The Church Slavonic language, in which services are conducted in the Russian Orthodox Church, is not understood by everyone. Especially for those who have just crossed the threshold of the temple. They often think that they need to act immediately: urgently translate all liturgical texts into modern Russian - then, they say, everything will become clear to everyone. In fact, the question is very ambiguous, there are both pros and contras. We turned to specialists - Marina Zhurinskaya and Vladimir Kirillin.
***
Marina Zhurinskaya, candidate of philological sciences, linguist, editor of the magazine “Alpha and Omega”
Under the weight of secondary meanings
— Marina Andreevna, I have heard that the Russian language is definitely worse than Church Slavonic and therefore services cannot be translated into it. Do you agree with this?
— Talking about the fact that the Church Slavonic language is better than Russian is naive talk, because in any language you can express everything that can come to a person’s mind. Reasoning that there is a word, the like of which is not found in other languages, is also quite naive - primarily because the meaning is expressed not in individual words, but in sentences. You can always say everything a person thinks with the help of one or another number of words. Arguments about the special poetry of the Church Slavonic language are also unconvincing; there is a charm of another language, and texts in it seem “more beautiful” than in their native language; Linguists have a lot of jokes about this. In addition, Pushkin’s language is also poetic, and if this is a criterion, then why don’t we now transfer the entire service into Pushkin’s embossed stanzas?
The point is different - for us the Church Slavonic language has a number of very special properties. It’s still good when the language in which services are performed is not your native one, because in the words and phrases of your native language there is a lot of what is called connotations - secondary meanings that are not contained in the text, but are born in the mind.
A simple example. In the Synodal translation of the Holy Scriptures in the Sermon on the Mount there is the word ye shall laugh (Blessed are those who weep now, for ye shall laugh. Gospel of Luke, chapter 6, verse 21). On the one hand, the Russian word “to laugh” does not exist in other contexts, but on the other hand, if it is in the Synodal translation, then it is already in the language. And now in one of the new translations of the Holy Scriptures, instead of laughing, you will laugh. But it sounds like the joke: “You will laugh, but your third daughter also died.” You can not do it this way. This is precisely what the sacred language cleanses and protects us from.
Sacral - from lat. sacrum (sacred) is the language of worship, the language of rituals. The Hittites, for example, had Palayan as their language. For Indian Buddhists it is Pali. Church Slavonic is also a sacred language, and this must be taken seriously. Of course, in Christianity, in the religion of freedom, there is no strict requirement to serve in a sacred language, and services are conducted in national languages where justified, but more on that later. And our sacred language - Church Slavonic - helps us stay in the channel in which we need to swim if we want to live in a spiritual mood and not get distracted. And the more a person attends divine services, and sometimes seriously, the closer and more understandable the Church Slavonic language is to him. Which, however, in no way cancels working with the dictionary. After all, you can attend divine services for forty years in a row, but you will never know what msheloimstvo or tristats are (Tristat - (Greek) military leader; also used in the meaning of “horseman”), because these words have no analogues and the context does not clarify them , you need to look up them in the dictionary.
— Is there a problem with the Church Slavonic language at all? If yes, then what is it expressed in?
— The problem of the Church Slavonic language, or more precisely, worship in the Church Slavonic language, is now extremely limited. This is the problem of those people who come to Church for the first time and feel somewhat confused. Sometimes this is a problem for some parishes that want to stand out from the crowd in this regard and do what is best. That is, either this is a problem of intra-church self-awareness, or it is a problem of neophytes. The second one really deserves special attention.
Let me make some clarification. The Moscow Patriarchate has many parishes abroad. In some of them, where mostly old people go (and sometimes young people, if it is customary in their family to speak Russian, thereby preserving the cultural tradition of the Russian language), the service is performed in Church Slavonic. But where the majority of parishioners are people who do not know Russian, it is allowed to serve in national languages. For example, there is a wonderful, extremely perfect translation of the liturgy into German, which was done in Germany by Archpriest Alexy Maltsev back in the 19th century. The translation into English is also very good; it is an authentic text. So it cannot be said that the Moscow Patriarchate serves only in the Church Slavonic way. And it is clear that language as such, including living modern language, is not an obstacle to Orthodox worship. It must be said, however, that the language of the German liturgical text differs from everyday language. This language is sublime, with many archaisms. It is cleared of Protestant religious vocabulary and contains words and phrases of Latin origin that were used by Catholics.
LiveInternetLiveInternet
Quote from The Lone Ranger
Read in full In your quotation book or community!
Divine services constitute the soul of church life, and such it is in the understanding of the Orthodox Russian people, for whom the very life of the Church is completely equivalent to what happens in church. Orthodox Church Slavonic worship is one of the main ways of expressing love for God, developing prayerful communication with Him, and the best school for mastering the highest forms of patristic theology and spiritual experience. Calls for a transition to both the liturgical Russian language on the part of neo-renovationists and to Russified Church Slavonic on the part of supporters of “modernization through tradition” have recently been tried to be justified by the “missionary necessity” to bring almost all 80% of the Russian population of the Russian Federation to the Church. And it is the Church Slavonic language, according to other adherents of the “mission without borders,” that is supposedly the main obstacle to the coming of new people to the Church. A logical question arises: why, in order to achieve missionary “comprehensibility of worship,” are there calls only for reform of the liturgical language, while calls for reform do not extend to other aspects of the liturgical action, such as icons, liturgical utensils, and, above all, liturgical vestments?1 After all, to a modern person who has entered an Orthodox church for the first time, very much is incomprehensible, and not only in prayers and chants in Church Slavonic. First of all, the incomprehensible and archaic vestments of clergy are striking: neither on the street, nor in the subway, nor at stadiums and rock concerts, no one appears in these “strange” and incomprehensible phelonions and sakkos with golden trim, or in armbands and stoles, and even more so in a miter with a cross. But for some reason only the language of worship is proposed to be revised. Liturgical vestments, like liturgical language, are sacred, i.e. allocated only for temple prayer use. Sacred vestments and sacred liturgical language reflect the concept of the otherworldly nature of the Church, testify to the other nature of what is happening in the temple - and outside its walls. Liturgical vestments, intended only for the glory and splendor of Divine services, cannot be worn or used in everyday life. The Lord also commanded the Old Testament priests, when leaving the Temple into the outer courtyard to the people, to take off their liturgical robes and place them in the barriers of the saints, putting on other clothes (Ezek. 44:19). In the Orthodox Church, at the end of the service, sacred vestments are also removed and left in the church. The same fully applies to the liturgical Church Slavonic language - the language of the Church and prayer. This language, directly related to the performance of church rites and serving as the verbal vestment of liturgical actions, cannot but be a sacred language, sacred, i.e. separated from everything everyday. Therefore, due to its sacred nature, liturgical language should not coincide with the language used outside the temple. The Church Slavonic language is a sacred (from the Greek “hieros”, i.e. separated from the ordinary) liturgical language because it was created by Cyril and Methodius for a higher purpose - for liturgical use, for the church glorification of God and communication with Him, as well as for translations of Greek church literature, in particular liturgical books. Cyril and Methodius, based on the South Slavic dialect, created a new language that was never spoken and whose grammar and vocabulary adequately conveyed the meaning and structure of the Greek language. Therefore, it can hardly be said that in the 10th century Church Slavonic worship was more understandable than it is now. No modern spoken language used in the Orthodox worship of some local Churches is sacred or sacred (in the Greek Church they serve not in spoken Greek, but in the ancient Greek language “Koine”, used in the period from the 4th century BC to the 5th century). century after Christ, and which differs from modern Greek much more than Church Slavonic from modern Russian). But they will ask: why are Orthodox Americans, Japanese, French, Germans, Finns allowed to serve in their native language, but Russians are not? For the simple reason that the Slavic peoples, having accepted Orthodoxy and become engaged to the Divine Bridegroom, received as a “dowry” a shrine - the Church Slavonic liturgical language. The Russian Orthodox Church has its own local church tradition, part of which is the Church Slavonic language, sanctified by thousands of years of use in worship. Therefore, it is our duty to carefully preserve this precious pearl of the Orthodox Church - Church Slavonic worship, which has been enlightening the Russian Orthodox world and the souls of believers for more than a thousand years. Those who are now trying to translate Church Slavonic services into Russian (primarily the “translation group” of the St. Philaret Institute) testify either to their ecclesiastical ignorance and complete loss of the spirit of churchliness, or to completely definite political (primarily anti-Russian) goals and tasks that these tireless “workers” simply do not want to inform the uninitiated environment about for the time being. * * * Several years ago, in the Greek Orthodox Church, for missionary purposes and, above all, for the sake of attracting young people to churches, an experiment was conducted to introduce a modern language of worship, which ended in complete failure. “In 2004–2005. The Greek Orthodox Church conducted a nine-month “pilot project” to use modern Greek when reading passages from the New Testament during services in a number of Athens parishes. According to the Archbishop of Athens and all of Greece, Christodoulus, the trial period showed that the innovation did not arouse noticeable interest among young people. Meanwhile, attracting young people to a better understanding of worship was the main goal of the failed program, recalls the Greek newspaper Kathimerini. Representatives of older generations, on the contrary, believe that there is no point in changing the sound of biblical texts that they have heard so many times during their lives” (“Interfax”. 06/27/2005). * * * Archimandrite Sophrony (Sakharov) of the Holy Mountain discussed the imaginary problem of misunderstanding of the Church Slavonic language as follows: “Everyone, without exception, spends enormous efforts to master the complex terminologies of various fields or technical knowledge... For such a person, mastering a very small number of words uncommon in everyday life is a matter of a few hours". The Church Slavonic language does not pose any difficulty or, much less, an insurmountable barrier to understanding the meaning of liturgical texts. The effort to study any foreign language is incommensurably higher than the effort that a person should expend on simply becoming familiar with the Church Slavonic language. And yet, almost everyone here speaks English. And in fact, now, in the age of universal computerization and global communications, when a modern Russian person, in order to visit other countries, easily masters two or three foreign languages and no less easily masters the language of the modern multimedia community, such euphonious Russian words as “tolerance”, “diaper”, “summit”, “populism”, “pluralism”, “moratorium”, “homosexual”, “supermarket”, “rating”, “briefing”, “shopping”, “monitoring”, “tuning”, “marketing” "", "consulting", "holding", "piercing", "roaming", "blockbuster", "sponsor", "rights provider", "barter", "blogger", "dealer", "killer", "broker", “realtor”, “biker”, “newsmaker”, “speaker”, “producer”, “distributor”, “prefect”, “ombudsman”, “mayor”, “futures”, “security”, “community”, “publicity” "", "brand", "trend", "referendum", "copyright", "paradigm", "image", "bonus", "quorum", "racket", "default", "kamikaze", "deposit", “mainstream”, “consensus”, “boutique”, “remake”, “impeachment”, “municipality”, “mentality”, “management”, “dress code”, “top manager”, “media market”, “gay pride”, “talk show”, “prime time”, “know-how”, “barter”, “quota”, “service”, “city”, “overtime”, “dividends”, “convergence” "", "presentation", "indexation", "ratification", "prolongation", "corporation", "inflation", "stagnation", "rotation", "privatization", "exclusive", "adequate", "innovative", “liquid”, “politically correct”, “erotic”, “xenophobic” (expletive), “homophobic” (expletive), “missiophobic” (expletive), and even such a wonderful “creative” as “budget discomfort” “Glamourous drive”, “biased promotion” and other similar barter tranquilization and crap do not present any difficulties for him, a modern Russian person, in understanding this elegant literature. Memorizing one and a half dozen obscure Church Slavonic words evokes a violent civil protest among the same modern citizen: the divine service must certainly be sounded in modern and understandable Russian! For some highly educated Christians, these fifteen hundred Church Slavonic words represent a serious obstacle to their salvation: well, it has simply become impossible to save one’s soul when a priest at a service pronounces “life” instead of the word “life.” As a last resort, say less radical lovers of God, salvation is possible in Russified Church Slavonic. However, “the latter will be worse than the first,” as demonstrated by the works of the Liturgical Commission of the early twentieth century under the leadership of Archbishop Sergius (Stragorodsky), which Russified the Lenten and Colored Triodion: this Russification will become that “intermediate stage” of the liturgical language, with which the final transition to Russian language. As a result of the work of this commission, the language of the main liturgical books (Lenten Triodion, Colored Triodion, Octoechos) was noticeably Russified and deprived of its former beauty. Let us cite the testimony of B.I. Sove: “The corrected editions of liturgical books, especially the Lenten Triodion and the Penticostarion, spread rather slowly, encountering opposition in many places (for example, in the Valaam Monastery)” (Theological Works, 1970, collection V). The corrected texts of the irmos almost never took hold, since the choristers used old books, and the newly corrected irmos and stichera were not accepted by the established church singing tradition, because it was already a New Slavonic (that is, slightly Russified) language, different from traditional Church Slavonic. Despite all the apparently successful actions of the Synodal Commission headed by Archbishop Sergius for the correction of liturgical books, the new printed products caused a certain resistance in church circles and, as Bishop Nikolai (Muravyov-Uralsky) writes, the next one, carried out even before the revolution, was the publication of the Lenten and Colored Triodion published in the previous, uncorrected edition. Archpriest Sergius Pravdolyubov writes: “Before the revolution, there was a translation of the Lenten Triodion into a modernized Slavic language. This translation was prepared by a special commission headed by Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky), the future patriarch. In 1912 this book was published. And here is the question: why did this translation not take root either in the choirs or among the clergy? This is a burning question. You understand what’s the matter: it’s a colossal amount of work to prepare such a translation. People worked for almost five years, and not the worst people did this work! But for some reason it didn’t catch on, for some reason I didn’t like it. It was a terrible disappointment, such bitterness for Metropolitan Sergius when the people did not accept the translation of his commission. Moreover, Professor of Liturgics at the MDA A.I. Georgievsky once told us about how the people did not accept the new edition of the Triodion in 1912. After many years of work spent on translation, Metropolitan Sergius went out to read the Great Canon on Monday of the first week of Great Lent: “Where shall I begin to mourn my accursed life and deeds...”. And after the service, the people did not disperse and stood silently. And when the future patriarch began to leave the church, one of the people said: “Your Eminence, when will the Canon of Andrew of Crete be read?” Metropolitan Sergius grunted, got upset, and on the second day, Tuesday, he read from the old text - and he himself had been translating for five years! The people did not want to listen, and this was not because of self-indulgence, not out of some kind of protest. This is a much more serious mystery that should be addressed and understood: why? From a philological, linguistic, rhythmic, church-literary, that is, hymnographic, spiritual-ascetic point of view, why was this not accepted? As a liturgist, I did this: I compared the translation of the Great Canon, which was made in 1912, with the traditional Slavic text, with two other Slavic translations and with the Greek original. Paradoxically, it turned out that the traditional Slavic translation is much closer to the Greek text, its rhythm, its spiritual and ascetic intensity than all the newest translations. That's the problem! There was some kind of insensitivity and lack of understanding among the translators; there was no organic closeness to the original Greek text - and the people did not accept this translation!” (https://www.pravmir.ru/article_4229.html). Here are two statements from Internet forums that give a very sober assessment of this proposed new translation: “Due to the specifics of the translation problem, those who are critical of the Church Slavonic language will deal with it more. Along with “unfreezing” the Church Slavonic language, it will be necessary to create an icon on the right, because Church Slavonic language and the language of icons have a common basis. A feature of any redistribution process, large or small, is the arrival of unscrupulous pragmatists on the wave of “romantics” (in our case, translators of the Church Slavonic language). Remember all the revolutions and our year 1991. The same thing will happen with Church Slavonic.” “Those who demand translation into Russian not only do not understand the complexity of the task, but they also understand the service not traditionally, but as a lecture that must be understood immediately, otherwise you will not understand what will happen next, and you will fall hopelessly behind. This “method of mastering the material” is clear to them from the institute bench, but the church method, understandable to a simple granny, was not taught to them. The service is not a lecture addressed to us, but our appeal to God, which we have been studying for years.” “God forbid,” said Saint Philaret (Amphiteatrov), Metropolitan of Kiev (†1857), as his dying testament, “if from the translation of the Bible they reach the translation of liturgical books..., the content of which, meanwhile, is in the Slavic language predominantly and is full of instructions , and blessed inspiration." But the words of the Chief Prosecutor of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church K.P. Pobedonostsev, said in 1906: “Our Church Slavonic language is the great treasure of our spirit, the precious source and inspirer of our folk speech... After all, it is native from time immemorial, native to our people, the normal, classical structure of the Russian language was formed on it, and the further it retreats from this root, the language of literature, the more it deteriorates, loses its definition and clarity, and the less it becomes native and understandable to the people... After all, no Church except the Orthodox has such a treasure as we have.” Let us give a number of other statements about the Church Slavonic language. Saint Nicholas of Japan (Kasatkin): “I believe that it is not the translation of the Gospel and liturgical services that should descend to the level of the masses, but, on the contrary, believers should rise to the level of understanding the Gospel and liturgical texts.” Archpriest Valentin Sventsitsky († 1931) in one of his sermons said wonderful words about the Church Slavonic language: “A question that seems so simple and clear to many who think that the Slavic language is some kind of antiquity and relic and that they simply do not have the courage to admit the obvious truth that it is better to pray in a language that everyone understands. This question is not so simple. And this decision of his is not the truth at all, but the deepest delusion. Divine services must be performed in the Slavic language. The reason for this statement is clear to those who decide the issue not on the basis of worldly reflections, but on the basis of spiritual experience. This spiritual experience showed people that the spoken language in which our worldly conversations are conducted, transferred to worship, entails worldly memories and our thoughts, already wandering God knows where during prayer and going about our worldly affairs, from this worldly language with During worship, one is even more carried away into the sphere of worldly concerns. This spiritual experience further showed that the Slavic language is the most perfect form for expressing prayerful states. In matters of faith, reason is not as important as the entire totality of spiritual forces that comprehend these truths, and in prayer it is not the literal translation and knowledge of each word that is important, but the completeness and perfection of the linguistic form, containing the entire content.” According to the rector of the church of St. The Apostles of Peter and Paul in Shuvalovo Archpriest Nikolai Golovkin, “It is necessary to raise the parishioners to the level of knowledge of the Church Slavonic language, but in no case to change the language of worship; He was a thousand years, and now he must remain. Now very many study foreign languages, and not one, but two, study completely alien words. So is it really impossible to remember a dozen incomprehensible words in Church Slavonic? Basically, the Slavic language is understandable. If you begin to constantly read it, - in Psalter, in home prayer - then gradually, even without specifically studying it, you can understand most of the liturgical text. For example, many, reading “my praise to the Lord,” understand that “praise” means “always”. This word does not need to be changed in worship. Just obsolete words need to be learned. Compared to foreign languages, Slavic is much more accessible to us. The liturgical language cannot be changed, the Church Slavonic language should remain. After all, the translation always loses the depth of disclosure of a particular concept. Some clergymen begin to arbitrarily translate during the service, for example, the word “stomach”, replacing the word “life”, apparently taking the parishioners for fools. But this is not necessary! A person who has even entered the temple for the first time, if he is a thinking personality, then, having defended the service, having gotten a worship, will gradually begin to understand his language. It is impossible to translate the liturgical language, bringing it closer to the modern Russian language. ” But what about the mystical beauty of the Church Slavonic language is written by Archimandrite Rafail (Karelin): “Supporters of the language reform of the service claim that in the new, modern language the liturgy will be more understandable. But the liturgy, in itself, is a secret. It cannot become clear at the verbal-semantic level, otherwise one could understand and learn the liturgical with a book in the hands of the desk. Here, mysticism and charm of the language: the ancient sacred language touches the human heart, makes the innermost strings of the soul sound. Modernists do not know and do not feel it; They want an ancient language to replace with new languages so that the semantics of a word that does not make the secret of worship is more understandable. The sacred Church Slavonic language, as it were, testifies that in the temple we communicate with another world, with another, unusual realism for us. A sermon in the temple is pronounced in a modern language. But prayer cannot be mixed with preaching or theology. The sermon tells about the spiritual world, and the prayer includes us in this world; Theology indicates the path, and prayer leads along this path. Let us read aloud carefully psalms in the new and ancient languages, what difference do we see in our inner condition? The new language is like water, which can quench thirst, but will leave the soul cold, and an ancient language - wine that amuses and pleases the heart of a person. ” Hegumen Sergius (Troitsky): “It is quite fair to say today that the tendency to transition to Russian in worship is not only a mistake, but a serious blow to church culture, a kind of act of anti -church vandalism and barbarism. And this tendency must definitely be qualified as renovationism. The Church of Christ, back during the heyday of Byzantium, when Constantinople was the spiritual center of Orthodoxy, introduced the barbaric peoples to its rich cultural heritage, and did not go down to its own barbarization. Moreover, in our time, when the people are experiencing a spiritual and serious economic crisis, the Line reforms will inevitably cause great embarrassment among the people of God, and among the monks and clergy. And it was at this time that His Holiness Patriarch Kirill is obliged to keep the unity among the people of God as the Zenitsa of Oka, stopping the unhealthy trends of the rash and embarrassed people of God's reforms. And it was precisely about this responsibility that his Holiness reminded in his speech after intronization. God grant that the words said from the amvon are confirmed in practice. ” * * *
We were especially pleased that extremely sober words regarding the far-fetched problem of Russification of the Church Slavonic language unexpectedly came from the lips of a person with whose opinion the magazine “Blessed Fire” had a very tough debate: Abbot Peter (Meshcherinov) expressed an opinion that completely coincides with the position of the editors of our magazine .
“A change in the liturgical language will entail a change in the structure of the service, and this is extremely undesirable. If we touch the divine service now, we will not do anything better, but harm will be done,” said Fr. Peter in Moscow at the presentation of Olga Sedakova’s “Dictionary of Difficult Words from Liturgy.” As the abbot said, he had little experience of participating in divine services, where much was read in Russian. “I spent time in this environment and realized that a change in language inevitably entails a change in the structure of worship,” admitted Father Peter. “No one is ready to remake the structure of worship now, and I consider changing the structure of worship extremely undesirable in our postmodern cultural space. Now, just touch something and everything will fall down,” he believes. According to the abbot, with regard to Orthodox worship in our time, “the only thing left is truly reasonable protection.” In addition, as the priest emphasized, “worship is a very important thing, but our biggest problems are in life outside the church: we are Orthodox in the church, but we are not very good at being one in some public space. This is precisely what explains the “heightened sensitivity” to issues of liturgical language and translation” (“Interfax-region”). The editors of the magazine “Blessed Fire” fully share the point of view of Abbot Peter on this issue. Probably, among our deeply respected opponents there must be differences of opinion, so that among them, according to the words of the Apostle, the most skillful ones will emerge. * * * And finally, let us recall the order of the Patriarchal Locum Tenens Metropolitan Peter (Polyansky) dated September 14, 1925 to all the faithful children of the Russian Orthodox Church, which remains in force to this day and which speaks of “the introduction of various innovations that often confuse the conscience of believers when performing a divine service...", in particular, "p. 13) Introduction of the Russian language into liturgical practice... I resolutely declare - wrote Metropolitan Peter - about the inadmissibility... of such phenomena in church liturgical practice... and I warn that persistent innovators will be subject to penalties by me.” Let us remember this instruction of the Hieromartyr Peter and, guided by his order, carefully preserve the Tradition of the Church.
SOURCE: https://yarportal.ru/topic127679.html
On the emergence of the Church Slavonic language
The Church Slavonic language, the successor of Old Church Slavonic, developed in the middle of the 17th century. It reflected a number of changes, mainly phonetic, that took place in the living Russian language. At the same time, its spelling was streamlined.
— But the German language of worship is more understandable to modern Germans than Church Slavonic to modern Russians?
— I wouldn’t talk about language here. I would talk about the text - about liturgical texts, about the texts of Holy Scripture. A text is a kind of “thing in itself,” and its understanding is not only linguistic. I think that for modern Orthodox Germans the liturgical text has to some extent a stylistic otherness. But the Church Slavonic language of liturgical texts cannot be called dead, because changes in the texts are made, albeit small, “pointed” ones. And this is the only painless way to reform. Here, so to speak, there is “two-way traffic.” Change arises, perhaps, even as a result of the courage of an individual priest (if only he were educated enough for this); the church people either accept it or not. If the general mass accepts it, then the hierarchy approves of it. And then this point change occurs. We are, of course, talking about individual words, for example, love instead of love, life instead of belly, rooster instead of loops. I have several prayer books, and in part of them there is a phrase seeking salvation, and in the other part - demanding salvation. And it's okay.
Orthodox Life
On May 24, according to the new style, the Orthodox Church celebrates the day of remembrance of the holy brothers - Equal-to-the-Apostles Cyril and Methodius, teachers of Slovenia.
In view of this holiday, it is very important for us Slavs to talk about the Divine gift that we received from Saints Cyril and Methodius, namely about the Church Slavonic language.
Today there are many voices that want to remove the Church Slavonic language from the liturgical use of the Orthodox Church.
I read and translate. With dictionary
- But what should a person who does not understand the Church Slavonic language do?
— Firstly, there is an excellent dictionary of the Church Slavonic language by Father Grigory Dyachenko, which has recently been republished twice. You can use it and find out the meaning of unknown words. With “understandable” words, things are also not so simple. There is such a thing as a translator's false friends. For example, in one of the prayers of the evening rule, we ask forgiveness for sins that were evil from youth and from science, and that are due to insolence and despondency. From youth it’s more or less clear: it means I sinned foolishly at a young age. But what is evil from science? I have come across an interpretation that this is supposedly from a large formation in which evil lurks. This is fundamentally wrong. How is this possible: on the one hand, due to youth, on the other hand, here – because of great education? This is weird. From science, evil means “from evil teaching,” that is, they learned to commit a sin out of malice, and so they committed it without understanding it with their own mind. Eve, for example, sinned from evil science.
Next, what is insolence? Again, you might think that you were impudent and therefore sinned. Nothing like this. Church Slavonic insolence, insolence are very indirectly related to the Russian word insolence. The exact meaning can be found in Polish, a related Slavic language. In Polish nagle means suddenly, unexpectedly. This means that, having thought, we know how to do the right thing, but if some kind of sudden reaction is required, we may make a mistake. To sin from impudence means that you never expected that you would need to make some kind of decision, and you made the wrong one because you didn’t figure it out.
— It turns out that every person praying should sit with a dictionary and translate the texts of prayers, while still trying to recognize the “false friends of the translator”?
— It is inaccurate to say “praying” here, because one does not pray with a dictionary, but prepares for prayer. First, you can really sit with the dictionary - it won’t hurt anyone. Of course, this is a colossal job, and it needs to be done gradually. It is, of course, impossible to sit down and translate the entire prayer rule in one evening. This must be done quietly and gradually - read and think about it - think about not only the dictionary meaning of the words, but also the spiritual meaning of the text.
But there is another process. It’s not for nothing that I say that the problem is often not in the language, but in the text. A lot is revealed to a person during worship. When a person prays, he becomes clearer about those words that, when simply read, cause bewilderment. Next is what is called a skill: a person associates certain phrases of the divine service with his own spiritual experiences, and a certain unity is formed in his consciousness. Such unity is called in theology the word chastity, that is, it is the harmony of the entire human being.
Here's a very simple example. I read the Psalter more or less systematically at home. I read it in Russian. At first I began to stumble on Psalm 50. Every morning, reading it in Church Slavonic, it is impossible not to get lost in the Russian version. Further, the 90th Psalm, and all the psalms of the Six Psalm, and those included in the Follow-up to Confession, and those verses from which are often repeated in the liturgical circle - all of them are gradually replaced by Church Slavonic, because it is with this language that a certain spiritual experience is associated . That's what skill is. As a result, I switch to reading the Church Slavonic text, and not out of principle, but because it’s more convenient for me.
First argument
The word “altar” is translated from Latin as “exaltation” or “exalted altar.” It is something separated from the world, no longer belonging to the world, but to God. The place where God and man meet. And a person within himself seems to have to separate himself from the earthly vale, from the usual everyday earthly world, in order to enter the “holy land” - into communion with God for his own salvation. Therefore, what is important here is precisely this “sublimity”, “separation”, “transmundaneity”, which is present in the Orthodox church, which is heaven on earth. The temple is, strictly speaking, the door to spiritual Heaven. Therefore, all objects in it are also separated from the world: icons, censers, incense, candles, etc. Approximately the same thing happens with the Church Slavonic language, which is exclusively a liturgical language, not used in everyday communication.
It’s like our verbal “incense”, which we put into the censer of our hearts, praying and censing to the Almighty God.
Moreover, the statement that the Church Slavonic language is the Russian language is incorrect. The Church Slavonic language is neither Russian nor Ukrainian. This is the language of worship common to all Slavs.
Examples. Sometimes, when performing certain services (prayer service before birth or surgery), I use a rather convenient Serbian missal. The prayers in it are in Church Slavonic, a language common to both the Serbs and us. You read - everything is clear.
During our trip to Mount Athos, we attended a service at the Rila Monastery of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. Every word was clear, because the prayer was spoken in the same Church Slavonic language as in our churches.
Moreover, when communicating with Bulgarians and Serbs in everyday life, you practically do not understand them. And the liturgical language, Church Slavonic, is the same for everyone. Isn't this wonderful? Isn't this God's work? Conciliarity and unification of kindred fraternal peoples around Christ.
Church Slavonic is the liturgical language for all Slavs - Ukrainians, Russians, Belarusians, Serbs, Bulgarians, Poles, Czechs. He is our spiritual treasure. So why shouldn't we keep it? Moreover, this was bequeathed to us by the holy fathers and ascetics of piety of modern times.
Dictionary
Malice - 1. Sin; 2. Sadness, concern. Praying for embittered souls means praying for people who have some kind of sorrow, painful worries.
Damned - poor, unfortunate, worthy of pity. This word in Church Slavonic has no abusive connotation.
Nurturing is spiritual guidance. Associated with the word feed, not feed. The stern is the place where the helm and rudder were located on the ship. To nourish means to guide.
Residence – 1. Our usual meaning is place of residence. 2. All living Christians: and preserving your life through your cross.
Verb vide : videhom (we saw) – first person plural verbs have the ending ‑om.
WILL THE TRANSITION TO MODERN RUSSIAN DISTORT THE MEANING?
One of the common misconceptions is that the transition to Russian will impoverish and distort the meaning of Church Slavonic texts. However, 1000 years ago there were only Cyril and Methodius with ink and paper, but now there are a lot of educated people, technical means and a rich church tradition. So under what conditions can meaning be conveyed better? Now there are already translations of all texts into Russian, and the Church has a lot of resources to clarify, coordinate, and translate everything as accurately as possible - isn’t this a higher mission than jointly protecting obsolete forms? What would be lost from God's word if we changed all these "was" to "was"? Why should the 9th century Southern Bulgarian dialect be my language of address to God? Why obscure the meaning? After all, the whole task of the Church is to clarify God’s word and make it as accessible to people as possible.
If a person has not come to God...
- But still, probably for our ancestors the Church Slavonic language was much clearer and closer than it is to us now. Today, for example, this picture is quite typical. A man enters a temple, hears chants that he does not understand, and five minutes later he comes out saying that he will never come here again: nothing is clear anyway.
— About our ancestors, you are probably mistaken by a couple of centuries. There were simply fewer people among them who entered the temple like that. You described a person who does not need God. He didn’t come to God, he just went into the temple. He does not think about the fact that he has come to the house of God. Otherwise he wouldn’t have said that: I won’t come here again. Still, you don’t talk to the King of Kings like that. He just doesn’t need it, so what can be done? If he had heard something understandable, he would have stood there for ten minutes, not five.
On the other hand, I know many people who do not understand Church Slavonic and do not want to understand. They go to church for rather magical reasons - to light a candle to “help” win the lottery or recover from chondrosis. It's not a matter of language. You see, if a person strives for God, for salvation in God, then at least let them serve in Chinese - it doesn’t matter, he will learn. That's not the point. If a person has come to God, if he has an inner need, he will try to understand. And if language insurmountably interferes with understanding, then the person has not come to God.
Here's another important thing. When we pray in Church Slavonic and hear Church Slavonic texts, we are united in Christ not only among ourselves, but also with all our ancestors who have heard and spoken the same words for a thousand years. It turns out to be a common cause in the full sense (Liturgy - (Greek) common cause).
- Why then did the Catholics abandon Latin, in which all their services were previously performed?
— I am not a Catholic, I have no experience of being in the Catholic Church. Obviously, they had some considerations. I don’t know to what extent they were justified, it seems not very good, because the number of parishioners of the Catholic Church in Europe is decreasing catastrophically, despite the service in an understandable language. Moreover, those who have retained Latin are more resilient people, their arrivals are more constant, and the language does not bother them.
In general, Latin, like other languages, is not such a terrible thing. To learn a language, you first need good motivation. At one time I taught German to graduate students. They had to pass the candidate minimum - this is a good motivation. But some of them needed to be read by foreign specialists. This motivation is even better. So, graduate students of the second category were very successful. Hence the question: does a person who came to the Church have motivation or not? Does he want to live in the Church? If so, then it will not be difficult for him to look in the dictionary, remember what tristats are and move on.
In addition, it is in vain to believe that the Church does not meet the believers halfway. It is very useful to look at the text of the canon of St. Andrew of Crete. It is translated from Greek, and all decent publications have a Russian translation with commentary. But there is also a Church Slavonic commentary from a later edition: some words and expressions, literally translated from Greek, are clarified in Church Slavonic. So, for example, the word dumb has a footnote - insane. It's very simple: this is a translation of a Greek word whose root - logos - can mean word, or can mean mind. The first translator translated this word as wordless, and then the more thoughtful editor realized that it should be translated as crazy. And this was done very carefully: the text was left, but a comment was given.
- And how, for example, standing at the liturgy, a person praying, who does not have sufficient knowledge of history, will understand the words: For let us raise up the King of all, invisibly angelic dorinoshima chinmi (dorinoshima - solemnly worn, glorified, from the Greek dori - spear. Literally dorinoshima - carried a spear; in ancient times, when solemnly glorifying kings or military leaders, they were seated on shields, raised up, the shields were placed on spears and thus carried in front of the troops. From a distance it seemed that those being glorified were carried directly on spears. By angelic ranks - by angelic ranks.)?
- This is not a question for the person praying, but for how he went through catechesis. If it hasn’t passed, then let it pass on its own. Just let him ask questions not to the grandmother standing next to him, but directly to the priest. Because the priest, if he doesn’t explain it himself, will at least indicate the necessary literature.
...But in general, anything can happen. I had a case when in the temple one girl with panic on her face came up to me and asked: “What should I do? I don’t understand at all what the priests are saying.” (This church also does not have the best acoustics.) I told her that, of course, it would be better to read the text of the service later, but now she can just pray that everything that the priests say, they say in her name. She apparently prayed in this way, after which she stood with a completely touching expression on her face. But, in fact, this is exactly what the priest does - he prays on our behalf. But the Church is structured in such a way that his voice serves as an expression of our common prayer.
Is it possible to read prayers in Russian?
Please tell me, is it possible to read prayers in Russian, or should we still read them in Old Church Slavonic? If it’s not possible in Russian, then why? The Bible has been translated into Russian, and we read it in Russian.
You pose a very serious question, the answer to which is not as simple as it might seem at first glance. For a person deeply rooted in the Orthodox tradition, it seems unthinkable how one can address God in modern Russian. But for a person just coming to faith, the Church Slavonic language is unusual and difficult to understand. In church, the texts of Holy Scripture are read in Church Slavonic, and in literature, in sermons, in letters and responses to contemporaries, we most often use the text of the Synodal translation of the Bible into Russian. But we use it only to convey the idea more clearly to modern people, although this translation is quite archaic. In passing, I would like to note that work is currently underway to publish an Old Believer translation into Russian of the Holy Gospel.
It must be said that the Church Slavonic translation of the Bible and liturgical texts is more accurate and closer to the original than the Synodal translation. Experts in the field of linguistics talk about the difficulty of interpreting prayer formulas and the impossibility of accurately conveying liturgical semantics using the tools of modern language.
A wonderful article about our liturgical language was published in the preface to the “Prayer Book”, published by the Old Believer Metropolis of the Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church (M., 1988, etc. pp. 8-9). It briefly but essentially reveals the meaning of the Church Slavonic language and the reasons why the Church cannot switch to modern Russian. Here I will only quote one paragraph.
The centuries-old prayer experience of the Russian Church shows that the Church Slavonic language is perfectly suited for prayerful communication with God. After all, a conversation with God is not a conversation with a person. Therefore, the language of prayer must be different from the language of ordinary speech. The Church Slavonic language gives prayers and praises a sublime style, distracting the soul from vain earthly worries and sorrows. In this regard, the language of our worship is an inexhaustible treasure.
Start praying according to the prayer book, and you will see how organically the words of prayer flow from your heart.
Liturgical and modern Russian languages are closely related. Therefore, I would advise you to make an effort on yourself and try to master Church Slavonic. We can recommend the following textbook: Pletneva A.A., Kravetsky A.G. Church Slavonic language: Textbook. ed. – 5th ed., stereotypical. – M.: AST-PRESS KNIGA, 2013 – 272 p. It is also necessary to use a dictionary, although not many church words require translation. Further, when reading Holy Scripture, be sure to refer to the patristic interpretations. Compare Church Slavonic and Synodal translations. This will allow you to understand that translation does not provide a complete understanding of the meaning. After all, the Lord “opened the minds of the apostles to understand the Scriptures” (Luke 24:45). Obviously, such work requires some effort and time, but it is generously rewarded. You will gain a deeper understanding of the Bible and worship. “For I desire mercy rather than sacrifice, and knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings,” says the Lord (6:6).
I can give you an example. On Holy Spirit Monday, the following words of the Apostle Paul are read in the temple: “... redeeming time” (Eph. 5:16). And in the Synodal translation in the same place we read: “... valuing time.” Do you agree that this instruction in Church Slavonic sounds much deeper and stronger? And here is his interpretation.
“Amma Theodora asked Archbishop Theophilos: what is the meaning of the Apostle’s saying: “Time redeems”? He answered: “This means that our entire earthly life is similar to the production of trade. For example: when the time comes when reproaches will fall on you, you atone for this time with humility and gain benefit (profit) for yourself. Thus, everything that is contrary and hostile to us can, if we want, turn to our advantage” (Alphabetical Patericon).
I also recommend that you familiarize yourself with the translations of the psalms made by the outstanding Russian philologist, academician Sergei Sergeevich Averintsev (1937-2004). See, for example: Selected Psalms / Translation and comments by S.S. Averintseva. – M.: St. Philaret Orthodox Christian Institute, 2005. – 176 p. These translations are remarkable in that they make it possible to convey to modern people the meaning of the psalms, firstly, in the Russian language (in which modern words, barbarisms and borrowings are excluded), and secondly, in a Russian language that also conveys the imagery of the original, allows feel the structure of psalmic speech.
In conclusion, a few words must be said about the modern Russian language. This phrase is often used to denote common language, excluding anything that sounds “archaic.” “The use of such language,” writes S.S. Averintsev, “creates the illusion that the environment in which the action takes place is modernity. … God comes to the believer in the reality of today; but I’m afraid that He will not come to the isolationist ideological space that does not want to know anything but itself” (op. cit. pp. 148 and 150).
Ancient Slavic prayers to the gods
When they talk about ancient Slavic prayers of the Slavs, they mean traditional ritual words that the Slavs used to communicate with Higher powers. The word “prayer” was not present in Old Church Slavonic vocabulary. This is due to the fact that the Slavs glorified their Gods and... Unlike Christians, they never asked them for anything. That is why the Slavs called appeals to God “glorification.”
Glorifications or appeals to the Higher Powers have always been a mandatory attribute of all major ritual holidays. In addition, every day the ancient Slavs read morning and evening praises; such prayers were offered before meals, before traveling and before starting any business. But it should be understood that ancient Slavic prayers were not canon, turning to God was not considered an obligatory event, it was necessary to do this only when the desire arose. For example, if a person wanted to praise God for a successful day, then he did it. Very often praises were offered to Perun for his victory over his enemies.
Ancient Slavic prayers are very diverse. It is important to choose the right prayer address. The words must be pronounced very sincerely and it is not at all necessary to follow the existing texts. It is allowed to replace both individual words and individual phrases in your own way. It is important that prayer comes from the depths of the soul.
There is no such thing as a “main ancient Slavic prayer.” The prayers of the ancient people are distinguished by their individuality. In order to understand how ancient Slavic prayers were read, you need to get acquainted with the folklore and ethnography of the Slavs.
Athos prayer by agreement
If a believer has a great desire, he can participate in the Athos prayer by consent, across thousands and thousands of kilometers. Distance will not be a hindrance to this; God is always close to everyone. Athonite monks on the holy Mount Athos (the place that the Mother of God herself designated for prayer service) are unique bearers of grace. There is no doubt that from there prayers to God will come quickly, their grace will be felt. A prayer connection with Athos will unite into one large church at a distance and with the help of this form of joint prayer, you can find real spiritual life, living communication with God. change yourself for the better.
WHY IS “TRADITION” Hindering the CHURCH from BREAKING THE WORD OF GOD
In my opinion, the Russian Orthodox Church is now in an excellent situation: it does not need to invent any missionary delights at all. It is enough to start by making a language understandable to Russians, the language of worship and prayer. Is it the task of the Church to preserve cultural tradition? If I'm not mistaken, the main task of the Church is still preaching the word of God. If the tradition had been kept 1000 years ago, it would never have been translated even into the Central Symbolic Language - we would have had services in Greek. But no, they came up with a CSY that is more or less understandable to the population. So why can worship now be translated into Koryak, but not into Russian? More from the social concept: “The cultural differences of individual peoples find their expression in liturgical and other church creativity, in the peculiarities of the Christian way of life. All this creates a national Christian culture.” But it is the CSL that is now hindering the formation of Russian Christian culture, because language is one of the foundations of culture. The Central Symbolic Language isolates prayer from culture: it is more difficult to integrate it into poetry, more difficult to quote beautifully in prose, and to pronounce it in cinema without a hint of “Orthodox exoticism.”
Here again, my husband writes: “The prayer should reflect the mood for the day, I would supplement it with my own blocks in the future. How can I supplement it if it’s in Church Slavonic?” The frozen form of the TsYA drives ideas and images of prayer into some kind of ritual ghetto, preventing them from becoming part of the thoughts and conversations of people in everyday life. Christianity itself is a completely unusual and paradoxical teaching for modern man. Some things cannot always be explained in Russian. Why additionally put a spoke in the wheels of a person trying to understand God’s word? What prevents us from resolving this problem once and for all, conciliarly approving one authorized translation and blessing everyone who wants to serve in Russian? Then the TsYA will naturally remain in the quantities it deserves as a cultural tradition - in some temples, where philologists, as well as lovers of euphony, exoticism and tradition, will be able to get acquainted with it.
Why does the Church have a stranglehold on the Central Christian Church? Perhaps this is some kind of “recovery complex” after Soviet rule. But then this complex closes opportunities for development. After all, restoring something in the format of a hundred years ago means voluntarily throwing yourself back these 100 years. CSY is not an evangelical principle, not a dogma, not a church canon, it is simply a temporary tool that was more or less suitable several hundred years ago, but is completely unsuitable for this purpose now. For me, reading and listening to prayers in Church Slavonic is like breathing in the living air of God’s Word through a gas mask.
Source
IS CHURCH SLAVIC A SPECIALLY SACRED LANGUAGE?
I also heard about the special “divinity” of the TsYA. But in general, there is no such sacredness in Church Slavonic; the Bible was originally written in Hebrew, then translated into Greek, then into the Central Symbol. Translation into Russian will be just another stage in this long evolution. Only Hebrew can claim the status of “God’s language”. Here is a quote from the social concept of the Russian Orthodox Church: “The people of Israel spoke one language, which was not only the language of everyday life, but also the language of prayer. Moreover, Hebrew was the language of Revelation, for God Himself spoke to the people of Israel in it.” That is, God did not speak to the Jews in some special language they did not understand. Church Slavonic is clearly not the language of Revelation, and it has never been the language of everyday life either. But even if it were especially “sacred,” in the social concept of the Russian Orthodox Church it is written: “The Gospel of Christ is preached not in a sacred language accessible to one people, but in all languages (Acts 2. 3-11)” - so why not in RUSSIAN? IS CHURCH SLAVIC UNDERSTOOD? Some argue that the CSY is somehow “almost” intuitive. In my opinion, this is a very big “almost”... For example, in the prayer before eating food: “Lord, you fulfill every animal good pleasure” - a place that can lead to a stupor without a dictionary. Somewhere I came across “taxes of demons” from which they ask to save the Mother of God. I can just imagine how the Mother of God makes tax deductions. In the canon of Jesus Christ there is a place where “the righteous will rejoice, and sinners will mourn.” Will the righteous not rejoice? – a perplexed Russian reader may ask himself. He doesn't actually have to know that it's just a plural and not a feminine form. Grammar is a completely separate topic. Unpronounceable forms of perfect tenses, confusion with accents and case endings (such as “To the Tsar” - not the dative, but the vocative case, which the non-humanitarian Russian has never heard of). The list of these things can be endless, there are thousands of them. I mean, their name is legion. But... the mice cried, injected themselves, but continued to eat the cactus.
THE MAIN THING IS WELLNESS?
Another argument of the supporters of the Central Symbolism – yes, the Central Symbolic Symbol is incomprehensible, but it is especially harmonious for worship. Well, first of all, there is no comrade in taste and color. For me, I still have to look for euphony in these “bykhs”... I studied the Old Church Slavonic language, but, to be honest, I was not particularly imbued with its beauty or poetry. Even Latin and Ancient Greek were more attractive to me than all these “bykh” and “priidoh”. Maybe it would be better then to choose some Hawaiian language for the service, where it’s all vowels, so the language is very melodious? Secondly, even if it were a hundred thousand times more harmonious than Russian, it is incomprehensible! It is impossible to reduce the Beauty of God's meaning to any kind of beauty. Poetry is not in these “by”, poetry is in the Truth of God’s word. In Greek, “in the beginning was the word,” the term “logos” is used, which is rather closer to our concept of “meaning.” The use of CSL is a real example of following the LETTER, and not the spirit, “logos”, or meaning. And here it is natural - “in the beginning there was a letter”, and this letter was Church Slavonic, and the meaning, the “spirit” of this word - well, maybe later it will catch up with time. What kind of spirit is there if the meaning doesn’t get through? How can one, for the sake of dubious “melody,” refuse to allow people to understand the word of God? The beauty of the good news is infinitely greater than the beauty of any language.
SHOULD EVERY BELIEVER STUDY CSIA?
Another excellent argument - they say, yes, the CSL is incomprehensible, but every believer must wade through Church Slavonic and study it in order to know the Word of God - if you want to live, be able to move around. But this is the approach of all mystics and esotericists! The Christian good news turns into some kind of esoteric knowledge (literal translation “hidden”), which is deliberately obscured and mysterious, accessible only to a select few, incomprehensible to the common man. This fundamentally contradicts the message “go and teach all nations”, kills the meaning of the “gift of tongues”, etc. Moreover, this approach applies only and exclusively to Russians - Orthodox Japanese or Orthodox English, unlike Orthodox Russians, perfectly understand prayers and services translated into their modern languages. Does knowledge of CSY elevate? Maybe. But no more than knowing Pushkin’s poems by heart or any other special knowledge related to culture. It’s good, of course, to know the grammar of Old Church Slavonic, but it has nothing in common with Christianity and the Gospel. There is no reason to elevate knowledge of CSL to the rank of Christian virtue. Whoever likes all these “more” and “like” should go to the philology department and enjoy it. In general, one can find a lot of poetry and food for thought in fraternal languages. But why force an ordinary person to study all this, who must make his way to the good news through these “others”? CSL is a language that is incomprehensible - and should not be intelligible - to a non-philologist, even if he is a Christian. A Christian must understand the text of the Gospel and prayers, and not rack his brains over all these “bugs”, distracting from the spiritual meaning of prayer. The good news for Russians is surrounded by all these “former” people, like barbed wire. I admit that this can only please those believers who want to protect God as their territory, inaccessible to the profane (as the Pharisees protected the Bible from the pagans). But this fundamentally contradicts the gospel idea of bringing the good news to everyone - and preferably in a way that “everyone” understands.
