[
Ephrem
](https://gedsh.bethmardutho.org/Ephrem) (d. 373) is universally acknowledged as the greatest writer in
Syriac literary culture. However, the earliest biographical notices of
Ephrem did not emerge from the Syriac-speaking world, but were the work of
Greek ecclesiastical historians (Palladius, Sozomen, [
Theodoret
](https://gedsh.bethmardutho.org/Theodoret-of-Cyrrhus)) who created an image intended to conform to their own
monastic-inspired ascetical values. The accounts they produced preserve
practically no reliable information about Ephrem; rather, they are
constructed from a stereotypical repertoire of anecdotes and stories
intended to depict an ideal monk. Monasticism had not entered Syria in
Ephrem’s time. His dedication to an evangelical life of chastity and service
was based on the native Syriac institution of the [
](https://gedsh.bethmardutho.org/Bnay-Qyama-Bnat-Qyama)Bnay qyāmā
‘Sons of the Covenant’ which flourished in the pre-monastic
period of Syriac asceticism.
It is clear that the purpose of the early Greek biographical sketches of
Ephrem was to confer legitimacy on him from the point of view of the Great
Church of the Byzantine Empire, for example, by fictitiously associating him
with [
Basil
](https://gedsh.bethmardutho.org/Basil-of-Caesarea) the Great, Father of Byzantine
monasticism, and with monastic foundations in Egypt. These fictional
encounters tactlessly depict Ephrem as a social inferior and an unlettered
country-bumpkin whose fondest desire is to be able to speak Greek. It is
during Ephrem’s fictitious visit to Basil that his purported ordination to
the diaconate takes place. By conferring clerical status on Ephrem, his
teaching authority is legitimized and sanctioned. As a provincial,
non-Greek-speaking culture with a history of independent thought and
practice, Syriac-speaking Christianity represented a deviation from
Byzantine imperial hegemony. By authorizing Ephrem, the Byzantine
ecclesiastics who produced the Life brought him into the fold and
legitimized the authority he possessed in native Syriac culture.
A historically and culturally accurate depiction of Ephrem is found in a memrā by [
Yaʿqub of
Serugh
](https://gedsh.bethmardutho.org/Yaqub-of-Serugh) dedicated to Ephrem. The homily knows nothing of the severe
ascetic depicted in the Life who shuns everyday life and disparages women as
inferiors. On the contrary, it celebrates Ephrem for his moderation (puršānā) and simplicity (šapyutā), and remembers him precisely for his work among the Bnāt qyāmā ‘Daughters of the Covenant’.
The several ms. traditions of the Life of Ephrem are all based on three
Syriac recensions which, in order of length
,
are: ms. Vat. Syr. 117; ms.
Paris, Bibl. Nat. Syr. 235; and ms. London, Brit. Libr. Add. 9384.