STYLISTIC REVISION OF THE OLD RUSSIAN APOCRYPHA THE CONFESSION OF EVE: STUDY AND TEXT

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Category: Hermeneutics of Old Russian Literature: Issue 24
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Abstract:

The article considers the peculiarities of the new Stylistic edition of the Old Russian Apocrypha The Сonfession of Eve. It is read inantology from the Collection of Tikhonravov of 1784 in Russian State Library (f. 299, no. 93). Comparison of the text with the medieval version of the monument showed that the editor showed himself to be an attentive reader, not lacking in creativity. By retelling the Apocrypha and updating its language, he allowed himself to speculate and sharpen the themes and motifs originally characteristic of its content, and enriched them with new shades. Thus, the editor introduced the theme of the beautiful paradise into the monument, supplementing with a corresponding definition of the notion of paradise, characteristic of the second edition of the work, which served as the source of his work, which strengthened the theme of the transgression of the first people in the text. On the other hand, the beautiful paradise is a topos that denoted the afterlife in spiritual poems.This peculiarity of the text of the Stylistic edition allowed us to see in its author a native of the people, for whom paradise is not a transcendent world, but an ideal space existing on earth. This is evidenced by the definition of earthly used by the editor in relation to paradise. The theme ofearthly paradise in Antology from the Collection of Tikhonravov is also developed in other monuments, such as the The Journey of Trifon Korobeinikov, The Journey of Zosima to the Rahmans, The Poem about Christ Jesus, Our Lord, a poetic arrangement of the Gospel of Matthew. The first two monuments were also subjected to stylistic editing and reinterpretation of images, themes and motifs characteristic of them by the compiler of the collection. The work carried out by the 18th century scribe enriched the literary history of these works with new editions and made it possible to con- sider the codex as a “Paradise-Palestinian” metatext.The Appendix to the article contains the text of the stylistic edition of the apocrypha Confession of Eve.
Keywords: apocrypha, paradise, collection, circulation, Jerusalem, Holy Land, edition, The Journey of Trifon Korobeinikov, The Journey of Zosima to the Rahmans, “Paradise-Palestinian” metatext.
Author: Irina V. Fedorova
Information about the author:

Irina V. Fedorova, PhD in Philology, Senior Researcher, Institute of Russian Literature (Pushkin House) of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Makarov Emb., 4, 199034 St. Petersburg, Russia.

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2149-9395

E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
For citation:

Fedorova, I.V. “Stylistic Revision of the Old Russian Apocrypha ʽThe Confession of Eve’: Study and Text.” Germenevtika drevnerusskoi literatury [Hermeneutics of Old Russian Literature]. Issue 24. Ed.-in- chief O.A. Tufanova, sci. ed. M.V. Kaplun. Moscow, IWL RAS Publ., 2025, pp. 159–186. https://doi.org/10.22455/HORL.1607-6192-2025-24-159-186 (In Russian)
EDN:

https://elibrary.ru/MINBEU
UDC: 821.161.1.0
Publication Type: Research Article and Publication of Archival Documents
DOI: https://doi.org/10.22455/HORL.1607-6192-2025-24-159-186
Received: 16.12.2025
Approved after reviewing: 01.02.2025
Date of publication: 13.07.2025

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