Ephrem the Syrian was one of the founding voices in Syriac literature. While he wrote in a variety of genres, the bulk of his work took the form of madrashe, a Syriac genre of musical poetry or hymns. In Bible and Poetry in Late Antique Mesopotamia, Jeffrey Wickes offers a thoroughly contextualized study of Ephrem’s magnum opus, the Hymns on Faith, delivered in response to the theological controversies that followed the First Council of Nicaea. The ensuing doctrinal divisions had tremendous impact on the course of Christianity and led in part to the development of a uniquely Syriac Church, in which Ephrem would become a central figure. Drawing on literary, ritual, and performance theories, Bible and Poetry shows how Ephrem used the Syriac Bible to construct and conceive of himself and his audience. In so doing, Wickes resituates Ephrem in a broader early Christian context and contributes to discussions of literature and religion in late antiquity.
Jeffrey Wickes is Assistant Professor of Early Christianity at Saint Louis University.
“In this insightful book, Jeffrey Wickes shows how Ephrem wove together self-portrayal with depiction of the Nicene Christ and brought both into the constructed ‘world’ of his hymns. Persuasively presenting the internal coherence of Ephrem’s endeavor, Wickes sets the hymns into the rhetorical and poetic landscape of late antiquity and proposes a new social context for them, in ‘a blurred space between liturgy and the classroom.’”—Kathleen E. McVey, Professor Emerita of History, Princeton Theological Seminary
“This book proposes a new paradigm to understand the great fourth-century Syriac poet’s engagement with the Bible. Eschewing problematic concepts such as allusion and quotation, Wickes invites us to appreciate the complex ways in which Ephrem used the Bible to construct a new literary world.”—Aaron Michael Butts, Assistant Professor, The Catholic University of America
226 pp.6 x 9Illus: 0
9780520302860$95.00|£80.00Hardcover
Sep 2019