Georgia, A History of the Baptists, Part I

Let's start at the beginning. People have been in Georgia for a very long time. We can just say that humans got to Georgia early and have been there a very long time. But what about modern Georgians? We don’t know for sure, but it seems about 7,000 years ago, the main Georgian ethnic group, the Kharts, began to move eastward across the modern state of Georgia, displacing locals and the like long before recorded history. We also believe they began making wine right away, and they got really good at it.

We don’t really get a glimpse of Georgians until the Urartu run into them. I am sure you have not thought about Urartu a lot already, but it was a very interesting place. They wrote about the Georgians as several groups of competing tribes, and their language was spoken from Eastern Turkey to Southern Russia to Dagestan and what is today northern Azerbaijan. These tribal confederations were raiders, bandits, and valuable mercenaries. The fierce Georgian fighters would wear wolf and bear pelts, becoming so feared in the region that the whole place was called the “Land of Wolves”.  

After their entry onto the world stage of history, Georgia was known by many names and shared the story of their land with the Laz and many different people groups. The Greeks called Western Georgia Medea (of Golden Fleece Fame), Vania, and Lazica. Central and Eastern Georgia Iberia (Homer’s Name), Kakheti, and Heretia. Most names seemed to return to the Persian word for “Land of Wolves,” with the Greeks calling the people in Georgia “people of the plow” (or the earth). Athens fed itself in no small part from wheat coming from Georgia. Georgia didn’t come about until the Middle Ages when Western Europeans heard various G-sounding words to describe the “Land of Wolves” and finally decided that Saint George the Dragon Slayer must have founded a kingdom, and they called it Georgia. With most words in use by their neighbors using G words to describe them, Georgia stuck in the West and is now the country's official name. But to the Georgians in their own language, Georgia is simply Sakartvelo, “The place the Kharts live.”

Georgia has always been a part of two worlds, strongly connected to the East by location and trade but also a key part of the West because of the Black Sea. Greeks have lived in Georgia for well over 2,500 years. Kingdoms rose and fell, but none of them untied all parts of modern Georgia, though the stories can be quite epic. Perhaps the most important event was Pompey the Great’s invasion of Georgia during his war with Mithridates, the Poison King. In 65 BC, Pompey, soon to be known as the “Great,” invaded Georgia and, after fierce fighting, burned the capital and conquered ancient Iberia. This brought Georgia into Roman orbit, and it established trade routes and other links that lasted long after Mithridates and Pompey died.

Around 60 years after Pompey’s invasion, Jesus was born, and he would profoundly impact Georgia and the rest of the world. According to the Life of Kartli, Christianity first came to Georgia from the sea, and churches were established in the West shortly after Christ's death. It seems that many of the first Christians were also Jews, as Jewish Christians first spread the gospel in Georgia. A very old Georgian legend has it that Georgian Jew, Elias, bought the robe of Christ from the soldiers who gambled for it at the foot of the cross, brought the robe to Georgia, and preached that the Messiah had come, founding the first church in Georgia. The Apostles, Simon the Zealot and Andrew, were supposed to come to Georgia and preach in the 1^st century. It's interesting that as Paul was at one point headed to Pontus, it would have taken him to the border of Georgian-speaking territory, but he, in the end, turned West.

Besides legend, we have evidence that Christianity first came to Georgia in the 1st century, probably while Acts was written. The country certainly did not convert as a whole, and the various Georgian kings remained pagan. This was all about to change with the arrival of a woman of great mystery, Nino. Nino is surrounded by mystery and legend. Was she involved in saving a beautiful Christian woman from the lecherous attention of the murderous Diocletian, barely escaping the emperor’s murderous wrath? Was she a great-niece of Saint George the Dragon Slayer, upholding that Saint’s glorious Christian heritage? Was she raised by a wealthy family in Cappadocia, or was she held as a slave girl in Jerusalem and traveled to Georgia against her will? Perhaps she did receive a vision and commission from Christ in a dream to preach about him in the land where his robe was buried. 

Likely, no one knew because no one wrote about her until Nino showed up in Georgia (Iberia at the time) as a missionary. She was almost certainly connected to Jerusalem and the Patriarch of Jerusalem since the Georgian church was loyal first to that Patriarch above all others. Other than that, we don’t know anything about her early life. She began preaching in southern Georgia around 320 and began working her way north as she went; she likely did run into Queen Nana of Iberia when she was very sick and either cared for her until she recovered from her illness or prayed for her healing, which God granted and restored the Queen to perfect health. This was likely around 325 AD.

In gratitude for her health, Queen Nana listened to Nino’s teaching, and she and many of the ladies in waiting became Christians. At first, King Mirian was furious and began persecuting Christians, threatening the Queen and her ladies, but none of the women would recant. Nino, meanwhile, ignored the king and kept preaching, winning converts in the local synagogue and other converts in the Iberian capital of Iberia Mtskheta. The king would not see Nino, likely aware of how convincing she had been for so many and kept increasing the pressure on Nino’s converts to recant. Then, one day, the king was hunting, and he was suddenly struck blind. In fear and despair, he cried out to Nino’s God to restore his sight, and his sight did indeed return. The entire tale is too involved to get into here, but we can allow for brief recounting of events.

King Mirian gathered all the greatest and richest families in Mtskheta in the city square under the shadow of giant idols of pagan gods looking down on the city from a looming mountain. He brought out Christian prisoners in their chains and had his men arrest Nino and bring her to him to find out what was going on and have this troublesome woman examined by pagan priests of great learning. Nino, for her part, could ask for nothing better and presented the gospel as storm clouds gathered over the town. As the pagans challenged Nino’s teaching, lighting struck the idols of the gods and blew them off the mountain. Before people could catch their breath, a vision of three crosses appeared to all present just as they were on Calvary the day the Lord died. All present, the king, most of all, knelt right there and acknowledged Jesus as Savior.

Several other adventures followed, and Nino summoned Bishops and priests from Jerusalem so the faith could be correctly taught and practiced by learned men. Then, in 327, Nino felt her work as a missionary was nearly done. With a great escort of knights and other admirers, Nino traveled to Kakheti (Eastern Georgia). There, the local nobles met her preaching with mocking and insults, but when the knights escorting her unsheathed their swords, the nobles, according to the Life of Kartli, “reconsidered their words,” and many became Christians. Nino continued her journey and found the small village of Bodbe, which was suffering and dying because its water supply was poisoned. Nino went to where the poisoned water was and prayed all night. In the morning, crystal clear water sprung up out of the ground, saving the village and healing the land. The spring is still there today in 2024, and the water is still pure and clear as ever.

Nino decided to stay in Bodbe and lived for another 10 or 11 years, training women to be mona or slaves of Christ and preaching to all who came to her. When she died, the king immediately built a church and nunnery for Nino’s disciples, and for nearly 1,700 years, nuns have been in that very spot carrying out their vocation in Georgia.

Nino is not responsible for all the Christians in Georgia, a Christian Bishop from Western Georgia was at the Council of Nicaea in 325 for example, but she was the first to convert a king, and as it turned her work as a missionary set the entire Georgian people on the path of Christianity and away from paganism.

In part II, we will see the faith of Georgia tested and their independence lost. Part III will set the stage for the entry of the Baptists into Georgia as we explore the political and social situation that allowed for the new faith to flourish. Part IV will bring us to the story of Baptists in Georgia.