AFRAATE (Syriac Aphrahat). — He is the earliest great Syriac writer whose works we possess.
Until 1835 his writings, known only in Armenian translation, were falsely attributed to Giacobbe (Giacomo) of Nisibi, and under that attribution they were published by N. Antonelli, S. Patris nostri Jacobi, episcopi Nisibeni, Sermones, Rome 1756; but in 1835 Curreton discovered the Syriac original in the manuscripts of the British Museum, which attributes them to the “Persian Sage” called A. or Giacobbe; probably the name Giacobbe was taken by A. when he was baptized or elected bishop, and the homonymy was the reason why his writings were attributed to Giacobbe of Nisibi, Efrem (v.), both by the Armenian translation and by Gennadius of Marseille (De scriptor. eccles., 1).
A. was certainly a monk and then a bishop, as emerges from many passages in his writings. A late notice assigns as his episcopal residence the famous monastery of Mar Matteo near Mossul, which later became an important center of the Monophysites; this notice encounters certain difficulties, although in its favor is the epithet “Persian” given to A., which demonstrates that he resided in territory of the Persian Empire and not of the Roman Empire. No other reliable information concerning A.’s person is available; it is possible, however, that he died a martyr in the persecution of Sapore II, shortly after 345.
A.’s writings, entitled in Syriac Demonstrations, are in reality short treatises on the following subjects: I. On faith; II. On charity; III. On fasting; IV. On prayer; V. On wars; VI. On monks; VII. On penitents; VIII. On the resurrection of the dead; IX. On humility; X. On shepherds. These first ten Demonstrations were completed in the year 337, at the request of a friend whose letter has been preserved; nevertheless, in 344 A. completed another 12 Demonstrations, thus closing their alphabetical series, since each Demonstration begins, in order, with a letter of the Syriac alphabet (which has 22 letters). Those of the second group are: XI. On circumcision; XII. On Easter; XIII. On the Sabbath; XIV. On exhortation; XV. On the distinction of foods; XVI. On the peoples (pagans) who took the place of the (Hebrew) people; XVII. On 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 will be gathered together; XX. On the support of the poor; XXI. On persecution; XXII. On death and the last times.
In the following year, 345, A. wrote another Demonstration entitled On action (with an allusion to Is. 65, 8), with which a new alphabetical series of writings seems to begin, but which 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 writers later than him, is more or less clouded by Greek influence. For the religious history of his regions, A., although very poor in episodes, is a rich witness to liturgical, monastic, and cultural customs; he treats with particular interest the great persecution that Christians in his region suffered at the hands of the Persian Empire and the unceasing doctrinal and political hostilities that they encountered from the Jews, who at that time were exceedingly powerful in those regions. As a theologian, A. is not constructive, but he is an authoritative witness to the Syriac tradition: his geographical residence, beyond the Tigris, virtually cut him off from the Greek cultural world, and this was the arena of the great Arian discussions of the fourth century. He only vaguely alludes to Gnostic currents, because these, unlike Arianism, had penetrated the regions beyond the Tigris. The basis of A.’s theology is above all the Bible; some of his Demonstrations are, in substance, nothing other than chains of biblical quotations or allusions. For the rest, A.’s theology follows the tradition of the Syriac Churches. It is characteristic that in him too — as later in s. Efrem, Isacco di Ninive, and other Syriac writers — one finds the doctrine of “spiritual slumber”: according to it, in the baptized person the animal spirit, or soul, and the celestial spirit, or Holy Spirit, are to be distinguished; when the baptized person dies, his animal spirit is buried together with the body and enters a deep slumber that will last until the universal Judgment, when it will awaken to receive its reward or punishment; the celestial spirit, on the other hand, at the moment of death returns to Christ, from whom it had come. Certain teachings of late Jewish origin are also found in A., and these recur in the Midrālim and in other rabbinical writings. Likewise, according to A., just as the world was created in six days, so it will be consumed in six thousand years: this opinion is found both in Jewish writings and in s. Efrem.