St. Ephrem, the "Harp of the Spirit," composed prose commentaries and sermons of skillful charm and grace, in addition to beautiful hymns, during the time he spent teaching at his native Nisibis and at Edessa in Syria. In the two commentaries presented here, Ephrem focuses only on portions of the sacred text that had a particular theological significance for him, or whose orthodox interpretation needed to be reasserted in the face of contemporary heterodox ideas. He does not provide a continuous, verse by verse exposition. The elaborate rhetorical figures and stylistic devices of the Homily on Our Lord and Letter to Publius succeed in creating language and imagery nearly as striking as Ephrem's poetry.