International congress of byzantine studies belgrade, 22 27 august 2016

Gohar Sargsyan 
Catholic University of Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium; 
[e-mail]
The Armenian Translation of Gregory Nazianzen’s Theological Epistles 
(101, 102) in the Context of the Greek Archetype and Its Manuscript Tradition
With the invention of the Armenian alphabet (405-406) and with the establishment of the 
intellectual school of translators called Sahak-Mesropian in Armenia the foundation of the literature 
was laid in the fifth-century-Armenia, also known under the name golden age (
ոսկեդար
/oskedar). 
From the historical point of view, this literary movement was deeply connected with Greco-Roman 
and Syriac cultures. In the latter half of the 5
th
century the Christian identity on the one hand 
and the geopolitical situation on the other hand became decisive factors for the Greek orientation 
of the Armenian intellectual culture. A remarkable expression of such kind of orientation was to 
undertake the translational activity from Greek into Armenian.
Based on the rendering art, methods and techniques, the experts suggest the periodization 
of three stages of the translational activity during 5
th
and 8
th
century: classical, prehellenizing and 
Hellenising or Hellenophile. Putting aside the problems of time borders for each school, which have 
deserved intensive scholarly attention since decades, let us come to their characteristics, relevant for 
the scope of the current paper. The rendered texts (e.g. the Bible, Syriac and Greek Church fathers, 
liturgical texts) of the classical period (405/406-450) are morphologically and syntaxically oriented 
towards the target language. This methodological approach is explicable through the intellectuals’ 
objective making Christianity comprehensible for people in frame of their mother tongue. During 
the prehellenizing phase theologically complicated works (such as those by Cappadocian fathers) 
were rendered. The translators adopt the de verbo ad verbum translational methode. The Armenian 
commences to calque the Greek lexicon and even the syntax. The texts of this phase can still be 
more or less comprehensible without the juxtaposition of the Greek original. The intellectuals of the 
Hellenizing school, developing the methodological principles of the antecedents, create an artificial 
language, not at all understandable without the Greek original. The rendered texts of this period 
are precise, mirror reproductions of the Greek original. This method was imperative in view of the 
scientific and philosophical texts reproduced in Armenian.
The paper will focus on the Armenian version of Gregory Nazianzen’s theological letters to 
Cledonius 101, 102 (the critical editions of which are prepared in the frame of my doctoral thesis) 
in the context of its role for the establishment of the Greek archetype. These are counted among the 
outcome of the prehellenizing phase. Thus, the morphosyntaxic model of Greek was both primordial 
and leading for the target language. Our comparison of the established critical edition with Paul 
Gallay’s edition of the Greek epistles (SC 208, 1974) has revealed a range of differences, essential 
for the archetype reconstruction. The objective envisaged will be to elucidate the relation between 
the Greek archetype and the Armenian translation, in view of the contribution of the Armenian 
version to the establishment of the Greek archetype. For the argumentation other translations of 
the epistles (Latin, Syriac) will be taken into account.

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