Before you is the "Ostroh Bible" - the first completed edition of the Bible in the Church Slavonic language, published in Ostrog by the Russian pioneer Ivan Fedorov in 1581 with the help of the Orthodox Prince Konstantin Ostrozhsky, with the blessing of the Dubensky hegumen Job.
Bible printed in Ostrog by Ivan Fedorov in 1581. The first complete printed edition of the Bible in the Slavic language, undertaken by the famous printing pioneer Ivan Fedorov (1510-1583) on behalf of Prince Konstantin Ostrozhsky. Of the 628 sheets, 624 have been preserved, the first 4 non-numbered sheets have been lost. Violation of pagination at the beginning and end of the book. There are screensavers, initials, endings; at the end of the book is the publisher's mark of Ivan Fedorov. Binding: boards covered with blind embossed leather, fasteners. 32x19.5 cm, in a satisfactory condition: damage to the binding, damage and partial loss of sheets (restored with late paper), stains, owner's marks in the text, marginalia. There is an expert opinion of the State Historical Museum. The publication is of historical and cultural value.
The "Ostroh Bible" consists of 76 books of the Old and New Testaments (compared to the current editions of the Church Slavonic Bible, only one is missing). Some of its parts were based on the translations of Francysk Skaryna. Among the sources also indicate the "Gennadiev Bible" - a manuscript of the end of the 15th century. The preface was written by G. D. Smotrytsky, the father of Melety Smotrytsky. The Bible
Copies are available with various outputs placed at the end of the book. A small part of the copies has on the last sheet the text of the imprint (colophon) in the form of a triangle with the date July 12, 1580, below is the typographical stamp of Ivan Fedorov. In other copies, the text ends in two columns, below the typographical mark and imprint (in Greek and C.-SL.) with the date August 12, 1581, the ending is placed. In this regard, two different editions of the book are often spoken of. However, the title page of all known copies bears the year 1581; according to the observations of A. S. Zernova, who described 29 copies, there was only one edition, although for some reason it was delayed and some sheets were reprinted (in particular, errors were corrected); There are a lot of different combinations of reprinted and non-reprinted sheets.
Like all editions of Ivan Fedorov, the Ostroh Bible is typed and typed flawlessly. In it, for the main text, a small but readable "Ostrog" font is used, semi-standard with elements of cursive styles, and set in two columns. The volume of the text is estimated at 3,240,000 printed characters. The Ostrog Bible was reprinted in Moscow in 1663 practically unchanged, so that in fact it was the official edition of the Slavic Bible until the 1740s, when a corrected so-called Elisabeth Bible was prepared, which is still used today.
At the auction of the Season on August 27, 2004, the second-hand book department of the Auction House "Gelos" put up a unique lot - the first complete printed edition of the Bible in Slavonic, undertaken by the famous first printer Ivan Fedorov (1510-1583) on behalf of Prince Konstantin Ostrozhsky. Ostrog Bible 1581 - this is a monumental edition, 628 sheets, richly decorated with specially made headpieces and initials. This is the first Bible printed in Cyrillic script. It served as the original and model for further Russian editions of the Bible. The significance of the Ostroh Bible was enormous for Orthodox enlightenment. This publication is of historical and cultural value. There is an expert opinion of the State Historical Museum. Lot start 320.000 rub.
The Bible of Cyril and Methodius is the first Bible known to us in the Slavic language. In 863, the prince of Great Moravia, Rostislav, sent a petition to Byzantium with a request to send teachers of the Christian faith to Moravia. So the brothers Cyril and Methodius were sent to him.
The goal of Cyril and Methodius was to establish an autonomous church that could independently celebrate the liturgy. And in order to conduct worship in the Slavic language, Cyril and Methodius had to first create the Slavic alphabet, and then translate liturgical books into Slavonic. The brothers began translating from the Psalms and from the books of the New Testament. After the death of Cyril, Methodius and his disciples continued their work, and they managed to translate the entire New Testament and almost all the books of the Old Testament.
Subsequently, translations of Cyril and Methodius became widespread among the Slavic tribes, including in Russia. So even before baptism (988), churches existed in Russia and the Bible was read in the translation of the apostle brothers.
Gennadiev Bible
In the XV century in Russia there was still no complete Bible, although some of its books were in use among the population. The need for a complete collection of biblical books arose as a result of a dispute between the abbot of one of the monasteries, Zachary, and Archbishop Gennady. Zakhary criticized the church hierarchy and insisted on a biblical understanding of the pastor, but in his arguments he referred to books of the Bible unknown to Gennady.
Zacharias and his followers in 1487-88. were executed. However, Gennady decided to compile a complete Bible, for which he went to Rome, where he received the canon (list of Bible books) accepted in the West. Some books of the Gennadiev Bible were borrowed from the Bible translated by Cyril and Methodius and from translations into Russian made in the 15th century, others from the Bulgarian translation, and several books were translated from Latin for the first time. The Gennadiev Bible is considered the first complete Slavic Bible.
Maxim Grek (Explanatory Psalter)
For several centuries, due to the inattention of scribes or due to dialect differences, a large number of errors have accumulated in the manuscript books of the Bible. Therefore, in the first half of the 16th century, an attempt was made in Moscow to correct church books, for which a young educated monk Maxim the Greek was sent from one of the Athos monasteries. In a year and a half, he retranslated the Psalter with an interpretation of difficult passages, and also corrected the book of the Acts of the Apostles and the New Testament Epistles, making more accurate translations.
Unfortunately, this work of correcting the Bible was not completed due to the resistance of the official church society.
The first printed "Apostle" and the Ostroh Bible by Ivan Fedorov
After Ivan the Terrible conquered the Astrakhan and Kazan khanates, there was an urgent need for new liturgical books and the Bible in the new lands. In this regard, the tsar ordered the construction of a printing house, where Ivan Fedorov, together with Peter Mstislavets, began to create the first printed book "Apostle" (Acts of the Apostles and Epistles), which was published after a year of work (1564).
Later, Ivan Fedorov lost the patronage of the tsar and settled in Ostrog, where, already under the patronage of Prince Konstantin Ostrogsky, he prepared for printing a new revised edition of the Gennadiev Bible, published in 1581.
Moscow early printed Bible
The reason for the creation of this Bible was the desire of Russia to reunite with Ukraine. By this time, the Ukrainian and Russian liturgical books, as a result of numerous edits, diverged quite strongly. Initially, the Russian church wanted to introduce the use of Russian liturgical books in Ukraine, but it turned out that Ukrainian biblical books are closer to Greek originals than Russian ones.
On September 30, 1648, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich ordered to send several educated monks to correct the Russian Bible according to the Greek copies. In 1651 a commission was set up to correct the biblical books. In 1663, the first edition of the Church Slavonic Bible was published in Moscow. The corrections were not numerous: mostly obsolete and obscure words were replaced.
Petrine-Elizabeth Bible
On November 14, 1712, Peter the Great issued a decree on the correction and publication of the Slavonic Bible. Major inconsistencies between the Greek and Slavonic Bibles had to be reported to higher authorities. But remembering that the last attempt at correcting the Bible led to the Schism of 1666, the clergy were unwilling to take on such a responsibility. Correction work continued for 10 years, but after the death of the emperor, it was stopped. Only in 1751, during the reign of Elizabeth Petrovna, a new revised Bible was published, the text of which was the basis for nine subsequent editions.
New Testament of the Russian Bible Society
The Russian Bible Society was founded in 1814 by decree of Emperor Alexander I himself, who was also an active member. Initially, the RBO was engaged in the distribution of the Bible in the Slavic language. In 1816, the Society produced its own edition of the Slavonic Bible and the New Testament as a separate book.
At the same time, it was decided to start translating the Bible into modern Russian, and from the original Greek. The New Testament in modern Russian was published in 1821. after which the translation of the Old Testament began. The first book of Psalms was published in Russian - in 1823. By 1825, the translation of the Pentateuch of Moses and the book of Ruth was completed. But in 1825 Alexander I died, and work on the translation was suspended until 1856.
Synodal translation of the Bible
In 1852, the Holy Synod adopted a resolution on the beginning of the translation of the Bible into Russian. At the same time, the Synod developed the main principles that should guide the work on the translation: adhere to the original as closely as possible, but state everything in understandable Russian; follow the order of words accepted in modern Russian; use words and expressions that belong to a high style, and are not in common use.
In 1860, the Four Gospels were published, and in 1862, Acts, Epistles, and Revelation. Even before the completion of the translation of the New Testament in 1860, it was decided to translate the books of the Old Testament, taking the Hebrew text as a basis. Since 1861, the journal Christian Reading began to publish the books of the Old Testament in a new translation. The complete Synodal Bible in one volume was published in 1876. This translation remains the main Russian translation of the Bible to this day.
In 1926, under the leadership of Ivan Stepanovich Prokhanov (1869-1935), the organizer of the Evangelical Christian movement in Russia, the Bible (canonical) was published. This was the first edition of the Bible after the reform of the Russian language in 1918. After that, the Bible in the Soviet Union was published in a limited edition under the strict control of government agencies. During the Soviet period, Bibles and Gospels were mainly imported into the USSR illegally by Christians from abroad.
It was composed of the letters of the Greek and Hebrew alphabet later. To date, significant fragments of the biblical text have survived with the original translation of Cyril and Methodius (for example, the Ostromir Gospel).
In the early Slavic translations of the Bible, the books of Chronicles, Maccabees, Tobit, Judith, Ezra were missing. The missing books were translated from Greek originals at different times and by different authors. The Book of Esther and the Song of Songs were translated into Russia from the original Hebrew no later than the 14th century. 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 accumulated in the Slavic texts of biblical books. The work to identify and eliminate them was carried out mainly by foreigners - for example, Metropolitan Cyprian (1375-1406) and Maxim the Greek (early 16th century). Metropolitan Philip initiated the translation of the Psalms directly from the Jewish source. The Chudovsky New Testament of the 14th century differs in literal adherence to the original (lost after the revolution of 1917, there is a phototype edition). It is traditionally attributed to Metropolitan Alexy (1332-1378), who, according to this version, stocked up with Greek copies of the Gospel while in Constantinople and made this translation from them. Aleksey Sobolevsky denied the possibility of Aleksy's authorship.
Gennadiev Bible
In the 15th century, the archbishop of Novgorod, Gennady (Gonzov), set the task of collecting the books of Holy Scripture 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 translated from the Latin Vulgate by the Croatian Dominican monk Veniamin. The Western origin of the author brought unfounded suspicions of "paganism" to his translations. Created by the works of the Novgorod scriptorium, the biblical codex received the name of its customer - Gennady.
In parallel with the Novgorodians, a similar work on the codification of previously scattered books of the Slavic Bible was carried out in 1502-1507 by Matthew the Tenth in the scriptorium of the Suprasl Monastery. He prepared a set of biblical books (minus the Octateuch), which is distinguished by a high level of calligraphy.
Printed Church Slavonic Bibles
With the advent of book printing in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Moscow Russia, printed books of the Holy Scriptures were published. This stimulated the appearance of new Church Slavonic translations of biblical books and the correction of old ones.
In 1564, the founder of typography in Russia, the "pioneer" Ivan Fedorov, published the book "The Apostle", which included the books of the New Testament: the Acts of the Apostles and their Epistles. And in 1581, the complete Church Slavonic Bible, the Ostrog Bible, was printed for the first time. The publication was carried out in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania on the initiative of Prince Konstantin Konstantinovich Ostrozhsky. In the text, however, there were sometimes errors and inaccuracies. Subsequent editions attempted to correct these errors.
The text of the Bible adopted in the Russian state, as well as liturgical books, was greatly influenced by the church reform of Patriarch Nikon. Since the 1650s, the corpus 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 Kyiv version of Church Slavonic: for example, the name Jesus instead of Jesus, the aorist in the second person (“pisa” - you wrote) was replaced by the perfect (“wrote thou”), the literalism in the transfer of Greek constructions was strengthened. Shortly after the schism, in 1663, for the first time in the Russian kingdom (Moscow), a complete printed Bible came out, fixing Nikon's corrections; however, new corrections in the spirit of Nikon's right were carried out later. From now on
Church-glory. the language is usually called one of the dialects Staroslav. lang., also called Old Bulgarian. It was this language that became the first among the glories. languages, into which the Bible was translated, and therefore it received a general Slavic distribution.
Manuscript period. The first translators of the Bible into Church-Slav. lang. were Sts. *Cyril and Methodius (9th century), creators of glories. alphabet. They shifted to glory. language * "Gospel Aprakos", "Apostle", Psalter and * Paremiion. The *Septuagint in the *Lucian review served as the original for them. The remaining untranslated parts of the Bible were translated by the successors of the enlighteners. The Cyrillo-Methodian translation penetrated into Russia from Byzantium, probably even under Equal A.D. book. Vladimir. In the 11th century a large library had already been assembled in Kyiv, in which there were undoubtedly copies. Holy Scriptures. One of the oldest bibles. manuscripts on church-glory. language is the *Ostromir Gospel (1056-57).
The domination of the Golden Horde caused great damage to the development of spiritual enlightenment in Russia. However, even at that time the work on the Holy Scripture did not stop. In the 14th century St. * Alexy of Moscow personally rewrote * an edition (or a translation?) of NZ. By the 15th century refers to the editing of Slavs. translation of the Pentateuch, owned by an unknown person. The amendments to it "were made by a person who knows the Jewish text" (* Astafiev N.). In the prepress period, when rewriting the text, naturally, numerous errors and inaccuracies. Gradually church-glory. The Bible was increasingly moving away from the original, Cyril and Methodius. So, some books of the *Gennadiev Bible (1499) were translated from the *Vulgate.
To correct manuscripts in 1518 to Moscow at the invitation of the Grand Duke. Basil III arrived St. *Maxim Grek. He not only edited St. books, but also made a new translation of the Psalms. However, involved in the church-political. struggle of his time, St. Maxim was judged and died in captivity. The very same matter of "right" books were not left. In 1551 it was sanctioned by the Stoglavy Cathedral.
Printed editions of the Bible in church-glory. language. The first book in Russia that came out from under the printing press was the Gospel of 1553-54. Then came the *"Apostle" of Deacon *Fedorov and a number of publications in the Western Russian region: the Zabludovsky Gospels and the Psalter (1569-70), the Lviv "Apostle" (1574), the Vilna Gospel and the Psalter (1575-76). Through the works of Prince * Ostrogsky and Fedorov, the church-glory was published. the first printed Bible (see article Ostrog Bible) The "Moscow Bible" of 1663 was based on this edition. It was prepared on behalf of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich by a group of Western-Russian. scientists led by Epiphany Slavinetsky. The case "was executed in a student's bad way, presenting in everything an exact reprint of the Ostroh edition" (* Evseev). The translators were aware of all the shortcomings of their work: there were not enough good Greek. manuscripts and experts. Therefore, work on the translation continued. In 1685, Greeks were summoned from Italy. monks Ioanniky and Sophrony Likhud, who founded the Moscow Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy (the forerunner of the MTA). Sophrony Likhud undertook a new editing of the translation, and in 1712 Peter I published a decree on the preparation and publication of the Church Glory. Bible. In addition to Sofroniy, a group of scientists was involved in the work: archim. * Theophylact (Lopatinsky), hierom. Jacob (Blonnitsky), monks Theologian and Joseph, Fyodor Polikarpov and Nikolai Semenov. Labor required many. years of work. 10 volumes of the corrected text were rewritten. This Bible came out in Moscow in 1751 under Tsarina Elizaveta Petrovna. All changes in the text were stipulated so as not to embarrass the zealots of ancient piety. The notes amounted to a volume almost equal to the Bible itself. The 2nd edition of this "Petrine-Elizabeth" or "Elizabeth" Bible was published in 1754 with an addendum. marginal notes and engravings. In fact, all subsequent editions church-glory. The Bibles (including the edition of the *Russian Biblical Society, 1816) repeated this translation. Meanwhile, he suffered a number of beings. shortcomings, because translators did not adhere to the definition. systems. Some parts of Scripture were translated from Heb. text, others - from Greek. or lat. versions. The desire to accurately convey the structure of the Greek language. The Bible has led to the incomprehensibility of the plural. places of Scripture. Therefore, in the 20th century. special was created. commission to reconstruct the most ancient glory. translation (see Art. Biblical Russian Commission) Hundreds of manuscripts were studied, lists of discrepancies were compiled and the oldest manuscripts were compared. But after the death of Evseev (1921), the work of the commission stopped at the preparatory stage. To some extent, her work was continued by a group of specialists at the Leningrad Theological Academy (see. Art. bible group)
Archim. * A m philo x and y Sergievsky (Four Gospel of Galich 1144, M., 1885 (see other works of his in an article about him); Astaf'e in N., Experience of the history of the Bible in Russia, St. Petersburg, 1889; Bible, SKDR, issue 1; Vasyutinsky M., A brief outline of the history of the text of the Slavic Bible in Russia before its publication under Empress Elizabeth, " Additions to the Chernigov EV", 1870, (1.6; Mrs., About printed editions of the Bible in Russia before Emperor Elizabeth, ibid., 1870, (23; * Voskresensk and y G.A., On the issue of the scientific publication of the Slavic translation of the Bible, Collection of articles in memory of the 100th anniversary of the MDA (1814-1914), Serg.Pos., 1915, part 1; , Ancient Slav "Apostle", Serg.Pos., (issue 1, Rome, 1902; issue 2, 1 Cor, 1906; issue 3-5, 2 Cor, Gal, Eph, 1908); f, Characteristic features of the four editions of the Slavic translation of the Gospel of Mark according to one hundred and twelve manuscripts of the Gospel of the 11th-16th centuries, Serg. Pos., 1895; , 1903, vol. 1; Mrs. Cyril and Methodius Slavic translation of the Bible, CHOLDP, 1885, No. 5; Archpriest * Gorsky A.V., * N e v o s tr e v K.I., Description of Slavs. manuscripts Moscow. syn. b-ki, kn.1-5, M., 1865-69; * E in se e in I.E., Essays on the history of glories. per. Bible, Pg., 1916 (see other works of his in st. Evseev); *Eleonsky F.G., On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the Elizabethan Bible, St. Petersburg, 1902; Bishop * Ioann (Metropolsky), Lovers of the word of God to the glory. adverbs. The experience of explaining incomprehensible words and expressions of glory. Bible, Novocherkassk, 1890; Lebedev V.K., Slav. book translation. Jesus of Nun, St. Petersburg, 1890; L o g a ch e in K.I., Work of prof. I.E. Evseeva on the history of glory. Bible, ZhMP, 1972, (8; ego, Main problems of Greek and Slavic biblical textology, ZhMP, 1974, (1; Mikhailov A.V., Experience in studying the text of the book Prophet Moses in ancient Slavic translation, Warsaw, 1912, part 1. Paroemia text, P r o r o v s k i y D., Origin of the Slavic translation of sacred books, St. Petersburg, 1869; M. I. izhsky, History of Bible translations in Russia, Novosibirsk, 1978; 18th century, Moscow, 1899; Solovyov S.M., Letters on the Bible in Russia, VCh, 1872 y I.I., Savvina book of Gospel readings of the 11th century, in his book: Ancient Slavonic monuments of Yus writing, St. Petersburg, 1868; Anniversary Sat, dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the MDA, Zagorsk, 1985 (RKP); Metropolitan * Philaret Drozdov (On the dogmatic dignity and protective use of the Greek 70 interpreters and the Slavic translations of the Holy. Scriptures, PTO, 1858, (17; * H and with st about v and h I., Correction of the text of the glorious Bible before the publication of 1751, PO, 1860, vol. 1, (4, vol. 2, (5; e g about the same, History of translations of the Bible into Russian, issue 1-2, St. Petersburg, 18992; ty interpreters, KhCh, 1878, vol. I-II, see also the articles: Alexy Moskovsky; Gennadievskaya Bible; Cyril and Methodius; Maxim the Greek; Mstislavets; Ostrozhskaya Bible; Ostromir Gospel; Fedorov; Russian Biblical Society.
