What Was the Pre-Christian Religion of Armenia?
It is not possible to give specific information on the original forms of the religion of the Armenian race. The culture and civilization of the West had begun to penetrate…
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“What was the Religion of the Armenian Nation before the converted of Christianity?” from Illustrated Armenia and the Armenians by Ohan Gaidzakian, 1908.
It is not possible to give specific information on the original forms of the religion of the Armenian race. The culture and civilization of the West had begun to penetrate into Armenia with the victorious legions of the Greeks and Romans. Another of the many deluges which have swept over this unhappy land was showing tokens of subsidence, and the ark was once more nearing a place of rest.
We have acknowledged from the book of Genesis, "And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord" (Genesis ix., 20.)
The Bible, modern scholarship, and the Armenian tradition concur on the question that the ark of Noah rested ''upon the mountains of Ararat," or Armenia. Again, we learn from the Bible that ''God spake unto Noah, saying, "Go forth out of the ark," and Noah came out of the ark and all those that were with him, and he builded an altar unto the Lord, "and offered burnt offerings on the altar." This fact will entitle Armenia to claim to be the country where a true and pure divine worship was first practised after the Deluge. The tradition of the Armenians coincides with the fact in stating that the primitive religion of the people was simple and pure monotheism, in form patriarchal, Noachian. This tradition has for its support both the Bible and the science of religion.
Prof. Max Muller tells us that "religion is not a new invention. It is, if not as old as the world, at least as old as the world we know. As soon, almost, as we know anything of the thoughts and feelings of man, we find him in possession of religion, or rather possessed by religion." Thus find we Noah and his descendants in possession of or rather possessed by religion.
The Bible furnishes sufficient facts to assert that this pure monotheistic worship in its patriarchal form was perpetuated among the descendants of Noah, especially in the family of Shem. More than four centuries after the building of the first altar unto the Lord we find Abraham called out of his country and the people by Jehovah, to become the head of a nation through whom the knowledge of the only one true God should be perpetuated. God's calling Abraham out of his country and people was not to make him a true worshipper of Himself, but He said to him, "I will make of thee a great nation."
Another example of the true worshipper of God in the time of Abraham was Melchizedek (king of righteousness), ''King of Salem (peace), who was the high priest of the most high God." (Genesis xiv., i8). Melchizedek was not only a monotheist, but also the priest of a Monotheistic faith. He reigned over his people and on whose behalf he officiated as the high priest of the most high God. Now, therefore, it ought to be admitted that not only solitary individuals like Abram and Melchizedek, but the people of the latter also were the true worshippers of God. Another example: Job, his family and his friends, they were also true worshippers of God. They belonged to the eastern nations, they might be from Armenia.
The Bible is not a universal history, were it so, well might we have expected it to mention other nations and their religious beliefs; though what little it incidentally gives, or states in regard to them is marvelously accurate.
The Armenian tradition that their primitive religion was pure monotheism, therefore, is neither incredible nor untenable, but on the contrary it is most probable and almost certain, supported by the analogy of the Bible.
The investigations of modern scholarship maintain the idea and render it almost a moral demonstration that the primitive religions of the ancient nations were of a Monotheistic type, if not a pure Monotheism, at least they were not very far from it. Prof. Max Muller, of Oxford, England, in his lectures on the ''Origin and Growth of Religion," says that ''The ancient Aryans felt from the beginning, aye, it may bemore in the beginning than afterwards, the presence of a Beyond, of an Infinite, of a Divine, or whatever else we may call it now; and they tried to grasp, and comprehend it, as we all do, by giving to it name after name." It is conceded by the scholars that the ancient Armenians were closely connected with the ancient Aryans, that they were Aryans and their legitimate descendants now speak a language which modern ethnologists decidedly pronounce to belong to the Aryans or Indo-Germanic. Although we do not know when the separation of the Aryans took place, we can safely say that the above statement of Prof. Max Muller is also perfectly applicable to the ancient Armenians, yet we are not able to say how long such a purity of faith lasted in Armenia.
The human mind is capable of progress, but when it is left to itself is sure to retrograde and degenerate. This is verified in the case of almost all nations and in the history of all religions of the world.
"That religion is liable to corruption is surely seen again and again. In one sense the history of most religions might be called a slow corruption of their primitive purity." Divine aid, especially in religion, is therefore absolutely necessary for a true progress. Armenia left to herself fell into a gross form of idolatry.
Her fall must have been hastened, if not caused, by her idolatrous neighbors, the Babylonians and Assyrians. For the idolatry which we find in the early history of the Armenians is decidedly like that of Assyro-Babylonians. It is not the same religion adopted and practised by the Armenians, but it is modelled after the Assyrian.
Anterior to the cuneiform inscriptions of Armenia, the people must have had an idolatry similar to the Sabeism of Babylonia, which was afterwards shaped to the Assyrian style, with its distinctive character. One of the inscriptions furnishes us with a long list of the gods and the regulations for sacrifices daily to be offered to them.
There are, however, three other gods, which stood apart by themselves at the head of the Pantheon. These are Khaldis, Teisbas (the air god), and Adinis (the sun god). But Khaldis is the supreme god and the father of other gods; and in addition to these every tribe, city and fortress seem to have its respective god. Some other gods are Anis or Avis (the water god), Agas (the earth god), Dhuspuas (the god of Tosp, the ancient name of the city of Van), Selardis, (the moon god), Sardis, (the year god). The Armenians in this period, do not seem to have any goddess. Soris is found only once mentioned in the inscriptions and is translated, "queen," yet it is supposed to have been borrowed from the Assyrian, Istar. Whether all the other gods are the children of the supreme god Khaldis, or they are subordinate to him and separate from his numerous offsprings, it is not quite clear. The latter, however, is most likely the case, because the Khaldians (the children of Khaldis) and other gods have their separate offerings assigned to them according to their importance.
It has been said that the Armenian culture, civilization, and religion were very much influenced by the Assyrians while the latter were in the height of their power. From the following citation it will be seen a resemblance of the religions of these two nations and they might have also the same origin and the growth: —
"The rise of Semitic supremacy was marked by the reigns of Sargon I. and his son, Noram-Sin. The overthrow of Sargon's dynasty, however, was soon brought about through the conquest of Babylonia by Khammaragas, a Kossacon from the mountains of Elam. Before the Kossocan conquest the Babylonian system of religion was already complete. It emanated from the primitive Accadian population, though it was afterwards adopted and transformed by their Semitic successors. The sorcerer took the place of the priest, magical incantations the place of the ritual, and the innumerable spirits the place of gods.
By degrees, however, these earlier conceptions became modified, a priesthood began to establish itself; and as a nec- essary consequence some of the elemental spirits were raised to the rank of deities.
The old magical incantations, too, gave way to hymns in honor of the new gods, among whom the sun god was espe- cially prominent, and these hymns came in time to form a collection similar to that of the Hindu Rig- Veda, and were accounted equally sacred. This process of religious development was assisted by the Semitic occupation of Babylonia. The Semites brought with them new theological conceptions. With them the sun god, in his two-fold aspect of benefactor and destroyer, was the supreme object of worship, all other deities being resolvable into phases or attributes of the supreme Baal. At his side stood his female double and reflection,
the goddess of fertility, who was found again under various names and titles at the side of every other deity. The union of these Semitic religious conceptions with the developing creed of Accad produced a state religion, watched over and directed by a powerful priesthood, which continued more or less unaltered down to the days of Nebuchadnezzar and his successors.
It was this state-religion that was carried by Semitic Assyrians into their homes on the banks of the Tigris, where it underwent one or two modifications; in all essential respects, however, it remained unchanged.
With the rise of the Medo-Persian Empire a new religion rises from obscurity to prominence in Western Asia. This is the religion of Zoroaster. This was the religion with which Christianity had so nobly contended since the introduction of the latter into Armenia, until the former, in complete despair and as a vanquished foe, almost disappeared from existence. It is generally believed that Zoroaster was a real person and the founder of this religion, which is called after his name, Zoroastrianism. There is, however, a great uncertainty about the period of his earthly existence; some would make him a contemporary with Moses, and others with David and Solomon. It is very probable, however, that he lived even in a good deal later period than these Israelitish kings.
Zoroastrianism is a dualistic religion. It teaches that there are two uncreated beings, Ormazed, the supreme good, and Ahriman, the evil; and Ormazed created the earth, the heavens, and the man, and that man is created free. Ahriman is the evil and evil-doer, and in constant war with Ormazed; this world is their battle-field. There are inferior good spirits which are called genii, who are the instruments of Ormazed, but the fire alone was the personification of the son of Ormazed, and therefore an object of veneration and worship.
The abominable religion of the ancient Babylonians must have had a great influence even over the religion of Zoroaster, for we find that the Persians and Armenians had also similar gods, Hke Mithea, sungod, and Anahita, the goddess of water. The magi were the priests of Zoroastrianism, with a high priest of this order who was called in Armenian language Mogbed,
(the head or the leader of magi). No doubt this was the religion of the Armenians for nearly nine centuries, from the end of the seventh century B. C, to the end of the third century of our era (or A. C). Possibly there were some modifications and additions from the Grecian polytheism after the conquest of Alexander the Great.
Gaidzakian, Ohan. Illustrated Armenia and the Armenians, B. H. Aznive, 1908.
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