Miscellaneous Coptic Texts in the Dialect of Upper Egypt, Part 1

Miscellaneous Coptic Texts in the Dialect of Upper Egypt, Part 1

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VIII. The Discourse of Cyril of Jerusalem on the Discovery of the Cross and the Baptism of Isaac the Samaritan

1 (Brit. Mus. MS. Oriental, No. 6799) The discourse which saint cyril, arch-bishop of jerusalem, pronounced concerning the cross of our lord jesus the christ, on the day of its discovery, which is the seventeenth day of the month thoth. AND HE SPAKE ALSO ABOUT THE WORD WHICH THE LORD SPAKE IN THE LAW OF MOSES, 'CELEBRATE A FEAST TO ME THREE TIMES EACH YEAR'. AND HE SPAKE ALSO ABOUT THE HONOUR OF THE CROSS, WHICH APPEARED ABOVE THE GRAVE OF THE SAVIOUR. AND HE SPAKE ALSO ABOUT ISAAC THE SAMARITAN, WHOM HE BAPTIZED. AND HE PRONOUNCED DISCOURSES IN THE SHRINE OF THE RESURRECTION, THAT IS TO SAY, SAINT EIRÊNÈ. HE CELEBRATED THE FESTIVAL OF THE CROSS WITH ALL THE ORTHODOX PEOPLE, WHO WERE GATHERED TOGETHER INTO THE HOLY CHURCH. IN THE PEACE OF GOD. AMEN. 2 'THE Lord reigneth; let the earth rejoice; let the isles, which are many, be glad. The Lord reigneth; He hath arrayed Himself in splendour. The Lord reigneth; He hath arrayed Himself in strength, He hath girded Himself therewith. O [my] hearers, who love instruction, who love reasoning, and who love God, I observe that the understandings [of men] are different, each from the other, and even so is it in the case of the holy Prophets. David, the father of the Christ according to the flesh, said, The Lord reigneth; let the earth rejoice; and let the isles, which are many, be glad.' He spake also in the same spirit, saying, 'The Lord reigneth from the wood.' For it is the Holy Spirit, Who spake by the mouths of all His Prophets, Who maketh Himself manifest, like the tongues of fire on the day of the holy Pentecost. Moreover David, the righteous king, saith, 'The Lord reigneth; let the nations rage furiously.' O David, thou hymn-writer, only a little way back thou didst say, 'The Lord reigneth; let the earth rejoice,' but thou dost not say 'rejoicing in all the earth'. And again thou dost speak, making a distinction between the islands and gladness and the tribulation of heart of the men who do what is evil. For wrath in a man is wont to bring in its train sorrow of heart.

3 But simple readings will not delight the hearts of those who listen if they do not find the interpretations thereof or that which shall declare unto them the meanings thereof. And behold, we will invoke the Holy Spirit, Who is One and is the same as the Father and the Son, so that He may open the eyes of our hearts in order that we may be able to understand a few particulars of His true knowledge, which He spake by the mouth of His holy Prophets. Now I myself alone am not capable of doing this. We will, however, keep with joy the festival of the Cross together with all the orthodox people who have assembled in this holy place this day from all parts of the country to glorify the Cross, and to worship and to bow down before Him Who ascended the Cross, our Saviour, Jesus the Christ, in order that He may permit all of us to enquire into His law and to understand His commandments.

4 Seeing that the Lord hath become King, we must know that He hath taken heed to time in order that He may manifestly become the King therein. Did not Daniel (sic) the prophet, the man beloved, say, 'His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and His sovereignty (or, dominion) is from generation to generation, and His power is from sea to sea, and from the river to the end of the world?' And again, 'The Lord is the King of all the earth.' And again, 'God is our King from everlasting.' If thou wishest to know, O thou heretic who art a hater of God, that the Christ is the King of kings, hearken unto Matthew and Luke the Evangelists, who say, 'When the Christ was born the Magi came out from the place of the sunrise to Jerusalem, saying, Where is the King of the Jews Who hath been born? For we have seen His star in the place of the sunrise, and we have come to worship Him. And they presented great gifts unto Him as King.' And if thou wishest to hear I will tell thee.

5 Now the case is like that of the king against whom a tyrant riseth up, wishing to have the mastery over him and his country. The tyrant taketh captive his soldiers and slayeth them, and he taketh his cities, and placeth them under his own rule, and maketh them pay him tribute. Then doth that king become exceedingly sorrowful because of all his host which another king hath carried away. And he taketh counsel with himself, saying, 'How can I possibly fight against this tyrant? For those who are in his power are turned into slaves of his, and they obey him.' If, however, this king go out to war, and fight against the tyrant, and conquer him, and seize the soldiers of his host, and set all of them free from the power of the tyrant who had carried them off into captivity, they (i. e. these soldiers) will blow blasts on their trumpets, and they shout joyfully that their own king hath delivered them, and that he hath become king over them

6 once again. In times of old Sin had power and ruled in the world, and lawlessness transacted its business therein, and evil choked the lawful mastering influence, which was the mind. And the Tyrant led them all away captive, and slew them, and each one did what seemed to be good in his own eyes; in short, the chatterings of the Devil were spread abroad over the whole world, and there was no one that resisted the Tyrant who did these things unto them. Now had they fled away they would have ceased to be under the yoke of that Tyrant, and they would have been saved, but they did not do so, and that which is written was fulfilled in them, saying, 'They forsook the fountain of the waters of life'; and again, 'It was death that pastured them.' Therefore the prophet cried out, saying, 'Not him that saveth, and not him that delivereth—men cannot save them.' For, for no men, whether it be those who have been crushed under the weight of poverty, or those who have been fettered by some disease (or, sickness), or those who have been ruined in the law-courts, can death make an excuse for everything which they have done, neither can the angels save them. For the angels are immaterial beings, and they have neither bones nor flesh, and they are immortal; and the ministers are flames of fire, and they are slaves in the service of those who created them, and they are unable to set free those who are in captivity. But if the Lord of the slaves wished to make them free He could make them so in the twinkling of His eye.

7 Furthermore, the King of the denizens of heaven and the beings of earth paid good heed to those who had been led away captive by the wicked Tyrant, that is to say, the wicked Devil, who had conquered the men who had performed his will. Thereupon the King of glory came forth from heaven, but He did not bring with Him great multitudes to enable Him to remove those who were captives from the hand of the wicked Tyrant in Amente. He did not come in a form visible to every one, or in great glory, but only in the glory of His Father, which He did not leave behind Him, and the Father did not wish to take it from Him. And He arrayed Himself in that humility wherewith He waged war against the wicked Devil, I mean to say the holy Flesh wherewith He clothed Himself, the Flesh wherein He arrayed Himself in accordance with His own desire, the Flesh which was not produced by human seed, and which did not make seed to proceed from it, the Flesh wherein was included everything with the exception of sin and guile. For He never committed sin, neither was guile found in [His] mouth. Inside the Flesh was God, and outside it also. Inside was God, but man could not see Him. And outside He wrought great miracles and healings of all kinds. His hand that was stretched out raised the dead, that is to say, the son of the widow who was in Nain.

8 Now on this occasion the dead man came to life again after he had been dead for a night, on the day following his death when they took him out to the tomb to bury him. He stretched out His hand of human flesh and God, and ordered [the bearers] to set down the bier whereon he was, and those who bore him stood still. And with one single word He raised him, and gave him to his mother, and she took him and departed to her-house. He danced for joy and blessed God, and she drew back from him, and gazed into his face, and marvelled. And crowds of people were running up to him uttering cries, and wishing to be sure that it was he. And the men and the women who had come forth [from the village] with him to follow him to the grave, according to the pagan custom, turned back before they decided to depart to their houses, and they did not return to their houses until they had seen the miracle which had happened. They saw the winding sheet and the grave clothes, they handled him that had been dead, they mounted on the shoulders of men, and they departed into the city and became witnesses concerning things that were incredible. And when every one had seen the miracle they believed on Jesus the Christ.

9 Now when the Pharisees, and the scribes, and the elders of the people had heard of this, they were wroth with Jesus, because He who had given life unto them had raised the dead, and they spake evil things concerning Him. Therefore was that which is written fulfilled in Him, 'The Lord is King! Let the nations rage furiously.' The Lord is King! He hath raised the dead. The stupid Jews were wroth with Him, they wished to kill Him. The Lord is King! He drove away devils, He made Beelzebub to be a creature of contempt, He cast out the devils. The Lord is King! He cleansed the lepers. [The stupid Jews] were wroth with Him, and they wished to put Him to death because of Lazarus. All the people went to see Him, and they all believed in Him. The Lord is King! He healed those who were paralysed. The ungrateful were wroth with Him, and they called Him 'the son of Joseph the carpenter'. And similarly the Devil and his demons are wroth with a sinner when he repenteth, even as they were in the present case of Isaac the Samaritan, who was a native of the village which is called Iôppê (Joppa). He heard a multitude of men in that place saying, 'Let us go into Jerusalem, and let us worship the

10 Cross of Jesus, for the festival draweth nigh'; now the Samaritan custom is for all men to take all their property with them. And Isaac the Samaritan also said unto his household, 'Saddle our beasts, load up our gold and silver [upon them], and let us take them to Jerusalem with the multitude which is departing thither. Let us go to the well of Gabaôn, and purify ourselves, and all our belongings. Let us go together with all the faithful who are going thither to the festival, so that the Lebarites may not fall upon us, and rob us of our possessions.' Now this was the custom of the Samaritan people: They used to take all their possessions, from that of the highest value to that of the lowest, and sprinkle them over with the water [from this well], according to the desire of their evil hearts. If one of them died [on the road], or a woman who was pregnant resumed the way of women, [the kinsmen] when they arrived [at the water] used to wash them in it, because of the accursed (?) wish of their hearts. Besides these things, [Isaac] the Samaritan journeyed with the believers, and he wished to wash himself in the [waters of the] well which is in Gabaôn, and also all his possessions. Now this is the well by which Jesus (Joshua) the son of Naue (Nun) built an altar. When he had divided the land of promise among the children of Israel, he circumcised them at that place by the well. Therefore the Samaritans say that whosoever shall wash in [the waters of] that well, or shall dip his feet or his possessions therein, shall never have need to wash them again. It maketh the sun to travel in his course, and when thou sayest, 'The sun hath set,' the darkness cometh upon them immediately.

11 And the believers and the Samaritan came to a lake of water, and the believers went down to it in order that they might drink, and their children, and their beasts. And the Samaritan found water and he drank, and his men and his beasts did so according to their need (?). And the Samaritan said unto one of the Christians, 'It must be a vexatious (? thing for you to have to go to Jerusalem to worship a log of dried up wood, whereon a man who was a prophet was put to death. It is not right to worship it, for through this ye and your children, and [your] beasts shall die of thirst, for God will be wroth with you, and will make the waters to become putrid.' And a certain God-loving presbyter whose name was Apa Bacchus heard these words; now he belonged to the Orthodox Faith, and he paid attention to the things which the Samaritan was saying, for he was uttering terrible blasphemies against the Holy Wood of the Cross of our Lord Jesus, the Christ. And Apa Bacchus answered and said unto the Samaritan, 'What is thy name, and of what place art thou a native?' And the Samaritan answered, 'Isaac is my name, and Moses and Joshua are they who gave to me the Law, and they spake from God. The Son of Mary was a Prophet of God Whom the Jews crucified because he abrogated the law of the Sabbath. God delivered Him over into their hands.

12 He went up on a certain mountain, and it is not known what became of Him. They seized other thieves and another man, one Jesus, who was also a prophet, and Him they put to death on the wood of the Cross. This is He Whom ye now receive. Of Him nothing is found, in vain do ye go to worship Him. And it is not seemly to worship the work of men's hands, nay, we must worship God alone, even as He spake unto our father Moses, for He gave unto him the Law, saying, Thou shalt not worship any strange god.' 13 And when Apa Bacchus the presbyter had heard these things he was wroth with a divine wrath, and he said unto the Samaritan, 'The name which the Patriarch gave unto thee is good, but thy faith is vanity, and thou hast become diseased through thy sins. However, neither the name nor the apparel of a man can save him if he be not perfect in the Orthodox Faith. Verily I hold the pagans to be more blessed than thou, for they have no right knowledge whatsoever, and they have never read about the Creator-God as thou hast done. Thou sayest, All the works which God hath created, and which the faithful receive with thanksgiving, are abominable to me. Hast thou never enquired, O Samaritan, or dost thou know what is written, "Everything which God hath created is good, and nothing is to be despised, and all are to be received with thanksgiving? O thou senseless Samaritan, we do not worship the Cross as God, but we bow down to it, and we glorify it because the Son of God glorified it, inasmuch as He completed His dispensation upon it. Hearken unto me, O Samaritan, and I will speak to thee. The serpent of brass which Moses made in the desert in days of old, and which was made manifest, was a marvellous thing, for it resembled a living serpent; and if one of the children of Israel came to the serpent of brass quickly when he was bitten by a serpent, and looked at it, he obtained relief.

14 For ancient [writers] say that the serpents which God sent among the children of Israel were so deadly that if a man were bitten by one of them his limbs rotted away and fell from [him] little by little until his whole body perished. If then the serpent of brass, concerning which God spake to Moses, made the spitting serpent, that is to say, the viper, to be of no effect, shall not the wood of the Cross make to be of no effect the poison of the serpent of the mind, that is to say, the Devil, to which thou givest a place within thee? The wood of the Cross became a resting-place for my Lord Jesus, the Christ. He Who was the God of the wood of the Cross Himself went up on it of His own free will. He died for our sakes, for us sinful men. When the Lord bowed His head upon it, and yielded up His breath, according to the wish of His Good Father, it was the wood of the Cross that removed the "middle wall of partition" which was between us and God, our Father, through His Only-begotten Son, Jesus the Christ, Who went up on it for us.

15 The ark which Noah made in days of old, according to the command of God, carried both men and beasts, which were saved from the waters of the Flood. But thou, O Cross, didst carry Him Who commanded Noah to make the ark, and to gather together in it creatures of every kind, and food for their sustenance, like a good steward, and to give a remnant to the world. And again, O Cross, thou didst create a new world, when the blood of the spotless Lamb, the Christ Jesus, the Son of the Living God, was shed upon thee.' 16 And when Isaac the Samaritan had heard these things which Apa Bacchus was saying he marvelled, and spake unto him, saying, 'Behold, thou sayest that Moses wrought great miracles, and that he made powerless the spitting serpent which used to kill those who were bitten by it. [Very well. Now tell me] what miracle the Cross ever did, so that I also may believe in it.' And Apa Bacchus answered and said unto him, 'O Isaac the Samaritan, thou hast neither seen Moses nor his miracles, and hast, in any case, only heard about him, [and yet thou believest in him];

17 if thou wert to see the power of the Christ, wouldst thou believe on Him, and on His Holy Cross?' The Samaritan said unto him, 'Even if Moses and Joshua were to speak to me I should never believe in this wood of which thou speakest, unless I had seen some mighty deed performed by it.' And Apa Bacchus the presbyter answered, saying, 'Not for thy sake only will I perform this wonderful sign, but for the sake of this multitude of people who have come to worship the wood of the Holy Cross of our Lord Jesus the Christ, so that they may not be offended like thyself, and I will pray to Him that went up on the Cross, and died for us of His own free will, and for our salvation.' And he prayed by the side of the lake, saying, 'O Thou Who didst make the rivers to flow with sweetness, so that men of every race might drink thereof, O Thou Who didst make the sea to be bitter, and then didst cause the rivers to flow into it, whereupon it ceased to be bitter, and became salt, who is there, O Thou man-loving God, that can comprehend Thy wisdom? For in the very beginning Thou didst gather together the floods and waters into one place, and Thou didst make firm the earth in the heart of the waters. Thou didst divide the waters and didst make them into three parts.

18 One part Thou didst make the firmament, and another part Thou didst make the sea and the rivers, and the third part Thou didst place under the earth, and Thy foresight did make beneficent regulations for them. Thus in the countries which have no rivers Thy goodness gathereth together the rains, and those who have need of the water which is under the earth will find it there. He who hath heard of Moses the Prophet [knoweth] that he made sweet the waters in Elim that were in twelve wells. Thou didst shew him a certain kind of wood, that is to say, the wood of the Holy Cross. Thou art able to make these waters sweet, for unto Thee alone belongeth power over everything. Now therefore, O Lord my God, as Thou didst reveal this wood to Moses, so that every one who belonged to the people of Israel might believe, let now also Thy Name be glorified, even as Thou hast been glorified by all Thy works. And let not the heathen say, Where is their God?

19 And as Apa Bacchus was praying to God a voice came unto him, saying, 'He who believeth upon Me shall say to this mountain, Remove thyself to this place, and it shall move itself [there], and nothing shall be impossible for him that believeth. For whosoever shall believe in the Cross shall be able to do these miracles, and he shall obtain whatsoever he seeketh; and whosoever receiveth Me receiveth Him that sent Me. Now therefore, that for which thou hast asked Me shall be [given] unto thee, for the sake of the faith that is in thy heart. Whosoever layeth hold of perfect faith unto him belongeth everything.' Thereupon the holy man, Apa Bacchus, took two little pieces of wood, and tied them together in the form of the Holy Cross, and threw them into the lake of water, and cried out, saying, 'This lake hath Christ healed by His Cross, and the waters thereof shall be sweet from this time forth, and for ever and ever. Let every one who

20 believeth in the Cross of Christ drink thereof in faith. But let not those who are enemies of Christ, and who do not believe in Him or His Cross, drink of the water of this lake, for it shall [taste] to them like vinegar and bitter gall.' And when Apa Bacchus had finished pronouncing these words he cried out to the multitude in the voice of the Gospel, 'Whosoever thirsteth let him come to me and drink,' and whosoever believeth in the Cross of Christ.' And a multitude of believers went to the lake, and took [water] from it, and they found it to be sweeter than honey, and exceedingly good. And when those who were pouring out (or, drawing) the water looked down into the lake, they discovered and saw there a little cross in the form of a torch of light, and they all cried out, 'One is the Christ Jesus and His glorious Cross.' And when the Samaritan heard these things he was afraid, and he did not wish to speak against the Cross again. And when the Samaritan was thirsty he went to drink water at his own watering place, and when he did not find any there he was greatly troubled in his mind, and he did not know what to do, for he and his men were consumed by thirst. And when he was suffering sorely from thirst, he rose up and

21 went to the lake, he and his men, to draw water to drink, and the Samaritan looked down into the lake, and he saw the similitude of a cross which was in the form of a torch of light. Then taking boldness to his heart, and casting fear from him, he drew some water from the lake and drank, and he found that it was like unto vinegar, and that it was bitter and was stinking. And the Samaritan cried out, 'Verily, the Christ and His Cross are not working miracles for us to-day.' 22 And straightway he went to the holy man, Apa Bacchus, and he said unto him, 'Take my possessions which I have brought on the road with me, and give them to the poor, and shew thou me the place of the wood of the Holy Cross, and I will worship it.' And the presbyter said unto him, 'My son, money may not be taken for the gift of the Holy Spirit. Nevertheless, if thou wouldst become perfect, arise, go into Jerusalem, and seek out the holy place of the Resurrection. Go thou into the church there, and thou wilt find our father the bishop, and the orthodox believers assembled with him, for they are celebrating the festival of the Holy Cross, to-day being the day of the festival of the finding thereof. And when thou hast gone in he will instruct thee in the way of salvation, and thou shalt see the power of the Christ and of His Holy Cross.' Then the holy presbyter, wishing to strengthen the heart of the Samaritan, and to confirm him in the faith, made the Sign of the Cross over the waters which had been drawn from the lake, and which were as acid as vinegar, and straightway they became sweet, and [the Samaritan] and his men drank of them in faith. And a very great multitude of people came to the holy man, Apa Bacchus the presbyter, and received a blessing at his hands. And when the [Samaritan] saw the multitudes he was greatly afflicted, and he departed and hid himself, and then he came into Jerusalem. And the multitudes of people who were by the lake rose up and came to Jerusalem, and Isaac the Samaritan came with them, following after them with those who formed his company.

23 We will [now] describe unto you a great miracle which took place, and which is worthy not to be passed over. Now certain men, who were round about the lake whereof we have been speaking, told us that the holy man, Apa Bacchus the presbyter, was praying over us, and when he ceased the water & 1 RB & 2 24 & 1 RC which had been stinking and full of worms became sweet water. And they said, moreover, 'When Apa Baechus had gone into the lake we saw with our own eyes the form of the Cross, which was like unto a fiery torch, and shone exceedingly brightly.' And when the people had drunk they found the water exceedingly sweet, and they would never have known that the waters were at one time putrid had it not been that one of them knew how to read. He saw certain letters written upon a wall which was plastered with ashes, and there were written upon it letters which had been traced by the holy man, Apa Baechus, thus: 'Concerning the matter of its waters. The Christ and His Holy Cross made them sweet, so that believing men might drink of the same freely, and with thanksgiving, and so that they might be unto them for healing. When, however, the enemies of the Christ, who believe neither in Him nor in His life-giving and saving Cross, drink this water it shall become unto them as acid as strong vinegar and bitter.' And when the believing men heard these things from the man who knew how to read letters they drew some of the water, and they drank, and they found it to be exceedingly sweet. And they marvelled when they saw the place of the Cross of light at the bottom of the lake; now it was like unto a torch of fire.

25 And when those who were sick bathed themselves in the water they obtained relief. Now the lake was in the field of Pidôn, in Diospolis. And when those who were enemies of the Christ passed on to drink from the lake the water thereof became [in their mouths] like exceedingly strong acid, and it was to them putrid; but to those who confessed the Christ and who believed on His Holy Cross with all their hearts the water was sweet and cool. And because of this matter many pagans transferred themselves to the faith of the Christ, that is to say, through the appearance of the Cross which was visible to every one at the bottom of the lake, for it was shining brightly like a flame of fire. And the very large number of believers from that district gathered themselves together, and they were all of the same mind, and they built a church close to that lake, and they called it the 'Similitude of the Cross'. And I, Cyril, the least of men, consecrated it, and the miracle which took place therein I myself saw with mine own eyes. And behold, I will tell you about it by the love of God. Now lest it should appear to you that we are forgetting the principal subjects [of our discourse], that is to say, the Cross of our Lord Christ, and the verse which is written in the Psalms, 'The Lord is King;

26 let the earth rejoice,' and the words which God spake unto Moses, saying, 'Make ye to Me a feast three times every year,' and also Isaac the Samaritan, whom I baptized, we will now finish our discourse on these subjects, and we will then bring it to a close, by the Will of God, to the glory of the Cross, the festival of which we are celebrating this day, and by Him Who went up on it, our Lord Jesus the Christ. 27 And it came to pass that when Isaac the Samaritan had come into Jerusalem he enquired at once for Cyril, my feeble self, and he was told by a deacon, 'Cyril is celebrating the festival in the shrine of the Resurrection, the festival of the Holy Cross.' And Isaac said, 'Wilt thou take me to him? I am not a Christian, but a Samaritan; I have, however, seen a great miracle in connection with the power of the Cross.' And the deacon came and told me, and I gave him permission to bring Isaac to me. And I said, 'Go, bring in the wandering sheep, and take him into the church of the Christ, and let him hear the words of the catechism; and when his repentance is manifest to every one we will baptize him.' And the deacon went to Isaac and said unto him, 'Come into the church, and thou shalt see the might of the Holy Cross.' And he put the men of his company into a certain part of the church, and he saw what made him greatly afraid, namely, a multitude of beings dressed in white. And he was terrified and seized with quaking, and he would most certainly have fled from the church if the deacon had not put courage into his heart, saying, 'Fear not, for the Christ shall receive thee to Him.' And he remained and listened to the passage that was being read, that is to say, the verse that we read in [the Book of] Ezekiel the Prophet (and the words were fulfilled in him), 'I do not desire the death of a sinner, but that he turn, and repent of his evil ways, and live.' And again, 'There is joy in heaven over a sinner that repenteth.'

28 And when he heard these things he drove fear out of himself, and his spirit exulted, and he hearkened to the word of God, and he paid diligent attention to the words which he heard. And they burned within him like a fire, and they were as sharp as a sword, according to what the prophet spake, saying, 'The Lord spake unto me, saying, Behold, I have set my words in thy mouth like a fire, and my people like wood for the burning.' Thus then do we complete the fundamental argument of our discourse on the verse which is written in the Psalms, 'The Lord is King; let the earth rejoice.' The kingdom [is that of] the Only-begotten Son of God the Father, and of His great exaltedness. He arrayed Himself in humility, He came to us, He humbled [His] pride, [and He was] not like the sacrifice which is slaughtered straightway, but He was left bound until the appointed time of the Father. And when the appointed time for which He had come was fulfilled, according to His own free will, and according to the dispensation of the Will of His Father, [the Jews] crucified Him for our sake, and He died and rose from the dead. He despoiled Amente, He brought up therefrom the [souls who were in] captivity, and departed with them to His Good Father, and sat down upon the glorious throne on the right hand of His Father. And the hosts of heaven cried out, saying, 'The Lord is King, from the trees of the wood

29 ... Let the heavens be glad, let the earth be glad, for He hath had mercy on His people, and hath redeemed their captivity. The Lord is King. He hath put on strength, He hath girded it on,' that is to say, the flesh which He took from the holy Virgin Mary, and which she put on Him. And she became one with Him in His God-head. He went up into heaven, He sat down at the right hand of His Father upon the throne of His glory, He created a thing of might, He bound Himself to it, that is to say, the wood of the Holy Cross, and He loaded Himself therewith, and took it up with Him into heaven. And He will bring it again with Him at His second coming when He shall come to judge those who are living and those who are dead. The righteous and the sinners, [and] those who have believed in the Cross, shall see [it] going before Him, and the angels carrying along the Cross like the standard-bearers of an army.

30 But some one will say unto me, 'Why did they crucify Him, and bring the Cross to the place of giving judgement? Why did they bring Him?' [They did so] because of the stupid Jews, and because of every one who did not believe in the Cross of Jesus, and in order that they might not think that He was different from Him that would come as a judge to judge those who were living and those who were dead. For He shall come in the glory of His Father, and with His angels, and He shall display the Symbol of the Cross of heaven (?), that Cross which is the hope of every one who shall be sealed therewith. To sum up the matter: Baptism is incomplete without [the Sign of] the Cross. And & 2 & 1 Re & 2 doth not the priest make the Sign of the Cross over the vessel of baptism with his finger? Otherwise it would lack the Holy Spirit. It is the Cross wherewith demons and unclean spirits are driven away, and when the Sign of the Cross is made against them they flee from (?) the Holy Life; it is the pledge of the kingdom which is in the heavens.

31 Now observe, O my sons and daughters, that the hour is far advanced. And I observe also the multitude of people who have come to the festival, wishing to hear the word of God in purity, and to celebrate the festival, for the Lord said, 'Make three seasons [of the year] festivals to Me,' that is to say, 'Make a festival to Me three times.' On the fourteenth day of the new month, which is Parmoute, God commanded Moses to cause to be slain a sheep, perfect in every respect and a full year old, and to smear the doorposts of their houses [with the blood], so that the destroyer might not destroy their first-born. And for us also who are Christians a spotless Lamb hath been slain for us, Christ Jesus the Lord, to Whom the true lamb, Mary, the spotless Virgin, gave birth. For He was slain upon the Cross on the fourteenth

32 day of the new month, and He was slain upon the rock of stone, Golgotha, that is to say, 'the place of a skull'. And they pierced His right side, and blood and water came out. On what was His Blood poured out? Behold, it was shed on a rock of stone, on Golgotha, and that Blood shall never disappear until the end of the world, and that Blood shall be a mark of shame for the Jews, and of disgrace for the people. And we Christians take that Blood and shed it on the doorposts of our houses, that is to say, on our mouths, and on our lips. And when we have received His perfect Blood, and have drunk thereof, we eat His Flesh, and we are safe from destruction, and we trample upon the Devil and all his evil thoughts. 33 Where did they lay the Body of the Lord? They laid it in a tomb, which was in the place wherein we celebrate the festival this day. And who was it that raised Him from the dead? No man is able to find out this matter, nor doth any one know it, except the Father alone, Who raised Him up from the dead. For it saith in the Book of Psalms, 'The Lord hath risen like a man who hath been asleep, and like a warrior who hath been drunk with wine.' 1 Who was the first person to meet Him, or unto whom did He shew Himself except Mary the Magdalene, the Mary who was the sister of His mother, who conceived Him without [the help of] a man, and brought Him forth without birth pangs, and reared Him without anxiety and pain? For a period of forty days He appeared unto the Apostles eating and drinking with them. And afterwards He addressed them, and spake unto them, saying, 'Go ye forth into all the world, teach ye all the heathen, and baptize them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.' 2 And He promised to them straightway the Spirit, the Comforter, after the holy Pentecost.

34 As concerning the season of which God spake unto Moses, saying, 'Thou shalt rejoice therein, and thy wife, and thy son, and thy servant, and thy cattle, and thy servants whom thou hast bought for money, and everything which is thine,' 4 this season is for us the seventh festival, that is the festival of Pentecost, which is the first day [of the week] whereon the Spirit came upon the Apostles. For as the diligent husbandman is wont to go into his field, and to cleanse it, and to pluck up the thistles and the tares, which have taken root therein, and afterwards to sow it with seed with a generous Ps. lxxviii. 65. 2 Matt. xxviii. 19. 3 John xiv. 26. 4 Deut. xvi. 14. 35 hand, and to plough it with a plough, and as the diligent husbandman also considereth the weather at that season of the year, and whether rain will be likely to fall on the seed and make it to sprout vigorously, and whether the seed will become a good crop through the wind and the dew which shall come upon it from heaven through God, even so did our Lord Jesus the Christ act towards the holy men, that is to say, towards our Fathers the Apostles. He cleansed them from every defilement, and from every kind of guile, up to the time of the holy Pentecost, wherein He sent upon them the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, and He filled them with all knowledge, and they spake with divers tongues, Aë which they knew not, and they performed mighty deeds and miracles, and they brought forth the things which belonged unto the Lord, some a hundredfold, some sixtyfold, and some thirtyfold. This now is the season wherein we keep the festival according to the command of the Lord, not with over-eating and not with excess of wine and merriment, but with partakings of the Sacrament, and with the singing of psalms and hymns, saying, 'Let us come out openly, and let us sing psalms unto Him joyfully; for He is our God, and we are His people.'

36 And when He had gone up to His Father, and had seated Himself on His right hand, [the angels] cried out, saying, 'The Lord is King over all the heathen, the Holy God sitteth upon His Holy Throne.' Now the Lord said unto Moses, 'Make a feast to Me three times each year.' Which then of your festivals is the greatest to-day, O my beloved? [Is it not] this which taketh place in the first month of each year, that is to say, the festival of the Manifestation of the Cross? And we will now make the matter clear to you, and shew you why we celebrate the festival of the Holy Cross to-day. Now the Jews lied concerning the Resurrection of the Lord, and they said, 'He did not rise from the dead, but His disciples came by night and carried Him away secretly whilst we were sleeping.' And it was their intention to conceal the glory

37 of the Cross, according to the representations of Irenaeus, and Josephus, and Philemon on the authority of Hebrew writers, because of the wrath of the Jews against the disciples of our Lord and the Cross of our Lord. And there was very great wickedness in the hearts of the Jews, who crucified the Lord upon the wood of the Holy Cross, and they wished to burn the Cross after the Lord had risen from the dead. Now the wood of the Cross was fixed in the ground, in the place where they had crucified the Lord upon it. And when, little by little, a tumult [had arisen]—now the disciples hid themselves because of the fear of the Jews— Joseph of Arimathea rose up, and came to Nicodemus, and said unto him, 'Behold, the Jews, and the chief priests, and the other [members] of the Sanhedrim are taking counsel together, saying, Let us burn the Cross. Now therefore, let us take it and hide it, so that they may not be able to carry into effect what they are planning.' And the two men rose up, and came to the 'Skull' by night, and they found the holy wood of the Cross of Jesus and the superscription which Pilate affixed thereto. And there were nails that were standing in it, that is to say, the nails that had been driven into the body of the Lord, and through His hands and His

38 feet, and they hid them, and also those of the thieves, for they could not [carry them away], because of [their] fear of the Jews. And Joseph said unto Nicodemus, 'Let us cut the wood of the Cross off close to the base, and carry the Cross away together with the [other] crosses, and place them in the tomb, in the place where they laid the body of the Lord; for the tomb is mine, and I have never laid in it any other body except the body of Jesus, and behold, He hath risen from the dead.' And they did according to these words, and they took [the crosses] into the tomb, which was hard by the place where they had crucified Jesus; and they rolled a stone before the mouth of the tomb and departed, and no man knew what they had done for a very long time. Now the disciples used to go into the tomb daily, and they prayed there by night secretly. And they used to carry thither the sick, who received healing through Jesus and His Holy Cross. And when the devils who had taken up their abode in men approached the tomb they used to cry out, saying, 'Jesus laid a penalty on us in the flesh. And now that they have crucified Him the wood of the Cross continueth His work in the tomb, and inflicteth suffering upon us, and casteth us out from the bodies wherein we have sojourned.'

39 Hear, moreover, another great miracle which our lords fathers the ancients have related unto us. A certain man who was a Jew used to live in Jerusalem in the old days, and he was exceedingly rich, and his name was Kleopa. He suffered cruelly from gout, and he was never able to walk upon his own feet, and he was wholly unable to mount a beast to ride, and he was always carried about on a litter; and [his servants] used to wash him, and carry him whither-soever he wished to go. And that man had not entered into the counsels of the lawless Jews who crucified the Lord of glory for our sakes, and he commanded his slaves, saying, 'Take no part with these lawless Jews who wish to put to death Jesus the Nazarene through jealousy and envy, for I know that He is the Son of God, according to the prophecy of our Fathers the Prophets, and that Mary, our sister, conceived Him by the Holy Spirit. Now this Mary is the daughter of Kleopa, who is surnamed Joachim, the brother of my father, and I believe that she never knew man, and that it was the Holy Spirit Who came upon her, according to the voice of the archangel.' And this righteous man, that is to say, Kleopa, had an only son whose name was Rufus, and who was grievously sick of a fatal disease.

40 And when only a few days remained before Rufus would die, Kleopa called his slaves, and said unto them, 'Get ye a stone-mason, who can hew stone, and let him hew a tomb for my son in the rock near the tomb of Jesus the Nazarene. There will I bury my son, and when I die do ye bury me in it.' And they did according to his word, and prepared the tomb. I have made to live Rufus, the son of Kleopa. And it came to pass that after two days Rufus died. Now the day on which he died was the Sabbath, and Kleopa did not wish to take his body out to the tomb [on that day], so that the Sabbath might not be profaned. And on the morrow, which was the first day of the week, they took the body to the tomb upon a bier. And his father put himself on a litter(?) and they lifted him up, and carried him out with the body, and he kept close to it, and wept for his son with very bitter sorrow. And when they had arrived at the tomb of Jesus, they set down the body of Rufus on the ground, and they placed his father by the tomb of Jesus. And Kleopa was sorrowing for his son, and he wept and cried out, saying, 'O my beloved son, would that these were the days when Jesus the Nazarene, Who raised the dead, was on the earth, for then I would have gone to Him, and made entreaty to Him, and He would have raised thee up for me.

41 For He raised up others, and they are in the body with us to-day. He raised up Anna, the daughter of Jairus, the chief of the synagogue, thy mother's brother, and behold, she also is in the body this day. He raised up Lazarus our brother from the dead. If, however, it be His will, may the Lord Jesus receive thee into His kingdom for ever.' 42 And Kleopa said these words to the Christ Jesus in great faith. And straightway a strong, sweet odour came forth from the tomb of Jesus, and Kleopa saw with his own eyes the form of a Cross of light that proceeded from the tomb, and rested on the bier of the dead man; and straightway the dead man rose and sat up. And when his father saw that his son had risen and sat up, he leaped up in the joy of his heart, and stood upon his feet, and became like a man who had never been ill at all. And a mighty fear seized upon those Jews who were walking with him, for they saw the dead man sitting up, and his father, who had been sick of the gout, rushing about from one place to another. And they removed the grave-clothes [from Rufus his son], and they dressed him [in others], and he rose up and stood in their midst. And the Jews said unto him, 'Who is it that raised thee up?' And he said unto them, 'It was a Man of light Who came forth from the tomb bearing a Cross of light, No and He stood over me, and raised me up, and I have come to life once again, even as ye see.' And they said unto Kleopa, 'By what means art thou able to walk?

43 Who healed thee?' And Kleopa answered with great joy, saying, 'He Who hath raised up my son, who had been dead for two days, He it is Who hath healed me.' And he took hold of his son's hand, and went with him into the city with great joy, and they blessed God and His Only-begotten Son Jesus the Christ, our Lord, and they cried out, saying, 'Great is Thy power, O Jesus the Nazarene, for Thou hast put Thy power into Thy Holy Cross, which giveth life unto those who believe in Him. In the place of grief Thou hast given unto me two-fold joy and gladness, and the resurrection of my son, and the healing that hath come to me.' 44 And when all the people heard what had happened unto them they marvelled, saying, 'Kleopa hath recovered from the disease from which he suffered, and his son hath been raised up from the dead.' And they brought to Kleopa the widows and the orphans, and he provided full meals for them, and he distributed among them much money, and on the morrow he made his slaves free men. And he and his son went to the Apostles, and together with all his household received baptism in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and they became excellent disciples, and they preached the Christ and His Cross. And when the Jews saw the miracle which had taken place they believed on the Christ Jesus.

45 Now when the scribes and the Pharisees heard of the great miracle which had taken place at the tomb of Jesus they said, 'Let us burn it with fire.' And the chiefs of the synagogue and the Jews said unto the high priests, 'Let the fire seize it [if ye wish], but rather let the Jews defile the place with their filth, so that the tomb may nevermore be had in remembrance.' And this counsel was pleasing unto them all, and a proclamation was sent out through the whole city of Jerusalem, saying, 'Let men and women, when they clear out the dung from their houses, and from their workshops and stables, bring it every day, and cast it on the tomb of this deceiver Jesus. Whosoever shall be found not doing this shall be expelled from the synagogue and shall be fined a drachma of copper.' And this decision was promulgated throughout all Jerusalem, and the people were in the habit of carrying out their dung every day until the time of the Emperor Vespasian, who laid waste Jerusalem. And up to the time of his coming against all the Jews they did not cease to do thus, according to the descriptions of Josephus, and Irenaeus, and other historiographer[s]. And the gate of light was defiled (?) from that time until [the coming of] Vespasian, so that there was a vast mass of dung over the grave of Jesus, which was brought thither from the whole city. Now Vespasian brought great destruction upon the Jews. He slew thirty thousand of them, and he banished

46 & 1 & 2 three thousand to Egypt, and he wrote to Ptolemy, the Governor of Ekeptia, saying, 'Thou shalt not permit the Jews to possess any freedom whatsoever in the country of Egypt. Thou shalt neither permit them to traffic in things which are slain for sacrifice nor shalt thou permit them to have control over the milk and the wine. They shall have no control whatsoever over the oil-presses, and the wine-presses, and the threshing-floors, and the places wherein field produce is sold. But let them do the work of watering and tending the cattle in the country of Egypt, until they have gotten it all out of your hands.' And the Egyptians afflicted the Jews severely, and they reduced them to a state of misery, which was worse than that wherein they suffered under the ancestors of the Egyptians in days of old under Pharaoh, when they were the bondslaves of the Egyptians. If a young man encountered ten strong men of the Hebrews, even though they were not doing

47 any harm to him, they would cry out to him to spare them; to this degree had God humbled them because of the arrogant wickedness which [they] had committed towards Him. Moreover, the whole of that generation which had crucified the Lord of glory came near to perish utterly, for they were slain by kings, and God also brought pestilences and famines upon them because of their sins. And the rest [of the Jews] who were left in Jerusalem forgot the custom of their fathers, and did not shoot out dung on the tomb again. And there was a very large quantity of dung on the tomb of Jesus, and on Golgotha; so great was it that no man remembered that the tomb was there. Moreover, men called the heap of dung the 'Skull of Jesus', that is to say, 'Golgotha'. And the Devil was pleased with this, saying, 'I will remove the remembrane of the Cross from among those who were followers (or, ministers) of Jesus.' Assuredly the Devil did not know that the Cross would very surely receive glory from kings, and from all those who believed upon Jesus, and that those kings would close the doors of the temples.

48 And even though these people were the instruments (or, tools) of the Devil, who wished to hide the Cross, they were not able to hide it either partially or wholly. For the Cross was graven in the hearts of the faithful, and they all remembered it as if it were an eikon, and they contemplated it as if it were an eikon; and if it were hidden for a short time they awaited [its reappearance]. But it was like unto the sun in its strength, which setteth in the evening, and sheweth itself during the day. It was like unto a bridegroom who cometh forth from his marriage chamber; even so was the Cross. The Jews hid it because of their wicked jealousy of the Lord Jesus the Christ, but it made its appearance again, being more splendid than ever, and it beautifieth the altar and the sacrifice. It is the Cross that strengtheneth the God-loving kings, and they mount it on their crowns, and they

49 set it on the golden sceptres in their hands. The Cross is sculptured in the royal palace, and men set it up by the roadside. It is raised upon pillars and upon the corners of houses, so that it may be strength [for those who dwell therein], and for every one who passeth by. The Cross is also [found] on ships, and it delivereth them from storms and violent gales. It is in the coenobium of kings, and it giveth grace unto them; and [the mark of] the Holy Cross is prefixed to the documents of every kind that are written under their orders. Hail, thou strength and object of boasting of the Christians and the believing people! Nothing is done in the world without the Cross. No church is built without the Cross. No altar is dedicated without the Cross. No Sacrifice is offered up without the Cross. No bishop or member of the clergy is ordained without the Cross. None is baptized without the Cross, for those who are baptized are

50 sealed with the Sign of the Cross at the baptismal vessel. Whosoever hath the Cross with him hath a great help near him. For the Cross putteth a bridle on littleness of heart (i. e. depression), and the Sign thereof maketh anger to disappear, and it giveth tranquillity in the place of wrath at the [holy] Table. As for believers, the Cross blesseth their food through those who make the Sign over it. It is present at dinners (or, suppers), and with those who drink wine with joy. The Cross destroyeth the infidel enemies of the Cross, even as it destroyed Diocletian, and made him blind in both his eyes, and left him without strength; moreover, it became an exceedingly bitter enemy to him. And the Cross destroyed also Maximinianus, whose body suffered putrefaction whilst he was still alive, and whose tongue rotted in his mouth, because he had blasphemed the Cross. And again the Cross destroyed Julian the Apostate, because he forsook Jesus. And

51 that apostate became a horn of the Devil before Antichrist. He reviled the Holy Scriptures on which he had meditated very many times, and which he had recited with his mouth, which deserveth to be stopped for ever, and with his tongue, which deserveth to be cut out, because he read them and then reviled them. Verily he neither read them [with seriousness] nor understood them. For if he had known their meaning he would have glorified the object of praise of the Christians, that is to say, the Cross, and he would not have died an evil death. For he made himself an enemy of the Holy Cross whilst he was alive, and for this reason [he drank] waters other than those wherewith men are wont to slake their thirst, and this lawless man died through thirst. Now he drank the urine of horses, and made himself mad (?). And his body was not worthy of a tomb, and it was not worth preparing for burial, and it was even as that of a poor man, since he made himself an enemy of the Holy Cross. Therefore let us not make ourselves love those who do works of this kind, lest we inherit their destruction. Let us not make ourselves enemies of the Cross, so that those things which happened to the Jews may not befall us. For those who defiled the wood of the Cross, wishing to hide it, slew their children with their own hands, and they devoured their own flesh, because of the great hunger which was sent upon them by the God of truth, Jesus the Christ, our Lord, in return for the impudent and wicked act which they committed against Him when they crucified Him.

52 & 1 And again, they wished to hide His Holy Cross, according to what Josephus and Irenaeus, who report Hebrew tradition, have said in their histories of ancient things and times concerning the events that happened to the Jews. O brethren, far be it from us to make ourselves unbelievers in the Christ and in His Holy Cross, lest all these evils come upon us, for great is the might of the Cross. And I dare to say concerning the father of all mankind, Adam (and concerning all his sons, that is to say, ourselves), whom God formed in His own image and likeness, that if Adam was the image and the likeness of God, according to the Scriptures, with the exception of the [death on the] Cross, the whole of him was God the Word. When [Jesus] spread out His hands on the Holy Cross, He was of the same type as Adam, until He delivered us from our sins. And we who have believed in Him are of the same type as He when we spread out our hands in prayer. Finally, let us make ourselves to resemble our orthodox Fathers, who have gone to their rest, glorifying the Cross which giveth salvation.

53 & 2 I will now declare unto you the principal object [of my discourse], especially as God hath acted graciously towards us through Constantine, the God-loving Emperor, who rose like a bright and shining star, and who rose upon us from heaven. Now this Emperor Constantine was sprung from a stock that loved God exceedingly, and because of this the Christ gave him glory through His Holy Cross, and He 54 & 1 guided him through every country, and through every war until the day of his death. Constantine adorned the Church with every kind of royal adornment, and he placed his hope in God the Christ Jesus, and in His Holy Cross. And he continued to cling to Him with a firm faith, and he caused the doors of the temples of those who worshipped idols to be closed. He bestowed great honours on the orthodox Fathers the Bishops, and great benefactions on the holy churches in every country that was in subjection unto him; and Constantine, who glorified the Holy Cross, made their enemies to disappear, and suppressed them. Now this Constantine knew nothing about the Cross at first, because of the numerous kinds of idolatry which had spread throughout every country with the help of the apostate Emperors Diocletian and Maximinianus. Constantine was descended from parents who were righteous men and Christians, and under their influence he became like unto them; and he shone like a bright and shining light upon those who were in the whole earth. Because of his skill in the art of the physician, and his knowledge, and his strength, every one was eager to see him. He suppressed idolatry of every kind, and for this reason Diocletian loved him, and delivered over into his hands the whole administration of his kingdom, for he was his equal as an Emperor, and was of the race of the old Roman Emperors. And he was such a mighty man of war that, in every war which he undertook, God humbled [his adversaries] before him, for He loved him.

55 And it came to pass on a certain day that the God-loving Emperor Constantine was, during his early manhood, engaged in fighting the Persians in a place which is called Kallamakh. Now the Persian host was very numerous, for they had hired seven other nations to join them and to give them assistance, and they said, 'We will take all the countries of the Roman Empire, and we will subdue their people with them.' And they made bridges (? pontoons) in the ships so that they might cross the river on the morrow. And they said, 'We will kill Constantine, the general of the army, who hath laid waste our country, and we will go into Antioch, and seize the Emperor, and all his possessions, and take all the captives who are there.' And Constantine was afflicted in his spirit, and he said, 'Who is there that hath power sufficient to do battle with this host of nations?' And when he rose up he sent a message to the Persians, saying, 'Let us not fight against each other until we and our hosts are overthrown. If we are not strong enough to fight you [successfully], we will abandon our country to you, and we will go away.' Thereupon the Persians rejoiced, because they believed that Constantine was faint-hearted. And Constantine went to his bed that night with his heart sad within him. And slumber fled from him, and his eyes were staring up into the sky, and he was thinking deeply because of the sore sorrow which was upon him. And he saw among the stars a Cross of light, and there was an inscription written upon it in Greek (Roman) letters, and he read the inscription which was written thus: 'Constantine, through this sign thou shalt conquer those who are fighting against thee. Seek thou the God of thy fathers, and thou shalt find Him.'

56 And when he rose up in the morning he was marvelling and saying, 'Unto which God doth this sign belong?' And he caused the priests to be called and the chiefs of all the Government, and he asked them about the sign which he had seen, saying, 'Unto which God doth this sign belong?' And some of them said unto him, 'Assuredly it belongeth to Phiblarion, the conqueror and disposer of battles, who hath appeared unto thee to give thee the victory; therefore let us pour out libations unto him.' And others said, 'It belongeth to Herakles, and we must pour out libations unto him. It is he who wisheth to give thee victory in the war.' Now Constantine did not know what he ought to do. He was a Christian, and the son of a Christian, and yet he did not know the Sign (or, symbol) of the Cross, because at that time no church was being built, and the Cross was as yet unknown [to him], because it was the period wherein they were pulling down churches. Now Constantine was born during a time of persecution, and he and his parents went to Christ secretly. And whilst the noble Constantine was meditating upon these things, a certain soldier, who was a mighty man of war and a believer in God, and whose name was Eusignius, and who was very honest—now he did not declare himself openly because it was the time of persecution—this man, I say, went unto Constantine, and said unto him

57 secretly, 'My lord, hearken unto the word of thy servant. The sign which thou didst see in the sky doth not belong unto any one of the gods of the Emperor Diocletian, but it belongeth to Jesus, the Christ, the Son of the Living God. He came down into this world, and took flesh in Mary, the holy Virgin, and became the selfsame flesh and Godhead. He lived for thirty-three years, and He did everything which men do in the same manner as ourselves, with the exception of committing sin. He effected very many cures, He raised the dead, to the blind He gave the light, He cast out the devils, He cleansed the lepers, and He healed those who were sick of the palsy. In short, His miracles and the mighty works which He did upon earth are innumerable. The godless Jews were jealous of Him, and they rose up against Him. They bound Him, they delivered Him over into the hand of Pilate the governor, who ruled over Palestine for Tiberius, and when he found in Him no offence [which merited] death he wished to set Him free. And the Jews were wroth [at this], and they rose in rebellion, and against his free will he delivered

58 Him over into their hands, and they did unto Him according to their wish. And the Jews took Jesus, and they raised Him up on the wood of the Cross, and they crucified Him along with two thieves, and He died upon the Cross. And they brought Him down, and they laid Him in a tomb, and He rose on His third day, according to the Scriptures. He went up into heaven, He sat down at the right hand of God, and He shall come to judge the living and the dead. This sign which thou hast seen in the sky bringeth His heart (?).' 59 And when Constantine had heard these things from Eusignius he said, 'Shall not then this sign which I have seen give me victory? I believe in it, because that same Jesus is the God of my fathers.' And straightway Constantine took his good spear, and fixed upon it a cross of gold, and set it before him. And when the period which Constantine had agreed upon with the Persians had come to an end, he passed over the river to do battle with them, and he trusted boldly in the sign which he had seen in the sky, and God gave unto him that day victory from out of heaven. And all the host of the Persians took to flight before him, and all those who were with them, and the two hosts took the same road, and the Romans slew the Persians as far as their frontier. And Constantine saw with his own eyes [angels] among the host of the soldiers with their swords drawn in [no] their hands awaiting them. And having obtained the victory through the Cross he returned to the city with his company of soldiers, and not one of them was wounded. And these things happened thus according to the statements which we have gathered together from early Hebrew writers. And God, Who establisheth kings, and removeth them out of their places, destroyed the two eyes of Diocletian, because of what he had done in the matter of the worship of idols, and likewise thrust him from his throne.

60 And by the forethought of God, the Members of the Senate, and the Councillors of the two cities, Rome and Antioch, took Constantine, and seated him upon the throne of Rome, and put the crown of sovereignty upon his head, and the sceptre [in his hand]. And the nobles of the two cities brought him gifts, and glorified God because of His gracious goodness and loving-kindness towards men, which He had made manifest to every one. And straightway Constantine remitted taxes to all classes of people everywhere, and he caused great peace to be in all the churches, and he wrote epistles to the orthodox bishops in every diocese wherein he ordered them to pray for him and for all his kingdom, so 61 that God might protect him. And great peace encompassed Constantine on every side, and God bestowed upon the churches great benefactions through him, and also on the heads of the churches, to whom he entrusted the work of building churches everywhere on a scale worthy of the glory of his kingdom. And there was born to him a son, and he called his name Konstantos (Constantinus II), according to his own name. And after these things another son was born to him, and he called his name Kos[tantos] (Constantius II), according to his name, and when they were grown up a little they were crowned with the crown of sovereignty, and the sceptre [was put into their hands]. And the Emperor Constantine, being informed that the worship of idols went on in many places, straightway issued an order to every city to close the temples, and to take away their keys, and to give them to those who were in charge of the churches. And they took away from them large quantities of money, which they spent in building churches everywhere, according to the Emperor's decree.

62 And Constantine rose up quickly, and he took with him his mother, and his sister, who was a virgin, and a large quantity of baggage, and a large escort of soldiers and slaves, and many holy bishops, and he departed with them to Jerusalem. And he caused to be brought before him the chief Jews, and he asked them questions, saying, 'I wish you to shew me the place where [stood] the Cross whereon Jesus was hung, and the tomb wherein His Divine Body was laid, for the glorification of my kingdom.' And the Jews said, 63 'O Lord Emperor, behold, it is a long time since they crucified Jesus, and lo, this event happened six generations ago. And the city was laid waste and burnt with fire by the order of the Emperor Vespasian. They slew our fathers first of all, and then they led [some] away into captivity, and [others] they banished to Egypt. And if a remnant remained [after] the destruction of Vespasian, behold, we have been slaves of our lord the Emperor of the Romans, until this present.' And the Emperor said unto them, 'Ye may expect a very heavy punishment from me if ye are unwilling to shew me the place wherein they crucified the Lord, and the wood of the Cross itself, and the tomb wherein they laid His Body.' And the Jews made answer, saying, 'O our Lord Emperor, enquire of those who understand the Law thoroughly among the Jews, and the high priests among them, and they will be able to inform the Emperor concerning the matters about which he maketh enquiries. There is no one among us who hath knowledge about this city, but there may be some one of whom the Emperor could ask questions.' And the Emperor said unto them, 'Tell me [the names] of those among you who are well instructed in the Law. [If] ye [do this, I will] dismiss you in peace, and ye can depart to your houses.' And they gave him [the names of] seven men, saying, 'These men are well instructed in the Law, for they are chief priests. And these are their names: Judas, [Ben]jamin (?), Abidôn, Adôth-Iêsou, Iêsou (Joshua), Sulôm, Iassôn.'

64 And the Emperor said unto them, 'If ye wish to live your lives in [this] world, and your lives in the next, make haste and tell me where is the place of the wood of the Cross of my Lord Jesus, the Christ, and where is the tomb in which His Body was laid. If ye will not tell me where it is then I will destroy your bodies by a cruel punishment, and the Lord shall burn up your souls in the fire which can never be quenched.' And one of the Jews whose name was Iamîn answered and said, 'May my Lord Emperor live for ever! Command me, and I will declare that which I know. Now this city was destroyed three times by the Roman Emperors, and they slew our fathers, and a certain few of the people they banished to Egypt, and in that country they are until this day, and they have never rebuilt their houses [here]. If there be a remnant of our race existing, behold, they are in this city. We live under the yoke of the Roman Emperors, and pay them tribute. And we do not [seek to] circumcise any one of all those who live about us, but we seek to live according to the Law of our fathers. As, however, for the matter concerning which thou dost ask us questions, we have no knowledge thereof.' And Constantine had the men thrown into a pit wherein there was no water, and he [ordered] that they were to be kept there without bread and water until they died.

65 And after they had been in the pit for seven days the Jews cried out, saying, 'Let our Lord Emperor command us to be taken up [out of this pit], and we will inform our Lord Emperor concerning the matter about which he hath enquired of us.' And the Emperor commanded them to be brought up, for their bodies were transformed by the cold of the pit, which went a long way down into the ground. And one of them, whose name was Judas, said, 'Let the Emperor order [his servants] to give me a little water, and I will tell thee about everything concerning which thou hast asked me'; and the Emperor ordered them to bring some pure bread and some water, and he made them eat and drink. And when Judas had strengthened his heart with this food he cried out, saying, 'O my God-loving and man-loving Lord Emperor, our father David said in the Spirit, "The things which we have heard we know, and the things which our fathers have spoken are not hidden from their children of another generation." My father Simeon said unto me, "My father Judas informed me, saying, 'At the time when they crucified Jesus the Jews were gathered together, and they decided upon a plan. When they knew that Jesus had risen from the dead they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers who were keeping guard over the tomb, saying,

66 [Say ye] that it was His disciples who came [and stole Him away ] by night, whilst we were asleep, and we knew nothing about it. And our fathers denied the Resurrection of the Lord because of the blindness of heart. Then, afterwards, miracles took place at the tomb of Jesus, and He even raised those who were dead, and He cast out devils from men. And the Jews became jealous of Him because of this thing, and, having thought out the following plan, they made a proclamation, saying, "Let all the Jews who are in Jerusalem, and in every place which is nigh unto them, cast their dung upon the tomb of Jesus." And they issued the following abominable proclamation also, "Let [all the Jews] throw all the filth which they clear out of their houses upon the tomb of Jesus." And this thing they did for a very long time, in fact until the Roman Emperor Vespasian came. He put to death our kinsmen, who did not cease from acting in this wise until a very large quantity of filth covered [the tomb]. Of this thou hast proofs from the Book of the Gospels of Jesus the Christ, O Emperor, in the words, "Where have they laid Him?" And the Emperor commanded them to bring a Book of the Gospels to him, and he read them through, and he found that there was no difference in the Four Gospels,

67 but that each said, They took Him to the place of Golgotha, that is to say, the 'place of the Skull', and that they crucified Him there, and that the tomb wherein they laid His Body was nigh thereto. And the Emperor Constantine answered and said unto Judas, 'Shew me the place of Golgotha, and thou shalt become a free man.' And Judas said, 'Let thy lordship take the trouble to come with me, and I will shew thee Golgotha, which is the place of the Skull.' And the Emperor rose up, and his God-loving mother Helena, and the nobles who were with him, and Judas took them up on Golgotha, and he also took them up on the great mound of dung which towered above all the city by many cubits. The mound covered twenty arable fields, and the dung enveloped and filled the place of the tomb and [the place of] the Skull. And Judas said unto the Emperor, 'According to thy language [it is called] Golgotha, but in Hebrew, our own language, Gabbatha.'

68 And when the Emperor had looked at the immense quantity of dung, and the waste character of the place, he was filled with tribulation. And when Judas saw that the Emperor was sorrowful of heart he said unto him, 'Let not my Lord Emperor be sad, for [it is very easy] to perform all thy will. Inasmuch as it was the men of our race who committed this great act of wickedness, send an order throughout all thy kingdom, and let [thine officers] seize all the Jews in thy kingdom, and let them bring them hither, from every region, together with their beasts, and their implements for digging, and their carts, [and let them clear the dung away]; because the fathers heaped up the dung there their children must be those who shall carry it away, for our fathers have eaten sour grapes, therefore let their children's teeth be set on edge.' And this counsel at once pleased the Emperor and his nobles, and straightway the Emperor issued an edict to all his kingdom, saying, 'I am the Emperor Constantine, a beggar at the feet of Jesus the Christ, the Great King in truth. I hereby write unto the chief officers of every city in every country and district, even those of the village or hamlet wherein there are ten men, who are under the dominion of my kingdom, and order you to seize all the Jews who dwell among you, and to send them to Jerusalem, together with their beasts, and their implements for digging, and their carts. And whosoever concealeth one of these shall be Fel seized as a criminal, and he and his house shall be put to death.'

69 And when the copies of this decree of the Emperor were received [the officers] seized all the Jews in every place, and they sent them to Jerusalem, together with their implements for digging, and their beasts, and their carts. And they came out from every country to Jerusalem, and they were as many in number as the stars of the heavens. And the Emperor appointed over them taskmasters to oversee them in their labour. And he appointed two thousand soldiers in Jerusalem, and captains of thousands, and captains of hundreds, and gangers to compel all the Jews to work both by day and by night until the command of the Emperor Constantine was fulfilled. And he appointed to be with his mother certain holy bishops, that is to say, Apa Athanasius, Archbishop of Antioch, and Apa Joseph, Archbishop of Jerusalem, who was the fourteenth bishop of the circumcision who sat in Jerusalem after the Holy Apostles. And I myself, Cyril, am the successor of the [God-loving] …he brought me into the church [and] I preached in his holy [are] name. And the God-loving and truly charity-loving Emperor Constantine rose up and departed to Rome because of the business of the kingdom. Then the Empress Helena called the chiefs of the Jews, and she said unto them, 'Come ye and finish that which the Emperor commanded to be done, so that ye may not become liable to punishment by death'; and the soldiers hurried on the Jews by day and by night.

70 And the word of the Emperor was exceedingly urgent, and the Jews were anxious to fulfil the bidding of the Emperor. And they worked from the first day in which they worked, which was, in our opinion, the twelfth day of the month of Martius, that is to say, the month of Paremhot, until the sixteenth day of the month Thoth, before the top of the tomb became clearly visible. And they told the Empress, saying, 'Behold, they have found the tomb of the Saviour.' And she rose up straightway, and all the bishops, and all the nobles, and they came to see the tomb, and they threw themselves down upon the ground and worshipped before it. And, behold, a great light burst out therefrom like a flash of lightning. And 71 Judas took a digging tool, and he dug a hole close to the wall on the eastern side of the tomb, and there were many bishops with him who dug also, and they found a great stone which they rolled away, and then the opening of the tomb appeared. Now the time of day was the evening, and they went away from the tomb until the following day, and did not enter it; and those who were believers slept in that place, and they saw the light emitting a flame like unto a fire until the daylight appeared. And [the Empress rose up] early, and the bishops, and the believing folk, and they went forth to the grave of Jesus. And they took with them [censers of burning] incense and lighted lamps, and they looked into the grave of Jesus, and they saw three crosses resting one on the top of the other, and there was a leather roll lying upon them.

72 And when they had cleared out the tomb the bishops went in, and they took up the leather roll, and found that it was inscribed in Hebrew characters; and they gave it to Judas, who read them whilst the Empress and all the multitude listened. And this is what was written on the leather roll: 73 'We, that is to say, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, have carried away the Cross of Jesus and the crosses of the two thieves from Golgotha and have laid them in this tomb, which is the place wherein they laid the Body of Jesus, Who rose from the dead. And we did this by night because of [our] fear of the Jews. We have not permitted [any] man to have knowledge of what we have done, because the Jews took counsel to burn the Cross of Jesus the Christ. For this reason therefore we removed them from the place of the Skull, and have put them in the place wherein the Body of the Lord was laid.' And the Cross whereon was written the legend 'This belongeth to Jesus the Christ' the bishops laid hold upon, and they clasped it to their bosoms, and they kissed it, and they lifted it up and carried it to the Empress. And the Empress laid her breast upon it for a very long time, and she clung to it, together with the most honourable and the most believing men. And she had it swathed in the purple apparel which belonged to the Emperor Constantine, and she had it wrapped in costly stuffs, and she made [the bishops] guard it most carefully for her until she wrote to the Emperor and told him what had happened. And she made the soldiers compel the Jews to cleanse the place well, and she took the number of all the people [there], and she found them to be one hundred and three thousand in number of the race of the Hebrews.

74 And the Empress Helena wrote a letter to her son, saying, 'Blessed art thou, and well shall it be with thee, for that which thou hast asked from God He hath granted unto thee. Thou hast sought, O my beloved son, and thou hast found, thou hast knocked, and there hath been opened unto thee the door of the Resurrection of the Lord. Thou hast found that which is of more value than all the world, that is to say, the Holy Cross of our Lord Jesus the Christ. Blessed art thou, O my beloved son, for thou hast cast behind thee the affection for this world, and the vain possessions thereof, until at length thou hast found the choicest of all choice possessions, which is not a precious stone of great value. Trouble thyself, and come and look upon that which carried God upon it, nay more, that which God carried. Thou shalt look upon it in its beauty and splendour, and thy weakness shall renew itself like [the strength of] an eagle. Trouble thyself, O my

75 beloved son, and come, and bow down, and worship, and kiss this very Cross which thou didst see clearly, and which hath given thee victory in battle.' And when Constantine had received his mother's letter he read it, and when he knew that they had found that for which he had been seeking, that is to say, the Holy Cross of our Lord, he felt very great joy and gladness. And he rose up quickly and came to Jerusalem. And when his mother and all the bishops had been told that the Emperor was coming, and that he was nigh unto them, they took the Precious Cross, which had been wrapped up in the imperial purple and in napkins of costly stuffs, and they lifted it up on a white mule, and they went with it to the Emperor for a distance of about six miles. And when the God-loving Emperor, the Emperor Constantine, saw the Cross he reached down from his chariot, and took the Cross, and lifted it up to his bosom, and wept over it. And he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, 'I see my Lord Jesus the Christ, the God of my righteous fathers, during [His] exile in the flesh working great miracles by means of that whereon He rested, the Life-giving Cross. And I also see the Saviour of the whole world giving strength by the Holy Cross to those who seek Him and who believe on Him.' And the bishops and the 'work-lovers' sang spiritual songs, and they went on before the Emperor and the Cross to the interior of the city.

76 And when they reached the city and were entering in through the gates they sang the following hymn, 'Rejoice, O Sion, the city of the Great King, the Christ, for behold, thy King hath come unto thee with joy.' And the nobles who were with him glorified the King, the Lord, Who became King from the wood of the Cross. And the Emperor went to the place where the work had been carried on, and he entered into the tomb of Jesus, and he bowed down to the ground and worshipped, saying, 'I give thanks unto Thee, O Only-begotten Son of the Father, that I am held to be worthy to bow before Thee in homage in the place wherein Thy Holy Body was laid.' And he inspected the whole of the sites which the Jews had cleared out and cleansed, and he went to the Rock of the Skull, the place whereon the Lord was crucified, and he bowed down and worshipped on it.

77 And besides these things he took [the Cross] and laid it in the tomb until he could build for it a shrine which should be worthy of its glory. And the Emperor spake unto the bishops, saying, 'I wish to build a new city on the spot where the Lord appeared to me in a cloud because of His wish to deliver me from the hands of those who sought to slay me, that is to say, the Persians. And I will build churches meet for the Christ in this place, to the glory of His Holy Cross.' And the bishops answered and said unto him, 'May God Almighty, unto Whom belongeth the Universe, and His Only-begotten Son Jesus the Christ, our Lord, and the Holy Spirit, maintain for thee and thy great dominions a long period of peace, so that thou mayest bring to completion everything which thou hast planned.'

78 And forthwith they began to burn bricks for the church, and Constantine set handicraftsmen to work, each at his own grade, and he made foremen to supervise the work which was carried on in all the workshops. And he also gave to his mother a very large amount of money from his own private purse, so that the building of the churches might be combleted thereby. And he ordered to be brought to him vast quantities of alabaster, and stone slabs for tesselated pavements, and marble, and well-grown timber(?), and silver, and copper, and a very large quantity of lead; in short, he made to be brought everything which was required for the building. And he gave charge of the whole affair into the hands of his mother, and he appointed her to build in Jerusalem one church in the place of the tomb, which was to be called [the 'Church

79 of] the Holy Resurrection, Holy Love, Holy Peace', and another, which was to be called 'Saint Dimiou... the Skull'; and she built fine courtyards and other works. And the Emperor Constantine returned [to Rome] safely, and he glorified the Christ and the Holy Cross. And he sent to his mother in Jerusalem whatsoever things she found to be necessary. And those who were working at building the new Jerusalem were very many, and one may say that they were more in number than those who worked on the Temple of Solomon in days of old. And the work was carried on until the shrines were completed, and they decorated them and made them to be like unto the firmament of heaven in its beauty. And the holy man Apa Joseph consecrated the [Church of] …in the city, and there were with him many orthodox bishops who had come for the festival of the dedication of the Holy Cross. And the day whereon they consecrated the holy church was the seventeenth day of the month of Thoth, which is the day of the manifestation of the Holy Cross and the Holy Tomb. And Judas was baptized by Apa Joseph the bishop and other orthodox bishops, and he became an orthodox man and an excellent Christian. And a multitude of Jews and a multitude of the heathen were baptized, and they came to partake of the Holy Offering.

80 And on the holy evening Apa Joseph related [the following]: Behold, a Cross of light appeared above the tomb of the Saviour, from the first hour of the day until the ninth. And they all saw it, that is to say, every heathen who was living in Jerusalem, and every one who lived around the city. And at the ninth hour of the day the Cross went up into heaven, and the gaze of every one followed it, both righteous and sinners, and they were sorrowful of heart because they did not see it again. And when the morning had come they came to the tomb to pray, and they saw a Cross of light within the tomb, and it shot out rays of light like flashes of lightning. And things having happened in this wise, the holy Apa Joseph, the God-loving and pious man, wrote letters and informed the Emperor Constantine of everything that had happened. And after these things Apa Joseph went to his rest (i.e. died), and Judas was appointed in his room; now he was the fifteenth [bishop] of the circumcision from our Fathers the Apostles. And he became famous in his diocese because of the confession of his orthodoxy. And when Judas died one Mark received his bishopric, and he was the first man who was not a native of Jerusalem to fill the office of bishop [in that city].

81 I have related all these things to your beloved persons, and I have revealed them unto you, for it is right so to do, so that we may keep the feast of the manifestation of the Cross, that is to say, the seventeenth day of the month of Thoth. Behold now the matter is manifest to us, through all the proofs [which we have adduced concerning] the manifestation of the Cross, and the dedication of the Holy Church of the Resurrection, which is [commemorated] on the seventeenth day of the month of Thoth, according to the [reckoning of the] Egyptians. 82 Behold, up to this point I have spoken about the glory and honour of the Holy Cross, and now let us rest satisfied, and go into the baptistery to the Holy Sacrifice, for the hour is advanced. More especially let us do this because of the fatigue of those who have come to us in this holy place to-day, and who ascribe glory to the Lord Jesus the Christ, and His Holy Cross, which saveth every one who believeth in Him. For the words of God are more excellent than gold and precious stones, and sweeter than honey and wax (i.e. honey in the comb). The servants of God must have a single aim: Let us not find ourselves celebrating the festival of the Holy Cross openly, and at the same time mixing ourselves up with the works of the heathen. Let us not find ourselves ascribing glory to the Christ, and blessing Him with our lips only, whilst our thoughts are outside our hearts and are running on the polytheism of the Greeks. For the word is one thing and the thought is another; and the confession of the tongue is one thing and the faith that is perfect in the heart is another. The natural philosopher [informeth] us about a certain animal which is not endowed with reason, and which liveth in the wilderness, and is called a 'camelopard'. It is an exceedingly large animal, and its forepart is like unto the forepart of a camel, and it has the face of a lion, and its hind-quarters are like those of a camel, and its habits are like those of the camel, as, for example, it thrusteth itself into the heart of high trees, and eateth their branches. It is irregular in form and variegated in colour. The inside of it is foul, and its body is likewise. Exactly thus are the godless heretics, and their thoughts are like unto this animal.

83 …1 the name of the Cross, and they make Him to be a mere man. If the Christ is merely a man, and He is not God, O thou heretic, thou thyself dost worship a mere man. Now thy heart (or, mind) is inconsistent, and thou dost not always hold the same opinion, O heretic; a very little more and thou wouldst say, 'Emmanuel is not God.' For thy hatred, O heretic, is the indication of our orthodoxy from which thou fleest. Thy hatred and thy thought utter what is vain. Thou eatest 84 [parts of six lines are wanting] and hide their words [as] the madness of old men (?). O ye Christians, let us never think upon the things that are heretical, neither let us go into their churches to pray, for they are not churches. But produce within yourselves the thought that is good, and the faith that is perfect towards God and His Holy Cross. And ye shall say with all your hearts, Emmanuel Who became man was not God and His divinity was not transferred to His humanity in one moment or in the twinkling of an eye, Text mutilated. This day [is] the fifteenth of the month Paône, and this year [is] the seven hundred and sixty-ninth of the Era of the Martyrs (i.e. A.D. 1053), and the four hundred and forty-eighth year of the Era of the Saracens, i. e. A.D. 1070. Christ is King over us! Amen.