TO THE READER.

...the words of Divine Scripture sometimes indicate a double sense, both of which are literal. For this reason, it can be said that Saint Ephrem approved both interpretations, and inserted one into an earlier Commentary and the other into a later one, even if the latter seemed less probable to him.

However, the same should not be concluded, I say, regarding that passage where Melchizedek is asserted to have been of Canaanite descent Melchizedek is the mysterious "King of Peace" from Genesis 14. His lineage was a major point of debate; some traditions claimed he was Shem, son of Noah, while others suggested local Canaanite origins., which is expressly refuted in the earlier Commentary. Instead, we must believe that this contradiction arose solely from a confusion of names to be placed in the margin, and that the first opinion should be attributed to Ephrem, while the second should be attributed to Jacob of Edessa Jacob of Edessa (c. 640–708 AD) was one of the most learned Syriac scholars; his notes often appear alongside Ephrem's in later manuscripts.. Other points are wonderfully consistent with one another and, what you will not always find in the writings of the ancient Fathers, they agree perfectly with the decrees of the Orthodox faith. In this regard, I have not detected even the slightest blemish, nor do I think others will. You might say that Ephrem excuses Tamar, who was guilty of a notorious crime In Genesis 38, Tamar disguised herself to conceive by her father-in-law, Judah. Early commentators often struggled to reconcile her actions with her status as an ancestor of David and Christ.. Chrysostom excused her in his 62nd homily on Genesis; Ambrose in his 3rd book on Luke; and Theodoret in his 95th question on Genesis. Yet no one, except the Hebrew Maimonides Moses Maimonides (1138–1204), the preeminent Jewish philosopher and jurist. and the heretic Marsamus, goes so far as to free Tamar from all fault, or to totally absolve one condemned by the common opinion of interpreters for manifest incest. They condemn the plan; but following the mind of her father-in-law Judah, who was later called upon as the judge in this case, they do not condemn Tamar's intention, because she was carried away not by the heat of lust, but by a desire for offspring through the only means she thought available. The arguments he disputes on page 470 to diminish the similar crime of Bathsheba should be explained in no other sense.

Indeed, the Blessed Ephrem, who believed and preached that he himself was covered in every kind of disgrace, wished to remain consistent with himself; for he wrote in his 13th metrical discourse On the Church: "It is difficult for me to argue against those things in which I myself have sinned."

I fear lest I be found guilty among the guilty,
T
among those of whom I myself am a garden. original: "ܕܚ̇ܠ ܐ݀ܢܐ ܕܿܠܡܐ ܚܲܝܿܒܐ ܐ݀ܢܐ ܒܚܲܝܿܒ̈ܐ / ܕܐܿܝܠܝܢ ܕܿܗܘܼ ܓܲܢܿܐ ܐܿܢܐ." This poetic self-reproach is a hallmark of Ephrem's "Hymns on the Church," where he often speaks of his own unworthiness.

But whether these arguments be probable or true, I personally do not value them highly, nor would I wish others to pay them much mind. I will say what should persuade any honest man, not just by opinion but by the truth itself—and what a wicked man could not deny without the mark of notable perversity, not to say impudence. Ephrem wrote many things in prose, and even more in meter. Everywhere there appears such a consistency of speech and style, as I alluded to above, that if you wish to be consistent with yourself, you must frankly confess that the Blessed Ephrem is the father of all such labors, or else stubbornly maintain that all these things were forged and falsely attributed to him. But

you would certainly persuade no one of that, even if you contended with strong lungs and a loud voice, and if the precious bronzes of Corinth resounded original: "preciosa sonent æra Corinthi" - an allusion to classical rhetoric and the value of Corinthian bronze, implying even the most expensive or elaborate arguments would fail. to your aid. That extensive catalog of Saint Ephrem’s commentaries—which six large volumes can scarcely contain with the Latin translation—cannot have any father less than Ephrem, for Syria has produced no one equal to him, let alone greater. They indicate a great river of the mind and, as Quintilian Marcus Fabius Quintilianus (c. 35–100 AD), a Roman rhetorician whose "Institutio Oratoria" is a foundational text on education and style. affirmed of Messala's speeches, they carry the nobility of their author, and the works in some way represent the craftsman.

Book 10, ch. 1.

Now, while the rashness of certain pseudo-critics who deny Ephrem's ascetic works might seem tolerable, I say the perversity of those who try to strip him of his Metrical works is unbearable. For what? Would you say that all the Churches of the Syrians, Maronites, Jacobites, Chaldeans, and those of Malabar These represent the various branches of the Syriac-speaking Christian tradition across the Middle East and India. have been deceived for fourteen centuries, or that they deceived their own people under the shadow of a great name? For that Clergy believed they were singing the labors of Ephrem, and they persuaded the people who gathered for sacred hymnody of this very fact. This matter is certain and most well-known throughout the entire Orient. But since "it is not for everyone to reach Corinth" A Latin proverb ("non est cuiuslibet Corinthum appellere") meaning that not everyone has the skill or fortune to achieve difficult goals.:

Book 3, cap. 1. & Sozomen Book 3, cap. 16.

Consult Theodoret's Ecclesiastical History, Book 3, chapter 1, and Sozomen, Book 3, chapter 16. When Aristotle’s books were found in the Sceptics’ vault in the City, was it doubted whether they were the offspring of one and the same writer as was believed, or of several? All the schools of Europe, and indeed of Africa and Asia, laughed at such a foolish doubt. For the Arabs also follow Aristotle as their master, and they pronounced those who doubted to be of "dull palate," as if wine from the same vintage could flow with anything but an incomparable and singular flavor. Come now, since we are forced to admit that Saint Ephrem’s Metrical works are his own, it follows by necessary consequence that the other works bearing the same title have the author they claim, because of that consistency of speech and style I mentioned, and the dignity of the subject and treatment. Furthermore—which is obvious and plain to anyone's eyes—the very faithfulness of the scribes (who had no reason to lie) and the antiquity of the Manuscripts themselves prove it. These books were received by all antiquity as genuine works of Ephrem twelve centuries ago. Indeed, one manuscript, the oldest of all, is said to have been written in the year 863 of the Alexander era (551 AD); another of the Commentaries on Scripture in the year 1172 of the Greeks (861 AD). This was the conviction held by their ancestors and the most serious later Syrian writers, such as John of Damascus, Moses bar Cephas, and Gregory...