10 - The Bible in Slavonic

Summary

Before Cyril and Methodius

When the first translations of Christian scripture into Slavonic were composed is unknown. Some speculate that the earliest attempts at Slavonicising portions of the Bible began after 740, that is, simultaneously with the reign of Charlemagne (742–814) and the founding of great Frankish missionary centres along the porous border between Germanic and Slavic peoples in Salzburg, Passau, Freising and Regensburg. Settled in their recently conquered territories in the eastern Alps, east central and south-eastern Europe, and subdued to varying degrees by the force of Frankish arms, the Slavs became the objects of missionising attempts on the part of Hiberno-Scottish monks who were active in central Europe in the eighth century. Among other missionary tactics the Irish favoured the use of local languages in administering the sacraments. Therefore, it is supposed, the process of developing a Christian vocabulary in Slavonic, which would permit the translation of sacred texts, both liturgical and biblical, into Slavonic, was initiated, and some translations, perhaps only ad hoc, were made.

Later in the same century, as Charlemagne's armies marched farther east and brought additional Slav-inhabited territories under his sceptre, more numerous and more vigorous Frankish missionaries took over from the Irish. Eschewing the gentler forms of conversion that the Celts preferred, the Bavarians and the Saxons used ‘fire and sword’ to spread the faith. They made few concessions to local vernaculars (their own included), but insisted upon the unassailable holiness of Latin as the sole language of the church. At the same time, however, several Carolingian synods had approved the translation of some basic Christian formulae into local languages for missionary purposes, among them the Lord's Prayer, the Creed and outlines for confession. Thus while the liturgy could remain safely in Latin, congregational responses may have been composed in local vernaculars. No written documents in Slavonic survive from that time, unfortunately, but indirectly scholars have detected a layer of religious vocabulary in modern Slavic languages that may derive from these early translation efforts. Outright borrowings from Germanic and Latin into Slavonic, like post (fast) and oltar (altar), and calques – Slavonic words modelled on Germanic and Latin patterns – like vsemogy (omnipotent) – suggest that at least some activities were conducted in the Slavic churches in a language ‘understanded of the people.’