THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
Apharsites with the Parrhasii of East Media — so M. Hiller, Onomasticum sacrum, Tubingen, 1706 — or with the Persians — Gesenius, Thesaurus ; Ewald, Geschichte Israels; E. Bertheau, commentary on Ezra. Gottingen, 183S). The best explanation has been given by Eduard Meyer (Entstehung des Judenthums, Halle, 1896, pp. 37 sqq.), following a hint of G. Hoffmann (in ZA, ii., 1887, pp. 54 sqq.). He regards '' Apharsachites " and " Apharsathchites " as equivalent, the " th " (the Hebrew letter tau) having been inserted in the latter by mistake, and gives to all three words the same meaning, " Persians." The passage Ezra iv. 9, accordingly, he reads: " Rehum the commissioner and Shiinshai the scribe, and the rest of their colleagues the Persian magistracy, the Persian tarpelaye, the people of Erech, Babylon, and Shushan, that is, the Elamites." The word tarpelaye (English versions " Tarpelites ") is left untranslated as necessarily meaning an official class of some unknown sort and not the name of a people. It is possible, however, that the " Apharsites " are not " Persians," but that the form arose by dittography, the word for scribe (saphera) just above being first copied by mistake and then assimilated to the form for '' Persians." If " Apharsites " were to be thus ruled out of the verse and the Bible, the " Tarpelites " would be an unknown people heading the list like those that follow, and not the name of a class of officials. J. F. McCurdy.
APHRAATES, a-fra'tiz: The " Persian sage." He is known as the author of twenty-two homilies, arranged according to the letters of the Syriac alphabet, and a treatise, De acino benedicto (Isa. lxv. S), in Syriac. The first ten homilies were written in the years 336-337, the others in 344-345; the treatise in Aug., 345. The latter is mentioned in Armenian lists of the apocryphal books. In the life of Julianus Saba (P. Bedjan, Acta martyrum et sanctorum, vi., Paris, 1896, p. 386) it is said that Aphraates was a pupil of Julianus and that he died, according to some, at the age of 104 years. If this be true, he may have been the Aphraates mentioned by Theodoret (Hist, eccl., iv. 22-23), who had an interview with Valens. The name occurs again in the Syriac martyrology of the year 411. Its form in modern Persian is Farhad. The name Jacobus seems to have been adopted by Aphraates as bishop of the monastery of Mar Mattai, near Mosul (cf. G. P. Badger, The Nestorians, i., London, 1S52, p. 97).
With Ephraem Syrus, Aphraates may be called the first classic writer of the Syrian Church. His style is pure, and he shows deep knowledge of the Scriptures, with earnest zeal for the welfare of the Church. There is no trace of the christological controversies of Arius, a single polemical passage against Valentinians, Marcionites, and Manicheans, but many against the Jews, from whose traditions Aphraates draws richly (cf. S. Funk, Die haggadischen Elemente in Aphraates, Vienna, 1891). He used the Diatessaron of Tatian instead of the single Gospels. The sixth homily shows that monks and eremites were already organized in his time and place. His psychology is peculiar,
especially his doctrine of the sleep of the soul. His days are Jan. 29 (Greek calendar) and Apr. 7
Gennadius of Marseilles, in his De viris illustribus (c. 495), confounded Aphraates with Jacob of Nisibis, under whose name nineteen of the homilies were published in an Armenian translation by N. Antonelli (Rome, 1756). George, bishop of the Arabians, in a letter about 714 (P. de Lagarde Analecta Syriaca, Leipsic, 1858; German transl. by V. Ryssel, ib. 1891), is better informed. The Syriac original was first made accessible by W Wright (The Homilies of Aphraates, the Persian Sage, i., text, London, 1869; the translation did not appear). With Latin translation the homilies are in Patrologia Syriaca, i. (Paris, 1894). There is a German translation by G. Bert (TU, iii. 3, Leipsic, 1888), and an English translation of selections in NPNF, 2d ser., vol. xiii. E. Nestle.
Bibliography: J. B. F. Sasse, Prolegomena in Aphraatis sermones, Leipsic, 1878; J. Forget, De vita et scriptia Aphraatis, Louvain, 1882; W. Wright, A Short History of Syriac Literature, London, 1894; and the preface to Wright's ed. of the Homilies; F. C. Burkitt, Early Eastern Christianity, pp. 132-140, London, 1904.
APHTHARTODOCET.E, af'thar"to-do-si'ti. See