A study of Biblical Citations in Medieval Slavic Documents

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In this project, we have conducted a comprehensive analysis of biblical quotations occurring in a variety of medieval Slavic documents in order to examine how their authors interpreted and used the Bible in their literary works. The analysis was focused on medieval Russian chronicles, such as the Russian Primary Chronicle "Povest' vremennykh let", (Old) Church Slavonic lives of saints, The Lives of Saints Cyril and Methodius, and Russian lives of saints, in particular The Lives of Saints Boris and Gleb.In addition to the philological task of determining the originals of Slavic translations that were used in the citations, a goal usually pursued by researchers in Europe and America, we have analyzed and systematized various literary measures, such as abbreviating, merging and attaching different parts of the text, appealing to the reader by altering the grammatical number and person of verbs. This has enabled us to demonstrate the characteristics of each work and the unique traits of each author. Moreover, in our study we did not confine ourselves to the Gospel and Psalms, the usual Old Church Slavonic canon, but we have also looked into the related texts, such as the Epistles of Apostles and the Old Testament. Finally, in the last year of the project, based on the results of our studies we went beyond the analysis of biblical citations to look into the impact the Old Church Slavonic Gospel and South Slavic lives of saints (The Lives of Saints Cyril and Methodius) had on the language of the Russian Primary Chronicle "Povest' vremennykh let". This subject is related to the historical study we are going to conduct in the broader context of analyzing the written register of Slavic languages.