The Eight-pointed Star and the Armenian Theology Of the Number 8 Fr. Garabed Kochakian
Jan 21, 2025
3 min read

Updated: Mar 18, 2025

By Fr. Garabed Kochakian

The Eight-pointed Star in Armenian theology represents Christ and His Divinity. It is often called the Bethlehem Star symbolizing the world Jesus Came to save.

One of the mystifying designs adorning our church’s architectural structures is the Eight-pointed star a highly favored element in sacred iconography. It is used in both the painted iconography and carvings into and on stone as a theological symbol. Virtually everywhere in view, decorating Armenian Church buildings, the iconic image of Christ’s divinity is incised onto the facades of the major Altar Bemas and tables, around the framed entrances to the nave of the church, above the doorway portals into the holy sanctuary and, particularly carved into the thousands of Armenian monuments called the Khach Kar which over the centuries have dotted the landscape of Armenia.

The number eight is significant in all of Orthodox Christian teaching, especially in the Armenian Church’s theology because the number eight among many meanings denotes a time beyond, the realm of eternity, resurgence, and resurrection.

From the earliest times, many Armenian clerics, in addition to their ordained ministry, were artists and architects and because the number eight is symbolic used the Eight-pointed star in order to give a message of a world in the future time. Even in our alphabet, Armenian linguists have ascribed to the Eighth letter Ը* to signify Christ’s Resurrection and the Heavenly Kingdom of God and eternity.

The new age and new time to come are beyond the limits of this worldly time and are clearly expressed in the liturgical worship of the Badarak, Holy Sacrifice/ Divine Liturgy. The well-known Russian Orthodox Theologian Father Alexander Schmemann, a priest and one of my own teachers in St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary, in many books he has written alludes to the Eighth Day as the time to come. In his well-known book Introduction to Liturgical Theology, he writes the following:

“The Church belongs to the new aeon [age], to the Kingdom of the Messiah, which in relation to this world is the Kingdom of the age to come. In Christ’s Resurrection, the Kingdom has entered this world and exists in the Church. In God, it is the present, and eternal -the future, pointing to “the age to come” while also being in this present world. Christ has inaugurated the “age to come” in His Incarnation [becoming human] and through His Resurrection.”

For the Church, the Lord’s Day is not a substitute for the Jewish Sabbath but is its Christian equivalent. Sunday is often referred to as the Eighth Day- time connected to eternity. The Eighth Day is the day beyond the limits of the cycle outlined by the week and punctuated by the Sabbath – the Eighth day becomes the First day of the New Aeon [Age]. That is why Sunday in the Armenian Christian tradition is called Miashapat [day one] or Giragi Կիրակի -from the Greek Kyriaki emera/ Κυριακή ημέρα, meaning the Lord’s Day.

The Eight-pointed star tells us, we are in two places at one and the same time, here on earth and in the celestial realm of Heaven. As we come forth to receive Holy Communion, we are entering that time to come. This mystery occurs with Christ who brings Heaven to earth.

· Note, that the eighth letter of the Armenian Alphabet is the letter called “uht” – Ը and follows the seventh letter eh Է.

o Է means I am,

o Ը signifies the Resurrection.

Put together letter 7 and letter 8 and we have

I AM THE RESURRECTION.