The article focuses on translation decisions made by the Slavonic translator of the Greek Manasses Chronicle. The investigation is carried out with the help of a linguistically annotated and aligned bilingual corpus encompassing roughly 9.200 tokens in both languages. Whereas previous research on this text has mostly focused on either identifying translation errors or analysing the lexicon used by the translator, this paper contrastively examines the morphology and syntax of the translation as well as the use of functional elements (the conjunction и and the discourse particle же). The paper shows which differences can be found in the use of tenses and in the domain of word order. It also demonstrates how functional elements that are absent in Greek are frequently inserted into the Slavonic translation. It is argued that the deviations found in the text are best interpreted as conscious choices by the translator. They reflect his decision of simplifying the text and rendering the Greek original in a straightforward way to the Slavonic audience.