Bakar Bible (complete)

For the praise of the holy and one, and life-giving, and indivisible Trinity, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In the time of the most exalted and most radiant Empress, and the sovereign ruler of all Russia, Elizabeth, daughter of Peter, and of her heir, the Grand Duke Peter Feodorovich, we have considered and taken care, we, Davidian, Solomonian, Pancratovian, the nephew of the nephew of the renowned King Archil and of King George, and the son of the famous Levan, son of King Vakhtang. King of the Georgians, Bakar. For the printing of the holy Genesis, the enlightener of souls and minds, because first with great hope the will of the blessed-remembered King Archil was that he might gather and complete the Genesis: for in our lands it was no longer to be found gathered together, but was book by book, and some were lost and deficient. As the book of Jesus Sirach, and the Maccabees. But those which remained and were found, they too were without beginning and without end, corrupted by the scribes. But he gathered and joined them together, and the deficient parts he translated according to his own ability, which he was capable of. Likewise, the blessed-remembered my father, King Vakhtang.

He desired to have this book printed in his royal city of Tbilisi. And he brought a printer from Wallachia. And he set up a press. He labored and toiled and arranged all the materials, and printed a few of the minor prophetic books. But time and vain circumstance did not allow him to complete it, and it remained unfinished as before. And at this time we arrived from our land in this great dominion of Russia, in the year 1724, during the reign of the first emperor, the great sovereign Peter Alexeevich, in the royal city of great Moscow. After some years, I examined and desired the works of these two kings, which lay useless, whose desires had been very great but could not attain their wishes. Like Moses and Aaron in the land of promise. And it seemed to me like Joshua; I wished and desired, like a deer toward springs, to bring this labor to a good completion. But with the hope and assistance of the God of Hosts, I took hold and fulfilled their desire. For the works of my hands were directed upon me, and the works of their hands were directed for us. And we printed it in the royal city of great Moscow, with the permission and blessing of the holy governing Synod.

And now, by our will, cause was made for the ordering and preparation of this printing by Archbishop Ioseb Samebeli, and he labored greatly with the intention and will of all our clergy. And now we have brought forth the work of King Archil, the book of Genesis written by hand, and we have compared it with a very good and trustworthy copy, translated and corrected by many holy men, philosophers, and theologians through careful investigation, based on the trustworthy Greek text. And we have newly corrected every word, more or less, each in its own place and in order, with such comparison that it is in no way inferior in conception to other Bibles, whether Hebrew, Greek, Syriac, Bulgarian, Armenian, or any others. For the benefit and salvation of the souls of the aforementioned kings, King Archil and his daughter Darejan; for the soul of my father, King Vakhtang, and of my mother, Queen Rusudan, for the salvation of their souls; and for the soul of our own and of our wife, Anna, daughter of the Eristavi of Aragvi; for my son Levan and Alexander; and for my daughter Elisabed, for their good upbringing and protection; and for the peaceful life of our brother, the king's son Giorgi. So that our Lord God, the cause of all good, may accept this our offering and deem us worthy to stand at His right hand.

to whom all glory and worship is due, now and forever, unto the end of the ages. Amen. And from the beginning of the world to the present, year 7251; from Christ, year 1743; in the Chronicle, year 431; in the month of May, day 1.