Chapter V ON OUR LORD AND ON DEATH AND SATAN (Carmina Nisibena, 35-42)

Introduction

In a comparative study of Aramaic religious poetry, no better representative of the Syriac-speaking region can be thought of than Ephrem, the Syrian, 'The Harp of the Spirit'. 1 Ephrem of Nisibis is generally considered the greatest poet in the Syriac language, and one of the most influential authors in the Syriac tradition of Christianity. 2 Ephrem stands at the beginning of the Syriac literary tradition. However, since his works, and especially the poetic ones, are so mature and sophisticated in form and content, it must be assumed that, in both aspects, he built upon older Mesopo• tamian examples. This recognition also lends him pre-eminency within the wider range of Aramaic poetry in general. Through the years many studies of his life and works have appeared. His biography is rather well documented by both himself and others. He reveals particulars in some of his hymns, especially in the Carmina Nisibena. Further biographical data are provided by Murray3 • In a very readable introductory chapter, McVey4 describes Ephrem's life in the political and social context of his time. In the introduction to his translation of Ephrem's Hymns on Paradise, Brock more specificallly deals with the literary and theological aspects of his works. 5 Symbolism, as a major component of Ephrem's thinking and theologizing, has been studied by Murray and elaborately analyzed by Bou Mansour. 6 Ephrem was born at the beginning of the fourth century (c. 306) in, or near, Nisibis. Very probably his parents were Christians. For the greater part of his life, he lived in his place of birth, serving as a deacon to the bishops Jacob, Baba, Vologeses and Abraham. In the first half of the fourth century, Nisibis was a trading station and fortified frontier city at the eastern outskirts of the Roman Empire. It was repeatedly exposed to assaults and sieges by the Persians, inter alia during the reign of king Shapur II (309-379). Finally, in 363, after the death of the emperor Julian, the city was definitely handed over

This much-used epithet is used by Theodoret of Cyr; see Y. Azema (ed.), Theodoret de Cyr: Correspondance, t. lll(Sources Chretiennes, 111). Paris, 1965, 190. 2 McVey, Ephrem the Syrian; Brock, Harp; Palmer, 'Merchant'. A contrasting view was held by F.C. Burkitt and J.B. Segal; see Murray, Symbols, 31, n.3, and Brock, 'Poetic Artistry', n. 1 and 2. 'Ephrem Syrus', Theologische Realenzyklopiidie, 9 (1982), 755. Ephrem the Syrian, 1-28 Brock, Hymns on Paradise, 1-76. Murray, Symbols, and 'Symbolism'; Bou Mansour, Pensee symbolique. On Our Lord and On Death and Satan 111 to Persians. For a great part of the Christian population, this was a reason to leave and to move westward to Edessa. Among them was Ephrem. In this important cultural centre he passed his final years, and here he died in 373. Already during his lifetime he had a great reputation as a poet and religious teacher. He was indeed a theologian-poet, or poet-theologian, as the preference may be. 7 Although Brock may have meant it so, the two denotations are not identical. Was Ephrem a theologian who knew how to put theological treatises and polemics in artistic form and poetical language? Or was he a poet and language virtuoso who put his art at the service of religion and the clarification of theological themes? And if he was both, which was he by nature and preference? I intend to come back to this question at a later time; at this moment I just want to raise the question. His were great literary and poetic gifts which, out of deep religious conviction, he put at the service of the spreading of early Christianity and its defence against heretic departures such as Marcionism, Arianism and Manicheism. Baumstark8 deals exclusively with Ephrem in his qualities as a religious writer and poet. Ephrem was active in both the fields of prose and poetry. The number of prose works that have been preserved, however, is rather limited. Among them are his exegetical works on Genesis and Exodus9 , a Commentary on the Diatessaron, and the Prose Refutations, which were directed against, among other things, the doctrines of Mani, Marcion, and Bardaisan. Baumstark divided Syriac poetry in general into 'die sangbare Poesie des Madrasa' and 'die nicht sangbare des Memra'. Madrashe originated in Bardaisan's school (second cent. C.E.). Originally they were polemical, theological treatises, which were couched in poetical form; later on, the term came to denote a strophic, metric poem that was sung to a certain melody (qiilii) by a precentor. There was a choir that answered every strophe with a fixed response (refrain, 'onitii), consisting of one, or at most a small number of lines. 10 Originally the madrasha was schematically constructed on a simple isosyllabic pattern in short strophes. This was gradually developed into a more intricate and diffuse pattern. In Ephrem's madrashe a scala of more than fifty different types is counted. 11 Within the category of the madrasha there are a few sub-categories, two of which may be mentioned here. Firstly there is the soghita. This is a class of poems using short strophes with a short isosyllabic pattern of 7 + 7 /7 + 7 syllables. This was sung to a fixed melody, often had a refrain, and mostly, but not always, an alphabetic acrostic. 12 The genre was sometimes employed as a vehicle for formalized theological disputes. In this connection

Cf. Brock, Harp, 5 and 6. Geschichte, 31--45. See Janson and Van Rompay, Uitleg van het boek Genesis, with an extensive introduction. 1° For the theory of Syriac madrashe see Grimme, Der Strophenbau, and Holscher, Syrische Verskunst. 11 Baumstark, Geschichte, 37ff; Brock, 'Hymnography'. 12 Brock, 'Syriac Dispute Poems', 109; 'Syriac Dialogue Poems'.