Ephrem wrote exclusively in his native
Aramaic language, using the local Edessan (
Urhoyo) dialect, which later came to be known as
Classical Syriac. In his works, Ephrem repeatedly refers
endonymically to his language as
Aramaic, his homeland as "the land of
Aram," and his people as the Arameans. He is therefore known as "the authentic voice of Aramaic Christianity." In the early stages of modern scholarly studies, it was believed that some examples of the long-standing Greek practice of labeling Aramaic as "Syriac," found in the
Cave of Treasures, could be attributed to Ephrem, but later scholarly analyses have shown that the work in question was written much later ( 600) by an unknown author, thus showing that Ephrem's original works still belonged to a tradition unaffected by
exonymic (foreign) labeling. One of the early admirers of Ephrem's works, theologian
Jacob of Serugh (d. 521), who already belonged to the generation that accepted the custom of a double naming of their language, not only as Aramaic (
Ōrōmōyō / ܐܳܪܳܡܳܝܳܐ) but also as "Syriac" (
Suryōyō / ܣܽܘܪܝܳܝܳܐ), wrote a
homily (
memrō) dedicated to Ephrem, praising him as the
crown or
wreath of the Arameans (), and the same praise was repeated in early liturgical texts. Only later, under the Greek influence already prevalent in the works of the mid-fifth-century author
Theodoret of Cyrus, did it become customary to associate Ephrem with a Syriac identity and to label him only as "the Syrian" (). Theodoret described him as a poet who "daily waters the ethnos of Syrians with streams of grace," and
Sozomen similarly claimed that Ephrem, "who wrote in the language of the Syrians, surpassed the Greeks in wisdom." In turn, over a century later,
Jacob of Serugh explicitly vaunted Ephrem as the poet of a Syrian people, and he seems to have framed this Syrian people as descended from Aram. Such portrayals show how Ephrem, who in his own writings identified with Aram and the Arameans, was gradually reframed in both Syriac and Greek traditions as not only an Aramean (
Ōrōmōyō) but also as a representative of the Syrians (
Suryōyē). Some of these problems persisted into recent times, even in scholarly literature, as a consequence of several methodological issues within the field of
source editing. During the process of critical editing and translation of sources within
Syriac studies, some scholars have practiced various forms of arbitrary (and often unexplained) interventions, including the occasional disregard for the importance of original terms used as endonymic (native) designations for Arameans and their language. Such disregard was manifested primarily in translations and commentaries, by the replacement of authentic terms with
polysemic Syrian/Syriac labels. In the previously mentioned
memrā dedicated to Ephrem, one of the terms for the
Aramean people was published correctly in the original script of the source, but at the same time it was translated into English as "Syriac nation," and then enlisted among quotations related to "Syrian/Syriac" identity, without any mention of the Aramean-related terms in the source. Even when noticed and corrected by some scholars, such replacements of terms continue to create problems for others. Several translations of his writings exist in
Classical Armenian,
Coptic,
Old Georgian,
Koine Greek, and other languages. Some of his works are extant only in translation (particularly in Armenian). manuscript of Ephrem's Commentary on the
Diatessaron. Egypt, late 5th or early 6th century.
Chester Beatty Library Manuscripts According to the Catalogues of Syriac Manuscripts in the
British Library published by Forshall & Rosen (1839) and Wright (1870–72), there are "ninety or so manuscripts which contain works by or attributed to Ephraem."
Hymns Over four hundred
hymns attributed to Ephrem still exist. Granted that some have been lost, Ephrem's productivity is not in doubt. The church historian
Sozomen credits Ephrem with having written three million verses. Ephrem combines in his writing a threefold heritage: he draws on the models and methods of early
Rabbinic Judaism, he engages skillfully with Greek science and philosophy, and he delights in the Mesopotamian/Persian tradition of mystery symbolism. The most important of his works are his lyric, teaching hymns (,
madrāšê). These hymns are full of rich, poetic imagery drawn from biblical sources, folk tradition, and other religions and philosophies. The
madrāšê are written in stanzas of
syllabic verse and employ over fifty different metrical schemes. The form is defined by an
antiphon, or congregational
refrain (, '
ûnîṯâ), between each independent strophe (or verse), and the refrain's melody mimics that of the opening half of the strophe. Each
madrāšâ had its
qālâ (), a traditional tune identified by its opening line. All of these
qālê are now lost. It seems that
Bardaisan and
Mani composed
madrāšê, and Ephrem felt that the medium was a suitable tool to use against their claims. (top) and
John Damascene on a 14th-century triptych The
madrāšê are gathered into various hymn cycles. In the CSCO critical edition of Beck et al. (1955–1975), these have been given standardised names and abbreviations. By the year 2000, English translations had been published for the following: • 52 hymns
On Virginity • 28 hymns
On the Nativity • 15 hymns
On Paradise • 4 hymns
Against [Emperor Caesar] Julian •
Carmina Nisibena or
On Nisibis •
On the Church •
On Lent •
On the Paschal Season •
Against Heresies Some of these titles do not do justice to the entirety of the collection (for instance, only the first half of the
Carmina Nisibena is about Nisibis). Bates (2000) remarked: "[Various] collections of Ephrem's hymns [...] appear to be randomly assembled by later editors and named for the subject of the first hymn in the collection only". Particularly influential were his
Hymns Against Heresies. Ephrem used these to warn his flock of the heresies that threatened to divide the early church. He lamented that the faithful were "tossed to and fro and carried around with every wind of doctrine, by the cunning of men, by their craftiness and deceitful wiles" (Eph 4:14). He devised hymns laden with doctrinal details to inoculate right-thinking Christians against heresies such as
docetism. The
Hymns Against Heresies employ colourful metaphors to describe the Incarnation of Christ as fully human and divine. Ephrem asserts that Christ's unity of humanity and divinity represents peace, perfection and salvation; in contrast, docetism and other heresies sought to divide or reduce Christ's nature and, in doing so, rend and devalue Christ's followers with their false teachings.
Authenticity of hymns On Epiphany The most complete, critical text of writings attributed to Ephrem was compiled between 1955 and 1979 by Dom Edmund Beck, OSB, as part of the
Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium (CSCO). Beck's 1959 critical edition of the
madrashe (hymns) and mêmrê (homilies) attributed to Ephrem led to much scholarly debate on the authenticity of the madrashe known as
On Epiphany, as Ephrem was certainly not familiar with
Epiphany as a feast celebrating Jesus' baptism on 6 January. Unlike in Europe, where the
Nativity of Jesus was celebrated on 25 December, but the baptism of Jesus would evolve into a separate feast called "Epiphany" on 6 January, there was only one Christian feast celebrated in winter in the time and place where Ephrem lived, namely the Nativity on 6 January, when baptism was also performed. A 1956 paper written by Beck himself therefore warned researchers not to base their reconstructions of Ephrem's baptismal theology on the contents of these madrashe, given the fact that many of the hymns presuppose that Epiphany and Nativity were two separate feasts celebrated two weeks apart, thereby challenging Ephrem's authorship. While the oldest surviving manuscripts of Ephrem's hymns date to the 6th century and contain hymns on the Nativity that Beck thought were certainly authentic, the contested hymns
On Epiphany are missing from them. They do not appear in manuscripts until much later, in the 9th century, suggesting that they were
interpolated. Scholars have largely accepted Beck's arguments that the collection as a whole was established after the 4th century, and that some hymns in them were not written by Ephrem, or at least not in the form that they have been preserved in, but that other hymns should nevertheless be considered authentic.
Performance practices and gender The relationship between Ephrem's compositions and femininity is shown again in documentation suggesting that the madrāšê were sung by all-women choirs with an accompanying lyre. These women's choirs were composed of members of the Daughters of the Covenant, an important institution in historical
Syriac Christianity, but they weren't always labeled as such. Ephrem, like many Syriac liturgical poets, believed that women's voices were important to hear in the church as they were modeled after Mary, mother of Jesus, whose acceptance of God's call led to salvation for all through the birth of Jesus. One variety of the madrāšê, the
soghyatha, was sung in a conversational style between male and female choirs. The women's choir would sing the role of biblical women, and the men's choir would sing the male role. Through the role of singing Ephrem's madrāšê, women's choirs were granted a role in worship.
Further writings Ephrem also wrote verse homilies (,
mêmrê). These sermons in poetry are far fewer in number than the madrāšê. The mêmrê were written in heptasyllabic
couplets (pairs of lines of seven syllables each). The third category of Ephrem's writings is his prose work. He wrote a biblical commentary on the
Diatessaron (the single gospel harmony of the early Syriac church), the Syriac original of which was found in 1957. His
Commentary on Genesis and Exodus is an exegesis of
Genesis and
Exodus. Some fragments exist in Armenian of his commentaries on the
Acts of the Apostles and
Pauline Epistles. He also wrote refutations against
Bardaisan,
Mani,
Marcion and others.
Symbols and metaphors Ephrem's writings contain a rich variety of symbols and metaphors. Christopher Buck gives a summary of analysis of a selection of six key scenarios (the way, robe of glory,
sons and daughters of the Covenant, wedding feast,
harrowing of hell,
Noah's Ark/Mariner) and six root metaphors (physician, medicine of life, mirror, pearl,
Tree of life,
paradise).
Selected works Boasting an extensive corpus, Ephrem's poems, hymns, prayers and prose has been incorporated deeply into every facet of the Syriac tradition, from the Liturgy of the Hours (
Shehimo) to
Divine Liturgy. The following is a bedtime prayer, found in the
Compline of the Shehimo for some weekdays. == Pseudepigraphy and misattributions ==