The Sibylline Oracles
Fragment one
Affirmation of Monotheism
1Mortal and fleshly men, who are nothing,
how do you so quickly exalt yourselves, while disregarding the end of life?
You do not fear or revere God, who oversees you,
the Most High, the knowing, all-seeing, witness of everything,
5the Creator who nourishes all, who put a sweet spirit
in all and made it a guide for all mortals?
There is one God, who rules alone, exceedingly great, unbegotten,
universal ruler, invisible, who himself sees all things.
He is not seen by any mortal flesh.
10For what flesh can see with eyes the true and heavenly
immortal God, who inhabits, the vault of heaven?
But men, who are mortal, are not even able
to stand against the rays of the sun,
men who are veins and flesh on bones.
15Revere him who alone is ruler of the world.
He is alone, from age to age,
self-generated, unbegotten, ruling everything throughout.
Administering judgment to all mortals in common light.
You will have the appropriate reward of wickedness
20because you abandoned the true and eternal God
and (ceased) to honor him and sacrifice sacred hecatombs
but made the sacrifices to the demons in Hades.
You walk in affectation and madness, and, having abandoned
the straight, right path, you went away and wandered
25through thorns and stakes. Vain mortals.
stop roaming in darkness and black night without light
and leave the darkness of night and take hold of light.
Behold, he is clear and unwavering for all.
Come, do not always follow darkness and gloom.
30Behold, the sweet light of the sun shines outstandingly. Put wisdom in your breasts and have knowledge.
There is one God who sends showers, winds, and earthquakes,
lightnings, famines, pestilence, and mournful woes,
snowstorms, and ice. Why do I name them individually?
35He rules heaven; holds sway over earth, he himself exists.
fragment two
If gods beget and yet remain immortal
there would have been more gods born than men,
and mortals would never even have a place to stand.
fragment three
1But if that which comes into being also absolutely perishes.
a god cannot be formed from the thighs of man and a womb.
But God (is) alone, unique, supreme over all. He has made
heaven and sun and stars and moon,
5fruitful earth and waves of water of the sea,
lofty mountains, perennial streams of springs.
Again he begets an innumerable multitude of water creatures.
He sustains serpents which move on the earth
and diverse kinds of birds, shrill, lisping,
10trilling, chirping, disturbing the air with their wings.
He placed a wild brood of beasts in the valleys of mountains
and made all cattle subject to us mortals. He established a divinely fashioned ruler of all
and subordinated toman things diverse and incomprehensible.
15For what flesh of mortals is able to know all these things?
But he alone knows, who made these things from the beginning,
the eternal incorruptible Creator who lives in the sky,
who provides for the good a much greater good as reward,
but stirs up wrath and anger against the wicked and unjust
20and war and pestilence and tearful woes.
Men, why do you vainly exalt yourselves so that you will be rooted out?
Be ashamed of defying polecats and brute beasts.
Does not madness and frenzy take away the sense of the mind
if gods steal dishes and plunder pots/
25And instead of living in the golden boundless vault of heaven
they appear moth-eaten and are woven with thick cobwebs.
Mindless ones, adoring snakes, dogs, and cats,
you revere birds and wild serpents of the earth
and stone statues and handmade images
30and heaps of stones by the roads. These things you revere
and many other vain things which it is disgraceful even to mention.
There are gods which by deceit are leaders of mindless men,
from whose mouths pour deadly poison.
But he is life and imperishable eternal light,
35and he pours out a delight sweeter than honey for men.....
Bend the neck to him alone
and you will incline your path among the pious ages.
Leaving all these things, you all with foolishness
and frenzied spirit quaffed a goblet full of judgment,
40very pure, strong, well fortified, quite unmixed.
You are not willing to become sober and come to a prudent mind
and know God the king who oversees all.
Therefore the gleam of blazing fire comes upon you. You will be burned with torches all day, throughout eternity,
45shamed by lies on account of useless idols.
But those who honor the true eternal God
inherit life, dwelling in the luxuriant garden
of Paradise for the time of eternity,
feasting on sweet bread from starry heaven.
fragment four
Listen to me, articulate men, the eternal king reigns.
Who alone is God, the invincible Creator.
He himself established the form of the shape of mortals.
He mingled the nature of all, begetter of life.
fragment six
...whenever it comes
there will be fire in the dark middle of black night.
fragment seven
Uncreated God.
fragment eight
The Erythrean, then, to God. 'Why, she says, O master,
do you inflict the compulsion of prophecy on me and
not rather guard me, lifted high above the earth,
until the day of your most blessed coming?'
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