THE ARMENIAN APOSTOLIC CHURCH

THE ARMENIAN APOSTOLIC CHURCH

Apostle առաքեալ noun Apostle, envoy, messenger; emissary..

The Armenian Apostolic Church (Armenian: Հայ Առաքելական Եկեղեցի, romanized: Hay Aṙak'elakan Yekeghetsi) is the national church of the Armenian people. Part of Oriental Orthodoxy, it is one of the most ancient Christian institutions. The Kingdom of Armenia was the first state to adopt Christianity as its official religion under the rule of King Tiridates III of the Arsacid dynasty in the early 4th century. According to tradition, the church originated in the missions of Apostles Bartholomew and Thaddeus of Edessa in the 1st century.

The Armenian Orthodox Church believes in apostolic succession through the apostles Bartholomew and Thaddeus of Edessa. According to tradition, the latter of the two apostles is said to have cured Abgar V of Edessa of leprosy with the Image of Edessa, leading to his conversion in 30 AD. Thaddaeus was then commissioned by Abgar to proselytize throughout Armenia, where he converted the king Sanatruk's daughter, who was eventually martyred alongside Thaddeus when Sanatruk later fell into apostasy. After this, Bartholomew came to Armenia, bringing a portrait of the Virgin Mary, which he placed in a nunnery he founded over a former temple of Anahit. Bartholomew then converted the sister of Sanatruk, who once again martyred a female relative and the apostle who converted her. Both apostles ordained native bishops before their execution, and some other Armenians had been ordained outside of Armenia by James the Just.[9][10] Scholars including Bart Ehrman, Han Drijvers, and W. Bauer dismiss the conversion of Abgar V as fiction.

According to Eusebius and Tertullian, Armenian Christians were persecuted by kings Axidares, Khosrov I, and Tiridates III, the last of whom was converted to Christianity by Gregory the Illuminator.^[8] Ancient Armenia's adoption of Christianity as a state religion (the first state to do so) has been referred to by Nina Garsoïan as "probably the most crucial step in its history."^[12] This conversion distinguished it from its Iranian and Mazdean roots and protected it from further Parthian influence.^[8][12] According to Mary Boyce, the acceptance of Christianity by the Arsacid-Armenian rulers was partly in defiance of the Sassanids.^[13]

When King Tiridates III made Christianity the state religion of Armenia between 301 and 314, it was not an entirely new religion there. It had penetrated the country from at least the third century, and may have been present even earlier.^[14]

Tiridates declared Gregory to be the first Catholicos of the Armenian Orthodox Church and sent him to Caesarea to be consecrated. Upon his return, Gregory tore down shrines to idols, built churches and monasteries, and ordained many priests and bishops. While meditating in the old capital city of Vagharshapat, Gregory had a vision of Christ descending to the earth and striking it with a hammer. From that spot arose a great Christian temple with a huge cross. He was convinced that God intended him to build the main Armenian church there. With the king's help he did so in accordance with his vision, renaming the city Etchmiadzin, which means "the place of the descent of the Only-Begotten".^[15]

As articulated in the Creed, the Armenian Church believes in One God, the Father Almighty who is the Creator of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible. Humanity (male and female) is created in the image and likeness of God, and as such is a special creature. However, because of the Fall of man, sin entered the world.

The Church believes in Jesus Christ, "the only begotten Son of God, who came down from heaven, was incarnate, was born of the Virgin Mary, by the Holy Spirit." He became man, suffered and was crucified, and was buried. He rose again from the dead on the third day and ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father. He will come again with glory to judge the living and the dead.The Armenian Church believes in the Holy Spirit, uncreated and perfect, who proceeds from the Father, and together with the Father and the Son is worshipped and glorified. The Holy Spirit spoke to the prophets and apostles and descended into the Jordan river, witnessing Christ's Baptism.

The Armenian Church is One, Holy, Apostolic, Catholic Church. She believes in one Baptism with repentance for the remission and forgiveness of sins. On judgment day, Christ will call all men and women who have repented to eternal life in His Heavenly Kingdom, which has no end. Christ overcame the power of death with His own death and gave salvation to all mankind.

The dogmas of the Armenian Church are based on these "articles of faith."


The Apostles' Creed (Latin: Symbolum Apostolorum or Symbolum Apostolicum), sometimes titled the Apostolic Creed or the Symbol of the Apostles, is a Christian creed or "symbol of faith".

It most likely originates in 5th-century Gaul, as a development of the Old Roman Symbol, the old Latin creed of the 4th century.Old Roman Creed, is an earlier and shorter version of the Apostles’ Creed.[1] It was based on the 2nd-century Rule of Faith and the interrogatory declaration of faith for those receiving Baptism (3rd century or earlier), which by the 4th century was everywhere tripartite in structure, following Matthew 28:1"baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit"), which is part of the Great Commission.According to the Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, the first text attesting it is a letter to Pope Julius I in 340 or 341, and it has recently been argued that it developed in the context of the Arian controversy.
English translation from the Greek


I believe in God the Father almighty;
and in Christ Jesus His only Son, our Lord,
Who was born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary,
Who under Pontius Pilate was crucified and buried,
on the third day rose again from the dead,
ascended to heaven,
sits at the right hand of the Father,
whence He will come to judge the living and the dead;
and in the Holy Spirit,
the holy Church,
the remission of sins,
the resurrection of the flesh
(the life everlasting).[7]

The Hebrew word for spirit, breath, or wind, like the Armenian when voiced engages one's breath and lungs. This is very much like the Armenian letter H/Հ named the aspirated "h" from (French: "h" aspiré). This H in Armenian is a prefix used in the very important word Hay/Armenian where it is a voiced phoneme that precedes a gliding vowel, a diphthong (which is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable and it is said that the voiced aspirate helps stop the normal processes of contraction and liaison from occurring.