The Bible is the most widely circulated book in history: throughout the entire period of printing and manuscript publishing. At the same time, it is the most translated book in history. To date, the Bible or individual books of it have been translated into more than 3,000 languages. The entire Bible, from first to last line, exists in more than 630 languages.
Who translated the Bible into Church Slavonic? And when was the Bible translated into more modern Russian? Let's talk!
Who translated the Bible into Church Slavonic?
The Bible was translated into Old Slavonic in the 9th century. The authors of that translation are considered to be Saints Cyril and Methodius. They at least started this work, and quite possibly did most of it (perhaps even all of it). Specifically, it was a translation into the Old Bulgarian language - one of the closest “relatives” of the Old Russian language.
The ninth century was a time when books were copied by hand and this continued for many more centuries. The production of books was a much more labor-intensive and expensive task than it is now, and there was a very reverent attitude towards the text (especially the Bible). However, the scribes still made mistakes: some in one place, others in another. There were no significant differences with the “original” anywhere, but nevertheless, the same thing—a single “standard”—did not exist either. It was introduced only after the invention of printing in the 15th century.
In the 18th century, in 1751, by order of Empress Elizabeth, the text of the Bible was verified with the ancient Greek version (and the Old Testament with the so-called Septuagint), all errors were corrected and the text was confirmed as “final”. It is this that is still read in churches.
Pages from the Elizabethan Bible. Since the 18th century, this translation has been read in churches.
Biblical translations of the early 21st century.
WATCHTOWER
: "Christian Greek Scriptures - New World Translation", Rome, 2001.
SHAMASH
(translation from English by
A. Dolbina, V. Dolbina
): “The Jewish New Testament / Translation of the New Testament, reflecting its Jewish essence, performed by David Stern”, Finland, 2001(?).
Hieromonk Ambrose (Timrot)
: “Psalter. New translation from the Greek text of 70 interpreters", M.: 2002.
"Central Asian Scripture in Russian"
: "Holy Bible. / Meaningful translation of Taurat, the Book of Prophets, Zabur and Injil", Istanbul Publishing House, 2003.
What is the Septuagint?
The Septuagint (translation of 70 interpreters) is one of the main translations of the Old Testament that has existed in history. According to legend, several centuries before the birth of Christ, 70 Hebrew sages translated the Holy Scriptures from Hebrew into Greek. For all seventy elders, the translation turned out to be the same, down to a single word. It was the Septuagint that formed the basis for most translations of the Old Testament into other languages. Including in Church Slavonic.
In addition, there are two other main sources.
- The Hebrew Bible - in particular, it formed the basis for the translation of the Bible into Russian in the 19th century.
- The Vulgate is a Latin translation of the Bible that was carried out before the split of Christianity into Catholicism and Orthodoxy, and is still used by Catholics.
Tree of Bible translations. The LXX is the Septuagint, a translation of the 70 commentaries into Greek. MT is the Hebrew Bible (Masoretic Text). Vulgate - Latin Vulgate.
Biblical translations of the second half of the twentieth century.
Ep. Cassian (Bezobrazov)
and others: “The New Testament of Our Lord Jesus Christ”, BFBS, London, 1970 (subsequently republished many times by various organizations, most recently by the Russian Bible Society).
S. S. Averintsev
published a translation of the book of Job in “Poetry and Prose of the Ancient East”, Moscow, 1973; “The World of the Bible”, Moscow, 1993. _______, “Collected Works / Ed. N.P. Averintseva and K.B. Sigov. Translations: Gospels. Book of Job. Psalms. Per. from ancient Greek and ancient Hebrew.”, K.: SPIRIT AND LITERA, 2004.
D. Yosifon
: “Five Books of the Torah”, Yerushalayim, 1975; _______, “The First and Last Prophets”, Yerushalayim, 1978; _______, Ketuvim, Yerushalayim, 1978.
K. I. Logachev
: “The Gospel according to John in the new Russian translation”, OBO, 1978; _______, “Book of the Acts of the Apostles. Translation from the 'text of the majority'", "Literary studies", 1991.
LIVING BIBLES INTERNATIONAL
: “The beginnings of the Christian faith. Retelling of the seven books of the New Testament", 1984.
WORLD BIBLE TRANSLATION CENTER
: “Good News from God. New Testament. Translation from Greek text", Moscow, 1989; _______, “Good News. New Testament. New translation from the Greek text", Moscow, 1990; _______, “The Bible. Modern translation of biblical texts", Moscow, 1993; 19972.
L. Lutkovsky
: “Gospel”, Moscow: Friendship of Peoples, 19912.
E. G. Yunz
: “The Book of Ecclesiastes”, journal. "Questions of Philosophy", vol. 8, 1991; _______, “The Gospel as presented by Luke”, M.: Protestant, 1994; _______, “The Book of Jonah”, journal. "The World of the Bible", vol. 4. M.: 1997; _______, “The Book of Ruth”, journal. "The World of the Bible", vol. 5. M.: 1998.
M. I. Rizhsky
: “The Book of Job: From the history of the biblical text”, Novosibirsk: Nauka, 1991. _______, “The Book of Ecclesiastes”, Novosibirsk, 1995.
INTERNATIONAL BIBLE SOCIETY
: “Word of Life. The New Testament in Modern Translation,” Living Bible. Int., Stookholm, 1991; _______, “The Bible for Our Lives, New Testament,” 1999; _______, “Genesis. Translation of the International Bible Society", BBI, 1998 (work is underway to translate the entire Old Testament into modern Russian).
V. N. Kuznetsova
: “Canonical Gospels”, Moscow: Nauka, Publishing, 1992; _______, “Letters of the Apostle Paul,” Public Orthodox University, 1998; _______, “Evangelist Luke. Good News. Acts of the Apostles,” Public Orthodox University, 1998; _______, “Evangelist John. Good News. Letters. Revelation”, Public Orthodox University, 1999; _______, “Evangelist Matthew. Good News”, Public Orthodox University, 2001; _______, “Letter to the Jews. Letters of James, Peter, Jude”, Public Orthodox University, 2001; _______, “The Good News: The New Testament translated from Ancient Greek”, Moscow, RBO, 2001 (Subsequently, a slightly modified version of this translation began to be published without any mention of the translator V. Kuznetsova. For example: “The Good News. The New Testament translated from Ancient Greek. Educational publication", RBO 2006).
I. Sh. Shifman
: “Teaching. Pentateuch of Moses", Moscow: Republic, 1993.
P. Gil
(under the general editorship of
G. Branover
): “Torah with Russian translation”, Jerusalem: SHAMIR, 1993; _______, “Five Megilot” [Shir Hashirim, Ruth, Eicha, Kohelet, Esther], Jerusalem, SHAMIR, 5758/1998; _______, “Pentateuch and Haftarot. Hebrew text with Russian translation and classical commentary 'SONCHINO'", "GESHARIM" 5761/"Bridges of Culture", Moscow, 20012, 2006.
Geli Vishenchuk
: “New Testament Scriptures,” AMG Int., Chattanooga, 1995. _______, “New Testament Scriptures. Comments. Second, revised edition", AMG Int., Chattanooga, 2001.
V. A. Gromov
(editor): “The New Testament of Our Lord Jesus Christ, edited by Gromov V. A.”, USA, Evangelical Bible Translators, Int., 1995 (not published?); ed. “Esther”, Ukraine, 1997; _______, “Gospel of the Kingdom”, 2000(?)
S. V. Lezov
: “As presented by Mark” in his book “History and Hermeneutics in the Study of the New Testament”, Moscow: Eastern Literature, 1996.
PEARL OF THE CARPATHIANS
: “The Gospel according to Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and the Acts of the Apostles”, GBV, Germany, 1997.
K. G. Kapkov
: “Canonical Gospels. New Russian edition", Moscow, 1997.
SLAVIC BIBLE FOUNDATION
: “The Gospel of Mark. Gospel of John. Epistle to the Romans. Apocalypse", St. Petersburg, 1997.
LIVE STREAM
: "New Testament. Restorative translation", Anaheim, 1998.
M. G. Seleznev
(editor of the series “Old Testament. Translation from Hebrew”) and others: “The Book of Genesis”, Russian State University for the Humanities, 1999; _______, “Exodus”, Russian State University for the Humanities, 2000; _______, “Proverbs. Book of Ecclesiastes. Book of Job", Russian State University for the Humanities, 2001; _______, “The Book of the Prophet Jeremiah”, RBO, 2001. (A translation of the entire Old Testament into modern Russian is planned to be published by 2009, and work is also underway to create a Jewish-Russian interlinear translation of the Old Testament.)
Dov-Ber Haskelevich
(under the general editorship of
G. Branover
): “Tehilim. With a new Russian translation and a brief commentary,” Jerusalem: SHAMIR, 5759/1999.
AL SALAAM
: “The Holy Book. Semantic translation of selected items from Taurat and Injil", Bishkek, 20002.
M. P. Kulakov
: “The New Testament in modern Russian translation”, Institute of Bible Translation in Zaoksky, 2000; _______, “New Testament and Psalter in modern Russian translation”, 2002.
When was the Bible translated into Russian?
The Bible was translated into modern Russian in the 19th century. By that time, the living Russian language had advanced far and the majority (as now) did not understand Church Slavonic.
The first attempts to translate the Bible into a modern language were made in 1818 - then four Gospels were published in Russian translation. A few years later the entire New Testament was published.
The final text of the entire Bible, entirely in Russian, was published in 1876. Its preparation was carried out by the Russian Bible Society, which included many leading teachers of theological academies and theologians of the country.
Bible of the 19th century, translated into Russian.
This version of the Bible is called “synodal” - because it was created during a period when the Russian Church was ruled not by the patriarch, but by the Holy Synod. (The patriarchate was abolished under Peter I and was restored only in 1917, shortly before the revolution).
(You can read more about translating the Bible into Russian in the book “The History of Translating the Bible into Russian” by Hilarion Chistovich).
Biblical translations of the 19th - early 20th centuries.
Archbishop MEFODIUS (M. A. Smirnov)
: “The Epistle of the Holy Apostle Paul to the Romans, with an interpretation confirmed by the sayings of the Holy Fathers and other important writers,” Moscow, 1792 (second edition, revised, published in 1815).
Archim. FILARET (V. M. Drozdov)
: “Notes guiding a thorough understanding of the book of Genesis, which also includes a translation of this book into the Russian dialect,” 1819; Moscow, 18672. (This work was reprinted in the early 1990s in the series “Patristic Heritage” under the title “Creations of St. Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow and Kolomna on the book of Genesis”, as well as by V.A. Kabanov under the title “GENESIS in translation Philaret Metropolitan of Moscow", M.: 2002)
RBO
: “The Holy Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ, from Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, in Slavic and Russian dialects”, St. Petersburg, 1819; _______, "Our Lord Jesus Christ New Testament, in Slavic and Russian", St. Petersburg, 1821. _______, "Our Lord Jesus Christ New Testament", St. Petersburg, 1821; Leipzig, 1850; London, 1854, 1855, 1861. (In 2000, the RBO carried out a reprint of this translation from the 1824 edition: “The New Testament in the translation of the Russian Bible Society.”)
RBO
(under the leadership of Archbishop Philaret [V.M. Drozdov] and
Archpriest G.P. Pavsky
) published the Octateuch, 1825 (“Bible. Eight books of the Old Testament. Pentateuch. Joshua. Judges. Ruth”, London, 1861, 18622); _______, “Psalter, or Book of Praises in Russian”, St. Petersburg, 1822, 18232; Leipzig, 1852; London, 1858.
G. P. Pavsky
translated the Gospel of Matthew, 1819 (this work was included in the translation of the New Testament of 1821). He also independently translated all the books of the Old Testament in 1820 - 1835 (the books of Joshua, Judges, Ruth, Kings, Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Proverbs of Solomon were published in 1861 - 1866; translations of the remaining books were not published).
Archim. Macarius (M. Ya. Glukharev)
translated almost all the books of the Old Testament in 1834 - 1845 (the translation was carried out from the Hebrew language, and not from Church Slavonic, as is claimed in some places); his translations (of some prophetic books in two editions) were published in Moscow in the 1860s. (Since 2000, the RBO has been reprinting this translation, originally published in the Orthodox Review magazine: “The Pentateuch of Moses in the translation of Archimandrite Macarius.”)
Vadim
(pseudonym of V.I. Kelsiev): “The Bible. The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, translated from Hebrew, regardless of the insertions in the original and its changes in the Greek and Slavic translations. Old Testament. The first section, which contains the Law, or the Pentateuch. Translation by Vadim", London, 1860. download several pages of this translation
Ep. Agafangel (A. F. Soloviev)
: “The Book of Job with brief explanations in Russian translation”, Vyatka 1860, 18612; this text was republished by V.A. Kabanov entitled “JOB. Translated by Agafangel, Archbishop of Volyn and Zhitomir. (1861)" M.: 2004.
I. P. Maksimovich
translated the following books: Kings, Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Ecclesiastes (published in the 1860s).
M. S. Gulyaev
translated the books of Kings, Chronicles (published 1861 - 1864).
M. A. Golubev, D. A. Khvolson, E. I. Lovyagin, P. I. Savvaitov
translated and published the entire Old Testament in 1861 - 1871. It was this work that served as the basis for the Synodal Translation of the Old Testament.
L. I. Mandelstam
translated the Torah in 1862; _______, “Psalms. Literal translation in favor of Russian Jews", Berlin, 1864, 18652, 18723.
Book P.
(pseudonym?): “Books of Holy Scripture in the Russian translation of the book. P. (historical books)", St. Petersburg, 1865.
V. A. Levinson, D. A. Khvolson
translated the entire Old Testament, which was published in London in 1866 - 1875 (this two-volume work was regularly published in Vienna and Berlin until 1914 under the title “The Holy Books of the Old Testament, Translated from the Hebrew Text. For Jewish Use”). download several pages of this translation
P. I. Gorsky-Platonov
: “Psalms in Russian translation”, 1868; _______, "Book of Exodus", 1891.
A.-I. L. Pumpyansky
: “Psalms of David. Jewish text with Russian translation", Warsaw, 1872; _______, Proverbs of Solomon, St. Petersburg, 1891.
O. N. Steinberg
translated the books of Joshua, Judges, 1874 - 1875, 19062; _______, “The Book of the Prophet Isaiah with a literal Russian translation”, Vilna, 1875; _______, “The Pentateuch of Moses with a literal Russian translation,” 1899 (reprinted by the Appeal to Conscience Foundation, New York, 1977). download several pages of this translation
Ep. Porfiry (K. A. Uspensky)
: “The Book of Esther in Russian translation from the Greek text”, 1874; _______, “Psalter in Russian translation from Greek”, Kyiv, 1874 - 1875; St. Petersburg, 1893, 19063 _______, “The Four Books of Maccabees”, Kyiv, 1873. download several pages of this translation
I. G. Gershtein, L. O. Gordon
translated the Pentateuch, which was published in 1875.
P. A. Yungerov
translated about fifteen Old Testament books from ancient Greek. They were originally published in Kazan, 1882 - 1911. (Of all his works, only the Psalter has been republished in our time: “The Psalter in Russian translation from the Greek text LXX with an introduction and notes by P. Yungerov,” Holy Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius, 1996. Yungerov’s translations are posted on the RuNet here.)
L. N. Tolstoy
: “Connection, translation and study of the 4 Gospels”, Geneva, 1892 - 1894; Moscow, 1907 - 1908; Moscow: Fiction, 1957 (PSS, vol. 24); “Four Gospels”, M.: “EKSMO”, 2002.
V. A. Zhukovsky
: “The New Testament of Our Lord Jesus Christ”, Berlin, 1895, 19022.
K. P. Pobedonostsev
: “The Holy Gospel of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John in Slavic and Russian languages with the addition of Russian text in a new edition”, St. Petersburg, 1903; _______, “The Epistles of the Apostle Paul in the new Russian translation”, St. Petersburg, 1905; _______, "New Testament. Experience in improving the translation into Russian of the sacred books of the New Testament", St. Petersburg, 1906. (In 2000, the RBO carried out a reprint of this translation: “The New Testament in the translation of K. P. Pobedonostsev.”)
A. S. Khomyakov
translated and published abroad the epistles to the Galatians and Ephesians (they were later published in the PSS, vol. II. Theological works. Fifth edition. Moscow, 1907).
A. Efros
: “Song of Solomon”, St. Petersburg, “Pantheon”, 1909; “Song of Solomon. Translation from Hebrew", St. Petersburg, 1910 (republished in "Song of Songs", M.: "EXMO-Press", 2001; and in "Song of Songs of King Solomon" St. Petersburg: "Iskusstvo-SPB", 2001); _______, Book of Ruth, Moscow 1925.
Ep. Antonin (A. Granovsky)
: “The Book of Proverbs of Solomon. Russian translation of the book from a parallel critical edition of the Hebrew and Greek texts with the application of the Slavic text", 1913.
Is it true that not everyone was happy with the Russian translation of the Bible?
Indeed, the “Synodal” translation of the Bible had its critics.
The most famous opponent was St. Theophan the Recluse, one of the brightest and most profound theologians of our Church. He did not criticize the fact of translation itself, but noted that the basis for the translation of the Old Testament was not the Septuagint, as is the case with the Church Slavonic text, but the Hebrew Bible - which in many places differs from the ancient Greek.
According to Saint Theophan the Recluse, the Hebrew Bible is less canonical. “The Church of God,” he wrote, “did not know any other word of God except 70 interpreters, and when it said that Scripture was inspired by God, it meant Scripture in this very translation...”
Saint Theophan the Recluse is one of the opponents of the translation that was made in the 19th century.
The discussion in the Church Society was quite tense. For example, Theophan the Recluse proposed to consider the new one only as an assistant book.
But the supporters of the “Synadal” translation also had enough arguments. They noted that the Septuagint itself is not without errors (if we compare its text with the ancient Hebrew). And the main argument is that many holy fathers and even apostles in the Gospel often used the Hebrew Bible when quoting Old Testament lines.
In addition, the Church itself has never said anywhere that the Septuagint is the only correct “original”.
One way or another, the “Synodal” translation is used for home reading to this day. And in churches the Church Slavonic text is still read.
History and significance of the Synodal Translation of the Bible
On October 4, 2021, a scientific and practical conference was held in Moscow to mark the 140th anniversary of the creation of the Synodal Translation of the Bible into Russian. The event was organized by the Christian Interfaith Advisory Committee. Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, made a report at the conference.
1. We have gathered today to celebrate an important date in the history of Christianity in Russia - the 140th anniversary of the Synodal Translation of the Bible. It is natural for a believer to honor with gratitude the memory of those who gave him the opportunity to touch the Good News and read Scripture in his native language. The anniversary of the biblical translation is a holiday for all Christians in Russia.
Philo of Alexandria, who lived at the beginning of our era, wrote that the Jews of Alexandria annually celebrated the anniversary of the translation of the Bible into Greek by gathering on the island of Pharos (where, according to Tradition, the Seventy Interpreters translated the Pentateuch). “And not only the Jews,” writes Philo, “but also many other people come here to honor the place where the light of interpretation first shone, and to thank God for this ancient benefit, which always remains new.”
The Slavic peoples gratefully honor the memory of Saints Cyril and Methodius, who laid the foundation for the Slavic Bible. In an era when the Western Church did not encourage translations into vernacular languages, Cyril, Methodius and their disciples gave the Slavs the Bible in a dialect that was understandable and native to them. In Bulgaria, Russia and some other countries, the memory of the Solunsky brothers is celebrated at the state level - as a day of education, culture and Slavic writing.
The creators of the Synodal Translation deserve no less gratitude from us. It is in this translation that millions of Russian-speaking people in Russia and abroad know and read the Bible.
Moreover, in contrast to the situation that often occurs in other countries, where different Christian denominations use different translations of the Holy Scriptures, in Russia the Synodal translation does not divide, but unites Christians of different confessions. A clear indication of this is our meeting today, which brought together representatives of Christian churches using the Synodal Translation.
There are differences between the “Orthodox” and “Protestant” editions of the Synodal Translation, but they concern only certain passages of the Old Testament. In “Protestant” editions, the so-called “non-canonical books of the Old Testament” are omitted; these are the second and third books of Ezra, the books of Judith, Tobit, the books of the Wisdom of Solomon, the Wisdom of Jesus son of Sirach, the epistle of Jeremiah, the book of the prophet Baruch and the three Maccabees books. All these books were present in the manuscript biblical tradition of the Middle Ages, but were not included in the biblical canon of Protestant communities due to the fact that they were written later than the other books of the Old Testament and are not included in the Jewish canon.
In the Old Testament part of the “Protestant” editions of the Synodal Translation, the insertions on the Septuagint, which are present in the “Orthodox” editions, are omitted - places where the translation of the Hebrew Bible is supplemented with insertions made from the Greek text. All these discrepancies, however, are marginal in nature in comparison with the main Message of the Old Testament, which for all Christians in Russia sounds in a single translation.
There are no differences between the “Orthodox” and “Protestant” Bibles regarding the core of our faith - the New Testament.
2. The beginning of biblical education in our country dates back to the times of the Baptism of Rus'. The oldest monuments of the Russian language are the Ostromir Gospel, written in 1056-1057. for the St. Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod, and the so-called “Novgorod Psalter”, which dates back to the end of the 10th - beginning of the 11th century, i.e. only one or two decades later than the Baptism of Rus'. Both of the oldest monuments of the Russian language are biblical texts. This clearly tells us that the Russian language, Russian writing, Russian culture are inseparable from the Russian Bible.
Thanks to the works of Saints Cyril, Methodius and their disciples, spiritual literature in the national language existed in Rus' from the very beginning. But, like any living human language, the Russian language has changed. By the beginning of the 19th century, the gap between Church Slavonic and the language of everyday communication widened so much that Slavic texts became difficult to understand. Many representatives of the aristocracy - for example, Pushkin or Emperor Alexander I - if they wanted to read the Bible, they were forced to read it in French. There was no Bible in Russian, and Slavic was already difficult to understand. In November 1824, shortly after arriving in Mikhailovskoye, Pushkin wrote to his brother in St. Petersburg: “The Bible, the Bible! And definitely French!” In other words, Pushkin specifically asks to send him not an obscure Church Slavonic Bible, but a French one written in a language he understands.
By the end of the 18th century, translation of Scripture into Russian became the order of the day. In 1794, “The Epistle of the Holy Apostle Paul with Interpretation to the Romans,” prepared by Archbishop Methodius (Smirnov), was published, where, in parallel with the Slavic text, a Russian translation was given. This was the first translation of a biblical text into Russian, understood as a language other than Church Slavonic.
A new stage in the history of the Russian Bible occurs at the beginning of the 19th century, in the era of Alexander I. During the war of 1812, which Alexander I perceived as a test sent by God, his personal “biblical conversion” took place. He becomes a deeply religious person, the Bible (in French translation) becomes his reference book.
Also in 1812, a representative of the British Bible Society, John Patterson, arrived in Russia. His proposal for the formation of a Bible society in Russia receives, unexpectedly for Patterson himself, the warm support of the Russian emperor. On December 6, 1812, Alexander I approved the report of Prince Alexander Nikolaevich Golitsyn, a supporter of biblical education, on the advisability of opening the St. Petersburg Bible Society. On September 4, 1814 it received the name of the Russian Bible Society. Prince Golitsyn became the President of the Society. It was created as interfaith; it included representatives of the main Christian denominations of the Russian Empire. This experience of cooperation between different faiths is an important example for today's Christians in Russia.
The society devoted itself to translating and publishing the Bible. During the ten years of its existence, it published over 876 thousand copies of biblical books in 29 languages; of which in 12 languages - for the first time. For the beginning of the 19th century, these are huge circulations. This was possible only thanks to the attention and personal support of Emperor Alexander I. The Russian language was not left without attention.
On February 28, 1816, Prince A.N. Golitsyn reported the will of Alexander I to the Holy Synod: “His Imperial Majesty... sees with regret that many of the Russians, due to the nature of the education they received, having been removed from the knowledge of the ancient Slovenian dialect, not without extreme difficulty can use the sacred books published for them in this only dialect , so that in this case some resort to the aid of foreign translations, but the majority cannot have even this... His Imperial Majesty finds... that for the Russian people, under the supervision of clergy, the New Testament should be translated from the ancient Slavic into the new Russian dialect "
As things progressed, however, the plans of the Russian Bible Society became more ambitious: they were talking about translating not just the New Testament, but the entire Bible, and not from the “ancient Slavic”, but from the originals - Greek and Hebrew.
The main inspirer, organizer, and, to a large extent, executor of the translation of the Bible into Russian was the rector of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy, Archimandrite Filaret (Drozdov), the future Metropolitan of Moscow, canonized by the Orthodox Church. He developed rules for translators and became, in fact, the editor-in-chief of all translations performed, the final authority in their preparation for publication.
In 1819, the Four Gospels were published. In 1821 - the complete New Testament. In 1822 - the Psalter. One of the first Hebraists in Russia, Archpriest Gerasim Pavsky, was responsible for the translation of the Old Testament. In 1824, the first edition of the Pentateuch was prepared and printed, but it did not go on sale. It was decided to add the books of Joshua, Judges and Ruth to the Pentateuch and release them together in the form of the so-called Octateuch.
In the meantime, a fatal event for the translation occurred: in May 1824, as a result of palace intrigues initiated by Count Arakcheev and Archimandrite Photius (Spassky), Alexander I dismissed Prince Golitsyn. The new president of the Society, Metropolitan Seraphim (Glagolevsky), made every effort to ensure that the translation of the Bible into Russian was stopped and the Bible Society ceased to function. Almost the entire circulation of the newly printed Pentateuch with the appendix of the books of Joshua, Judges and Ruth (9,000 copies) was burned at the end of 1825 at the brick factory of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. On April 12, 1826, under the influence of Count Arakcheev and his like-minded people, Emperor Nicholas I, by his decree, suspended the activities of the Society “until the Highest permission.”
Archpriest Gerasim Pavsky and Archimandrite Macarius (Glukharev), who heroically continued during these years as private individuals to work on translating Scripture into Russian, had to experience the displeasure of the church authorities of that time.
The stoppage of work on the Russian translation of the Bible and, soon after, the closure of the Russian Bible Society were caused not only by palace intrigues and the personal quarrel of Alexander I with Prince Golitsyn. Opponents of the translation, primarily the famous Admiral Shishkov, insisted on the special sacred nature of the Slavic language and the inadequacy of the Russian language for conveying religious content. “...We can judge what difference in the height and strength of the language should exist between the Holy Scriptures in Slavonic and other languages: in those one thought is preserved; in ours, this thought is dressed in the splendor and importance of words,” writes Shishkov. In such a perspective, the question inevitably arose: is it even necessary to translate the Bible into Russian in the presence of Slavic?
“By an unusually happy coincidence, the Slovenian language has this advantage over Russian, over Latin, Greek and over all possible languages that have an alphabet, that there is not a single harmful book in it,” wrote one of the most prominent representatives of Slavophilism, Ivan Kireyevsky. Of course, any Slavist will say that this statement is incorrect: in ancient Russian literature we find many “renounced books” rejected by the Church, various “magicians” and “charmers,” books with openly heretical content. But the opinion about the special - exceptional, almost divine nature of the Church Slavonic language - was expressed in our country again and again. It is repeated even today.
In order to give this opinion an ecclesiastical assessment, it is necessary to recall, in particular, the history of the translation of the Bible into the Slavic language. We know that attempts to declare some languages “sacred” and all others “profane” have been repeatedly made. Saints Cyril and Methodius, the founders of Slavic writing, had to fight the so-called “trilingual heresy,” whose apologists believed that only three languages were acceptable in Christian worship and literature: Hebrew, Greek and Latin. It was through the feat of the Thessalonica brothers that the “trilingual heresy” was overcome.
The ministry of the New Testament, as the Apostle Paul writes, is a ministry “not of the letter, but of the Spirit, for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life” (2 Cor. 3:6). From the very beginning of Christian history, the attention of the Church has been drawn to the Message, to the sermon, to the mission, and not to a fixed text in a specific “sacred” language. This is radically different from, for example, the treatment of sacred text in rabbinic Judaism or Islam. For rabbinic Judaism, the Bible is fundamentally untranslatable, and translation or transposition can only bring us closer to understanding the only true text, which is the Jewish Masoretic text for a Jewish believer. In the same way, for Islam, the Koran is fundamentally untranslatable, and a Muslim who wants to know the Koran must learn Arabic. But such an attitude towards the sacred text is completely alien to the Christian tradition. Suffice it to say that the Gospels, which brought to us the words of the Savior, were not written at all in the language in which the Savior spoke (Aramaic or Hebrew). The Gospels, the main source of our knowledge about the preaching of the Savior, contain His speeches not in the original, but in translation into Greek. One might say that the very life of the Christian Church began with translation.
It is very important for us that the Orthodox Church has never canonized any one text or translation, any one manuscript or one edition of the Holy Scriptures. There is no single generally accepted text of the Bible in the Orthodox tradition. There are discrepancies between the quotations of Scripture in the Fathers; between the Bible accepted in the Greek Church and the Church Slavonic Bible; between the Church Slavonic texts of the Bible and the Russian Synodal translation recommended for home reading. These discrepancies should not confuse us, because behind different texts in different languages, in different translations there is a single Good News.
The question of canonizing the Church Slavonic Bible as a text “authentic, like the Latin Vulgate” was raised in the 19th century. Chief Prosecutor of the Holy Synod, Count N. A. Protasov (1836-1855). However, as Saint Philaret of Moscow writes, “The Holy Synod on the work of correcting the Slavic Bible did not proclaim the Slavic text to be exclusively independent and thus shrewdly blocked the path to those difficulties and confusions, which in this case would have been the same or even greater than those that occurred in the Roman Church from declaring the text of the Vulgate independent.”
It was thanks to Saint Philaret that the question of the Russian translation of the Bible, pushed aside and seemingly forgotten after the closure of the Bible Society, was again put on the agenda when the social stagnation that characterized Russia during the time of Nicholas I was replaced by the time of reforms associated with the name of Alexander II. On March 20, 1858, the Holy Synod decided to begin, with the permission of the Sovereign Emperor, a Russian translation of the Holy Scriptures. On May 5, 1858, Alexander II approved this decision.
The translation was made by four theological academies. Metropolitan Philaret personally reviewed and edited the books of the Bible as they were prepared for publication. In 1860, the Four Gospels were published, and in 1862, the entire New Testament. The complete Bible - in 1876, after the death of St. Philaret. In total, the translation of the New Testament took 4 years, the Old Testament - 18 years.
As at the beginning of the 19th century, fierce controversy arose around the translation. However, the need for a Russian translation for the very existence of the Russian Church was already so obvious that the publication of the Synodal translation was supported by both ecclesiastical and secular authorities. Almost immediately after the appearance of the Synodal Translation, the Bible became one of the largest circulation and most widespread books in Russia.
It is safe to say that over the past 140-year history of its existence, the Synodal Translation has made a tremendous shift in Russian culture and ensured the development of Russian-language theology at the end of the 19th century and throughout the 20th century.
The historical correctness of supporters of translating the Bible into Russian became obvious during the trials that befell Russian Christians in the 20th century. Thanks to the Synodal translation, the Holy Scriptures were with believers even when spiritual education, including the teaching of the Church Slavonic language, was practically prohibited, when church books were confiscated and destroyed. The Bible in Russian, accessible for reading and comprehension, helped people maintain their faith during the years of persecution and laid the foundation for the revival of religious life after the fall of state atheism. Many of us still remember how old yellowed books were carefully kept in the families of our parents, how thin “Brussels” editions of the Bible on tissue paper were smuggled from abroad. The Synodal translation is our precious heritage, this is the Bible of the New Martyrs.
After the abolition of the persecution of the Church, since the 1990s, the Bible in the Synodal translation again becomes one of the most widely published and distributed books in Russia. Starting from the mid-twentieth century, almost all Orthodox publications begin to cite biblical quotations from the text of the Synodal Translation (previously exclusively from the Slavic text of the Elizabethan Bible). The Synodal translation formed the basis for a number of translations of the Bible into the languages of the peoples of the Russian Federation (such as Kryashen or Chuvash).
3. While paying tribute and gratitude to the creators of the Synodal Translation, we cannot fail to take into account constructive criticism addressed to it.
There are numerous editorial shortcomings in the Synodal translation. Often the same proper name in different books (and sometimes within the same book) is rendered differently in the Synodal translation, and on the contrary, sometimes different Hebrew names coincide in Russian transcription. For example, the same Israeli city of Hazor is sometimes called Hazor, sometimes Hazor, sometimes Esorah, sometimes Natzor. Often proper names are translated as if they were common nouns or even verbs, and in some cases common nouns are transcribed as proper names. There is an inaccuracy in the transfer of realities, everyday and social features of the ancient world, unknown or misunderstood by the science of the 19th century.
Some passages may mislead the reader. For example, in the Synodal translation of the book of the prophet Malachi (2:16) we read: “... if you hate her (that is, the wife of your youth), let her go, says the Lord God of Israel.” However, both the Hebrew and Greek text here say the opposite—that God hates divorce. (Slavic text: “But if you hate, let you go, says the Lord God of Israel, and will cover your wickedness.”)
The Synodal translation of the New Testament was carried out with greater care than the translation of the Old Testament. However, many claims can be made against the Synodal Translation of the New Testament. One may recall that when Chief Prosecutor of the Holy Synod K.P. Pobedonostsev asked N.N. Glubokovsky to compile a list of inaccuracies in the Synodal Translation of the New Testament, he responded with five notebooks of corrections.
I will give just one example of such inaccuracy, which recently caught my eye while reading the book of the Acts of the Apostles. This book tells how during the stay of the Apostle Paul in Ephesus, “there was no small rebellion against the way of the Lord.” The head of the guild of silversmiths gathered a crowd who expressed their indignation at the preaching of Christians by shouting for two hours: “Great is Artemis of Ephesus!” Then, in order to calm the people, a certain Alexander was called from the people, who, among other things, said: “Men of Ephesus! What person does not know that the city of Ephesus is the servant of the great goddess Artemis and Diopetus? (Acts 19:23-35).
We know who Artemis is. But who is Diopetus? One might assume that this is one of the Greek gods or heroes of ancient mythology. But you will not find such a god in the Greek pantheon, and there is no such hero in Greek myths. The word διοπετής/diopetês, erroneously translated as a proper name ("Diopetus"), literally means "cast down by Zeus", that is, fallen from the sky. Euripides in the tragedy “Iphigenia in Tauris” uses this term in relation to the statue of Tauride Artemis, meaning that it fell from the sky, that is, it is not made by hands. The main pagan shrine of Ephesus was the statue of Artemis of Ephesus, and, probably, Alexander, in his address to the Ephesians, pointed to the idea of this statue as not made by hands. Consequently, his words would have to be translated as follows: “What person does not know that the city of Ephesus is a servant of the goddess Artemis, great and not made by hands?” (or “great and fallen from the sky,” or literally “great and cast down by Zeus”). There is no trace left of the mysterious Diopetus.
Most often, when discussing the shortcomings of the Synodal Translation, they point to its textual and stylistic eclecticism. On this point, critics of the Synodal Translation “on the left” and “on the right” agree. The textual basis of the Synodal Translation is not Greek, but not entirely Jewish either. The language is not Slavic, but not quite Russian either.
Chief Prosecutor of the Holy Synod in 1880-1905, Konstantin Petrovich Pobedonostsev, believed that the Synodal translation should be closer to the Slavic text.
On the contrary, Ivan Evseevich Evseev, chairman of the Russian Biblical Commission, in the report “The Council and the Bible”, which he presented to the All-Russian Church Council of 1917, criticized the Synodal translation for being too archaic and not conforming to the norms of the literary language: “... The Russian Synodal translation of the Bible... is completed, really , recently - only in 1875, but it fully reflected all the features not of a beloved brainchild, but of the stepson of the spiritual department, and it urgently requires revision or, even better, a complete replacement... Its original is not consistent: either it conveys the Jewish original, or the Greek text LXX, then the Latin text - in a word, everything has been done in this translation to deprive it of its integrity and homogeneity. True, these properties are invisible to the average pious reader. Much more significant is his literary backwardness. The language of this translation is heavy, outdated, artificially close to Slavic, lagging behind the general literary language for a whole century... this is a completely unacceptable language in literature of the pre-Pushkin era, and, moreover, not brightened up by either a flight of inspiration or the artistry of the text...”
I cannot agree with this assessment of the Synodal Translation. Even today, a hundred years after Evseev made his criticism, the Synodal translation remains readable, accessible, and easy to understand. Moreover, none of the Russian translations that appeared after him surpassed it either in accuracy, or in comprehensibility, or in poetic beauty. This is my personal opinion, and someone may argue with it, but I consider it necessary to voice it in this respectable audience.
However, it should be noted that Evseev, in fact, proposed to the All-Russian Church Council a whole program of work on the Slavic and Russian Bibles. In many ways, it was precisely to resolve issues related to the Synodal translation that the Council proposed the creation of a Biblical Council under the Supreme Church Administration. Consideration of the report on the establishment of the Biblical Council was scheduled for the spring session of the Council in 1919. As you know, this session was not destined to meet, and the entire range of problems associated with improving the Synodal translation remained unresolved.
The tragedy that befell Russia after 1917 pushed aside for a long time many issues discussed at the Council, including issues related to the translation of the Bible. In a situation where the very existence of Christianity in Russia was threatened, there was no time to improve the existing biblical translations. For seventy years, the Bible was among the banned books: it was not published¹, not reprinted, not sold in bookstores, and even in churches it was almost impossible to get it. Depriving people of access to the main ledger of humanity is just one of the crimes of the godless regime. But this crime clearly characterizes the essence of the ideology that was propagated by force.
4. Today, times have changed, and the Bible in the Synodal Translation is freely sold, including in secular bookstores. The books of the Holy Scriptures are distributed free of charge and are in constant demand. For example, after two years ago the Charitable Foundation of St. Gregory the Theologian, in collaboration with the Publishing House of the Moscow Patriarchate, initiated a program for the free distribution of the book “New Testament and Psalms,” more than 750 thousand copies were distributed. Moreover, the distribution was targeted - only those who really wanted it received the book, and not random passers-by on the street.
New translations of individual books of the Bible have also appeared. These translations are of very different quality. For example, in the early 1990s, a translation of the letters of the Apostle Paul appeared, made by V.N. Kuznetsova. I’ll give just a few quotes: “Oh, you should bear with me, even if I’m a little stupid! Well, please be patient... I believe that I am in no way inferior to these very super-apostles. Maybe I’m not a master at speaking, but as far as knowledge is concerned, that’s a different matter... I repeat once again: don’t take me for a fool! And if you accept, then let me be a fool a little longer and boast a little! What I will say now, of course, is not from the Lord. In this business of boasting, I will speak like a fool... Let anyone claim anything - I still speak like a fool...” (2 Cor. 11:1-22). “I'm completely crazy! You got me there! You should be praising me! Let it be so, you will say, yes, I did not burden you, but I am a trickster and got my hands on you by cunning. Maybe I managed to make money through one of those whom I sent to you? (2 Cor. 12:11-18). “Food for the belly and belly for food... And you want to turn part of the body of Christ into the body of a prostitute? God forbid!" (1 Cor. 6:13-16).
As I wrote in a review published in the Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate shortly after the publication of this blasphemous work (in other words, it is difficult for me to call this “translation”), when you get acquainted with such texts, you get the feeling that you are not reading the Holy Scriptures, but you are present during an altercation in the kitchen of a communal apartment. The appearance of this feeling is facilitated by a peculiar set of words (“fool”, “boast”, “venture”, “crazed”, “praise”, “dodger”, “profit”, “belly”, “prostitute”) and idioms (“not a master talk”, “took it into his hands”, “in the worst possible way”, “they brought me down”). The sacred text is reduced to the square, market, kitchen level.
Of course, such translations only compromise the cause of biblical translation. But this does not mean that work on translating the Holy Scriptures should not be carried out at all. Today, celebrating the anniversary of the Synodal translation, we must think about how we may prove worthy of our great tradition, dating back to Saints Cyril and Methodius, who, despite the “trilingual heresy” and persecution by the Latin clergy, gave the Slavic Bible to the Slavic peoples, as well as to Saint Philaret and other creators of the Synodal translation.
Constant care to ensure that the Word of God is clear and close to our contemporaries is the duty of the Church. But in what specific actions should this care be expressed? Do we need a new translation of the Holy Scriptures, or is it enough to edit the existing Synodal one? Or maybe there is no need to edit it at all?
I will share, again, my personal opinion. I think that today we should not attempt a complete new translation of the Bible. But it would be possible to prepare an edited edition of the Synodal Translation in which the most obvious inaccuracies (like the mention of Diopetus in the book of Acts) would be corrected. It is clear that to prepare such an edition of the Synodal Translation, a group of competent, highly qualified specialists in the field of biblical studies is needed. It is also obvious that the new edition of the translation must receive the approval of the church authorities.
The Synodal translation is not a “sacred cow” that cannot be touched. The inaccuracies of this translation are obvious and quite numerous. And besides, New Testament textual criticism itself today is at a completely different level than it was 140 years ago. It is impossible not to take her achievements into account when working on the translation of the Holy Scriptures.
I hope that the celebration of the 140th anniversary of the Synodal Translation will be an occasion to think about its improvement.
