Essential Textual and Editorial Markers of the Editions of the Bible's Georgian Translations in the Pre-Soviet, Soviet and Post-Soviet Eras

The paper studies the editing history of the Bible’s Georgian translations (BGTs), covering the pre-Soviet, Soviet and post-Soviet eras. The main goal of the article is to identify the essential textual and editorial markers of the editions carried out in these three different epochs. Actuality of the research is conditioned by the fact that in Georgian reality (and not only), the field of the Editorial Studies is still considered as an applied part of the Textual Scholarship, associated with publishing and the scientific boundaries between these two disciplines are not clearly delineated yet, despite the fact that the Georgian editors have always conducted editorial work alongside with the textual one since the early middle ages. This is especially obvious in the example of the editions of the BGTs, which appeared in the early years of Christianity (5th-6th cc.) and occupy one of the honourable places on the world cultural map alongside the Latin, Coptic, Gothic, Armenian, Arabic, and Aramaic translations. The Georgian textual criticism and editorial studies developed within the practice of: a) producing manuscripts of the BGTs (before invention of the printing press), b) editing them (in the print era) and c) making electronic editions (in the digital era). In the article, I do not deal with the issue of producing manuscripts, but only with the history of printed editions and with a few electronic editions. The research has shown that, despite ideological pressure in the Soviet era, thanks to the Georgian scientists, the editions of the BGTs spiritually and intellectually fed the Georgian national being and strengthened its national identity