Our Righteous Father Ephrem the Syrian was a prolific Syriac language hymn writer and theologian of the 4th century. He is venerated by Christians throughout the world, but especially among Syriac Christians, as a saint. His feast day in the Orthodox Church is January 28.

Ephrem the Syrian was a Syriac Christian deacon and a prolific Syriac-language hymnographer and theologian of the fourth century. Ephrem is especially beloved in the Syriac Orthodox Church, and counted as a Venerable Father in the Eastern Orthodox Church. His work here recount the nativity and birth of the Christ child.

The Life of Saint Mary the Harlot is later attributed to St. Ephrem the Syrian, deacon of the church in Edessa and was likely written towards the end of his life, though there have been claims against Ephrem's authorship. The text itself appears to have originally been composed in Syriac, and would circulate through Christendom under its Latin and Greek translation. It contains sixteen chapters about the life of the Syriac orphan, Mary and her uncle Abraham. The text concludes with a prayer, as it surviving in Latin, allegedly composed by St. Ephrem.

This volume presents for the first time in the Fathers of the Church series the work of an early Christian writer who did not write in either Greek or Latin. It offers new English translations of selected prose works by St. Ephrem the Syrian (c. A.D. 309-373). The volume contains St. Ephrem's Commentary on Genesis, Commentary on Exodus, Homily on Our Lord, and Letter to Publius. The translators have enhanced the volume with a general introduction, extensive bibliography, and specific introductions to each of the works. Together these features provide an overview of the major scholarship on St. Ephrem and Syriac Christianity. St. Ephrem, the Harp of the Spirit, composed prose commentaries and sermons of skillfull charmand grace, in addition to beautiful hymns, during the time he spent teaching at his native Nisibis and at Edessa in Syria. In the two commentaries presented here, Ephrem focuses only on portions of the sacred text that had a particular theological significance for him, or whose orthodox interpretation needed to be reasserted in the face of contemporary heterodox ideas. He does not provide a continuous, verse by verse exposition. The elaborate rhetorical figures and stylistic devices of the Homily on Or Lord andLetter to Publius succeed in creating language and imagery nearly as striking as Ephrem's poetry. St. Ephrem marshaled his considerable theological and rhetorical talent to challenge the appeal that the doctrines of the Arians, Manicheans, Marcionites, and the followers of Bardaisan might have had to the minds and hearts of Syrian Christians. In the face of their rational systems, his was the voice that insisted on the incomprehensibility of the divine nature.