No CrossRef data available.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 June 2011
The document which is presented here is extant in MS no. 31 of the Library of the Mechitarist Fathers in Vienna. It was described by J. Dashian in his magistral catalogue of that collection. The MS is without colophons and so the names of the scribe, as well as the place in which it was copied, remain unknown. Dashian dated it on palaeographic grounds to the 17th-18th centuries. Although the primary document transmitted is a collection of fables, there are many diverse documents interspersed among them. One is the present work, of which Dashian notes no other copy.
1 We are grateful to the Abbot, Fr. Grigoris Manian, who graciously made a copy of the text available and granted permission to publish it.
2 Catalog der armenischen Handschriften in der Mechitaristen-Bibliothek zu Wein (Haupt-Catalog der armenischen Handschriften 1.2; Vienna: Mechitarists, 1895) German section 24–25 and Armenian section 177–79.
3 Nor has it turned up in a search of chief Armenian MS catalogues. This does not necessarily mean that no other copy exists. Mention of it may have escaped us or, since it is short, it may have not been listed by editors of MS catalogues.
4 Appreciation is expressed to Moshe Greenberg who read an early draft of this article and gave me the benefit of his profound knowledge of the book of Ezekiel. His insightful comments are reflected at very many points, particularly throughout the exegetical notes.
5 Narkiss, Apud B. and Stone, M. E., Armenian Art Treasures of Jerusalem (Jerusalem: Masada, 1979) fig. 85; note that by printer's error that plate is mirror image.Google Scholar
6 See note in Stone, M. E., Armenian Apocrypha Relating to the Patriarchs and Prophets (Jerusalem: Academy of Sciences, 1982).Google Scholar
7 (in Armenian; Venice: Mechitarists, 1986) 219.
8 See the examples and texts cited by Stone, M. E., “The History of the Forefathers, Adam and His Sons and Grandsons,” Journal of the Society for Armenian Studies 1 (1984) 83–84. The formula is like the Rabbis' 
in sense and function.Google Scholar
9 See Rowley, H. H., Darius the Mede and the Four World Empires in the Book of Daniel (Cardiff: University of Wales Press,1964)Google Scholar; Swain, J. W., “The Theory of Four Monarchies—Opposition History Under the Roman Empire,” CP 25 (1940) 1–21Google Scholar; Flusser, D., “The Four Empires in the Fourth Sibyl and in the Book of Daniel,” Israel Oriental Studies 2 (1972) 148–75.Google Scholar
10 In Armenian see particularly The Seventh Vision of Daniel (ET in Issaverdens, J., The Uncanonical Writings of the Old Testament [Venice: Mechitarists, 1934] 247–55Google Scholar and Armenian and German in Kalemkiar, G., Die Siebente Vision Daniels [Die Apokryphen bei den Armeniern 3; Vienna: 1892])Google Scholar; the Vision of Enoch the Just (ibid., 238–47), etc. This theme is also common to many of the other Jewish and Christian apocalypses of the Byzantine period.
11 I am indebted to David Satran who shared his learning with me in everything relating to Nebuchadnezzar.
12 See M. H. Shepherd, Jr., “Evangelists,” IDB 2. 181.