[1] Gabriel's date are uncertain, but he probably flourished in the late 6th and early 7th centuries.
He refers to Shubḥalmaran, metropolitan bishop of Karka d-Beth Slokh, who probably died in or about 620, as still alive.
[2] Sarhad Yawsip Jammo identified the author of the commentary with the Gabriel Qaṭraya who collated a manuscript of the Peshitta (Syriac Bible) at Nisibis in the 25th year of Khusrau II (either 614 or 615).
A notice says that Gabriel worked in the presence of his teacher, Mar Zakka, which implies that he was a young student at the time.
[3] Gabriel's commentary, sometimes known under the Latin title Interpretatio officiorum,[4] survives in a single manuscript copied in the Monastery of the Bear,[3] now catalogued as British Library, Or.