Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume XIII/Ephraim the Syrian and Aphrahat/Hymns For the Feast of the Epiphany/Hymn IX

(., Blessed is He Who came down, and sanctified water for the remission of the sins of the children of Adam!)

1.&#160; O John, who sawest the Spirit,&#8212;that abode on the head of the Son,&#8212;to show how the Head of the Highest&#8212;went down and was baptized&#8212;and came up to be Head on earth!&#8212;Children of the Spirit ye have thus become,&#8212;and Christ has become for you the Head:&#8212;ye also have become His members.

2.&#160; Consider and see how exalted ye are;&#8212;how instead of the river Jordan&#8212;ye have glorious Baptism, wherein is peace;&#8212;spreading her wings to shade your bodies.&#8212;In the wilderness John baptized:&#8212;in Her pure flood of Baptism,&#8212;purely are ye baptized therein.

3.&#160; Infants think when they see its glory,&#8212;that by its pomp its might is enhanced.&#8212;But it is the same, and within itself&#8212;is not divided.&#8212;But the might which never waxes less or greater&#8212;in us is little or again great;&#8212;and he in whom is great understanding,&#8212;great in him is Baptism.

4.&#160; A man&#8217;s knowledge, if it be exalted,&#8212;exalted also is his degree above his brethren;&#8212;and he whose faith is great,&#8212;so also is his promise;&#8212;and as is his wisdom, so also his crowning.&#8212;As is the light, which though it be all goodly&#8212;and equal all of it with itself,&#8212;yet goodlier is one eye than another.

5.&#160; Jesus mingled His might in the water:&#8212;put ye Him on my brethren as discerning men!&#8212;For there are that in the water merely&#8212;perceive that they are washed.&#160; With our body be our soul washed!&#8212;The manifest water let the body perceive,&#8212;and the soul the secret might;&#8212;that both to the manifest and to the secret ye may be made like!

6.&#160; How beautiful is Baptism&#8212;in the eye of the heart; come, let us gaze on it!&#8212;Like as by a seal ye have been moulded;&#8212;receive ye its image,&#8212;that nought may be lacking to us of our image!&#8212;For the sheep that are white of heart&#8212;gaze on the glory that is in the water:&#8212;in your souls reflect ye it!

7.&#160; Water is by nature as a mirror,&#8212;for one who in it examines himself.&#8212;Stir up thy soul, thou that discernest,&#8212;and be like unto it!&#8212;For it in its midst reflects thy image;&#8212;from it, on it, find an example;&#8212;gaze in it on Baptism,&#8212;and put on the beauty that is hidden therein!

8.&#160; What profits it him that hears&#8212;a voice and knows not its significance?&#8212;Whoso hears a voice and is devoid&#8212;of the understanding thereof,&#8212;his ear is filled but his soul is empty.&#8212;Lo! since the gift is abundant,&#8212;with discernment receive ye it.

9.&#160; Baptism that is with understanding&#8212;is the conjunction of two lights,&#8212;and rich are the fountains of its rays.&#8212;&#8230;&#8230;&#8212;And the darkness that is on the mind departs,&#8212;and the soul beholds Him in beauty,&#8212;the hidden Christ of glory,&#8212;and grieves when the glory fails.

10.&#160; Baptism without understanding&#8212;is a treasure full yet empty;&#8212;since he that receives it is poor in it,&#8212;for he understands not&#8212;how great are its riches into which he enters and dwells.&#8212;For great is the gift within it,&#8212;though the mean man perceives not&#8212;that he is exalted even as it.

11.&#160; Open wide your minds and see, my brethren,&#8212;the secret column in the air, whose base is fixed from the midst of the water&#8212;unto the door of the Highest Place, like the ladder that Jacob saw.&#8212;Lo! by it came down the light unto Baptism,&#8212;and by it the soul goes up to Heaven,&#8212;that in one love we may be mingled.

12.&#160; Our Lord when he was baptized by John&#8212;sent forth twelve fountains;&#8212;and they issued forth and cleansed by their streams&#8212;the defilement of the peoples.&#8212;His worshippers are made white like His garments,&#8212;the garments in Tabor and the body in the water.&#8212;Instead of the garments the peoples are made white,&#8212;and have become for Him a clothing of glory.

13.&#160; From your garments learn, my brethren,&#8212;how your members should be kept.&#8212;For if the garment, which ever so many times&#8212;may be made clean,&#8212;is duly kept for the sake of its comeliness,&#8212;the body which has but one baptism&#8212;manifold more exceeding is the care of its keeping,&#8212;for manifold are its dangers.

14.&#160; Again the sun in a house that is strait,&#8212;is straitened therein though he be great:&#8212;but in a house that is goodly and large,&#8212;when he rises thereon&#8212;far and wide in it he spreads his rays;&#8212;and though the sun is one and the same in his nature,&#8212;in divers houses he undergoes changes:&#8212;Even so our Lord in divers men.