Vestnik Pravoslavnogo Svâto-Tihonovskogo Gumanitarnogo Universiteta: Seriâ III. Filologiâ (Dec 2021)
Anti-exodus in memra “On Nineveh and Jonah” by Ephrem the Syrian
Abstract
In the memra On Nineveh and Jonah by the Syriac poet and theologian St. Ephrem the Syrian († 373) the biblical story is provided with a sequel that has no parallels in the Christian tradition. This publication is the fi rst to off er its literary and theological analysis. The identifi ed intertextual connections with the books of the Bible, Jewish literature of the Second Temple period, exegetical tradition of Church Fathers and the works by St. Ephrem allow us to draw the following conclusions. The studied text is a hybrid genre that confl ates the Anti-Jewish rewritten Bible with preaching. The author’s choice of a genre, his following its rules on the one hand and innovation on the other hand is framed by the main function of the text, which is polemical. This is especially evident in the embodiment of the object to be condemned and its obvious dependence on the genre section of the memra in which the respective function is carried out. Thus, within the genre of counter-history, these are the Jews, and within the framework of the sermon are Christians, the author’s contemporaries, who live in his hometown of Nisibis. The fi ndings about the genre specifi city of a concrete memra are important not only for its interpretation and not only for the analysis of the legacy of St. Ephrem, but they can also be used in the genre studies of early Syriac literature.
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