Eznik of Kolb

Eznik was born at Koghb (Tuzluca), in the historical province of Tayk, a tributary valley of the Chorokh, in Northern Greater Armenia.

He was a pupil of Isaac, the catholicos-patriarch Isaac the Great of Armenia or Isaac of Seleucia, and of Saint Mesrop. At their request he went first to Edessa, then to Constantinople to perfect himself in the various sciences and to collect or copy Syriac and Greek manuscripts of the Bible, and the writings of the Fathers of the Church. He returned to Armenia after the First Council of Ephesus (431).

He is probably identical with Eznik, Bishop of Bagrevand region, who took part in the Synod of Artashat in 449.

In addition to his labours in connection with the new version of the Bible and various translations, he composed several works, the principal of which is his remarkable treatise "Against the Sects" or "On God". It was written between 441 and 449, and contains four books or chapters.

• In the first, against the heathens, Eznik combats the eternity of matter and the substantial existence of evil.
• In the second he refutes the chief doctrines of Parseeism/Zoroastrianism.
• The third is directed against the Greek philosophers (Pythagoreans, Platonists, Peripatetics, Stoics and Epicureans), taking his arguments from the Bible rather than from reason.
• The fourth book is an exposition and refutation of Marcionism as a dualist heresy.

In the work Eznik displays much acumen and an extensive erudition. He was evidently as familiar with the Persian language (Middle Persian) as with Greek literature. His Armenian diction is of the choicest classical type, although the nature of his subject matter forced him to use quite a number of Greek words.

His "Against the Sects" was first published at Smyrna (now Izmir) in 1762; again, much more correctly and from several manuscripts, by the Mechitarists at Venice in 1826 and in 1865. An indifferent French translation was made by LeVaillant de Florival, "Réfutation des différentes sectes", etc. (Paris, 1853). A good German translation is that by J. M. Schmid, "Eznik von Kolb, Wider die Sekten" (Leipzig, 1900). Langlois published a general introduction to the whole treatise and a translation of part of book II (section 5, 1-11, containing Magism) in his "Collection des historiens anciens et modernes de l'Arménie", II, pp. 371 sq.

Eznik is also the author of a short collection of moral precepts, printed with his more important treatise.