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Hymns on Faith

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

8. Rhythm the Eighth

O the brightness of Moses which none could behold!¹ They that beheld him were not able to look at a mortal: who shall dare to look upon the Quickener of all living? If the brightness of the servant was so powerful, who shall look stedfastly upon his Lord? for the Mount Sinai when² it saw Him, smoked and was melted before Him. The mighty men were not equal to seeing the glory of Moses. A veil ministered between the brightness and the people, instead of the veil which wore away, a Brightness of living Fire surrounded the chariot, that the Cherubim might not be affrighted³. Let stillness and silence be the curtain to thee,⁴ that thou gaze not upon His Brightness.

There was none that approached the folds⁵ of the visible veil to pry into the brightness of the servant that was dwelling within it. When Moses had been to gaze on Him, all the tribes were moved: how much more fearful the searching into that wherein Thy Generation is hidden! If Thou lookest upon the Angels, the Heaven and the Heaven of Heavens tremble before Thee. In the veil of Moses Thy⁶ bright shining Truth was hidden, in his stammering was hidden Thy ready-speaking teaching⁷. Beneath two veils Thy Truth was hidden, and Thy speaking. As for the veil Thou didst lift it up, and the stammering Thou didst make⁸ to speak plain. The whole of Thee came forth to sight. Lo! Truth speaketh in the mouth, and verity is revealed to the eyes. The veil upon his face and the stammering of his mouth, as two veils veiled the blinded people: but to the just that longed for⁹ Thy day Thou wert revealed. The heretics also, who at this day are blinded with the veil, stutter, and are blindfold. They are blind to Thy beauty, and to Thy teaching dumb.

These types under Moses shadowed out to the foolish two veils spread over the crucifiers. The Truth hath risen up openly: let us not grope in darkness: let not searching into¹⁰ Him be unto us another veil. His beauty came forth openly.¹¹ Liken not thou Him to any thing, for He is like His Father in the whole of Him. Into the Holy of Holies the priest went in silence: once only in the year did he go in in fear. And if he reverenced the whole of that dwelling-place of His, who¹² shall dare to search into the Power which dwelt in it? Let us feel a share of his awe in searching out of the First-born, since He is Lord of the sanctuary.

Two hundred and fifty priests with their censers were¹³ burnt up, because they wished to seize on Aaron’s priesthood; and they of Corah’s company were swallowed up,¹⁴ because they wished to be priests. If the priesthood of Aaron was thus altogether fearful, how much more fearful the Lord of priests who made priests with His own Blood¹⁵¹⁶! Who would dare to search into Him? Great was the shock, that the sons of Aaron were [so] suddenly burnt up! They dared to offer up strange fire¹⁷, and were burnt up. Who then will escape that bringeth up into the Church strange questioning¹⁸¹⁹? There is indeed in the Church a seeking which examineth things revealed, but not one that prieth into things hidden.

Uzzah²⁰, the chief priest, when he went to stay [the ark],²¹ was taken off. What he was commanded he did not, things not commanded he performed. He was commanded²² to carry the ark upon his shoulders: He put forth his hand to stay the Might of Him that stays up all things. He thought the ark was about to fall: when he approached it, it slew him. Do not shew honour to what is holy on a side that they have²³ not commanded thee²⁴. Uzziah shewed an honour, which was a dishonour. Do not as avenging the Truth search into and²⁵ dishonour the First-born. Think not that the faith is likely to fall. Itself supporteth them that are cast down²⁶: do not support it as Uzza, lest in anger it destroy thee.

The princes [of the Philistines] who were insolent honoured the ark; when they had made trial of its might, they worshipped it with offerings. Dagon²⁷, before it, was broken off, for it cut off his limbs. How much more should we honour the Gospel, before which the wicked one was destroyed. From his dominion did it cut him off; with offerings let us appease it, for it hath healed our torn wounds. The Jordan also saw the ark and was divided in two parts, for it²⁸ ran away before it and fled behind it. It flowed down, not after its nature, because it saw the Lord of natures. If the ark²⁹ was fearful because the tables were within it; how much more fearful is searching [into Him], and who shall approach unto it since the Lord of the tables is hidden in it?

Daniel saw wondrous living creatures. He saw also that the Ancient of Days³⁰ was sitting in glory. He approached to the living creatures that he might ask and learn. He approached not to search into the glory of the High One. Fools have left the works and run on to the Maker that they³¹ might search out, Who He is. Daniel saw one of the Angels and was affrighted³². He approached not to search into him; the voice that he heard he was not able to bear. Daniel was not able to hearken even to his voice. He looked not upon him that ministered; upon Him that was ministered unto, who shall look? The sea that saw the sign³³ of Him feared and fled back and was moved, it was divided into two heaps. Daniel that asked concerning the words, heard that they were sealed, and that it was not seeming to search out³⁴ the hidden things of the future! Who shall dare to search into the Treasury in Whom dwelleth all knowledge? The First-born is the Treasury of the Father, in Whom is all His counsel³⁵; and who is equal to searching into Him?

Notes

Ex. 34, 29.
Ex. 19, 18.
If this seem contrary to what was noticed above, p. 116, n. e. what he says in §. 2. of the veil being lifted up, must be set against it. Besides St. E.’s statement that God veils Himself in Himself, R. v. §. 5. and the expression living Fire, shew that he means rather to deny that even Angels comprehend God as the Anomœans blasphemously pretend to do. The words rendered a curtain, (literally ‘faces of the gate,) are commonly used of the veil of the temple.
Levit. 16, 2.
S. Bosom
Ex. 4, 10. 11; 6, 12.
S. Targum
2 Cor. 3, 16.
pp. 4. 66.
Deut. 28, 29.
Job 12, 25.
See Heb. 3, 3.
Numb. 16, 2.
ib. 31.
Acts 20, 28. See contr. Scr. i. §. 46.
On Levit. viii. he writes thus: “Lo, from the fact that it was by the oil of anointing and the blood of sacrifices that Aaron and his garments were hallowed, it is plain that it is by the Holy Ghost that the Sacrifices are offered on the mystical and priestly table.” So on Lev. xiv. he looks on the blood of the sparrow as the type of Immanuel, “the Sacrament of Whose Incarnation is interwoven and blended with the Gentiles, as blood is in the arteries.” Probably he means here then to regard His Blood as the general source of all Christian graces, though particularly of the priestly. See n. d. on R. x.
p. 39, n. b. p.
p. 112, n. g. p. 141.
This passage is to be observed, as implying that St. E. looked on heresy as a species of idolatry,—of which more hereafter.
So in the Can. Necros. xvi. p. 258. f. “Not like Uzzah hast thou honoured God in the eyes of man, for he ran to support the Ark, and the All-subduing Power swept him off.”
2 Sam. 6, 6.
S. they commanded him
R. xxviii. §. 8. xxxviii. §. 6.
See R. ix. §. 3. R. xxxviii. §. 4. 439. b. In vol. ii. p. 439. there is a passage which will illustrate the expression ‘they have not, &c.’ “Instead of the meaning of the Church, that sheep which cheweth the cud of the holy Scriptures, these men are subtle in mischievous writings.” St. Greg. Nys. mentions (ii. p. 340.) that the Anomœans affected to honour the Father, when they denied the Son to be like Him. See also Did. de Trin. i. 35. Reverence was a common pretext with heretics. See on Athanas. p. 222, p. 222. n. f.
2 Chron. 26, 18.
R. ix. §. 6.
above, p. 20, n. m.
R. ix. §. 1.
ab. p. 35, n. t.
ab. p. 67, n. p.
Dan. 8, 16. &c.
The same is noticed by St. Chrys. de Incompr. Hom. 5. init.
i. e. the ark, §. 6.
Dan. 12, 9.
Counsel, lit. thought or imagination. St. E. means to imply that the whole of the Father’s counsels whether in creating or ruling are in the Son. St. G. Nys. ii. p. 376. urges against the Anomœans that their theory would exclude the Son from the functions of Providence, a simple Nature having a simple Will (προαίρεσις), which Will displays itself in Providence, in which Providence the Son doeth whatsoever He seeth the Father do.
St. E. is arguing here, as others have done, that if the judgments of God are past finding out, a fortiori God Himself is incomprehensible. See St. Greg. Naz. i. p. 551. c. Nyss. ii. p. 520. c. St. Epiph. i. p. 943. c. St. Chrysost. Hom. 1. de Inc. p. 300. who all refer to Rom. xi. 33.