Nisibene Hymn 60: The Evil One and the Sinful Woman

Oh, what amazement suddenly came over the Evil One, my brothers and sisters,

when the sinful woman was set right and gained Wisdom!

Refrain: Glory to the one who alone conquered the Evil One;

and to him, yes, to him, be praise as well, who vanquished Death!

The Evil One marveled:

Where is her laughter? Where are her perfumes?

Where are her dancing and her outward ornament, and her inward wickedness?

Instead of that light laughter, she has given herself up to tears.

She has cut off her hair to wipe the dust off the feet of Jesus.

Nothing of any teaching lasts in her or stays with her.

She has escaped our instruction and thrown away all that I taught her.

She has denied us and our acquaintance, and as though

she had never seen me, she has wiped my image out of her mind.

The living leaven of Jesus flew to her. Jesus was silent,

but she dared to press in and enter, though no one called her.

She forgot our love of many years, and in the blink of an eye

she removed it from between me and her, and set Death there.

For instead of laughter, weeping delights her; instead of paint,

a shower of tears; and instead of ornament, a sad face.

Zacchaeus I made chief of the extortioners, and her I made

chief of the wanton. My two wings Jesus has broken.

If Zacchaeus becomes his disciple, and if she

becomes his hearer, from now on they put my craftiness in chains.

From now on carved images are a mockery, the carvers

an object of scorn, and the worshipers a laughingstock.

I shut men’s eyes so that they would not see that these are carved images;

Jesus opens their eyes to see that they are the work of men’s hands.

If Jesus has chosen preachers for himself, then our preaching,

of which the whole world is full, is put to silence.

For see, the Chaldeans with the fortune-tellers, and see, the wizards

with the diviners are struck down, and the priests, with all the wicked!

You priests are finished and have given up the ghost from now on; away with you, diviners!

Become farmers! The Chaldeans likewise will close their books.

If the Hebrews, who were not subdued by all the miracles,

have become his disciples, which of the nations will not obey him?

If he begins to set right what is turned backward, he brings our speech to nothing.

From now on he will not hesitate against us, he who rebukes all men.

Because I was worshiped in all the temples, our disgrace is greater

than our honor was, for all men spit on our altars.

The flesh of sacrifice becomes loathsome, broken into pieces;

idols are smashed, and carved images burn under their pots.

All our work becomes a laughingstock and a ruin, all that we have built,

and a mockery, all that we have taught.

The secret mysteries that I taught them with such labor

are about to be spread abroad on the housetops.

I was prouder of the Egyptians than of any nation,

for they used to worship even onions and garlic.

See, I am afraid that even here, where delusion was so great,

truth will prevail, so that Jesus may reign there mightily.

And if, when he was an infant and fled and went down, Egypt marveled,

yes, lulled him, this strangler of babies loved their Baby.

Was it a pledge he went down to give her, like one who betroths,

an assurance that when he is grown he will also take her as his bride?

Pharaoh cannot stand firm, for this is no stammerer,

that he could deceive him, and no slave, that he could lie to him.

Moses struck, and the Egyptians rebelled; he punished the people,

and the Hebrews rebelled. Jesus is struck, and gives life to all.

This is hard to understand: it is not by force that he lays his yoke

on the rebellious. He was rebuked, and he instructs others.

The spittle of his mouth wiped off and took away the shame of Adam;

by the striking of his cheeks he rooted out our wrathfulness from his disciples.

By the nails he received, he made me suffer. I rejoiced when I crucified him,

and I did not know that he was crucifying me in his crucifixion.