TEXTS AND STUDIES
CONTRIBUTIONS TO
BIBLICAL AND PATRISTIC LITERATURE
EDITED BY
J. ARMITAGE ROBINSON D.D.
HON. PH.D. GOTTINGEN HON. D.D. HALLE
CANON OF WESTMINSTER
VOL. VII.
No. 2. S. EPHEAIM'S QUOTATIONS FROM
THE GOSPEL
CAMBRIDGE
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS
1901
3lonUon: C. J. CLAY AND SONS,
CAMBKIDGE UNIVEESITY PEESS WAREHOUSE,
AVE MARIA LANE.
lasgofo: 50, WELLINGTON STREET.
SLetpjtg: F. A. BROCKHAUS.
lorfe: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.
93ombas: E. SEYMOUR HALE.
[All Rights reserved]
S. EPHRAIM'S QUOTATIONS
FROM THE GOSPEL
COLLECTED AND ARRANGED
BY
F. CRAWFORD BURKITT M.A.
CAMBRIDGE
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS
1901
Catnbttoge :
PRINTED BY J. AND C. P. CLAY,
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS.
THE INSTITUTE OF MEDIAEVAL STUDIES
10 ELMSLEY PLAC
TORONTO 6, CANADA,
DEC 17 1931
IN KRJEAT
PREFACE.
HHIS book is an attempt to determine what text of the
Gospels was used in the genuine works of S. Ephrairn, and
to investigate the bearing of his quotations upon the date of the
Peshitta. S. Ephraim, commonly known as Ephraem Syrus, is
the only one of the worthies of the Syriac-speaking Church whose
name is well known both in the East and the West, and his sur-
viving works, even when all doubtful and spurious pieces have
been set on one side, are by themselves as voluminous as all the
other remains of Syriac literature earlier than 400 AD. He him-
self died about 373 AD, so that any version of the Bible used by
him must be at least as old as the fourth century.
In the first quarter of the fifth century the Gospel was extant
in Syriac in three forms :
1. The Syriac Vulgate, now commonly called the Peshitta.
This version is extant in numerous MSS, some even as old as the
middle of the fifth century, and has been frequently printed. The
text even of the most ancient MSS of this version differs but little
from the printed editions, and such variations as exist are mostly
concerned with spelling and questions of grammatical form. This
is the version in ecclesiastical use among all the sects of Syriac-
speaking Christians.
2. The Evangelion da-Mepharreshe (i.e. ' The Separated Gos-
pels '), also called by the followers of the late Dr Hort the Old
Syriac. Two MSS of this version are at present known to scholars,
VI PREFACE.
viz. the Curetonian MS, discovered by Dr Cureton among the
Nitrian MSS in the British Museum, and published by him in
1858 ; and the Sinai Palimpsest, discovered in 1892 by Mrs Lewis
and Mrs Gibson of Cambridge at the Convent of S. Catharine on
Mount Sinai, and published at Cambridge in 1894. In the follow-
ing pages I have called Cureton's MS C, and the Sinai Palimpsest
S. Both MSS are very ancient : I am 1 inclined to ascribe S to the
end of the 4th century, and C to the beginning of the 5th. In
text, S and C differ widely from each other and from the Peshitta.
3. A third form of the Gospel in use among Syriac-speaking
Christians during the 3rd and 4th centuries was the Diatessaron,
a Harmony of the Four Gospels made by Tatian the disciple of
Justin Martyr. The language in which this Harmony was origi-
nally drawn up is disputed and its early history obscure. No
MS of it in any of its primitive forms is known to survive. Large
fragments, however, are quoted in a Commentary on the Diates-
saron, composed by S. Ephraim but extant only in an Armenian
translation ; and it is highly probable that most of the quotations
in the works of Aphraates and some other early Syriac writers
were taken from the Diatessaron, rather than from the Four
Gospels. Besides these quotations there is also extant a complete
text of the Diatessaron in Arabic, translated from a later form of
the Syriac text in which the wording had been almost entirely
assimilated to the Peshitta. The Arabic therefore enables us
to reconstruct with some confidence the arrangement of the
Diatessaron, but it gives us little information about the actual
wording of it in early times. The wording of the Diatessaron,
as it appears in S. Ephraim's Commentary, is very like that found
in the MSS of the Evangelion da-Mepharreshe, though it is by rio
means identical with it.
In the West an echo of the Diatessaron may be said to survive
in the Codex Fuldensis, a MS prepared by Victor, bishop of Capua
PREFACE. Vll
about 540 AD. But the text is completely assimilated to the
Latin Vulgate ; and the order of the events, while agreeing in
the main with the Arabic Harmony and the Commentary of S.
Ephraim, has in many places been altered.
The relation of the Peshitta to the Evangelion da-Mepharreshe
and of both to the Diatessaron has been a subject of controversy
ever since the publication of the Curetonian text. According to
Dr Hort the analogy between the Syriac and the Latin versions is
complete. There was an ' Old Latin ' Version or Versions current
in the West, the MSS of which differed widely one from the other.
Late in the 4th century, S. Jerome was commissioned by Pope
Damasus to put an end to the confusion by preparing a Revised
Version corrected from the Greek. The Gospels were published
in 383 AD, and after a struggle this Revised Version superseded
its predecessors. Dr Hort contended that the same thing must
have happened in the East, and that the Curetonian (the only MS
of the Evangelion da-Mepharreshe published during his lifetime)
bore the same relation to the Peshitta that Codex Vercellensis
(a) or Codex Veronensis (b) bears to the Latin Vulgate. No one
supposes that S. Jerome used either of the particular MSS which
we call a and b as the basis of his revision ; but a and b were MSS
of the same class as those which S. Jerome revised by means of his
Greek MSS. Similarly the Curetonian MS, according to Dr Hort,
was one of the same class as that which underlies the Peshitta
text of the Gospels.
It was certainly a great confirmation of Dr Hort's view when,
on the publication of the Sinai Palimpsest, this MS was found to be
of the same kind as the Curetonian, while presenting a text very
far from identical with it. Sometimes the Sinai Palimpsest agrees
with the Peshitta against the Curetonian, more often it differs
from both : in fact, it presents exactly the same phenomena as are
exhibited in a greater or less degree by the mutual variations of
Vlll PREFACE.
the Latin Vulgate and any two codices of the Old Latin. But a
successful prediction does not altogether prove a theory, and Dr
Hort's theory of the Syriac Versions is open to the objection that
it has the air of a deduction made not from the Syriac evidence
but from a general theory of the history of the Greek text of the
New Testament. At any rate it is not convincing to use the
general theory to prove that the Curetonian is the Old Syriac
(syr.vt), and then to appeal to the character of the Old Syriac
text in support of the general theory. I am far from saying that
this really was Dr Hort's procedure, but it was quite open for the
critic who did not believe in the general theory to declare that
Dr Hort " was obliged to account for the relation of the two [the
Syriac Vulgate and the Curetonian] by the baseless supposition of
an imaginary recension at Edessa' 3 (Miller's Scrivener, vol. ii,
p. 17).
We need not linger over the various counter-theories which
have been advanced to explain the Curetonian text on the hypo-
thesis that the Peshitta ; practically in its present form, is very
much older than the Fourth Century. Indeed it is of the essence
of the plea raised by the defenders of the antiquity of the Peshitta
N.T. that they have no need of a theory. " The Peshitto has the
advantage of possession, and that too of fourteen centuries stand-
ing," said Dr Scrivener ; and by this is meant the alleged use of
the Peshitta N.T. by the Fathers of the Syriac-speaking Church
back to and including S. Ephraim. The use of the Peshitta by
Isaac of Antioch and the biographer of Rabbula, both writing in
the middle of the 5th century, is undisputed. The real question
is whether it can be traced beyond Rabbula.
The principal aim, therefore, of this book is to examine
whether S. Ephraim's quotations of the Gospels were taken, as
is commonly believed, from the Peshitta text. I have occasion so
often to traverse the views of Mr G. H. Gwilliam, to whose critical
PREFACE. ix
edition of the Peshitta Gospels we are all looking forward, that it
gives me great pleasure to be able to conclude this Preface by
quoting words of his with which I can fully agree. Mr Gwilliam,
after stating his belief that the complete Testament in use among
the early Syrian Fathers must have been substantially the same
as that known for centuries as the Peshitta, said in Studia Biblica
i 168 f. : "This point can only be satisfactorily settled by an ex-
haustive examination of the quotations in the early Syriac writers.
It is usually assumed that the quotations in St. Ephraem are made
from the Peshito, but the question deserves full investigation,
which should extend to all the early Syriac literature. It might
be found that these writers employed, as their vernacular New
Testament, some other version which has now perished, being
succeeded by the Peshito, in the early years of the fifth century,
but that has yet to be proved."
Caesarem appellasti ? ad Caesarem ibis.
F. C. BURKITT.
ELTERHOLM, CAMBRIDGE.
September, 1901.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
S. EPHRAIM'S QUOTATIONS FROM THE GOSPEL 1-58
Chief Editions of S. Ephraim's Works 3
The Sources of the Koman Edition ...... 4
The Homilies in Cod. Vat. Syr. cxvii 20
List of the Genuine Writings of S. Ephraim . . . 24, 25
List of Quotations from the Gospel 26, 27
Examination of S. Ephraim's Quotations
from S. Matthew 28
from S. Mark 37
from S. Luke .......... 40
from S. John .......... 48
S. Ephraim and the Diatessaron ...... 56
Kabbula's revision of the Syriac N.T 57
APPENDIX i: S. Ephraim's Quotations from the Prologue to the
Fourth Gospel 59-65
APPENDIX n : On some of the less well attested works of S. Ephraim 66-74
APPENDIX in : On some writings wrongly ascribed to S. Ephraim . 75-89
INDEX of Gospel Passages 90, 91
ERRATUM: p. 39, 1. 15, for *ic\7iat.a read
" Anything which throws new light on the history of the text will be found
in the end to throw new light on the history of Christianity, ,"
SANDAY AND HEADLAM, Commentary on the
Epistle to the Romans, p. Ixxi.
S. EPHRAIM'S QUOTATIONS
FROM THE GOSPEL.
THE discussion of S. Ephraim's quotations from the Gospel cannot
be other than a technical matter. It involves some rather complicated
questions of Syriac bibliography and literary history, besides requiring
a knowledge of the problems connected with the text of the Dia-
tessaron. But the subject is of very great interest to all students
of the history of the Bible in the Church, because the date we
assign to the Peshitta New Testament largely depends upon the view
we take of S. Ephraim's relation to this version.
I need hardly enlarge upon the importance of this date. The
Peshitta N.T. is the sheet-anchor of the defenders of the Greek Textus
Receptus : it is the great obstacle in the way both to the disciples of
Westcott and Hort and to those who champion what are called
' Western ' texts. The date and origin of the Peshitta is, or should
be, also a subject of concern for students of Church History. Like the
Latin Vulgate, and indeed to a far greater extent than the Latin
Vulgate, it has a fixed text. It is a monument of ecclesiastical
authority and ecclesiastical veneration, and its unchanged preservation
testifies to persistent and unbroken reverence for the letter of the
New Testament, continued even through schism and disruption. It is
B. G. Q. 1
2 s. EPHRAIM'S QUOTATIONS
highly interesting therefore to determine how old this monument is, to
ascertain from what date this care and veneration has been given by
the Syriac-speaking Churches to the ecclesiastical text, and to inquire
whether it was so treated on account of its apostolical antiquity.
It is well known that there are two schools of opinion about the
date of the Peshitta N.T. The traditional opinion, now represented
in England by Mr G. H. Gwilliam, places it in the second century:
Dr Hort, on the other hand, put it between 250 and 350 AD (Introd.
189 f.). Thus according to either view the Peshitta N.T. was
extant in S. Ephraim's day, as he died about 373 AD. The main
object of this present Essay is to point to a very different conclusion.
I do not think there is any real trace of the use of the Peshitta Gospel
text in the genuine works of S. Ephraim ; on the contrary, I believe
that the version of the N.T. which we know by the name of 'the
Pfishitta," and which is preserved in so many ancient MSS from the
fifth century downwards, is the result of a revision made and
promulgated by Rabbula, bishop of Edessa from 411 435 AD. 1
The most useful investigation of S. Ephraim's quotations hitherto
published is that of Mr F. H. Woods in the third volume of Studio,
Biblica, pp. 105 138. Mr Woods finds very decided traces of the
Peshitta in S. Ephraim's writings. He says : " Even a cursory glance
at the Table [i.e. pp. 120 138] makes it quite evident that Ephrem in
the main used the Peshitto text" (p. 107). And again: :< as a fact
we find very few variants from the Peshitto according with what
appears to be the text of the Diatessaron" (p. 115). This view is so
inconsistent with the results at which I have arrived that there must
be somewhere a fundamental difference between his method and that
pursued here. The difference can be stated in a few words. As
Mr Woods himself tells us, he trusted to the printed text of the
Roman Edition, both for the text of S. Ephraim and the genuineness
of the writings ascribed to him : if I have come to opposite con-
clusions, it is because of the evidence afforded by the MS authority
upon which the Roman Edition is based.
1 See Journal of Theological Studies i 571. To save misconception, it is well to
state at once that the Old Testament Peshitta is universally acknowledged to be of
great antiquity. It is in any case older than Aphraates and S. Ephraim, as may
be seen from their quotations passim.
FROM THE GOSPEL. 3
The chief editions of S. Ephraim's works are :
1. THE ROMAN EDITION. Sancti Patris nostri Ephraem Syri
Opera Omnia...in sex tomos distribute, etc. The three volumes of
the Greek version of Ephraim appeared between 1732 and 1746, while
the three Syriac volumes appeared between 1737 and 1743. These
three Syriac volumes (quoted in agreement with Mr Woods's notation
as iv, v, and vi) were edited by the Maronite Peter Mobarak (Petrus
Benedictus), S. J., and after his death by S. E. Assemani.
The Roman Edition gives no information about the MSS used, except
that they were those of the Vatican and other Roman Libraries. To
supply this defect we must go to the Bibliotheca Oriental is of J. S.
Assemani and the magnificent Catalogue of the Syriac MSS in the
Vatican published by J. S. and S. E. Assemani. 1
2. OVERBECK. S. Ephraemi Syri, ftabulae Episcopi Edesseni,
Balaei Aliwumque Opera Selecta.., primus edidit J. Josephus Over-
beck, Oxford, 1865. The work contains a number of hitherto unedited
pieces of various ages, without translation. 2
3. CARMINA NisismK... primus edidit Dr Gustavus Bickell,
Leipzig, 1866. 'These poems, which deal in great part with the
history of Nisibis and its bishops and of adjacent cities... were
composed, according to Bickell, between the years 350 and 370 or
thereabouts " (Wright's Syriac Literature, p. 36).
4. LAMY. Sancti Ephraem Syri Hymni et Sermones ..edidit...
Thomas Josephus Lamy, 3 vols., Louvain, 1882 9. These volumes
give us a good deal that is certainly not of the fourth century, but
they also contain the Sermo de Domino nostro (Lamy i 145 274,
ii pp. xxi xxiii), which is for textual and doctrinal purposes perhaps
the most important work of S. Ephraim which survives.
1 It was not the least of Mr Bradshaw's services to the Cambridge University
Library that he secured for it a copy of this exceedingly rare and costly work.
I have heard that the proofs were corrected by Dr William Wright, who was
then preparing his great Catalogue of the British Museum MSS. This at least would
account for the accuracy of the printed text.
12
4 s. EPHKAIM'S QUOTATIONS.
To these we must add the Commentary on the Diatessaron, now
extant in an Armenian version. It is convenient to cite this work by
the pages of Moesinger's Latin translation (Venice, 1876), though the
Biblical quotations have been more accurately rendered from the
Armenian into English by Canon Armitage Robinson (best given in
pp. 75 119 of Dr Hamlyn Hill's Dissertation on the Gospel Com-
mentary of S. Ephraem the Syrian, Edinburgh, 1896).
The Sources of the Roman Edition.
The Roman Edition of S. Ephraim is one of the most confusing and
misleading works ever published. The Latin translation is an in-
accurate and verbose paraphrase, there is no index of any kind except
the scanty table of contents at the beginning of each volume, and the
only indication of MS sources is a short Epistle to the reader. The
actual editing of the Syriac is equally bad. The readings of the MSS
are sometimes arbitrarily changed without any warning, while the
principles upon which the various hymns and homilies have been
selected and arranged are impossible to discover. Side by side with a
homily of undoubted genuineness taken from a 6th century MS we find
another which only bears S. Ephraim's name through a slip of the pen
of a 12th century scribe, and this ill-matched pair is placed next hymns,
whose claim to inclusion is that they form part of the book of daily
offices now used by the Maronites. To draw any critical conclusions
from hymns of this last class is comparable with attempting to employ
the "Prayer of St. Chrysostom" as an authority for the text in use at
Antioch in the 4th century. 1
1 In the Journal of Theological Studies i 569 ff. I pointed out one instance
where a close agreement of S. Ephraim with the Curetonian has been transformed
in the Eoman Edition into an agreement with the Peshitta. Another is to be
found in vi 16 r, where the Edition has t<r>o^^\ ooAo (i-e. 'and him,
Thomas '). The true text, given from the same MS in Assemani's Bibl. Orient. 1 101,
is t^mo^c\ ^noouAo (i-e- ' and Judas Thomas '). This also is the reading
of B.M. Add. 12176 (fol. 5vb), a MS of the 5th or 6th century. The double name
Judas Thomas is specially characteristic of Old Syriac documents, and is found in
Joh xiv 22 C.
INDEX TO THE ROMAN EDITION. 5
The only way to make critical use of the Roman Edition is to give
what ought from the first to have formed part of it, viz. an Index
shewing the sources from which the single pieces are taken. This I
shall now do, adding at the same time the numbers and dates of MSS
in the British Museum in which certain of the pieces are preserved.
It should be remembered that the best MSS in the Vatican came from
the same source as most of those in the British Museum, i.e the great
Syriac Library of S. Mary Deipara in the Nitrian Desert.
Index to the Roman Edition.
In the following Index the left-hand column gives the general titles
of the groups of writings : where a line of Syriac is given, it is the first
line of the several Homilies or Hymns of the miscellaneous collections
according to the order in which they occur in the Roman Edition.
The second column gives the page and volume of the three Syro- Latin
volumes of the Roman Edition. The third column gives the reference
to J. S. Assemani's Bibliotheca Orientalis : in this the big Roman
numeral refers to the sections under which the account of S. Ephraim's
works is there grouped. The fourth column gives the number and
section of the Vatican MS from which the work was edited, followed by
its date in round brackets, according to the Assemanis' Catalogue :
thus " cxvii 153 (xii) " means the 153rd section of Cod. Vat. Syr. cxvii,
as numbered in the Roman Catalogue, the MS being there ascribed
to the 12th century. The last column gives the number of the
Additional MS or MSS in the British Museum in which the piece is also
found, together with its date and the page where it is described in
Wright's Catalogue. If the piece be ascribed to any particular author,
his name is given in square brackets ; if no name be given, it is
ascribed to S. Ephraim in the MS.
6
s. EPHRAIM'S QUOTATIONS.
Title, or First Line.
Commentary on Genesis
Notes on Genesis '
Commentary on Exodus
Notes on the rest of the O.T. 1
Sermones Exegetici (v 316 395)
. vi V-nv>0 -ra
Hymns ending with
(3 Hymns} .
03
^03
Rom'
iv 1
rv 116
iv 194
iv 236
v 315
v 316
v 318 cj
v 325r|
v 327
v 330 F
v 336 D
v 338 F
v 344 B
v 350 D
v 359 D
v 387 B
Nativitate Serm. xm
Bermones Polemici
adversus Haereses LVI
v 396
436
v 437
1 Extracted from the Catena Patrum made by one Severus of Edessa, AD 861.
INDEX TO THE ROMAN EDITION.
B.O.
vol. i
Cod. Vat.
Syr.
I, p. 67
CX (vi)
I, p. 63
ciii (? ix)
I, p 67
ex (vi)
I, p. 68 ff.
ciii (? ix)
B.M. Addit.
(with the pp. of GBM)
12144 (AD 1081), p. 908
12144 (AD 1081), p. 908 ff.
/iv 4550)
t p. 91 /
iv 3537, p. 90
x 7, p. 141
I X 14, p. 146
x 15, p. 146
x 16, p. 147
x 3, p. 140
x 20, p. 147
ciii xv (AD 980)
cxi 1 (AD 522)
cxi 1 (AD 522)
cxvii 73 (xii)
cxvii 87 (xii)
cxvii 89 (xii)
civ 27 (AD 1515)
cxvii 88 (xii)
cxvii 46 (xii)
cxvii 153 (xii)
14571 (AD 519), p. 411
17206 (xi, xii), p. 859
14615 (x, xi), p. 840
17172 (AD 830), p. 761;
14611 (x), p. 826; 7190 (xii)
14573 (vi), p. 413
17158 (vi, vii), p. 682
[Jacob of Serug]
n, pp. 8084
cxii 2 (AD 551)
14571 (AD 519), p. 411
vii, pp. 118132
cxi 4 (AD 522)
8 s. EPHRAIM'S QUOTATIONS.
Title, or First Line. Edit.
Rom.
De Fide, adversus Scrutatores vi 1
Hymni LXXXVII 164 c
Item de Fide (vi 164D 208)
_d\cu>-i3Fira VI 164 D
vi 191 B
o<73 jt^aea nfi> VI 195 C
Adversus ludaeos
vi 209
Necrosima, Canones LXXXV vi 225
-359
De Liber o Volantatis Arbitrio
.oaoco ^-i*>^ co*^ VI 359 A
VI 362 A
vi 364
vi 3650
Paraenetica (vi 367 651)
OV*=a dVOCUa ^4UTJ3 I. vi 367 A
vo^n m ii. vi 369 c
III. VI 379 B
iv. VI 387 F
is omitted in B.M. Add. 14574.
INDEX TO THE ROMAN EDITION. 9
B.O. Cod. Vat. B.M. Addit.
vol. i Syr. (with the pp. of CBM)
vi, pp 98118 cxi 3 (AD 522) 12176 (v, vi), p. 410
cxiii (vi)
x 22, p. 147 cxvii 191 (xii)
23 cxvii 192 (xii)
, 24 cxvii 193 (xii)
x 21, p. 147 cxvii 154 (xii) 12165 (AD 1015), p. 847
cxviii 50 (x)
vni, pp. 132 138 I have not tried to trace out the MS sources of these
Funeral Hymns. Many of those that are genuine are
excerpts arranged for liturgical use (Bickell, Carm.
Nisibena, 2). They contain no quotations which
imply the use of the Peshitta.
iv 8, p. 87 cxi 1 (AD 522) 14571 (AD 519), p. 412
9
19 14574 (vi), p. 409
12
iv 34, p. 90 cxi 1 (AD 522)
x 12, p. 146 cxvii 81 (xii)
13 cxvii 82 (xii)
[p. 233] cxvii 190 (xii)
no. 93 \ascr. to Isaac of Antioch in mg.]
10
S. EPHRAIM S QUOTATIONS.
Paraenetica]
Title, or First Line.
.-aoiu .
Ui V.
^ VI.
VII.
Edit.
Rom.
VI 412 D
vi 415 c
VI 417
VIII.
vi 420 E
V-
ol^o
v^\o->V-
. nm
-V
1 For
2 For
3 For
IX.
x.
XI.
XII.
XIII.
XIV.
XV.
XVI.
XVII.
XVIII.
XIX.
XX.
XXI.
XXII.
XXIII.
XXIV.
vi 422
VI 425
VI 428 D
VI 430 c
vi 431
vi 434 D
vi 437o
vi 438 E
vi 440 F
vi 443 E
VI 447 E
vi 450 D
vi 451 F
vi 453 E
vi 456
VI 460 D
17173 has ^^cvn and 14592 has -TJOJQ
Ed. Rom. has oO3 against the Bibliotheca Orientalis 2 / 2 .
Ed. Rom. and Cod. Vat. Syr. xciii have ^J\ 4 17141 omits
INDEX TO THE ROMAN EDITION.
11
B.O.
vol. i
r ix 111 )
1pp. 138, 139)
J>
ix 13, p. 139
, 15
12
14
(iv 23\
(p. 89J
(ix ad fin.\
\ p. 139 J
Cod. Vat.
Syr.
xciii 4 I (AD 823)
in
IV
VI
VII
VIII
IX
X
XI
XIII
XVI
XVIII
XV
B.M. Addit.
(with the pp. of CBM)
14592 (vi, vii), p. 686
17173 (vii), p. 728
[ascr. in both to Jacob of Serug]
14592 (vi, vii), p. 686
17173 (vii), p. 728
14623 (AD 823), p. 765
[ascr. in all to Jacob of Serug]
17141 (viii, ix), p. 359
17173 (vii), p. 729 [Jacob ofSerug]
XVII
cxi 1 (AD 522)
xciii 4 xn (AD 823)
ii
17141 (viii, ix), p. 359
14612 (vi, vii), p. 697 [Anon.']
cxx "22 (vii) [Isaac of Antioch]
14728 (xiii), p. 884 [Anonymous]
17141 (viii, ix), p. 360
1 Ascribed to Ephraim in the margin by a hand not earlier than the 13th cent.
12
s. EPHRAIM'S QUOTATIONS.
Title, or First Line.
noue-
\
^nT*^
.^V
cx'
XXV.
XXVI.
XXVII.
XXVIII.
XXIX.
<7J XXX.
XXXI.
XXXII.
xxxin.
XXXIV.
XXXV.
XXXVI.
XXXVII.
Edit.
Rom.
vi 463 G
vi 466 C
vi 469
vi 473 c
vi 476 D
vi 480 D
vi 481 c
vi 484 E
vi 485 D
vi 486 E
vi 488 B
vi 491
VI 492
^=a XXXVIII. VI 493 G
*oJ> xxxix. vi 497
VA
-^\ \
v\
oi\
vytja
XL.
XLI.
XLII.
XLIII.
XLIV.
XLV.
XLVI.
VI 497 F
vi 499 B
vi 500
vi 502 G
vi 504 B
vi 505 E
vi 507 F
Ed. Rom.
INDEX TO THE ROMAN EDITION. 13
B.O. Cod. Vat. B.M. Addit.
vol. i Syr. (with the pp. of CBM)
* xi 8 (AD 1261) 14728 (xiii), p. 882
*
*
*
*
*
*
7156 (xvii)
14677 (xiii), p. 132
17219 (xiii), p. 134 [Narsai]
* Those marked with this sign are in the Maronite Ferial Offices.
14
S. EPHRAIMS QUOTATIONS.
Title, or First Line.
Paraenetica]
V
Ar^nou
vv
f
\
. vv=
jA^*rm>
.CTiraOO
.*i\:i^?
XLVII.
XLVIII.
XLIX.
L.
LI.
LIL
LIH.
LIV.
LV.
LVI.
LVII.
LV1II.
LIX.
LX.
LXI.
LXH.
LXIII.
LX1V.
LXV.
LXVI.
Edit.
Rom.
VI 509 D
VI 511
vi 512 F
vi 515
vi 516 A
vi 517
vi 517 F
vi 519 B
vi 520
vi 520 F
VI 5220
VI 525 B
vi 526
vi 527
vi 528
vi 532
vi 533
vi 534
vi 535
vi 536
INDEX TO THE KOMAN EDITION. 15
P.O. Cod. Vat. B.M. Addit.
vol. i Syr. (with the pp. of CBM)
x 28, p. 149 (cod. Urb.)
x 29, p. 149 (cod. Urb.)
7156 (xvii)
14675 (xiii), p 131 [Babai of
17219 (xiii), p. 136 ' Nisibis]
* (c/B.O. m 1 149) 7156 (xvii)
14675 (xiii), p. 131 [George of
17219 (xiii), p. 136 Nisibis]
* 7156 (xvii)
17219 (xiii), p. 135
[ John of Beth Rabbari]
^*
7156 (x.vii)
14675 (xiii), p. 130
17219 (xiii), p. 135
Those marked with this sign are in the Maronite Ferial Offices.
16
S. EPHRAIMS QUOTATIONS.
Title, or First Line.
Paraenetica]
cv=iJC-u\
y> ^
Paradiso Eden, Sermones xn
De Diver sis Sermones (vi 599 ad fin.)
. ^A^
^.<73cM3e.Scv2^=3
OO3
14574.
\e.
Edit.
Rom.
^ 0^ LXVII.
VI 537 C
^n<73CO LXVIII.
vi 538 D
^ 0^ LXIX.
vi 539 D
* ^i=*a LXX.
vi 540 E
^*^U* LXXI.
vi 541 F
n SM* LXXII.
vi 543
vA^n* LXXIII.
. _^cvx, LXXIV.
vi 544 c
vi 545 D
'. ^** LXXV.
vi 555 F
^TLD^ LXXVI.
vi 557 F
.
XII
vi 562
598
vi 599
vi 603
^ -=0^ II.
^Sac\ in.
vi 604 F
^nr ^ iv.
vi 608 c
vi 610E
vi 613
,y^ v .
t^uraciz. VI.
~OJina\ ' VII.
vi 615s
^oi^i^ VIII.
vi 618 F
INDEX TO THE ROMAN EDITION.
17
B.O.
vol. i
*
*
*
*
*
*
x 18, p. 147
iv 29, p. 89
iv 30, p. 89
Cod. Vat.
Syr.
pp. 84, 85
cxvii 94 (xii)
cxi 1 (AD 522)
cxi 1 (AD 522)
cxi 5 (AD 522)
cxii 1 (AD 551)
B.M. Addit.
(with the pp. of GBM)
7156 (xvii)
17219 (xiii), p. 135
14607 (vi, vii), p. 683
[Isaac of AntiocJi]
14571 (AD 519), p. 412
14574 (v, vi), p. 409
14571 (AD 519), p. 412
14574 (v, vi), p. 409
14571 (AD 519), p. 412
[cf Lamy ii 821]
iv 51, p. 92
x 2, p. 140
iv 26, p. 89
iv 27, p. 89
iv 11, p. 87
iv 25, p. 89
iv 52, p. 92
cxi 1 (AD 522)
cxvii 24 (xii)
cxi 1 (AD 522)
14571 (AD 519), p. 412
14574 (v, vi), p. 409
14571 (AD 519), p. 412
14574 (v, vi), p. 409
14571 (AD 519), p. 412
14574 (v, vi), p. 408
Those marked with this sign are in the Maronite Ferial Offices.
B G. Q. 2
18
s. EPHRAIM'S QUOTATIONS.
Title, or First Line.
[De Diversis Sermones]
yN > OQ
.j^.aV3t^rs
003
IX.
X.
XI.
XII.
XIII.
XIV.
XV.
XVI.
XVII.
XVIII.
Edit.
Rom.
VI 620 E
VI 622 E
vi 624 E
vi 627 E
vi 629 C
vi 638 F
vi 644
vi 650 E
vi 652
VI 654 F
[The first of the collection of miscellaneous homilies, called in the Edition D>
Diversis Sermones, is very likely to be genuine, as the first line is cited for th<
metre in a Hymn published by Lamy. But I have not been able to identify th<
Vatican MS from which it was edited in the Roman Edition.
INDEX TO THE KOMAN EDITION.
19
B.O.
vol. i.
iv 31, p. 89
iv 32, p. 89
iv 28, p. 89
iv 33, p. 90
x 5, p. 141
x 6, p. 141
[p. 232]
no. 85
x 27, p. 149
X 19, p. 147
Cod. Vat.
Syr.
cxi 1 (AD 522)
EM. Addit.
(with the pp. of CBM)
14571 (AD 519), p. 412
14571 (AD 519), p. 412
14574 (v, vi), p. 409
cxvii 59 (xii)
cxvii 71 (xii)
cxvii 116 (xii)
[Isaac of AntiocK] l
cod. Urb.
17262 (xii), p. 873
cxvii 97 (xii)
14573 (vi), p. 413
1 Ascribed to Ephraim in cod. Urb. 151 and in B.M. Add. 17262.
A more careful search in the Maronite Service Books would no doubt bring to
;ht the exact sources from which were taken such of the Paraenetica as are not
re marked with an asterisk. The MSS which ascribe certain of the Paraenetica
less known writers, such as Narsai and George of Nisibis, are Nestorian Psalters.]
22
20 s. EPHRAIM'S QUOTATIONS.
The above list sufficiently shews the haphazard way in which the
Eoman Edition was put together. The very first Homily (v 316 318 B)
is not S. Ephraim's work. It is a vigorous composition, edited as a
Sermon on the text that ' God created man in His own image,' but its
main purpose is to enumerate the parts of the human body as known
to ancient medical science, and then to encourage the study of Greek
authors, such as Galen and Hippocrates and above all Aristotle. It
would need a great deal of external evidence to prove that this kind of
discourse was produced by S. Ephraim, in whose view 'Blessed is he
that hath not tasted the gall of Greek philosophy " (Ed. Rom. vi 4 E).
As a matter of fact it is only found in a MS dated AD 980, which is
chiefly taken up with grammatical tracts by Jacob of Edessa. 1
This Homily does not directly touch the question in hand ; it
contains no quotations at all from the Gospel. The real battle concerns
the homilies taken from Cod. Vat. Syr. cxvii, a paper MS of the 12th
century, written at Amba Bishoi (S. Pisoes) in the Nitrian Desert and
containing a collection of Festal Homilies for the whole ecclesiastical
year. The preface to the book speaks only of Jacob of Serug, the
voluminous Syriac Hymn-writer of the 5th and 6th centuries, and
the greater part of the Festal Homilies are accordingly ascribed to him.
But about twenty are assigned to S. Ephraim, and have accordingly
been published as his in the Roman Edition, either among the Sermones
Exegetici or the Paraenetica or the De Diver sis Sermones? Some of
these are certainly genuine and are found elsewhere in ancient MSS of
Ephraim's works : such is the long epic (as it has been called by an
over-zealous admirer) on Jonah, printed in Ed. Rom. v 359 D 387 A;
and such again is the last of the sermons "De Diversis" at the end of
Ed. Rom. vi. Both of these are also extant in B.M. Add. 14573, of
the 6th century. But the evidence of ancient MSS in the British
1 In this MS (Vat. Syr. clii), no. xiv is 'A discourse composed by a certain
philosopher on the Seven Eegions in S. Ephraim's metre '
"71* T^< ~iT30T\
no. xv is our Homily, headed ' Item, a discourse of S. Ephraim on the Composition
of Man' (^atJTtafl t*=^cn Aswn -^TS^ ,.Tc*n ^-to*n _=o^).
It seems to me quite conceivable that the scribe meant no more than that this
discourse, like the previous one, was written in Ephraimitic metre.
2 They are enumerated by J. S. Assemani in B. 0. i 139148.
SOURCES OF THE ROMAN EDITION. 21
Museum does not always support the statements of the scribe of
Vat. Syr. cxvii. No. LXXIV of the Paraenetica (^T^CUC- _^cot* , Ed.
Rom. vi 545 D 555 E) is the 94th Homily in Cod. cxvii. This Homily
is also extant in B.M. Add. 14607, a MS of the 6th or 7th century,
but there it is expressly assigned to Isaac of Antioch and is found in
company with other works of his. 1 Similarly the last of the so-called
Sermones Exegetid (^S^+ ^^^ } Ed. Rom. v 387 B 395) is the
153rd Homily in cod. cxvii, but in B.M. Add. 17158, of the 6th or 7th
century, it is ascribed to Jacob of Serug. 2 Which is to be trusted, the
ancient MSS of the pre-Mohammedan East, or the headings of a 12th
century collection of miscellaneous sermons ?
The only reason that these questions of authorship have not been
settled long ago is that very few people trouble themselves whether a
certain metrical Homily be the work of Ephraim of Edessa or of some
other Syriac writer whose name is even more unfamiliar. But when it
is realised that the date of the Peshitta N.T. may depend upon the
authorship of the Homily the matter assumes a very different aspect.
Isaac of Antioch flourished in the middle of the fifth century ; it is no
surprise that he should use the ordinary Syriac version, for we have MSS
of that version still extant, written either during his lifetime or
immediately after his death. Jacob of Serug lived half a century
after Isaac of Antioch. S. Ephraim, on the other hand, died about
AD 373 ; if his testimony could be alleged for the Peshitta its date
would be carried up into the fourth century, into the times before
Greek theology and Greek influence were predominant in the Syriac-
speaking Church.
Now as a matter of fact the passages from the Roman Edition
which have been brought forward to prove S. Ephraim's use of the
Peshitta are nearly all taken either from the Severus Catena or
from the Homilies preserved in Cod. Vat. Syr. cxvii, the 12th century
MS of which I have been speaking. For instance, it is from one of these
Homilies that Mr Woods quotes Lk xvii 21 ( Woods 129, Ed. Rom. vi
550 B, F). This passage is one of the few places where the Peshitta
and the ' Old Syriac ' and the Diatessaron are all extant and all
different. The Greek is >? /Sao-iAa'a TOV 6cov evro? {y/.u)v ecmV. But for
1 Wright, CBM 683. The Homily is No. 91 in Bickell's Catalogue of S. Isaac's
Works. 2 Wright, CBM 682.
22 s. EPHRAIM'S QUOTATIONS.
WV the Peshitta and the Homily have within you (^_ci=iin
while both S and C of the Old Syriac have among you (^c
and the Diatessaron (Moes. 209, 210) has in your heart. Thus there
can be no doubt that the quotation in the Homily is derived
from the Peshitta text of the Gospels. But we have seen that the
Homily is not Ephraim's and should be ascribed to Isaac of Antioch
on the sufficient authority of the 6th century MS in the British
Museum. 1
It would of course be too much to expect that all the Homilies
wrongly ascribed to S. Ephraim in Cod. Vat. Syr. cxvii should be found
assigned to their rightful authors in extant MSS of the 6th century.
Many of the pieces in Cod. cxvii are found in no other MS. One of
these, no. 73 in the MS (B.O. i 141, no. 7), is printed in Ed. Rom. v
330 F 336 c. It contains no quotations from the Gospel, but it is
notorious as the one and only Syriac writing claiming to be earlier
than Jacob of Edessa in the 7th century, which quotes the Apocalypse. 2
I do not think that the unsupported testimony of our 12th century
Egyptian-made collection of Festal Homilies ought to outweigh the
silence of so many Syriac writers and the absence of the Apocalypse
from the Syriac canon. Most of my readers will doubtless agree with
me that this so-called Sermo Exegeticus has nothing whatever to do
with S. Ephraim or his times. 3
The Severus Catena, the other main source from which quotations
out of the Peshitta N.T. have been fathered upon S. Ephraim, was
made at Edessa in the year 861 AD. Many of the extracts taken from
it and edited in the Roman Edition as Ephraim's are not S. Ephraim's
work, while in other instances the Biblical quotations (as in most
Catenas) represent rather the texts familiar to the compiler than those
used by the writers from whom the extracts have been made. 4
1 Similarly the reference to Matt xii 22 in the same Homily (Ed. Kom. vi 553 r
T^cCs^o jc-To>^ t^cu'n), not noticed by Mr Woods, is demonstrably derived
from the Peshitta.
1 Woods 118, 138. The composition of this Homily need not be later than the
early years of the 6th century, as Dr Gwynn's text of the Apocalypse seems to have
been made about 500 AD.
1 It is not for me to complain that Dr Gwynn accepts without investigation the
genuineness of this Homily (Apocalypse, p. ciii), seeing that I myself have done the
same (Early Christianity outside the Roman Empire, p. 17 note).
4 For a further discussion of this Catena, see Appendix m.
LIST OF THE GENUINE WORKS. 23
THE GENUINE WRITINGS OF S. EPHRAIM.
The elimination of spurious documents, though in the case of any
criticism of S. Ephraim's writings a most necessary preliminary to the
work, is not the work itself. The real task before us is to determine
the Gospel text used by S. Ephraim, and the only way to do this is to
examine the quotations and allusions in the works which are admittedly
genuine. When this is done, and not till then, it may be convenient
to take the doubtful works into consideration. With the knowledge of
S. Ephraim's text and his methods of quotation, that we shall have
gained from a study of the certainly genuine works, we shall be better
able to judge whether the other writings have been correctly ascribed
to him.
The following list of genuine works by S. Ephraim has been drawn
up on the principle of admitting only those which are extant in MSS
earlier than the Mohammedan invasions. A mechanical rule such as
this no doubt excludes some genuine writings, but the list at least
escapes the charge of having been constructed to suit a pre-determined
critical theory.
The Commentary on the Diatessaron an undoubtedly genuine
work has not been included, because it is only extant in an Armenian
translation. Besides, we may regard this Commentary as being, so to
speak, on its trial. We know that S. Ephraim wrote a Commen-
tary on the Diatessaron, while on the other hand there is^ absolutely
no evidence which even suggests that he wrote upon any of the
separate Four Gospels It is therefore the Diatessaron, and not the
Four Gospels, which we should naturally expect to find quoted in his
genuine works. But Mr Woods (p. 115) goes so far as to say that very
few of S. Ephraim's quotations accord with the text of the Diatessaron
where they differ from the Peshitta ! No more striking instance could
be given of the result of trusting to uncritical editions in matters of
textual criticism.
s. EPHRAIM'S QUOTATIONS.
List of the Genuine Writings of S. Ephraim.
PROSE WRITINGS:
(1) The Commentary on Genesis and Exodus l Ed. Rom. iv 1 115,
194235
(2) The Homily on our Lord Lamy i 145 274,
ii pp. xxi xxiii
(3) The fragments of the Homily on Joh i 1 Lamy ii 511 516
(4) The fragments of the Treatises addressed
to Hypatius against False Doctrines 2 Overbeck 21 73
(5) On the Fear of God, or De Misericordia
Divina 105 112
(6) Letter to the Monks in the Mountains 113 131
METRICAL WORKS (including both "Hymns" and "Homilies"):
(1) ' Sermones ExegeticV on Adam, etc. Ed. Rom. v 318c 330
(2) on Jonah v 359 D 387 A
(3) De Nativitate xm (see below, no. 20) v 396436
(4) Sermones Polemici LVI v 437 ad fin.
(5) De Fide adv. Scrutatores LXXXVH vi 1 164
(6) De Libero Voluntatis Arbitrio iv vi 359 A 366
(7) ' Paraenetica,' no. i vi 367 369 B
(8) no. xx vi450D 451 F
(9) nos. LXXV, LXXVI vi555F 561
(10) De Paradiso Eden (see below, no. 15) vi 562598
(11) ' De Diversis Sermones,' no. n vi 603 604 E
(12) no. iv xii vi608c 629s
(1 3 ) no. xvm vi654Fad/w.
The text in the Eoman Edition must of course be corrected by Pohlmann's
collations (Journ. of Theol. Studies i 570).
The Commentarii (^71^0^), edited as Ephraim's by Overbeck, pp.
74104, are intentionally omitted from this List : see Appendix in.
LIST OF THE GENUINE WORKS. 25
(14) On Julian the Apostate Overbeck 3 20
(15) De Paradiso Eden (supplement to
no. 10) 339354
(16) The Carmina Nisibena (see below,
no. 19) Bickelfs Edition
(17) Hymni Azymorum Lamy i 567 636
(18) De Crucifixione i 637 714
(19) Sermo de Reprehensione i 1 ii 332 362
(20) Hymni de Nativitate (supplement
to no. 3) ii 501510
(21) Hymns on Fasting, Virginity, etc. ii 647678, 685-
694, 718814
(22) Sermones Rogationum, nos. in, v x Lamy iii 37 44, 65 114
(23) Hymns on the Confessors iii 643696
(24) on Abraham Kidunaya and on
Julian Saba iii 741936
This may not be a complete list of the genuine extant works of
S. Ephraim, but there can be little doubt that all those which are
included are genuine. Every one of them is attested by at least one
MS not later than the 7th century, and several are found in two MSS of
the 5th or 6th century. Together they make up a very considerable
mass of writing, certainly enough to settle the question whether
S. Ephraim used the Peshitta text of the Gospels. It is, to say the
least, exceedingly improbable that works which are assigned in later
MSS to S. Ephraim should, if genuine, present a different type of text in
the Biblical quotations and allusions from that found in these 350
separate poems, not to speak of the many pages of prose.
1 This discourse ( t \ -A^ "tooX^ i<=at^^) appears to me to be one of
the missing numbers of the Carmina Nisibena (either xxii, xxiii, or xxiv). It deals
with the abandonment of Nisibis to the Persians by Jovian in 363 AD. The second
Sermo de Reprehensione (Lamy ii 363 392) is not, as stated on col. 312, taken from
a MS of the 5th or 6th century. It is written on the fly-leaves of B.M. Add. 12176
in a hand of about the 9th century. It contains no quotations from the N. T.
The Sermo de Magls (Lamy ii 393 426) is attested by no MS earlier than the
9th century, for the part of B.M. Add. 14650 in which it is found is not (as Lamy
states) of the 6th or 7th century, but is dated AD 895 ; see Appendix in.
26 s. EPHRAIM'S QUOTATIONS
List of quotations from the Gospel found in certainly genuine works.
S. MATTHEW.
chap, iii 17|| Rom. v 545 A, vi 16 c
v39|| Nis. 72 124
ix 17 Rom. v 538 c
xi 19 1! Lamy ii 747
xiv 28 if. Ov. 27
xv 27 Rom. vi 585 D, & see on Mk vii 28
xvi 2, 3 see on Lk xii 54 56
xvi 18 Ov. 352
>j
,, xvi 19 Lamy i 267
xviii 12f.|| Ov. 114
xviii 22 Nis. 72 168
xxi 3 Rom. iv 108, 109
xxi 40, 41 Lamy i 253
xxii 13 . Nis. 84 230
xxiii 8 Rom. v 491 B
xxvi 13 Lamy i 257
xxvii 46 Rom. v 558 A
S. MARK.
chap, iv 39 Lamy i 263
vii 28 Lamy i 163
vii 33 Lamy i 171
xii 42 Nis. 9 1 36
S. LUKE.
chap, ii 30 Lamy i 259, 261
ii 34 Lamy i 267
ii 36 Lamy iii 813
iii 22 see on Matt iii 17
iv 29 Lamy i 613; Nis. 59
vi 29 see on Matt v 39
vii 14 Nis. 72 180
vii 34 see on Matt xi 19
vii 41 43 Lamy ii, p. xxii f.
111 OO oaa f\m ]\/To4-4- 111 17
205
FROM THE GOSPEL. 27
chap, ix 62 Ov. 127
xii 49 Ov. 124, 126
xii 54 56 Rom. v320B
xiv 31 Rom. v 487 A
xv 4 f. see on Matt xviii 12 f.
xvii 31, 32 Ov. 127
xviii 13 Ov. 28
xxii 43 Lamy i 233, 665 ; Nis. 59 229
,, xxiii 38 Lamy i 667
,, xxiii 43 Lamy i 667, 669
S. JOHN.
chap, i ff. Rom. vi 62 A, 63 B
i 1 Lamy ii 513
i 3f. Lamy ii 513, 515
i 3 Rom. iv 18 E
i 14 Lamy ii 743
iii 34 Lamy i 267
vi 52 Rom. vi 102 F
xii 2 Lamy i 255
xiii 5 Lamy i 657
,, xiv 23 Lamy i 273
xv 1 Lamy ii 359
xvi 11 Rom. iv 37 F
xvii 11 Rom. vi 122c
xix 30 Lamy i 229
xx 24 Rom. vi 16 F
We may notice in passing the very small total number of Gospel
quotations. Thus in the fifty-six Sermones Polemici, the text and
translation of which occupy 123 folio pages in the Roman Edition,
there are only five quotations from the Gospel : and this, though many
of the discourses are concerned with Marcion and his followers. The
prose Homily on our Lord in Lamy i 145 274 has thirteen quotations,
not a large allowance for just 65 columns of Syriac in a quarto volume.
We must therefore look with suspicion on documents claiming to be
Ephraim's work, which are full of Biblical quotations.
28 s. EPHRAIM'S QUOTATIONS
Examination of 8. Ephraim s Quotations.
Matt iii 17, Mk i 11, Lk iii 22 = Rom. v 545 A, vi 16 c
w AK' ,i=> TO! cuoo (V545A)
' This is my son, yea my beloved.'
CUCID (VI16C)
This is my son and my beloved.
For ,->i~uo ('and my beloved'), Pesh. has *^->i-> ('the beloved')
in accordance with the Greek d vids /xov d ayaTr^rds, but , >-^\>o is the
reading of S C in Matt iii 17 and of S in Lk iii 22, i.e. of syr.vt
wherever it is extant. 1
The evidence of Ephraim in v 545 is all the more striking, as the
quotation forms a 7-sy liable line (hdnau lam ber d<f> habbi/3) ; ,-n
has only two syllables and so could not stand, but Ephraim instead of
using the Peshitta habbiftd, which would have satisfied both sense and
metre, preferred to expand ,->-> \>o into ,->*->
.124
Matt v 39, Lk vi 29 = Nis. 72 1
.orA f n^r<' v>AA reLii
' He that smiteth thee on thy cheek, thine other cheek present to him. 1
A paraphrase, partly caused by metrical considerations, but omitting
'right' as an epithet to 'cheek/ in agreement with S and C against
Pesh.
Matt ix 17 = Rom. v 538 c
They do not set new wine in bottles that have worn out.
Pesh. and S both have ^^n^ ' put ' for ^A^^O) ' set ,' and
for A^^. Here again the second variant in Ephraim is due to the
metre.
1 See also Matt xii 18 (7, xvii 5 C Lk ix 35 C. In Mk ix 7 and Lk ix 35 S has
other renderings, but never the <^ .. > T of the Peshitta.
FROM THE GOSPEL.
29
Matt xi 19, Lk vii 34: = Lamy ii 747
dissipated He was thought an eater.... by the drunkards He
was thought a drinker.
The opprobrious words <ayo? and olvo-rror^ seem to have offended
the later translators, both in Syriac and Latin. </>ayos of course could
not be avoided ; it means uorax and had to be so translated, while the
Syriac equivalent is *^cv^i<, literally 'an eater' but practically
meaning ' glutton.' But OLVOTTOT^ could be softened by translating it
etymologically. Accordingly the Latins used bibens uinum and potator
uini to replace the older uinaria preserved in k and Augustine, while
the Peshitta (followed by the Harclean) has ^Tcanu *^oue. ' drinking
wine.' The scandal of calling our Lord a wine-bibber was thus avoided.
But instead of ^T^OU ^Jfut. we find **cn ' a drunkard ' in Lk vii 34
SC y and t<a\je. (shattdya) i.e 'a drinker,' 'one given to drink,' in
Matt xi 19 & C: this latter is the word used by Ephraim.
Matt xiv 28 ff. = Overbeck 27 : cf also Lamy i 263
This is a reference to the story of S. Peter walking on the water,
textually interesting because he is twice called COGT^. (11. 7, 27) and
only once ^o^^nr. (1. 18). The name comes twice in the narrative,
and Pesh. has *^*^ i.e. ' Cephas,' while S and C have ' Simon
Cephas.' The Greek form 'Petros' is very uncommon in the Syriac
text of the Gospels : it occurs only in such places as Joh i 42 S. In a
somewhat similar allusion to the same story in Lamy i 263 the name
Simon alone occurs.
Matt xv 27 - Rom. vi 585 D
This is best taken in connexion with the quotation of Mk vii 28.
30
S. EPHRAIM S QUOTATIONS
Matt xvi 2, 3 ; see on Lk xii 54 56
Matt xvi 18 - Overbeck 352
...the word of our Lord, that of His Church He spake, that ' the
gate-bars of Sheol shall not be able to conquer it.'
The ' gate-bars of Sheol ' (-n-vXat a8ov) occur again in Eus. Theoph syr
iii 27, iv 11, v 40, and in HE syr 417. The same graphic phrase is
also found in a passage ascribed to Ephraim in the Severus Catena.
In Matt xvi 18 G and Pesh. have Acux-* **J^ 'the doors of
Sheol ' : S is unfortunately not extant.
Matt xvi \-Lamy i 267
He said to Simon, ' To thee I will give the keys of the doors'
The Peshitta has here, in accordance with the Greek, ' the keys of
the kingdom of heaven,' but C has ' the keys of the doors of the
kingdom of heaven.' Thus Ephraim's text agrees with C against Pesh.
in an addition for which no other authority is known. S is deficient ;
Aphraates 141 has ' Hear ye also, that hold the keys of the doors of
heaven.'
Matt xviii (12,) 13, Lk xv 4, (5)- Overbeck 114
crA
rfA
cni^a
ct
Lk
Mt
FROM THE GOSPEL. 31
Mt
cvc)
....... ,000 1 MAT 1.1
' Who is there of you that hath beasts in the hill-country, and one
sheep stray from him, doth he not leave the ninety and nine in the plain
and in the hill, and come and seek that which strayed until he find it?'. . .
'And what time he hath found it, he rejoiceth over it more than those
ninety and nine that did not stray.'
It is difficult to believe that a mosaic such as this can have come
from anywhere but the Diatessaron. There is nothing in the wording
which definitely indicates the use either of the Peshitta text or of that
found in -8 and C, except that ^J^cuii as a rendering for Trpo/fora
occurs in Joh x 3 ff. in 8 t but never in the Peshitta. The Arabic
Diatessaron (xxvi 4, 5) gives us Lk xv 4 followed by Matt xviii 13,
which is practically what we find in Ephraim 4 but without the
characteristic phrase ^nc^=ao *-\=an=a which combines the ev
fprfiug of Lk xv 4 with the CTTI TOL 6pr) of Matt xviii 12.
Matt xviii 22 = Nis. 72 168
. .^-* As, TOA
"r*
Forgive thy brother (he saith) ' by sevens seventy times over.'
The idiomatic -^ which is here used something like the English
'for' ('in batches of seven, for seventy times') is found in 8 C- and
Aphraates 35 and 298. And as if to remove all doubt as to the exact
meaning the number is stated in Aphraates 298 to be 490 times. But
the Peshitta, in more literal accordance with the Greek, has 'unto
seventy times by sevens' ( ^-rr. ^.->r.
1 The addition of ,\ >\ in Pesh. is not significant, as both S and A 2 / 2 add
after >>^^%'-
32 s. EPHRAIM'S QUOTATIONS
Matt xxi 3 = Rom. iv 108, 109 (cf Pohlmann ii 52, 54)
(me MS)
Say ye to them that for their Lord they are required.
So also C has ^^=^n ^o<z>-inX for 6 KVpios avrwv xptt
This quotation, short as it is, presents several points of difficulty
and interest. It conies from the Commentary on Genesis, an un-
doubtedly genuine prose work of S. Ephraim, and is assigned by
Mr Woods to Mk xi 2, 3. The text of the quotation which Mr Woods
had before him (Ed. Rom. iv 108, 109) runs thus :-
.003
For He said [ Ye will find a colt tied; loose him and bring him.]
that if they say to you ' Why are ye loosing that colt ? ' say to them that
for our Lord it is required.
The brackets are my own insertion.
Mr Woods calls the quotation a combination of Mark and Matt.,
and notes that while C (the Curetonian) has many verbal variations
from the Peshitta, yet in the only ' important variation ' it differs from
Ephraim's quotation where the quotation agrees with the Peshitta.
The ' important variation ' concerns the words which in the Greek
of Matt xxi 3 run
o Kvpiog avrwv
(Mk xi 3 and Lk xix 34 have of course avrov in the singular). The
extant Syriac readings are
1 ' For our Lord they are (or it is) required' Pesh. (Matt.) (Mk., Lk.).
2 a ( For their Lord they are required ' C (Matt. ).
2b 'For its Lord it is required' S C (Lk.) S (Mk.). 1
It is evident that we have here two independent interpretations of
the Greek. According to the Peshitta 6 /cvpios is used absolutely of
Christ (as so often in Lk, so rarely in Matt and Mk) : according to S
1 In Mk xi 3 S reads o3T^on , as is clear from the photograph, not
as edited. S is not extant for Matt xxi 3, and C is not extant for Mk xi 3.
FROM THE GOSPEL. 33
and C, on the other hand, avrwv or avrov is taken with Ku'pios, so that it
means the ' master ' of the animals, either as Lord of all creatures or as
their legal possessor.
Thus the quotation in S. Ephraim's Commentary on Genesis, as
given in the Roman Edition, presents quite a striking agreement with
the Peshitta. The passage printed above within brackets agrees
verbally with clauses in the Peshitta text of Mk xi 2 and 3, and the
last two words agree in a characteristic variation with the Peshitta
against the MSS of the Evangelic* da-Mepharreshe.
But the fact is that the text of the Roman Edition does not in the
least represent the text of the MS upon which it is based. The MS
(Vat. Syr. ex) was examined some time ago by Dr A. Pohlmann, who
published a tract upon it in 1862 4. The practical result of this
investigation is that you can never trust a Biblical quotation in the
printed text of the Commentary where it verbally agrees with the
Peshitta. In the present instance the bracketed passage is not in the
MS at all, having been added de suo by the editor (Pohlmann, p. 52) ;
while for the last two words the MS actually has (Pohlmann, p. 54)
in exact accordance with the Curetonian text of Matt xxi 3 ! The
translation therefore of S. Ephraim's reference to the Entry into
Jerusalem should run
' For He said that if they say to you ' Why are ye loosing that
colt ? ' say to them that for their Lord 1 they are required.'
I may add that if the quotation was taken by S. Ephraim from the
Diatessaron, as seems probable, it was only to be expected that it
should give us the text of S. Matthew (who alone mentions two
animals) rather than that of S. Mark and S. Luke. 2
1 Or, ' for their master.'
2 This quotation of S. Ephraim was discussed by the present writer in the
Journal of Theological Studies i 569 ff.
B. G. Q.
34 s. EPHRAIM'S QUOTATIONS
Matt xxi 40, 41 = Lamy i 253
(quoth He) will the master of the vineyard do to those
husbandmen ?
41 But they say to him concerning themselves that evilly he will destroy
them and will let out the vineyard to husbandmen which raise for him
the produce in its season. 1
Two points deserve notice in this quotation, which comes from the
prose Homily on our Lord. The only part of it which appears to be
intended for a real quotation is the answer of the Pharisees : that this
is a real quotation is certain from the occurrence in it of the peculiar
Syriac rendering of Matt xxi 4 1. 1 But the final clause in Ephraim
differs altogether both from the Syriac Vulgate and the Evangelion da-
Mepharreshe. At the same time Ephraim' s 'raise for him the produce '
is as good a representation of aTrobwrovo-w atmo TOVS KapTrovs as
' give to him the fruits ' (^H*^ oA ^=301*), which is the rendering
found in S C and the Peshitta.
The other point concerns the rendering of e/cSwo-crat in Matt xxi 41.
In nwco ' he will let out (on hire) ' Ephraim and Pesh. agree against
S C. This word is used in all the Syriac texts of Mk xii 1 and Lk xx 9.
But in the passage before us S has -^^u ' he will give ' (as in Mk xii 9
and Lk xx 16), and C has -j&x-* ' he will deliver ' (as in Matt xxi 33
S C). Thus the text of S. Matthew as given in S and C seems to
avoid the word nuo^, though its occurrence in S. Mark and S. Luke
1 The clause referred to is ( COT^ n=acO r*^ r*~ *, which corresponds to
dKcDj diTroX^o-et aurotfs in S C and Pesh., as well as in the quotation of Ephraim.
Judging by the phrase ^-n.~^^ y > y > , which so often stands for KO.KUS x" rcs
this rendering might be held to imply the omission of /ccucotfs, but it is more likely
to be nothing more than an attempt to give the effect of the alliteration in the
Greek. Moes. 192 has 'malos per mala perdet' (atjupuii ^uiplroo inuuiiu^trngl^^
but this Armenian rendering may have been influenced by the Armenian vulgate
which has tjjuiu'u ***
FROM THE GOSPEL. 35
shews that it was the natural one to use ; it is therefore clear that
S. Ephraim's quotation cannot be explained by the use of the Evangelion
da-Mepharreshe. But neither can S. Ephraim's quotation be explained
by the use of the Peshitta alone, as in the final clause the quotation
differs as much from the diction of the Peshitta as from that of 8 and
C. It may reasonably be conjectured that here as in other places
S. Ephraim is giving us the text of the Diatessaron, and that the
agreement in this single point between the Diatessaron as represented
by Ephraim and the Syriac Vulgate is merely the result of literally
rendering the Greek. But instances of this agreement are so rare
compared with those where the renderings of the Diatessaron agree
with the Evangelion da-Mepharreshe against the Syriac Vulgate that
it is worth while to draw special attention to those which make the
other way. The case is in every way similar to that of a^^^*nm in
Lk vii 43, to be discussed later on.
Matt xxii 13 = Nis. 84 230
They fettered that man, whose body was defiled.
The reference to the Parable of the Wedding Feast is quite clear
in the context, and S. Ephraim has just explained that the body is the
wedding-garment, which ought to be kept bright and clean.
S. Ephraim obviously supports the reading of the better Greek MSS
S^(ravTs avrov Tro'Sas KOL xetpa? eK/?aAcT avrov . . . . , which is also the
reading of Pesh.; while S and C have ' Take hold of him by his hands
and by his feet and put him forth,' which seems to represent a/oare
avrov TToSwi/ KCU ^cipwv KOL /Sa'A-ere avrov..., the reading of D and lat.vt.
But whereas Pesh. here uses the ordinary word ^oo^ for 'bind,'
Ephraim has T^^ to 'fasten' or 'fetter,' a word which only occurs
once in the N.T. Peshitta, viz. Ac xxii 29. It might naturally be
thought that Ephraim's use of T^^ was a mere paraphrastic alteration
of the Biblical text, but the same word occurs in the quotation of
Matt xxii 13 in the Syriac Theophania iv 16, and in an express allusion
in the Syriac Acts of Thomas (Wright, p. 315). A version of this
passage, therefore, containing the word T^^ instead of ^00^, must
32
36 s. EPHKAIM'S QUOTATIONS
have been once current, and from this version and not from the
Peshitta was S. Ephraim's quotation made. It is unfortunate that no
allusion to Matt xxii 13 is made in the Commentary on the Diatessaron.
Matt xxiii 8 = Rom. v 491 B
Ye shall not call (any one) a great one on earth.
This agrees with S C, which have ^=^ ^ono^ +Q ^ ^J*^*^ i.e.
'but ye, ye shall not call (any one) Rabbi' ; Pesh., on the other hand,
has .^GTai\i\ instead of .^o^^, making the sense to be 'but ye, ye
shall not be called Rabbi,' in accordance with the Greek.
Matt xxvi 13 = Lamy i 257
A%r> , rf.Jv^CN.1 rc^cno
For ' There shall be to her (quoth He) a name and this memorial
everywhere that my Gospel shall be announced'
There is no trace of this recasting of the verse either in the
Peshitta or in the Evangelion da-Mepharreshe, so that it is possible
that Ephraim's words are a conscious paraphrase. 1
Matt xxvii 46 = Rom. v 558 A
rc*i.*gl\ A-.re' JuK* (sic)
Eli, El, why hast thou left me ?
For the first words 8 has A^ A^ (Le. 'Eli, Eli') in Mdtt. and
(i.e. 'My God, my God') in Mk. Pesh. has -W -W
both in Matt, and in Mk. I owe the correct transcription of Cod. Vat.
Syr. cxi (p. 263 a), given above, to the kindness of Dr G. Mercati, of
the Vatican Library.
(i.e. 'this') is omitted in B.M. Add. 14654.
FROM THE GOSPEL. 37
Mark iv W = Lamy i 263
Jut.
For 'Be quiet ! (quoth He) thou art muzzled /'
B.M. Add. 14654 (Lamy's B, but not cited by him here) has
^i\T^ -^A >iat. ' Be quiet ! thou art stilled ! ' But both the MSS of
S. Ephraim's Homily agree in having a feminine participle, so that
the rebuke is addressed to the wind. S and C are unfortunately both
missing, but Pesh. has ou^ "^4 A^ (with masc. verbs and pronoun),
and the rebuke is addressed to the sea. Here again therefore
S. Ephraim shews his independence of the Peshitta.
Mark vii 28 (Matt xv 27) = Lamy i 163 (cf Rom. vi 585 D)
.aacn
That thou shouldest satisfy them from the crumbs that from the sons'
table were falling.
(Rom. vi 585 D has
Dogs from the crumbs of their masters are satisfied.)
The second quotation occurs in the Hymns De Paradiso and is
obviously a paraphrase. It is however noteworthy that both quotations
agree in having a form of the verb *> >QQ ' satisfy.' The first quotation
is from the prose Homily on our Lord, and is remarkable for containing
the phrase ' ' the sons' table," which is not found in any Greek MS or
in the Peshitta, but does actually occur in Mk vii 28 according to S
and arm. vg. That it was also the reading of the Diatessaron is
probable from Moes. 138, where Moesinger's cod. B has "Yea, Lord,
even dogs eat of the crumbs of the children's table." Here again
therefore Ephraim, the Evangelion da-Mepharreshe and the Diatessaron
1 The other MS has " their masters' table," in agreement with Matt xv 27.
38 s. EPHRAIM'S QUOTATIONS
unite in preserving a singular expression, of which the Peshitta has no
trace 1 .
The allusion in Rom. vi 585 r> to this saying of Christ is chiefly
remarkable for the word *^ci^H^ 'crumbs.' This word is synonymous
in meaning with the word ^^o4vis^ used in syr.vt-vg, and is also
metrically equivalent. The fact that it is found in the Harclean (both
in Matt xv 27 and Mk vii 28) is curious, but the circumstance is too
isolated to have any special significance.
Mark vii 33 = Lamy i 171
.003
' He spat on his fingers and put (it) in the ears of that deaf-mute. 1
The variants in Mk vii 33 are particularly interesting : there are
four rival readings extant in Greek, and three of these (if not all four)
are represented in Syriac, or in translations from the Syriac.
(a) C73W\\ -ra-TOO JaTO ~i<73CU3*=a TOCX^rj- ^n^^ Pesh.
He laid his fingers in his ears, and spat and touched his tongue.
This is the reading supported by most Greek MSS, including B (tf)
and the ' Received Text ' (efiaXev TOVS oaKruXovs avrov cts ra oSra avrov
Kai Trrutras rj^/aro rrjs yXuxrcrrjs avrov).
(b) aiijAA _=TJ3o ^<73cva^ti=j ja^o oa^vi^ra- ^poo S
He put his fingers and spat in his ears and touched his tongue.
This is the reading of the ' Ferrar Group ' and of the very important
minuscule 28 ([eTrJe/JaAev TOVS SaKTvAovs avrov Tmxras cts ra <3ra avrov
''
KOI tyaro T^S yXwo'O'rys avrov),
1 The actual texts found in Syr. vt-vg are :
.1*^*1=3^
Mk vii 28 S
.^
Mk vii 28 Pesh.
Matt xv 27 Pesh. (S) (C)
[S omits the bracketed words, C adds
FROM THE GOSPEL. 39
(c) uLJ ^j AjJ^I ^ ^! 3 Ajulot ^ ^i3 Diat ar xxi 3
fingers and put (it) in his ears and touched his
tongue.
This agrees with Ephraim's quotation, and is attested in Greek by
the uncial fragment called W d (CTTTVO-CV eis rover Sa/cruAovcr avroO- /cat
/3a\ei/ eicr TO. cura TOT) /CUK^OV /cat -tjif/ciTO rrjcr yXcocrcrao" TOV /xoyytA.aAov).
The passage is not quoted in Ephraim's Commentary, but the fact that
the Arabic Diatessaron does not agree with the Peshitta makes it
certain that the Arabic has here preserved the ancient Syriac text
substantially unaltered. 1
In this passage, therefore, Ephraim follows the transmitted text of
the Diatessaron, while both the Peshitta and the Evangdion da-
Mepharreshe differ from it and from each other.
Mark xii 42 = .A^?. 91 36f -
The pound and the mite of the widow he increased.
S has *^-=>on ^^oo^ou*^ ^cvnx- ^Hd> 'two mites which are
a quarter' for A-eTrra Sro, o eo-rtv Koftpavrr)*;. But the Peshitta has
*icv^x- ^atTj-Sru^-n ^^lin ^\i\ 'two pounds which are mites.' This
is obviously the rendering followed by S. Ephraim.
It seems to me very probable that in this case as in many others
the Peshitta has retained unaltered a previously existing Syriac
rendering. For it is wholly unfair to equate the /x-va (Mina or Maneh)
of the Parable of the Pounds with the XCTTTOI/ of the poor widow, and
the later Syriac scholars were quite incapable of originating such a
mistake. 2 My friend Professor A. A. Bevan suggests that the original
1 The fourth reading, found in D (2P) lat.vt, puts irrfoas before /Sa\e, but
otherwise agrees with (a). By a curious coincidence this reading is found in the
Discourses of Philoxenus (Budge i 45). His words are
^^C-TdJ Q<73^ _ <73 Cti "^ t<i.r3 (73o\^-r:s ""pOOO J3^
which looks like a conflation of the Evangelion da-Mepharreshe with the Diatessaron,
as Philoxenus can hardly have derived his text direct from D and the Latins.
2 The Harcleau has ^ \.^V i-e. the Greek word transliterated.
40 s. EPHRAIM'S QUOTATIONS
rendering may have been t*^"> * n which case we must read
and ^m*^u^*, as *z*zn (a small coin, Heb. gera) is feminine. 1
Luke ii 30 = Lamy i 259, 261
rrfcn
' Lo, mine eyes have seen thy Mercy! '
This agrees both with S and the Peshitta. The regular equivalent
for TO crwrr/pioV <rov, according to Syriac Biblical usage, would be vyv>
'thy Life,' and vO i \\ 'thy Mercy' looks like an intentional alteration
of this. But if so, the alteration must have taken place before
S. Ephraim's day.
Luke ii 34 = Lamy i 267
cucrs
' This one is set for falling and for rising.'
The same words (and no more) are quoted in a passage of the
Severus Catena (Rom. iv 129, 130), on which Mr Woods remarks :
" The use of this expression without any further limitation is certainly
curious. Now in the translation of the Commentary on the Dia-
tessaron (see Zahn, n. ii. 4 [Moesinger 28]) we have Ecce hie stat in
ruinam et in resurrectionem et in signum contradictions, and Ephrem's
comment shows that this is not an abbreviation but a real variant. It
seems likely therefore that we have in this quotation an omission of
the words 'of many in Israel 7 influenced by the Diatessaron." Mr
Woods's argument is certainly strengthened by the passage quoted
above from the undoubtedly genuine Homily on our Lord. In this
verse, the Peshitta has the ordinary text 'This one is set for the
falling and for the rising of many in Israel' ; but S presents us with
the curious order ' This one is set in Israel for the falling and for the
rising of many.'
1 The very same corruption also occurs in the Jerusalem Targum to Exod xxx
13, which has p where Onkelos has
FROM THE GOSPEL. 41
Luke ii 36 = Lamy iii 813
How like is the modest one (i.e. Julian Saba, who deserted his wife)
to that most modest of the modest, who ' for seven days had been with a
husband'
According to the Peshitta, as in the ordinary text, Hanna the
prophetess had lived seven years with a husband, but & alone among
MSS and versions makes it into seven days only, and in so doing is
followed by Ephraim.
Luke iii 22 ; see on Matt iii 17
Luke iv 29 =Nis. 59 205 , Lamy i 613
orA .w
When they threw him from the hill, he flew in the air.
(Lamy)
When again they threw him from the top of the hill. . .
It is clear from these phrases that S. Ephraim used a text which
represented oWc Kara/cp^/xvio-ai avVov, and took these words to imply
that the people of Nazareth actually threw our Lord over the cliff.
This is also the view taken in the Commentary on the Diatessaron
Moes. 130, 212), which no doubt represents the text as read in Tatian's
Harmony. But it is not supported either by S or the Peshitta. S has
'so that they might hang him' (ie. WOT [/caraj/cpc/xao-at avrov), while
the Peshitta has 'that they might throw him from the cliff' (i.e.
ets TO KaTaKprj/jivio-ai avrov, the reading of the ' Received Text').
Luke vi 29 ; see on Matt v 39
42 s. EPHRAIM'S QUOTATIONS
Luke vii 14 = Nis. 72 179 > 180
Now Jesus called to the dead man ' Youth, youth ! '
This remarkable reading is expressly attested by Aphraates, who
says (p. 165): "And with two words He raised each one of them.
For the son of the widow, when He raised him, He called twice, saying
to him * Youth, youth, arise ! ' and he lived and arose. And the
daughter of the chief of the Synagogue He called twice, saying to her
' Girl, girl, arise ! ' -and her spirit returned and she arose." Thus
Ephraim's reading (which is also that of D and of a ffof the Old Latin),
was that which was alone familiar to Aphraates, and we may safely
conjecture that it stood in the Diatessaron. But it is not the reading
either of the Peshitta or of S.
Luke vii 34; see on Matt xi 19
Luke vii 41 43 = Lamy ii, p. xxii f. (supplying the lacuna in i 249)
ocni Klip**
~~.
en A TJ^rC* . >-^ 00 cvia
'
Two debtors there were to a man, a money-lender. One was in
debt for five hundred denars, but the other for fifty denars.'.... 'Finally,
42 whm not one of them had aught to pay him, he forgave them both.
Which dost thou set in thy mind will most love him ? ' * 3 /Simon saith to
him ' I suppose it is he to whom he forgave much.' Our Lord saith to
him ' Correctly hast thou judged.'
1 Or we may regard it as a transliteration and render it ' Talitha, talitha, cumi.'
Traces of this reading also are to be found in D and the Latin texts of Mk v 41.
FROM THE GOSPEL. 43
It will not be necessary to give in full all the trifling variations
between Ephraim's not absolutely accurate quotation and the Biblical
MSS. The three significant readings are : (1) in ver. 41 Ephraim with S
has *i^icc=n ^TLTI^ ' a man, a money-lender/ while C and the
Peshitta have *^=<xo ^-in nw 'a certain creditor.' That the reading
of $ and Ephraim was also that of the Diatessaron is clear from
Moesinger, where however what appears in the Latin (p. 114) as uni
domino creditori should be translated viro cuidam feneratori (A
n t. pa i ffii i^ n ^ituuint_[i^ (2) In the beginning of ver. 43 both $ and C
have with Ephraim ' Simon saith to him/ while the Peshitta has more
in accordance with the Greek 'Simon answered and said.' The simpli-
fication of these introductory sentences in dialogue is one of the
characteristics of the Old Syriac, while the Peshitta tends to follow
the Greek wording. It is therefore noteworthy that Ephraim here
agrees with $ C and not with the Peshitta. (3) At the end of ver. 43
Ephraim has au^ ~nm ' correctly ' in agreement with the Peshitta,
while 8 C have ni^r. ' well.' The word in the Greek is 6p0<3s, which is
translated by u^^*n^ in Lk x 28, xx 21, by $ and C as well as Pesh.
In this passage the agreement of 8 and C shews us that ni^r. was
really the reading of the Evangelion da-Mepharreshe, which is there-
fore not the text from which Ephraim is quoting. 1
Luke ix 62 = Overbeck 127
Kli .1-^.1 r<L=i.*> A^. cn.'UK'
No one putteth his hand on the plough-share and looketh behind him,
and becometh fit for the kingdom of heaven.
Here again Ephraim does not exactly reproduce any of the Syriac
Biblical texts, for both S C and Pesh. have 'God/ not 'heaven.' But
the insertion of ^003 ' becometh ' is attested by S C.
1 A parallel case is the rendering of e/cSuxrercu, which has been discussed above
on Matt xxi 41.
44 s. EPHRAIM'S QUOTATIONS
Luke xii 49 = Overbeck 124, 126
Fire I came to cast in the earth.
This agrees with Pesh. against S C, which add TJ^ 003 after
(For fire it is that I came to cast...).
Luke xii 5456, [Matt] xvi 2, 3 = Rom. v 320 B
JFbr >&0 face of the earth and of the heaven too ye Know, and when
there will be a sirocco and when there will be rain ; prophecies are made
also about fine weather.
This stanza is not a quotation, but is as Mr Woods calls it (p. 122)
a ' mixed paraphrase ' of Matt xvi 2, 3, and Luke xii 54 56. As a
matter of fact it is only the last clause that seems to be taken from
Matt., but the word ^cu - 'fine weather' is decisive. S. Ephraim's
Gospel text therefore included the interpolated verses, which are read
in the Peshitta, but not in S or G. This quotation, therefore, is not
taken from the Evangelion da-Mepharreshe. But neither is it from
the Peshitta, for the word used corresponding to Kava-uv (Lk xii 55) is
not *ncu> 'heat,' as in the Peshitta, but ^ncv^ 'a sirocco.' This
is a somewhat rare word, ultimately derived from an Assyrian name
for an oven. But it is used in this place by C and by S also. 2
Ephraim's quotation here, therefore, presents similar features to
those which we have noticed elsewhere ; viz. it has the language and
style of the Evangelion da-Mepharreshe or Old Syriac, but an inde-
pendent text : in other words, it has the characteristic features of the
1 I give the text from B.M. Add. 14571, fol. 33 va. The Eoman Edition has
_q^u^ ^o^o. before t^inae.'n J^^, and inserts _rao^ before ^n^n
to the ruin of the metre.
2 The reading of S given in Mrs Lewis's Some Pages is t^ncu>^> but
Mrs Lewis's transcript had ^inci2^ and the edited reading is merely the result of
misapprehension.
FROM THE GOSPEL. 45
Syriac Diatessaron. From this passage we further gala the very
interesting information that the Diatessaron, like every other text
known to be connected with the West, recognised the interpolation
oi/aa? yevo/xeV?7s K.r.X. in Matt xvi 2, 3, which is absent from the best
Greek texts (XB and Origen) as well as from the Old Syriac codices C
and &
Luke xiv 31= Horn, v 487 A
a en
It is written ' Who among kings goeth to do battle with another king
his fellow 1 ?'
This is quite different both from Pesh. and from S C, and we really
possess no evidence to shew whether Ephraim's wording is anything
more than a paraphrase arranged to suit his 7 -syllable metre. 1 But as
the quotation is expressly introduced for the sake of the word WILT^U
which means his ' fellow ' or ' comrade ' (though in this case used of an
enemy), it is evident that the word must have stood in Ephraim's text.
In Lk xiv 31 S C both have *nu* *=A^n while the Peshitta has
Luke xv 4 f. ; see on Matt xviii 12 f.
Luke xvii 31, 32 = Overbeck 127
1 If any one is in the street and his things in the house, let him not
enter and take them. Recollect the wife of Lot.'
Here again the wording is different both from Pesh. and from S C,
and the text of the Diatessaron is not given for this passage in
1 A. o<73 seems to have dropped out after ~^*s.. Some such word must be
supplied for metrical reasons.
46 s. EPHKAIM'S QUOTATIONS
Moesinger. But the quotation from Ephraim is taken from a prose
work, so that it may not be a simple paraphrase. The chief differences
are that Ephraim has *n<xat= 'in the street' for CTTI rov Sw/xaros, where
the Syriac Biblical texts have ^T^r^a 'in the roof (Pesh.) or
^T^sj 1 ^ ^- 'on the roof (S (7); and that Ephraim has o^m^.
'recollect/ where the Striae Biblical texts have oT^ < nc\^ 'remember.'
The omissions made by Ephraim at the end of xvii 31 are probably of
no importance, as he speaks of ' our Lord telling us not to turn back '
(cfver. 31 b ), just before his more formal quotation begins.
Luke xviii 13 = Overbeck 28
. K'aoo
He [the publican] because of his fear was not daring to lift his eyes
to heaven.
The Greek has OVK ^eXev.-.eTrapat, and accordingly S and the
Peshitta have he was not willing to lift. But G agrees with Ephraim,
against the Greek.
It is an obvious step to go on and assume that ' was not daring ' is
the reading of the lost Diatessaron, and this conjecture is borne out by
the interesting fact that the reading comes to the surface again in
Latin, not in one of the leading representatives of the Old Latin, but
in the well-known Codex Sangermanensis g, Wordsworth's G. One of
the constituent elements of this mixed and curious text seems to have
been an early Latin text of the Diatessaron, 1 and doubtless it was from
the Diatessaron that it came to read here nee oculos ad caelum leuare
audebat.
Luke xxii 43, 44 = Lamy i 233, 655, Nis. 59 a29
The passages from Lamy i 665 and Nis. 59 only shew in a general
way that S. Ephraim's Gospel text contained the incident of the bloody
sweat. In this it agrees with C, the Peshitta, and Moes. 235, but
1 See especially Lk xxiii 48.
FKOM THE GOSPEL. 47
differs from S. The passage from Lamy i 233 goes more into detail
and is worth quoting :
. orA AjuuL^a .1^ rd^KtA.^73 crA V
It is written that there appeared to him an angel strengthening him.
Here C and Ephraim agree in omitting 'from heaven' after 'angel,'
against the Peshitta and all other authorities, except a few patristic
quotations (including Arius and Caesarius of Nazianzus). Wherever
therefore C and Ephraim got their common text of this passage, it was
not from the Peshitta.
Luke xxiii 38 = Lamy i 667
vryxrjcu^
Happy art thou, tablet!
The same word i*r\^, a Syriac adaptation of TTLTTOLKLOV, is used
also in S and C for the eVtypa^r) of the Gospel text. But the Peshitta
has *=^^, which must have been regarded as a more literal
translation, as it is here found also in the Harclean.
Luke xxiii 43 = Lamy i 667, 669
. A.^c\ jj^xa, ^**A >A.l. < sq (667)
From thee [Golgotha] he opened and. entered Eden.
.^Jt^=> VCQOO ^J53 Axil- (669)
Our Lord took and set thee [the thief] in Eden.
It is evident from these passages that Ephraim read ' in the garden
of Eden ' with (7, Aphraates, and the Diatessaron (Moes. 244, 245), not
' in Paradise ' with S and the Peshitta.
The quotations of S. Ephraim from the beginning of the Fourth
Gospel present several peculiarities and difficulties, and it is probable
that he had not always the same text before him. The full bearing of
his quotations can hardly be appreciated without giving long extracts.
48
S. EPHRAIM S QUOTATIONS
It has seemed to me better to print these separately in an Appendix,
while extracting here the words which may be assumed to be exact
quotations of S. Ephraim's Biblical text with just sufficient context to
make them intelligible.
Joh i l=Lamy ii 513
In the beginning He was the Word.
This agrees verbally both with C and Pesh., but the English
translation here given (which is demanded by the context) assumes
^\1 ' word ' to be feminine as in C, not masculine as in Pesh. S is
deficient until Joh i 25.
Joh i 3 = Rom. iv 18 E
The Evangelist saith of him ' Every thing was in Him, and apart
from Him not even one thing was.'
This exactly agrees with the Evangelion da-Mepharreshe as repre-
sented by (7, but the Peshitta has ^ooj <D:ux<=a A=^ i.e. 'all was
through Him ' (following the Greek TTCU/TO, SC avrov cyeVero), instead of
^003 fTira -7Jnn A^. The rendering of C and Ephraim is also found
in the Syriac Theophania i 24.
Joh i 3 = Lamy ii 513 f. (corrected from B.M. Add. 12164)
.i orA >
......... *T3 .1^33
.K'oco >
FROM THE GOSPEL. 49
From the same [S. Epkraim]. For John started to write
that which our Lord endured in Himself. " Now he began with
the history of the Son from where (it says} that ' Through Him had
been created everything' ...... John therefore left (the consideration of)
that which through Him had been created..."
These words, as may be seen from the opening formula, are taken
from a collection of extracts. The collection is that made by Philoxenus
at the end of his great and still unedited work on the Incarnation,
written to prove c that One Person of the Trinity became Man,' which
is preserved in a Vatican MS and also in B.M. Add. 12164, a MS of the
6th century. It is perfectly clear that the version of Joh i 3 agrees
with the Peshitta, and differs from C and Ephraim's quotation else-
where, in having oj:ui<=3 for 81* avrov. At the same time, it differs
both from C and the Peshitta in having -Teai^ ' created/ instead of
^003 'was/ to render eyeWo. This is not unparalleled in Syriac
texts of the Gospel ; in Mk ii 27 ^=aiv^ seems to stand for eyeWo
in 8 and the Peshitta, but curiously enough not in the Diatessaron
(Moes. 62) ; nor is there any thing in the opening section of Ephraim's
Commentary on the Diatessaron (Moes. 6) to suggest that it had
^ica^^r in Joh i 3. Finally, Ephraim has ^n^o As> in each place in
agreement with C, where Pesh. has -^. The texts used by Ephraim
in the beginning of the Fourth Gospel are thus diverse and their
source is not at all clear, but none of them can be explained from the
use of the Peshitta.
Joh i 14 = Lamy ii 743
.enacts.
K'ii.l vVa . relaiLl rtlracu^ cair?3
The Word of the Father came from His bosom, and clothed itself
with a body in another bosom; from bosom to bosom it went forth,
and pure bosoms have been filled from it: blessed is He that dwelleth in
us !
It is obvious that this is a reference to Joh i 14 and 18, the
reference to 'bosoms' shewing that the Biblical statement is in the
B. a. Q. 4
50 s. EPHRAIM'S QUOTATIONS
mind of the writer and not a generalised reference to the Incarnation.
But the diction in two very important particulars is that of C and not
of the Peshitta ; the Word is feminine, and It puts on not flesh
, but a body (^T^^). For 6 Ao'yos o-ap eyeVero Pesh. has
oA^n, but (7has ^003 ^TT^^, T^cA^o, and Aphraates
twice quotes the verse in agreement with C. That the Peshitta gives
the revision and C the original Syriac rendering is made highly probable
by the fact that even the Peshitta has ^T^S^ in all seven places where
crap occurs in the sixth chapter of S. John. It is not necessary here
to examine the reasons which led to the original adoption of the term
'body' in Joh i 13, 14, or to those which led to the subsequent
rejection of it in favour of a more literal rendering of the Greek. 1 But
I may remark that there is no surer test of the Biblical text used by a
Syriac author than the phrase used for the Incarnation. On the one
hand the Acts of Thomas, the Doctrine of Addai, Aphraates and
S. Ephraim, constantly speak of our Lord having 'clothed Himself
with a body' ; on the other, Isaac of Antioch and the biographer of
Rabbula agree with the Peshitta in speaking of the Word made flesh,
a phrase which (so far as I know) never occurs in Syriac literature
before the 5th century.
This passage also is quoted by Philoxenus (B.M. Add. 12164,
fol. 131 r#), with the reading ^T^S^ ^ooao 'and became a body.'
This reading is exactly what is found in C, and as it is metrically
satisfactory it may very well be the actual wording used by S. Ephraim.
John iii 34 = Lamy i 267
coX t=>cn.
Therefore not by measure gave his Father to him the Spirit.
This passage presents several interesting variants in Syriac texts,
which can best be exhibited by quotation in full. We have
Ephr Aph 122
Aph 123
>5
1
See Isho'dad as quoted by Dr J. E. Harris in Fragments of the Commentary of
Ephrem Syrus upon the Diatessaron, p. 25. The Armenian altogether fails us here,
for in Armenian Jluptljtu marmin stands indifferently for <rbp and for erw/
FROM THE GOSPEL. 51
C (partly torn away)
Pesh.
As to $, *oxW is not legible in the photograph. Moes. 105 has
' And not by measure gave he to his Son.'
The Greek of this passage is ov yap IK ^rpov SiSeoo-iv [6 0os] TO
Trveu/xa, followed by 6 Traryp dyaTra rov vidV. If ^(TJ-W^T be really the
reading of $, it looks almost like a conflation with syr.vg ; but the
independence of Ephraim in this passage needs no further comment. 1
Joh vi 52 = Rom. vi 102 r
Aixl.i cnit relicn
How can this man his body give us ?
This is a mere allusion, with A^*rA ' to eat ' at the end of the
verse left out and ^r^ ^^ (3 syllables) substituted for the
Biblical tt^T-n IA^^ (5 syllables), doubtless for metrical reasons.
At the same time it agrees in giving the order found in Pesh. against
OST^SV ^ A^u^ in S C. The order here preserved in Pesh. and
Ephraim is that of cod. 69, and partially that of other MSS of the
' Ferrar Group.'
Joh xii 2 (Luke x kfy = Lamy i 255
When Martha was occupied in serving.. .
This sentence belongs properly to Lk x 40 (ij Se MdpOa
Kovtai/), but it appears in Ephraim as part of the story of
the supper given by Lazarus and his sisters to Christ. Thus it
corresponds to Joh xii 2 (KCU >/ MdpOa SOJKO^I), a clause which is
literally translated in the Peshitta. But 8 actually has in Joh xii 2
m
1 Note that ^ \.*v is peculiar to syr.vg, as it has now been definitely
ascertained that S reads ^X\\ v~> (Expositor for Aug., 1897, p. 117).
42
52 s. EPHRAIM'S QUOTATIONS
What makes the agreement here of S and Ephraim all the more
remarkable is that the Diatessaron, as represented in Moes. 99, 204,
and also in the Arabic, kept the two incidents quite distinct. But in
Ephraim they are completely confused.
Joh xiii 5 = Lamy i 657
Our Lord purified the bodily frame of the brethren, in a dish which
is the symbol of concord.
For eis rov vLTTTrjpa in Joh xiii 5 the Peshitta has ^q\Vr*-n > ' in a
washing-bason/ but S and Aphraates have ^^V^r.n ^n\~> ' in a
dish for washing.' This is evidently the text known to Ephraim.
The case is therefore exactly similar to Lk xxiii 38. There
Ephraim and S C agreed in having *r\^ t a word derived from
TriTTa/aov, but used as a translation of circypa^i?. Here Ephraim agrees
with Aphraates and S in having [^q\Vi r -' n ] i^n\ where *i=A is
derived from Ac/can?, but is used to translate
Joh xiv 23 = Lamy i 273
JSQ
' He that loveth me, unto him we come, and an abode with him we
will make?
The latter part of this verse is quoted also in Aphraates 130. The
one MS of Aphraates (Wright's A) agrees with Ephraim and with S in
having ^=x^i ' we will make.' The other MS of Aphraates (Wright's B)
has ^nra^ ' we make ' with the Peshitta. 1 C, on the other hand, has
^^ ^m^ 'I come' and nra^^ 'I will make,' in agreement with
Codex Bezae and the Old Latin MS e. I have but little doubt that
the true reading of the Evangelion da-Mepharreshe is given in C, and
the reading of the Diatessaron is given in S, in Aphraates and in
Ephraim.
1 This is not the only occasion where cod. A of Aphraates gives a better reading
than that of B or B.
FROM THE GOSPEL. 53
Joh xv 1 = Lamy ii 359
The Vineyard of Truth.
A number of indications combine to shew that this is a reference to
Joh xv 1 ; or rather, that this is a reference to the passage in the
Diatessaron corresponding to Joh xv 1, and that the Diatessaron had
/ am the true Vineyard and ye are the vines.
The context of the passage quoted is not in itself quite decisive.
S. Ephraim says of the loss of Nisibis to the heathen Persians : " The
vineyard that belonged to my Beloved in a corner of fertile land
(Isaiah v 1, S'ic), that vineyard hath the oppressor rooted up, and
planted a new one in its stead. The vineyards of time are worked
more than the Vineyard of Truth : wrath hath made all vineyards
desolate, that in the Vineyard of verity we may work." No doubt
Ephraim has also in mind the Parable of the Vineyard (Matt xx), but
the phrase in S. John is the only one which connects either Vine or
Vineyard with " truth." l
The verse is quoted again in a tract of S. Ephraim extant only in
Armenian (Ephr. Arm. ii 292). After quoting Matt xxi 33, he goes
on : ' And again in another place He says I am the Vineyard, and ye
are the vine."' 2 '
Besides these passages from Ephraim we find other instances of the
same rendering in early Syriac literature.
Aphraates says with unmistakeable reference to Joh xv 1 ( Wright,
p. 288) :
^ - -i*
He is the Vineyard of Truth, and His Father the husbandman,
and we the vines planted within Him.
And Cyrillona, at the end of the 4th century, says (ZDMG xxvii
580):
OO9
1 "Vine of Truth" is of course only the Semitic turn of expression for " True
Vine."
2 The word translated 'Vineyard' is *y^ (as in Matt xxi 33 arm.vg), that
translated ' Vine ' is n pP~ (as in Joh xv 1 arm.vg).
54 s. EPHRAIM'S QUOTATIONS
Let us see again how our Saviour hath used of Himself the similitude
of a vineyard : ' I am the Vineyard of Truth, and my Father He is
the husbandman.'
But this curious mistranslation is not found in S or the Peshitta,
though otherwise the two texts differ considerably in the opening-
words of Joh xv, nor is there any trace of it in the Acts of Thomas. 1
It is therefore probable that it never found its way into Biblical texts,
though it seems to have been a characteristic feature of the Syriac
Diatessaron.
Joh xvi 11 = Rom. iv 37 r
coJUl
And he said ' About his judgement, that the ruler of this world is
judged.'
Here $ agrees with Ephraim in having rosct^n^^ where Pesh. has
t^ia^u<3, but both S and Pesh. have *i** 'judgement' not on*
'his judgement.' How likely an early Syriac text was to have the
suffix here is shewn by Joh xvi 8,- where S has ' He will reprove the
world in its sins and about his righteousness,' against the Greek and
the Peshitta.
Joh xvii 11 = Rom. vi 122 c
My Father, take (and) keep them.
B.M. Add. 12176 reads T^O ' and keep.' Pesh. has
' Holy Father, keep them,' while S has -=xo>
< My holy Father, take (and) keep them.' **-nn had oi
course to be dropped in making a 5-syllable verse, and its omissioi
leaves just five syllables both in 8 and in Pesh. It is therefore
significant that Ephraim should give the reading of 8 and not of the
Peshitta.
1 The words < I have planted Thy vine in the land ' (Wright 314 14 E. Tr. 280",
may refer rather to Matt xxi 33 : the vine is here the Gospel, rather than Christ 01
individual Christians.
FROM THE GOSPEL. 55
Joh xix 30 = Lamy i 229
a\JL53 K'cn.l
As he said ' Lo, every thing is finished.'
Neither S nor C is here extant, nor is the verse quoted in Moesinger,
but the Arabic Diatessaron (lii 4) and the Armenian vulgate have
'Everything has been finished.' The Peshitta has only Ti\T-n
so that here again Ephraim appears to be following the Diatessaron.
Joh xx 24 = Rom. vi 16 F
And Judas Thomas.
This is the reading of the Vatican MS on which the Roman Edition
professes to be based, as given in Bibliotheca Orientalis I 101, and it is
also the reading of B.M. Add. 12176 ; the printed text changes it
into *mo^i\ ooxXo, whereby both the metre is spoilt and the
connexion with Old Syriac nomenclature is lost. Judas, or Judas
Thomas, is the regular name for the apostle in the Acta Thomae, and the
' Judas not Iscariot ' of John xiv 22 appears as ' Judas Thomas ' in C
and ' Thomas' in S. The name Judas Thomas also occurs in the Syriac
Doctrine of Addai, and it was doubtless from a Syriac source that
Eusebius got the louSas 6 KOL w/aas of HE i 13.
On the 48 passages quoted and discussed in the preceding pages
must rest the decision as to what text of the Gospel was used by
S. Ephraim. For my own part, I cannot think that the occasional
coincidences of language with the Peshitta against the Sinai Palimpsest
and the Curetonian, amounting to eight in all, are of a character to
suggest the actual use of the Syriac Vulgate. 1 Most of them occur in
passages which otherwise present notable coincidences with the Sinai
Palimpsest or the Curetonian, or else differ widely from all known
Syriac texts of the Gospel.
1 The coincidences referred to are Matt xvi 2 (^civ> .)> Matt xxi 41 (
Mk xii 42 L.V-), Lk vii 43 (v^ ~*n>), Ik xii 49 (om. "1*^ o<7)), Lk xiv 31
) 3 Joh i 3 (oon*t*[=3) and Joh vi 52 (order).
56 s. EPHKAIM'S QUOTATIONS
Against these are to be set at least three times as many agreements
of S. Ephraim with S or C against the Peshitta, some of them of most
striking and unmistakeable character. The phrases ' My Son and My
beloved' at the Baptism, 'the sons' table' in the story of the Syro-
Phoenician woman, the statements that Hanna the prophetess had
lived only seven days with her husband and that the publican in the
Temple did not dare to lift up his eyes to heaven, the words used for
the tablet on the Cross and for the dish which Christ used to wash the
disciples' feet, the promise of Eden to the penitent thief, the name of
Judas Thomas, and last but by no means least the statement that the
Word became a body all these S. Ephraim shares with * Old Syriac '
MSS, and with Old Syriac MSS or the Diatessaron alone.
There are not wanting also marked differences between S. Ephraim
and these MSS, and these differences suggest that it was not the Old
Syriac version of the Four Gospels, the Evangelion da-Mepharreshe,
that S. Ephraim was using, but the Diatessaron. Whatever the origin
of the Syriac Diatessaron may have been, and I see no reason to doubt
the correctness of the tradition that it was the Harmony made by
Tatian the disciple of Justin Martyr, it is certain that in S. Ephraim's
day the wording of the text was very largely the wording of the
Evangelion da-Mepharreske. The agreements of S. Ephraim with S
and C are all explicable on the supposition that he was using the
Diatessaron, while in many of the differences the reading attested by
S. Ephraim is known on other grounds to have been that of the
Diatessaron. This is the case with the curious statements that our
Lord spat on His ringers when healing the deaf man, that He was
actually thrown down from the cliff by the people of Nazareth, and that
He said at the end 'Lo, everything is finished.' S. Ephraim also
agrees with the express testimony of Aphraates, who seems to have
used the Diatessaron habitually if not exclusively, that Christ said to
the widow's son ' Youth, youth, arise ! ' -a form of the saying otherwise
only found in the West.
I do not shrink from going yet further, and using the testimony of
S. Ephraim to establish the presence in the Diatessaron of the saying
about the Face of the Sky and the episode of the Bloody Sweat, neither
of which belong to the true text of the Old Syriac version of the Four
Gospels, though found in the Peshitta. The latter of these passages is
FROM THE GOSPEL. 57
quoted in the Commentary on the Diatessaron and has found its way
into the Curetonian MS, but the former one does not happen to be
mentioned in the Commentary and it is omitted in the Curetonian MS
as well as in the Sinai Palimpsest. Thus it is only by the chance
quotation of S. Ephraim that it is attested for any ancient Syriac text.
At the same time in each of these two important passages the text as
quoted by S. Ephraim has marked divergences from the Peshitta, so
that the presence of these quotations in S. Ephraim cannot be used
to prove his use of that version.
Rabbula' s revision of the Syriac N.T.
The quotations of S. Ephraim from the Gospel, therefore, afford no
proof of the use of the Peshitta, the Syriac Vulgate. As far as
S. Ephraim is concerned, that familiar text, found with so little
variation in so many ancient codices, may not yet have been in
existence. We are free to bring down the date of its appearance to a
later period, to the 5th century. It only remains to point out a
passage in Syriac literature which now may be plausibly conjectured
to tell the story of its first publication. If I am right, the great event
took place soon after 41 IAD under the auspices of Rabbula, who had
been in that year appointed bishop of Edessa.
Rabbula' s first care, after making some necessary regulations for
the better ordering of Divine Service, was for a more accurate version
of the New Testament. "He translated," says his biographer, "by
the wisdom of God that was in him the New Testament from Greek
into Syriac, because of its variations, exactly as it was" (Overbeck
172, quoted also in Wright's Syriac Literature, p. 11). It is only the
belief, the erroneous belief, that the Peshitta N.T. was proved to be
older than Rabbula through the attestation given to it by S. Ephraim,
which has hitherto prevented scholars from recognising in these words
a description of the making and publication of the Syriac Vulgate.
'La version de Rabboula ne peut etre...la Peschitto que saint Ephrem
connaissait deja" says, for instance, M. Rubens Duval in his admirable
Litterature Syriaque, p. 48, but when S. Ephraim's acquaintance with
the Peshitta is denied the argument falls to the ground. And the
58 s. EPHRAIM'S QUOTATIONS
identification of the Peshitta N.T. with Rabbula's revision satisfies
yet another condition of the problem. We are often told that if the
Peshitta be the result of a revision it must have left a trace in history:
here, then, is the actual record of the revision, just in the historical
setting that suits it best.
The authority of Rabbula secured an instant success for the new
revised version. The whole tendency of the age was towards closer
union with Greek thought and Greek theology, and the Diatessaron
from that moment was doomed. It was during Rabbula's episcopate
and through his efforts that the remnant of the Bardesanians joined
the Catholic Church (Overbeck 192), whereby the only body which
might have clung to the unrevised Syriac texts of the Gospels was
wiped out. Copies of the Peshitta were rapidly multiplied ; it soon
became the only text in ecclesiastical use, and it is quoted by all
succeeding ecclesiastical writers. The only rival it had in later times
to face was the Monophysite revision by Thomas of Harkel, a still
more literal rendering of the Greek text.
FROM THE GOSPEL. 59
APPENDIX I.
S. Ephraim s Quotations from the Prologue to the Fourth Gospel.
The questions raised by S. Ephraim's quotations from the opening
verses of the Gospel according to S. John group themselves naturally
under three heads. These are : (1) What evidence is there that he
knew the Fourth Gospel as a separate work, apart from the Diatessaron?
(2) Is there any reason to suppose that he used two independent texts
of Joh i3? (3) What was the exact meaning of his text of the
opening words ?
(1) With regard to the first head the evidence is as follows.
Philoxenus of Mabbog collected at the end of his treatise on the Trinity
a number of passages from earlier writers in support of his own views.
This collection is extant in B.M. Add. 12164, itself a MS of the 6th
century, and includes some passages from the lost homily of S. Ephraim
on Joh i 1. These have been edited in Lamy ii 513f. : it would have
been an advantage if all the Ephraim extracts had been printed, so
that we might have some idea of the standard of correctness aimed at
by Philoxenus. I give the extract in full, as it is also interesting with
regard to the question of Ephraim's text of Joh i 3.
Lamy ii 513 f. (corrected from B.M. Add. 12164)
. oViX-Tea
60
.roncori=3
s. EPHRAIM'S QUOTATIONS
Voen
OO3
.i<^o<7) ^-
. C7incvirx=a Acoon
f7K3ocan=3 < n
-n oaA
"Again, from the same [S. Ephraim], out of the Discourse upon
1 In the beginning was the Word.' Now what is ' The same that was
in the beginning/ but ' The same that, lo, to-day by means of His
advent hath been known, Who hath been declared to be God ' ?
"From the same. For John started to write that which our
Lord suffered in His own person. Now he began with the story
of the Son from where (it says) 'Through Him was created every-
thing/ that he might tell in one sentence concerning those things
that were through Him and concerning those things that were in His
own person ; so that because of the great things that were through
Him we might know to what lowliness He had descended, to whose
person the shameful deeds were done.
"By John therefore saying 'In the beginning/ he hath in fact
called Moses to witness, that Moses might give witness concerning
those things that were through the Son, that he might induce us
accurately to investigate those things that were done to His person.
Of old, therefore, through Him were all good things made for the
universe, and at the last were all evil things made by mankind : John
therefore left that which through Him had been created and began to
Cod. 12164 (sic).
FROM THE PROLOGUE TO THE FOURTH GOSPEL. 61
tell concerning that which He suffered in His own person. For when
the witness began that through Him were wonderful things created, he
started to tell that to His person the shameful deeds were done."
Similar testimony is borne by one of S. Ephraim's Hymns De Fide
(Ed. Eom. vi 62) :
The one ' In the beginning ' is like the other ' In the beginning! and
like unto Moses is John also, in that at the beginning of their writings
they confuted the writers that cavilled wickedly.
It is difficult to resist the conclusion that S. Ephraim was aware
that the passage which stood at the head of the Diatessaron was the
beginning of S. John's Gospel. But these two references stand alone :
I do not think that any other allusion to the individual Evangelists is
to be found in his genuine works.
(2) The text of Joh i 3, as quoted in the above extract, presents
some difficulty. The natural inference would be that the clause
corresponding to trdvra. 8C avrov eyeVeTo was in Syriac
Through Him was created every thing.
But this is the reading neither of the Peshitta, nor of the Evangelion
da-Mepharreshe, nor of Ephraim himself elsewhere. The Peshitta has
r^oon cn.Tr<L=> A^
All through Him was.
The Evangelion da-Mepharreshe, on the other hand, as represented
by C (the leaf of S which contained the first twenty-four verses of
S. John being unfortunately lost), has
K'Gcn cnra
Everything in Him was,
62 s. EPHRAIM'S QUOTATIONS
and this rendering is supported by S. Ephraim's quotation of the
passage in his Commentary on Genesis (Ed. Rom. iv 18 E). 1
Of course it would be convenient if we could assume that
S. Ephraim's quotation in the Commentary on Genesis was taken from
the Evangelion da-Mepharreshe, and that his quotation in the Homily
on John i 1 cited by Philoxenus was taken from the Diatessaron. Or
again, it is possible that Through Him was created everything is the
true text of the Evangelion da-Mepharreshe ; and that the reading of
C, like so many others in that MS, is a corruption from the Diatessaron:
this, at least, would explain the pointed reference to 'John' in the
extract cited by Philoxenus. It may be pointed out in this connexion
that both S and the Peshitta have 'was created' in Mark ii 27, but
the Diatessaron (Moes. 62) has the exact equivalent of cyeWro. There
is, however, at this point a various reading ^KTicrO-rj for cyeWo, which is
not the case in S. John.
But whether S. Ephraim in this instance made use of two texts of
Joh i 3 at different times, or whether the variations in the Philoxenus
extract are only due to a confused recollection of Col i 16, it is at least
noteworthy that none of S. Ephraim's quotations of this theologically
important phrase agrees with the text of the Peshitta.
(3) There is very little doubt about the Syriac text of the first
two verses of the Gospel according to S. John, which were also the first
two verses of the Diatessaron. Both in the Peshitta and in C we read
OO3Q . T^aA^rj ^o<73 -.OJO^U-K^ CUT/to
-. <73 a
and this text is supported by quotations in Aphraates and S. Ephraim.
The difficulty lies in the circumstance that the verbs are masculine,
while ^An ' word ' is feminine in Syriac ; so that the Syriac for
' In the beginning was the Word and that word was with God ' should
be ortcva c\oo3 m*ov^ i^aA^ ^roo .T^aA^n cioro TO-CU-^ qruTAra
It is commonly said that ^^Arn (mellethd) when it means
1 See above, p. 48.
FROM THE PROLOGUE TO THE FOURTH GOSPEL. 63
' God, the Word,' is treated as masculine, and this is true of later
Syriac usage, beginning with the Peshitta itself. Thus in Joh i 14, for
i 6 Ao'yos (rap eyej/ero KOL eovofj/oxrev ev ^/xtv, the Peshitta has
rc'ocn K'lQaa K'^xlma
And the Word became flesh and sojourned, with us.
But the corresponding words in C are
And the Word became a body and it sojourned with us,
and, as has been already pointed out on pp. 49, 50, this rendering is
supported by Aphraates and by S. Ephraim (Lamy ii 743). If the
Word be grammatically feminine in verse 14, it is not likely to have
been treated as masculine in verse 1. Thus in the Old Syriac of
Joh i 1 ^oAin is feminine and so cannot be the subject of the
masculine verb. We must therefore translate
In the beginning lie was the Word; and He, the Word, was with
God, and He, the Word, was God. The same was in the beginning
with God.
With this translation the reason of the insertion of o<p becomes
clear. It is not a mere equivalent of the Greek article, but the actual
nominative of the verbs, and ^cvlm is in apposition to it. Instead of
being the subject of the Prologue, the fact that the Subject of the
Prologue was the Word is the first statement made.
How far this is a legitimate treatment of the Greek is not for me to
say, but the translation given above is the only one which is consistent
with the treatment of ' The Word ' as a feminine in Joh i 14, so that
I believe it to be the true meaning of the Syriac. It also appears to
me to be implied in the extracts given below from the same lost
Homily of S. Ephraim on Joh i 1, which I reproduce from Lamy ii 511,
as much from their intrinsic importance as for illustrations of the
immediate point at issue. They are both preserved in a Catena of
passages collected to prove that the ancient Fathers of the Church
did not agree with Julian of Halicarnassus in thinking that our Lord's
human Body was in its nature incorruptible.
64
s. EPHRAIM'S QUOTATIONS
Lamy ii 511 (corrected from B.M. Add. 14529)
. V- > A ^d\u_3 nSkO . ^ ~n
cirA
oo
roraou n ^
tfvlin f^Qft) i^-n OO3 .
?t ^ \n
(71^ OUiS
^jncvjnrao .
- vw
CTDV-VJ
coouA^o <73o\ccn < n
"When therefore they [i.e. Israel] came up from Egypt and when
they were just going down to Babylon, at the beginning and at the
end, on two occasions in their presence was destroyed the indestructible
Word, which for love of them had clothed itself with clothing that
could be destroyed, namely the Tables of Stone that were broken, and
the Roll that was cut in pieces. But the third time, instead of these
Words which, though they were God's, yet were only utterances of
prophecy, there came down, being in truth the Word of God, He that
was not a word of man nor a song of prophecy nor a voice of apostle-
ship, but the Word which by our words cannot be interpreted, and by
our mouth cannot be spoken and by our tongue cannot be explained,
neither in our song contained nor with our lyre sung nor by our harp
played nor with our letters spelt nor in our book written down this
FROM THE PROLOGUE TO THE FOURTH GOSPEL.
65
very Word in its love condescended and clothed itself with a body of
human nature that it might give life to human nature. And it came
in the days of John as in the days of Jeremiah ; and when Herod like
Zedekiah saw it, and the scribes also like the king's nobles, they went
mad and rebelled against it as if in wrath, and with the iron nails
of the Cross they destroyed its outer clothing, like Zedekiah and his
companions, who with an iron blade destroyed all the roll wherein
as if embodied was dwelling the word of prophecy, which is the likeness
and shadow of the only and true Word, the Word of God."
\ >
And after some other things (he goes on to say} :
"Now from the beginning those creatures which had not existed
were created through the Son. But at the last He clothed Himself
with a Body that could be destroyed, that with the destruction of His
Body the creatures that were destroyed might be renewed. It was
right therefore that with a Word incapable of suffering the creatures
without suffering should be created, and with a Body capable of
destruction the creatures that were destroyed should be renewed.
For these creatures without toil were being created from the beginning
through the Son : therefore in the beginning He was the Word, a thing
without toil, that by the meaning of His name thou mayest learn His
true nature ; but at the last with a Body which is destroyed He
restored the creatures that were destroyed, that by the destruction of
His true Body thou mayest learn the true destruction of the creatures."
B. G. Q.
66 s. EPHRAIM'S QUOTATIONS.
APPENDIX II.
On some of the less well attested works of S. Ephraim.
For the purposes of this Essay it was needful not only to exclude
from our consideration writings wrongly attributed to S. Ephraim, but
also to base our conclusions upon those only of his writings in which
the text was well preserved. To avoid any appearance of partiality in
the selection I confined the list given on pp. 24, 25 of this book to those
works of which we still possess at least one MS which goes back to the
time before the great Mohammedan conquests in the 7th century.
This arbitrary rule is, I believe, an infallible method for excluding
spurious pieces, but it is certain to have excluded some genuine works
also. I propose therefore in this Appendix to shew that some of the
works ascribed to S. Ephraim which are now found only in later MSS
contain Gospel quotations of a type similar to those in the better
preserved works Where this is the case we can be sure that the works
in question are the genuine writings of S. Ephraim, while at the same
time we glean a few more details about the Biblical text used by him.
The Testament of Ephraim.
This is perhaps the best known of all S. Ephraim's writings. It is
the Saint's Last Will and Testament, of course not a legal document,
but a metrical homily written in 7- syllable lines. Assemani, Wright,
and now lately Dr Gwynn, all agree in accepting it as in the main
genuine, though certainly interpolated. It is extant in several MSS,
SOME LESS WELL ATTESTED WORKS. 67
the oldest being B.M. Add. 14624, of the 7th or 8th cent. A shorter
recension is preserved in B.M. Add. 14582 (dated AD 816), but this is
said to be only an abridgement of the longer recension.
The Testament was edited from Cod. Vat. Syr. cxvii (12th cent.)
by J. S. Assemani in vol. ii of the Roman Edition, as an appendix to
the Greek translation of S. Ephraim : a better text is given in Over-
beck 137156.
The only Gospel allusion in the Testament of any textual interest
is Overbeck 149 24 (Rom. ii 405 E) - Matt v 18
. iai2L&i r^ll K'^cv^K' .iCLct . ^iai^. r^-iKta i*^ Klsox.
For Jieaven and earth pass away, and not a Jod-letter will pass
away.
The general turn of the sentence is taken from Matt xxiv 35, but
' one J6d-letter ' is the peculiar rendering of MOTO. eV 17 /u'a Kcpaia found
in Aphraates and in S at Matt v 18, while C has the double rendering
'one Jod-letter or one horn.' But the Peshitta has ^ o^ ^nv> -ncu
*-\noo ' one Jod or one line/ an independent rendering which
follows the wording of the Greek.
It is right to add that this passage of the Testament is absent
from B.M. 14582.
The Hymns on the Epiphany.
These Hymns have been edited in the first volume of Lamy's
Ephraim from MSS in the British Museum, the oldest of which
(Add. 14506, foil 166 if.) is of the 91h or 10th century. The only
allusion which throws light on the text is
Lamy i 127 = Matt iii 16
031030.1 jAlKfe . jAoo
The Holy one was baptised and immediately came up, and His
light flamed upon the world.
Neither the Peshitta nor the Evangelion da-Mepharreshe have any
allusion to the Light at our Lord's Baptism, but it clearly had a place
52
68 s. EPHRAIM'S QUOTATIONS.
in the Diatessaron. Not only does Ephraim himself speak of ' the
shining of the light which was on the waters' (Moes. 43), but the
Syriac text of the Diatessaron itself was quoted by the common source
of Isho'dad and Barsalibi for the sake of the addition. Barsalibi is
still unedited, but the quotation from Isho'dad is given by Dr Harris
in his Fragments of the Commentary of Ephrem Syrus upon the
Diatessaron.
The passage from Barsalibi's Commentary on the Gospels runs as
follows (B.M. Add. 7184,/0J. 37)
.10000:1 vyr^
K'lcnOJ .
poao
And immediately, as the Gospel of the Diatessaron (i.e. t/ie Mixed)
testifies, a mighty light flashed upon the Jordan and the river was
girdled with white clouds, and there appeared his many hosts that were
uttering praise in the air; and Jordan stood still from its flowing,
though its waters were not troubled, and a pleasant odour therefrom was
wafted.
Isho'dad gives this curious passage in almost the same words : it
may be conjectured to have been taken from some early Hymn, perhaps
one of S. Ephraim's own. Dr Harris remarks (p. 44): "It is not
necessary to suppose that the whole of the extract is from Tatian.
Probably the quotation is contained in the first clause, or, at most, in
the words
I have added ^uu*- from Barsalibi, though it is omitted by Isho'dad
and Dr Harris, as T^\*\^ Y^SOSCO corresponds to the Old Latin readings
SOME LESS WELL ATTESTED WORKS. 69
in Matt iii 16, where we find ' lumen ingens' in a and 'lumen magnum'
in g. It may be remarked that g (Cod. Sangermanensis), where it
differs from the majority of Latin MSS, in several instances presents us
with readings attested for the Diatessaron.
The Hymns de Virginitate.
Of the numerous Hymns printed by Lamy at the end of his second
volume very few contain allusions of textual interest. Those which
are taken from such ancient MSS as B.M. Add. 14571 have been already
given in this book. But many of the Hymns are only preserved in
B.M. Add. 14506, a miscellaneous collection of leaves dating from the
9th to the llth century : the passage quoted below is taken from the
llth century portion of the MS.
Lamy ii 815 = Matt iv 5, Lk iv 9
vvV
Now who had looked and saw thee, our Lord, on the head of the
corner when thou wert standing ?
The 'pinnacle' of the Temple is rendered by ^"in 'corner'
(lit. ' horn ') in C (Matt) and S (Lk). But the Peshitta has
' wing ' in both Gospels, followed by $ in S. Matthew.
The Sermones Rogationum.
These Hymns (^\<\^=a^) are mostly of the nature of Prayers for
Rain. They are preserved in a late transcript made for Archbishop
Ussher, now at Trinity College, Dublin (cod. B 5. 18), and have been
edited by Lamy from this MS and from Bedjan's Chaldee Breviary.
Some Hymns of this series are found in B.M. Add. 17164, foil. 1 1$,
of the 6th or 7th century, but the only Gospel allusions of textual
interest occur in Hymns not covered by the extant fragments of this
MS.
70 s. EPHRAIM'S QUOTATIONS.
Lamy iii 53 = Matt vi 11, Lk xi 3
.^TijjL-i . rcicvw.l GQSQ.AJI\ fiSflr^.l vy'
\
As the Serpent's bread is constant, constant bread give us, my Lord I
This is an evident allusion to the 'daily bread' of the Lord's
Prayer. * Constant bread ' (+i*zn+ t^ruA) is the rendering of apro?
eTuovo-ios found in all Old Syriac authorities wherever they are extant,
including the Acts of Thomas (Wright's text, p. 313) ; it even survives
in the Homily upon the Lord's Prayer by Jacob of Serug [B.M. Add.
17157,/0/. 38]. But the Peshitta has both in S. Matthew and S. Luke
' the bread of our need ' (ymi coo*
Lamy iii 63 = Lk xviii 13
oco
That sinner (it says) did not dare to be looking to heaven.
This appears to be taken from the Diatessaron : see above, p. 46.
The "Letter to Publius
B.M. Add. 7190, a 12th century collection of miscellanies, contains
on foil. 188 193 some extracts from the Letter of S. Ephraim to a
person named Publius or Popilius. 1 Nothing is known of this
individual, and the Letter does not seem to be quoted elsewhere, but
the extracts are remarkable for being in prose, whereas most of what
was ascribed to S. Ephraim in later times is in the familiar 7-syllable
metre. The piece therefore comes before us with a certain shew of
genuineness, and it is surprising that no one has ever thought it worth
while to edit it. As far as I made out from a very hasty perusal,
the extracts mainly consist of a kind of Vision of Judgement.
1 Title .
SOME LESS WELL ATTESTED WORKS. 71
There are two quotations of textual interest from the Gospel.
(1) B.M. Add. 7190,/oJ. 189r = Lk xvi 25
o . vy^olio vyjltxa K
, on o.i
vin.iir.3 vvl.
r) A.^79 . > CD CV J cr> 1 OA O
Kilo :,cncu 1.1^.^.1 vvisa Ktaco
.1 vvisa Ktaco rtl^.a.1 vyK . vvi.T^J.i
JL
. OX
* My son, remember that thou receivedst good things in thy life and
thy folly, and Lazar received his evil things and his afflictions before-
hand ; and now he cannot come and help thee in thy torments, because
thou didst not help him in tenements and his infirmities. Therefore thou
dost beseech of him to help thee, as he had besought of thee to help him,
and thou wouldst not.'
This is a free paraphrase, but one point is perfectly clear : in the
last clause TrapaKaXclraL is not rendered as in our Bibles "he is
comforted" (or "resteth"), but "he is besought." The former
rendering is that of the Peshitta and of $, while the latter is found in
Aphraates and we may well believe it to be the rendering characteristic
of the Diatessaron. 2 The actual words of Aphraates (Wright, p. 383)
are
. iA''i>
g\ !*>*,--> n *^imcu .ODCTVTV >
1 My son, recollect tJiat thou receivedst thy good things in thy life,
and Lazar received his evil things : but to-day thou dost beseech of him,
and he doth not help thee.'
The only other passage I know where this view of TrapaKaXfirai is
taken is Cyprian Test in 61, in which according to the better MSS we
1 Cod. ^
The leaf of C which contained this passage is missing. It is also probable
that Aphraates and Ephraim read 6'5e Trapa/caXeircu with the Latins and the ' Textus
Receptus,' while S and the Peshitta (with the great majority of Greek MSS) support
72 S. EPHR AIM'S QUOTATIONS.
read : Commemorare quoniam percepisti bona in uita tua, Eleazar
autem mala : nunc hie ROGATUR, tu autem doles. The rest of the Latin
texts have consolatur.
It is also worth remark that the word used in the letter to PubKus
for the x^/Aa of Lk xvi 26 is ^^vu^ as in Aphraates 383, but in
Pesh. and S we find the synonym ^i\oo3. Curiously enough, the
Harclean has ^Ws^ and a similar word is used in the Palestinian
Lectionary.
(2) B.M. Add. 7190, fol. 190 v = Lk xii 1620
orA ^A^.rc'.i oorA crA .x..
'. onr9il\ i^fcK'n A^.i . K^relQb K'WilisL
K'cn.i
K'co .......
rt'.icn
vyl^3
thou not see what befel to him whose land brought in to him
much produce ? Because he said to his soul : ' My soul, eat and drink
and rest and be merry, because lo, much produce is stored up for thee
for many years' ' Lo, in this night thy dear soul from thee they
require it: that which thou hast made ready, whose will it be?'
This Parable is quoted in Aphraates 381 in very close agreement
with the extract from the Letter to Publius. In common with
Aphraates and C against S and Pesh. it has 'he said to his soul'
instead of ' I will say to my soul.' In common with Aphraates
and Pesh. against S and C it prefixes the vocative ' Soul ' to the rich
man's meditation, and it has AC^^ 'eat' instead of the synonym
But it also has in common with Aphraates against S C
and Pesh. ranw * stored up ' instead of ^arxioo ' laid up,' and it has
^onii ..... -p-x=n *ioa in the last clause instead of ^OCTJI ...... t^ 03 *
i.e. singular instead of plural. It is difficult to see what cause can be
assigned for this marked agreement between the 'Letter to Publius'
and Aphraates against other Syriac texts, except a common use of the
Diatessaron.
THE LETTERS TO HVPATIUS. 73
The Letters to Hypatius.
8. Ephraim's Letters to Hypatius upon various heresies must have
been when complete one of the longest and most important of his prose
works. The first book is preserved in B.M. Add. 14570, and fragments
of the first and second books in B.M. Add. 14574. These MSS are of
the 5th or 6th century, and from them the text has been edited in
Overbeck 21 73. The Gospel quotations have been examined in the
body of this work, pp. 29 and 46 ; they include a very characteristic
agreement with C against almost all other authorities in an allusion to
Lk xviii 13.
Cod. 14574 is only a fragment of nineteen leaves, but a large
portion of the rest of this valuable MS still exists as a palimpsest in
B.M. Add. 14623. Dr Overbeck made no attempt to edit this portion
of the text, which is quite illegible in many places. I have been,
however, fortunate enough to make out one important passage which
throws new light upon the size and arrangement of the work.
The title of the Discourses in cod. 14574, fol. Iv is
Epistles of S. Ephraim to Hypatius arranged according to the letters
(of the alphabet) against False Doctrines.
On this Wright observes (CBM 408) : " The words
a\*< would appear to imply that there were 22 of these discourses,
each commencing with a letter of the alphabet, in the usual order, like
those of Aphraates ; but this seems unlikely, as the second discourse
begins with the letter -2^ (o^^^ac-cn^). 1 Besides, there is no mention
of alphabetical arrangement in Add. 14570."
Dr Wright's suspicions were well grounded ; the true arrangement
of the work may be gathered from the beginning of the Fourth
Discourse, which is to be found in cod. 14623, fol. 27r, centre column.
1 See Overbeck 59.
74
s. EPHRAIM'S QUOTATIONS.
We there read
00000000000000
* ^Tcn^m
^.0* _.
Here endeth the Third Discourse.
The Fourth Discourse against False Doctrines.
JL Ye know ......
Thus we reconstruct the contents as follows :
The First Discourse begins . . . onA
The Second begins -
The beginning of the Third is lost
The Fourth begins
When the facts are thus tabulated, it does not require a great
stretch of imagination to conjecture that the Letters to Hypatius were
not 22 in number but 5, and that they were arranged in the order of
the five letters of the author's name "71* T^.
A similar method of signature is actually used by S. Ephraim in
the Hymn added at the end of the Hymns on Paradise (Overbeck 35 Iff.),
the several stanzas of which begin with the letters ~~p * ^ 2* *.
It is a pity that the palimpsest fragments of S. Ephraim in B.M.
Add. 14623 are still unedited. The writing is perfectly legible in some
places, though no doubt there are passages which were only too
successfully deleted early in the 9th century by the individual whom
Wright calls "the miserable monk Aaron' 3 (CBM 766). As far as I
can make out, the Letters to Hypatius are mainly directed against the
teaching of Bardaisan and his School, while the Letters to Domnus,
fragments of which also survive in B.M. Add. 14623, are directed
against Marcion.
REJECTED WRITINGS. 75
APPENDIX III.
On some writings commonly ascribed to S. Ephraim which have been
rejected in this Essay.
In the previous Appendix some writings have been discussed which
seem to be genuine works of S. Ephraim, but do not happen to be
sufficiently well attested in extant MSS to be included in the body of
this Essay. In the present section I propose to examine a few of the
more noteworthy of those writings in which the sum of the evidence,
internal or external, is not merely insufficient to establish Ephraimitic
authorship but actually adverse to it.
The Tractates in BM. Add. 17189.
These Tractates are all printed by Overbeck (pp. 74 104), and
consist of prose expositions of various passages of Scripture. Together
with these expositions, or Turgdme, is a Homily on Fasting, which has
been printed by Lamy (vol. iii 707 717) as well as by Overbeck.
B.M. Add. 17189, the manuscript in which these writings are preserved,
is of the 5th or 6th century and (so far as I can find out) no trace of
them is known to survive elsewhere. I have been led to exclude them
from the list of genuine works of S. Ephraim partly by the weakness of
the external evidence and partly by the unfavourable testimony of the
writings themselves.
In the first place it is improbable that the original scribe of
cod. 17189 ascribed them to S. Ephraim. Dr William Wright says in
his description of the MS (CBM 407) : " The title, fol. \b, has been
effaced, and in its place we now read the following mutilated words,
written by a later hand : *&+ (sic) i*^* -71*^2^ ^Tin^ . . .
coiAi^oA o^ cni\\on A; which seem to imply that the writer
ascribed these homilies, not to Ephraim, but to Basil or John
76 s. EPHRAIM'S QUOTATIONS.
Chrysostom. However, on fol. 9a we can still read the partially
effaced running title "71* TS^ -.iin'n; and again, on foil. 126 and 13,
-71* TS^ -tTcj^ t^jni^om ; besides (sic) TIT^ ^T^m on the margin
of fol. 2a in a later hand."
But a close inspection of the MS has convinced me that the headings
which assign the pieces to S. Ephraim were not inserted by the original
scribe. The headlines onfall. 12v, 13 r run
(fol. 13 r) (fol. 12 v)
The letters on fol. 12 v are undoubtedly contemporary with the rest
of the book. But those on fol. 13 r are larger and stiffer than the
*nX?o^ on the opposite page, and the ornament at the beginning
and end of the inscription is different to that on fol. 12v. Whether
the original band wrote any headlines on the left-hand side cannot
now be ascertained ; possibly the only heading was ^^30^0^, i.e.
'Expositions/ on the right-hand side.
On/o/. 1 v there are two inscriptions prefixed to the first 'exposition'
as a title to the whole volume. The older one, by the same hand that
wrote 'Of S. Ephraim' for the headline to fol. 13r, has been almost
entirely washed out and it is not given by Wright. But it is still
possible to decipher the words
r ^1 r -i
< V2a:i '
A Tome of Discourses of the blessed S. Ephraim.
This inscription was washed out by the later hand that wrote the
note given by Wright and quoted above. This note is unfortunately
not preserved in full owing to the mutilation of the top of the page.
It is a rather ugly Estrangela scrawl, not like the writing of a pro-
fessional scribe.
Thus we learn from a study of the MS that no evidence survives to
shew to whom the writings in B.M. Add. 17189 were assigned by the
original scribe ; we learn also that they were ascribed to S. Ephraim by
a much later hand, but that a still later scholar considered them to be
the work of S. Basil or S. Chrysostom.
When we turn to the Expositions themselves there is really not
very much evidence from their style as to date or authorship. The
writer is convinced that the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil
REJECTED WRITINGS. 77
was a Fig-tree, " than which there is none better for food " (Overbeck
82 21ff ). The Biblical quotations, however, are inconsistent with a
Syriac origin. Most of them indeed are assimilated to the Peshitta,
especially in the Psalms, 1 while on the other hand the references to
S. Paul, which were less familiar, present variations from all known
Syriac texts. 2 But the really decisive case occurs in a discourse on the
Fall, the writer quoting Gen iii 15 with an exposition which makes it
clear that he used not the Peshitta but the Greek Bible. He says
(Overbeck 87 17 ~ 25 ) :
' Wherefore God also thus said unto the serpent, while with the
same words that He was saying He was making known the sentence
upon the Devil : ' He shall observe thy head and thou shalt observe his
heel.'' The significance of His word being: 'This man whom thou
hast led astray, if so be that he direct his gaze toward good things, it
damageth thee much that he hath dominion over thee and is made
strong ; but thou shalt be able to hurt him, if so be that when thou
art observing the courses of his life thou shalt find that he chooseth
evil...'"
It cannot be doubted that the writer of this read Gen iii 15
according to the LXX rendering avro's o-ou T ri p 77 <r c t /cct^aA^i/ KOU a-v
Tr/piytreis avVov Trrepi/av, and not as in the Peshitta, which has both
in the printed editions and in S. Ephraim's Commentary (Ed. Rom.
iv 36 A) He shall trample on thy head and thou shalt strike at his keel. 4
It follows, as a necessary corollary, that these Expositions are not
the work of S. Ephraim, or indeed of any native Syriac writer, but are
translations from the Greek. The doubts of the author of the Note
given by Wright are thus amply justified.
The quotations from the Gospel in the writings contained in
B.M. Add. 17189 are:
1 See especially Ov. 103 20ff , where Pss Ixxviii 34, xxxiv 1, 2, cvi 3, are quoted in
succession. The reference to Ps Ixxviii (Ixxvii) 34 was missed by Lamy (vol. ii 715),
with unfortunate results.
2 E.g. the reference to Gal vi 9 in Overbeck 102 2 .
The Syriac here is oarajn^. n^^ ^u*o . voc.n T^I -^A o<p .
4 In Syriac oam^-t ,O3aAUn^ &U<K^O . vvse-n je-oni ocp
78
s. EPHRAIM'S QUOTATIONS.
1. Matt vi 33 = Overbeck 104
. C0&ttiUDL*:t%Ci rc'crAp*'.!
' For seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and these
all besides are added to you.'
Here ^aAik ^Aro is the order found in C\ but the participle
is the reading of Pesh., C having the future.
2. Matt vii 7 Overbeck 102
% T *g] r^=3.i reli-aK'a . .raQa.l Ar^JL.l
. ca A
Ttn.i
' For every one that asketh receiveth, and he which seeketh findeth,
and he which knocketh it is opened to him!
Here -<i*^o agrees with Pesh., while C has ^no in both places,
the sense being unaltered.
3. Matt x 25 = Overbeck 98
If the Master of the house they have called Beelzebub, how much
rather the sons of his house will they call drunkards ?
The last word is of course a reference to Acts ii 13rT., the passage
which is being explained. The reference to Matt x 25 is, however,
interesting for our purpose, as the occurrence of the specifically Syriac
spelling Beelzebub (for Beelzebul) shews that the Biblical quotations
have been more or less influenced by the current Syriac version.
4. Lk x 19 == Overbeck 95
\
ca LAX*
.1
Be trampling on serpents and scorpions and all the power of the
enemy.
REJECTED WRITINGS. 79
This agrees with the Peshitta, while $ and C have ^oao\ 'ye
shall be,' instead of ^^oouooa.
Besides these four quotations there are allusions of no textual
interest in Overbeck 95 to Mk xvi 17 and Joh xvi 33.
The Homilies ' De Magis' and l De Fine et Admonitione'
The determination of the authorship and date of these two Homilies
is perhaps a more delicate problem than meets us in any other of the
works which have been issued under the name of S. Ephraim. It is
convenient to take them together, as the style and contents of the two
discourses suggest that they are in any case the work of the same
author, the De Fine et Admonitione following the De Magis.
1. External Evidence. The Homily 'De Magis, Incantoribus et
Divinis, et de Fine et Consummatione ' is edited in Lamy ii 393 425.
It is written in 7- syllable metre, the first line being f^^aox*^ *^i*-in ^n.
It is found in four MSS, viz :
B.M. Add. 14615 (saec. x, xi) [Wright, p. 840]
B.M. Add. 14650 (AD 875) [Wright, p. 1105]
B.M. Add. 7190 (saec. xii) [Wright, p. 1206]
Oxon. Marsh 711 (saec. xvii)
Two errors made by Dr Lamy in describing these MSS may be con-
veniently pointed out here. In ii 312, par. 4, cod. 14650 is stated to
be of the 6th or 7th century. This is only true of foil. 1 8 and 30-
68. The rest of the MS, including the leaves on which the Homily
De Magis is written, was written at Dulichium, N.E. of Antioch, in
the year 875 AD (Wright, CBM 1103). Again, Dr Lamy's statement in
ii 393 that the Homily is found in a Vatican MS and ascribed to Isaac
of Antioch refers not to our Homily, but to the Homily on Isaiah xl 6,
printed by Lamy on col. 313 ff. 1
The Homily 'De Fine et Admonitione' is edited in Lamy iii 133-
185. It also is written in 7-syllable metre, the first line being
003 vvA +=*^. It is found in three MSS, viz :
B.M. Add. 14590 (saec. viii, ix) [Wright, p. 752]
Oxon. Marsh 711 (saec. xvii)
B.N. Paris. 13
Of these, Paris. 13 is merely a fragment.
1 This Homily on Isaiah is certainly by S. Isaac : see Wright, CBM 675, 734.
80 s. EPHRAIM'S QUOTATIONS.
Thus there is no extant evidence for either Homily earlier than the
end of the 8th century. The MSS in which they are found are with
one exception of miscellaneous contents, not regular collections of
S. Ephrainvs writings. One of them, cod. 7190, was partly copied
from the Nitrian MS of the so-called " Zacharias Rhetor," as is pointed
out by Wright, CBM 1047, 1206 ; so that there is considerable
probability that its text of the De Magis was copied from cod. 14650,
together with " the history of Paul the priest and his disputation with
Satan " and some other biographical notices.
The critical value of the 17th century Oxford MS, the only one in
which both Homilies are given, is somewhat lessened by the fact that
it includes a tract " of S. Ephraim " against the Nestorians. On this
Dr Overbeck quaintly observed (p. xxii) : " Nescio an codex noster
minoris sit fidei, quum fol. 65 Ephraemi Liber ad versus Nestorianos,
Ephraemo plus quinquaginta annis posteriores, proponatur." 1
It may also be remarked that cod. 14590, the only MS of respectable
age that contains the De Fine et Admonitione, seems to have been
copied from a MS in which this Homily was not counted among the rest
of S. Ephraim's Homilies. In its present state the only Ephraimitic
work preserved in cod. 14590 is the end of the De Fine et Admonitione
itself. But a rubric of contents, quoted by Wright, CBM 753, says :
" In this tome are (the following) Homilies : 1st, On the End ; on Matt
xxiv 20 ; On Ananias and Sapphira ; On the Rich Man and Lazarus ; On
Repentance ; On the Kingdom of Gehenna, by Mar Ephraim ;
On the End and Admonition, and shewing how the righteous and the
sinners are rewarded on the Day of Resurrection, and how the righteous
inherit the Kingdom of Heaven and the wicked (inherit) the Fire and the
weeping and gnashing of teeth, by Mar Ephraim ; [This is our De Fine]
On Job ; on the Blasphemer ; on the Labourers ; on the City of Antioch ;
etc."
The last set of Homilies are by Jacob of Serug. I have abbreviated
the titles of the other Homilies, but they are none of them so long as
that to the De Fine, which though ascribed to S. Ephraim is clearly
added on at the end of the list of his Homilies in a separate category.
1 The meagre selection of variants given by Lamy gives no idea of the extent to
which Marsh 711 differs from the printed text. Thus for instance it entirely omits
7 of the De Magis (Lamy ii 415), inserting in its place a commemoration of the
Twelve Minor Prophets and of the Four Evangelists !
EEJECTED WRITINGS. 81
2. Internal Evidence. A careful study of the two Homilies has
left me with the impression that they were composed at Antioch after
the time of S. Chrysostom, i.e. not earlier than the 5th century. The
most striking point common to both Homilies is the curse pronounced
upon those who 'eat with the Jews.'
' He that eateth with the magicians shall not eat the body of our
Lord, and he that drinketh with the enchanters shall not drink the
blood of the Messiah, and he that eateth with the Jews shall not
inherit life eternal " (De Magis, Lamy ii 399).
'Every one that hath eaten and drunken and mingled with the
Jews entereth thither into the accusation that he hath become the
comrade of the crucifiers" (De Magis, Lamy ii 411).
"I have pondered what is the judgement of him that eateth the
sacrifice of a pagan, and into what accusation he entereth who eateth
with the Jews" (De Fine, Lamy iii 137).
; ' Great woe in that day to him that hath eaten with the Jews, and
hath adorned himself with the garb of the Gentiles, for with them he
doth inherit torment ! " (De Fine, Lamy iii 165).
The Homilist does not seem to think it worth while to explain more
fully the nature of this curious offence : evidently therefore ' to eat
with the Jews ' must have been a well understood phrase. It does not
occur in any of the undoubtedly genuine works of S. Ephraim, nor does
he anywhere exhibit special animosity against the Jews. But the sin
of frequenting Jewish synagogues and of keeping fast and festival with
the Jews is the main theme of S. Chrysostom's eight discourses
Adversus Judaeos, delivered at Antioch AD 386. "Many," he says in
the first discourse, "of those enrolled in our ranks and professing to
share our beliefs betake themselves to the Synagogues ; some, no doubt,
merely go to look on at the festival, but others actually feast with the
Jews and join in their fasts. This evil custom I intend now to banish
from the Church" (Migne xlviii 844). 1 "I fear," he says again, " lest
some out of ignorance partake of their transgression" (Ibid. 845).
" Dost thou fast with the Jews ? Take thy shoes off also with them,
and imitate their unseemly gestures " (Ibid. 849). There can be little
1 The last clause runs in the original KOL TOVTO r6 irovtipbv 0os j3oti\ofj.ai rrjs
'EKK\r)<rias dTrt\a<rai vvv. The whole tone of the passage gives the impression of a
reformer attacking an abuse for the first time.
B. G. Q. 6
82 s. EPHRAIM'S QUOTATIONS.
doubt that 'to eat with the Jews' means to the author of the De
Magis and the De Fine the offence of these Antiochene Christians,
who kept the Jewish ecclesiastical year.
It may be added that in these same discourses Adversus Judaeos
S. Chrysostom refers to the Parables of the Ten Virgins and of the Man
that had not on a Wedding Garment as in the De Fine (Ibid. 868),
and goes on to attack the custom of wearing charms and amulets-
eVwScu and TrcptWra as in the De Magis (Ibid. 938). Some at least
of these discourses of S. Chrysostom were translated into Syriac
(Wright, CBM 763, 764), but even apart from formal translations the
sermons of the golden-mouthed orator may very well have provided the
Christian congregations of Antioch with Anti-semi te watchwords.
A further parallel to S. Chrysostom is afforded by the twice-
repeated woe pronounced in the De Fine against those who go out of
church on Sunday before the end of the Communion Service. " Great
woe in that day to him that on the first day of the week leaveth Christ
sacrificed and sitteth in the market-place ! " (Lamy iii 155). And
again : " Great woe in that day to him that sitteth in the market-place
at the moment when the priest calleth the Holy Spirit to come down
upon him ! " (Ibid. 159). A homily of S. Chrysostom's upon this very
topic survives in a Syriac translation (Wright, CBM 695, 888). The
same subject is treated of by Jacob of Serug and by Isaac of Antioch,
but it finds, so far as I know, no echo in S. Ephraim.
The attack made by the author of the De Magis on the practice of
wearing amulets containing magical writings as a protection against
disease affords a parallel with the homilies of Isaac of Antioch even
closer and more remarkable than any of those with S. Chrysostom.
These amulets seem to have been much used by the Antiochenes and
S. Chrysostom had gone so far as to say that the man who fell a victim
to disease through refusing to carry such things about him ought to be
counted as a Christian martyr. 1 A particularly offensive feature of the
amulets was that the names of demons were often inscribed upon them
in juxtaposition with the names of angels, with words of Scripture or
the most sacred titles of God. "The wizards and enchanters lead
e5*ye w avdpuire, 6 XptoToO SoDXoj, 6 irtffrbs &vnp, 6 d^X/T7js TTJJ ever e ft etas, 6
aipotifj.vos tvairodaveiv fj.a\\oi> 77 irpodovvai rrjv ^yx. L P t -
a T&V naprtpuv ffTr)ay /car' lKlvt)v TTJV ij^pav (Migne xlviii 938).
REJECTED WRITINGS.
83
astray this foolish people, mixing blasphemy with the very words of
the Holy Spirit. After impiously writing the Name of Father, Son,
and Spirit, they attach thereto the names of demons and defile the
holiness of the Names" (Isaac xxxiv 531 534). l "They enter and
say in the midst of the Church Deliver us, Lord, from the Evil One :
why, the Evil One is hanging round their neck, and yet they pray for
deliverance ! ' (De Magis, p. 395).
The above quotations, though similar in tone, do not imply literary
connexion : it is otherwise with the next pair, which I give in parallel
columns to shew the resemblance.
' De Magis ' Isaac of Antioch
(Bickell xxxiv 479490)
Two angels did the great vision
of Daniel name for us, Michael
and Gabriel, names of fire and of
spirit: but at the present time,
when prophets vexed by demons
abound, a myriad names are
bandied about between old wives
and spinning girls. Wizards and
enchanters have written the name
of devils like angels, and like
precious necklaces they are carried
on the neck of women.
It would be a delicate task to determine which of these passages
is the original and which the copy ; indeed, I have a strong suspicion
that they are the work of the same author. But this at least is clear :
the author of the De Magis went beyond the regular Syriac canon of
the New Testament. Michael is mentioned in Jude 9 and Apoc xii 7,
but neither of these books is included in the Peshitta. The only
reference to the Apocalypse in S. Ephraim's works occurs in a Homily
1 Bickell's Edition, vol. ii, p. 188.
2 Rufael (Ai^2^co) and Rafufael (.\*t^2kCi2^) are probably to be identified
with the angels Raphael and Rahabiel, whose work, according to a Jewish magical
work published by Dr M. Gaster in the Proceedings of the Society of Biblical
Archaeology for Dec. 1900, is "to cure all manner of disease, to preserve man from
all wicked Shiddim and from all evil spirits which cause illness to man."
The names of two angels are in
the Old Testament and the New,
Gabriel and Michael, ministers of
fire and spirit, and the great vision
of Daniel by these two was ex-
plained. But filthy and abomin-
able priests fly for refuge to the
names of demons, Rufael and Ra-
fufael, ministers of Satan 2 . . .
84 s. EPHRAIM'S QUOTATIONS.
ascribed to him upon ludicrously insufficient evidence. 1 On the other
hand a Syriac writer living like S. Isaac at Antioch, in the midst of a
Greek community, would more easily become acquainted with Christian
books outside those recognised as canonical among his countrymen.
I venture to think that these parallels of thought and wording with
S. Chrysostom and Isaac of Antioch are sufficient to raise a very
serious presumption against the Ephraimitic authorship of the De
Magis and the De Fine. It must however be noted that the De
Magis, at least according to the transmitted text, professes to be the
work of " Ephraim." The latter part of this homily describes the last
judgement, and ends thus :
" One will be in the midst of Paradise, and one they will cast out-
side ; one is glorified and perfected and holy, and with him doth God
dwell : for every man according to his work receiveth wage from
Justice. They beseech thee, God, the Hope of all the saints make
thy mercy shine upon Ephraim, in that day when mercy is needed, for I
am not woi^thy to enter the kingdom, I that am a sinner. Round about
the tabernacle of thy saints make me worthy to be and it sufficeth for
me, and I will send up praise and thanksgiving for ever and ever.
Amen, amen"
The portion printed in italics does not fit on to the rest, and may
very well have been added possibly from another poem of Ephraim's-
by an editor who ascribed it to him and found the work imperfect at
the end. 2 It may also be remarked that S. Ephraim's custom was to
indicate his authorship by an acrostic, not by giving his name in full
at the end. This is done, for example, in the case of the Hymn added
at the end of the Paradise (printed by Overbeck, pp. 351 354), and
in the five books addressed to Hypatius.
There are no quotations from any part of the New Testament in
the De Magis, except the implied reference to the Epistle of Jude or
the Apocalypse which has just been mentioned.
1 See above, p. 22.
2 As a matter of fact, cod. 14615, one of the two leading MSS of the De Magis, is
actually mutilated here.
REJECTED WRITINGS. 85
The De Fine contains express allusions to the Parable of the Man
who had not on a Wedding-Garment (Matt xxii 11 if.), and to the
Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins (Matt xxv 1 if.). With regard
to the latter it is noticeable that there is no mention of the Bride,
although according both to the Peshitta and the Evangelion da-
Mepharreshe the virgins " went forth to meet the bridegroom and the
bride" The allusion in Lamy iii 143 is, however, too paraphrastic to
be at all decisive.
But there can be no doubt as to the text of Matt xxii 13 attested by
the De Fine. We read (Lamy iii 139) :
cnA . i.n.<\.sg3cv . , on a-Li a >cna!vr^T3 caA
And they bind him by his hands and his feet, and cast him out in
the place of darkness.
And again (Lamy iii 147) :
v*A ^tjn/VMO . vvi
And thy hands and thy feet they bind for thee, and cast thee out
into the place of darkness.
In this verse there is a well-marked various reading. The Peshitta,
following KB and the text generally approved by modern critical editors
has ~.roc\li<?a ^oaatu^ cnoco* 'Bind his hands and his feet.'
Both S and C, on the other hand, have ^o)on*^<l=a ^ODO^O^
^osoiXTcao ' Take hold of him by his hands and his feet/ a rendering
which probably represents the ' Western ' reading apart avrov TroSwi/ KO.L
xeipwi/. The distribution of evidence is, however, complicated by the
fact that in an allusion to Mate xxii 13 in the Acts of Thomas ( Wright,
p. 315) we find Ax?o -3*^ ^^OT^^I *X 'Let them not fetter my
hands and my feet.' The other Gospel quotations and allusions in the
Syriac Acts of Thomas appear to be taken from the Evangelion da-
Mepharreshe. They seem to be independent of the Diatessaron and
are certainly uninfluenced by the Peshitta. The use of T^^ is also
supported by the allusion to this passage in Ephraim's Carmina
Nisibena, which has been discussed above, p. 35. It is possible there-
63
86 s. EPHRAIM'S QUOTATIONS.
fore that the reading which speaks of the man being fettered, and not
merely seized or carried, was current in early Syriac Biblical MSS. 1
The allusions in the De Fine give the verb ^oo^, the same that is
used in the Peshitta, and it is doubtless the Peshitta text that was in
the mind of the author. But I hope to have convinced my readers
that no conclusions with regard to the Biblical text used by S. Ephraim
tiould be drawn either from that Homily or from its companion the De
Magis.
The Severus Catena.
The fact that no quotations from the New Testament occur in the
Story of Joseph saves me from the necessity of investigating the
authorship of that dull and long-winded composition, The only parts
of it which are extant in ancient MSS are there ascribed to Balai the
Chorepiscopus or to Jacob of Serug. Later Syriac tradition, repre-
sented by the Book of the Bee and some recent MSS, make S. Ephraim
the author. This view is accepted by Dr Lamy, who has edited the
whole ten books in his third volume. As a rule, when a work is
ascribed to a famous writer (such as S. Ephraim) in late documents
and to a less famous writer (such as Mar Balai) in an early document,
it is generally safe to assume that the late documents have got their
information by way of unverified conjecture.
There is also no necessity for examining one by one the numerous
writings ascribed to S. Ephraim in MSS of the 12th century or later. A
few of them may be genuine, others may contain a genuine nucleus
adapted for liturgical use (as in many of the Necrosima). But in such
matters internal evidence alone can be our guide. A minute and
careful search might perhaps add a little to our knowledge of Ephraim's
New Testament, but the character of its text could not be changed by
12th century evidence; on the contrary, I am not afraid to make
the character of the Gospel quotations a touchstone of genuineness.
1 Compare also the quotation in Eus. Theoph*?* iv 16, which runs
REJECTED WRITINGS. 87
Where the Gospel quotations in these badly attested writings agree
with the Diatessaron or the Evangelion da-Mepharreshe we may believe
S. Ephraim to be the writer, but agreement in them with the Peshitta
is a sign not that S. Ephraim used the Peshitta, but that the writing
is not S. Ephraim's.
The Severus Catena might be dismissed on these grounds without
further remark. As however it is the source from which the greater
number of those quotations come which have been brought forward to
prove the use of the Peshitta by S. Ephraim I think I ought not to
conclude this Essay without saying a few words about it.
The Commentary upon Genesis and Exodus printed in the Roman
Edition, vol. iv, pp. 1 115, 194 225, is undoubtedly a genuine work
of S. Ephraim. It is extant in a MS of the 6th century (Vat. Syr. ex),
and the three Gospel quotations found in it are marked by the usual
characteristics of S. Ephraim's allusions. 1 But the Commentaries
upon the rest of the Old Testament published under the name of
S. Ephraim are not taken direct from his works. They are excerpts
from a Catena Patrum compiled by one Severus, a monk of Edessa, in
861 AD. 2 Of this Catena there are two MSS, Vat. Syr. ciii and B.M.
Add. 12144 (written AD 1081): what we read in the Roman Edition
iv 116193, 226 571, v 1 315, is taken from the Vatican MS, and
this is supplemented from the British Museum MS in Lamy ii 105
310.
It is evident at the first glance that in the Catena of Severus we
are dealing with a state of the text quite different from that in the
genuine Commentaries of S. Ephraim. The Catena is made up of
extracts and abstracts from many writers, including Jacob of Edessa
and Greek Fathers such as S. Basil. It is often impossible to discover
where the passages taken from S. Ephraim really begin or end, and
even if a given passage be accepted as S. Ephraim's there is generally
nothing to shew that a Biblical quotation occurring in it may not have
been supplied or edited by Severus. In Lamy ii 239 S. Ephraim is
made to discuss renderings of Aquila and Symmachus, which I am
sure any one familiar with his genuine style will consider exceedingly
improbable.
1 See above, pp. 32, 48, 54.
2 Wright's Syriac Literature 35, and CBM 912.
88 s. EPHRAIM'S QUOTATIONS.
The mixed character of the text may be sufficiently illustrated by a
few specimens.
(a) Definitely Peshitta readings.
Rom. v 174c = Matt v 28
K'v.axi.l ^B.T >cn
cnri\n
Like that (saying) 'He that shall see a woman so as to long for her,
immediately hath committed adultery with her in his heart"
This entirely agrees with the Peshitta, except that Pesh. has
^uu-n. But 8 and C have oil _Xy^ for <zu\ja:i v^, and they
omit
Rom. v 315D = Matt xi 14
cuc\cn.i
If ye are willing, receive that he is Elijah who is about to come. 1
This exactly agrees with the Peshitta, but S and C have
instead of * o\>n, i.e. S and C support the ordinary reading Seao-0ai,
while Severus and Pesh. attest the itacism Se'acr0e which is found in a
good many inferior Greek MSS.
Other instances of Peshitta readings in the Severus Catena are
Rom. iv 463F (= Matt v 44) 2 ; Rom. iv 493c (= Matt xxv 6) 3 ; Rom. iv
51 IB (=Lk xxiii 2) 3 ; Rom. iv 505 E (=Lk xxiv 49) 3 ; Rom. iv 446 B
(= Joh v 22) 2 ; Rom. iv 524D (= Joh vii 38) 2 ; Rom. iv 560r (= Joh viii
44) 2 ; Lamy ii 179 (=Matt iv 17).
(6) Agreements with S C.
Rom. v 90D = Matt xii 18 ; c/Matt iii 17, xvii 5, Lk iii 22.
,1=3
* This is my Son and my Beloved.' }
See above, p. 28.
1 Verified from B.M. 12144.
2 B.M. 12144 is not extant.
3 B.M. 12144 has 110 quotation at this point from the Gospels.
REJECTED WRITINGS. 89
Rom. v 90D = Joh iii 34
\n rc'ocn
* Not by measure hath God given the Spirit to his Son.' 3
Here, as has been pointed out above, pp. 50, 51, Pesh. omits
' to his Son ' with the ordinary Greek text, but the word is found in C
and in Aphraates 123, and also in Ephraim's own comment on the
passage (Moes. 105). This passage also illustrates the way in which
the Severus Catena assimilates the text to the Peshitta, for both S and
Cj as well as Aphraates and Ephraim himself elsewhere (Lamy i 267),
all use the fern, form Y^cvX^ for 'measure,' instead of ^ \*>.
Lamy ii 147 = Joh viii 48
1 Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan, and a demon is upon
theeT
This agrees exactly with S, but Pesh. has vv^ cv.^ ^cv*n for
Scu/xo'viov e^eis. The variation is characteristic, for 8 has the same
preposition in Joh viii 49, 52, x 20 ; Lk viii 27, etc.
Rom. v 166E, Lamy\\ (155), 186 -Matt xvi 18
The gate-bars of Sheol.
See above, p. 30,
These last examples shew that there still remains a genuine element
of S. Ephraim's quotations in the Catena. But it is impossible to
gauge its extent, and certainly hazardous to draw any conclusion from
the Catena as to Ephraim's use of any particular recension of the
Biblical text. To borrow the words of Mr A. E. Brooke when speaking
of the Commentaries of Origen (Fragments of fferacleon, pp. 19, 20),
we may say that most of the fragments in the Catena ' ' might have
come from [S. Ephraim's] pen, so far as opinions are concerned. But
in the comparatively few instances where they cover common ground
with the extant Commentaries, the text and even the contents are
either wholly different or widely divergent.... The sense of lost parts of
the Commentaries may be recovered, but not much of the actual text."
90
S. EPHRAIM S QUOTATIONS.
INDEX OF PASSAGES EXAMINED.
Those marked with an asterisk are from works not by S. Ephraim.
S. MATTHEW
iii 16
17
iv 5
v 18
28
39
vi 11
33
vii 7
ix 17
x 25
xi 14
19
xii 18
22
xiv 28 ff.
xv 27
xvi 2, 3
18
19
xviii 12 f.
22
xxi 3
40, 41
xxii 13
xxiii 8
p. 67 f.
28, 88*
69
67
88*
28
70
78*
78*
28
78*
88*
29
88*
22*, note
29
37
44
30, 89*
30
30
31
32
34
35, 85*
36
S. MATTHEW (cont.}
xxvi 13 p. 36
xxvii 46
36
S. MARK
i 11
iv 39
vii 28
33
xii 42
28
37
37
38
39
S. LUKE
ii 30
40
34
40
36
41
iii 22
28, 88*
iv 9
69
29
41
vi 29
28
vii 14
42
34
29
41-43
42
ix 62
43
INDEX.
91
S. LUKE (cont.}
S. JOHN
x 19
xi 3
xii 16-20
49
54-56
xiv 31
xv 4, 5
xvi 25
xvii 21
31, 32
xviii 13
xxii 43, 44
xxiii 38
43
p. 78*
70
72
44
44
45
30
71
21*
45
46, 70
46
47
47
i 1
3
14
iii 34
vi 52
viii 48
xii 2
xiii 5
xiv 23
xv 1
xvi 11
.. i
XVII 11
xix 30
xx 24
p. 48, 62 ff.
48, 59 ff.
49, 63
50, 89*
51
89*
51
52
52
53
54
54
55
55
CAMBRIDGE: PRINTED BY J. AND C. F CLAY, AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS.
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