Work dossier · summary and historical context
Nisibis 56 is a madrāšâ (metrical teaching) by Ephrem the Syrian, composed in 7–8 syllable couplets. It belongs to his first Nisibene cycle (c. 350–363), likely before Nisibis was ceded to Persia in 363. The Syriac text survives in a single 6th-century manuscript with lacunae and scribal corrections in stanzas 4–7. Later incorporated into the West Syriac Fenqitho for the feast of the Nicene Fathers, it reflects Ephrem's catechetical and polemical style, addressing themes of creation ex nihilo, martyrdom under Shapur II, and rhetorical attacks on death and evil.
Nisibis 56 exemplifies Ephrem's poetic theology, blending exegesis, polemic, and pastoral care. It illuminates 4th-century Syriac Christianity's response to persecution and doctrinal formation, and its later liturgical use demonstrates the enduring authority of Ephrem's madrāšê in West Syriac tradition.
Ephrem the Syrian (c. 306–373) composed the Nisibene madrāšê while serving as a deacon and teacher in Nisibis, a city on the Roman-Persian frontier. The first Nisibene cycle dates from c. 350 to 363, a period of Sasanian persecution under Shapur II and Roman military pressure. Nisibis was ceded to Persia in 363 after Emperor Jovian's treaty, a traumatic event that shaped Ephrem's later move to Edessa. The madrāšâ form, with its couplet meter, was used for catechetical and polemical instruction in Syriac-speaking Christian communities. The text survives in a single 6th-century manuscript, with variant traditions not collated in the edition; Beck's CSCO apparatus provides stemmatic details. Its later inclusion in the West Syriac Fenqitho for the feast of the Nicene Fathers shows ongoing liturgical use.
Apparatus · what the pipeline recorded
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