ABSTRACT
The Georgian life of Saint John Damascene, which can be ascribed to Ephrem Mtsire, ends with the following colophon. The Georgian monks were therefore a foreign cohort in the Antiochian Church, and it is clear to see that this special status, this official independence, was not without problems. The patriarch Theodosius, fresh off the boat from Constantinople, and to whom the adversaries of the Georgians described all this, wanted more information and asked whether there was anyone who understood Greek among the foreign monks: George the Athonite was brought forward, who restored the situation. In accordance with good scriptural arguments, the orthodox Greek church certainly appears to have allowed the liturgical practice of other languages. But it was a monitored practice: the books of the Greek Bible were normative. This special situation provoked a particular need for translation among the non-Greek churches claiming to be orthodox.
