Russian translation of the Bible 1876. Synodal translation of the Bible in Russian. New translations of the Russian Bible

Report of Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk at the inter-Christian conference dedicated to the 140th anniversary of the Synodal translation of the Bible (Moscow, October 4, 2016)

1. Today we have gathered to mark 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 gratefully honor the memory of those who gave him the opportunity to touch the Good News, to read the Scriptures in their 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 Alexandrian Jews annually celebrated the anniversary of the translation of the Bible into Greek, gathering on the island of Faros (where, according to legend, the Seventy Colonels 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 shone for the first time, and to thank God for this ancient beneficence, which always remains new.”

Slavic peoples gratefully honor the memory of Saints Cyril and Methodius, who laid the foundation for the Slavic Bible. In that era when the Western Church did not encourage translations into folk languages, Cyril, Methodius and their students gave the Slavs a Bible in an understandable and native dialect for them. In Bulgaria, Russia and some other countries, the memory of the Solun brothers is celebrated at the state level - as a day of enlightenment, culture and Slavic writing.

The creators of the Synodal Translation deserve no less appreciation from our side. It is in this translation that millions of Russian-speaking people in Russia and abroad know and read the Bible.

At the same time, in contrast to the situation, which often takes place in other countries, where different Christian denominations use different translations of the Holy Scriptures, in Russia the Synodal Translation does not separate, but unites Christians of different confessions. A vivid evidence 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 relate only to certain places in the Old Testament. In the "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 the son of Sirach, the message 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 the Protestant communities due to the fact that they were written later than the rest of the Old Testament books and are not included in the Jewish canon.

In the Old Testament part of the “Protestant” editions of the Synodal Translation, the Septuagint inserts present in the “Orthodox” editions are omitted — places where the translation of the Hebrew Bible is supplemented by inserts made from the Greek text. All these differences, however, are marginal in comparison with the main message of the Old Testament, which for all Christians in Russia sounds in a single translation.

There are no discrepancies between the “Orthodox” and “Protestant” Bibles with regard to the core of our faith - the New Testament.

2. The beginning of biblical education in our country dates back to the time of the Baptism of Russia. The oldest monuments of the Russian language are the Ostromir Gospel, written in 1056-1057. for St. Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod, and the so-called "Novgorod Psalter", which dates from the end of the X - the beginning of the XI century, i.e. only one to two decades later than the Baptism of Russia. 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 in Russia from the very beginning there was spiritual literature in the national language. But, like any living human language, the Russian language has changed. By the beginning of the 19th century, the gap between the Church Slavonic language and the language of everyday communication widened so much that the Slavic texts became obscure. 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. The Russian Bible was not, the Slavic was already difficult to understand. In November 1824, shortly after arriving at Mikhailovskoye, Pushkin wrote to his brother in Petersburg: “The Bible, the Bible! And certainly French! ”In other words, Pushkin specifically asks him to send him not an obscure Church Slavonic Bible, but written in a language that is understandable to him.

By the end of the 18th century, the translation of Scripture into Russian was on the agenda. In 1794, a message prepared by Archbishop Methodius (Smirnov) was published “To the Roman Message of the Holy Apostle Paul with Interpretation,” where a Russian translation was given in parallel with the Slavic text. This was the first translation of the biblical text into Russian, understood as a language other than Church Slavonic.

A new stage in the history of the Russian Bible falls at the beginning of the 19th century, during the era of Alexander I. During the war of 1812, which Alexander I took as a test sent by God, his personal “biblical conversion” took place. He becomes a deeply religious person, the Bible (in the French translation) is made his handbook.

In the same 1812, the representative of the British Bible Society John Patterson arrived in Russia. His proposal for the formation of a Bible society in Russia receives the warm support of the Russian emperor, unexpected for Patterson himself. On December 6, 1812, Alexander I approved the report of Prince Alexander Nikolayevich Golitsyn, a supporter of biblical education, on the advisability of opening the St. Petersburg Bible Society. September 4, 1814 it received the name of the Russian Bible Society. The president of the Society was Prince Golitsyn. It was created as interfaith; it included representatives of the main Christian denominations of the Russian Empire. This experience of cooperation of different faiths is an important example for today's Christians of Russia.

The society is dedicated to translating and publishing the Bible. Over the ten years of its existence, it has published over 876 thousand copies of Bible books in 29 languages; of them in 12 languages \u200b\u200b- for the first time. For the beginning of the XIX 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.

February 28, 1816 Prince A.N. Golitsyn reported to the Holy Synod the will of Alexander I: “His Imperial Majesty ... regrets that many of the Russians, by the quality of their upbringing, were removed from knowledge of the ancient Slovenian dialect, and not without extreme difficulty can they use the holy books published for them in this only dialect so that some in this case resort to foreign translations, and most cannot even have this ... His Imperial Majesty finds ... so that for the Russian people, under the supervision of spiritual persons, the New Testament was transformed from the ancient Slavic to the new Russian dialect. ”

In the process, however, the plans of the Russian Bible Society became more ambitious: it was already a question of translating not only the New Testament, but the entire Bible, and not from the “ancient Slavic”, but from the originals - Greek and Jewish.

The main inspirer, organizer, and, to a large extent, the translator of the Bible into Russian was the rector of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy, Archimandrite Filaret (Drozdov), in the future Metropolitan of Moscow, ranked by the Orthodox Church as a saint. He developed the rules for translators and, in fact, became the chief editor of all translations performed, the last resort in their preparation for printing.

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 Eighth Book.

Meanwhile, a fateful event for translation took place: 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 stop the translation of the Bible into Russian, and the Bible society to cease to function. Almost the entire circulation of the just printed Pentateuch with the books of Jesus Navin, 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 associates, Emperor Nicholas I suspended the Society’s activities “from now on until the Highest Permission”.

Archpriest Gerasim Pavsky and Archimandrite Makarius (Glukharev), who heroically continued these years as private individuals to translate Scripture into Russian, had to experience the displeasure of the church authorities of that time.

The stop 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 personal quarrel between Alexander I and Prince Golitsyn. Opponents of the translation, primarily the famous Admiral Shishkov, insisted on the special sacred nature of the Slavic language and the inability of the Russian language to transmit religious content. “... We can judge what difference in the height and power of the tongue should exist between the Holy Scriptures in Slavonic and other languages: one thought is preserved in those; in our thought this one is dressed with the splendor and importance of words, ”writes Shishkov. In such a perspective, the question inevitably arose: is there a need for a translation of the Bible into Russian in the presence of Slavic?

“By an unusually fortunate coincidence, the Slovenian language has that advantage over Russian, over Latin, Greek and over all possible languages \u200b\u200bthat have the alphabet that it does not have a single harmful book,” wrote Ivan Kireevsky, one of the most prominent representatives of Slavophilism. Of course, any Slavic scholar 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 frankly heretical content. But the opinion about the special - the exceptional, almost divine nature of the Church Slavonic language - has been expressed in our country again and again. It repeats today.

In order to give this opinion a church 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 \u200b\u200b“sacred”, and all the rest - “profane” have been repeatedly made. Saints Cyril and Methodius, the founders of Slavic writing, had to deal with the so-called "trilingual heresy", whose apologists believed that only three languages \u200b\u200bwere permissible in Christian worship and literature: Jewish, Greek and Latin. It was the feat of the Solun brothers that the “trilingual heresy” was overcome.

The ministry of the New Testament, as the apostle Paul writes, is the ministry “not of the letter, but of the spirit, because the letter kills, but the spirit gives life” (2 Cor. 3. 6). From the very beginning of Christian history, the attention of the Church was 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, for example, from the attitude to the sacred text in rabbinic Judaism or in Islam. For rabbinical 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. Similarly, for Islam, the Koran is fundamentally untranslatable, and a Muslim who wants to know the Koran must learn Arabic. But the Christian tradition is completely alien to the sacred text. Suffice it to say that the Gospels that conveyed the words of the Savior to us are not written in the language in which the Savior spoke (Aramaic or Hebrew). The Gospels - the main source of our knowledge about the Savior's sermon - contain His speeches not in the original, but in Greek translation. It can be said 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 publication of Holy Scripture. There is no single universally accepted text of the Bible in the Orthodox tradition. There are discrepancies between quotations from Scripture among the Fathers; between the Bible, adopted 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 the canonization of the Church Slavonic Bible as a text of "self-authentic, like the Latin Vulgate" was raised in the XIX century. Chief Prosecutor of the Holy Synod, Count N. A. Protasov (1836-1855). However, as St. Filaret of Moscow writes, “The Holy Synod on the works of correcting the Slavic Bible did not proclaim the Slavic text as exclusively independent and thus shrewdly blocked the path to the difficulties and intricacies that in this case would be the same or even greater than what happened in the Roman Church from declaring the text of the Vulgate independent. ”

Thanks to Saint Filaret, the question of the Russian translation of the Bible, pushed aside and forgotten after the closure of the Bible Society, was again put on the agenda when the social stagnation that characterized Russia from the time of Nicholas I was replaced by the time of reforms related to the name of Alexander II. On March 20, 1858, the Holy Synod decided to begin, with the permission of the Emperor, the Russian translation of Holy Scripture. On May 5, 1858, Alexander II approved this decision.

Translation was done by four theological academies. Metropolitan Filaret personally reviewed and edited the books of the Bible as they prepared for publication. In 1860 the Four Gospels were published, in 1862 the whole 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, a fierce debate unfolded 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 church and secular authorities. Almost immediately after the appearance of the Synodal Translation, the Bible became one of the most 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 made a huge shift in Russian culture and ensured the development of Russian-speaking theology at the end of the XIX and throughout the XX century.

The historical correctness of the supporters of the translation of the Bible into Russian became apparent during the trials that hit 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 seized and destroyed. The Bible in Russian, available for reading and reading, helped people maintain their faith during the years of persecution and laid the foundations for the revival of religious life after the fall of state atheism. Many of us still remember how the old yellowed books were carefully kept in the families of our parents, how from abroad smuggled thin "Brussels" editions of the Bible on tissue paper. The synodal translation is our precious possession, it is the Bible of the new martyrs.

After the abolition of 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. Since the middle of the twentieth century, in almost all Orthodox publications, biblical quotes begin to be cited in the text of the Synodal translation (previously exclusively in the Slavic text of the Elizabethan Bible). The synodal translation formed the basis of a number of Bible translations into the languages \u200b\u200bof the peoples of the Russian Federation (such as, for example, Kryashensky or Chuvash).

3. Paying tribute and thanks to the creators of the Synodal Translation, we cannot but take into account constructive criticism of him.

There are numerous editorial flaws in the Synodal translation. Often the same proper name in different books (and sometimes within the same book) is transmitted in the Synodal translation in different ways, and on the contrary, sometimes different Hebrew names coincide in Russian transcription. For example, the same Israeli city of Hazor is called Hazor, then Hazor, then Esora, then Nazor. Often, proper names are translated as if they were common nouns or even verbs, and in some cases common nouns are transmitted by transcription as proper names. Inaccuracy is noted in the transmission of realities, everyday and social features of the ancient world, unknown or misunderstood by the science of the 19th century.

Some places may confuse 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 go, says the Lord God of Israel." However, both the Hebrew and Greek texts here say the opposite - that God hates divorce. (Slavic text: “But if you hate to let go let go, the Lord God of Israel speaks, and he will cover the wickedness of your thoughts.”)

The synodal translation of the New Testament is more thorough than the translation of the Old Testament. However, many claims can be made against the Synodal translation of the New Testament. You may recall that when the chief procurator 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 answered him with five notebooks of corrections.

I will give only one example of such an inaccuracy that recently caught my eye when reading the book of the Acts of the Apostles. This book describes how, during the time of the Apostle Paul in Ephesus, "there was a considerable rebellion against the way of the Lord." The head of the silver craftsmen’s guild gathered a crowd who expressed their indignation at the Christian preaching that she shouted for two hours: “Great Artemis of Ephesus!” Then, to calm people, a certain Alexander was called out 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 Diopet? One could 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, mistakenly translated as a proper name (“Diopetus”), literally means “descended by Zeus”, that is, fallen from heaven. Euripides in the tragedy "Iphigenia in Tauris" uses this term in relation to the statue of Artemis of Tauride, meaning that it fell from the sky, that is, it is miraculous. The main pagan shrine of Ephesus was a statue of Artemis of Ephesus, and, probably, Alexander in his address to the Ephesians pointed to the idea of \u200b\u200bthis statue as miraculous. Consequently, his words should be translated as follows: “What person does not know that the city of Ephesus is the servant of the goddess Artemis, great and miraculous?” (Or “great and fallen from heaven,” or literally “great and depressed Zeus”). There is no trace of the mysterious Diopet.

Most often, when discussing the shortcomings of the Synodal translation, they point to its textual and stylistic eclecticism. At this point, critics of the Synodal translation “from the left” and “from the right” converge. The textual basis of the Synodal translation is not Greek, but not entirely Jewish. The language is not Slavic, but not entirely Russian.

Ober-prosecutor of the Holy Synod in 1880-1905, Konstantin Petrovich Pobedonostsev believed that the Synodal translation should be close to the Slavic text.

On the contrary, Ivan Evseevich Evseev, chairman of the Russian Bible Commission, in the report “Cathedral and the Bible”, which he presented to the All-Russian Church Council in 1917, criticized the Synodal translation for excessive archaism and inconsistency with the standards of the literary language: “... The Russian Synodal translation of the Bible ... is completed, though , recently - only in 1875, but it was completely reflected in all the features of the beloved offspring, but the stepson of the spiritual department, and he urgently needs to be reviewed or, even better, a complete replacement ... His original is not kept: that’s about conveys the original Hebrew, the Greek text of the LXX, the Latin text - in other words, in this translation done anything to deprive him of the nature of integrity, 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 literary language for a whole century ... it’s a completely unacceptable language in literature of the pre-Pushkin era, not yet 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 Yevseyev came forward with his criticism, the Synodal Translation remains readable, accessible, and easy to read. Moreover, not one of the Russian translations that appeared after him exceeded it either in accuracy, in comprehensibility, or in poetic beauty. This is my personal opinion, and someone can argue with him, but I consider it necessary to voice it in this venerable audience.

Nevertheless, it should be noted that Evseev, in fact, offered the All-Russian Church Council a whole program of work on the Slavic and Russian Bibles. In many ways, it was proposed to create a Bible Council at the Higher Church Administration to resolve issues related to the Synodal Translation. Consideration of the report on the establishment of the Bible Council was scheduled for the spring session of the Council in 1919. As you know, this session was not destined to gather, and the whole range of problems associated with improving the Synodal translation remained unresolved.

The tragedy that befell Russia after 1917 for a long time pushed aside many of the 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 jeopardized, it was no longer possible to improve existing biblical translations. For a long seventy years, the Bible was among the banned books: it was not published, it was not reprinted, it was not sold in bookstores, and even in churches it was practically impossible to get it. Depriving people of access to the main book of humanity is only one of the crimes of the godless regime. But this crime vividly characterizes the essence of the ideology that was enforced by force.

4. Today, times have changed, and the Bible in the Synodal translation is freely sold, including in secular bookstores. Books of scripture are distributed free of charge, in constant demand. For example, after two years ago the Charity Fund of St. Gregory the Theologian, in cooperation with the Publishing House of the Moscow Patriarchate, initiated a program for free distribution of the book “New Testament and Psalter”, 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.

There are also new translations of individual books of the Bible. These translations are of very different quality. So, for example, in the early 1990s, a translation of the epistles of the Apostle Paul appeared, made by V.N. Kuznetsova. I’ll quote just a few quotes: “Ah, you should tolerate me, even if I’m a little stupid! Well, please be patient ... I believe that in no way inferior to these very super apostles. Maybe I’m not a master at speaking, but with regard to knowledge, this is another matter ... I repeat once again: do not take me for a fool! And if you accept, then give me a little more to be a fool and a little brag! What I will say now, of course, is not from the Lord. In this undertaking, with boasting, I will speak like a fool ... Let anyone pretend to anything - I still speak like a fool ... ”(2 Cor. 11: 1–22). “I’m completely crazy! That you brought me! That you should praise me! Suppose so, you say, yes, I did not burden you, but I am a dodger and have taken control of you by cunning. Maybe I managed to profit from one of those whom I sent to you? ”(2 Cor. 12: 11–18). “Food for the belly and the 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 article (in other words, it’s difficult for me to call this “translation”), when I get acquainted with such texts, I get the feeling that you are not reading the Holy Scripture, but You are present at a quarrel in the kitchen of a communal apartment. The appearance of this sensation is facilitated by a peculiar set of words ("fool", "brag", "venture", "crazy", "praise", "dodger", "make money", "belly", "prostitute") and idioms ("not a master to speak, "" got his hands on it, "" by all means "," they brought me "). The sacred text is reduced to the areal, bazaar, kitchen level.

Of course, such translations only compromise the biblical translation. But this does not mean that work on the translation of the Holy Scriptures should not be conducted at all. Today, celebrating the anniversary of the Synodal translation, we must think about how we are worthy of our great tradition, dating back to Saints Cyril and Methodius, who, contrary to the “trilingual heresy” and persecution by the Latin clergy, gave the Slavic Bible to the Slavic peoples, as well as to St. Philaret and other creators of the Synodal Translation.

The constant care that the Word of God is intelligible and close to our contemporaries is the duty of the Church. But in what specific acts should this care be expressed? Do we need a new translation of the scripture, or is it enough to edit the existing synodal? Or maybe you don’t need to edit it at all?

I will share, again, my personal opinion. It seems to me that one should not swindle at a complete new translation of the Bible today. But one could prepare an edited edition of the Synodal Translation, in which the most obvious inaccuracies (similar to the mention of Diopetus in the book of Acts) would be corrected. It is clear that for the preparation of such a revision 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 version of the translation must be approved by 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, the New Testament textology itself is today at a completely different level than 140 years ago. It is impossible to ignore its achievements 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 reflect on its improvement.

______
¹ Except for small small-circulation editions of the Moscow Patriarchate, available only to a narrow circle of church workers. The first such publication appeared in 1956.

Original record: http://mospat.ru/ru/2016/10/04/news136578/

Bible or books of the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament in Russian translation. St. Petersburg, in the Synodal Printing House, 1876., II, 1600,, 392 p. 23.2 x 14.2 cm. The first full edition of the Bible in Russian, released with the blessing of the Holy Governing Synod. The text is typed in two columns in Russian in civilian font. A tray in a luxurious all-leather owner's binding of the era with gold and blind embossing on the lids and spine. The initials “P.Kh.” (Pavel Khludov) are embossed in gold on the front cover. In a cardboard case and canvas cover of the era. Triple golden sawn-off shotgun. Excellent preservation. On a blank sheet preceding the title, a dedication inscription in black ink is an autograph of Gerasim Ivanovich Khludov: “Christ is Risen! My dear son Pavel Gerasimovich Khludov. April 1, 1879. Gerasim Khludov. " Rarity. The instance is of significant historical value. In 2016, 140 years have passed since the first full Synodal edition of the Russian translation of the Bible.

This copy is both an Easter gift and a father’s blessing given by the merchant of the first guild, a millionaire manufacturer, an outstanding collector, the largest philanthropist and philanthropist Gerasim Ivanovich Khludov (1821-1885) to his only son and heir to all affairs, Paul, when he was 17 years old and he preparing to enter adulthood. Such a gift is of great importance and value. The richest Russian merchant gives his only son and successor a copy of the book, which until recently in Russia could only be read by representatives of the clergy or scholars who knew the Church Slavonic language, and now it has got the opportunity to plunge into the 17-year-old boy.

The history of the Synodal translation of the Bible into Russian has a long, full of dramatic twists and thorns. The Russian Bible Society, founded in 1813, began work on the translation of the Bible into Russian. The purpose of the Society was to publish and distribute books of scripture among the peoples of the Russian Empire in languages \u200b\u200bthey understand. In 1815, after returning from abroad, Emperor Alexander I ordered "to deliver to Russians a way to read the Word of God in their natural Russian language." The Russian Bible Society commissioned the members of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy to complete the translation. Work began with the translation of the Gospels and the New Testament. In 1818, the first edition of the four Gospels in parallel in Russian and Church Slavonic languages \u200b\u200bwent out of print, and in 1822 the Russian New Testament was first fully printed. Then began to translate and print books of the Old Testament.

A number of church hierarchs and representatives of the highest spiritual authority negatively related to the activities of Bible society. They believed that the Bible should be in the hands of the clergy and that the people should not be given the opportunity to read and study it themselves. In 1824, Metropolitan Seraphim asked the king to ban Bible society. In April 1826, by decree of Emperor Nicholas I, the activities of the Society were discontinued. Many copies of Bible Society publications that remained unsold were destroyed.

Only in 1858 did Emperor Alexander II authorize the translation and printing of the Holy Scriptures in Russian. The translation was to be carried out under the leadership of the Synod (the supreme governing body of the Orthodox Church). The basis was the work done by the Bible Society, but some parts of the text were edited, checked with different sources, some were translated again completely. Publishers sought to ensure that the Russian translation of the books of Scripture corresponded as much as possible with the texts of ancient scripts, as well as possessing literary merits. The translation was carried out by professors of theological academies: Petersburg, Moscow, Kiev and Kazan. The translation of the Old Testament was done by professors of the Petersburg Theological Academy: M.A. Golubev, E.I. Lovyatin, P.I. Savvaitov - a famous archaeologist and historian, D.A. Khvolson - orientalist, biblical scholar, professor of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy. Their works were approved by the diocesan bishops and then by the Synod. After that, Saint Filaret of Moscow, who was the editor-in-chief of this translation, made his revision. Finally, the text was finally approved by the Synod.

In 1860, a Russian translation of the Four Gospels was published, and in 1862, the remaining books of the New Testament. The "Pentateuch of Moses" was published in 1868. The remaining parts of the Old Testament were published until 1875. In 1876, the full Russian translation of the Bible was first published. It received the name "Synodal", as it was prepared under the guidance of the Holy Synod. This translation was significantly different from the translation of Bible society, published in the first quarter of the XIX century. With the Synodal translation, a new era begins in the spread of the biblical text in Russia. Until now, this translation of the Bible is the main canonical translation of the Holy Scriptures in Russia.

Pavel Gerasimovich Khludov (1862-1884) was the only son and heir to his father's business, so all his parents' attention was concentrated on him. From early childhood he received everything he wanted and was very spoiled. So, it is known that at the age of 10-12 he went to visit his cousin dressed up in a tailcoat, top hat, in a carriage drawn by luxurious trotters. Already in his youth, Pavel Gerasimovich joined the family business. He was a member of the board and director of the Partnership of the Yegoryevsky Spinning Mill Brothers A. and G. Khludov. A brilliant future, it would seem, was a foregone conclusion. But at the age of 21, Pavel Khludov tragically dies. This happened when he studied commerce in London. Many suspected that the revelry and intemperance of the young man led to death. This tragedy also affected the imminent death of Gerasim Ivanovich Khludov himself.

Gerasim Ivanovich Khludov - merchant of the first guild, manufactory-adviser, textile king from the merchant family of the Khludovs, who came from Yegoryevsk, an old Old Believer center. The merchants of Khludov, being one of the richest merchant families in Russia, became the largest Russian philanthropists and philanthropists of the 19th century. Gerasim Ivanovich was the founder of the Trading House “A. and G. Ivan Khludov’s sons, ”one of the founders and owners of the Yegoryevsky paper spinning and weaving mill. It grew by the beginning of the twentieth century. to gigantic proportions and still works, despite all the historical turmoil. In 1861, G.I. Khludov was granted the Order of St. Stanislav of the 1st degree. He was the vowel of the Moscow City Council in 1863-1866, elected by the Moscow merchant class in 1863-1866 and 1873-1876, elected by the Moscow Exchange Society in 1870-1873.

G.I. Khludov was a collector of Russian painting and early printed books. Even in his youth at the age of 14, an entrepreneur began to keep a diary and continued it for 40 years. G.I. Khludov possessed a literary gift and refined taste, kept an English park, a menagerie, outlandish birds in his Moscow estate on Zemlyanoy Val, was a connoisseur of the theater and music lover. But the fate of the family was very tragic. Of the 12 children born, five survived, with only one son. Four sons died in infancy or early childhood, and this was a huge drama in family life. The great religiosity of G.I. Khludov and generous charity were associated with these shocks. The gift of G.I. Khludov to his son for Easter is also conditioned by a lively religious feeling.

G.I. Khludov was a great connoisseur and connoisseur of the book; he put together an excellent library of Russian old-printed publications and manuscripts. Only old-printed books in it were 624 copies. Brother G.I. Khludova Alexey Ivanovich was even more famous as a collector of books. The pearl of his collection was the famous Greek manuscript of the middle of the IX century. In science, it is known as the Khludov Psalter, especially valuable and unique in its miniatures.

Elizabethan Bible (1751)

Ostrog Bible (1582).

In the 16th century, young Muscovite Russia was a weak state, while Lithuania was a very strong state. This is not the Lithuania that we know today. This is a Russian state with an orientation toward the West with the dominant Catholic faith, where the Orthodox were constantly subjected to oppression. At the end of the 16th century, the Orthodox lived relatively freely thanks to the influential Prince Konstantin of Ostrog. He, seeing the plight of the Holy Scriptures in Russia, gathered in his Ostrog a circle of learned Slavs and Greeks. They corrected the Gennadiev Bible according to the Septuagint. Prince Constantine published it in 1582. This is the first printed Bible in Russia.

The Elizabethan Bible originates from the time of Peter I. This is a man who, in ruling Orthodox Russia, was forced in some cases to put on the mask of an Orthodox sovereign and to commit some deeds in this direction. This is the construction of the Kazan Cathedral in St. Petersburg, the transfer of the relics of the Right Prince Alexander Nevsky to St. Petersburg and, in particular, this is the care of the Bible, of the Holy Scriptures.

February 14, 1712 Peter I issues a decree on the correction of the Ostrog Bible according to the Septuagint. The best linguists of their time were appointed, including Sofroniy Likhud, the founder of our Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy. In 1724, the work was completed. Letters (font) were already typed, and everything was ready for the publication of the Bible. The direct command of the emperor was lacking. But in January 1725, the Emperor caught a cold during another flood in St. Petersburg and died.

In state relations, after Peter I follows a whole chain of palace coups. As for the Bible, new commissions were created. These commissions were sometimes set completely opposite tasks. As a result, the business of publishing the Bible stood. This continued until 1743, until Elizabeth Petrovna, daughter of Peter I, ascended the throne. Based on the corrections made before her, a hasty text review was made, and in 1751 the revised Bible was published.

The idea of \u200b\u200ba Russian translation of the Bible has ripened among the people for a long time. For example, Saint Alexy translated the New Testament into the spoken language of his time. In the 16th century in present Belarus, Francis Skorin translated the Bible, in the 18th century the Archbishop of St. Petersburg Ambrose (Zertis-Kamensky) translated individual books from the Hebrew text. But these were private attempts that were not widespread. In 1812, the Bible Society was founded in Russia on the model of British in order to translate the Bible into the languages \u200b\u200bof foreigners living in the territory of the Russian Empire. Soon, Emperor Alexander I himself proposed translating the Bible into Russian. In 1818, the Four Gospels were published. In 1819, the book of the Acts of the Apostles, in 1822 the New Testament was published. Work began on a translation of the Old Testament. Book translations were distributed between the Academies, then they exchanged translations, and the other Academy introduced its corrections, amendments, comments, wishes. Work began on a translation of the Old Testament. Here the question arose of which text to translate from. It was decided to translate from the Hebrew text, to verify with the Septuagint. Those words and phrases that are present in the Septuagint and are absent in the Hebrew text, put in brackets, which is in the modern text.

At this time, opponents of the Russian translation raised their heads, who believed that translating the Bible into Russian means vulgarizing it. In 1826, Prince Golitsyn was fired. Bible society was closed. The print run of the Pentateuch was burned, and the Russian translation of the Bible stopped for a long time.

At this time, private translations of the Bible into Russian were undertaken. For example, the Altai missionary, now ranked among the saints, Archimandrite Makarii (Glukharev) translated books from the Hebrew text. He was summoned to the Synod and told that he was engaged in missionary work, and not translate books. A more serious scandal erupted regarding the translation of books from the Hebrew text by the professor of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy in the department of the Jewish language, Archpriest Gerasim Pavsky. He translated in a purely rationalistic non-Messianic spirit. This translation has been printed (i.e. printed). Father Gerasim was summoned to the Synod. He was assigned to celibacy and penance.

The case of the Russian translation of the Bible resumed in 1858 after the accession of Alexander II. The text of the Bible was re-viewed. The text of the Old Testament was also distributed and gradually translated. The whole Bible was translated in 1875, and in 1876 the whole Russian Bible was first published in one volume.

Division of the Bible.

As long as there is scripture, so much is its division into separate parts. There are books that were originally collections of songs, hymns. This is the Psalter, the Book of Jeremiah weeping.

The division into separate parts is embedded in the meaning of the text. The text of the beginning of the Bible often makes new introductions. In the post-flood period there is a constant alternation of history and genealogy. Each pedigree summarizes a specific historical department.

There was a division for synagogue use. In the New Testament, in the Christian Church, division has existed since the first centuries. From the ancient conception, I wanted to mention the pericopes of the Alexandrian deacon Ammonius (4th century). The modern liturgical division into the conception is ascribed to the Monk John of Damascus (8th century). The modern division into chapters was made in the West in the 13th century (1238, Cardinal Hugon). The first Bible, completely divided into chapters and verses, as we know them, was published in 1555 in the Paris edition of Robert Stephen. It should immediately be noted that this division is very unsuccessful.

For a long time, only one - the Synodal - Bible translation was used in the territory of the former Soviet Union. This was due both to the policy of universal atheism in the country, and to the dominant position of the Orthodox Church, whose synod approved this translation. Owing to this state of things, the idea that the Synodal translation is the real Bible (almost the original), and that all other translations are something innovative and not trustworthy, has taken root in the consciousness of society.

Is it so? How accurate is the synodal translation of the Bible? And why do we need different translations?

First translations

The ancient history of translating the Bible into Russian is not so rich. The first of these was performed by the brothers Cyril and Methodius, who lived in the 9th century. Moreover, it was made from the Greek Septuagint. So, the translation was already double: first from the Hebrew language to Greek, and already from Greek to Old Slavonic.

In 1751, Empress Elizabeth ordered that this translation be double-checked and corrected if necessary. So there was a publication of the Bible called "Elizabethan", which the Orthodox Church to this day uses in its services.

Proceedings of Macarius

In 1834, the Orthodox archimandrite Makarios began work on the translation of the Bible, which lasted for ten years. He translated the text directly from the Hebrew language and already in 1839 submitted part of his work to the Synod. His publication was categorically refused. What was the reason? The members of the Synod did not like that Archimandrite Macarius decided to use the personal name of God in the main text where it appears in the original. According to church tradition, it should be replaced everywhere with the titles of the Lord or God.

Despite such a categorical refusal, Macarius continued his work. However, they began to publish it only after 30 years. And then only in parts, for seven years, in the journal "Orthodox Review". The next time this translation, extracted from the repositories of the Russian National Library, was published only in 1996.

Work on the Synodal Translation

Paradoxical as it may sound, the translation of the Macarius, rejected by the Synod, served as an indispensable tool in the preparation of the updated translation, known today as the Synodal Bible Translation. All attempts to prepare other translations were thwarted with all severity, and the finished work was subject to destruction. For a long time, there was debate about whether it was necessary to provide the flock with an updated translation at all or to leave only the Old Slavonic version.

Finally, in 1858, an official decision was approved that the Synodal translation would be useful to the flock, but the Old Slavonic text should continue to be used at divine services. This state of affairs persists to the present moment. The complete synodal translation of the Bible was published only in 1876.

Why do we need new translations

For more than a century, the Synodal translation has helped sincere people gain knowledge about God. So is it worth it to change something? It all depends on how you relate to the Bible. The fact is that some people perceive it as some kind of magical amulet, believing that the mere presence of this book in the house should produce some kind of auspicious effect. And, therefore, the grandfather's folio with yellowed pages, in the text of which is full of solid signs (this is one of the striking features of the Old Slavonic grammar), will, of course, be a real treasure.

However, if a person understands that the true value is not in the material from which the pages are made, but in the information that the text carries, then he will give preference to an understandable and easily readable translation.

Lexical changes

Any language changes over time. What our great-grandfathers said may not be clear to the current generation. Therefore, there is a need to update the translation of the Bible. Here are a few examples that are present in the Synodal translation: finger, finger, blessed, husband, ramen, packing. Do you understand all these words? And here is their meaning: dust, finger, happy, man, shoulders, recreation.

Bible: modern translation

In recent years, a number of modern translations have appeared. Among them, the most famous are the following:

• 1968 - translation of Bishop Cassian (New Testament).
• 1998 - restoration translation “Living Stream” (New Testament).
• 1999 - “Modern Translation” (complete Bible).
• 2007 - “Holy Scripture. Translation of the New World ”(complete Bible).
• 2011 - “The Bible. Modern Russian translation ”(full Bible).

The new translation of the Bible allows you to focus on the meaning of what is written, and not to read the incomprehensible text, as if in ancient spells. However, there is also a trap for translators, because the desire to convey the meaning of what was said in an understandable language can entail personal interpretations and interpretations. And this is unacceptable.

Do not be careless in choosing which Bible translation to use for personal reading. Indeed, the Word of God affirms that he is talking to us from the pages of this book. Let his words sound without distortion!