Medicine of Life (1)

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The Syrian Church Fathers speak very often about the Medicine of Life. Ephrem wrote in the commentary on Joshua 4:13 “This is the Church, which gives the absolution with the Medicine of Life, not only to kings but also to all the hosts that follow the kings.” (43.7-8.) The term “Medicine of Life” (sam hayyê) has a long history in Mesopotamia, being the object of the arduous quest of Gilgameš. It is mentioned in the Assyrian letter SAA 10 166.2’, where the Assyrian king revives people by placing “the medicine of life in their nostrils”. In Syrian tradition, the Medicine of Life is a favourite term for the eucharist. Aphrahat calls the Christ with the same term: “Blessed be the Shepherd, who became the Lamb for our atonement! Blessed be the Vineshoot, which became the Chalice for our salvation! Blessed also be the Grape, the source of the Medicine of Life!” (HN 3.15) Ignatius uses the term “medicine of immortality” instead (pharmakon athanasias, Eph. 20.3). Cyrillona developed the image of grain in John 12:24 in application both to Christ himself, dying and rising again, and to the Eucharist, which ‘the Church eats, the elect lady’ (On the Pasch, 265-266). As bread gives strength to the eater, so does Christ’s eucharistic body to ‘the nations’, giving them power to ‘trample on death’ (275-286). Jesus “gives the ‘Medicine of Life’ to the whole world to drink” (Aphrahat, Harm. 42). A passage in Aphrahat’s Carmina Nisibena (36.14) says: ‘The Medicine of Life has entered Sheol and made its dead live.’

Sources (list of abbreviations) (source links will open in a new browser window)
Aphrahat, Harm. 42
Aphrahat, Hymns on Nativity 3.15
Cyrillona, On the Pasch 265-266
Cyrillona, On the Pasch 275-286
Ephrem Syrus, Commentary on Joshua 43.7-8
Ignatius, To the Ephesians 20.3
SAA 10 166.2’

Bibliography

Amar Annus

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