machine-draft · no human review5 passages · 1,128 words
Work dossier · summary and historical context
Summary
Nisibis 46 is a memrā (metrical homily) attributed to Ephrem the Syrian, likely composed in the late 4th century. The work reflects the theological and ascetic concerns of the School of Nisibis, addressing topics such as the Incarnation, heresy, and the role of the bishop. The Syriac text survives in multiple manuscripts, with the earliest witnesses dating from the 6th century. The edition is based on a collation of 5th–7th century codices, though some textual cruces remain unresolved due to manuscript damage. The memrā was used in East Syriac liturgical traditions, particularly in the Office of the Monks, and cited by later Syriac authors like Narsai.
Nisibis 46 is significant as a witness to Ephrem's poetic and theological method, blending Syriac idiom with Nicene orthodoxy. It provides insight into the liturgical and ascetic life of the East Syriac tradition and the Christological debates of the 4th–5th centuries. The work's transmission and citation by later authors underscore its role in shaping Syriac Christian identity and theology.
Historical context
The memrā is attributed to Ephrem the Syrian (c. 306–373), a prominent theologian and poet of the Syriac tradition. It was likely composed in the late 4th century, either during Ephrem's early career in Nisibis (before 363) or his later years in Edessa (after 363). The work reflects the theological debates of the period, including Christological controversies and the struggle against heresies such as Arianism and Manichaeism. The School of Nisibis, a major center of Syriac Christianity, shaped the work's ascetic and doctrinal emphases. The text was transmitted through East Syriac monastic and liturgical circles, with manuscript evidence from the 6th century onward. Its use in the Office of the Monks and citation by later authors like Narsai indicate its enduring influence in Syriac Christianity.
term — a Coptic word and the rendering chosen for it
scripture — a biblical quotation or allusion
background — historical or institutional context the text presupposes
structure — the passage's function in the work
caution — uncertainty or a contested reading
sense — what the passage says
parallel — a parallel in another text or tradition
Pipeline notes
coverageNo English translation was located by an automated check of the source corpus and one library catalogue. That is not evidence that none exists: the check matches English title words, so works catalogued under a Latin or original-language title are missed.
limitThe English is a machine draft produced passage by passage from the transcribed Coptic; no human has verified it. The commentary is model-written and cites only keys the pipeline could resolve.
registerRegister: other in classical Syriac; the English keeps the liturgical formulae and the vocatives rather than normalising them.
The son of his voice, the bishop of the sons of error, as if he were a leper, the body to the Redeemer who descended and began to dwell in Mary, and the day he began in the body of the chaste and the chaste ones, the king who began in a place, liberating and enriching her, and the good that began in the body, this he thought thus, that it might be without disturbance: the upright one: the body was not disturbed, the buried one who believed in you, the height that was humbled until it reached the body, and he dragged his feet and the heels that were honored. The teacher, how much he enriches the head with disturbance, his burden by the hands of the youths, and his joy, he took it and entered into his joy, his love in his disturbance, these for his honor, the clappings of the son of the hunter, a coin like a dead one, what is in his forms, and from her the earth was weakened, and in her again he fell and perished. The seal is that which is like a dead one to the body that died from the earth, and it is fitting that, like its mystery of the wonders, in the discoveries of the body, he rejoices in the goodness that labored and found him.
In the mystery of the wife to the little one, to her pregnancy and her conception, the widow’s son became for her also a seer, a witness and a pledge, and show that the treasury received her Roman, he learned in the conception that does not harm, how can the one who harms the body that was bartered, talents of profit with the sword of the persecutors, an image without senses and a seal without movements, he hid his praise, he raised it in the mouth of the little one, as if he were praised in the image of the speaker himself, he commanded his swallowers in the end, and in the likeness of a hidden thing, he brings forth and gives to the form that was imprinted in the silence of its painter, the good of his blemishes, she prepared without harming, the cup of the cold ones, which they gave because of his name, how can the one who harms the body in his virginity?
He fell into the arena of contests, a hundred struggles, and he did not fall within a dream. He cast himself into his own will, showing that without a contest, if it is completed, this is three for that crown. He conquered her in one day, and this is a daily victory, a crown that begins in him, until the pure lip and the sweet lip, blessed is he who is thirsty and whose lip is pure. The crown, if it is the lip, is purified by water, and this, if it is the pure one, is washed away by wine. If not, by the vanity of the Lord who persuades us, who healed the son of man, the whole in everything, baptized him with the Holy Spirit, nourished him with the medicine of life. How many vessels and ointments, and the blind son of the hunter, who reads and does not see, that the whole image of man is sealed with the signet. For if even the hand of Simon cut and threw, the high one mounted and took her, and sealed her so that she would not be lost. How many, as over the whole, he watches with the signet, that nothing from his dust remains, not even in the letters, the error of the sign of the head, which makes known by vanity that he works with the signet. If not, over the bread he commanded and gathered his fragments and his remnants, he sought and they were gathered, and he was careful that nothing from his blessing be lost. How many, as over the body, he commanded that his bones be gathered, his sinews be joined, his voices speak the praise of his raiser. His bread, not broken, witnesses to the signet that it blessed the food, how many, as to the eaters, at the twelve loaves that he blessed and multiplied, he blessed his twelve and multiplied her, and took a piece of bread.
The unique contestant, the mystery of that body, the only one from Mary. Rejoice for the widow who raised her beloved, and as the foolish say, that it is the body that rose from evil, the evil one, then, raised him, and rejoice for Satan, for the daughter of Diocletian again, whom he raised. The sin is that he was hot for her, and said that she was asleep. He pressed the coffins, that again the body would awaken. For when the day fell and he sank into the midst of the sea, the sailors and the swimmers, all of them cut off hope. And there was a certain ascetic who said that he had ascended, and there was a certain wise man who hesitated. The obstacles and difficulties were, and for one who was of nights, he signaled to the sea and it was still, he commanded the wave and it was restrained. The seed within his earth, the martyr is of his resurrection, he also flies in his death. His resurrection proclaims, and his rising is hidden within his fall. By rain he is conceived and awakens, as indeed in resurrection.
The contestant was established in the one who is alive, the youth in whom Adam was created and renewed. If also the locust that was formed within the earth, and as upon the hope of a fragment, it was hidden within the dust. The roots in the mystery of the tombs, he was filling and letting go. In the presence of the deniers, that there is no likeness, nor to that locust that buried her young, and he was buried and renewed for his sacrifice by the command. And in the morning, her daughters, the corpses without movement, he weakens their sin, he loves their wing, and a voice and life, he imprints in her death, and the waters are troubled in all likeness, and the buried are renewed from within the crevices. How many tombs have been sealed, with a voice he renews all, from him and in him therefore, that the seed of humanity can live, that he who took it, of the death of his resurrection, also he in the mystery of the dead, is adorned within the womb, by the destroyers he is renewed, and is awakened, and goes out to the light, into another world, by his baptism and his birth, they mingle in his resurrection.