OLD GEORGIAN (PRE-ATHONITE) TRANSLATIONS OF THE WORKS OF EVAGRIUS PONTICUS AND AMONG THEM ONE UNKNOWN ADMONITION “DE VANA GLORIA”

Abstract

This essay examines the ancient Georgian translations of the works of Evagrius Ponticus from the pre-Athonite period (5th to the 10th centuries). The manuscript Sin. georg. 35, copied at the Monastery of St. Sabas in 907, is the sole surviving codex to preserve Evagrius’s writings under his original name. This manuscript contains fragments of translations from seven of Evagrius’s works: (1) Sententiae ad monachos (CPG 2435), (2) Ad juniores monachos instructio (PG 79, col. 532 D 9 – 533 B 3), (3) De octo spiritibus malitiae (CPG 2451), (4) Practicus (CPG 2430), (5) Prologue to Tractatus ad Eulogium (CPG 2447), (6) De vitiis quae opposita sunt virtutibus (CPG 2448), and (7) an unidentified admonition, De vana gloria. Notably, the source of this last work has not been found in Evagrius’s Greek corpus and may survive only through the Georgian translation.
Following the 6th century, Evagrius’s works were often published in Greek under the name Nilus of Sinai, a practice that naturally extended to later translations. For instance, the Georgian version of De oratione (CPG 2452)—which includes 48 of the original 153 exhortations—appears in the 10th-century ascetic collection NCM H-622, attributed to Nilus. The unidentified work De vana gloria also appears anonymously in this manuscript, alongside the sixth admonition from Practicus. It appears that the scribe-compilers of these manuscripts intentionally omitted the name of the anathematized Evagrius. Another fragment of the same anonymous text was found in an 11th-century patristic collection, Ivir. georg. 17. All three manuscripts have been utilized in the publication of this text, with textual variants noted in the footnotes.