Ἅγιος ὁ Θεός, Ἅγιος ἰσχυρός, Ἅγιος ἀθάνατος, ἐλέησον ἡμᾶςKatholikon

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Testament of Our Lord

tr. Cooper and Maclean, 1902

28. Book I, Chapter 28

After that let the bishop teach the mysteries1 to the people. But if he be not present,2 let a3 presbyter speak so that the faithful may know to whom they are approaching and who is their4 God and Father. Then let the teaching5 of the mysteries be said thus:

[Mystagogia or] Initiation5 Into the Mysteries which is Said Before the Offering to the Faithful

[We confess] Him who is pre-existent,6 and was present, and is, and cometh7; who suffered and was buried,8 and rose, and was glorified by the Father; who loosed our cords from death, who rose from the dead; who is not only Man9 but therewith also God; who by the Holy Ghost restored the flesh of Adam with [his] soul to immortality, because He preserved10 Adam by the Spirit11; who clothed Himself with dead12 Adam and made him to live; who ascended into heaven; under whom, after the cross,13 Death fell, and was conquered, when its bonds, whereby the Devil sometimes14 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,15 [even Death] who was filled with darkness and was shaken, and feared, beholding the Only-begotten Son; who in His [human] soul16 descended in the Godhead into Sheol17; 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 Him18; 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, Arm19 of the Father.20

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, Life, Medicine, Provision, Drink, [and] Judge. We confess Him passible [yet] not passible, Son21 [yet] not created,21 dead [yet] alive, the Son of the Father, incomprehensible [yet] comprehensible; who, [Himself] sinless, hath borne22 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 water23 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,24 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 flesh, making flesh which was under death to be incorruptible, He thus showed in the flesh of dead Adam, wherewith He clothed Himself, an example25 of incorruptibility, by which example25 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 live26; through which Gospel the bonds of the Devil have been cut, so that we may attain27 immortality instead of28 death, and instead of28 ignorance may receive [the grace] of watchfulness.

He, then, having become Man,29 the Son of God, the Lord, who took [on Him] the dead race of Adam in all its kinds,30 by emptying [Himself31], He who is the First, came to birth, as Man,32 though He is God; He who was foreknown by the prophets,33 and preached by the apostles, and lauded by angels, and glorified by the Father of all.34 He was crucified for us; and His cross is our life, our strength, [our] salvation, for it is the hidden mystery,35 the ineffable joy, and through it the whole nature of mankind,36 always bearing it, is made inseparable from God, for it is the virtue37 benign38 and inseparable39 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 men40; make deaf your visible ears41; make blind your bodily42 eyes; so that ye may know the will of Christ and all the mystery of your salvation. Holy men43 and women, whose property it is to make your boast in the Lord, listen to the inward man.44

Our Lord, when He taught us and appointed to us a covenant, and made us of [His] household, and came, after His passion,45 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 soul46 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 Man44 who [was] under me, and hath conquered 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 corruption47? 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,48 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 allow49 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 touch50? What is this glory unsearchable51 to its surroundings? Woe is me! I am put to flight52 by Him and by those things which are His, for I cannot53 injure them.

He, being the Christ, who was crucified, by whom the [things] that were on the left hand were54 [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 Death55; after 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 lying56 go out, nor with this created and material word57; 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 is not in the world and is not left on earth, but with this Voice, the Spirit who58 is in Us, only speaking to Thee, O Father, loving Thee, praising Thee, through whom58 also the whole choir of perfect saints calleth Thee beloved, [calleth] Thee Father,59 [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 all60 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,61 so that they may know of whom in the holy things they are partaking, and what62 memorial they are making63 through the Eucharist.64

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 give65 us, which eye hath not seen and ear hath not heard, and [which] have not entered66 into the heart of man,67 the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him,68 as Moses69 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.

After the people are taught the Initiation70 into the mysteries, let the Eucharist be offered; but let not the Initiation into the mysteries be said each time, but only at Pascha,71 on Saturday, and on the first day of the week, and on the days of the Epiphany and of Pentecost.

Notes

  1. Lit.: the things of the mysteries.
  2. Lit.: near.
  3. Or: the.
  4. Lit.: to them.
  5. These are different words in the Syriac; the latter is exactly μυσταγωγία translated into Syriac.
  6. Or: went before; or: was before.
  7. Rev. i. 8.
  8. Cf. Constantinopolitan Creed (cf. p. 110).
  9. Lit.: Son of Man.
  10. Or: in order that He might preserve.
  11. This seems the best rendering, but other translations might be given, “in spirit” or “in the spirit.”
  12. Rahmani renders: “qui Adam jam mortuum induit,” but his “jam” is not in the Syriac.
  13. I.e. the crucifixion.
  14. Or: once.
  15. πρόσωπον transliterated; not the usual word.
  16. See Note, p. 184.
  17. Gr. Hades: the “Hell” of the English version of the Apostles’ Creed.
  18. Lit.: the Equality in His will.
  19. Cf. Isa. li. 9, liii. 1.
  20. In the Syriac all the above is one sentence, depending on the “we confess” of the next paragraph.
  21. Paronomasia.
  22. Or: taken away.
  23. Sc., from His side.
  24. These words seem to refer to our Lord.
  25. Or: type.
  26. Or: to live as a figure, etc.
  27. ἐπιτυχῶμεν.
  28. Lit.: from.
  29. Or: Son of Man.
  30. Lit.: by kinds. See Note, p. 185.
  31. Phil. ii. 7 (same root).
  32. Or: Son of Man.
  33. Cf. Rom. xvi. 25, 26.
  34. The allusion is clear to 1 Tim. iii. 16.
  35. Cf. 1 Cor. ii. 7.
  36. Lit.: sons of men.
  37. Or: excellence.
  38. Or: pitiful.
  39. Lit.: cannot be separated.
  40. 1 Cor. xvi. 13. (1 Sam. iv. 9 is different.)
  41. Lit.: hearings.
  42. Lit.: open; or: revealed.
  43. Viri.
  44. Homo; lit.: Son of Man.
  45. Lit.: after He suffered.
  46. Lit.: endowed with a (human) soul; as above.
  47. Cf. Acts xiii. 37.
  48. Lit.: the flame of Death.
  49. Lit.: give.
  50. Lit.: handle.
  51. ἀνεξιχνίαστος translated.
  52. Or: I have fled from Him.
  53. Lit.: I have nothing whereby to.
  54. Lit.: became.
  55. Heb. ii. 14.
  56. Cf. St. Jas. iii. 10.
  57. Lit.: word (or speech) which goeth out of workmanship, thus material.
  58. Masculine; therefore it means the Holy Ghost.
  59. There is a reference to Rom. viii. 15; Gal. iv. 6.
  60. Or: every.
  61. See p. 84, footnote.
  62. Or: whose; or: of what.
  63. Or: offering.
  64. εὐχαριστία transliterated.
  65. Lit.: giveth.
  66. Lit.: gone up.
  67. Lit.: a son of man.
  68. 1 Cor. ii. 9 (almost exactly); not as in Isa. lxiv. 4.
  69. The reference is perhaps to Deut. xxix. 4; but it is more probably a blunder.
  70. See at the beginning of this chapter, p. 84, footnote.
  71. πάσχα transliterated. So always.

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