8 Georgian

Within the 1500 years of Georgian literacy, Jewish literature of the Second Temple period is represented by biblical apocrypha and pseudepigrapha as well as a translation of Josephus’s Antiquitates. Among the former, it is especially the ancient versions of Wisdom, Sirach, and the Apocalypsis of Ezra (IV Ezra), preserved in the Oshki-Bible of 978 CE, that deserve special interest. Beyond, the Georgian tradition is comparatively rich in apocryphal texts that are related to Genesis, including two versions of the Vita Adae and various adaptations of the Caverna Thesaurorum. Whereas some of these texts are of noteworthy age (eleventh to fifteenth centuries) and based on Greek or Armenian models, some others such as the Historia de Melchisedech are late translations from Russian (eighteenth to nineteenth centuries). Josephus’s Antiquitates were mostly translated from Greek by the Hellenizing school of Gelati (eleventh to twelfth centuries); chapters 16 to 20 were added in the nineteenth century on a Russian basis.