Armenia

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I wrote before about Armenia/Armenians being mentioned in the Holy Book, I have found more.

 

Jeremiah: 51:27

"Set ye up a standard in the land, blow the trumpet among the nations, prepare the nations against her, call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz; appoint a captain against her, cause the horses to come u as the rough caterpillars.

"Prepare against her the nations with the kings of the Medes, the captain thereof, and all the rulers thereof, an all the land of his dominions."

 

In 538 BC, King Tigran of Armenia contributed to the capture and overthrow of wicked Babylon with his Armenian army. Tigran was a firm friend of the Persian monarch Cyrus, who led the combined Medo-Persian army. The prophet Jeremiah made these summons about a century before the destruction of the Babylonian Empire.

 

In the past Armenia has been connected with the biblical Ashkenaz. The Armenians are termed "the Ashkenazi nation" in their literature. According to this tradition, the genealogy in Genesis 10:3 extended to the populations west of the Volga. In Jewish usage Ashkenaz is sometimes equated with Armenia.

 

In other expositions found in rabbinical works, Armenia is linked with Uz. The anti-Jewish attitudes prevailing in eastern-Byzantine (Armenian) provinces made the Targum identify it with the "daughter of Edom that dwellest in the land of Uz" (Lam. 4:21) or with "Constantina in the land of Armenia" (now Viransehir, between Urfa and Naibin (Nisibis). Hence Job's "land of Uz" is referred to as Armenia in some commentaries, for instance in those of Nahmanides and Joseph b. David ibn Yahya. The "Uz-Armenia" of Abraham Farissol is however now the Anatolian region near Constantinople.

 

Armenia is also sometimes called Amalek in some sources, and Jews often referred to Armenians as Amalekites. This is the Byzantine term for the Armenians. It was adopted by the Jews from the Josippon chronicle (tenth century, ch. 64).

 

Armenia is also identified in literature with the biblical Minni (Pal. Targ., 51:27), based on onomatopoeic exegesis of Armenia = Har ("Mountain") Minni; similarly, Harmon (ha-Harmonah, Amos 4:3) is understood in the Targum to denote the region where the Ten Tribes lived "beyond the mountains of Armenia." Rashi identified Harmon with "the Mountains of Darkness," the term used by medieval Jews for the Caspian mountains.

Armenia has further been identified with the biblical Togarmah (Gen. 10:3).

 

Ezekiel: 27:14

"They of the house of Togarmah traded in thy fairs with horses and horses and mules."

Amongst other nations and people the Armenians brought horses a mules to the mart of Tyre, located present-day Lebanon. The Armenians were great breeders of horses, fatten and conditioned on the fruitful pastures of their uplands. In those early days, Armenian horses were as famous as the Arabian horses of today.

 

In Armenian tradition this genealogy has competed with the theory of Ashkenazi origins, and extended to the Scythians east of the Volga. The identification of Armenia as Aram (Gen. 10:22; 25:20; 28:5) is adopted by Saadiah Gaon and also occurs in Islamic literature.

 

In the biblical age Armenia was conceived as the mountainous expanse in the north dominating the route from Erez Israel to Mesopotamia (via Haran or its neighborhood) and extending to (and beyond) the boundaries of the known world. The forested heights near the sources of the Euphrates and the Tigris stimulated Jewish commentators to develop geographical concepts concerning this area in regard to Paradise (Gen. 2:8 ff.), the divine "mount of meeting" in the north (Isa. 14:13), the connection of the two (Ezek. 28:13–16), and the rebirth of mankind after the Flood (Gen. 8:4ff.). The name Ararat (Gen. 8:4; II Kings 19:37; Jer. 51:27) recalls the indigenous Armenian kingdom of Urartu, based on Lake Van.

 

Genesis: 8:4

"And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventh day of the month upon the mountains of Ararat."

Noah's ark did not come to rest on Mount Ararat but on the mountains of Ararat or Armenia. It is very strongly believed that the first five books (Pentateuch) of the Bible were written by Moses and another Moses of Khorene stated in his history that Ararat was the central portion of Armenia.

 

There are other spellings and derivations of the word Ararat:

a) Arardhi: The earliest known form as copied from an Assyrian inscription of King Asuurnatsirpal who reigned from BC 883 to 858.

Urardhu: as copied from an Assyrian inscription referring to the lands of proto-Armenian King Sarduris II( BC 754 to 727).

c) Urartu: Later applied to the regions ruled by a new dynasty of kings who ruled in the Lake Van area but calling those lands Nairi and Biaina.

d) Ararat: The Hebrew word for Armenia devoting highlands.

 

Genesis: 5:32

"And Noah was five hundred years old: and Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth. "

Japheth was the progenitor of the so-called Caucasian race. This appellation was first initiated by German anthropologists of the 18th century who advanced the theory that the white race originated in the Caucasian area.

 

Genesis: 10:1,2,3

"Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah; Shem, Ham and Japheth: and unto them were sons born after the flood.

"The son of Japheth; Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan and Tubal, and Meshech, and Tiras.

"And the sons of Gomer; Ashkenaz, and Riphath, and Togarmah".

 

To continue this genealogy further, Togarmah beget Haik(2), according to the acknowledged critics of the Bible and the traditions of the early Armenian writers. Armenians consider themselves as the House of Togarmah or Torcom and sometimes spelled Thorgom. This is partially confirmed by the discovery of a cuneiform inscription referring to the fortified town of Tilgarimnu near Malatia in ancient Armenia.(3) Another proposition is the view that Togarmah is made up from two words, namely, "take" meaning tribe or race in Sanskrit and Armah (Armenia).4