On the Four Evangelists

On the Apostles A Memra. Eight. Of the Apostles. Completed is his own, as his own. A Memra of Thomas which he made on the Apostles. All of them, and it is said in the commemoration of the Evangelists. O blessed one, Christ, who clothed your apostles in the armor of the Spirit, and through it they conquered and were adorned. O blessed one, Christ, who reigned and was glorified. A reward for the righteous and a judgment for the wicked. My brethren. The king of Rome made a spiritual feast and sent his servants to summon all to the fullness of his love. He gathered and called the heavenly and earthly ones, and sent his servants to summon all to the fullness of his love. He gathered and called the heavenly and earthly ones, and prepared a spiritual feast that is indestructible. He placed his sign in the temple of the visible body, and showed his sign, the power of his greatness, through manifest senses. On the head of a human being he placed the crown of divinity, so that spiritual men might see the hidden in the revealed. It was not possible that you see the outside and be consumed in him, and on this account he showed his glory in the body to the eye of the beholders. His glory is for the eye of his types, not his essence, and the power of his greatness was revealed to his works, not his concealment. The garment of the body put on the will, the Word from him, and interpreted with his hand the power of the knowledge of his mysteries. The spiritual chariot of flesh mounted his love, that he might unite in it the spiritual and the corporeal.

In the members of the body he bent his will as with a finger, and men and spiritual beings were astonished at the sweetness of his voice. He became a bridegroom who made a hidden covering for the work of his hands, and he was a good singer, his covering in the bosom of flesh. For the work of his hands he made a feast, not for his own sake, because he who is not limited is with his essence, his blessedness. He honored his image by that which revealed his essence. He made no addition to his nature by the things that are spoken, for there is nothing that can be added or diminished from what he is, and his nature does not stand in one and another by means of manifestations. He desired that speech should be united through the things that were done, and by it again he interpreted the power of the wisdoms of the covering of his love. He honored his image more than any image, and by his hand he made glad the hiddenness of the pursuit of the demon. The sin of men that bound the demon and loosed love, and in men he desired to make all share in his love. He chose one of the men, his will, and called him by his name, and by his hand he brought speech to his knowledge. For the love of his love he called the feast that he made for his calling, and his hunters gathered the hearers and the sowers. To the members of his body he appointed servants and apostles, and he gathered all to the bridal feast of spiritual life. His sign spoke in language, loosening with bodies, and he made wise the way that men might hunt for life. His power strengthened the weakness of your thoughts, that their proclamation might be to the divided world by the voice of their fullness.

He mixed his love like medicines with his words, to heal the pains of body and soul with their utterances. He clothed his truth in the garment of a parable for your thoughts, that you might conquer the error which the evil one sowed in the heart of humanity. Christ stirred the affections of the womb like lyres, that the hand of demons might be loosed from the contest of labors. He grasped the sword of the spirit to destroy iniquity, that the rock might be ashamed and the man who killed be slain by it. He clothed his helping power like shields, that the arrows of all his members might not be fixed. He bound faith in the garment of a veil, that body and soul might be hidden from all things. Spiritually he clothed himself with the forms of the turtle-dove, that they might know how to take up the contest with the serpents. With everyone and in everything he was present in the thought of labors, and in the sweetness of the voice he stilled the tumult of spiritual things. The powers of all wisdom learned from the spirit, and he enriched and was enriched from their treasures for the Damascenes. Light and salt were in the creation of their deeds, and they illuminated the blind and gave taste to the insipid. They pursued error with the glorious beauty of their conduct, and they kindled the light of righteousness in the house of the dark ones. They uprooted impiety with the force of the zeal of the demons, and with truth they established the pure truth of the name of the Creator.

They overturned the idols of the error of the pagans' worship, and they perfected love and faith in the minds of men. They drove away the cloud of the names of gods from all peoples, and the world saw the beautiful growth of one God. Their voices were like thunder in the midst of the earth, and the natures trembled and the mighty stood still at the sound of their words. The net of love caught your heart with their spiritual movements, and spread it over all, and it caught from all, both good and evil. They fished from the sea and they fished from the dry land, a rational catch, and they brought fish like an offering to the king of Rome. That king also took the catch of his proclamation, to spread his love over all peoples through the hand of his servants. Through the agency of action, the apostles completed that daughter of the voice, so that they might teach and baptize all peoples in the name of the Trinity. They received three names from him in the form of a seal, and they sealed men and struck them spiritually. They marked the Trinity upon movements and upon members, as each one is able to sanctify the glorious name. With a living sign they concealed the signs of the nature of man, and they introduced it into the realm of spiritual life. They entrusted the care of the spirit to rational flocks, and upon the springs of the fountain of life they placed a watch. They knew the canon and they ordered and acted wisely, and they made wise the lambs and the sheep in the love of the holy church.

They gathered up the fragments of the broken idols of the pagans, and they established and preserved the whole church as one body. As a living image, it was always fixed before their minds. That word which is with Simon, "You shall love me," they magnified the great love of the will of the pastors of the church. Until death they labored over sufferings with the love of humanity. They loved humanity above all things, as they were commanded. And they filled humanity with their lives and with compassion. They honored humanity because of the love of the one who loves humanity, for they saw that his love for humanity is greater than anything. They saw that the will of the one who died for us is clothed in love, that he might raise humanity from the low place of shame to greatness. Through his love they were united and they loved humanity, calling them by his name. And they taught men to walk after him in the path of truth. According to his will, they thus set the boundaries of their minds, and they gave them to drink a love and compassion that cannot be exhausted. With compassion they healed the wounds of those who had sinned in the pains of iniquity, and with consolation they bound up the dead of the evil custom. They kindled love in the companionships of senses and movements, and they immersed them in the living waters of baptism. As a firstborn, they brought in its pledge to the body and the soul, and they cleansed from them the filthy garment that cannot be cleansed. Like potters, they formed them into speaking vessels, and they renewed them in a new creation of repentance.

or the waters, the nature of the stone, they set up for the breaking of the idols; they renewed its members and they were as a gift. Or the earths among the living ones of the Word, which is spread in his vision, they established the body of the heavens for the spreading of the fire. Or the tents of the father of the Word, they multiplied and increased the Word, and they offered him to the world with the wealth they gathered by their labors. They enriched themselves from the treasure of the one who was honored in the name of the Creator, and they enriched the fire with a portion that was not their own, as if it were their own. With a portion that was not their own, they freed their own from servitude, and they wrote for the Word a charter of freedom without death. They took the armor of the Spirit from the spiritual king, and with it they were adorned for the feast of spirits and bodies. They redeemed the captivity of the fire from death and from Satan, and they freed the Word from the bondage of the service of iniquity. They waged war with the tyrant who enslaves fire, and they removed from him the captivity that he had taken from their orders. With the sword of the Spirit they destroyed the camp of the adversary, and they cast down the ranks of his forces before the bodies. The tyrant who enslaves fires was defeated; fire and the voices of the evil-spirited ones were silenced. With the Spirit they offered spiritual ones instead of bodily ones, and they conquered fires that were clothed in pains and not in senses. The great wonder of the mystery was wrought by the mercy of the priests, who placed the visible body opposite the Spirit.

The glorious contest of those who saw in the land by their labors, and the small number of those who completed the tale of their victories. He prolonged the course of their ways from the measures, and he was weary that he might go with them to the end. He feared the arena in which they struggled with the afflictions, and he cut off his heart from the endurance of their pains. The end and the love filled the section of their proclamations, the labors of the mighty crowned him with glorious beauties. Blessed is the one who loves. By love he was able to read their deeds, and he reveals the sign to the one who loves the way of their labors. By faith his mind was able to go with them, and she encourages him not to be separated from the prudent. Hope urges the hidden nature with the hidden ones, and he strengthens him to trample pains by force. Love, hope, and faith clothed the victors, and by them they offered with all the sufferings, hidden and revealed. By them they were strengthened like a wall against evil, and by their hands they offered with spirits and with bodies. Over their fulfillments they fell into the arena of hard labors, who trampled on pains and scorned the afflictions as if they were nothing. Without complaints they poured out their love on those who helped, and they lived and loved death unnaturally. Beyond order they scorned the affliction and its imprisonment, and they were helpers to the regions and loved the upper.

To the heights they ascended, for the hidden things were good from the seers, and they descended to the depths, for the revelations were good to the senses and the movements. By the love of the wealthy women they sailed upon the earth, and they taught men who were traveling to the regions. The hidden things were before their eyes like revelations, and in a moment they saw as a vision before them and as if present. As if with a finger they showed the moment to the regions, that the dead saw and beheld the beauty of the hidden one in the height. As if to children they enticed man toward the kings, and as if with milk they nourished the moment with the food of the spirit. They placed life, they cast it down in the land of death, and they began living dead ones who would not hear the sound of their words. New sounds the dead heard from the dead, that men cry out in the hands of man in the struggle of death. The new gospel men brought to the mortals, the resurrection of the body and the salvation of the soul and the renewal of all. As if from the sixth they awakened the moment to the mortals, and they led the good natures to the sound of the renewal of the body and the soul. The name of the essence they taught all to the speaker, three hypostases that are not justified by change. A new book the illiterate wrote to the rational, they made wise the moment to read the Father and the Son and the Spirit. Three names they wrote on the tablets of their minds, one essence that has no beginning to its endurance.

The nature that put on the body they marked with a sign, that the Word and the body, hidden in the revealed, might be read. The likeness of the maker and the thing made they marked in the house of laws. That every man might see the hiddenness in the revealed senses. Divinity with humanity they sang with their voices, and their song gladdened the spiritual and the corporeal. Son of being and son of humanity they called one child, one from the height and one from the depth, the Word and the body. Hidden and revealed they proclaimed and taught the sons of men, that they might cut off hope from the visible concerning being. In the body they set a door for the senses and movements, that they might not be troubled by the hidden that cannot be grasped. Corporeality they clothed in their hands like a spectacle, and showed the world the power of hiddenness in the revealed senses. The name of God they inscribed on the bodily page, and they sealed the man with the divine name. God-man they called being and humanity, son of God who dwells in the vessels of the body. The hidden spirit revealed to them the mysteries of the secret, and they guided the two natures into one person. The spirit revealed to them the hidden mysteries that they did not know, and made them wise as to where the Word and the body might be found. They separated the natures one from the other as they are, that the nature of being might not be diminished in the body that it put on.

To each one they gave what was fitting, that each might learn that the nature is not mingled with the body. To the nature they gave concealment from all, as is fitting, and the body they called visible, as it is. The insensible they placed above sensations, and the mortal they hid in the garment of mortality. They distinguished and set apart the two, like knowers, so that the runners on the path of their word might not be confused. They were careful lest a man stray from the truth and miss the course, the firm running of the name of the Creator. They were diligent lest the work of spiritual life be hindered, lest the forest of their error grow up in the good seed. They were very watchful in the planting of love and faith, lest the works of the evil one, hidden and dark, sprout. With a hidden search they sought in the congregations, that men might be revealers of the truth and sons of victory. It was clear to them that wolves put on the likeness of sheep and deceive the hearts of men by their appearances. In the evil disposition of the heretics they were sought, who are likened to the beautiful garment of faith. They saw that man was destined to put off the body from himself, and before its uprooting they cut down the forest, the weapon of their thoughts. The name of humanity they sowed first in the hands of men, and they set and established the nature of the hidden one from all.

Wisely he taught the clear truth, the hidden nature and the temple body, two that were one. With glorious melodies they adorned the altar, commanding a fixed order for the teacher. They gave bodily forms to men until the time of the Word, and they offered the food of the divine mystery. These signs spread in creation like nets for birds, and they enclosed the world in the boundaries of their words. With these portions they worked the earth full of thorns, and brought forth its fruits of glory for the one who receives. These words the spiritual farmers sowed, and left the harvest of their faith in the land of men. This is the path that the solitary ones of faith trod, and they began to follow, the watchers and men, toward the promise of the end. With these voices men and spirits cried out, and they answered one another in the good meditation of the thought of life. With this power they sealed the covenant with Satan, and they spread the wings that taught demons to the wicked. With this rod they shouted and were perfected in the hidden and the revealed, and they ascended the ladder of greatness in both worlds. They put on the name of the Creator like armor and fought with all, and they measured the height and depth that exist opposite the abyss. They went forth with their limbs and their bodies to all regions, and they healed pains, revived the dead, and pursued demons.

They divided the peoples and the cities according to their worship, so that each one of them might show his zeal through the mysteries. They passed over the likeness of that daughter of the voice who chose them, that she might be with you until the end of the world. Simon preached in the regions of Rome the new gospel, the divinity that put on a body, which came to all. He hunted wild beasts and went out first to hunt the peoples; he cast his net and caught the mother of cities. The head of the disciples hunted the city of error and brought its captivity into the midst of the treasures of faith. The firstborn of Bar and Audi, the son of God, he first offered the sacrifices of the salvation of the peoples. He placed his confession on the foundation of the rock at the beginning of the house, and he sought and perfected the peoples, weary in the bonds of love. He stood in it, the son of Rome, and he terrified the idols of the worship of idols, and the fall of their error, which the demons had bound to the worship of dust. He terrified the demons and the idols, the servants of demons, with his voice, and they despised the worship of the names of gods and honored the truth. Also John raised his voice to the Ephesians, as if from sleep he roused them to the worship of life. By the thunderbolt his daughter-voice was in the barren land, and she watered the abyss with the living rain of the word of his mouth. He cast into her womb the good seed of faith by means of glowing mysteries for the name that was hidden in him.

And he made the voice of the generation and its essence heard in the likeness of thunder. The son of the people whose voice revives the dead who died in sin. And he showed them a new way of life for the dead. Matthew taught the house of the upper ones the third rank. And he sealed the keys of the mysteries with the proclamation. He confirmed them by means of the parables that are with the righteous. And they made known that they had delivered the mysteries and that the truth had shone forth. He rejoiced Abraham, who was the brother of the peoples because of his love. And he gladdened David, from whose seed arose the king of the covenant. He wrote on his tablet, which was in the spirit without union. And like a root, he removed from the land the pure Mary. In the temple of the body he showed that a hidden desire dwells. And he called him by the name "son of the tent" who is above all. To this living one, Luke also delivered, the physician of the spirit. And like a remedy, he healed with his words the Egyptians. A skilled physician was sent to the sick people. He soothed his pains by means of divine remedies. God cast down his hair, the son of Shem, for the son of Ham the servant. And he placed for him the remedy of freedom, a seal upon his thought. In the pain of iniquity, the seed of Ham the wanton was cast. And upon the Hebrew he pressed with spirit and concealed his iniquity. He released him from the yoke of servitude of the iniquity of the abominations. And he stamped him with the spirit that would distinguish the king of Rome.

He made the sounds [as he cried out in the land of Egypt, and he silenced the sounds] of their error with the proclamation. The voice of his mouth was greater than the thunder, and the tremors of his limbs were more abundant than the silent ones. His voice was more wondrous over the Egyptians than the thunder, and the tremors of his people were more abundant than those of Israel. Moses set free and turned back his people who died in sin, and Luke set free and turned back his people with hope and life. The heavenly one filled the sons of his race with freedom and life, and he confessed to them the resurrection of the body and the salvation of the soul. Mark sowed the seed of [...] the chosen rock in Rome, and with his words he watered the speaking fruits with sweetness. He sought his teaching upon the confession of the chosen rock, and he was not separated from the disturbances of the error of their wandering. He shone like the true name of his words among the Romans, and he pursued the darkness of the sorcery which Simon taught. He spread and revealed the skill of that enchanter, and he mocked his inheritance with the name of the sweetness of the name of Jesus. He uprooted his thorns and cleansed the forest of his death, and he sowed in the trees the good seed of his faith. With faith he began and completed like his companions, and he sealed his book to the testament of his canons. With four books the king sealed his proclamation, and he placed a perfect hand and rejoiced in the salvation of the peoples.

By the revelation he spread his teaching in the four directions, and he covered the naked world with the garment of his word. The name of Christ was in their hands and in their eyes, and the seals of the truth were stamped by him upon the limbs of the righteous. As one body they considered one another, though they were many, and they bound the bond of their thoughts upon the head of Christ. The concealment of the limbs of the anointed ones was disturbed, and the noble name of the one whom they had chosen was greatly agitated. By the form of the image, Christ was depicted before their minds, and they were sealed with the sign of his name as with a seal. There was nothing in their eyes but Christ, and in him the hidden vision of their thoughts was fixed. They did not consider that there was anything of the dwelling of the altar, nor did they think that there was any remainder in the lands. Paul, the chosen one, the friend of the king of Rome, who died while living and lived while dying, and was sent and imprisoned. He died to the world without rejoicing in his agitations, and he lived in the hope of that renewal which would come in the end. For the sake of his Lord's sufferings, he was wearied without satiety, and he was made to hope that he would see him in a face without death. For he was with him in the life of the altar mysteriously, but he longed to be with him in perfection.

For this service they loved the heralds of the word of life, and while they were on earth, they were not on earth but with him. Because of his love they left everything and honored his love, and they were witnesses of his preaching against error. They proclaimed his baptism and showed his birth and his bodily upbringing, and they depicted his suffering and painted his resurrection, that he rose and ascended. They heard the voice that commanded them: "Go, teach and baptize." And they fulfilled his love with love for the word of his mouth among all peoples. They went out to the prisons and the crossroads after the sick, and they gathered and filled the house of feasting with good and evil. They set the table for a spiritual feast, and they gave them the medicine of life in the mystery of blood, with body and blood they nourished them mystically, so that everyone might learn that it is a bodily body and blood. With the food of the spirit they celebrated the feast for the nations of the world. And they drank the cup of idolatry and honored the truth; with the stole of glory they covered themselves against the heretics. And they restrained the course of frivolity in their conduct; with hope and life they established themselves against the kings. And they taught them not to be troubled by the pains of sacrifice. The kings of life they saw as a living thing before their eyes, that they might live in faith toward the future. In his likeness they sought to imitate him, and they began like infants before the disciples.

They were not in the midst of labors before the altars, and they showed the mysteries of the sacrifice to the altars. They exhausted all their powers by the power of divine help, and they extinguished and proclaimed the vanity of idols and demons. They broke the bread and shattered the fierce decrees of the tyrant king, and they laughed and mocked at the judges and their authorities. They began the teaching of the books of their error in the hand of men, and they wrote books of one teaching of God the All. Their voice was like that of one crying out in the midst of the earths, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one essence. The singer of their spiritual hymns was delighted, as they sang the Word and the Body, the Son of God. Their words were sweet to the watchers and to men, as they sowed the new proclamation of the cause of peace. The stones of the heavens were astonished at the power within them, as they exhausted all teachings by the power of Jesus. The spiritual ones stood in wonder at their contests, for they saw that the world and its power were humbled by the painters. They saw that the nature of corruptible flesh was clothed, and they wondered greatly how they conquered the passions within them. The bones that broke the skull and its sinews, and they showed a likeness without feeling in their violences. Or the earths that dwelt in the land of the sickness of the body, and were not covered by the grievous pains of its foundation.

O merchants who traveled a path full of thorns, and did not exhaust the great treasure of your minds. O sailors who sat in a ship on a troubled sea, and your faith was not drowned among the waves. O priests who sang on the third day of the Trinity, and the chariot of the hundred thoughts of your minds was not halted. O athletes who contended in the arena with wild beasts, and the hands of your captors did not cut you in your limbs. O farmers who sowed seeds of life among the dead, until the darkness of the forest where demons howled in the groves. O disciples, guardians of the love of the great Messiah, and the vision of your love was not diminished from the side of your Lord. Small is the love that can describe the story of your minds, and it cannot depict the image of your struggles. The tongue is too short to reach the height to which you ascended, and the brush is weary that reached with you to the limit of life. Only one can depict the image of your love, and he knows the labors of your contests. To him it is revealed how much you suffered for his love, and he knows how to give reward to your desires. In his vineyard he planted you from the beginning of his planting, and he will show you the dwelling of life that is indestructible.