Part II 

In relation with the above, it would be reasonable to state the question: if the faith and commandments existed before Moses, in which language they were written? The answer to this question is simple: of course, this language would be the language of nation to whom it belongs to, i.e. Georgian.

In relation with the issue, whether the original Bible was written in the language other than Hebrew and Greek, Hungarian philosopher, doctor of sciences, academician, Gustav Geche wrote: “all texts of Bible, maintained up to present, in Hebrew and Greek languages are not the original ones, moreover, there are numerous versions of papyrus and codes. These versions could be explained by inattentiveness of the rewriters, writing under dictation. Sometimes, the rewriters could not understand the text and therefore, they made efforts to make it understandable, added their explanations or reduced some phrases. The objectives of the critical editions of the Bible include clarification of the text, as well as selection of the fragments maximally close to the original” (G. Geche. Biblical Stories, Moscow, 1988).

We shall not discuss Georgian language and alphabet here; we would like to remind that in the opinion of scientists, roots of Georgian alphabet are far in the past and in the turn of 2nd and 3rd millennia the basic language for Kartvelian languages should exist... (Essays on the History of Georgia, 1970).

It is reasonable to consider one more issue. This is the myth about Amiran, dated, in the opinion of the scientists, in 4th – 3rd millennium B.C. According to the myth, Amiran (further Prometheus; “since 5th-4th century B.C. the Hellenic writers believed that this myth was the Caucasian one and the place of chaining of Prometheus was Caucasus” (Iv. Javakhishvili, v. I, p. 200)) was chained to one of the rocks in the Caucasian Mountains; he has stolen fire from the heaven and brought civilization to the mankind. In Arabian language “Amira” is god; word Prometheus, according to explanation of mythological dictionary, is foreteller, careful, farsighted, prudent person able to think in advance: i.e. Prometheus is associated with the superior mind. Etymology of this word is as follows: pro – before, prior to; theos – god; hence, this means “god mind”; if we consider the Greek name of winemaking god – Dionysus is associated with “god mind” as well, as dio – god, noos-nus – mind, idea, intellect, nus – Lat. Intellect.

Mythological dictionary says about Dionysus: “Dionysus – god of Nysa (mount), god of grapes, vine and wine; Nysa, according to the Greek myths, is the place where the nymphs nursed Dionysus. In reality, this place is not known. Later several places well-known for winemaking were called Nysa “ (Mythological Dictionary, Nodar Gaprindashvili, 1972); i.e. “Nysa” is a mountain and this is very interesting, as: 1. cult of Dionysus was adopted in Greece later, from Asia Minor; 2. word Nis in Greek means the mind; 3. word “heber” (kheber-Khabar, in Turkish – haver – mind, thought, story (Sulkhan Saba Orbeliani, Georgian Dictionary, v. IV, 1965l Al. Ghlonti, Collection of Georgian Phrases, 1984), is the toponym, name of one of the peaks in Caucasian Mountain Range and, as we have mentioned earlier, is associated with the vine and this recalls us the legend: “According to the myth of Pshavi, Amiran is bound to the tree and chained to Caucasus”. Thus, Amiran-Prometheus-Dionysus all are related to “god-mind” (according to explanation by Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani, the mind is of three types: mind god, mind angel and our mind). Thus, together with the vine, the supreme mind was chained to the Caucasus Mountains.

Word “nisi” is mentioned in the Bible as well: “And Moses built an altar, and called the name of it Jehovah-nissi” (Exodus 17:15, Bible, 1989). According to the Bible, “Jehovah-nissi” is the same as “sabaoth”; according to the dictionary, “Jehovah” means god and we have considered “nissi” above. Thus, “god mind” was called “Sabaoth” in the Bible. Consequently, we have basis to offer that the territory where the mythical hero (bringing culture in a form of fire, it is of no significance, his name in the history is maintained as Amiran, Prometheus or any other, here the main thing is the idea as such) was chained, is the “land rich with the bread and wine” or the“Eden” and in the Christian religion, the idea of crucifying of Jesus Christ – “New Noah” is the repercussion of this; it is regarded as undoubted truth that conversion of Georgian into Christianity is associated with the vine cross.

In relation with the cross and crucifix the old metaphrase collection there is written: “Eha to the untold foresight! The cross appeared as the place of Lord as the wisdom of the Lord was bound to it... For the sinners and those without feelings the cross means nothing but nonsense while for us, each of us, the power of Lord becomes clear as the tree of life and tree of wisdom expressed the cross quite apparently?” It is clear that the crucifix is associated with the wisdom, mind and the tree of life expressed the cross.

For the Georgians vine is regarded as the “tree of life” from the ancient period and the vine from which the cross was made. About its significance for Georgia, its mission, wrote Georgian writer of 10th century, Leonti Mroveli: “From the beginning this country was intended by the Lord as its servant, as from the Lord this tree grew kept for that time. As the God’s grace came over Kartli and from this tree the valuable cross was made and all Georgians worshiped it” (Life of Kings, p. 100). According to these words the country of Kartli was intended by the Lord as his servants and this coincides with the theme of our work – native country of the vine and Bible is one and the same and it is Georgia.

Bible says that to see the Promised Land, the spies went from Kadesh (desert in Syria) to the country of grapes, cur the grapes and took with them: “And they came unto the abrook of Eshcol, and cut down from thence a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they bare it between two upon a staff; and they brought of the pomegranates, and of the figs. The place was called the brook Eshcol, because of the cluster of grapes which the children of Israel cut down from thence. (Numbers, 13:24). According to the Bible, the Land of Promise is the Mount Seir and it is located to the north from Kadesh: “Ye have compassed this mountain long enough: turn you northward.” (Deuteronomy, 2:3) and this is of great significance as: 1. as we have mentioned above, the Mount of Seir is located upwards from the mountains of Colchis, or it is the same as Caucasus; thus, the Land of Promise is there as well. 2. Word “khevi” in ancient Georgian meant historically formed large territorial units (Iv. Javakhishvili); “tevani”, according to explanation by Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani, means the entire bunch of grapes. Naming the territory the “land of grapes” shows that viticulture in this area was the main sector of economy; 3. Seir Mount is the birthright of Esau, land rich with the bread and wine and Jacob took away the heritage and blessing from him (Genesis, 27:36). Supposedly, this caused the fact that the status of Lord’s chosen nation, creator of the Holy Bible was awarded not to the nation who deserved it but to the other one and in our opinion it is som kind of the irony of fate.

In the work “Vine, Bible and Georgia” we wrote: “today the issue is to find out the true native land of the Bible by vine” and the vine showed the secret Land of Promise, i.e. the Eden, native land of the vine and wine is Georgia and the Bible is a book of Georgians.

Review

Our Georgian scientific community has expressed numerous opinions about interrelation between the vine and Holy Bible.

This is evidenced by the work by Ms. Elza Asabashvili: “Vine, Bible and Georgia” published in 2010 by the magazine Saint Ilia Righteous “Sakartvelos Moambe” and later, in 2011, it was published as a book.

Her new work “True Native Land of the Vine and Holy Bible” is the logical continuation of the above mentioned work where the respected author offers certain interesting ideas dealing with the interrelation between the vine, Holy Bible and Georgia, relying on the etymological and other studies, she discusses the in-depth coincidence of the vine and Bible, as well as of Georgia, their mutual matching and unity.

In our opinion, the mentioned work undoubtedly deserves the attention of public. In our opinion, it would be significant guide for the public interested in these issues, as well as for the scientific community. Moreover, we believe that both works of Elza Asabashvili should become the subject of wide discussions! Study of these issues would not only clarify the possible prospects of the further development of the issues stated in the works but also would be the best stimulating factor for support and survival of our national and moral originality.

Ilia (Nugzar) Chikvaidze

Priest of St. Nikoloz Cathedral, Kareli

Associated Professor of Iakob Gogebashvili Telavi State University

Member of National Academy of the Writers of Georgia

Review

Interest of the young researcher, Elza Asabashvili with the issues of vine and Bible is undoubtedly worth of ap­preciation and deserves support. Not quite long ago I had the opportunity to review her work “Vine, Bible and Georgia”. I supported publication of this original work and it was published; currently presented work (in a form of article) is actually continuation and supplementing of the interesting theme; Relying on the biblical sources she strives to make even more reliable recognition of Georgia as the primary origin of the cultivated vine. She provides recognitions of the world-level scientists and writes: “today it is not disputable that the native land of the vine and the ancient center of winemaking is Georgia”; this statement relies upon the provided sources; we should add here that for strengthening of this “truth” more historical, archeological, linguistic and other arguments would be needed as in the recent years the (strangely biased) researchers appeared, who reject the idea of initial origination of cultivated vine in the territory of Georgia. It should be also mentioned that in this small-format work the issue could not be fully presented. The same could be said about the Bible. Regarding the above, for proper evaluation of the work, the assessments and recommendations of the Bible historians would be very useful and it would be reasonable and helpful to take such recommendations into consideration.

N. Chkhartishvili

Professor, Academician of the Agriculture Academy of Georgia

Review

World historiography has been paying particular attention from the ancient period up to present to study of such cultural-historical issues as the issue of genesis of viticulture and winemaking. In the modern science, it is recognized as the undoubted reality that viticulture, as the sector of economy originates from the South Caucasus and Asia Minor but the ethnical environment where the first cultivated vine variety has emerged is still unknown. Thus, the ethnical-linguistic group whose key terminology related to the viticulture and winemaking was accepted by the Caucasian, Indo-European and Semite language vocabularies is still unknown.

E. Asabashvili’s researches in the sphere of Bible studies, historical, ethnological and linguistic-semiotic issues are the attempt of clarification of the mentioned problem. This is a quite interesting incentive and characterizes the author as the researcher of wide range. Though number of statements provided by E. Asabashvili are disputed (and this is natural), but, as a whole, her findings and correctly placed scientific stresses are of value in the sci­entific respect.

Nugzar Antelava

Doctor of historical sciences

List of References

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2. Ar. Chikobava, Georgia Thesaurus, Tb. 1986

3. Niko Chubinashvili, Georgian Dictionary, Tb. 1961

4. Al. Ghlonti, Collection of Georgian Expressions, Tb. 1984

5. Ilia Abuladze, Dictionary of Ancient Georgian Language, Tb. 1973

6. Shota Dzidziguri, Basque-Caucasian Problem, Tb. 1981

7. Shota Dzidziguri, Literary-Linguistic Essays, Tb. 1974

8. Sulkhan Saba Orbeliani, Works, Georgia Dictionary, v. IV1, IV2, Tb. 1965

9. Georgian Soviet Encyclopedia, Tb. 1975

10. Ancient Metaphrase Collections, Tb. 1986

11. Essays on the History of Georgia, George Melikishvili, v. I, Tb. 1970

12. Ampelography of Georgia, Tb. 1959

13. Issues of Archeology of Georgia, v. I, Tb. 1978

14. Akaki Gelovani, Mythological Dictionary, Tb. 1983

15. Otar Japaridze, On the Issues of Ethnical History of Georgian Tribes, Tb. 1976

16. Mikheil Gegeshidze, Ethnical Culture and Traditions, Tb. 1978

17. Revaz Siradze, Literary-Esthetical Essays, Tb. 1967

18. Iv. Javakhishvili, Works in Twelve Volumes, v. V, Tb. 1979

19. Iv. Javakhishvili, History of Georgian Nation, v. I, Tb. 1960

20. Iv. Javakhishvili, Historical-Ethnological Issues of Georgia, Caucasus and Near East, Tb. 1950

21. Jemal Sharashenidze, Sumerians and their Culture, Tb. 1983

22. T. Chubinashviuli, Ancient Culture of Kura and Arax Rivers

23. Akaki Surguladze, Essays of the History of Georgian Culture, Tb. 1989

24. Sh. Amiranashvili, History of Georgian Art, Tb. 1971

25. Ancient Oriental Art, V. Afanasieva, E. Lukonin. N. Pomerantseva, Tb. 1986

26. Levan Topuria, Viticulture and Winemaking in Georgia, Based on Ethnographi