The Armenian Bible was first published in 425 AD and was based on copies of the Bible brought from Constantinople and Edessa; it was only the fifth translation of the Bible which had previously been translated only into Coptic, Syriac, Latin and Abyssinian. This scrap from an Armenian Bible was recovered from a binding. It is the oldest vellum manuscript leaf in the State Library's collection.

In 301 AD the Kingdom of Armenia became the first nation to make Christianity a state religion. For the next one hundred years or so the masses were sung in Greek but it was decided that a translation of the Bible into Armenian should be made and for this purpose Mesrob Mashtots was assigned the task by the king and the Armenian Catholicos (or Patriarch). After travelling extensively throughout Armenia and the eastern Mediterranean, Mesrob Mashtots created the Armenian alphabet in 405 AD. It is generally considered to be based on the Greek alphabet, although other alphabets have influenced it including Pahlavi, Syriac and Phoenician. Additions were made during the Middle Ages increasing the alphabet to 38 letters.

The invention of the Armenian alphabet was instrumental in the development of an Armenian national literature, and in the building of the Armenian state. Without Mesrob's pioneering work Armenia may well have been totally absorbed into the Persian Empire.

Mesrob Mashtots was later canonized as St Mesrob.

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Bournoutian, George A A concise history of the Armenian people: (from ancient times to the present) Costa Mesa, Calif.: Mazda Publishers, 2003

Diringer, David The alphabet: a key to the history of mankind London: Hutchinson, 1968

The world's writing systems edited by Peter T. Daniels and William Bright. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996

Armenian alphabet