The Syriac "Vita" Tradition of Ephrem the Syrian

by J.P. Amar

English translation. This monograph is a synoptic presentation of the texts of all the recensions of the Syriac Life of Ephrem. Working from the manuscript sources, the author corrects previously published recensions of the Life and presents heretofore unpublished recensions. A critical introductory study traces the Life to its sources among Byzantine ecclesiastical writers who were promoters of the monastic ideal and who seized upon the reputation of Ephrem in native Syriac tradition to authorize a way of life he never practiced. By anachronistically associating Ephrem with leading figures in the movement, such as Pisoes and Basil the Great, these authors, aided by later generations of Syriac-speaking churchmen, sought to bring Ephrem's poetic expression of the truths of the faith within the canonical authority of the Byzantine imperial church.