Ephrem of Nisibis (June 10)

 

Ephrem the Syrian, icon by Fr. Tobias Haller, BSG

The Harp of the Holy Spirit

Ephrem of Edessa 

10 June 373

Ephrem (Ephraim) of Nisibis (also honored as Ephrem of Edessa and Ephrem the Syrian) was a deacon, hymn-writer, teacher, poet, orator, and defender of the Faith.   Though born in Nisibis, most of his later adult life was spent in Edessa (now Urfa), a city in what is now Turkey about 100 kilometers from Antioch (now Antakya).  Edessa was an early center for the spread of Christian teaching in the East.

Edessa was a commercial center.  The main language in use there was Syriac, a late form of the Aramaic language written in its own script, whose early cursive form was later adapted by the Arabs.  Aramaic had been the lingua franca of the Southwest and Central Asian areas for centuries just as Greek was the lingua franca farther West.  Aramaic, you may remember, was the native tongue of Jesus of Nazareth.   Edessa in the early Christian era was the home of one of the greatest theological schools of the age, along with Constantinople and Alexandria Egypt. 

Edessa was later to become a center for Christians who took issue with the Council of Chacedon’s definition of the two natures of Christ—human and divine—held in hypostatic union as one person, called dyaphytism (from the Greek dya “two” and physis “nature.”)  They were labelled heretics and “Monophysite” (from Greek “one and only one nature”) by their detractors, though they themselves actually believed in two natures inseparably bound in the one person of Christ and preferred to call themselves “miaphysite” (“one among several nature”), basically the same position as orthodox or catholic dyaphystism with a slightly higher stress on the union part of the hypostatic union.  Labelling them "Nestorian" further complicated the misunderstanding since the later Syrian bishop Nestorius, anathematized at Chalcedon, was neither a Monophysite nor a leader of a split off church faction.  As in most of the divisions of the church along national lines in those early centuries, the problem was that native Syriac, Armenian, and Coptic speakers had difficulties with theological refinements based wholly on Greek language subtlety—this has now been recognized by modern Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox theologians and bishops, who have now dropped their anathemizing of these traditions. 

Because some people anathemized after Chacedon fled the Roman Empire and its religious orthodoxy though police for the East, Edessa thus was in some ways the source from which flowed the Great "Church of the East" that proselytized and set up schools, churches, and monasteries throughout the entire South, Central, and East Asian area, including Tang, Yuan, and Ming dynasty China.

Ephrem in 325 is said to have accompanied his bishop, James of Nisibis, to the Council of Nicea.   His writings are an eloquent defense of the Nicene faith in the Deity of Jesus Christ.   He countered the Gnostics' use of popular songs to spread their message by composing Christian songs and hymns of his own, with great effect. He is known to the Syrian church as "the harp of the Holy Spirit."

Of his writings there remain 72 hymns, commentaries on the Old and New Testaments, and numerous sermons. In exquisite Syriac, they are rich in alliteration, assonance, and consonance, plus homophony and word plays.  

One of his hymns reads:

From God Christ's deity came forth,

   his manhood from humanity;

 his priesthood from Melchizedek,

   his royalty from David's tree:

 praised be his Oneness.

 

 He joined with guests at wedding feast,

   yet in the wilderness did fast;

 he taught within the temple's gates;

   his people saw him die at last:

 praised be his teaching.

 

 The dissolute he did not scorn,

   nor turn from those who were in sin;

 he for the righteous did rejoice

   but bade the fallen to come in:

 praised be his mercy.

 

 He did not disregard the sick;

   to simple ones his word was given;

 and he descended to the earth

   and, his work done, went up to heaven:

 praised be his coming.

 

 Who then, my Lord, compares to you?

   The Watcher slept, the Great was small,

 the Pure baptized, the Life who died,

   the King abased to honor all:

 praised be your glory.
(Tr. John Howard Rhys, adapted by F Bland Tucker, [Episcopal] Hymnbook 1982)

 
Here is another one, a favorite of mine, most appropriate for this week in which we celebrate Corpus Christi (from Ephrem's Madroshe on Faith)

Lord, your robe’s the well from which our healing flows.
Just behind this outer layer hides your power.
Spittle from your mouth creates a miracle of light within its clay.

In your bread there blows what no mouth can devour.
In your wine there smoulders what no lips can drink.
Gale and Blaze in bread and wine: unparalleled the miracle we taste.

Coming down to earth, where human beings die,
God created these anew, like Wide-eyed Ones,
mingling Blaze and Gale and making these the mystic content of their dust.

Did the Seraph’s fingers touch the white-hot coal?
Did the Prophet’s mouth do more than touch the same?
No, they grasped it not and he consumed it not. To us are granted both.

Abram offered body-food to spirit-guests.
Angels swallowed meat. The newest proof of power
is that bodies eat and drink the Fire and Wind provided by our Lord.
                                                 (tr. Geoffrey Rowell) 

 

A measure of his spirituality and ethical teaching is found in his Lenten Prayer:

 

O Lord and Master of my life!

Take from me the spirit of sloth,
faint-heartedness, lust of power, and idle talk.

But give rather the spirit of chastity,
humility, patience, and love to Thy servant.

Yea, Lord and King! Grant me to see my own errors
and not to judge my brother,
for Thou art blessed unto ages of ages. Amen.