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Hymns on Faith

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

49. Rhythm the Forty-ninth

Oh! how august was Noah, who was above comparison with any of the men of his generation! They that were weighed by righteousness were found wanting in the balances, and one soul alone was of due weight by the force¹ of chastity². They were drowned in the Flood who were lacking in weight: and he that was chaste³ and grave was lifted aloft in the ark. Glory to Him who was well pleased in him! Noah extended His ministry between both sides [of the flood], and marked out two types. He sealed⁴ up that which was passed, and began that which was, and between two generations ministered two types, since he interred the former days, and made preparation for the latter: he buried the old generation, and nursed up the youthful one. Praises to Him that elected him!

The Ship of the Lord of all fluttered upon the flood. It went out from the east, and reached nearly to the west: it flew to the south, and reached to the north. Its fluttering over the waters was a prophet to the dry land, and preached that its offspring should multiply on all sides, and increase in every quarter. Praises to its Redeemer! It marked out by its course the standard of its Preserver, the Cross of its Shipman, and the Tree of its Sailor, who should come and fashion for Himself a Church in the waters, and by the Name of the Trinity rescue them that dwell in it; and the Spirit instead of the dove was the Minister of her unction⁵, and of the Sacrament of the Redemption by her⁶. Praises to her Redeemer! His mysteries in the law and His types in the ark bear witness to each other⁷: for as the recesses of the ark were emptied, thus also were the types that are in the Scriptures emptied. He who by His coming brought the mysteries of the law to a close, fulfilled in the Churches the types of the ark⁸. Glory be to Thy Coming!

My mind is amazed that it hath embarked upon⁹ the fearful flood of our Redeemer! Blessed be Noah, since even though the ship was afloat upon the flood, and the ark also, he was himself collected. Be my faith, Lord, a ship for my weakness¹⁰: for lo! the foolish are sunken in the depths of their prying into Thee. Praises to Him that begot Thee!

Notes

S. weapon
p. 47, n. n.
Vol. i. p. 146, d. “My Spirit shall not dwell in these men ‘for ever’—this is because they were created to live for ever, and the Spirit breathed into them was to dwell in them for ever. But they provoked the Spirit by their deeds, and on this account He said, My Spirit shall not dwell in them for ever, because they are flesh, for their deed He calls the flesh: and [read or] it is their life that He calls ‘spirit;’ then it would be, that their life shall not be 900 years like Adam, Seth, and Enoch. But man’s life shall be 120 years, i. e. from the day that Noah began at the work of the ark until it was finished. For the imagination of man is evil from his youth. If then it had been of His Spirit that He was speaking, then neither in Noah would His Spirit have dwelt for the 500 years that he preserved his virginity as not being minded to be married, till the Lord bade him, because he was afraid lest he should have sons and they should be corrupted by the daughters of Cain. Other interpreters however interpret it of the Spirit which was breathed into us, and fashioned man in the likeness of God, &c.” (See p. 267, b.) As the addition of one letter makes this passage clear, I have ventured to suggest reading ‘or.’ It is probable that St. E. begins with the interpretation which takes it of the Holy Spirit, and after passing on to the one which takes of the human spirit, returns to the first one. However, the view given us of Noah’s chastity is the main point here. Comp. p. 20, n. l.
p. 83, note x.
p. 90, n. e.
S. Her R.
See R. xviii. n. c. and §. 2. ref. 1. and p. 5. p. 6. p. 35. n. t. In Vol. i. p. 149, f. he writes as follows: “The dove that Noah sent from the ark prefigures the Holy Spirit to us: and the circumstance that at the first time it found no resting place, inasmuch as men’s conversation was unworthy of the Spirit, indicates the whole time before the flood, as is known from God’s saying, ‘My Spirit shall not dwell for ever in these men, because they are fleshly.’ And by the dove’s returning and the waters abating, he figureth to us that sin abated by the Baptism in the Jordan, and that the Holy Spirit rested: the leaf of olive figureth the unction and reconciliation with the Father and the sign of peace. For the going out of the raven will figure to us the fall of the accuser.” In reference to note h, p. 236. it may be remarked that the ‘abating of sin’ here, (as in Vol. i. p. 521, d.) ‘the changing of the waters, for the washing of the Divine Regeneration,’ is what St. E. contemplates as the object of Christ’s Baptism and not aught gained to Himself. See n. d. p. 270.
Vol. iii. p. 568. “When the just ascend to paradise to inherit it according to its degrees, each one according to his labour doth it advance to the degree which is suited to him: to this each man is kept, since it has degrees enough for them all, its ground is for penitents, the midst of it for the just, its height for those of heroic virtue, and for the Shecinah is its summit. Noah therefore made the beasts to dwell in the lower stories, and in the middle story made he the fowls (see n. g. p. 167.) to dwell, and in the likeness of God Noah dwelt in the highest place. The people on Mount Sinai dwelt below the priests round about it and Aaron in the middle of it: and Moses was on the height of it, and the Glorious One on the summit thereof. The mystery of the division of that Garden of Life did God depict in the Ark and also on Mount Sinai its types; seeing He by its orderings shadowed out to us Paradise, orderly, fair, and goodly in all things. By its height and by its fairness, by its smells and by its diverse tribes that haven of all riches, the Church, is depicted.” See above, p. 35, n. t. p. 121, n. e.
S. [Syriac]
pp. 228, 239, n. c.