THE LATE PROPHETOLOGION REDACTION OF CHAPTERS 7–9 OF THE BOOK OF GENESIS IN THE TIKHONRAVOVSKY CHRONOGRAPH

Abstract

This article continues the study of the Biblical books included in the Tikhonravovsky Chronograph and deals with Chapters 7–9 of the Book of Genesis. Their redaction differs fundamentally from the main “izbornaia” redaction of the biblical books in this codex. While the main redaction was a result of the abridgement of the ancient Preslav translation of the Octateuch, the source of Chapters 7–9 of the Book of Genesis in the Tikhonravovsky Chronograph were the paroemias for the third and fourth weeks of Lent of the socalled late redaction of the Prophetologion (Parimijnik). The latter was completed sometime between the 13th and early 14th centuries, presumably on Mount Athos, when Bulgarian scribes were correcting liturgical books. The analysis also involves the Kolomensky type of the Palaea Interpretata, which goes back to the “izbornaia” redaction of the biblical books through the “protochronograph”, which dates from the end of the 12th or the first half of the 13th century. This “protochronograph” has been recently introduced for academic study. It was supposedly written by Athanasius, the interpreter of the Epistle of Metropolitan Kliment Smolyatich. As is the case with the Tikhonravovsky Chronograph, the initial Chapters 1–9 of the Book of Genesis in the Palaea Interpretata significantly diverge from the Preslav translation of the Octateuch, due to the use of paroemias. The article compares these texts in Tikhonravovsky Chronograph with those found in the Palaea Interpretata, the Arkhivsky Chronograph, and the Prophetologion of the oldest type (in the twelfth-century Grigorovich manuscript and in the Zaharinsky manuscript from the year 1271). The comparison reveals that the Tikhonravovsky Chronograph contains verbatim quotes from the late (Pozdniaia) redaction of the Prophetologion (the manuscript from the year 1521 in the Museum collection of the Russian State Library in Moscow), while the Palaea Interpretata mostly follows the oldest type of the Prophetologion and only occasionally reproduces readings from its late redaction. The article hypothesizes that the beginning of the Book of Genesis could be replaced with the paroemias already in the “protochronograph”. This could happen, for example, because of the loss of Chapters 1–9 of the Book of Genesis from its source. In this form the “protochronograph” could be reflected in the Palaea Interpretata and in the Tikhonravovsky Chronograph. In the latter text, the initial paroemias of Lent (until Wednesday of the third week inclusive) were replaced by the narrative from the Palaea Interpretata within the same temporal limits of biblical history.