Questions and Answers to Antiochus the Duke in the South-Slavic and Russian Traditions: Manuscripts from 14th–15th Centuries with Lestvitsa (The Ladder of Divine Ascent) of John Climacus

Abstract

This article explores the Pseudo-Athanasian writing Questions and Answers to Antiochus the Duke in the South-Slavic and Russian traditions in the 14th–15th centuries. The authors provide a brief overview of the research on the early history of the text and interact with the conclusions by W. R. Veder and L. Sels who distinguish two main groups of manuscripts and two versions of the text, respectively. The authors raise the problem of limited textual material and lack of understanding of the manuscript tradition, which often goes with the tendency of scholars to approach this writing without a proper historical perspective on its spread in the Slavic lands. As a way of contributing to the solution of this problem, the authors propose to introduce into the scientific circulation three new manuscripts of the Questions and Answers from the 14th–15th centuries, based on the research of T. G. Popova, who designated these manuscripts as those who contain the Lestvitsa (The Ladder of Divine Ascent) of John Climacus. The bulk of the article examines these manuscripts, their specific features and redactions in relation to the textual groups I and II. At the end of the article, the authors draw important conclusions concerning the early spread of the Questions and Answers as they were transmitted together with Lestvitsa.