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Hymns on Faith

St Ephrem the Syrian, tr. Morris, 1847; selections

26. Rhythm the Twenty-sixth

The Hidden God is by His First-born a Creator, wonderful yet tiring not, for in respect of master, He lacked¹ not one, nor was He feeble at the art, for at the nod of His Will, noiseless and gentle, from out of nothing He created all, and ordered all: and as without labour He created, so without anxiousness He supporteth all. In the Beginning He created all things, while His Thought² was with Him without³ any beginning. He hath no thinking as man hath, that He should be moved in any new way, as is a child of flesh. His movement was not new, nor was His thought fresh. His creation is subject to time and starting and beginning. But His knowledge preventeth times, and beginnings it transcends. The natures of the Seraphim are concealed from us, so that we are to seek as to how an angel hath six⁴ wings, and what his wings are, and where they are, and how a spirit needeth to fly by means of wings. Is this a parable? or is it plain truth? If a truth, very hidden it is; and if a figure, very perplexing it is⁵. Withdrawn from us then is that Infinite Hidden Being, and the searching into Him is too deep for feeble men, and the seeking after Him too high for mortals. And who shall fly up unto His Height? or search out His Depth⁶? He that ventureth towards His Height, stumbleth mightily, and falleth; and he that ventureth to His Depth, drowneth in it, and perisheth. Miserable is the death of him that pried into Him, and the drowning of him that dived to search Him out!

The sun that we see persuades us, my brethren, that it is harm to gaze upon Majesty, since His Nature is too potent for any mouth⁷, and to all languages wholly strange, since our perceptions wist not how to shadow Him out, for there is none of them daring enough to be able to reach unto Him. But the writings of the prophets essayed to depict a symbol [of Him] in Names. For causes there were, why they should be spoken with after so imperfect a manner⁸, since, if He had essayed to speak according to the marvel and wonder of His Divine Nature, it had benumbed their hearing⁹, put a stumbling block before their childishness: the simple man had perished, and the perfect man had fallen short. By every similitude¹⁰ then He accommodated Himself [to them], that man might according to his power and ability suffice for Him¹¹.

The man that thinketh to liken the [Divine] Essence to the creatures, is in a great error. For us to body It forth as the mouth, the ears, and the eyes, this weakly frame of ours¹², is a danger: for us to frame a shape of It¹³, is a terror: for us to measure It, a wickedness: for us to limit It, an iniquity. And though He was higher than these, yet in His mercy It condescended to be below these: the likenesses which are suited to man, came forth from the treasury of the Lord of all. According to the time and the circumstance, He setteth forth a likeness, that He may help us thereby¹⁴. In the time of wrathfulness, in the time of cheerfulness, in the time of fearfulness, in the time of quietness, though His Essence¹⁵ remaineth equable, yet, according to the laws of men, He changeth Himself.

Lo! Moses, when he taught the people, spoke of His Majesty after our fashion: he overthroweth these same [ideas], in that which he says, Ye saw no similitude in the¹⁶ fire. For the Hidden One did not clothe Himself with a likeness in Mount Sinai, lest the people should shadow it¹⁷ forth in colours. He gat Him an Image and a Countenance with Moses, that he might shadow Him forth in his heart. And as it was profitable¹⁸ that He shewed no countenance or image in Mount Sinai, that He might not give profaneness occasion, to shadow forth Himself in erroneous conceptions to mankind, so was it profitable also that He clothed Himself with the likeness of a countenance, that He might shew us His glory, and we might perceive His fairness. In not shewing it He hindered error, and in shewing it He edified more abundantly.

When the elders saw Susanna, they sought to know¹⁹ her. And when Moses saw the glory of the Majesty, he betook himself to all humble entreaty²⁰, and besought Him that he might see Him, that He would make Himself known to him. The elders falsely said, that they had seen what they declared they saw. And Moses too when he saw, yet²¹ knew that he saw not, for that discerning person did not forget that his Lord put on borrowed similitudes. The sight of the Lord of all lowered itself to dust, and the Stablisher of all things formed it into shape! and as He condescended to²² shape it in His goodness, so He humbled Himself to shew Himself in His littleness. And if, though in our similitudes, Moses saw Him and was afraid, how then is it possible to stand before the real power of His Essence? Lo! the Son²³ alone can bear that²⁴!

Gaze then on Him [and see] that it was He, and yet it was not He, for the Real One veiled Himself with an image: His fulness was found within it. His Brightness was covered with our form: for the form was not devoid of His Majesty. This similitude then was not of the Divine Nature. The Majesty made itself a veil for the benefit of childish creatures. Good and wise was He whose words were clear, so that they might reproach the ears of the foolish. The similitudes of His countenance were wondrous, so that His Beauty might attract the eyes of children²⁵. And though He was wholly equable, for He did not decrease and increase, yet He decreased that decreaseth not, and increased that He might give increase²⁶. He extended His discourse to all men. He drew Himself in and was small, to speak with one man [only]. His knowledge was thought by the simple to be so unto Himself, as it was unto us²⁷. For He had it without deficiency: but to us it was seen as if deficient. They saw not that He framed artifices for the people, that He might make them obedient who went astray amid heathenish sacrifices. Because he enticed them with sacrifices, the simple people thought the fat [of rams] was acceptable to Him.

Notes

Ps. 121, 4; 40, 5.
The Anomœans urged, that an Eternal Creator implied an Eternal Creation, as much as an Eternal Father an Eternal Son. To this Catholics replied, that the notion of a father implied the co-existence of a son; whereas a man is called an architect, ship builder, &c. not from his having built them, but from his having in him the art; the one is named from an existing fact, the other from an inherent power; Hence St. E. speaks of the art of God, and His thought or idea. This line of argument, (suggested probably by Aristot. E. Nic. ii. 3.) was used by several fathers, Greek and Latin. See Petav. de Trin. ii. 12. §. 18. and Newman on Ath. p. 65. n. m. p. 201, n. b.
R. xxxii. §. 3.
Is. 6, 2.
To say that the Angels exist in space, would make them corporeal; to say that they have no relation to it, would make them omnipresent. The difficulty which St. E. here touches upon is treated of by Petavius de Angelis, i. §. 13.
p. 144, n. g.
R. iv. §. 3.
S. feebly
R. xi. §. 2.
p. 205, n. b.
St. Chrysostom de Incompr. ii. p. 331. has some similar sentiments. He quotes Is. vi. Dan. vii. 1 Kings xxii. Amos ix. as instances, Hos. xii. 10. as a statement, shewing that the prophets saw but similitudes. He also speaks of the shapelessness of spirits, particularly of God.
This is said with reference to the Anthropomorphites. v. contr. Scrut. i. §. 18. See also n. c. p. 150. and n. b. p. 210.
R. xli. §. 4.
p. 171, e. p. 206.
S. He be equal with His Essence
Deut. 4, 55.
Deut. 4, 12.
S. He helped
H. Susan. 8.
S. he let loose all begging
v. 7.
Vide R. xxxii. §. 2.
R. xxvii. §. 1. contr. Scrut. R. i. §. 3.
On the place he says, ‘I will cause to pass, &c.’ i. e. glory, such as thine eyes can bear; thou canst not see My Face,’ i. e. it is not possible for man to live among the living of this world after he hath seen It.’ It may be added in allusion to what has been said above, note c. p. 116. that St. Chrysostom, who also refers to Ex. xxxiii. 2. conceives sight to be here knowledge; “For there are not the pupils, eyes, and eyelids, in the incorporeal powers; but what with us is sight, that with them is knowledge. When then you are told that ‘no one hath seen God at any time,’ consider yourself to be told this, that no one hath known God with entire accuracy.”
R. xxxi. §. 1.
Vol. ii. p. 510. in speaking of the accommodation to man by which the Holy Ghost is said to be grieved, he adds, “He is high, and it is His love that makes Him low, and for our sakes it is that He decreaseth. Because He spake with us and as we do, the foolish deem God to be such, and reproached Him with those similitudes and devices which utter things edifying to us.”
St. E. seems here to anticipate that interpretation of Mark xiii. 32. which takes it as parallel to those cases in which God asketh questions as if ignorant, wondering, or the like, i. e. as disclosing not His real knowledge, but so much only as might serve a certain end in relation to man. See on Athan. p. 461, b. For though he is here speaking of the old dispensation, in which God as it were affected not to know that the blood of bulls and of goats could not take away sin, yet one cannot but think from the change of the pronouns ‘us,’ ‘them,’ &c. that the new was in his mind also. This is the more credible from what he says on the place referred to, p. 227. ‘When my glory passeth, I will place thee in the hollow of the rock.’ “The hollow of the rock he calleth the assembly of Churchmen: in it then is placed the spiritual law. And ‘I will remove My hand, and thou shalt see My hinder parts.’ Thus He indicates, that He giveth to him the power of ordination in that typical Church. ‘And thou shalt see My hinder parts:’ thus He calls the Incarnation of Immanuel, and the face which was not seen indicates the Nature of the Godhead.” Here we see he views the appearance to Moses as a type of the manifestation in the flesh, and the whole argument is that in no case can God manifest Himself to men while in the flesh, without an appearance of mutability and imperfection, which really exist only in the recipients. See also below, R. xxxii. §. 3. and §. 4. and on R. lxxvii. and vol. ii. p. 521. a—c.