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**List: Russian Ministry Bible ( Библия )
RUSSIAN VERSION (RUSS), from the Edition printed at St Petersburgh--1860 S. Bagster [Info only: col. #2 Cyrillic (Old) Character "1822" John 1:1-12 unknown. col. 1 Slavonic.] |
Русский / Russki / Russian Bible History (3)
**List: Russian Ministry
Bible ( Библия )
Russian...
RUSSIAN. "I.--GEOGRAPHICAL EXTENT AND STATISTICS. THE Russian empire, in point of extent, exceeds the most famous empires of antiquity, and numerous
languages and dialects are spoken within its confines. The Russian language is vernacular in by far
the greater part of European Russia, a vast territory, which includes an area of 2,000,000 English
square miles, with a population which exceeds 60,000,000. The superficial extent of the entire empire
has been estimated by Hassel at 372,935, and by Kœppen at 364,388 German geographical square
miles (equal to between 7 and 8,000,000 of English square miles). The Sclavonic portion of the
population has been computed at nearly 46,000,000, or about three-fourths of the whole. The national
religion of Russia is the Russo-Greek Church: since the time of Peter the Great the reigning emperor
has been the acknowledged head of this Church, and all ecclesiastical affairs are under the direction
of a synod appointed by him. The ritual is contained in twenty folio volumes, composed in the
Old Sclavonic language.II.--CHARACTERISTICS OF THE LANGUAGE. The Russian is the principal of the numerous languages and dialects which derive their origin
from the Old Sclavonic. It was originally the dialect of the Antes, a Sclavonic people who, about the
seventh or eighth century of our era, settled in the country now called Russia, and drove out the
Schudi, or Finns, the previous occupiers of that vast territory. In 864, the Russian monarchy was
founded by Ruric, a Scandinavian prince: he assumed the reins of government at the solicitation of the
Antes, but his Scandinavian followers were too few in number to exert any perceptible influence on
the language of his new subjects. Other idioms have, however, commingled more freely with it;
and Finnish, Greek, Mongolian, Tartar, Polish, Dutch, German, and French words enter plentifully
into its composition.
These heterogeneous elements, while they add to the richness of the vocabulary, in no wisedetract from the native symmetry of the Russian tongue. It is one of the most flexible of languages,
and possesses in a remarkable degree the property of assimilating foreign words, employing them
as roots; whence, by its own resources, it raises stems and branches. Even now, in proportion to
the increasing civilisation of the people, the stores of the language are being increased by continual
accessions from foreign sources. The most prominent grammatical features of the Old Sclavonic
language are reproduced in the Russian, a circumstance which no doubt arises partly from the original
connection between the two languages, and partly from the influence of the older idiom on the Russian;
for simultaneously with the introduction of Christianity in the tenth century, the Old Sclavonic was
adopted in Russia as its liturgical and ecclesiastical language. The resemblance of Russian composition
to that of the Latin is also very striking, and the hypothesis has even been started that Latin was
originally a dialect of the Sclavonic, but this is simply because both have considerable affinity
with the Sanscrit. Russian nouns possess three genders, two numbers, and seven cases, all of which
(except the nominative and the vocative) are distinguished by different terminations: by means of
these cases the transposition of words is often carried to a great extent in the construction of sentences,
without occasioning ambiguity. The Russian language exceeds even the Italian in its immense stock
of diminutives and augmentatives; every noun has at least two augmentatives and three diminutives,
and some have even more. On the other hand the number of conjunctions is extremely limited, but
this deficiency rather tends to impart clearness of expression, by preventing the formation of long,
involved sentences.
Considering the vast extent of territory through which the Russian language is diffused, its
provincial or dialectical variations are remarkably few in number. In fact, it has been observed, that
an inhabitant of Archangel and one of Astracan, meeting at Moscow, would understand each other;
and this conformity of language between provinces so remote is attributed to the use of the Old
Sclavonic throughout Russia in the services of the Church. The Russian language admits but of two
principal divisions, namely, Great Russian, the literary and official language of the nation, spoken in
Moscow and the northern parts of the empire, and Little or Malo- Russian, which contains many
obsolete forms of expression, and is predominant in the south of European Russia, especially towards
the east. To these may be added the idiom of the Russniaks, spoken in the east of Galicia and the
north-east of Hungary, which, though differing slightly in pronunciation, is essentially the same as the
Malo-Russian; and the White Russian, or Polish Russian, spoken by the common people in parts of
Lithuania and in White Russia. The characters used in writing Russian are a modification of the
Old Sclavonian or Cyrillic. They were slightly altered in form by Peter the Great, and their number
was reduced by him to thirty-four; since his time they have been subjected to few changes.III.--VERSIONS OF THE SCRIPTURES IN THIS LANGUAGE. The earliest Russian version of the Scriptures was written in White Russian, a semi-Polish dialect,
which arose in the beginning of the sixteenth century, in consequence of the connection then subsisting
between Poland and Russia. Part of the Old Testament belonging to this version was printed at
Prague in 1517-19; the Acts and Epistles appeared at Wilna, 1525. We have no information as to
the circumstances under which this translation was executed. All that we now know about the trans-
lator is, that his name was Skorina, that he was a doctor of medicine, and that he was born at Polotsk,
and completed his version at Wilna. Certain portions only of his translation have as yet been dis-
covered, but it is evident, from his prefaces to some of the books, that he translated, or intended to
translate, the entire Scriptures. He drew his version from the Vulgate, but in particular passages he
followed the readings of the Sclavonic, or of the Septuagint, whence it is derived.
At the close of the seventeenth century, another attempt was made to produce a version of the
Scriptures in the language then commonly spoken in Russia. The promoter of this version was
Ernest Glück, a native of Saxony, dean of the Lutheran Church in Livonia. The success which
attended his translation of the Scriptures into the Lettish language, induced him to attempt aRussian version from the Old Sclavonic text
, and he employed an aged Russian priest to assist in the
preparation of the work. Unhappily the translation was destroyed, with the whole of Glück's MSS.
and library, at the siege of Marienburg, in 1702, and he appears to have made no effort to recom-
mence the work.
The version most widely circulated in Russia was prepared under the immediate auspices of the
Russian Bible Society. On the first formation of the Society, in 1813, great doubts were entertained
as to the possibility of obtaining a version in the language of the people, on account of the prejudices
of the clergy, and the veneration with which the Old Sclavonic version was regarded by all ranks of
the community. In the beginning of the year 1816, copies of the versions printed by the Society in
the languages spoken in distant parts of the empire were laid before the emperor, and he was much
struck at perceiving that, while so many barbarous tribes had been thus put in possession of the oracles
of God, "his own Russians still remained destitute of the boon mercifully designed to be freely com-
municated to all." At his instigation, an order was immediately forwarded through the president of
the Society to the Holy Synod, enjoining the translation of the New Testament into Modern Russ.
The Synod acquiesced in the imperial mandate, and some of the most competent individuals connected
with the spiritual academy of St. Petersburg were appointed to prepare a version: their work, when
completed, was submitted for revision to the clerical members of the Bible Society, and, after three
years had been devoted to the undertaking, an edition of the Four Gospels was struck off, in parallel
columns with the Sclavonic text. Such was the demand for this work, that two editions, consisting
of 15,000 copies, were issued during the course of the same year, and during the following year
50,000 copies of the Gospels and Acts were printed and circulated. The first edition of the entire
New Testament did not appear till 1823; it was printed without the accompaniment of the Sclavonic
text. Eight months afterwards it was carefully stereotyped, and 20,000 copies struck off for immediate
distribution, and other editions followed in quick succession from the Society's printing office at
St. Petersburg. This version, although not exempt from verbal errors and omissions, ranks among
the best of modern translations; it was executed from Greek MSS., and contains many indications of
the critical spirit of research which characterises the nineteenth century.
With respect to the Russian version of the Old Testament, the first portion translated by command
of the emperor was the Psalms, the chief preparation of which devolved on the Rev. Dr. Pavsky, of the
cathedral of St. Petersburg, the first Hebrew scholar in the empire. The first edition appeared in
1822, and consisted of 15,000 copies; yet so great was the demand, that within the space of two years
no less than 100,000 copies left the press. This version was peculiarly acceptable in Russia, on account
of its being drawn immediately from the Hebrew text, whereas the Old Sclavonic, which it in a great
measure superseded, was derived, as above stated, from the Septuagint. The translation of the other
books of the Old Testament from the Hebrew proceeded under the direction of the spiritual academies
of St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Kief; and an edition to consist of 10,000 copies of the Pentateuch, and
the books of Joshua, Judges, and Ruth, was subsequently undertaken.
In 1826, however, the Russian Bible Society was suspended by the ukase of the emperor Nicholas,
and little intelligence has been obtained since that period concerning the circulation of the Bible in
Russia. So far as regards the distribution of this version, the laborious efforts of Henderson, Pinkerton,
and Paterson, in promoting the organisation of the Society and preparation of the version, are now
utterly fruitless; for the Society is virtually dissolved, and all its printing operations arrested. The
admission of the Scriptures in the Modern Russian tongue is still strictly forbidden by the authorities,
acting under the influence of the Greek Church. The educated classes in Russia are generally
acquainted with French and German, and sometimes even English, and in these languages they can
obtain copies of the Bible. But all the Russian Testaments printed by the Society have been dis-
tributed, and as another edition cannot for the present be obtained, the Russian peasantry are debarred
from the privilege of studying the Word of God. The only substitute they possess consists of two
small volumes of scriptural extracts, set forth by the government, in the modern language. Theseextracts consist of selections from Scripture, printed without note or comment; and as they point out
the way of salvation through faith in the work of the Redeemer, they may be used as the means of
awakening some to the knowledge of the truth."--The Bible of Every Land. (1860, Second Edition) Samuel Bagster [Info only]RUSSIAN VERSION (RUSS), from the Edition printed at St Petersburgh--1860 S. Bagster [Info only: col. #2 Cyrillic (Old) Character "1822" John 1:1-12 unknown. col. 1 Slavonic.]
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