‘Clothed in the body’: the Garment of Flesh and the Garment of Glory in Syrian religious Anthropology

Drawing mostly from the writings of St Ephrem this paper explores the image of being clothed in the body from three perspectives – the concept of Adam being originally ‘clothed’ in a garment of flesh or light (according to the translation from the Targum); the repristination of this fleshly robe through baptism, and the links between the origi-nal ‘garment’ and the eschatalogical wedding garment. It will argue that the use of this image within the early Syrian tradition contributes an affirming sense of human integ-rity and that the unity of divine and human natures in Christ, who himself was ‘clothed in the body’, is mirrored in the anthropological unity of the body, soul and mind of the ‘first Adam’.