4. “In her virginity, Eve put on
leaves of shame, but your mother has put on,
in her virginity, a garment of glory
that encompasses all, while to Him who covers all
she gave a body as a tiny garment.” (“Mary’s Invitation to Everyone,” in Ephrem
the Syrian: Select Poems [trans. Sebastian P. Brock and George A. Kiraz;
Eastern Christian Texts 2; Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press, 2006], 51)
The imagery of the Robe of Glory,
deeply embedded in the Syriac tradition, is used to describe the various stages
of salvation history: Adam and Eve are originally clothed in it in Paradise,
but lose it at the Fall; Christ, the Divine Word who “Put on the body,” deposits
humanity’s lost Robe of Glory in the River Jordan at his baptism, and at each
Christian baptism it is received in potential from the Font (often described
both as the Jordan and as a womb; see Jones 2003); finally, at the Last
Judgment, it becomes the clothing of the Righteous in reality (see Brock 1982
and 1999a). Since Christ’s presence in the Jordan makes the Robe of Glory available
again to humanity, his presence in Mary’s womb is understood as constituting
her baptism, thus providing her with her Robe of Glory (see Text 4 [Nat. 11],
n. 3). Mary’s giving Christ “a body as a tiny garment” and receiving in return
a “Robe of Glory” is one of the ways in which Ephrem brings out the idea of exchange
involved in the incarnation; this is expressed in Fid. 5.17 in
epigrammatic form:” He gave us divinity, we gave Him humanity.” (Ibid., 51 n. 3)
