Friday, December 31, 2021

Ephrem the Syrian (306-373) on the Reason for Jesus Coming into the World

A few days late, but some Christmas-themed thoughts from Ephrem the Syrian:

  

[Why did our Lord clothe himself with our flesh? So that this flesh might experience victory, and that [humanity] might know and understand the gifts [of God]. For if God had been victorious without the flesh, what praise could one render him? Secondly, so that [our Lord] might show that, at the beginning, he experienced no jealousy towards him [who had wanted] to become God. For he in whom [our Lord] was abused is greater than he in whom he was dwelling when [Adam] was great and glorious. This is why [it is written], I have said, You shall be gods. Thus, the Word came and clothed itself with flesh, so that what cannot be grasped might be grasped through that which can be grasped, and that, through that which cannot be grasped, the flesh would raise itself up against those who grasp it. (Saint Ephrem's Commentary on Tatian's Diatessaron: An English Translation of Chester Beatty Syriac MS 709 with Introduction and Notes, I §1 [trans. Carmel McCarthy; Journal of Semitic Studies Supplement 2; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993, 2000], 39)