Anna Andreevna Kryukova,
Postgraduate Student, Syktyvkar State University named after Pitirim Sorokin, Syktyvkar, Russia, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
“Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius” in the Range of Reading of the Pechora Peasants of the Old Believers
DOI: 10.31518/2618-9100-2024-2-21
The article is devoted to the “Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius”, one of the oldest eschatological works (7th–8th centuries), which was very popular in Russia, including among the Old Believers. The “Apocalypse” can be divided into two parts: historical, consistently presenting biblical and directly historical events, and prophetic, predicting the coming of the last times. The prophetic part of the monument was of great interest to the Old Believers. The author study five Pechora copies of the monument from collections stored in the Ust-Tsilemsky (hereinafter – UTS) and Ust-Tsilemsky new (hereinafter – UTS n.) collections of the IRLI: UTS 36, UTS 67 (compiled by the famous Pechora scribe I.S. Myandin), UTS 42, UTS n. 193 and UTS n. 299, which can be divided into two groups: excerpts from the second Slavic translation (UTS 36, UTS 67) and compilations, in which passages were also creatively reinterpreted, mainly from the second Slavic translation (UTS 42, UTS n. 193, UTS n. 299). No collection contains the full text of the monument. A comparison of the copies of UTS 36 and UTS 67 with each other showed that in the passages that coincide in content, they are quite close in text. This allows us to conclude that both copies go back to the same protograph or to two different protographs, but similar in text, in which the full text of the monument could also be read. A study of the compilations of UTS 42, UTS n. 193 and UTS n. 299 showed that they completely coincide with each other in the text, with the exception of a couple of discrepancies. A comparison of these copies with the copies of UTS 36 and UTS 67 showed that textually they are very different from them: they read different passages of the second Slavic translation. A comparison of the Pechora copies with the text of the second Slavic translation showed that the copies of UTS 36 and UTS 67 are quite close to the second Slavic translation in text, they differ only in some words and phrases. Based on these changes, it is not yet possible to say with certainty whether the editorial processing of the text of the “Apocalypse” in the collection of UTS 67 was carried out by I.S. Myandin. The compilations read in the collections of UTS 42, UTS n. 193 and UTS n. 299 differ significantly from the text of the second Slavic translation, with which only individual words coincide in them. It is also concluded that the final fragment in the Pechora compilations is most likely based on the which is not even of the second Slavic translation, but is an interpolated version, since the motif read in this fragment is missing in the second Slavic translation.
Publishing: 28/04/2024
The article has been received by the editor on 31/01/2024
How to cite: Kryukova A.A. “Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius” in the Range of Reading of the Pechora Peasants of the Old Believers // Historical Courier, 2024, No. 2 (34), pp. 288–297. [Available online: http://istkurier.ru/data/2024/ISTKURIER-2024-2-21.pdf]
Links: Issue 2 2024
Keywords: Methodius of Patara; “apocalypse”; eschatological writings; Lower Pechora; Pechora copies of ancient Russian writings