The Dispute between the Cherub and the Thief
Sebastian P.
Brock
University of Oxford
Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute
George A. Kiraz
James E. Walters
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Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute
2002
Vol. 5, No. 2
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https://hugoye.bethmardutho.org/article/hv5n2brock
Sebastian P. BROCK
The Dispute between the Cherub and the Thief
https://hugoye.bethmardutho.org/pdf/vol5/HV5N2Brock.pdf
Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies
Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute, 2002
vol 5
issue 2
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
Mardutho: The Syriac Institute. Published since 1998, Hugoye seeks to offer the
best scholarship available in the field of Syriac studies.
Syriac Studies
dispute/dialogue poems
soghyatha
Repentant Thief
File created by XSLT transformation of original HTML encoded article.
The lively verse dialogue between the
Repentant Thief (Luke 23:43) and the Cherub guarding the
entrance to Paradise (Genesis 3:24) is an excellent
representative of the ancient literary genre of dispute
literature that has remained popular in the Middle East in
various languages for nearly four millennia. The aim of the
present article is to make the poem available in translation to
an English-speaking audience. The introduction gives an outline
of the poem's wider context, and ends with some suggestions
about how it might be revived for use today.
An ancient Mesopotamian genre
[1] One of
the most long-lived literary genres of the Middle East is the
Precedence Disputation, the oldest examples of which go back to
Sumerian literature of the early second millennium
BC. The thread of continuity, over nearly four
thousand years, can be traced through Akkadian, Middle Persian,
Jewish Aramaic, Syriac, Arabic and Persian,
Overviews can be found in G.J. Reinink and H.L.J.
Vanstiphout (eds), Dispute Poems and Dialogues in the
Ancient and Mediaeval Near East (Orientalia Lovaniensia
Analecta 42; Leuven, 1991); R. Murray, "Aramaic and
Syriac dispute poems and their connections", in M.J. Geller,
J.C. Greenfield and M.P. Weitzman (eds), Studia
Aramaica (Journal of Semitic Studies, Supplement 4;
1995), 157-87; S.P. Brock, “The Dispute
Poem: from Sumer to Syriac”, Journal of the
Canadian Society for Syriac Studies 1 (2001), 1-10.
right up to the
present day when examples in Modern Syriac and in Modern Arabic
have been collected.
Modern Syriac: e.g. L. Yaure, “A poem
in the Neo-Aramaic dialect of Urmia”, Journal of Near
Eastern Studies 16 (1957), 73-87 (Samovar and Boys);
Modern Arabic: e.g. C.D. Holes, “The rat and the
ship’s captain”, Studia Orientalia 75
(1995), 101-20.
Among Syriac authors, it was Ephrem who, in
the mid fourth century AD, first adapted this ancient literary
genre to a Christian context, with a series of Precedence
Disputes between Death and Satan, where each argues that he has
the greater control over human beings.
Carmina Nisibena LII-LIV; English
translation of LII in S.P. Brock, The Harp of the
Spirit: Eighteen Poems of Saint Ephrem (Studies
Supplementary to Sobornost, 4; 1983), 70-72.
[2] Although
these formalized Precedence Disputes may be in either prose or
verse, the vast majority of the Syriac examples are in verse,
following a regular structure; this consists of a short
introduction, followed by the dispute or argument between two
persons speaking in alternate stanzas, and ending with a brief
conclusion (or sometimes, doxology). The
verse structure employed is that of the soghitha, with
short stanzas consisting of four isosyllabic lines; very
frequently the central dialogue has an alphabetic acrostic.
The Syriac dialogue poems
[3] The
great majority of the Syriac dispute and dialogue poems deal
with biblical subjects, though there are a few on secular
topics.
A list is given in S.P. Brock, “Syriac
dispute poems: the various types”, in Reinink and
Vanstiphout, Dispute Poems and Dialogues, 109-19
(reprinted in From Ephrem to Romanos (Aldershot,
1999), chap. VII (and Addenda, 4-5).
In those that take their starting point in an
episode in the Bible, the dispute element is usually more in
the form of an argument, and this, while presented in a lively
(and sometimes humorous) manner, may at the same time convey
some underlying teaching of a more profound
nature. It is not known what the exact
context, liturgical or other, Ephrem had in mind for his
Disputes between Death and Satan, but subsequently these
dialogue soghyatha came to be written and used for the
Night Office (Lelya/Lilyo). In
the extant liturgical manuscripts the dialogue
soghyatha are mainly grouped around the
Nativity-Epiphany and Holy Week. The poems
tend to be preserved in their complete form only in the
earliest manuscripts, dating from the ninth to the twelfth
century; in manuscripts of a later date the poems are
often either abbreviated or with alternate stanzas only (thus
giving only one speaker's verses); in the latter case,
the manuscript was specifically intended for use by just one of
two choirs.
[4] The
dialogue soghyatha have unfortunately not fared well
in the various printed editions of the West Syriac Fenqitho and
East Syriac Hudra: those that do feature are usually
either in a very truncated form, or give just alternate
verses; only very rarely do they preserve the text
complete. As it happens, the Dialogue between the
Cherub and the Thief, translated below, happens not to feature
in any printed liturgical edition known to me, despite the fact
that it has an extensive manuscript tradition and translations
into Modern Syriac, indicating its continuing popularity over
the centuries.
The Cherub and the Thief
[5] Like
many of the Dialogue soghyatha, that between the
Cherub and the Thief takes as its starting point a single
biblical verse, namely Luke 23:43, where Christ tells the Thief
who acknowledges him, "Today you shall be with me in
Paradise".
[6] The
unknown author, who probably belongs to the fifth century, sets
the scene of the poem at the gates of Paradise, where the Thief
encounters the Cherub
Whereas the Hebrew and Septuagint have the plural,
Cherubim, the Peshitta has the singular.
who has been given the task of guarding the
entrance of Paradise against anyone from the banished human
race who might try to approach (Genesis
3:24). The lively argument between the two
continues until the Thief finally produces the key to
Paradise—the cross—that he bears.
[7] The
Dispute between the Cherub and the Thief is to be found in
numerous liturgical manuscripts of both the Syrian Orthodox
Church and of the Church of the East, as well as in three
Modern Syriac versions. The Syriac text (based on
an East Syriac manuscript) was first published by E. Sachau in
1896, and this has been recently republished, along with the
three Modern Syriac versions (one of which Sachau had also
published), in an excellent and attractive volume entitled
Il ladrone e il cherubino. Dramma liturgico
cristiano orientale in siriaco e neoaramaico, by Fabrizio
Pennacchietti.
Torino, 1993. On the cover will be
found a reproduction of a medieval illustration of the topic
(for this, see J.Leroy, “La sogitha du cherubin et du
larron, source d’une miniature du manuscrit syriaque BM
Add.7169”, Parole de l’Orient 6/7
(1975/6), 413-19.
Another edition of the poem, this time
based on much earlier Syrian Orthodox manuscripts, is included
in my Sughyotho Mgabbyotho;
Monastery of St Ephrem, Holland, 1982 (it features
as no. 13, pp.61-5); for the contents and sources of this
collection of 26 pieces, see “Syriac dialogue
poems: marginalia to a recent edition”, Le
Muséon 97 (1984), 29-58.
an English translation of
this was subsequently published in India,
Sogiatha: Syriac Dialogue
Hymns (Syrian Churches Series XI; Kottayam, 1987),
28-35. There is also a French translation by F.
Graffin, in L’Orient Syrien 12 (1967), 481-90.
and it is basically
the same translation which is republished
below. The differences between the East and
West Syriac texts of the poem are not great, as will be seen
from the list of more important differences given below, after
the translation. Although the West Syriac
manuscripts are very considerably older than the East Syriac
ones, it is likely that the latter sometimes preserve the
original text (thus, for example, at 33b "He put on a body", in
the East Syriac manuscripts, preserves the early Syriac
metaphor for the incarnation which later Syrian Orthodox
tradition tended to abandon).
The East Syriac recension may also be original at
3d, 18d, 25c, 28c, 33a and 50c.
Some other treatments of the theme
[8] The
soghitha may well have been known to Jacob of Serugh
(d. 521), one of whose verse homilies is on the same
subject; attention is drawn to the main parallels in the
brief commentary which follows the translation.
After a long prologue (pp. 658-666), Jacob's memra
provides the following speeches: Thief to Christ (pp.
666-668), Christ to the Thief (pp. 668-669); these are followed
by a narrative, and then the Cherub and the Thief are given
alternating speeches: Cherub to Thief: pp. 671-672,
673-673, 675, 676-677, 680-681, 684-685; and Thief to
Cherub: pp. 672-673, 674-675, 675-676, 677-680, 681-683,
685-687.
[9] Jacob's
older contemporary, Narsai, by contrast, does not provide any
homily on this subject. In Greek literature of the
period there are occasional vague parallels, where the Cherub
is introduced, but a sustained dialogue between the Cherub and
the Thief is very rare, and is best attested in the second half
of a Greek text attributed to John Chrysostom (Clavis
Patrum
Graecorum 4877), published by M. van
Esbroeck, together with early Georgian and Arabic
translations.
“Homélie
éphrémienne sur le bon Larron en grec,
géorgien et arabe”, Analecta Bollandiana
101 (1983), 327-62.
The few parallels between this
text and the Soghitha are noted in the Commentary
below.
The dramatic potential and a suggestion for
today
[10] It
would seem that it is only with this particular dialogue poem
that the dramatic potential of the genre was exploited, with
the poem being acted out in a stylised form of liturgical
drama. A description of this, belonging to the early
twentieth century, can be found in W.A.Wigram's The
Assyrians and their Neighbours:
London, 1929, p.198.
...the boy to whom it has been given to 'act the Penitent
Thief' for that year, storms the sanctuary vi et
armis, and is driven back again and again by the blazing
torches held by the deacons, who for the nonce represent the
Cherubim that guarded Paradise with the flaming sword.
At last the Penitent Thief secures the cross that lies always
on a table at the entrance of the sanctuary - and which each
worshipper kisses on entering the church - and comes forward
brandishing that passport to bliss. Then the
deacon-angels receive him, and - seeing that souls are always
borne by angels into Paradise, and also that no unordained
man my set foot in the sanctuary, the boy is carried
pick-a-back into the 'Altar-enclosure'.
[11] In a
modern context both this, and the other dialogue poems on
biblical topics would seem to offer excellent material for
catechetical use, above all with children. Here it
is worth mentioning that the Dialogue between John the Baptist
and Jesus (based on Matthew 3:14) was performed (in English
translation, of course!) in England a few years ago at a school
for children with learning disabilities. For use of this
sort in church schools, the English translation could, if
thought necessary, be abbreviated and/or adapted; indeed,
there is no reason why the dialogue might not be imaginatively
rewritten, simply taking elements from here and there in the
original Syriac poems.
[12] It
is not only with children that these lively dialogue poems
deserve to be brought back into life again, for they could also
well be used to good effect set to music once again - either
employing their traditional qole (the most commonly
found is ‘Amo w-'amme), or to new musical
settings. It would seem that here is a wonderful
opportunity for the various Suryoyo gude, or musical
groups, to draw creatively on this their splendid heritage,
whose roots lie in ancient Mesopotamia.
Text
Translation
1. At the Crucifixion I beheld a
marvel
when the Thief cried out to our Lord,
"Remember me, Lord, on the day when You come
to that Kingdom which does not pass away". [Luke 23:43]
REFRAIN
Praise to You, Lord, for at Your coming
sinners turned back from their wickedness;
they entered and found shelter
in the Garden of Eden - which is the holy Church.
2. He made a petition, stretched
out and gave it
to the crucified King, asking for mercy;
and He who is full of mercy heard his cry
and opened the door to his request.
3. "Remember me, Lord", was what
he cried out on the cross,
"in that Kingdom which does not pass away, [Luke 23:43]
and in that glory in which You will be revealed
may I behold Your rest, seeing that I have acknowledged You".
[cp Luke 12:8]
4. Our Lord replied, "Since you
have acknowledged me
this very day you shall be in the Garden of Eden;
in very truth, man, you will not be kept back
from that Kingdom to which you are looking.
5. "Take with you the cross as a
sign, and be off:
it is a great key whereby the mighty gate
of that Garden shall be opened,
and Adam, who has been expelled, shall enter again". [Gen.
3:24]
6. The word of our Lord was
sealed
like a royal missive from the palace;
it was handed over to the thief
who took it and made off for the Garden of Eden.
7. The Cherub heard him and rushed
up,
he grabbed the Thief at the gate,
stopping him with the sharp blade that he held.
All astonished, he addressed him as follows:
8. CHERUB "Tell me, my man, who
has sent you?
What is it you want, and how did you get here?
What is the reason that brought you here?
Reveal and explain to me who it is who has sent you".
9. THIEF "I will tell you who has
sent me,
just hold back your blade and listen to my words.
I am a thief, but I supplicated for mercy,
and it was your Lord who sent me on my way here".
10. CHERUB "By what powerful means
did your arrival take place?
Who brought you to this dread spot?
Who transported you across the sea of fire
so that you could enter Eden? Who is it who sent you?"
11. THIEF "It was through the
power of the Son, who sent me,
that I crossed over and came here without hindrance.
Through Him I subdued all powers
and I have come to enter here, seeing that He has given me
confidence".
12. CHERUB "You are indeed a
thief, just as you have said,
but you can't steal into this region of ours:
it is fenced in with the sword that guards it. [Gen.
3:24]
Turn back, my man, you have lost your way".
13. THIEF "I was indeed a thief,
but I have changed:
it was not to steal that I have come here.
Look, I've got with me the key to Eden,
to open it up and enter: I will not be prevented".
14. CHERUB "Our region is awesome
and cannot be trodden,
for fire is its indomitable wall;
the blade flashes out all around it.
How is it you have made so bold as to come here?"
15. THIEF "Your region is indeed
awesome, just as you have said,
- but only until our Lord mounted the cross,
when He transfixed the sword of all suffering
so that your blade no longer kills".
16. CHERUB "Ever since the time
that Adam left
I haven't ever seen anyone turn up here;
your race has been banished from the Garden;
you shall not enter it, so don't argue any more".
17. THIEF "Ever since the time
that Adam left
your Lord has been angered at our race,
but now He is reconciled and has opened up the gate. [Rom.
5:10; Eph. 2:16]
It is to no purpose that you are standing here".
18. CHERUB "You should realize
that it isn't possible
for an unclean man to enter in here
- and you are a murderer, and a shedder of blood.
Who is it who has brought you to this pure place?"
19. THIEF "You should realize that
such is the wish
of Him who makes the unclean clean, who was crucified together
with me;
with the blood from His side He has washed me completely clean.
[John 19:34]
It was He who has sent me to Paradise".
20. CHERUB "Be off with you, man,
and don't argue any further,
for this is what I have been ordered:
to guard from your race, by means of the sword,
the Tree of Life that is to be found in here". [Gen. 3:22]
21. THIEF "Be off with you, angel;
you should learn and see
that I've left behind, hanging on Golgotha,
that very Fruit of Salvation that's in your garden
- so that our race may now enter without any hindrance".
22. CHERUB "Eve and Adam fell into
debt and wrote out
a document that will not be erased: [Col. 2:14]
they went out of here under sentence
to live in low estate in the land of thorns". [Gen. 3:18]
23. THIEF "The debt is repaid.
Just listen, O Cherub:
the document has now been transfixed on the cross; [Col.
2:14]
by means of both blood and water your Lord has wiped it
out,
and pinned it there with nails so that it won't be
exacted".
24. CHERUB "Adam was driven out
from this Garden
and there is no way he can enter here again,
for the sword's blade is revolving
and he'll encounter it should he come near".
25. THIEF "He who was driven out
has returned to his father's house,
for the great Shepherd has gone out and found [John
10:11]
that sheep that had left the Garden;
carrying him on His shoulders, He has escorted him back". [Luke
15:5]
26. CHERUB "It is something
totally novel that I've seen today:
a path leading back into the Garden.
But here are Adam's footprints, take a look:
he has left here and not returned again".
27. THIEF "Jesus your Lord has
performed a novel deed,
for now He has released Adam who had been confined;
He has raised up whole crowds from inside Sheol, [Matt.
27:52]
and they have sent me in advance, to open up for them".
28. CHERUB "I am the cherub: how
is it you have transgressed
against my office of guarding, with which I've been
entrusted?
A fiery being like me cannot be vanquished,
but as for you, an offspring of Adam, how bold you are!"
29. THIEF "I am your companion and
we have but a single Lord
in common for both of us;
His authority is much higher than either yours or mine,
and so I've no fear, seeing that it was He who has sent
me".
30. CHERUB "You simply cannot
enter in here,
for it is a resplendent place that no one can tread:
the Shekhina is escorted around inside it,
and the sword of fire is guarding it".
31. THIEF "You cannot hold anyone
back,
for the sword is not blunted and made dull.
The cross has opened up the Garden of Eden;
there's no means by which it can still be kept closed".
32. CHERUB "Haven't you heard from
the Bible
how the cherub and the sword go round
guarding the way to the Garden of Eden,
so that none of Adam's offspring can enter here?"
33. THIEF "Haven't you heard from
the Revelation
that your Lord has come down and become man,
thus reconciling Adam, who was in a state of anger,
bringing back to Eden the one who had been driven out?"
34. CHERUB "The sign of the
revolving sword
that guards the Tree of Life
frightened off Adam when he was driven out,
so how is it that you're not afraid?"
35. THIEF "The sign of your Lord
is with me,
and by it the sharp sword is blunted;
but it too is the sentence remitted,
and by it, Adam, once expelled, shall return".
36. CHERUB "The ranks of fire are
standing here,
thousands of them in bands innumerable;
the multitudes are awesome, and quite simply
you can't travel on any further and enter among them".
37. THIEF "The multitudinous ranks
of which you've told me
are themselves in awe as they look upon the Cross:
the sign of the Son inspires them with awe
and they worship before it, while me they hold in honour".
38. CHERUB "The sign of my Lord is
upon the Chariot, [Is. 66:15]
resplendent upon the Throne, but from us it is hidden, [Ezek.
1:26-7]
so how is that you—as you are claiming—
carry this sign of His and escort it?"
39. THIEF "His sign is upon the
Chariot above,
but look, His Cross is on Golgotha below,
and with His own blood He has written a new missive
permitting Adam to come back into the Garden".
40. CHERUB "O agent in blood, who
has brought you here?
Who is it has sent you, a murderer?
The sword is drawn, and if you make bold
the blade will flash out against you".
41. THIEF "O agent for the King,
don't be upset;
your authority is repealed, for your Lord has willed it
so.
It is His cross that I've brought to you as a sign:
look and see if it's genuine, and don't be so angry".
42. CHERUB "This Cross of the Son
which you've brought to me
is something I dare not look upon at all.
It is both genuine and awesome; no longer will you be
debarred
from entering Eden, seeing that He has so willed it".
43. THIEF "The Cross of your Lord
has breached the fence [Eph. 2:14]
that had been built up between us and you,
Anger has passed away and peace has come,
and the path to Eden is no longer cut off".
44. CHERUB "He who was slain has
sent to me and testified with His own blood
that I should let go of the blame which I've been
wielding.
Fearful is this sign which you have brought me;
enter in, O heir; I will not turn you back".
45. THIEF "Resurrection has
occurred for the race of humankind
that had been thrust out of their home.
You cherubim and angels, rejoice with us, [cp Luke 15:10]
for we have returned now to your city".
46. CHERUB "Great is the
compassion that has been shown to you,
the descendants of Adam who sinned and thus died.
Enter, thief, you will not be kept back,
for the gate is now open for those who repent".
47. THIEF "Great and most glorious
is the compassion of my Lord,
for His mercy has effected and His love has constrained
Him.
Rejoice with us, O spiritual beings,
for we have been mingled into your race".
48. CHERUB "The Gentle One has
held back from your race [Matt.11:29]
the blade and the sword that I have been wielding.
Outcasts who have returned, have no fear,
enter inside the Garden with exultation".
49. THIEF "Praise be in Eden that
is now at peace,
peace on earth which has been liberated.
Blessed is the Crucified One who has reconciled us
so that we shall not longer be deprived of your race".
50. Thanks be to You, O Lord of
all,
who have brought back Adam who had been driven out,
while to the thief who asked for mercy
You opened up the gate that had been closed.
51. Thanks be to You, at whose
word
the thief entered into the Garden of Eden,
and there was good hope for Adam again
and he returned to the place from which he had gone out.
[13] The
following are the main variants in the East Syriac manuscript
tradition (edited by Sachau and Pennacchietti):
3:b ..when you will be
revealed.
c ..you will
come.
d (May I see) Your
compassion.
8:d (explain to me) who you are.
9:a ..who are
questioning me.
17:a ...Adam sinned.
18:d to the place of the upright.
24:a Your race (was driven out...)
25:b the Good Shepherd
c that had strayed from the flock.
27:c ..raised up the dead.
d and He has sent me.
28:c (A fiery being) I am who..
30:b for this place may not be trodden.
33:a seen
b and put on a body.
c who had been driven out.
d who had been in a state of anger.
34:a The fire and the...
36:d and pass through among them.
38:b seated upon..
39:a His radiance..
40:cd (transposed).
42:a of Jesus.
d come and enter Eden.
43:1 of the Son.
44:d I will not make bold; enter in, O heir.
45:d we have arrive at.
46:d for those who enter in.
47:b His love willed it.
d to your assembly.
48:a The Cross..
49:d ...your ranks.
50:c in (the person of) the thief.
51:d who returned.
Commentary
Abbreviation: JS = P. Bedjan, Homiliae Selectae
Mar-Jacobi Sarugensis, V (Paris/Leipzig, 1910),
cited by page and line (other volumes of JS are cited by page
alone).
1c cp JS 666:11, 15; 668:18.
2ab cp JS 666:19-20, "He (the Thief) sought from Him
mercy, that He would have compassion on him in the
Kingdom; / he made supplication that was full of
suffering to present to Him".
2d cp JS 666:22, "Open up the door of mercy to me so
that I may enter the fair place". And 668:21, "He opened
up the great door of mercy before his petition".
3d cp JS 668:5, "I have acknowledged You".
4c cp JS 668:22-669:1, "Verily, verily I say to you,
consider as true, O man, / that today you will rejoice with me
in the Kingdom".
5b For the Cross as a "key", see already Ephrem,
Hymns on the Resurrection II:1; in Jacob, cp JS 669:10,
670:15, 674:3 (also in his Letters, ed. Olinder, 3:19-20).
6ab For "royal missive" (saqra = Latin
sacra), cp JS 669:20-21, and especially 670:4, "with
His living name He would seal the royal missive
(saqra) for the thief on the right hand".
Though not yet found in Ephrem, the term saqra is
later frequently used to denote messages from the heavenly
world to earth, above all in the context of the
Annunciation. That it was a letter from Christ which the
Thief took with him is a theme found in a few Greek sources,
notably Romanos' Kontakion on the Adoration of the Cross (ed.
Maas-Trypanis, no 23), stanzas 10-11 (where the Thief tells the
Cherub that he has with him a letter (gramma) with
Christ's seal on it; likewise in the Greek text
attributed to John Chrysostom, edited by van Esbroeck, Thief
tells the Cherub that "Christ has written for me a letter
(epistolen)" (section 8). In the Cave of
Treasures 51:23 (ed. S-M.Ri), Christ wrote with his own
blood a saqra of Adam's return and sent it by the
hands of the Thief.
7d cp JS 671:2, "The Cherub met him and stood there
in amazement to question him".
8a cp JS 671:3-4, "Tell me, man, who are you?
Where are you from? / How did you come over the awesome path of
flame?"
9c cp JS 673:1, "I am a thief who used to go about
with hateful deeds".
10c For "sea of fire", cp JS 670:18, 671:12,
673:21.
12c Behind the term "fenced" (sig), lies an
allusion to the "fence" (syaga) of Eph. 2:14, "He has
broken down the fence of hostility". Syriac writers
regularly understand this verse as referring to the "fence"
keeping humanity out of Paradise, subsequent to the
Fall); thus already Ephrem, Madrashe on Paradise II.7,
IV.1 etc; cp JS 686:20, "He has broken down the fence,
and so your standing here is redundant".
13a cp JS 674:11, "I was a thief, but mercy captured
me from (my) hateful deeds".
14bcd cp JS 674:4-5, "And there is a wall of fire and
you cannot break through the partition; / the blade of
fire flares out and is fearful, and if you should be so
bold...".
17d cp JS 686:20, cited above, on 12c.
19c cp JS 674:12, "I bathed and was scoured clean of
the evils with which I was befouled".
23b The Georgian and Arabic text edited by van
Esbroeck also adduces Col. 2:4 (section 12; not in his
Greek text).
25bcd The Georgian and Arabic text likewise
introduces the theme of the lost sheep (section 12; again
absent from the Greek).
30c The term "Shekhina" (shkinta), or Divine
Presence, is quite common in Syriac poets from Ephrem (e.g.
Madrashe on Paradise II.11) onwards.
33b The East Syriac text, with "put on a body" almost
certainly preserves the original reading here. This
archaic phraseology (already found in the Acts of Thomas,
Aphrahat, Ephrem, and in the earliest Syriac translation of the
Nicene Creed) was subsequently disapproved of by Philoxenus in
the light of the Christological controversies; it was
accordingly avoided by many (but by no means all) Syrian
Orthodox writers.
36a For "The ranks of fire" (sedray nura),
cp JS 669:19.
40a For "man of blood", cp JS 675:19 and 677:2.
44d cp JS 669:18, "Tell those who are lost that Adam,
the heir, has returned".
47b The phrase "His love has constrained Him" also
occurs in the Soghitha on Mary and the Angel (verse
1b), and in a Soghitha attributed to Ephrem
(Soghitha II.2 in E. Beck, Hymni de
Nativitate): "The daughter of poor parents has
become mother to the Rich One / whose love has thus constrained
Him". The same verb (‘sa) also features a
number of times in Jacob's memre (e.g. I, 507;
II, 137),
Jacob normally prefers the verb
ngad (e.g. I, 609; II, 349, 507 etc.).
although not in that on the Cherub and the
Thief, where the nearest parallel is 686:18, “He became a
Mediator and pacified His Father for His love so wished
it”._______
Notes
_______
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