Към историята на Кирило-Методиевия старобългарски превод на апостола
On the History of the Translation of the Epistles into Old-Bulgarian by Cyril and Methodius

Summary/Abstract: The linguistic characterization of the translation of the Epistles into Old-Bulgarian by Cyril and Methodius has not yet used fully such important sources as the excerpts from the Epistles, used in the form of direct quotations in non-canonical translation literature and in the works of the Old-Bulgarian authors. A very important linguistic source about the history of the translation of the Epistles into Old-Bulgarian is a long quotation from Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians (Chapter XIV, verse 5–40), used in support of writing in one's own language at the so-called Venetian Dispute of Constantine-Cyril and reflected in detail in his extensive biography. This quotation from the Epistles is compared in the study to the text of the early transcripts of the Epistles that have survived to our times, more specifically to those of them that have been published or studied, as well as to the text of the Greek original. The translation norms are studied and analysed from the viewpoint of the modern theory of translation and of the theory about literary languages, with a view to the variation of the linguistic means of expression and in comparison with the reflected principles and norms in the Old-Bulgarian translation of the Epistles and of the Gospel. It can be claimed with a considerable certainty that this entire long quotation (1 Cor. 14: 5–40), taken from Chapter XVI of the Extensive Vita of Constantine-Cyril, has been rendered according to the authentic text, borrowed directly by the author of the Vita, without any changes as compared with the original translation of the Epistles by Cyril and Methodius. The linguistic specificities of this first translation have been preserved to the maximum in the excerpt from the vita studied. The detailed and comprehensive textological and linguistic analysis, which is based on the comparison of the texts of a large number of transcripts of the vitae and of the Epistles, as well as of quotations from the Epistles in Old-Bulgarian literature, leaves no doubt about the plausibility of this important conclusion. A separate analysis is made of the later linguistic corrections on the second (Preslav) version of the Epistles in this excerpt from Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians, with special attention to its characteristic specificities. The fact that the vita of Constantin-Cyril contains the authentic text of the original translation of the Epistles made by Cyril and Methodius suggests that the completing parts of the Epistles, which are added to make the brief Aprakos Epistles into the complete Epistles, had been translated before the year 882, when the extended vita of the first Slav teacher was already written.

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