--- product_id: 736417900 title: "Hymns on Paradise" price: "£3634.49" currency: GBP in_stock: true reviews_count: 5 url: https://www.desertcart.co.uk/products/736417900-hymns-on-paradise store_origin: GB region: United Kingdom --- # Hymns on Paradise **Price:** £3634.49 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** Hymns on Paradise - **How much does it cost?** £3634.49 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.co.uk](https://www.desertcart.co.uk/products/736417900-hymns-on-paradise) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description desertcart.co.jp: Hymns on Paradise : St. Ephrem the Syrian, Ephraem, Syrus, Saint, Brock, Sebastian: Foreign Language Books Review: Ephrem the Syrian, Hymns on Paradise. SVS Press. Sebastian Brock gives an outstanding introduction to the thought-world of Ephrem the Syrian. At the risk of people crying “Harnack Thesis,” Brock teaches you how to view reality as a Semite. Brock’s introduction is doubly good, for St Ephrem’s mindset is not always easy to crack. This is the best way to explain the problem. For the Hellenized Greek, priority was given to the Form or the Real. Whether Ephrem would have agreed or not, we don’t know. But instead of Forms, in Ephrem we see symbols. Further, Ephrem often moves from individual to corporate to individual without telling the reader. Brock alerts us to these moves: “The Semitic mentality of the biblical writers and of the Syriac poets, such as St Ephrem, finds it very easy to move from the collective to the individual, and from the individual to the collective” (Brock 27). Key Concepts and Symbols While St Ephrem held to virginity as the ideal, he didn’t take it in the nigh-Galatianist heretical ways that guys like Methodius of Olympus would. For the word “singleness” Ephrem uses a broader term, ihidaya (wholeness). “Let one such man who is divided/collect himself and become ihidaya before You.” The meter of the poems doesn’t perfectly translate to English. It was originally some variant of 5 + 5. 5 + 5. 7. 5 + 5. 5 + 5. While St Ephrem has a strong theology of transcendence, he didn’t do away with the material world. There is a symbolic link between the material and spiritual realms. Hayla kasya: hidden power, meaning. The Greek philosopher defined a term by its opposite, which implied a limit to both. Not so with a Semitic thinker like Ephrem. Imagine a circle whose center is inaccessible (think of God’s essence). Ephrem will then juxtapose paradoxical statement on the circumference. Brock explains: “The central point is left undefined, but something of its nature can be inferred by joining up the various opposite points around the circumference” (40). Raza: symbol. Actually participates in some sense with the spiritual reality. It expresses “relationships and connections” (42). Kasyutha: hiddenness. That which is to be revealed in Christ. Galyutha: an objective reality but can only be experienced in a hidden way. The garment of words. God, who is inacessible, puts on names. This is what Eastern fathers would say by the energies’ revealing who God is. Paradise Brock argues that for the Syriac tradition there was an opinion that Paradise was an abode of sacred time, as the Peshitta translated miqqedem (to the East) as “from the beginning.” Brock then ties all of Ephrem’s topological details about the paradisical mountain: it is circular (I.8), encircles the Great Sea (II.6), the Flood only reached the foothills (I.4), on which is seated a barrier (syaga) guarded by the Cherub. The Tree of Knowledge is halfway up (III.3). This is the point at which Adam and Even, presumably after death, could not cross (51-52). The threefold concentric structure of the mountain is an analogue to the threefold structure of the human person: intellectual spirit (tar’itha), soul (naphsha), and body (gushma). Hymns Hymn 5 is particularly poignant. Mar Ephrem is telling us of a vision he had of paradise. There is the famous passage of nature and scripture (5.2). He has some wonderful suggestions on metaphysics concerning the Unseen Realm. Mind isn’t the same as matter and isn’t subject to the same limitations. Ephrem notes, “A hundred times finer and more subtle/Are the bodies of the righteous when they are risen, at the Resurrection They resemble the mind, which is able, if it so wills, to stretch out and expand, or, should it wish, to contract and shrink; if it shrinks, it is in some place, if it expands, it is in every place” (5.8). He continues this theme in Hymn 8. The soul on earth sees through the body. The body needs the soul to live and the soul too requires the body to see and here (8.4). Presumably for St Ephrem the soul and spirit aren’t the same thing. “Far more glorious than the body is the soul, and more glorious still than the soul is the spirit, but more hidden than the spirit is the Godhead” (9.20). We even get rare humor (though Ephrem probably intended it in all seriousness). He is describing the climate of paradise in contrast to earth. “The air of this earth is wanton as a prostitute with whom the twelve months consort; each one in turn makes her comply with its own whims while she produces fruits from all; whereas the chaste and pure air of Paradise is unpolluted in its purity by the dalliance of months” (10.5). Review: The late St. Ephrem is a wonderful helper, even today. ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Amazon Bestseller | #368,390 in Foreign Language Books ( See Top 100 in Foreign Language Books ) #392 in Inspirational & Religious Poetry #2,360 in Christian Theology (Foreign Language Books) #3,065 in Spirituality (Foreign Language Books) | | Customer Reviews | 4.9 4.9 out of 5 stars (124) | | Dimensions | 5 x 0.75 x 7.25 inches | | ISBN-10 | 0881410764 | | ISBN-13 | 978-0881410761 | | Item Weight | 227 g | | Language | English | | Print length | 240 pages | | Publication date | March 1, 1997 | | Publisher | St Vladimirs Seminary Pr | ## Images ![Hymns on Paradise - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71QXGdAVvgL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Review *by J***B on February 12, 2019* Ephrem the Syrian, Hymns on Paradise. SVS Press. Sebastian Brock gives an outstanding introduction to the thought-world of Ephrem the Syrian. At the risk of people crying “Harnack Thesis,” Brock teaches you how to view reality as a Semite. Brock’s introduction is doubly good, for St Ephrem’s mindset is not always easy to crack. This is the best way to explain the problem. For the Hellenized Greek, priority was given to the Form or the Real. Whether Ephrem would have agreed or not, we don’t know. But instead of Forms, in Ephrem we see symbols. Further, Ephrem often moves from individual to corporate to individual without telling the reader. Brock alerts us to these moves: “The Semitic mentality of the biblical writers and of the Syriac poets, such as St Ephrem, finds it very easy to move from the collective to the individual, and from the individual to the collective” (Brock 27). Key Concepts and Symbols While St Ephrem held to virginity as the ideal, he didn’t take it in the nigh-Galatianist heretical ways that guys like Methodius of Olympus would. For the word “singleness” Ephrem uses a broader term, ihidaya (wholeness). “Let one such man who is divided/collect himself and become ihidaya before You.” The meter of the poems doesn’t perfectly translate to English. It was originally some variant of 5 + 5. 5 + 5. 7. 5 + 5. 5 + 5. While St Ephrem has a strong theology of transcendence, he didn’t do away with the material world. There is a symbolic link between the material and spiritual realms. Hayla kasya: hidden power, meaning. The Greek philosopher defined a term by its opposite, which implied a limit to both. Not so with a Semitic thinker like Ephrem. Imagine a circle whose center is inaccessible (think of God’s essence). Ephrem will then juxtapose paradoxical statement on the circumference. Brock explains: “The central point is left undefined, but something of its nature can be inferred by joining up the various opposite points around the circumference” (40). Raza: symbol. Actually participates in some sense with the spiritual reality. It expresses “relationships and connections” (42). Kasyutha: hiddenness. That which is to be revealed in Christ. Galyutha: an objective reality but can only be experienced in a hidden way. The garment of words. God, who is inacessible, puts on names. This is what Eastern fathers would say by the energies’ revealing who God is. Paradise Brock argues that for the Syriac tradition there was an opinion that Paradise was an abode of sacred time, as the Peshitta translated miqqedem (to the East) as “from the beginning.” Brock then ties all of Ephrem’s topological details about the paradisical mountain: it is circular (I.8), encircles the Great Sea (II.6), the Flood only reached the foothills (I.4), on which is seated a barrier (syaga) guarded by the Cherub. The Tree of Knowledge is halfway up (III.3). This is the point at which Adam and Even, presumably after death, could not cross (51-52). The threefold concentric structure of the mountain is an analogue to the threefold structure of the human person: intellectual spirit (tar’itha), soul (naphsha), and body (gushma). Hymns Hymn 5 is particularly poignant. Mar Ephrem is telling us of a vision he had of paradise. There is the famous passage of nature and scripture (5.2). He has some wonderful suggestions on metaphysics concerning the Unseen Realm. Mind isn’t the same as matter and isn’t subject to the same limitations. Ephrem notes, “A hundred times finer and more subtle/Are the bodies of the righteous when they are risen, at the Resurrection They resemble the mind, which is able, if it so wills, to stretch out and expand, or, should it wish, to contract and shrink; if it shrinks, it is in some place, if it expands, it is in every place” (5.8). He continues this theme in Hymn 8. The soul on earth sees through the body. The body needs the soul to live and the soul too requires the body to see and here (8.4). Presumably for St Ephrem the soul and spirit aren’t the same thing. “Far more glorious than the body is the soul, and more glorious still than the soul is the spirit, but more hidden than the spirit is the Godhead” (9.20). We even get rare humor (though Ephrem probably intended it in all seriousness). He is describing the climate of paradise in contrast to earth. “The air of this earth is wanton as a prostitute with whom the twelve months consort; each one in turn makes her comply with its own whims while she produces fruits from all; whereas the chaste and pure air of Paradise is unpolluted in its purity by the dalliance of months” (10.5). ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Review *by O***O on June 8, 2023* The late St. Ephrem is a wonderful helper, even today. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Review *by A***O on March 25, 2026* Excellent classic ## Frequently Bought Together - St. Ephrem the Syrian: Hymns On Paradise - On the Cosmic Mystery of Jesus Christ: Selected Writings from St. Maximus the Confessor (St. Vladimir's Seminary Press "Popular Patristics" Series) - The Language of Creation: Cosmic Symbolism in Genesis: A Commentary --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.co.uk/products/736417900-hymns-on-paradise](https://www.desertcart.co.uk/products/736417900-hymns-on-paradise) --- *Product available on Desertcart United Kingdom* *Store origin: GB* *Last updated: 2026-05-16*