On Virginity

A Memra of Mar Ephrem on Virginity His apostles, or the body, are for the son of man, that old one who labored all the while that he might not destroy the newness that passed over and clothed itself, for that is the repayment of his debt. He hunted for his garments, that he might be renewed, be transformed, and destroy you, O body. Hear my counsels. His apostles, by manners that do not clothe you, are for you in customs. Behold, for your master, O body, with new waters, your maker, and through him he cast down your old age, the life that in his blood he created, and he sought a physician for his dwelling. Do not dwell in place of that son of man, the old one, in the physician who renewed the body. If you dwell in your physician for God, you also will be a temple of his kingdom and a priest of his sacrifice. He heals, for he looks to this old son of man, the nature that teaches and the book that proclaims. For his iniquity is a sign between two sick ones, that if he sins against the lawless one, he covers his nature; and if he sins against the lawful one, he covers the book. Behold, he strikes, and the physician heals. In the track of iniquity, they bring in a sign, by which the one who sinned may be healed. They justify the one who rebelled against his madness and the one who repented of his wrath. They heal the rebellious ones, they live, and they heal the repentant ones. It is known, for they will be stretched out with one evil one who is in every place, who slays in every generation and accompanies every man. And in every place, at every hour, also the Levite accompanies every man, and youths in every generation, and they are found at every hour.

Hear the nature and the law when his passions are stirred with evils, for the people of the law grew old and aged that without law the peoples might change their nature and without their nature they might be in need. Nature and law rose up against him, for the confusion of his order feared corruption. The lowly chose from the yoke in the name of the disciple, and when they were diminished, he placed in their secret a stumbling block of shame. And before them, a foul desire to turn the yoke aside. He falls and is caught within snares. How few are your wings, or in the virginity that they grew and ascended up to where your seller sits on the right hand of their Lord of heights. Flee from the counsel of the devourer who distributes profit to children, his fullness a wound from a high place to the loss of merchants. His treasures Adam the great squanders, who with his silver was trading the merchandise of profit. Let not the body be added to him, lest it demand what was added, for in his payments his silver was squandering. For Leviathan, look at his intestines, a fragment and remainder and foreskin with a cucumber, and those who hire and oppress their workers. And the faces are only revealed and pure, of the nails that sent him. Let not the body be joined to foul affection, for when its doer is good, its shepherd dies alive secretly. The disciple is cut and pressed, who with every all will be interceding his gift for the good. A mouth of coverings with his bread he closed, in the beginning of a wound. Free men bought him for their service.

The belly bribed and was bribed. The eye of the abyss and the mouth of the serpent. And the hand does its good deeds. Its silent wine was full of speech in its drinks, murmuring in their voices instead of its master. For it was eager that before the raising of the net upon the mouth of its trap, the food should be for the hunter. Before its debt to its destruction. As the Jew who oppressed and killed, the pure one oppressed the defiled one. That it taught that its oppressions are a mistress and death is mixed in it secretly. This one, if you establish it, the rejecter is the one who repays you. For what stood, your likeness of its desire is dead. And your flesh, that which is yours, lives and warms it. And when you trusted in it, you turned and killed it. The body, if it gives life to its death, also it will be death to your life. A mountain shall be for you a sign of a grave and a dead one in secret, and the rubbing of wood with wood gives life to it for the destruction of both when, however, it descended, it turned it, that which burns the stump of its brother in its force. Or a clear example: that wood made a grave for the mountain. And when it was heated from it in it, it perished. For freedom is like an animal. And like a soul to the body, and in it are the lives. And if from it you cut off, you cast away, they are deaths. It is the ruler that by its will sins stand. And by its will errors fall. Like the high one whose power holds all. And if he who imprisoned it, all falls. The judge is the one who is pained. That not in the hour of sin does the avenger pursue him.

It is the sign of the soul beneath the two. If it returns its counsel to its iniquity, and if it refuses to take from it to go out in spirit. In deceit, in all its sins, the soul beneath is constrained to bear witness before the house of judgment. The body learns repentance, but the soul beneath does not, which at every hour—for repentance is like a medicine for its companions—the soul beneath is this bitter one that seeks and conceals pains at every hour. The hands have written on every document, covering the debt of him who owes money. Thus, in this pattern, the soul beneath conceals in its silence the debt of him who owes sins. If the body intends to repent and then again sins, the seal of your document is your soul beneath. It is written: If a man oppresses his wife, her father and brothers go out to her virgins. For they were not judges who could judge hidden things. The virgins who were on the threshold used to show the truth before the judges. For he who sees your buyer sees hidden things. To your lords, show the hidden one in the virgins, the hidden things in the flesh. Show not on your threshold but on your body the deflowered ones, and show not on thresholds but on your own virgins to your buyer. In a garment, the lamb that approached the ewe, the weaned one suckled. And when it led her astray with her own, it did its own. For he saw that she was rebellious in her cry of virginity. And he restrained and brought in his cry and also his side. For a strong father of his man, his own soul.

The sick one of her virginity stood for the contest and cast aside the crown that was for her grace. He was a layman who saw how much she stood not high. And he hastened, fell, and cast down. He broke the yoke in partnership and erred against the man and the iniquity that sowed in virginity his grace, in his conduct his destruction, the sword that destroyed in virginity and split her in his blood, he washed in his blood. They watered him and they stood, they stoned him and he who stoned the firstborn was pursued in sacrifice. A treasure. If the younger one is in virginity, in the conduct of Moses, the mouth of the bow, the truth, he who reconciles over her who cried out to the child, and there is no strength. Instead of you, yours, or in virginity, make known that which reconciles. That within the hour you are praised and you are silent, do not deliver yourself to captivity within the hour, for which no hour is bound for you in the house of knowledge. To the virgins and to the betrothed who were in Modin. He killed the one who sinned and revived those upon whom the seal of virgins was placed. If, however, to the sinners you gave life in virginity, how long will you live for the rocks? And behold, in the assembly and behold, in the conduct, for you they are hidden, or in virginity. You entered the assembly, the heat of the young man, his pride, your wealth. You went out to the conduct, the arrogant robber, he plundered your treasure. Where will you go, O persecuted dove, for behold, many are for you in every place, your hunters. Behold, your hunters, O virginity, who hunt you, hunt.

On the contrary, the layman found you in the field, seized you, and brought you into his house. He stripped you and defiled you. Again, by the field, he caught you and brought you. In the field, his wickedness corrupted you, and they were corrupted. The pattern was sealed in them: he who corrupts you is corrupted. Or, O virgin, the young man, the bridegroom, sought you out and brought the perfect one; he filled your whole vessel and brought the pure one, whom he defiled, for he who sought food in hunger was one who did not seek, and in a measure of hunger that was not his own, he served. The desire of the flesh, which was not hungry, served. Or, the rational one sought something that was not to be sought for him, that through his seeking you he might find. For he asked of the hearts, or of the becomings of hearts; the cause placed the taker of the heart. A serpent was clothed in the form of the sick one, that a hand might cast a stone upon him and kill him, that desire might crown virginity and her defilements. Her crown, anger, crowned desire and its corruption. XXVI. Tamar’s chastity was fitting, for she saw that she had lost her virginity. She cried out, “Chastity!” Her virginity. She cried out, “Chastity!” instead of chastity. By her virginity, which she had lost, she was not again betrothed. The chaste ones, whose garments sufficed, were days for healing. But the loss of his virginity for one alone is his own for healing. Or, O virgin, your loss is easy for all, and your strength is for the son of all, who is alone. Tamar feared to be silent and was ashamed to speak.

you, O virginity, who were unable to be silent, nor to say, "It is just," concerning her sisters. For the open just ones became preachers to the hidden virgins who were corrupted. The wonder and the marvel of the king's daughter, that in her city there could not be found the pearls that were hung upon her, because of one who was lost. She was a daughter of kings, and stones and pearls trampled her limbs. Virginity, however, alone surpassed all. The foul deceiver, the fool, chose a pearl among the pearls. He forgot the seals and removed the virgins. Does the jeweler know your value, or virginity? You, however, how much are you worth? Did you not perceive? From the house of the stones of the kingdom, he chose and selected a pearl. That one, when he took her, she left him. It is a pearl that was lost from his hand, and does not remain in the jeweler's treasury. Show me, O good news, that you have found the bitter serpent whose words are fearsome. His love is that which is in the bosom, and he himself strikes to destroy. So that you may not find, even you, what the serpent found, that you may not find in him a dwelling for yourself. For if she had taken hold of the opening of his hearing before his speaking, the gate of paradise would not have been closed in her face. She gave that place within her thought to the evil word. She touched and cast away the garment of purity. Keep your holy seal, that the pure seal of paradise may receive you. Do not become the dust of the cursed serpent's food, for dust is his bread and salt, O chosen one.

She who could not be turned back so that she might again become a new salt. The daughter of Gephtah who forgot her own blood, was baptized and brought up from it a pearl, who cut the thread and ascended to the height of the gazelle. The girl who stretched out her form to the side of the sword. With her, the pearl of the pure one who went with him. And the hand that was stained, the destroyer of her virginity, was a swift one for her, a helper on the day of distress. And in the heat, the thread was a guide for her. Before the judge, when it is good, she returns. The daughter of Gephtah desired to be buried, because the vow of her father was not annulled. Do not annul their betrothals; bring with your eyes to the enclosure the virgins whom your mouth has vowed. Gephtah poured out the blood of his daughter, that of your betrothed who is yours. His holy blood was shed in place of your sin. Behold then the blood of the only one for the blood of a virgin, with which your gates are sealed. Like the gates that were sealed with the sprinkled blood within Egypt. For just as that blood upon the gates was marked from outside, the lives within were released among the virgins in the common place. Or like the blood that was a wall, for the treasure of lives within from it, and with it they conquered death. That blood which is little in its appearance, but great in its power, it guards your left ones and your virgins. Walls that guard and are guarded. The blood that was guarded a little, guarded much. The evil woman desired to be buried so that the husband would be annulled. The virgin died so that the vow would not be annulled.

She who could not be turned back so that she might again become a new salt. The daughter of Gephtah who forgot her own blood, was baptized and brought up from it a pearl, who cut the thread and ascended to the height of Now this is the partnership, the mother of seeds, that desires perfection, that it not receive a foreign seed, cursed by its farmer. The virgin should not be joined to a defiled seed, for a pure vessel is a vessel within her. Do not let the body pursue virginity, for it has sinned through grace at the gate, and like a penitent it dwells on the earth. And if it pursues her and uproots her root, when it cannot turn and seek her height, her wing quickly takes flight. She is a bird of height that ages in one moment, and if the taker abandons her forever. And when she flew, the love of the watchers came upon her, instead of her, the fellowship of demons. The desire that is the cause of the generation of virginity, its pursuit increases, for from the body, that the love of the watchers may not dwell in it. With the watchers, the fugitive goes out, and they make it so that there is no weeping for that anointed one. The cause of the beginning of the desire of the anointed ones. Youth should fear wine, for in its old age the cursed one was finished. But if wine has done the hand of the oppressor, that the youths in his hand, by error, have chosen how many times he has done that of the lowly: that men by his hand choose virgins. Young girls have finished the treasure of the old one. Keep fresh, my sisters, in your treasury from the young ones. XL. Fear again from wine, for it is he who spreads out the heavy smoke, and he who was victorious over the baptism of water was purified from the disturbance of wine. And he whose baptism outside did not diminish him, wine within him in silence chooses him.

She who could not be turned back so that she might again become a new salt. The daughter of Gephtah who forgot her own blood, was baptized and brought up from it a pearl, who cut the thread and ascended to the height of the head of the summits and to the tongues she spread her wine. For you, how long, O deceived one, will you be victorious? Do not trust in the wine, for it is a deceiver and a disturber that will deliver your deficiency. For the youth comes, takes away your freedom to motherhood, and after his desire, your love goes. And when you have lost your true betrothed and taken in his place a deceiver, when he became for you a pledge, perhaps you lost, but you found, because his love is false and treacherous and over every hour, it does not suit you, and then many fall into the same pit. When you were deceived here and there, and from both sides you were shorn, the true one left you because you left him, and the false Levite whom you loved, at the crossroads he abandoned you. And where then will your freedom turn, the simple dove that uprooted her nest, and after the serpent, in her love, she went out. Your pearl is a pearl that from between two thieves was about to be lost. For the merchants, the solitary ones, can cut it, and if they are defiled, both lose it, or the pearl is greater than all, and the fool is in his hands. The pearl extends to the thief. He is happy for the one who is drunk with wine more than the one who is drunk with foolish love. For the king and the teaching of the husband, dreams have seized him, and for him, a cord is like a cord that is loose; strong ropes have seized him, he is a staff that is cast and a weak root.

and the staff of the tribe. The story is his covering, and the covering is like a garment that passes through his hands. A crown like a diadem and like a young lamb, pure of face. For not toward his heart does he direct the path of words that he strikes with his hands. Open and shut, one opposite the other, the doors of his hands, the word that enters his hand to meet its counterpart at the end. The speaker who thinks he is guiding within, he is the one who goes out, all his teaching he supposes enters within, but he does not perceive that all of it is outside, that he pours out and is emptied into a place that does not exist, in the thought that receives. For his thoughts are full, and satiated, and sealed, the knots of his meditations. From the overflow of evil love that dripped upon him, and became a great sea. And behold, thoughts stand and are immersed there, like sailors whose ships have been broken, and behold, a plank is there, thought like a ship that has no mast. And when the law is like salt for the good tongue, it desires to bring it with its salt, it is troubled. And for its loss, that lover. O youth, mistress of courses, do not finish your courses in the ruin of the senses. When he has worked in you and taken your strength, he has left you to come to the mockery of your old age, the course of the swift one who keeps you for disgrace. Halt, youth. Your course in the arena of her desire is a crown for your old age. For when old age laughs and her time is short, the bitterness of her youth is remembered.

of his heart, but of the covering. The story is his covering, and the covering is like a garment that passes through his hands. A crown like a diadem and like a young lamb, pure of face. For not toward his heart does he direct the gaze of his eyes, but toward the hidden things of the spirit. O Youth, your beauty is upon your limbs, by which you will be honored when you are old. O Youth, upon your hands are all the virtues. With the steps of the shepherd, trace the footsteps of your youth, O Youth, upon your heart the burden of your Lord. And if the pegs fixed in the wall are called a painter, and the painter is called a maker, then also the worshippers of the image of the kingdom are honored. How much more, then, will your limbs be honored, in which the burdens of your King are painted. LII. Youth is like a basket of good fruit that is fair in summer, and when its fruits and leaves fall away, it is stripped. And every passerby turns his face from it. And it becomes a desire for every kind of thing, for every kind of beauty. Do not show your beauty to outsiders, for when it is stripped and becomes foul, its beholders will despise it. Or, O Youth, do not be deceived by the beauty of youth, whose days are hidden in old age. For the limbs of youth are lost, a fair sight. But old age covers them, for a borrowed beauty has come upon them, which, when it comes and goes, departs and flies away. Prepare to receive the scepter of kings. And your humility in the desert, spread out the pure one of the scepter, the defiled one of the scepter persuades you that you are holy, just as Sarah was holy. In his defiled embrace, the pure one of the scepter was defiled.

for not her heart in her freedom. Her pure will was a priest for her body, and by his offering he consecrated the flesh. For it is defiled by the censer, just as a priest can purify the temple in which he serves. So too can a pure will purify the body, the temple in which it ministers. For that wonder is in the mind: that when it is one, it is itself the temple, itself the priest, itself the celebrant, itself the sacrifice, itself the offering and itself the offerer of the offering. For it resembles that lamb of God, which was itself everything. The discourse on virginity is complete.