NOTES
- Cf S.P. Brock, Spirituality in the Syriac tradition, St. Ephrem Ecumenical Research Institute, Kerala, India, 1989, p. 44.
- Ibid.
- Text and German translation by Edmund Beck, Des heiligen Ephraem des Syrers, Hymnen de leiunio, Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium, Vol. 246, Scriptores Syri tome 106 (text) and tome 107 (transl.).
- Cf. Parad., 9,26.
- Cf. SdF I,92.
- Much the same idea is also expressed in the fourth hymn from the cycle De leiunio.
- The text has a plural suffix attached to a plural noun: ‘their waves’. This has been changed with the suggestion of Beck to masculine singular: ‘his waves’. Cf. Beck, op. cit. (text), p. 2, n. 9.
- Cf. Mk. 10:46.
- The word used in Jn. 9:6.
- Cf. Jn. 9:6.
- Cf S.P. Brock, Saint Ephrem, hymns on paradise, New York: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1990, p. 39.
- Cf S.P. Brock, Studies in Syriac spirituality (the Syrian Churches Series, Vol. 13), Poona: Anita Printers, 1988, p. 1
- In Ephrem's hymns on the unleavened bread, hymn 17,9–12 it is explained that the bread of the Eucharist gives the ability to fly because of its lightness. It is then said that ‘who eats of the living bread of the Son can fly to meet him in the clouds’. This phrase gives an indication that 1 Th. 4:17 partly forms the background of this idea.
- Much the same idea is also expressed in the fourth hymn from the cycle De Ieiunio.
- Ephrem was continually guarding against any effort to cross the ontological gap between God and man from the human side. Only what is revealed by God about himself can be discerned by man.
- The origin of this image, which Ephrem often uses with regard to the overwhelming inscrutability of God which overpowers man, is unknown to me. Perhaps a context like Jnh. 2:3 should be considered?
- This seems to be a reference to Eph. 6:16.
- Strophe 1–3 of this hymn treats the subject of Scripture as a treasure-house.
- Cf. Mk. 10:46.
- The word used in Jn. 9:6.
- Cf. Jn. 9:6.
- The Old Testament in Syriac according to the Peshitta version, edited by the Peshitta institute in Leiden, Part I, fascicle I, Genesis—Exodus, Leiden: Brill, 1977, in loco.
- The Peshitta-text has kube' in Gn. 3:18 (The Old Testament in Syriac according to the Peshitta version, edited by the Peshitta institute in Leiden, Part I, fascicle I, Genesis—Exodus, Leiden: Brill, 1977, in loco), while Ephrem uses the word shafja' Ephrem does not interpret the ‘thorns’ in Gn. 3:18 to be Satan, but alludes to the biblical text in this way.
- The same stem, namely pth, is used in connection with ‘eyes’ in both contexts.
- ‘Adam’ was not intended to be a personal name already in Gn. 3 (it has the article), but the Syriac text of the Peshitta understood it in this way (cf. Gn. 3:9).
- The two words used by Ephrem is not the same as that used in the Peshitta ('arthelai) which explicitly means physical nakedness.
- Once again Ephrem uses two other words (nkel and shaddel) than that found in Gn. 3:13 ('ath'i).
- The same stem found in the Peshitta version of Gn. 3:14.
- Brock, op. cit. p. 38.