Selections of St. Gregory of Narek’s Writings on the Jews

Gregory of Narek (c. 951–1003) was an Armenian monk, theologian, poet, and Doctor of the Universal Church, resident at the Monastery of Narek on the shores of Lake Van. He is best known for his Book of Lamentations (Matean Voghbergutyan), a cycle of ninety-five prayers addressed directly to God, which has served as the pre-eminent devotional and liturgical text of the Armenian Church for over a millennium. Declared a Doctor of the Universal Church by Pope Francis in 2015, he is one of only thirty-six figures to receive that title. The following passages, drawn from the Book of Lamentations, represent his teaching on the Jewish role in the death of Christ, the supersession of the Mosaic Law by the New Covenant, and the theological failure of Israel under the Old Law. All quotations are reproduced verbatim from the English translation of Thomas J. Samuelian (8th ed., 2021), verified against the full text as published on clerus.org and armenianhouse.org. Gregory mentions Jews only in passing within his sweeping penitential prayers; the references are embedded in typological and supersessionist theological frameworks rather than sustained polemical argument.

I. Deicide: Those Who Took Part in Killing the Creator

Book of Lamentations (c. 1002–03)

“Or even those whose sins cannot be atoned for, such as those who took part in killing our creator, or Paul, foremost of the chosen, who was formerly the chief of the unjust.”

(Prayer 11c. The killers of Christ are numbered among notorious sinners — alongside Paul — as examples of those who nevertheless could receive mercy. The footnote in the Samuelian edition cites Luke 23:43, the crucifixion narrative.)

II. Supersessionism: The Jews Abandoned to Greater Heartache at the Coming of the New Covenant

Book of Lamentations (c. 1002–03)

“For when your light came to herald the new covenant, those, like the Jews who prided themselves in keeping the law, were abandoned to greater heartache and became more needy of your charity, than those wretched persons, forever lost in the wilderness.“

(Prayer 13c. The arrival of Christ’s New Covenant exposed the insufficiency of Mosaic legal observance, leaving law-observant Jews in greater spiritual destitution than even Gentiles who had wandered without the law entirely.)

III. The Jews as Faithless Custodians: Pagan Gentiles Kept the Law When Jews Had Forgotten It

Book of Lamentations (c. 1002–03)

“But rather like the Assyrian pagans known as the promise keepers, who received the law from the Jews and kept it intact, even when Jews had forgotten it, you donned the mortal cloak of our body to proclaim your good tidings of deliverance to all peoples.”

(Prayer 14c. The classical adversus Judaeos inversion-of-election motif: pagan Assyrians — identified by Gregory’s footnote with the Samaritans of 1 Kings 16:24 and 2 Kings 17 — surpassed the chosen people in fidelity to God’s law. Israel forfeited its covenant faithfulness, which God then extended to the Gentiles through the Incarnation.)

IV. God’s Name Profaned Among the Gentiles for the Sake of Israel

Book of Lamentations (c. 1002–03)

“Your name, O Jesus, was profaned among the demons, as it was among the Gentiles for the sake of Israel.“

(Prayer 21b. An allusion to Ezekiel 36:20–23, in which Israel’s unfaithfulness caused God’s name to be dishonoured among the nations — a standard patristic adversus Judaeos motif, here applied typologically by Gregory to his own soul’s rebelliousness.)

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