On textology of old Slavonic translation of the catechetical lectures of St. Cyril of Jerusalem

This article sets forth features of textology of two of the twenty-four Catechetical Lectures of St. Cyril of Jerusalem in Old Slavonic translation. The first part of the article considers a version, according to which the Greek written text of the Catechetical Lectures was a result of synchronous interpretation, which may account for the extreme complexity of textology of the original. Comparison of the Greek and Slavonic texts of the Lectures shows that the Old Slavonic translation corresponds to the general readings of the earli­est extant Greek manuscripts, while individual readings (interpretation) of these latter, as a rule, have no cor­respondence. Since the antigraph of the Greek copies has not been identified, this feature of the Slavonic text attests to its value for reconstruction of the original of the Catechetical Lectures. The article provides a few examples of using relational method of textual analysis of the Greco-Slavonic text, giving an idea of interac­tion of the three Greek editions in the earliest extant complete Slavonic manuscript of the Catechetical Lec­tures (State Historical Museum, Syn. 478). The second part of the article focuses on the analysis of variant readings between Old Slavonic translation and the earliest Greek manuscripts. A great part of the original Slavonic readings is not a result of free interpretation, as was assumed to be the case in studies on Hilandar Folios, but is due to the translator's following the Slavonic language norm and an unidentified Greek anti-graph.