THE PROBLEM OF THE AUTHOR OF A RECENSION OF THE “TESTAMENT OF PASSION” ATTRIBUTED TO TWO CATHOLICOI

What is it about?

The present article discusses the authorship and dating of an early recension of the genre of “Testaments”. These sermons concerning the events of Good Friday became popular in the second half of the 17th century. The recension in question was primarily copied in miscellanies. Matenadaran houses 13 manuscripts containing this sermon. In the majority of these manuscripts, the sermon is anonymous: there is no mention of the author in the titles. In other manuscripts, however, this recension of the “Testament of Passion [of Christ]” has been attributed to two catholicoi, Alek’sandr I Jughayets’i (1706−1714) and Ghazar I Jahkets’i (1737−1751): in manuscript catalogues, it has been attributed to both of them, though more often to Alek’sandr Jughayets’i rather than to Ghazar Jahkets’i.

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Photo by Ani Adigyozalyan on Unsplash

Photo by Ani Adigyozalyan on Unsplash

Why is it important?

The article shows that in reality, we deal with a recension and its shortened version. The author of the recension is Vardapet (Archimandrite) Alek’sandr Jughayets’i, and the composition date is around 1686. Interestingly, this recension is written in prose only and does not have a mixed verse and prose structure typical of the majority of recensions of “Testaments” composed between the 18th and 19th centuries.