One allowable interpretation of Simeon’s prophecy:
You will remove the sword,
that is, a denial. For the Greek says clearly, The inner thoughts of a great
number will be revealed, that is, the thoughts of those who had doubted.
For he said, You will remove the sword. Indeed, you too will doubt,
because she thought that he was the gardener. [Mary] was in wonderment
at his birth, it is said, and at his conception, and she recounted to others
who she had conceived, and indeed how she had given birth; and those who had
doubted it were comforted by the wonderment of her word. (Saint Ephrem's
Commentary on Tatian's Diatessaron: An English Translation of Chester Beatty
Syriac MS 709 with Introduction and Notes II §17 [trans. Carmel McCarthy;
Journal of Semitic Studies Supplement 2; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993,
2000], 67-68)
In a footnote to the above, we read that:
Ephrem’s writings attest a
confusion or “fusion” between Mary, Mother of Jesus, and Mary Magdalene. (Ibid.,
68 n. 4)
Elsewhere, on John 2:4 and 19:26-27, we read that:
Mary hastened to be a servant of
his will therefore instead of the apostles, but since it was not her place
either to give orders or to anticipate his word, he reproved her for having
been hasty, My hour has not come, that is, they will ask to drink
and they will all become aware that the wine had run short, and thereafter will
be the miracle. Thus, after his victory over Sheol, when she saw it, she wished
to express affection for him like a mother. He entrusted Mary, who had followed
[him] to the cross, to John there, saying, Woman, behold your son, and, Young
Man, behold your mother. He restrained her again from drawing near to him,
because he said, “From henceforth, John is your son.” (Saint Ephrem's
Commentary on Tatian's Diatessaron: An English Translation of Chester Beatty
Syriac MS 709 with Introduction and Notes V §5 [trans. Carmel McCarthy;
Journal of Semitic Studies Supplement 2; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993,
2000], 96-97)
Again, Ephrem’s conflation of the two Marys is noted by McCarthy:
Ephrem appears to confuse Mary,
the mother of Jesus, with Mary Magdalene here. (Ibid., 96 n. 5)
Finally, on Luke 2:48, Ephrem imputed to both Mary and Joseph
serious parental negligence:
I and your father were seeking you
in anxiety. To this he replied, It is fitting for me that I should be
[in] my father’s house. They were seeking him out of fear least they had
killed him. For this is what they along with Herod their prince, had wanted to
do to him when he was two years old. (Saint Ephrem's Commentary on Tatian's
Diatessaron: An English Translation of Chester Beatty Syriac MS 709 with
Introduction and Notes III §16 [trans. Carmel McCarthy; Journal of Semitic
Studies Supplement 2; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993, 2000], 81)
Further Reading
Ephrem the Syrian (306-373) vs. the Immaculate Conception of Mary
