Глава седьмая. Начало перевода Библии 1814–1817

Alexander I read the New Testament in French for the first time. It’s just that there was no Russian translation, and the tsar couldn’t read Old Church Slavonic; he needed to ask every five or six words what it meant. And suddenly the question arose whether it was necessary to create a Russian translation of the Gospel. And not only the Gospel, but the entire Bible? The answer to this question at first suggests itself: why not? What is wrong with translating the Holy Scriptures into speech that is understandable to people who do not know other languages ​​than the one in which they speak. However, everything is far from so simple, otherwise the controversy would have died down a long time ago. Let's remember how the Reformation began. This was one of the main questions. The explanation of the opponents of the translation in a nutshell is this: the peoples, having received an accessible Bible and began to read it without interpretation from educated shepherds, will begin to interpret it in their own way, and as a result, all kinds of sects will spring up everywhere, like mushrooms, each of which will have its own interpretations and its own supreme interpreters. It turned out to be a double-edged sword. To translate means creating sects; if not to translate, people will never know the Gospel texts. Bible translations have always given rise to opponents. In 1079, Pope Gregory VII said: “It is clear to those who often reflect on this that it is not without reason that the Most High God wants the Holy Scriptures to be secret in some places, because if it were understood by all people, perhaps it would not be valued or respected; or it might be misinterpreted by uneducated people, leading to error.” Nevertheless, there were supporters of the translation. Otherwise, in the 4th century, Jerome of Stridon would not have translated it from Greek to Latin, and then the Gothic Bible would not have appeared. In the 9th century, Cyril and Methodius translated the Bible into a language understandable to the inhabitants of Ancient Rus'. And they had a huge number of opponents. But nevertheless, they became the first teachers and educators of the Slavs. The alphabet they created marked the beginning of Russian writing. Over time, errors, omissions, interpretations and insertions accumulated in the hand-copied books of the Bible for the purpose of clarity, replacing Bulgarian words with Russian analogues. Some sacred books disappeared without a trace. Dmitry Donskoy's mentor, Metropolitan Alexei, brought Greek copies of the New Testament from Constantinople and used them to complete the entire translation into Slavic. In the 15th century, Archbishop Gennady decided to collect the books of Holy Scripture into a single Bible in the Slavic language. This is how the Bible became known as the Gennadian Bible. It was completely printed in 1581. In 1751, by order of Empress Elizabeth, it was carefully corrected, checked with the ancient Greek translation, the Septuagint of the Church Slavonic Bible (Septuaginta - translation of the Bible into Greek by seventy-two chosen elders in the 3rd-1st centuries BC.), and published. This is how the Elizabethan Bible appeared. We still use it in church life today. By the beginning of the 19th century, the text of this Bible began to be called Church Slavonic, in contrast to the modern one. And there was already talk in full swing about translating this Bible into modern Russian. In 1683, a translation of the Psalter into the everyday language of the time appeared. The author of the translation is Avraamy Firsov, clerk of the Ambassadorial Prikaz, which according to current concepts means the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Firsov translated from the Polish Protestant Bible, and Patriarch Joachim did not approve of this act. A couple of decades later, on the personal instructions of Peter I in Livonia, Pastor Gluck translated the New Testament into Russian, but this translation was lost. Or stolen by those who were afraid that this would be the beginning of a reformation in Rus'. Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk in the middle of the 18th century spoke about the need to create a Russian Bible, and in 1794 a bilingual (that is, a book with parallel texts in different languages) of the Apostle Paul’s epistle to the Romans with an interpretation was published, parallel to the Church Slavonic one, a Russian translation was presented, made by Archbishop Methodius (Smirnov). The predecessor of Prince Golitsyn, Chief Prosecutor of the Holy Synod A. A. Yakovlev, talked about whether he should start translating... And now, in the terrible year of 1812, on the banks of the Neva, Peter’s idea of ​​creating a modern Russian Bible was resurrected again. Only different people saw the implementation of this idea differently. It all started with the fact that Tsar Alexander did not know how to read the Gospel except in French. In the language of our then main enemy! And then Chief Prosecutor Golitsyn met the British missionary John Patterson, who arrived in St. Petersburg in August 1812, and was inspired by his idea of ​​​​creating a Bible society in Russia in the English style, which he represented and on whose instructions he came to us to translate the Bible into Finnish. In England, the Bible Society arose in 1804. It set quite noble goals of distributing the Holy Scriptures among peoples who did not have it translated into their native language. There is just one “but” - the main manifesto of the society was that the Bible does not need any interpretation, that it speaks for itself and that any person reading it, no matter how he understands it, still understands correctly what is written there. For the word of God cannot be misunderstood. It is known where the road is paved with good intentions. It is also known that poison is sometimes served under the guise of medicine. The British coming to Russia not only wanted to spread the word of God, they were emissaries of Protestantism and carried out tasks to spread it in our Fatherland. At one of the meetings of the British Bible Society, Methodist Watson said in his report: “Only the conversion of the Bible throughout the people can restore the Greek church and extricate it from the state of decline in which it now finds itself. The diffusion of the Holy Scriptures has given us Englishmen a glorious transformation. In Europe this transformation cost great strife and disaster. In Russia, on the contrary, one can expect that such a great and necessary change will take place without the slightest shock. The Reformation envisaged in this empire will be like the rising sun...” Pastors Pinkerton and Patgerson began their activities in the Caucasus and only then moved to the northern shores. Having met Golitsyn, they captivated him with their ideas and concocted a charter for the Russian Bible Society. Golitsyn, in turn, captivated the sovereign, and on December 6, 1812, Alexander approved the project of establishing not yet the Russian, but the St. Petersburg Bible Society. A sum of money was also allocated. Prince Golitsyn, a member of the State Council, Chief Prosecutor of the Holy Synod, now also became the president of the Bible Society. Filaret, of course, perfectly assessed both all the positive aspects of the launched enterprise, and all the dangers lurking in this undertaking. It is good that it will be possible, with royal support, to begin translating the Bible into a modern language and thereby continue the work of St. Alexei and Archbishop Gennady of Novgorod. Moreover, he could not help but understand that a new Russian literary LANGUAGE was now being born and it would be excellent if the text of the Holy Scripture, understandable to contemporaries, formed the basis of this language, just as the works of Shakespeare formed the basis of English, Dante’s “Divine Comedy” formed the basis of Italian, and Luther’s “September Bible” formed the basis of German. It’s bad that the creation of the Bible Society was taken up by Golitsyn, who, although he began to consider himself a believer, but, whatever one may say, remained the same helipad. All sorts of new ideas swirled around his head like champagne. The idea of ​​uniting all Christian denominations so that the peoples, “forgetting their divisions, would unite into a single family” was breathtaking. And this could lead to the victory of Protestantism, to the loss of the main thing in religion - faith. Towards the transformation of Christianity into a philosophical teaching, to the transformation of the sacraments of the Church into the observance of traditions. Therefore, Filaret also understood that it was impossible to leave everything to Golitsyn and the visiting Protestant “missionaries,” and that if such a society had been created, one should participate as much as possible in its work in order to prevent everything bad that could be born in the depths of the new social movement. So, Golitsyn headed the Bible Society. The composition of the society committee turned out to be very diverse. Who entered it? The first vice-president was Count Viktor Pavlovich Kochubey, a prominent diplomat and freemason, a member of the State Council from 1801, and with the formation of ministries in 1802, the first Minister of Internal Affairs of Russia. Even earlier, he joined an unofficial advisory body under the emperor - the Secret Committee, in which liberal reforms were discussed. The second vice-president is Rodion Aleksandrovich Koshelev, also a diplomat and also a freemason, chairman of the State Council commission, chief chamberlain, actual privy councilor, chamberlain. Koshelev fought valiantly against Pugachev’s troops and was wounded. Until the spring of 1812, he carried out diplomatic assignments as a confidant of the Russian emperor in contacts with unofficial representatives of the Central Supreme Junta and the Regency Council of Spain opposing Napoleon. On April 18, 1809, he was also appointed chief chamberlain - head of the staff and finances of the imperial court. He was not Orthodox, rather a Masonic mystic; he corresponded with famous mystics Saint-Martin, Eckartshausen, Lavater, Jung-Stilling. In 1811, after a brilliant speech by Chief Prosecutor Golitsyn in the State Council in defense of Orthodoxy, Koshelev approached him after the meeting and said: “Reverend prince, you defended the rights of Christianity so excellently, you so revealed the pure jealousy of your heart that I would be very pleased to get to know you briefly; Not only that, I would even like to earn your affection and friendship. It was probably Koshelev who contributed to the involvement of Emperor Alexander and Prince Golitsyn in mysticism. P. Znamensky writes: “The closest adviser to Prince Golitsyn on spiritual matters was the old freemason Koshelev, the patron saint of all mystics, magnetizers and other dark personalities who constantly crowded into his house.” (Znamensky P.V. Guide to Russian Church History. Kazan, 1870.) Another member of the State Council, Senator Zakhar Yakovlevich Karneev, became the third vice-president. Like all Masons, he was famous for his liberalism. When he was the governor of Minsk, he foamed at the mouth and defended the rights of the Uniates. In addition to the vice presidents, the committee included the following characters. The son of the last hetman of Ukraine, Count Alexei Kirillovich Razumovsky, senator, trustee of Moscow University. In 1810, Razumovsky was appointed Minister of Public Education. In the first two years of his administration, seventy-two parish schools, twenty-four district schools, several gymnasiums and other educational institutions were opened, teaching was improved, supervision of foreign teachers was strengthened, several learned societies were opened, and the first department of Slavic literature was established at Moscow University. With the personal assistance of Razumovsky, the charter of the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum was developed and its opening took place. After 1812, he significantly cooled down to the service and for the last two years did not engage in business at all. Having been a member of the Masonic lodge before his appointment as minister, Razumovsky from 1810 fell under the influence of the Jesuits and mainly the famous Count Joseph de Maistre. The latter “literally ordered them, dictated what the Russians should be taught and what not to be taught”; on his instructions, the Greek language, archeology, natural history, astronomy, chemistry and the history of philosophical systems were thrown out of the original program of the Lyceum, as “not illuminating the mind with useful truths, but darkening with errors and bewilderments.” According to Wigel, all the sons of Hetman Kirill Razumovsky “were stuffed with French literature, clothed in foreign forms, considered themselves Russian Montmorency, were amiable at court and intolerable aristocrats outside of it.” To this, Prince A. Vasilchikov adds that the eldest of them, Alexey, was “exorbitantly proud... and stern in the circle of his family.” The famous mystic Alexander Fedorovich Labzin, a Freemason from the age of fifteen. He signed his works “U. M.", which meant "student of wisdom." In 1806–1807, Labzin published, under the pseudonym Feopempta Misailova, the religious and moral magazine “Zion Messenger”; in 1806 - 1815 he published thirty books under the name “The Threats of Light Easters”. The success of these books was enormous; they became favorite reading in pious families; in secular living rooms they talked about helping their neighbors on the advice of Svetovostokov, large donations were received on his behalf to the medical and philanthropic committee. Prince Golitsyn considered Labzin his best friend. A completely different direction was the founder of the newspaper “Northern Bee”, writer Osip Petrovich Kozodavlev, co-editor of the “Interlocutor of Lovers of the Russian Word”. As a member of the commission on the establishment of public schools, he took part in the drafting of the university charter. Under Paul I he was appointed chief prosecutor of the Senate, then a senator, and under Alexander I in 1810 he served as minister of internal affairs. He was one of the main collaborators of Alexander I on the issue of improving the life of peasants and was himself considered an exemplary humane landowner. Count Karl Andreevich Lieven, an infantry general, one of the heroes of the capture of Warsaw in 1794, where he “with the entrusted regiment, withstood cross shots, suddenly crossed the ditch and, having overthrown the enemy, captured the rampart, inflicting a great defeat on the rebels.” For some time he served as the military governor of Astrakhan. Baron Boris Ivanovich Fitingof, botanist, studied Russian flora and useful tree species of Russia. In addition, he compiled, based on the pocket medical book of Count L. Berthold, published in 1805 in Mannheim, “Instructions on how you can protect yourself from cutting diarrhea and how to act if you are possessed by this disease for complete liberation from it.” Fitingof was a founding member and president of the Imperial Mineralogical Society, president of the Imperial Humane Society and a member of many other societies. In a word, a versatile nature. Another German, Karl Ivanovich Tablitz, also a botanist, naturalist, traveler, who traveled a lot in the Caucasus, the Volga region, along the lower reaches of the Don, was for a long time the vice-governor of the Crimea, about the nature of which he was the first to collect more or less solid information, a corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, founded the first forest schools in Russia in Tsarskoye Selo and Kozelsk. Swiss Nikolai Ivanovich Fus is an ordinary academician and permanent secretary of the Academy of Sciences, the author of a great many articles in all areas of mathematics, physics, mechanics and astronomy. In 1805, in addition to his positions, Nikolai Ivanovich was appointed a member of the council of military educational institutions. One of his works laid the foundation for savings and loan banks and the insurance business in Russia. Governor of Kherson, Prince Pyotr Sergeevich Meshchersky - chamber cadet of the court, chief prosecutor of the 2nd department of the 5th department of the Government Senate. The time has come to list the clergy who served on the Bible Society committee. In addition to the St. Petersburg Metropolitan Ambrose (Podobedov), these were such bishops as the Kiev Metropolitan Serapion (Alexandrovsky), the Chernigov Archbishop Mikhail (Desnitsky) and the Minsk Archbishop Seraphim (Glagolevsky), who would soon become first the Tver Archbishop, and then the Metropolitan of Moscow and Kolomensky, Filaret's predecessor in this post. The committee also included the emperor’s confessor, Protopresbyter Pavel Krinitsky. Filaret introduced his friend Archimandrite Innocent (Smirnov) to the society committee. He studied with him at the Trinity Seminary, then Innokenty was abbot first of the Nikolo-Ugreshsky Monastery, then of the Moscow Znamensky Monastery. Having moved to the banks of the Neva, he soon became the rector of the St. Petersburg Theological Seminary and Philaret’s right hand. So, it is easy to see that from its very foundation society was divided into two opposing parties. The first is the so-called “people of progressive views,” that is, liberals, Freemasons, from whom one should only expect an improvement in the life and activities of Protestants in Russia; the second - champions of Orthodoxy, who had to fight against religious free-thinking, and they went to the Bible Society not as a meeting of like-minded people, but as on a battlefield. The printing house was set up by visiting pastors Pinkerton, Paterson and Henderson. The head of the British Bible Society, Lord Taymouth, sent a substantial monetary allowance, financially tying the Russian Bible colony to the British metropolis. Filaret, having Innocent as his assistant, headed the translation committee and took into his own hands the selection of people capable of translating correctly and well. But mostly the translation will fall on his shoulders. And he began to work hard, preparing for the fulfillment of this main work of life. Despite the fact that he did not abandon his duties as a rector, and as a monastery abbot, and as a preacher. About the impression he made on students in those years, valuable evidence was preserved in the future of the famous Archimandrite Photius (Spassky), who in 1814 entered the St. Petersburg Theological Academy to study: “Filaret was of average height, dark in appearance, had medium dark brown hair, had a long hair, his face was always bright, he seemed to be cheerful, he had sharp, penetrating eyes, a fast, strict and pleasant appearance; His step was slow and important. The voice is quiet, thin, but clear; his speech was intelligible, he spoke sharply, loftily, wisely, but more and more to the mind, less to the heart. He freely explained the sacred scriptures: as if everything flowed from his lips. He attracted his students to listen to himself so much that when the hours of teaching were over, there was always great diligence left to listen to him even more without eating or drinking. He left strong impressions from his teachings - his teaching seemed true, pleasant, and perfect to everyone... A wise, eloquent speaker, a skillful writer. Everything proved that he studied a lot in the sciences... The strength, beauty, dignity and glory of the Theological Academy was Filaret alone.” At the same time, there is a story about how student Mikhail Glukharev once came to the rector’s office and, burning with shame, asked him to buy for 200 rubles the watch of one of his friends, who was in dire need of money. Filaret singled out Glukharev among his best students, often talked with him, instructed him, and therefore now did not get angry, but, on the contrary, answered with a smile: “It’s good that I can spend some money on a watch for this hour.” Just not in your estimation. “As you know,” Glukharev hung his head. - They cost more. Here, take it,” said the rector and gave him 500 rubles. The preaching activity of Archimandrite Philaret did not stop. It was necessary to be friends with the president of the Bible Society, and he often preached sermons at the Trinity House Church of Golitsyn. He spoke about the voice of one crying in the desert, that “passions inherent in the nature of animals, and bestial desires, having prevailed over a person, remove from him every spiritual thought, every pure desire, every good deed” and “what then is his soul if not a wild desert?” And the Gospel is that voice crying in the wilderness, which is capable of returning the man-beast to man in the likeness of God. He cried: “Can we be filled with the Spirit if the flesh, constantly at war with the spirit, does not find in us any barrier to its dominion?” In his sermons, he relied more and more on the Gospel, thereby giving a sign that Christians should read the Gospel, know it, and understand New Testament issues. Filaret, speaking mainly to representatives of the so-called high society, never tired of telling them how they were mired in worldly affairs, in vain glory. In a sermon dedicated to the event described by the Evangelist Luke, when Christ felt someone’s touch in the crowd, Philaret exclaimed: – Oh, since Christ is near us everywhere, and especially in his Church! Only creatures, surrounding us from everywhere and, like in that Gospel adventure, crowding between Him and us, do not allow us to touch Him. But dare, soul seeking your salvation! Do not give in to this confused crowd, which itself does not know where it is taking you. Make every effort to pave a direct path for yourself to the Savior you desire... The year 1814 was coming to an end, bringing new successes to Filaret. The commission of theological schools developed the Regulations on academic degrees, real and honorary, and on August 13, the first full doctor of theology in Russia became the rector of the St. Petersburg Academy, Archimandrite Filaret. He redid the academy's charter of 1808. On August 27, he was given a lifelong pension in the amount of 1,500 rubles per year. On August 30, he was appointed a member of the Commission of Theological Schools. September 15 was then celebrated as the day of the solemn crowning of Emperor Alexander I, which was performed by Metropolitan Platon (Levshin) in 1801. In 1814, Archimandrite Philaret delivered a solemn speech dedicated to this event. - Sons of Russia! Let us rejoice in our king... The word fully corresponded to the motto under which Tsar Alexander ended the war with Napoleon and which was embossed on medals of that time: “Not for us, not for us, but for Your name.” This is from the 113th Psalm of David: “Not to us, Lord, not to us, but to Your name give glory...” Filaret could boldly say that Alexander’s triumph was not his personal merit, but a gift sent to him from above. That is why the saying from Psalm 20 sounds so often in this word: “Lord, in Your power the king will rejoice, and he will rejoice greatly in Your salvation.” In November, Filaret consecrated the home church of the Mother of God at the vice-president of the Bible Society Kochubey. And again he spoke about the empty wealth of the world and the true wealth of the spirit: - They expand their dwellings - and produce only more emptiness. They go to feast houses and return either with the burden of satiety or with the fiercest hunger of the past for the sweets of the senses. They tell their soul to rest on the abundance of earthly blessings, but everything that is flesh is too cruel and coarse to rest the spirit, and on such a bed, after a minute of slumber, it awakens with new anxiety every time. Christmas has come. On the second day of the holiday, Filaret read a sermon in the court church in the presence of the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna and the emperor's brothers. Unexpectedly, the sermon had the opposite effect than expected. Simply put, I didn't like her. What outraged the august persons? Filaret compared human life to a child’s game, which contains important learning: - Woe to frivolous children who do not accept learning between games! The instruments of the games will continually be taken away from them, but the hated teaching will remain and will attack them with weapons of threats and punishment. Thus, if we, while consuming the blessings of the world, do not hasten to understand in them the vanity of vanities and all kinds of vanity, then, while these corruptible blessings will hourly disappear in our hands, vanity will remain in our hearts, like thorns after flowers, and various wounds will produce the ruin of the spirit. But the main thing that one might not like were the words of the preacher about love for the world: – Let’s not talk about that love for the world, in which the world itself, in accordance with the Gospel, recognizes enmity against God. Being denounced by itself, it does not require outside denunciations. There is another love for the world, which seems to be reconciled with the love of God; who agrees to make sacrifices to God, only so that she is not forbidden to accept sacrifices from the world; ready to do deeds of philanthropy, only so that the world sees and approves of them; she even loves to go to churches to worship, just so that the world will follow her. This crafty and feigned love must be stripped of the guise that adorns it, and subjected to the strict judgment pronounced by the Gospels on all the loves of the world, without exception: the loves of this world are enmity to God. The last words were taken by him from the conciliar epistle of the Apostle James, and it was said there even more powerfully and sternly than Philaret said it: “Adulterers and adulteresses, don’t you know that the love of this world is enmity to God; Whoever wishes to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God” (James 4:4). On the second day of the Christmas holiday, persecution by Herod and the massacre of infants are remembered. Herod saw Jesus as the One who would lead people from the world to heaven. Filaret stunned his listeners with a completely unexpected revelation that in Herod “the Gospel completely exposes this deep and extreme evil of love for the world.” And obsessed with this love for the world, Herod sought to destroy the Newborn. Those present could either ignore everything or take it to heart and be indignant. After all, they also loved the world very much. Is it really possible to do otherwise? After all, they are not monks! How is it possible to cut off love for the world?! This time, Filaret’s courage did not delight people, but alerted them against the preacher. From now on he was no longer invited to speak in the court church. At the beginning of the new year, 1815, he was invited to take exams at the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum. We all remember Repin’s painting “Pushkin reading poetry during the exam on January 8, 1815.” Any of us will say that it depicts a young lyceum student, inspiredly fluttering with one wing, and old Derzhavin, joyfully rising from the table and stretching out towards the young talent in order to better hear what he was reading. But not everyone will immediately remember who else is depicted in this famous canvas. Meanwhile, to the right of Derzhavin, Repin portrayed Archimandrite Filaret, whose face is turned not to Pushkin, but to the viewer, and this face expresses some bewilderment - they say, why do Derzhavin and the Minister of Public Education Razumovsky, sitting to the right of Filaret, admire so much? Alexey Kirillovich, together with Speransky, at one time submitted the idea of ​​​​creating the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, and moreover, he was officially called the head of the lyceum with the rank of its commander-in-chief. Repin masterfully worked in contrast: Razumovsky rejoices, Derzhavin rejoices, Pushkin reads his wondrous lines with inspiration... But the evil monk really doesn’t like all this. Inside he is still grinding, angry and indignant. He turned green with anger. In fact, we can only guess what Filaret experienced while listening to Pushkin’s poems. The lyceum was founded three years ago. It provided for six years of training. The first year is three years and the second year is also three years. Lyceum students of the first cohort took exams to move to the second year. Among other disciplines, it goes without saying, was the Law of God. It was taught by Presbyter N.V. Muzovsky, but since the Imperial Lyceum was a privileged educational institution, the rector of the theological academy was invited to take the exam on the Law of God. Filaret received him on January 4, and on January 8 he attended the exam in Russian literature. But not as an examiner, but as a spectator. We find evidence of this in a letter from one of the then lyceum students, Alexei Illichevsky, to his friend Pavel Fuss: “... among the spectators were Derzhavin, Gorchakov, Sablukov, Saltykov, Uvarov, Filaret and many professors and scientists.” Pushkin read his “Memoirs in Tsarskoe Selo”. The listeners could not help but be struck by the majesty of the poems composed by such a young talent. What could Filaret not like? Abundance of ancient paganism. Here the naiads are splashing, and Elysium is full, and the Russian Minerva, and Zeus with his Perun, and the children of Bellona... In his sermons he said that the Savior led the Russian regiments against the enemies, and in Pushkin “the descendants of the formidable Slavs stole the victory with the Perun of Zeus.” But he, as a poet, could not help but admire everything else. Be afraid, O army of foreigners! Both old and young have risen, they fly on the daring, Their hearts are set on fire with vengeance. Tremble, tyrant! the hour of fall is near! You will see a hero in every warrior, Their goal is either to win or to fall in the heat of battle For Russia, for the holiness of the altar. That’s what’s said about the holy altar, thank God. And then about the heavenly Almighty: They fought. Russian is the winner! And the arrogant Gaul runs back; But strong in battle, the heavenly Almighty And what is the ending of this wonderful poem! Miracle! How could you not like it? Ross in Paris! – where is the torch of vengeance? The military thunder still rumbles in the distance, Moscow is in despondency, like the steppe in complete darkness, And he brings the enemy not death, but salvation And beneficial peace to the earth. It is difficult to imagine that Filaret, himself inspired, himself flaming, himself all poetry, would dislike the poems of a brilliant lyceum student! Ilya Efimych sinned by showing him green with anger, just as the great Russian artist sinned in many of his other paintings! I dare to suggest that Filaret then took note of the talented young man. And what? He will grow up, mature, become wiser and continue the work of translating sacred texts into modern Russian. My head is spinning just from the thought that if Pushkin had not died in 1837, if he had lived to an old age and in these wise years would have taken up translating the Bible, what kind of translation would we have received!.. But, alas... Preparations for the start of work continued; in 1815, Filaret even read far fewer sermons than before. At the request of the Minister of Spiritual Affairs, Prince Golitsyn, he wrote and published “A conversation between the searching and the confident about the Orthodoxy of the Eastern Greek-Russian Church with the addition of an extract from the district message of Photius, Patriarch of Constantinople, to the Eastern Patriarchal Thrones.” In the summer, he conducted an audit of the Moscow Theological Academy and seven seminaries: Novgorod, Tver, Vladimir, Yaroslavl, Kostroma, Spaso-Bethans and Moscow, as well as a number of district and parish schools located along his route. The Moscow Theological Academy moved to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra and received a new charter. All year he supervised the preparation of the type and read the proofs of the stereotyped edition of the New Testament in Church Slavonic undertaken by the Bible Society. In Europe, Napoleon Bonaparte fled from Elba and was resurrected for a hundred days, defeated the Prussians at the Battle of Ligny, but soon suffered a crushing defeat at Waterloo, again abdicated the throne, and the Russian army re-entered Paris. At this time, the Russian emperor no longer parted with the Holy Scripture, constantly reading it and trying to delve as deeply as possible. During the days of the short agony of the resurrected Napoleon in Bavaria, Alexander meets Baroness Kridener for the first time, a friendship is struck, and long conversations are held on mystical topics. It is surprising that Russian priests could not have such a Christian influence on Alexander as this woman! Truly, the spirit breathes where it wants! After Waterloo, the Russian, Prussian and Austrian emperors formed the Holy Alliance, establishing a new order in Europe, based on the principles of legitimism and called for the complete restoration of all overthrown or shaken monarchies. On December 20, 1815, all Jesuits were expelled from St. Petersburg. The reason for this decision was that the Jesuit order refused to join the Bible Society, based on the decree of the Pope, who condemned such societies as leading to Protestantism. The entry into the Jesuit Order by Chief Prosecutor Golitsyn’s own nephew added fuel to the fire. The Jesuits, who were mostly Poles, were expelled from the Northern capital, only to be driven out of the Russian Empire altogether after another five years. At the end of 1815, Alexander I returned to Russia and became familiar with the publishing activities of the Bible Society. The year 1816 has arrived. This year, the secret Union of Salvation was formed and thus a political movement was born, which after December 1825 would become known as Decembrism; Emperor Alexander began the construction of military settlements; Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin completed the first eight volumes of “History of the Russian State”; Archimandrite Philaret began translating the Holy Scriptures from Church Slavonic into Russian in the 19th century. But this year began with sadness for Filaret. In winter, his father became seriously ill. The son prayed fervently for him. On January 18, Archpriest Mikhail Drozdov died. Subsequently, Filaret himself admitted that there was a sign - “something unknown” gave him the news of his father’s death. And soon confirmation came from Kolomna. He went to his hometown to say goodbye. After the funeral service, the beloved parent was buried at the Peter and Paul Cemetery. Filaret looked for words of consolation for his mother. But what can better console such grief than the thought of a future meeting! “His will be done in everything! We must all prepare to follow the one for whom we are now shedding tears. May our Lord, who is resurrection and life, grant him and us the grace to see each other in the resurrection of life!” – Filaret wrote in a letter to Evdokia Nikitichna. On February 28, 1816, the president of the Bible Society reported at a meeting of the Holy Synod about the sovereign’s desire “to provide Russians with a way to read the word of God in their natural Russian language, as the Slavic dialect is more intelligible to them.” In his report, Golitsyn outlined the translation as a simple “translation of the New Testament from ancient Slavic into the new Russian dialect.” However, Filaret, who was tasked with writing the definition of the Commission of Theological Schools, put the matter differently. He stated that the translation would be based on the Greek text. The translation was supervised by Archimandrite Filaret (Drozdov). In March, Filaret was appointed rector of the Moscow Novospassky Monastery, but at the same time remained rector of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy. Soon he became one of the vice-presidents of the Bible Society as responsible for translating the Bible into modern Russian. On March 16, he read his statement of the principles of translation at a meeting of the Commission of Theological Schools. “The greatness of Holy Scripture consists in the power, and not in the brilliance of words; From this it follows that one should not become too attached to Slavic words and expressions for the sake of their imaginary importance... One must carefully observe the spirit of speech in order to transform the conversation into a colloquial style, stories into a narrative one, and so on.” “If God blesses the work of translating the Holy Scripture into pure and correct Russian, and it enters into the home use of the people, then it can contribute to the establishment of the language and keeping it from falling, which effect of the translation of the Holy Scripture has been noticed among other nations.” After Easter, work began directly on the translation of the New Testament. The young priest Gerasim Pavsky, bachelor of the academy, began translating the Gospel of Matthew. The Gospel of Luke was entrusted to another bachelor, Archimandrite Moses. The Gospel of Mark to Archimandrite Polycarp. Filaret himself took upon himself the work of translating the Gospel of John. It should be noted that Filaret chose highly educated translators with excellent knowledge of both Greek and Hebrew. Gerasim Pavsky will not only soon become a professor of Hebraic studies at St. Petersburg University, but will also compile the best textbook on the Hebrew language for theological schools. Archimandrite Moses (Bogdanov-Platonov-Antipov) and Archimandrite Polycarp (Goitannikov) will become rectors of theological seminaries - Kyiv and St. Petersburg. In the same year, 1816, Philaret wrote and published “The Outline of Church Biblical History.” On June 2, he was appointed a member of the Committee to resolve court cases regarding clergymen of the Greek-Russian confession in Finland, and on June 16, he was confirmed as a member of the council of the Imperial Humane Society. This society was created by Empress Maria Feodorovna to help the poor and for a hundred years then did a lot to improve the lives of those in need. But the main thing he was completely passionate about that year was, of course, translation. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was to God, and God was the Word” - “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” This is how the Gospel of John begins. “And the Word became flesh and dwelt in us, and we saw His glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” - “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; and we have seen His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father.” The Word in this case is the divine essence embodied in Christ. But it would not be blasphemy to say that the Russian word found its best embodiment at the beginning of the 19th century both in the majestic work of Karamzin and in the synodal translation of the New Testament carried out by Filaret (Drozdov). “It is unlikely that anyone will dare to assert that this Russian text of the Gospel, known to us under the name of the Synodal Translation, was, and is, less widespread in Russia than the works of Pushkin. Even in Soviet times, and even the classics of Marxism often quoted this Great Book no less than excerpts from the poems of our famous poet. And the Russian Bible, which became a reference book in every family in the mid-19th century, no less influenced the formation of lexical norms of the modern Russian literary language,” writes Archimandrite Gennady (Gogolev). The work went on for a year. Finally, the four Gospels were presented to the Synod, whose members familiarized themselves with the translation, made several comments and spoke out in favor of publication. But Filaret greeted the publication of the book not as an archimandrite, but as a bishop.