Sacred Texts Bible Apocrypha Index Previous Next
This Ode has strangely appeared in a speech by Salome in another ancient work called the Pistis Sophia.
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.
First century universalism is revealed in an interesting way in verse 10.
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: p. 123
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.