Introduction to This Volume

How this book is arranged

This is the twenty-fourth volume of a series that gathers the writings of the early Church in order of date, from the generation after the apostles down to the eighth century. This volume holds Ephrem the Syrian, Hymns, Discourses and Homilies, from the period about AD 350 – 373.

Within each work the text is divided into chapters and numbered sections, so that any passage can be found again and cited. The small bold figures in the text are the section numbers.

The translations

The text is in English only. Wherever a modern English version has been prepared for SermonIndex it is used here; otherwise the book prints an older public-domain translation. In both cases the wording is the translator’s own: older translations have not been altered beyond dividing them into sections. The sources for every work are listed at the back of the book, together with the licence under which each text is released. All the works in this volume are printed in older public-domain translations.

In this volume

Ephrem was a deacon who taught at Nisibis and then at Edessa, and he died in AD 373. He wrote in Syriac, mostly in verse, and was known as the Harp of the Spirit; he also wrote prose refutations of Bardesanes, Mani and Marcion.

Ephrem’s prose works answer the teaching of Bardesanes, Mani and Marcion. The hymns on the Nativity and the Epiphany belong to his verse, and were sung in the churches of Syria.

Dates and authorship

Dates are approximate and are debated by scholars. Each work begins with a short introduction that states what is known about its author and its date, and what is uncertain.