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Hymns on Faith

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

71. Rhythm the Seventy-first

There cannot be among the creatures¹ a vessel large enough to contain that Majesty! there cannot be among minds a womb that sufficeth for the knowledge² of the Godhead! For the Maker is very wise, so that He would not be at issue with Himself, as in sport, about the manner in which He should create. For if He were to make a vessel capable of containing Him, then were the thing made greater than its Maker. Folly this, that the thing made should be the greater and more excellent, while the Maker thereof were not greater than it!

If then the Creator be the greater, how can the thing made, which He hath made, be commensurate with His knowledge³? and if He hath made any thing commensurate with Himself, this were an amazement not to be believed. Again, since every thing which He hath made is marvellous, it is because the Creator is great that they be glorious, though created things. Great is the creature, because great is the Creator of it; and little again, since however great it is, it is worthless [compared] to Him. Nothing then is small which He made by reason of His Love, and yet it is small [compared] to Him by reason of His Glory. Yet the Creator acted not counter⁴ to Himself to create aught which should limit Himself, neither did the Maker strive against Himself to make aught which should set bounds to Him. It was not any envy⁵ between the Creator and the creatures, since He is clothed with Love toward His subjects⁶; [but] it is not the lot of that which is created that it should be a match with its Creator in its knowledge.

Of what is a creature, the Scriptures cry aloud, that great as it may be, it is far less than its Creator. Let no one imagine these things, or the like of these, of the Fruit⁷ or of the Begetter of Him. The Prophets cry, the Apostles confess, yea things above, yea things below, that He is the Son of the Highest. Yea, His noble acts which are rife in all the creation are enough to convince even the blind; and who is there that will despise the mighty thunder of all His preachers, save the ear of all heretics⁸? As His preachers are many, He giveth witness that His work is mightier than His preachers. Lo, all eyes and minds are very feeble beside the power of His Godhead! Lo, the Ray⁹ that took its rise¹⁰ from Him sufficeth for Him; the Fire⁹ that He begat knoweth Him.

Notes

R. lxii. §. 6. R. lxvi. §. 1. R. lxix. §. 2.
§. 2. R. xlv. §. 3. c. Scrut. i. §. 34.
p. 348, n. a.
or, was not at issue with
p. 121, n. f.
or, creatures. see p. 278, n. c. p. 331, ref. 8. p. 116, n. d.
R. lxi. §. 3.
S. audacious, p. 128, n. f.
p. 234, n. f. g.
S. [Syriac]. This, which is of frequent occurrence, is equivalent to the Greek, ἐξέλαμψε, which was used to express the transmission of the whole of the Father’s Substance to the Son. See Petav. de Trin. vii. 18. §. 7. Le Quien diss. Dam. i. §. 3. §. 48. As the meaning of this root when applied to the Son is of some importance in what follows, it will be right to illustrate its use in St. E. concisely here. It occurs sometimes of the generation of the Son from the Father, as above, and in R. xl. §. 1. Comp. R. lxv. §. 3. (where ray and offspring are made synonymous,) p. 308, ref. 1.; next and most frequently of His Birth from St. Mary, as, e. g. p. 319, ref. 8. vol. ii. p. 408, e. p. 519, a. vol. iii. p. 507, d. p. 519, b. p. 601, c. f. &c. The following passage which blends the two ideas (though without using the word) from vol. iii. p. 612, a. may be added: “May the visible light of Thy Manhood, (where the root used in Heb. 1, 3. occurs.) O Lord, shine forth! may the invisible light also of Thy Majesty glisten! May light with light be mingled! may it be a Sun of Righteousness!” Lastly, it is used of any manifestation of Christ, whether to individual souls, or to all at the Judgment, with which sense we are not here concerned. The word is transferred to the Trinity from the type of It so often employed, viz. the Sun.