The paradox of Armenia is that though it is one of the oldest civilizations on earth, much of its history is known only through the writings of others. Though the Armenian language itself is ancient – Strabo tells us that the Armenians became “of one language” in the second century B.C. -- it was not until the fifth century A.D. that a written alphabet was invented for the Armenian tongue. Before that time, Armenian kings and scholars had utilized the languages (Aramaic, Syriac, Greek) of their neighbours. They also borrowed foreign alphabets (the Sumerian cunieform, for example) in which to transliterate the spoken Armenian language, though this method of writing was imperfect at best.

Much of the oldest Armenian traditions and tales were transmitted only orally. Bards called gusans performed for the Armenian nobles, but their sagas and songs were not written down. Even when an actual Armenian written language came to be, it was dominated by the Christian clergy, who actively discouraged the preservation of Armenia's pagan past. Only a very few fragments of anything approximating an Armenian mythology have survived.

At the end of the fourth century A.D. in the western Armenian province of Taron, a man called Mashtots was born. He received an education in Classical Greek literature and though for a time he held an important position in the royal chancellory of King Vramshapuh, he soon gave it up in order to enter upon the life of a monk. Mashtots' birthplace was an important region in the early Armenian Christian church, for it was here that Saint Gregory the Illuminator had established the main episcopal see (at Ashtitat in Taron). It became the vocation of Mashtots to carry the Christian religion to remoter parts of the kingdom, where worship of the pagan gods and Zoroastrianism still held sway. Many of the old noble families in Armenia were opposed to the new faith, and some parts of the country had not yet even heard of Christ or the Christian Church, even though Christianity had been proclaimed the state religion of Armenia by King Trdat in 301 A.D..

As a missionary, Mashtots realized that his work would be invaluably aided by having Christian texts available in the Armenian language. With the support of the Patriarch Sahak, Mashtots entered upon the grand project of developing an Armenian alphabet. When King Vramshapuh was informed of the work, he too became directly involved.

Armenia at this time was a land divided. The western portion of the country was under Byzantine administration while the eastern portion (four-fifths of the country) was dominated by the Sassanid (or second Persian) empire, the official religion of which was Zoroastrianism. The invention of the Armenian alphabet and the translation of Christian texts into the Armenian language helped to assert Armenian cultural and religious identity at a time when both were under fierce assault.

The urgency of the work seems borne out when we learn that King Vramshapuh himself advised Mashtots that a bishop in Syria was already working on an Armenian script (based on a Semitic original) in order to carry on missionary work in southern Armenia. Mashtots journeyed to Edessa with a group of young students to examine the new script for himself. Unfortunately, the Semitic-based system had some severe incompatibilities with the Armenian language, and nothing could be salvaged from it. Mashtots was forced to start over from the beginning on his own.

Leaving most of his students behind in Edessa to study Greek and Syriac, Mashtots went onwards to Samasota on the Euphrates river. With the help of a scribe who was competent in Greek literature as Mashtots himself was, the monk set to work developing a new Armenian alphabet based on a Greek model, with a separate sign for each consonant and vowel.

The massive work of translation could now begin.