Chapter 28

1After that let the bishop teach the mysteries® to the people. But if he be not present,® let a? presbyter speak so that the faithful may know to whom they are approaching and who is their’ God and Father. Then let the teaching ® of the mysteries be said thus: [MYSTAGOGIA oR] INITIATION ® INTO THE MYSTERIES WHICH IS SAID BEFORE THE OFFERING TO THE FAITHFUL [We confess] Him who is pre-existent,!° and was present, 4B.: unwise [things] ; or: unwise [women]. 7Or: the. 8 Lit.: to them. translated into Syriac. and is, and cometh!; who suffered and was buried,? and rose, and was glorified by the Father; who loosed our cords from death, who rose from the dead; who is not only Man ® but therewith also God; who by the Holy Ghost restored the flesh of Adam with [his] soul to immortality, because He preserved * Adam by the Spirit®; who clothed Himself with dead ® Adam and made him to live; who ascended into heaven ; under whom, after the cross,’ Death fell, and® was conquered, when its bonds, whereby the Devil sometimes® waxed strong and prevailed against us, were dissolved ; [and] through whose passion [Death] was manifested useless and weak when [Jesus] cut his cords and his power, when his snares were cut, and He struck him on his face, [even Death] who was filled with darkness and was shaken, and feared, beholding the Only-begotten Son; who in His [human] soul" descended in the Godhead into Sheol ?#; who descended from the pure heights above the heavens; Him [we confess] the indivisible Thought who is from the Father, and [is] of one will with Him; Him the Maker, with His Father, of heaven; who is the Angels’ Crown, the Archangels’ Strength, the Raiment of the Hosts and the Spirit of the Dominions; Him, the Ruler of the everlasting Kingdom, and Prince of the Saints, the unfathomable Intelligence of the Father; Him who is the Wisdom, the Power, the Lord, the Thought, Intelligence, Hand, Arm™ of the Father. As we believe, we confess Him who is our Light, Salvation, Saviour, Protector, Helper, Teacher, Deliverer, Rewarder, Assister, Strength, Wall; our Shepherd, Entrance, Door, Way, spirit” or ‘‘in the spirit.” not in the Syriac. Life, Medicine, Provision, Drink, [and] Judge. We confess Him passible [yet] not passible, Son? [yet] not created,’ dead [yet] alive, the Son of the Father, incomprehensible [yet] comprehensible; who, [Himself] sinless, hath borne® our sins when He left the Father’s heaven; whose Body being broken becometh our salvation, and [His] Blood and Spirit [our] life and holiness, and the water * our cleansing ; who giveth light * to the hearts of those who fear Him, being with them in all things; who hath made us strangers to the whole way of the Devil; the Renewer of souls, in whom we all have put our trust. He, being God, and before the worlds with® the Father, eternal God,° when He saw the world perishing in the bonds of sin, and trodden down by the power of a crafty wild beast, and made subject to death through ignorance and error, determining to heal the race of mankind, came to a virgin womb, though hidden from all the camps of the heavenly ones, and cast into ignorance [the] opposing hosts. But when [He], the Incorruptible, clothed Himself with corruptible fiesh, making flesh which was under death to be incorruptible, He thus showed in the flesh of dead Adam, wherewith He clothed Himself, an example’ of incorruptibility, by which example? the things of corruption were abolished. He delivered indeed holy commandments through the Gospel, which is the fore-proclaiming of the kingdom; by which Gospel as® a figure of the kingdom we learned to live®; through which Gospel the bonds of the Devil have been cut, so that we may attain? immortality instead of 1 death, and instead of ™ ignorance may receive [the grace] of watchfulness. He, then, having become Man,! the Son of God, the Lord, who took [on Him] the dead race of Adam in all its kinds, by emptying [Himself !*], He who is the First, came to birth, 3B. omits: as. ° Or: to live as a figure, ete. as Man,! though He is God; He who was foreknown by the prophets,” and preached by the apostles, and lauded by angels, and glorified by the Father of all’ He was crucified for us; and His cross is our life, our strength, [our] salvation, for it is the hidden mystery,‘ the ineffable joy, and through it the whole nature of mankind, always bearing it, is made inseparable from God, for it is the virtue® benign’ and inseparable & from God, that cannot be spoken as is meet by these lips, [and] that was hidden from the beginning; but now the mystery which is revealed, which is for the faithful, shall be, not as it seemeth to be, but as it is. This cross in which we boast, so that we may be glorified, [and] the bearers whereof, the faithful and perfect, separate their souls from everything that can be felt, from everything that is seen, as from a thing which is not true? —by this ask for yourselves, O ye who quit you like men’; make deaf your visible ears"; make blind your bodily ¥ eyes ; so that ye may know the will of Christ and all the mystery of your salvation. Holy men? and women, whose property it is to make your boast in the Lord, listen to the inward man.!* Our Lord, when He taught us and appointed to us a covenant, and made us of [His] household, and came, after His passion, into Sheol, made captive all the earth—He who made the nature of death captive to life, and Death when it saw Him descending in His soul’® to Sheol, was deceived, and hoped that He was food for him, as was his custom. But when he saw in Him the beauty of the Godhead, he cried out with [his] voice, saying: Who is this that hath clothed Himself with Man who [was] under me, and hath conquered 1Or: Son of Man. 2 Cf. Rom. xvi. 25, 26. 7Or: pitiful. 8 Lit.: cannot be separated. Ul Lit.: hearings. 12 Lit.: open; or: revealed. me? Who is this that snatcheth from destruction flesh which was bound by me? Who is this! that hath clothed Himself with earth but [Himself] is heaven? Who is this that was born in corruptibility, but suffereth no corruption ?? Who is this [that is] a stranger to my laws? Who is this that maketh captive those that are mine? Who is this that striveth with the power of burning Death,® and conquereth darkness? What is this new glory which [is] in this vision that preventeth me from doing the things which I would? Who is this new dead One without sin? Who is this that by the abundance of light extinguisheth darkness, and doth not allow* me to have rule over those that are mine, but draweth to heaven the souls which were given unto me? What is this glory which preventeth the body from being corruptible? Who is this whom I cannot touch®? What is this glory unsearchable ® to its surroundings? Woe’ isme! I am put to flight’® by Him and by those things which are His, for I cannot ® injure them. He, being the Christ, who was crucified, by whom the [things] that were on the left hand were’ [placed] on the right hand, and those which were beneath [were] as those which [were] above, and those which [were] behind as those which {were] before, when He rose from the dead, and trod down Sheol, and by death slew Death"; after 12 He rose on the third day He gave thanks to the Father, saying: I give thanks to Thee, O My Father, not with these lips which are fixed together, nor yet with a corporeal tongue through which truth and lying go out, nor with this created and material word *; but I give thanks to Thee, the King, with that Voice which through Thee understandeth all [things], which cometh not by a bodily organ, which falleth not on carnal ears, which 1B. omits: this. 2 Cf. Acts xiii. 37. 3 Lit.: the flame of Death. is not in the world and is not left on earth, but with this Voice, the Spirit who! is in Us, only speaking to Thee, O Father, loving Thee, praising Thee, through whom? also the whole choir of perfect saints calleth Thee beloved, [calleth] Thee Father,? [calleth] Thee Sustainer, [calleth] Thee Helper ; for Thou art all, and all [are] in Thee; for whatever is, is Thine and not another’s, but is Thine alone, who art for ever and ever. Amen: Let the shepherd know the mysteries * of all* nature. After I have prayed to the Father, as ye know and see, I am taken up, saith Jesus. Therefore it is right that the shepherd should speak the teaching of the Initiation into the mysteries, so that they may know of whom in the holy things they are partaking, and what® memorial they are making’ through the Eucharist.® And at the end, after this, let him say thus: As then we also have taken refuge in Him, and have learnt that it is in Him alone to give, let us beg from Him those things which He said that He would give® us, which eye hath not seen and ear hath not heard, and [which] have not entered” into the heart of man," the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him,!? as Moses ® and some of the saints have said. As then we have hoped in Him, let us give to Him praise; and to Him be glory and might for ever and ever. Amen. Let the people say: Amen. ™ Masculine ; therefore it means the Holy Ghost. The reference is perhaps to Deut. xxix. 4; but it is more probably a blunder. After the people are taught the Initiation’ into the mysteries, let the Eucharist be offered ; but let not the Initiation into the mysteries be said each time, but only at Pascha,? on Saturday, and on the first day of the week, and on the days of the Epiphany and of Pentecost.