The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 1
I. Aphrahat-Persian Witness on Rome, Resurrection, and Kingdom
Jacob Aphrahat, or Aphraates (c. 290-c. 350?), the Persian sage, was probably born of pagan parents. Of Persian nationality, and dating his writings by the years of the reign of the Persian king, he lived and wrote when Zoroastrianism was the state religion. After his conversion to Christianity he entered the priesthood. He is said to have been bishop and possibly abbot of Mar Mathai, near Mosul-Mesopotamia then evidently having a number of Christians. He was popular in the Armenian church. Thus the Latin of the West and the Greek of the eastern Mediterranean were complemented by the Syriac still farther east. PFF1 401.2
Aphrahat’s Demonstrations, penned about the time of the death of Constantine, were written in Syriac, and were early translated into Armenian (Demonstration 20 being omitted). They were quiet hortatory discourses which did not deal with current problems and controversies. On the second advent and its attendant circumstances, as well as the prophecies of Daniel, Aphrahat bears testimony comparable to that of his European associates, as attested by these extracts. PFF1 402.1
1. LITERAL RESURRECTION OCCURS AT SECOND ADVENT
He clearly connects the resurrection with the time “when our Saviour shall come.” PFF1 402.2
“And He Who raises the dead dwells in heaven. Then when our Saviour shall come, whom shall He raise up from the earth? And why did He write for us:—The hour shall come, and now is, that the dead also shall hear the voice of the Son of Man, and they shall live and come forth from their tombs?” 3 PFF1 402.3
Demonstration 8, “Of the Resurrection of the Dead,” also stresses the “hope of the Resurrection and the quickening of the dead.” This literal resurrection, avers Aphrahat, will be accomplished thus: PFF1 402.4
“For with one word of summons He will cause all the ends (of the world) to hear, and all that are laid (in the grave) shall leap forth and rise up.” 4 PFF1 402.5
2. ETERNAL KINGDOM ESTABLISHED AT SECOND ADVENT
Aphrahat understands that the kingdom of Christ will not be established until the second advent. PFF1 402.6
“For when He, Whose is the Kingdom, shall come in His second coming, He will take to Himself whatever He has given. And He Himself will be King for ever and ever. And His Kingdom shall not pass away, because it is an eternal Kingdom.” 5 PFF1 403.1
3. SECOND ADVENT CLOSES PROPHETIC KINGDOM OUTLINE
Beginning with the Persian ram and the Grecian he-goat, Aphrahat speaks guardedly of Rome as the fourth prophetic empire, the “children of Esau,” with the Ruler from Judah to take the kingdom forever at His second advent. PFF1 403.2
“For the he-goat broke the horns of the ram. Now the he-goat has become the mighty beast. For when the children of Japhet held the kingdom, then they slew Darius, the king of Persia. Now the fourth beast has swallowed up the third. And this third consists of the children of Japhet, and the fourth consists of the children of Shem, for they are the children of Esau. Because, when Daniel saw the vision of the four beasts, he saw first the children of Ham, the seed of Nimrod, which the Babylonians are; and secondly, the Persians and Medes, who are the children of Japhet; and thirdly, the Greeks, the brethren of the Medes; and fourthly, the children of Shem, which the children of Esau are.... But when the time of the consummation of the dominion of the children of Shem shall have come, the Ruler, who came forth from the children of Judah, shall receive the kingdom, when He shall come in His second Advent.” 6 PFF1 403.3
Elsewhere Aphrahat unequivocally defines “the children of Esau” as the Romans: PFF1 403.4
“Therefore vineyard was formed instead of vineyard. And furthermore at His coming He handed over the kingdom to the Romans, as the children of Esau are called. And these children of Esau will keep the kingdom for its giver.” 7 PFF1 403.5
4. FOURTH BEAST INDICATES ROMAN EMPIRE
That the kingdom of the Caesars is plainly meant by the term “children of Esau” is evident. The first beast is Babylon; the second, Media and Persia; the third, Alexander’s Macedonian empire; and the four heads are the four successors of Alexander. 8 The fourth seems to include both the Macedonian successors of Alexander and the Roman emperors, though the relationships of the third and fourth beasts are not too clear. (See reproduction on page 400.) PFF1 403.6
“And of the fourth beast he said that it was exceedingly terrible and strong and mighty, devouring and crushing and trampling with its feet anything that remained. It is the kingdom of the children of Esau. Because after that Alexander the Macedonian became king, the kingdom of the Greeks was founded, since Alexander also was one of them, even of the Greeks. But the vision of the third beast was fulfilled in him, since the third and the fourth were one. Now Alexander reigned for twelve years. And the kings of the Greeks arose after Alexander, being seventeen kings, and their years were two hundred and sixty-nine years from Seleucus Nicanor to Ptolemy. And the Caesars were from Augustus to Philip Caesar, seventeen kings.” 9 PFF1 404.1
He makes the ten horns apply to the Seleucid kings following Alexander down to Antiochus, in whom he sees the Little Horn. The “time, times, and half a time” he reduces to one and one-half times, or ten and a half years of Antiochus’ persecution of the Jews. 10 But in general outline he parallels the expositions of the West. PFF1 404.2
5. MESSIANIC STONE KINGDOM TO CRUSH ALL NATIONS
That the prophetic image of Daniel 2 paralleling the four beasts of chapter 7 means Babylon, Media, Alexander’s kingdom, and “the children of Esau” (Rome), 11 and that the smiting stone of Daniel 2 was as yet future, and indicates Christ’s eternal kingdom, to fill the earth and rule forever, is clear from this expression: PFF1 404.3
“By the whole image the world is meant. Its head is Nebuchadnezzar; its breast and arms the King of Media and Persia; its belly and thighs the King of the Greeks; its legs and feet the kingdom of the children of Esau; the stone, which smote the image and brake it, and with which the whole earth was filled, is the kingdom of King Messiah, Who will bring to nought the kingdom of this world, and He will rule for ever and ever. PFF1 404.4
“Again hear concerning the vision of the four beasts which Daniel saw coming up out of the sea and diverse one from another.... Now the great sea that Daniel saw is the world: and these four beasts are the four kingdoms signified above.” 12 PFF1 404.5
Such is the witness of Aphrahat, the Persian sage of the fourth century. PFF1 405.1