Have you read Mesrob Mashdots ?

 Vaհe H Apelian

During his last customary an hour-long press conference today, PM Nikol Pashinyan invoked Mesrob Mashdots and more than once asked the reporters quizzing him, whether the person has read Mesrob Mashdots.

I do not know if Mesrob Mashdots has authored a book. But I imagine that PM Nikol Pashinyan may have been very well referencing to Mesrob Mashdots led translation of the bible for which he was canonized, along with the rest of the translators. 

Tradition claims that the first phrase from the bible Mesrob Mashdots and holy translators translated into Armenian, after Mesrob Mashdots had  the vision for the Armenian alphabet, was the second verse of Proverb 1 that reads: "To know wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding" (Proverbs 1-2, King James Version).  What a first choice it was if it is true. 

What a choice it is!! if it is a myth the Armenians have chosen to perpetuate to this very day. More than any time in my lifetime, the Armenians need to abide by its spirit, not necessarily as a biblical calling, but for having the wisdom of marshaling the course of their country, the Republic of Armenia.

The weekly hour-long press conferences the PM conducts with the reporters, is not a press conference, in the ordinary sense of the word. That is to say, have the  PM Nikol  Pashinyan detail his government’s policies, in response to questions the reporters ask. It has become more of a misplaced forum for political confrontation by reporters who represent political interests that have an axe to grind or aim to “shoot” the PM at his foot if not his feet, to cripple him if they can. The owners of the news agencies that employ these reporters may consider the PM’s press conference is an appropriate time to score against the PM. Afterall, more people follow the PM’s press conference than the deliberations in the National Assembly.

“Ճանաչել զիմաստութիւն եւ զխրատ, իմանալ զբանս հանճարոյ”

I have always remained impressed by that profound and eloquent biblical passage, Mesrob Mashdots is claimed to have first translated. The Armenian Evangelical schools I attended in Lebanon had the quote as the school’s motto. But I will admit that the very first Armenian translated phrase in Krapar (classical Armenian) is so beautiful, so eloquent that its message comes across much more profound in classical Armenian than in vernacular Armenian. 

But the bible, if read in Armenian, is mostly read in vernacular Armenian, be it in its Western  or Eastern diction.