A study of words relating to a man and society in the Book of Genesis shows that this semantic group has many verbal units for denoting basic concepts, whether they are simple roots or compound constructions that are combined into subgroups that complement each other. The words included in the subgroups of this semantic field have a rich spectrum in terms of the number of synonyms. Most of these words are of Indo-European origin: մարդ, այր, ծնունդ, մանուկ, հայր, մայր, եղբայր, քոյր, ուստր, դուստր, անդրանիկ, ծնունդ, ընտանիք տուն; there are several borrowings from Iranian (ազգ, տոհմ, զաւակ) and Syrian (տղայ).

KeywordsBible Genesis ancient Armenian translation vocabulary semantic field of human meaning society root words borrowings.

At the turn of the fourth and fifth centuries, confronted with emerging threats, Armenian political thought formed a nationwide agenda for preserving the national statehood and spiritual authority recognizing the complete and final spread of Christianity and its transformation into the faith and core of Armenian identity as the means of solving this agenda. Historians of the fifth century portray the spread of Christianity in Armenia as a deeply disconsolate situation, explaining it by the lack of the Armenian translation of the Bible. In reality, there were far more serious obstacles that historians do not mention.

KeywordsAgathangelos “History of Armenia” political agenda religious situation national identity military estate ecclesiastical authority Bible translation.