In book
The paper is dedicated to Hebrew phrases referring to God found in some Russian codices of the Pentateuch of the XV-XVII centuries. The author examines the origin of this phenomenon.
At the end of the homily IX In Hexaemeron St. Basil the Great promises to continue his Genesis exegesis with an account of man’s creation (Hex. 9. 6. 90−91: ἐν τίνι μὲν οὖν ἔχει τὸ κατ' εἰκόνα Θεοῦ ὁ ἄνθρωπος, καὶ πῶς μεταλαμβάνει τοῦ καθ' ὁμοίωσιν). However, he never got to it (the two homilies De hominis opificio were probably written by another person). Nevertheless, a close analysis of the homily In illud: attende tibi ipsi shows that in his account of man’s creation Basil’s is very much endebted to the Alexandrian tradition which adjusted Plato’s Timaeus to the interpretation of the biblical text. A special attention will be paid to the term ζῷον θεόπλαστον.
In Old Russian hymns one sporadically observes the letter Э, incorporated in the text of a hymn. The author argues that this letter refl ects some Hebrew phrases referring to the name of God: he establishes connections between the hymnographic Э and some specifi c hebraisms in the Russian Old Testament manuscripts. The article deals both with the origin of the letter Э and its subsequent evolution.