The Forgotten Books of Eden

They have come down to us in a single and very ancient document in Syriac language. Evidently that document is a translation from the original Greek. Critical debate has raged around these Odes; one of the most plausible explanations is that they are songs of newly baptized Christians of the First Century.

They are strangely lacking in historical allusions. Their radiance is no reflection of other days. They do not borrow from either the Old Testament or the Gospels. The inspiration of these verses is first-hand. They remind you of Aristides’ remark, “A new people with whom something Divine is mingled.” Here is vigor and insight to which we can find parallels only in the most exalted parts of the Scriptures.

For these dazzling mystery odes, we owe our translation to J. Rendel Harris, MA., Hon. Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge. He says about them: “There does not seem to be anything about which everyone seem agreed unless it be that the Odes are of singular beauty and high spiritual value.”

1 The Lord is on my head like a crown, and I shall not be without Him. 2 They wove for me a crown of truth, and it caused thy branches to bud in me. 3 For it is not like a withered crown which buddeth not: but thou livest upon my head, and thou hast blossomed upon my head. 4 Thy fruits are full-grown and perfect, they are full of thy salvation.

1 ... I put on: 2 And his members are with him. And on them do I stand, and He loves me: 3 For I should not have known how to love the Lord, if He had not loved me. 4 For who is able to distinguish love, except the one that is loved? 5 I love the Beloved, and my soul loves Him: 6 And where His rest is, there also am I; 7 And I shall be no stranger, for with the Lord Most High and Merciful there is no grudging. 8 I have been united to I-run, for the Lover has found the Beloved, 9 And because I shall love Him that, is the Son, I shall become a son; 10 For he that is joined to Him that is immortal, will also himself become immortal; 11 And he who has pleasure in the Living One, will become living. 12 This is the Spirit of the Lord, which doth not lie, which teacheth the sons of men to know His ways. 13 Be wise and understanding and vigilant. Hallelujah.

1 No man, O my God, changeth thy holy place; 2 And it is not (possible) that he should change it and put it in another place: because he hath no power over it: 3 For thy sanctuary thou hast designed before thou didst make (other) places: 4 That which is the older shall not be altered by those that are younger than itself. 5 Thou has given thy heart, O Lord, to thy believers: never wilt thou fail, nor be without fruits: 6 For one hour of thy Faith is more precious than all days and years. 7 For who is there that shall put on thy grace, and be hurt? 8 For thy seal is known: and thy creatures know it: and thy (heavenly) hosts possess it: and the elect archangels are clad with it. 9 Thou hast given us thy fellowship: it was not that thou wast in need of us: but that we are in need of thee: 10 Distill thy dews upon us and open thy rich fountains that pour forth to us milk and honey: 11 For there is no repentance with thee that thou shouldest repent of anything that thou hast promised: 12 And the end was revealed before thee: for what thou gavest, thou gavest freely: 13 So that thou mayest, not draw them back and take them again: 14 For all was revealed before thee as God, and ordered from the beginning before thee: and thou, O God, hast made all things. Hallelujah.

1 I will give thanks unto thee, O Lord, because I love thee; 2 O Most High, thou wilt not forsake me, for thou art my hope: 3 Freely I have received thy grace, I shall live thereby: 4 My persecutors will come and not see me: 5 A cloud of darkness shall fall on their eyes; and an air of thick gloom shall darken them: 6 And they shall have no light to see: they may not take hold upon me. 7 Let their counsel become thick darkness, and what I have cunningly devised, let it return upon their own heads: 8 For they have devised a counsel, and it did not succeed: 9 For my hope is upon the Lord, and I will not fear, and because the Lord is my salvation, I will not fear: 10 And He is as a garland on my head and I shall not be moved; even if everything should be shaken, I stand firm; 11 And if all things visible should perish, I shall not die; because the Lord is with me and I am with Him. Hallelujah.

1 As the hand moves over the harp, and the strings speak. 2 So speaks in my members the Spirit of the Lord, and I speak by His love. 3 For it destroys what is foreign, and everything that is bitter: 4 For thus it was from the beginning and will be to the end, that nothing should be His adversary, and nothing should stand up against Him. 5 The Lord has multiplied the knowledge of Himself, and is zealous that these things should be known, which by His grace have been given to us. 6 And the praise of His name He gave us: our spirits praise His holy Spirit. 7 For there went forth a stream and became a river great and broad; 8 For it flooded and broke up everything and it brought (water) to the Temple: 9 And the restrainers of the children of men were not able to restrain it, nor the arts of those whose business it is to restrain waters; 10 For it spread over the face of the whole earth, and filled everything: and all the thirsty upon earth were given to drink of it; 11 And thirst was relieved and quenched: for from the Most High the draught was given. 12 Blessed then are the ministers of that draught who are entrusted with that water of His: 13 They have assuaged the dry lips, and the will that had fainted they have raised up; 14 And souls that were near departing they have caught back from death: 15 And limbs that had fallen they straightened and set up: 16 They gave strength for their feebleness and light to their eyes: 17 For everyone knew them in the Lord, and they lived by the water of life for ever. Hallelujah.

1 As the impulse of anger against evil, so is the impulse of joy over what is lovely, and brings in of its fruits without restraint: 2 My joy is the Lord and my impulse is toward Him: this path of mine is excellent: 3 For I have a helper, the Lord. 4 He hath caused me to know Himself, without grudging, by His simplicity: His kindness has humbled His greatness. 5 He became like me, in order that I might receive Him: 6 He was reckoned like myself in order that I might put Him on; 7 And I trembled not when I saw Him: because He was gracious to me: 8 Like my nature He became that I might learn Him and like my form, that I might not turn back from Him: 9 The Father of knowledge is the word of knowledge: 10 He who created wisdom is wiser than His works: 11 And He who created me when yet I was not knew what I should do when I came into being: 12 Wherefore He pitied me in His abundant grace: and granted me to ask from Him and to receive from His sacrifice: 13 Because He it is that is incorrupt, the fulness of the ages and the Father of them. 14 He hath given Him to be seen of them that are His, in order that they may recognize Him that made them: and that they might not suppose that they came of themselves: 15 For knowledge He hath appointed as its way, He hath widened it and extended it; and brought to all perfection; 16 And set over it the traces of His light, and I walked therein from the beginning even to the end. 17 For by Him it was wrought, and He was resting in the Son, and for its salvation He will take hold of everything; 18 And the Most High shall be known in His Saints,

to announce to those that have songs of the coming of the Lord; 19 That they may go forth to meet Him, and may sing to Him with joy and with the harp of many tones: 20 The seers shall come before Him and they shall be seen before Him, 21 And they shall praise the Lord for His love: because He is near and beholdeth. 22 And hatred shall be taken from the earth, and along with jealousy it shall be drowned: 23 For ignorance hath been destroyed, because the knowledge of the Lord hath arrived. 24 They who make songs shall sing the grace of the Lord Most High; 25 And they shall bring their songs, and their heart shall be like the day: and like the excellent beauty of the Lord their pleasant song: 26 And there shall neither be anything that breathes without knowledge, nor any that is dumb: 27 For He hath given a mouth to His creation, to open the voice of the mouth towards Him, to praise Him: 28 Confess ye His power, and show forth His grace. Hallelujah.

1 Open ye, open ye your hearts to the exultation of the Lord: 2 And let your love be multiplied from the heart and even to the lips, 3 To bring forth fruit to the Lord [fruit], holy [fruit], and to talk with watchfulness in His light. 4 Rise up, and stand erect, ye who sometime were brought low: 5 Tell forth ye who were in silence, that your mouth hath been opened. 6 Ye, therefore, that were despised, be henceforth lifted up, because your righteousness hath been exalted. 7 For the right hand of the Lord is with you: and He is your helper: 8 And peace was prepared for you, before ever your war was. 9 Hear the word of truth, and receive the knowledge of the Most High. 10 Your flesh has not known what I am saying to you neither have your hearts known what I am showing to you. 11 Keep my secret, ye who are kept by it: 12 Keep my faith, ye who are kept by it. 13 And understand my knowledge, ye who know me in truth. 14 Love me with affection, ye who love: 15 For I do not turn away my face from them that are mine; 16 For I know them, and before they came into being I took knowledge of them, and on their faces I set my seal: 17 I fashioned their members: my own breasts I prepared for them, that they might drink my holy milk and live thereby. 181 took pleasure in them and am not ashamed of them: 19 For my workmanship are they and the strength of my thoughts: 20 Who then shall rise up against my handiwork, or who is there that is not subject to them? 21 I willed and fashioned mind and heart: and they are mine, and by my own right hand I set my elect ones: 22 And my righteousness

goeth before them and they shall not be deprived of my name, for it is with them. 23 Ask, and abound and abide in the love of the Lord, 24 And yet beloved ones in the Beloved: those who are kept, in Him that liveth: 25 And they that are saved in Him that was saved; 26 And ye shall be found incorrupt in all ages to the name of your Father. Hallelujah.

1 Open your ears and I will speak to you. Give meyour souls that I may also give you my soul, 2 The word of the Lord and His good pleasures, the holy thought which He has devised concerning his Messiah. 3 For in the will of the Lord is your salvation, and His thought is everlasting life; and your end is immortality. q Be enriched in God the Father, and receive the thought of the Most High. 5 Be strong and be redeemed by His grace. 6 For I announce to you peace, to you His saints; 7 That none of those who hear may fall in war, and that those again who have known Him may not perish, and that those who receive may not be ashamed. 8 An everlasting crown for ever is Truth. Blessed are they who set it on their heads: 9 A stone of great price is it; and there have been wars on account of the crown. 10 And righteousness hath taken it and hath given it to you. 11 Put on the crown in the true covenant of the Lord. 12 And all those who have conquered shall be written in His book. 13 For their book is victory which is yours. And she (Victory) sees you before her and wills that you shall be saved. Hallelujah.

1 The Lord hath directed my mouth by His word: and He hath opened my heart by His light: and He hath caused to dwell in me His deathless life; 2 And gave me that I might speak the fruit of His peace: 3 To convert the souls of them who are willing to come to Him; and to lead captive a good captivity for freedom. 4 I was strengthened and made mighty and took the world captive; 5 And it became to me for the praise of the Most High, and of God my Father. 6 And the Gentiles were gathered together who were scattered abroad. 7 And I was unpolluted by my love for them, because they confessed me in high places: and the traces of the light were set upon their heart: 8 And they walked in my life and were saved and became my people for ever and ever. Hallelujah.

1 My heart was cloven and its flower appeared; and grace sprang up in it: and it brought forth fruit to the Lord, 2 For the Most High clave my heart by His Holy Spirit and searched my affection towards Him: and filled me with His love. 3 And His opening of me became my salvation; and I ran in His way in His peace, even in the way of truth: 4 From the beginning and even to the end I acquired His knowledge: 5 And I was established upon the rock of truth, where He had set me up: 6 And speaking waters touched my lips from the fountain of the Lord plenteously: 7 And I drank and was inebriated with the living water that doth not die; 8 And my inebriation was not one without knowledge, but I forsook vanity and turned to the Most High my God, 9 And I was enriched by His bounty, and I forsook the folly which is diffused over the earth; and I stripped it off and cast it from me: 10 And the Lord renewed me in His raiment, and possessed me by His light, and from above He gave me rest in incorruption; 11 And I became like the land which blossoms and rejoices in its fruits: 12 And the Lord was like the sun shining on the face of the land; 13 He lightened my eyes, and my face received the dew; and my nostrils enjoyed the pleasant odour of the Lord; 14 And He carried me to His Paradise; where is the abundance of the pleasure of the Lord; 15 And I worshipped the Lord on account of His glory; and I said, Blessed, O Lord, are they who are planted in thy land! and those who have a place in thy Paradise; 16 And they grow by the fruits of the trees.

And they have changed from darkness to light. 17 Behold! all thy servants are fair, who do good works, and turn away from wickedness to the pleasantness that is thine: 18 And they have turned back the bitterness of the trees from them, when they were planted in thy, land; 19 And everything became like a relic of thyself, and memorial for ever of thy faithful works. 20 For there is abundant room in thy Paradise, and nothing is useless therein; 21 But everything is filled with fruit; glory be to thee, O God, the delight of Paradise for ever. Hallelujah.