MOSES OF KHOREN (of KHOREN) also called KHORANATSI. — Famous Armenian historian, author of a monumental History of Armenia divided into three parts that extends from the beginnings to 440, while in the 9th century a fourth part existed that extended to the time of Emperor Zeno (474–91). The History of Armenia, written in a lyrical style, especially extols the deeds of the Armenian nobility and the Bagratid dynasty. It concludes with the narration of the death of St Sahak the Great and of Mesrop.
Much discussion has taken place in recent times regarding the chronology of the author and his qualities, and opinions are still not unanimous. The author presents himself as one of the “holy translators” who, at the initiative of Sahak and Mesrop and therefore in the 5th century, went abroad to prepare the version of the Bible. He would have been a priest and probably also a bishop. In the work he invokes the authority of older sources, such as Eusebius of Caesarea, Mar Abas Katina, Bardesanes, Julius Africanus, Pseudo-Callisthenes and others. It is true that in the 5th century there flourished in Armenia, according to Lazarus of Parphi and Koriun, a “blessed philosopher,” a bishop, named M. On these points and on the coherence with 5th-century sources, those authors who uphold the thesis of a 5th-century historian Moses of Corene rely; thus the Mekhitarists of Venice and F. C. Conybeare.
Others, no less numerous, point out that in the work there is mention of the “Fourth Armenia,” a name introduced in 536 by Justinian. Moreover, no quotations of the History of Armenia survive until the 9th century, in which the Bagratid dynasty, so extolled in the book, reached the height of its splendor. The work would therefore have been written in the course of the 8th and 13th centuries, and the author’s assertions would be literary fictions. This is the view held, among others, by A. Carrière and N. Akinian along with the Mekhitarists of Vienna.