Apocalypse of Pseudo-Ephraem

Apocalypse of Pseudo-Ephraem is a pseudoepigraphical text attributed to the church father Ephrem the Syrian. Two distinct documents have survived — one in Syriac and one in Latin. The Syriac document focuses on apocalyptic themes through the lens of Middle Eastern events which took place at the time it was written. Confusion exists around the Pseudo-Ephraem text primarily because of its doubtful authorship and date, differences between the Syriac and Latin versions, the small number of extant manuscripts, and the limited study that has been conducted of the text. Additionally, many extant works have been ascribed to Ephrem despite his authorship of these documents being doubtful. This has created significant difficulty in the area of textual criticism.

T. L. Frazier states, "Collections of works ascribed to Ephrem exist in several languages, the largest body of texts being Greek. Nearly all the surviving texts attributed to Ephrem in languages other than Syriac and Armenian are derived from this Greek corpus, including the Latin corpus."

Dating
As the text is pseudonymously attributed to Ephrem the Syrian (306–373 AD), scholars consider the text as post-dating Ephrem. The text also relies on the Syriac Alexander Legend for its Gog and Magog motif, and so it must post-date this text as well. Both Caspari, the editor of the Latin edition of the text, and Paul Alexander date it between the late 6th and early 7th centuries, but no later than ~630 AD, as the text frequently discusses wars between the Byzantines and Persians and so cannot post-date the final victory over the Sasanian Empire by Heraclius in 628. More recently, Reinink has contended for a date between 640 and 680, with the later date primarily being on the basis of its familiarity with the Arab invasions.

Pre-Tribulationism
A passage from the Latin version of the text has been used to argue that a pretribulational rapture view existed in the early church. This passage from the Latin version says:"'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.'"However, the Syriac version implies that it is death that will cause some to avoid the tribulation. The Syriac version says: "'Pronouncing the good fortune of the deceased Who had avoided the calamity: 'Blessed are you for you were borne away (to the grave) And hence you escaped from the afflictions!'"Additionally, there are several passages even in the Latin version that imply Christians will not escape the tribulation. For example:"'In those days [during the tribulation] people shall not be buried, neither Christian, nor heretic, neither Jew, nor pagan, because of fear and dread there is not one who buries them; because all people, while they are fleeing, ignore them.'""'Then, when this inevitability has overwhelmed all people, just and unjust, the just, so that they may be found good by their Lord; and indeed the unjust, so that they may be damned forever with their author the Devil.'"

Different documents translated by different translators
A translation by Professor John C. Reeves, from the Syriac text published by Edmund Beck, is available from the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina.

A translation from the Latin text was produced by Cameron Rhoades, a Latin professor at Tyndale Theological Seminary in Ft. Worth, Texas.

These two translations differ substantially because of the underlying texts.