Syriac Father and teacher · Feast: 30 January
Open in the Daily Word app“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock.” Matthew 7:24
Aphrahat lived in the fourth century in the Persian Empire, beyond the eastern frontier of Rome, and is called the Persian Sage. He is the earliest Syriac Father whose major writings have come down to us. We know very little about his life: he was certainly a teacher of high standing in the Church, and Syriac tradition remembers him as a monk and bishop. The name Jacob is attached to him only in later tradition.
Between 337 and 345 he wrote twenty-three Demonstrations, the first twenty-two following the letters of the Syriac alphabet. They speak of faith, love, fasting, prayer, humility, repentance, the resurrection, and the life of the sons and daughters of the covenant, men and women who dedicated themselves to God within the Church.
He wrote during the persecution of Christians by the Persian king Shapur II, which began around 340, and he encouraged the faithful to remain firm. His language is close to the Bible and to the Semitic world of Jesus. He teaches that faith is a house built on the rock who is Christ, and that the heart of the believer is a temple where Christ dwells.
He died around 345. He is honoured in the Syriac Churches as a holy teacher, and his Demonstrations are still read as a witness to the early faith of Christians in the East.
Faith is a house whose foundation is Christ.
Christ dwells in a pure heart.
He strengthened Christians under Shapur II.
Purity of heart makes prayer true.
Aphrahat arranged his first twenty-two Demonstrations so that each begins with a letter of the Syriac alphabet in order, from Olaph to Tau, a whole alphabet of instruction in the faith.
In his first Demonstration, on faith, Aphrahat describes faith as a building whose foundation is the rock, Christ, and on which the believer builds with good works.
Purity of heart is prayer, more than all the prayers that are uttered with the mouth.
Mar Aphrahat, Demonstration 4, On Prayer, in substance
Hearing and doing (Matthew 7:24).
Christ wants to dwell in us.
A pure heart is the best preparation for Great Lent.
Dear friends, today the Syriac tradition remembers Mar Jacob Aphrahat, the Persian Sage, who lived in the fourth century in the Persian Empire. He is the earliest Syriac Father whose writings have reached us, and he wrote at a time when Christians there were persecuted.
Aphrahat loved the words of Jesus: everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock (Matthew 7:24). For him faith is a house, and Christ is its foundation. Our good works are the stones we build on that rock.
He also taught that the heart is a temple where Christ wishes to dwell, and that true prayer begins with a pure heart. Words alone are not enough; a heart that forgives and loves is itself a prayer.
Great Lent is near. Let us examine our hearts, as Aphrahat urged, and prepare a clean temple for Christ, so that our fasting, our prayer and our participation in the Holy Qurbono may come from a heart built on the rock. Amen.
Lord Jesus Christ, rock of our faith, through the prayers of Mar Jacob Aphrahat, make our hearts your temple, our words true and kind, and our lives a house built on you. Amen.