Note 27 — Chapter XVI · EDGMIATSIN AND THE ARMENIAN CHURCH

Strgygowski, Das Etschmiadzin-Evangeliar, Vienna, 1891. I read the large inscription thus:—Ἰησοῦ βοήθει πάντας τοὺς εὐχομένους ὲν τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ Ζιβιθαιν (?)—κύριε ἐλέησον τὸν δοῦλον σοῦ Ἀρχίαν—καὶ κύριε Ἐλέησον Ἔλπιδιν (for Ἐλπιδα or Ἐλπιδίαν, the variation of the accusative of Ἔλπις into -πιδιν being not unusual)—Δανίηλ, Τίρερ, Γαρίκινις. The word Ζιβιθαιν is taken as a proper name by Brosset (Voyage Archéologique, St. Petersburg, 1849–51, 3me rapp., p. 16), and by Strgygowski, who supposes it to be the same as Zuithai, found in Armenian writers, e.g. in Faustus of Byzantium, who speaks of a Zuithai as priest of the town of Artaxata during the persecution of Shapur (Faustus, iv. 56). Zuithai would be the priest in whose church the memorial had been placed. As for the three proper names at the end, that of Tirer has been found in an inscription of the thirteenth century. Garikinis denotes the proper name Garegin. ↑