Wednesday, March 25, 2026 · 天火 · tianmu.org
Ephrem — Hymns on Nisibis
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Texts
Hymns on Nisibis — ICarmina Nisibena I — The city of Nisibis speaks: surrounded by flood and siege, she compares herself to Noah's ark and prays for the covenant sign that stayed the waters.Hymns on Nisibis — IICarmina Nisibena II — Nisibis gives thanks for deliverance from the three Persian sieges, but the praise is shadowed by shame: unlike Nineveh, the city needed three wars to find what Nineveh found at one prophet's word.Hymns on Nisibis — IIICarmina Nisibena III — a theological pivot: from thanksgiving for Nisibis to apophatic meditation on God's nature, to a theodicy of the three sieges. God did not will the afflictions — our sins pressed Him. The three sieges are the hard books written for a city that refused to read the two Testaments.Hymns on Nisibis — IVCarmina Nisibena IV — Nisibis speaks in the first person, petitioning Christ directly. A desperate hymn of siege: the city bold enough to knock without meriting an answer, invoking the infant Christ against Persian wolves, weaving together Nativity and Eucharist, theodicy and harvest, mourning altar and panicked walls. The refrain — 'Be our hope, be our wall' — names what stone could not provide.Hymns on Nisibis — IXCarmina Nisibena IX — the lament and confession hymn. Nisibis compares her sorrows to Job's and catalogues the devastation of her outer and inner territories, then confesses the shame of calling on God while full of impurity. The theological centre: truth conquers all, and God's wisdom reveals just enough of its mark to sustain the seeker without overwhelming them. Closes with the double exposure — through the abundance of redemptions, God convicted both idol-worship and the Magi — for in him alone was the city redeemed.Hymns on Nisibis — VCarmina Nisibena V — the agricultural hymn of wrath and mercy. Nisibis speaks: she bore the blows of her redeemers, warned her survivors not to sulk over losses, and ends with the vine weeping for the dead and the axe that cuts trees also cutting the farmer — and tasting its own grief.Hymns on Nisibis — VICarmina Nisibena VI — the marriage hymn. Nisibis speaks as the betrothed of Christ, pleading divine jealousy as the argument for deliverance. Stripped of her ornaments, exposed before her children, her streets holding ten where a hundred stood. Assyria's defilement is contrasted with her chastity. The siege fell on the double feast of Ascension and martyrs — turned double joy into double grief.Hymns on Nisibis — VIICarmina Nisibena VII — the wisdom hymn. Wrath disciplines the greedy who profited from the siege; ten years of sorrows wait like winter branches to fruit in spring. The three Babylonian brothers fled desire, not fire. Two fires: the glorious fire whitens; the vile fire makes leopards of lambs. The scribes killed the Great One; wisdom in this age is fullness of loss. Ends in a lacuna: woe to us, for justice is at the gate of the house of —Hymns on Nisibis — XCarmina Nisibena X — the thirst hymn. The most physically intense of the Nisibene cycle. Bodies melting from heat, infants dying on their mothers' breasts, a fortress that 'drinks' the seeping of its own dead. The Lazarus parallel (the gulf, the tongue) deepens the biblical echo. The Sodom theodicy: Sodom suffered only one hour, but Nisibis endured prolonged thirst and death. Closes with the plea not to add more. Refrain: Blessed is your discipline.Hymns on Nisibis — XICarmina Nisibena XI — the medicine hymn. The longest of the staged Nisibene cycle. Twenty-two stanzas meditating on divine justice as physician: her gentle finger probing wounds, her sharp incision, her bandage pressing the cut, her bitter myrrh sweetening the bitter. The paradox of grace and justice sharpens around Pharaoh — hardened by the easing of his plagues. The Cross stood in the open breaches; now let it close the hidden ones. The creatures cried out watching truth fight error on the trembling walls, and truth was crowned. Closes with fear of the high places built in the city after redemption, tears too small to mourn the ruin, the streets of sackcloth now troubled with play, and the lily that borrowed bitterness and deceived. Refrain: Glory to your justice.Hymns on Nisibis — XIICarmina Nisibena XII — the petition hymn. Eight stanzas. Nisibis calls in her afflictions to the Power that constrained the Gadarene Legion, asking that same strength to hold the captive of wrath. The theological heart arrives in a double surprise: the Evil One repaid debts he never borrowed; the Good One repaid mercies never lent. Come wonder at both. The Good One divided the account: sins to his grace (to be wiped away), oppressions to his justice (to be avenged). Sin herself was enraged and shamed when she saw grace girding the soul for freedom. Let your love pour and your wrath flood: wrath to destroy the captivity, love to restore the captive. In the very days the Evil One threatened to fling the soul like a sling-stone to ruin, the Good One kept it in the bundle of life. Since even the ceaseless eloquent ones — the angels who kept the city amid the waves — cannot suffice to match grace, let them give thanks on her behalf. Refrain: Glory to his grace.Hymns on Nisibis — XIIICarmina Nisibena XIII — the hymn of the three bishops. Twenty-one stanzas. Jacob, Vologeses, and Abraham — three priests who delivered to one another throne and hand and flock, like the two great lights of creation tripled. Built entirely in triads: three lights fixed in three darknesses, three doors opened by three keys, three phases of the sun (sharp rising, hot midday, sweet ending), three generations of wrath rising and setting. Jacob opened the door to discipline; Vologeses to kings coming and going; Abraham to ambassadors and mercy. The hymn closes with Nisibis as the city planted on waters — name-pun on Nisibis itself (planted) — where the outside river betrayed her (Shapur dammed it) but the inside spring kept her. Jacob the cultivator died in her and became the fruit in her womb; when the cutters came, that fruit kept her. In her prudence she placed her cultivator inside herself that she might be delivered by him. Final charge to the daughters of Nisibis: as she placed a mortal body within and it became her wall, place the living Body within you, that it may become a wall for your lives. Refrain: To you glory, who chose them.Hymns on Nisibis — XIVCarmina Nisibena XIV — three shepherds, many occasions; one mother-city, daughters from every quarter. The hymn is structurally complex: an opening address on the three bishops gives way to a typological excursus on Aaron's golden calf versus the Cross, then returns through a developmental sequence — milk, seasoning, solid food — infancy, youth, maturity. The calf is born of Fire and multiplies death; the Cross is born of Grace and distributes blessing to creation. Jacob plowed and uprooted thorns; Vologeses enclosed the flock with the redeemed; Abraham opened the treasury of his Lord and sowed the word. The eschatological close imagines Nisibis presenting before three divine judges — the Rich One, the Redeemer, the Bridegroom — the treasury, the redeemed, and the oil-filled lamps. The sinner, nursling of all three, presses in behind her and asks only for the crumbs beneath the table. Refrain: Blessed who chose all three.Hymns on Nisibis — XIXCarmina Nisibena XIX — the naming hymn. Sixteen stanzas addressed to Bishop Abraham, each with its own doxology. The ruling conceit is the fulfillment of the name: Abraham was promised to become father to many, but this Abraham has no Sarah — his flock is his great spouse, the congregation that bears spiritual children through his truth, sons of the promise who shall be heirs in their time. Stanza 2 describes the election in simultaneous acts: youngest of his brothers like the son of Jesse, the horn boiling and anointing, the hand hovering and choosing, the church running and loving, altar and throne and crown assembled at once. Stanza 3 takes the Jacobean pastoral image — arrange your speaking sheep as Jacob arranged flocks — distributing the categories of care: monks purely, virgins modestly, priests honorably, leaders humbly, the poor justly. Stanza 4 shifts to medicine and weaponry: guard the healthy, visit the sick, bind the broken, command the lost; the pastures of scripture and springs of teaching; truth as wall, cross as staff, righteousness as peace. Stanza 5 invokes David's flock-power — the shepherd who snatched the lamb from the lion's mouth — for the soul that costs more than all things and cannot be sold except by Christ's blood. Stanza 6 transmits the right hand: Joshua served Moses and received his right hand as wages; so is the flock — half wolves, yet a quarter and third holy — entrusted to Abraham. Stanza 7 prays for Moses' discerning love to dwell in the bishop: the zeal of wisdom, not the splitting of Korah and Dathan (the earth split them and nullified their schism), and Moses' true will shown in Eldad and Medad — that all the people might prophesy. Stanza 8 gives the Elijah-Elisha transmission: poor gave to poor the greatest gift; love the neediness of the master who is the hidden Rich One; may his spring of words flow to the spirit that it may become a lyre singing in you. Stanza 9 is a fourfold portrait in negatives: none envied the election (leadership humble), none angered at rebuke (word sows peace), none afraid of voice (authority gentle), none troubled by the yoke (he himself labors in place of our neck). Stanza 10 turns to pastoral strategy: attract the rich, entice the poor, pair steadfast with harsh, hunt wicked with good, robbers with generous, impure with holy. Stanza 11 is the physician: ten thousand medicines, walk among the sick, apply many aids to each disease, learn by experience — blessed is he who labored in our wounds. Stanza 12 opens into eschatological vision: land and vineyard and flock and monastery, bishop as great head, congregation as seals of his crown, people and priest in harmony. Stanza 13 quotes Paul's apostolic jealousy for the betrothed virgin (2 Cor 11:2): be jealous for her with God's jealousy, not flesh but spirit, that she may love her true bridegroom Jesus through you. Stanza 14 is the mirror theology: the church reflects its leaders as a mirror reflects the face — lax with the lax, illustrious with the illustrious; as king so camp, as priest so flock. Stanza 15 commemorates the three predecessors who died without a material testament, having meditated on God's two testaments and made the church itself their only treasure. Stanza 16 names the succession: Jacob (she triumphed with his love and zeal), Babu the lover of righteousness (redeemed captives with silver), Bulgash the scribe of the law (opened the congregation's heart to the books) — and in you, Abraham, may her helps increase. Melody: ܡܶܢܶܗ ܒܰܪ ܩܳܠܶܗ.Hymns on Nisibis — XVCarmina Nisibena XV — the hymn of the head and the members. Twenty stanzas. If the head had not been upright, the members would have murmured — for because of a crooked head, the way of the members is troubled. Bishop Abraham is praised as the good head whose lifelong chastity flowed into his congregation: the members acquired stillness in his clarity, pleasantness in his rest, brightness in his holiness, instruction in his wisdom. He was a yihidaya (monastic solitary) in two monasteries — chaste in his body, solitary in his house, in hidden and revealed alike. A fruit analogy structures the hymn: in its beginning the fruit is governed by the breath of wind, in the middle by the power of the sun, at the end it gathers to sweetness. The congregation grew foolish precisely when it should have grown sweet. The old age that should have guided children needed to be guided like children itself. The bishop prevailed sweetly without compulsion — honoring that elder community even when it did not know its own rank. Refrain: Blessed who chose you, the pride of our people.Hymns on Nisibis — XVICarmina Nisibena XVI — the mirror hymn. Twenty-two stanzas, with textual lacunae in stanzas 8–9 (opening) and 21–22 (Beck reconstructions, bracketed). The organizing metaphor is the defective mirror: if its clarity is darkened, the filth upon it becomes a covering before those who look — beauty is not adorned, defect goes uncorrected, opacity harms both the beautiful and the ugly. The mirror is the congregation. Three theological movements follow: Grace does not compel as Law does — the mirror never forces anyone to look; the Law used cajolery and rod for humanity's youth and was right to do so without robbing freedom; but in maturity, to revert to childishness is to come under the slave-law again. All compulsion's adornment is borrowed and non-lasting; God's great desire is voluntary self-adornment from one's own soul — therefore he discerningly removed compulsion in its proper season, replacing it with humility. God ordered the city's development through three bishops: Jacob's fear for youth, Vologeses' awe for young adulthood, Abraham's sweetness for maturity. The hymn closes with congregational confession: we ourselves troubled the succession and now ask, in our slackness, for the compulsion of children. Refrain: Blessed who polished our mirror.Hymns on Nisibis — XVIICarmina Nisibena XVII — the lyre hymn. Twelve stanzas of ten cola each, with no repeated refrain — each stanza closes with its own unique doxology (Blessed is he who...). The speaker is Ephrem himself, casting his 'small coin' into God's treasury. Abraham is the disciple of three who became the fourth teacher — like Elisha who remained after Elijah, the horn of his election heated and he became head of the flock. Stanza by stanza the hymn builds a portrait: the heavenly rejoicing at his appointment (3); his election through long testing (4); his pastoral role as the departed shepherd's successor (5); the transmission of throne, key, and treasury (6); deeds over words in teaching (7); peace and love overcoming wrath and envy, with no ear for slander (8); counsel to choose kings of advantage over kings of envy — Rehoboam as cautionary sign (9); warning against attributing the episcopal gift to human patronage, since Satan's lie would enslave the free-born gift (10); Abraham as the living portrait of all three predecessors — a wall like Jacob, full of mercies like Babu, a treasury of words like Valgesh (11). The hymn closes with Ephrem declaring himself an eloquent lamb who became the bishop's lyre. Melody: named for this hymn's own subject.Hymns on Nisibis — XVIIICarmina Nisibena XVIII — the successor hymn. Twelve stanzas addressed directly to Bishop Abraham, each with a unique doxology (Blessed is he who...). The ruling image is the portraiture of the predecessor in the successor: his likenesses portrayed in you, his footprints stamped upon you — he shone wholly from all of you. Five typological movements: the fruit bearing the tree's image; the peaceful transmission unlike Jacob's silver or Aaron's jealousy, but like Moses-and-Aaron where the older rejoiced in the lesser's election; the body-and-head physiology, the head descending in compassion to the heels; the young athlete driving paganism's smoke from the city arena; David defeating Goliath the Second through daily hidden combat against Satan. Stanza 7 turns to the tested saints — Job, Joseph, Hananiah, Daniel — and declares Satan a fool who only multiplied his own shame. Stanzas 8–9 are the farming pair, sharing a single doxology: the godless farmer sowing thorns, the righteous one cutting off his left hand and sowing living words; one deed is better than ten thousand words; the Parable of the Sower applied to episcopal ministry. Stanza 10 gathers five images of episcopal necessity: light, salt, mirror, medicine, lamp — all must not dim. Stanza 11 counsels administrative delegation to preserve the bishop's mind for prayer. Stanza 12 closes with the crystalline priest as mediator between God and humanity, offering the living body — let him be wholly clear at every hour. Melody: ܒܰܪ ܩܳܠܶܗ (Bar Qaleh).Hymns on Nisibis — XXCarmina Nisibena XX — seven stanzas on the name. Melody: ܡܶܢܶܗ ܒܰܪ ܩܳܠܶܗ. The hymn opens with the bishop addressed as virgin-become-bridegroom, summoned to reclaim the congregation — the wife of his youth — from childhood attachments toward the many, that she may know whose she is and love Christ the true bridegroom. Stanza 2 takes up the Parable of the Tares: be zealous against what has tangled in the wheat; the thicket grows from neglect; let the seed take a little air and it sprouts and overcomes the weeds; three farmers sow it, and it comes in three yields — thirty, sixty, a hundred. Stanza 3 presses the image of the new shepherd: he must visit the flock for the first time, count its number, see its need — the flock bought with the blood of the great Shepherd of shepherds; call each lamb in his name, the pasture whose name and count are written in the Book of Life. Stanzas 4–7 build a sustained argument on the name. The congregation is Christ's betrothed — guard her from those who corrupted her and called congregations by their own names; the name of her betrothed is set upon her and she must not fornicate with another name, for she was not baptized in a human name but in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Stanza 5 applies 1 Cor 1:12–13 directly: the apostle burned with zeal for her against names — not false names only, but not even true ones; not by the Rock (Peter), not by his own (Paul's name) — those who truly were her betrothers placed only the name of her betrothed upon her; the false ones, like fornicators, placed their own names on the flock. Stanza 6 shifts to the idiom of property law and animal husbandry: no one openly corrupts a livestock brand or alters a sealed document — who corrupts the brand is a thief, who changes the name is a forger; Christ's name was changed and the names of forgery are set upon the corrupted congregations. Stanza 7 closes the argument with the prophets-apostles typology: prophets set God's name on God's flock, apostles set Christ's name on Christ's church; the false ones resemble each other as the true ones do — congregations named by their leaders, congregations that fornicated through them. Note: stanza 5's doxology is unique — ܫܽܘܒܚܳܐ ܠܰܫܡܳܟ ܒܳܪܽܘܝܰܢ (Glory to your name, our Creator) — all other stanzas use the ܒܪܺܝܟ ܗ̱ܽܘ (Blessed is he) form.