Abstract
This chapter touches upon Syriac Christianity and its methods of biblical interpretation, with both of which Dr.Gelston has engaged, and does still engage. Aphrahat and subḥalmaran, living some two hundred and fifty years apart, share an oriental Christianity, yet the works attributed to them show marked divergences both in the use of biblical material as a matrix to interpret the disasters of the times and in their culture. Their writings present difficulties which face students of Syriac history and literature: reliance on tradition led scribes and historians, concerned for the prestige of their own, to err in ascription of material and in description of authors' lives and persons. Aphrahat takes passages from 2 Kings, Isaiah and Ezekiel to tease out elements from Daniel. subḥalmaran's approach is entirely different. His presupposition is not grounded in the Jewish influence which shaped Aphrahat, rather that of Christian eschatology and Zoroastrian pessimism. Keywords: subḥalmaran; Aphrahat; biblical material; Christian eschatology; Dr.Gelston; Syriac Christianity; Zoroastrian pessimism
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