§ 172. EPHK^M THE STKIAN. 951
acquired great celebrity by bis sacred learning, his zealous orthodoxy, and his ascetic piety. In 363, after the cession of Nisibis to the Persians, he withdrew to Roman territory, and settled in Edessa, which about that time became the chief seat of Christian learning in Syria.' He lived a hermit in a cavern near the city, and spent his time in ascetic exercises, \n reading, writing, and preaching to the monks and the people with great effect. HFe acquired complete mastery over his naturally violent temper, he denied himself all pleasures, and slept on the bare ground. He opposed the remnants of idolatry in the surrounding coantry, and defended the Nicene orthodoxy against all classes of heretics. He made a journey to Egypt, where he spent several years among the hermits. He also visited, by divine admonition, Basil the Great at Csesarea, who ordained him deacon. Basil held him in the highest esteem, and afterwards sent two of his pupils to Edessa to ordain him bishop ; but Ephraem, in order to escape the responsible office, behaved like a fool, and the messengers returned with the report that he was out of his mind. Basil told them that the folly was on their side, and Ephrsem was a man full of divine wisdom.
Shortly before his death, when the city of Edessa was visited by a severe famine, Ephrsem quitted his solitary cell and preached a powerful sermon against the rich for permitting the poor to die around them, and told them that their wealth would ruin their soul, unless they made good use of it. The rich men felt the rebuke, and intrusted him with the distribution of their goods. Ephrsem fitted up about three hundred beds, and himself attended to the sufferers, whether they were foreigners or natives, tiJl the calamity was at an end. Then he returned to liis cell, and a few days after, about the year 379, he expired, soon following his friend Basil.
Ephrsem, says Sozomen, attained no higher clerical degrea than that of deacon, but his attainments in virtue rendered
' On the early history of Christianity in Edessa, compare W. Ccbeton : Ancient Syriac Documents relative to the earliest Establishment of Christianity in Edessa and the neighboring Covmtries, from the Year after our Lord's Ascension to the Beginning of the Fourth Century. Lond. 1866.
952 TiilBD PElllOD. A.D. 311-590.
him equal in reputation to those who rose to the liighest sacer dotal dignity, while his holy hfe and erudition made him at object of universal admiration. He left many disc'ples whc were zealously attached to his doctrines. The most celebrated of them were Abbas, Zenobius, Abraham, Maras, and Simeon, whc-m the Syrians regard as the glory of their country.'
Ephrsem was an uncommonly prolific author. His fertility was prophetically revealed to him in his early years by the vision of a vine which grew from the root of his tongue, spreading in every direction to the ends of the earth, and wa8 loaded with new and heavier clusters the more it was plucked. His writings consist of commentaries on the Scriptures, homilies, ascetic tracts, and sacred poetry. The commentaries and hvnms, or metrical prose, are preserved in the Syriac original, and have an independent philological value for Oriental scholars. The other writings exist only in Greek, Latin, and Armenian translations. Excellent Greek translations were known and extensively read so early as the time of Chrysostom and Jerome. His works furnish no clear evidence of his knowledge of the Greek language ; some writers assert his acquaintance with Greek, others deny it.°
His commentaries extended over the whole Bible, " from the book of creation to the last book of grace," as Gregory of iNyssa says. We have his commentaries on the historical and prophetical books of the Old Testament and the Book of Job in Syriac, and his commentaries on the Epistles of Paul in an Armenian translation.' They have been but little used thus far by commentators. He does not interpret the text from the
' Sozomen, 11. E. iii. IC. Cave (1. c. iii. 409) says of him : " He had all the virtues that can render a man great and excellent, and this that crowned all the rest, that he would not know it, nor cared to hear of it; being desirous, as Nyssen tella ufi, oil SoKe7vy aA.A' ehai xpv^Toi, not to Seem, but to be really good."
' Sozomen and Theodoret expressly say that Ephrajm was not acquainted witt the Greek language, but used the S}Tiac "as a medium for reflecting the rays of divine grace.' According to the legend he was miraculously endowed with the knowledge of the Greek on his visit to Basil, who was in like manner inspired tc greet him in Syriac.
' Opera, torn. iv. and v., or vol. i. ar d ii. of the Opera Syr., and thf fupplementa of the Mechitarists.