The unique manuscript of John Zosimus, recently acquired by the Georgian Dream party’s Honorary Chair Bidzina Ivanishvili and his family at Christie’s auction, arrived in Georgia.

The Acting Culture Minister, Deputy Director of the Art Museum and the clergy hosted the manuscript at the Tbilisi International Airport.

The manuscript will be gifted to the state. It will be delivered to the Georgian Orthodox Church and then to the National Museum available for visitors. Scientists will examine it in detail.

Ivanishvili acquired the manuscript for one million pounds at a Christie’s auction on June 11. This remarkable manuscript is part of the Mount Sinai collection, which dates back to the 5th to 7th centuries and features text in both Aramaic and Georgian. The monk John Zosimus copied a portion of the manuscript that valued between £1,000,000 and £1,500,000.

This manuscript holds particular significance, as it includes some of the earliest Gospel texts written in a dialect of Western Aramaic, closely related to the language spoken by Jesus. The dialect was utilized by the Melkite Christian community in Palestine and Transjordan from the 5th to the 13th centuries, and its remnants are preserved in only a few inscriptions, palimpsests, and manuscripts.

The palimpsest was transcribed by the renowned calligrapher, author, translator, and bookbinder, the monk John Zosimus, and originally housed at St. Catherine’s Monastery in Sinai, dating back to the 10th century.