6. as] om. Aa.
7. See Deut. xxii 13 ff. Aa begins ' For it is . . .'
8. ' to thy Lord in thy virginity,' Aa,
9. in thy veil], ' in beauty,' Aa (sic).
10. 'and do not' (conj.)] 'virginity,' Palimpsest ( sic ), 'virginity and do not,' Aa. Apparently a mere scribes' blunder, the scribe of the Palimpsest having written [Syriac] before [Syriac].
11. 2 Sam. xiii.
12. See Exod. iv 11, and Overbeck, p. 150, 1. 20 : cf. also Deut. xxii 27.
13. Gen. xxxiv 2, 25 f.
14. 2 Sam. xiii 5 ff. The Peshitta has the same word for 'cakes' and 'hearts.'
15. A new paragraph should clearly begin here, but it does not even begin a new line in the Palimpsest. Aaron's transcript has an ordinary stop before 'Eve,' not the ornamental stop which marks a paragraph.
16. Judges xi 30 ff : syr.vg also has 'Nephtah' for ' Jephtah.'
17. ' moved away,' Aa.
18. Exod. xii 21 ff.
19. Lit. ' taken up'—the same word as in the preceding line.
20. The reference must be to the Story of Joseph and Asenath (E. W. Brooks, The Book of Joseph and Asenath, S.P.C.K., Hellenistic-Jewish Texts, No. 7). In this tale, though both hero and heroine are represented as the perfection of beauty and virtue, yet the affair ends in a real marriage, which to Ephraim was a sad falling-off !
21. +' therefore,' Aa.
22. Dove] 'Fish,' Aa. This absurd blunder is of interest, because it also occurs in the transliteration into Syriac of "Aenon near Salim" (John iii 23), where syr. C-vg. have ' En Yon , while syr. S and the Arabic Diatessaron have ' En Non.
23. The same phrase occurs in Ephraim's Comm. on Genesis ( ES 1 15A), where it is used of the Light not yet concentrated in Sun and Moon.
This text was transcribed by Roger Pearse, 12th September 2002. All material on this page is in the public domain - copy freely.
Greek text is rendered using the Scholars Press SPIonic font, free from here .