Remarks on the Anathemas in the Palaea Historica

Translated by Marek MajerThe original text of the Palaea Historica, a Byzantine narration based on the initial books of the Old Testament, contains two anathema directed against the Phundagiagitae (adherents of a medieval neo-Manichaean heresy), accusing them of the belief in Cain’s being the son of Satanael and in that the union of Adam and Eve occurred in the Garden of Eden already. The analysis of the relevant passages and their counterparts in two Slavic translations of the Palaea, as well as certain other Byzantine and Slavic medieval texts with related content, contributes to illuminating the circumstances under which the Slavic translations arose. The paper also discusses the very term Phundagiagitae (practically absent from all other Slavic sources) and addresses the issue of the supposed non-canonicity of the Palaea

On Medieval Storytelling. The Story of Melchizedek in Certain Slavonic Texts (Palaea Historica and the Apocryphal Cycle of Abraham)

Translated by Katarzyna GucioThe article analyses the story of the prophet-king Melchizedek (mentioned in Gen 14,17–20, Ps 110,4 and three passages in Heb: 5,6–10, 6,20, 7,1–17), recorded in Slavonic historical texts: the first and second translation of Palaea Historica, and the first and second edition of the so-called apocryphal cycle of Abraham (in which there are several references to Melchizedek). Compared to the scarce information about Melchizedek from the Old and New Testament, stories of extra-biblical origin communicate a significant amount of detail concerning the king-priest, comprising a description of nearly all of his life. Comparison of key episodes in the life of Melchizedek and Abraham (such as origin, revelation, conflict with their pagan parent, leaving home and journey, promise of greatness given by God, testimony or theophany or angelophany, experience of human sacrifice, a change of name) in the Palaea and the cycle confirms – based on the Slavonic material – analogies in the construction of the two protagonists. Both accounts – in the Palaea and the cycle – make the characters more “full-blooded” than in the Bible. The story of Melchizedek presented in the Palaea is characterised by fragmentation (being contained in four chapters), and disrupts chronological order to a small degree, emphasising cause-and-effect relationships, while at the same time it can be considered as a prototype or a singular variant of Vitae: the structure and selection of content of the bio- or hagiographic story meet the characteristics of the genre

The First Witnesses. Martha, Longinus and Veronica in the Slavic Manuscript Tradition (Initial Observations)

The epithet ‘first witnesses’, conferred on the three saints in the title, is but a conventional designation; it seems fitting as common for the figures of saints, who gave proof of their devotion to Christ. Otherwise, although they make no simultaneous appearance in any of the canonical texts, there are – interestingly – far more interconnections between the three characters in pseudo-canonical and legendary literature than could be surmised from the lack thereof in the Bible. The aim of the paper is to present a literary picture of three New Testament heroes, as commemorated in different literary texts representing diverse cultural registers, even from the Ancient Christian Times until the close of the Middle Ages. Among them there are short and extended lives and passions of saints, liturgical poetry, as well as specific, more popular texts, such as ‘tales’ and legends. The material under discussion largely includes texts that form a part of the Slavic Orthodox tradition, depicting them on the background of fairly wellknown works belonging to the Western Christian tradition. It turns out that the legends are inspired by the canonical text on the one hand, while on the other hand they themselves infiltrate official texts – they become officially sanctioned as soon as their popularity is taken over and adopted by liturgical practice. It should be borne in mind that those legends – part of which is known both in the Eastern and in the Western Christianity – confirm one further crucial characteristic of texts constituting the canonical and pseudo-canonical tradition: the commonness of themes and motifs which can without exaggeration be called ‘wandering’. They determine the fact that there is hardly any originality in the formation of the characters of patron saints; moreover, on the level of creating the notion of sainthood and its reception, there seem to be far more common points than differences between both of the Early Christian traditions – the East and the West. The paper is an attempt to point out how the Christian tradition exemplifies various manifestations of holiness, what means it has for annotating, elucidating and embellishing the Biblical hypertext, and how it adapts pseudo-canonical legends for the purposes of liturgical use.The City of Łódź Office Dean of the Faculty of Philology, University of Łódź, Poland Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy and History, University of Łódź, Polan

O dwóch słowiańskich przekładach dialogu Ofiara Abrahama

On two Slavonic translations of the Renaissance drama Abraham’s sacrificeThe paper’s main aim is to present two South-Slavonic translations of the Renaissance Greek drama Abraham’s sacrifice (I Thysía toú Avraám) by Vincenzo Cornaro; the first one was made by the Serbian man of letters Vikentije Rakić (1750–1818) at the end of the eighteenth century, the second one – by Andrey Pop-Doynov Robovski (1801–1858), a Bulgarian priest, teacher and activist for autocephaly of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. The different recep­tion and spread of the two translation was probably due to their various cultural contexts and literary value. Rakić’s translation was widely disseminated in both printed editions and manuscript copies, two of which are described in detail in the present article. O dwóch słowiańskich przekładach dialogu Ofiara AbrahamaCelem artykułu jest ukazanie specyfiki dwóch południowosłowiańskich przekładów późnorenesansowego dialogu Ofiara Abrahama (Ἡ Θυσία τοῦ Ἀβραάμ Vincenzo Cornaro), autorstwa Vikentije Rakicia (1750–1818), pisarza i tłumacza, oraz Andreja Pop-Dojnowa Robowskiego (1801–1858), kapłana, kaznodziei i działacza na rzecz autokefalii Bułgarskiej Cerkwi Prawosławnej. Powstałe w różnych okolicznościach kulturowych, o innych wartościach artystycznych, odmiennie były przyjmowane i rozpowszechniane. Przekład V. Rakicia trafił również do kopistów kodeksów rękopiśmiennych w pierwszej połowie XIX wieku

Polskojęzyczne translacje tekstów kręgu Slavia Orthodoxa: o projekcie systematyzacji i dokumentacji

The article presents a project carried out at the University of Łódź aimed at compiling a commented bibliography of Polish translations of Old Bulgarian, Old Serbian and Old Russian literature, Church Slavic literary works of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth as well as Orthodox liturgical texts. On the basis of the material collected so far, covering the 19th, 20th and the beginning of the 21st century, it is possible to divide the history of those translations. Aside from slavists and professional translators, the clergy of the Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church, as well as representatives of Uniate parishes, have also been considerably active in the field of translating from Church Slavic. Their work chiefly comprises texts used during services, and the main purpose of the translations is religious instruction and didactics. Certain of the editions are intended for Poles who are not fluent in the Church Slavic language, used in the services

O dwóch słowiańskich przekładach dialogu Ofiara Abrahama

On two Slavonic translations of the Renaissance drama Abraham’s sacrifice The paper’s main aim is to present two South-Slavonic translations of the Renaissance Greek drama Abraham’s sacrifice (I Thysía toú Avraám) by Vincenzo Cornaro; the first one was made by the Serbian man of letters Vikentije Rakić (1750–1818) at the end of the eighteenth century, the second one – by Andrey Pop-Doynov Robovski (1801–1858), a Bulgarian priest, teacher and activist for autocephaly of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. The different recep­tion and spread of the two translation was probably due to their various cultural contexts and literary value. Rakić’s translation was widely disseminated in both printed editions and manuscript copies, two of which are described in detail in the present article.   O dwóch słowiańskich przekładach dialogu Ofiara Abrahama Celem artykułu jest ukazanie specyfiki dwóch południowosłowiańskich przekładów późnorenesansowego dialogu Ofiara Abrahama (Ἡ Θυσία τοῦ Ἀβραάμ Vincenzo Cornaro), autorstwa Vikentije Rakicia (1750–1818), pisarza i tłumacza, oraz Andreja Pop-Dojnowa Robowskiego (1801–1858), kapłana, kaznodziei i działacza na rzecz autokefalii Bułgarskiej Cerkwi Prawosławnej. Powstałe w różnych okolicznościach kulturowych, o innych wartościach artystycznych, odmiennie były przyjmowane i rozpowszechniane. Przekład V. Rakicia trafił również do kopistów kodeksów rękopiśmiennych w pierwszej połowie XIX wieku

TO THE PROBLEMS OF TRANSLATION OF THE OLD CHURCH SLAVONIC INTO POLISH (PART 3)

Dwie części cyklu publikacji pod tym tytułem, poświęcone przekładom z drugiej połowy XX i początku XXI w. oraz z XIX i pierwszej połowy XX w. ukazały się w latach 2009 i 2010 (zob. zapisy w bibliografii).To the problems of translation of the Old Church Slavonic into Polish (part 3). This paper constitutes the third part of a series of publications dealing with Polish translations of older literary works stemming from the sphere of the Slavia Orthodoxa (the first article in the series, published in 2009, was devoted to the translation work of the prominent Slavist Prof. A. Naumow in relation to other post-war efforts in the field; the second one, published in 2010, discussed 19th and early 20th century translations). This time, the authors concentrated on the work of Fr Stanisław (Eustachy) Strach, who maintains a regular column entitled Język naszej liturgii (‘The language of our liturgy’) in the Polish monthly Przegląd Prawosławny (‘The Orthodox Review’). The paper analyzes both the characteristics of the texts translated and the peculiarities of the system of the Church Slavic language, a number of solutions in the process of translating being determined by the latter. A commentary on certain linguistic problems pointed out by the translator himself has also been provided. The text is accompanied by an Appendix – to be viewed as an integral part of the article – which lists Fr S. Strach’s publications in Przegląd Prawosławny from 1996 through 2010