Ralf Cleminson
A Slavonic Translation of the Loci Selecti of St John Damascene
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Summary/Abstract
The paper contains research work and publication of Slavonic translation of Loci Selecti of St John Damascene (a catena on the Pauline Epistles, the compilation of which is ascribed to St John Damascene). No Slavonic version has previously been identified: that is to say, the existence of fragments of such a translation has twice been noted, but on neither occasion were they recognised for what they are (Archimandrite Amfilochij and Michael Bakker). There is a clear connection between the fragments of the Slavonic version of the Loci selecti and the Second Redaction text of the First Epistle to Timothy, and each must be studied in the context of the other. The copy in the Karakallou Apostolos No 294 is in the centre of the publication, in which the redaction of the text of the epistle is the same as that of the manuscripts cited by Ampfilochij, namely the redaction we now know as the Second or Preslav Redaction of the text. The Second Slavonic Redaction of the Apostolos is considered to have originated in Eastern Bulgaria in the tenth century, and is much better represented by lectionaries than by continuous texts. The author proves that the Second Redaction of the Slavonic Apostolos as we now know it is a composite text: I Timothy was translated separately from the rest. The paper threw new light on the history of the translation of New Testament in Old Church Slavonic.