Isho'yahb to the Patriarch

[Ishoʿyahb of Nineveh to the Patriarch, letter #39]

Hitherto, O Father, the hope of [your] arrival here and again my eagerness to go there have certainly relieved the common mind from the sorrow of loss. But now, when both a difficult time has delayed the matter, the sorrow is commonly shared, while it adds to our daily tribulations. For this reason, therefore, it is necessary now in the usual way, namely, in lines of letters, that we use as a comfort of little moment, until the Lord turn and have mercy on us, and the light of His salvation arise in grace. But let your Paternity give graces for my weakness. For I still possess the benevolence of God more than sins deserve, when I find daily bread and a little rest, and the ministry of the church of God is accomplished in a temperate way.

That way, of course, is reputed to resist the ruin of the world {2 Thess 2:7-8 again}, such that not even Satan may endure such a thing; so instead, boiling over with his usual madness, he stirred up terrible things and even greater things in us by sudden disturbances, and prepared for us the Pascha to be performed, which is altogether similar to the Pascha of our Lord, both in the day and in the moment: in the place of Herod and Pilate, the saecular and religious princes of our region; in place of the chief priests of the Jews and the leaders of their people are the heretics and the chiefs of our people; in the place of the guards and soldiers … [Duval: here something is missing] ; in place of swords and clubs, these are these swords and clubs; in place of trumpets and shouts, these are the trumpets and these shouts; in place of the traitor Judas he is a distinguished and honored leader in our assembly. He, while the Host was still between his lips, showed alacrity greater than Judas. For he did not wait until we praised and went out to the Mount of Olives, as Judas waited; nor did he come to us with a kiss like that, but with a spear and a shield.

So much for the image of our Lord’s Pascha. But henceforth and beyond, our Pascha has surely utterly overcome the Lord's Pascha, that corporeal and mystical Pascha with Peter and his associates. Because the Lord twelve legions of angels, which he had once restrained from the ministry of their sincerity, speaking to Peter {Matt 26:53}, He has now openly sent for the good of our church, and did those wonderful things which marked the glory of his power. This letter could not be received to show their splendor, nor would the language of my simplicity be able to describe in words the image of their miracle. But let them be reserved for the meeting of [our] persons and in lengthy narratives, with God's help. But before I be worthy of this, let your Paternity rejoice in these events, because they are most praiseworthy, and let him always thank the Lord for them, because in the extent of His power are prostrated to Him His enemies the heretics, as it is written {Ps 66:3}. When the [Monophysites of Tikrit] had been cloven by the blow of the Lord from the strength of their hope, they withdrew to the domineering barbarians, whom our sins had stirred up against us. Behold, they menace me daily with death, which I have shown to be easiest and most convenient for them, although [death] is more terrible for them, because they have no hope. But the spirit of God, by the usual prodigy, will convert the hardness of the barbarians to our peace little by little, and the [heretics] will be confounded by it, as they were confounded by Assyria {Duval: Jeremiah 2:36}. The glory of divine power will be restored by mouth of the wise, as fitting. Therefore let your Fatherhood pray, I beg you, that I may be worthy of the grace of repentance, and find mercy in the sight of our Lord, and that I spend the rest of my days in such life as pleases the will of God.