Ephraem Syrus

Ephraem Syrus, 'the prophet of the Syrians,' a celebrated teacher, orator, and hymn-writer of the Syrian Church, was born at Nisibis about 306. After Nisibis was taken by the Persians in 363 he removed to a cave near Edessa, which was already a chief seat of Syrian learning. He there devoted himself to prayer and fasting, and the study of the Scriptures. He died at Edessa about 378. His day is in the Roman Church the 1st of February, and among the Greeks and Maronites the 28th of January. Ephraem's strict orthodoxy, his asceticism, and his great learning were the admiration of his contemporaries; and the works he has left behind him, written in a fervid and popular style, sustain his reputation as an orator and poet. He was a most fertile writer. Part of his works have come down to us in their original Syriac, part in Greek, Latin, and Armenian translations. Of the Syriac writings the chief are his commentaries (based on the Peshito), extending to nearly the whole of the Old Testament, and they include also numerous discourses and elegies, mostly written in lines of seven syllables, grouped in strophes of from four to twelve lines each. Ephraem counteracted the influence of the Gnostic hymns of Bardesanes and Harmonius by writing better hymns of a strictly orthodox tendency. The Greek writings which bear his name are mainly sermons and short religious treatises. An edition containing 156 of these was published by Edward Thwaites at Oxford in 1709. The standard edition is that of Assemani, in 6 vols. folio (3 vols. Greek texts, and 3 vols. Syriac texts, with Latin translations, Rome, 1732-46). The Syriac text of his select works was edited by Overbeck (Oxford, 1865). A tasteful English translation of a number of pieces by Ephraem was published by Henry Burgess, under the titles Select Metrical Hymns and Homilies of Ephraem Syrus (3 vols. 1853). Ephraem's Commentaries on the Epistles of St Paul are extant in Armenian (ed. by Aucher, Venice, 1836). See treatises on Ephraem and his works by Lengerke (1831), Alsleben (1853), Gerson (1868), and Zingerle (1876).