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Hymns on Faith

St Ephrem the Syrian, tr. Morris, 1847; selections

37. Rhythm the Thirty-seventh

Isaiah darkly describes¹ him who put the bridle of error²³ upon the jaws of men, the sign of humiliation which made men brutish. Blessed be He, whose Truth made error to cease! When we had made ourselves like the beasts, God came down and made Himself like unto us, that we might be again like Him⁴. Hail to the Blessed One! for from what a place to how different a one have His mercies called me! But man, who being in his honour understood not, was wroth and⁵ rejected Him. Israel waxed fat, and kicked and rebelled and hid and cast away that mercy. O thought most mournful⁶!

From being wise and teachers, Satan made men brutish. Instead of the yoke that maketh one those that are divided, he with the yoke of strife divided them by disquisitions⁷. In the thickets he made them run into a maze⁸, among snares, where on one side there were the mountains of guilt⁹, and on the other side again questionings and fearful rocks! In a place full of ditches¹⁰, where ten thousand eyes were required, with much swiftness they ran [to see] who should snatch at and lay hold of death before his fellow. With the bridles of Thy mercy, Lord, bring our confusion back into order! Seeing Thou that art all eyes, be unto us a Way, that we may come forth¹¹ from among the thickets and mazes into a clear place. For we men, O Lord, need assistances, by reason of our sins, and our knowledge needeth to be brought into order, by reason of error and unseen distraction¹². Since the eagle lets his pinions down under his young; let down under me, Lord,¹³ the wings of Thy mercies, and, instead of the air¹⁴ and the earth of miserable man, by the Holy Ghost let us wend our wings¹⁵ towards our treasures. Preserve, Lord, our faith from that which is no faith, and also our knowledge from that which is no knowledge! [Mere] names have we gotten: defraud ye not yourselves with their names.¹⁶

The nations worshipped that which is not God, but we have the God of Truth. The wicked one envied us; a lie hath he sown in us, that the last might be without God, as were the first¹⁷. For it was from nature by itself alone that he made idols by the hand of artificers: also it was from Scripture by itself alone¹⁸, by the hand of the searchers he made gods¹⁹ among the unbelievers. To the artificer he gave instruction; with the finger he graved the dumb idol; with the finger and pen²⁰ he also wrote delusion. He wished to make this finger like the Finger that wrote the²¹ tables; and as he made name like name, since he called the idols also gods; on all sides he wished to make them alike, that man might not distinguish which was the truth and which the delusion. There was one that honoured water²², and he made another that honoured fire. There was also that worshipped the moon; these eagerly did he gainsay, who did worship the mighty sun. And as the antitype of these sects there are at this day also divisions, and as their gorgeousness, so is our haughtiness, and as their strife, so is our wrestling to see who shall conquer²³. Be still ye mouths, be silent ye tongues; let amazement fall upon your lips, let wonderment dwell over your hearts, let the senses with the limbs shudder at the Generation²⁴ of the Son!

O tongue, thou drawn sword, gather thyself into the sheath, O babbler! Prying has sharpened the speech of thy mouth: let the silence²⁵ of the Son blunt the edge of that questioning of thine. Let not thy lips be spread forth as bows nor be extended—the threatening onset of the Holy²⁶ Ghost, as a whirlwind, shall turn the arrows back upon their master²⁷. For He is a Wall of Adamant²⁸, such as the Prophet saw in the spirit; the dart of words, if one should fling against it, without fastening in it, will turn back and fix itself in those that spoke them. Look at a potter’s wheel,²⁹ and then behold ye the wheel of thoughts; for the motion of the one enhanceth the clay, but that of the other degradeth³⁰ the Son, though He may not be degraded. Fight not with thy Fashioner who made thee a speaking vessel with discourse of reason³¹. As for the potter, his vessels are silent. As for that Good One, the vessels which He enhanced strive with Him. The least fragment of searching into Him is a hard rock which cannot be made smooth. Two words³² to thee out of enquiry into Him are heaven and earth. What a space for thee to stray in!

Thy bound, Lord, no man hath passed: Thy great height no man hath lowered. The Nature of the Eternal One and the Bosom of the Father are the Walls³³ of the Son which cannot be trodden down. As there is no nature which can enter into and feel the bosom of fire³⁴, outside of which every man keepeth; there is no wall to it, neither battlement³⁵ is there, and yet every man is warned off by it. Who will dare to pry into the Bosom of that most fearful Essence? By the sea³⁶ the rivers are stopped; and by the investigation of the Generation of the Son all venturesome disputers!

Notes

S. hints at.
As St. E. upon the place understands this ‘of the blasphemies of the Assyrians and the pride of their lips,’ we see that he gives a farther meaning here again by taking the Assyrians as a type of the wicked one. See n. d. p. 136. and n. c. p. 98. as also n. b. p. 176. What he says upon v. 26. is to the purpose here: “In that day the Lord shall bind up by the slaughter of the Assyrians the wound of His people, the children of Judah. But it also suiteth to take it of our Lord, since in the day of the great slaughter, and the subversion of Jerusalem, and of Satan, and of death, who are represented by the ‘towers,’ there flowed down by the Apostles’ means the ‘streams’ of the new Gospel in all quarters; and abundant light was there, though not that of the sun which was turned into darkness [at the crucifixion], but it is abundant knowledge which is represented by the lights, and it chased from the nations the invisible darkness which was spread over the hearts of the nations.” The cessation of oracles and other means used by Satan to deceive the nations is noticed by Clemens Al. Protr. 2. §. 11. Athan. de Incarn. 47. Cyril c. Jul. p. 198, e. Spanh. Euseb. P. E. iv. p. 129. Minut. Fel. xxvi.
Is. 30, 28.
R. xlvi. §. 6.
Ps. 49, 12. Deut. 32, 15.
S. great mourning.
R. xliii. §. 2.
S. hard place R. xx. §. 4.
comp. 1 Cor. 13, 2.
As St. Clem. Strom. v. §. 54. p. 678. Pott. S. Greg. Nys. ii. p. 562. c. S. Cyril de Ador. p. 248. all seem to take Ex. 21, 33. of some trap for the souls of men, possibly St. E. may allude to the same text. It seems that a ditch or pit was very anciently looked upon as a type of heretical artifices for men’s souls, for the LXX. render Ps. 119, 85. (‘The proud have digged pits,’) ‘the transgressors have told me old wives’ fables.’
2 Chron. 16, 9.
R. xxxv. §. 4.
Deut. 32, 11. Is. 40, 31.
R. v. §. 5.
See p. 20, n. m. and R. xx. §§. 3, 4. Upon Ezech. xvii. he writes as follows: “Wherefore thus saith the Lord, Because Zedekiah hath despised My oath, and made My covenant of none effect, in Babylon shall he die: i. e. because he left speaking with the Babylonians and put his trust in the Egyptians, he shall die in Babylon. Again, in a deeper sense: The heart and the summit of the tree, which was cut off, that is Immanuel, who was taken away from them, and was planted upon the mystical mountains of Israel after the Spirit, to bear, not good things that dry away, but commandments sanatory and belonging to a life-giving art of medicine; and to yield, not fruits that nourish the belly that is to be destroyed, but the cluster of hope and the fruit of life; and to be, not a cedar like those planted on the borders of the [holy] land, but one capable of giving shade by its majesty to all reasonable creatures: and for there to dwell in it, not that bird which turns down its eyes earthwards to satisfy its needs from the pickings scattered thereon, but that bird which gaineth wings from the holy water in sacred Baptism, (see above, p. 167, n. g.) which because it beholdeth That which above the heaven in its branches dwelleth, flieth from the world by the wings of grace that it hath gained, and getteth itself away to Him.” See also R. liii. §. 5. and Vol. iii. p. 237, d. where he speaks of good works and prayers as ‘wings.’ By ‘mere names’ perhaps St. E. means to express his conviction of the Sabellian tendency of Arianism. Gr. Nys. ii. p. 676, d. “If any body were to make a thorough investigation into the fraud of these heresies, (Montanism and Sabellianism,) he would find that they have a considerable affinity with the error of Eunomius’ school. For each of them Judaizes in his doctrine, seeing that neither of them admit the Only-begotten God nor the Holy Spirit to a participation of the Godhead of the great and first God as they make Him. For Him whom Sabellius calls the Three-named, Eunomius styleth In-generate: but neither of them contemplates the Godhead in the Trinity of Persons.”
See Prov. 23, 5. and Mat. 6, 21.
S. from him and in him
R. xxxv. n. g.
There are several passages in which St. E. points out the real internal identity of heresy and idolatry: the making to one’s self an image not authorized by the Church, whether under the Jewish or Christian dispensation, being that which constitutes the sin viewed in regard to the subject of it, and the worship of devils that which constitutes the sin viewed in regard to the object of it. Two passages have been already noticed, (p. 102, n. d. and p. 198, n. e.) as bearing upon this: another will occur R. xliv. §. 5. Vol. ii. p. 443, a. “Let us reprove the Apostates under the type of thieves, against whom the wealth that they have stolen crieth out as endued with speech. They have stolen names, and clothed with them that which is nothing in the world. For the Name of God did those idols which of old were honoured, put on; and thus by His appellations beings which had no existence got them honour and a name. For it was not from the Eternal Being that they took a name for the vain powers: for a nature that existeth not, an existence did they make, &c. p. 532, d. The Persians worshipped water and fire and the stars, the Greeks worshipped some things, the Egyptians all things, the Jews the calf, and the generation of Hagar the star. (Alilat. Herod. iii. 8.) All these odious forms did error scatter in diverse nations; before our Lord it scattered them amongst the Gentiles, and in false doctrines after our Lord; and as if they were health itself, it scattered thorns. For one of them [Marcion] set afloat a stranger god without a name, and plain it is that as his name so is himself without existence also, and is wholly null: for he stealeth names, and like a thief hawks them about. Another, again, [Manes] calls wind, fire, and water eternals, and when one eternal was nothing and incapable of any thing, he took and stamped upon it the name of darkness. This he stamped on what he called an eternal. Another [Bardesanes] came stole from his fellows what they had taken before him. His hand was against every one, and every one’s hand upon him: he sinned with every one that he might lead every one into sin, like every whit to the generation of Hagar that plundered from all. To these which I have counted up, are all false doctrines brethren also: and though the tare is but one stem, yet it adopts sundry modifications: it has branches, fruits, and leaves in the four quarters of the world. Error, &c. as in p. 203, n. f. P. 533, f. “Among priests, priests of Baal, and among sacrifices his sacrifices did the devil mingle, and among Prophets deceitful prophets, and among Apostles false apostles, and in our days out of wranglers has he made apostates. Have mercy, Lord, on me, for as I have learnt so have I taught, and to match the countenance and cast wherewith I was sealed, is the resemblance, yea, the likeness I have given. Oh, may this profit pay the interest which my sins have incurred!” The same belief is implied in St. Clement’s (Strom. vi. §. 146, 7.) comparison of those who “leave the ecclesiastical and true knowledge” as well as idolaters, with adulterers; in Origen, (in Joan. xiii. 16, 17.) when he includes heathen and heterodox under those who worship ‘in this mountain’ as opposed to spiritual worshippers in the true Jerusalem: in Athan. who speaks p. 411. O. T. of heathen ‘anticipating the folly of these Christ-opposers;’ and p. 422. of ‘Ariomaniacs incurring the charge of polytheism or atheism:’ in Didymus, who compares the Eunomians to Nebuchadnezzar, (de Trin. p. 43.) and applies (ibid. p. 103.) Deut. xvii. 5. to those who worship God the Son with an Arian Creed (comp. Athan. p. 319. ref. 4. upon which this passage may throw light): in Cyril, c. Nest. p. 59, c. p. 72, e. where he speaks of Nestorius as ‘having drunken the wine of Sodom, and being besotted with error;’ Thes. p. 69, b. of Eunomians as transgressing the command to worship one God. Comp. p. 294, d. 307, d. as does Greg. Nys. ii. p. 450, d. who calls Eunomians idolaters, p. 548, a. and parallels idolatry more at length with their heresy, p. 562—3. and 622, a. 623, a. and says, p. 719—20. that ‘in respect of impiety there is no difference whatever between him who confesses the names of idols and him who clings to the opinions held about them, (as he implies the Eunomians did, p. 719, c.) but abstains from the names;’ and speaks of ‘their all but openly paying idolatrous worship to their own fancies,’ p. 747, c. comp. Bas. c. Eun. ii. 16. who notices the material ideas of God which those heretics had. Epiphan. p. 734. calls Arius an image and statue of the devil, and speaks of Eunomians, p. 985, d. as having a faith which is rather idolatry than religion. Ambr. de Fide i. §. 6. compares Arianism with Gentile Polytheism, comp. §. 85. §. 103—4. v. §. 23. Jerome on Isaiah, p. 212, d. Erasm. on Jerem. p. 288, b. ‘whatever we say about idols may be applied to all doctrines contrary to the truth.’ Augustin. c. Faust. M. xvi. 10. ‘Your own error rather is like paganism, since ye do not worship Christ, but I know not what under the name of Christ which is a lie of your own inventing, and gods either visible in this heaven we behold, or other countless imaginary ones. And to these fancies as if to some vain and empty images ye make not shrines, but form your own hearts into temples.” So Scripture speaks of those who come to God with idols in their heart, Ezech. xiv. 3. see also Petav. de Incarn. xv. 5. §. 9. 17. §. 9. Perhaps as St. Hilary states the same devils which were cast out of the Gentiles, afterwards entered into the herd of heretics. in Matt. viii. §. 4. Indeed a similar view occurs in St. E. himself. vol. ii. p. 383, e. &c. coll. p. 535, e.
Pearl vii. §. 5.
Ex. 31, 18.
See Kleuker Zum Zendav. pt. ii. i. §. 142. iii. §. 38. §. 219. (who confirms what St. E. says of Persians,) Assem. ad Act. Mart. i. p. 40. n. 17. p. 181. Creuzer Symbolik. ii. p. 238. (who thinks this was part of the Egyptian worship.) Movers Phönizer, p. 604—6. That sundry philosophers held water to be the first principle of all things, see Sext. Empir. p. 135. and the notes. Philo. de Prov. i. §. 22. The worship of fire among the Persians and Indians (as Agni) is too well known to require proof: St. E. seems to look on them here as a different sect from the water-worshippers; about which I can give no information, as neither about the quarrels between the sun-worshippers and moon-worshippers, (both of whom are often mentioned in the acts of the Martyrs, see Ass. l. c.) See however Troyer’s Dabistân, ii. p. 235—242. They are credible enough from the quarrels in more modern India, between Saivas and Vaishnavas. Of course the worship of them was common enough in all parts: for the Syrophenicians, see Mover, p. 159.
Pearl vii. §. 3. R. l. §. 4.
p. 110, n. b.
Iren. in n. d. p. 202.
Jer. 9, 8.
R. xxvii. §. 4. R. xxxviii. §. 3.
On the place he speaks of ‘the battering rams’ mentioned in v. 2. as ‘a type of the wheedling and the affections of the lusts which Satan soweth in the thoughts of the soul, and by them subdueth and destroyeth the building of heavenly fairness.’ This will bring out by contrast his meaning in the text.
Ezek. 4, 3.
R. xxix. §. 3. R. xxxvi. §. 3. Rom. 9, 21.
Syr. [Syriac]
This probably means, ‘that heaven and earth are but two only out of ways by which God addresses Himself to man: the enquiry into them alone is enough to bewilder man, if conducted in a rationalizing spirit of self-sufficiency;’ much more then will a similar spirit mislead in matters not of sight, but of faith. See R. xxxv. §. 1.
p. 87, n. i. R. xxxviii. §. 6.
p. 234, n. f. g.
S. son of a wall.
p. 144, n. g.