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Language and Text
2025. Vol. 12, no. 4, 116–126
doi:10.17759/langt.2025120410
ISSN: 2312-2757 (online)

The miracles of the right hand of John the Baptist in old Russian literature

 
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Abstract

This article examines the specifics of the commemoration of the Synaxis of John the Baptist in ancient Russian manuscripts, which recounts miracles associated with his right hand: defeating a serpent, predicting the weather, and the bringing of his relics to Constantinople. This commemoration is based on a Byzantine sermon by Theodore Daphnopates (10th century), a high-ranking official during the reign of the emperors Romanos and Constantine Porphyrogenitus. This commemoration was actively copied into Old Russian Prologues and has been preserved in three versions, among which the version found in the Prologue of the Extended Version is particularly noteworthy. In this version, highlighted by the authors of this article for the first time, the serpent is killed not by the father, but by the daughter intended for sacrifice, and the right hand is brought to Constantinople by Deacon John, not Job. This version likely originated in Slavic culture. It has also been suggested that the commemoration in question reaffirms the popular perception of holiness as a source of special power, divorced from its political significance. The miracles listed are close in nature to the everyday perception of holiness as a special power, which in turn is far removed from the Gospel image of John the Baptist as an ascetic and preacher of repentance. At the same time, the Prologue abridgement of Theodore Daphnopates's Sermon smooths over aspects of the original that might appear ethically ambiguous.

General Information

Keywords: Prologue, the right hand of John the Baptist, old Russian literature, homilies, Theodore Daphnopates

Journal rubric: World Literature. Textology

Article type: scientific article

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17759/langt.2025120410

Funding. This article was prepared according to the research plan of the State Public Scientific and Technical Library of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, project No. 122040600049-8 "Depository of Book Monuments of Siberia and the Far East: Identification, Digital Storage System, and Organization of Access for Research".

Received 01.11.2025

Revised 20.11.2025

Accepted

Published

For citation: Kovalenko, A.N., Shilova, I.A. (2025). The miracles of the right hand of John the Baptist in old Russian literature. Language and Text, 12(4), 116–126. (In Russ.). https://doi.org/10.17759/langt.2025120410

© Kovalenko A.N., Shilova I.A., 2025

License: CC BY-NC 4.0

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Information About the Authors

Anton N. Kovalenko, Candidate of Science (Philology), Researcher of Department of Rare Books and Manuscripts, The State Public Scientific Technological Library of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russian Federation, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5127-0962, e-mail: kovalenko@spsl.nsc.ru

Inna A. Shilova, Junior Researcher of Department of Rare Books and Manuscripts, The State Public Scientific Technological Library of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Senior Lecturer, Department of Source Studies of Literature and Ancient Languages, Novosibirsk State University, Novosibirsk, Russian Federation, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1434-312X, e-mail: shilova@gpntbsib.ru

Contribution of the authors

Anton N. Kovalenko — the idea of the research; writing and design of the manuscript; development of the section on the plot specifics of the work.

Inna A. Shilova — textual analysis of memory in the Prologues; writing the section on the editions of the text in the Prologue.

All authors participated in the discussion of the results and approved the final text of the manuscript.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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