O времени и цели составления византийского лекционария
The Byzantine Lectionary: When and Why it Was Compiled

Summary/Abstract: A century long study of the Lectionary, from Caspar R. Gregory to Klaus Junack, has evidenced that (1) it is necessary to distinguish between Jerusalem and Byzantine (Constantinople) forms of the book; and (2) there are no MSS containing the latter until the 8th century. The present paper provides the next step of tackling the problem through analysis of three constructive elements of the Byzantine Lectionary (BL). (a) BL reflects two rites – monastic and parochial – in two lectionary forms: the full one (with liturgies for all weekdays except those of Lent) and the concise one (with weekday liturgies for Easter-Pentecost period). This feature can not be related to the Iconoclastic Controversy (726–842) for the extant BL MSS are older. The division of the two rites took place in the 6th century. (b) Removal of Old Testament lessons from the liturgy is another BL's distinctive feature. It is known that Patriarch Germanos (715–730) did not read them in his services, whereas Maximus the Confessor (†662) did. Some facts and considerations make us look for reasons for this novation in the liturgical theology of Maximus. (c) BL's menology begins with September, 1, which was fixed as the first day of the year in the time of Emperor Heraclius (610–641). These and some other considerations make it possible to maintain that BL was sanctioned by the Trullan Synod (692). From the very beginning BL was designed to establish the service rite within the limits of the Patriarchate and was never used outside it. It makes it rather improbable that Cyrill and Methodius should have based on it their first translation. It was not until the end of the 9th century that BL was adopted by Slavonic clergy in Bulgaria as standard of Slavonic liturgy.

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