Farmer, plough my lands! (1)

Text
Ephrem Syrus, Carmina Nisibena 29.35-36:
My Farmer, plough my lands, and again and a third time, Lord! Just as by a threefold action thou has baptized and brought to life the soil of our souls, the church of our spirits! So did the Apostles, twice and a third time, they sowed and reaped; and from that same crop (the increase) has continued and come down. It has grown rich and filled the earth with the treasures of teaching.

Ephrem Syrus, Hymns against Heresies 23.1:
The twelve Apostles were the farmers of the whole world. Yet no place and no region was named after them, till the tares appeared after the death of the farmers; and the tares have given their own names to the wheat. In the day of harvest they will be uprooted. Blessed be he whose harvest is nigh!

Ephrem Syrus, Carmina Nisibena 33.3-5:
The Farmer came down to earth for the sake of mankind (who had turned to thorns) that they might turn to wheat; the thorns plaited thorns for the head of the Farmer. Yet not lost was the seed of that parable they depicted, for see - the thorns are transformed to roses and lilies, a crown for the Labourer who endured the crown of thorns. And for that farmer who has laboured in Harran, among the thorns, to make them wheat, (grant) by thy grace that cypress, myrtle and flowers may form a crown for thy Athlete.

Marutha, Homily 11:
They (= Apostles) are the hard-working Farmers who uprooted the thorns of sin from the accursed land, and sowed in (men’s) minds clean wheat, the knowledge of God; they were the skilful Labourers who gave Adam’s family to taste of the plant of the cross, and instead of wild grapes, behold, its branches bear fruits of joy.

Sources (list of abbreviations) (source links will open in a new browser window)
Ephrem Syrus, Carmina Nisibena 29.35-36
Ephrem Syrus, Carmina Nisibena 33.3-5
Ephrem Syrus, Hymns against Heresies 23.1
Marutha, Homily 11

Bibliography

Amar Annus

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