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< Grammar 25—Russian Synodal Bible

Grammar 25—Russian Synodal Bible

Before the 19th century Russians who wanted to read God’s Word read it in the Slavonic Bible used by the Orthodox Church in its services. Though the Slavonic language is from the same family as Russian, it is not Russian and learning it requires considerable effort. It is much harder than reading the King James Version or Shakespeare. It is comparable to reading Chaucer. Despite the fact that few understand this translation well, it is still used on Orthodox services. However, by the beginning of the 19th century there were calls for a Russian-language Bible for reading at home.

Work on a translation into Russian was begun around 1816 by the Russian Bible Society. In 1818 the Gospels were published and in 1822 a volume of the New Testament and Psalms was published. A translation of Genesis through Ruth was completed, but due to political changes it was not widely circulated and some print runs were burned. The work of the Russian Bible Society was suspended by order of the emperor in 1826 and not resumed until 1858. A revised volume of the Four Gospels was published in 1860 and additional volumes followed until a complete Bible was issued in 1876. Today it is known as the Синодальный перевод (Synodal Translation) or Синодальное издание (Synodal Edition) which names reflect the fact that it is approved by the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Later Russian Bible Translations

Until recently the Synodal Edition was the only complete Bible translation available to the average reader. After the fall of the Soviet Union work on translating the Bible into Russian was renewed and a number of new translations entered widespread circulation around the end of the 20th century. These include:

Organization of the Text

Most English Bibles follow the order of the books, the names of the books, and the chapter and verse divisions of the King James Version. The Synodal Edition displays certain differences:

• First and Second Samuel and First and Second Kings are referred to as Of Kingdoms one through four.
• First and Second Chronicles are referred to by their Greek name: Paralipoménōn
• The letters of the Apostle Paul which in the KJV start right after the Acts of Apostles in the Synodal Edition are placed after all the other letters but before Revelation.
• In the Psalms the superscriptions are either treated as the first verse or merged into the first verse. As a consequence it is sometimes necessary to add one to the verse number from the KJV to find the desired verse.
• Psalms 10 and 11 are combined. From then on it is necessary to subtract one from the chapter number from the KJV until we get to Psalm 147 of the KJV which is split into Psalms 146 and 147. After that the chapter numbering is the same.
• The Song of Solomon is called The Song of Songs, a title taken from its first words.
• There are several dozen other places where a chapter boundary is shifted by one verse or a verse boundary is shifted by a sentence or two.

The Language of the Translation

At the time work was begun on a Russian Bible translation in 1816 the great works of Russian literature were still in the future. The process of resolving the various dialects of Russian into a single widely-accepted literary language was not complete.

The New Testament (first published in 1820) is written in a form of Russian heavily influenced by the language of the Slavonic Bible. Alternative “biblical” words and forms of some words are used instead of the usual Russian forms. (See below.) Heavy use is made of abstract nouns formed from verbs, adjectives formed from verbs, and adverbs. At times this can make the language sound overly formal to the modern reader and even obscure.

The translation of the Hebrew Bible is written with a style and vocabulary much closer to modern literary Russian. It is translated from the Masoretic Text, but the Greek names of some notable Bible characters are retained. For example, Joshua the servant of Moses is consistently called “Иисус” (Jesus), a form of his name which the English reader of the KJV encounters only in the the Greek Scriptures at Acts 7:45 and Hebrews 4:8.

The grammar and usage of the Synodal Edition displays some characteristics which are now rare in Russian. These include:

• Frequent use of “иметь” (to have) instead of the “у кого есть” construction.
• Extensive use of the vocative case to indicate direct address. Notably “Боже” (O God), “Господи” (O Lord), “Иисусе” (O Jesus), and “Ваале” (O Baal).
• Adjectives are generally placed after the nouns which they modify while in modern Russian they are generally placed before.
• Extensive use of the instrumental ending -ою instead of the modern -ой.
• A tendency to place the verb before the grammatical subject: “В начале сотворил Бог небо и землю.” (In the beginning created God the heaven and the earth.)
• Occasional use of the now very rare present tense forms of “быть” including “есмь” (am), “еси” (art) and “суть” (are). (See conjugation chart below.)
• Frequent use of the possessive endings -ов and -ин: “сын Давидов”, “Иисус сын Навин” (see declension charts below)
• Use of “сей” instead of “этот”. (See declension chart below.)
• Use of “да” in the sense of “let” instead of the more modern “пусть”: “Да святится имя твоё.”
• Use of “муж” and “жена” to refer to adult males and females respectively irrespective of their marital status.
• Use of “мышца” in the sense of “arm” rather than the modern sense of “muscle”.

Special Vocabulary of the Synodal Edition

As noted above, the Synodal edition sometimes uses alternative words or forms of words, particularly in the translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures. Some which you will encounter most frequently are shown in the table below:

Possessive Forms

A possessive can be formed from masculine names ending in a consonant by adding -ов or -ев:

A possessive can be formed from any declinable personal name by adding -ин. The best known example is “Иисус сын Навин” which means “Jesus Nav’s son” (Joshua the son of Nun). The -ин ending is declined using a mixture of the rules for nouns and adjectives:

Declension of Сей

In the vast majority of instances the Synodal Translation uses the adjective сей instead of этот. Сей is declined as follows:

Conjugation of Быть

In modern Russian the verb “быть” (to be) is so seldom used in the present tense that forms other than “есть” have been all but forgotten. Several of these nearly forgotten forms are used in the Synodal Edition.

Rendering of the Tetragrammaton

In most cases the personal name of God is replaced with the word “господь” which is an archaic form of the word “господин” (lord, master, mister). It is transliterated “Иегова” in the following nine places:

See the discussion of Psalm 83:18 below.

Noteworthy Readings

This is a list of verses which are rendered in interesting ways in the Synodal Edition. It is helpful to be familiar with these readings if you intend to discuss the Bible with readers of the Synodal Edition.