Eastern Armenian Holy Bible - New Translation / Bible Society of Armenia 2013 / White Imitation leather - Silver page edges / E73HGb2W / Armenian Ararat language Holy Bible / Աստվածաշունչ / Holy Bible for Wedding (Etchmiadzin translation)

Imitation leather 2013

ISBN: 9789994175185  /  978-9994175185

ISBN-10: 9994175181

PAGES: 1697

PUBLISHER: Bible Society of Armenia

LANGUAGE: Eastern Armenian - Ararat

English Summary:

Eastern Armenian (Armenian: արևելահայերեն arevelahayeren) is one of the two standardized forms of Modern Armenian, the other being Western Armenian. The two standards form a pluricentric language.

Eastern Armenian is spoken in Armenia, Artsakh, Russia, as well as Georgia, and by the Armenian community in Iran. Although the Eastern Armenian spoken by Armenians in Armenia and Iranian-Armenians are similar, there are pronunciation differences with different inflections. Armenians from Iran also have some words that are unique to them. Due to migrations of speakers from Armenia and Iran to the Armenian diaspora, the dialect is now very prominent in countries and regions where only Western Armenian was used. Eastern Armenian is based on the Yerevan dialect.

A little known fact is that Armenia was the first country to establish Christianity as its state religion, which it did in 301 A.D. The Armenian Apostolic Church was, according to tradition, set up by two of Jesus’s disciples, Thaddaeus and Bartholomew, hence its name. Adherents of the Orthodox church make up over 90% of the country’s professing Christians today.

The Bible in Armenia

The Bible was first translated into the classical Armenian language, known as Grabar, by a monk, Mesrop Mashdots, who invented the Armenian alphabet in order to translate the Bible. Work on this early Bible took place from 396–430 A.D. The Old Testament was translated from the Septuagint, though modified by the Masoretic Hebrew text, and the New Testament from the Syriac text. For centuries the classical Armenian Bible was copied by hand. The first printed edition was produced in Amsterdam in the 1660s. However, this edition is beyond the reach of the ordinary people, being a language only scholars can read.

The Bible was then translated into the Western Armenian language in the 19th Century, which was used in the area of Armenia under Turkish rule. Following the Armenian genocide of 1915 when millions of Armenians were either killed or dispersed from Western Armenia, this form of the language is now only used by the Armenian Diaspora.

Since Western Armenian was (and still is) difficult for people in the country of Armenia to understand, a need was identified in the 1990s for a Bible in the Eastern Armenian language.