This article presents a study of the Coptic manuscript tradition of the “Definitions of the First Council of Nicaea”—also known in the scholarly literature as “Canons of the First Council of Nicaea”—based on two codices from the collection of the White Monastery: MONB.EF (CLM 359) and MONB.FT (CLM 393). The introductory section provides a general overview of the contents of the Coptic Nicene collections and their place within the broader Coptic canonical literature. Particular attention is given to the analysis of both manuscripts, including their palaeographical, lexical, and syntactic features, as well as their relationship to the Greek original. The article emphasizes the significant stylistic divergences between the two Coptic versions, reflecting the characteristic freedom in the transmission of canonical material within monastic environments. The study includes the first publication of the full text of MONB.FT along with a Russian translation, and a new edition of MONB.EF with reconstructions of damaged passages based on the Greek text and internal parallels within the Coptic tradition.

This publication is the first translation from Ancient Greek into Russian of Origen’s Homily on Psalm 75, preceded by an introduction. In this introduction, the author of the translation briefly outlines the main themes as well as compositional and stylistic features of the text. The translation is supplemented by a commentary and a translation of the critical apparatus.

The third part of the church academic translation of the Septuagint book of the prophet Isaiah covers six chapters, 13 to 18. The translators draw upon the commentaries of St. John Chrysostom, Cyril of Alexandria, Theodoret of Cyrus and other ancient church exegetes, as well as daughter translations and parallels in the text of the Septuagint itself. The Church Slavonic tradition remains significant in the translation process, although the goal is not to preserve its lexical equivalents to the detriment of the accepted translation methodology. In this part of the prophetic book, readers will learn how a mountain can be flat, what unburnt gold is, what parallel exists for the «arrows of babies», what onocentaurs and ship wings represent.

«Apophthegmata Patrum» or the «Sayings of the Desert Fathers» is a unique collection of texts depicting the life of the monks of Lower Egypt among which the practice of the «Jesus Prayer» was emerged. The history of the genesis of this practice has many controversial and unresolved issues, so the study of the prayer practice of the monks of «Apophthegms» is important for understanding this genesis. The conceptual and terminological analysis of texts containing information about the prayer practice of the monks plays an essential role in this study. Continuing our review of prayer terminology in the «Apophthegmata Patrum», this paper will examine the Greek terms that designate supplication and praise prayers. These two types of prayers trace their roots back to the two main sources of Christian tradition: the ancient Greco-Roman and the Jewish tradition, which have determined the overall prayer terminology in the «Apophthegmata Patrum». The terminological analysis on this paper is based on the Greek texts of the «Apophthegms» some of which are missing in Russian translations. The main method used in the work is contextual analysis. The research has shown that in the «Apophthegms» the prayer terminology concerning prayers-requests and prayers of praise continues the tradition of early Christian word-use in general, but at the same time there is some peculiarities. We can notice that the different groups of apophthegms prefer one of the synonyms denoting the prayer-request. The terms blessing and glorification in the context of prayers to God occur less frequently in the «Apophthegms» than in the Christian literature of the first centuries and are usually associated with instructions for unceasing prayer. It can also be noted that prayers to God in the «Apophthegms» and in early monastic texts in general have greater simplicity and directness, which sometimes go beyond our usual idea of the reverent address to God necessary for prayer.

The article analyzes the contribution of Ennodius († 521) to the formation of the historical memory of the inhabitants of Mediolan. In particular, it is shown that Ennodius, without setting himself the goal of systematically expounding the history of the Milan church, nevertheless formulated his attitude to its past and present. The history of the Milan bishops for Ennodius is the history of the apostolic successors, the first of whom is Ambrose; it is he who, for Ennodius, acts as the true founder of the Milan church, with whom the uninterrupted chain of successions begins. It was also important for Ennodius to show the Milan bishops as defenders of orthodoxy, first of all, in dialogue with the Eastern churches. Finally, in the epigrams, Ennodius summarizes the qualities that a bishop should possess. The article shows that the ethos of a bishop in Ennodius is built around three key concepts: power, teaching and healing.

The present article is dedicated to the investigation of the problem of the interpretation of Melchizedek’s figure in Philo’s of Alexandria fragment (De congressu eruditionis gratia 99). There are three approaches of its interpretation. According to the most popular of them Melchizedek’s is to be understood as an allegory of divine Logos. In agreement with another approach Melchizedek has to be treated literally, i.e. as a historical figure. Based on the third way of interpretation Melchizedek is an allegory of a human rational principle. In the article I argue why the first two approaches are to be rejected and demonstrate the consistency of the third approach. The last one is also elaborated in the light of Philo’s parallel fragments. 

The present article investigates the problem of the authorship of five homilies on Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (the Entry of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple) that are attributed to St Andrew of Crete. The aim of the study is to refine the corpus of authentic works by the Cretan Bishop through comparison and analysis of textual data and manuscript evidence. The research confirms H. Chirat conclusions regarding the attribution of three of these homilies to St George of Nicomedia and one to Bl. Theophylact of Bulgaria. Particular attention is given to the homily De praesentatione (CPG 8202, BHG 1093b), previously considered authentic. For the first time, it is demonstrated that this text is a compilation of fragments from Homilia I in nativitatem beatae Mariae (CPG 8170, BHG 1082, BHG 1082a, BHG 1093a), which casts doubt on its status as a separate original work by St Andrew. Based on the results of this study, it is concluded that none of the surviving homilies on the Entry of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple, attributed to the Cretan saint, can be considered his genuine work. The findings help to more precisely delineate the authentic corpus of St. Andrew of Crete's homilies and contribute to the study of the Byzantine homiletic tradition.