Yovasap' of Sebastia: From Adam to Noah and the Tower
Blokland, Dina; Daniel, Nathan; Efrati, Shlomi; Neagu, David; Stone, Michael, and Walk, William · 2025
Presents an annotated edition and English translation of a poem probably composed by Yovasap of Sebastia (c. 1510–after 1564). Part of a longer cycle of biblical retellings in verse, the poem narrates world history from Adam down to the Tower of Babel. Yovasap repeatedly departs from the biblical narrative to offer homiletic or typological elaborations and shows deep familiarity with parabiblical traditions. The authors present it as a fine specimen of the 'Armenian embroidered Bible,' attesting how biblical and parabiblical material was received and developed in the Armenian literary sphere.
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Blokland, Dina; Daniel, Nathan; Efrati, Shlomi; Neagu, David; Stone, Michael, and Walk, William 2025. Yovasap' of Sebastia: From Adam to Noah and the Tower. Armeniaca. International Journal of Armenian Studies, Vol. 4 (2025), pp. 47–66; DOI 10.30687/arm/2974-6051/2025/01/003 (Edizioni Ca' Foscari, Venice). https://doi.org/10.30687/arm/2974-6051/2025/01/003
What this offers a reader
A sixteenth-century Armenian verse Bible, edited and translated: read it in English.
Critical edition plus translation; Michael Stone is the field's senior authority on Armenian apocrypha.
Our poets retold Genesis in verse. Here is one of them, recovered.
A sixteenth-century Armenian poet's retelling of Genesis, translated for the first time.
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