Peccata Lectionis—Understanding and Misunderstanding Scripture in Aphrahat the Persian Sage’s Demonstrations (4th Century)

In this paper, I focus on a major corpus of the earliest Syrian Christian literature, Aphrahat the Persian Sage’s collection of epistles titled Demonstrations (Taḥwyātā; early 4th century), in order to gauge his thoughts on the “sins of reading”, peccata lectionis. First, I present the Aphrahatic corpus as it currently is and has been perceived over time in its Western and Eastern reception history. Then, I briefly consider what importance early Greek and Syriac monastic sources—like the Vita Antonii, the Pseudo-Macarian Homilies, Theodoret of Cyrrhus, Palladius’ Historia Lausiaca, the Ktābā dmasqātā (the Syriac Book of Steps), etc.—attributed to the reading of scripture as a regular part of a monk’s daily practice. It is against this historical backdrop that Aphrahat’s stance on reading scripture can be meaningfully interpreted. Finally, I present and analyze what the earliest-known orthodox Syrian church father, Aphrahat himself, has to say about the reading of scripture and its concurrent threat, the peccatum lectionis. As the Persian Sage was an excellent Biblical scholar, he made abundant references to religious reading practices in his Demonstrations. To his mind, the locus where sin may enter the meditative reading of early Syrian versions of the Bible is the interpretation of the text: misunderstanding it may lead to sin and potentially damnation. However, the wise person should be able to evade this danger, supported by the natural piety and cosmic religion inspired in them by the majesty of creation, which is a true reflection of divine infinity.