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EPHRAEM SYRUS (Ephraim the Syrian)

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Originally appearing in Volume V09, Page 679 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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EPHRAEM SYRUS (See also:

Ephraim the Syrian) , a See also:saint who lived in See also:Mesopotamia during the first three quarters of the 4th See also:century A.D. He is perhaps the most influential of all See also:Syriac authors; and his fame as a poet, commentator, preacher and defender of orthodoxy has spread throughout all branches of the See also:Christian See also:Church. This reputation he owes partly to the vast fertility of his pen—according to the historian See also:Sozomen he was credited with having written altogether 3,000,000 lines--partly to the elegance of his See also:style and a certain measure of poetic See also:inspiration, more perhaps to the strength and consistency of his See also:personal See also:character, and his ardour in See also:defence of the creed formulated at See also:Nicaea. An See also:anonymous See also:life of Ephraim was written not See also:long after his See also:death in 373. The See also:biography has come down to us in two recensions. But in neither See also:form is it See also:free from later See also:interpolation; and its untrustworthiness is shown by its conflicting with data 1It is now generally recognized, thanks to Volquardsen and others, that See also:Ephorus is the See also:principal authority followed by Diodorus, except in the chapters See also:relating to Sicilian See also:history.supplied by his own See also:works, as well as by the manner in which it is overloaded with miraculous events. The following is a probable outline of the See also:main facts of Ephraim's life. He was See also:born in the reign of See also:Constantine (perhaps in 306) at or near See also:Nisibis. His See also:father was a See also:pagan, the See also:priest of an idol called Abnil or Abizal.2 During his boyhood Ephraim showed a repugnance towards See also:heathen See also:worship, and was eventually driven by his father from the See also:home. He became a See also:ward and See also:disciple of the famous Jacob—the same who attended°the See also:Council of Nicaea as See also:bishop of Nisibis, and died in 338. At his hands Ephraim seems to have received See also:baptism at the See also:age of 18 or of 28 (the two recensions differ on this point), and remained at Nisibis till its surrender to the Persians by See also:Jovian in 363. Probably in the course of these years he was ordained a See also:deacon, but from his humble estimate of his own See also:worth refused See also:advancement to any higher degree in the church.

He seems to have played an important See also:

part in guiding the fortunes of the See also:city during the See also:war begun by See also:Shapur II. in 337, in the course of which Nisibis was thrice unsuccessfully besieged by the Persians (in 338, 346 and 350). The statements of his biographer to this effect See also:accord with the impression we derive from his own poems (Carmina Nisibena, 1-21). His intimate relations with Bishop See also:Jacob were continued with the three succeeding bishops—Babu (338–?349), See also:Vologaeses (?349–361), and Abraham—on all of whom he wrote encomia. The surrender of the city in 363 to the Persians resulted in a See also:general See also:exodus of the Christians, and Ephraim See also:left with the See also:rest. After visiting Amid (Diarbekr) he proceeded to See also:Edessa, and there settled and spent the last ten years of his life. He seems to have lived mainly as a See also:hermit outside the city: his See also:time was devoted to study, See also:writing, teaching and the refutation of heresies. It is possible that during these years he paid a visit to See also:Basil at Caesarea. Near the end of his life he rendered See also:great public service by distributing provisions in the city during a See also:famine. The best attested date for his death is the 9th of See also:June 373• It is clear that this See also:chronology leaves no See also:room for the visit to See also:Egypt, and the eight years spent there in refuting Arianism, which are alleged by his biographer. Perhaps, as has been surmised, there may be confusion with another Ephraim. Nor can he have written the funeral See also:panegyric on Basil who survived him by three months. But with all necessary deductions the biography is valuable as witnessing to the immense reputation for sanctity and for theological acumen which Ephraim had gained in his lifetime, or at least soon after he died.

His biographer's statement as to his habits and See also:

appearance is worth quoting, and is probably true:—" From the time he became a See also:monk to the end of his life his only See also:food was See also:barley See also:bread and sometimes See also:pulse and vegetables: his drink was See also:water. And his. flesh was dried upon his bones, like a See also:potter's sherd. His clothes were of many pieces patched together, the See also:colour of dirt. In stature he was little; his countenance was always sad, and he never condescended to See also:laughter. And he was bald and beardless." The statement in his Life that Ephraim miraculously learned Coptic falls to the ground with the narrative of his See also:Egyptian visit: and the See also:story of his suddenly learning to speak See also:Greek through the See also:prayer of St Basil is equally unworthy of See also:credence. He probably wrote only in Syriac, though he may have possessed some knowledge of Greek and possibly of See also:Hebrew. But many of his works must have been See also:early translated into other See also:languages; and we possess in See also:MSS. versions into Greek, Armenian, Coptic, Arabic and Ethiopic. The Greek versions occupy three entire volumes of the See also:Roman See also:folio edition, and the extant Armenian versions (mainly of N.T. commentaries) were published at See also:Venice in four volumes in 1836. It was primarily as a sacred poet that Ephraim impressed himself on his See also:fellow-countrymen. With the exception of his commentaries on scripture, nearly all his extant Syriac works are composed in See also:metre. In many cases the metrical structure 2 It is true that in the See also:Confession attributed to him and printed among his Greek works in the first See also:volume of the Roman edition he speaks (p. 129) of his parents as having become martyrs for the Christian faith.

But this document is of very doubtful authenticity. is of the simplest, consisting only in the arrangement of the discourse in lines of See also:

uniform length—usually heptasyllabic (Ephraim's favourite metre) or pentasyllabic. A more complicated arrangement is found in other poems, such as the Carmina Nisibena:. these are made up of strophes, each consisting of lines of different lengths according to a settled See also:scheme, with a recurring refrain. T. J. Lamy has estimated that, in this class of poems, there are as many as 66 different varieties of metres to be found in the works of Ephraim. These strophic poems were set to See also:music, and sung by alternating choirs of girls. According to Ephraim's biographer, his main See also:motive for providing these See also:hymns set to music was his See also:desire to counteract the baneful effects produced by the heretical hymns of Bardaisan and his son Harmonius, which had enjoyed popularity and been sung among the Edessenes for a century and a See also:half. The subject-See also:matter of Ephraim's poems covers all departments of See also:theology. Thus the Roman edition contains (of metrical works) exegetical discourses, hymns on the Nativity of See also:Christ, 65 hymns against heretics, 85 on the Faith against sceptics, a discourse against the See also:Jews, 85 funeral hymns, 4 on free-will, 76 exhortations to repentance, 12 hymns on See also:paradise, and 12 on See also:miscellaneous subjects. The edition of Lamy has added many other poems, largely connected with church festivals. It must be confessed that, judged by Western See also:standards, the poems of Ephraim are prolix and wearisome in the extreme, and are distinguished by few striking poetic beauties.

And so far as they are made the vehicle of reasoning, their efficiency is seriously hampered by their poetic form. On the other See also:

hand, it is See also:fair to remember that the See also:taste of Ephraim's countrymen in See also:poetry was very different from ours. As See also:Duval remarks: " quanta la prolixite de saint Ephrem que nous trouvons parfois fastidieuse, on ne peut la condamner sans tenir compte du See also:gout See also:des Syriens qui aimaient Ies repetitions et See also:les developpements de la meme pensee, et voyaient des quakes la ou nous trouvons des defauts " (See also:Litter. syriaque, p. 19). He is no worse in these respects than the best of the Syriac writers who succeeded him. And he surpasses almost all of them in the richness of his diction, and his skill in the use of metaphors and illustrations. Of Ephraim as a commentator on Scripture we have only imperfect means of judging. His commentaries on the O.T. are at See also:present accessible to us only in the form they had assumed in the See also:Galena Patrum of See also:Severus (compiled in 861), and to some extent in quotations by later Syriac commentators. His commentary on the Gospels is of great importance in connexion with the textual history of the N.T., for the See also:text on which he composed it was that of the Diatessaron. The Syriac See also:original is lost: but the See also:ancient Armenian version survives, and was published at Venice in 1836 along with Ephraim's commentary on the Pauline epistles (also only extant in Armenian) and some other works. A Latin version of the Armenian Diatessaron commentary has been made by Aucher and Mosinger (Venice, 1876). Using this version as a See also:clue, J.

R. See also:

Harris' has been able to identify a number of Syriac quotations from or references to this commentary in the works of Isho'dadh, See also:Bar-Kepha (Severus), Bar-salibi and Barhebraeus. Although, as Harris points out, it is unlikely that the original text of the Diatessaron had come down unchanged through the two centuries to Ephraim's See also:day, the text on which he comments was in the main unaffected by the revision which produced the Peshitta. See also:Side by side with this conclusion may be placed the result of F. C. Burkitt's2 careful examination of the quotations from the Gospels in the other works of Ephraim; he shows conclusively that in all the undoubtedly genuine works the quotations are from a pre-Peshitta text. As a theologian, Ephraim shows himself a stout defender of Nicaean orthodoxy, with no leanings in the direction of either the Nestorian or the Monophysite heresies which arose after his time. He regarded it as his See also:special task to combat the views of See also:Marcion, of Bardaisan and of Mani. i Fragments of the Commentary of Ephrem Syrus upon the Diatessaron (See also:London, 1895). 2 " Ephraim's Quotations from the See also:Gospel," in Texts and Studies, vol. vii. (See also:Cambridge, 19oi). To the See also:modern historian Ephraim's main contribution is in the material supplied by the 72 hymns' known as Carmina Nisibena and published by G.

Bickell in 1866. The first 20 poems were written at Nisibis between 350 and 363 during the See also:

Persian invasions; the remaining 52 at Edessa between 363 and 373• The former tell us much of the incidents of the frontier war, and particularly enable us to reconstruct in detail the history of the third See also:siege of Nisibis in 350. Of the many See also:editions of Ephraim's works a full See also:list is given by Nestle in Realenk. f. protest. Theol. and Kirche (3rd ed.). For modern students the most important are: (i) the great folio edition in 6 volumes (3 of works in Greek and 3 in Syriac), in which the text is throughout accompanied by a Latin version (See also:Rome, 1732–1746) ; on the unsatisfactory character of this edition (which includes many works that are not Ephraim's) and especially of the Latin version, see Burkitt, Ephraim's Quotations, pp. 4 sqq.; (2) Carmina Nisibena, edited with a Latin See also:translation by G. Bickell (See also:Leipzig, 1866) ; (3) Hymni et sermones, edited with a Latin translation by T. J. Lamy (4 vols., See also:Malines, 1882–1902). Many selected homilies have been edited or translated by See also:Overbeck, See also:Zingerle and others (cf. See also:Wright, See also:Short History, pp. 35 sqq.) ; a selection of the Hymns was translated by H.

See also:

Burgess, Select Metrical Hymns of Ephrem Syrus (1853). Of the two recensions of Ephraim's biography, one was edited in part by J. S. See also:Assemani (B.O. i. 26 sqq.) and in full by S. E. Assemani in the Roman edition (iii. pp. See also:xxiii.-lxiii.) ; the other by Lamy (ii. 5-90) and Bedjan (Acta mart. et sanct. iii. 621-665). The long poem on the history of See also:Joseph, twice edited by Bedjan (See also:Paris, 1887 and 1891) and by him attributed to Ephraim, is more probably the See also:work of Balai. (N.

End of Article: EPHRAEM SYRUS (Ephraim the Syrian)

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