Untersuchungen über die Authentizität einiger asketischer Texte, überliefert unter dem Namen "Ephrae

Ephrem the Syrian was one of the most influential authors of the early Syriac tradition. Thus, as with popular authors in the Greek and Latin traditions, it is not surprising that a number of pseudepigraphic works circulated under the name of Ephrem. In the present essay, Arthur Vööbus surveys four different ascetic texts attributed to Ephrem in order to conclude whether or not they are genuine works by the revered Syriac father. Vööbus conducts this survey by comparing the ideas presented, the language used, and the form of Scripture citations with that of undisputed works of Ephrem. The final criterion is based on the presumption that Ephrem relied solely on the text of the Diatessaron for his citations, and thus any authentic writings of Ephrem must contain unique citations of the Diatessaron. Vööbus surveys four documents and ultimately concludes that two of them represent genuine works of Ephrem and two of them do not.