AFRAATES (Syriac Apharhat). – He is the earliest major Syriac writer whose works have come down to us.
Until 1855 his writings, known only in Armenian translation, were mistakenly attributed to Jacob (James) of Nisibis, and under that attribution they were edited by N. Antonelli, S. Patris nostri facobi, episcopi Nisibeni, Sermones, Rome 1756; but in 1855 Cureton discovered in the British Museum manuscripts the original Syriac text, which ascribes them to the ‘Persian Sage’ called A. or Jacob; probably the name Jacob was taken by A. when he was baptized or elected bishop, and the coincidence of names was the reason why his works were attributed to Jacob of Nisibis, EPHRAIM (v.), both in the Armenian translation and by Gennadius of Marseilles (De scriptor. eccles., 1).
Certainly A. was a monk and later a bishop, as is clear from many passages in his writings. A late report assigns as his episcopal see the famous monastery of Mar Matthew near Mosul, which later became an important centre of the Monophysites; this report encounters certain difficulties, although it is supported by the epithet ‘Persian’ applied to A., which shows that he lived on territory of the Persian empire and not of the Roman empire. No other reliable information about A.’s person has survived: it is possible, however, that he died a martyr in the persecution of Shapur II, shortly after 345.
A.’s writings, entitled in Syriac Demonstrations, are in fact short treatises on the following topics: I. Of Faith; II. Of Love; III. Of Fasting; IV. Of Prayer; V. Of Wars; VI. Of Monks; VII. Of Penitents; VIII. Of the Resurrection of the Dead; IX. Of Humility; X. Of Shepherds. These first ten Demonstrations were completed in the year 337, at the invitation of a friend whose letter has been preserved; however, in 344 A. finished writing another twelve Demonstrations, thus completing their alphabetical series, since each Demonstration begins in order with a letter of the Syriac alphabet (which has 22 letters). These of the second group are: XI. Of Circumcision; XII. Of Easter; XIII. Of the Sabbath; XIV. Of Exhortation; XV. Of the Distinction of Foods; XVI. Of the Peoples (pagan) who were in place of the (Hebrew) people; XVII. Of Christ, who is the Son of God; XVIII. Against the Jews and concerning virginity and holiness; XIX. Against the Jews, because they say that they shall be regathered; XX. Of the Support of the Poor; XXI. Of Persecution; XXII. Of Death and Eternal Times.
In the following year, 345, A. wrote another Demonstration entitled Of the Grape (with an allusion to Is. 65:8), with which he seems to begin a new alphabetical series of writings, but it remained its sole representative.
A.’s importance is supreme for the Syriac language, great for the history of monasticism and Christian spirituality in the Mesopotamian regions, and lesser for theology. As a Syriac writer, he has a pure language and a syntax that is a genuine example of that Aramaic form which in later writers is more or less clouded by Greek influence. For the religious history of his regions A. is, although very sparse in episodes, a rich witness to liturgical, monastic and cultural customs; with particular interest he treats of the great persecution that the local Christians suffered at the hands of the Persian empire and of the incessant doctrinal and political hostility they encountered from the Jews, who were then very powerful in those regions. As a theologian A. is not constructive, but he is an authoritative witness to Syriac tradition: his very geographical residence beyond the Tigris cut him off almost entirely from the Greek cultural world, which was the arena of the great Arian controversies of the 4th century. He only vaguely alludes to Gnostic currents, because these, unlike Arianism, had not penetrated the regions beyond the Tigris. The basis of A.’s theology is above all the Bible; some of his Demonstrations are in essence nothing other than chains of biblical quotations or allusions. Otherwise, A.’s theology follows the tradition of the Syriac Churches. Typical is the fact that there is found in him, as later in St Ephrem, Isaac of Nineveh and other Syriac writers, the doctrine of ‘spiritual slumber’—according to it, in the baptized man there are to be distinguished the animal spirit, or soul, and the celestial spirit, or Holy Spirit; when the baptized man dies, his animal spirit is buried with the body and enters into a deep slumber that will last until the universal Judgment, when it will awaken to receive reward or punishment; whereas the celestial spirit, at the point of death, returns to Christ from whom it came. There are also in A. certain teachings of late Jewish origin, which are found in the Mishna and other rabbinic writings. Similarly, according to A., just as the world was created in six days, so it will be consumed in six thousand years: an opinion found both in Jewish writings and in St Ephrem.