Aphrahat, the Persian Sage, and his Demonstrations

Abstract

The purpose of this text is to make known, to the Portuguese language public, the figure of Aphrahat, the Persian Sage, author of a set of writings known as Demonstrations. He lived in the fourth century, in Syriac-speaking Persian territory, under the domination of the Sassanid Empire, in conditions unfavorable to Christianity, identified with the Roman Empire, whose confines, at that time, reached Mesopotamia and constituted a barrier to the expansionist ambitions of Shapur II. The Demonstrations constitute an important document for the history of Christianity at that time and for the study of the biblical text in circulation in the Syriac-speaking regions of Mesopotamia and Persia, especially for the text of the gospel, since Aphrahat quotes it predominantly from the Gospel Syriac Harmony, direct heir to the Diatessaron of Tatian.