1 St. Ephrem the Syrian / Ephrem Graecus A Homily on Cain and Abel / Sermo de Cain, et de Abel caedo (from codex 99 Pantocrator Monastery, Mt. Athos, fol. 375r - 396r) Greek text: K.G. Phrantzolas, Ὁσίου Ἐφραίµ τοῦ Σύρου ἔργα, vol. 7, Thessalonica: To Perivoli tis Panagias, 1998: 199-217. (page numbers of the Greek text indicated in brackets) Translation © Copyright Kevin James Kalish, 2016. I desired to draw carefully from the divine words— from a pure well— the spiritual meaning of the deeds and sayings; and so I prayed to understand clearly. When I had collected my mind, at once I extended my focus to the very depth of the words. There I saw in a field young and handsome boys, entirely beautiful. They were going slowly; then arriving at a certain place, one of them ran up and killed the other. And I, miserable as I am, was perplexed seeing this spiteful and unjust slaughter. I wanted to learn the reason why that one, with a fearless hand, killed the other. [200] I eagerly desired to be aloft in the air at the decisive moment and find out through the meaning of the words the true account. The slain boy lay there like a lamb in a field, and the slayer stood there without fear, and left unconcerned. On account of this, my brothers, I rushed to the Scriptures, wishing to learn the truth about these two. The divine narrative watered me thoroughly with knowledge about these two; a filtered