Aphrahat (c. 270–c. 345 CE), “the Persian sage,” was a Christian ascetic and author who lived in Adiabene (northern Mesopotamia), within the Persian Empire. His very name, Aphrahat, seems to be the Syriacized version of a Persian name, but when he entered the Christian, or the monastic, life, he took on the Jewish-Christian name Jacob. He wrote in Syriac, likely between 337 and 344 CE, 23 Demonstrations, or Expositions, for his fellow ascetics, the “children [i.e. members] of the covenant.” Aphr. Dem. 1, for instance, is on faith, Dem. 2 on …