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May 2009

The Rapture in Pseudo-Ephraem

Thomas D. Ice
Liberty University, tdice@liberty.edu

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Recommended Citation
Ice, Thomas D., "The Rapture in Pseudo-Ephraem" (2009). Article Archives. 32.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/pretrib_arch/32

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 The Rapture in Pseudo-Ephraem
by Thomas Ice

All the saints and elect of God are gathered together before the tribulation,
which is to come, and are taken to the Lord, in order that they may not see at
any time the confusion which overwhelms the world because of our sins.
–Pseudo-Ephraem (c. 374-627)

Critics of pretribulationism sometimes state that belief in the rapture is a

doctrinal development of recent origin. They argue that the doctrine of the
rapture or any semblance of it was completely unknown before the early
1800s and the writings of John Nelson Darby.1 One of the most vocal
and sensational critics of the rapture is Dave MacPherson, who argues
that, “during the first 18 centuries of the Christian era, believers were never
‘Rapture separaters’ [sic]; they never separated the minor Rapture aspect
of the Second Coming of Christ from the Second Coming itself.”2
A second critic, John Bray, also vehemently opposes a pretribulational
rapture, writing, “this teaching is not a RECOVERY of truth once taught
and then neglected. No, it never was taught–for 1800 years nearly no
one knew anything about such a scheme.”3 More recently, pre-trib
opponent Robert Van Kampen proclaimed, “The pretribulational rapture
position with its dual parousias was unheard of in church history prior to
1830.”4 In our previous issue of Pre-Trib Perspectives, I noted that pre-
wrath advocate Marvin Rosenthal has also joined the chorus.5
Christian reconstructionists have also consistently and almost
universally condemned premillennialism and pretribulationism, favoring
instead, postmillennialism. One sample of their prolific and often vitriolic
opposition can be seen in Gary North’s derisive description of the rapture
as “the Church’s hoped-for Escape Hatch on the world’s sinking ship,”
which he, like MacPherson, believes was invented in 1830.6

How to Find the Rapture in History

Is pretribulationism as theologically bankrupt as its critics profess, or are
there answers to these charges? If there are reasonable answers, then
the burden of proof and historical argumentation shifts back to the critics.
Rapture critics must acknowledge and interact with the historical and
theological evidence.

1Portions of this article will appear in an expanded form in the July 1995 edition of Bibliotheca Sacra in an article
entitled "the Rapture and an Early Medieval Citation."
2Dave MacPherson, The Great Rapture Hoax (Fletcher, NC: New Puritan Library, 1983), 15. For a refutation of
MacPherson's charges see Thomas D. Ice, "Why the Doctrine of the Pretribulational Rapture Did Not Begin with Margaret
Macdonald," Bibliotheca Sacra 147 (1990): 155-68.
3John L. Bray, The Origin of the Pre-Tribulation Rapture Teaching (Lakeland, FL.: John L. Bray Ministry, 1982), 31-32.
4Robert Van Kampen, The Sign (Wheaton, IL.: Crossway Books, 1992), 445.
5Thomas Ice, "Is The Pre-Trib Rapture A Satanic Deception?" Pre-Trib Perspectives (II:1; March 1995):1-3.
6Gary North, Rapture Fever: Why Dispensationalism is Paralyzed (Tyler, TX.: Institute for Christian Economics, 1993),
105.
 Rapture critic William Bell has formulated three criteria for establishing
the validity of a historical citation regarding the rapture. If any of his three
criteria are met, then he acknowledges it is “of crucial importance, if found,
whether by direct statement or clear inference.” As will be seen, the
Pseudo-Ephraem sermon meets not one, but two of his canons, namely,
“Any mention that Christ’s second coming was to consist of more than one
phase, separated by an interval of years,” and “any mention that Christ
was to remove the church from the earth before the tribulation period.”7

Pseudo-Ephraem's Rapture Statement

I vividly remember the phone call at my office late one afternoon from
Canadian prophecy teacher and writer Grant Jeffrey.8 He told me that he
had found an ancient pre-trib rapture statement. I said, "Let's hear it." He
read the following to me over the phone:
All the saints and elect of God are gathered together before the tribulation,
which is to come, and are taken to the Lord, in order that they may not see at
any time the confusion which overwhelms the world because of our sins.
I said that it sure sounds like a pre-trib statement and began to fire at him
all the questions I have since received many times when telling others
about the statement from Pseudo-Ephraem's sermon On the Last Times,
the Antichrist, and the End of the World.9 Grant's phone call started me on
journey through many of the substantial libraries throughout the
Washington, D.C. area in an effort to learn all I could about this historically
significant statement. The more information I acquired, the more it led me
to conclude that Grant is right to conclude that this is a pre-trib rapture
statement of antiquity.

Who is Pseudo-Ephraem?
The word "Pseudo" (Greek for false) is a prefix attached by scholars to
the name of a famous historical person or book of the Bible when one
writes using that name. Pseudo-Ephraem claims that his sermon was
written by Ephraem of Nisibis (306-73), considered to be the greatest
figure in the history of the Syrian church. He was well-known for his
poetics, rejection of rationalism, and confrontations with the heresies of
Marcion, Mani, and the Arians. As a poet, exegete, and theologian, his
style was similar to that of the Jewish midrashic and targumic traditions
and he favored a contemplative approach to spirituality. So popular were

7William E. Bell, “A Critical Evaluation of the Pretribulation Rapture Doctrine in Christian Eschatology” (Ph.D. diss., New
York University, 1967mm 26-27.
8For more information on the Pseudo-Ephraem statement see Grant R. Jeffrey, Final Warning (Toronto: Frontier Research
Publications, 1995). Forthcoming, Timothy Demy and Thomas Ice, "The Rapture and an Early Medieval Citation"
Bibliotheca Sacra 152 (July 1995): 300-11. Grant R. Jeffrey, "A Pretribulational Rapture Statement in the Early Medieval
Church" in Thomas Ice and Timothy Demy, ed., When the Trumpet Sounds: Today's Foremost Authorities Speak Out on
End-Time Controversies (Eugene, Or: Harvest House, 1995).
9Grant Jeffrey found the statement in Paul J. Alexander, The Byzantine Apocalyptic Tradition, by (Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1985), 2.10. The late Alexander found the sermon in C. P. Caspari, ed. Briefe, Abhandlungen und
Predigten aus den zwei letzten Jahrhunderten des kirchlichen Altertums und dem Anfang des Mittelaters, (Christiania,
1890), 208-20. This German work also contains Caspari's commentary on the sermon on pages 429-72.

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his works that in the fifth and sixth centuries he was adopted by several
Christian communities as a spiritual father and role model. His many
works, some of doubtful authenticity, were soon translated from Syriac into
Greek, Armenian, and Latin.
It is not at all unreasonable to expect that a prolific and prominent figure
such as Ephraem would have writings ascribed to him. While there is little
support for Ephraem as the author of the Sermon on the End of the
World, Caspari and Alexander have demonstrated that Pseudo-Ephraem
was "heavily influenced by the genuine works of Ephraem."10 What is
more difficult, though secondary to the main purpose of this article, is
determining the exact date, purpose, location of, and extent of subsequent
editorial changes to the sermon.11
Suggestions on the date of the writing of the original sermon range
from as early as Wilhelm Bousset's 373 date,12 to Caspari's estimation of
sometime between 565 and 627.13 Paul Alexander, after reviewing all the
argumentation, favors a date for the final form similar to that suggested by
Caspari,14 but Alexander also states simply, "It will indeed not be easy to
decide on the matter."15 All are clear that it had to have been written
before the spread and domination of Islam.

Pseudo-Ephraem's Sermon
The sermon consists of just under 1500 words, divided into ten sections
and has been preserved in four Latin manuscripts. Three of these date
from the eighth century and ascribe the sermon to Ephraem. A fourth
manuscript from the ninth century, claims not Ephraem, but Isidore of
Seville (d. 636) as author.16 Additionally, there are subsequent Greek and
Syriac versions of the sermon which have raised questions regarding the
language of the original manuscript. On the basis of lexical analysis and
study of the biblical citations within the sermon with Latin, Greek, and
Syriac versions of the Bible, Alexander believed it most probable that the
homily was composed in Syriac, translated first into Greek, and then into

10Paul J. Alexander, "The Diffusion of Byzantine Apocalypses in the Medieval West and the Beginnings of Joachimism,"
in Prophecy and Millenarianism: Essays in Honour of Marjorie Reeves, ed. Ann Williams (Essex, U.K. : Longman, 1980),
59.
11Paul J. Alexander, "Medieval Apocalypses as Historical Sources," American Historical Review 73 (1968): 1017. In this
essay Alexander addresses in-depth the historical difficulties facing the interpreter of such texts. To these difficulties,
issues of theological interpretation and concern must also be added.
12W. Bousset, The Antichrist Legend, trans. A. H. Keane (London: Hutchinson and Co., 1896), 33-41. An early date is also
accepted by Andrew R. Anderson, Alexander's Gate: Gog and Magog and the Enclosed Nations. Monographs of the
Mediaeval Academy of America, no. 5. (Cambridge, MA.: Mediaeval Academy of America, 1932):16-18.
13Caspari, 437-42.
14Alexander, Byzantine Apocalyptic Tradition, 147. This leaves the possibility that the work may have been altered or
revised prior to the date of the extant manuscripts.
15Ibid., 145. Earlier, he writes: "All that is certain, is as Caspari pointed out, that it must have been written prior to
Heraclius' victories over Sassanid Persia, for the author talks repeatedly of wars between Rome and Persia and such
discussions do not make sense after Heraclius' victories and the beginning of the Arab invasions" (144).
16Ibid., 136-37. The only critical edition is Caspari's which suffers a lack of objectivity in that he relied upon only two of
the four extant manuscripts.

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Latin from the Greek.17 Regardless of the original language, the
vocabulary and style of the extant copies are consistent with the writings
of Ephraem and his era. It appears likely that the sermon was written near
the time of Ephraem and underwent slight change during subsequent
coping.
What is most significant for present-day readers is the fact that the
sermon was popular enough to be translated into several languages fairly
soon after its composition. The significance of the sermon for us today is
that it represents a prophetic view of a pre-trib rapture within the orthodox
circles of its day.
The sermon is built around the three themes of the title On the Last
Times, the Antichrist, and the End of the World and proceeds
chronologically. The fact that the pre-trib statement occurs in section 2,
while the antichrist and tribulation are developed throughout the middle
sections, followed by Christ's second coming to the earth in the final
section supports a pre-trib sequence. This characteristic of the sermon fits
the first criteria outlined by William Bell, namely "that Christ’s second
coming was to consist of more than one phase, separated by an interval
of years." Thus, phase one is the rapture statement from section 2; the
interval of 3 1/2 years, 42 months, and 1,260 days, said to be the
tribulation in sections 7 and 8; the second phase of Christ's return is noted
in section 10 and said to take place "when the three and a half years have
been completed."18

Why Pseudo-Ephraem's Statement is Pretribulational

After learning of Pseudo-Ephraem's rapture statement, I shared it with a
number of colleagues. My favorite approach was to simply read the
statement, free of any introductory remarks, and ask what they thought.
Every person, whether pre-trib or not, concluded that it was some kind of
pre-trib statement. A few thought it was a statement from such pre-trib
proponents like John Walvoord or Charles Ryrie. Most noted the clear
statement concerning the removal of believers before the tribulation as a
reason for thinking the statement pre-trib. This is Bell's second criteria for
identifying a pre-trib statement from the past, namely, "any mention that
Christ was to remove the church from the earth before the tribulation
period." Note the following reasons why this should be taken as a pre-trib
statement:
1) Section 2 of the sermon begins with a statement about imminency:
"We ought to understand thoroughly therefore, my brothers, what is
imminent [Latin "immineat"] or overhanging."19 This is similar to the modern

17Ibid., 140-44.
18Caspari, 219. English citations are taken from a translation of the sermon provided by Cameron Rhoades, instructor of
Latin at Tyndale Theological Seminary, Ft. Worth, TX.
19Ibid., 210.

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pre-trib view of imminency and considering the subsequent rapture
statements supports a pre-trib scenario.
2) As I break down the rapture statement, notice the following
observations:
• "All the saints and elect of God are gathered . . ." Gathered where? A
later clause says they "are taken to the Lord." Where is the Lord? Earlier
in the paragraph the sermon speaks of "the meeting of the Lord Christ, so
that he may draw us from the confusion. . ." Thus the movement is from
the earth toward the Lord who is apparently in heaven. Once again, in
conformity to a translation scenario found in the pre-trib teaching.
• The next phrase says that the gathering takes place "prior to the
tribulation that is to come. . ." so we see that the event is pretribulational
and the tribulation is future to the time in which Pseudo-Ephraem wrote.
• The purpose for the gathering was so that they would not "see the
confusion that is to overwhelm the world because of their sins." Here we
have the purpose of the tribulation judgments stated and that was to be a
time of judgment upon the world because of their sin, thus, the church was
to be taken out.
3) Finally, Byzantine scholar Paul Alexander clearly believed that
Pseudo-Ephraem was teaching what we call today a pre-trib rapture.
According to Alexander, most Byzantine apocalypses were concerned
with how Christians would survive the time of severe persecution by
Antichrist. The normal approach given by other apocalyptic texts was a
shortening of the time to three and a half years, enabling the survival of
some Christians.20 Unlike those texts, this sermon has Christians being
removed from the time of tribulation. Alexander observed:
It is probably no accident that Pseudo-Ephraem does not mention the shortening of
the time intervals for the Antichrist's persecution, for if prior to it the Elect are 'taken to
the Lord,' i.e., participate at least in some measure in beatitude, there is no need for
further mitigating action on their behalf. The Gathering of the Elect according to
Pseudo-Ephraem is an alternative to the shortening of the time intervals.21

Conclusion
Regardless of what else the writer of this sermon believed, he did
believe that all believers would be removed before the tribulation–a pre-
trib rapture view. Thus, we have seen that those who have said that there
was no one before 1830 who taught the pre-trib rapture position will have
to revise their statements by well over 1,000 years. This statement does
not prove the pre-trib position, only the Bible can do that, but it should
change many people's historical views on the matter.

20 Alexander, 209.
21Ibid., 210-11.

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