On “Aphraates and the Jews” by Frank Gavin ***

This short text aims to explain how the fourth-century Eastern Christian writer Aphrahat drew many of this ideas from the Jews. The first half provides basic information about life for Christians and Jews under the Sassanian Empire and the basics of the relationship between the two religious groups. The Jews seemed to have faired somewhat better, but neither group did all that well, as their religious affiliation's tie to the Roman Empire was the window through which the empire's leaders saw them: not so loyal as to be Zorastrian, like real Persians. For Jews, this meant trouble especially during the time of Julian, who promised the Jews a rebuilding of their temple; for Christians, the trouble was more constant once the Romans accepted it as the main faith of their empire. Jews occasionally, apparently, even made trouble for Christians. Christians didn't do themselves much of a favor insofar as they seemed to actually favor the Romans, given the views of the Romans about them.

Despite all that, the Christian faith and Jewish faith were still relatively close, especially having a common origin. In the latter half of the book, Gavin looks in particular at a few of Aphrahat's Demonstrations to show how Aphrahat's words mimic those of the rabbis.