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Hymns on Faith

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

67. Rhythm the Sixty-seventh

The standard¹ of truth hath been set in the Scriptures², the blear-eyed leave it; for they seek to shoot at the Lord of angels. This standard is that the Father is One, indivisible; and the Son is One, unsearchable. A visible standard is set in the light³, and he who is foolish shooteth darts⁴ by night into the darkness. Let stillness be a boundary to the vain talkers, and let silence be a boundary to the disputers concerning hidden things! Let the mouth learn how it should speak, and thus let it speak, lest it repent after it hath spoken; let it learn first, and thus let it teach, lest it become as it were a passage for things not convenient⁵.

The Scriptures are set as a mirror: he whose eye is clear, seeth the image of truth therein. There is the likeness of the Father set: there is the image of the Son shadowed out, and of the Holy Ghost. The Names of these Three are set one after another⁶ in the faith at baptism. Pretence entered in to make confusion, [saying,] that we ought to pry into them, in order that we may gain them⁷. Scrutinizing entered, strife entered, struggling entered, and truth fled. The right thing was then, that they should gain the truth without disputing, and not that we by searching should let go of the whole of it. It was fit also that in simplicity we should gain life, and not by much wisdom⁸ to gain death. It is fitting too in the time of thirst to drink the water, and not in stead of drinking to measure the fountain. It is fitting for a little child to know his father by the sight of him, and not by closely examining him. It is fitting then that one should learn the truth by the conversation⁹ of faith without scrutinizing. Be thou then content with these things, O blessed assembly! put off strife, and put on love¹⁰, and preach the truth.

He at the first¹¹ opened the store-house of His love and created Adam, when as yet he was not, out of the dust. He also made haste and opened the doors of hell, and brought up from hence the body of Adam which was dust¹². He hastened again and opened the door of Paradise by His promise, and loosened Adam with the tree of life. Glory to Him who devised that key, which, though one and the same, yet opened all the treasure-houses! Glory to the Father who is hidden in His own Essence¹³! Glory to the Son who is hidden in His Generation by the seal of silence¹⁴! Praise to the Father, because He hath no bounds¹⁵; praise to the Son, because He with the Holy Spirit cannot be searched into! Increase unto me, Lord, silence and a voice, that by them I may live to rebuke prying into Thee, and to tell Thy glory¹⁶.

Notes

Syr. [Syriac]. So in the Syriac Version of St. Ignatius p. 10. [Syriac]—elect in the standard of truth, a kind of phrase by no means uncommon in St. E. (see p. 107, n. b.) for ‘the true doctrine’ or somewhat of the kind. The phrase [Syriac] (alluded to n. b. p. 182.) so common in later Syriac, for ‘orthodoxy’ does not, as far as I recollect, occur in St. Ephrem. Possibly it originated with the controversies about the Trisagion.
§. 2. See p. 279, n. d. R. lxix. §. 1. on Athan. p. 57, n. l. p. 385, n. a.
see R. xl. R. xlviii. §. 2.
Comp. R. xxvii. §. 4. p. 260, n. b.
Comp. on c. Scrut. i. §. 16.
p. 181, n. c.
comp. p. 136, n. e.
S. Wisdoms: so in vol. ii. p. 477, b. 532, d. &c. &c. ‘doctrines’ in the plural is used to imply false doctrines. On what follows, vol. iii. p. 446, e. and f. may be referred to; “He only is wise who maketh fools wise by his conversation.” “The beginning of the first estate [of life] is from our own nature to do what is becoming; the second, which is also without blame, is to know and to do what we know; the third, which deserveth stripes, is when we learn and despise what we have learnt; but foolish and exceedingly dull is that, wherein we do not learn, on purpose that we may not do.”
R. xlvi. §. 2. c. Scrut. i. §. 44. ii. §. 7.
R. lx. §. 6.
p. 208, a.
Vol. iii. p. 280, f. “When the Lion’s Whelp roared in hell, then were its gates broken open, fallen were the walls of the revelling city, crouched on their knees the mighty ones of the place at ease! When Christ the Eagle screamed therein, that Nestling of the Mighty God, from that time was death put to shame, and the head of the apostate bowed down! Because he wished to be God, Christ shouted against Abaddon, and the apostate crouched and fell. And He called Adam, and raised him up from the darkness on which he was bedridden. Where art thou, Adam the fair, that by thy helpmate’s counsel fellest. Rouse thee up then, O thou fair one, image great that wert corrupted? slain is death, and Satan too, and crushed is the dragon’s head! Rise, praise the Father in the Son, and the Spirit by the Only-begotten! for in Him are thy children raised again and inherit life in heaven. Lift thee up, Adam the fair, that by the Father’s hand wert formed; lo, Eden looks for thee, thy dwelling, and Paradise whence thou didst go! Rise, be quickened with thy children, by the might of Him who shaped thee from the beginning! The trees that be in Paradise mourning for thy sake have been! Rise, thou fair one, mock at him, the tyrant who thy flesh tormented! Tread thou on the dragon’s head, who thy nestlings would devour! Adam rose, and on his knees worship paid unto his Lord, that in quest of him descended. Worship pay I, O my Lord, with my children, that Thou camest and hast raised our fallen nature! unto Thee my Lord and God, pay I worship! Thee confess I, O our Saviour, who didst save my life from death, that long had sported with my members, &c.” Although St. E. held strongly that our Lord set free the Patriarchs upon His descent into hell, probably the word ‘Adam’ in the text rather means human nature—as ibid. p. 312, b. where he says, “The brightness and the glory which by transgressing the commandment Adam lost, that did the Lord come and restore to him by Baptism.” See p. 313, d. e. p. 351, b. p. 512, b. p. 535, f. p. 539, b. p. 572, e. In vol. iii. p. 499. he speaks as follows: ‘The King Messias directed his way to the mountain of Jebus, which is Jerusalem: He fixed His Cross in Adam’s tomb, where the Jews too fixed it. He cried with His voice, and the rocks rent, and the dead arose from their tombs.’
R. v. §. 5. R. lxx. §. 1.
p. 115, n. a.
or measure. R. xlv. §. 4. R. lxvi. §. 1.
p. 228, n. e. comp. p. 330, n. a.