Slavia Meridionalis 26

Topic: SLAVONIC (PARA)BIBLICAL TRADITIONS

The 26th volume of the journal Slavia Meridionalis will be devoted to the question of medieval and modern Slavonic cultures with a special focus on biblical and parabiblical templates embedded in them, and on their importance as a specific field of research for contemporary scholarship. The volume is designed to reflect the results of the longitudinal work of the Research Unit “Slavonic Parabiblical Traditions” under the auspices of the European Association of Biblical Studies (EABS).

The volume’s framework is defined by the specific role that Old Church Slavonic played in the Slavonic domain of the Byzantine Commonwealth as the ultimate vehicle for transmission and dissemination of Christianity. Hence it may be defined as a unique cultural phenomenon bound by the reception history of the Bible. The coinage of the distinctive template of philological practices inherent in the ensuing Old Church Slavonic scribal production was thus significantly impacted by the process of translation of the canonical Scriptural text into the mother tongue of the targeted neophytes. The historical development of the philological patrimony of Old Church Slavonic is thus essentially different from that of the three “classical” Biblical languages, since they were moulded according to the linguistic matrices of their respective forebears. While there were centuries-long scribal traditions in Hebrew, Aramaic, Syriac, Latin and Greek that had existed prior to and entirely independently from the Biblical text, Old Church Slavonic literary conventions were the product of a totally different background.

Our claim is to explore the unique intellectual landscape of the reception history of the canonical Biblical text within the Slavonic intellectual domain, along with that of the parabiblical writings, which has not received a proper attention in Western scholarship. With this volume, we emphasise why and in what way Slavonic parabiblical heritage goes far beyond its significance for Slavonic studies. Thus, as already acknowledged by many scholars, even though Church Slavonic manuscripts containing witnesses to some ancient Judaeo-Christian writings may date from a relatively late period, they appear to be offspring of much earlier texts (originally in Hebrew and Aramaic, but also in Greek, as well as Syriac and Latin). Also, for many of these compositions, their Vorlagen may be dated to much earlier periods. Hence the study of Slavonic parabiblical writings can contribute significantly to a better understanding of Judaism of the Hellenistic age and thus of the roots of Rabbinic Judaism, early Christianity, Gnosticism, and later mystical thought. On the other hand, the way in which biblical models of interpretations are appropriated in Pax Slavia Christiana reflects similar issues faced by Western European society. In this context, a significant role in cultural transfers is played by parabiblical written texts, as well as iconography and vernacular oral tradition (including “Folk Bible” compositions).

The overall research questions in this proposal have several different aspects to be taken into account. 1) Comparisons of particular topoi within Slavonic scribal heritage known to be attested in or based on earlier Jewish and/or Christian traditions. 2) More detailed analyses of the religious and ritual contexts of these topoi in literary, visual and oral compositions from the point of view of calendar, liturgy, etc., as a prerequisite for improved results in understanding the Slavonic contexts. 3) Consideration of the original languages (e.g. Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek) of texts later appearing in Slavonic. The parallel attestations of such matters in their Slavonic contexts will allow the combined expertise of the research team to focus on common questions from differing perspectives.

Papers are invited on various aspects of Slavonic literary heritage, oral tradition and iconography. The particular aim is to provide a space for comparing and contrasting Slavonic texts with other traditions (in Hebrew/Aramaic, Greek, Syriac, Latin, Romanian, Armenian, etc.), hence scholars working in all of these fields are welcome to apply.

Although the volume is focused on the work of the EABS Research Unit “Slavonic Parabiblical Traditions”, we are also open to papers presented during the EABS conferences within the framework of different research unit, should they fit in the volume’s thematic scope and agenda.

Authors are invited to submit English-language papers of up to 40,000 characters with spaces (including bibliography).

Slavia Meridionalis is a multidisciplinary Open Access journal presenting research on the South Slavic countries and their connections with other cultural regions. It is indexed in Scopus (Elsevier) and Emerging Sources Citation Index (Clarivate Analytics), as well as CEEOL, DOAJ, EBSCO, ERIH Plus, Google Scholar, and other databases.

• Deadline for submission: 30 March 2025
• Planned date of publication: 2026

Detailed information about the journal and guidelines for authors can be found on the journal’s website.

Questions should be addressed to the editors-in-charge of the volume:

• Florentina Badalanova Geller, The Royal Anthropological Institute / University College London, f[dot]geller[at]ucl[dot]ac[dot]uk
• Magdalena Lubańska, University of Warsaw, magdalena[dot]lubanska[at]uw[dot]edu[dot]pl
• Maria Totomanova-Paneva, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, m_totomanova[at]abv[dot]bg