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Armenian Canon Lists II—The Stichometry of Anania of Shirak (c. 615 - c. 690 CE.)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 June 2011

Michael E. Stone
Affiliation:
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel

Extract

This stichometric list is almost altogether unknown to Western scholarship. Yet it is a rather accurate translation of a Greek stichometric list of the same character as the Stichometry of Nicephorus. The text has been published four times in Armenian, each edition based on a different manuscript or manuscripts. The edition of Ter Movsessian was based upon one manuscript—olim Etchmiadzin 154, a Bible dated 1308, and that of Fehratʿian upon two—Vienna No. 30 and No. 130. Murad based his edition upon four Jerusalem manuscripts, No. 773 (1359 C.E.), which served as his text, and Nos. 343 (1450 C.E.), 835 (1640 C.E.), and 936 (1703 C.E.), which he listed in his apparatus. The text was most recently edited by A. G. Abrahamyan. He did not consult Murad's edition, but based his own work upon two Erevan manuscripts, Nos. 2180 (1644 CE.) and 699 (16th century). He has listed all the variants of Ter Movsessian and of Fehratʿian in his apparatus.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1975

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References

1 Movsessian, M. Ter, History of the Armenian Version of the Bible (St. Petersburg, 1902) [in Russian].Google Scholar

2 Fehratʿian, E. P., “Anania Sirakuc ʿu Antip Ējerēn [Some of the Unprinted Pages of Anania of Shirak],” Handes Amsorya 22 (1908) 2023.Google Scholar

3 Murad, F., Yaytnutʿean Yovhannu Hin Hay Targmanutʿiwn [The Old Armenian Translation of the Revelation of John] (Jerusalem, 19051911) pp. MJE-MJT c.Google Scholar

4 Abrahamyan, A. G., Anania Sirakacʿu Matenagrut ʿiwn [The Writings of Anania of Shirak] Erevan, 1944) 257–59Google Scholar. Recollations of Fehratʿian and Ter Movsessian indicate many errors and omissions in Abrahamyan's apparatus.

5 Ṧamlian, D., “Surb Grocʿ Kanonakan ew Erkrordakanon Girkʿerˇ [The Canonical and Deuterocanonical Books of Sacred Scripture],” Sion 40 (1966) 85Google Scholar. Fehratʿian (“Anania,” 21) refers to a number of further copies, both in Etchmiadzin (at the time of his writing) and in Tübingen; cf. Fink, F. N., Verzeichnis der armenischen Handschriften in Tübingen, (Tübingen, 1907) 129Google Scholar, 151. Doubtlessly a new edition of Anania's writings would lead to the discovery of yet further copies. The antiquity and breadth of the witness quoted here seems adequate to assure the basic soundness of our text.

6 Fehratʿian's unwillingness to pronounce on the original language seems overly cautious (“Anania,” 22). On the stichoi, see Swete, H. B., An Introduction to the Old Testament in Greek (Cambridge: University Press, 1914) 344–50.Google Scholar

7 The most recent survey of his life and works in Bogharian, N., Hay Grolner [Armenian Writers] (Jerusalem, 1971) 89–92Google Scholar. The major part of his published writings are included in the edition of Abrahamyan (note 5, supra); see, in detail, Bogharian, Ibid. His knowledge of Greek is noted by Fehratʿian “Anania,” 21–22).

8 This total agrees exactly with the total given in the Canon of the Second Council of Antioch; see Stone, Michael E., “Armenian Canon Lists I — the Council of Partaw (768 C.E.),” HTR 66/4 (1973) 479–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar