Атонската редакция на Апостола
The Athonite Revision of the Apostolos

Summary/Abstract: The main liturgical books were revised at the beginning of the 14th century (or even earlier) textually as well as liturgically. This revision was most probably carried out in monasteries on Mount Athos. The revised texts were widely disseminated in the Slavia Orhodoxa. Since the 15th century manuscripts not containing the revised texts can thus hardly be found. In spite of its importance the Athonite redaction has not yet been studied in detail. The texts of the manuscripts following this redaction are highly unified. They show practically no differences, regardless of whether they are Bulgarian, Serbian or Russian. The specific textual features of this redaction of the Apostolos are describedin this paper on the basis of a juxtaposition with the more archaic text. The text was revised completely and there are both structural and lexical changes. Several principles followed by the revisors can be defined. Greek words are translated, if possible: there are few Greek loanwords. Different Greek words are translated by different Slavonic words (a larger number of synonyms is used as a result). Archaic and rare words are replaced. The difficult topoi where the preceding tradition shows many different variants are translated anew. In cases where the earlier tradition has both a Cyrillo-Methodian and a Preslav lexeme, the one that is in use in the spoken language is preferred. Finally the analysis reveals that the revision was done on the basis of a sound understanding of the Greek text. The redactors provided a new interpretation in a number of cases. The general conclusion is that the purpose of the Mount Athos redaction was to make the text of the Apostolos more understandable and to bring it closer to the contemporary Slavic literary language. A list of lexemes characteristic of the Mount Athos redaction is given together with their counterparts from the first translation of the Apostolos.

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