Ephraim Syrus: Three Homilies
Edessa · 373
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Ephrem the Syrian
Ephrem the Syrian
306 CE–373 CE · Nisibis
Ephrem the Syrian (c. 306–373) was the foremost poet-theologian of the Syriac world, celebrated for his hymns, biblical commentaries, and polemical writings against Gnostic and Arian teachings. Born in or near Nisibis in Roman Mesopotamia, he served the church there for most of his life as a deacon under a succession of bishops. After Nisibis was ceded to the Sassanid Persians by the Treaty of Nisibis in 363, he relocated to Edessa, where he spent his final decade writing prolifically and founding a school of theological learning before dying during a plague in 373.
Life journeyclick any stop, or use ←/→Trace on the map →
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Stop 1 of 3306–363Birthplace, Diaconal Ministry
NisibisTalmudic-era settlement
What they did here
Ephrem was born in or near Nisibis around 306 and served as a deacon there for roughly five decades under bishops Jacob, Babu, Vologeses, and Abraham, witnessing three Sassanid sieges (337/338, 346, 350) and composing his earliest hymns and commentaries.
About Nisibis
Nisibis, today Nusaybin in Mardin Province, southeastern Turkey, facing Qamishli across the Syrian border, was a fortified city of northern Mesopotamia on the Roman-Persian frontier, ceded to the Sasanians in 363 and taken by the Arabs around 640. It had a large Jewish community from antiquity, and Rabbi Judah ben Bathyra founded a well-known academy there. It was also a major Syriac Christian centre: Ephrem the Syrian was a native and taught there before 363, and from the late fifth century the theologian Narsai led its celebrated School of Nisibis, the leading school of the Church of the East.
The world in their lifetime
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Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Ephrem the Syrian’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.
Works(5)
Ephraim Syrus: The Pearl. Seven Hymns on the Faith
Edessa · 373
Ephraim Syrus: The Nisibene Hymns
Edessa · 373
Ephraim Syrus: Fifteen Hymns For the Feast of the Epiphany
Edessa · 373
Ephraim Syrus: Nineteen Hymns on the Nativity of Christ in the Flesh
Edessa · 373