Ephrem's comparison of the Father/Son relationship to the relationship between a tree and its fruit in his hymns On Faith

Abstract

It is argued that the comparison of the relationship between God the Father and God the Son with that between a tree and its fruit should be interpreted within the polemic context of anti-Arianism. The purpose of the image is therefore found to be emphasis on the unity between Father and Son, and thus also the divinity of Christ. It is argued that the image serves as a refutation of the Arian notion of the Son being a creature and of his inferiority in comparison with the Father, and as an assertion of the inscrutability of the nature of Christ.