The Issue of the Adoption of Christianity in Armenia in Movsēs Khorenats’i’s History of Armenia

Hakobyan, Aleksan

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Title: The Issue of the Adoption of Christianity in Armenia in Movsēs Khorenats’i’s History of Armenia

Volume:

Number:

ISSN:

3045-3291 ; e3045-3232

Official URL:

Corporate Creators:

International Association for Caucasus Heritage and Identity Studies

Contributor(s):

Editor-in-Chief: Gor Margaryan

Coverage:

6-18

Abstract:

This article revisits the chronology of the official adoption of Christianity in the Kingdom of Greater Armenia in the light of the hagiographical ‘Life of Gregory’, a distinct redaction of the work of Agathangelos preserved in Greek, Arabic, Syriac and Karshuni versions. A survey of the discovery and publication of these texts – from N. Marr’s edition of the Sinai Arabic manuscript to H. Zhamkochian’s monograph of 2016 – shows that Movsēs Khorenats’i’s ‘History of Armenia’ originally contained an account of the Conversion that was later excised by copyist-editors, precisely because it followed the earlier ‘Life’ rather than the ‘national’ redaction. Drawing on the itinerary and prosopography of the ‘Life’, the article supports M.-L. Chaumont’s dating of the Conversion to the year 311, connecting Gregory’s release from the pit of Artashat with Galerius’s Edict of Toleration (30 April 311); it dates his episcopal ordination at Caesarea to the autumn of 314, and the baptism of the kings of Iberia, Albania and Lazica- Egerk‘ at Bagawan to 315. The evidence of the ‘Life’ thus allows the restoration of a coherent chronology of the Christianisation of Armenia and of the neighbouring countries of the Caucasus.