! To your hand he brings both the living and the dead. Open for yourself, see him, and also hasten to him. Seek and say, "Where is your power?" For behold, three days had passed for him, and he said to him, "On the third day, for the fourth, to Lazarus, you restored life, bringing your opponent back to life." Death opened the gates of Sheol, and the radiance of the face of the Lord shone forth from it; and like the Sodomites, they swallowed, they groped and sought the gate of Sheol, that it might be destroyed.