honour father and mother; ponder the law of God, and abide in his commandments, be right in faith and good in works, holy-minded, pure in spirit, and single-hearted, and unflinching in love.
"This is the law of the faith of Christ. Know, O king, that the true God is Jesus Christ, son of the Holy Virgin Mary, crucified by the Jews. And his commandments are true and there is no other god but he."
The Armenian Barlaam and Josaphat ends as follows:
And after that Josaphat spent in the wilderness thirty-five years. But when he withdrew from his kingdom he was twenty-five years old. And thus he lived a life pleasing to God and did not depart from the cave of Baralam until his death. But after his transition from this life, some of the neighbouring brethren of the desert [by intimation from the spirit] came and buried the [holy] body of Jovasaph, near to Baralam's. And Bavakia the king, having heard [thereof], sent priests and monks; and [having opened the tomb of the saint] they found the flesh of the blessed ones uncorrupted. And with great honour they took and carried them to India [as it was near, a journey of one day]. The king Bavakias [went out to meet them with all his magnates and a multitude of the common people]. [And as was befitting they brought him into his paternal kingdom, and laid him beside Abener the king.]
And to this day God worketh many wonders by the prayers of those [who are] of the land of India.
The which even I Asat, a sinful servant of God, with much labour and toil, and here and there[1] summarising it, translated into the Armenian tongue, by the help of an honourable prince. Wherefore by means of their self-denial and life of grace, the Holy Trinity is glorified. Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, now and ever.
The Greek text of Barlaam and Josaphat was first printed in Boissonade's Anecdota, Paris 1832; and his text is reprinted in Migne's Patrologia Græca. Most of the Greek MSS. ascribe it to John of Damascus. Others name John the Monk, an honourable and virtuous member of the monastery of Mar Saba, near Jerusalem, as the person who brought this edifying history from the interior of the land of the Ethiopians, called the Indians. The Greek narrator professes to have gathered his narrative from the lips of respectable persons, who faithfully handed it on to him. But a few Greek MSS. (e.g. MS. 137 of the Bibliotheca
- ↑ Or, and making it little out of much by summarising it.
