Saint Ephraim – singer of the Word of God

The work of a leading specialist in the field of Syrian studies examines some interesting biographical data about St. Ephraim the Syrian, as well as his methodology in revealing the doctrine of God, mysterious, but revealed in Revelation. A special method is being explored. Ephraim, which he applies to the interpretation of Holy Scripture to extract spiritual or mysterious meaning. Fragments of the poetic work of the holy father are analyzed, which serve as a kind of interpretation of the events of sacred history. Translation of fragments from Syriac by S.P. Broca 1. Who will not give praise to the Secret One, the Most Secret One of all, the One who came to announce the Revelation, to announce it to everyone! St. Ephraim the Syrian. Faith. 19:7 St. Ephraim may be called a poet of paradox, and the essence of one of his often repeated paradoxes is that the mysterious God is revealed to us and known in Revelation. Revealed to us, but still hidden - this applies both to the Holy Scriptures and to Christ. This also applies to the personality of St. himself. Ephraim, because he is revealed to us through his own biography, dating from the 6th century, and yet his real life remains hidden, since the goal of his biographer in the 6th century. was to imagine the personality of St. Ephraim to readers as their real compatriot. His biographical portrait is compiled in such a way as to correspond to the ideas of readers of the 6th century. Two aspects can be identified that are obviously erroneous from a historical perspective: the first is that St. Ephraim is described as a monk, and the second is the story of how he was visited by St. Basil and St. Bishoy 2 . These two facts are definitely not historically accurate. We know for sure that St. Ephraim lived east of the Euphrates River in the second and third quarter of the 4th century. and thus preceded the birth of monasticism in the form that we know, neither of his journeys was historically based, both of these journeys are based on the incorrect identification of an anonymous Syrian with St. Ephraim. And yet, on a symbolic level, both facts of his biography reflect a deep truth: although St. Ephraim was not a monk; there is a possibility that he was a member of a certain Syrian proto-monastic community of “bnai kiyama” (“sons of the Covenant”), who apparently took some kind of ascetic vow (described as a Covenant with Christ) and became “ichidaye” (unanimous, identical with Christ). The term "ichidaya" itself is a Syriac translation of the Greek word "μονογενής" ("only begotten") from John 1:18. Likewise, although St. Ephraim never visited St. Basil, nor St. Bishoy, his teaching was fully consistent at a deep level with his more famous contemporaries who lived in Cappadocia and Egypt. He is also sometimes depicted as a deacon, which seems to reflect the historical reality of his life. In this article we touch upon the methods by which St. Ephraim describes the paradoxes of “hidden” and “revealed” in the context of the biblical text, as well as the method of transition from the external revealed form of the text to its hidden internal meaning and meaning. The starting point of the method of St. Ephraim lies in the question of how humanity can at least partially know God, given the fact that between creation and God there is an insurmountable “gap” that is impossible for man to overcome. This means that when a person comprehends any Divine fact, the Lord Himself reveals to him a certain Divine secret and makes it accessible to human perception. If God did not want to reveal Himself to us, Then the created world would never be able to express anything about Him. Accordingly, any human knowledge of God is the result of Divine self-Revelation, which manifests itself in two different spheres: in nature and in Scripture, which are holy. Ephraim calls “two witnesses,” referring to the natural world around us and the texts of Holy Scripture (see Paradise 5:2). St. Ephrem draws special attention to the importance of God's gift of free will for humanity: this gift of Divine Revelation simultaneously implies Divine respect for human free will, therefore Revelation does not imply coercion or violence. St. Ephraim developed a technique for achieving this delicate balance through the interpenetration and interconnection between God and humanity. God takes the initiative, revealing a part of Himself to people and making it understandable through two testimonies, but this “Revelation” itself remains hidden, secret, because now the baton is passed to man in his search, in the desire to reveal the secret and remove the “veils of mystery.” In this regard, St. Ephraim often uses the term "raza", that is, "mystery", often translated as "symbol", understood in a broader sense, that is, a symbol closely related to what it symbolizes. Both nature and Scripture are covered by the word "raza", since they are established as elements of Divine Self-Revelation and thus, in a certain aspect, indicate the Divine unity of command. Everywhere you look His "raza" symbol is present, And wherever you read (Scripture), you will find His images. All created things were created by Him. And He endowed His dominions with His symbols; While He created the world, He looked at it, And the world was decorated with His images. Fountains of symbols opened and flowed, And they poured upward, filling everything, Its symbols are in all parts of the world! The presence of God in all His symbols gives meaning to the created world, but this meaning remains hidden until a person learns their meaning and reveals their secret. How will this happen? To illustrate St. Ephraim uses an analogy taken from the world of optics regarding how the physical eye is able to see. Based on his understanding of visual laws, the eye sees when light hits it. The brighter the light, the more the eye sees. Spiritual vision, that is, the inner eye of the soul, acts in a similar way, but instead of light, faith acts. Only when faith enters into it can the spiritual eye act and comprehend the mystery - "raza" - that is, the "secrets" and "symbols" hidden in nature and in the Book. The greater the faith, the more clearly the spiritual eye is able to perceive the mystery - “raza”. Holy Scripture is presented as a mirror, And the man whose vision is clear, Perceives the Truth with his gaze. He discerns the image of the Heavenly Father, Image of the image and the Son, And finally, the image of the Holy Spirit. The most obvious example of Divine Revelation is the Incarnation, but here we are again faced with the same paradox of “revealed” and at the same time “hidden”, that is, the historical image of Jesus of Nazareth, visible to the physical eye, and the hypostasis of Christ as the Incarnate Word, accessible only to inner spiritual vision filled with faith. To describe the “act of incarnation” of St. Ephraim uses the phrase “He put on (put on) a body,” following the standard terminology of early Syriac Christianity. The image of putting on clothes, however, is expanded by St. Ephraim to the scale of the Old Testament, where God “puts on names, designations.” It is as if He is embodied in human language, allowing Himself to be described in human terms. At this point I would like to allow St. himself to speak. Ephraim. In this passage, starting from hymn 31 from the cycle “On Faith,” St. Ephraim makes his point admirably by using the analogy of a parrot teaching human speech: Let us thank God that He has clothed Himself as with a garment, The names of various parts of the human body. Scripture mentions His “ears” to show that He hears us. It mentions His “eyes” to show that He sees us. After all, He clothed Himself with the names of these words, And although there is not the slightest damage or diminishment in Him, Yet He clothed himself with these names, condescending to our weakness. We must understand what if He did not put names for such objects, It would be impossible for Him Through the perception of what is inherent in us. So that He can clothe us with His way of life. He sought our image and clothed himself in it, And then, like a Father with His children, He spoke to us, What He perceived are our metaphors, Although He didn't do it literally. Then He threw them off Himself, Without actually doing it. While He put on these clothes, He did not wear them at all. He puts on them when needed, And he takes them off to put on new ones instead. The very fact that He takes them off and puts them on is allegorical. He tells us that this is an allegory Not related to His true Essence, Because the Essence is hidden, He described Her through visible images. In one place He is like the Old Man, the Ancient of Days, He becomes a hero, a valiant warrior. For the purpose of judgment He became an old man. But in case of conflict, He became a valiant warrior. Sometimes He lingers, other times He runs until he is tired, Sometimes He falls asleep, sometimes He is in distress. But every time He exhausts Himself with But He is good, although He could force us by force, Without causing yourself any trouble. But instead He toils Himself in every possible way, To serve Him according to our free will, So that we can capture our beauty With all the colors that our free will has collected, So that if He has adorned us, Then we could resemble Thoth A portrait that someone else painted Decorating it with Your own colors. The man who teaches the parrot human speech, He hides behind the mirror and thus teaches the bird: When she turns towards the sound of human speech, Your own reflection in the mirror. The bird imagines that it is another parrot, The man places the bird's image in front of her, So that she can learn to speak. The bird is a very close neighbor to man, But despite the existence of this similarity, A man teaches a parrot something foreign to him, Using your own image And thus talks to him. Divine existence, which is in everything, And it gives us what we are all accustomed to: He makes every effort to To draw us all to Him. This is an act of great Divine belittlement, humiliation, when He allows Himself to speak to us in purely human language, and this language cannot be taken literally, since then we insult the very Divine gift of grace given to us through the Scriptures. St. Ephraim speaks about it this way: If a person concentrates completely and completely On the description of the language of Divine majesty, Then he insults and humiliates the greatness of God. And thus he moves away, Using the words of the same language, By means of which the Lord clothed Himself with garments For the sake of a person's own good. And he is not grateful to God for this grace, For which God bowed himself so low, To the level of human infancy. And although grace has nothing to do with man, Yet she clothed herself in the image and likeness of man, In order to make him like herself. In one place St. Ephraim describes Christ to us as “taking on the fragility” of human nature at the incarnation, when He “put on human flesh” (Nativity 11:8). This is analogous to the statement about “God clothed in human words in the form of a biblical text.” He reveals Himself to people to the point of being misunderstood. For St. Ephraim is vitally important to approach the biblical text correctly because, in his words: The man who seeks the truth in a spirit of envy He will not be able to know Her, even if he meets Her, Because envy clouded his mind. At the same time, he does not become wiser, even if he clings to this knowledge. What he needs is a sense of wonder and, especially, love: Your fountain, Lord, remains hidden From a man who does not thirst for You; Your treasure seems in vain To the person who rejects You. Only Love is the treasurer Your heavenly treasury. The late Syrian poet Jacob of Serug (died 521) especially emphasized the need to approach Scripture with love if one wants to penetrate its deeper meaning. In his prose commentary on the book of Genesis, St. Ephraim makes a distinction between the “literal” and “spiritual” understanding of the biblical text. The first implies an external aspect, while the second implies an internal meaning that can be comprehended through the perception of the “raza” - the “secret of symbols” that dwell in the text. Moreover, the actual approach, that is, the external understanding of the text, one might say, its historical interpretation, at least theoretically, was available only in one aspect, while its internal side, which opens only to the inner “eye of faith,” is given to the researcher simultaneously in many aspects of understanding. For St. For Ephraim, this polysemy is a fundamental characteristic of understanding the Holy Scriptures and its correct interpretation. In a poem dedicated to Lent, during which many fragments from the Bible are read, St. Ephraim compares these readings to a fair of merchants demonstrating the abundance of their goods: In the middle of Lent the Scriptures came together and became In merchants who own true Divine treasure. With a divine voice, like a key, It reveals itself to those who know how to hear. Blessed be the King Who revealed Your treasures for His people! (The divine voice is Christ – the hermeneutical key to the correct understanding of the Holy Scriptures). After describing the various goods that satisfy every need, St. Ephraim invites his listeners: for him, Scripture is a “treasury” available to us through the Lord: Open this treasury, my brothers and sisters, And draw from it with discernment, Since these treasures are the property of everyone. And every person, as if he were a treasurer, Has its own key Therefore, who can not get rich here! Blessed be He who removed the cause of our poverty. How great is the gift that is thrown before our eyes, Because although each of us has two pairs of eyes, Only a few of us have this gift, They are aware of this gift and from whom it was received. Lord, have mercy on all the blind, Because all they see is gold! The reference to “two pairs of eyes” means the physical and spiritual eyes, the first for external vision, the second for internal vision, which is inherent in the spiritual gaze of the heart. So far we have been studying the method by which St. Ephraim considered the correct way to understand the biblical text. For the saint, a living example of an inspired approach to the interpretation of the text was his contemporaries - the holy fathers and Jewish rabbis, that is, the openness of inspiration in the understanding of the biblical authors, be it a conscious or unconscious approach to their interpretation. Based on this statement, St. Ephraim derives a certain form of interaction with the three sides of the triangle. This is the Holy Spirit, the biblical author and the reader himself. At the same time, the inspiration of the biblical author is self-evident, so the requirement is that the reader also be open to the Holy Spirit. In other words, depending on the attitude with which the reader approaches the biblical text, the understanding of this text is determined, as well as the degree of penetration into the depth of the mystery, “times”, its comprehension, while the primary choice of approach to the biblical text depends on the free will of man. Any type of decoration obtained as a result of coercion, It is not true because it is forced: Here lies the greatness of God's gift, which The fact that a person can decorate himself, At our own discretion, Seeing that God had removed all compulsion from him (Nizibian hymns. 16:11) Now let's return to the method that St. Ephraim uses to analyze the biblical text. The method primarily depends on the literary genre it uses. Here we can distinguish 4 main categories: prose, narrative poetry, artistic prose and lyric (stanza) poetry. Let me offer you short samples of each genre. In his prose commentaries - on the book of Genesis, the first part of Exodus and on the Diatessaron, that is, on the harmonization of the Gospels (speaking only of the surviving parts in Syriac) - we are faced with a phenomenon that can be defined as "close reading" of the biblical text with close attention to both the small narrative details of the text and to what the text is silent about. An excellent example of this method is his commentary on Genesis 3. According to St. Ephraim, Adam and Eve were created in an intermediate state, they were neither mortal nor immortal; the choice of their future state depended on their free will regarding the conditions for observing the “tiny Divine Commandment” - not to eat the fruit of one of the many trees in paradise. Then Satan “was not permitted to send one of the angels, or one of the seraphim or cherubim, to Adam for this purpose, nor was Satan permitted to appear in the Garden of Eden in human form, nor in the form of any of the giant animals, such as the hippopotamus or leviathan. Instead, he was allowed to appear to them in the form of an ordinary serpent, which, although cunning, did not evoke extreme disgust or contempt in them ”(Comments on the book of Genesis. II. 18). Two works of St. Ephraim are composed in the style of artistic prose. One of them contains a reflection on the Last Judgment, the opening phrase of which is “the polished mirror of the Gospel, which gives a likeness to everyone who looks into it. It rejects all ugly defects so that people can be cured, but it warns the beautiful ones to be careful about their beauty” (1st letter to Publius). St. Ephraim compares certain passages from the Gospel with a reflection visible in a mirror: “Some of them said: “We ate and drank in Your presence” (Luke 13:26), but the Lord said to them: “It was not me you wanted to see, you simply ate bread and filled glasses” (see: John 6:26)” Here St. Ephraim sees his reflection in the mirror of the Gospel: “And behold, I, who was like all of them, took refuge in His name and received every benefit from the honors given to Him, spreading His name everywhere as a veil over my sins - behold, I am seized with fear, horror shakes me, great trembling seized me, makes me turn back, and perhaps find the condition necessary for the narrow path (Matthew 7:14 ). This path leads to the land of salvation” (Letter to Publius. 13, 14). Several narrative poems based on biblical episodes are also attributed to St. Ephraim, but only two of them are probably genuine. One is dedicated to the prophet Jonah and the lament of Nineveh, and the other to the sinner who anointed the feet of Jesus with myrrh (Luke 7). Both poems were translated into Greek and became widely known; both poems represent the Christianization of a Jewish genre called “Bible retelling” and included improvisation - a retelling of the biblical text. In a beautiful and touching poem about the sinner St. Ephraim traces her journey to the house where Jesus rested. As her journey progresses, he tells the story of a seller of precious ointments. Describing how she made her final decision to change her life, St. Ephraim continues: She tore it off and threw it off her body The fine linen of his depraved craft. She decided to leave and put on the Humble Robe of Suffering. She threw her off her feet and threw her away Your elegant but slutty shoes. She headed straight down the road to the Heavenly Eagle. Holding all your gold in the palm of your hand, She raised it high up. She began to moan slowly, Complaining to the One who hears everything: “This money, Lord, came to me dishonestly, Through them I will find salvation; This money was once taken from orphans, And through them I will find the Father of all orphans.” She said all this in secret, But she began to act openly: Holding your gold coins in one hand And the alabaster vessel into another (Luke 7:37), She turned and ran away in extreme haste To the incense seller, full of sadness. The seller met her and was amazed. He started arguing with her and started talking With the harlot in these words: “Isn’t it enough for you yet, O harlot, Why have you corrupted our entire city? Which one are you wearing now for your lovers? After all, you took off your former slutty clothes And put on the robe of humility. Before, when you came to me, Your appearance was completely different You were dressed in an elegant dress But there were almost no gold coins in your hands, Now you ask for the best incense, To anoint your debauchery with them; At the same time, you are dressed today in tattered clothes, But you hold a lot of gold coins in your hands! I don't understand this change And why are you wearing these clothes? Or be dressed in clothes Decent value of incense, What suits your current clothes, Since these incense do not suit you in any way And they don't match the clothes you wear. Maybe some merchant met you, Don't you understand what he doesn't like? You threw off your slutty dress And put on something more modest So that, dressing in different fashionable clothes, Could you take possession of all his wealth? But if he really likes these clothes, Then, since he is a worthy man, Woe to him, because he met a pit, Which will swallow all his property! Because I wish you happiness: Leave all this multitude of men, You didn't get any benefit from them. Since you were a child. Marry your only husband Which will put an end to your dissolute behavior." This is what the incense seller said in his address to the harlot. This is what the harlot said in response to the seller: "Do not admonish me with your words, Don't confuse me with your arguments. I ask you for incense, but I don’t ask for it for nothing: I have no desire to lower your price. Take gold coins as much as you want But give me the best incense. Take for yourself what is short-lived, And give me something that lasts forever. And I buy something that will last forever. As for your words about the merchant, So it’s true, today I met such a person. He carries with him a great treasure; He conquered my heart - and I submitted to Him: He took upon Himself all my sins and transgressions. In return, I acquired all of His wealth! As for what you said about my husband, I got an excellent husband Whose power will last forever, And His Kingdom will never end.” (Sermons. II. 4. 54–140) This poem is an example of the lyrical poetry of St. Ephraim. The so-called "midrashim", that is, "edifying verses", were collected into a single collection, from which we can get some idea of ​​​​his structure and his theological vision, including here (as we saw earlier) his method of studying the biblical text. The genre of "midrash" can be defined as a "moral, didactic poem." The purpose of their writing was to present, so to speak, moralizing “catechetical” instructions on the nature and meaning of the Christian message. One of the main themes that St. Ephraim devoted a huge number of verses to “the descent of Christ into hell,” into the world of the dead. This theme is of great importance for the holy fathers, since it describes the entry of Christ into sacred or liturgical time and space, where it acquires the quality of an event, and not just a place in a period of time. The very theme of Christ's descent into hell, by its very nature, can be described exclusively in a narrative or mythological (in the best sense of the word) manner. This is exactly what St. does. Ephraim is very fruitful, sometimes playful and even humorous, in a series of dramatic episodes where there is a dispute between personified images of death and Satan regarding Jesus and the time of the death of the Cross. Both of these characters display exceptional knowledge and erudition in the field of the biblical text - this was an intellectual challenge for the reading audience of St. Ephraim, including our contemporaries! In this passage, death speaks boastfully to Jesus hanging on the Cross: If You are God, show Your power, But if You are a man, test our power! And if you are looking for Adam here, go away: Since he is imprisoned because of his debts. It was I who conquered all the righteous: I piled them all up in the corners of hell. Come and enter, son of Joseph, behold these horrors; Here is a giant skeleton - Samson's huge dead body, Here is the skeleton of the cruel Goliath, Yonder lies Og, the son of giants, Who made himself an iron bed where he slept: I cut it open and threw it down. I cut down this cedar at the very gates of Sheol. With contempt I rejected the offering of silver from the rich, And all their gifts could not bribe me; The slave owners couldn't force me To accept a slave instead of their owner, or a poor man instead of a rich man, Or an old man instead of a child. Sages are able to defeat wild animals, But their cry of victory does not reach my ears. Everyone calls me the "request rejecter" But I am simply fulfilling the duty to which I am called. And from what family did He come, the Man Who will destroy me? The book with His genealogy lies in front of me: I was not too lazy to read all the names in it From Adam right up to the present day. None of the dead passed by me: knee by knee, - They are all written down here in my book. I took on all this work, That no one will escape my clutches. To tell the truth, there are two people Who escaped me and hell: Enoch and Elijah did not come to me. I looked for them everywhere throughout the book of life, I even went down to the place where Jonah was and searched there, But they weren't there, and just when I thought that they might They went to heaven and eluded me, immediately appeared to me A formidable cherub, guardian of paradise. Jacob saw the heavenly ladder, maybe they We climbed it to Heaven. In the same way, death continues to speak for a few more stanzas, but then “death finished his caustic speech”: The voice of our Lord has risen Thunderclaps (Matthew 27:50) in hell, Tearing apart the graves, one after another. To bring the dead out of their graves to meet That Dead One, Who gave Life to everyone. (Nizibian hymns. 36. 2–3, 5–7, 11) The descent of Christ into hell forces death to ask for forgiveness for its previous words and to recognize that Christ is both God and man. Death begs: O Jesus, accept my request, And take this hostage with her, Take him with You as Your hostage - Adam, In which all the dead lands are hidden - Just as when I accepted it, all the Living Lands were hidden in it. As the first hostage, I return Adam's body to You. Rise again and be Lord over all, And then, when I heard the trumpet, With my own hands I will release all the dead to meet You! All works of St. Ephraim are imbued with deep knowledge and insight into the biblical text; there are many references, in many cases it becomes obvious that all these descriptive allusions, casually thrown by St. Ephraim, later selected and used by other poets and, above all, Yakov Seruzhsky. The author hopes that the various excerpts from the saint's works given here will give some idea of ​​the creative methods that the saint uses. Ephraim in the study of the Word of God. In conclusion, we present a passage where he glorifies the inexhaustibility and ambiguity of the motives of Holy Scripture. At the beginning he turns to Christ Himself: Who among people is able to understand all the wealth, Contained in the one Word of God? No matter how much we draw from Him, Even more remains untouched Like when thirsty people drink from a fountain. The facets of His words are much greater than those The Lord adorns His words with many beauties, Therefore, everyone who learns from them He can choose exactly the edge that he needs. The Lord hides all kinds of treasures in His words, So that each of us could be enriched through them, Get exactly the benefit he needs. Because the Word of God is the tree of life, Which gives you blessed fruits on all sides. Which was split by Moses in the desert. It has become a spiritual drink for each of us. “And they all ate the same spiritual food” (1 Cor 10:3). Every student of the Scriptures should not assume That the wealth he discovered Is singular and exceptional; Rather, he must understand what he himself is able to discover, Which has only one single grain Which are kept in the Scriptures. Scripture enriches man But man cannot exhaust it. In case the reader is unable Find in him what he needs, He should acknowledge its incomprehensibility. Rejoice because you have found your happiness, And do not be sad that you are not able to comprehend all his greatness. A thirsty man drinks because he is thirsty He is not sad because he is unable to drink the entire fountain to the bottom. Let the fountain quench your thirst But your thirst must not exhaust the entire fountain! If you've quenched your thirst, But the water in the fountain did not decrease, So you can drink from it again, And if the fountain dried up once and for all Then your victory would be over him It would turn into your defeat. Thank God for drinking from it and don't complain For the abundance of water that remains in it. What I learned from it - What is left in the fountain is Could be your legacy. (Commentary on Diatessaron. 1:18–19) Sebastian Paul Brock - PhD, Professor of Syrian Studies at the Oriental Institute and Woolfson College, University of Oxford, Fellow of the British Academy. Report at the XIX International Theological Conference on Orthodox Spirituality “The Word of God in Spiritual Life.” Italy, Bose Monastery, September 7, 2011 Translation from English. Vasily Veniaminovich Bogdanov-Berezovsky, teacher at the St. Petersburg Orthodox Theological Academy. Abba Bishoi (Coptic Abba Pišoi; sometimes Russian: Psoi; 320–417) is a famous Egyptian desert dweller. – approx. ed.