The Reception of “Slavonic Apocrypha”

This paper examines the history of scholarship on medieval Slavonic religious literature. The bulk of these writings have been studied either by biblical scholars or by Slavicists under the name of “Slavonic Apocrypha.” The fifteenth century manuscript, Slav 29, typifies this scholarship. Slavonic translations of Hellenistic pseudepigrapha were used by textual critics for the reconstruction of biblical literature. Biblical scholars praise Slav 29 as the source of the best version of the Hellenistic romance, Joseph and Aseneth. Slavicists-medievalists celebrate it as the manuscript of the Serbian poetic masterpiece, Slovoljubve (A Homage to Love). They study Slav. 29 as part of national Slavic literature. As a representative of medieval Slavic literature Slav 29 also includes biblical passages, theological discourses, historiographies, hagiographies, sermons, erotapokriseis, fables, medical prescriptions, and folk tales.