great merit is that it left so much of the old work standing. Accuracy and timidity are the chief characteristics of the revisers, and we can still trace the influence of Greek theology and the Greek grammarians as well as the use of Greek mss.[1]
Ephraim's excessive verbosity makes it difficult to discover his real theological position. In a time of transition, such as he lived in, the art of saying nothing in a great many words must have been exceedingly useful, and the saint who preferred to glue together the pages of Apollinaris's book rather than attempt to confute the writer must have been aware that argument was not his strong point. The ultimate reasons which led to the short-lived and disastrous triumph of Greek thought over the native Syriac Christianity were political rather than theological, and Ephraim only too well represents the temporary and verbal complaisance of the Syriac-
- ↑ The Word and the Spirit are treated for theological purposes as masculine, contrary to the genius of the language, and in Joh i 14 flesh is substituted for the Old Syriac body. In Grammar we may notice the consistent omission of the Semitic 'and' at the beginning of the apodosis, e.g. in Lk xii 46.
