PREFACE — CHAPTER I.

Aphrahat himself took care to attach the year to his letters. He ascribes the fifth to the year 648 of Alexander, King of the Greeks original: "regis Graecorum" (Demonstr. v, 5), or the era of the Seleucids, which corresponds to the year 336-337 after the birth of Christ. Again, when he himself compiles the index of the Demonstrations arranged according to the order of the alphabet after completing the twenty-second, he says that the first ten were finished in the year 648 of the reign of Alexander Philip of Macedon (336-337 after Christ), but the twelve later ones in the year 655 "of the reign of the Greeks and Romans, in the thirty-fifth year of Shapur," which is 343-344 after Christ (Demonstr. xxii, 25). And specifically, the fourteenth, to the bishops and churches of Seleucia and Ctesiphon, is inscribed as having been given in the month of "Shebat" of the year 655, which is the thirty-fourth year of Shapur (February-March 344) (Demonstr. xiv, 50). Finally, the twenty-third was finished in the month of "Ab" (July-August) of the following year, or 656 of Alexander Philip of Macedon, the thirty-sixth of Shapur, after the fifth persecution had been decreed (Demonstr. xxiii, 69), in the year 345 after Christ.

Thus, the Persian Sage, while Shapur was reigning in Persia (309-379), and Constantine (306-337) and Constantius (337-361) in the West, was writing or completing his earlier treatises in the twelfth year after the Council of Nicaea, the very year in which Constantine died¹. The later ones, however, were written after an interval of seven years, and with the dire and long-lasting persecution of Shapur against the Christians already begun. Rightly, therefore, he will be said to be of the same age as Saint Simeon, who underwent martyrdom in the year 340; Saint Shadust, the Persian, his successor in the bishopric and in confession; and Saint James of Nisibis, who ended his life in the year 338. Aphrahat also had a contemporary of famous name, Ephrem, although slightly younger. But neither held the other as teacher or disciple. For the latter, indeed born in Nisibis, began to learn under James of Nisibis; but after his death, he migrated to Edessa, and there he composed his most celebrated writings, and lived until the end of his life (373, as is the truer opinion). From this, it is clear that Aphrahat cannot be counted among the disciples of the "Prophet of the Syrians," as George already rightly observed: "although the times in which both lived and taught coincide somewhat, yet when Saint Ephrem was growing up, the Persian writer had already grown old" original Syriac: "Ephrem, from the time that the Persian writer was old. And in this event, also sleep...". That they were joined by any society does not appear anywhere, nor is Aphrahat ever cited by authors among the many known to Ephrem. Finally, there is the fact that, although they often agree in the same sentiments (to be proposed below), yet as George noted again, one perceives that the character, manner, and style of each are very different: original Syriac: "as it appears from this book". "Nor does his doctrine exhibit a similarity to the doctrine of the holy master Ephrem."

¹ Thus George in his Letter (in Lagarde, Analecta syriaca), but a little further down, speaking inconsistently, he seems to suggest that the first ten Demonstrations were written eight years before the death of Constantine. Moreover, he makes more than one error in this place.
² In Lagarde, Analecta syriaca, p. 114, ll. 4-7.