ON THE NAME AND PERSON OF APHRAHAT.

emerge from the work itself, just as George the bishop had investigated in greater detail in the letter mentioned above.

2. But above all, let a question be held regarding the proper name of the Persian Sage, which George did not know.
We have seen him called by a double name: one written by Barhebraeus as פרהד (Farhad, or Ferhad according to Rosen and Forshall in the Catalog l. c.), which among others became אפרהט, אפרהאט, which forms, more used in later times, were modeled after the Greek spelling Aphraates. Furthermore, the name itself, foreign to the language of the Syrians, existed formerly among the Parthians, Persians, and Armenians, and is still in use among the modern Persians in the form فرهاد¹.

Another Aphraates the martyr (373) is commemorated by Theodoret, likewise a Persian by nation, who led an anchoritic life at Edessa and Antioch². The Greeks recall his memory on the 29th of January, after the Edessene martyrs and Saint Barsimaeus, bishop of Edessa. It is likewise indicated in the Roman martyrology, but on the seventh of April.

But we have seen our Aphrahat called Jacob in another way, specifically by a Christian name, which perhaps he added to the other, gentile name upon receiving baptism, or rather when he was promoted to an ecclesiastical rank. It is well known, however, that similar changes or assumptions of names are common among Orientals from antiquity to the present day³. However the matter stands, it seems beyond doubt that from that surname arose the error by which the works of Jacob Aphrahat were obtained as genuine writings of Jacob of Nisibis, whose writings we shall show—responding against Gennadius—do not survive; or they were even imputed to Jacob of Serugh, with Assemani as the authority. They are accustomed to call the latter יעקוב דוקטור Jacob the Doctor, and the former יעקוב רבא Jacob the Great; but the title of the Persian Sage belongs to Jacob Aphrahat.

Our author must also be considered distinct from another Jacob, a martyr in Persia under Sapor II, and many others, all called by this most common name, whom it is not worth the effort to investigate at present.

¹ Vullers, Lexicon persico-latinum, Bonn, 1864, t. II, p. 673, c. 2; J. B. Abbeloos, Acta sancti Maris, Analecta bollandiana, t. IV, 1885, pp. 86, 103, 105. Cf. Tacit. Annal. lib. II, 1, 2; lib. VI, 31, 32, ed. Lemaire, 1819, t. I, pp. 158, 159, 573.
² Historia ecclesiastica, lib. IV, c. XXIII (XXIV). Patr. Gr. t. LXXXII, c. 1185; Philotheus, c. VIII. Ibid. c. 1368-1377.
³ See J. B. Abbeloos and Th. Lamy, Gregorii Barhebraei Chronicon ecclesiasticum, t. I, p. 191; t. II, p. 377. — Assemani, Bibliotheca orientalis, t. II. Dissert. de Monophysitis, cap. VII, On the change of name.