Sacred Eavesdropping: Debate Hymns (Part I)

One of the great wealths of our West Syriac Tradition is the expansive and vivid corpus of hymnody. One such hymn is called ܣܘܓܝܬܐ (Syriac soo-ghi-tho), which is composed of short verses (usually pairs of 7 or 8 syllables), acrostic (that is, each verse begins with a letter in alphabetic order) and, most interestingly, imagines an argument/dialogue between two characters. These characters can be either persons, such as the Mary and the Magi, or anthropomorphized forces, such as Gold and Wheat arguing who is more valuable (spoiler: Wheat wins because it can turn into the Body of Christ). These hymns are prayed at every major office, the most ancient are from Holy Week, and they are sung between two choirs, each taking on a voice of one of the characters.

These debate hymns are not simple summarizes of Scriptural accounts, but interpolate with holy imagination broader context for the accounts we have. A personal favorite of mine, which I will cover in a later post, is that of the Good Thief and the Cherub. After the Good Thief professes his faith in Christ on the Cross, Christ fulfills his promise and the Thief finds himself at the gates of Eden. Yet no one has informed the angel that humanity was allowed reentry and so their argument begins when a dumbstruck guard tries to expel a thief insistent he was allowed in.

In this post, I will share the debate hymn between Death and Satan. This hymn is found in the Holy Week office for Saturday, after our Lord has died, been buried and rests in Sheol. Though the intervening events of Christ’s rest in the grave are not discussed in Scripture, they occupy an important place in ancient Christian tradition. Here, Satan proclaims his victory while Death has a bad feeling about imminent defeat:

Satan: “The days of His life were bitter for me, and even more for you. He snatched the dead from you, for me He cast Legion into the sea.”

Death: “His death was worse for me than when He lived and stole three dead from me. Now He, even if He is dead, raises all the dead from Sheol!”

S: “How many mighty men did I bring to your gate? You did not fear Moses and Joshua. But now the Crucified One brought you low.”

D: “How many days have these ones lived? I loved the scent of their struggle.
This Crucified One called the dead, and they leave me, fleeing this place.”

In the end, it seems Death was right - both have lost and Christ is victor!

For the full hymn, see here.