In the IX century, Cyril and Methodius translate most of the Bible into the Old Slavonic language , using the Slavic alphabet they created. Significant fragments of the biblical text with the original translation of Cyril and Methodius (for example, the Ostromir Gospel [1] ) have survived to date. There is a hypothesis that the alphabet they proposed was a glagolitic , and the Cyrillic alphabet was composed of the letters of the Greek and Hebrew alphabet later.
In the early Slavic translations of the Bible there were no books of Chronicles, Maccabees, Tobit, Judith, Ezra [2] . The missing books were translated from Greek originals at different times by different authors. The book of Esther and the Song of Songs was translated into Russia from the Hebrew original no later than the XIV century [1] . Before the codification of biblical books by Archbishop Gennady under Ivan III, these books existed separately from the main body of Old Testament texts.
Over the years, due to many generations of not the most literate scribes, errors have accumulated in the Slavic texts of Bible books. The work on their identification and elimination was carried out mainly by foreigners — for example, Metropolitan Kiprian (1375–1406) [3] and Maxim Grek (beginning of the 16th century). Metropolitan Philip initiated the translation of the psalms directly from the Jewish source [4] [3] . The literal adherence to the original is marked by the Miracle New Testament of the 14th century (lost after the 1917 revolution, there is a phototypic publication). It is traditionally attributed to Metropolitan Alexy (1332–1378), who, according to this version, when he was in Constantinople, was stocked up with Greek lists of the Gospel and made this translation on them [3] . Alexey Sobolevsky denied the possibility of authorship of Alexy [5] .
Content
- 1 Gennady Bible
- 2 Printed Church Slavonic Bibles
- 3 Elizabethan Bible
- 4 notes
- 5 Literature
Gennadieva Bible
In the 15th century, the Archbishop of Novgorod Gennady (Gonzov) set the task of collecting the books of the Holy Scriptures into a single Bible in the Slavic language. He organized a search for parts of the Slavic Bible in monasteries and cathedrals. Some of the books could not be found, and they were transferred from the Latin Vulgate by the Croatian Dominican monk Veniamin. The Western origin of the author brought to his translations unsubstantiated suspicions of “ pecking ” [6] . The biblical code created by the works of the Novgorod scriptorium was named after its customer, Gennady.
Parallel to the Novgorodians, Matthew the Tenth carried out a similar work on the codification of previously disparate books of the Slavic Bible in 1502-1507 in the scriptorium of the Suprausky monastery . He prepared a set of biblical books (minus the Eighth Book), which is distinguished by a high level of calligraphy [1] .
Printed Church Slavonic Bibles
With the advent of printing in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Moscow Russia, printed books of Holy Scripture are published. This stimulated the emergence of new Church Slavonic translations of biblical books and the correction of old ones.
Between 1517 and 1525, a translation of the Old Testament was published in Prague and Vilnius under the name " Ruska Bivlia ", made by a native of Polotsk , doctor of medicine Francis Skorina . The basis of its translation is the Church Slavonic language, but it also reflected the modern West Russian written language (the so-called “Ruska Mova” or “Simple Mova”, which, in turn, was influenced by Belarusian dialects and Polish).
In 1564, the founder of printing in Russia, the “first printer”, Ivan Fedorov, published the book “Apostle” , which included the books of the New Testament: Acts of the Apostles and their Epistles. And in 1581, the complete Church Slavonic Bible, the Ostrog Bible , was first printed. The publication was carried out in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania at the initiative of Prince Konstantin Konstantinovich Ostrozhsky . In its text, however, errors and inaccuracies were sometimes found. In subsequent editions, they tried to correct these errors.
A great influence on the text of the Bible adopted in the Russian state, as well as on liturgical books, was exerted by the church reform of Patriarch Nikon . Since the 1650s, the body of biblical and liturgical texts has undergone extensive editing (the so-called Nikon book on the right ), taking into account the Greek text, as well as the Kiev exodus of the Church Slavonic: for example, the name Jesus was introduced instead of Jesus , the aorist in the second person (“letter” - you wrote) was replaced by a perfect ("wrote Yes"), enhanced literalism in the transmission of Greek constructions. Soon after the split, in 1663, for the first time in the Russian kingdom (Moscow), a complete printed Bible was published, fixing Nikon's corrections; however, new corrections in the spirit of the Nikon rule were carried out later. From that time on, the Old Believers , who rejected Nikon's reform, retained the pre-reform version of the biblical texts.
Elizabethan Bible
By decree of Empress Elizabeth in 1751, a carefully corrected Church Slavonic Bible, the so-called Elizabethan Bible, was published (work on this publication was begun as early as 1712 by decree of Peter I). Her text was verified with an ancient Greek translation, the Septuagint . The Elizabethan Bible, almost unchanged, is still used by the Russian Orthodox Church . However, it is clear that only one who knows the Church Slavonic language can read and understand the text of this Bible. Over the centuries, this language has more and more been distinguished from the developing Russian language and has become increasingly incomprehensible to the people. Therefore, starting from the end of the 17th century [7] , attempts were made to translate the Bible into the Russian language used in life .
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 3 IRLI RAS Electronic Library - Directories Archived May 24, 2011 on Wayback Machine - Dictionary of scribes and books of Ancient Russia - B (Conversation ... - Boulev (Bulov) Nikolay) - Bible
- ↑ Translations of Methodius
- ↑ 1 2 3 Bible translations. // Brockhaus and Euphron Encyclopedic Dictionary
- ↑ IRLI RAS Electronic Library - References - Dictionary of scribes and books of Ancient Russia - F (Feognost - Photius, monk) - Philip I, Metropolitan of Moscow (Unavailable link) . Date of treatment December 28, 2011. Archived June 17, 2012.
- ↑ IRLI RAS Electronic Library - References - Dictionary of scribes and books of Ancient Russia - A (Abraham - Athanasius Rusin) - Alexey (Alexy), Metropolitan of All Russia (Link not available) . Date of treatment December 28, 2011. Archived December 18, 2011.
- ↑ Professor A.A. Alekseev THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH OF THE SLAVES WRITTEN Ending (inaccessible link)
- ↑ Russian Bible Society: Reading Circle: New Translations
Literature
- Biblical translations // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.