{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/008/0081484.htm","path":"chr/ecf/008/0081484.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/008/0081484.htm","text":"A Homily on Guria and Shamuna, Composed by Mar Jacob.\nShamuna and Guria, martyrs who made themselves illustrious in their afflictions,\nHave in love required of me to tell of their illustrious deeds.\nTo champions of the faith the doctrine calleth me,\nThat I should go and behold their contests and their crowns.\nChildren of the right hand, who have done battle against the left,\nHave called me this day to recite the marvellous tale of their conflicts:\u2014\nSimple old men, who entered into the fight like heroes,\nAnd nobly distinguished themselves in the strife of blood:\nThose who were the salt of our land, and it was sweetened thereby,\nAnd its savour was restored, which had become insipid through unbelief:\nCandlesticks of gold, which were full of the oil of the crucifixion,\nBy which was lighted up all our region, which had turned to darkness:\nTwo lamps, of which, when all the winds were blowing\nOf every kind of error, the lights were not put out;\nGood labourers, who from the spring of day laboured\nIn the blessed vineyard of the house of God right duteously:\nBulwarks of our land, who became to us as it were a defence\nAgainst all spoilers in all the wars that surrounded us:\nHavens of peace, a place also of retreat for all that were distressed,\nAnd a resting-place for the head of every one that was in need of succour:\nTwo precious pearls, which were\nAn ornament for the bride of my lord Abgar, the Aram\u00e6an\u2019s son.\nTeachers they were who practised their teaching in blood,\nAnd whose faith was known by their sufferings.\nOn their bodies they wrote the story of the Son of God\nWith the marks of combs and scourges which thickly covered them.\nThey showed their love, not by words of the mouth alone,\nBut by tortures and by the rending of their limbs asunder.\nFor the love of the Son of God they gave up their bodies:\np. 715 Since it beseemeth the lover that for his love he should give up himself.\nFire and sword proved their love, how true it was;\nAnd more beautiful than silver tried in a furnace of earth were their necks.\nThey looked on God, and, because they saw His exalted beauties,\nTherefore did they look with contempt upon their sufferings for His sake.\nThe Sun of righteousness had arisen in their hearts;\nAnd they were enlightened by it, and with His light chased they away the darkness.\nAt the idols of vanity, which error had brought in, they laughed,\nInstinct with the faith of the Son of God which is full of light.\nThe love of the Lord was as a fire in their hearts;\nNor could all the brambles of idolatry stand before it.\nFixed was their love on God unchangeably: 3328\nAnd therefore did they look with scorn upon the sword, 3329 all athirst as it was for blood.\nWith guilelessness and yet with wisdom stood they in the judgment-hall,\nAs they had been commanded by the Teacher of that which is true.\nDespising as they did kindred and family, guileless were they;\nForasmuch, also, as possessions and wealth were held in no account by them.\nNor guileless only: for in the judgment-hall with the wisdom of serpents too\nThey were heedful of the faith of the house of God.\nWhen a serpent is seized and struck, he guards his head,\nBut gives up and leaves exposed all his body to his captors:\nAnd, so long as his head is kept from harm, his life abideth in him;\nBut, if the head be struck, his life is left a prey to destruction.\nThe head of the soul is men\u2019s faith;\nAnd, if this be preserved unharmed, by it is also preserved their life: 3330\nEven though the whole body be lacerated with blows,\nYet, so long as faith is preserved, the soul is alive;\nBut, if faith is struck down by unbelief,\nLost is the soul, and life has perished from the man.\nShamuna and Guria of the faith as men 3331\nWere heedful, that it should not be struck down by persecutors:\nFor they knew that, if faith is preserved,\nBoth soul and body are preserved from destruction.\nAnd, because of this, touching their faith were they solicitous,\nThat that should not be struck down in which their very life was hidden.\nThey gave up their bodies both to blows and to dislocation, 3332\nYea to every kind of torture, that their faith should not be stricken down;\nAnd, even as the serpent also hides his head from blows,\nSo hid they their faith within their hearts;\nAnd the body was smitten, and endured stripes, and bore sufferings:\nBut overthrown was not their faith which was within their hearts.\nThe mouth betrayeth the soul to death when it speaks,\nAnd with the tongue, as with a sword, worketh slaughter.\nAnd from it spring up both life and death to men:\nDenying a man dies, confessing he lives, and the mouth hath power over it.\nDenial is death, and in confession is the soul\u2019s life;\nAnd power hath the mouth over them both, like a judge.\nThe word of the mouth openeth the door for death to enter in;\nThis, too, calleth for life, and it beameth forth upon the man.\nEven the robber by one word of faith\nWon him the kingdom, and became heir of paradise, 3333 all fraught with blessings.\nThe wicked judges too, from the martyrs, the sons of the right hand,\nDemanded that by word of mouth only they should blaspheme;\nBut, like true men holding fast the faith,\nThey uttered not a word by which unbelief might be served.\nShamuna, beauty of our faith, who is adequate to tell of thee?\nAll too narrow is my mouth for thy praise, too mean for thee to be spoken of by it.\nThy truth is thy beauty, thy crown thy suffering, thy wealth thy stripes,\nAnd by reason of thy blows magnificent is the beauty of thy championship.\np. 716 Proud of thee is our country, as of a treasury which is full of gold:\nSince wealth art thou to us, and a coveted store which cannot be stolen from us.\nGuria, martyr, staunch hero of our faith,\nWho shall suffice thee, to recount thy beauties divine?\nLo! tortures on thy body are set like gems of beryl,\nAnd the sword on thy neck like a chain of choice gold.\nThy blood upon thy form is a robe of glory full of beauty,\nAnd the scourging of thy back a vesture with which the sun may not compare.\nRadiant thou art and comely by virtue of these thy sufferings, so abounding;\nAnd resplendent are thy beauties, because of the pains which are so severe upon thee.\nShamuna, our riches, richer art thou than the rich:\nFor lo! the rich stand at thy door, that thou mayest relieve them.\nSmall thy village, poor thy country: who, then, gave thee\nThat lords of villages and cities should court thy favour?\nLo! judges in their robes and vestments\nTake dust from thy threshold, as though it were the medicine of life.\nThe cross is rich, and to its worshippers increaseth riches;\nAnd its poverty despiseth all the riches of the world.\nShamuna and Guria, sons of the poor, lo! at your doors\nBow down the rich, that they may receive from you supplies for their wants.\nThe Son of God in poverty and want\nShowed to the world that all its riches are as nothing,\nHis disciples, all fishermen, all poor, all weak,\nAll men of little note, became illustrious through His faith.\nOne fisherman, whose \u201cvillage\u201d too was a home of fishermen, 3334\nHe made chief over the twelve, yea head of the house. 3335\nOne a tentmaker, who aforetime was a persecutor,\nHe seized upon, and made him a chosen vessel for the faith.\nShamuna and Guria came from villages that were not wealthy,\nAnd lo! in a great city became they lords;\nAnd its chief men, its judges also, stand before their doors,\nAnd they solicit their charity to satisfy their wants.\nFrom their confession of the faith of the Son of God\nThese blessed men acquired riches beyond compute.\nPoor did He Himself become, and the poor made He rich;\nAnd lo! enriched is the whole creation through His poverty.\nThe chosen martyrs did battle against error,\nAnd in the confession of the Son of God stood they firm like valiant men.\nThey went in and confessed Him before the judge with look undaunted, 3336\nThat He too might confess them, even as they confessed Him, before His Father.\nThere arose against them the war of pagans like a tempest;\nBut the cross was their helmsman, and steered them on.\nThey were required to sacrifice to lifeless images,\nBut they departed not from their confession of the Son of God.\nThe wind of idolatry blew in their faces,\nBut they themselves were as rocks piled up against the hurricane.\nLike a swift whirlwind, error snatched at them;\nBut, forasmuch as they were sheltered by the crucifixion, it hurt them not.\nThe Evil One set on all his dogs to bark, that they might bite them;\nBut, forasmuch as they had the cross for a staff, they put them all to flight.\nBut who is sufficient to tell of their contests,\nOr their sufferings, or the rending asunder of their limbs?\nOr who can paint the picture of their coronation, 3337\nHow they went up from the contest covered with glory?\nTo judgment they went in, but of the judge they took no account;\nNor were they anxious what they should say when questioned.\nThe judge menaced them, and multiplied his words of threatening;\nAnd recounted tortures and all kinds of inflictions, that he might terrify them.\nHe spake great words, 3338 that by fright and intimidation,\nBy menaces too, he might incline them to sacrifice.\np. 717 Yet the combatants despised the menaces, and the intimidations,\nAnd the sentence of judgment, and all bodily deaths;\nAnd they prepared themselves for insult and stripes, and for blows,\nAnd for provocation, and to be dragged along, and to be burnt;\nFor imprisonment also, and for bonds, and for all evil things,\nAnd for all tortures, and for all sufferings, rejoicing all the while.\nThey were not alarmed nor affrighted, nor dismayed,\nNor did the sharpness of the tortures bend them to sacrifice.\nTheir body they despised, and as dung upon the ground accounted they it:\nFor they knew that, the more it was beaten, the more would its beauty increase;\nAnd, the more the judge increased his menaces to alarm them,\nThe more did they show their contempt of him, having no fear of his threats.\nHe kept telling them what tortures he had prepared for them;\nAnd they continued telling him about Gehenna which was reserved for him.\nBy those things which he told them he tried to frighten them to sacrifice;\nAnd they spoke to him about the fearful judgment yonder.\nTruth is wiser than wise words,\nAnd very hateful, however much it may be adorned, is falsehood.\nShamuna and Guria went on speaking truth,\nWhile the judge continued to utter falsehood.\nAnd therefore were they not afraid of his threatening,\nBecause all his menaces against the truth were accounted by them as empty sound. 3339\nThe intercourse of the world they despised, they contemned and scorned, yea they abandoned;\nAnd to return to it they had no wish, or to enter it again.\nFrom the place of judgment they set their faces to depart\nTo that meeting-place for them all, the life of the new world.\nThey cared neither for possessions nor for houses,\nNor for the advantages of this world, so full of evil.\nIn the world of light was their heart bound captive with God,\nAnd to \u201cthat\u201d country did they set their face to depart;\nAnd they looked to the sword, to come and be a bridge\nTo let them pass over to God, for whom they were longing.\nThis world they accounted as a little tent,\nBut that yonder as a city full of beauties;\nAnd they were in haste by the sword to depart hence\nTo the land of light, which is full of blessing for those who are worthy of it.\nThe judge commanded to hang them up by their arms,\nAnd without mercy did they stretch them out in bitter agony.\nA demon\u2019s fury breathed rage into the heart of the judge,\nAnd embittered him against the stedfast ones, inciting him to crush them;\nAnd between the height and the depth he stretched them out to afflict them:\nAnd they were a marvel to both sides, when they saw how much they endured.\nAt the old men\u2019s frame heaven and earth marvelled,\nTo see how much suffering it bore nor cried out for help under their affliction.\nHung up and dragged along are their feeble bodies by their arms,\nYet is there deep silence, nor is there one that cries out for help or that murmurs.\nAmazed were all who beheld their contests,\nTo see how calmly the outstretched forms bore the inflictions laid upon them. 3340\nAmazed too was Satan at their spotless frames,\nTo see what weight of affliction they sustained without a groan.\nYea, and gladdened too were the angels by that fortitude of theirs,\nTo see how patiently it bore that contest so terrible that was.\nBut, as combatants who were awaiting their crowns,\nThere entered no sense of weariness into their minds.\nNay, it was the judge that grew weary; yea, he was astonished:\nBut the noble men before him felt no weariness in their afflictions.\nHe asked them whether they would consent to sacrifice;\nBut the mouth was unable to speak from pain.\nThus did the persecutors increase their inflictions,\nUntil they gave no place for the word to be spoken.\np. 718 Silent was the mouth from the inflictions laid on their limbs;\nBut the will, like that of a hero, was nerved with fortitude from itself.\nAlas for the persecutors! how destitute were they of righteousness!\nBut the children of light\u2014how were they clad in faith!\nThey demand speech, when there is no place for speaking,\nSince the word of the mouth was forbidden them by pain.\nFast bound was the body, and silent the mouth, and it was unable\nTo utter the word when unrighteously questioned.\nAnd what should the martyr do, who had no power to say,\nWhen he was questioned, that he would not sacrifice?\nAll silent were the old men full of faith,\nAnd from pain they were incapable of speaking.\nYet questioned they were: and in what way, if a man is silent\nWhen he is questioned, shall he assent to that which is said?\nBut the old men, that they might not be thought to assent,\nExpressed clearly by signs the word which it behoved them to speak.\nTheir heads they shook, and, instead of speech, by a dumb sign they showed\nThe resolve of the new man that was within.\nTheir heads hung down, signifying amidst their pains\nThat they were not going to sacrifice, and every one understood their meaning.\nAs long as there was in them place for speech, with speech did they confess;\nBut, when it was forbidden them by pain, they spake with a dumb sign.\nOf faith they spoke both with the voice and without the voice:\nSo that, when speaking and also when silent, they were alike stedfast.\nWho but must be amazed at the path of life, how narrow it is,\nAnd how straight to him that desires to walk in it?\nWho but must marvel to see that, when the will is watchful and ready,\nIt is very broad and full of light to him that goeth therein?\nAbout the path are ditches; full also is it of pitfalls;\nAnd, if one turn but a little aside from it, a ditch receives him.\nThat dumb sign only is there between the right and the left,\nAnd on \u201cYea\u201d and \u201cNay\u201d stand 3341 sin and righteousness.\nBy a dumb sign only did the blessed men plainly signify that they would not sacrifice,\nAnd in virtue of a single dumb sign did the path lead them to Eden;\nAnd, if this same dumb sign had inclined and turned down but a little\nToward the depth, the path of the old men would have been to Gehenna.\nUpwards they made a sign, to signify that upwards were they prepared to ascend;\nAnd in consequence of that sign they ascended and mingled with the heavenly ones.\nBetween sign and sign were Paradise and Gehenna:\nThey made a sign that they would not sacrifice, and they inherited the place of the kingdom.\nEven while they were silent they were advocates for the Son of God:\nFor not in multitude of words doth faith consist.\nThat fortitude of theirs was a full-voiced confession,\nAnd as though with open mouth declared they their faith by signs;\nAnd every one knew what they were saying, though silent,\nAnd enriched and increased was the faith of the house of God;\nAnd error was put to shame by reason of two old men, who, though they spake not,\nVanquished it; and they kept silence, and their faith stood fast.\nAnd, though tempestuous accents were heard from the judge,\nAnd the commands of the emperor were dreadful, yea violent,\nAnd paganism had a bold face and an open mouth,\nAnd its voice was raised, and silent were the old men with pain,\nYet null and void became the command and drowned was the voice of the judge,\nAnd without speech the mute sign of the martyrs bore off the palm.\nTalking and clamour, and the sound of stripes, on the left;\nAnd deep silence and suffering standing on the right;\nAnd, by one mute sign with which the old men pointed above their heads,\nThe head of faith was lifted up, and error was put to shame.\np. 719 Worsted in the encounter were they who spoke, and the victory was to the silent:\nFor, voiceless they uttered by signs the discourse of faith.\nThey took them down, because they had vanquished while silent;\nAnd they put them in bonds, threatening yet to vanquish them.\nBonds and a dungeon void of light were by the martyrs\nHeld of no account\u2014yea rather as the light which has no end.\nTo be without bread, and without water, and without light,\nPleased them well, because of the love of the Son of God.\nThe judge commanded by their feet to hang them up\nWith their heads downwards, by a sentence all unrighteous:\nHanged up was Shamuna with his head downwards; and he prayed\nIn prayer pure and strained clear by pain.\nSweet fruit was hanging on the tree in that judgment-hall,\nAnd its taste and smell made the very denizens of heaven to marvel.\nAfflicted was his body, but sound was his faith;\nBound fast was his person, but unfettered was his prayer over his deed.\nFor, prayer nothing whatsoever turneth aside,\nAnd nothing hindereth it\u2014not even sword, not even fire.\nHis form was turned upside down, but his prayer was unrestrained,\nAnd straight was its path on high to the abode of the angels.\nThe more the affliction of the chosen martyr was increased,\nThe more from his lips was all confession heard.\nThe martyrs longed for the whetted sword affectionately,\nAnd sought it as a treasure full of riches.\nA new work has the Son of God wrought in the world\u2014\nThat dreadful death should be yearned for 3342 by many.\nThat men should run to meet the sword is a thing unheard of,\nExcept they were those whom Jesus has enlisted in His service by His crucifixion.\nThat death is bitter, every one knoweth lo! from earliest time:\nTo martyrs alone is it not bitter to be slain.\nThey laughed at the whetted sword when they saw it,\nAnd greeted it with smiles: for it was that which was the occasion of their crowns.\nAs though it had been something hated, they left the body to be beaten:\nEven though loving it, they held it not back from pains.\nFor the sword they waited, and the sword went forth and crowned them:\nBecause for it they looked; and it came to meet them, even as they desired.\nThe Son of God slew death by His crucifixion;\nAnd, inasmuch as death is slain, it caused no suffering to the martyrs.\nWith a wounded serpent one playeth without fear;\nA slain lion even a coward will drag along:\nThe great serpent our Lord crushed by His crucifixion;\nThe dread lion did the Son of God slay by His sufferings.\nDeath bound He fast, and laid him prostrate and trampled on him at the gate of Hades;\nAnd now whosoever will draweth near and mocketh at him, because he is slain.\nThese old men, Shamuna and Guria, mocked at death,\nAs at that lion which by the Son of God was slain.\nThe great serpent, which slew Adam among the trees,\nWho could seize, so long as he drank not of the blood of the cross?\nThe Son of God crushed the dragon by His crucifixion,\nAnd lo! boys and old men mock at the wounded serpent.\nPierced is the lion with the spear which pierced the side of the Son of God;\nAnd whosoever will trampleth on him, yea mocketh at him.\nThe Son of God\u2014He is the cause of all good things,\nAnd Him doth it behove every mouth to celebrate.\nHe did Himself espouse 3343 the bride with the blood which flowed from His wounds,\nAnd of His wedding-friends He demanded as a nuptial gift 3344 the blood of their necks.\nThe Lord of the wedding-feast hung on the cross in nakedness,\nAnd whosoever came to be a guest, He let fall His blood upon him.\np. 720 Shamuna and Guria gave up their bodies for His sake\nTo sufferings and tomes and to all the various forms of woe. 3345\nAt Him they looked as He was mocked by wicked men,\nAnd thus did they themselves endure mockery without a groan.\nEdessa was enriched by your slaughter, O blessed ones:\nFor ye adorned her with your crowns and with your sufferings.\nHer beauty are ye, her bulwark ye, her salt ye,\nHer riches and her store, yea her boast and all her treasure.\nFaithful stewards are ye: 3346\nSince by your sufferings ye did array the bride in beauty.\nThe daughter of the Parthians, who was espoused to the cross, 3347\nOf you maketh her boast: since by your teaching lo! she was enlightened.\nHer advocates are ye; scribes who, though silent, vanquished\nAll error, whilst its voice was uplifted high in unbelief.\nThose old men 3348 of the daughter of the Hebrews were sons of Belial, 3349\nFalse witnesses, who killed Naboth, feigning themselves to be true.\nHer did Edessa outdo by her two old men full of beauty,\nWho were witnesses to the Son of God, and died like Naboth.\nTwo were there, and two here, old men;\nAnd these were called witnesses, and witnesses those.\nLet us now see which of them were witnesses chosen of God,\nAnd which city is beloved by reason of her old men and of her honourable ones.\nLo! the sons of Belial who slew Naboth are witnesses;\nAnd here Shamuna and Guria, again, are witnesses.\nLet us now see which witnesses, and which old men,\nAnd which city can stand with confidence 3350 before God.\nSons of Belial were those witnesses of that adulterous woman,\nAnd lo! their shame is all portrayed in their names.\nEdessa\u2019s just and righteous old men, her witnesses,\nWere like Naboth, who himself also was slain for righteousness\u2019 sake.\nThey were not like the two lying sons of Belial,\nNor is Edessa like Zion, which also crucified the Lord.\nLike herself her old men were false, yea dared\nTo shed on the ground innocent blood wickedly.\nBut by these witnesses here lo! the truth is spoken.\u2014\nBlessed be He who gave us the treasure-store of their crowns!\nHere endeth the Homily on Guria and Shamuna.\nOr \u201csalvation:\u201d a different word from that used in speaking of the serpent.\u2014Tr.\n715:3331 715:3332 715:3333 716:3334 716:3335 716:3336\nLit. \u201cwith openness of countenance.\u201d\u2014Tr.\n716:3337\nLit. \u201cportray the image of their crowns.\u201d\u2014Tr.\n716:3338\nLit. \u201cmagnified his words.\u201d\u2014Tr.\n717:3339 717:3340\nLit. \u201chow much the outstretched forms bore in consequence of the inflictions.\u201d\u2014Tr.\n718:3341 719:3342 719:3343 719:3344\n***, though not in the lexicons, is the same word that appears in Castel as ***.\n720:3345\nLit. \u201cto the forms (\u03c3\u03c7\u03ae\u03bc\u03b1\u03c4\u03b1) of all afflictions.\u201d\u2014Tr.\n720:3346\nThis seems preferable to Cureton\u2019s \u201cYe are the stewards of (her) faith.\u201d The expression exactly corresponds in form to that in Luke xvi. 8 (Peshito): \u201cthe steward of injustice\u201d =\"the unjust steward.\u201d\n720:3347 720:3348 720:3349\nBy this name the men referred to (not, however, the elders, but the two false witnesses suborned by them) are called in 1 Kings 21:10, 13. The expression in the text is literally \u201csons of iniquity,\u201d and that is used by the Peshito.\u2014Tr.\n720:3350\nOr \u201chave an open countenance.\u201d\u2014Tr.","title":"Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol VIII: Memoirs of Edessa And Other Ancient Syriac Documents.: Homily on Guria and Shamuna.","type":"page"}