Aphrahat facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Saint Aphrahat the Persian Sage
Aphrahat depicted in Les Vies des Pères des déserts d'Orient : leur doctrine spirituelle et leur discipline monastique (1886)
Born	c. 280
Died	c. 345
Honored in	Oriental Orthodox Church Church of the East Eastern Orthodox Church Roman Catholic Church
Feast	29 January

Aphrahat (around 280–345 AD) was an important Christian writer from the Persian Empire. He lived in the 3rd and 4th centuries. He wrote twenty-three essays or sermons about Christian beliefs and practices. These writings are known as the Demonstrations.

Aphrahat was a very religious person who lived a simple life. He was likely a "son of the covenant," which was an early form of monasticism (a way of life for monks and nuns). Some people think he might have been a bishop. He is often called the Persian Sage because he was wise and lived in Persia. His writings show us what early Christians outside the Roman Empire were thinking and doing.

Who Was Aphrahat?

His Life and Background

Aphrahat was born around 280 AD near the border of Roman Syria. This area was part of the Sasanian Empire, which was the Persian Empire at the time. The ruler then was Emperor Shapur II.

His name, Aphrahat, is the Syriac (a language spoken by early Christians in the Middle East) version of the Persian name Farhād. Some historians believe his family might have been Persian Jewish or even pagan before converting to Christianity. He said he took the Christian name Jacob when he was baptized. For a while, people confused him with another important Christian leader, Jacob of Nisibis. However, we now know they were different people. Aphrahat lived in the Persian Empire, while Jacob of Nisibis lived in the Roman Empire.

Aphrahat's writings show that he lived during a time when Christians in Persia faced difficulties. Emperor Shapur II began to persecute Christians in the early 340s. This happened because of political tensions between Rome and Persia. The Roman Emperor Constantine the Great had declared Rome a Christian empire. Shapur worried that Christians in his own empire might secretly support Rome. Aphrahat's writings show his deep care for his Christian community during these tough times.

Later writers, like Bar Bahlul and Bar Hebraeus, confirmed his name was Aphrahat. He was a well-known figure in the Christian Church of the Persian Empire. In 344, he was chosen to write an important letter from a group of bishops to churches in the capital city, Ctesiphon. This suggests he was a very respected leader, possibly even a bishop.

About His Writings: The Demonstrations

Aphrahat's collected works are called the Demonstrations. They are also sometimes known as "the homilies" or sermons. There are twenty-three Demonstrations in total. Each one discusses a different part of Christian faith or practice. They are like sermons or teachings meant to guide Christians.

What Are The Demonstrations About?

The Demonstrations are written in prose, but they often use poetic language and vivid pictures. The first twenty-two Demonstrations are special because each one starts with a different letter of the Syriac alphabet.

These writings were not all created at once. They were written during three different periods:

• The first ten were written in 337, before the persecutions began. They focus on Christian life and how the church should be organized.
• Demonstrations 11–22 were written in 344, when the persecution of Christians was at its peak. Some of these still talk about Christian life, while others discuss apocalyptic literature (writings about the end of the world). Four of these also discuss Judaism. It seems some Christians in Persia were either becoming Jewish or mixing Jewish customs with Christianity.
• The twenty-third Demonstration was written later, perhaps near the end of Aphrahat's life. It uses the symbol of the grape, from the Book of Isaiah, to talk about how God's promises from Adam to Christ were fulfilled.

Aphrahat always stayed close to the Bible in his Demonstrations. He didn't spend time on complicated philosophy. All his quotes from the gospels seem to come from the Diatessaron. This was a special book that combined the four gospels into one story, and it was used by the church at that time. Aphrahat's way of explaining the Bible was similar to how Jewish teachers in Babylon interpreted their holy texts.

In Demonstration 5, Aphrahat talked about the future and the end times. He explained the beasts mentioned in the Book of Daniel. He said the first beast was Babylon, the second was Media and Persia, and the third was Alexander the Great's Macedonian empire. The fourth beast included both Alexander's successors and the Roman emperors.

Why Were They Written?

According to scholar Francis Crawford Burkitt, the Demonstrations were meant to be a complete and organized explanation of the Christian faith. They show the beliefs of the Syriac-speaking church before it was affected by other major Christian debates, like the Arian controversy. Aphrahat started with faith as the base and then built up the ideas of Christian beliefs and duties.

How His Works Spread

The Demonstrations were originally written in the Syriac language. However, they were quickly translated into other languages. An Armenian version was published in 1756, but it was mistakenly thought to be by Jacob of Nisibis. Important versions also exist in Georgian and Ge'ez (an ancient Ethiopian language). Some of the Demonstrations were even translated into Arabic, but they were wrongly thought to be written by Ephrem the Syrian.

See also

In Spanish: Afraates para niños