The Etchmiadzin Gospel is one of the treasures of Armenian art history; this paper describes it thoroughly in the course of arguing with the conventional view of its origin: that the illustrations had been copied by same scribe, John, who copied the manuscript, and that they are copies of sixth-century Syriac illuminations now lost. Der Nessessian argues that they are ninth-century compositions, newly drawn in Armenia, by an artist who need not have been the scribe. With 38 plates of the manuscript and comparanda.