Jeffrey Wickes, Bible and Poetry in Late
Antique Mesopotamia: Ephrem's Hymns on Faith (Oakland: University of
California Press, 2019)
Kristian S.
Heal
Brigham Young University
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Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute
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Volume 26.1
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https://hugoye.bethmardutho.org/article/hv26n1prheal
Kristian S. Heal
Jeffrey Wickes, Bible and Poetry in Late
Antique Mesopotamia: Ephrem's Hymns on Faith (Oakland:
University of California Press, 2019)
https://hugoye.bethmardutho.org/pdf/vol26/HV26N1PRHeal.pdf
Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies
Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute, 2023
vol 26
issue 1
pp 292-305
Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies is an electronic journal dedicated to the study
of the Syriac tradition, published semi-annually (in January and July) by Beth
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Jeffrey Wickes, Bible and Poetry in Late Antique
Mesopotamia: Ephrem's Hymns on Faith (Oakland: University of California
Press, 2019). Pp. xiv + 209; $95.
In this book Jeffrey Wickes sets out to “make an argument about how
the Bible functioned in Ephrem’s hymns” (xiii). This is not, however, a
contribution to the history of exegesis, nor is it a comprehensive study of
Ephrem’s use of the Bible. Rather, Wickes examines how, in composing the Madrashe on Faith, Ephrem the Syrian “used the Bible to
build a literary world” (1). The book is, then, based on a close reading of a
single collection of Ephrem’s hymns. Yet, despite limiting the scope of his
inquiry to the Madrashe on Faith, Wickes offers arguments
both about Ephrem and “about the relationship between exegesis and literature in
the world of late antiquity” (1). Thus, Ephrem does not stand alone in this
book, but is treated as a participant “in a broader late antique Mediterranean
culture, which, as it relates to Ephrem, can be identified as ‘Greco-Syriac’ ”
(12).
Wickes is more interested in the generative capacity of the Bible
in Ephrem, or in Ephrem’s “literarily productive reading [of the Bible]—one that
seeks to create new literary works rather than simply draw out the meaning of
older ones” (4). Wickes argues that “Ephrem reflected on his own world through
the lens of the Bible” (2). Ephrem’s literary formation is practically
unrecoverable. However, Wickes is right to see the Bible at the heart of his
education and his imagination. Ephrem seems to have been raised in a culture
steeped in the Bible, a culture that could and would “quote it, allude to it,
imitate it, and recycle it” (2). Thus, for Ephrem, the Bible is a storehouse, a
lens, a governing narrative, and the basis of early Syriac poetics. “Whatever he
is speaking about, Ephrem uses the Bible as a tool to aid his processing and
presentation of the world that he and his audience occupy” (3).
Wickes proceeds by thinking more carefully about the genre of the
madrasha. How we categorize Syriac poetry is an increasingly important and
interesting question. There is, as Wickes rightly observes, a need to avoid “too
easily reading our own literary categories into a Syriac literary context”
(xiii). Thus, Wickes eschews the popular translation of hymn, lyric poem, song,
or teaching-song and prefers to transliterate the Syriac term “madrasha”
throughout the volume. Wickes is not interested simply in the genre problem in
terms of modern translations equivalents, however, but wants to think more about
how this genre functioned in late antique Mesopotamia. “The material found
within [Ephrem’s Madrashe on Faith] manifests a unique
Syriac literary idiom but also suggests a poet thoroughly immersed in the late
antique world” (14).
A major contribution of the first chapter is Wickes’s portrayal of
the discursive world of the Madrashe on Faith. He turns
to the larger corpus of madrashe and makes an argument that while many of the
madrashe can be placed in a liturgical context with reasonable confidence
because of their distinctive vocabulary and liturgical themes, the Madrashe on Faith “developed primarily for contexts of
study” (14). This usefully extends that aspect of the genre of the madrashe that
is best captured by “teaching song” to educational spaces outside of the church.
Thus, Wickes argues for the madrashe’s connection not
simply to worship, but also “to an environment of philosophical and exegetical
debate” (18). In this extensive collection, Ephrem seems preoccupied with
“topics that suggest contexts of study and discussion.” Specifically, Ephrem
concerns himself “with debates over philosophical ideas. He engages in twisting
discussions of the nature of the soul and reflections on how this relates to
human knowledge of God. He assesses what we can and cannot know about the nature
of God and develops complex metaphors to articulate the shared substance of the
Trinity. He articulates a philosophically indebted cosmology and psychology”
(18). Wickes concludes that, “The poems in the
Madrashe on Faith … suggest a
blurred space between liturgy and classroom, in which pedagogical songs were
used to debate difficult philosophical ideas, engage problematic and
controversial biblical passages, and reflect on the role of teaching and
teachers. Within this context, the Bible formed the primary lens through which
Ephrem engaged his audience” (19). As promised, Wickes then places this newly
described genre within a late antique literary context (20–23).
Anyone who has read the Madrashe on Faith
cannot help but notice that “the primary theological idea that lends the poems …
their unity [is] the idea that God cannot be understood by human interrogation”
(24). Wickes explores this theme in his second chapter, with an interest
primarily in the way Ephrem’s poetry “filtered the world through the lens of the
Bible” (24). Thus, Wickes discusses the theological context of the Madrashe on Faith, not simply against “the intellectual
landscape of Antioch and Mesopotamia of the 360s,” but primarily to show that
Ephrem “takes the language and theological ideas that he uses to respond to
Aetius and Eunomius from the Bible” (24). It is the Bible, he argues, that gives
rhetorical power and authority to Ephrem’s language and his denunciation of
heretical investigation. “Ephrem’s polemic against investigation reflected the
theological culture of fourth-century Antioch, but Ephrem articulated and
poeticized his mistrust by constructing a specific lexicon that emerged from the
Bible” (31). Ephrem rarely engages in specific or intensive exegesis of biblical
episodes or passages, rather he invokes the authority of allusivity, what Wickes
calls “a relationship of likeness between the Bible and his madrashe” (34). The
Bible thus offers the epistemological and hermeneutical frame for Ephrem’s
refutation of heretical investigation. Instead of a philosophically motivated
inquiry, “through allusion, quotation, and expansion, Ephrem builds his own
rhetorical presentation of investigation out of that found in the Bible”
(36).
In the third chapter, Wickes seeks to “uncover Ephrem’s Bible—not
the physical text upon which he drew, but the text as he imagined it and wove it
into his literary body” (43). Ephrem imagined a Bible that was at once clear but
also opaque, but not just clear to the believers and opaque to the heretics.
Rather, “In addressing his opponents, Ephrem insisted that the Bible was simple,
but they missed its meaning. In addressing his allies, he insisted that the
Bible was cryptic, because it truly represented the God who transcended human
understanding” (45). The Bible offers the language and terms of all theological
investigation and articulation. For example, “insofar as someone names Christ
using terms from outside the Bible, that person risks destroying the Bible’s way
of speaking about Christ” (46). Ephrem’s opponents failed to either use the
Bible to construct their theology or misunderstood the Bible when they did use
it. In tracing these failures, Ephrem offers a “genealogy of misreading” (51).
Wickes explores Ephrem’s theology of names and symbols and concludes that Ephrem
was not simply doing exegetical work but continues the work of God in the Bible
itself, “bringing forth ever new meanings, ever new reflections of God” (58).
Ephrem’s vision of the Bible was of a text that was simultaneously generative,
polyvalent, and destabilizing, while at the same time “true” (59). As Wickes
puts it, what emerges from a close analysis of Ephrem’s use of the Bible “is a
biblical poetics that parallels the mechanisms he finds at play in the Bible’s
composition.” In other words, “While the Bible’s words and narratives form
metaphors that God has arranged for the sake of an audience, the poet reshapes
these same metaphors for the sake of yet another audience, rendering them
parables whose new morals are manifest in the context of Ephrem’s own community”
(62). This is an example of the fusion of the Bible and Ephrem’s world that is
one of many valuable arguments that Wickes makes in this volume.
In the final three chapters, Wickes explores “the three primary
ways in which Ephrem reshapes the Bible in the
Madrashe on Faith: to represent
himself, his audience, and Christ” (62). In the fourth chapter, Wickes offers a
very nice analysis of selected texts from the Madrashe on
Faith that show how Ephrem constructs a scriptural self. This is not a
self that is achieved through considering biblical exemplarity. Rather, this is
the scriptural poetic self, relating specifically to the use of biblical
language to create Ephrem’s image of himself as poet and thinker. This is what
Wickes calls the poet’s “I.” The result is not simply a self-conception, but
also “a way of placing his poetic self within the biblical text” (75). By
placing himself within the text mimetically, the poet is establishing his
relationship with Christ. Instead of probing from the outside, the poet
petitions from within, and like the figures he discusses, he is blessed and
healed.
In the fifth chapter, Wickes discusses the recreation of Ephrem’s
audience as scriptural selves. Ephrem repeatedly presents his audience with
biblical figures and episodes and encourages them to see themselves in these
texts. This is not a facile activity in which the audience identifies with the
textual heroes and boos off the villains. Rather, “Ephrem consistently locates
his audience between these overt heroes and villains” (90). Elsewhere, Ephrem’s
metaphors and rhetoric are intended to inspire awe and wonder rather than
identity. For Ephrem, awe is the appropriate stance to take towards God. As
Wickes puts it, “For the most part, however, the audience stands outside the
drama of the text. The biblical scenes are vividly depicted for them to behold
with awe rather than scenes in which they can participate” (99). Ephrem is
carefully constructing a biblically inflected moral inventory for his audience.
He is not afraid for the audience to see their own flaws in the mirror of the
scriptural text. Rather, Ephrem is anxiously engaged in using the Bible “to
create an imaginative world upon which his audience can look and through which
it can contemplate itself” (103). In fact, in many cases, “Ephrem’s concern is
not with the Bible’s meaning in and of itself, but with how the narrative can be
used to help the audience contemplate its own moral horizons” (103).
In the final chapter, Wickes seeks to show that “Ephrem used the
Bible to present Christ as beyond investigation and, thus, of the same order as
the Father” (104). This is not an unproblematic task. There is an assumption of
consistency at play when Ephrem “constructs this divine Christ through the
dramatic representation and weaving together of the narrative scenes of the
Gospels” (105). But a certain creativity is required to make the Bible logically
and narratively consistent. Ephrem is happy to weave together “diverse and
disjointed scenes from the Gospels to depict a unified and obviously divine
Christ.” However, “Whereas the details of [Christ’s] life in those writings are
contradictory and difficult to interpret, Ephrem erases the texts’ gaps and
ambiguities and melds together Gospel scenes to create a clear picture of Christ
as the unambiguous Son of the heavenly Father who comes to earth as its rightful
caretaker” (105). It seems that even for Ephrem, the Bible needs a little help
to live up to its role as the standard of faith for the fourth century church.
Thus, although Ephrem wants to create a biblically informed theology, he is
sometimes forced to use “the lexicon and thought world of the madrasha to
represent the biblical scenes rather than taking their language into his
literary form” (113). The objective is unity, and sometimes this required that
Ephrem “rewrites the text so that both poem and Bible speak together in … a
unified voice” (118). Thus, “Ephrem’s madrashe demonstrate yet another of the
ways late antique authors negotiated New Testament material” (123).
Wickes has given us a sophisticated study of the Bible in Ephrem’s
Madrashe on Faith. The book is short, but dense, and
the chapters are filled with careful readings of the madrashe. This makes the
absence of an index of citations unfortunate (an oversight that is remedied in
the appendix to this review). The book is an interesting and largely successful
answer to the question that the author set out to tackle. At the end of the
book, the reader has a thick and sophisticated sense of several ways that the
Bible is used by Ephrem in the Madrashe on Faith. Not
unreasonably, the book presupposes that the reader has first read the
collection, with a good introduction to it, which is readily available in Wickes
previously published book (The Fathers of the Church, vol. 130). Together, these
two books make an important contribution to our understanding of Ephrem, the Madrashe on Faith, and the ways that the Bible fueled
Ephrem’s intellectual formation and imagination. Bible and
Poetry is by no means a definitive study of either the Madrashe on Faith or Ephrem’s use of the Bible. It was
not written as such. Rather it constitutes a lively and provocative voice in an
ongoing conversation in Ephrem studies.
Appendix: Index of Citations to the Works of Ephrem the Syrian
References in parentheses refer to the page in the main body of the
book to which the endnote is connected.
Commentary on the Diatessaron
4:16 182n23 (113)
5:1–12 170n51 (79)
5:19–20 182n26 (115)
7:1–2 169n49 (77)
7:22 157n8 (44)
8:1–7 182n27 (115)
9:1 180n8 (108), 180n10 (109)
11:27 169n44 (75)
12:1–5 182n25 (114)
12:1–5 182n32 (116)
14:9 181n12 (109)
15:20 167n27 (70)
18:1–4 182n39 (119)
18:1 182n39, 40 (119)
20:28 181n17 (111)
Commentary on Genesis
Prologue, 2 162n48 (55)
7:1 176n41 (94)
Madrashe Against Heresies
Entire work 138n1 (11)
1:7 152n26 (28)
2:3 151n23 (28)
2:9 151n20 (27), 152n26 (28)
2:10–20 157n10 (44)
2:20 151n20 (27), 152n26 (28)
3:1:4–5 27
3:9 27
5:5 152n26 (28)
6:14–18 151n25 (28)
6:19 147n65 (20)
11:10 152n26 (28)
16:3–8 159n30 (50)
18:9 152n26 (28)
20:8 152n26 (28)
22:2 155n53 (31)
22:2–3 151n23 (28)
22:4 99, 143n23 (13), 155n53 (31)
22:20 151n24 (28), 154n44 (30), 183n3 (125)
26:1 152n26 (28)
26:10 164n2 (64)
29:33 152n26 (28)
31 151n25 (28)
32:9 57
40:4 71
40:14 170n51, 52 (79)
45:9–10 147n65 (20)
47:3 170n51, 52 (79)
53 72
53:6 168n35 (72)
54 151n25 (28)
56:10 164n2 (64)
Madrashe Against Julian
Entire work 138n1 (11)
2:24 164n77 (59)
3 155n52 (31)
4:1–2 143n31 (14)
Madrashe on Abraham Qidunaya
1:5 68
1:6 167n16 (66)
1:7 68
1:12 69
5:28 170n51, 52 (79)
Madrashe on the Church
Entire work 138n1 (11)
39:5–6 170n51 (79)
Madrashe on the Crucifixion
Entire work 138n1 (11)
Madrashe on Epiphany
3:22 170n51 (79)
Madrashe on Faith
1 146n52 (18)
1:16:2 170n2 (84)
2:9 72
2:11 157n3 (44)
2:24 154n52 (31)
3:1 110
3:15 150n8 (25)
4 146n51 (17)
4:2 57
4:8 170n55 (80)
5 146n51 (17)
5:2 155n56 (32), 169n47 (77)
5:4 155n54 (31)
5:5 56
5:6 56
5:7 56, 61
5:17 66, 167n14 (66)
5:20 66; 67; 71; 166n10, 13 (65)
6 18
6:3 147n65 (20), 166n12 (65)
6:4 146n50 (17)
7 85, 87, 89, 95, 97, 99, 178n54 (101), 178b56 (102)
7:3 89, 181n19 (112)
7:4 88, 89, 181n19 (112)
7:5 89
7:5–6 88, 89
7:7 89
7:8 89
7:10–11 89
7:10 89
7:11 89, 90
8 85; 87; 90; 95; 98; 175n32, 33 (91), 178n54 (101), 178b56 (102)
8:2 92
8:3 174n29 (88)
8:6 92
8:7 92
8:8 178n48 (98)
8:11 178n49 (99)
8:11:1–2 170n2 (84)
8:12 157n5 (44)
8:13 92
8:15 92
9 85, 87, 93, 95, 97, 99, 100, 178n54 (101)
9:4 18, 34
9:12 95
10 17, 75, 81
10:1 21, 166n10 (65)
10:3 76
10:3:1 76
10:3:2–3 76
10:4 76
10:5 77
10:6 77
10:7 159n27 (50)
11 146n51 (17)
11:5–6 146n55 (18)
11:18 80, 170n55 (80)
12:5 156n64 (35)
12:7–18 146n55 (18)
12:10 159n28 (50)
13:2 146n50 (17)
13:5–6 179n2 (104)
13:5 146n50 (17)
14 78, 81, 146n51 (17), 170n52 (79)
14:1–5 78
14:2 80
14:3 81
16:2 166n10 (65)
16:3 166n11, 13 (65); 167n23 (70)
16:4 166n13 (65)
16:5 166n11, 13 (65)
19 146n51 (17)
20 87, 146n55 (18)
21 72, 146n51 (17)
21:1 71, 72, 73
21:4 146n53 (18)
21:6–11 146n55 (18)
21:11 73
22 145n50 (17)
22:6 162n54 (56)
22:7 162n59 (56)
23 18, 167n21 (69)
23:1 74
23:7 169n41 (74)
23:11 73, 168n34 (72)
23:14 146n50 (17)
23:15 146n53 (18)
24 107, 108, 118
24:5 120
25:1–12 146n55 (18), 155n55 (32)
25:1 69, 71, 166n10 (65), 169n39 (73)
25:2 166n10, 11, 12, 13 (65)
25:3 166n10 (65)
25:4 166n10 (65)
25:12 166n10 (65)
25:16 166n10, 13 (65)
25:16:4 71
25:17 166n10, 13 (65)
25:18 160n38 (54)
25:19 167n29 (71)
26:5 43, 57, 163n68 (57)
27:3 146n53 (18)
28 34, 87, 96, 100, 178n54 (101)
28:2 150n8 (25)
28:3 34, 156n64 (35)
28:9–11 97
28:9:5–8 97
28:12 146n50 (17)
28:13–16 98
28:13 178n55 (102)
29:3 162n54 (56)
30:1–4 156n64 (35)
30:2–4 146n53 (18)
31 58, 174n27 (87)
31:1 60
31:1–3 164n71 (58)
31:11 58
32 146n59 (18)
32:2–3 159n28 (50), 166n11 (65)
32:3 166n12 (65)
33:3–8 146n53 (18)
33:6 43
34:3–6 146n55 (18)
35 48, 49, 52, 80, 146n51 (17)
35:1 157n1 (43)
35:3:4–6 49
35:9 49
36:19 146n53 (18)
38:3 166n13 (65)
38:4 166n11, 13 (65)
38:8 166n13 (65)
38:16 146n55 (18)
38:20 166n11, 13 (65)
39:4 146n50 (17), 160n34 (52)
39 17
40–43 179n4 (104)
40:11 146n53 (18)
41 146n53, 55 (18)
41:4–6 146n53 (18)
41:7 160n34(52)
41:11 146n50 (17)
42:11–13 146n55 (18)
43:5 146n53 (18)
44:1 60
44:2 60; 162n54, 59 (56); 163n60 (56)
44:2–3 162n56 (56)
44:3 60, 146n54 (18), 162n57 (56)
44:9 160n34 (52)
46:4 162n54, 59 (56)
46:12 162n59 (56)
47 87, 99
47:3 100
47:4 146n53 (18)
47:5 100
47:6 99, 100
47:6:1 178n50 (99)
47:7 100
47:8 100
47:9 100
47:10 100
47:11 99, 142n23 (13)
48:7–10 146n55 (18)
49 81, 82
50:1–4 146n53 (18)
51:3 162n55 (56)
51:5 168n34 (72)
51:7 111
52:2 162n59 (56)
52:3 146n50 (17)
52:14 154n42 (30), 158n15 (45)
53 18, 45, 133n13 (2), 159n26 (49)
53:2 158n24 (48)
53:4 159n26 (49)
53:6–7 62
53:11 45
53:13 162n58 (56)
54 52, 107, 108, 112, 113, 118
54:3 114
54:4 116
54:7 167n28 (71)
54:8 58
54:10 146n50 (17), 160n36 (52)
55:10 146n53 (18)
56 174n24 (87)
56:1 178n57 (103)
56:2:1 179n57 (103)
56:3:1 179n57 (103)
56:7 51, 157n2 (43)
56:8 51
56:9:1–4 179n57 (103)
57 146n54 (18)
57:4 146n53 (18)
58 167n21 (69)
58:4 143n32 (14)
58:6 105
58:7 18
58:10–11 146n55 (18)
59:4 146n53 (18)
61:10 43
61:14 162n54 (56)
62:3 163n64 (56)
62:7 162n59 (56)
62:11 162n54 (56)
62:12 162n55 (56)
62:13 146n50 (17), 162n59 (56)
63:1 162n54 (56)
63:4 43
63:5 111
63:6 163n60 (56)
63:8 60, 164n72 (59)
63:10 60, 61, 162n54, 59 (56), 163n60 (56)
64 33, 48
64:2 46n53 (18)
64:6 33
64:8 33, 34
64:10 43, 158n19 (47)
64:11 46, 47, 48, 158n17 (45)
64:12 48, 158n20 (47)
65 47
65:1 158n22 (47), 158n23 (48)
65:2 43
65:4 146n50 (17)
65:12 146n53 (18)
65:13 110
66:4 156n64 (35)
66:6 146n50 (17)
67:10 146n50 (17)
71:13 43
72:14 146n53 (18)
74:12 146n55 (18)
75:22 43
77–79 133n13 (2), 158n14 (45)
77:22 146n50 (17)
79 18
80:6 159n28 (50)
81–85 138n2 (11)
81:5 82
82:10 146n51 (17)
86 146n51 (17)
86:7 157n2 (43)
86:22 157n2 (43)
87 159n25 (49), 179n2 (104)
87:4 142n23 (13)
87:4 154n52 (31)
87:21 159n25 (49)
91 146n53 (18)
Madrashe on the Fast
Entire work 138n1 (11)
Madrashe on Nativity
Entire work 138n1 (11)
1 17, 174n23 (87)
1:63–86 17
4:8 170n51 (79)
4:92 170n51 (79)
Madrashe on Nisibis
Entire work 138n1 (11)
1:9 147n65 (20)
19:15 147n65 (20)
21 154n52 (31)
26–30 159n25 (49)
36:5 141n14 (12)
Madrashe on Paradise
Entire work 138n1 (11), 171n6 (85)
5:2 161n44 (54)
5:2 162n50 (55)
5:7 158n17 (45)
5:15 169n44 (75)
7:15 147n64 (20)
7:15 147n65 (20)
Madrashe on the Resurrection
Entire work 138n1 (11)
Madrashe on Unleavened Bread
Entire work 138n1 (11), 171n6 (85)
1–2 145n47 (17)
3–21 145n47 (17)
4 145n46 (17)
5 145n46 (17)
6 145n46 (17)
8 145n46 (17)
9 145n46 (17)
12 145n46 (17)
13 145n46 (17)
14 145n46 (170
15 145n46 (17)
17 145n46 (17)
18 145n46 (17)
19 145n46 (17)
20 145n46 (17)
21 145n46 (17)
Madrashe on Virginity
Entire work 138n1 (11)
4–7 161n46 (55)
7 63
7:15 64
16:2 170n51 (79)
20:12 161n43 (54)
29:1 161n43 (54)
33:1–2 170n51 (79)
37:10 164n2 (64)
Memre on Faith
6:9 158n24 (48), 159n25 (49)