„შვიდის“ სიმბოლური მნიშვნელობის შესახებ უძველეს კულტურულ სივრცესა და ძველ ქართულ მწერლობაში
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2024
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ივანე ჯავახიშვილის სახელობის თბილისის სახელმწიფო უნივერსიტეტის გამომცემლობა
Abstract
In the symbolic understanding of “seven”, the worldview of the pre-Christian and Christian eras can be read together with the historical reality of Georgia. “Seven” belongs to the series of sacred numbers, in which hidden knowledge is encoded and contains secret meta-information, which, in one sense, is connected to the symbolism of numbers, from the second point of view, to enigmatic art. The sacredness of “seven” appears in the Georgian thought in several directions: 1. on the traces of the manifestation of united consciousness with mythological, folklore, and ethnocultural data; 2. religious, in particular, Christian worldview, which is based on biblical-evangelical and apostolic teachings; 3. historical, which can be imagined by understanding the historical past of Georgia; 4. in fictional literature.
The symbolism of “seven” in the ancient cultural space originates from ancient mysteries, beliefs, myths, oriental culture, ancient philosophy, and literature. In archaic traditions, numerology had a sacred, “cosmic” meaning, as the number was perceived as the face of the universe. Ancient Egyptians, Sumerians, Babylonians, Chaldeans, Hellenes, and Romans associated “seven” with nature, cosmos, everyday life, and other important events. Pythagoras and his followers based the process of theogony on the theory of numbers. The sacredness and positive connotation of seven are explained in the literature by biblical pronoetic facial expressions. God carried out the biblical creation process for six days and rested on the seventh day. The seventh day of the week belongs to God. So, the seventh day is different; it is a novelty because a qualitatively different action takes place on the seventh day. In this regard, attention is drawn to the episode of the flood, the symbolic understanding of six and seven in the Gospel of John and the Revelation, the building of the temples of Solomon and Svetitskhoveli on seven pillars, which makes seven pillars the basis of wisdom and truth, the miracles of Jesus Christ; the New Testament recognizes seven mysteries and seven gifts of the Holy Spirit; seven mercies of carnal works and seven mercies of spiritual works; and in the Holy Scriptures, the seven virtues that cleanse the seven deadly sins are considered to be one of the main defining qualities of morality.
The symbolism of “seven” is reflected in Georgian historical writings in time-spatial traces of biblical books and theological literature. For example, “The History and Eulogy of Monarchs” mentions the existence of seven kingdoms in Georgia. The educational system in Medieval Georgia, similar to Byzantium, was based on the symbolism of seven, the trivium-quadrivium principle.
“Seven” has a symbolic meaning in Georgian hagiography, for example, “Conversion of Kartli”, in which the sixth day and the sixth hour are the day and time of idolatry, just as in the Gospel, the sixth day and the sixth hour are the day and hour of the crucifixion. This symbolism of “conversion” ends the Armasian era in Georgia, and the seventh already begins the Christian era, so the sixth-seventh day marks the end of the old era and the beginning of the new. The symbolic essence of seven can be observed in Iakob Khutsesiʼs “The Martyrdom of St. Shushanik”; “The Martyrdom of St. Eustathe Mtskheteli”; “the Martyrdom of St. Abo Tbileli”; in Georgian “lives”; in hymnography, and in monuments of secular writing; of which Shota Rustveliʼs “The Knight in Panter Skin” occupies a special place. The article discusses the model of symbolic understanding of seven according to Georgian Christian literature.
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https://geohistory.humanities.tsu.ge/ge/procedings/83-shromebi/179-shromebi-20.html
ივანე ჯავახიშვილის სახელობის თბილისის სახელმწიფო უნივერსიტეტის ჰუმანიტარულ მეცნიერებათა ფაკულტეტის საქართველოს ისტორიის ინსტიტუტის შრომები შესულია ERIH PLUS-ში (The European Reference Index for the Humanities and the Social Sciences) / This journal was approved on 23.10.2024 according to ERIH PLUS criteria for inclusion
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ივანე ჯავახიშვილის სახელობის თბილისის სახელმწიფო უნივერსიტეტის საქართველოს ისტორიის ინსტიტუტის შრომები, XX, თბილისი, 2024, გვ. 33-52 / Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University Institute of Georgian History Proceedings, XX, Tbilisi, 2024, p. 33-52