Selected Works of Saint Ephrem the Syrian, Rabbula of Edessa, Balai, and Others

arrangement, so that the book has been compressed into a smaller space. But although the individual verses are mixed and disturbed, the scribe mostly adheres to the author's words. It is certainly to be regretted that the scribe occasionally made a major gap while contracting the material. Thus, it happened that the Index of Heretics is missing in this codex. The history of Moses and the Magi is indeed missing, but The History of Interpretation also missing, see Wright's Catalog p. 693 I do not dare to define whether (according to Assemani) it slipped into the Testament from another of Ephrem’s treatises, since the Nitrian Codex V (Vatican) and No. 14624 (XII) (both of the highest authority) possess it. Additions in our codex are rare. Among them, the passages on the intercessions of the living for the dead are of great importance. From fol. 190 verso to fol. 255 is the Book of Serapion. Then, up to fol. 257 verso, are Ephrem’s madrashe hymns/didactic poems on the Departed. Assemani (B.O. I. p. 136) commemorates fifteen madrashe on the Departed, but (as far as I know) only thirteen tlat-asar thirteen on the Departed have been published.

XIV.

A codex in octavo format, composed of collected leaves of different ages, containing the latter part of the Testament of Ephrem, written in a larger and elegant hand, very similar to codex No. 14574 (III), but due to the scarcity of dots, it is older, belonging almost to the seventh or eighth century. You will soon see that our codex is close to the Nitrian Codex V (Vatican) (i.e., the text of Assemani), if you wish to inspect the various readings. It begins on p. 150, line 15 with denhewe that it may be. Since the ending is discrepant, I append it here: Like works upon Your commandments. Let the breath return to the earth, upon my youth. And as You said in the Gospel: Just as something has happened to a human, so too will it be the will that, just as I have been glorified in the prophets and in the apostles, that glory for the honor of God [may be] from you and forevermore. Blessed is the One who is the Being and Lord of the earth and of heaven.