Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume XIII/Ephraim the Syrian and Aphrahat/Nisibene Hymns/Hymn XXXIX

1.&#160; There have come to me ransomers from among the saints, but none has plundered me like the Son of Mary.&#160; For lo! Elijah brought a dead man to life; and even though he himself escaped from my hands, yet had I consolation after him, for the dead man whom he quickened, I carried off from him.&#160; By Elisha son of Shaphat, I was beaten as with rods, for he brought two dead men to life.&#160; By one staff I in turn bore away both the prophet and the dead whom he had raised.&#160; R., Blessed is He Who cleft the tombs of Sheol by His voice!

2.&#160; I feared him even Gehazi when I saw, him lay the staff upon the youth.&#160; The thief took the staff away and returned; Elisha came and bowed himself; laid himself low as the child and raised himself up, and walked hither and thither.&#160; I marvelled at the new mysteries which I saw there, which restored but one youth to life.&#160; It was well with me then when those were but mysteries, and not now when the dead have rebelled and conquered me.

3.&#160; Moses when I saw the mighty splendour upon his face, I feared him:&#160; yet not according to what I feared befel it me.&#160; Nisan in Sheol he caused to spring for me; for a pasture, a pasture of corpses, of six hundred thousand fell.&#8212;This lowly and despised whom I contemned, has healed the sick and the diseased:&#160; to others He has multiplied bread, but our bread even ours from our mouths He snatches.

4.&#160; A mighty feast there was in Sheol, when I swallowed up Korah and his company.&#160; A great delight Satan made for me, when he made strife among the Levites.&#160; A fount of milk and honey, made he flow for me in a dry place, when the congregation of transgressors went down to Sheol.&#8212;Lo! the righteous have lived and come forth:&#160; Moses sent down the living thither, but Jesus has revived and brought up the dead.

5.&#160; It was well with me then, in the day of the zealous, those in whose swords I had delight.&#160; Phinehas the zealous pierced and gave me, on the head of his spear for my delight, Zimri and Cozbi both together; on the head of his lance he presented them to me.&#160; To whom then were there ever two fatted oxen, offered on the head of a spear?&#8212;But instead of Cozbi, daughter of princes, the daughter of Jairus has Jesus rescued from my hands.

6.&#160; The censer of Aaron caused me to fear, for he stood between the dead and the living and conquered me.&#160; The Cross causes me to fear more exceedingly, which has rent open the graves of Sheol.&#160; The Crucified Whom on it I slew, now by Him am I slain.&#160; Not very great is his reproach, who is overcome by a warrior in arms. &#160;Worse to me is my reproach than my torment, in that by a crucified man my strength has been overcome.

7.&#160; The lance of Phinehas again has caused me to fear, for by the slaughter he wrought with it he hindered the pestilence.&#160; The lance guarded the tree of life, it made me glad and made me sad; it hindered Adam from life, and it hindered death from the people.&#160; But the lance that pierced Jesus, by it I have suffered; He is pierced and I groan.&#160; There came out from Him water and blood; Adam washed and lived and returned to Paradise.

8.&#160; The Sadducees were as a mouth for me, and disputed with Him after my mind, that there is no rising of the dead at all.&#160; Jesus answered them in a saying, which I alone understood; He spake aloud the hateful word and saddened me, &#8220;I am the God of him even of Abraham, and God is not the God of the dead.&#8221;&#160; It was well with me then these were but words, and He had not yet showed me the life of the dead indeed.

9.&#160; Jesus son of Nun, slew thirty kings, and filled the graves and pits for me; he laid waste Jericho and filled Sheol.&#160; But this Jesus who is come, has wasted the graves of their dead, and has filled the cities of the upper world.&#160; Wherefore thus when lo! they are like in their names, are they unlike in their doings?&#160; That gave me the body of Achor, but this snatched from me the body of Lazarus.

10.&#160; Moses trod down that Egyptian, with his meekness he mingled justice.&#160; Whence has this new law sprung for me, &#8220;If one smite thee on thy cheek, turn to him thy other cheek, and see that thou hate him not?&#8221;&#160; Instead of the strong man of zeal who trod down and slew, a new man of mercy has risen for us.&#160; Samuel hewed Agag in pieces, but Jesus healed the paralytic.

11.&#160; Tender mercy which had as it were waxed less, lo! in this time has waxed great.&#160; And moreover it was then detested, lest through it one should transgress the commandment; for without mercy Saul and Ahab, were slain because they desired, to have mercy on the evil ones, and they were not slain who were deserving of punishment.&#160; In my time Jesus has changed this, by giving life to all men and having compassion on His slayers.

12.&#160; I remember Samson that lion&#8217;s whelp, who brake and gave me the pillars of Philistia; also that mighty man of valor Abner son of Ner, took for me that fleet wild roe, Asahel son of Zeruiah, and smote him and cast him on the ground.&#160; Benaiah in the holy temple slew Jacob, justly as it is written.&#8212;Because justice has restrained her sword, henceforth penitents shall rejoice in grace.

13.&#160; David measured the Edomites, by line and line and destroyed them.&#160; How merciful then art Thou, O Son of David!&#160; David&#8217;s justice was twofold, when he put to death two lines, and saved one full line alive.&#8212;Lo! the Son of David teaches us, &#8220;Forgive thy brother even unto seventy times seven.&#8221;&#160; There justice was measured; but here clemency is without measure.

14.&#160; Of zeal and strength David was possessed; the lion and the bear he slew together.&#160; He left that mighty lion and hasted, to meet the strong giant.&#160; With a stone he quenched his light, and his soul left him and he perished.&#160; But Jesus cried to the young man that was dead &#8220;Young man!&#8221;&#160; Even the dead to Him are sleepers.&#160; That young man He brought to life and rescued from me.&#160; The despised swine He drowned for me in the sea.

15.&#160; The Levites slew because of the calf, their fathers and their brethren.&#160; Jephthah by his own hands was ready to slay his daughter.&#160; The King of Moab on the wall, was sacrificing his first-born son:&#160; In presence of his sword I rejoice.&#8212;By Jesus the sword was blunted; yea the fever was rebuked, the sister of Sheol:&#160; the mother-in-law of Simeon was healed, but the fame of her healing smote Sheol with pain.

16.&#160; This Jesus though he be the Son of the Just One, all that He preaches is grace.&#160; But to me this His grace is torment.&#160; Envy is the cause of pleasure to us, for Envy at the beginning mixed for me the first shedding of blood.&#160; Why is it guilty in the sight of the Son of Mary Who is come commanding, &#8220;Thou shalt not be angry against thy brother?&#8221;&#160; He has taken away the sword from between brethren; while in the sword of Cain I had pleasure from the beginning.

17.&#160; An honeycomb in the midst of the skeleton, Samson found&#8212;was it then a mystery?&#160; This Jesus has multiplied for us mysteries.&#160; Amid billows of mysteries have I fallen, which show me in parable the life of the dead, in all mysteries and in all types.&#160; &#8220;Out of the eater came forth meat&#8221; was Samson&#8217;s parable.&#160; But to me it has befallen contrariwise; for the eater has come forth to me out of the meat, for out of Adam lo! has come the Son of Adam Who has destroyed me.

18.&#160; Just men likewise have robbed me manifold, when by them was preached the rising of the dead:&#160; but they mingled with my sorrows great consolation.&#160; By the prayer of Asa and Hezekiah, I was fed upon the dead, yea I feasted upon corpses.&#160; Elijah slew the prophets of Baal and gave them to me, who on the bread of Jezebel had waxed fat.&#160; The righteous has constrained me to devour, but Jesus has compelled me to disgorge all that I had eaten.

19.&#160; I was afraid because of the sprinkled blood, which Moses sprinkled on every door; for though the blood of the slain, it was that which saved the living.&#160; Blood from of old I feared not, save that blood that was on the doors, and this moreover that was on the Tree.&#160; The blood of the slain is a delight, and is as sweet perfume:&#160; but the blood of Jesus is to me a terror; for whenever I come and smell His blood, the savour of life that lurks therein terrifies me.

20.&#160; Priests and pontiffs, anointed men and kings, who foreshow types of the rising of the dead, have never triumphed through their crosses.&#160; Crowns and diadems were set on them; and when I engaged in struggles with them, I was smitten sometimes and sometimes also I smote.&#160; But this carpenter&#8217;s son with his crown of thorns, has humbled and cast down my pride, in His shame and His dying:&#160; Sheol has seen Him, yea, and fled from before Him.

21.&#160; When the sea saw Moses and fled, it feared because of his rod, and likewise because of his glory.&#160; His splendour and his rod and his power, the rock also saw which was cleft.&#160; But Sheol when her graves were rent, what saw she in Him even in Jesus?&#8212;Instead of splendour He put on the paleness of the dead and made her tremble.&#160; And if His paleness when slain slew her, how shall she be able to endure, when He comes to raise the dead, in His Glory!