Eznik of Koghb

Eznik of Koghb was a churchman and theologian of the fifth century. He was born in the province of Tayk in the late fourth century and studied under Mesrop Mashtots, the inventor of the Armenian alphabet. He was sent to Edessa and then to Byzantium, where he learned Syriac and Greek. He worked with the Catholicos Sahak on the Armenian translation of the Bible.¹

He is the author of a treatise on good, evil and free will, against dualism. It has four parts, which refute the pagan beliefs of the Armenians, the Persian doctrine of Zurvan, Greek ideas, and the teaching of Marcion.¹ The work is known today as the Refutation of the Sects. A single manuscript of 1280, kept in the Matenadaran in Yerevan, preserves it, and it was first printed in Smyrna in 1762.¹ The Persian section contains a large amount of Iranian vocabulary.¹

A retelling in English by Thomas Samuelian is published by St. Vartan Press, and the Classical Armenian text is available online here.