APHRAATES (a Greek form of the Persian name Aphraha>: or Pharhadh)

This article appears in Volume V02, Page 166 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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APHRAATES (a Greek form of the Persian name Aphraha>: or Pharhadh) , a Syriac writer belonging to the middle of 'the '4th century A. D., who composed a

series

SERIES (a Latin word from serere, to join)

of twenty-three expositions or homilies on points of Christian doctrine and practice. The first ten were written in -337, the following twelve in 344, and the last in 345.1 The author was early known as hakkimd phartaya ("the Persian sage"), was a subject of Sapor II., and was probably of heathen parentage and himself a convert from heathenism. He seems at some time in his life to have assumed the name of Jacob, and is so entitled in the colophon to a MS: of A.D. 512 which contains twelve of his homilies. Hence he was already by Gennadius of Marseilles (before 496) confused. with Jacob, bishop of Nisibis; and' the ancient Armenian: version of nineteen of the homilies has been published under this latter name. But (I) Jacob of Nisibis, who attended the_ council of Nicaea, died in 338; and (2) our author, being a Persian subject, cannot have lived at Nisibis, which became Persian only by Jovian's treaty of 363. That , his name was Aphrahat or Pharhadh we learn from comparatively

late

LATE

writersBar Bahlul (loth century), Elias of Nisibis (1rth), Bar-Hebraeus,- and `Abad-isho'. George, bishop of the Arabs, writing in A.D. 714'to.a friend who had sent him a

series

SERIES (a Latin word from serere, to join)

of questions about the " Persian sage," confesses ignorance of his name, home and `rank; but infers from his homilies that he was a monk, and of high esteem among the clergy. The fact that in 344 he was selected to draw up a circular

letter

LETTER (through Fr. lettre from Lat. littera or litera, letter of the alphabet; the origin of the Latin word is obscure; it has probably no connexion with the root of linere, to smear, i.e. with wax, for an inscription with a stilus)

from a council of bishops and other clergy to the churches of Seleucia and Ctesiphon and elsewhereincluded in our collection as homily 14is held by Dr W.

Wright

and others to prove that he was a bishop. According to a marginal note in a 14th-century MS. (B.M. Orient. 1017), he was "bishop of Mar Mattai," a famous monastery near Mosul, but it is unlikely that this institution existed so early. The homilies of Aphraates are intended to form, as Professor Burkitt has shown. " a full and ordered exposition of the Christian faith." The standpoint is that of the Syriac-speaking church, before it was touched by the Arian controversy. Beginning with faith as the foundation, the writer proceeds to build up the structure of doctrine and duty. The first ten homilies, which form one division completed in 337, are without polemical reference;
1 Horn. 1-22 begin with the letters of the Syriac alphabet in suecessiotr: Their present order in the Syriac MSS. is therefore right. The ancient Armenian version, published byAntonelli in 1756, has only 19 of the homilies, and those in a somewhat different order.
their subjects are faith, love, fasting, prayer, wars (a somewhat mysterious setting forth of the conflict between Rome and Persia under the imagery of Daniel), the sons of the covenant (monks or ascetics), penitents, the resurrection, humility, pastors. Those numbered 11-22, written in 344, are almost all directed against the Jews; the subjects are

circumcision

CIRCUMCISION (Lat. circum, round, and caedere, to cut)

, passover, the sabbath, persuasion (the encyclical

letter

LETTER (through Fr. lettre from Lat. littera or litera, letter of the alphabet; the origin of the Latin word is obscure; it has probably no connexion with the root of linere, to smear, i.e. with wax, for an inscription with a stilus)

referred to above), distinction of meats, the substitution of the Gentiles for the Jews, that Christ is the Son of God, virginity and holiness, whether the Jews have been finally rejected or are yet to be restored, provision for the poor, persecution, death and the last times. The 23rd homily, on the " grape kernel" (Is. lxv. 8), written in 344, forms an appendix on the Messianic fulfilment of prophecy, together with a treatment of the chronology from

Adam

to Christ. Aphraates impresses a reader favourably by his moral earnestness, his guilelessness, his moderation in controversy, the simplicity of his style and language, his saturation with the ideas and words of Scripture. On the other hand, he is full of cumbrous repetition, he lacks precision in argument and is prone to digression, his quotations from Scripture are often inappropriate, and he is greatly influenced by Jewish exegesis. He is particularly fond of arguments about numbers. How wholly he and his surroundings were untouched by the Arian conflict may be judged from the 17th homily" that Christ is the Son of God." He argues that, as the name " God " or " Son of God " was given in the O.T. to men who were worthy, and as God does not withhold from men a share in His attributes.such as sovereignty and fatherhoodit was fitting that Christ who has wrought salvation for mankind should obtain this highest name. From the frequency of his quotations, Aphraates; is a specially important witness to the form in which the Gospels were read in the Syriac church in his day; Zahn and others have shown that hemainly at leastused the Diatessaron. Finally, he bears important contemporary witness to the sufferings of the Christian church in Persia under Sapor (Shapur) II. as well as the moral evils which had infected the church, to the sympathy of Persian Christians with the cause of the Roman empire, to the condition of early monastic institutions, to the
practice of the Syriac church in regard to Easter, &c.
Editions by W.

Wright

(London, 1869), and J.Parisot (with Latin translation, Paris, 1894) ; the ancient Armenian version of 19 homilies edited, translated into Latin, and annotated by Antonelli (Rome, 1956). Besides translations of particular homilies by G. Bickell and E. W. Budge, the whole have been translated by G. Bert (

Leipzig

LEIPZIG

, 1888). Cf. also C. J. F. Sasse, Proleg, in Aphr. Sapientis Persae sermones homileticos (

Leipzig

LEIPZIG

, ' 1879) ; J. Forget, De Vita et Scriptis Aphraatis (Louvain, 1882); F. C. Burkitt, Early Eastern Christianity (London, 1904) ; J. Labourt, Le Christianisme dans l'empire verse (Paris, 1904); J. Zahn, Forschungen I.;
Aphraates and the Diatessaron,' vol. ii. pp. 18o-186 of Burkitt's Evangelion Da-Mepharreshe (

Cambridge

; 1904) ; articles' on " Aphraates and

Monasticism

MONASTICISM (Gr. p.ovacrnabs, living alone, µ6vos)

," by R. H. Connolly and Burkitt in Journal of Theological Studies (1905) pp. 522-539; (1906) pp. 10-15. (N. M.)

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