Aphrahat

Aphrahat (Latin Aphraates) was known as the 'Persian sage.' His identity was unclear to later writers, and in the earliest manuscripts his name is given as 'Jacob' rather than 'Aphrahat'. This in turn gave rise to him being identified with Jacob, bishop of Nisibis; an impossible identification, since Jacob died in 338 AD. The confusion must be early, since Gennadius names him thus in his continuation of Jerome's De viris illustribus. Likewise the early Armenian translation of his works has the same name on it.

Aphrahat was the author of a collection of 23 short works, known as the Demonstrations, or sometimes as the Letters. The first 22 form an alphabetic acrostic (the Syriac alphabet has 22 letters). Nos 1-10 are specifically dated to AD 337, 11-22 to AD 344, and 23 to August AD 345.

He wrote within the Persian empire, and presumably must have been a figure of some standing in the church, since Demonstrations 10 and 14 are addressed to 'the bishops and clergy.'

The Demonstrations cover a wide range of topics. Those included in the partial English translation are signalled with [ET].

1. . On Faith [ET]
2. . On Love [ET]
3. . On Fasting
4. . On Prayer [ET]
5. . On Wars [ET]
6. . On the Bnay Qyama [ET]

Bibliography

Complete translations exist in French and German; a partial translation exists in English, and a complete translation is in progress.