Jovial (10 May 2015)
"Did Ephrem the Syrian (4th Century AD) Teach a RAPTURE OR SOMETHING ELSE?"

The TWO texts of EPHREM

Ephrem the Syrian (306-373 AD) grew up in Eastern Turkey, where Syriac or Aramaic was the major regional language. He did not live in Syria, but was called "The Syrian" because of the language he wrote and taught in.

2 works attributed to him about the end times are

THE TWO TEXTS

The Aramaic_Text flows like this....

military power will collapse....
He will come to and enter Jerusalem. He will rebuild and establish himself in Zion, and will make himself to be God and enter into the sanctuary to take a seat in accordance with what the Apostle wrote to us....
he moreover will blaspheme when he says: ‘I, even I, am the Father and the Son! The First and the Last! There is no other god apart from me!’
But at that time ten thousand Jews will denounce him: They will answer him in truth: ‘You are a deceiver for (all) creatures! For the one whom our ancestors restrained at the top of the wood(en cross) on Golgotha is (actually) the redeemer of (all) creatures, and he was raised up to the One Who sent him!’

...Then he will begin to display wonders ...all the wonders which Our Lord performed ... except that he will not be able to resurrect the dead, for he will not have authority over (the) spirits (of the dead).....

The Apostle has penned a warning for us in his epistle to the Thessalonians:

‘Let no word or no letter trouble you that is not from us.
For the rebellion comes first, also the Man of Sin
And he will exalt himself over God, Making himself to be God.’

And when the Accursed One comes and displays his mighty works and wonders, the nations will gather together and come as (if) they were going to see God....every person will renounce their deity;

The elect will flee from his presence to the peaks of mountains and hills...People will flee to cemeteries and hide themselves among the dead, pronouncing the good fortune of the deceased who had avoided the calamity: ‘Blessed are you for you were borne away (to the grave) and hence you escaped from the afflictions! But as for us, woe is us! For when we die, vultures will serve as escort for us!’

Here it is clear the writer is NOT expecting a pre-trib rapture. The last paragraph is the most telling. Believers in the time of tribulation are quoted as telling the dead they are lucky they died and escaped the tribulations. They are not blessing those raptured, but those who died. And since the Scriptures tell us "the dead in Christ shall rise first", it means no resurrection and thus no rapture has happened yet.

The Latin Text reads like this...

Latin Text
Videte, ne in vobis compleatur profete illam sententiam ita dicentes; Vae his, qui concupiscunt videre diem Domini. Omnes enim sancti et electi Dei ante tribulationem, quae ventura est, colleguntur et a Domino assumentur, ne quando videant confusionem illam , quae universum, propter peccata nostra obruit mundum. Itaque, karrissimi mihi undecima hora est et finis huius mundi ad metendum pervenit, et angeli, adcincti et praeparati, falces in manibus tenent, Domini expectantes imperium.
(From Pascua Mediaevalia, page 524)

See to it that this sentence be not fulfilled among you of the prophet who declares: "Woe to those who desire to see the day of the Lord!" For all the saints and elect of God are gathered, prior to the tribulation that is to come, and are taken to the Lord lest they see the confusion that is to overwhelm the world because of our sins. And so, brothers most dear to me, it is the eleventh hour and the end of the world comes to harvest, and the angels, armed and prepared, hold sickles in their hands, awaiting the empire of the Lord.
(Translation by Cameron Rhoads)

How are they "taken"?  By rapture, or by death? 

 

In the Latin Text, the word "sentence" (sententiam) here does not have to mean a linguistic construct, and can mean a judgment, verdict or punishment. In other words, while it could also be taken as a warning that some people will be punished with not being "taken" because they desire to see the events of the end times.

How are they taken in the Latin text?  By death?  It is not explicit.  A rapture could be one method.  Death could be another.  And taken by death is indeed what the context FOLLOWING this passage suggests, for it says, " it is the eleventh hour, and the end of the world comes to the harvest..."  The "harvest" is the resurrection of the dead. So this connection might suggest the saints avoided the tribulation by dieing before it arrived.  But if we assume both were written by the same person and we interpret one in light of the other, then it would suggest they are taken by death.

If Latin Ephrem is right, it might explain this passage;

"For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.  For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.  Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened...And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: "
(Matt 24:27-29)

Thre could be another explanation for Matt 24:27-29 too.  But a mass unexplained death could fulfill it too.

Were they written by the same person?  Probably not.  The Latin version was probably not written by Ephrem.  The Latin text teaches the Roman Empire would rule until the End of Time. The Aramaic Text teaches the Huns will overthrow Rome, and then later Rome will rise over the entire world again as a revived Roman empire.  Compare these two quotes;

Latin: "It is necessary that the world come to an end at the completion of the Roman empire."

Aramaic: "Romans who are put to flight. And the Assyrians will gain authority over the region of the Romans....dread of the Huns will overpower the entire earth; They will cover the whole earth like the waters during the days of Noah...And once more the empire of the Romans will spring up and flourish in its place."

Obviously 2 different authors here.  This prediction about the Huns helps date the Aramaic document.  The Huns were raiding Western Europe and the Mid East during Ephraim's time.  They took part of the Western European empire from the Romans, but fell apart a year after Attila died in 453 AD.  That would date the Syriac version to sometime before 453 AD, or within 80 years of the death of the actual Ephraim the Syrian.

The Huns came from Mongolia, and began trying to make inroads into the Roman empire during the 1st and 2nd centuries AD.  Their first significant penetration into Europe was the fall of the Gothic Empires in Western Europe in 372-375 AD, near the end of the life of Ephraim.  The city of Rome was looted by the Visigoths in 410 AD and the Vandals in 455 AD.  So the perception that the Huns were the most likely group to overthrow the Roman Empire would be a pre-410 AD concept.  His lack of seeing the Visigoths or the Vandals as a threat suggests a pre-410 AD time frame for the writing.  So this was likely written either near the end of Ephraim the Syrians death, or within 40 years of his death.

By the time we get to the 4th century AD, we are getting pretty late in the development of things to attribute a lot to tradition.  The Latin Ephrem text may have taken its theology from the Apocryphal book of Ezdra.  I have commented before on how the 2 versions of Ezra 5:1 read,

Version 1

Version 2

"behold, the days shall come, that they which dwell upon earth shall be 
taken in great measure (אמה), 
and the way of truth shall be hidden, 
and the land shall be barren of faith		 "behold, the days shall come, that they which dwell upon earth shall be 
seized with great terror (אימה)..."

"Taken" is a bit ambiguous.  Does it mean the False Messiah take them to prison camps and tortured?  Perhaps Ephrem relied on this text, but added an interpretation to it, that being "taken to the LORD", though he does not say HOW.  A harmony of the two Ephrems would suggest taken by death, but I have also shown from the above disagreement in the texts that perhaps they shouldn't be harmonized.

Shalom,

Joe