Agathangelos ( , from Greek 'bearer of good news'; 5th century AD) is the pseudonym of the author of a life of the first apostle of Armenia, Gregory the Illuminator, who died about 332. The history attributed to Agathangelos is the main source for the Christianization of Armenia in the early 4th century.
The "standard" version of Agathangelos' history accepted in the Armenian tradition dates to the second half of the 5th century. This version was soon translated into Greek; on the basis of this Greek translation, a translation into Arabic was made, as well as many secondary Greek, Latin and Ethiopic versions. Another, earlier Armenian version of the history, now lost, was the basis for two Greek, two Arabic, a Syriac and a Karshuni translation. The earliest surviving manuscript containing text from Agathangelos is a palimpsest kept in the Mekhitarist library in Vienna; the original text on the palimpsest dates to earlier than the 10th century. Other fragments are dated to the 10th and subsequent centuries. The earliest manuscripts containing the complete history of Agathangelos date to the 12th and 13th centuries.
He claims to be a secretary of Tiridates III, King of Armenia in the early 4th century, but the life was not written before the 5th century. It purports to exhibit the deeds and discourses of Gregory, and has reached us in Armenian, Greek, Georgian, Syriac, Ethiopic, Latin and Arabic. The text of this history has been considerably altered, but it has always been in high favor with the Armenians. Von Gutschmid maintains that the unknown author made use of a genuine life of St. Gregory and of the martyrdom of Saint Hripsime and her companions. Historical facts are intermingled in this life with legendary or uncertain additions, and the whole is woven into a certain unity by the narrator, who may have assumed his significant name from his quality of narrator of "the good news" of Armenia's conversion. It has been translated into several languages, and Greek and Latin translations are found in the Acta Sanctorum Bollandistarum, tome viii.
Texts Agathangelos is unique among Armenian texts for how widely it circulated outside of Armenia. The "standard" version of Agathangelos' history accepted in the Armenian tradition (called Aa by scholars) dates to the second half of the 5th century. This version was soon translated into Greek; on the basis of this Greek translation (called Ag), a translation into Arabic was made, as well as many secondary Greek, Latin and Ethiopic versions.Although states that the Ethiopic text draws from both the A and the V cycle and stems from an unknown Arabic text related to the known Arabic version of the V cycle. Some of these derive from the full-length Greek Agathangelos, while others derive from the abridged version included in the menologium of the 10th-century author Symeon the Metaphrast. Symeon's abridgment was translated into Georgian, Italian (17th century), and Church Slavonic. There is also a Georgian fragment translated directly from the Armenian version. A brief life of Saint Gregory in Arabic may derive from an intermediary Coptic translation of the Greek Agathangelos. Cited in . This group of texts, which all derive from the known Armenian version of Agathangelos, is provisionally known as the A recension (for ).
Another, earlier Armenian version of the history, now lost, was the basis for two Greek, two Arabic, and one Syriac translation; from the Syriac a Karshuni (Arabic in Syriac script) translation was also made. This group of texts, known as the V cycle (for ) or ('saint's life' in Armenian), is less homogeneous than the other group. According to Gabriele Winkler, some of the texts draw from both the A and V recensions and should be considered separately.Winkler places the following texts in the category of those that integrate both the A and the V cycle: the Syriac version (composed around 604–610); the Karshuni that derives from it; the Greek text from Ohrid (compiled before the 8th century); and the Ethiopic version. See . Robert W. Thomson writes: "The significance of these texts in the V cycle is that we now have evidence for traditions about Saint Gregory and the conversion of Armenia that are independent of the final Armenian redaction (Aa), and which are deliberately aimed at presenting a different interpretation of—or attitude towards—the dominant tradition in Armenian." Nikolai Marr first proposed that the texts of the V cycle came out of a Chalcedonian environment (the Armenian Church never accepted the definitions of the 451 Council of Chalcedon). Gérard Garitte cautiously accepted this conclusion, stating that it is probable (but not proved) that the V redaction was directed towards Armenians who remained in communion with the Byzantine Church.
The earliest surviving manuscript containing text from Agathangelos is a palimpsest kept in the Mekhitarist library in Vienna; the original text on the palimpsest dates to earlier than the 10th century. Other fragments are dated to the 10th and subsequent centuries. The earliest manuscripts containing the complete history of Agathangelos date to the 12th and 13th centuries.
Identity and date In the introduction, the author introduces himself as "Agathangelos from the great city of Rome, trained in the art of the ancients, proficient in Latin and Greek and not unskilled in literary composition." He states that he was called to the court of the Arsacid king of Armenia Tiridates III and ordered to write a history of the events of Tiridates' father Khosrov's reign and his own reign. Thus, it was accepted until the 19th century that Agathangelos was an author of the 4th century who was a contemporary of the events that he described. The Armenian historian Ghazar Parpetsi, writing , praises Agathangelos and gives a summary of his history, which he calls the Girk Grigorisi (Book of Gregory).This was the title by which the early Armenian historians knew Agathangelos' history. Later, this name was forgotten, and the work was called by the generic title Patmutiwn Hayots (History of Armenia). See . Another early Armenian historian, Movses Khorenatsi (whose date is disputed), describes Agathangelos as the chartularius of Tiridates III (which, per Thomson, derives from the information in Agathangelos). The anonymous Primary History of Armenia also attributes to "Agathangelos the scribe" a Greek inscription listing the reigns of Armenian and Parthian kings; Thomson likewise considers this attribution fictitious, deriving from Agathangelos' reputation as a reliable scribe.
In the 19th century, scholars began to see problems with the 4th-century dating, such as the text's evident borrowings from the Life of Mashtots by Koriun, a 5th-century Armenian work on Mashtots, who created the Armenian alphabet. As Thomson writes, the name Agathangelos, meaning 'bearer of good news', is both fitting and suspicious for an author writing of the conversion of Armenia to Christianity. Additionally, false claims of being an eyewitness of events described are common in hagiographies, to which genre Agathangelos' work belongs. Alfred von Gutschmid concluded that the author was a 5th-century clergyman, and that the Greek version of Agathangelos was translated from the Armenian, not the other way around. However, Gutschmid believed that the author made use of a genuine life of Gregory the Illuminator and of the martyrdom of Saint Hripsime and her companions. This view is shared by Aram Ter-Ghevondian, who writes that the editor of the history of Agathangelos drew from 4th-century historical, epical, and martyrological materials for the work, and that the editor was a member of the circle of Mashtots' students. According to Stepan Melik-Bakhshian, the borrowings form Koriun are the work of a subsequent editor, who also removed many parts of the text that only survive in the V cycle. Thomson writes that the "Teaching of Saint Gregory", a theological text included in the history, probably dates to the early 6th century.. See also
Thomson writes that there is no indication in Agathangelos that the original language of the book was Greek or Latin or that the Armenian text was a translation of an older text. A minority of scholars have taken the view that the Armenian work is a translation of an earlier Greek text: Norayr Biuzandatsi (writing in 1900), who thought that Koriun translated a 4th-century Greek Agathangelos into Armenian; and Albert Musheghyan, who put forward the view that a certain David of Rome (Davit Hrovmayetsi), mentioned in a work titled History of the Hripsimeank as a secretary and chronicler of Tiridates III, was the true author of the history of Agathangelos, and that Agathangelos ('bearer of good news') was merely an epithet given to Gregory the Illuminator; in the 410s, per Musheghyan, the Armenian catholicos Isaac translated the work into Armenian, and by the end of the 5th century Agathangelos had been misinterpreted as the name of the author of the work. Artsruni Sahakyan also considers Agathangelos to have been an epithet of Gregory rather than the name of an author, but he argues that story of Gregory remained in oral form until the 5th century, when Mashtots and Koriun wrote the story down with Agathangelos as the name of the author.
Content
Summary The following is a summary of the surviving Armenian text. Certain major differences between the A and V groups are noted.
The history begins with the overthrow of the Parthian Arsacids in Iran by the Sasanian dynasty of Ardashir I in 224. The Armenian king (called Khosrov the Brave in the text) goes to war with the Sasanians to avenge his Arsacid kinsmen. Though successful, he is treacherously assassinated by Anak, a Parthian nobleman sent by the Sasanian ruler, who is now able to occupy Armenia. Anak's family is exterminated by the Armenian nobles in revenge for Khosrov's murder; only one child of Anak, Gregory, is saved and taken to Caesarea in Cappadocia, where he is raised as a Christian. At the same time, Khosrov's son Tiridates is taken to Rome, where he performs great feats. Eventually, the Roman emperor (unnamed but presumed in later Armenian tradition to be Diocletian, who appears later in the story) restores Tiridates to the Armenian throne. Gregory goes to Armenia at the same time. After he refuses to take part in the worship of the goddess Anahit, he is tortured. Tiridates discovers that Gregory is the son of his father's murderer and has him cast into the dungeon of Khor Virap.
In Rome, the emperor Diocletian searches for a wife and desires the Christian nun Hripsime. Hripsime and her fellow nuns, including the abbess Gayane, flee to Armenia. Diocletian writes to Tiridates asking for the return of the nuns but tells him he can keep Hripsime for himself if he so wishes. Hripsime is discovered, and although she miraculously manages to resist Tiridates' advances, she is subsequently put to death along with many of her companions. After the nuns' execution, the royal court is visited by torments and the king partially takes the form of a wild boar. Tiridates' sister, Khosrovidukht, sees a vision according to which the imprisoned Gregory is the only one who can cure the king. Gregrory, who is still alive after thirteen (or fifteen) years of imprisonment, is released. Tiridates is healed by his intercession, and the king and his court convert to Christianity. Gregory then gives a sixty-day to the Armenian court (this part of the text is known as the "Teaching of Saint Gregory").