[322] Forget, De Vita e Scriptis Aphraatis (1882), pp. 139-148; also (cited by him S. Isaaci Antiocheni Opp. (ed. Bickell, 1873).
[323] The titles given by Gennadius do not number 26; some titles he omits; others he divides, treating as two what is really one, in several instances.
[324] See the text in Wright's Aphraatis, pp. 29 ff.; in Lagarde's Analecta Syr., pp. 108 ff.; or Forget (as above) pp. 8 ff.
[325] The Armenian Menologium, subjoined by Antonelli to the Armenian version, as printed by him, makes Jacob to have been sister's son to Gregory the Illuminator, the Apostle of Armenia, to whom that version (impossibly) ascribes the letter prefixed to Demonstr. I. But this statement is probably an invention, devised in order to connect Jacob with the Armenian Church.
[326] Biblioth. Orient. I., p. 5. A note in ms. Orient. 1017, suggests Jacob of Tagrit,--ignorantly, for he was of the 13th century.
[327] For this extract, see Wright's Aphraates, pp. 38, 39.
[328] The ms. of Barhebræus which Wright (Aphraates, pp. 2, 3), follows in treating of this notice, seems to identify the "Persian Sage," with one "Buzitis," who is mentioned immediately before; and he conjectured therefore that "Buzitis" was a scribe's error for Parhatis (=Aphraates). But other mss. insert the copulative particle so as to distinguish "the Persian Sage" from the "Buzitis," whose name precedes.
[329] Part I., s. 26, c. 83; Part II., s. 10, c. 33.
[330] Ap. B. O. III. i. (see p. 95).
[331] British Museum, Orient. 1017.
[332] The alternative explanation has been suggested that Jacob was the name received by Aphrahat at baptism. This is refuted by Wright's objection, that, if the name Jacob had been given so early, the name Aphrahat would have been entirely disused or forgotten.
[333] Basil (Homil. in Hexaem. II. 6) shows alike avoidance of the name of the foreigner Ephraim, and designates him as "the Syrian." See above, p. 128.
[334] Demonstr. XIV. 50; XXII. 25; XXIII. 69.
[335] Ib. XVI. 7; XVII. 8.
[336] Philoxenus of Mabug, likewise a Persian, and a writer of pure Syriac, came from the border-region of Beth-garme (B. O. II. p., 10).
[337] Some prefer the latter construction; but Wright (Aphr., pp. 8, 9), Forget (pp. 82 ff.), and Parisot (Patrologia Syr. I., Tom. I., p. xix) seem to be right in maintaining the former. Another passage of Dem. XIV. (25) is translated by Wright (Ib.), Parisot, and Antonelli (Opp. S. Jacobi Nis., p. 423), "The laying on of hands which certain men receive of us;" but by Forget (pp. 100, 101)...."which certain men of us receive." If the former are right, the writer speaks as a Bishop; but Forget's seems the true rendering.
[338] This ancient title is still borne by the Head of the Nestorian Church: the Jacobites from the sixth century downwards have substituted that of "Maphrian" (Maphrino-fructificator), i.e. propagator of the Episcopal succession; which continues in use to the present day.
[339] The Roman Editor (Antonelli) of the Armenian text (1756) was misled by the displacement of Demonstr. XIV., and its omission from the list of Gennadius, as well as by its synodical character, to reject it as spurious. Had he known Demonstr. XXII., or had he been aware of the alphabetical arrangement of the series, he would have been guarded against this error. The Synod however in whose name Demonstr. XIV. is written cannot have been (as Wright supposed) that of 334; for it was written in 344.
[340] See also Demonstr. X. (below); especially s. b., where he exhorts "pastors" (evidently Bishops) as one set over them, in other words, their Metropolitan.
[341] An examination of this ms. leads to the conclusion that its scribe was probably well informed in this matter. Its principal contents are, the "Book of Rays" of Gregory Barhebræus and three of his minor works. Between the first named and that which follows is inserted the extract from Demonstr. XXIII., above specified (p. 156), headed as we have seen with the author's names and additions,--"Aphrahat, the Sage, who is Jacob Bishop of Mar Mathai." Now Gregory himself, as Maphrian, was Bishop of Mar Mathai, and died and was buried in that monastery in 1286. It may be conjectured that this ms., written in 1364 (not 80 years after his death), may have obtained this passage of Aphrahat, and the heading which assigns his see, from some collection made by Gregory, among whose writings it here finds place. If so, the statement that he was Bishop of Mar Mathai rests on the authority of Gregory, who would no doubt have within his reach authentic lists of the names of his predecessors in that see. For the monastery of Mar Mathai, see Rich, Koordistan, Vol. II., ch. xv., pp. 73 ff.; Badger, Nestorians, Vol. I., ch. ix., pp. 95 ff. The former visited it in 1820; the latter in 1843 and 1850; and his account is illustrated with an engraving of the monastery, and a plan of the Church. He found the Metran residing there, with two monks; and five villages, with some 350 families, formed his diocese. In 1880 Sachau visited Mosul, and records (Reise, ch. iv., p. 352) that a Bishop still resided in this monastery.
[342] See Ephraim's words, cited above, pp. 129, 136.
[343] Simeon of Beth-Arsam, ap., Assem, B. O. I. 346, is our authority for this narrative.
[344] Note that the authorities who know the author as Aphrahat are of "the East" (in the ecclesiastical sense--namely, the regions beyond the Tigris). Bar-Bahlul and Ebedjesu are Eastern, as being Nestorians. Of the Jacobites, Elias Barsinneus was of Mosul originally, and Gregory Barhebræus as Maphrian had his see in Mosul and the whole East under his rule. The scribe of the ms. Orient. 1017 wrote indeed in the Jacobite convent of Kartamin, but he was merely the copyist of a ms. of the works of Barhebræus, obtained no doubt from Mosul. On the other hand, of the three scribes of the earlier mss., who knew him only as "the Persian Sage," or as "Mar Jacob," one was of Edessa, and all were presumably Jacobites of the same regions; as likewise Georgius (also connected with Edessa), and his correspondent (Joshua, of Anab). Isaac of Nineveh was Eastern, and Nestorian; but as he nowhere mentions the author of the works with which he was evidently acquainted, he does not come here into consideration. Nor does Ennadius; inasmuch as we have no means of discovering how he came to hear of their existence, or to attribute them to Jacob of Nisibis: we can only conjecture that his informant may have been an Armenian. As to Barhebræus, the significant fact is farther to be noted that in Part I., where he treats of the Patriarchs and the western provinces, presumably drawing from Western documents, he only speaks of "the Persian Sage:" and the name Aphrahat first appears in Part II., where the writer records, as Maphrian, no doubt, from the tradition of his own church at Mosul, the names of the notable persons of the time of his predecessor, Papas the Catholicus of the East.
[345] See Gibbon, Decline and Fall, ch. xxxii. (p. 392, Vol. III. of Prof. Bury's edition; also his Appendix 25, p. 504).
[346] In the Armenian alphabet the number of letters is 38.
[347] Cp. Eccles. Hist. II. 10, cc. 31, 33, with I. 26, cc. 83, 85.
[348] See Demonstr. VIII, 19 (also VII. 25), and cp. Apoc. II. 11. (Parisot, Introduction, p. xliii.)
[349] It is important to note that he quotes in full three (16, 17, 18) of the disputed "Last Twelve Verses" of St. Mark's Gospel. (Demonst. I. 17.)
Ephraim Syrus
The Nisibene Hymns.
Translated By
REV. J. T. Sarsfield Stopford, B.A.
------------------------
1. The Siege of Nisibis (I.-III.).
2. The Persian Invasion (IV.-XII.).
3. The Bishops of Nisibis (XIII.-XVI.).
4. Abraham Their Successor (XVII.-XXI.).
5. Concerning Satan and Death (XXXV.-XLII., LXII.-LXVIII.).
Nisibene Hymns.
Hymn I.
1. O God of mercies Who didst refresh Noah, he too refreshed Thy mercies. He offered sacrifice and stayed the flood; he presented gifts and received the promise. With prayer and incense he propitiated Thee: with an oath and with the bow Thou wast gracious to him; so that if the flood should essay to hurt the earth, the bow should stretch itself over against it, to banish it away and hearten the earth. As Thou hast sworn peace so do Thou maintain it, and let Thy bow strive against Thy wrath!
R. Stretch forth Thy bow against the flood, for lo! it has lifted up its waves against our walls!
2. In revelation, Lord! it has been proclaimed, that that lowly blood which Noah sprinkled, wholly restrained Thy wrath for all generations; how much mightier then shall be the blood of Thy Only Begotten, that the sprinkling of it should restrain our flood! For lo! it was but as mysteries of Him that those lowly sacrifices gained virtue, which Noah offered, and stayed by them Thy wrath. Be propitiated by the gift upon my altar, and stay from me the deadly flood. So shall both Thy signs bring deliverance, to me Thy cross and to Noah Thy bow! Thy cross shall cleave the sea of waters; Thy bow shall stay the flood of rain.
3. Lo! all the billows trouble me; and Thou hast given more favour to the ark: for waves alone encompassed it, mounds and weapons and waves encircle me. It was unto Thee a storehouse of treasures, but I have been a storehouse of debts: it in Thy love subdued the waves; I in Thy wrath, am left desolate among the weapons; the flood bore it, the river threatens me. O Helmsman of that ark, be my pilot on the dry land! To it Thou gavest rest in the haven of a mountain; to me give Thou rest also in the haven of my walls!
4. The Just One has chastened me abundantly, but it He loved even among the waves. For Noah overcame the waves of lust, which had drowned in his generation the sons of Seth. Because his flesh revolted against the daughters of Cain, his chariot rode on the surface of the waves. Because women defiled him not, he coupled the beasts, whereof in the ark he joined together, all pairs in the yoke of wedlock. The olive which with its oil gladdens the face, with its leaf gladdened their countenances: for me the river whereof to drink is wont to make joyful, lo! O Lord, by its flood it makes me mournful.
5. The foulness of my guilt Thy righteousness has seen, and Thy pure eyes abhor me. Thou hast gathered the waters by the hand of the unclean, that Thou mightest make for me purification of my guilt; not that in them Thou mightest baptize and purify me, but that in them Thou mightest chasten me with fear. For the waves will stir up to prayer, which shall wash away my guilt. The sight of them which is full of repentance, has been to me a baptism. The sea, O Lord, which should have drowned me, in it let Thy mercies drown my guilt. In the Red Sea Thou didst drown bodies; in this sea drown Thou my guilt instead of bodies!
6. An ark in Thy mercy Thou didst prepare, that Thou mightest preserve in it all the remnants. That Thou shouldest not desolate the earth in Thy wrath, Thy compassion made an earth of wood. Thou didst empty them one into the other; Thou didst render them back one unto the other. But my lands have thrice been filled and emptied again; and now against me the waves rebel, to overwhelm the remnant that has escaped in me. In the ark Thou didst save a remnant; save in me, O Lord, yea in me a leaven. The ark upon the mountain brought forth; let me in my lands bring forth my imprisoned ones!
7. O Lord, gladden Thou in me the imprisoned ones of my fortresses, Thou Who didst gladden those prisoners with the olive leaf! Thou sentest healing by means of the dove to the sick ones that were drowning in every wave; it entered in and drove out all their pains. For the joy of it swallowed up their sorrow, and mourning vanished away in its consolation. And as the chief of a host gives heartening to the fugitives, so the dove disseminated courage among the forsaken. Their eyes tasted the sight of peace, and their mouth hasted to open in Thy praise. As the olive leaf in the waves, save Thou me, that Thou mayest gladden in me the prisoners of my fortresses!
8. The flood assails, and dashes against our walls: may the all-sustaining might uphold them! It falls not as the building of the sand, for I have not built my doctrine upon the sand: a rock shall be for me the foundation, for on Thy rock have I built my faith; the secret foundation of my trust, shall support my walls. For the walls of Jericho fell, because on the sand she had built her trust. Moses built a wall in the sea, for on a rock his understanding built it. The foundation of Noah was on a rock; the dwelling place of wood it bore up in the sea.