Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume XIII/Ephraim the Syrian and Aphrahat/The Pearl/Hymn IV

1.&#160; The thief gained the faith which gained him, and brought him up and placed him in paradise.&#160; He saw in the Cross a tree of life; that was the fruit, he was the eater in Adam&#8217;s stead.

The fool, who goes astray, grazes the faith, as it were an eye, by all manner of questions.&#160; The probing of the finger blinds the eye, and much more doth that prying blind. the faith.

For even the diver pries not into his pearl.&#160; In it do all merchants rejoice without prying into whence it came; even the king who is crowned therewith does not explore it.

2.&#160; Because Balaam was foolish, a foolish beast in the ass spoke with him, because he despised God Who spoke with him.&#160; Thee too let the pearl reprove in the ass&#8217;s stead.

The people that had a heart of stone, by a Stone He set at nought, for lo, a stone hears words.&#160; Witness its work that has reproved them; and you, ye deaf ones, let the pearl reprove today.

With the swallow and the crow did He put men to shame; with the ox, yea with the ass, did He put them to shame; let the pearl reprove now, O ye birds and things on earth and things below.

3.&#160; Not as the moon does thy light fill or wane; the Sun whose light is greater than all, lo! of Him it is that a type is shadowed out in thy little compass.&#160; O type of the Son, one spark of Whom is greater than the sun!&#8212;

The pearl itself is full, for its light is full; neither is there any cunning worker who can steal from it; for its wall is its own beauty, yea, its guard also!&#160; It lacks not, since it is entirely perfect.

And if a man would break thee to take a part from thee, thou art like the faith which with the heretics perishes, seeing they have broken it in pieces and spoiled it:&#160; for is it any better than this to have the faith scrutinised?

The faith is an entire nature that may not be corrupted.&#160; The spoiler gets himself mischief by it:&#160; the heretic brings ruin on himself thereby.&#160; He that chases the light from his pupils blinds himself.

Fire and air are divided when sundered.&#160; Light alone, of all creatures, as its Creator, is not divided; it is not barren, for that it also begets without losing thereby.

4.&#160; And if a man thinks that thou art framed [by art] he errs greatly; thy nature proclaims that thou, as all stones, art not the framing of art; and so thou art a type of the Generation which no making framed.

Thy stone flees from a comparison with the Stone [which is] the Son.&#160; For thy own generation is from the midst of the deep, that of the Son of thy Creator is from the highest height; He is not like thee, in that He is like His Father.

And as they tell, two wombs bare thee also.&#160; Thou camest down from on high a fluid nature; thou camest up from the sea a solid body.&#160; By means of thy second birth thou didst show thy loveliness to the children of men.

Hands fixed thee, when thou wast embodied, into thy receptacles; for thou art in the crown as upon a cross, and in a coronet as in a victory; thou art upon the ears, as if to fill up what was lacking; thou extendest over all.