Ephrem the Syrian

In his own words on Mark

• Mark 1:11

  Today the Source of all the graces of baptism comes himself to be baptized in the river Jordan, there to make himself known to the world. Seeing him approach, John stretches out his hand to hold him back, protesting: Lord, by your own baptism you sanctify all others; yours is the true baptism, the source of perfect holiness. How can you wish to submit to mine? But the Lord replies, I wish it to be so. Come and baptize me. Do as I wish, for surely you cannot refuse me. Why do you hesitate, why are you so afraid? Do you not realize that the baptism I ask for is mine by every right? By my baptism the waters will be sanctified, receiving from me fire and the Holy Spirit.… See the hosts of heaven hushed and still, as the all-holy Bridegroom goes down into the Jordan. No sooner is he baptized than he comes up from the waters, his splendor shining forth over the earth. The gates of heaven are opened, and the Father's voice is heard: "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." All who are present stand in awe as they watch the Spirit descend to bear witness to him. O come all you peoples, worship him! Praise to you, Lord, for your glorious epiphany which brings joy to us all! The whole world has become radiant with the light of your manifestation.

  HYMNS ON NATIVITY (EPIPHANY) 14

• Mark 1:43

  " 'If you are willing, you can cleanse me.' So he stretched out his hand." In this stretching out of his hand he seemed to be abrogating the law. For [it is written] in the law that whoever approaches a leper becomes impure.… He showed that nature was good in that he repaired its defect. Because he sent him to the priests, he thereby upheld the priesthood. He also ordered him to make an offering for his cleansing. did he not thus uphold the law, as Moses had commanded? There were many prescriptions concerning leprosy. But they were unable to procure any benefit. Then the Messiah came, and, with his word, bestowed healing and abolished these many precepts which the law had reckoned should exist for leprosy.

  COMMENTARY ON TATIAN'S DIATESSARON

• Mark 4:20

  The fields have but one season of harvest; but from the Scripture there gushes forth a stream of saving doctrine. The field when reaped lies idle, and at rest, and the branches when the vine is stripped lie withered and dead. The Scriptures are garnered each day, yet the years of its interpreters never come to an end; and the clusters of its vines, which in it are those of hope, though are gathered each day, are likewise without end.

  COMMENTARY ON TATIAN'S DIATESSARON, PROEM

• Mark 4:41

  So likewise the ship that carried our Lord; it was He that bare it, in that He stayed from it the wind that would have sunk it. Peace, for thou art shut up. While He was on the sea, His arm reached even to the fountain of the wind, to shut it up. The ship bare His manhood, but the power of His Godhead bare the ship and all that was therein. But that He might show that even His manhood needed not the ship, instead of the planks which a shipwright puts together and fastens, He like the Architect of creation, made the waters solid and joined them together and laid them under His feet. So the Lord strengthened the hands of Simeon the Priest, that his arms might bear up in the Temple the strength that was bearing-up all; as He strengthened the feet of Simeon the Apostle, that they might bear themselves up on the water. And so that name which bore the first-begotten in the Temple was afterwards borne up by the first-begotten in the sea; that He might show that as in the sea the drowning was borne up by Him, He did not need to be borne by Simeon on the dry ground. But our Lord bare Simeon up openly in the midst of the sea to teach that also on the dry land He supported him secretly.

  Homily - On Our Lord, 50

• Mark 5:9

  Look too at Legion: when in anguish he begged, our Lord permitted the demons to enter into the herd. He asked for respite, without deception, in his anguish, and our Lord in his kindness granted this request. His compassion for the demoniac is a rebuke to the demons, showing how much anguish his love suffers in desiring that humans should live. Encouraged by the words I had heard, I knelt down and wept there, and spoke before our Lord: "Legion received his request from you without any tears. Permit me, with my tears, to make my request."

  HYMNS ON PARADISE 12.8-9

• Mark 5:13

  I asked this too, whether Paradise was sufficient in size for all the righteous to live there. I asked about what is not written in Scripture, but my instruction came from what is written there: "Consider the man in whom there dwelt a legion of all kinds of demons. They were there although not apparent, for their army is of a stuff finer and more subtle than the soul itself. That whole army dwelt in a single body. A hundred times finer and more subtle are the bodies of the righteous when they are risen at the resurrection. They resemble the mind that is able, if it so wills, to stretch out and expand, or, should it wish, to contract and shrink, so as either to focus on one place or to expand to encompass all places. Listen and learn: A lamp with thousands of rays can exist in a single house. Ten thousand scents can exist in a single blossom. Though located in a small space, they have ample room to extend themselves. So it is with Paradise: though full of spiritual beings, it is amply spacious for their habitation."

  HYMN 5

• Mark 5:27

  Glory to you, hidden Son of God, because your healing power is proclaimed through the hidden suffering of the afflicted woman. Through this woman whom they could see, the witnesses were enabled to behold the divinity that cannot be seen. Through the Son's own healing power his divinity became known. Through the afflicted woman's being healed her faith was made manifest. She caused him to be proclaimed, and indeed was honored with him. For truth was being proclaimed together with its heralds. If she was a witness to his divinity, he in turn was a witness to her faith.… He saw through to her hidden faith, and gave her a visible healing.

  COMMENTARY ON TATIAN'S DIATESSARON

• Mark 6:3

  Because there are those who dare to say that Mary cohabited with Joseph after she bore the Redeemer, we reply, 'How would it have been possible for her who was the home of the indwelling of the Spirit, whom the divine power overshadowed, that she be joined by a mortal being, and gave birth filled with birthpangs, in the image of the primeval curse?' If Mary was blessed of women, she would have been exempt from the curse from the beginning, and from the bearing of children in birthpangs and curses. It would be impossible therefore to call one who gave birth with these birthpangs blessed.

  Commentary on Tatian's Diatessaron, page 63

• Mark 6:3

  The ordinary workmen will come to the son of Joseph singing:"Blessed be your coming, O master of workers everywhere. The imprint of your labor is seen in the ark, And in the fashioning of the tabernacle Of the congregation that was for a time only! Our whole craft praises you, who are our eternal glory. Make for us a yoke that is light, even easy, for us to bear. Establish that measure in us in which there can be no falseness."

  HYMNS ON THE NATIVITY 6

• Mark 6:41

  Take note therefore of how his [creative] activity is mixed in with everything. When our Lord took a little bread, he multiplied it in the twinkling of an eye. That which [people] effect and transform in ten months with toil, his ten fingers effected in an instant. For he placed his hands beneath the bread as though it were earth, and spoke over it as though thunder. The murmur of his lips sprinkled over it like rain, and the breath of his mouth [was there] in place of the sun. [Thus] did he complete in the flash of one tiny moment something which requires a whole lengthy hour. One tiny amount of bread was forgotten, and from the midst of its smallness, abundance came to birth so that it might be like the first blessing, "Give birth and be fruitful and multiply." The loaves of bread, like barren women and women deprived [of children], became fruitful at his blessing, and many were the morsels born from them.

  COMMENTARY ON TATIAN'S DIATESSARON

• Mark 7:29

  She was crying out [as] she was following after him, "Have mercy on me." But he did not reply to her. The silence of our Lord elicited an even deeper cry by the Canaanite woman. He who was spurned by Israel spurned her by his silence, but she did not give up. Though neglected, she did not hold back. On the contrary, she again humbled herself and again magnified Israel, by [her words], "Even the dogs eat from their masters' [crumbs]," as though the Jews were masters of the Gentiles. His disciples therefore drew near and begged him to send her away. … She was not ashamed, to her own benefit, of the name of dogs. Therefore [he said], "Great is your faith, O woman."

  COMMENTARY ON TATIAN'S DIATESSARON

• Mark 7:33

  That Power Which may not be handled came down and clothed itself in members that may be touched; that the needy may draw near to Him, that in touching His manhood they may discern His Godhead. For that dumb man [whom the Lord healed] with the fingers of the body, discerned that He had approached his ears and touched his tongue; nay, with his fingers that may be touched, he touched Godhead, that may not be touched; when it was loosing the string of his tongue, and opening the clogged doors of his ears. For the Architect of the body and Artificer of the flesh came to him, and with His gentle voice pierced without pain his thickened ears. And his mouth which was closed up, that it could not give birth to a word, gave birth to praise to Him Who made its barrenness fruitful in the birth of words. He, then, Who gave to Adam that he should speak at once without teaching, Himself gave to the dumb that they should speak easily, tongues that are learned with difficulty. Lo, again, another question is made clear:—We enquire in what tongues our Lord gave the power of speaking to the dumb, who from all tongues came unto Him? And although this be easy to know, yet our soul impels us to that knowledge which is greater than this. That [knowledge] then is, to know that through the Son the first man was made. For in this fact, that through Him speech was given to the dumb, the sons of Adam, we may learn that through Him speech was given to Adam their first father. And here also defective nature was supplied by our Lord. He, then, Who was able to supply the defect of nature,—it is manifest that through Him is established the supplying of nature. But there is no greater defect than this, when a man is born without speech. For since it is in this, in speech, that we excel all the creatures, the defect of it is greater than all [other] defects. He, then, through Whom all this defect was supplied,—it is manifest that through Him all fulness is established. But because through Him the members receive all fulness in the womb secretly, through Him their defect was supplied openly; that we might learn that through Him in the beginning the whole frame was constituted. He spat then on His fingers and placed them in the ears of that deaf man; and He mixed clay of His spittle, and spread it upon the eyes of the blind man; that we might learn that as there was defect in the eyeballs of that man who was blind from his mother's womb, so there was defect in the ears of this [man]. So then, by leaven from the body of Him Who completes, the defect of our formation is supplied. For it was not meet that our Lord should have cut off anything from His body to supply the deficiency of other bodies; but with that which could be taken away from Him, He supplied the deficiency of them that lacked; just as in that which can be eaten, mortals eat Him. He supplied then the deficiency, and gave life to mortality, that we may know that from the body in which fulness dwelt, the deficiency of them that lacked was supplied; and from the body in which life dwelt, life was given to mortals.

  Homily - On Our Lord, 10-11

• Mark 8:8

  Grant, Lord, that I and those dear to me May together there Find the very last remnants of your gift!

  HYMNS ON PARADISE 9.27, 29

• Mark 9:2

  The Lord who is beyond measure measures out nourishment to all, adapting to our eyes the sight of himself, to our hearing his voice, His blessing to our appetite, His wisdom to our tongue.

  HYMNS ON PARADISE 9.27

• Mark 9:50

  Glory be to God on high, Who mixed his salt in our minds, His leaven in our souls. His body became bread, To quicken our deadness.

  HYMNS ON THE NATIVITY 2

• Mark 10:18

  The rich man called Jesus "good," as if he were offering him a favor, just as some favor others with honorary titles. [The Lord] fled from that by which people favored him, so that he might show that he had received this goodness from the Father through nature and generation, and not [merely] in name. "Only one is good," [he said], and did not remain silent, but added, "the Father," so that he might show that the Son is good in just the way that the Father is good.

  COMMENTARY ON TATIAN'S DIATESSARON

• Mark 11:2

  "Untie the donkey and bring it to me." He began with a manger and finished with a donkey, in Bethlehem with a manger, in Jerusalem with a donkey.

  COMMENTARY ON TATIAN'S DIATESSARON

• Mark 11:13

  The nature of the fig tree is such that when it is cut, because of its moisture, it [requires] many months for it to dry up. Our Lord chose it as a symbol, therefore, to make the quality of his power known through it. It is evident that the fig tree becomes moist and tender before the other trees. Hence our Lord said: "From the fig tree learn this parable. As soon as its branch becomes tender and opens up in the outer covering of its buds, you know that summer is near." You see that he proposes it [as a symbol] because of its abundant moisture and its early buds.

  COMMENTARY ON TATIAN'S DIATESSARON

• Mark 11:14

  The owner of the fig tree did not obey the law but spurned it. Our Lord came and found that there was [nothing] left on it, so he cursed it, lest its owner eat from it again, since he had left [nothing] for the orphan and widows.… He cursed the fig tree and it shriveled up to show them the power of his divinity, so that by means of [this] action near at hand which they could see, they might believe that which was to come. Because [Jerusalem] had not accepted the law, he cursed [the fig tree], so that there might no longer be fruit on it, according to its law.… He sought fruit from the fig tree at an inopportune time, that it might be a symbol of one who had deceitfully withheld the fruits of the law at the opportune time. For, if he had sought fruit from it at the opportune time, no one would have known that there was a figurative meaning embedded here. Instead of the fig tree, therefore, he showed that it was Jerusalem that he was reproaching, for he had sought love in her, but she had despised the fruit of repentance.… Why, therefore, did he who was good and gentle, who everywhere revealed great things out of little things, and completion out of imperfection, why did he command the fig tree to dry up? For he healed the sufferings of everyone, changed water to wine, made an abundance from a little bread, opened the eyes of the blind, cleansed lepers and raised the dead to life. But this fig tree alone did he cause to wither. It was because the time of his suffering was near, and, lest it be thought that he was captured because he was unable to free himself, he cursed the fig tree, that it might be a sign for his friends, and a miracle for his enemies. Thus, the disciples would be strengthened by his word, and others would be amazed at his power. Because he did all things well, and [the time] for him to suffer was near, it might be thought, as indeed it was, that he was captured because he possessed no power. He showed in advance, therefore, by means of a living plant which he caused to wither, that he would have been able to destroy his crucifiers with a word.

  COMMENTARY ON TATIAN'S DIATESSARON

• Mark 13:18

  Winter is without fruit and sabbath without labor. Do not let it be you who might be led away captive under such circumstances—when you have neither fruit nor work. Pray that captivity does not come either of some external necessity, such as the winter, or during a time of inattentiveness such as the sabbath. This means that neither the constraint of others nor the relaxation of your own will should be the occasion to take you away from the work of the Lord your God.… It is true that distress will come and that you will have to flee. But keep on praying lest this calamity come upon you in the winter, or surprise you on the sabbath when you are resting.… Winter is the time of repose from all the work of the summer, just as the sabbath is the time of repose, the seventh day, when work is not done.

  COMMENTARY ON TATIAN'S DIATESSARON

• Mark 14:36

  He knew what he was saying to his Father, and was well aware that this chalice could pass from him. But he had come to drink it for everyone, in order to acquit, through this chalice, the debt of everyone, [a debt] which the prophets and martyrs could not pay with their death.… He assumed flesh. He clothed himself with weakness, eating when hungry, becoming tired after working, being overcome by sleep when weary. It was necessary, when the time for his death arrived, that all things that have to do with the flesh would be fulfilled then. The anguish of death in fact invaded him, to manifest his nature as a son of Adam, over whom death reigns, according to the word of the apostle.… Or alternatively, in this hour of his corporeal death, he gave to the body that which belonged to it, saying that all the sufferings of [his] body would show to the heretics and schismatics that his body was [real]. did not this body of his appear to them, just as it was visible to everyone else? Just as he was hungry and thirsty, tired and had need of sleep, so too, he was afraid. Or, [he said that], so that it would be difficult for people in the world to say that it was without suffering and toil that our debts were remitted by him. Or [it was] to teach his disciples to confide their life and death to God. If he, who is wise on account of the wisdom of God, asked for what was fitting for him, how much more [should] ordinary people surrender their will to the One who knows all things.… If he who is fearless was afraid [of death], and asked to be delivered from it, although he knew that it was impossible, how much more should others persevere in prayer before temptation, so that, in time of temptation, they may be delivered from it.

  COMMENTARY ON TATIAN'S DIATESSARON

• Mark 14:46

  Why did he choose [Judas], and … make him steward? To show his perfect love and his mercy. [It was] also that our Lord might teach his church that, even if there are false teachers in it, it is nevertheless the true seat [of authority]. For the seat of Judas did not come to naught with the traitor himself. It was also [to teach] that, even if there are evil stewards, the stewardship itself is true. He therefore washed his feet, [those very feet] by means of which he had arisen and gone to [Jesus'] slayers. Jesus kissed the mouth of him who, by means of it, gave the signal for death to those who apprehended him. He reached out and gave bread into that hand that reached out and took his price, and sold him unto slaughter.

  COMMENTARY ON TATIAN'S DIATESSERON

• Mark 15:5

  The Lord became the defender of truth, and came in silence before Pilate, on behalf of truth which had been oppressed. Others gain victory through making defenses, but our Lord gained victory through his silence, because the recompense of his death through divine silence was the victory of true teaching. He spoke in order to teach, but kept silent in the tribunal. He was not silent over that which was exalting us, but he did not struggle against those who were provoking him. The words of his calumniators, like a crown on his head, were a source of redemption. He kept silent so that his silence would make them shout even louder, and so that his crown would be made more beautiful through all this clamor.

  COMMENTARY ON TATIAN'S DIATESSARON

• Mark 15:15

  [The daughter of Zion] repaid him with evil for the immensity of his grace. The Father had washed her from her blood, but she defiled his Son with her spitting. The Father had clothed her with fine linen and purple, but she clothed him with garments of mockery. He had placed a crown of glory on her head, but she plaited a crown of thorns for him. He had nourished her with choicest food and honey, but she gave him gall. He had given her pure wine, but she offered him vinegar in a sponge. The One who had introduced her into cities, she drove out into the desert. The One who had put shoes on her feet, she made hasten barefoot towards Golgotha. The One who had girded her loins with sapphire, she pierced in the side with a lance. When she had outraged the servants [of God] and killed the prophets, she was led into captivity to Babylon, and when the time of her punishment was completed, her return [from captivity] took place.

  COMMENTARY ON TATIAN'S DIATESSARON

• Mark 15:38

  The curtain was torn. [This was] to show that [the Lord] had taken the kingdom away from them and had given it to others who would bear fruit. An alternative interpretation is: By the analogy of the torn curtain, the temple would be destroyed because his Spirit had gone away from it. Since the high priest had wrongfully torn his robe, the Spirit tore the curtain to proclaim the audacity of the pride [of the Jews], by means of an action on the level of created beings. Because [the high priest] had torn his priesthood and had cast it from him, [the Spirit] also split the curtain apart. Or [alternatively], just as the temple in which Judas had thrown down the gold was dissolved and rejected, so too [the Lord] pulled down and rent asunder the curtain of the door through which [Judas] had entered. Or, [it was] because they had stripped him of his garments that he rent the curtain in two. For the heart of the rock was burst asunder, but their own hearts did not repent.

  COMMENTARY ON TATIAN'S DIATESSARON