„საქმე მოციქულთას“ ტექსტი ქართულ ხელნაწერებში
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Date
2023
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ივანე ჯავახიშვილის სახელობის თბილისის სახელმწიფო უნივერსიტეტის გამომცემლობა
Abstract
“Among the outstanding monuments written in Old Georgian, one of the most prominent
is undoubtedly “The Acts of the Apostles” (Akaki Shanidze). It must have been translated into
Georgian soon after the translation of the Gospels (4th-5th centuries), but earlier manuscripts
have not reached us. The oldest of the surviving manuscripts are dated by the 10th century.
Currently, there are two separate editions of the Old Georgian translation of “The Acts
of the Apostles” (I. Abuladze, 1950, G. Garitte, 1955). In all, 11 manuscripts have been used
for both editions. I. Abuladze published the text based on 9 manuscripts (S-407, S-1398,
Ath.42, Kut-176, A-584, A-34, A-137, A-677 and K-4) and distinguished 4 versions (A
and B – pre-Athonian, C – by George the Athonite and D – by Ephrem the Minor), whereas
G. Garitte’s edition was based on two Sinaitic manuscripts of the 10th century (O/Sin.
Geo.58/31/60 and O/Sin.Geo.39). At this time, the publishers had no access to the manuscripts
preserved on mount Athos and in Jerusalem. Besides, the above-mentioned editions did not
reflect the textual material preserved in the ancient liturgical collections of “The Acts of the
Apostles”. Therefore, it is still a topical issue to study the manuscripts containing the text of
Old Georgian translation of “The Acts of the Apostles” and the critical edition of the text of
the Old Georgian translation. The latter reflects the data of all the important manuscripts and
yields the necessary textual material for the identification of the stages of translation-edition
of the text and the origin of the translation. Currently, with the financing of Shota Rustaveli
National Science Foundation, a project (FR-21-7518) is under way, aimed at the preparation
of such publication (Principal Investigator D. Tvaltvadze, Key members: D. Tvaltvadze, S.
Sarjveladze, E. Giunashvili, T. Jikurashvili).
On the initial stage of the research, which embraced collection and classification of the
manuscripts of “The Acts of the Apostles”, approximately 90 manuscripts were identified.
Analysis of the collection of Georgian manuscripts proved that none of the analyzed codices
contains only the text of “The Acts of the Apostles” (with the exception of fragmentary
manuscripts where this is due to the damage/destruction of the integrity of the manuscript).
The text of “The Acts of the Apostles” forms part of collections which differ in their content,
structure and function. These are: a) Biblical collections, b) liturgical collections and c) exegetical
collections.
“The Acts of the Apostles” and Epistles, as the unity of books related to the missionary
activities of the Apostles, are chiefly represented in the form of a collection called “Praxapostolos”.
About twenty codices with this name have been preserved. They include the Acts of
the Apostles, Pauline Epistles and Catholic Epistles, although the structure of the collections
is not homogenous. The collections mostly differ in the order of the books of the New Testament.
As “The Acts of the Apostles” and Epistles are closely linked to the Gospels, it is not
surprising that the collections embraced the Gospels and the “Praxapostolos” together. In the
Georgian manuscript tradition, such a collection is called “Gospel-Praxapostolos”. One of
such collections is the 11th century manuscript Kut.176, which embraces the four Gospels,
Pauline Epistles, Acts of the Apostles and probably also Catholic Epistles (the end of the
manuscript is missing). One of such collections (A-482) has a reversed order (Acts, Catholic
Epistles, Pauline Epistles and the Gospels). It should be noted that a complete collection of the New Testament, consisting of the four Gospels, Acts and Revelation of Saint John the Divine,
appeared in the later period of the Georgian manuscript tradition and may as well have
been derived from printed editions (e.g. A-909, H – 664, 18th century).
The text of “The Acts of the Apostles” is included in different liturgical collections in the
form of lections. Out of these, the oldest are lectionaries, which embrace lections from Old
and New Testaments arranged according to the church calendar (for instance, the lectionaries
of Kala, Latali and Paris). Lections of “The Acts of the Apostles” are also given in the liturgical
collections containing lections from the Praxapostolos to be read throughout the year, such
as lections from Acts, Pauline and Catholic Epistles arranged according to the ecclesiastical
year/Collective Book of the Apostles. Lections of “The Acts of the Apostles” are also found
in the mixed liturgical collections such as “Evangelion -Praxapostolos” and “Gulani”, which,
alongside with other texts, contains lections of the “Acts of the Apostles”.
As for the text of “The Acts of the Apostles” represented in the exegetical collections, we
mean the “Commentary on the Apostolicum” translated by Ephrem the Minor, based on the
exegetical work of John Chrysostom, and obtained from the catenae collection compiled by
Cyril of Alexandria. The text of George the Athonite’s “Praxapostolos” corrected by Ephrem
the Minor in the process of translation was later, against the translator’s will, copied separately
from the exegetical work and thus turned into a new independent version (D version). Thus,
the manuscripts containing Ephrem the Minor’s version of “Praxapostolos” are of two types:
a) the manuscripts representing the exegetical work translated by Ephrem the Minor, the
Kimenic part of which comprises George’s text of “Praxapostolos”. The marginal marks in
it denote the parts altered by Ephrem. The parts considered by Ephrem as “more appropriate
translation” are given in the commentaries b) the manuscripts, in which the text of “Praxapostolos”
edited by Ephrem is given without commentaries (i. e. this is not an exegetical but
a Biblical book). In the manuscripts of the first type, known as “Commentary on the Apostolicum,
Commentary on the Acts of Apostles is usually given together with the commentaries
on Pauline and Catholic Epistles. Interestingly enough, among the Georgian manuscripts
there are exegetical collections of another type, in which, alongside with the “Commentaries
to the Praxapostolos”, there are explanations of certain books of the New Testament (e.g.
“Commentary on St. Mark’s Gospels” and “Commentary on Praxapostolos”/“Commentary
on Praxapostolos” and “Commentary on the Revelation of John”).
Research has revealed several manuscripts which have not been thoroughly analyzed
and used in the existing publications until now (for instance, Ivir. georg.19 and Jer.Geo.94/82,
in which there is an order peculiar of the old Pre-Athonian versions of “Praxapostolos”
Books). At first sight, it seems that the text must be Pre-Athonian B version; Ivir.georg.78 –
11th century manuscript copied from George the Athonite’s autograph, which will be a reliable
witness for the identification of George’s version of the text of “The Acts of the Apostles”;
Jer.Geo.19 – the manuscript copied in the 12th-13th centuries, which, according to R. Blake,
is the version of George the Athonite, although this opinion should be verified based on textological
research. Also, there is a complete manuscript of “Praxapostolos”, Jer.Geo.129 and
A- 482 collection of “Gospels-Praxapostolos”. Despite pertaining to the later period (13th-14th
centuries), they are worth attention, and textological analysis will help find out which version of the text is represented in them. Textological research should by all means use some liturgical
collection of the 9th-10th centuries from Sinai mountain, namely: O/Sin.Geo.53 (9th-10th
centuries), N/Sin.Geo.26; N/Sin.Geo.31, N/Sin.Geo.54, N/Sin.Geo.26; N/Sin.Geo.31, N/Sin.
Geo.58, which, alongside with other works, include lections of “Acts” and, despite being
fragmentary, may contain important textual material.
Description
ეძღვნება პროფესორ ფარნაოზ ერთელიშვილის დაბადებიდან მე-100 წლისთავს/ Dedicated to the 100th Birthday of Prof. Parnaoz Ertelishvili
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Citation
სამეცნიერო შრომების კრებული, ქართველური ენათმეცნიერება, IX, 2023, გვ.: 61-79/ COLLECTED SCIENTIFIC WORKS, KARTVELIAN LINGUISTICS, IX, 2023, pp.: 61-79