GENNADIEVSKII BIBLE

GENNADIEVSKII BIBLE. During the “Judaizing heresy” and the possessor/non-possessor (q.v.) controversy, the first complete Church Slavic Bible was compiled in Novgorod (q.v.). The translation effort included other texts besides the Bible, such as pieces focusing on messianism in Scripture (q.v.), polemics against Jews, and Church-state (q.v.) debates on property. Basically the entire effort responded to the above-mentioned movements and was authorized by Archbishop Gennadius of Novgorod-and became known in Russian as the Gennadievskii (Gennadius’s) Bible (1499).

Political and polemical considerations undermined the effort from the beginning. Neither Hebrew, Greek, nor extant Slavic translations were employed as primary texts from which to translate, but only the Vulgate. This phenomenon is indicative of a general orientation of Russia toward the Occident after the fall of Constantinople (q.v.). The Vulgate was supplied by a Dominican, Friar Benjamin (Veniamin), whose appearance in Novgorod might have been for this specific purpose. The section headings for Gennadius’s Bible were co-opted from a recently published German edition. Russian evaluations of the translation through modern times have been negative, and focus on the “incursionary” presence of Roman Catholic (q.v.) politics on Russian soil.