TO THE READER

A large decorative drop cap 'S' is set within a rectangular frame. Inside the letter, a seated scholar or saint is depicted writing at a desk with an open book. Through a window in the background, a landscape with a building and trees is visible, suggesting a monastic or scholarly setting.

Assemani on Ephrem, in the first volume of the Bibliotheca Orientalis.

SAINT EPHREM’S works have been translated from Syriac into the Greek language by many, yet very few have rendered the Greek into Latin. Until now, no one has completed the Greek version or shared the remaining works—which are still frequently read by both Greeks and Syrians today—with the Latin-speaking world. A primary reason for this was a lack of manuscripts, a deficiency recently remedied by the Patron of Letters, Clement XI Pope Clement XI (reigned 1700–1721), who famously sent scouts to Egypt to recover ancient Christian manuscripts.. He provided us with the manuscripts themselves, but it was Cardinal Angelo Maria Quirini, Librarian of the Holy Roman Church and truly "Great" according to his name, who ensured we could actually make use of them. Now, if you ask about the age of these manuscripts, they were all transcribed roughly a thousand years ago in the Saint’s own native soil in Mesopotamia. From there, they were moved to the Monasteries of Nitria in Egypt The Nitrian Desert was a famous center of early Christian monasticism where many ancient Syriac manuscripts were preserved in the Monastery of the Syrians.. Should anyone doubt this, let them read the signed notes of the scribes and examine the character of the script, which is fading with age. It was not difficult to guess how much labor this would prepare for the translator, as the lack of consonants was before our eyes, and vowels appeared nowhere at all. With the vowels suppressed, nearly half of the text remained hidden. This is a flaw that Syriac shares with the Hebrew language, just as they share a common alphabet. This is a most serious issue, especially when combined with the haste or lack of skill of the scribes, which led to the frequent confusion of similar letters in both scripts—making the meaning of words uncertain, ambiguous, and doubtful. From this, various readings were born in the sacred text, as different manuscripts mistakenly substituted one letter for another. No less difficulty arose from the fact that, with the letters worn away by ten centuries of use, not only entire syllables but even whole words had fallen out, leaving behind only bare patches, much like bald spots on a head. Although flaws of this kind could be corrected through tireless labor—the missing parts being filled in by observing the structure and connection of the sentence—the same could not be said for the vast gaps original: "hiatus", which could only be filled by comparing multiple copies, and those were not always available.

Furthermore, Saint EPHREM possesses a style that smells of "exotic perfumes," as they say—the kind shared by all ancient and great writers—rising above common strength and usage in both his words and his thoughts. He uses

words that were mostly well-known and common in his own age, but which to us are foreign and entirely unknown. He mentions names of places and persons for which you would seek synonyms from the Greeks or Latins in vain. For who can tell you that Seman refers to a Roman Emperor, or identify Arach, Achar, Calane, and Calee These refer to ancient Mesopotamian cities mentioned in Genesis 10:10 (Erech, Accad, Calneh) which Ephrem identifies in his commentaries., cities once famous in Asia? Who would not likewise stumble at the terms by which the Syrians, fourteen centuries ago, sought to explain the mysteries of Religion? Saint EPHREM uses the word Salmo original Syriac: ܨܠܡܐ (ṣalmo) to signify the Divine Person of Christ; however, based on the etymology of the Hebrew word Selem original Hebrew: צלם (ṣelem), and from the frequent usage of Divine Scripture, this properly designates a "likeness," an "image," or even an "idol." Similarly, there is the term Knumo original Syriac: ܩܢܘܡܐ (qnūmō), to which no Latin word exactly corresponds In Syriac theology, Knumo is a technical term for a "substance" or "hypostasis," often used to describe the persons of the Trinity.. Many such words occur with multiple and doubtful meanings, such as Ituto Being/Essence, Melto The Word, Chiono Nature, and Sebyono Will—OCR "Odfcio" appears to be a corruption of the Syriac ṣebyōnō, all used to explain the mysteries of the Trinity, the Incarnation, and the Eucharist.

If you proceed from here to explore the paradoxes of the heterodox Heretics or those holding non-standard beliefs., you will immediately encounter terrifying precipices and rugged, thin paths, which must nevertheless be overcome to reach the dens of the Marcionites, Manichaeans, Valentinians, and Bardesanists These were various Gnostic and dualist groups that Saint Ephrem wrote extensively against.. Others have attempted this leap, but perhaps no one with a surer step than Saint EPHREM, as he pursues these wild beasts born in his own native soil. How troublesome and laborious it is for a translator trying to render doubts for doubts, obscurities for obscurities, and riddles for riddles! But consider that Blessed EPHREM often preferred the meter of poetry over prose, believing that the harshness of discipline should be tempered by the sweetness of song, wishing to delight while he instructed. Among the works of the Holy Doctor are very many metrical treatises, as are nearly all the Discourses original: "Sermones" on the explanations of Divine Scripture included in this volume. We had to submit, therefore, to the license that Poetry claims for itself by right—whether she maneuvers through difficult transitions within the constraints of meter, or affects that pleasantness which her nature demands, thinking herself permitted to mix everything with figures and tropes, and, as the great author Cicero, Speech for Archias used to say, to "speak in another tongue." Thus it happens that omissions and subtractions of words occur almost everywhere: unforeseen transitions from one thing to another, digressions and returns, confusing inversions of word order, and parenthetical remarks that have nothing to do with the intended purpose...