Elena V. Pronina

Candidate of Sciences (Philology), Associate Professor, Head of the Department of Russian Language and Literature

Tula State Lev Tolstoy Pedagogical University

(Tula, Russia)

Elizaveta A. Volynskaya

Student

Tula State Lev Tolstoy Pedagogical University

(Tula, Russia)

DOI: https://doi.org/10.22405/2712-8407-2024-3-161-169

Abstract. The article examines the ancient Gospel text of the parable of the prodigal son according to famous manuscripts of the 10th – 11th centuries in a synchronic aspect. The article shows how linguistic means convey deep meanings of the parable of the prodigal son, thanks to which this plot becomes a mythos for the world literature of the following centuries. The methodological basis of the study is the philological analysis of the ancient text of the parable by comparing its variants according to the Codex Assemanius, the Codex Zographensis and the Codex Marianus. As part of the study, the author analyses the semantic space of the parable of the prodigal son, and then conducts a synchronic analysis of the ancient Gospel lists mentioned above in order to compare and analyze phonetic, graphic, grammatical and lexical features, and to show how deep layers of content are revealed through the linguistic structure. In a step-by-step analysis, the author identifies more than 40 differences in the gospel lists of the text of the parable of the prodigal son. The article highlights the most notable differences that have led to interesting interpretations of meaning. In the course of the research, the author advances the idea that the comprehension of the ideological content of the gospel texts is, first of all, a deep work with vocabulary and grammatical forms, as a result of which a broader understanding of the idea of the parable text becomes possible. The author asserts the fact that the copyists carefully selected many lexical means and grammatical forms in order to convey the philosophical meaning of the parable, its deep moral and ethical background, elusive at first sight. Lexical means (organization of synonymic and antonymic relations), grammatical possibilities of adverbs, pronouns and conjunctions, as well as the order of words in sentences help to see the psychologism hidden in the text, but conveyed in the experiences of the characters.
Keywords: philological analysis, synchronic analysis, the parable of the prodigal son, the gospel text, mythos.

Full text of the article (PDF)

For citation: Pronina, EV & Volynskaya, EA 2024, ‘Philological Analysis of the Old Slavic Text of the Parable of the Prodigal Son According the Codex Assemanius, the Codex Zographensis and the Codex Marianus’, Tula Scientific Bulletin. History. Linguistics, issue 3 (19), pp. 161–169, http://doi.org/10.22405/2712-8407-2024-3-161-169 (in Russ.)

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