Ephrem of Syria

[Cyril Guerette]

Hello All,

I was wondering if you might help me locate good English translations of St. Ephraem's poetical works. I begin my comprhensive examinations shortly and have chosen him as one of my first areas of study. I am currently half way through the "Classics of Western Spirituality" edition of his Hymns on the Nativity, Humns against Julian, and Hymns on Virginity and the Symbols of the Lord.

I would really profit from his Hymns Against Heresies and any other English translations that you might be able to suggest.

Also any significant secondary literature on the Saint that you think is especially important would also be appreciated.

Your in Christ,
Cyril

[M.C. Steenberg]

Dear Cyril,

Regarding your request for information on English translations of St Ephrem's poetical works, I might point you toward the handy edition called A Spiritual Psalter - Or Reflections on God. The work is a selection, made by Bishop Theophan the Recluse, from the vast body of Ephrem's poetry.

You can read a more detailed review of the volume here (http://www.monachos.net/books/patristic_sources/spiritual_psalter.shtml).

INXC, Matthew

[Waldemar]

Hugoye Journal of Syriac Studies
Special Issue: The Influence of Saint Ephraim the Syrian
http://syrcom.cua.edu/Hugoye/Vol1No2/

Introduction to the Special Issue

In December 1997, as reported in the first issue of Hugoye, a number of scholars, from different branches of learning, met together at my invitation in the School of Oriental and African Studies in the Centre of London, which has become, over the last five years, a centre for Oriental Christian encounter and study. The subject of our papers was the influence of Saint Ephraim the Syrian. A selection of the papers delivered there, and in addition, one or two which were not, in fact, delivered at that time, will be published in this special issue of Hugoye and the next.

The present issue contains the following papers: Andrew Palmer, A Single Human Being Divided in Himself: Ephraim the Syrian, the Man in the Middle; Hannah Hunt, The tears of the sinful woman: A theology of redemption in Saint Ephraim and his Followers; David Taylor, St. Ephraim's Influence On The Greeks; Sidney Griffith, A Spiritual Father for the Whole Church; Alain Desreumaux, Saint Ephraim in Christian Palestinian Aramaic; Zaga Gavrilovic, Saint Ephraim's Thought and Imagery as an Inspiration to Byzantine Artists; Jane Stevenson, Saint Ephraim in Seventh-Century Canterbury; Gordon Wakefield, John Wesley and Saint Ephraim.

These papers are ordered chronologically, beginning with Ephraim's own life. After that comes a study of his theology and its influence in his own Syriac tradition. Then a paper on the relationship between Ephraim and Greek Christians. Sidney Griffith's keynote paper sums up the whole conference, but it has something original to say about the sermo asceticus, a partly Ephremic, partly embroidered discourse composed in Greek which was translated into all the languages of mediaeval Christianity, except for Syriac. There follows a short paper, showing that even the Aramaic-speaking Melkite Christians of Palestine translated Ephraim (or Pseudo-Ephraim) from the Greek and honoured him highly. Zaga Gavrilovoc traces the influence of Ephraim on Byzantine art as far as Serbia, while Jane Stevenson shows that the Greek Ephraim - and perhaps even parts of the Syriac Ephraim - reached England with Theodore of Tarsus, when he came as Archbishop to Canterbury. Finally, Gordon Wakefield shows how much Saint Ephraim appealed to the spiritual minds of John Wesley and his brother Charles, the hymn-writer, founders of the Methodist Movement. It was John Wesley who called Ephraim 'the most awakening of all the ancients'.

[M.C. Steenberg]

Another volume containing poetical works of St Ephrem in English translation is Harp of the Spirit: Twelve Poems of Saint Ephrem, translated by Sebastian Brock and published in Studies Supplementary to Sobornost, no. 4. It is available from the Fellowship of St Alban and St Sergius (http://www.sobornost.org). The volume also includes a helpful introduction by Brock; and the translations are marvellous.

INXC, Matthew

[Cyril Guerette]

Dear Matthew and Waldemar,

Thank you greatly, I now have two new volumes to purchase and a great journal online presenting modern scholarship on the great Father!

Respectfully and Gratefully,
Cyril

[Fr John Wehling]

There is also the volume "On Paradise" which is published by St Vladimir's (SVS Press) which contains the Hymns on Paradise, and a study called "The Luminous Eye", by Sebastian Brock, which I have not read but have heard praised.

Hope this helps,
Fr John

[Daniel Jeandet]

I love Saint Ephrem. I have his hymns on paradise, and the spiritual psalter. The Psalter is a beautiful book, it is hardback, with gold words on the front, and its just a very good prayer book. I love Saint Ephrem. The hymns on paradise are amazing. If you read them enough times, you really begin to see a depth in them that is beyond just the words and sentences. He was certainly a Holy man.

I read once that the Saint, after aquiring dispassion, actually prayed that God would give the passions back to him, so that he could fight against Gods enemy some more. Careful of the introductions to these books though, for some reason, the modern academics like to deny alot of the history and accounts of the Saints lives, or try to dissect and analyse the theology in the most strange ways, as though the saints were just like them, sitting around and dissecting things.

[Waldemar]

Cyril et al,

In case you haven't come across this while poking around through back issues of Hugoye (Just in time for the upcoming Nativity Fast?):

The Image of the Infant Jesus in Ephrem the Syrian
http://syrcom.cua.edu/Hugoye/Vol5No1/HV5N1Russell.html#S4

Paul S. RUSSELL

Abstract

This paper examines passages in which St. Ephrem the Syrian makes use of the image of Jesus Christ as an infant child. It demonstrates that he uses this tool to support his full picture of the Incarnation, including both a stress on a fully divine Divinity and on a fully human humanity. This study also makes clear that Ephrem imagines that the experience of the Divine Word in being incarnate has close affinities with the common human experience we all share. This has an interesting effect on his picture of how the incarnation figures in the working out of human salvation. Ephrem's view of the Incarnation is shown to be imaginatively full, making use of the subjective as well as the objective elements in human life and nature.

Extracts to whet your reading appetite:

Ephrem focuses on the contrast between humanity and divinity, between the extreme helplessness of the new-born human and the limitless power of the fully Divine Son of God, in order to impress that duality of natures in Christ on the mind of his listener. Ephrem is not delighting in apparent absurdities for their own sakes, but is providing, instead, a building block for the final and most important aspect of his use of this image. It is the religious or practical meaning of this juxtaposition of natures that most strongly appeals to Ephrem's imagination and explains his interest in the infant Jesus. Ephrem is not nearly as interested in talking about what the infant Jesus is in the abstract as he is in talking about how the image of the infant Jesus can shed light in practical ways on the life of the believer.

The Meaning of the Infant Jesus

The primary result of the presence in the created world of God the Son as the infant Jesus, in Ephrem's mind, was to make the Divine present to human beings in a new way... When Ephrem says: "Majesty made itself small so that those who held it could endure it.", we can hear not only his idea of the result of the Incarnation, but also of its purpose. The gulf which had existed between God and Creation, which is a strong theme in Ephrem's writings and which he believed to be clearly described in Scripture, has been bridged so effectively by the Son's Incarnation that, not only can humans come into the direct presence of God, but they can even pick the Son up and carry Him around! This is not only true of Jesus after His human birth. Ephrem also speaks of Jesus, while He is still in the womb of Mary, in a way that emphasizes this new close contact and what it means for Divine-human relations and proximity.

The Power that governs all dwelt in a small womb.
While dwelling there, He was holding the reins of the universe.
His Parent was ready for His will to be fulfilled.
The heavens and all the creation were filled by Him.
The Sun entered the womb, and in the height and depth
His rays were dwelling.


He dwelt in the vast wombs of all creation.
They were too small to contain the greatness of the First-Born.
How indeed did that small womb of Mary suffice for Him?
It is a wonder if...sufficed for Him.
Of all the wombs that contained Him, one womb sufficed:
[the womb] of the Great One Who begot Him.


The image here is clearly one of the Divine Person entering into the created world and taking up residence in it, instead of merely suffusing it with His presence or presiding over it, as the Divine had done before that change. This dwelling in the midst of Creation, as a part of it, makes God the Son close to, and available to, the surrounding creatures in a way that was not possible before. The presence of the Son here is a "personal" one that involves Him as a complete whole.

... Ephrem does not only speak of Christ on the Cross as being the Savior; in his mind, it is also appropriate to say this of the baby Jesus.

It was He, the Infant of days, that could appease, O Lord, the Ancient of Days.

The contrast of "the Infant of days" with "the Ancient of Days" may distract us from this fact of the infant being described as mediator. This role must hinge, logically, on Jesus' enjoyment of the duality of natures and His consequent ability to serve as a bridge over the gulf between God and the world. Because the bridge is created only by the Son's incarnation, the infant Jesus would naturally attract this sort of comment from Ephrem. He would be likely to reflect on that aspect of the Incarnation with reference to the Christ child since the gulf being bridged is a prominent piece of Ephrem's mental furniture, so bypassing it is an important change in the ontological order of things. This way of speaking should make us aware of the fact that Ephrem's christological thought is very strongly incarnation-centered, to the point that he is able to see salvation in the Incarnation itself as well as in the work of Christ on the Cross.

[Waldemar]

P.S.

Hugoye Special Issue on Ephrem the Syrian Pt. II here:

http://syrcom.cua.edu/Hugoye/Vol2No1/index.html

[Michael White]

Greetings to everyone,

As a long-time "lurker" here, I thought I would actually post a message. I'd like to know more about the "history" of St. Ephraim of Syria, with specific attention on how he came to be known to the Chalcedonian church as a saint, in spite of the long and old charges of Nestorianism against him and St. Isaac, also from Syria.

Thank you for your help!

-- Michael

[Elizabeth Riggs]

A little adroit searching on Google will lead you to good translations of many, many of his works. Here are just a few:
http://www.tserkovnost.org/stephrem/
Some of the links are broken, but can be found by searching Google on the desired titles
http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/
Scroll down to "Ephraim the Syrian"
http://web.ukonline.co.uk/ephrem/ephrem.htm
http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/anderson/
Life of Adam and Eve attributed to St. Ephraim
http://syrcom.cua.edu/hugoye/Vol2No1/HV2N1Esbroeck.html
St Andrew and the Cannibals attributed to St. Ephraim
http://www.ocf.org/OrthodoxPage/reading/St.Pachomius/Syrian/disciple.html
Epistle to a Disciple
http://www.ocf.org/OrthodoxPage/reading/St.Pachomius/Syrian/pearl.html
The Pearl - Seven Hymns on the Faith
http://www.uoregon.edu/~sshoemak/324/texts/ephrem_hymns_faith.htm
Hymns on Faith 81-85
http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/anderson/ephrem.hymns/
Hymns on Fasting - index of directory
http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/anderson/retellings/Cave.html
The Cave of Treasures
http://www.ccel.org/fathers/NPNF2-13/
Index of Volume that includes some of St Ephraim's works
http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/NPNF2-13/Npnf2-13-15.htm#TopOfPage
Nineteen Hymns on the Nativity of Christ
http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/NPNF2-13/Npnf2-13-14.htm
The Nisibene Hymns
http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/NPNF2-13/Npnf2-13-30.htm#TopOfPage
Fifteen Hymns for the Feast of the Epiphany.
http://www.fortunecity.com/victorian/richmond/88/ephraim-syria.html
Mad Cybrarian's Library Links to St. Ephraim Works
http://www.ocf.org/OrthodoxPage/reading/St.Pachomius/Syrian/ephraim.html
Hymn Against Bar Daisan
http://www.bismikaallahuma.org/Polemics/Virgins/ephrem.htm
Extract from 'Hymns on Paradise'
http://www2.evansville.edu/ecoleweb/documentsE.html
Early Church Documents - E (select works by St. Ephraim)
There is more, but this should take care of you for quite a while!

In Christ,
Elizabeth, the sinner
and Perennial Student

[Robert Munshaw]

On the same note, I'm a PhD student taking comps and looking for what 18th century English translations might have been available for Ephrem, Clement of Alexandria, and Pseudo-Macarius (1721 text, I think)

Thanks for any help on this!