John bar Aphtonia

John bar Aphtonia (c.480–537) was a Syriac monk of the Miaphysite persuasion who founded the monastery of Qenneshre ("Eagle's Nest") around 530. A key figure in the transmission of Greek thought and literary culture into a Syriac milieu, his monastery became the intellectual centre of the West Syriac world for the next three centuries.

John was born in Edessa and raised by his mother, Aphtonia.[1] (His surname means "son of Aphtonia".) His father was a rhetor.[2] John himself was bilingual in both the Syriac language and Greek.[3] At the age of fifteen he was sent to the monastery of Saint Thomas in Seleucia Pieria near Antioch. Sometime between 528 and 531, he left with several other Miaphysite-leaning monks facing persecution from the pro-Chalcedonian imperial authorities. They established the monastery of Qenneshre on the banks of the Euphrates near Jarabulus and elected John as their first abbot.[1][2] According to the historian Zacharias Rhetor, John was part of the Miaphysite delegation that negotiated with the Emperor Justinian I in Constantinople around 531.[1][2]

A Syriac biography of John was written after his death by a monk of Qenneshre.[1] John himself wrote in both Greek and Syriac.[3] Among his surviving works are hymns;[1] a commentary on the Song of Songs, which survives only in excerpts in catenae; and a biography of Severus of Antioch.[2] His Greek hymns were often associated with the hymns of Severus. They were translated into Syriac a century later by Paul of Edessa, another monk of Qenneshre.[2]