The article is devoted to an ancient Armenian homily on the 44th Psalm; it has come down to us under the name of Bishop Zenobius in a number of ancient manuscripts, the list of which is given in the preface. The question about two forms of the text, about the authorship of the homily and its possible connection with the corpus of works of St. Meletius of Antioch is also discussed; the question about the nature of the biblical text used in the ancient sermon is raised.

The article presents a commented translation from Middle Greek into Russian of the Epistle of Patriarch St. Athanasius I of Constantinople and the Synod of the Church of Constantinople to Emperor Andronicus II Palaeologus on the Riot of Joannes Drimys in 1305. This is one of the most important works of St. Athanasius, as it is, along with the History of Pachymeres, the only source on this event. The preface and commentaries raise questions about the origin of Drimys, his connection with the Arsenite schismatics and the identification of his anonymous accomplice from Myra of Lycia.

The article presents a systematisation of research approaches to the reconstruction of St. Gregory Gregory’ doctrine of the way of seeing the uncreated light, which have been formed in the scientific space since the beginning of the 20th century and exist up to the present. Three systems of thought are identified, each of which solves this problem in a special way: the paradigm of created vision of God, the paradigm of uncreated vision of God and the paradigm of the antinomianism of vision of God. Each paradigm is considered in a separate part of the article. The first part of the article is devoted to the analysis of the studies of the key representatives of the paradigm of the paradigm of creationless vision of God: M. Jugie, R. Sinkewicz, archpriest V. Asmus, M. M. Bernatsky, M. Knežević, M. Plested, J. Blackstone, A. Chouliaras and D. S. Biriukov. The continuity of the tradition within the paradigm of created vision of God is established, namely the conceptual dependence (direct or indirect) on the conclusions of R. Sinkewicz. Exactly those concepts of St. Gregory’s doctrine have been identified and described that are 1) used as meaningful and basic within this paradigm, and 2) ignored and not integrated into its explanatory model. The strengths and weaknesses of the paradigm of the created vision of God have also been identified.

This article explores the reasons for the different interpretations of the word אלהים) ʾĕlōhîm) in Psalm 8:6 in the early translations of the Old Testament and in rabbinic exegesis. The author identifies the historical circumstances behind the various translations, clarifies the positions of Jewish interpreters, and reveals two traditions of interpretation: as «God» and «angels». The author reconstructs the ways in which these traditions spread, indicates their place in Jewish and Christian theology, and offers research perspectives.

In this article, we consider in detail one of the biblical concepts important for the emotional theory of Divine forgiveness — «ἱλαστήριον/ἱλασμός» (Rom. 3, 25). Many translations and commentaries of Scripture follow the classical meaning of the concept in Greek religious literature, in which the word ἱλαστήριον was understood to mean «propitiating» the gods. In the article, we show the philological arguments of domestic and foreign researchers, as well as provide patristic comments that clarify the true biblical meaning of ἱλαστήριον — «purification». The new meaning of ἱλαστήριον lacks the aspect of God’s emotional change, which calls into question the relevance of the main method of the emotional theory of Divine forgiveness: the modeling of Divine forgiveness on the basis of human forgiveness.

The study of the First Book of Enoch, one of the most famous, major and ancient Old Testament apocrypha, is one of the dynamic areas of modern biblical studies, although not as rapidly developing as the study of the canonical books of the Old and New Testaments. After the publication of the article «Enoch’s first book» in the Russian Orthodox Encyclopedia in 2008, there continued a controversy around the theory of Gabriele Boccacini, some points of view of textual scholars were clarified, the topic of «heavenly twins» in mystical Judaism was analyzed on the basis of various sources, and there was generalized significant material from secondary sources on Enoch. In this review, these trends are traced on the basis of three monographs written by recognized experts in the field of the study of Old Testament apocryphal literature: Knibb M. A. Essays on the Book of Enoch and Other Early Jewish Texts and Traditions; Heger P. Challenges to Conventional Opinions on Qumran and Enoch Issues; Reeves J. C., Reed A. Y. Enoch from Antiquity to the Middle Ages.

In this review the author offers to read the main publications of Russian coptologists. This material provides information concerning bibliographic reviews, encyclopedic articles, textbooks and grammars, catalogues of Coptic manuscripts preserved in Russian libraries, publications and translations of Coptic texts as well as studies. The annex to the review contains a list of main articles by such Russian coptologists as O. E. Lemm, P. V. Jernstedt, A. I. Elanskaya, M. K. Trofimova and A. L. Khosroev.