Vestnik Pravoslavnogo Svâto-Tihonovskogo Gumanitarnogo Universiteta: Seriâ III. Filologiâ (Dec 2022)
The Jewish literature of the second temple as a possible source of Ephrem the Syrian’s doctrine about the teacher as a scribe, inspired by God (in the 6th hymn "De Crucifixione")
Abstract
In his 6th Hymn De crucifixione that is consecrated to the interpretation of three days problem of Jesus’ resurrection, the Syriac poet-theologian Ephrem the Syrian (4th c.) functions as a teacher of astronomical and calendric lore. The article focuses on the probable sources of the construction of Ephrem’s authority as a teacher in this hymn. The author demonstrates that the astronomical discourse in the Syriac hymn is constructed with the specific structural devices, e.g., the first-person discourse, the term “calculation” and metaphorically expressed with the image of the scribe. These elements have obvious parallels within the Jewish Aramaic texts of the Second Temple, e.g., “the Aramaic Astronomical Book” and “the Document of Levi”. Like in Ephrem’s Hymn De crucifixione, in these texts are used the astronomical and other arithmetical calculations. The Jewish scribes who composed these works, transformed the old Babylonian mathematical lore into new narrative forms. In the course of this, these real scribes used fictive authority of the biblical figures associated with writing, e.g., Moses, David, Enoch, Noah and others. The author gives heed to the similar use of these biblical figures in Ephrem’s hymns and draws a conclusion about the self-definition by Ephrem as the scribe who is inspired by God and obtain a capability to interpretate God’s “secrets”. As a result, Ephrem “blends” the Christological typological interpretation of the “secret” or “symbol” with ancient Jewish and Mesopotamian connotations. Hence, in his sixth Hymn De crucifixione, the Syrian poet functions not as a theologian but as a teacher with quasi-prophetic status who is aligned with Moses and David and imitates their writing and interpretative activities. In the opinion of the author, these conclusions could shed light not only on the origins of Ephrem’s works, but on the origins of the Syriac Christianity as a whole.
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