Jewish Orphic Fragments

The Jewish Orphic Fragments

[A monotheistic hymn circulated under the name of Orpheus, instructing his son Musaeus; quoted by later writers in differing forms.]

I will speak to those permitted; close the doors, you uninitiated. But you, Musaeus, hear me, child of the light-bringing moon, for I declare the truth; let no former fancy rob you of the blessed life.

There is one, complete in himself,

and of that one all things are born;

he moves within them all,

and no mortal sees him,

yet he himself sees all.

He is established in the great heaven upon a golden throne;

the earth is beneath his feet.

He stretches his right hand to the ends of the ocean;

the mountains tremble before him,

and the depths of the sea cannot bear his might.

He is heavenly, and he brings all things to pass on earth,

being himself the beginning, the middle, and the end.

No one has seen him, the ruler of mortals, except a certain man of old, a child of the Chaldean line; for he knew the path of the stars and the turning of the sphere about the earth, and how God himself stands above the heavens. [Meaning uncertain]