Nisibis 45

The son of his voice, the eater is the soul, and fasting and the one who is rewarded, it is right that the body also fasts, and be rewarded, for it fasts with her. And if it is known that the body is the one that eats and also fasts, it deceives the erring ones. How much have they erred, that the soul which does not fast, she will receive the wage, and it will be without wage, the body that fasts and does not eat? A twisted thing: and may the body receive in your strength the partner of its spouse. She is constrained, but not she, in his fasts and his afflictions. And if pains are good for her, they are asked from him. How then does he live by the coverings of his members? For that is unjust to make her hear that if he is the one who grew by the consumption of his limbs, how then did he become lost by the wage of his runs? She is the helper of that labor, and she receives the wage. She is the helper of his strength, and to her belongs the confession. She is the fool of his sword, and to her also the crown of life. This one is killed because of his fellow. His life is taken, he destroyed, and his strength is for the future. Or how is the whole twisted, the story of the erring ones? For the body is the one that hungers, is vigilant, and also thirsts. The fullness without it, not wealth, the soul. His oppression to the merchant, the cold and the moisture, that behold wealth in profit, his talents, and instead of his profits, a document of debts. The fools wrote after him who did him without strength. It is unjust that he hungers and boasts in his fast. It is unjust that he thirsts and is praised in his thirst. She took the wage of his workers, and for him she kept, she left. And as they say, by the strength he is separated, they oppressed the farmer.

They took and carried away his seeds, and his heirs are the rootless one. And she seeks to burn with him. She is sad that he is in glory, and she also is in praise. She is sad that he is in life, and she also is in vitality. She is sad that he is in Eden, and she also is in Paradise. For that is wickedness, that they say that half of the son of man is alive in the kingdom, and the other half, without folly, is cast into the street. The children of error are blind, to look tomorrow at the contest. If it is victory, call it by the name of the soul; and if it is defeat, hang it by the name of the body. And not like the spectators of the world, who, when they give to the charioteer, increase the chariot, and when they give to the horses again, increase the trappings. If it is with the signs, the beautiful and fair ones, the body is the one that errs, and it is weary that it is not adorned. If it is drunk, woe to it; and if it is beautiful, two woes. And when the weight of desire is heavy, that the soul is in virginity and the reward of asceticism, the sign comes and raises its voice in eleven hours. And if it is that desire and weariness belong to her, the body receives from her that it may be choked by her helps. If she is troubled, the face and the countenance are disturbed. Why is the body occupied with her desire?

Joseph was distressed and ceased, and the voice of his lord was strong. To the abyss of the deep the body descends, and to Jezebel the vineyard. And as the body is able, it is troubled in all its divisions. If it is he who disputes, in the fortress of his own essence, and as the pure one pressed, the course of that soul. For the body is not able to disturb her, who is not disturbed by the light. From the shadows, but he who polished it, by his disturbance, to the shadow. The fools of the reversers turned the lamentation of darkness, which was not harsh, and his disturbance to the shining one. It is easy that they be covered from the martyrs who came. For both of them with her walk, and the light is not dyed from any place in darkness, but he dyes it, by his disturbance, to the black one. One of the two is she, chosen by the sons of error, that the body is not able.

He was beautiful and was adorned. The narrow one is in his help. The soul that dwells in him, and where is the one who is rubbed away to be cleansed? And if that body is a nature that is healed, the evil one who looked at those who made him without feeling, he asked the villages for something that was dead. How did he ride a cause for his life? By that cause of life he was able to live in it. And if of his beginning he revived him, more he comforts him, that he might taste life. And they were ashamed of the delays, the villages of the hard-pressed. He who revived him a little, not weak, but also much, and he who called him from the grave, not I, that he might again call him. And he who is good in his strength, how is he afflicted in his feeling? If he revived him as a stranger from before, how then does he comfort him? The affliction that repays him was covered by grace, the limbs for affliction. But if that body is a nature that cannot come to feeling, he asks before this: how was the distribution of life by the soul? For that will that revived him, how did it suffice, my brother, for something not living? They were justified in his life, the villages in his feeling. Also that mocker who perceived your pleasant things, a seal would be for him. For your silence conquers all, and he became rich in the right hand that covered the left. Show, my lord, my sinfulness, that I erred, and I covered the villages, those standing on the left. Now I will gather my words, that my guilt may not pursue me.