Part 2: The Prediction of Nerses the Great and Other Visions
Summary
Vardan G. Devrikyan
The second part of the article is devoted to the visions connected with the legend of liberation: particularly, the visions of Nerses the Great and Sahak Partev have undergone meticulous examination.
It is being shown that the Pan-Christian visions mentioned in Daniel’s foretelling records lie on the basis of the latters together with their actual elucidations, which were perceived as assaults of wild animals in medieval times, and then extermination which symbolized the cruelties committed by the malicious and ruthless enemy, and afterwards the defeat and the retreat from the stage of history.
It was completely concurrent with both the liberation expectations of the Armenian nation and the thrills experienced during the Arabic, Seljuk and Mongol invasions.
In the article it is being noted that the same regularity is also found in Byzantine Literature where similar feelings and expectations have been expressed via the apocryphal vision of Daniel and its numerous variants.
From this perspective, the visions of Nerses the Great and S. Partev are being examined in their historical development: starting from the records of the 5th century till the 13th century. It is also being shown how they were perceived and reinterpreted in each historical-political situation.
From the same angle, in a succeeding order it is also being shown which historical development S. Partev’s vision underwent, which had an exceptional place in the Armenian liberation legend, after Pavstos Buzand’s “From the Armenian History”, first in the work “A History of St. Nerses Partev” by Movses Vayotszoretsi in 967, and then in the republications of the latter in the 13th century and in the succeeding centuries, as well as in diverse mentionings of that very vision present in the Armenian records.