The agricultural images (1)

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The title ‘Farmer’ (Sumerian engar, Akkadian ikkaru) was the epithet of Mesopotamian gods, mostly of Ninurta and Enlil, and also of kings. The same title occurs in the Christian writings in Syriac as the loan word akkārâ, applied to Christ, the Apostles and bishops. The Odist in the Odes of Solomon (16.1) compares himself to a farmer, and Aphrahat calls bishops ‘You are industrious farmers, filling storehouses and garnering produce’ (Dem. 14.680.3-4). In Ephrem and his later contemporaries we find this agricultural figure fully established – Christ is the wise Labourer whose storehouse contains all mysteries (Hymns on Virginity 20.11), and says in a stanza: ‘Blessed also be the Farmer (akkārâ), who became the wheat which was sown and the sheaf which was harvested!’ (Hymns on Nativity 3.15) Ephrem in Carmina Nisibena (29) pictures the church of Edessa crying to Christ the Farmer, lamenting the divisions of her children because of Arian pressure. After developing the imagery of the vineyard in winter, Ephrem turns to view the church as the Farmer’s field, which cries to him: ‘My Farmer, plough my lands, and again and a third time, Lord!’. The image of tares is frequently used of heretics by Ephrem and the faithful bishops as ‘farmers’ are exhorted to weed them out zealously (Carmina Nisibena 20 et passim).

Sources (list of abbreviations) (source links will open in a new browser window)
Aphrahat, Demonstrations 14.680.3-4
Ephrem Syrus, Carmina Nisibena 20
Ephrem Syrus, Hymns on Virginity 20.11
Ephrem Syrus, Hymns on Nativity 3.15
Odes of Solomon 16.1

Bibliography

Amar Annus

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