Did early heretics call themselves “Christians”
I was answering an email in great haste earlier today, which contained the assertion that heretics like Marcionites or Valentinians (there was no specific) referred to themselves as Christians. I...
View ArticleSome notes on Ephraim the Syrian’s “Hymns against heresies”
I have been reading the prefatory material to E. Beck’s critical edition of this collection of hymns.[1] The following is abstracted from these. Ephraim’s collection of hymns Contra Haereses was...
View ArticleEphraim the Syrian, Hymn 23 Against Heresies
I have produced a rough translation of the BKV German translation of this hymn, mainly while reading it to see what it said. I make no claims for reliability, but it gives an idea of what the content...
View ArticleAn Armenian version of Ephraim’s commentary on Hebrews?
An email in the ABTAPL list raised a very interesting question. In the IVP Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, in the volume on Hebrews, there is an excerpt from Ephraim the Syrian. Looking at...
View ArticleEphrem Syrus, Hymn 22 against heresies now online in English
Adam McCollum has kindly translated this lengthy hymn by Ephraim the Syrian into English for us. The translation is public domain; do whatever you like with it, personal, educational or commercial....
View ArticleSoliciting donations
For some years now I have commissioned translations of previously untranslated texts. These I make freely available on the web. A correspondent has suggested that I should make it possible for...
View Article‘Twas Christmas Eve in the workhouse…
It is now Christmas Eve. A minority of people will be sat at home, in a traditional Dickensian family circle, waiting for Christmas. In rather more households there will be excited children rushing...
View ArticleFrom my diary
It’s remarkable how much one can achieve in a few dedicated days. I’ve managed to get my new Mithras site up and functional, although far from complete. It may be found here....
View ArticleEphraim Syrus, Hymns 23 and 24 against heresies now online in English
Adam McCollum has kindly translated for us hymns 23 and 24 from the collection of Hymns against heresies by Ephraim Syrus, and I have placed them in the public domain. Do whatever you like with them,...
View ArticleEphraim the Syrian on the Borborites / Phibionites
A rather baffling reference to “Ephraem the Syrian, Contra Haereses 79″[1] turns out to be a reference to Hymns against Heresies 22, 4, which, by happy chance, was translated for us a while back here....
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A big hole in Patristics – the neglect of Ephraim Graecus
We all know that Christianity spread west into the Greek and Latin-speaking world. It also spread east, into the Syriac-speaking world. Most important of the Christian writers in Syriac is Ephraim of...
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Did pseudo-Ephraim believe in the Rapture? Some notes on the manuscripts, the...
There is a Latin text from the early Dark Ages which some believe teaches the “Rapture”; the idea that, before the Tribulation described in Revelation, the saints will all be caught up in the air by...
View ArticleA symposium on Ephrem Graecus next week at Marquette university in Milwaukee
Regular readers will remember “Ephrem Graecus” – the mass of works in Greek which are attributed to Ephraim the Syrian, but which are in fact mostly original compositions. Little work has been done on...
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