Ephraim: The Nisibene Hymns
Nisibene Hymn 41: Satan Fears Jesus
The Evil One said: “I am afraid of him, Jesus, that he will destroy my arts. For see, I am thousands of years old, and I have never had rest. I have seen nothing established that I turned away from and left alone. Now one has come who makes the unchaste pure. There is sorrow, since he has destroyed all I had built. Many have been my labors and my teachings, so that I might cover all creation with every evil.
“I matched my speed against the swift and outran them. I waged war, and the tumult of crowds was my armor. I rejoiced in the tumult of the people, because it gave me ready room, for the onslaught of crowds is fierce. By the strength of crowds I raised a great mountain; I stretched a tower up to heaven. If they waged war against the Height, how much more will they conquer him whose warfare is on earth?
“I wage war as time allows and as help offers, but cautiously. The people used to hear that God is one, and they made themselves a crowd of gods. And when they saw the Son of God, they hurried to the One God, so that, as if confessing God, they might deny him, and, as if in zeal, they might flee from him; so that they, perverse at all times, will be found to be without God.
“See, I am old, many years old, and I have never turned away any infant. I have often carried the burden of children, so that from the beginning I might make them take on habits that are not good, and their faults might grow up with them. But there are foolish fathers who do not crush the seed I have sown in their sons. And there are some who, like good farmers, root out the faults from the minds of their children.
“I have bound men with laziness as with a chain, and they have sat idle. I have drawn their senses away from all good things: their eyes from reading, their mouths from singing praise, their understanding from teaching. How eager they are for harmful and empty tales! How ready for idle talk! If the word of life fell among them, they either pushed it away from them or got up and went out from its presence.
“How many Satans there are among men! And yet it is me, me alone, whom everyone curses. For see, a man’s anger is a devil that grinds him down every day. Demons are like travelers, who leave if they are forced to. But anger, though all the righteous adjure it, is not rooted out from its place. Instead of destructive envy, everyone hates a weak and wretched demon.
“The enchanter is put to shame along with the wizard who tames serpents every day. The viper inside him is beyond his power, for he does not tame the lust within him. Secret sin, like an asp, scorches him when it breathes on him. Even when he catches the viper by his cunning, delusion strikes him in secret. He lulls the snake with his incantations, and by his incantations he wakes mighty wrath against himself.
“I set my stings, and I sat and waited. Who is as long-suffering with everyone as I am? I sat beside the patient-spirited man and bewitched him step by step, until he came to despair. As for the man who was ashamed of his transgressions, habits overcame him. Little by little I mastered him, until he was under the yoke, until he came in under it and grew used to it and did not even want to go out.
“I perceived and saw that the long-suffering one is the one who can overcome all. When I conquered Adam, he was only one man. I left him alone until he had fathered children, and I looked for another task for myself, for idleness is not to my taste. I counted the sands of the sea so that I might make my spirit patient, and test my memory to see whether it would be enough for mankind when they had multiplied. Before they multiplied, I tested them in many things.”
The Evil One’s servants argued with him and refuted his words with their reply: “But see, Elisha brought the dead to life. He conquered death in the upper room and brought the widow’s son to life. And see, now he is held in bondage in Sheol.” But because the Evil One’s reasoning was very powerful, he refuted their words with their own words: “How has Elisha been overcome? See, in Sheol he brought the dead to life by his bones.
“If Elisha, who had little power, was great in might in the middle of Sheol, and if he brought one dead man to life there, how many of the dead will be raised there by the death of Jesus the mighty! From this, then, consider how much greater Jesus is than we are, my comrades. For see, he deceived you by his craftiness, and you could not measure his greatness when you compared him to the prophets.”
“Your consolations have little power,” the Evil One said to his company. “For he who brought Lazarus to life though he was dead, how can Death be a match for him? And if Death conquers him, it is because he wills to be subdued by him. And if he wills to be subdued, be very afraid, for he does not die for nothing. He has caused us great terror, for fear that when he dies he may go in to raise Adam to life.”
Death looked out from inside his den and was amazed when he saw our Lord crucified, and he said: “You who raise the dead to life, where are you? You will be food for me, instead of sweet Lazarus, whose taste, see, is still in my mouth. Jairus’s daughter will come and see this cross of yours. The widow’s son gazes at you. A tree caught Adam for me; blessed be the cross that has caught for me the Son of David!”
Death opened his mouth and said: “Have you not heard, Son of Mary, how Moses was great and excellent above all? How he became a God and did the works of God? How he killed the firstborn and saved the firstborn, and turned the plague away from the living? I went up the mountain with Moses, and he whose glory be blessed handed him over to me, from hand to hand. For however great a son of Adam becomes, he is dust and returns to his dust, because he is from the ground.”
Satan came with his servants to see our Lord thrown into Sheol and to rejoice with Death, his counselor. And he saw him sorrowful and mourning, because of the dead who, at the voice of the Firstborn, came to life and came out from Sheol. The Evil One rose to console Death, his kinsman: “You have not destroyed as much as you could. Even as Jesus is in your midst, those who have come to life and those who live will come into your hand.
“Open up for us, so that we can see him and mock him. Let us answer and say, ‘Where is your power?’ For see, three days have passed for him. And let us say to him, ‘You of three days, who raised Lazarus when he had lain four days, raise yourself.’” Death opened the gates of Sheol, and the splendor of our Lord’s face shone out from it. They were struck as the men of Sodom were struck; they groped about and looked for the gate of Sheol, which they had lost.