Hermeneutics of Old Russian Literature Hermeneutics of Old Russian Literature 1607-6192 2713-2226 IWL RAS https://doi.org/10.22455/HORL.1607-6192-2023-22-292-311 Research Article Articles Image of Fire in the Ladder of John Climacus Popova Tatiana G. old-rus@imli.ru 2023 22 292 311 Copyright © 2026, IWL RAS 2026 The article examines the image of fire in the Ladder of John Climacus on the basis of the manuscripts of the first Slavic translation of monument. The main verbalizer of the concept “fire” is the lexeme πῦρ огнь, which occurs 71 times in the book: 17 times in the designation of fire as a physical phenomenon and 54 times in a symbolic sense (18 times as punishing fire and 36 times as blessed fire). Fire lives in heart of a monk, and it can be both the fire of love and the fire of passions. The main function of lexeme fire in the Ladder is to designate fire as a servant of God, who can both punish and pardon. The punishing fire can be God himself, Gehenna and passions in the human soul. The merciful fire can be God himself and good deeds (prayer, faith, crying, etc.). Statistical analysis led to the conclusion that the main function of image of fire in the Ladder is the designation of love for the Lord. The article names the Byzantine codices of the Ladder, close to the text of the lost original of the first Slavic translation, indicates the errors of scribe of the oldest manuscript of the translation, and also names 4 lexemes that are not recorded in the historical dictionaries of the Russian and Old Slavonic languages.