სიწმინდის საფარებელი „პერექელი“(ეტიმოლოგიისა და თავდაპირველი დანიშნულებისათვის)

ანოტაცია

The covering of the church treasury ṗerekeli used during the liturgical ceremonies is called დაფარნა [daparna]. There are three kinds of daparna: two of them – the covering of the altar chalice and the covering of the paten are called small coverings – მცირე [mtsire daparna], and the third one is a big covering – დიდი [didi daparna] that, according to the definition, covers the holy relics of Eucharistic offerings – consecrated bread and wine like sky (tsai) or like air (haeri).

The extensive factual data of special studies (liturgical texts, embroidery, research documents) suggest that ṗerekeli was used as the covering of altar chalice and paten, i.e., it is the name for small coverings (G.Baratashvili); in some alternative sources, ṗerekeli is also mentioned as the big covering meaning sky (ცაჲ–tsai), and air (ჰაერი–haeri) (En.Gabidzashvili).

Defining big covering as ‘air’ was determined by the use of the term Ἀήρ, ἀέρος (air) that was coined in Greek liturgy by Basil the Great, Ioane Chrisostomos, also by Jacob’s texts of liturgical rites; the term is sometimes naturally used as identical to sky and translated into other languages in its initial meaning, as, e.g., in Russian big covering is named воздух. This did not happen in the case of the Georgian data. In Greek, big covering didi daparna is Ἀήρ, but small coverings are called κάλυμμα, προκάλυμμα or περικάλυμμα (meaning protector, cover, lid ...); the Kartvelian variant form of this is today’s Georgian term ṗerekeli.

It is assumed by some researchers that big covering was introduced by St Saba (5th cent), but what term had denoted small coverings before the term for big covering Ἀήρ was introduced is unknown.

This question might be answered by the etymological analysis of the term ṗerekeli the origin of which is derived not from the word περικάλυμμα but from the substanitivized form of the neutral gender participle of the verb περιέχω (all-encompassing or tsai according to Sophokles lexicon – Heaven and not Sky) through simple phonetic changes: ṗeriekon>ṗeriek-el, with Georgian suffix -el>ṗerek-el-i.

I think that ṗerekeli ( τὸ περιέχον) is a very old borrowing denoting small coverings; otherwise, the big cover, as the newly borrowed one, would not have been named with a different name for the similar meaning. The traditions seemed to have overlapped, which created some difficulties in definitions.

It could be said now that ṗerekeli and tsai are not different terms, and tsai is the translation of the Greek ṗerekeli.