Between Antioch and Seleucia-Ctesiphon: The Canonical Status of the Iberian (Eastern Georgian) Church During Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages

ABSTRACT: This article addresses one of the most important issues in Georgian Church history—the canonical status of the Georgian (Iberian) Church during late antiquity and the early Middle Ages. As an introduction to the problem, I discuss the complicated and multilayered concept of autocephaly, which is of great importance for understanding the ecclesiastical relationships of the Georgian Church with other churches. After the conversion of Iberia, the Georgian Church forged close ties with other local churches. According to conventional wisdom, the Georgian Church fell under the jurisdiction of Antioch and later acquired its autocephaly from the see of Antioch. However, a closer look reveals that ecclesiastical dependence of the Iberian Church on the see of Antioch is a later construct. Apparently, since Georgia (Iberia) was a part of the Sasanian Commonwealth, Georgian Christianity had a closer relationship with the Persian Church (the Church of the East) than with Antioch. For several centuries the Church of the East exercised considerable influence on the Georgian Church. This influence may well have survived after the fall of the Sasanian Empire and the beginning of Arab dominance in the Caucasus. Since the relationship of the early Georgian Church with other churches is a large and complicated topic, this article focuses only on one specific aspect of the late antique and early medieval history of the Georgian (Iberian) Church: the relationship with the churches of Antioch and Seleucia-Ctesiphon.