GEORGIAN VERSION, THE, is one of the oldest versions of the Bible extant.
1. Nanze, date, and source of this version.—The Georgians call their Bible by different names—r. Bibbia, i.e., the Bible. 2. Zmhzeia Zerili, the Holy Scripture. 3. Sanzkto Zerili, the divine Scriptures. 4. Zighni Zuelisa da akalio aghlkmisa, the books of the O. and N. T.; and 5. Dabadeba, Genesis, after the first book of the Bible. The version is supposed to have been made about A. a 57o, when ttie Georgians, stimulated by the ample of the Armenians VERSION], sent young men of talent to Greece to study the Greek language, who, on their return, translated the Scriptures and liturgical books of the Greek Church. The translation of the O. T. is made from the Septuagint, and of the N. T. from Greek MSS. of the Constantinopolitan family, and is composed in the ecclesiastical or ancient dialect [GEORGIAN LANGUAGE].
2. Text and editions of the version. — This venerable version has shared in all the troubles to which Georgia has been subject. The entire books of Maccabees and Ecclesiasticus were lost in the many revolutions of the country, passages disap peared from different parts of the volume, and the whole text got into a state of confusion. Tt was only in the beginning of the 18th century that Prince Vaktangh published at Tiflis the Psalms, the Prophets, and the New Testament, and split up the text into chapters and verses. Shortly after Prince Arcil, uncle of Prince Vaktangh, who fled from Kartel to Russia, undertook a revision of this version, making it conformable to the Russian translation as it then vvms, and divided it only into chapters, because the Russian translation was divided into chapters only. But this prince only lived to carry through the revision from Genesis to the Prophets, and to translate from the Russian Bible the lost books of Maccabees and Ecclesias ticus. His son, Prince Vakuset, was, however, induced by the solicitations of his brother, Prince Bachar, and the Georgian clergy resident in Russia, to continue the work of revision. He made the text conform still more to the Russian translation, newly revised according to the com mand of Peter the Great, supplied from this trans lation all the passages which were wanting in the Georgian version, made also the portions which his father had published conformable to this transla tion, and divided the whole into chapters and verses. He had Georgian types cast at Moscow, and at once began printing in that city ; the correc tion of the press he committed to four native Georgians, and the first edition of the entire Georgian Bible appeared in 1743, Prince Bachar, brother of the editor, defraying the entire expense, From this edition the Moscow Bible Society re printed the N. T. in 1816 under the superintend
ence of the Georgian Metropolitan Ion and of Archbishop Pafnut, with types cast from the very matrices which had becn used for the former edi tion, and which had escaped the conflagration of the city at the time of Napoleon's invasion. Another edition was published in '818 in the civil character. It is said that there have appeared more recent additions of various portions of this version both at Tiflis and in Russia, but there is no particular account of them.
3. Critical value of the version.—The value of this version, in a critical point of view, has been greatly impaired by the corruptions which it has suffered during the centuries of political changes to which the country has been exposed, and especi ally by the endeavour of its editors to make it con form to the Russian translation. It must not, however, be supposed that its value is entirely gone. Both Tischendorf (N. T. Greet.. ed. 2d, przef p. lxxviii.) and Mr. Malan regard it as a good auxiliary to the criticism of the Greek text. In.
deed Mr. Malan, who has published an English translation of the Georgian version of St. John's Gospel, goes so far as to say that it differs from the Slavonic in many places in which it might be expected to agree, it has a character of its own, is a faithful version, and valuable for criticism' (The Gospel accora'ing to St. 2ohn, translated from the eleven oldest versions, etc., by the Rev. S. C. Malan, Lond. 1862, p. i,x. note 3).
4. Literature.—A very interesting treatise on this version, containing a bricf account of its his tory and publication, from the preface of Prince Vaktangh, was communicated by Professor Adler of Copenhagen to Eichhorn, who published it in his Allg-emeine Bibliothek der biblischen Literatur, vol. p. 153 ff., and afterwards reprinted it in his Einleitung in etas Alte Testament, vol.ii. sec. 318, b, etc. Dr. Henderson, who had visited both Georgia and Russia, could do no more in his Biblical Re searches and Travels in Russia, Lond. 1826, p. 518, etc., than give a literal translation of this account. A valuable work has also been pub lished by Franz Carl Alter, entitled Lieber Georgi anische Literatnr, Wien, 1798, in which is given an extensive collation of the various reading's from both the O. and the N. T.—C. D. G.