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| The Selections Included in the Present Collection.
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IX.—The Selections
Included in the Present Collection.
The specimens of Ephraim’s compositions offered in
these selections are:—
(1) The Nisibene Hymns, (2) The Hymns of
the Nativity, (3) The Hymns for the Epiphany, (4) Three
Homilies (i., On our Lord; ii., On Reproof and
Repentance; iii., On the Sinful Woman).
Of (2) the Nativity Hymns, the first
thirteen are reprinted from the version by the Rex. J. B. Morris
(Oxford, 1847), made from the Roman Edition of the Syriac Works of
Ephraim. The rest of the series as translated (six312
| 312 From the Nitrian ms., 14506. | in number, making nineteen in all) were
unknown when that edition was completed in 1743. These latter,
and also (3) the Epiphany Hymns (with one exception)313
| 313 Hymns 1–14 from mss., 14506, 14572; No. 15
from the Maronite Breviary. | have since come to light in the Nitrian
collection of the British Museum, and were printed by Professor Lamy in
his St. Ephraim
(Tom. I, cc. 1–144; Tom. II., cc. 427–504), 1882–1889. In the same edition (Tom. I., cc. 145–274;
311–338) were first printed (4) the three Homilies.314
| 314 From mss. 14570, 14651, 17266; and a fragment from
14654 (printed in Tom. II., pp. xx–xxiii.). | Our translations of these follow
Lamy’s text, with here and there a slight variation where errors
seem to exist. These two series of Hymns belong to the
ecclesiastical class: their titles appropriate them to two great
Festivals of the Church, and portions of these are embodied in Syriac
Rituals still in use. Of the two Homilies, the former was written
for the Feast of the Epiphany, like the Hymns which precede
it.
The Nisibene Hymns (1) are translated from
the text as first printed by Dr. Bickell (1866), whose edition, like
that of Dr. Lamy, rests upon mss. of the
Nitrian collection.315
| 315 mss. 14572, 17141 chiefly; with a few others of secondary
value. Five Hymns are lost (viii. and xxii.–xxv.), and part
of two others (ix. and xxvi.). | They also
were unknown to the Roman editors of the last century, and to the
English translator of 1847; and they have not till now appeared in
English. The series when complete consisted of 77 Hymns. Of
these the first division (I.–XXXIV.) treat of the fortunes of the
Church in Nisibis, Carrhena [Haran], and an unnamed city (probably
Edessa).316
| 316 Note the mention of
Edessa in Hymn xlii. 1. | The
remainder (XXXV. to end) deal with the topics of Death and the
Resurrection. The present selection comprises 46 of these,
namely:—of the first division, the first 21, those which
relate to Nisibis and which are the Nisibene Hymns proper; of
the second division, two series—one of 8 hymns
(XXXV.–XLII.) in which Death and Satan hold monologue or
dialogue,—the other of 17 (LII.–LXVIII.), similar in
character, but with Man as a third interlocutor.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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